Friday anthem - God Defend New Zealand/E Ihowa Atua

New Zealand is the only country in the world with two official national anthems. Many countries have a "national" anthem and a "royal" anthem, but in NZ, "God Defend New Zealand" and "God Save the Queen/King" are co-anthems. In reality, "God Defend NZ" is much more commonly played as the national anthem.

The song was first performed in 1876; two years later, it was first translated into Maori, and the plethora of vowels in Maori is clear from the shorter length of the Maori version (as more vowels = more short syllables). The meaning of "Pacific's triple star" is still unclear; it could stand for a Maori symbol, for the Southern Cross or for the three largest islands in NZ, to quote three theories.

The anthem became official in 1976 after the presentation of a petition to the House. Today, the Maori first verse is typically sung before the English first verse. Full lyrics and a history are available from the government of NZ; the Maori lyrics and their English translation are here.

There are lots of videos online for this one; the NZ government site linked to above also has several mp3s.

This version is a video formerly played on an NZ TV station; it includes two verses in Maori and three in English.



The video below is NZ singer Hayley Westenra singing both "God Defend NZ" and "God Save the Queen" at a memorial dedication in Britain.

Useless things I just learned

"Putin" in French is spelled "Poutine." Now I'm hungry again.

(Learned from: Le Monde.)

Decaying suburbs?

An interesting article at The Atlantic posits the idea of residential single-family suburbs turning into tomorrow's low income communities, homes divided into rental units, while cities redevelop and gentrify.

Key idea paragraph:

For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay.

It's interesting to think about. While I certainly could believe it, I'd like to know more about the reasons for these changes other than just "there's lots of demand out there." They said that about Clear Pepsi.

Michelle Obama in Houston

Michelle Obama spoke at UH in front of an estimated 1200 supporters last night. Michelle is a great speaker. She hit mostly the same points that you can see in the Youtube video (Part 1 here). The clip embedded here is a short bit of the actual Houston rally.

Those of you who know me can check out the picture with the article. As I headed off the stage, I got to shake the hand of the introductory speaker. I thought of absolutely nothing to say to him. Not one of my finer moments.

Tonight's Democratic debate

was pretty much useless and horribly repetitive. The best lines were Obama's quips--when they played Hillary parodying him at a campaign rally, and he responded "Sounds good"; and when they were debating the ridiculous Farrakhan question and he said "If Hillary thinks that reject is stronger than denounce, I'm happy to concede the point and I both reject AND denounce." Obama noting (during that same exchange) that he wouldn't be there if not for Jewish supporters of civil rights was good too.

The only point Hillary made that I don't think Obama rebutted effectively was during the interminable health-care segment. She hit him on mandates and he said something about "we want to make sure that kids have care but we don't want to force adults if the subsidies are not enough." Not good if your health-care plan is based on lowering costs sufficiently without mandates. I think there is a way to rebut but he didn't do it.

Hillary's SNL line was bad. That's two debates in a row where Hillary has had a horrible planned joke/line and it sounded whiny.

Last question... why can't we ever get NAFTA and immigration covered simultaneously, since everyone talks about "getting environmental and labor standards" (for Mexico obviously) and everyone talks about "improving economic conditions in Mexico" (to cut immigration long-term). Any thoughts from the candidates on how to reconcile the two? How, exactly, can we renegotiate NAFTA to be good for all Americans (in the short term)? How would Mexico get any advantage out of it, then?

It's time for baseball!

One of the great things The great thing about living in Houston is that there are nice days in February--nice enough to go see a baseball game in shorts. And so I ended up at Cougar Field at the University of Houston today, just in time to catch a painfully slow game between the Cougars and Pacific. I was almost asleep as the game dragged on for four hours, but was brought back to life by a great last two innings, as the Cougars, who trailed all game, rallied to win in the bottom of the ninth.

I met someone there who was a contributor to Project Scoresheet, the sabermetric project from the early '80s that later evolved into STATS Inc. The project got its impetus from the refusal of baseball's official statistician (Elias) to share specific data. He told me about a conversation he'd had with one of the Astros' announcers at the time. "I was telling him about these numbers," the man said, "and he said to me, 'That's great, but nothing will ever replace the crack of the bat and the smell of the grass.' " And so it is.

Time for baseball once more!