Word of the day

Labile – easily altered; emotionally unstable; constantly undergoing, or likely to undergo, change.

Which bit of loyal doesn’t he understand?

Remember how Christ Carter kept saying he was loyal to Labour, his problem was with the leader not the party?

He’s changed his mind: Greens party of choice for Chris Carter

Trade makes both parties better off

Prime Minister John Key spelled out the benefits of trade in his opening address to the US-NZ Partnership Forum:

The US is New Zealand’s third-largest trading partner.

Two-way trade between our countries was worth more than NZ$7.5 billion last year.

The US is a major market for our export products, both agricultural and industrial, and a major source of imported commodities and inputs to production in NZ.

It’s also our second-largest source of foreign investment and third-largest tourism market.

And, at the same time, it’s our second-largest destination for overseas investment, and our third-most favoured destination for New Zealanders on short trips overseas.

Our economies are closely linked.

As we recover from the economic downturn, it’s vital that both of our countries support international trade, including through negotiation of free trade agreements.

With a population smaller than that of many cities in the USA we have a lot to gain from free trade but, contrary to the views of protectionists, trade benefits both partners.

Anti Dismal says:

 Economists never tier of telling people that trade makes both parties better-off, but to no avail people still see countries as competing.

But we don’t compete with other countries, this is a false analogy that comes from thinking that countries are like firms, they’re not. As, even, Paul Krugman has said, A Country Is Not a Company. The point is that Coke and Pepsi, for example, do compete, one gains at the others expense, but New Zealand and Australia, for example, don’t, their loss is not our gain. International trade is not a zero-sum game. To see this, note that while Coke may wish to put Pepsi out of business, so that Coke can increase their sales and prices and therefore profits, New Zealand would not gain if we put Australia “out of business”.

Why? Well in the Coke/Pepsi case, Coke gain a lot, in terms of sales and profits, from not having Pepsi to complete with and lose little since Pepsi doesn’t buy much , if anything, from Coke. Or Coke from Pepsi. This is not true of the New Zealand/Australia example. We may gain some sells if Australia stopped producing, but we would lose much more. Australia is our biggest export market and if they “went out of business”, they would stop importing, and that would hurt us a lot. Also they are suppliers of much of our useful imports and that would stop too, which would hurt us even more.

If all the energy which went into protecting economies was put into freeing them instead we’d all be better off. The Partnership forum is another small step on the way to that goal.

Free trade brings more than economic gains.

Muray McCully said in his address to the forum:

Free trade deals, either now in operation or under negotiation, provide the framework for an even greater level of engagement in trade and economic relations.

With those trading relationships, closer ties of almost every type have been created.

New Zealand now has a huge stake in the stability and security of Asia and we have tried to reflect this in our participation in the evolving architecture of the region.

The decision of the United States to join the EAS brings with it a potential for those regional bodies to play an even greater and more effective role in delivering a stable prosperous region, providing a platform for improved economic prospects for all of its partners.

Economic prosperity and political stability, what’s not to like?

Restaurants should take note of 70g message

The good news is that red meat is good for you  and not linked to heart disease.

A report demolishes the ‘myths and misconceptions’ about the meat, saying that most people eat healthy amounts which are not linked to greater risk of disease.

Modern farming methods have cut fat levels, which can be even lower than chicken, while red meat provides high levels of vital nutrients, including iron.

A vegetarian having a Cheddar cheese salad will eat seven times more fat, pound for pound, than lean red meat contains, says a review by the British Nutrition Foundation.

But findings the World Cancer Foundation isn’t so positive and the report reinforces the message that red meat should be eaten in moderation to reduce the risk of bowel cancer: 

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) . . .  said, ‘Although the evidence is not conclusive, as a precaution, it may be advisable for intakes of red and processed meat not to increase above the current average (70g/day) and for high consumers of red and processed meat (100g/day or more) to reduce their intakes.’

A daily total of 70g is equivalent to about three rashers of bacon

Three rashers of bacon doesn’t sound much but most restaurant servings of meat would be far greater than that and some offer steaks of three, four or more times that weight.

I enjoy lamb, steak and venison but I’m satisfied with smaller servings and often choose fish when I’m dining out because the meat servings are far too big.

It’s what you do most of the time that matters. The odd big serving of meat won’t do any harm and would help with the intake of iron, B vitamins and other nutrients but it would be good if restaurants took note of the recommendation and gave customers the choice of smaller servings.

As a producer of lamb and beef I don’t want to reduce demand. But restaurants might sell a similar total amount by selling more smaller servings to people like me who don’t order big ones.

Sleep working or wakeover?

Evaluating residential services for intellectually disabled people gave me an insight into the best, worst and in-between.

Some homes were so good I’d have been happy to move in myself, a couple were so bad I wouldn’t have left a stuffed toy in their care. Most were somewhere in between but tending towards the better end.

The residents varied as people without disabilities do. Some were happy, healthy and had a high level of independence. Some were unhappy, had physical and/or mental health problems, some were totally dependent. Others had varying levels of challenging behaviour which required extra skill and patience in those caring for them.

The key to what made the homes good or bad was the staff. Some were skilled, dedicated to and respectful of the people for whom they were caring.

One was so bad that had he not been wearing a uniform we’d have thought he was one of the residents with a personality disorder.

In some houses the staff who did night duty were there only for emergencies like fire, earthquakes or severe illness. They could rely on being able to go to bed and sleeping until morning almost every night and many had never been woken. In some the night staff had more onerous duties because residents had higher needs and a few had to get up at least once every night.

Given the different requirements and duties it’s difficult to apply a single rule over pay and conditions, yet that is what the court ruling saying sleepover staff must be paid a minimum wage does.

Sleepover staff usually begin their duties in the late afternoon or early evening and are paid an hourly rate until they go to be at about 10pm. They’re paid an allowance (about $35) for that and an hour’s pay for every part of an hour they have to get up during the night. They’re then on active duty from about 7am for a couple of hours until the residents go out for the day or day staff come on duty.

The court ruling means that they’d have to be paid at least $13 an hour for the time they’re in bed. This has expensive implications not just for providers of residential services for intellectually disabled people but others who employ sleepover staff like boarding schools, student halls of residence and rest homes.

I have no problem with paying people an hour’s work for any part hour they have to get up through the night.

I understand the need to be paid something for having to be somewhere for a specific time with responsibility for other people and for having sleep disturbed, or the potential for it.

But I don’t think people can be earning $13 an hour in their sleep.

 If employers have to pay an hourly rate they would be justified in expecting their staff to do more than sleep in return for it. Would staff then be prepared to make it a wakeover - to be  awake and actively doing something through the night?

Not all would:

Hawksbury Trust chairman Richard Thomson . . .  who is also a Southern DHB member, had mixed feelings about the Court of Appeal decision, saying it could prove to a “pyrrhic victory” for workers.

For many people, sleepover shifts allowed them to do other things during the day, such as studying at university or working another job. Many people had benefited from the set-up, and it did not seem right they may be in for back-pay. However, he could also see an element of unfairness in not paying an hourly rate.

“There will be winners and losers [among the workers].”

If staff aren’t prepared to be up and active,  they’re sleepworking. That requires some pay  butI don’t think the normal hourly pay expected for actively working  is justified. 

Kathryn Ryan did a prolonged interview on the court ruling and its implications on Thursday.

Kiwiblog also has reservations but Rob’s Blockhead and The Hand Mirror support the ruling.

February 21 in history

On February 21:

  1245 Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, resigned after confessing to torture and forgery.

1440 The Prussian Confederation was formed.

1543 Battle of Wayna Daga – A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeats a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.

1613 Mikhail I was elected unanimously as Tsar, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.

1743 The premiere of George Frideric Handel‘s oratorio “Samson” took place in London.

1804  The first self-propelling steam locomotive made its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.

 

1842 John Greenough was granted the first U.S.A. patent for the sewing machine.

1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto.

1875 Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian and longest-lived human on record, was born (d. 1997).

 

1879 An explosion in a Kaitangata coal mine killed 34 men.

1885 The newly completed Washington Monument was dedicated.

1903 Anaïs Nin, French writer, was born (d. 1977).

1907  W. H. Auden, English poet, was born  (d. 1973).

1910 Douglas Bader, British pilot, was born  (d. 1982).

1913  Ioannina was incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.

1916 Battle of Verdun started.

1918 The last Carolina parakeet died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.

1919 Kurt Eisner, German socialist, was assassinated.

1921 Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country’s first constitution.

1924 Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbambwe, was born.

1925 The New Yorker published its first issue.

1927 Erma Bombeck, American humorist, was born  (d. 1996).

1927 Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer, was born.

1933  – Nina Simone, American singer, was born (d. 2003).

1935  Mark McManus, Scottish actor, was born  (d. 1994).

1937  Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman’s Arrowbile.

 

1937 – The League of Nations banned foreign national “volunteers” in the Spanish Civil War.

1945 Kamikaze planes sank the escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damaged the Saratoga.

1947 Edwin Land demonstrated the first “instant camera,” the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

1952 The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolished identity cards in the UK to “set the people free”.

1952 In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) police opened fire on a procession of students that was demanding the establishment of Bengali as the official language, killing four people and starting a country-wide protest which led to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The day was later declared as “International Mother Language Day” by UNESCO.

1953  Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.

 

1958 The Peace symbol was designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.

 

1960 Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalised all businesses in Cuba.

1965 Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.

1970 A mid-air bomb explosion in  Swissair Flight 330 and subsequent crash killed 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich.

1971 The Convention on Psychotropic Substances was signed at Vienna.

1972 President Richard Nixon visited the People’s Republic of China to normalise Sino-American relations.

   

1972 The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 landed on the Moon.

1973  Israeli fighter aircraft shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108.

1974 The last Israeli soldiers left the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.

1975 Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman were sentenced to prison.

1986 Charlotte Church, Welsh singer, was born.

1995 Steve Fossett landed in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

2004 – The first European political party organisation, the European Greens, was established in Rome.

2007 Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned from office. His resignation was rejected by the President Giorgio Napolitano.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Facinorous - depraved, infamous, atrociously wicked.

Deluded musing isn’t news

Why did the paper even bother with this story:

Winston Peters says the Government has pestered him to accept an overseas ambassadorship – to get him out of politics and out of the country.

Comments from Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully and Peters’ friend Richard Griffin which follow make it quite clear he’s at best deluded.

The story’s from the someone-says-something, everyone-else-denies-it file which shouldn’t have got into print.

 Can you believe what he says? Is deluded musing news?

Did you see the one about

Australia sux (New Zealand seven) -  DeusExMacintosh at  Skeptic lawyer adds to his her series of topical comics with one on Julia Gillard’s visit.

Great fictional teachers - Teaching the Teacher looks at fictional inspiration.

Egypt: now what? Liberty Scott has some answers.

A bit of a walk in Mt Aspring National Park - Like Minds reminds me (with stunning photos) that it’s far too long since I’ve been there.

Both can’t be right

The Coastal Coalition thinks the Marine and Coastal Areas Bill goes too far.

Hone Harawira, his supporters and some other Maori groups, including Ngai Tahu, think it doesn’t go far enough.

Both can’t be right.

John Key says free public access is guaranteed:

The Marine and Coastal Area Bill replaces the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, a piece of legislation which divided New Zealand and discriminated against Maori property rights.

The Marine and Coastal Area Bill recognises the importance of New Zealand’s beach culture as a value we all share. It also recognises the Kiwi value of a fair go, and ensuring no-one is denied access to justice.

The Marine and Coastal Area Bill guarantees free public access for all New Zealanders, makes sure the public foreshore and seabed can never be sold, and restores the ability of iwi to test their property rights through the Courts.

The MaCA applies only to the wet bit of the beach and beyond  i.e. from the high tide mark to the 12 mile limit.

A fact sheet countering the Coastal Coalition’s claims is here.

First wool battle lost but campaign not over

The announcement that Wool Partners Co-operative was unable to get half the national wool clip signed up wasn’t unexpected.

It was always a big ask and the continued extensions to closing day showed the co-op was struggling to get the support it needed.

Opposition from other players, which included misinformation didn’t help, and rising prices might have persuaded some that the co-op wasn’t needed.

However, the loss of this battle doesn’t mean the campaign is over.

Bruce Wills, Federated Farmers Meat & Fibre spokesman said the co-op is down but not out.

“To be successful, truly successful, a cooperative has to be built from the bottom up.  What I take heart from is that despite some of the worst years for profitability, so many had shared up.

“Yet wool growers have now spoken and the requirements of the WPC prospectus have not been met so we need to move on.

“Federated Farmers is determined to make certain that we don’t look back on this day as an opportunity wasted. 

It’s why Federated Farmers is keen to talk with Wool Partners International and all industry players about a grower owned model. I’m still personally convinced that together in a cooperative we can make things happen for our industry. 

“Consolidation and unity is important to wool growers as is much closer involvement in the selling of our fibre.

“There have been many reports into wool but most conclude that farmers should remain owners of their fibre until at least the end of first stage processing.  There’s something fundamental about that.

“WPC put up an option that they felt might meet this requirement and got the largest voluntary capital raising the wool industry has ever seen, with 40 million kilograms committed.

“That tells me a sizeable minority of wool growers want a cooperative. They put their money where their mouth was.

“Doing nothing isn’t an option for farmers or the meat and wool industry.  Wool is integral to the sheep industry’s long term prosperity.

Although the meat industry has got most of the blame for poor returns in recent years, low prices for wool, pelts, tallow and other by-prooducts was also responsible.

A shortage of sheep and rising demand for wool is giving much better prices this season but unless there are some fundamental changes to the way wool is marketed we can’t rely on them holding up.

WPC chair Jeff Grant offers some hope for those who want to see some changes:

WPC planned to raise $65 million to buy assets and use the commitment from growers to supply half the country’s wool clip, to have a greater influence on the market.

They planned to secure contracts with carpet retailers in Europe, United Kingdom and the United States and use brands linked to New Zealand’s and wool’s natural, sustainable environment and production systems to command premium prices and grow market share.

At present, most coarse or strong wool is sold at auction or directly to merchants with little or no use of those attributes, which Mr Grant said were increasingly being demanded by discerning customers.

But efforts to change the way strong wool is sold may not have died out, with backers of WPC saying there was sufficient interest from farmers to see if an alternative structure can be salvaged.

WPC had some good ideas to add value to wool and ensure farmers got more for their clip.

The directors won’t be able to do all they’d planned with a lesser amount of wool but I hope they have a Plan B which enables those farmers who are prepared to commit to them to do so and share the better returns.

February 20 in history

On February 20:

1472 Orkney and Shetland were left by Norway to Scotland, due to a dowry payment.

1547 Edward VI was crowned King of England.

1792 The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, was signed by President George Washington.

1810 Andreas Hofer, Tirolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon’s forces, was executed.

 

1835 Concepción, Chile was destroyed by an earthquake.

1872 New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opened.

1873 The University of California opened its first medical school.

1887 Vincent Massey, Governor-General of Canada, was born (d. 1967).

1901 – The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.

1906 Gale Gordon, American television and radio actor, was born  (d. 1995).

1909 Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.

1913 King O’Malley drove in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.

1924 Gloria Vanderbilt, American socialite and clothing designer, was born.

1925 Robert Altman, American film director, was born (d. 2006).

1927 Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban musician (Buena Vista Social Club) was born, (d. 2005)

1927 – Sidney Poitier, American actor, was born.

1935 Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.

1941  Buffy Sainte-Marie, Canadian singer, was born.

1942 Lieutenant Edward O’Hare becomes America’s first World War II flying ace.

1943 – The Parícutin volcano erupted Parícutin, Mexico.

1950  Walter Becker, American guitarist (Steely Dan), was born.

1951 Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was born.

1952 Emmett Ashford became the first African-American umpire in organised baseball.

1954 Yvette Williams won a gold meadl for the long jump at the Olympics.

1962 Mercury programme:  John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.

 

1965  Ranger 8 crashed into the moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo programme astronauts.

 

1976 The Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation disbanded.

1989 An IRA bomb destroeds a section of a British Army barracks in Ternhill, England

1991  A gigantic statue of Albania’s long-time dictator, Enver Hoxha, was brought down in the Albanian capital Tirana, by mobs of angry protesters.

 

1998 American figure skater Tara Lipinski became the youngest gold-medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

2002 In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injurds over 65 and killed at least 370.

2003 During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the club ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.

2005 Spain became the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.

2010  – Heavy rain caused floods and mudslides,  on Madeira Island leaving at least 43 dead in the worst disaster on the history of the archipelago.

Word of the day

Cacology - socially unacceptable diction, faulty pronunciation, defective speech, poor choice of words.

Saturday’s smiles

I’ve been a bit slack with Saturday’s smiles this year, but was prompted by this one which is in this week’s edition of  the Ag Letter (a previous edition and details on subscrbing are here).

A teenage boy had just passed his driving test and inquired of his father as to when they could discuss his use of the car.

His father said he’d make a deal: ‘You bring your grades up from a C to a B average, study your Bible a little, and get your hair cut. Then we’ll talk about the car.’

The boy thought about that for a moment, decided he’d settle for the offer and shook hands on it.

After about six weeks his father said, ‘Son, you’ve brought your grades up and I’ve observed that you have been studying your Bible, but I’m disappointed you haven’t had your hair cut.

The boy said, ‘You know, Dad, I’ve been thinking about that, and I’ve noticed in my studies of the Bible that Samson had long hair, John the Baptist had long hair, Moses had long hair…and there’s even strong evidence that Jesus had long hair.’

His father replied, ‘Did you also notice they all walked everywhere they went?’

Whats the point of:

* patterned loo paper?

* sticky labels on individual pieces of fruit?

* putting a bunch of bananas in a plastic bag?

* mist-free bathroom mirrors – or do some people really want to look at themselves as they get out of the shower?

* locks on the doors of shops which are open 24/7?

* asking how are you? when you don’t know the person you’re questioning and/or have no interest in the answer?

* so much weather during TV news bulletins?

* reporters doing live broadcasts from the scene where something happened hours before?

Whitcoulls: my part in its downfall

Competition from online booksellers is one of the reasons being given for the problems facing the Whitcoulls and Borders bookstore chains.

I have to admit I have played a part in their downfall.

Reading is one of my passions and I buy a lof of books.

If I ever have time to spare when I’m in town or visiting a city I’ll go looking for a bookshop and I rarely come out empty handed.

But in the last couple of years I’ve also bought at least as many books from the online bookstore Fishpond as I have from book shops.

Price isn’t usually the main consideration – there can be savings but most bookshops are pretty competitive. It’s the range of books on offer, the convenience and service which makes buying books online so attractive.

They often have books not available elsewhere. When I was teaching Spanish night classes I found several children’s books, of the same title, in English and Spanish and I’ve bought lots of other books from Fishpond which I haven’t been able to find in shops.

I still love browsing in bookshops. Being able to touch, see and dip into a book which catches my eye will always be preferable to looking at a catalogue online. But if I know the book I’m looking for it’s often easier to get it online than wait until I’m in town with enough time to visit a bookshop.

