The 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team was a New Zealand rugby union team that toured Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand in 1888 and 1889.  It mostly comprised players of Māori ancestry, and also included some Pākehā (white New Zealanders).  A wholly private endeavour, the tour was not under the auspices of any official rugby authority; it was organised by New Zealand international player Joseph Warbrick, promoted by civil servant Thomas Eyton, and managed by James Scott, a publican.  The Natives were the first New Zealand team to perform a haka, and also the first to wear all black.  They played 107 rugby matches during the tour, as well as a small number of Victorian Rules football and association football matches in Australia.  Having made a significant impact on the development of New Zealand rugby, the Natives were inducted into the International Rugby Board Hall of Fame in 2008.  The tour had a significant impact on the development of rugby within New Zealand. It was the first tour of the British Isles by a team from the Southern Hemisphere, and the longest in the history of the sport.  By the time the Natives returned to New Zealand, they had developed into a side superior to any in the country, and introduced a number of tactical innovations.  The tour also prompted the eventual formation of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU, later renamed New Zealand Rugby Union) in 1892; one reason for its formation was to ensure greater control over any future touring New Zealand sides.  The Natives are also the forefathers of the Māori All Blacks, a representative team organised by the NZRFU, that first played in 1910.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1888%E2%80%9389_New_Zealand_Native_football_team

How the financial sector has evolved over the periods both before and after the financial crisis of 2007-8.  This paper is the first in a series, examining the balance sheets of the four largest banks; it will be followed by papers on the regional banks, the smaller banks and the shadow financial sector.  The assets and liabilities of the big four banks grew very rapidly for years prior to the financial crisis as a result of deregulation, particularly through the Riegle-Neal Act in 1994, but also from the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.  These laws gave banks the ability to consolidate and expand both across geographic and service lines, and they continued to do until the crisis hit years later.  Paired with generally robust economic growth, the deregulation of the financial sector enabled the largest banks to post double-digit growth rates right up to the onset of the crisis.  The theme of consolidation continued, in a way, into 2008 as the U.S. government encouraged acquisitions of troubled financial institutions by stronger ones during the worst moments of the crisis.  With no clear precedents or protocols for managing the failures of such large and interconnected institutions like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Bear Stearns before the crisis, the U.S. government took was forced to take an ad hoc approach, pushing  these major investment banks into mergers with or acquisitions by other, stronger private institutions.  Likewise, to deal with failing depository institutions, the U.S. government encouraged mergers with stronger banks or dispositions of bank subsidiaries by troubled institutions to other banks, with support provided by the FDIC as required.  As a result, today, the four biggest banks (“Big Four”) are JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.  http://www.bespacific.com/the-big-four-banks-the-evolution-of-the-financial-sector-part-i/

More than a quarter of Americans cannot go online at home to check their children’s grades at school, apply for jobs, pay bills or research health issues.  They don’t have what has become a crucial service for participation in modern society:  Internet service at home.  The proportion of households with Internet service had been rising steadily for decades, according to the Pew Research Center, until the past few years when the adoption rate slowed.  One reason?  The high cost of broadband and the lack of competition that leads to those high prices.  A Center for Public Integrity analysis of Internet prices in five U.S. cities and five comparable French cities found that prices in the U.S. were as much as 3 1/2 times higher than those in France for similar service.  The analysis shows that consumers in France have a choice between a far greater number of providers—seven on average—than those in the U.S., where most residents can get service from no more than two companies.  Allan Holmes  http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/01/16998/us-internet-users-pay-more-and-have-fewer-choices-europeans

Q.  If the is pronounced thee before vowels, why do we say thee hour and thuh one?  A. Thee is used before vowels and vowel sounds.  The h in hour is silent.  The o in one is pronounced w.

The United States presidential election of 1788–89 was the first quadrennial presidential election.  It was held from Monday, December 15, 1788 to Saturday, January 10, 1789.  It was the first presidential election in the United States of America under the new United States Constitution, which was adopted on September 17, 1787, and the only election to ever take place partially in a year that is not a multiple of four.  In this election, George Washington was unanimously elected for the first of his two terms as president, and John Adams became the first vice-president.  Before this election, the United States had no chief executive.  Under the previous system agreed to under Articles of Confederation, the national government was headed by the Confederation Congress, which had a ceremonial presiding officer and several executive departments, but no independent executive branch.  The enormously popular Washington essentially ran unopposed.  The only real issue to be decided was who would be chosen as vice-president.  Under the system then in place, each elector cast votes for two persons; if a person received a vote from a majority of the electors, that person became president, and the runner-up became vice-president. All 69 electors cast one vote each for Washington. Their other votes were divided among eleven other candidates; John Adams received the most, becoming vice-president. The Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, would change this procedure, requiring each elector to cast distinct votes for president and vice-president.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1788%E2%80%9389

Thank you, Muse reader! 

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg    What happens when you remove the letter ‘a’ from the front of the alphabet?  You b-head it.  Each of this week’s words sprouts another word when you behead it. 

scop   (shop, skop)  noun  A poet or minstrel.  From Old English scop (poet, minstrel).  Earliest documented use:  888.

junto  (JUHN-to)  noun   A small, usually secret group of people united for a common purpose.  Alteration of Spanish/Portuguese junta (committee, association), from Latin jungere (to join).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root yeug- (to join), which also gave us yoke, junction, jugular, adjust, syzygy, subjugate, rejoinder, jugulate, and yoga.  Earliest documented use:  1641.

Feedback from the Muser:  Remove the first letter from either place or lace, and find a remaining word.  Remove the last letter from either beep or bee, and find a remaining word.

Based on a thorough review of the scientific evidence, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on June 16, 2015 finalized its determination that partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), the primary dietary source of artificial trans fat in processed foods, are not “generally recognized as safe” or GRAS for use in human food.  Food manufacturers will have three years to remove PHOs from products.  Since 2006, manufacturers have been required to include trans fat content information on the Nutrition Facts label of foods.  Between 2003 and 2012, the FDA estimates that consumer trans fat consumption decreased about 78 percent and that the labeling rule and industry reformulation of foods were key factors in informing healthier consumer choices and reducing trans fat in foods.  http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm451237.htm

Bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo  18-19-20-21 June 2015   Link to history at https://www.waterloo2015.org/en

Kings and commoners gather at Waterloo this week to mark the battle's bicentenary in a show of European unity not seen for a major anniversary at the site since history changed course there on June 18, 1815.  Days of official ceremony, a music-and-fireworks spectacular and re-enactments of the bloody summer day that finally ended Napoleon's French domination of the continent have been heralded by a flurry of academic reassessment of the conflict and renewed debate, and discomfort, over its meaning for Europe today.  Alistair MacDonald  http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/15/us-waterloo-anniversary-idUSKBN0OV1QR20150615  Thank you, Muse reader!

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1312  June 17, 2015  On this date in 1818, Charles Gounod, French composer, was born.  On this date in 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor.