Yesterday saw the beginning of almost a month of presentations and events from CPIT Art & Design. If yesterday’s events: Stefan Roberts and Wendy Clarke talking about their photographic practice and a performance by Warren Maxwell (One Monday) were anything to go by the rest will be well worth scheduling into your diaries!
August the 4th, 2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of New Zealand’s entry into the First World War, or ” The Great War”, as it was known at the time. We will be commemorating this anniversary over the coming weeks in a series of posts.
“The shot heard around the world”
On 28th June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie were assassinated in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo by anarchists. From such small beginnings was a fiery maelstrom born.
By the end of August 1914 the major nations of Europe would be involved in the increasingly bloody struggle which we now call the First World War. Old empires would fall, new nations would emerge and over 37 million people would be killed or injured.
Why New Zealand went to war?
When the United Kingdom declared war on Germany at the start of the First World War, the New Zealand government followed without hesitation, despite our geographic isolation and small population.
For a variety of reasons: social, economic, military & political the government and people of New Zealand felt duty bound to support Great Britain. New Zealanders of that period considered themselves as British in both thought and deed. Where Britain went so did we. There was also a degree of naivety about the potential cost of a large war.
Over the next five years New Zealand would provide significant manpower as well as agricultural and financial aid in an effort to conclude the war successfully.
Impact on New Zealand
The total number of New Zealand troops and nurses to serve overseas in 1914–1918, excluding those in British and other Dominion forces, was 100,444, from a population of just over a million. Forty-two percent of men of military age served in the NZEF. 16,697 New Zealanders were killed and 41,317 were wounded during the war – a 58 percent casualty rate.
Approximately a further thousand men died within five years of the war’s end, as a result of injuries sustained, and 507 died while training in New Zealand between 1914 and 1918. New Zealand had one of the highest casualty and death rate per capita of any country involved in the war.
Exotic names such as Passchendaele, the Somme, Gallipoli and ANZAC entered our lexicon. The war left physical, mental, political and economic marks on the nation and helped to forge our modern national identity. It can be argued that without our participation in the war we would not be the nation that we are today.
Further Information
Here are some link’s for those who would like to know more:
Dealing with New Zealand’s involvement in the First World War: NZ History:First World War
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/first-world-war
Here is a NZ site dedicated to the commemoration:New Zealand WW100:
Two great sources, the Imperial War Museum and the Australian War Memorial, Canberra:
The theme for Māori Language Week this year is: The Word of the Week or Te kupu o te wiki.
From July 2014, 50 Māori words will be introduced nationally over 50 weeks. But we have already started this year if you’ve been following our kupu o te wiki facebook album to help us all increase our knowledge of kupu or words in Māori.
Ngā whakaahua o te wiki o te reo Māori
Rāapa 23 Hōngongoi – 11 – 1 – Wednesday 23 July
Photo booth fun
Come to the Library with your friends to have some fun taking pictures at our photo booth – and let us know what you think of the library in te reo. See our photos on Flickr for this successful event last year!
Ko te reo kia tika, kia rere kia Māori
Rāpare 24 Hōngongoi – 12 – 1 – Thursday 24 July
What a difference a macron makes!
Join us at the library to learn how to macronise your computer whilst creating (and consuming) a macronised biscuit. Yum! Bikkies or rather I could say Reka! Ngā pihikete!
Here’s a blog from YourNZ which illustrates the difference a macron can make and it even includes a link to my former blogpost on how to macronise your keyboard and has a nice updated version for Windows 8 computers!
Why not take a selfie with your own favourite kupu or word of the week and hashtag #tereoliveshere on our Facebook and / or Twitter feeds.
For activities and resources to help you really get into te reo!
Here’s a cool competition at Māori TV. Wish we thought of it!
Why not share a 10 second video clip from your smartphone on our Facebook page of your friends showing their reo ambassador skills and hashtag it #tereoliveshere ! You’d be the Library’s spot prize winner of the week if you did!
Have you ever considered walking one of the iconic “Great Walks”?
The “Great Walks” are 9 premier outdoor experiences, selected to showcase the best of New Zealand’s natural beauty. There are 8 walking tracks and 1 kayak journey.
They are: Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk, Wanganui River Journey, Mt Tongariro Northern Circuit, Able Tasman Coast Track & the Heaphy, Routeburn, Milford, Kepler & Rakuira tracks.
Visitors to these spots can go as part of a guided tour or as freedom walkers. Due to the massive demand to visit the tracks, the Department of Conservation has a booking system for the huts on the tracks. Prior booking is essential to ensure you have accommodation for the night.
Hut bookings for the 2014/2015 Summer season are due to open on the 21st July.
In years past I have tramped the Heaphy track, Lake Waikaremoana Walk and Mt Tongariro circuit. I can thoroughly recommend them as a great way to spend some of your summer holidays.
If you would like to experience some of the best of New Zealand go to the DOC website for more information:
Department of Conservation (DOC): Great walks:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/great-walks/
Also see: The Great Walks, an official NZ Tourism site:
The Football World Cup’s on at the moment. If fact, it’s almost over – just the final remaining, you can watch it live on TV One.
You may have noticed it going on – either it’ll be THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER, or it’ll be what’s bumped the rugby (sometimes) from top spot on the sports news.
I’m not a sports fan, myself, but I have a flatmate who is. I therefore take an interest in football (translation: it’s on TV in the only warm room in the house so I watch it).
