Word of the day

Mythopoeic – of or relating to the making of myths; causing, producing, or giving rise to myths;  a narrative genre in modern literature and film where a fictional or artificial mythology is created by the writer of prose or other fiction.

Saturday’s smiles

What did the bartender say when oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur, sodium, and phosphorous walked into his bar?
OH SNaP!

A neutron walks into a bar and asks the bartender, “How much for a beer?” The bartender gives a warm smile and says, “For you, no charge”.

What did one ion say to the other?
I’ve got my ion you.

Why did the chemist sole and heel her shoes with silicone rubber?
To reduce her carbon footprint.

What do you call a tooth in a glass of water?
One molar solution.

What do you call a clown who’s in jail?
 A silicon.

Why do chemists enjoy working with ammonia?
Because it’s pretty basic stuff.

What emotional disorder does a gas chromatograph suffer from?
Separation anxiety.

Why does hamburger yield lower energy than steak?
Because it’s in the ground state.

If H₂0 is water, what is H₂0₄?
Drinking, cooking, bathing, washing, swimming . .

Titanium is a most wanton metal. When it gets hot, it’ll combine with anything.

What did one titration say to the other?
“Let’s meet at the endpoint.”

 What did the Mass Spectrometer say to the Gas Chromatograph?
“Breaking up is hard to do.”

Old chemists never die, they just stop reacting.

What is “HIJKLMNO”?
H2O.

If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.

What element is derived from a Norse god?
Thorium.

 What happened to the man who was stopped for having sodium chloride and a nine-volt in his car?
He was booked for a salt and battery.

Little Willie was a chemist. Little Willie is no more. What he thought was H₂O was H₂SO₄.

What is the name of 007’s Eskimo cousin?
Polar Bond.

What kind of dogs do chemists have?
 Laboratory Retrievers

What kind of fish is made out of 2 sodium atoms?
2 Na

Rural round-up

Depression and anxiety a sickness not a weakness – Marc Gascoigne:

I don’t know anyone in my circle of friends and family who has been killed in a car accident. Or on a quad bike, or by drowning, or in a work accident, or any other sudden accidental death.

Except for suicide. In the last few years I have lost three close friends or family to suicide, the latest being my nephew on January 10.

Almost everyone I have talked to since then has said the same thing to me. . . 

Milking marvels: sheep one side of the shed, cows the other – Kate Taylor:

Belief in how they do things and the values their family hold are the prime drivers behind Sentry Hill Organics. Kate Taylor visited Tom and PJ White to find out more about how they do things their way.

There’s a lot of laughter at the White family home in Ashley Clinton – much of it aimed at themselves.

“We just do things differently,” Phillippa White says, who is known locally as PJ.

“Yep, we’re definitely not followers,” adds her husband Tom.

“We’re not leaders either though,” interrupts PJ, with a shake of her head. . .

Final plea for water intake – Annette Scott:

The final plea is out to farmers and investors to ensure a South Canterbury irrigation project can proceed.

Without the minimum uptake the proposers of the $110 million Hunter Downs irrigation scheme have indicated they would be forced to pull the plug.

The project, which had been 12 years in the making, was 10% short of the minimum uptake needed to proceed.

“We are making a final appeal to farmers and other key stakeholders to invest in this project,” Hunter Downs Water chairman Andrew Fraser said. . .

Dairy auction prices expected to lift on looming threat of drought – Tina Morrison:

(Business Desk) Prices on the GlobalDairyTrade auction may lift next week, snapping four consecutive declines, as the increased threat of drought in New Zealand weighs on expectations for Fonterra Cooperative Group’s milk production.

The NZX whole milk powder futures contracts for December last traded at US$2,840 a tonne, 3.7 per cent ahead of the equivalent contract at the last GlobalDairyTrade auction on November 21, signalling traders expect the price to rise at the next GDT auction overnight on December 5.

Longer-dated whole milk powder futures contracts are also signalling an increase, as are futures contracts for skim milk powder, while futures for butter and anhydrous milk fat point to declines. . .

Auckland’s future: vertical farming? – Adriana Weber:

Farming in high-rise buildings, warehouses or shipping containers could benefit a rapidly expanding Auckland, an expert in sustainability says.

Some farmers and industry groups, including Horticulture New Zealand, are worried productive land is increasingly being swallowed up by growing towns and cities.

The problem is especially evident in Auckland, the country’s fastest growing region, and in its southern vegetable growing towns like Pukekohe.

New York-based sustainability strategist Henry Gordon-Smith said Auckland should look into merging city and farm. . . 

Congratulations @FAR_Arable Anna Heslop who was presented the @NZIAHS Sir Arthur Ward Award this week for her significant contribution to the extension and adoption of agricultural or horticultural science. pic.twitter.com/OyU8do07HI

— Foundation for Arable Research (NZ) (@FARarable) November 30, 2017

Fonterra forecast down, shares up

Fonterra has dropped its forecast payout after being ordered to pay Danone $183 million in compensation:

Fonterra Cooperative Group has cut its forecast for 2018 earnings per share after an arbitration tribunal in Singapore ruled it must pay 105 million euros ($183 million) to Danone in the wake of 2013’s whey protein recall.

The award for recall costs suffered by Danone comes after the French company launched arbitration proceedings in Singapore and a legal suit in the New Zealand High Court, estimating the cost of recalling the whey protein concentrate to be about 350 million euros. At the time, Fonterra said it expected any court action would show it wasn’t liable under the contract. The recall was recognised as a $14 million contingent liability in its accounts.

In 2013, Fonterra quarantined several batches of whey protein concentrate amid fears it was contaminated with a potentially dangerous form of the clostridium bacteria. The whey protein was ultimately cleared as a false alarm. Fonterra cut deals with seven of the eight customers affected.

“We are disappointed that the arbitration tribunal did not fully recognise the terms of our supply agreement with Danone, including the agreed limitations of liability, which was the basis on which we had agreed to do business,” Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings said in a statement. Fonterra was “reviewing the tribunal’s findings closely, but recognised that there was likely to be limited options for challenging the decision of an international arbitration.”

Fonterra had assessed the potential financial implications of the decision and made “a prudent decision to revise its forecast earnings per share range for the 2017/18 financial year to 35 to 45 cents, down from 45 to 55 cents,” the company said. The decision wouldn’t impact the company’s forecast farmgate milk price, currently at $6.75 per kilogram of milk solids.

“Fonterra is in a strong financial position and is able to meet the recall costs,” Spierings said. As at July 31, Fonterra had $3.8 billion in undrawn lines of credit and $393 million of cash.

Earlier today, Danone said it “welcomes this arbitration decision as a guarantee that the lessons from the crisis will not be forgotten.” The arbitration “underscores the merit of its legal actions against Fonterra, including to champion the highest standards of food safety across the industry,” it said. Food companies and their suppliers “can only work together through a solid relationship based on trust, transparency, and accountability. Danone will continue to build that relationship with its suppliers across the world.” Danone’s New Zealand subsidiary Danone Nutricia ceased doing business with Fonterra in the wake of the dispute.

Fonterra had its shareholders’ fund units and listed bonds halted from trading today ahead of a media conference at 3pm in Auckland.

“While there was never any risk to the public, we have learned from this experience and as a result have made improvements to our escalation, product traceability and recall processes, and incident management systems,” Spierings said. “We operate in a fast-changing and complex industry, and will always prioritise food safety and quality in our commitment to be the world’s most trusted source of dairy nutrition.”

Since Danone ended its supply contract with Fonterra, it’s sourced product from Synlait Milk and other manufacturers and bought two Kiwi dairy processing companies, Sutton Group and Gardians, with the latter providing access to milk supply from 18 farms owned by Grant Paterson of Dunedin. 

While the forecast payout has dropped, Fonterra shares gained in price:

Fonterra Shareholders Fund units gained 0.6 percent to $6.40. . . 

The award for recall costs suffered by Danone comes after the French company launched arbitration proceedings in Singapore and a legal suit in the New Zealand High Court, estimating the cost of recalling the whey protein concentrate to be about 350 million euros. At the time, Fonterra said it expected any court action would show it wasn’t liable under the contract. The recall was recognised as a $14 million contingent liability in its accounts.

Fonterra had assessed the potential financial implications of the decision and made “a prudent decision to revise its forecast earnings per share range for the 2017/18 financial year to 35 to 45 cents, down from 45 to 55 cents,” the company said. The decision wouldn’t impact the company’s forecast farmgate milk price, currently at $6.75 per kilogram of milk solids.

“In the share price you’ve seen an element of relief, albeit on low volume” said Rickey Ward, NZ equity manager at JBWere. “There’s an issue that had been overhanging the company, which could be enormously material, which has been resolved, and it doesn’t appear there’s any desire to pursue recourse on this.”

“It’s full and final, it provides clarity and therefore investors can start to analyse or take a view of the company on fundamentals now, rather than this issue that’s been lurking in the background,” Ward said. “It could have been quite stressful for them if it had been at the upper end of what some people were suggesting. The company would have been capable of addressing it, but they would have had to find a way of addressing it which might not have pleased the unitholders in the shareholders’ fund.”

The market must have been expecting worse news.

Farmers have been anticipating a drop in the farmgate milk price in the wake of price falls in several successive GlobalDairyTrade auctions. However, it’s the earnings per share forecast which has been lowered, not the farmgate milk price.

Saturday saopbox

Saturday’s soapbox is yours to use as you will – within the bounds of decency and absence of defamation. You’re welcome to look back or forward, discuss issues of the moment, to pontificate, ponder or point us to something of interest, to educate, elucidate or entertain, amuse, bemuse or simply muse, but not abuse.

Flawsome – an individual who embraces their flaws and knows they’re awesome regardless.

December 2 in history

1409 – The University of Leipzig opened.

1755 – The second Eddystone Lighthouse was destroyed by fire.

1763 – Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in the United States.

1775 – The USS Alfred became the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag(the precursor to the Stars and Stripes); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.

1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himselfEmperor of the French, the first French Emperor in a thousand years.

1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Austerlitz – French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte defeated a joint Russo-Austrian force.

1823 – Monroe Doctrine: US President James Monroe delivered a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts.

1845 – Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk announced to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.

1848 – Franz Josef I became Emperor of Austria.

1851 – French President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte overthrew the Second Republic.

1852 – Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte became Emperor of the French (Napoleon III).

1859 – Georges Seurat, French painter was born (d. 1891).

1859 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown was hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper’s Ferry.

1867 – At Tremont Temple in Boston, British author Charles Dickens gave his first public reading in the United States.

1884 – Sir Erima Harvey Northcroft, New Zealand lawyer and judge, was born (d. 1953).

1899 – Philippine-American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed “The Filipino Thermopylae”, was fought.

1908 – Child Emperor Pu Yi ascended the Chinese throne at the age of two.

1917 – Six p.m. closing of pubs was introduced in New Zealand as a ‘temporary’ wartime measure. It ushered in what became know as the ‘six o’clock swill’, as patrons aimed to get their fill before closing time.

 

1917 – An armistice was signed between Russia and the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk and peace talks leading to the Treaty of Brest-Litovskbegan.

1920 – Following more than a month of Turkish-Armenian War, the Turkish dictated Treaty of Alexandropol is concluded.

1923 – Maria Callas was born (d. 1977).

1924 – Alexander Haig, American soldier and politician, was born (d. 2010).

1927 – Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveiled the Ford Model A .

1928 –  Frederick Bennett, who had a Ngāti Whakaue mother and an Irish father, became the first New Zealnder to be consecrated as a Bishop.

1930 – Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover went before the United States Congress and asked for a US$150 million public works programme to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.

1939 – New York City’s La Guardia Airport opened.

1942 – Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

1943 – A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks numerous cargo and transport ships, including an American Liberty ship, the John Harvey, with a stockpile of World War I-era mustard gas.

1946 – The British Government invited four Indian leaders, Nehru, Baldev Singh, Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan to obtain the participation of all parties in the Constituent Assembly.

1946 – John Banks, New Zealand businessman, MP and 38th Mayor of Auckland City was born.

1947 – Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Riots broke out in Jerusalem in response to the approval of the 1947 UN Partition Plan.

1948 – Elizabeth Berg, American nurse and author was born.

1954 – Red Scare: The United States Senate voted 65 to 22 to condemnJoseph McCarthy for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute”.

1954 – The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and China, was signed in Washington, D.C..

1956 – The Granma yacht reached the shores of Cuba’s Oriente province and Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution.

1961 – In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castrodeclared that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism.

1970 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency began operations.

1971 – Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain formed the United Arab Emirates.

1972 – Gough Whitlam became the first Labor Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years.

1975 – Pathet Lao seized power in Laos, and establishes the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

1976 – Fidel Castro became President of Cuba replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.

1977 – The first World Series Cricket “supertest” match played between Australia and West Indies.

1980 – Four U.S. nuns and churchwomen, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, and Dorothy Kazel, were murdered by a death squad in El Salvador.

1988 – Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state.

1990 – A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl won the first free all-German elections since 1932.

1993 – Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot and killed in Medellín.

1993 – STS-61 – NASA launched the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

1999 – Glenbrook rail accident near Sydney.

1999 – The United Kingdom devolved political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive.

2001 – Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

2008 – Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat resigned after the 2008 Thailand political crisis.

2015 – San Bernardino attack: Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people and wound 22 at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California.

2016 – 36 people died in a fire at a converted Oakland, California, warehouse serving as an artist collective.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia