31st May: Walt Whitman

10 quotes from Walt Whitman, US writer, born on this date in 1819.

1. Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
2. I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.
3. I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.
4. I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends.
5. Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.
6. To have great poets, there must be great audiences.
7. Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul.
8. A writer can do nothing for men more necessary, satisfying, than just simply to reveal to them the infinite possibility of their own souls.
9. Those who love each other shall become invincible.
10. Of all sad words, of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been.' Let's add this thought, unto this verse: 'It might have been a great deal worse.

30th May: Flower Month

May is Flower Month, so today, some deep thoughts about flowers:

1. Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. Gray
3. A gift not enjoyed is like a flower that doesn’t blossom. Kramer
4. Pulsating gratitude sunders the stone with the tender violence of a flower. Gianni Versace Profumi
5. Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. Hans Christian Andersen
6. Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature. Gerard De Nerval
7. Life is the flower for which love is the honey. Victor Hugo
8. A weed is but an unloved flower. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
9. The flower in the vase smiles, but no longer laughs. Malcolm de Chazal
10. The Amen of nature is always a flower. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

29 May: Nigeria Democracy Day

Democracy day is a public holiday In Nigeria. Here are ten things you may not have known about Nigeria:

1. Nigeria is often referred to as the "Giant of Africa" because it has a large population and successful economy. As of 2015, Nigeria is the world's 20th largest economy. It has a population of 162.5 million people. 2.35% of the world's population, or one out of every 43 people on the planet is Nigerian.
2. As well as a lot of people, there are also a lot of species of butterfly, more than any other country in the world. Most of the Butterflies live in the region of Calabar, Cross River State.
3. The name Nigeria comes from the Niger River running through the country. The Niger Delta is the second largest delta on the planet.
4. Archaeologists believe humans have lived in Nigeria since 9,000 BC, with the Nok civilization being the oldest in existence. Africa's oldest known boat, the Dufuna Canoe, was discovered by a Fulani Herdsmen in Dufuna, Yobe.
5. The richest man in Africa, and the richest black person in the world, lives in Nigeria. His name is Aliko Dangote; he's worth an estimated $12 billion. He is a commodities tycoon.
6. The capital city is Abuja and the largest city is Lagos.
7. The highest point in Nigeria is Chappal Waddi at 2,419 m (7,936 ft).
8. The Yoruba people are one of Nigeria's main ethnic groups. They have the highest rate of non-identical Twins in the world - 45–50 twin sets per 1,000 live births. This is thought to be because they eat a lot of a specific type of yam which contains a natural phytoestrogen which may stimulate the ovaries to release an egg from each side. The first of the twins to be born is traditionally named Taiyewo, which means 'the first to taste the world', often shortened to Taiwo, Taiye or Taye. The traditional name for the younger twin is Kehinde, which is short for Omokehindegbegbon and means, 'the child that came last gets the rights of the eldest'.
9. So Taiwo Akinkunmi, who designed the national flag at the age of 23, when he was studying at Norwich Technical College, may have been the first of a set of twins. His was the winning entry in a competition in 1959, although his design included a badge in the centre which the judges removed. The Flag consists of two Green stripes representing Nigeria's natural wealth, with a white band in the middle, which represents peace.
10. Nigeria's film industry, known as Nollywood, is now the 2nd-largest producer of movies in the world.

28 May: Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming, English author, journalist and naval intelligence officer best known for his James Bond series of spy novels, was born on this date in 1908.

1. He came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. He was born in Mayfair, was educated at Eton, Sandhurst and the universities of Munich and Geneva. His father was the Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. His father's obituary was penned by none other than Winston Churchill himself.
2. Although best known for the James Bond novels, Fleming also wrote three non-fiction books, two of which were published. The first, The Diamond Smugglers, was published in 1957 and was partly based on background research for Diamonds Are Forever. In 1960 Fleming was commissioned by the Kuwait Oil Company to write a book on the country and its oil industry, but they didn't like what he wrote so it was never published. Fleming's second non-fiction book was published in 1963. It was called Thrilling Cities, and was a reprint of a series of Sunday Times articles based trips taken during 1959 and 1960.
3. Fleming also wrote the children's story, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, which was based on the bedtime stories he told his son. It was written while Fleming was recovering from a heart attack in 1961. It was published in October 1964, two months after his death.
4. He wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952. He later claimed he wrote it to take his mind of his forthcoming marriage to his pregnant mistress, and called it his "dreadful oafish opus". One of the people who helped type up the manuscript for him was his secretary at The Times on whom Miss Moneypenny was based.
5. He based several of his characters on real people, including Bond himself (Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war", Fleming said. These included his brother, Peter, Conrad O'Brien-ffrench, a spy whom Fleming had met while skiing in Kitzbühel in the 1930s, Patrick Dalzel-Job, who served with distinction in 30AU during the war, and Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale, station head of MI6 in Paris) and some of his villains were named after people he didn't like - Scaramanga was a boy he fought with in school and Goldfinger was named after British architect Ernő Goldfinger, whose work Fleming disliked.
6. Also, to some extent, he based Bond on himself. He had the same golf handicap, his taste for scrambled Eggs, his love of gambling, and used the same brand of toiletries. Fleming, like Bond, was a bit of a womaniser. It got him into trouble even at school, which is why he left early for a crammer course to gain entry to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. While there, he contracted gonorrhea. The woman he eventually married, Ann Charteris, was his mistress during her two marriages to other men. Her second husband divorced her because of her relationship with him (she'd been carrying on with Fleming in Jamaica, having told her husband she was visiting Noel Coward). They married presumably because Ann was pregnant and both of them had affairs after marriage.
7. Fleming's day jobs gave him plenty of experience to draw upon in his writing. In May 1939 Fleming was recruited by Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence of the Royal Navy, as his personal assistant. This involved coming up with plans, outlined in memos, to dump a fresh corpse dressed as an airman behind enemy lines with a failed parachute and false papers to mislead the enemy. He also outlined a scheme to "obtain" a German bomber, man it with a German-speaking crew in Luftwaffe uniforms, and crash it into the English Channel. When the Germans rescued them, they'd attack them, and bring their boat and the Enigma machine back to England. Alan Turing and Peter Twinn at Bletchley Park would have liked this to have happened, but it never did. Admiral Godfrey put Fleming in charge of Operation Goldeneye, a plan to maintain an intelligence framework in Spain in the event of a German takeover between 1941 and 1942; Fleming's plan involved maintaining communication with Gibraltar and launching sabotage operations against the Nazis. In 1942 Fleming formed a unit of commandos. Even though he didn't fight with them in the field he gave them orders. They didn't like him because he called them his "Red Indians".
8. He also worked as a journalist for a while. After he failed entrance exams to the foreign office, his mother got him a job with Reuters News Agency. During this time he covered the Stalinist show trial of six engineers from the British company Metropolitan-Vickers. While in Moscow, he wrote to Stalin requesting an interview. He was turned down but by means of a hand written note from Stalin himself, apologising for not being able to meet him.
9. During an Anglo-American intelligence summit in Jamaica in 1942, Fleming fell in love with the country and decided to buy a house there. The house was named Goldeneye and it was where he wrote his novels.
10. In 2011 Fleming became the first English-language writer to have an international airport named after him: Ian Fleming International Airport, near Oracabessa, Jamaica.

27th May: Vincent Price

May seems to be a bumper month for birthdays of horror movie actors. 27th May 1911 was the birth date of Vincent Price.

1. He was the son of Marguerite Cobb (née Wilcox) and Vincent Leonard Price, Sr., who was the president of the National Candy Company.
2. His grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, invented "Dr. Price's Baking Powder," the first cream of tartar baking powder.
3. He made his film debut in 1938 with Service de Luxe and established himself in the film Laura (1944), opposite Gene Tierney, directed by Otto Preminger.
4. Price often spoke of his pleasure at playing Egghead in the Batman television series. One of his co-stars, Yvonne Craig (Batgirl), said Price was her favourite villain in the series. In an often-repeated anecdote from the set of Batman, Price, after a take was printed, started throwing eggs at Adam West and Burt Ward, and when asked to stop, replied, "With a full artillery? Not a chance!", causing an Egg fight to erupt on the soundstage.
5. He was the voice of "Thriller".
6. He also voiced Vincent van Ghoul in Scooby Doo.
7. He was a lifelong Roller Coaster fan.
8. His last significant film work was as the inventor in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990).
9. Price was a noted gourmet cook. He wrote several cookbooks and hosted a cookery TV show, Cooking Pricewise. Once, when he was a guest on The Tonight Show, he demonstrated to Johnny Carson how to poach a fish in a dishwasher.
10. He was an art collector, too and donated hundreds of works of art and a large amount of money to East Los Angeles College in the early 1960s in order to endow the Vincent Price Art Museum there. The Vincent Price Art Museum was built to house art works and present exhibits.

26th May: Peter Cushing

Peter Cushing was born on 26 May 1913. He was a horror film actor, but also appeared in Sherlock Holmes and Star Wars.

1. He was a keen birdwatcher.
2. His middle name was Wilton.
3. In 1976, he was cast in Star Wars, which was shooting at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood. He appeared as Grand Moff Tarkin.
4. During production Cushing was presented with ill-fitting riding boots for the role and they pinched his feet so much that he was given permission by George Lucas to play the role wearing his slippers. The camera operators filmed him above the knees or standing behind the table of the conference room set.
5. He was a fan of Tom Mix, who was also influential in John Wayne's career.
6. He was a vegetarian.
7. One of his hobbies was watercolour painting.
8. After the death, in 1971, of his wife, Helen, he said, “the loneliness is almost unbearable… the only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that my dear Helen and I will be united again some day.”
9. His sketch of Sherlock Holmes became the official logo for the Northern Musgraves, a British Sherlock Holmes society.
10. He wrote to the BBC programme "Jim'll Fix It" asking that a new Rose be bred and named after his late wife. Jim fixed it.

25th May: Jordan Independence Day

Today is Jordan Independence Day. 10 facts you may not have known about Jordan.

1. Jordan is almost, but not quite, landlocked. It has a 26 km (16 mi) coastline on the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea, where the country's only port, Aqaba, is located. It may be the only one, but Jordan seems to have gone for quality rather than quantity where ports are concerned - the port was ranked as being the "Best Container Terminal" in the Middle East by Lloyd's List.
2. The kingdom is named after the Jordan River. The origin of the river's name is disputed - it is either from the Hebrew word "yarad" meaning "the descender" or the Arabic word "wrd" meaning "to come to" as in people coming to a major source of water - as well they might since Jordan is the world's second poorest country in terms of Water resources per capita.
3. Unlike many countries in the region, Jordan doesn't have oil reserves, but is rich in phosphates and Uranium.
4. The capital and largest city is Amman.
5. The highest point in Jordan is Jabal Umm al Dami, at 1,854 m (6,083 ft), while the lowest is the Dead Sea −420 m (−1,378 ft) which also happens to be the lowest land point on earth. The Dead Sea is known for being 20 times saltier than seawater, hence all those pictures of people floating in it while reading a book! The water and the mud around it are rich in minerals - good for the skin and said to help relieve joint pain. The lake gives off bromine, a natural sedative, so it's a very relaxing place to be.
6. Instability in the region has damaged the tourist industry of Jordan although there is plenty to see. It has numerous historical sites of religious significance to both Christians and Muslims, including: Al-Maghtas where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist; Mount Nebo where Moses looked on to the Promised Land; Machaerus, a fortified hilltop overlooking the Dead Sea where John the Baptist was imprisoned and executed; Umm Qais where Jesus is thought to have expelled demons out of a man near the shores of the Sea of Galilee; shrines of the prophet Muhammad's companions who died during battles with the Byzantines; the site of the Battle of Mu'tah in Al-Karak where the shrines of 'Abd Allah ibn Rawahah, Ja'far ibn Abi Talib and Zayd ibn Harithah lie; and Ajlun Castle built by Muslim Ayyubid leader Saladin in the 12th century AD during his wars with the crusaders. The ancient city of Petra is here and the more modern attractions of filming locations for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lawrence of Arabia, Red Planet, and The Martian.
7. The black iris is Jordan’s national flower. It grows only in Wadi Rum and only in spring.
8. The national dish is mansaf — lamb shank cooked in fermented Yoghurt broth, dried and seasoned with paprika and cumin, and served on a large platter with sherak (flatbread) and Rice. The lamb is sprinkled with pine nuts and chopped Almonds, warm yogurt sauce.
9. Jordan is a monarchy. At time of writing the king is Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, who has reigned since February 1999. Another well-known member of the Jordanian royal family is Queen Noor, an American who married the previous monarch King Hussein, and is the current king's step-mother. Although the people were unsure about having a foreign born queen at first, they soon warmed to her. She is known for her charitable and philanthropic work.
10. Jordan is one of the least forested countries in the world. Less than 2% of it is covered in trees. The usual average is 15%.

24th May: Eritrea

The State of Eritrea formed on this date in 1991. Here are 10 things you may not know about Eritrea:

1. The name Eritrea derives from the Greek name for the Red Sea.
2. The nation has a total area of approximately 117,600 km2 (45,406 sq mi), about half the size of the UK, and includes some islands - the Dahlak Archipelago, which has been known for its Pearl fishing since Roman times, and several of the Hanish Islands, most of which belong to Yemen.
3. Eritrea has no official language. This is because the Constitution states all languages should be equal. The most widely spoken language is Tigrinya.
4. The capital and largest city is Asmara, known locally as Asmera (meaning "The four made them unite" in Tigrinya. It has been nicknamed the "Italy's African City" or "New Rome". Eritrea was once an Italian colony and there are still Italian influences in the city, not least the cuisine, which makes more use of pasta than most African countries.
5. There is only one political party - the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice. Since the state was established in 1991 there have been no elections. Several have been scheduled, but all of them were cancelled.
6. In 2006, Eritrea announced that it would become the first country in the world to turn its entire coast into an environmentally protected zone.
7. The highest point is Soira at 3,018m and the lowest is the Denakil Depression, also thought to be one of the hottest places on Earth.
8. In terms of religion, the population is virtually evenly split between Christianity and Islam, with about 2% following other religions. In 2006, there was just one Jewish person in Erirtea, Sami Cohen. The government has banned radical or reformed versions of its two main religions, so Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses cannot worship freely here, and some have even been sent to prison for their faith.
9. As China has Tea ceremonies, Eritrea has a Coffee ceremony. The coffee is traditionally served in three rounds: the first brew or round is called awel in Tigrinya meaning first, the second round is called kalaay meaning second, and the third round is called bereka meaning "to be blessed".
10. Humans have lived here for a very long time. Some experts believe the first humans ever lived here. The port city of Adulis is one of Africa’s most ancient cities, founded by the Greeks in 600, while it is believed that the Kingdom of Axum (Aksum), in southern Eritrea was founded by King Solomon’s son and the Queen of Sheba.

23rd May: World Turtle Day

Ten facts about turtles and tortoises for World Turtle Day:

1. Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines or Chelonii, which includes turtles, tortoises and terrapins. In the UK, the word turtle generally means an aquatic creature while the turtles which live on land are called tortoises. In North America, they tend to refer to all members of the family as turtles. In Spain, there is only one word for turtles and tortoises so in Spanish they are essentially called marine turtles or land turtles.
2. The largest type of turtle alive today is the leatherback sea turtle. It can grow to 200 cm (6.6 ft) and can weigh over 900 kg (2,000 lb). There was a turtle alive in the Late Cretaceous period which could reach 4.6 m (15 ft) in length. The smallest turtle is the speckled padloper tortoise of South Africa. It is 8 cm (3.1 in) in length and weighs about 140 g (4.9 oz).
3. The upper shell of the turtle is called the carapace. The lower shell that encases the belly is called the plastron. The two parts are joined at the sides by bony bridges. A turtle's shell is attached to its backbone and ribs, so it can't crawl out of its shell.
4. Most turtle shells are Brown, Black or Olive green, depending on where the turtle lives. There are some species which have red, Orange, Yellow, or Grey markings, spots, lines, or irregular blotches. The eastern painted turtle is particularly colourful with a yellow plastron and a black or olive shell with red markings around the rim.
5. Turtles are thought to see very well at night and good colour vision, from red to near ultraviolet. They have ears, but not ear openings. They're not deaf, but they don't hear well - just well enough to tell if a predator is coming.
6. In some species, the temperature around the egg determines whether it turns into a male or a female. A higher temperature causes a female, a lower temperature causes a male.
7. A group of turtles is known as a bale.
8. Turtles have been to space. In September 1968, the Soviet Union launched the space probe Zond 5 on a mission to orbit the moon and test conditions before sending people up there. The spacecraft carried a number of living passengers, including a pair of Russian tortoises. They made it back to Earth and were rescued along with the other animals. They'd lost 10% of their body weight, had a lot of glycogen and Iron in their liver tissue and some changes in their spleens; but otherwise they were none the worse for it and were still active and eating.
9. Sea turtles have glands near their eyes which produce salty tears. They're not crying, though, they are getting rid of the extra Salt they take in from drinking seawater.
10. Turtles and tortoises can make sounds by by swallowing or forcing air out of their lungs. Some species make some very odd noises, sounding like Chickens clucking, Dogs barking, electric motors whining or a human belch.

22nd May: National Maritime Day

National Maritime Day celebrates the first Atlantic crossing by a steamship. De Savannas sailed from Savannah, Georgia to Liverpool, England in 1819. Here are ten quotes about seamanship:

1. We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship. Omar Bradley
2. If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
3. Smooth seas do not make skilful sailors. African proverb
4. Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk. Sir Francis Chichester
5. The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail itself. John Rousmaniere
6. If you have the sea in your soul, then boat rides can become a spiritual experience. Tom Anderson
7. The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
8. You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. Christopher Columbus
9. Perhaps we cannot raise the winds, but each of us can put up the sail, so that when the wind comes we can catch it. EF Scumacher
10. You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Rabindranath Tagore

21st May: World Whiskey Day

The third Saturday in May is World Whiskey Day - so here are some things you may not have known about whiskey! Cheers!

1. The word whiskey is derived from the Gaelic Uisge (pronounced 'uski') Beatha which means “water of life”.
2. Is it spelled "whisky" or "whiskey"? Some say it's down to personal preference but in general the accepted protocol is that "whisky" is produced in Scotland and "whiskey" anywhere else. Since I am providing you with facts about the drink in general and not specifically the Scottish variety, I'm going with "whiskey". A theory I found as to why there is a variation in spelling is that in Scotland, they believe spelling it with an extra vowel wastes drinking time!
3. Whiskey is basically Beer. Making beer is the first step in making whiskey. The beer is then distilled a few extra times.
4. While it is stored in barrels, whiskey evaporates at a rate of 4% a year. This natural loss is referred to as The "Angel's share".
5. Tabasco sauce is aged in barrels that previously contained Jack Daniels whiskey. It gives the sauce an extra kick.
6. The first confirmed written record of whiskey in Ireland comes from 1405, in the Irish Annals of Clonmacnoise, which attributes the death of a chieftain to "taking a surfeit of aqua vitae" at Christmas. In Scotland, the first written mention is an entry in the Exchequer Rolls for 1494 where malt is sent "To Friar John Cor, by order of the king, to make aquavitae", enough to make about 500 bottles.
7. The first whiskey in the UK was produced by monks, in particular the Guild of Surgeon Barbers, which held the monopoly on production. After Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, the monks who survived would produce whiskey in their homes to make a living. The term "moonshine" comes from when most of Scotland's distillation was either shut down or forced underground by the English Malt Tax of 1725. Distillation was done at night, so the authorities couldn't see the smoke from the stills.
8. In 1799, the largest producer of Whiskey in the USA was none other than George Washington himself. During prohibition in the US, it was possible to get a medical prescription for whiskey. At the time, they weren't aware of any actual medicinal properties, although now it is claimed drinking a moderate amount helps prevent dementia, stroke, Heart disease and even cancer.
9. Whiskey can survive temperatures below -30 Celsius. A crate of Mackinlay whiskey dating from 1896 or 1897 was found in Antarctica in 2011, and it wasn't frozen.
10. To finish, a couple of whiskey related world records. The World's Oldest Whiskey is a 400ml bottle of Glenavon Special Liqueur Whiskey, rumoured to be packaged in between 1851 and 1858 and owned by an Irish family till it was auctioned off to Bonhams in London for £14,850. The most expensive whiskey in the world is a Lalique decanter of Macallan ‘M’ whiskey which was auctioned for £393,109 in Hong Kong. The decanter contains 6 litres of whisky drawn from Spanish Oak sherry casks dating from the 1940s to the 1990s.

20th May: Cameroon National Day

National Day of Cameroon - celebrates the transition from a federal state to a unitary one.  10 things you didn't know about Cameroon.

1. The capital of Cameroon is Yaoundé, and the largest city is the port of Douala.
2. The highest point is Mount Cameroon, an active volcano which is 4,100 metres (13,500 ft) high. Each year, the mountain is the setting for a 24 mile/38km race called the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope.
3. They have a good Football team. Cameroon is the first African country to reach the quarter-final in the soccer World Cup. The country has also won the African Cup of Nations four times, in 1984, 1988, 2000 and 2002.
4. Cameroon has 7 national parks, the most famous being Waza National Park.
5. The second wettest place in the world is in Cameroon. Debuncha, a town at the foot of the Cameroon mountains gets 400 inches (10,000mm), of rain a year, about 20 times the amount we get in England.
6. The name Cameroon is derived from Rio de Camarões, which means the River of Prawns. This is the name given to River Wouri by 15th century Portuguese Explorers because a lot of prawns and Crayfish were found there.
7. Cameroon was the second state to adopt the traditional Pan-African colours in its Flag. The flag has three vertical stripes in Green, red and Yellow, with a yellow five-pointed star in the centre. Red is the colour of unity, and the star is referred to as "the star of unity". The yellow stands for the Sun, and also the savannahs in the northern part of the country. Green stands for the forests in the southern part of Cameroon.
8. Cameroon is often referred to as "Africa in miniature" for its geological and cultural diversity.
9. English and French are the official Languages, which have replaced the German spoken by early colonists. There are, however, more than 1,500 languages spoken.
10. The National Anthem of Cameroon is Chant de Ralliement (The Rallying Song). It was written in 1928 and became adopted as the national anthem in 1957. The original words were written by René Djam Afame and the music composed by Samuel Minkio Bamba and Moise Nyatte Nko'o.

19th May: Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono was born on this date in 1933, in Malta. He is the author and psychologist who coined the term lateral thinking.

1. If you never change your mind, why have one?
2. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple.
3. To be successful you have to be lucky, or a little mad, or very talented, or find yourself in a rapid growth field.
4. An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
5. Humour is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.
6. The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas.
7. Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.
8. Everyone has the right to doubt everything as often as he pleases and the duty to do it at least once.
9. It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
10. You cannot have a beautiful mind if you do not know how to listen.

18th May: World Goodwill Day

It's World Goodwill Day - so here are some quotes about being nice to people:

1. Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. J.M. Barrie
2. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble. Rudyard Kipling
3. Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do. Voltaire
4. No-one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. Charles Dickens
5. Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstandings, mistrust and hostility to evaporate. Albert Schmeitzer
6. Where there is no love, pour love in and you will draw love out. St John of the Cross
7. Commit random acts of kindness and senseless beauty. Dante Alighieri
8. The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
9. If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world. Francis Bacon
10. In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us. Flora Edwards

17 May: Rubber Band Day

It's Rubber Band Day! A day, apparently, to celebrate another of those humble items we take for granted around the house.

1. Alternative names for a rubber band are binder, elastic band, lackey band, laggy band or gum band.
2. Aztecs and Mayans used a form of rubber band as early as 1600 B.C.
3. The rubber band as we know it today was patented in England on March 17, 1845 by Stephen Perry.
4. Many rubber products are made from synthetic rubber, but not the rubber band. They are still made from natural rubber because of its elasticity. The rubber is mixed with sulphur, which initiates the vulcanisation process. This stabilises and strengthens the rubber so it does not become brittle at cold temperatures. The rubber is heated to 260 degrees C then rolled out like pie dough into sheets. The sheets are made into tubes; the tubes are cut very thin to produce the rubber bands.
5. They come in a variety of sizes. A rubber band has three basic dimensions: length, width, and thickness. For marketing purposes, the sizes are given numbers. Rubber bands numbered 8-19 are 1/16 inch wide, with lengths from 7/8 inch to 31⁄2 inches. Rubber band numbers 30-34 are 1/8 inch wide. For bands longer than 32 inches, numbers are above 100, again starting at width 1/16 inch.
6. The physics bit. Rubber has an unusual property in that heating causes the rubber band to contract, and cooling causes expansion. When a rubber band is stretched, it releases heat, which is why, if you stretch one and place it against your lips, it feels warm. Releasing it after it has been stretched will make it absorb heat, causing its surroundings to become cooler.
7. In the UK, the largest user of rubber bands is probably Royal Mail. They use nearly 1 billion rubber bands a year to tie together bundles of letters at sorting offices - that's one rubber band being used for every 28 letters. This caused a littering problem around 2004 as posties had a tendency to drop them as they delivered the letters. The Royal Mail's solution was to make their rubber bands red, so if someone dropped one, they'd be more likely to spot it and pick it up. Since 2010 they have reverted back to brown ones.
8. Animals have reason to hate rubber bands. As well as small animals like Hedgehogs getting their heads stuck in them, they are used by farmers for castration. They use a rubber band to cut off the Blood supply to an animal's testicles so that they atrophy and drop off.
9. Other uses for rubber bands include: Guitar strings, Hair bands, bungee jumps for Teddy bears, Bracelets, Bicycle clips, Pencil-top erasers, Waistband expanders, Anti-slip devices for mixing spoons, Saucepan handle covers, Jar openers, an aide memoire, to barter for stamps (good luck with that), Gardening string and of course, powering small free-flight model aeroplanes.
10. Joel Waul, from Florida, spent six years constructing the world's largest rubber band ball. The ball stands 6 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs in at 9,032 pounds, twice as big as the previous record holder. Eventually, his neighbours got fed up of it standing in his driveway (it was allegedly very smelly as well as being an eyesore) so Joel had to get rid of it. He found a willing new owner in Ripley's Believe It Or Not, who already owned the largest string and barbed-wire balls. "This is now my holy trinity, I guess," said Ripley's Vice President Edward Meyer. They had to use a crane to take it away.

16 May: Cayman Islands Discovery Day

The second Monday in May is Discovery Day in the Cayman Islands. Here are 10 things you might not know about the Cayman Islands.

1. The Cayman Islands are three islands: Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica.
2. The capital is George Town, although at one time the capital was Bodden Town, which got its name because of the large number of residents whose surname was Bodden.
3. There is no archaeological evidence for an indigenous people on the islands. The people born there are descended from settlers throughout history. These include pirates, refugees from the Jenna Inquisition, shipwrecked sailors, and deserters from Oliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica. The first recorded birth there was Isaac Bodden, who was born on Grand Cayman around 1661. He was the grandson of a settler who was probably one of Oliver Cromwell's soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655.
4. In mid-2011 the Cayman Islands had an estimated population of about 56,000, representing a mix of more than 100 nationalities.
5. The Cayman Islands are a tax haven and have more registered businesses than people. It is a British Territory and the story goes that King George III was so grateful to the islanders for rescuing the crews of a group of ten merchant ships, including HMS Convert, which had struck a reef and run aground during rough seas, that he proclaimed he would never take taxes off them. This is a myth.
6. The national flower of the Cayman Islands is the Banana Orchid.
7. The national animal is the green sea Turtle. There is a turtle farm on the islands which is home to 16,000 of them. The endangered blue Iguana is endemic to Grand Cayman.
8. The highest point is The Bluff on the eastern side of Cayman Brac, at 43 m (141 ft) above sea level. The rest of the 264-square-kilometre (102-square-mile) territory is mostly flat.
9. Orlando Bloom starred in a film about the Cayman Islands - Haven. It was made by the Caymanian director Frank E. Flowers, and shot in West Bay on Grand Cayman.
10. Tourism is important to the economy as well as finance. One of Grand Cayman's main attractions is Seven Mile Beach, which is actually five and a half miles long. There is a 75 foot high observation tower which is free to the public and it is also very popular with scuba divers. There are 159 dive sites on Grand Cayman and two shipwrecks to explore. Even so, tourism could get quite slow in winter, so in 1977, then Minister of Tourism, Jim Bodden, started Pirates Week, an annual 11 day festival in November.

15th May: L. Frank Baum

L. (Lyman) Frank Baum, who wrote Wizard of Oz, was born on this date in 1856. Here are some things he said:

1. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.
2. No thief, however skilful, can rob one of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest treasure to acquire.
3. Never give up... No one knows what's going to happen next.
4. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid.
5. Once I had brains, and a heart also; so, having tried them both, I should much rather have a heart.
6. Never question the truth of what you fail to understand, for the world is filled with wonders.
7. A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.
8. Everything in life is unusual until you get accustomed to it.
9. Do not despair whatever happens for behind the clouds is always the rainbow.
10. It isn't what we are, but what folks think we are, that counts in this world.

14th May: Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri, the Italian poet was born on this date in 1265.

1. Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.
2. There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery.
3. Remember tonight... for it is the beginning of always.
4. From a little spark may burst a flame.
5. Nature is the art of God.
6. The secret of getting things done is to act!
7. The path to paradise begins in hell.
8. He who sees a need and waits to be asked for help is as unkind as if he had refused it.
9. O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?
10. I wept not, so to stone within I grew.

13th May: Hawthorn

Today is the 1st day of Huath (Hawthorn) in the Celtic tree Calendar. Here are 10 things you may not know about the hawthorn:

1. Other common names for hawthorn include may, mayblossom, maythorn, quickthorn, whitethorn, motherdie, and haw. It was sometimes called the Bread and Cheese tree, because the young leaves could be eaten in times of hardship.
2. The sayings "Ne'er cast a cloot till may is out" and "gathering nuts in may" come from the hawthorn. The first is a warning not to shed any cloots (clothes) before the may flowers (hawthorn blossoms) are in bloom, and the latter referred to the collection of knots of may blossom rather than nuts.
3. Hawthorn blossoms are associated with May Day and Beltane although they rarely flower these days before the middle of May. In the Scottish Highlands the flowers may be seen as late as the middle of June. However, before Europe adopted the Gregorian calendar, they would have flowered in early May.
4. The oldest tree in France is a hawthorn. It is beside the church at Saint Mars sur la Futaie, Mayenne. It is 9 m (30 feet) tall and has a girth of 265 cm (8'8").There is a plaque beneath it which reads: "This hawthorn is probably the oldest tree in France. Its origin goes back to St Julien (3rd century)." The oldest hawthorn in the United Kingdom is probably The Hethel Old Thorn in the churchyard in the village of Hethel, Norfolk. It is reputed to be more than 700 years old, having been planted in the 13th century. The Glastonbury Thorn is also a hawthorn tree.
5. The ancient Greeks regarded it as a symbol of hope, often carried at weddings.
6. Plucking from a hawthorn tree at any time other than May Day or damaging one is said to be extremely unlucky. Not only would doing so bring sickness and death, but the tree might even scream. Even hanging out your washing on one was a bad idea, as it might cover up the faeries' clothes already hanging on it. It has been suggested that the ill luck of the De Lorean Motor Company was associated with the destruction of a fairy thorn to make way for a production facility.
7. The trees are said to scream and cry on Good Friday, because the tree was the source of Jesus's crown of thorns.
8. Medieval people claimed that hawthorn flowers smelled like death which added to the superstition that it was unlucky to have them in the house. Botanists have more recently discovered that the flowers contain the chemical trimethylamine, which is one of the first chemicals formed in decaying animal tissue, so there may have been some truth in that.
9. Witches supposedly to make their brooms from it, and it was also said to be the best type of wood to make a stake with which to kill a Vampire.
10. The Hawthorn is the state flower of the US state of Missouri.