So, here’s what I have learned about football during the World Cup:
I’m sure there’s more to it than this, though. If you want to find out actual facts about football, try the Historical Dictionary of Soccer, an ebook available through the library.
In the interests of maintaining a harmonious household, I am, of course, supporting Germany to win the final.
Go Argentina!
I started using Evernote about a month ago because I am doing a special project and wanted to keep all my related emails, files, audio recordings of meetings and notes in one place on my smartphone so I could easily share these with others in the group when necessary or work on individual parts of these on my laptop which updates simultaneously on the web version. Now I use it daily and find its like having an extra brain accessible everywhere for keeping track of both personal and work-related information. Here’s a video from Steve Dotto who very enthusiastically shares his favourite five things about this app.
If you’re interested in annotating photos you’ve taken, drawing on a map or you just want to draw your own stuff on a blank screen then the Skitch app might be for you. It works seamlessly with Evernote if you want to link your drawings and annotated images to your Evernote documents. Here’s a 2 minute video of this app also.
I like to be able to add to a note, any of the following in the image below, but especially audio recording which saves hassle of typing in notes. I can then listen to my audio later and take higher quality written notes on my laptop and save them back to Evernote if required. It would also be great for students who need to do interviews for their assignments as it is so easy to use your phone as a recording device. I also like the way I can email my evernote captures to myself or someone else as well as forward my email to my evernote for quick everywhere access with flexibility to add related files, notes etc. It also reduces the need for me to cart my laptop everywhere as I can keep files I want to refer to regularly in Evernote. The Search function in Evernote finds everything as long as you have used good words in the title or document or tagged your note. Last favourite feature is the document camera which has the cool OCR technology (Optical character recognition) which means the search function can also find words within the image of a business card, word document, tidy handwritten notes etc….
… and once I’ve added any combination of the above I like the ease of being able to share the note even if it is just to my own devices via email. I also think it is awesome that anyone can read the notes you share via the sharable URL which does not require the receiver to have Evernote installed. Other options for sharing include:
Thanks Evernote for giving me a spare brain and unlimited storage on top of that! Eventhough the free version only allows 60MB per month there is no overall limit for usage over time! Bonus!
Download Evernote / Skitch, your spare brain today from Google’s Playstore, Apple’s itunes store or Windows app store.
We also have 2 Safari ebooks which you can read online about this app using your CPIT username and password to login. They are:
Sarna, D. (2012) Evernote for dummies
We have set up a board at the entrance to our Library where we welcome your suggestions for how you would like to experience our library of the future.
Go wild and tell us what your perfect library would have in it to make studying a breeze for you.
You can also let us know by commenting on this post on our Facebook page or Twitter
My family is from the United States and we celebrate important US holidays by having an American themed meal together.
Like many Americans we like to barbecue on July the 4th, Independence Day.
I am a fiend for barbecue, I would happily cook outdoors in snow to get that great taste!
To me there is nothing more cheering than a bbq in the midst of a kiwi winter. It speaks to spring hovering just around the corner. I recommend you give it a go this year.
Here are two family bbq recipes you might like to try this 4th of July:
BBQ “Dogs”
Hot dogs, ribs and hamburgers are staple July the 4th bbq food. In my family these are simply known as “dogs”, “…hey let’s have some dogs for dinner…!”. Best cooked on a charcoal bbq but they are just as tasty grilled on gas or in the oven.
Ingredients:
6 hot dogs
6 slices streaky bacon
6 hot dog buns, partially split, toasted lightly
1/4 cup iceberg lettuce, shredded
1/4 cup tomato, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1 cup grated cheese
tomato sauce/mustard/ ranch dressing
Directions:
1 Heat grill to medium heat.
2 Wrap bacon tightly around hot dogs.
3 Grill 10 – 12 minutes or until bacon is crisp and hot dogs are heated through, turning frequently.
4 Add buns to the grill the last 2 or 3 minutes of cooking to toast.
5 Drain hot dogs on a paper towel. Place lettuce in buns and top with tomato, sauce’s, onions and cheese.
6 large ears sweet corn in husks
2 tablespoons butter
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
Directions:
1 Carefully peel back corn husks to within 1 in. of bottom; remove silk. Rewrap corn in husks and secure with kitchen string. Soak corn in cold water for 1 hour.
2 Using long-handled tongs, moisten a paper towel with cooking oil and lightly coat the grill rack. Grill corn, covered, over medium heat for 25-30 minutes or until tender, turning occasionally. Remove string before serving.
3 Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt butter. Add the garlic, brown sugar, red pepper flakes and chili powder. Serve with grilled corn.
If you are keen to try a taste of American cuisine here are links to two websites with excellent July the 4th recipes:
The Food network:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/topics/4th-of-july.html
All Recipes:
http://allrecipes.com/recipes/holidays-and-events/4th-of-july/
A bit of a mind bender, but have you ever considered what the world would look like if the British had won the American War of Independence? Would the United States appear as it does now or would it be a bizarre, larger version of the United Kingdom?
To get in on the holiday action, and to poke fun at rampant patriotic displays by American companies, the quintessentially British brewer Newcastle Brown Ale has created Independence Eve, an American “holiday” designed specifically to celebrate this What If…
…and sell more beer of course…..!
On July 3rd, Newcastle is encouraging Americans to grab a Newcastle Brown Ale and toast to the country that nearly ran them.
Check out the videos exploring the idea at:
Ara Library Blog 