Herm – a squared stone pillar with a carved head on top (typically of Hermes), used in ancient Greece as a boundary marker or a signpost; a monument consisting of a four-sided shaft tapering inward from top to bottom and bearing a head or bust.
A plan so cunning
03/07/2019Blackadder might be coming back:
Beloved British comedian Rowan Atkinson has reportedly told friends he is planning a reboot of the cult black comedy Blackadder and is “extremely excited”.
The Mr Bean superstar is set to team up with his original co-stars again to bring the 80s series back to life, including Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, The Sun reports.
It had been previously reported the cast would perhaps consider a one-off show, but now it’s believed a full fifth series is being considered.
The original series ran for four seasons between 1983 and 1989, with each season taking place in a different period of history.
The new season – according to a source of the Sun’s – will be set in the “modern day”, in which Edmund Blackadder (Atkinson) would be a university lecturer. . .
Another series and set in a university?
That is, to quote Blackadder, . . . a plan so cunning, you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.
Hat tip: Kiwiblog
Rural round-up
03/07/2019Snowstorm inspires stock-saver – Tim Fulton:
A shattering snowstorm changed David Brown’s life and inspired a life-saving product.
The founder of the Woolover started out as a sheep and cropping farmer at Clandeboye in South Canterbury, near the Fonterra milk factory.
Running 3500 ewes he had lost his fair share of new-born lambs over a couple of decades, especially in three-day southerly storms. . .
Iwi milk plant delivers value – Richard Rennie:
The skyline of the small Bay of Plenty town Kawerau has been dominated for the past 40 years by the big Tasman paper mill but now has another profile in the form of the new Waiu Dairy plant.
The joint iwi-Cedenco plant has been commissioned and its first commercial milk collection this week will be processed through the 900kg-an-hour drier.
Waiu chairman Richard Jones said the plant is the result of a bar-side conversation in 2012 with iwi business representatives when they were kicking around options for revitalising eastern Bay of Plenty. . .
One Plan changes should bring relief to nearly 180 unconsented farmers – Jono Galuszka:
Nearly 180 farms in the wider Manawatū are operating without a consent and cannot get one without changes to contentious planning rules.
But even if the changes are made, the region’s economy is expected to lose tens of millions of dollars.
Horizons Regional Council is putting proposed changes to its One Plan out for consultation, with people having 60 days from July 22 to make a submission. . .
Mataura Valley Milk expanding plant near Gore – Rachael Kelly:
Infant nutrition formula producer Mataura Valley Milk has begun work on a $5m expansion to its plant at McNab near Gore, less than a year since it began operations.
General manager Bernard May said the company had secured a 37 per cent increase in milk supply for the coming season and needed to expand the plant.
New silos would be constructed and a new tanker bay were included in the expansion, and there was the possibility of more jobs being created. . .
Application to import wilding conifer herbicide :
Views are sought on an application to import Method 240 SL Herbicide to control wilding conifers and other woody weeds.
Your views are sought on an application to import Method 240 SL Herbicide to control wilding conifers and other woody weeds.
Bayer CropScience Pty Ltd has applied for approval to import the herbicide. . .
Agri-tech sector to pioneer govt industry transformation strategy – Pattrick Smellie
(BusinessDesk) – Agricultural technology should be one of New Zealand’s leading sources of high-value jobs, exports and improved farming practice, but has failed to grow much in the last decade, prompting the government to make it the focus of the first of four new industry sector transformation plans.
In what was probably his last public act as Economic Development Minister before handing the portfolio to Phil Twyford after last week’s Cabinet reshuffle, Parker released both a general guide to the industry transformation plan concept and a draft ITP for the agri-tech sector this morning.
The other sectors targeted for such plans are food and beverages, digital technology, and forestry and wood processing.
Speeding breeding and other ways of feeding 10 billion people –
Improvements to make crops more nutritious, disease resistant and climate smart are essential to feed a burgeoning world population.
While a host of fascinating innovations are primed to change the face of agriculture, there remains a stubborn limiting factor for plant breeding.
This is the long generation times of crops that allow only one or two generations per year. Unless this changes it is unlikely that we will be able to feed the 10 billion people who will be sharing the planet by 2050.
This roadblock to progress has been alleviated by speed breeding protocols developed by research teams at the John Innes Centre and the University of Queensland. . .
H word and F word
03/07/2019In opposition the three parties now in government were opposed to foreign ownership of farmland.
In government they have made it so much harder for foreigners to buy farms to farm it’s almost impossible for them to do so. But the hoops the overseas buyers have to go through to buy farms to convert to forestry are much lower.
That means would-be foreign buyers are very, very unlikely to get Overseas Investment Office approval to buy distressed dairy or sheep and beef farms, even with plans, and both the ability and funds, to improve them.
But the same buyers would be Almost certain to get OIO approval to buy those same farms if they intended to turn them into forests.
Overseas interests already own 70% of New Zealand forestry.
Making it much easier to buy farms to plant trees than to raise stock, for arable farming or horticulture, will mean even more forestry is foreign owned.
Forestry is becoming an F word among farmers and rural communities concerned about the environmental, economic and social impacts of the rapid afforestation of productive farmland.
They can rightly apply the H word – hypocrisy – to Labour, New Zealand First and Green Parties for their policy of making it easier for overseas purchasers to do this.
But wait there’s more.
These overseas entities will be able to offset their carbon emissions in their homelands, or from investments in other countries, with the trees they plant here.
It’s very tempting to use another F word to express my feelings about this.
Quote of the day
03/07/2019Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death’s perfect punctuation mark is a smile. Julie Burchill who celebrates her 60th birthday today.