On November 13:

1715  Dorothea Erxleben,  first German female medical doctor, was born.

1841 James Braid first saw a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually called hypnotism.

1850 Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish writer, was born.

1906 Eva Zeisel, American industrial designer, was born.

1916 Australian Prime Minister  Billy Hughes was expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription.

1934 Peter Arnett, New Zealand-born American journalist, was born.

1955  Whoopi Goldberg, American actress, comedian, and singer, was born.

1971 The American space probe, Mariner 9, becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet successfully, swinging into its planned trajectory around Mars.

1985 The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted, melting a glacier, causing a lahar that buried Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people.

1990 David Gray killed 13 people at Aramoana.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Happy birthday Neil Young.

Paul Tremewan must have been a Boy Scout because he prepared for a two week absence by answering the next two Mondays’ quizes before leaving.

His first lot of answers were posted yesterday and Rob gave 4/5 for the correpsonding questions.  He’s right about #4, I don’t know about the others and googgled #5 but still didn’t work out the question.

The second lot of answers are:

1 15 May 1991, (replaced by the Employment Relations Act in 2000)
2 Maurice Duggan
3 Kevin Briscoe and Roger Urban
4 a Romney Perendale cross? (We city boys don’t know much about this apart from how they taste, and the fact that their wet weather gear makes excellent car seat covers!
(I learnt that as a student, working in the felly at AFFCO’s Moerewa Works!))
5 Mount Taranaki.

And the questions are?

The headline says: Train leaves track leaving major line closed in Southland.

The story says:

A train left its tracks between Canterbury and Otago last night, flipping five of its carriages onto their sides.

I don’t think it’s possible for a train to leave its tracks between Canterbury and Otago because they border each other at the Waitaki River.

The derailment must have happened in one province or the other and whichever it was the part of the line between Christchurch or Dunedin it happened on is well north of Southland.

Don’t reporters know New Zealand geogrpahy?

Aren’t subs supposed to correct these things?

Barry de Geest was born with physical disabilities because of the thalidomide prescribed to his mother when she was pregnant.

He grew up in Oamaru when I was a child and attitudes towards people with disaiblities were a lot less sensitive than they are now. But I remember him being widely admired for his positive attitude and many accomplishments. 

He lives an independent life but he’s come up against a parking problem. He was given a parking ticket, even though his disabled parking permit was prominently displayed.

He wrote to the company and explained. They replied he should still have paid to park.

But how does an armless man use a parking machine?