April 18 in history

On April 18:

1025 Bolesław Chrobry was crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.

1480 Lucrezia Borgia, Florentine ruler and daughter of Pope Alexander VI, was born  (d. 1519) .

1506 The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica was laid.

  

1518  Bona Sforza was crowned as queen consort of Poland.

1738 Real Academia de la Historia (“Royal Academy of History”) founded in Madrid.

1775  American Revolution: The British advancement by sea began; Paul Revere and other riders warned the countryside of the troop movements.

 

1783 Fighting ceased in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.

1797 The Battle of Neuwied – French victory against the Austrians.

1831 The University of Alabama was founded.

1847 A Maori raid on the Gilfillan farm at Matarawa, near Wanganui, left four family members dead.

 

1848 American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opened the way for invasion of Mexico.

 

1880 An F4 tornado struck Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100.

1881  Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln County jail.

1889 Jessie Street, Australian suffragette, feminist, and human rights activist, was born  (d. 1970) .

 

1899 The St. Andrew’s Ambulance Association was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.

1902  Quetzaltenango, second largest city of Guatemala, was destroyed by Earthquake.

1906 The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed much of San Francisco.

1906 – The Los Angeles Times story on the Azusa Street Revival launched Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.

 

1909 Joan of Arc was beatified in Rome.

1912  The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brought 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.

 

1915 Joy Gresham Lewis, American writer, wife of C. S. Lewis, was born (d. 1960) .

1915 French pilot Roland Garros was shot down and glided to a landing on the German side of the lines.

1923 Yankee Stadium, “The House that Ruth Built,” opened.

 

1924 Simon & Schuster published the first Crossword puzzle book.

1930 BBC Radio infamously announced that there was no news on that day.

1930 Clive Revill, New Zealand born actor, was born.

1940 Mike Vickers, British guitarist and saxophonist was born. 

1942 World War II: The Doolittle Raid - Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya bombed.

1942 – Pierre Laval became Prime Minister of Vichy France.

1943 World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was killed when his aircraft was shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.

1945 More than 1,000 bombers attackedthe small island of Heligoland, Germany.

1946 Hayley Mills, English actress, was born.

1946 The League of Nations was dissolved.

1949  The Republic of Ireland Act came into force.

1954 Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.

1955 Twenty-nine nations met at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.

1958 A United States federal court ruled that poet Ezra Pound was to be released from an insane asylum.

1961 CONCP was founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.

1971 David Tennant, Scottish actor, was born

1974 The prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurated Lahore Dry port.

1980 – The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) came into being, with Canaan Banana as the first President.

1983 – A suicide bomber destroyed the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.

1988 The United States launched Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.

1992 General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolted against President Mohammad Najibullah of Afghanistan and allied with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.

 

1993President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolved the National Assembly and dismissed the Cabinet.

1996 In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shelled the UN compound at Quana where more than 800 civilians had taken refuge.

2007  The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.

2007 – A series of bombings, two of them suicides,  in Baghdad, killed 198 and injured 251.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Intromit -  to admit, send, introduce, allow or permit to enter.

Rural round-up

Fonterra benefits from Chinese dairy market:

Cracking progress on its dairy farm developments in China has helped Fonterra achieve nearly 50 per cent compound annual revenue growth in the powerhouse economy in the past five years.

The growth across Fonterra’s four business units in China – ingredients, food service, brands and farming – reflects escalating demand for dairy products in China as well as consumer calls for safe, quality product. . .

Greeen methods no bar to profits -  Mark Hotton writes:

Waimea Valley farmers Grant and Bernie Weller won the supreme award at the Southland Farm Environment Awards last night.

They also won the water quality and habitat improvement award at the ceremony in front of about 230 people at Ascot Park Hotel.

The awards are becoming an increasingly important date on the farming calendar with the industry coming under increasing public pressure to prove it can be environmentally sustainable.

Finalist Geoff Clark said it was increasingly important to showcase properties and farms that are portraying a positive image of farming to the wider community. . .

Moving earth for water Claire Allison writes:

When the first sod was turned on Rangitata South Irrigation’s new scheme, there was no celebration – no photograph in the paper, speeches or ceremony.

Chairman Ian Morten says they like to keep things low key.

That might be a bit harder now that construction has begun, and the scale of the project is becoming more evident by the day.

Low-key it might be, but there’s no denying it’s large-scale.

The numbers involved are impressive. Taking up to 20 cubic metres of water a day from the south bank of the Rangitata River during high flows, the water will be fed into storage ponds, before being sent down the line to more than 40 properties between the Rangitata and Orari rivers. . .

The ‘Happy Factor’ - Victoria Rutherford writes:

Dr Andrew Greer has been interested in overseas trials involving the “happy factor” TST trials, and has been working at Ashley Dene to add a New Zealand basis to the research findings.

 TSTs are a part-flock or mob anthelmintic treatment directed at the individual animals most likely to benefit. This helps to slow the development of anthelmintic resistance through providing a parasite population that is not exposed to the drug, effectively diluting the frequency of anthelmintic-resistant genes within a parasite population. . .

Awash with schemes - Jackie Harrigan writes:

The country is awash with plans for new irrigation schemes according to Irrigation NZ CEO Andrew Curtis.

In total, 450,000-500,000ha of new irrigation area is “on the books”, 300,000 of which is new irrigation area and 200,000ha that will have increased water reliability. Roughly one-third of the area is already consented, but only 50,000ha is build-ready. . .

Trials, tribulations of farm forestry – Steve Wyn-Harris writes:

I’ve got a cheque to come in the mail shortly that has been 30 years in the offing. However, in this case I can’t blame New Zealand Post.

It is from a couple of small forestry blocks and an entrée for when my main plantings come on stream in 10 years.

In this case I didn’t plant the trees but in their second year I remember an awful job of working my way through the block to straighten them and stamp the soft soil firm again after a heavy rain and wind event.

It must have worked because few of them fell over again. I did the low and medium pruning and lacking a decent ladder and a height anxiety employed someone to do the high prune. . .

Alpaca on menus soon in New Zealand  - Hugh Stringleman writes:

Commercial slaughter and toll processing of alpaca for their meat has begun in New Zealand with two trial consignments through Venison Packers Feilding Ltd.

Alpaca breeders Peter and Tessa McKay at Maraekakaho, Hawke’s Bay, collated the first 43 animals to be killed and Venison Packers is working through the approvals of its risk management plan (RMP) amendments.

“We needed 30 sets of mainly microbiological data to validate the major changes to our RMP,” said Venison Packers general manager Simon Wishnowsky. . .

Opportunities for smart efficiency with tagging - Sally Rae writes:

Opportunities for more efficency exist with introducing of the National Animal Identification and Tracing (Nait) system, farmers are hearing.

The system will provide lifetime animal traceability, assisting with biosecurity and management of disease outbreaks. . .

Gene hints dessiminated - Sally Rae writes:

Commercial beef farmers had an opportunity to increase their knowledge and gain a better understanding of the estimated breeding values (EBVs) system at a recent beef genetics forum in North Otago.

The forum, hosted by Fossil Creek Angus and Goldwyn Angus, was held at Neil and Rose Sanderson’s Fossil Creek Angus stud at Ngapara. . .

Centre stage for wool at Fieldays Chris Gardner writes:

Waikato wool growers are excited their commodity will take the spotlight at the National Agricultural Fieldays, writes Farming editor Chris Gardner.

Wool’s comeback will be recognised at the National Agricultural Fieldays with the Primary Wool Co-operative the focus of the event’s premier feature.

The 900-strong farmer co-operative will showcase the way New Zealand’s best wool is farmed and demonstrate how wool carpets are made and sold internationally to tie in with this year’s Fieldays theme ”Breaking barriers to productivity”.

Te Kuiti sheep farmer and five times world champion shearer David Fagan welcomed the idea. ”I think it’s brilliant,” he said.

”Wool’s been on the back burner for a good number of years. It’s a great opportunity to get it out there again. . .

Hat tip: interest.co.nz

Anti GM resolution progress or regress?

Whangarei District Council has voted to investigate regulating genetically modified organisms (GMOs) through the District Plan in conjunction with other councils in Northland and Auckland.

There’s nothing wrong with caution. But discussion suggests that rather than recognising a need to progress carefully  this is a step towards banning GMOs altogether:

“At the very least, we need GE to be a prohibited activity until the liability issues are resolved, and preferably, prohibited for good,” Cr. Deeming said.

Whether this is progress of regress depends on whether genetically modified produce is the means to a better fed world with healthier people or a blind leap into darkness.

Public opinion seems to go for the latter yet in the widest sense genetic modification is just what happens naturally through reproduction. However, the intervention of scientists has sped up the process so changes which used to take place over generations can be achieved in a much shorter time and that’s what’s fuelling fears that the stuff of science fiction nightmares might soon be unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

Biotechnological developments ought to be an improvement on nature because they allow a far greater degree of precision in determining the outcome. So in human terms, for example, instead of the lottery we now face when we have a baby we could pick the best of both parents to produce healthier and more talented offspring: the shape of his teeth and the quality of mine; his spelling, my grammar; his musical ability my …

The idea of such designer babies might be amusing in theory but in practice it’s only a small step away from the Nazi idea of producing a super race. However, does the risk of genetic modification being used in this way mean we shouldn’t allow its development when it might also be harnessed for good to circumvent hereditary illnesses?

There are probably enough ethical guidelines in medical science to safeguard the use of biotechnology with people but it’s not so easy to draw lines between benefit and risk in agriculture.

On one side there’s evidence of an increase in not only yield and quality but also health giving characteristics, for example animals with less fat and more protein or a super tomato with more of the caratoid which protects against cancer. We could also get improvements in flavour and while the thought of chocolate flavoured broccoli doesn’t do much for me I can see advantages in vegetables which appealed to children more than junk food.

The potential gains appear to outweigh the risks in these examples.  But there are fears the technology which does this could also result in environmental mayhem as genes from animals and crops bred for a specific purpose transfer to other species with potentially disastrous consequences.                                                                

People on both sides of the argument use history to back up their case: miscalculations about the dangers of DDT, dioxin and mad cow disease are reminders of what happens when science gets it wrong; but there are equally compelling examples when science has got it right such as vaccinations which have rid the world of small pox and reduced the risk of polio.

The debate in New Zealand isn’t just about consumer choice, it’s also about the future of farming.  Do we exploit the fears to sell our GM-free produce at a premium or embrace the new technology in the hope it will give us productive and marketing advantages?

There is no certain answer because there are both risks and benefits in whatever we do. But while concern is understandable and caution essential, I wouldn’t want to see a complete moratorium on biotechnological development.

There’s no progress without risk. I

I’d be prepared to take the risk of experiments with proper safeguards if it increased production and/or meant food which now needs to be sprayed or drenched  with potentially toxic substances could be bred to resist pests and disease in the first place.

MP scores own-goal

Sitting MPs ought to be out and about in their communities and in the media just doing their jobs which puts them in front of the public without the need to be deliberately campaigning.

It’s much harder for a new candidate who has the challenge of getting known without these free opportunities.

How silly then was the Palmerston North MP to give his rival, National Party candidate free publicity, and publicity in which he came off second best at that?

The first shots have been fired in the battle to win Palmerston North at this year’s general election, with National candidate Leonie Hapeta accusing Labour MP Iain Lees-Galloway of practising “nasty politics”.

Mr Lees-Galloway and about 15 supporters gathered outside Mrs Hapeta’s Hotel Coachman about 5pm on Monday – protesting against the Government’s plans to sell state-owned assets.

Mrs Hapeta said she felt attacked by the protesters, who held signs and waved at vehicles on both sides of Fitzherbert Ave.

“Having not met Iain since I became the candidate, I went out to introduce myself, and ask him why he was attacking my business, rather than holding the protest outside my campaign office,” she said.

The National campaign office will be based inside the old GQ Clothing building on Broadway Ave, but has not yet opened.

“He was not able to answer this simple question, and seemed quite surprised I was willing to talk civilly to him rather than yell abuse at him.”

But Mr Lees-Galloway, who is Labour’s Defence and Land Information spokesman, said the location was chosen by his Young Labour supporters because of the heavy traffic flow.

“There was no intention to target Leonie’s business and it hadn’t even crossed my mind,” he said.

“Yeah, when I got there I thought: `OK we’re outside the Coachman’ but it was no plan on my part.”

If he didn’t know it’s her business he’s failed to do his homework and it’s lost him the first round.

Hapeta 1 – Lees-Galloway 0 as the result of an own-goal.

Hat Tip: Kiwiblog

April 17 in history

On April 17:

 1397  Geoffrey Chaucer told the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II.

 

1492 Spain and Christopher Columbus signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.

 

1521 Martin Luther spoke to the assembly at the Diet of Worms, refusing to recant his teachings.

1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano reached New York harbour.

 

1555 After 18 months of siege, Siena surrendered to the Florentine-Imperial army. The Republic of Siena was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

1620 Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame, was born (d. 1700) .

1797  Sir Ralph Abercromby attacked San Juan, Puerto Rico in what became one of the largest invasions of the Spanish territories in America.

1820 Alexander Joy Cartwright, Inventor of the Modern Game of Baseball, was born (d. 1892).

 

1837  J. P. Morgan, American financier, was born  (d. 1913) .

1861 American Civil War: Virginia seceded from the United States.

1864 American Civil War: The Battle of Plymouth began.

1865 Mary Surratt was arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

1880 New Zealand’s first inter-city brass band contest was held.

1885 Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), Danish author, was born (d. 1962) .

 

1895 The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan was signed. This marked the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, the defeated Qing Empire was forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

 

1905 The Supreme Court of the United States decided Lochner v. New York which held that the “right to free contract” was implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

1907 The Ellis Island immigration centre processed 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

1918 William Holden, American actor, was born  (d. 1981).

1924 – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios was formed by the merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Company.

1929 James Last, German band leader, was born.

 

1941 World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrendered to Germany.

1942 French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escaped from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.

1945 Brazilian forces liberated the town of Montese, Italy, from German forces.

1949 At midnight 26 Irish counties officially left the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on O’Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushered in the Republic of Ireland.

1957  Nick Hornby, English author, was born.

1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

 

1964 The Ford Motor Company unveiled the Ford Mustang at the New York World’s Fair.

 

1964  Jerrie Mock became the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.

 

1969 Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.

1969 Czechoslovakian Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubček was deposed.

1970 Apollo 13 returned to Earth safely.

1971 The People’s Republic of Bangladesh formed, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

1971  Sierra Leone became a republic.

1973 German counter-terrorist unit GSG 9 founded.

1974 Victoria Beckham, English singer (Spice Girls), was born.

1975  The Cambodian Civil War ended. The Khmer Rouge captureed the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrendered.

1982 Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa.

1984  Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher was killed by gunfire from the Libyan People’s Bureau in London during a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten others were wounded.

 

1986 The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years’ War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly ended.

2006 – Sami Hammad, a Palestinian suicide bomber, detonated an explosive device in Tel Aviv, killing 11 people and injuring 70.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Draggle – to make wet or dirty by trailing on the ground; bedraggle; to follow slowly, lag behind, straggle.

Saturday smiles

Even if you’re not remotely interested in matters royal and romantic I defy you not to grin at this:

One does what it oughtn’t and t’other doesn’t what it ought’a?

Quote of the week:

“Does Labour do things they shouldn’t so people vote for them and National doesn’t do things they should so people won’t not vote for them?”

Sean Plunket or Duncan Garner* on The Nation this morning in response to a comment by Fran O’Sullivan on the cost of Labour’s 2005 election bribes.

*I was listening not watching and it’s not online yet to check who said this while chairing the panel discussion.

Should we start a support group?

My mother told me it was rude to read at the table.

The reasons for that are obvious when other people are present. We might not all be deipnosophists but we ought to at least try to carry out a conversation with our tablemates.

But I am not convinced by the arguments against reading while eating when dining alone.

There is a risk that the food might not end up where it’s intended and cause a mess on the reading matter, the diner or table but practice makes perfect (even with spaghetti).

There is also the risk that one who has to read while eating might then feel compelled to eat while reading which could lead to unhealthy consumption. But a good book is a wonderful distraction to assist with resisting the temptation to overindulgence of the culinary kind.

There is also the argument that the diner ought to savour the dinner and not be distracted from taste and texture by texts. That is the most compelling, but if I can multi-task I can also multi-taste, feeding mind and body at a single sitting.

The reading eater doth protest too much youthinks?

Maybe, but at least I’m not alone.  Dim Post can’t eat without distraction either.

Should we start a support group or just admit that eating and reading are two of life’s great pleasure and, good manners or not, combining the two enhances both?

The unnoticed part of the job

It’s a sad fact that we are far more likely to complain than complement. We’re also more likely to do both to other people rather than the one with whom we have a problem or for whom we have praise.

But news good and bad has a way of spreading through the grapevine.

Last night at a social gathering someone was talking about a problem the community had been dealing with. They’d gone to their local MP – Jacqui Dean – and “she was brilliant, she couldn’t have done more.”

One of the listeners then contributed another story of a problem friends had been facing. They too went to Jacqui who went to a great deal of trouble to help them.

This is what good local MPs, and their staff, spend a great deal of their time doing.

It’s the unnoticed and often unacknowledged part of the job. It doesn’t make headlines, most people don’t even know that they do it.

It’s one of the reasons we still need local representation and why we must be wary of any electoral system which waters that down so that political ideologues hold greater sway than what Chris Trotter calls a true representative.

UPDATE: Kiwiblog and Whaeoil also post on good local MPs.

Rabobank confirms farmers are happy

It doesn’t happen very often – the rural stars are in alignment and it’s official: farmers are happy.

Rabobank’s rural confidence survey shows:

 Farmer confidence has risen for the first time in more than 12 months and is now at its highest level since August 2008.

• Rising commodity prices and improving global markets are the main factors driving confidence.

• Sentiment has improved in all sectors, but is highest among sheep and beef farmers.

• Farmers’ investment intentions have also surged.

I don’t remember farmers being particularly confident in August 2008 but there is no doubt that decent prices for almost all primary produce is having a positive impact this season.

Of particular note is that sheep and beef confidence is at a 10 year high. They’ve had a really rough ride in the last decade, these improved returns have been a long time coming.

The latest survey, taken late last month, shows 52 per cent of New Zealand farmers expect the agricultural economy to improve over the next 12 months, significantly up from the 29 per cent with that view in the previous quarter. Those expecting conditions to worsen had decreased to seven per cent, from 18 per cent previously.

Rabobank general manager New Zealand Ben Russell said this meant net rural confidence had increased to 45 per cent from just 11 per cent in December 2010 (at the time of the previous survey).

“It is clear that for farmers commodity prices and improving global economies are outweighing the expected impact of the higher New Zealand dollar at the farm gate,” Mr Russell said.

We have to get over worrying about the value of the dollar. It’s floating and the government isn’t going to change that.

Besides a high dollar isn’t all bad. If it was lower fertiliser, machinery and other imports would be much more expensive.

Of those farmers expecting the agricultural economy to improve, 74 per cent cited rising commodities prices as a major reason, while 18 per cent attributed their optimism to the improvement in overseas markets and economies.

The survey showed confidence to be high across all sectors, with sheep and beef farmers particularly optimistic.

“In fact, sheep and beef farmer sentiment levels has soared past that of the dairy sector,” Mr Russell said.

It’s a long time since sheep and beef farmers were more confident than those in dairying. This might slow down the rate of conversions.

. . .farmers’ investment intentions had surged, with more than a third (34 per cent) expecting to increase their total farm investment, up from 21 per cent with that intention in the previous survey. Only four per cent planned to decrease their investment, down from 14 per cent previously.

This was the highest level of investment intention seen since August 2008, Mr Russell noted.

“The survey also indicated that 35 per cent of sheep and beef farms expect to up their farm investment in the coming 12 months. This may be an early sign that the declining national sheep flock is stabilising and some rebuilding of the flock will now occur,” he said.

Farmers have been cautious. Most have been paying back debt rather than spending more which means the impact of better returns hasn’t filtered far from the farm gate yet.

This intention to increase investment means that the benefits from higher farm incomes will start spreading through the wider economy.

April 16 in history

On April 16:

1178 BC; The calculated date of the Greek king Odysseus‘s return home from the Trojan War.

 

73 Masada, a Jewish fortress, fell to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt.

1346 The Serbian Empire was proclaimed in Skopje by Dusan Silni, occupying much of the Balkans.

1521 Martin Luther‘s first appearance before the Diet of Worms to be examined by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the other estates of the empire.

 

1582 Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founded the settlement of Salta, Argentina.

1682 John Hadley, British inventor, was born (d. 1744).

1728 Joseph Black, Scottish chemist, was born (d. 1799).

1746 The Battle of Culloden was fought between the French-supported Jacobites and the Hanoverian British Government.

1780 The University of Münster was founded.

1799 Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Mount Tabor – Napoleon drove Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.

1853 The first passenger rail opened in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane.

1862 American Civil War: The Battle at Lee’s Mills in Virginia.

1862 American Civil War: A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law.

1863 American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg – ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter moved through heavy Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1865 Henry George Chauvel, Australian general, was born  (d. 1945).

1867 Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer, was born (d. 1912).

1889 Charlie Chaplin, English actor, writer, songwriter, composer, and film producer, was born (d. 1977).

1892 The New Zealand Rugby Football Union was founded.

1910 The University of Queensland was founded, with the names of the members of the first Senate published in the Queensland Government Gazette.

1912  Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly an aeroplane across the English Channel.

1917 Lenin returnedto Petrograd from exile in Switzerland.

1918 Spike Milligan, Irish comedian, was born (d. 2002).

1919 – Gandhi organised a day of “prayer and fasting” in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Amritsar Massacre by the British.

1921 Peter Ustinov, English actor, was born (d. 2004).

 

1922  Kingsley Amis, English author, was born (d. 1995).

1922 The Treaty of Rapallo, pursuant to which Germany and the Soviet Union re-established diplomatic relations, was signed.

 

1924 Henry Mancini, American composer, was born  (d. 1994).

1925 The St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia – 150 people were killed and 500 were wounded.

 

1924 Rudy Pompilli, American musician (Bill Haley & His Comets), was born (d. 1976).

 

1927 Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Alois Ratzinger., was born.

1939 Dusty Springfield, English singer, was born.

1941 World War II: The Italian convoy Duisburg, was attacked and destroyed by British ships.

1941 – Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians threw the only Opening Day no-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball, beating the Chicago White Sox 1-0.

1943 Ruth Madoc, British actress, was born.

1943  Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD.

1945 The Red Army began the final assault on German forces around Berlin.

1945 The United States Army liberated Nazi Sonderlager (high security) Prisoner of War camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).

 

1945 – More than 7,000 died when the German refugee ship Goya was sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo.

1946 Syria gained independence.

1947  Texas City Disaster: An explosion on board a freighter in port caused the city of Texas City to catch fire, killing almost 600.

 One of Grandcamp’s anchors Texas City Memorial Park

1947 Bernard Baruch coined the term “Cold War” to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.

1953 Queen Elizabeth II launched the Royal Yacht HMY Britannia.

1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. penned his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.

1963 Jimmy Osmond, American pop singer (The Osmonds), was born.

1972 Apollo programme: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1987 British Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appeared at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court charged with gross indecency.

1990 The “Doctor of Death”, Jack Kevorkian, went through with his first assisted suicide.

1992 The Katina P. ran aground off Maputo, Mozambique. 60,000 tons of crude oil spilt into the ocean.

2003 The Treaty of Accession was signed in Athens admitting 10 new member states to the European Union.

 

2004 – The super liner Queen Mary 2 embarks on her first trans-Atlantic crossing, linking the golden age of ocean travel to the modern age of ocean travel.

2007 Virginia Tech massacre:  Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 and injured 23 before committing suicide.

Students gather to mourn after the shooting.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Nodus – a difficulty; a complicated, knotty or problematic idea or situation.

Hat Tip: Wordsmith Word A Day

Friday’s answers

Thursday’s questions were:

1. What is a forecastle?

2. Who said “The world has grown suspicious of anything that look like a happily married life”?

 3. Who is the MP for Otaki?

4. Who wrote Middle Age Spread?

5. It’s félicité in French, felicità  in Italian,  felicidad in Spanish, and koanga in Maori, what is it in English?

The percentage of people getting all the answers right suggests it was easier this week (especially if I accept broad definitions for happiness):

Andrei* and Gravedodger get an electronic batch of biscuits with five right and a bonus for extra information.

Adam got four right.

Paul got two three right and a bonus for wit.

Rob got one right and three bonuses for humour.

Adam got a smile.

Bearhunter gets an electronic batch of biscuits * for five right.

PDM got three right and a couple of grins (dont’ give up on Mae West, one day you’ll be right).

* Second week running, I’ll have to use a different recipe so you don’t get bored with the biscuits.

UPDATE: Zen Tiger was late but got three right and a bonus for wit.

Answers follow the break:

7/10

7/10 in the NZ Herald’s news quiz.

Greenpeace protest all about publicity

An ODT editorial says that Greenpeace took the wrong option in its protest against the Petrobras seismic survey off the East Coast:

The target for protest action should be the promised legislation that, while it should not prevent oil and gas exploration, needs to be sufficiently robust to ensure the marine environment will be adequately protected and, should an accident occur, restored.

That is the challenge for Greenpeace and others. Raising fears when none are justified is tactically foolish – and most likely to backfire.

But influencing legislation wouldn’t get the publicity swimming in front of a ship did and publicity is what Greenpeace needs most.

It is a large international organisation that requires a lot of money to run.

That’s why they recruit, usually young, people to travel* round the country trying to recruit supporters. They’re set targets of the number to sign up each day and their pay is related to how well they do – just like other big businesses which use incentive payments.

It’s much easier to recruit workers and supporters when they’re in the headlines looking like they’re the little people against a big, evil corporation or government than it is formulating and presenting logical submissions to influence legislation.

*The vans they travel in aren’t usually self-contained, I hope they abide by the clean, green principles they preach and don’t freedom camp where there are no loos.

Beneficiary artist at it again

Remember Tao Wells, the artist whose Beneficiaries’ Office advocating the benefits of being jobless caused an uproar last year?

He’s unveiled his latest installation in Dunedin. It’s called 6% forced unemployment. Fakes job competition. Stops wages rising.

It’s part of his on-going promotion of the lifestyle of unemployment. In spite of the criticism he receives:

. . . Wells remains unrepentant and has recently trained as a benefit rights volunteer.

“We need to work less, so we consume less. The average carbon footprint of the unemployed person is about half that of those earning over $100,000,” he said.

“We should never be forced to take a job. If you’re forced to take a job it’s a punishment.”

No-one’s forced to take a job. He’s free not to work as long as he doesn’t expect a benefit.

As for punishment, that’s what a lot of working people might call being forced to pay money they earn to support people who could work but won’t.

Not that he’ll be worried about that as long as he gets publicity for his art and his views guarantee he will.

April 15 in history

On April 15:

1071 – Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, was surrendered to Robert Guiscard.

1450 – Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years’ War, the French attacked and nearly annihilated English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.

1452 Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance polymath, was born (d. 1519).

1469 Guru Nanak Dev, the first of the ten Sikh Gurus, was born (d. 1539).

 

1632 Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeated the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years’ War.

1641 Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician, was born  (d. 1722).

1642 Suleiman II, Ottoman Sultan, was born  (d. 1691).

1684 Catherine I of Russia, was born (d. 1727).

1710 William Cullen, Scottish physician, was born  (d. 1790).

1715 Pocotaligo Massacre triggered the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.

1738 Premiere in London of Serse (Xerxes) an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.

1755 Samuel Johnson‘s A Dictionary of the English Language published in London.

1783 – Preliminary articles of peace ending Revolutionary War ratified.

1802-  William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy saw a “long belt” of daffodils, inspiring him to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

 

1841 Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian distillery founder, was born (d. 1919).

1843 Henry James, American author, was born (d. 1916).

1865 Abraham Lincoln died after being shot the previous day by actor John Wilkes Booth.

1868 The first two Maori MPs ,  Frederick Nene Russell (Northern Maori) and Tareha Te Moananui (Eastern Maori), were elected to parliament.

1885 The first sod was turned on the North Island main trunk line.

1883 Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia, was born  (d. 1967).

 

1892 The General Electric Company was formed.

1894 Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union, was born  (d. 1971).

1894 Bessie Smith, American blues singer, was born  (d. 1937).

1895 Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards player, was born  (d. 1980).

1906 The Armenian organization AGBU was established.

1912 Kim Il-sung, President of North Korea, was born  (d. 1994).

1912 RMS Titanic, sank in the North Atlantic, after hitting an iceberg two and a half hours earlier, the previous day, killing more than 1,500 people.

1916 Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American businessman, was born (d. 1982).

1921 Black Friday, mine owners announced a decrease in wages leading to the threat of a strike all across England

1923 Insulin became generally available for use by people with diabetes.

1924 Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor, was born.

1924 Rand McNally published its first road atlas.

1930 Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland, was born.

1933 Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress, was born  (d. 1995).

1940 The Allies begin their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which was occupied by Nazi Germany.

 

1940 Jeffrey Archer, British author, was born.

1940 Robert Lacroix, French Canadian professor of economics, was born.

1941 In the Belfast Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attacked Belfast, killing 1,000 people.

 

1942 George Cross was awarded to “to the island fortress of Malta – its people and defenders” by King George VI.

 

1943 An Allied bomber attack missed the Minerva automobile factory and hits the Belgian town of Mortsel instead, killing 936 civilians.

1945 The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated.

1947 Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball’s colour line.

1952  The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress

1955 – Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman, was born  (d. 1997).

1957 White Rock, British Columbia officially separated from Surrey,  and was incorporated as a new city.

1959 Emma Thompson, English actress, was born.

1960 Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, heir to the Belgian throne, was born.

1979 An earthquake (of M 7.1) on Montenegro coast.

1989 A human crush occured at Hillsborough Stadium,  in the FA Cup Semi Final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool F.C. fans.

 

1989 Upon Hu Yaobang‘s death, the Tiananmen Square protests began.

1992 The National Assembly of Vietnam adopted the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

1994 Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities signed the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and initiating the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).

2002 – An Air China Boeing 767 200, flight CA129 crashed into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.

2010 – Volcanic ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland led to the closure of airspace over most of Europe.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Habromania -  morbid impulse toward gaiety; insanity featuring cheerful delusions.