Leap Year Day - Today 29 February 2008

Yes it is today LEAP YEAR DAY.

Congratulations to those celebrating their birthday today. Do you have the birthday in the off years before or after ? - after I presume as it hasn't arrived on the 28th.

We observe the modern leap year because Earth orbits the sun every 365.242 days—not an easy number for a calendar to accommodate.

Egypt adopted a leap year system, with an extra day every four years, during the Greek rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty (305 to 30 B.C.)

The last Ptolemaic ruler, Cleopatra, was at least indirectly responsible for introducing the concept to her visiting lover, Julius Caesar.

So in 46 B.C., Julius instituted a single year some 445 days long—later known as the Year of Confusion—to correct years of drift in one fell swoop and prepare for the start of a reformed calendar.

That so-called Julian calendar reorganised the 12 Roman months into a 365-day year with a leap year every four years. It was a tremendous improvement—but with a lingering flaw.

The extra quarter of a day that the leap year added was slightly longer than the 0.242 of a day in the actual solar year.

This seemingly small difference made the solar year about 11 minutes too long, resulting in an entire day of discrepancy every 128 years.

Because of this glitch, the Julian calendar had drifted ten days by the late 16th century.

Pope Gregory XIII introduced his Gregorian calendar in 1582, which determined that only a Century divisible by 400 not 4 would in future be a leap year. So while the years 2000 and 2400 are leap years, 2100, 2200, and 2300 are not.

Had a visit from the Girl Guides last night selling biscuits and naturally we bought some. An old tradition that I am pleased to see still continues as, like most service and social groups these days, it is fast fading away. I don't know what the Guide and Scout movement numbers are but I am certain they are finding it difficult to recruit members.

Not much else to say, except as usual Winston has jumped off the deep end calling the reporters 'jerks' but then again he probably has a point as he has denied NZ First have received money from Owen Glenn but the media are still pursuing it. It would be different if it was a major issue like our Doctor friend who TV 1 have tracked down in Australia.

As for the Drudge Report revealing that Prince Harry is serving in Afghanistan - words fail me. I am for freedom but sometimes common sense has to prevail and what have they achieved. Pathetic.

I see that the big Blues - Crusaders clash is on Anzac Day.

BREAKING NEWS
Just listening to the radio and Breaking News is that Nai Yin Xue, 53, wanted for questioning about the murder of his wife Anan Liu, in Auckland as well as him abandoning his daughter in Australia, has been arrested in the US. He was recognised by locals after the TV show 'Americas Most Wanted' featured him recently . Seems the locals grabbed and tied him up until US police arrived. Great news as I thought he might have just disappeared in the 300 million plus Americans.

Disasters and idiots

Disaster 1.
From the Dom-Post " Queensland's medical board has suspended the registration of a Czech-trained surgeon who botched sterilisation operations on women at Wanganui Hospital.
A report by the New Zealand Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson this week condemned the Whanganui District Health Board for inadequate background checks on Dr Hasil, who was found responsible for numerous botched operations on women while he worked at Wanganui Hospital."

With the Wanganui, (or as they seem to say Whanganui), HB in absolute disaster mode it seems the problems in the hospitals are never ending. It is a disgrace that along with so many other problems over the past 12 months the WHB employs a so called 'doctor' who carried out an almost maiming of people. He should be brought back from Oz to face trial but that in the long run will cost us. The tragedy is that, by a little bit of checking, it all could have been avoided. At least the Australians have banned him from working there.

In the continuing saga of hospital problems, I see that the Hawkes Bay Hospital Board is to go to Court to try and stop the Minister from sacking them.

If they are using their own money to protect their jobs then, I don't really care - except it is tying up valuable Court time. But if, as I assume, they are using taxpayers money that should be used to help save lives, then that seems to be par for the course recently.

Disaster 2 .
Last week our laptop went into an eternal cycle of trying to download the latest Microsoft Vista updates. After a while it would give up trying to update, close down, re-boot and try asgain. The only way we could stop it was by using the close down switch. But when rebooting it just went back to the same cycle. Unfortunately I had forgotten to change the settings, as we have done with our Desktop PC, that down loads would only happen with our approval. What I normally do is wait 4/5 days to see if their are any problems before downloading.

I had a look on the Net and their were problems but MS were not commenting. So I phoned them here and they said it was only happening to Hewlett Packards PC's and it was HP's fault - Yeah Right!!. Interestingly they were able to patch me straight through to HP who blamed MS and the download.

Anyway to cut a long story short HP managed to get it up and running again but any files would have been lost. Luckily we had nothing vital saved on the laptop. So MS strikes again.

