Let’s get better Best Blog Awards

Whale Oil, Cactus Kate and Oswald Bastable  aren’t impressed with the nominations in the blog category of the Qantas Media Awards.

I agree.

Let’s do something about it with the Best Blog Awards.

Your views on categories, criteria, how and by whom they should be judged are welcome.

Once that’s been determined we can open nominations.

Cluster hoax

In most parts of the world a cluster bomb would be cause for great concern.

In Wellington yesterday it was a hoax – the suspicious parcel delivered to Agriculture Minister David Carter contained cluster flies not explosives.

As Busted Blonde says they’re a particularly irritating species. 

But they’re not dangerous.

Last year we were plagued by them, this summer we’ve seen few of them.

Who sent them to the Minsiter and why has yet to be determined.

And while we might laugh at the thought of  ministers seeking refuge in bars and cafes when their offices were cleared,  we should also be grateful that it was only a hoax.

In many other countries bombs aren’t hoaxes which cause inconvenience, they’re deadly serious and  kill people.

May 18 in history

On May 18:

1048 Omar Khayyám, Persian mathematician, poet and philosopher, was born (d. 1131).

1152  Henry II of England married Eleanor of Aquitaine.

1268  The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, fell to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Battle of Antioch.

1302 Bruges Matins, the nocturnal massacre of the French garrison in Bruges by members of the local Flemish militia.

1498 Vasco da Gama reached the port of Calicut, India.

1593  Playwright Thomas Kyd‘s accusations of heresy led to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe.

1652 Rhode Island passed the first law in North America making slavery illegal.

1765  Fire destroyed a large part of Montreal.

1783  First United Empire Loyalists reached Parrtown, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after leaving the United States.

 

1803  Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom revokds the Treaty of Amiens and declared war on France.

1804 Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.

 

1811  Battle of Las Piedras: The first great military triumph of the revolution of the Río de la Plata in Uruguay led by Jose Artigas.

1812  John Bellingham was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging for the assassination of British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.

 

1843  The Disruption in Edinburgh of the Free Church of Scotland from the Church of Scotland.

 

1848  Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt.

 

1860  Abraham Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination over William H. Seward.

1863  American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg began.

1828  1868 Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia  was born(d. 1918).

1896  The United States Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal is constitutional.

 

1896 – Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of  Tsar Nicholas II resulted in the deaths of 1,389 people.

 

1897  Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker was published.

1897 Frank Capra, American film producer, director, and writer, was born  (d. 1991).

1900  The United Kingdom proclaimed a protectorate over Tonga.

1910  The Earth passed through the tail of Comet Halley.

1912  Perry Como, American singer, was born (d. 2001).

1913 Jane Birdwood, British anti-Semitic activist, was born  (d. 2000).

1917 World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 was passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.

 

1919 Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer, was born  (d. 1991).

1920 Pope John Paul II was born (d. 2005).

1926 Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappeared while visiting a Venice, California beach.

 

1927  The Bath School Disaster: Forty-five people were killed by bombs planted by a disgruntled school-board member in Michigan.

1933 New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.

1937 New Zealand nurses René Shadbolt, Isobel Dodds, and Millicent Sharples were detained at Auckland police station before leaving for the Spanish Civil War as recruites for the Spanish Medical Aid COmmittee.

1944  World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino – Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger) evacuated Monte Cassino.

1944  Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union  government.

1948  The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convened in Nanking.

 1949 Rick Wakeman, English composer and musician (Yes) was born.

 

1949 – Bill Wallace, Canadian musician (The Guess Who) was born.

1953  Jackie Cochran beaome the first woman to break the sound barrier.

1955  Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of the First Indochina War, ended.

 

1956 First  ascent of Lhotse 8,516 metres, by a Swiss team.

1958 An F-104 Starfighter set a world speed record of 2,259.82 km/h (1,404.19 mph).

1959 Launching of the National Liberation Committee of Côte d’Ivoire in Conakry, Guinea.

1966 Koroki Te Rata Mahuta Tawhiao Potatau Te Wherowhero, the fifth Maori monarch heading the Kingitanga movement, died.

1969  Apollo 10 was launched.

1974 Nuclear test: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.

1974 – Completion of the Warsaw radio mast, the tallest construction ever built at the time.

1980  Eruption of Mount St. Helens: killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.

1980  Gwangju Massacre: Students in Gwangju, South Korea began demonstrations, calling for democratic reforms.

 

1983  In Ireland, the government launched a crackdown, with the leading Dublin pirate Radio Nova  put off the air.

1990 In France, a modified TGV train achieved a new rail world speed record of 515.3km/h (320.2 mph).

1991 Northern Somalia declared independence from the rest of Somalia as the Republic of Somaliland but is unrecognised by the international community.

1993  EU-riots in Nørrebro, Copenhagen caused by the approval of the four Danish exceptions in the Maastricht Treaty referendum. Police opened fire against civilians for the first time since World War II and injured 11 demonstrators.

1998 United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states filed an antitrust case against Microsoft.

 

2006 The post Loktantra Andolan government passd a landmark bill curtailing the power of the monarchy and making Nepal a secular country.

2009  Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE were defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Long blinks

The speaking spot immediately after lunch is one many presenters dread and for good reason.

That’s when at least some members of the audience are likely to find the inside of their eyelids more compelling than the speaker.

Long blinks aren’t so bad if you’re not in the speakers’ line of sight but snoring is a give-away. So is the jolt of the head when you come to, even if you try to cover it up.

The Worsdworth column in last week’s Listener sought names for pretending you weren’t nodding off after you wake with a jolt.

Answers included: power (point)-napping, dishonestedium and a rued awakening.

Runaway

Happy birthday Andrea Corr – 36 today.

Monday’s quiz

1. What contains 44 grams of carbohydrates, 26.7 grams of protein, 22.9 grams of fat, 5.3 grams of fibre and .9 grams of sodium?

2. From which direction do the mistral and levante blow?

3. Who said: “If we focus too intently on the past, we risk walking into the future backwards without seeing the great possibilities that lie ahead“?

4. What are the main ingredients of a daiquiri?

5. What’s the gestation period of a cow?

Like A Farmer

Day 17 of New Zealand Music Month - Deborah Wai Kapohe with Like A Farmer:

Moooving hearts and minds

Nobody loves me, every body hates me . . .

Dariy farmers might not feel quite as bad as that but there is concern in the industry about its regarded.

Enhancing dairy farming’s reputation, locally and globally, is part of the  DairyNZ’s strategy with good reason.

Dairying usually only hits the headlines over water quality issues or payout changes.

Stories which show the industry is a good one in which to work and produces a quality product through stewardship of land and water don’t usually gain much traction. And those which show dairy farming’s value to the economy are often tempered with complaints about the price of cheese.

Dairy NZ has plans for an advertising campaign to mooove the hearts and minds of the public using a cartoon cow.

It’s a good idea, so too is highlighting the people who work in the industry.

The winners of  the Dairy Industry Awards which were announced at the weekend would be a good place to start.

Stefan and Annalize du Plessis won the Farm Sharemilker of the Year title, Jeremy and Rebecca Duckmanton were second and  Greg and Hannah Topless came third.

Carwyn Monteith is the Farm Manager of the Year , Hamish and Natalie Davidson were second and William McKnight was third.

Blake Korteweg is the Dairy Trainee of the Year; Andrea Harvey came second and Angus Thomas was third.

A media release on the winners says:

Sharemilker head judge Johanna Deutz Ebeling says it was Stefan and Annalize du Plessis’ x-factor and infectious personality – as well as their achievements on farm – that helped them to claim the title. 

“They came from South Africa with nothing and have made a real go of being in the dairy industry and giving back to the dairy industry. They would help people out and people would help them back. They have got that x-factor.”

As well as 50% sharemilking 650 cows on a 240ha Dipton farm owned by Mosa Farming Ltd, a company formed by Owen and Margaret Westlake of Winton and the du Plessis’, Annalize du Plessis runs a recruitment business and, with a friend, has set up a cleaning business. . .

. . .  

Head judge David Whillans says there was a strong field of finalists demonstrating a high level of excellence on farms.

 “There are a lot of young people that have got into the dairy industry from other industries who are doing very well and they are really passionate about what they are doing.

 “Carwyn has got life skills external to dairy farming, so brings a whole wealth of experience and maturity to his role,” Mr Whillans says. “He displayed a comprehensive knowledge across all areas we judged and this was supported with good processes and documentation. He had an excellent human resources policy, employing on attitude and training on skill.”

Mr Monteith also had good financial processes in place and clear goals on where he and his wife are headed and how they will get there. They have secured a sharemilking position for the new season on the 188ha Takapau farm milking 515 cows that they currently manage. . .

. . .  Judge Kerry Lucas-Candy says the 2010 New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year, Blake Korteweg, aged 26, will be a fantastic ambassador for dairy trainees as he is a good communicator and is community minded. He won $8600 in cash and prizes.

Mr Korteweg has been working on a 175ha family farm milking 560 cows near Balclutha, but will begin a contract milking position next month.

“He has quite a bit of life experience for his age having travelled and gained a building apprenticeship, and he is also very competitive,” Mrs Lucas-Candy says.

Last week Women’s Affairs Minister Pansy Wong referred to research which showed that sexism was the single biggest barrier for women working in dairying.

That surprised me. A third of the dairying workforce is female, many of those are at senior levels and these awards show that women, individually or in partnerships, are able to foot it with the men.

Whose money is it anyway?

People opposing the probable reduction in income tax levels in this week’s Budget keep talking about the rich getting more from tax cuts.

That presupposes it’s the government’s money to give when it’s not.

As Theodore Dalrymple points out, in a column on the British election campaign:

It suggests that it is the government that allows or grants the people money, not the people who allow or grant the government money. To refrain from taxing is not giving money away, it is to avoid appropriating money from its original owners. If a mugger in the street were to return us a couple of dollars from what he has taken from us for our bus-fare home, we would not consider that he has been generous or ‘given’ us anything, even if he makes a whole ceremony of the return of the two dollars. 

Regardless of what changes are made in the Budget, richer people will continue to give more of their money to the public coffers.

Of course they will still have more left after they’ve paid their taxes than poorer people but that’s because they earn more, not because the government won’t be taking enough from them.

And what will anyone of us get in return for the money? Dalrymple says:

In return for this appropriation of our funds by politicians, they offer us all kinds of benefits, and it would be dishonest not to acknowledge that we do indeed receive some or many of them, and that, once we have received them, we are reluctant to relinquish them, however unsustainable in the long term they might be. I am not one of those that believes that Man naturally desires freedom, at least if by a desire for freedom is meant a desire that automatically trumps all other desires and is prepared to take the consequences. What our politicians have learnt to hold out as the prospect before us, like a mirage in the desert, is the greatest, most sought-after and least possible freedom of all, the freedom from bad consequences.

 

The idea of infinite benevolence has been transferred from the deity to the government, nowhere more successfully than in the minds of the governors themselves. Illusion, Benevolence and Power are our new Faith, Hope and Charity. 

There is much of concern in this. It increases dependence and it also increases uncertainty because like other deities, governments which give can also take away.

May 17 in history

On May 17:

152 Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason.

 

1536  George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford and four other men were executed for treason.

1590  Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen of Scotland.

1642 Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve (1612–1676) founded the Ville Marie de Montréal.

1673  Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi River.

 

1749 Edward Jenner, English medical researcher was born (d. 1823).

1775  American Revolutionary War: the Continental Congress banned trade with Canada.

1792 The New York Stock Exchange was formed.

1805 Muhammad Ali became Wāli of Egypt.

1809 Napoleon I of France ordered the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.

1814  Occupation of Monaco changed from French to Austrian.

1814 The Constitution of Norway was signed and the Danish Crown Prince Christian Frederik was elected King of Norway by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly.

1849 A fire threatened to burn St. Louis, Missouri to the ground.

1860 German football club TSV 1860 München was founded.

1863 Rosalía de Castro published Cantares Gallegos, her first book in the Galician language.

1865 – The International Telegraph Union (later International Telecommunication Union) was established.

1868 Horace Elgin Dodge, American automobile manufacturer, was born (d. 1920).

1873 El Paso, Texas was established by charter from the Texas Legislature.

Flag

1875  Aristides won the first Kentucky Derby.

1877 The Victorian Football League was founded.

189– The first Omonoia station of the Athens metro was inaugurated in Greece.

1900  Second Boer War: British troops relieved Mafeking.

 

1902 Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovered the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.

 

1911 Maureen O’Sullivan, Irish actress, was born (d. 1998).

1914  The Protocol of Corfu was signed recognising full autonomy to Northern Epirus under nominal Albanian sovereignty.

1915 The last British Liberal Party government (Herbert Henry Asquith) fell.

 

1919 War Department (UK) ordered the use of National Star Insignia on all airplanes.

1927 U.S. Army aviation pioneer, Major Harold Geiger, died in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane.

 

1933  Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort formed Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway.

1935  Dennis Potter, English writer, was born (d. 1994).

1936 Dennis Hopper, American actor and director, was born. 

1939 The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers played in the first-ever televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game.

1939 Gary Paulsen, American author, was born.

1940 World War II: Germany occupied Brussels.

1940 World War II: the old city centre of the Dutch town of Middelburg was bombed by the German Luftwaffe, to force the surrender of the Dutch armies in Zeeland.

1943 The United States Army contracted with the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School to develop the ENIAC.

 

1943 – World War II: the Dambuster Raids by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams.

1949  Bill Bruford, English musician (Yes), was born.

1954 The United States Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education which declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students and denying black children equal educational opportunities unconstitutional.

1956 Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer, was born.

1961 Enya, Irish singer and songwriter, was born.

1962 George Wilder escaped from New Plymouth prison.

1963  Bruno Sammartino defeated Nature Boy Buddy Rogers in 48 seconds in Madison Square Garden for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship. It begins the longest heavyweight championship reign in professional wrestling history.

1967 Six-Day War: President Abdul Nasser of Egypt demanded dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.

 

1969 Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 began its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.

1970 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

 

1971 Princess Máxima of the Netherlands was born.

1973 – Watergate scandal: Hearings begin in the United States Senate and are televised.

1974 Andrea Corr, Irish singer (The Corrs), was born.

1974 Police in Los Angeles raided the Symbionese Liberation Army‘s headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.

1974  Thirty-three people were killed by terrorist bombings in Dublin and Monaghan.

1980 General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea declared martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations.

1980 – On the eve of presidential elections, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacked a polling location in the town of Chuschi, Ayacucho, starting the Internal conflict in Peru.

1983 U.S. Department of Energy declassified documents showing world’s largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds), in response to Appalachian Observer’s Freedom of Information Act request.

1983 Lebanon, Israel, and the United States signed an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

1984 Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend,” sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.

1987  An Iraqi fighter jet fired two missiles into the U.S. warship USS Stark (FFG-31), killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.

1992 Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon began in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that resulted in 52 officially confirmed deaths, many disappearances, hundreds of injuries, and more than 3,500 arrests.

1994  Malawi held its first multiparty elections.

1995  After 18 years as the mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac took office as President of France.

1997 – Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic Of Congo.

 

2004 Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.

2006 The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico to be an artificial reef.

2007 Trains from North and South Korea crossed the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This was the first time that trains crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.

2009 Dalia Grybauskaitė was elected the first female President of Lithuania.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Tomorrow Never Dies

Happy birthday Pierce Brosnan, 57 today.

Did you see the one about . . .

Want to win $100,000? rivettingKateTaylor has a run down on the National Bank Young Farmer of the Year finalists. 

Death shapes us all - Alison Campbell at Sciblogs finds death contributes to life.

She also looks at sensing nonsense and gives the reporter an F for assertions not based on facts.

Dig in or adapt. The effect of political views on changing one’s mind - still at Sciblogs, Darcy Cowan looks at the persistance of political misperceptions.

What would I like to see . . . Adolf at No Minister gives his Budget requests.

Day 13 – done! - there’s a new kitchen at In A Strange Land.

Unemployment solved!! Anti Dismal isn’t convinced.

ELEPHANTÉ  Today Is My Birthday on miniature elephants  (Hat Tip Sentence of the day from Quote Unquote).

Liberace medley

Liberace would have been 91 today.

Mistress of Mistressology mis-steps

I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Busted Blonde at Roarprawn but her blog posts, and some whispers on the grapevine, have earned my respect.

The woman who claims to have a trademark on the term mistressology obviously doesn’t know her reputation or she wouldn’t have been silly enough to get her knickers twisted about BBs use of the term on a post giving advice to mistresses.

The one who claims to be a mistress of mistressology has mis-stepped by picking a fight with the wrong woman.

BB is not the sort to head to port when the sea gets rough and she’s got to the nub of the matter, if you Google search mistressology  it leads to Roarprawn and the not the other woman’s website.

In an act of bloggers’ solidarity I’m joining Whaleoil, Cactus Kate and No Minister who have carried the story and by doing so increased links to Roarprawn which will put her up the Google rankings more.

UPDATE: Motella has joined the campagin too.

Update 2: so has Inquiring Mind 

And look what a google search now turns up:

Search Results

1. Cactus Kate: Mistressology (ck)

   The first rule of Mistressology Kala really is to choose your target well. You don’t pick on women who when they are alerted to your existence will chew …
   asianinvasion2006.blogspot.com/2010/…/mistressology-ck.html – 19 hours ago

   Mistressology Trademark Fail | Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Gotcha!

2. 15 May 2010 … Probably about now some stupid pommy cow called Ms. Kala Elliot will be wishing she had just STFU. She has tried to bully Busted Blonde …
   whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz/2010/05/…/mistressology-trademark-fail/ – 21 hours ago

   Mistress of Mistressology mis-steps « Homepaddock

3. 16 May 2010 … The woman who claims to have a trademark on the term mistressology obviously doesn’t know her reputation or she wouldn’t have been silly …
   homepaddock.wordpress.com/2010/…/mistress-of-mistressology/ – 6 hours ago

   roarprawn: MISTRESSOLOGY

4. 6 Apr 2010 … Final rule of mistressology – it will end in tears sooner or later – relationships on any level based on betrayal and lies are always doomed …
   roarprawn.blogspot.com/2010/04/mistressology.html – Cached

5. roarprawn: ROARPRAWN ACCUSED OF PIRACY

   We called the post Mistressology. Like as in the study of Mistresses … I am the author of the forthcoming book entitled Mistressology and am requesting …
   roarprawn.blogspot.com/2010/05/roarprawn-accused-of-piracy.html – Cached
   Show more results from roarprawn.blogspot.com

 

No Minister: Mistressology claimed as trademark

15 May 2010 … My name is Ms. Kala Elliott and I am the owner of the Trademark ‘Mistressology‘. The application was made last year on my behalf by my UK …
nominister.blogspot.com/2010/05/mistressology-claimed-as-trademark.html

Mistressology « The Inquiring Mind

16 May 2010 … Mistressology. May 16, 2010. tags: Cactus Kate, Mistressology, No Minister, Roarprawn, Whaleoil. by adamsmith1922 …
adamsmith.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/mistressology/ – 1 hour ago

“Motella” – News, Views and Politics of New Zealand’s Motel …

15 May 2010 … Busted Blonde is now being cyber-stalked from the UK by a Ms. Kala Elliot that claims to have ownership of the Trademark term Mistressology …
motella.blogspot.com/2010/05/mistressology.html – 7 hours ago

“Motella” – News, Views and Politics of New Zealand’s Motel …

15 May 2010 … After only 4-minutes of us publishing a blog post on Mistressology, we note that we have appeared on page one of Google using the search …
motella.blogspot.com/2010/05/mistressology-part-2.html – 8 hours ago

Show more results from motella.blogspot.com

Gotcha! | Politics | Humour | Information | News | Opinion | Debate

UPDATE 3: Oswald Bastable is supporting BB too.

Forced smiles & impotence

The left – and some of the right who want him to move further in that direction - call John Key Smile and Wave.

It’s supposed to be an insult, but it’s also a positive reflection on his personality. He’s an optimist and smiling comes naturally to him.

It doesn’t appear to come so naturally to Phil Goff but I reckon his advisors have told him to smile more.  In recent interviews, including on Q & A this morning, he is doing that. The trouble is the smiles don’t always look natural and at least some of the time they appear to be forced.

Who can blame him? Leading of a party which was kicked out of government after nine years doesn’t provide fertile ground for smiles.

It’s also not a position in which you can achieve much and the impotence of opposition also showed in his answers on Q & A.

It’s easy enough for an Opposition to criticise government policy, but they’re not in a position to change it now and by the time they get back in to power it will be too late.

It happened to National which had to swallow several dead rats including Working for Families and interest free student loans. It’s happening to Labour now.

However, much Goff huffs and puffs about the expected increase in GST, even if he is in a position to blow it down, he won’t. It will be part of the fabric of economic policy and it’s very difficult to pull a thread here or there without it all coming apart at the seams.

Whakaaria Mai

Day 16 of New Zealand Music Month: Whakaaria Mai.

Great sailing, Jessica

Sir Francis Chichester was one of my childhood heroes.

He was the first person to sail single-handed around the world by the clipper route, and the fastest circumnavigator, taking nine months and one day overall.

I don’t know how many records Jessica Watson broke in her circumnavigation which finished yesterday, but sailing solo round the world, aged 16, in just 210 days is an impressive feat.

So too is her message:

Watson urged others to follow her example by living out their dreams.

“I don’t consider myself a hero. I’m an ordinary girl who believed in her dream,” she told a large, cheering welcome-home crowd in Sydney.

“You don’t have to be someone special to achieve something amazing. You’ve just got to have a dream, believe in it and work hard.”

Watson said she hoped her voyage proved what could be achieved by setting your mind to it.

“Anything really is possible.”

I wonder what her parents felt about her embarking on such a journey.