I was in Dunedin yesterday and called into Whitcoulls. It was busy, as it usually is, and the staff were as efficient and helpful as I’ve always found them. I said to the woman serving me that it must be difficult for her, not knowing if her job was secure.

She replied that the worst thing was not being able to tell the customers what was going to happen because the staff didn’t know.

With staff like that who smile and put the customer first in spite of the uncertain future for their own jobs, there is hope for the company.

Convenient as an online bookstore is, it’s hard to beat face to face service from people who are interested in what they’re selling and care about their customers.

7/10

7/10 in the Dominion Post business quiz.

February 19 in history

On February 19:

197 Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeated usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.

1473 Nicolaus Copernicus, mathematician and astronomer, was born (d. 1543).

1594-  Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother Catherine Jagellonica of Poland, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa was crowned King of Sweden, succeeding his father John III of Sweden.

1600 – The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina exploded in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.

1674 – England and the Netherlands signed the Peace of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfered the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it was renamed New York.

1743 Luigi Boccherini, Italian composer, was born  (d. 1805).

 

1807 Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr was arrested for treason and confined to Fort Stoddert.

1819 British explorer William Smith discovered the South Shetland Islands, and claimed them in the name of King George III. 

 Williams Point

1847 – The first group of rescuers reached the Donner Party who had been snowbound. Some of the party resorted to cannabilism to survive.

 The Donner Party Memorial

1861 Serfdom was abolished in Russia.

1878 The phonograph was patented by Thomas Edison.

1883 Parihaka leaders Te Whiti and Tohu were released.

 1884 The Enigma tornado outbreak.

1895 Diego Mazquiarán, Spanish matador, was born  ( d. 1940 ).

1924 Lee Marvin, American actor, was born (d. 1987).

 

1936 Sam Myers, American musician and songwriter, was born (d. 2006).

1938 Twenty men and one woman were drowned when a sudden cloudburst sent a wall of water surging through a public works camp at Kopuawhara, near Mahia. This was New Zealand’s deadliest 20th-century flood.

1940 Smokey Robinson, American singer, was born.

 1942 Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attacked Darwin killing 243 people.

1942 –President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the executive order 9066′, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to Japanese internment camps.

 

1943 Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia began.

1945 Battle of Iwo Jima – about 30,000 United States Marines landed on Iwo Jima.

1947 Tim Shadbolt, mayor of Invercargill, New Zealand, was born.

1949 – Ezra Pound was awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.

1952 Amy Tan, American novelist, was born.

1953 Georgia approved the first literature censorship board in the United States.

1958 Helen Fielding, English writer, was born.

1959 – The United Kingdom granted Cyprus its independence.

1960  Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was born.

1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan‘s The Feminine Mystique launched the reawakening of the Feminist Movement in the United States as women’s organisations and consciousness-raising groups spread.

 

1972 The Asama-Sansō hostage standoff began in Japan.

1976 Executive Order 9066 was rescinded by President Gerald R. Ford’s Proclamation 4417

1978 Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport, in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking situation, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.

1985 William J. Schroeder became the first Artificial heart recipient to leave hospital.

1985 – Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 crashed into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.

1986 Akkaraipattu massacre, massacre of 80 Tamil farm workers by the Sri Lankan Army in the eastern province of Sri Lanka.

1986 – The Soviet Union launched its Mir spacecraft.

1999 – President Bill Clinton issued a posthumous pardon for U.S. Army Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper.

2001 An Oklahoma City bombing museum was dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

 

2001 Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal was awarded an honorary knighthood in recognition of a “lifetime of service to humanity”.

2002 – NASA’s Mars Odyssey space probe started to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Whisternefet – A sharp slap

3/40

If you’re among the political tragics suffering from the absence of the Dom Post’s weekly political quiz you might like to take your mind off it by trying the narcissistic personality test.

I got 3/40 which means I’m well below average if this is to be believed: 

 Between 12 and 15 is average.
Celebrities often score closer to 18.
Narcissists score over 20.

Hat Tip: Scepticon.