December 24 in history

On December 24:

1754 George Crabbe, British poet and naturalist, was born  (d. 1832).

1777  Kiritimati, (Christmas Island) was discovered by James Cook.

1814  The Treaty of Ghent was signed ending the War of 1812.

 

1822 Matthew Arnold, British poet, was born (d. 1888).

1865  Several U.S. Civil War Confederate veterans formed the Ku Klux Klan.

1880  Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist, children’s book writer and creator of Raggedy Ann was born (d. 1888 1938).

1893  Harry Warren, American composer and lyricist (Chattanooga Choo Choo – I Only Have Eyes for You), was born (d. 1981).

1905 Howard Hughes, American film producer and inventor, was born (d. 1976).

1906  Reginald Fessenden transmitted the first radio broadcast; consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.

1914  World War I: The “Christmas truce” began.

 British and German troops meeting in No man’s land during the unofficial truce.

1922 Ava Gardner, American actress, was born (d. 1990).

1923 George Patton IV, American general, was born (d. 2004).

1924  Albania became a republic.

1927  Mary Higgins Clark, American author, was born.

1941  World War II: Hong Kong fell to the Japanese Imperial Army.

1943 General Dwight D. Eisenhower became Supreme Allied Commander.

1946  France‘s Fourth Republic was founded.

1948 Frank Oliver, New Zealand rugby player, was born.

1951 Libya became independent from Italy. Idris I was proclaimed King.

1953 Tangiwai railway disaster – The worst railway disaster in New Zealand’s history occurred on Christmas Eve 1953 when the Wellington-Auckland night express plunged into the flooded Whangaehu River, just west of Tangiwai in the central North Island. The accident happened after a railway bridge was destroyed by a lahar.

1955  NORAD Tracked Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition.

1957 Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, was born.

1961 Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, was born.

1968 The crew of Apollo 8 entered into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.

Ed Miliband, leader of the British Labour Party, was born.

1974  Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin.

 

1979 – The first European Ariane rocket was launched.

1997 – The Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria killed 50-100 people.

2000 – The Texas 7 held up a sports store in Irving, Texas,  Police officer Aubrey Hawkins was murdered during the robbery.

2003 – Spanish police thwarted an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid’s Chamartín Station.

 Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Baccivorous  – eating or subsisting on berries.

Thursday’s quiz

1. Who preached what is regarded as New Zealand’s first Christmas Day service?

2. Where did he preach it?

3. Who wrote:  “It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”

4. What was Mary & Joseph’s home town?

5. What’s your favourite Christmas carol or song?

Fronting up to the black dog

It takes guts to win the battle with depression.

It takes guts to front up and apologise to those you’re hurt.

This post, the destruction that is depression, by Whaleoil does both.

It wins my blog post of the year for courage and for the example it shows to others who are fronting up to the black dog.

Selling single better for all

The government has turned down Natural Dairy’s attempt to buy the Crafar Farms.

Hon Maurice Williamson and Hon Kate Wilkinson have today declined consent to Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings Limited to acquire the Crafar farms.

The Ministers’ decision covers the applications by Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings Limited to acquire UBNZ Assets Holdings Limited and 16 of the Crafar farms.

The Ministers also declined consent to UBNZ Assets Holdings Limited’s retrospective application to acquire the four Crafar farms it purchased in February 2010.

“We concur with the Overseas Investment Office’s recommendation that consent should be declined,” the Ministers said.

That’s not surprising, nor is the news that Landcorp isn’t putting in a fresh offer for the 16 farms, although it is intimating the existing one would stand should the receivers show any interest in it.

Landcorp says it would still be interested in the purchase but is unlikely to substantially increase its original offer.

The company makes a pitiful return on the capital it already has invested in farms, it shouldn’t take on any more, not even to sort them out then on-sell them individually.

That would mean the state taking on the risk and passing on the benefit to individuals.

Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson wants the farms back on the market to be sold individually. A view which Adolf has been promoting from the start.

That would increase the number of likely buyers and could well result in a better total price than if the farms were sold as a unit.

And the award for chronic entitilitis goes to . . .

 . . . Chris Carter and his partner who canned a taxpayer funded holiday  only after TV3 found out about it:

Mr Carter and his partner managed to book an international holiday using the MPs’ travel perk right before Parliament’s Speaker, Lockwood Smith, banned MPs from taking private travel with public money. . .

Carter and Mr Kaiser were booked to leave Auckland on December 29, flying business class via Singapore to Colombo and Sri Lanka.

The estimated cost of their flights is $13,902 – 90 percent picked up by the taxpayer.

The pair were planning on holidaying with British MP Ben Bradshaw and his partner but an hour after 3 News confronted Mr Kaiser, Mr Carter sent a text saying the trip was cancelled and he wasn’t going to front.

Well done TV3. Now could you follow up with some questions:

How much did cancelling the trip cost and who paid for it?

What do two professionals do with their money if they can’t afford to pay for their own flights?

What’s happened to the airpoints they’ve accrued on previous trips?

Which would cost more: a by-election or continuing to keep Carter in the lifestyle to which he’s become accustomed?

December 23 in history

On December 23:

1732 Richard Arkwright, English industrialist and inventor, was born (d. 1792).

1822  Wilhelm Bauer, German engineer, was born  (d. 1875).

1867  Madam C.J. Walker, American philanthropist and tycoon, was born (d. 1919).

1893 The opera Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck was first performed.

1913 The Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve.

 

1914  World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrived in Cairo, Egypt.

1925  Rayner Unwin, British book publisher, was born.

1933  Akihito, Emperor of Japan, was born.

1937  First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber.

1938  Discovery of the first modern coelacanth in South Africa.

1947 The transistor was first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

 A replica of the first working transistor

1951  Anthony Phillips, British musician (Genesis), was born.

1953 Queen Elizabeth II arrived in New Zealand, the first reigning monarch to visit.

1954  The first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

1958  Dedication of Tokyo Tower, world’s highest self-supporting iron tower.

1964 Eddie Vedder, American musician (Pearl Jam), was born.

1970 The North Tower of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan was topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world.

1972 The Nicaraguan capital of Managua was struck by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake which killed more than 10,000.

1972 The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster were rescued after 73 days, having survived by cannibalism.

1986  Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world.

1990  In a referendum, 88% of Slovenia‘s population vote for independence from Yugoslavia.

2002 A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first time in history that an aircraft and an unmanned drone had engaged in combat.

2004  Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean was hit by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake.

2005  Chad declared war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead.

Sourced from NZ History Online and Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Vitilitigation – vexatious wrangling; frivolous or sophistical objection; cavillation.

RSE works for workers, employers and as aid

The Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme is working well.

Reports from the World Bank and Department of Labour confirm multiple benefits.

The scheme permits horticulturists and viticulturists to employ workers from Pacific Islands  and a few parts of Asia, during the harvest.

This solves the problem of worker shortages for employers and gives work to people from poor countries to the benefit of both.

The World Bank report shows this is having a positive development role for the Pacific. Workers earn far more than they could at home and take most of their earnings back to save or use to pay for their children’s education or for consumer goods.

It concludes:

Recognised Seasonal Employer programme has indeed had largely positive development impacts. It has increased income and consumption of households, allowed households to purchase more durable goods, increased the subjective standard of living, and had additional benefits at the community level. It also increased child schooling in Tonga.

This should rank it among the most effective development policies evaluated to date. The policy was designed as a best practice example based on lessons elsewhere, and now should serve as a model for other countries to follow.

The DoL report found workers from Kiribati and Tuvalu got little if any benefit, although this was partly explained by the small number of workers from there.

But workers from Vanuatu, Tonga and Samoa benefited financially from the RSE policy.

The most frequent uses of savings by workers were to pay school fees and buy school uniforms; renovate or build new homes; purchase land and cattle; support other relatives; pay for family events; purchase vehicles, boats, equipment, and electronic goods; and repay bank and other loans.

Some workers used their savings to start or expand business ventures and other activities to generate income (for example, cattle farming, a taxi business, a store, and a vehicle-hire business).  

While financial rewards were the most important benefit, workers also valued their newly acquired skills, especially time management skills, English language skills, and an improved work ethic. Some workers discussed how the skills they had learnt in the vineyard or orchard could be transferred to their farms at home or to business ventures they were considering. Return workers said they were better at managing and saving their money.

Not all workers were in New Zealand long enough to enable them to save sufficient after paying their airfares and living costs. There are also problems from the prolonged absence of parents and spouses.

The majority of RSE employers reported immediate benefits from the scheme including a reliable, enthusiastic and productive workforce, reduced recruitment and training costs, increased confidence to expand and invest, and reduced stress.

Employers identified factors that contributed to the productivity levels of RSE workers: Pacific workers coped well with the physically demanding manual work involved in harvesting crops in very hot, cold, or windy conditions; and were  more willing to work long hours, weekends, and night shifts than New Zealand workers.

A consistent theme that emerged from employer interviews was the improved quality of produce due to having skilled workers to pick and pack crops while they were in optimum condition. Other results were improvements to the supply chain as a result of a reliable workforce, and improved performance of New Zealand workers due to the demonstration effects of RSE workers.

The report concludes the policy has achieved what it set out to do.

Employers in the horticulture and viticulture industries have access to a reliable and stable seasonal workforce. The labour supply crises of previous years have been avoided and employers can now plan and manage their businesses with confidence.

As the policy enters its third year, there are indications many employers are now also benefiting from skilled labour as workers return for subsequent seasons. Significant productivity gains were reported in the second season, together with improvements in harvest quality.

Alongside the employer ‘wins’, Pacific workers and three Pacific states have benefited financially from participating in the RSE Policy. Skill development has also been identified as a positive outcome for workers.

Aid usually means taking money or skills to other countries. The RSE scheme allows people from the Pacific to come here where they help our horticulturists and viticulturists and in doing so help themselves.

What’s to fear from fairness?

The furore around the foreshore and seabed has been full of misinformation and emotion from the start.

The Foreshore and Seabed Act was bad legislation enacted in acrimony when Labour panicked.

National promised to repeal it, has done so and has introduced the Marine and Coastal Area Bill which:

• Guarantees free public access;

• Makes a common space of the public marine and coastal area, ensuring it can never be sold;

• Protects all existing uses, including recreational fishing and navigation rights;

• Addresses two fundamental rights violated by the Foreshore and Seabed Act – the right to access justice through the courts, and property rights;

• Protects, and in some cases extends, rights of vital infrastructure such as ports and aquaculture.

I can’t see anything to worry about there. It applies to a relatively small areas of coastline. We’ll all still have free access to the beach; Iwi have the right to seek justice in court and property rights are protected.

Some Maori are opposing the Bill because they think it doesn’t go far enough. In spite of that there’s been heated opposition from people who think it goes too far – including, most surprisingly, those on the right who would normally be the first to stand up for property rights.

Most of the opposition is based on misinformation and emotion. The government is countering this with a website explaining the facts which includes a message from Prime Minister John Key:

What’s to fear from fairness?

Incentives for safety

Proposed changes to ACC are necessary and sensible:

Reform of ACC is needed to improve incentives for workplace safety, improve services for claimants and keep levies affordable both now and in the future, ACC Minister Nick Smith announced today.

“This Government’s initial work on ACC was about stopping ACC haemorrhaging after $7.2 billion in losses. These next steps outline our long-term plan for ACC,” Dr Smith said in releasing the Stocktake and Financial Condition Reports.

Key decisions announced today include:

• No increase in workplace, motor vehicle or earner levies for 2011
• Introduction of experience rating in the Work Account
• Extension of the Accredited Employers’ Programme (AEP)
• Greater independence of the Disputes Resolution Service
• Decision in principle for introduction of choice in the Work Account

The current system has no reward for safe workplaces and no sanctions for unsafe ones. The experience rating in the Work Account will provide a no-claims discount programme for small employers and an experience rating for larger ones.

This will give employers a financial incentive to prevent injuries, encourage appropriate return-to-work programmes and make levies fairer so that low-risk employers aren’t subsidising high-risk ones.

The result should be safer workplaces and lower costs.

Introducing choice is the Work Account is being described as privatisation. It isn’t, nothing is being sold. It will merely allow people to choose between the government scheme and private providers.

Nick Smith has come up with sensible and moderate changes. They will ensure accident victims get the care, rehabilitation and compensation they need while lowering costs to levy payers and reducing the risk of a future blow-out in the ACC account which would put the whole system at risk.

December 22 in history

On December 22:

1550  Cesare Cremonini, Italian philosopher, was born http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/timeline/20/12.

1639  Jean Racine, French dramatist was born (d. 1699).

1805  John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist, was born (d. 1893).

  1807  The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, was passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.

 A political cartoon showing merchants dodging the “Ograbme”, which is ‘Embargo’ spelled backwards.

1809 The Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the Embargo Act except for the United Kingdom and France, was passed by the U.S. Congress.

1819  Pierre Ossian Bonnet, French mathematician, was born  (d. 1892). 

1851The first freight train was operated in Roorkee, India.

1858  Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer, was born (d. 1924).

1885 Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.

1888  J. Arthur Rank, British film producer, was born.

1901  André Kostelanetz, American popular music orchestra leader and arranger, was born (d. 1980).

1907  Dame Peggy Ashcroft, English actress, was born(d. 1991).

1909  Patricia Hayes, English actress, was born.

1914 Swami Satchidananda, Yogi and Spiritual teacher, was born  (d. 2002).

1916 Peter Fraser, who later became Prime Minister, was charged with sedition following a speech attackign the government’s military consription policy.

1942 Dick Parry, English musician (Pink Floyd), was born.

1948 Noel Edmonds, English game show host, was born.

1949  Maurice Gibb, English musician (The Bee Gees) was born  (d. 2003).

1949 – Robin Gibb, English musician (The Bee Gees), was born. 

 1956  Colo,  the first gorilla to be bred in captivity was born.

1962 Ralph Fiennes, English actor, was born.

1963 The cruise ship Lakonia burned 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.

1964  First flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird).

1965 A 70mph speed limit was applied to all rural roads in Britain, including motorways, for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.

1974  Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli voted to become the independent nation of Comoros.

.

1978 The Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.

1989 After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu took over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu‘s Communist dictatorship.

1989 – Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate re-opened after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.

 

1990 Final independence of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia after termination of trusteeship.

1992 – Archives of Terror  – archives describing the fates of thousands of Latin Americans who had been secretly kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay – were discovered by  Dr. Martín Almada, and a human-rights activist and judge, José Agustín Fernández. This was known as Operation Condor.

1997  Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas werre massacred by paramilitary forces.

2001 Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, handeed over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

  

2001 – Richard Reid attempted to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.

2008– An ash dike ruptured at a solid waste containment area in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 billion gallons (4.2 million m³) of coal fly ash slurry.

Word of the day

Philostorgy – natural affection such as parents have for their children.

Christmas on-line

Christmas on-line occupied my discussion on Critical Mass today.

Carols for Christmas in the Guardian chosen by Carol Ann Duffy (Hat tip: Beatties Book Blog).

The digital story of the nativity – the old story told through new media.

A social network Christmas:

And on Facebook with comments.

Gift duty ruling stuns North Pole resident at Imperator Fish

And I finished with a plea: my favourite carol is Te Harinui. There are now a few versions of it on youTube but none does it justice. I’m hoping an individual or group with both musical ability and whatever it takes to upload something to youTube will remedy that.

Why Do We Do What We Do?

This Tuesday’s poem is Why Do We Do What We Do by James Brown.

Sarah Jane Barnett who is this week’s editor paired the Tuesday Poets in a poetic version of  ”Secret Santa”  to post a poem or other offering by their ‘partner’ poet.

The results are linked in the sidebar and include:

How She Holds Her Head by Mary McCallum

Grapefruit by Clare Beynon

Cake With Fruit by Therese Clear

Christmas Baubles from Northland by Elizabeth Welsh

The Middle Ground by Belinda Hollyer

Elizabeth and Mary by Kathleen Jones

Kitchen Sonnets by Catherine Fitchett

Albedo by Harvey Malloy

Unnoticed by Harvey McQueen

countadowncountdownAuckland Countdown by Renee Liang

Xmas by Susan Landry

Christ in Aotearoa by Andrew Bell

Nerves by Sarah Jane Barnett

Burning With Joan of Arc by Helen Rickerby

Christmastide by Helen Lowe

Barksoup Winter by Jennifer Compton

O wad some Power the giftie gie us . . .

Another Wikileaks revelation:

“The Labour Party also tends to attract its membership from the ranks of academics, unions and government workers.

“National’s younger candidates, in contrast, typified the cross section of younger New Zealand professionals and middle class families – and were candidates who attracted important swing voters in urban centers where Labour traditionally had strong support,” she said.

Whether Labour could field a similar broad range of younger candidates among its traditional left-of-centre support base was in question.

“The party will also need to revamp its current parliamentary list, which is replete with tried, tested, and largely defeated Labour Party stalwarts.”

Political parties and politicians should acquaint themselves with the work of Robert Burns, paying particular attention to To A Louse from which comes: O wad some Power the giftie gie us. To see oursels as ithers see us!

Too many blind eyes – updated & updated again

Another child has joined the long list of victims of child abuse.

It is a list of shame and what is particularly shameful about this case is that other people must have known and turned blind eyes to her suffering.

She is a victim of her parents who have been charged wtth the abuse but she is also a victim of too many blind eyes.

Details made public so far suggest a failure of systems or people within CYFS.

But there must also have been people in the wider family and neighbourhood who saw something in the two years this poor child was being subject to horrific abuse but failed to get help.

Macdoctor says:

 It is not CYFS who are mostly at fault here (though I think there have been severe errors of judgement on their behalf), it is the family members that have let this little girl down. Their silence has allowed one of their own to be brutally tortured and severely psychologically scarred. The testimony of the family friend (who, at least, tried to do something about it) makes it very obvious that none of the immediate family could have been oblivious to this abuse – yet it continued for two years. . .

He calls for zero tolerance for child abuse and he is right.

Only when no-one turns a blind eye to abuse will children be safe.

UPDATE:

Napier police are investigating the suspicious death of a five year old : 

Close family members were assisting police with their enquiries and police were not actively seeking anyone else in connection with her death, he said.

Another victim of too many blind eyes?

UPDATE 2:

Emmerson’s cartoon in today’s Herald shows the parent test.

Social Development Minsiter Paula Bennett writes: New Zealand is letting its chidlren down.

December 21 in history

On December 21:

1118  Thomas Becket, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury was born  (d. 1170).

1598  Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflicted a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile.

1620 William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

 The Landing of the Pilgrims., by Henry A. Bacon, 1877

1682 Calico Jack Rackham, English pirate, was born (d. 1720).

1804  Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was born (d. 1881).

 

1815  Thomas Couture French painter and teacher, was born (d. 1879).

1843 Thomas Bracken, Irish-born New Zealand, was born (d. 1898).

1844 – The Rochdale Pioneers commenced business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement.

1861  Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

1872  HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sailed from Portsmouth.

 Painting of Challenger by William Frederick Mitchell

1883 The first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army were formed: The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment.

 

1892  Rebecca West, British writer, was born  (d. 1983).

1905  Anthony Powell, British author, was born (d. 2000).

1913 Arthur Wynne‘s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, was published in the New York World.

1917  Heinrich Böll, German writer and Nobel laureate, was born (d. 1985).

1937 – Jane Fonda, American actress, was born.

1937  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre.

1946 Carl Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys), was born (d. 1998).

1958 Charles de Gaulle was elected President of France when his Union des Démocrates pour la République party gained 78.5% of the vote.

1962 – Rondane National Park was established as Norway‘s first national park.

1964 More than 170 years of New Zealand whaling history came to a close when J. A. Perano and Company caught its last whale off the coast near Kaikoura.

1967  Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, died 18 days after the transplant.

1968 Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. At 2h:50m:37s Mission elapsed time (MES), the crew performed the first ever manned Trans Lunar Injection and became the first humans to leave Earth’s gravity.

1971 New Zealand Railways (NZR) launched a new tourist-oriented steam passenger venture, the Kingston Flyer.

1979 Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia was signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara.

 Bishop Abel Muzorewa signing the Lancaster House Agreement seated next to British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington.

1988  A bomb exploded on board Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.

1992 – A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashed at Faro Airport, killing 56 people.

1994 – Mexican volcano Popocatepetl, dormant for 47 years, erupted.

1995 – The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.

1999 – The Spanish Civil Guard intercepted a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid.

2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber killed 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers.

 Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Reintarnation – coming back as a hillbilly.

Tech support request

An email from a reader said:

 . . .  when I click on other sites on the side bar I get a blank page. Might be me, but have closed your site and then re-installed it – same result.

I tried clicking on other sites from a laptop and our office computer and had no problems.

Has anyone else had problems?

Whether or not you are the reader, and I, would appreciate advice on how to fix the problem.