Had she come to grief en route they would have been called irresponsible for letting their daughter attempt such a feat.

Now that she’s succeeded they can be praised for helping her accomplish her dream.

May 16 in history

On May 16:

1204  Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders was crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.

 

1527 The Florentines drove out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-established itself as a republic.

1532  Sir Thomas More resigned as Lord Chancellor of England.

1568 Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England.

 

1770 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year-old Louis-Auguste.

 

1771  The Battle of Alamance between local militia and a group of rebels called “The Regulators.

1777 Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shot each other during a duel.

 

1811  Peninsular War – The allies Spain, Portugal and Britain, defeated the French at the Battle of Albuera.

1815  The Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, officially named the town of Blackheath in the upper Blue Mountains.

1822 Greek War of Independence: The Turks captured the Greek town of Souli.

1836  Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.

1843  The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest set out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.

1866 The U.S. Congress eliminated the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.

1866  Charles Elmer Hires invented root beer.

 

1868  President Andrew Johnson was acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.

1874  A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroyed much of four villages and kills 139 people.

1877  May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.

1905 Henry Fonda, American actor, was born (d. 1982).

1910 The United States Congress authorised the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.

1914  The first ever Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final wass played. Brooklyn Field Club defeated Brooklyn Celtic 2-1.

1916 Ephraim Katzir, 4th President of Israel, was born (d. 2009.

1918 The Sedition Act of 1918 was passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.

1919 Liberace, American pianist,was born (d. 1987).

1919 A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read left Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

1920   Pope Benedict XV canonised Joan of Arc.

 

1929 The first Academy Awards were handed out.

1943  Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ended.

1948  Chaim Weizmann was elected the first President of Israel.

1951 Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer, was born.

 

1951  The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights began between John F Kennedy International Airport  and Heathrow operated by El Al Israel Airlines.

1953 Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor, was born.

1960 Nikita Khrushchev demanded an apology from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union, ending a Big Four summit in Paris.

1960 Theodore Maiman operated the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu.

1965 The Campbell Soup Company introduced SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.

1966 Janet Jackson, American singer, was born.

1966 The Communist Party of China issued the ‘May 16 Notice‘, marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

 

1969 Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, landed on Venus.

1970 Gabriela Sabatini, Argentine tennis player, was born.

1970 Danielle Spencer, Australian singer and actress, was born.

1974 Josip Broz Tito was re-elected president of Yugoslavia.

1975  India annexed Sikkim after the mountain state holds a referendum in which the popular vote was in favour of merging with India.

 

1975  Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1982 The All Whites won 2-0 against Australia  on the way to the World Cup in Spain.

1983 Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement rebelled against the Sudanese government.

 

1986  The Seville Statement on Violence was adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO.

1988 A report by United States’ Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stateed that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

1992  STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.

2003  Casablanca terrorist attacks: 33 civilians killed and more than 100 people injured.

2004 The Day of Mourning at Bykivnia forest, just outside of Kiev to commemorate that here during 1930s and early 1940s communist bolsheviks executed over 100,000 Ukrainian civilians.

2005 Kuwait permitted women’s suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse made his first appearance on screen on this day in 1928.

Saturday’s smiles

 Golf can best be defined as an endless series of tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

You hit down to make the ball go up. You swing left and the ball goes right. The lowest score wins. And on top of that, the winner buys the drinks.

 Golfers who try to make everything perfect before taking the shot rarely make a perfect shot.

 A ‘gimme’ can best be defined as an agreement between two golfers …..neither of whom can putt very well.

An interesting thing about golf is that no matter how badly you play; it is always possible to get worse.

Golf’s a hard game to figure.. One day you’ll go out and slice it and shank it, hit into all the traps and miss every green. The next day you go out and for no reason at all you really stink.

 Golf is the only sport where the most feared opponent is you.

Golf is like marriage: If you take yourself too seriously it won’t work, and both are expensive.

The best wood in most amateurs’ bags is the pencil.

Ten Reasons Why Golf Is Better Than Sex……

 #10… A below par performance is considered damn good.

#09… You can stop in the middle and have a couple of beers.

#08… It’s much easier to find the sweet spot.

#07… Foursomes are encouraged.

#06… You can still make money doing it as a senior.

#05… Three times a day is possible.

#04… Your partner doesn’t hire a lawyer if you play with someone else.

#03… If you live in Hawkes Bay, Canterbury, Central or North Otago, you can do it almost every day.

#02… You don’t have to cuddle with your partner when you’re finished.

#01… When your equipment gets old you can replace it.