You’re right. I went on an inspection of rice growing many years ago. In Australia the rice used to be sown from aircraft over vast laser levelled fields and grown mostly in the Riverina. The water depth is controlled from 5cm to 25cm during the growing period depending on the stage of growth. the water is collected and reused. The water protects the crop from cold night time temperatures.
Only farms with massive water entitlements grow rice, I also recall that there are two varieties of rice I forget the tropical name but the temperate one is called Japonica, a medium grain rice (I think that is right).
Australia only grows a small portion of world production and production has decreased as there are less water intensive crops such as cotton, wheat etc which are more valuable.
According to this evening’s news China has gone from 5th world car exporter to 1st in three years and now exports more cars than the rest of the world put together.
One of my son’s has one and is very pleased with it.
Wheel-lock guns originated around the early 1500s, and had a type of spring mechanism that needed to be wound up. When the trigger was pulled, a wheel spun against a piece of pyrite as the spring unwound, generating sparks that ignited the charge.
The tool used to turn the mechanism through its full range or span was called … a spanner.
The term, lock, stock, and barrel refer to the three main components of a long-gun, all being separate components at the time.
This is similar to the three main components of an acoustic guitar; long-bit, fat-bit, and hole. The hole was protected by strings that could be used for slicing hard boiled (shelled) eggs.
The “Gap” was also the cause of many shipwrecks. It is just south of the entrance to Sydney Harbour and in stormy weather it was easily mistaken for the entrance and ships foundered on the rocks
The anchor of the most tragic ship wreck is still there to this day. In 1857 the Dunbar hit the rocks at the Gap trying to enter Sydney Harbour there were few survivors.
In London, there’s a woman who goes every day on the underground and sits on the platform just to listen to the announcement recorded by her husband in 1950.
Margaret McCollum after the death of her husband Oswald Laurence, sits on the bench waiting to hear this recording that became one of London’s most famous “Mind the gap”. In 2003, Oswald died leaving a huge void in Margaret’s heart.
So Margaret found a way to feel his presence closest. After more than half a century, this voice was replaced by an electronic recording.
Out of distress Margaret asked for this cassette tape from London transport company so she could continue listening to her husband’s voice at home.
After becoming aware of the moving history, the company decided to restore the announcement at the stop near where Margaret lives, at the Embankment stop of Northern Line, where all passengers can listen today and hear Oswald Laurence’s voice and to think that eternal love really exists.
Despite having performed the lead role in the Broadway and London stage versions of My Fair Lady, the producers of the film version released in 1964 dumped Julie Andrews in favour of Audrey Hepburn, because, “they wanted a name.”
The problem was that Ms Hepburn couldn’t sing and all but one of the songs performed by her character was dubbed by a lady called Marni Dixon. The only time she did sing was during the harsh chorus of one particular song.
I seem to remember reading that Marni Dixon did the singing in a lot of movies for actresses that couldn’t sing back in the day.
I vaguely recall she voiced Anna in the King and I (Deborah Kerr) and Maria in West Side Story (Natalie Wood) as well as many others yet she was never credited in any film she voiced
It was only after many failed attempts that, in 1807 , the slave trade in the British Empire was abolished. However, slaves in the colonies (excluding areas ruled by the East India Company) were not freed until 1838 – and only after slave-owners, rather than the slaves themselves, received compensation.
In the first ever series of Doctor Who that aired in 1963, called “An Unearthly Child,” two teachers became concerned about the welfare of a student called Susan Foreman, so they followed her, ending up in a scrapyard bearing the legend I.M.Foreman, Scrap Merchant, on the gates.
Inside they eventually come across Susan’s grandfather, a Doctor of “something.” At one point, one of the teachers calls to the grandfather, “Doctor Foreman.”
The grandfather replies, “Doctor who?”
