Word of the day

Drouth – a drought; thirst; perfect weather conditions in which to dry clothes.

Thatcher thinks

Those who use this country's great tradition of freedom of speech should not seek to deny that same freedom to others, especially to those who, like Mr Powell, spent their war years in distinguished service in the Forces. pic.twitter.com/jVARAx2PWA

— Margaret Thatcher (@MrsMThatcher) June 24, 2019

Rural round-up

BLNZ looking into impact of land conversion – Sally Rae:

Beef + Lamb New Zealand has expressed concerns about the potential impacts on communities of ”wholesale conversions” of regions into forestry.

There have been growing concerns in the past few months about the increase in sales of sheep and beef farms into forestry.

In an update to farmers, BLNZ chairman Andrew Morrison said the organisation was working to get a better understanding of exactly what was happening, why it might be happening, quantifying the potential impacts on regional communities, and what the solutions might be. . .

Farmers’ returns should reflect value – Alliance – Brent Melville:

Alliance group chairman Murray Taggart is a firm believer in premium returns for premium products.

The North Canterbury sheep, cattle and cropping farmer wants red meat producers to get out what they put in, meaning Alliance needs to be in a position to objectively measure product value.

It has been an important part of the company’s strategic focus over much of his six years as chairman. He and the Alliance board have worked with CEO David Surveyor over the past four years to improve the company’s operational ”fitness”, transform production capacity and reinvent the company’s global marketing focus. . .

Report dodgy fliers :

Dairy farmers are being urged to tell authorities about “concerning activity” by helicopters and drones.

But farmers should also be aware that drones, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft have legitimate business in rural areas, like checking power lines and spreading fertiliser.

DairyNZ head of South Island Tony Finch says it has had reports of helicopters and drones flying low over Southland farms where they disturb stock. . . 

Wagyu weaner steers enjoying a mild winter's day pic.twitter.com/gpLAM6rWig

— Mark Guscott (@GuscottMark) June 25, 2019

Triple the success:

The Dawkins family are Beef + Lamb New Zealand Innovation Farmers who are striving to maximise triplet lamb survival by developing an indoor lambing system. Now in their third year of the programme, the family are refining a system that has unexpectedly benefited the whole farm system while significantly reducing lamb losses.

In part one of this two-part series, we look at how the indoor system works.

A recipe for maximising triplet lamb survival is like the holy grail of sheep farming but the Dawkins family from Blenheim are getting closer to finding it.

Chris and Julia Dawkins and their son Richard, who farm The Pyramid, a 645ha down and hill country sheep and beef farm, are in the third year of a Beef + Lamb New Zealand Innovation Farm programme looking to maximise triplet lamb performance through an indoor lambing system. . .

Farming the Chathams: the tyranny of distance – Adam Fricker:

Like a small scale model of the challenges New Zealand agriculture faces being so far from its main markets, farmers on the Chatham Islands are far enough from the mainland to make shipping inputs in and livestock out a marginal exercise. Adam Fricker reports.

An Australian coined the phrase ‘the tyranny of distance’ but it certainly applies here. Rural News took the 2.5 hour flight on Air Chathams’ Convair 580, a graceful 1960s turbo prop.

We came courtesy of Holden who were celebrating their 65th anniversary with an SUV adventure on Chatham Island, the main island in the scattered group of 25 islands. It’s not a cheap flight, so most of the non-human freight, including livestock, goes by ship. . . 

You may disagree but this is worth a read, no matter what your position. #yes2meat https://t.co/qACdZdDcRt

— Kaz (@serenity22) June 24, 2019

A carnivore diet is more vegan than a vegan diet :

Whether you are ready to hear this or not, a Carnivore Diet, a diet comprised entirely of animal products, and more specifically, a diet comprised entirely or almost entirely of large herbivores such as cows and sheep, is more vegan than the vegan diet,  and we’ll prove this to you with incontrovertible facts.

If you thought veganism was just a diet that excludes animals, well, not quite. According to the Vegan Society, “Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.” So, according to them, whatever diet accomplishes this best would be a ‘vegan’ diet, or more correctly THE vegan diet.  . . 

Were the old days good?

Were the old days so good?

Not when it came to how many hours work were needed to buy things we regard as necessities today:

 

A worker on the average wage had to work 2,625 hours to buy a Ford Model T in 1913. In 2013, he or she needed to work only 501 hours to buy a Ford Fiesta, a far better product. That's a price reduction of 82 percent. Explore other price changes over time: https://t.co/f23PRfT8jk pic.twitter.com/57pjdWH8Jg

— Human Progress (@HumanProgress) November 27, 2018

In addition to having to work fewer hours, we’ve got far more things which make life more comfortable, easy and healthy.

In 1916, no matter how rich you were, you wouldn't be able to enjoy air conditioning, TV, smart phones, the Internet, timely transportation, contact lenses, international food, antibiotics, effective dental care, a high likelihood of surviving infancy… https://t.co/cEGldpaGVQ

— Human Progress (@HumanProgress) November 26, 2018

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.

Success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you walk. – George Saunders

 

July 6 in history

371 BC – The Battle of Leuctra, Epaminondas defeated Cleombrotus I.

1044 The Battle of Ménfő.

1189 Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) was crowned King of England.

1253  Mindaugas was crowned King of Lithuania.

1348  Papal bull of Pope Clement VI protecting Jews during the Black Death.

1415  Jan Hus was burned at the stake.

1483 Richard III was crowned King of England.

1484 Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of the Congo River.

