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Tuesday 20th November Blog

Posted on Tue 20th Nov, 2018 in: Blog

Hello!

It's certainly getting colder now...

November has been mild but it will be all change this week as an easterly flow draws in much colder air. Over the last few weeks, daytime highs have been widely in the low to mid-teens, reaching 18C on the 3rd, 5th and 17th of this month. That is well above average, but by no means historic, with the UK's November record standing at 22.4C. During the week a strong easterly wind will draw in much colder air, with a significant wind-chill. Daytime highs will be around 5 to 8C, perhaps lower in some spots by Wednesday. The strong easterly wind will make it feel even colder, almost bitter in some coastal parts of the south and east. After a largely sunny and dry weekend, showers will move in from the east on Monday, becoming widespread and heavy from Tuesday. They will bring a wintry mix of hail, sleet and hill snow, even in the south.

It has been in the British Museum for 150 years, but now a delegation from Easter Island are in London to ask for the return of a seven-foot tall basalt sculpture, which they say is a key part of their ancestral history. The statue is known as Hoa Hakananai'a, which means "the stolen or hidden friend" in the Rapa Nui language. It is believed to date from around 1200 AD and is currently the focal point of the entrance to the museum's free-to-view Wellcome Gallery. Hoa Hakananai'a was removed from the island by Commodore Richard Powell, the captain of HMS Topaze, in 1868 and given as a gift to Queen Victoria, who then donated it to the museum in 1869. It is one of more than 900 giant Moai sculptures on Easter Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, most carved from volcanic ash between the sixth and seventeenth centuries and believed to carry the spirits of important ancestors. The island itself, 2000 miles off the coast of Chile, is a special Chilean territory and officially known as Rapa Nui. Last December, the indigenous Rapa Nui people took over the task of conserving, preserving and managing their archaeological heritage, and Chilean law holds that the statues are not objects but an integral part of the land itself.

A tiny Italian town has caught more than 58,000 people speeding in two weeks after setting up a trial speed camera. Alessandro Alessandri, the mayor of Acquetico, a tiny village of 120 mostly elderly people near the French border in northern Italy, installed the camera after dozens of complaints about speeding. The results revealed 58,568 speeding offences were committed in a fortnight between 13 and 27 September. On average, a car was caught speeding through the 50km/h (31mph) zone every few minutes, with the worst offender clocked doing 135km/h (84mph). Figures showed that the 20 worst offenders sped through the village in the middle of the day.

On this Day:

1945- The Nuremberg trials of 24 Nazi war criminals began

1975- Spanish dictator Franco dies

1992- A fire rages through Windsor Castle

1995- Diana Princess of Wales admits adultery in TV Interview

Famous Birthdays:

Singer and Britains Got Talent star Connie Talbot, 18

American Politician Joe Biden, 76

Singer Kimberley Walsh, 37

Have a great day!

The Millhouse World of Wood Team

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