Word of the day

Nomogamosis – marriage between people highly suitable for each other.

I wonder who determines that and how?

Milk price stable at auction

There was little change in the trade-weighted price of milk in last night’s  globablDairy Trade auction.

The price of whole milk powder was down 1.4% to $3,477; skim milk powder went up 1.9% to $3,096; anhydrous milk fat was down 1.8% to $ 5,341 and butter milk fat went up 3.6% to $3,113.

7/10

7/10 in the Dominion Post’s political trivia quiz.

The engagement is announced . . .

Clarence House has announced the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Let’s quickly pass:

“Prince William has also sought the permission of Miss Middleton’s father.”

because the ideas that go with that don’t belong  in the 21st century.

Let’s note, and celebrate instead,  that Kate’s parents are still married and that will provide a better model for the couple than the marriage of the Prince’s parents

I love weddings but the marriage which follows is far more important and I hope Kate & William have  a happy one.

Who’s going to pay for lunch?

New Zealand has some fantastic opportunities in the food production and agricultural technology space. It is one of the few areas that we are recognised as world best. We can make a significant contribution to humanity. We should be proud of this. But rather than celebrate and support that success and champion the exciting opportunities, we have people marching against them. They want to inhibit just the possibility of carefully and environmentally harvesting just some of our resources, inhibit our film production, inhibit our food production. What’s left?

If these marching groups don’t want our fantastic primary exports to be allowed to pay for the country’s lunch, who do they suggest will?

Conor English, Federated Farmers chief executive asks a very good question.

Sustainability is supposed to balance economic, environmental and social considerations.

Too often economic and social factors come a very poor second and third to environmental ones based on emotion rather than science.

November 17 in history

On November 17:

284 – Diocletian was proclaimed emperor by his soldiers.

1183 – The Battle of Mizushima.

1292 – (O.S.) John Balliol became King of Scotland.

 

1511 – Spain and England allied against France.

1558 – Elizabethan era began: Queen Mary I of England died and was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.

1603 – English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason.

1659 – The Peace of the Pyrenees is signed between France and Spain.

 

1777 – Articles of Confederation are submitted to the states for ratification.

1796 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Arcole – French forces defeated the Austrians in Italy.

1800 – The United States Congress held its first session in Washington, D.C.

1811 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, was sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile.

1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Krasnoi.

1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer became the first American to see Antarctica.

 

1831 – Ecuador and Venezuela were separated from Greater Colombia.

1855 – David Livingstone became the first European to see the Victoria Falls.

1858 – Modified Julian Day zero.

1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville began.

 1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, was inaugurated.

1871 – The National Rifle Association was granted a charter by the state of New York.

1876 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky‘s Slavonic March is given its première performance in Moscow.

1878 – First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy.

1903 – The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party split into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for “majority”) and Mensheviks (Russian for “minority”).

1905 – The Eulsa Treaty was signed between Japan and Korea.

 

1919 – King George V proclaimed Armistice Day (later Remembrance Day).

1922 – Former Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI went into exile in Italy.

1925 Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, opened the New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition in Dunedin.

1925  Rock Hudson, American actor, was born.

1937 Peter Cook, British comedian, was born.

1938  Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer, was born.

1939 – Nine Czech students were executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal.All Czech universities were shut down and over 1200 Czech students sent to concentration camps.

1947 – The U.S. Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.

1947 – American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain observed the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th Century.

 

1950 – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was enthroned as the leader of Tibet at the age of fifteen.

1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland were evacuated to the mainland.

1957 – G-AOHP of British European Airways crashed at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport after a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicated Dulles International Airport.

1967 – Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, US President Lyndon B. Johnson told the nation that, while much remained to be done, “We are inflicting greater losses than we’re taking…We are making progress.”

1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis was condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greek dictator George Papadopoulos.

1968 – British European Airways introduced the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.

1969 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States met in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.

1970 – Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley went on trial for the My Lai massacre.

1970 – The Soviet Union landed Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon – the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world was released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.

1970 – Douglas Engelbart received the patent for the first computer mouse.

 

1973 – Watergate scandal: US President Richard Nixon told 400 Associated Press managing editors “I am not a crook”.

1973 – The Athens Polytechnic Uprising  against the military regime ended in bloodshed.

1974 – The Aliança Operário-Camponesa (Worker-Peasant Alliance) was founded in Portugal, as a front of PCP(m-l).

 

1978  Zoë Bell, New Zealand actress-stuntwoman, was born.

1979 – Brisbane Suburban Railway Electrification. The first stage from Ferny Grove to Darra was commissioned.

1982 – Duk Koo Kim died unexpectedly from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini prompting reforms in the sport of boxing.

1983 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation was founded.

1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution began: a student demonstration in Prague was quelled by riot police. This sparked an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government.

 

1990 – Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex erupted.

1997 – Luxor massacre: 62 people were killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut.

2000 – A landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, killed 7, and caused millions of SIT of damage.

2000 – Alberto Fujimori iwa removed from office as president of Peru.

2004 – Kmart Corp. announces that it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion USD and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia