27 May 2013

vermin

[vur-min]
noun, plural ver·min.

1. noxious, objectionable, or disgusting animals collectively, especially those of small size that appear commonly and are difficult to control, as flies, lice, bedbugs, cockroaches, mice, and rats.
2. an objectionable or obnoxious person, or such persons collectively.
3. animals that prey upon game, as coyotes or weasels.

Origin:
1300–50; Middle English vermyne < Anglo-French, Middle French vermin, vermine < Vulgar Latin *verminum, *vermina, based on Latin vermin-; see verminate

Today’s aphorism

It’s never too late to be what you might have been.

– George Eliot

On this day

27 May – 3 June: National Reconciliation Week, which is celebrated in Australia every year on these dates. The dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey — the anniversaries of the successful 1967 referendum (27 May) and the High Court Mabo decision (3 June 1992). The 1967 referendum saw over 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and recognise them in the national census. On 3 June, 1992, the High Court of Australia delivered its landmark Mabo decision which legally recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a special relationship to the land—that existed prior to colonalisation and still exists today. This recognition paved the way for land rights called Native Title. 2012 marked the 20th anniversary of the Mabo decision. http://www.reconciliation.org.au/nrw/what-s-nrw-