365 days of gratitude

Live rugby in comfort under the roof at Forsythe Barr Stadium, a catch up with friends at half time, an exciting game and a win for the Highlanders for all of which I’m grateful.

Word of the day

Pul – monetary unit of Afghanistan, equal to one hundredth of an afghani.

Saturday’s smiles

THINGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME …

My mother taught me to APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE – “If you’re going kill each other, do it outside – I just finished cleaning!”

My mother taught me RELIGION – “You better pray that you’re going to be able to clean that off the carpet.”

My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL – “If you don’t straighten up, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week!”

My mother taught me LOGIC – “Because I said so, that’s why.”

My Mother taught me LOGIC…#2 – “If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, I won’t be taking you swimming this afternoon.”

My mother taught me FORESIGHT – “Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re in an accident.”

My mother taught me IRONY – “Keep crying and I’ll give you something to cry about.”

My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS – “Shut your mouth and eat your supper!”

My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM – “Will you just look at the dirt on the back of your neck!”

My mother taught me how to solve PHYSICS PROBLEMS – “If I yelled because I saw a meteor coming toward you; would you listen THEN?”

My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY – “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times – Don’t Exaggerate!!!”

My mother taught me about STAMINA – “You’ll sit there ’til all that
spinach is finished.”

My mother taught me about WEATHER – “It looks as if a tornado swept through your room.”

My mother taught me about ENVY – “There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don’t have wonderful parents like you do!”

My Mother taught me about ANTICIPATION – “Just wait until we get home.”

My Mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE – “If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, theyr’e gong to stay that way.”

My Mother taught me to THINK AHEAD – “If you don’t pass your spelling test, you’ll never get a good job.”

My Mother taught me ESP – “Put your sweater on; don’t you think I know when you’re cold?”

My Mother taught me HUMOUR – “When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don’t come running to me.”

My Mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT – “If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up.”

My Mother taught me about SEX – “How do you think you got here?”

My Mother taught me about GENETICS – “You’re just like your father.”

My Mother taught me about the WISDOM OF AGE – “When you get to be my age, you will understand.”

Among all the things my mother taught me, my all time favorite is JUSTICE – “One day you’ll have kids and I hope they turn out just like you!”

Rural round-up

Time to rebuild respect for agriculture – Tom McDougall:

For Federated Farmers leader Katie Milne, the biggest problem facing agriculture today is disconnection.

New Zealanders are now separated from the land by four generations, and the value of agriculture in the minds of the public has, according to Milne, been lost somewhere along the way:

“Food has been cheapened, both in a monetary sense and in a sense of appreciation/respect. If food is undervalued, if it is plentiful and the respect for it drops, then the people and families involved in the production chain that brings that food to your table lose the respect and recognition that they once had and deserve. That’s why I’m vocal in raising the fact that we (farmers) are producing food for the nation here, and that without agriculture, New Zealanders would lose so many of the luxuries they currently take for granted.”

Similar thoughts have been echoed overseas in the past, perhaps most notably by US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who remarked in 2014 that 98% of Americans were several generations removed from direct farming, and voiced his concern over the lack of appreciation afforded to agriculture by the current generation. . . 

Eketahuna cheese festival a culmination of decade-long struggle against red tape – Illya McLellan:

Biddy Fraser-Davies loves making cheese and has fought bureaucracy for almost a decade to make it easier for all small producers.

During that time she has been recognised at British Guild of Fine Foods World Cheese Awards as one of the world’s elite cheese makers. 

On May 14 she and husband Colin will host the inaugural Great Eketahuna Cheese Festival which is a celebration, but also a continuation of  the couple’s campaign to convince the government fees for smaller producers are too high.. . .

Join us – Monday May 14. m/ pic.twitter.com/fMfp4KCnXI

— EketahunaCheeseFest (@EketahunaCheese) May 5, 2018

Maintaining trade rules essential – Mike Chapman:

New Zealand relies on trade for its economic survival. Without trade New Zealand would be a very different and a much poorer country. Successive New Zealand Governments have successfully worked to open up trading opportunities throughout the world and this continues today, with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in the final lap before coming into force. 

Today, Horticulture New Zealand made its submission in support of the CPTPP to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee at Parliament. For horticulture, the CPTPP does some great things. It opens up four new markets to tariff reductions and improved entry conditions: Canada, Japan, Mexico and Peru. Tariff reduction, particularly into Japan, but also across all of the CPTPP nations, will result in a massive $48 million a year in reduced tariffs. There are also other countries looking to join the CPTPP.  What a deal!.  . . 

 

Keytone Dairy Corp launches prospectus to raise A$15M, list on ASX – Rebecca Howard:

(BusinessDesk) – Keytone Dairy Corp, which owns a dairy factory in Christchurch, has launched a prospectus to raise up to A$15 million and list on the Australian Securities Exchange via an initial public offering.

It is aiming to raise A$12 million or up to A$15 million with oversubscriptions to facilitate a listing on the ASX through the issue of 60 million (up to 75 million with oversubscriptions) shares at an issue price of 20 Australian cents apiece, with the offer due to close on June 1. Peloton Capital is the lead manager for the sale. . . .

Not a bad place to be changing the fence for the cows 🙂

We fenced off the wood from livestock 30yr ago, the bluebells and other native wildflowers have increased ever year since.

200m of wire has made a huge difference to 6ac of habitat. pic.twitter.com/MSxJ80f6nM

— James Robinson (@JRfromStrickley) May 9, 2018

Budget reaction from farm groups :

Farm organisations have praised this year’s Federal Budget.

Australia’s biosecurity is set to benefit to the tune of $121.6 million and ag export growth to  $51.5m in new initiative big spends. The Roads of Strategic Importance program received $3.5b for upgrades to key regional freight corridors. The Bruce Highway in Queensland gets $3.3b for upgrades.

A third round of the Building Better Regions fund got $200m to fund local governments and not-for-profit organisations to develop ner commercial enterprises. More than $260m for new satellite technology to enhance GPS applications such as smart farming . .

Oh dear visitors of the #OuterHebrides have to enjoy our classic wild weather today. Wet and windy #Wednesday. No real spring for sure many crofters like me are still feeding their animals. Waiting for better days just like the coos!#Scotland #farm #weather #crofting pic.twitter.com/Dkd6QSa4t6

— DaliMach (@frenchscotjeff) May 9, 2018

M Bovis spread

This map shows how far stock with, or from farms with, Mycoplasma bovis, have spread.

The Country For those interested in M. bovis – here’s the map showing properties under legal controls and surveillance. Valid as of yesterday (10 May).

Saturday soapbox

Saturday’s soapbox is yours to use as you will – within the bounds of decency and absence of defamation. You’re welcome to look back or forward, discuss issues of the moment, to pontificate, ponder or point us to something of interest, to educate, elucidate or entertain, amuse, bemuse or simply muse, but not abuse.

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet. Whose hands can strike with such abandon That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness That the haughty neck is happy to bow And the proud back is glad to bend Out of such chaos, of such contradiction We learn that we are neither devils nor divines . . . Maya Angelou.

May 12 in history

1191  Richard I of England married Berengaria of Navarre who was crowned Queen consort of England the same day.

1264 The Battle of Lewes, between King Henry III and the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, began.

1328 Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, was consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice.

1364  Jagiellonian University, was founded in Kraków.

1551  National University of San Marcos, was founded in Lima.

1588 French Wars of Religion: Henry III fled Paris after Henry of Guise enters the city.

1689  King William’s War: William III joined the League of Augsburg starting a war with France.

1743  Maria Theresa of Austria was crowned King of Bohemia after defeating her rival, Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.

1797  First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquered Venice.

1812 Edward Lear, British author and poet was born (d. 1888).

1820 Florence Nightingale, British nurse was born (d. 1910).

1821  The first big battle of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks occured in Valtetsi.

1828  Dante Gabriel Rossetti, British painter,was born (d. 1882).

1863  American Civil War: Battle of Raymond: two divisions of James B. McPherson‘s XVII Corps (ACW) turned the left wing of Confederate GeneralJohn C. Pemberton‘s defensive line on Fourteen Mile Creek, opening up the interior of Mississippi to the Union Army during the Vicksburg Campaign.

1864 American Civil War: the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers died in “the Bloody Angle”.

1865  American Civil War: the Battle of Palmito Ranch: the first day of the last major land action to take place during the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory.

1870 The Manitoba Act was given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15.

1873  Oscar II was crowned King of Sweden.

1881  Tunisia became a French protectorate.

1885 North-West Rebellion: the four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, ended with a decisive rebel defeat.

1890  The first-ever official County Championship match begins. Yorkshire beat Gloucestershire by eight wickets at Bristol. George Ulyett scored the first century in the competition.

1907 Katharine Hepburn, American actress, was born (d. 2003).

1910 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British biochemist, Nobel laureate, was born (d. 1994).

1924 Tony Hancock, British comedian, was born  (d. 1968).

1926  UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a nine-day general strike by ended.

1932  Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindberghwas found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs’ home.

1937 Susan Hampshire, British actress, was born.

1937 – George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon were crowned King and Queen.

1941 – Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world’s first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.

1942 – World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov – in the eastern Ukraine, Red Army forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launched a major offensive from the Izium bridgehead.

1942 – The Holocaust: 1,500 Jews were sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.

1945 Ian McLagan, British keyboardist (Small Faces), was born.

1945  Argentinian labour leader José Peter declared the Federación Obrera de la Industria de la Carne dissolved.

1949 – The Soviet Union lifted its blockade of Berlin.

1949 – The western occupying powers approved the Basic Law for the new German state – the Federal Republic of Germany.

1952 Gaj Singh was crowned Maharaja of Jodhpur.

1958 Aformal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement was signed between the United States and Canada.

1962  Douglas MacArthur delivered his famous “Duty, Honor, Country” valedictory speech at the United States Military Academy.

1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.

1967  Pink Floyd staged the first-ever quadraphonic rock concert.

1971 A civic reception for 161 Battery on its return from Vietnam was disrupted by protesters.

1975 Jonah Lomu, New Zealand rugby union footballer, was born.

1975  Mayagüez incident: the Cambodian navy seized the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters.

1978  In Zaïre, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba.

1981  Francis Hughes starved to death in the Maze Prison in a republican campaign for political status to be granted to Provisional IRA prisoners.

1982 – During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower edJuan Fernandez Krohnbefore he  attacked Pope John Paul IIwith a bayonet.

1999 David Steel became the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.

2002  Former US President Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro’s 1959 revolution.

2003  The Riyadh compound bombings, carried out by Al Qaeda, kill 26.

2003 – Fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers bring the Texas Legislature to a standstill by going into hiding in a dispute over a Republican congressionalredistricting plan.

2006  Mass unrest by the Primeiro Comando da Capital began in São Paulo, leaving at least 150 dead.

2007  Karachi riots , which killed over 50 people in Karachi and above 100 injured, on the arrival of Chief Justice of Pakistan; Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in Karachi city.

2008 Wenchuan earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) in Sichuan, China, killed more than 69,000 people.

2008 – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted the largest-ever raid of workplace and arrests nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud.

2010 – An Afriqiyah Airways Flight crashed, killing all but one person on board.

2015 – A train derailment in Philadelphia killed 8 people and injured more than 200.

2015 – A 7.3-magnitude earthquake and six major aftershocks hit Nepal, killing more than 200 people.

2017 – A ransomware attack attacked over 400 thousand computers worldwide, targeting computers of the United Kingdom’s National Health Services and Telefónica computers.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia