Happy birthday and many happy returns Jonathan Chu andDirtie Diana. Born on the same day across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
===
- 1835 – The members of the original Quorum of the Twelveof the Latter Day Saint movement were selected by theThree Witnesses (pictured).
- 1919 – The first serious armed conflict of the Polish–Soviet War took place near present-day Biaroza, Belarus.
- 1924 – The Computing Tabulating Recording Companyrenamed itself to International Business Machines, one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization.
- 1943 – World War II: General Hans-Jurgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launched a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
- 2011 – As a part of the Arab Spring, the still ongoing Bahraini uprising, began with a Day of Rage.
===
Events
- 842 – Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
- 1014 – Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1076 – Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1349 – Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remainder of their population is forcibly removed from the city ofStrasbourg.
- 1400 – Richard II dies, most likely from starvation in Pontifract Castle, on orders from Henry Bolingbroke
- 1556 – Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
- 1778 – The United States Flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
- 1779 – American Revolutionary War: the Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia.
- 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent – John Jervis, (later 1st Earl of St Vincent) and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar.
- 1804 – Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
- 1831 – Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
- 1835 – The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
- 1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
- 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital providing in-patient beds specifically for children in the English-speaking world, is founded in London.
- 1855 – Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
- 1859 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
- 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
- 1879 – The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
- 1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.
- 1903 – The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into Department of Commerce and Department of Labor).
- 1912 – Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
- 1912 – In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned.
- 1918 – The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (on 1 February according to the Julian calendar).
- 1919 – The Polish-Soviet War begins.
- 1920 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
- 1929 – Saint Valentine's Day massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1942 – Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
- 1943 – World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
- 1943 – World War II: Tunisia Campaign – General Hans-Jurgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
- 1944 – World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
- 1945 – World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.
- 1945 – World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet's Vistula–Oder Offensive.
- 1945 – World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans.
- 1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially starting the U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relationship.
- 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalized.
- 1949 – The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time.
- 1949 – The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
- 1950 – Chinese Civil War: The National Revolutionary Army instigates the unsuccessful Battle of Tianquan against the People's Liberation Army.
- 1956 – The XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union begins in Moscow. On the last night of the meeting, Premier Nikita Khrushchev condemns Joseph Stalin's crimes in a secret speech.
- 1961 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
- 1962 – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
- 1966 – Australian currency is decimalised.
- 1979 – In Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
- 1981 – Stardust Disaster: A fire in a Dublin nightclub kills 48 people
- 1983 – United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud.
- 1989 – Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
- 1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill the author of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie.
- 1990 – 92 people are killed aboard Indian Airlines Flight 605 at Bangalore, India.
- 1998 – An oil tanker train collides with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil drops a lit cigarette, creating a massive explosion which kills 120.
- 2000 – The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
- 2002 – The Budapest Open Access Initiative, one of the cornerstones of the Open access movement, was released to the public.
- 2004 – In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
- 2005 – Lebanese self-made billionaire and business tycoon Rafik Hariri is killed, along with 21 others, when explosives, equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT, are detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel in Beirut.
- 2005 – Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines' Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.
- 2008 – Northern Illinois University shooting: a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in 6 fatalities (including gunman) and 18 injuries.
- 2011 – As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising, a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of civil resistance, in the Persian Gulf country ofBahrain begins with a 'Day of Rage'.
[edit]Births
- 1468 – Johann Werner, German mathematician (d. 1522)
- 1483 – Babur, Moghul emperor of India (d. 1530)
- 1545 – Lucrezia de' Medici, Duchess of Ferrara (d. 1561)
- 1602 – Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer (d. 1676)
- 1679 – Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, composer and organist from southern Germany (d. 1735)
- 1680 – John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester, English privy councillor (d. 1737)
- 1692 – Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French writer (d. 1754)
- 1701 – Enrique Florez, Spanish historian (d. 1773)
- 1763 – Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (d. 1813)
- 1766 – Thomas Robert Malthus, English demographer and political economist (d. 1834)
- 1778 – Fernando Sor (baptized), Spanish composer (d. 1839)
- 1778 – Minh Mang, the second emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam (d. 1841)
- 1799 – Walenty Wańkowicz, Polish painter (d. 1842)
- 1800 – Emory Washburn, American politician, 22nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1877)
- 1812 – Alfred Thomas Agate, American artist (d. 1846)
- 1818 – Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist (d. 1895)
- 1819 – Christopher Sholes, American inventor (d. 1890)
- 1824 – Winfield Scott Hancock, American Civil War general (d. 1886)
- 1828 – Edmond François Valentin About, French writer (d. 1885)
- 1835 – Piet Paaltjens, Dutch writer and minister (d. 1894)
- 1838 – Margaret E. Knight, American inventor, (d. 1914)
- 1846 – Julian Scott, American artist and American Civil War Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1901)
- 1847 – Anna Howard Shaw, American suffragette (d. 1919)
- 1847 – Queen Maria Pia of Savoy of Portugal (d. 1911)
- 1848 – Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (d. 1934)
- 1856 – Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (d. 1931)
- 1859 – George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., American engineer and inventor (d. 1896)
- 1860 – Eugen Schiffer, German politician (d. 1954)
- 1869 – Charles Wilson, Scottish physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1959)
- 1871 – Gerda Lundequist, Swedish actress (d. 1959)
- 1874 – Louis Handley, Italian-born American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1956)
- 1884 – Nils Olaf Chrisander, Swedish actor, film director (d. 1947)
- 1884 – Joe Jagersberger, Austrian racing driver (d. 1952)
- 1884 – Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet (d. 1974)
- 1885 – Syed Zafarul Hasan, Indian-born Pakistani philosopher (d. 1949)
- 1890 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (d. 1956)
- 1892 – Radola Gajda, Czech military commander (d. 1948)
- 1894 – Jack Benny, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)
- 1895 – Wilhelm Burgdorf, German officer (d. 1945)
- 1895 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
- 1898 – Bill Tilman, English mountaineer and explorer (d. 1977)
- 1898 – Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-born American physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)
- 1903 – Stuart Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
- 1903 – Bernhard Leene, Dutch cyclist (d. 1988)
- 1904 – Charles Oatley, British electrical engineer (d. 1996)
- 1904 – Hertta Kuusinen, Finnish communist (d. 1974)
- 1905 – Thelma Ritter, American actress (d. 1969)
- 1912 – Tibor Sekelj, Croatian explorer (d. 1988)
- 1913 – Mel Allen, American sports reporter (d. 1996)
- 1913 – Woody Hayes, American college football coach (d. 1987)
- 1913 – Jimmy Hoffa, American labor union leader (presumed d. 1975)
- 1913 – James Pike, American Episcopal bishop (d. 1969)
- 1914 – Norman Von Nida, Australian golfer (d. 2007)
- 1916 – Marcel Bigeard, French general (d. 2010)
- 1916 – Sally Gray, English actress (d. 2006)
- 1916 – Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese director (d. 1996)
- 1916 – Edward Platt, American actor (d. 1974)
- 1917 – Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 2011)
- 1920 – Judith Holzmeister, Austrian actress (d. 2008)
- 1921 – Hugh Downs, American television host
- 1921 – Hazel McCallion, Canadian politician 3rd mayor of Mississauga, Ontario
- 1922 – Murray the K, American impresario and disk jockey (d. 1982)
- 1927 – Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress (d. 2007)
- 1929 – Vic Morrow, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1931 – Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian hockey player (d. 2006)
- 1931 – Brian Kelly, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1931 – Phyllis McGuire, American singer (The McGuire Sisters)
- 1932 – Alexander Kluge, German actor and film director
- 1933 – Madhubala, Indian actress (d. 1969)
- 1934 – Michel Corboz, Swiss conductor
- 1934 – Neil Davis, Australian cameraman (d. 1985)
- 1934 – Florence Henderson, American actress
- 1935 – Christel Adelaar, Indonesian-Dutch actress (d. 2013)
- 1936 – Fanne Foxe, Argentine dancer and Wilbur Mills scandal figure
- 1936 – Andrew Prine, American actor
- 1937 – Magic Sam, American blues musician (d. 1969)
- 1939 – Eugene Fama, American economist
- 1940 – James Maynard, American businessman, co-founded Golden Corral
- 1941 – Donna Shalala, American educator
- 1941 – Big Jim Sullivan, English guitarist (d. 2012)
- 1941 – Paul Tsongas, American politician (d. 1997)
- 1942 – Michael Bloomberg, American media mogul and Mayor of New York City
- 1942 – Andrew Robinson, American actor
- 1942 – Ricardo Rodríguez, Mexican race car driver (d. 1962)
- 1942 – Piotr Szczepanik, Polish singer
- 1943 – Eric Andersen, American singer-songwriter
- 1943 – Maceo Parker, American musician (P-Funk)
- 1943 – Aaron Russo, American movie producer (d. 2007)
- 1944 – Carl Bernstein, American journalist
- 1944 – Alan Parker, British film director and writer
- 1944 – Ronnie Peterson, Swedish racing driver (d. 1978)
- 1945 – Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein
- 1945 – Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, Uruguayan footballer (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Bernard Dowiyogo, Nauru politician (d. 2003)
- 1946 – Gregory Hines, American dancer and actor (d. 2003)
- 1947 – Tim Buckley, American singer-songwriter (d. 1975)
- 1947 – Judd Gregg, American politician
- 1948 – Pat O'Brien, American sportscaster and television host
- 1948 – Teller, American magician (Penn and Teller)
- 1950 – Roger Fisher, American musician (Heart)
- 1950 – Kapil Sibal, Indian lawyer and politician
- 1951 – Terry Gross, National Public Radio host
- 1951 – Kevin Keegan, English footballer
- 1951 – JoJo Starbuck, American ice skater
- 1952 – Nancy Keenan, American reproductive-rights advocate
- 1953 – Odds Bodkin, American author
- 1954 – Jam Mohammad Yousaf, Pakistani politician, Chief Minister of Balochistan (d. 2013)
- 1955 – Ronald Desruelles, Belgian athlete
- 1955 – James Eckhouse, American actor
- 1955 – Carol Kalish, American publishing executive (d. 1991)
- 1955 – Rip Rogers, American professional wrestler
- 1956 – Dave Dravecky, American baseball player
- 1957 – Alan Hunter, American TV personality
- 1957 – Soile Isokoski, Finnish soprano
- 1958 – Enrique Mansilla, Argentine racing driver
- 1958 – Grant Thomas, Australian rules footballer
- 1959 – Renée Fleming, American soprano
- 1960 – Jim Kelly, American football player
- 1960 – Meg Tilly, American actress
- 1961 – Phillip Hamilton, American author
- 1961 – Latifa, Tunisian singer
- 1962 – Kevyn Aucoin, American cosmetologist (d. 2002)
- 1962 – Michael Higgs, English actor
- 1962 – Sakina Jaffrey, Indian actress
- 1962 – Philippe Sella, French rugby player
- 1963 – Enrico Colantoni, Canadian actor
- 1963 – John Marzano, American baseball player (d. 2008)
- 1964 – Gianni Bugno, Italian cyclist
- 1964 – Zach Galligan, American actor
- 1965 – Slick Rick, English-born American rapper
- 1966 – Petr Svoboda, Czech ice hockey player
- 1967 – Stelios Haji-Ioannou, British entrepreneur
- 1967 – Manuela Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis player
- 1967 – Mark Rutte, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- 1968 – Jules Asner, American television personality
- 1968 – Latifa (singer), Tunisian singer
- 1968 – Scott McClellan, American civil servant and 25th White House Press Secretary
- 1969 – Adriana Behar, Brazilian beach volleyball player
- 1969 – Harry Colon, American football player
- 1970 – Giuseppe Guerini, Italian cyclist
- 1970 – Sean Hill, American ice hockey player
- 1970 – Simon Pegg, British comedian and actor
- 1970 – Heinrich Schmieder, German actor (d. 2010)
- 1971 – Kris Aquino, Filipino Actress and TV Host
- 1971 – Tommy Dreamer, American professional wrestler
- 1971 – Gheorghe Muresan, Romanian basketball player
- 1971 – Noriko Sakai, Japanese singer
- 1972 – Drew Bledsoe, American football player
- 1972 – Big Daddy V, American professional wrestler
- 1972 – Hiroshi, Japanese comedian
- 1972 – Najwa Nimri, Spanish actress
- 1972 – Rob Thomas, American musician (Matchbox Twenty)
- 1973 – Tyus Edney, American basketball player
- 1973 – Steve McNair, American football player (d. 2009)
- 1973 – Yuka Sato, Japanese figure skater
- 1974 – Filippa Giordano, Italian singer
- 1974 – Philippe Léonard, Belgian footballer
- 1975 – Xie Hui, Chinese footballer
- 1975 – Yul Kwon, American reality television personality
- 1975 – Scott Owen, Australian musician (The Living End)
- 1975 – Malik Zidi, French actor
- 1976 – Liv Kristine, Norwegian singer (Leaves' Eyes)
- 1976 – Erica Leerhsen, American actress
- 1977 – Darren Bennett, British professional ballroom dancer
- 1977 – Donna Cruz, Filipina Actress and Singer
- 1977 – Cadel Evans, Australian cyclist
- 1977 – Darren Purse, English footballer
- 1977 – Elmer Symons, South African motorcycle racer (d. 2007)
- 1977 – Jim Jefferies, Australian stand-up comedian, actor and writer
- 1978 – Dwele, American R&B/Soul singer
- 1978 – Dean Gaffney, British actor
- 1978 – Richard Hamilton, American basketball player
- 1978 – Darius Songaila, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1979 – Paolo Ginestra, Italian footballer
- 1979 – Pablo Pallante, Uruguayan footballer
- 1980 – Fátima Leyva, Mexican footballer
- 1980 – Josh Senter, American screenwriter
- 1980 – Michelle Ye, Hong Kong actress
- 1981 – Randy de Puniet, French motorcycle racer
- 1981 – Erin Torpey, American actress and singer
- 1981 – Matteo Brighi, Italian footballer
- 1982 – Marián Gáborík, Slovak ice hockey player
- 1982 – John Halls, English footballer
- 1982 – Lenka Tvarošková, Slovak tennis player
- 1983 – Callix Crabbe, US Virgin Islander baseball player
- 1983 – Rocky Elsom, Australian rugby player
- 1983 – Vincent Labrie, Canadian speed skater
- 1983 – Rhydian Roberts, Welsh singer and reality show contestant
- 1983 – Bacary Sagna, French footballer
- 1984 – Hamed Namouchi, Tunisian footballer
- 1985 – Karima Adebibe, Moroccan-born British actress and model
- 1985 – Tyler Clippard, American baseball player
- 1985 – Heart Evangelista, Filipino singer and actress
- 1985 – John Prats, Filipino actor and dancer
- 1985 – Natsume Sano, Japanese gravure idol
- 1985 – Philippe Senderos, Swiss footballer
- 1985 – Miki Yeung, Hong Kong singer and actress (Cookies)
- 1986 – Michael Ammermüller, German racing driver
- 1986 – Roxanne Guinoo, Filipina actress
- 1986 – Markus Karl, German footballer
- 1986 – Oliver Lee, British actor
- 1986 – Gao Lin, Chinese footballer
- 1986 – Kang Min-Soo, South Korean footballer
- 1986 – Tiffany Thornton, American actress
- 1986 – Aschwin Wildeboer, Spanish swimmer
- 1987 – Edinson Cavani, Uruguayan footballer
- 1987 – Joseph Pichler, American actor
- 1987 – Tom Pyatt, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – Yulia Savicheva, Russian singer
- 1987 – Fabian Schönheim, German footballer
- 1987 – David Wheater, English footballer
- 1988 – Katie Boland, Canadian actress
- 1988 – Ángel di María, Argentine footballer
- 1988 – Quentin Mosimann, Swiss singer and reality show contestant
- 1988 – Asia Nitollano, American dancer and reality show contestant
- 1989 – Néstor Calderón, Mexican footballer
- 1989 – Christopher Handke, German footballer
- 1989 – Adam Matuszczyk, Polish footballer
- 1989 – Emma Miskew, Canadian curler
- 1989 – Denisa Smolenová, Slovak swimmer
- 1989 – Brandon Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 – Sefa Yılmaz, German footballer
- 1991 – Chris Rowney, British footballer
- 1991 – Rilwan Waheed, Maldivian footballer
- 1992 – Freddie Highmore, English actor
- 1992 – Christian Eriksen, Danish footballer
- 1993 – Shane Harper, American Actor, Singer, Songwriter and Dancer
- 1994 – Paul Butcher, Jr., American actor
[edit]Deaths
- 270 – St. Valentine marking Valentine's Day
- 869 – Saint Cyril, Greek monk, scholar, theologian and linguist (b. 827)
- 1229 – Ragnvald Godredsson, King of the Isles.
- 1317 – Marguerite of France, queen of Edward I of England (b. 1282)
- 1400 – King Richard II of England (murdered) (b. 1367)
- 1405 – Timur, Mongol conqueror (b. 1336)
- 1571 – Odet de Coligny, French cardinal and Protestant (b. 1517)
- 1676 – Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist
- 1714 – Maria Luisa of Savoy, Queen Consort of Spain (b. 1688)
- 1737 – Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)
- 1744 – John Hadley, inventor (b. 1682)
- 1779 – James Cook, British naval captain and explorer (b. 1728)
- 1780 – William Blackstone, English jurist (b. 1723)
- 1782 – Singu Min, King of Burma (b. 1756)
- 1808 – John Dickinson, American lawyer and Governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania (b. 1732)
- 1831 – Vicente Guerrero, Mexican revolutionary hero (b. 1782)
- 1831 – Henry Maudslay, English inventor (b. 1771)
- 1870 – St. John Richardson Liddell, American Civil War Confederate General (b. 1815)
- 1881 – Fernando Wood, New York City mayor (b. 1812)
- 1884 – Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, Wife of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
- 1885 – Jules Vallès, French writer (b. 1832)
- 1891 – William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War General (b. 1820)
- 1894 – Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician (b. 1814)
- 1910 – Giovanni Passannante, Italian anarchist (b. 1849)
- 1919 – Pál Luthár, Slovene writer, teacher and cantor in Hungary (b. 1839)
- 1922 – Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish politician (assassinated) (b. 1880)
- 1929 – Thomas Burke, American sprinter (b. 1875)
- 1929 – Frank Gusenberg, American gangster (b. 1892)
- 1929 – Peter Gusenberg, American gangster (b. 1889)
- 1937 – Franz Böckli, Swiss sports shooter (b. 1858)
- 1942 – Adnan Bin Saidi, Officer of the Malay Regiment killed in the defense of Singapore (b. 1915)
- 1943 – Dora Gerson, German actress, cabaret singer, and Holocaust victim (b. 1899)
- 1943 – David Hilbert, German mathematician (b. 1862)
- 1948 – Mordecai Brown, American baseball player (b. 1876)
- 1949 – Yusuf Salman Yusuf, Iraqi-Assyrian communist leader (b. 1901)
- 1950 – Karl Guthe Jansky, American Discoverer of cosmic radio waves (b. 1905)
- 1952 – Maurice De Waele, Belgian cyclist (b. 1896)
- 1954 – Henri Laurent, French fencer (b. 1881)
- 1958 – Abdul Rab Nishtar, veteran leader of Pakistan Movement, (b. 1899)
- 1959 – Baby Dodds, American jazz drummer (b. 1898)
- 1967 – Sig Ruman, German-American actor (b. 1884)
- 1969 – Vito Genovese, American gangster (b. 1897)
- 1970 – Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (b. 1880).
- 1974 – Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1903)
- 1975 – Julian Huxley, British biologist (b. 1887)
- 1975 – P. G. Wodehouse, English writer (b. 1881)
- 1978 – Paul Governali, American football player (b. 1921)
- 1979 – Adolph Dubs, American diplomat (b. 1920)
- 1980 – Luitkonwar Rudra Baruah, Assamese composer and actor (b. 1926)
- 1983 – Lina Radke, German athlete (b. 1903)
- 1986 – Edmund Rubbra, English Composer (b. 1901)
- 1987 – Dmitry Kabalevsky, Russian composer (b. 1904)
- 1987 – Karolos Koun, Greek theater director (b. 1908)
- 1988 – Frederick Loewe, Austrian-American composer (b. 1901)
- 1989 – James Bond, American ornithologist (b. 1900)
- 1990 – Tony Holiday, German singer (b. 1951)
- 1992 – Helen Vela, Filipina TV host/journalist and actress (b. 1946)
- 1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (executed) (b. 1936)
- 1994 – Christopher Lasch, American historian and social critic (b. 1932)
- 1994 – Rodney Orr, American racing driver (b. 1962)
- 1995 – Michael V. Gazzo, American actor (b. 1923)
- 1995 – U Nu, Burmese politician (b. 1907)
- 1996 – Bob Paisley, English football manager (b. 1919)
- 1999 – John Ehrlichman, American presidential advisor (b. 1925)
- 1999 – Buddy Knox, American singer and songwriter (b. 1933)
- 2002 – Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer (b. 1922)
- 2002 – Mick Tucker, English drummer (Sweet)
- 2003 – Dolly, first cloned mammal (b. 1996)
- 2003 – Johnny Longden, English jockey (b. 1907)
- 2004 – Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
- 2005 – Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex, Greek novelist and journalist (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Rafic Hariri, Lebanese businessman and politician (b. 1944)
- 2005 – Najai Turpin, American boxer (b. 1981)
- 2006 – Darry Cowl, French musician and actor (b. 1925)
- 2006 – Shoshana Damari, Israeli singer and actress (b. 1923)
- 2006 – Lynden David Hall, British singer (b. 1974)
- 2007 – Ryan Larkin, Canadian animated filmmaker (b. 1943)
- 2007 – Gareth Morris, British flautist (b. 1920)
- 2009 – Sir Bernard Ashley, Welsh businessman (b. 1926)
- 2009 – Louie Bellson, American jazz drummer (b. 1924)
- 2009 – John McGlinn, American conductor (b. 1953)
- 2010 – Doug Fieger, American musician (The Knack) (b. 1952)
- 2010 – Dick Francis, British jockey-turned-novelist (b. 1920)
- 2011 – Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima, Bahraini protester killed by security forces (b.1989)
- 2011 – Sir George Shearing, Anglo-American jazz pianist (b. 1919)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Cyril and Methodius, patron saints of Europe (Roman Catholic Church)
- Valentine
- February 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Communist Martyrs Day (Iraqi Communist Party)
- Statehood Day (Arizona)
- Statehood Day (Oregon)
- The second day of Lupercalia (Ancient Rome)
- Valentine's Day (International)
===
Trash talking Labor should apologise
Piers Akerman – Thursday, February 14, 2013 (4:40am)
TRASH talking Climate Change Minister Greg Combet yesterday labeled Opposition Leader Tony Abbott “Australia’s biggest bulls--t artist” but it was Combet who had his facts wrong.
Combet is no stranger to rubbish. As ACTU boss he was involved in trashing Parliament House with a gang of union thugs in 1996.
According to the official report “demonstrators used weapons, including a large hammer, a wheel brace, a steel trolley and a stanchion torn from the external doors to break open the internal doors.
“Simultaneously, a second group of demonstrators used other weapons to break into the Parliament House shop, but were held at the internal doors. The shop was ransacked by demonstrators and major damage was caused by persons who subsequently occupied the area.
“After some two hours, the demonstrators were finally repelled from Parliament House and driven back onto the forecourt area and, shortly afterwards, they dispersed.”
He was also a major player in the wharf dispute, vainly trying to defend inefficient members of the historically corrupt waterside workers union.
Yesterday’s outburst was in response to US President Barack Obama’s mendacious State of the Union remarks in which he falsely claimed that the world was warming – when there has been no statistically significant evidence to support such nonsense for the past 16 years.
Combet said this showed Abbott was lagging behind by questioning the science of climate change and warning of disasters which didn’t happen after carbon pricing began last July.
Combet must have been drinking the global warmist Kool-Aid to ignore the real science on the subject.
Even the warmist organisation, the IPCC, acknowledges that there has been no evidence of any warming of any significance since 1997.
Combet said Abbott was “wrong on every front”.
But it is Combet who is full of sh-t.
Obama has raised the global warming issue so he can raise a new tax and try and deal with the ballooning US deficit.
He should learn from Labor’s dismal experience.
Australia has a carbon dioxide tax and has set a carbon price of $23 a tonne. The world market price – if it can be found at all - is around $5 a tonne.
The Gillard government is paying compensation at $23 a tonne from funds which don’t exist.
It is taxing businesses out of existence.
If Obama wants to get the US economy moving, the last thing he should do is follow Labor’s failed experiment.
Shadow environment minister Greg Hunt said Combet’s comments were “vile and vulgar and he should withdraw them and apologise”.
He said if Combet didn’t apologise Prime Minister Julia Gillard should make him.
While she’s apologising for Combet’s idiot remarks, Gillard could apologise for her own aggressive undermining of the stature of the Australian government and the debasing of parliament.
Then she should quit.
===
DAMS ROCK
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 14, 2013 (5:43am)
Let’s get building:
Up to 100 dams could be built across the country to prevent floods, fuel power stations and irrigate a food boom to feed 120 million people across the Asia Pacific region, under plans being considered by Opposition leader Tony Abbott …The majority of the dams would be in northern Australia, where they would be used to irrigate arid zones for agriculture and more than double Australia’s food production.Claiming the environmental lobby had been to blame for the lack of new water infrastructure, the report from the Coalition’s water taskforce endorses a major dam-building program to “help feed 120 million people and beyond over the coming decades”.
Further in today’s editorial.
UPDATE. Sarah Hanson-Young’s response:
The Greens have described the Coalition’s discussion paper as “poorly thought through and environmentally reckless”.“While the Greens are releasing considered, costed policies, the Coalition are leaking crazy thought bubbles with $30 billion price tags that will devastate the environment,” Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said in a statement.“This is a pie in the sky plan based on 19th century thinking and the Coalition know they have no way to fund it.”
The reason Greens reject 19th century thinking is because it’s too modern.
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SYMPATHY FOR THE DORNER
Tim Blair – Thursday, February 14, 2013 (5:34am)
Imagine if someone at Network Ten felt upset over what he believed was an unfair dismissal and decided to take revenge by killing network executives and their children. It’s unlikely that this person would receive the sensitive treatment dished out last night by Ten’s The Project, which offered the softest possible views on multiple killer Christopher Dorner.
Note that victim Monica Quan is referred to merely as “the woman”, and that her murder is described entirely in the context of her father’s perceived role in Dorner’s sacking. The network’s US correspondent Dan Sutton then mentions that Dorner only tied up subsequent hostages rather than killing them:
He really was sticking to his plan just to kill law enforcement authorities.
So much for Quan, then. She’s forgotten during concerned discussion of Dorner’s dismissal. Sutton then solemnly observes that the LAPD is reviewing that case:
They are reopening the case, they will examine it, but let’s be honest, a fat lot of good it’s gonna do him now.
The poor fellow.
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Dr Karl does it again. Time for the Alan Jones treatment
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(6:09pm)
Doctor Karl Kruszelnicki presents science on the ABC. In 2007 he ran as a Senate candidate for the Climate Change Coalition.So you expect him to know the very basic data about global warming. You expect him to make it his duty to at least know whether the planet is indeed warming, and if so by how much.Right?Then explain this exchange of tweets, which I am told Kruszelnicki deleted fromhis Twitter account. (They certainly aren’t there now.)
I went on:
The rest of that post is here....Dr Karl, debating the figures of Britain’s Met, asserts the world has warmed 0.3 degrees in 16 years - which still isn’t that much, actually.But the Met’s figures, as tweeter Bill correctly informs him, actually show a warming just one-sixth of what Dr Karl claimed. That is so small that scientists say it’s statistically insignificant. It’s indistinguishable from background noise. Essentially zero.Just in case there is any doubt about what the Met figures show, here is the Met in its own words, excuses and all:The linear trend from August 1997 (in the middle of an exceptionally strong El Nino) to August 2012 (coming at the tail end of a double-dip La Nina) is about 0.03°C/decade, amounting to a temperature increase of 0.05°C over that period...Or put it this way: if this rate of warming is real and was maintained for the rest of the century, the world by 2100 would be hotter by about 0.27 of a degree. You’d struggle to even measure it.
Well, I’d hoped that Dr Karl would admit and apologise for his clear error. I certainly thought he wouldn’t brazenly repeat it.
But yesterday reader Paul alerted me to Dr Karl’s latest effort:
We’re in country SA and Dr Karl has just repeated his 0.3 degree error on local ABC radio. The caller gave him every opportunity to admit he made a mistake, but he restated that figure boldly and with no hesitation.The station is 1062 ABC Riverland.
A listener knows the facts, but Dr Karl does not. Strikes me the ABC had the wrong person behind the microphone.
But here is a chance for the Australian Communications and Media Authority to finally prove it will punish warmists as much as it punishes sceptics for mistakes made in discussing global warming.
I have had my doubts:
I have had my doubts:
[Two years ago], Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones said something about global warming that wasn’t accurate - and for which he’s now viciously punished.No, he didn’t falsely claim “even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and river systems”.That was Chief Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery in 2007.No, he didn’t say “it may be time to stop describing southeastern Australia as gripped by drought and instead accept the extreme dry as permanent”.That was the Bureau of Meteorology’s head of climate analysis, David Jones, in 2008, just before this “permanent” drought broke and dams filled…Jones also didn’t wrongly claim the seas could rise 100 metres this century (ABC science presenter Robyn Williams), we’ve “seen an increase in the number of cyclones” (Flannery again), the Himalaya glaciers could melt away by 2035 (IPCC), carbon dioxide is actually “carbon” (every government MP) or a thousand other false claims or wild exaggerations peddled in the media without a blush.What he said was this: Australians produced just “1 per cent of .001 per cent of carbon dioxide in the air.”Gotcha!Global warmists never forgive in a sceptic an error of the kind they overlook every week in an alarmist.For them, it seems, telling porkies in a good cause is evidence of a good heart, while a sceptic’s mistake is proof of evil - and must be punished.So Jones was pilloried in the Fairfax press, sponsors of Earth Hour, and by the ABC, guardian of the global warming faith.Didn’t he know Australians put out more like 0.45 per cent of the carbon dioxide up there?Far more sinister, he was reported to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which last week ordered he undergo “factual accuracy” training and use fact-checkers. Like some trainee journalist just out of school.
This, I suspect, was a deliberate humiliation that no Flannery of the airwaves will ever be made to suffer by any government-backed authority. Jones, after all, was wrong in the wrong cause.Think I exaggerate?
Then let ACMA, Media Watch, the ABC and the rest of them prove me wrong. There is Dr Karl. Do now to him what you did to Jones.
( I do not approve of calling in the speech police to settle an argument. But in this case I am interested not in punishing Dr Karl but in testing the institutional bias of those speech police towards warmists. For that reason, a complaint to ACMA and the ABC could prove very instructive. Why not complain to the Press Council about Dr Karl’s tweet, too?)
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Paterson, without a scratch, returns from the ABC front
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(5:46pm)
In the diary of this week’s Spectator, the IPA’s James Paterson describes his latest foray deep into ABC territory - and onto the panel of Q&A:
A sympathetic tweeter asks me why me and my colleagues bother turning up to events behind enemy lines. The obvious answer is that it is a great platform to advocate for freedom. But it’s also true that sending the Left into fits of rage is actually pretty fun.
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Maybe Emerson simply doesn’t understand maths
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(4:02pm)
Jo Nova blogs on my frustrating conversation with Trade Minister Craig Emerson, who used three false arguments to avoid conceding the world had indeed not warmed by any statistically significant amount since 1997.
Nova points out a possible error on my part - an assumption Emerson understood what we were talking about:
Emerson’s argument was practically innumerate, turning this into gibberish. If I ignore the numbers and dates I can say “it’s warming” and “it’s cooling” and I’m right both times! (It’s warmed since 1680, and cooled since 5000 BC).In the end, Emerson rather desperately seemed to be trying to show that Bolt was wrong to be a skeptic, but that’s very different from the small, exact question of warming or not in the last 16 years. Bolt was trying to keep the radio moment to one single defined point, and it seems his big mistake was in assuming that Emerson understood concepts like “statistical significance” and could rationally think about one point at a time.Am I being too harsh? What’s the alternative? That Emerson knew exactly what he was doing and hoped he could get away with confusing the audience by pretending to answer the question by using the right keywords for the wrong reasons?
UPDATE
Apologies. Link to Jo’s site fixed.
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Coalition coup. Even Rudd likes a plan to develop the North
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(10:04am)
Again, the plans have to stack up economically, but I believe Australians are eager for somereal nation-building vision:
UP to 100 dams could be built across the country to prevent floods, fuel power stations and irrigate a food boom to feed 120 million people across the Asia Pacific region, under plans being considered by Opposition leader Tony Abbott.In the second high-level policy leak in a week, The Daily Telegraph has obtained a copy of the Coalition’s draft policy discussion paper for water management of Australia.Included in the list of dam projects, which the Coalition will consider, is a $500 million plan to raise Warragamba Dam in Sydney, and new dams for NSW in the Hunter Valley, Central Highlands and along the Lachlan River…The majority of the dams would be in northern Australia, where they would be used to irrigate arid zones for agriculture and more than double Australia’s food production.Claiming the environmental lobby had been to blame for the lack of new water infrastructure, the report from the Coalition’s water taskforce endorses a major dam-building program to “help feed 120 million people and beyond over the coming decades”.
The initial leak of this draft discussion paper attracted knee-jerk derision - way over the top - from the Gillard Government:
KARRATHA’S footpaths would be paved in gold, paid for by western Sydney voters, under the opposition’s “wacky” plan to develop northern Australia, Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury says…Mr Bradbury said the plan suggested people in western Sydney would have to move their entire lives to northern Australia for work, when their own communities were in need…Greens leader Christine Milne described the plan as “madness”.
But I understand that in rural seats, at least, Coalition MPs are finding plenty of support - including newspaper endorsement - in northern Queensland and the Northern Territory.
And one Labor figure, at least, seems to sniffing the wind. Here’s Kevin Rudd on Sunrise:
By the way - on northern Australia - the policy objective is right about developing the north. That’s been, I think, a bipartisan view for a long time.
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph is keen, too:
The Coalition’s draft policy on dams, which investigates the possibility of constructing up to 100 new dams across Australia and expanding existing dams, is a sensible and long-overdue measure to address Australia’s climate issues. Dams also provide clean energy, flood protection and irrigation, yet have fallen out of favour due to opposition from militant environmentalists.Predictably, militants will again ramp their anti-dam hysteria following revelations of the Coalition’s policy. The time has come to cease indulging those who at every step seek to impede Australian progress.
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Wilders gets a run on the ABC
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(9:26am)
Sure, Tony Jones did try to pin the “far-Right” tag on Geert Wilders. Sure, it was clear Jones did not agree with Wilders, although he struggled at times to pick holes in the arguments of this articulate Dutch politician.
But over all, his interview was fair and reasonable, and Wilders’ was able to put his views on Islam very cogently. And, I suspect, for many they will seem fairly persuasive:
TONY JONES: So very precisely you plan to warn Australian audiences of what you see as the danger of Islamic migration, is that correct?GEERT WILDERS: Well, yes, I believe that once again, Islam and freedom are incompatible. Islam is according to me, my party, not so much a religion as well as it is a totalitarian ideology. In Islam there is not much room for anything else but Islam.Look how in societies today where Islam is dominant and prominent, how any non-Islamic person, whether it’s a Christian or an apostate or a woman or a critical journalist, how they are treated…I believe that what with the mass immigration to our free societies, our societies will change, and it will change for the worse....
TONY JONES: I can tell you for sure there are plenty of Islamic people in Australia who’ve left the religion without being killed. So what you’re saying can’t be everywhere. Indeed I suspect what you’re talking about is Islamic fundamentalism. Why not restrict your arguments to Islamic fundamentalism or radical Islam - Islamism - why do you include in this broad brush moderate Islam?…GEERT WILDERS: ... What you’re saying about radical Islam, with all respect to you sir, is complete nonsense. There is no radical or moderate Islam. There is only one Islam and that is the Islam from the Koran, the holy book. That is the Islam from Mohammed. There are no two sorts of Islam.However, there are moderate and non-moderate Muslims, I acknowledge that. As a matter of fact the majority of the Muslims living in our society are moderate people. But don’t make the mistake that even though there are moderate and radical Muslims that there is a moderate or a radical Islam.There is only one Islam, and that is a totalitarian ideology that has no room for anything but Islam. You see it once again in any country in the world where Islam is dominant.
To book seats for Wilders’ lecture tour in Australia next week, go here. I don’t say I endorse all Wilders says, but I do say the debate should be had - and must be allowed.
Note: this is the politician the Gillard Government, an enemy of free speech, last year tried to stop from coming.
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On 2GB, February 14
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(8:48am)
On with Steve Price from 8pm. Listen live here. Talkback: 131 873
Last night’s show - featuring Professor Bob Carter fact-checking the factually challenged Barack Obama and Craig Emerson - can be heard here.
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The same sports chiefs should now denounce the smear on Australian sport
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(8:28am)
Five sports administrators were paraded last week as the guilty face of Australian sport.
The heads of Australian rules, rugby league, rugby union, cricket and soccer stood behind two Gillard Government ministers who suggested to the world that the sports they represented were corrupted by drugs, match fixing and organised crime.
The damage done to the image of the country, the reputation of our athletes, the business of the big sports codes, confidence in sports betting and the investments of sports sponsors was immense.
But a week later, what do the publicly revealed allegations amount to? We have only unsubstantiated and unspecified claims of match fixing at just one NRL game, unsubstantiated and unspecified claims of illegal drug use at just one NRL club two years ago, unsubstantiated and strongly disputed claims of illegal drug use at one AFL club and unsubstantiated and unspecified claims of drug use by a single unnamed player at another unnamed club.
That’s it. That’s all we have been told.
This is pathetically little to justify such a massive smear - a smear which generated so many headlines of “the blackest day in Australian sport”.
Those same five sports administrators who last week helped to spread that smear - Bill Pulver (ARU); Dave Smith (NRL); David Gallop (Football Federation Australia); Andrew Demetriou (AFL) and James Sutherland (Cricket Australia) - now have a responsibility to help fix the damage.
They should now call a second press conference to declare their confidence in Australian sport. To denounce last week’s hyperbolic claims. To clear the smear.
Already some sports bodies are demanding answers from the Government:
THE Australian Athletes Alliance will today meet federal Sports Minister Kate Lundy and law enforcement and anti-doping agencies to ask for an explanation of why innocent athletes and sports have been embroiled in the drug scandal…“The fact that we weren’t even told about the report before it was released last week was very disappointing given the impact it’s had and was always going to have on the athletes,” [alliance chairman Paul] Marsh said.Marsh said it was staggering the federal government and the ACC had made such an attention-grabbing announcement last week. “I would have thought they would have concluded the investigations before they started announcing findings,” he said.“On face value we are disappointed that so many athletes in so many sports have been besmirched by this—with, apparently, no real reason to be.”
The major codes should now step up. Call the press conference. Defend the good name of their codes and of Australian sport.
They were conned, and should say so.
UPDATE
Michael Sexton SC has another question about the farcical smearing of Australian sport by the Gillard Government the Australian Crime Commission:
There are, of course, a range of performance-enhancing substances that are banned by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and the World Anti-Doping Authority.But that is not a legal regime. It is based on the willingness of the major commercial sporting bodies, particularly the football codes, to voluntarily impose suspensions on competitors who are found, as a result of testing, to have used the banned drugs…The most puzzling question in all of this is how performance-enhancing substances came to be an area of massive federal regulation. ASADA is a body established by commonwealth legislation and funded by taxpayers. The AFL and NRL, like the other major football codes and the governing bodies of tennis and cricket in Australia, are private businesses with substantial revenues, particularly from sponsorship and media rights. They are presumably quite capable of regulating drug use within their sports if they wish to do so…The lengthy investigation by the Australian Crime Commission is another aspect of the role of federal government in this area. If there is significant evidence of match-fixing, itself a criminal offence, or the role of organised crime, the commission is entitled to be involved. But it is not easy to see what its concern would be with breaches of ASADA’s code of conduct.The commission said in its report it had “identified significant issues in professional and sub-elite sport in Australia which undermine the principles of fair play”. What has fair play got to do with criminal law?
(Thanks to reader aussieute.)
UPDATE
Some scrabbling to keep face - but all we have are more claims of more investigations into more unspecified allegations as yet unsubstantiated:
ANTI-DOPING authority investigators will interview 150 NRL and AFL players, staff and administrators, with the devastating scope of the investigation revealed by the government body…It’s understood that 70 to 80 players and officials could be charged with doping violations and various penalties, including the potential for lifetime bans from their code....ASADA, which tipped off the crime commission, resulting in its report claiming widespread organised crime links and performance-enhancing drug use in Australian sport, has warned its investigation will go for months and could widen.“In response to the very serious matters raised by the Australian Crime Commission’s report ... the ASADA confirms that the scope and magnitude of its investigation is unprecedented,” the anti-doping body said in a statement last night.
So still nothing proven after more than a year of investigations? Still nothing that anyone can even be charged over? That doesn’t still need yet more investigation?
When people are charged, then let’s have the big press conferences and grand claims. Until then....
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A reality check for art lovers ogling Kate’s bare breasts
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(8:23am)
FIRST, a news item for the art lovers now staring at the bare breasts of model Kate Moss, photographed when she was only 15.
“A serial Melbourne sex offender faces more jail time for preying on teenage girls online and harbouring child pornography,” reported AAP this week.
“Using false identities, most commonly ‘Rob Price’, he befriended the girls via Facebook and ... repeatedly asked them to send him naked photos of themselves, which two of the five girls agreed to do. In one exchange, he threatened to kill himself if a 15-year-old girl refused ...
Note: naked pictures, moral pressure on a 15-year-old to strip, girls “agreeing”.
Now let’s talk about the picture of Moss today hanging in an exhibition in the Art Gallery of NSW featuring the Modern Lovers series of Bettina Rheims.
(Subscription required to read full article.)
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Another $16 million wasted. Another Labor promise broken
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(8:17am)
It was an election promise in 2010 - just like the citizen’s assembly, cash for clunkers, a company tax cut, a constitutional referendum and “there will be no carbon tax”:
PROFESSIONALS wanting a mid-career change of lifestyle will be encouraged to become teachers under a plan to ease their entry into classrooms…Announcing the policy at her Aldelaide alma mater, Unley High, the Prime Minister said the government would cover up to 50 per cent of course fees and provide up to $10,000 in income support to facilitate accelerated entry into the classroom.The policy, called Teach Next, builds on a raft of education announcements by Labor during the election campaign…“This is about bringing people into teaching from all walks of life,” Ms Gillard said…To help address shortages, 450 professionals would be selected on the basis of their qualifications…The policy will cost $16.1 million over four years.
A $16 MILLION federal Labor commitment to stem the shortage of maths and science teachers by fast-tracking bankers, accountants and engineers into classrooms has recruited only 14 participants.
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ABC sorry for likening Gillard to a teacher
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(8:01am)
Quite a commonplace observation about quite an obvious trait:
Odd that it calls for an apology:
Was the observation not accurate? Is being likened to a teacher really an insult? Where precisely was the “gender implication”?
Goodness, we are gun-shy. Fancy having to apologise for that description of a Prime Minister who is herself free to slime others as “misogynist” and whose Climate Minister yesterday called the Opposition Leader “Australia’s biggest bullshit artist”.
It seems the government has a license to abuse, but everyone else must act like parsons.
(Thanks to Victoria 3220.)
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Warmists snowed under in the Pyrenees
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(7:57am)
January - warmists issue a warning:
An increase in temperatures due to climate change could mean that the Andorran ski resorts have a shorter season in the future, especially in lower areas. A study undertaken by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the Andorran Sustainability Observatory has analysed the specific case of the Pyrenean country and predicted that financial losses could come close to 50 million euros.
February - nature issues a correction:
Cauterets, in the French Pyrenees, has overtaken the world record for snow at a ski resort, with a massive 5 metres of snow on the ground – enough to keep the slopes open for business until mid April.
Yes, weather isn’t climate. But forecasts aren’t always reality.
(Via Watts Up With That.)
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Their kind of killer
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(7:31am)
He’s black. He admires Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He preaches against racism.
So when he murders Monica Quan, her fiance and two police, it’s clear where sympathies even here must lie.
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A brainless plan to make our Constitution racist
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(7:22am)
TWO questions for the politicians who yesterday voted to divide us. First, shouldn’t we treat each other equally, regardless of “race”?
Then why give us a new Constitution that treats people differently on the grounds of race?
Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to split us into tribes based on whose “race” was here first, hundreds of years before we were born.
So suffocating is this new racism that Liberals voted with Labor to recognise Aborigines as Australia’s first inhabitants.
Why we need a law to recognise a widely accepted historic fact beats me.
But the real business of this grandstanding, of no use to dysfunctional Aboriginal communities, is in the preamble.
(Subscription required to read full article.)
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Scary: Combet is even more financially clueless than me
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(6:44am)
With zero training in economics, an inability even to master Internet banking and no Treasury officials by my side, even I could see months ago Climate Change Minister Greg Combet was Australia’s biggest bullshit artist when he claimed his carbon trading system wouldn’t leave the Budget with a black hole.
As far back as July last year, even an economic illiterate like me could see Combet was signing up the Government to massive budget deficits by linking Australia’s carbon trading scheme with Europe’s, where the price of carbon allowances was sinking far beneath the $23 a tonne price here. As I said then:
...business may need wait just two or three years now (even assuming Labor’s reelection) for the price on carbon dioxide emissions to fall to, say, $9. [The] Government’s compensation is locked in for a $23 tonne (and rising) tax, but its income may now fall.
I mention this not to pride myself as smart, but to prove how dumb or deceitful Combet is to have overlooked or brushed aside a multi-billion-dollar problem so obvious that even I could see it.
Because now look:
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet flagged the federal government may cut revenue forecasts for the carbon tax in this year’s budget as the chairman of its Climate Change Authority, Bernie Fraser, said Treasury’s price projections were out of date and unrealistic…He was responding to a report in The Australian Financial Review which said the government faces a revenue hole of up to $4 billion in 2015-16 from a collapse in the carbon price, which is now about $5 a tonne. Australia’s carbon price is $23 a tonne and will continue to rise until 2015, when it will float.The Financial Review ?reported the Climate Change Authority has acknowledged the possibility of a slump to $10.72 a tonne in the price of carbon in 2015-16.Mr Fraser said he was sceptical of predictions the price of carbon internationally would recover and the Treasury modelling should be updated…[Combet] said last August: “The Treasury modelling that was done is something that the government stands behind and we continue to adhere to, and that does predict a $29 a tonne carbon price in fiscal year 2015-16.”On Wednesday he said: “The Treasury has done its forecast for that price, they are included in the budget forward estimates and if there is any update of them they will take place in the budget.”
But so typical of this government. While the tax take will fall, the handouts it funds are locked in:
Even if revenue slumped, Mr Combet said the government was committed to tax cuts legislated to occur in 2015-16 and intended to compensate for a higher carbon price.
Your money in their hands. Terrifying.
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The mining tax has actually cost the government millions
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(6:25am)
Did the Gillard Goverment actually lose money with its new mining tax?
The dream:
The dream:
...the original super profits tax put forward by the then prime minister Kevin Rudd planned to raise more than $12 billion in the first two years. After he was rolled as leader by Julia Gillard, the newly designed mining tax was meant to bring in more than $10 billion.
The reality:
Treasurer Wayne Swan revealed that the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) had raised just $126 million in its first six months against a full-year forecast of $2 billion...
But subtract tax deductions:
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson moved to quell a threatened revolt from big miners over calls for the minerals resource rent tax to be redesigned after it raised just $126 million in its first six months - for a contribution of $88m to the budget because miners can use their MRRT payments to reduce their company tax - compared with a $2 billion forecast for 12 months.
Deduct costs of collection:
The operating cost of implementing and administering the new resource rent tax arrangements, including MRRT and existing and extended PRRT, is estimated to be $60.48m over the financial years 2010-11 to 2012-13...
Deduct also the cost of selling the tax:
THE RUDD government had already called in advertising agencies to pitch for a $38 million taxpayer funded campaign to sell the mining tax before announcing the new tax, despite arguing it was a campaign of misinformation by mining companies that justified the “urgent” expenditure.
Deduct potential revenue that’s been driven away:
AUSTRALIA’S global share of the capital raised for mining projects has sunk from 21 per cent to 15 per cent since 2008 as other countries such as Russia, India and China attracted tens of billions of dollars in additional funding. The fresh data prompted one mining lobby group to claim the difficulties being experienced by miners in raising equity capital were being fuelled by investor uncertainty over the Gillard government’s mining and carbon taxes.
There is a very high chance that the Government crusade for a new mining tax has actually left the Budget worse off, and the country as well.
UPDATE
Peter Martin says the problem started when Julia Gillard and Wayne locked out Treasury officials and tried to negotiate the tax deal themselves. Then there was a critical drafting error in a document just a page and a half long:
The agreement allowed “all state and territory royalties” to be deducted from the tax.[Resources Minister Martin] Ferguson thought the words referred to “royalty rates that applied, or changes to royalty rates that were scheduled to apply in the future, as at 2 May 2010’’…Agreeing to refund whatever any state government chose to charge in the future would expose the Commonwealth to an uncontrollable expense.But read baldly, that’s what the ministers had signed up to.Western Australia promptly lifted its iron ore royalty from 5.6 per cent to 7.5 per cent. It now grabs money the ministers believed the federal government would get.
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The government loots the thrifty
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY142013(5:38am)
The Gillard Government wants to loot retirement savings for three reasons only:
- it’s spent too much- it wants to spend even more- super is where more money is.
It’s as simple as that. No one should think it’s actually good public policy to punish the prudent or destroy confidence in the superannuation system:
The fast-growing sector is seen as a prime target for higher taxes as Labor examines ways to improve “fairness and equity” in the concessions on retirement savings.Talk of reform triggered warnings from the industry last night that the tax breaks available to self-managed super funds were no different from those already being used by everyday funds commonly used by millions of workers…Changes remain on the agenda, however, as the government seeks “structural savings” in the May budget to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme and a response to the Gonski review of school funding. Combined, the two reforms could cost almost $15bn a year when fully in place.
Normally you check how much money you have and then spend accordingly.
This Government does things in exactly the opposite way. First it spends, and then arranges taxes accordingly.
UPDATE
Niki Savva adds a fourth reason. It’s called Wayne Swan:
He has known for months [his mining tax] would fall short of projections. The two measures described as flaws or loopholes that limit revenue - the depreciation provisions and reimbursement of increased state royalties - are no such thing. They are deliberate design elements agreed to in great haste to resolve a political problem…[Swan last year] predicted it would raise $2 billion - $10bn less than the first estimate for the super profits tax. So far it has delivered more than $126 million.
Swan expected people to believe a volatile tax could fund recurrent spending of $15bn, that he could rustle up another $15bn to pay for Gonski and the National Disability Insurance Scheme and provide a surplus.
He got away with it for a while. No longer.
David Uren explains the tax changes that left the Government with peanuts. One problem: Swan went into negotiations really thinking there were super profits just waiting for collection.
UPDATE
Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief executive Ian Narev has called on the government not to use the $1.5 trillion superannuation system to prop up the federal budget, warning retirement savings should not be treated as a “political football” during the election…Mr Narev’s comments were echoed by one of the country’s most respected economists, who cautioned that the retirement savings system may be severely damaged by further rises in super taxes.John Piggott, a member of the Henry panel that conducted an extensive review of taxation in 2009, warned Australia had a world-class super system that “may yet be torn apart” by politicians who raid it to plug budget holes.
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Why is it when a Republican Senator, Rubio, takes a drink of water during a speech the press goes crazy, yet when a Democrat Senator, Menendez, is under investigation by the FBI for having sex with underage hookers, he can be on a Sunday morning talk show for six minutes and not get a single question about it? Click LIKE if you think there is absolutely, undeniably media bias!
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Age I was given: 18
Where I lived: Turramurra, Sydney, NSW
What I drove: I walked everywhere
What I did: Uni student (failing Science) and working full time at the Old Spaghetti Factory on the rocks. Committed to D&D at Guy's and then Chris's place.
Who had my heart: SLB
Age now: 46
Where I live: Carramar, Sydney, NSW
What I drive: I catch train everywhere
What I do: Tutor a bit, blog a bit, have several projects of novels, video, short stories, PhD, advise on education.
Who has my heart: TMN.
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Instead of placing your hope in things that can change—relationships, talents, money or beauty—set your sights on the One who never changes (Hebrews 13:8)!
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Getting some valentine's day action! O.o
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A Muslim Name Nasir Siddiki, <--- br="">
The blisters were growing beyond an inch in diameter, spreading from the side of his face, down his neck and onto his shoulder. His ear was so deformed it was hanging down to his shoulder. And the thermometer reading screamed 107.6. He was .4 degrees from death.
It was October 1987 when he was diagnosed with what Canada's Toronto General Hospital called the worst case of shingles in the hospital's history. There was no cure. His first million dollars in business profits could offer him little hope now. At age 34, Muslim businessman Nasir Siddiki lay on his deathbed. Doctors were ready to report his death come morning.
Nearly 24 years later, Siddiki sits across from me in Charisma Media's editorial library, teal eyes shining with passion, as he recalls the night he cried out to Muhammad—and the only answer was silence.
"I knew what was on the other side of death was fearful, but I didn't know what it was," recalls Siddiki.
In the midst of silence and fear, Siddiki remembered the numerous healing stories of the prophet Jesus. "In desperation I cried out, 'God if you're real, don't let me die.'"
When it seemed as though the night couldn't get any darker, a light entered the hospital room.
"It was the outline of a person. I couldn't see the facial features because there was so much light shining from this person," describes Siddiki. "This person spoke without opening their mouth ... He said, 'I am the God of the Christians.' and He said, 'I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.'"
Hailing from the line of Ismael, Muslims recognize Abraham as the father, but do not recognize the line of Isaac. When the figure spoke, claiming to be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Siddiki was able to identify the glow.
"It was Jesus Christ," affirms Siddiki, undoubtedly.
Siddiki holds up a photo showing the intensity of the shingles he endured. He has clearly been healed. The differences are evident. The blisters are gone. His ear is perfectly formed. His complexion is olive, smooth and scar-less. His hair has grayed. But there is more. The most significant difference is not physical, yet it is exceptionally visible. Siddiki is now a Christian.
His new heart in Christ is obvious through his glowing smile and his gracious words. It is clear that this man, who had followed seven generations of Sunni Muslims, beginning with Abu Bakr Siddiq, Muhammad's closest friend and Islam's first Caliph, has been made new by the healing power of Jesus Christ.
Doctors searched for the answer as to why this man with a battered immune system had inch-wide blisters that, overnight, had entered a remissive state.
"I tried to tell them His name was Jesus but of course they didn't believe me ... And this big question I had is, 'Is this Jesus really the Son of God the way the Christians claim or is He just a prophet the way I was brought up all my life?'"
Siddiki was released from the hospital the next day. The following morning another miracle occurred—one Siddiki says proves the deep love and mercy of Jesus Christ.
"I remember Sunday morning I woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning, walked over to the television—I don't know why I did that—turned on the television and right on the screen it said, 'Is Jesus the Son of God?' Coincidence? I don't think so ... Alone in my living room ... in front of the television set in tears I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life ... The fact that He would heal a Muslim on a Friday and save him on a Sunday talks about how great His love and His mercy is."
"He does love the Muslims and He did die for the Muslims," Siddiki continues. "God so loved the world and that includes everybody and Jesus died for everybody."
Siddiki looks to his personal testimony to find hope for those involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within the Middle East. He says those in battle are blinded, they are being misguided, and they are being deceived. Siddiki himself spent 34 years in a blind state, walked an ungodly path and was continually deceived by worldviews. Yet, God sought Siddiki to be a worker in His field. And he says God is seeking out more laborers. “The Muslim nations are his harvest. These are people Jesus died for.”
Siddiki feels Christians are called to help in the current circumstances within the Middle East.
“We need to love all Muslims,” he adds. “They really are good people, they just are misled. They are just deceived. We have the greatest weapon on planet earth and the universe—it's called the weapon of love. The Bible says love actually never fails and that's an incredible statement that means that love has to win in every situation.
The blisters were growing beyond an inch in diameter, spreading from the side of his face, down his neck and onto his shoulder. His ear was so deformed it was hanging down to his shoulder. And the thermometer reading screamed 107.6. He was .4 degrees from death.
It was October 1987 when he was diagnosed with what Canada's Toronto General Hospital called the worst case of shingles in the hospital's history. There was no cure. His first million dollars in business profits could offer him little hope now. At age 34, Muslim businessman Nasir Siddiki lay on his deathbed. Doctors were ready to report his death come morning.
Nearly 24 years later, Siddiki sits across from me in Charisma Media's editorial library, teal eyes shining with passion, as he recalls the night he cried out to Muhammad—and the only answer was silence.
"I knew what was on the other side of death was fearful, but I didn't know what it was," recalls Siddiki.
In the midst of silence and fear, Siddiki remembered the numerous healing stories of the prophet Jesus. "In desperation I cried out, 'God if you're real, don't let me die.'"
When it seemed as though the night couldn't get any darker, a light entered the hospital room.
"It was the outline of a person. I couldn't see the facial features because there was so much light shining from this person," describes Siddiki. "This person spoke without opening their mouth ... He said, 'I am the God of the Christians.' and He said, 'I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.'"
Hailing from the line of Ismael, Muslims recognize Abraham as the father, but do not recognize the line of Isaac. When the figure spoke, claiming to be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Siddiki was able to identify the glow.
"It was Jesus Christ," affirms Siddiki, undoubtedly.
Siddiki holds up a photo showing the intensity of the shingles he endured. He has clearly been healed. The differences are evident. The blisters are gone. His ear is perfectly formed. His complexion is olive, smooth and scar-less. His hair has grayed. But there is more. The most significant difference is not physical, yet it is exceptionally visible. Siddiki is now a Christian.
His new heart in Christ is obvious through his glowing smile and his gracious words. It is clear that this man, who had followed seven generations of Sunni Muslims, beginning with Abu Bakr Siddiq, Muhammad's closest friend and Islam's first Caliph, has been made new by the healing power of Jesus Christ.
Doctors searched for the answer as to why this man with a battered immune system had inch-wide blisters that, overnight, had entered a remissive state.
"I tried to tell them His name was Jesus but of course they didn't believe me ... And this big question I had is, 'Is this Jesus really the Son of God the way the Christians claim or is He just a prophet the way I was brought up all my life?'"
Siddiki was released from the hospital the next day. The following morning another miracle occurred—one Siddiki says proves the deep love and mercy of Jesus Christ.
"I remember Sunday morning I woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning, walked over to the television—I don't know why I did that—turned on the television and right on the screen it said, 'Is Jesus the Son of God?' Coincidence? I don't think so ... Alone in my living room ... in front of the television set in tears I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life ... The fact that He would heal a Muslim on a Friday and save him on a Sunday talks about how great His love and His mercy is."
"He does love the Muslims and He did die for the Muslims," Siddiki continues. "God so loved the world and that includes everybody and Jesus died for everybody."
Siddiki looks to his personal testimony to find hope for those involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within the Middle East. He says those in battle are blinded, they are being misguided, and they are being deceived. Siddiki himself spent 34 years in a blind state, walked an ungodly path and was continually deceived by worldviews. Yet, God sought Siddiki to be a worker in His field. And he says God is seeking out more laborers. “The Muslim nations are his harvest. These are people Jesus died for.”
Siddiki feels Christians are called to help in the current circumstances within the Middle East.
“We need to love all Muslims,” he adds. “They really are good people, they just are misled. They are just deceived. We have the greatest weapon on planet earth and the universe—it's called the weapon of love. The Bible says love actually never fails and that's an incredible statement that means that love has to win in every situation.
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It is shocking that Kevin Rudd treats the Prime Ministership of Australia as some trophy to be fought over. The government should be focussed one job security for Australians, building the economy and reducing the cost of living. Instead, they think only of themselves. Of course, this is not new for Kevin Rudd, he has behaved this way since Kim Beazley was Leader and he tore him down too. - Christopher Pyne
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How must God feel? - ed
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Did President Obama break his promise to Ft. Hood victims? Don't miss The Factor tonight!http://bit.ly/11Gwgfk
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How to debunk the claims of "unprecedented"?
Just point out that claim is simply idiotic.
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Some thing for Valentine's Day: By Ladamenrouge Rouge in St Etienne, France. Bigger:www.streetartutopia.com/
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Scientists studying Lake Whillans, which is buried 2,625 feet (800 meters) below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, have confirmed there is life in this harsh environment. http://oak.ctx.ly/r/2cte
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We're going to stick with this family and help Ethan moving forward. The Dr. Phil Foundation is making a contribution to a Conservatorship Account, which will benefit Ethan in the future. If you'd like to join us, click here. http://bitly.com/
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Dad? Is that you?
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