Small disaster 3.
My wonderful wife threw out some of my admittedly very old T Shirts but a Lions Tour one from 30 years ago that I wanted went. So I am waiting for the Salvation Army to phone to see if they have found it.

Disaster 4.
Jessie Ryder. What an idiot - but no different to the other small number of sports stars who just have too much money and too little brain. They only have to be sensible for 5-10 years, make a lot of money then go off the rails but they don't have the common sense.

Idiot 1.
Driving along today at a roundabout a learner driver was a couple of cars in front. He stopped at the roundabout for a short while to make sure he was OK to proceed and the idiot behind tooted his horn. They say an idiot is born every minute but sadly it is probably every 10 seconds.

Fridays update about nothing

Just chugging along. We have a 50th Wedding Anniversary function to attend tonight. Means I will miss the Hurricanes game - if the performance was like last week then I won't miss much.

Sport Again - The Cricket was unbelievable. We had to go to our usual Wednesday quiz evening (came about 5th) and as we arrived the last ball was being bowled - 2 to win and 1 to tie. Sadly Dan Vettori couldn't quite do it so it was an incredible tie. Later on TV 3 News the graphics had it as a draw - it seems they don't know the difference between a tie and a draw!!
Continuing the sport -The Breakers have just had a win in the playoffs which is great. As I've said Basketball is not a sport I follow as I prefer one that is suitable for every body shape not just tall freaks.

Got to go to a SeniorNet meeting this morning about how to get more free publicity for the organisation to try and attract more members. Very difficult. Lots of ideas but the problem is getting people to volunteer to do the work, not only today but for a couple of years.

Films - Have watched two excellent ones recently.
Departed - a Martin Scorcese blockbuster and Inside Man a Spike Lee effort.

I first saw Inside Man on the plane when we were travelling to South Africa last year and was impressed but in a plane is not the ideal place to watch a clever film. Also watched Borat on the flight - that was a plane film. When I got back and saw Inside Man was coming up on Sky I taped it and it was only then I realised Spike Lee had Directed.

Weather continues its fine run and it looks like power cuts are looming. Where is our Nuclear Power Station???

Medals found

Well we have the medals back - at a cost. As for the thieves saying they are sorry - what a load of rubbish. If they were indeed sorry then they would have just given them back without taking the money. Not much the lawyer could do, in fact he did a wonderful job. We can only hope that the Police do actually locate the criminals but I don't hold out much hope but with talk that the Gangs were sniffing around I would guess that they would have some involvement.

I was interested in the lawyers comment that only a couple of people in the country had the skills to do the job. Was he hinting to the Police as to who to look at.

What a bunch of scumbags.

But maybe we can't say that about them as when the word was used by Phil Goff about a bunch of useless thugs, Peter Williams Q.C. was unimpressed. He said they were human beings. That I'm afraid, most of these scumbags aren't.

But the insanity carries on. We are paying the fines (although it could be argued we are only lending them the money and they will repay it - YEAH RIGHT !) for the likes of drunk drivers etc so they don't get their cars impounded. Another woman is up on her 11th prosecution for Drunk in Charge - she has already killed one of her children - and of course nothing is really being done about it.

At least the weather continues its glorious run.

Water Sight

What a sight (or to pun it - water sight). A spectacular waterspout off the Kapiti coast yesterday amazed residents as it snaked off the sea, causing heavy rain and dropping hailstones as big as marbles. This is an unusual sight around these parts. Taranaki is the region that often gets these as well as mini-tornadoes. As for Kapiti, we shall be going to Kapiti Island in March with Rotary. As numbers per day are limited and Department of Conservation permits are required it will be a great opportunity. I know that as a predator free area we must all go through a rodent check before landing.

Super IV Underway - in Summer

Yes the Super IV is underway again, starting last night and on the same night the One Dayer Cricket was also being played (and we lost). On first viewing of the Crusaders - Brumbies it seemed to be all go. However, I always believe that is the norm under new rules, attack is the big beneficiary, but after about 12-18 months the defences have had a chance to look at the situation and again start to dominate. As for the current plan that the new rules will apply to the Super IV and not used for the later Test Matches is as usual - crazy.

Parking Enforcement Ambassadors

I have just been reading a local giveaway 'The Capital Times'. In it was an advertisement for the job of Parking Enforcement Ambassador.That is a person who goes around clamping cars. Calling them Ambassadors must be one of the better euphemisms. A scan of the advert that I ripped from the paper is above

Quiz Night

Went to the Quiz Night at the Workingmens Club the other night. We had Joes parent with us as well as our next door neighbour so we formed two teams. The team I was in finished 5th I think - we did do better than our other halves. But as a person who likes words, (read - talking!!), I learnt a couple of new facts. Lollipop is the longest word you can type with your right hand and dreamt is the only English word ending in MT.

Some Current Affairs - Electricity - I see they are again saying we will probably have power cuts. What do these highly paid people do that they can't plan ahead. I realise that you can't plan for really bad years but do they have power cuts in Canada, UK, Australia. What is going on!!

Tagging - an Art Crime according to the Maori Party. However, the Government are going to legislate to try and limit the sales of spray cans to those aged 18+. It will make little/no difference.

Parliament - Katherine Rich is getting out. Says she wants more time with her children and is sick of 15 hour days 7 days a week. I am one of the few who thinks 120 members is OK - they are paid OK - they work hard (the vast majority anyway) - and MMP is good.

Poured again last night but this morning beautiful and fine which is good for the Petone Fair which is on this weekend.

The deluge

Rain - rain and more rain. All part of a massive electrical storm with dramatic thunder and lightning which certainly woke us up. The good news is that we at last had some wet stuff and that it was all overnight so the day was pleasant - and hot. However, the bad news was that the deluge did little to top up falling supply lakes.

More than 40 millimetres of rain fell in Lower Hutt yesterday, more than half of it between 4am and 5am, while central Wellington was doused with 24mm. Power was cut to about 21,000 households in Kapiti and Pauatahanui after a lightning bolt struck the Pauatahanui substation. Power was restored by about 9am. The storm also cut power to some traffic lights along State Highway 2 around Melling and rail signals between Plimmerton and Wellington.


This dramatic picture shows the power of ocean swells driven by Cyclone Gene as waves engulf a popular reef-fishing spot at Castlepoint.

Sport - Well we won the cricket and India did Australia which was good news. As for the Rugby 7's it is now a record winning streak with the win at San Diego but you have to wonder what effort is being put in by some other teams when England is beaten by Kenya. Samoa seem to be fairly steady while Fiji have gone off the boil.

Hijacking security and Gridiron

Well our first ever hi-jack. By, it would seem, a nut case who should never have been in the country.

Winston Peters, speaking under parliamentary privilege in November 2004, said the woman had a "police record a mile long" and had been "bludging off the New Zealand taxpayer" for 10 years.
He said she had been trying to bring 14 of her relatives to New Zealand and had a record of convictions that would make Al Capone proud.

Plus, I understand she has caused all sorts of costs and problems to employers, shops, the Immigration Department, the Police, Hospitals as well as numerous individuals and as one said on TV she always played the race card..

The question we ask is why did we take her ? However, at a Rotary meeting a couple of years ago a speaker said previously we chose who we took, but the UN had changed the rules, and they now selected the people. The argument being that some refugees would never be taken by any country as they were very difficult cases. But, on the other side, why should we take refugees that are dangerous or going to be extremely costly to the taxpayer.

Another question that will arise now is Security. I think we just have to use common sense. Putting in costly security for small airports would seem a waste. Where are they going to fly to and if their plan is to harm people, there are many other avenues such as railways which are a much easier and more lethal target.

American Football. Often called Gridiron here as it is not Football which is Rugby, while real Football is called, like in the USA, Soccer. Joes father is over from the UK and mentioned he was interested in watching the US Football final - Patriots Vs Giants. The so called World Championship. I suppose it really is as nobody else plays the game!!

Though they say it was one of the best games ever, I can understand why nobody else does watch it. With a Noon NZ start time and not finishing for nearly 4 hours - with most of the time seeming to be taken up with breaks for advertising - I am afraid it is not a game that inspires me in the least. It is really the first time I have ever watched a game right through and apart from one move by Eli Manning that led to the winning of the game, I found it boring. The problem for me is whereas Rugby and League and most other games try to keep going, they stop.

I suppose it is what you are used to.

After the party and eclipse

The big party is over as is the eclipse. Tried to have a look at the eclipse but couldn't see anything. It was such a lovely evening, as is usual lately, we decided to have our evening meal outside and we certainly noticed that it went colder and slighter darker, almost a twilight effect, during the time the moon was in front. The picture above makes it look like a banana.

We have Kipp all day today and Sunday morning while they are at another wedding.

Have been using Flickr to store my photos offline but didn't realise that they have a limit of 200 photos for the free option so I have also opened an account at Photobucket which seems to have a limit of they claim around 10,000 pictures. We shall see.

Another from the party - all covered in chocolate.

The Birthday Boy pictures

A few pictures from the Birthday Party on Waitangi Day.

Mum and Kipp

Dad and Kipp.

Kipp wanting some chocolate

Dad and Kipp solving the worlds problems

Come back Kipp!!

Kipp and his special first birthday hat

Happy Birthday Kipp - One year old

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIPP

We had an all day birthday party yesterday at Kipp's place with lots of visitors and presents from all around the world. Today is the real deal day. It is just amazing how much he has changed in the past 12 months.

Apart from the partial solar eclipse, today is the first day of the Chinese New Year, 2008 being the year of the Rat - Kipp being born in the Year of the Pig - and it is our Wedding Anniversary. So everything is happening on this auspicious date.

Partial Solar Eclipse

As I have told my daughter I have specially arranged a
partial eclipse to celebrate Kipp's first birthday.

PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE ON THURSDAY 7th FEBRUARY 2008

On Thursday afternoon 7th February 2008 a large chunk of the Sun will disappear as the Moon covers it in a partial solar eclipse. This rare event only happens every few years. From a Wellington viewers perspective a small bite of the Sun will disappear, starting at 4.35PM. Then the Moon will progressively cover the Sun until its greatest coverage of 63% will occur at 5:42PM. From there it will move off the Sun until it is all over at 6.44PM.

One thing about astronomy is that it is very accurate as far as time is concerned.

A partial solar eclipse isn’t nearly as spectacular as a total solar eclipse when the Sun is completely covered for a few minutes. Nevertheless, it’s still an amazing sight to behold – however, as we all know sight is the thing to beware of as any attempt to look at the Sun with binoculars or a telescope (or even the naked eye) can result in blindness.

This is the first partial solar eclipse visible from New Zealand since April 2005. The next will not be until November 2011. So the general consensus is, make the most of this one!

Waitangi Day and Kipps First

A holiday tomorrow, Waitangi Day, the day on which we are celebrating Kipp's first birthday. Although his birthday is the 7th February (the same as our wedding anniversary - although a few years apart!!) it is easier to hold a party on the holiday as it allows people who would normally be at work to attend. It will be interesting over the next few years to see if Sarah and Joe follow this precedent. With Joe's parents out from the UK it will be a real family day.

As for Waitangi Day, it has, over the last few years, thanks to the usual "rent a mob" deteriorated into a farce. I don't blame the PM from not attending. I like most Kiwis will not be doing anything special except for Kipp's pre-birthday celebration. At the time New Zealand Day as it was known then when the day was first introduced was an ideal time to have done away with the Provincial Holidays but the opportunity was lost although most people would have gone berserk thinking that they had lost a day off.

Electoral Finance Act

As consequense of the EFA the website "dontvotelabour" has been forced to close and he now has the following up on his Website. I actually believe their should be some limitations on Political Party funding but the way the Government and it allies have approached it is crazy and it will backfire on them.

The day the music died

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED 3 FEBRUARY 1959

BUDDY HOLLY.......... THE BIG BOPPER ........... RITCHIE VALENS

The music is as good as if it was yesterday. In todays world with the vast improvement in the dissemination and speed of communications this would be a massive story. Plus the change where today the emphasis is on celebrities and publicity.

Back to the mundane - RUGBY - The IRB Sevens. Again some surprises with Samoa not only making the final but almost winning it. On day one I liked the look of South Africa but it wasn't their tournament. I wouldn't have been too upset if Samoa had won as I like the so called "minnows" to do well as some did such as Kenya and the real upset, Cook Islands over England. A surprise to see the demise of Fiji.

Although you couldn't really call Samoa a minnow on playing ability - they just have small numbers and no money. On this basis, probably along with Argentina, they would be the best performers on the world stage.

Meantime in the Six Nations - Wales beat England and reports say Wales were awful !! And with Ireland just beating Italy 16 - 11 it would seem there will be some interesting results up North this year.

Today - Joe's parents have arrived from the UK to visit and see their latest grandchild - Kipp. We are going up to Joe and Sarah's place for tea tonight which will be nice.

Wellington IRB 7's

The Wellington Stadium and the Parade before the games began.

Note it is NOT the Cake Tin - an expression only used by Aucklanders.

The Rugby Wellington 7's are now underway this weekend. I went a couple of times a few years ago but I prefer the Rugby to the shenanigans so now I just watch it on TV.

Probably the biggest talking point has been the banning this year of those who want to wear the " Borat Uniform". They have also clamped down on things such as water pistols. Since it is not really Rugby but an "event" I suppose they should be a bit more relaxed.

Again for this event the weather is wonderful. I don't think it has ever rained over the years. I am keen to see if we can win this year as our usual practice has been to lose at home and win most of the away games.


A few random inages from the day, including - The Transformer. From the picture you can't really see how good it is. She (and it is a she) can walk with it then transform it into various configurations - brilliant.