1495  First Italian War: Battle of Fornovo: Charles VIII defeated the Holy League.

1535  Sir Thomas More was executed for treason against King Henry VIII.

1560 The Treaty of Edinburgh was signed by Scotland and England.

1573 Córdoba, Argentina, was founded by Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera.

1609 Bohemia was granted freedom of religion.

1630 Thirty-Years War: 4,000 Swedish troops under Gustavus Adolphuslanded in Pomerania, Germany.

1777  American Revolutionary War: Siege of Fort Ticonderoga: After a bombardment by British artillery under General John Burgoyne, American forces retreated from Fort Ticonderoga, New York.

1781 Sir Stamford Raffles, British statesman, was born (d. 1826).

1785 The dollar was unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States.

1801  Battle of Algeciras: The French navy are defeated by the Royal Navy.

1809 The second day of the Battle of Wagram –  French victory over the Austrian army in the largest battle yet of the Napoleonic Wars.

1854  The first convention of the United States Republican Party was held.

1885 Louis Pasteur successfully tested his vaccine against rabies onJoseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.

1887 Annette Kellerman, Australian swimmer, was born (d. 1975).

1887  David Kalakaua, monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, was forced at gunpoint, at the hands of the Americans, to sign the Bayonet Constitution giving Americans more power in Hawaii while stripping Hawaiian citizens of their rights.

1892 Dadabhai Naoroji elected as first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain.

1892 – 3,800 striking steelworkers engaged in a day-long battle with Pinkerton agents during the Homestead Strike, leaving 10 dead and dozens wounded.

1893 Pomeroy, Iowa, was nearly destroyed by a tornado that killed 71 people and injured 200.

1905 Alfred Deakin became Prime Minister of Australia for the second time.

1907 Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter, was born (d. 1954).

1907 George Stanley, Canadian politician and designer of Canada’s Flag, was born  (d. 2002).

1911 – Georges Pompidou, French banker and politician, 19th President of France, was born (d. 1974).

1917  Arthur Lydiard, New Zealand running coach, was born (d. 2004)

1917 World War I: Arabian troops led by Lawrence of Arabia and Auda ibu Tayi captured Aqaba from the Turks during the Arab Revolt.

1918  Sebastian Cabot, English actor, was born (d. 1977).

1919  The British dirigible R34 landed in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship.

1921 Nancy Reagan, First Lady of the United States, was born.

1923 An Auckland−Wellington express ploughed into a huge landslip that had slumped across the tracks at Ongarue, north of Taumarunui in the King Country. Seventeen people were killed and 28 injured.

1925 Bill Haley, American singer, was born  (d. 1981).

1927 Janet Leigh, American actress, was born  (d. 2004).

1933  The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played inChicago‘s Comiskey Park. The American League beat the National League, 4–2.

1936 Dave Allen, Irish comedian, was born  (d. 2005).

1936  A major breach of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal sent millions of gallons of water cascading 200 feet into the River Irwell.

1939 Holocaust: The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany were closed.

1942 Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in the “Secret Annexe” above her father’s office in an Amsterdam warehouse.

1944 The Hartford Circus Fire, one of America’s worst fire disasters, killed approximately 168 people and injured over 700.

1946 – Sylvester Stallone, American actor, was born.

1947  Richard Beckinsale, English actor, was born (d. 1979).

1947  The AK-47 went into production in the Soviet Union.

1951 Geoffrey Rush, Australian actor, was born.

1952 – Hilary Mantel, English author and critic, was born.

1957 Althea Gibson won the Wimbledon championships, becoming the first black athlete to do so.

1958 Jennifer Saunders, English actress,comediene and screenwriter, was born.

1962 Nuclear test shot Sedan, part of Operation Plowshare.

1964  Malawi declared its independence from the United Kingdom.

1966  Malawi becomes a republic, with Hastings Banda as the first President.

1967 Biafran War: Nigerian forces invade Biafra, beginning the war.

1975 The Comoros declared independence from France.

1978 Kevin Senio, New Zealand rugby player, was born.

1978 The Taunton sleeping car fire occurred in Taunton, Somerset killing twelve people.

1986 Davis Phinney became the first American cyclist to win a road stage of the Tour de France.

1988 The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea was destroyed by explosions and fires. 167 oil workers were killed, making it the world’s worst offshore oil disaster.

1989  The Israeli 405 Bus slaughter -14 bus passengers were killed when an Arab assaulted the bus driver as the bus was driving by the edge of a cliff.

1998  Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport was closed and the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok becomes operational.

2003  The 70-metre Eupatoria Planetary Radar sent a METI message Cosmic Call 2 to 5 stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri, HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris that will arrive to these stars in 2036, 2040, 2044 and 2049 respectively.

2006  The Nathula Pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opened for trade after 44 years.

2009  Jadranka Kosor became the first female Prime minister of Croatia.

2013 – At least 42 people were killed in a shooting at a school in Yobe State, Nigeria.

2013 – A Boeing 777 operating as Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco International Airport, killing three and injuring 181 of the 307 people on board.

2013 – A 73-car oil train derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec and exploded, killing at least 47 people and destroying more than 30 buildings in the town’s central area.

2016 – The Iraq Inquiry was published after seven years by Sir John Chilcot; it publicised the critique of Tony Blair and his decision to go ahead with the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia