October 31st: Mummies

10 facts about a horror favourite - the mummy.

1. The word Mummy comes from the Arabic word "mumiyah" meaning bitumen, because this substance was thought to be used by the Egyptians when making mummies. Turned out they didn't, they used resin instead.
2. It was because mummies were thought to contain bitumen that in the 1500s, ground up mummies were prescribed as medicine by doctors at the time, because people in the middle ages thought bitumen could cure diseases.
3. Mummies aren't just Egyptian dead people wrapped in bandages, but any body, human or animal, in which soft tissues have not decayed after death. This can happen naturally if a body is frozen or dried out.
4. The process of making an Egyptian mummy took 70 days and started with the removal of internal organs including pulling the Brain out through the nose using metal rods. The Egyptians didn't keep the brains because they believed all thoughts and emotions came from the Heart. The heart was usually left in the body. The body was then washed out with Wine and stuffed with cloth to help keep its shape. The body was then packed in a type of salt called natron for 40 days to dry it out. After that the body would be smeared in resin. Then it would be decorated in jewellery and make-up before being wrapped.
5. About 150 yards of linen would be used to wrap a mummy. More resin would be added to each layer. Sometimes jewels and charms would be slipped into the wrappings, and heiroglyphs and human faces painted on.
6. Animals were mummified as well as humans. Mummified Cats, crocodiles, bulls, Bats, shrews, Dogs, birds, beetles and fish have been found in tombs and temples.
7. The Inca people made mummies, too. They come second in the mummy making league table. They would place their bodies in decorated leather bundles or baskets. Mummies of royal people were often paraded around the streets for days, with servants washing them and changing their clothes.
8. Natural mummies are often found in caves, either buried there by others or after dying in accidents underground. They may also be found in cold climates like Greenland and frozen in ice. Mummies have also been found in peat bogs.
9. One mummy has been found in China, well preserved within a nest of tombs. The only Chinese mummy ever found was a woman who died aged about 50.
10. In 1977, the mummified body of a baby mammoth was found in Siberia. 

30th October: The Tower of London

On this date in 1485 King Henry VII created the Yeoman of the Guard, the "Beefeaters." 10 facts about Beefeaters and the Tower.

1. Although commonly thought of as a prison, the Tower of London was built as a royal residence, and has served variously as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England.
2. The Beefeaters' proper title is The Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary. Their original function was to guard the royal household, the prisoners and the crown jewels, although these days they act as tour guides. The term "Beefeater" is said to come from the fact the warders were provided, in the 17th century, with daily rations of beef.
3. Beefeaters must be former senior non-commissioned officers or petty officers with at least 22 years of service, and hold the Long Service and Good Conduct medal. They live in tied accommodation inside the fortress paying council taxes and a portion of their salaries for rent. They must own a home outside of the fortress to go to when they retire. As well as the Beefeaters and their families, a Resident Governor, chaplain and doctor also live there. The first female Beefeater was Moira Cameron, a former army officer, aged 42.
4. One warder has a particularly responsible job - that of Ravenmaster. There is a superstition which says that if the Ravens leave the tower, the kingdom will fall, so it is important that the birds are well looked after. Their wings are clipped to stop them from flying away, but they are otherwise free to roam, although daily meals of raw beef from Smithfield Market is probably an incentive for them to stick around! The wardens have been known to comment that the ravens are the "real beefeaters" in the Tower. In the time of Charles II, the Royal Observatory was based at the tower, and was moved to  Greenwich after complaints that the ravens interfered with observatory work. Moving the ravens was far too risky!
5. The Tower of London has been home to other animals in its time - Henry III kept a Polar Bear there, a gift from Haakon IV of Norway, which used to catch fish from the river Thames. There were also Elephants, Lions, leopards, Kangaroos, ostriches and much more - In 1828 there were over 280 animals representing at least 60 species. In the 18th century, the public could go in to see the animals - the price of admission was three half-pence or a cat or dog to be fed to the lions. In 1835, the menagerie was closed and any remaining animals went to live in the Zoo at Regent's Park.
6. Famous prisoners to be held in the Tower include Elizabeth I before she became queen, Sir Walter Raleigh, Elizabeth Throckmorton, Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey and Rudolf Hess, Despite its reputation as "the Bloody Tower", only seven executions took place within its walls throughout history up until the two world wars when it was used to house prisoners of war. More people were executed in the Tower during world war I than in all of its previous history. The last person to be executed at the Tower was German spy Josef Jakobs who was shot on 15 August 1941.
7. The total value of the jewels at the Tower today is estimated to exceed £20 billion. The most famous attempt to steal them was back in 1671 by Colonel Thomas Blood. His gang got part way out with the crown and sceptre before the alarm was raised. They were captured and the jewels recovered.
8. The 1888 comic opera, The Yeomen of the Guard, is set at the Tower and is the only Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to feature an actual historical person, Sir Richard Cholmondeley, Lieutenant of the Tower.
9. According to legend, the Tower has several ghosts. The ghost of Anne Boleyn, beheaded in 1536 for treason against Henry VIII, is said to walk around the Tower "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm". Other reported ghosts include Henry VI, Lady Jane Grey, Margaret Pole, the young Princes thought to have been killed in the Tower, Catherine (the fifth wife of King Henry VIII), Dame Sybil the nurse of Prince Edward and a grizzly Bear that once lived in the menagerie.
10. In 2014, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, an installation consisting of ceramic Poppies was planted in the Tower of London moat to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War I.

29th October: The M25

On this date in 1986 The final section of the M25 around London was opened. Here are ten things you might not know about the London Orbital Motorway.

1. The M25 is 117-miles (188 km) long and encircles London in the UK. Well, almost. The Dartford Crossing (A282) of the River Thames isn't motorway. The road briefly becomes the A282, or Canterbury Way at that point..
2. Nor is greater London entirely inside it. One area of Greater London is situated outside the M25 - South Ockendon.
3. It is the second biggest ring road in Europe after the Berliner Ring, which is 122 miles (196 km).
4. The M25 took more than 11 years to complete, and cost nearly £1billion ‎More than two million tons of concrete and 3.5million tons of asphalt were used to build it, and it has 10,606 lights and 2,959 illuminated signs along its length.
5. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher officially opened the M25 on 29 October 1986. The opening ceremony took place in the section between J22 and J23 (London Colney and South Mimms). The first breakdown occurred on the same day.
6. The M25 passes through five counties: Kent, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Essex. Policing of the road is carried out by an integrated policing group from the Metropolitan, Thames Valley, Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Surrey forces.
7. There are now four service stations on or directly accessible from the M25. These are Clacket Lane, Cobham, South Mimms and Thurrock.
8. Some people love it. The M25 was so popular when it opened that people from Norfolk booked bus rides around it, and Chris and Sue Glazier, of Ashford, Kent, chose to spend their wedding night driving around it. Iain Sinclair took on the challenge of walking around it and published a book, London Orbital, about his journey. It has a special place in the hearts of ravers, because it was the route many would take to illegal raves in the 1990s. The dance band Orbital were named after it.
9. A lot of people hate it. "How can I avoid the M25?" is the most frequently asked question on the AA route planner. It's famous for its traffic jams and has been referred to as "the world's first circular car park". Chris Rea's song, The Road to Hell was inspired by driving on the M25 during rush hour.
10. Assuming you stick to the speed limit and there are no jams, a circuit around the M25 would take you an hour and 40 minutes. People have used the motorway for illegal car racing at night, aiming to get around in less than an hour. The highest speed recorded by police on the M25 was 147mph, by Leslie Coe, in a Porsche 911 in 1992. He lost his licence.

28th October: The Gateway Arch, St Louis

The Gateway Arch was completed in St Louis, Missouri on this date in 1965. Here are ten things you might not know about it:

1. At 630 feet (192m) high it is the world's tallest arch, the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, the tallest memorial in the United States, the tallest stainless steel monument in the world and Missouri's tallest accessible building.
2. Its length is also 630 feet (192m), and its shape is a catenary, which in physics is the curve that a hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends.
3. It was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States. The south leg of the arch is near to the spot where a trader named Pierre Laclede marked a tree with an axe in 1763 in order to mark the site of his fur trading post, which grew into a French colonial town which eventually became the city of St Louis.
4. The architect was Finnish-American Eero Saarinen.
5. The arch is made from 886 tons of stainless steel and 38,107 tons of concrete. It was was designed to withstand an Earthquake. The top of the arch won’t sway until the wind blows about 50 miles per hour, and then it would only move 1 ½ inches.
6. Like most new monuments, there was a mixed reaction to it. It was described variously as "a modern monument, fitting, beautiful and impressive."or a "stupendous hairpin and a stainless steel hitching post."
7. There are three ways up (and down). There is an elevator, emergency stairs in each leg with 1,076 steps, and a tram, which is the way the million or so visitors per year get up. The tram is described as a combination of a Ferris wheel and an elevator. It takes four minutes to get to the top.
8. The observation deck is 65 feet (20 m) long and 7 feet (2.1 m) wide and can hold up to 160 people. It has 16 windows on each side, each measuring 7 by 27 inches (180 mm × 690 mm), which offer views of up to 30 miles (48 km).
9. At the topping out ceremony, a time capsule, containing the signatures of 762,000 students and others, was welded into the keystone. A Catholic priest and a rabbi prayed over the keystone, and then Vice President Hubert Humphrey observed from a Helicopter as the keystone was put in place. This wasn't straightforward. The metal in the arch had expanded with the heat and had to be sprayed with fire hoses to cool it down before the keystone would fit.
10. The arch is featured in the sci-fi series Defiance. In the programme the apex is used as a radio station studio, with the arch itself acting as the station's antenna.

27th October: Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath, US poet who wrote The Bell Jar, was born on this date in 1932. Here are ten things she said.

1. There is something demoralising about watching two people get more and more crazy about each other, especially when you are the only extra person in the room.
2. If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed.
3. When you are insane, you are busy being insane - all the time.
4. Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.
5. Before I give my body, I must give my thoughts, my mind, my dreams.
6. There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.
7. So many people are shut up tight inside themselves like boxes, yet they would open up, unfolding quite wonderfully, if only you were interested in them.
8. So much working, reading, thinking, living to do! A lifetime is not long enough.
9. Please don’t expect me to always be good and kind and loving. There are times when I will be cold and thoughtless and hard to understand.
10. It was comforting to know I had fallen and could fall no farther.

October 26th: Coronation of George III

On this date in 1760 George III was crowned. Yes, he was the mad one - but what else is there to know about him?

1. He was the third British monarch of the House of Hanover and the first of them to be born in England and speak English as his first language. He was the longest lived and longest reigning British monarch up to that point, although his record was subsequently beaten by his granddaughter Queen Victoria and then by Elizabeth II.
2. When he was born, the King and his father didn't get on. It was only when George's father died suddenly and George became the heir that the King showed any interest in him.
3. He was baptised twice. Once on the day he was born because he was premature and they didn't think he would survive, and a customary public baptism a month later.
4. He's known for being mad, but before that was intelligent and highly educated. He could read and write in both English and German by the age of eight and was the first British monarch to study science. He collected books (65,000 of them, subsequently given to the British nation by George IV as the King's Library). and scientific instruments. He was interested in astronomy - he he funded the construction and maintenance of William Herschel's 40-foot Telescope, the biggest ever built at that time. The planet Uranus was initially named Georgium Sidus (George's Star). George also gave large grants to the Academy of Arts.
5. He became King on 25 October 1760 at the age of 22. Less than a year later, he married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The couple met for the first time on their wedding day, but they apparently had a happy marriage. They had fifteen children and George never took a mistress.
6. He didn't travel much. The furthest he ever travelled from London was Cheltenham Spa (to recuperate from one of his early bouts of madness), but he had several residences - St James's Palace was the official one but he also has Kew and Windsor Castle and he bought a family retreat called Buckingham House in 1762. That one is now Buckingham Palace. The family had a few holidays in Weymouth, which helped make seaside resort holidays popular.
7. The civil list dates from his reign. George surrendered the Crown Estate to Parliamentary control in return for an annuity for the support of his household and the expenses of civil government.
8. The law forbidding members of the Royal Family from marrying without the sovereign's permission dates from his reign, too. The Royal Marriages Act 1772 came about because the devoutly religious George was upset by the philandering behaviour of his brother and his marriage to a woman of a lower class.
9. In May 1800, there was an assassination attempt by James Hadfield in the Drury Lane Theatre. Hadfield had no political motive - he was acquitted for reasons of insanity.
10. As for the madness, King George had a few episodes of mental illness from which he recovered, but by 1811 had gone completely mad. He would talk to himself for hours and foam at the mouth. The cause of his illness is uncertain. Some say he had a hereditary Blood disease called porphyria, or it may have been arsenic poisoning. High levels of arsenic were found in a sample of the King's hair. It's possible he used cosmetics containing arsenic. The death of his youngest daughter could also have been a contributing factor. By the end of his life, he was blind and deaf and to compound it all, had dementia as well. The Prince of Wales acted as Regent while the King lived in seclusion in Windsor Castle until he died on 29 January 1820.

25th October: Taiwan Retrocession Day

Taiwan Retrocession Day is an annual observance and unofficial holiday in Taiwan to commemorate the end of 50 years of Japanese rule of the island and its handover to the Republic of China on October 25, 1945. Here are ten things you might not know about Taiwan.

1. The country is commonly known by the name “Taiwan” but its official name is the Republic of China. Not to be confused with the People's Republic of China.
2. The island used to be called "Formosa" (meaning "beautiful"), a name given to it by the Portuguese in the 16th century.
3. The shape of the main island of Taiwan is similar to a sweet potato or tobacco leaf, so Taiwanese people call themselves "children of the Sweet Potato."
4. Taiwan's highest point is Yu Shan (Jade Mountain) at 3,952 metres (12,966 ft);Taiwan is the world's fourth-highest island.
5. In Taiwan, the bin lorries play music, like Ice cream vans in the UK, to tell people to put their bins out.
6. Baseball is Taiwan's national sport.
7. The country has a national butterfly – the Papilio Maraho. Taiwan exports about 10 million Butterflies every year and is sometimes called the “Butterfly Kingdom.”
8. The total area of the country is 36,193 km2 (13,974 sq mi) - smaller than Switzerland, but bigger than Belgium.
9. The capital is Taipei, which is only the fourth largest city. Its population is 2.7 million people. The largest city is New Taipei, the second is Kaohsiung and third is Taichung.
10. Mandarin is the official language of the island.

October 24th: Pennsylvania Day

Today is Pennsylvania Day. Presumably a celebration in honour of the US state officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the northern United States. Here are 10 interesting facts about the state.

1. Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 6th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The state's five largest cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie and Reading. The capital is Harrisburg.
2. Pennsylvania was one of the original 13 founding states of the USA. It was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, and Philadelphia is the location of Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted. Hence one of the state's nicknames is "The State of Independence". Others include the Keystone State, the Quaker State. The Coal State, The Oil State, The Chocolate State, and The Steel State. It was once part of a colony known as New Sweden.
3. The Chocolate State comes from the fact that Hershey, PA is home to the Hershey Chocolate Factory, where Hershey Kisses were created in 1907. Another foodstuff associated with Pennsylvania is Mushrooms. Kennett Square, PA is the mushroom capital of the world. It produces one million pounds of mushrooms per year and has an annual mushroom festival.
4. The state has the largest Amish population in the world, since many of them immigrated there in the early 18th century. They, and the language they speak, are sometimes misleadingly called "Pennsylvania Dutch", even though they came from Germany and the language is a dialect of German. This was probably because the German world for German is "Deutsch", and people misheard it.
5. Punxsutawney PA is the home to the original Groundhog Day Groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. known for coming out of his hole and looking for his shadow in early February to predict the weather. The Groundhog Day movie, however, was filmed in Illinois.
6. Pennsylvania was the first state to have a petrol station, a golf course, a Department store, a brewery and a zoo. The oldest surviving wooden Roller Coaster is also here.
7. Famous people from Pennsylvania include: Actors Kevin Bacon, Charles Bronson, W.C. Fields (famous for commenting, "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia"), Jonathan Frakes, Jeff Goldblum, Gene Kelly, Grace Kelly, Bill Cosby,Will Smith, James Stewart and Sharon Stone; writers Louisa M Alcott, Pearl S. Buck, Ezra Pound and Dean Koontz; singers Christina Aguilera, Frankie Avalon, Chubby Checker, Lisa Lopes, Billy Paul, Christina Perri, Pink and Taylor Swift; artists Man Ray and Andy Warhol. The only US President to come from here was James Buchanan.
8. State symbols are as follows: Animal - White-tailed deer; beverage - Milk; Firearm -Pennsylvania long rifle; Fish - Brook Trout; Flower - Mountain laurel; Insect - Pennsylvania firefly; Tree - Eastern hemlock; bird - Ruffed Grouse; dog - Great Dane (the story goes that when the state government voted on this one, they were in a light-hearted mood and cast their votes by growling and barking. The speaker announced the result by saying, “The arfs have it.”). The state motto is "Virtue, Liberty, and Independence".
9. There is a place in Pennsylvania which has been on Fire since 1962. It started as a garbage fire but spread to a coal mine where it has been smoldering away ever since. It's probably not a coincidence that the location of the fire, Centralia, is also the least populated place in the state with only ten residents.
10. Wacky laws: it's illegal here to sweep dust under a rug or sing in the bath. If you turn up to your wedding having had a few drinks beforehand, the minister is obliged to call the wedding off if the bride or groom is drunk, and don't even think about firing a gun or cannon at a wedding. Driving along country roads could be a real pain too if you follow the law to the letter. At night, motorists have to stop every mile, by law, and send up a rocket signal, then wait ten minutes so the road can be cleared of livestock; and if a motorist encounters a team of Horses he has to pull off the road and camouflage his car. If the horses still appear nervous, he is required to dismantle his car piece by piece and hide it in the bushes!

23 October: Piccadilly Line

On this date in 1933, London Underground's Piccadilly Line was extended to Uxbridge. 10 things you may not know about the Piccadilly Line.

1. The Piccadilly Line is 71 km (44 miles) long, and is the second longest line after the Central Line. It has 53 stations, the second largest number after the District Line. It is used by 210,000,000 people a year.
2. The official colour of the Piccadilly Line is Pantone 072.
3. It serves many of London's top tourist attractions including Harrods (Knightsbridge), Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace (within walking distance from Green Park), Piccadilly Circus (after which the line is named), Leicester Square and Covent Garden, as well as London Heathrow Airport, the busiest airport in Europe (based on passenger numbers).
4. Station announcements, such as "Mind the gap" are made by Tim Bentinck, who played David Archer on the BBC radio 4 programme The Archers. He's also known as Earl of Portland and Count Bentinck, Viscount Woodstock, Baron Cirencester, and Count of the Holy Roman Empire.
5. The Piccadilly Line is one of the first to operate the night tube service, on Friday and Saturday nights from Heathrow Terminal 5 to Cockfosters from summer 2016.
6. Arsenal is the only tube station to be named after a football club.
7. The Piccadilly Line has the shortest distance between two stations anywhere on the tube network. They are Leicester Square station and Covent Garden. The journey is only between these two stations is 260 metres (0.16 mi) and takes just 20 seconds. At ground level, if someone stands equidistant between these stations they can see both of them. London Underground's standard £4.80 single cash fare for the journey between these two stations equates to £29.81 a mile, so it would be more expensive per mile to travel between these two stations than on the Venice Simplon Orient Express.
8. Covent Garden station is said to be haunted by the ghost of an actor called William Terriss.
9. There are a number of disused stations on the line - Aldwych, Brompton Road, Down Street, Osterley and Spring Grove, Park Royal and Twyford Abbey, and York Road. Aldwych is often used as a filming location. During the London Blitz and for most of World War II, famous works of art and other treasures were stored in closed sections of the Piccadilly Line. The Brompton Road station was used as the command centre of the 26th (London) Anti-Aircraft brigade.
10. Southgate station has an illuminated feature on its roof that looks like a Tesla coil; and Arnos Grove has its own Cat, known as Spooky.

22nd October: Wombat Day

It's Wombat Day. There are three species of wombat - the common wombat, the Northern hairy-nosed wombat or yaminon, and the Southern hairy-nosed wombat. They belong to the family Vombatidae and are only found in Australia. Here are ten more facts about them:

1. The name 'wombat' comes from the nearly extinct Darug language spoken by the aboriginal Darug people, who originally inhabited the Sydney area.
2. During the ice age, there were giant wombats, the size of a Rhinoceros.
3. There are a number of places in Australia named after the wombat, including the Wombat State Forest, Wombat Hill in Daylesford and the town of Wombat, New South Wales. Badger Creek, Victoria, and Badger Corner, Tasmania, were also named after the wombat, because early European settlers mistook them for Badgers.
4. Wombats are built for digging and can shift three feet of dirt in a day. They have long claws and also, unusually for marsupials, a pouch that faces backwards, so their babies don't get covered in dirt while they are digging.
5. They often appear to be quite slow animals with a waddling gait. Their metabolism is pretty slow - it can take them up to two weeks to digest a meal (an adaptation for living in hot, dry conditions). That said, they can be fast when they want to be. When threatened, they can run at 25mph for about 90 seconds. That's almost as fast as Usain Bolt, whose top speed is just under 28mph.
6. They'll also defend their territory vigorously. They can run at a person and bowl them over and they have a nasty bite. Naturalist Harry Frauca, once received a bite 2 cm (0.8in) deep into the flesh of his leg—through a rubber boot, trousers and thick socks.
7. Their territorial nature is also thought to be the reason that their poo is square. Wombats have special bones in their rear ends that squeeze their poo into cubes. This means it doesn't roll away; it stays where they leave it and marks their territory.
8. They have tough bottoms altogether. Their bums are mostly cartilage and their tails are short and stubby. This means any predator (such as a Dingo or Tasmanian Devil) that tries to follow a wombat into its burrow risks breaking its teeth - or worse. The wombat can shove the predator's head upwards using its powerful legs and crush the pursuer's skull against the roof of the tunnel. Or it can kick like a Donkey and drive the predator away.
9. A group of wombats is known as a wisdom.
10. Aboriginal legends don't portray the wombat as very important and while they appear in some ancient paintings, they weren't painted that often. The most famous fictional wombat is probably "Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat" the unofficial mascot of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

New! 

Eternal Flame

The Freedom League's numbers have dwindled to three - but leader Unicorn knows his team isn't finished yet. The turning point comes with Russell, a boy with bright red hair and a genetic variant ability to start fires. He's the first of an influx of new members who will take the League into the future.

Judith and Wil are child prodigies - Judith in physics and electronics, and Wil in medicine. They have another thing in common - they are both genetic variants. And another thing - they both have fiery red hair. They are drawn to one another as their destinies intertwine, but the course of true love doesn't always run smoothly!

Richard is not a variant. He's an Olympic athlete who has picked up useful knowledge from his unusual friends to add to his own natural abilities. A chance encounter with a dying alien throws him into a Freedom League mission in which his skills are put to the ultimate test, along with theirs.

The Freedom League's arch-enemy, the super-villain Obsidian, wants his family fortune all to himself. One person stands in his way - his niece, Fiona. Fiona, devastated by a family tragedy and her failure to get in to her first choice university, is miserable and has few friends. When she realises her brother's death was no accident, and his killer is also after her, she fears it may be too late to gather allies around her and learn how to use her own genetic variant powers.

Available from Createspace, Amazon and Amazon Kindle

21st October: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on this date in 1772, so here are ten Coleridge quotes:

1. Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind.
2. Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
3. Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing.
4. No one does anything from a single motive.
5. Silence does not always mark wisdom.
6. He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration.
7. Good and bad men are each less so than they seem.
8. Everyone should have two or three hives of bees. Bees are easier to keep than a dog or a cat. They are more interesting than gerbils.
9. To be loved is all I need, And whom I love, I love indeed.
10. People of humour are always in some degree people of genius.

20 October: Kenya

Today is Mashujaa, formerly known as Kenyatta day, a public holiday in Kenya. Here are ten things you may not know about Kenya.

1. The Republic of Kenya is named after Mount Kenya, which is the highest mountain in the country and the second highest in Africa. The name is thought to derive from words which translate as "God's resting place".
2. The name of the capital, Nairobi, comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nairobi, which translates to "cool water". It is the only capital city to have a game reserve in it, the Nairobi National Park.
3. The second largest city is Mombasa.
4. One of the country's most important exports is Coffee, but Kenyans don't tend to drink coffee themselves. They prefer Tea or Beer. They're not keen on cold drinks, either - their beverages are usually either hot or served at room temperature.
5. Tourism is also very important. Safaris in the various national parks are the biggest attractions. Lake Nakuru is known in particular as a nesting site for thousands of Flamingos.
6. In Kenya, a man's family will still pay a dowry to the bride's family, a minimum price of ten Cows. Men can have more than one wife (provided they have enough cows to pay the dowries).
7. There are a lot of young people in Kenya. 73% of the 45 million population is under 30.
8. Kenyan environmentalist Professor Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She was the first African woman to do so.
9. Kenya's famous residents have included the naturalist Joy Adams, whose book Born Free describes her experiences raising the Lion cub, Elsa, in Kenya, and Karen Blixen, best known for her book Out of Africa, an account of her life while living in Kenya.
10. There is a Black, Red, and White traditional Maasai shield with two spears on the national Flag, which symbolises the defence of the nation, its natural wealth and culture.

19 October: Hagfish Day

The third Wednesday in October is Hagfish Day. This day promotes understanding that in nature, beauty isn't everything. 

Photo: NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program

1. The hagfish belongs to the family Myxinidae. They are shaped like Eels.
2. Hagfish are the only living animals to have a skull but no spinal chord.
3. The largest hagfish are 127 cm (4 ft 2 in) long and the smallest are 4 cm (1.6 in) long.
4. They can be Pink or blue-grey in colour, depending on the species. Some species have Black or White spots.
5. One defining characteristic of hagfish is that they produce slime - for this reason they are sometimes called slime-eels. A hagfish has about 100 glands along the length of its body which produce slime. They produce it if captured, and can produce about 20 litres (5¼ gallons) of sticky, gelatinous material when combined with Water. They will then tie themselves in a knot which serves the purpose of cleaning the slime off themselves, helping them to escape.
6. The slime has another function in protecting them from predators. It clogs up the gills of other fish, so they can't breathe. For this reason, hagfish don't have many predators.
7. Their eyes don't have lenses, muscles or nerves - so they cannot detect detailed images, only light.
8. Scientists haven't managed to study their reproduction much, but they do know some species have populations with 100 times more females than males, and that some are hermaphroditic, having an ovary and a testicle. Hagfish eggs have tufts which make them stick together.
9. Hagfish mostly live on worms living on the sea floor, but they also hunt and scavenge. You could say they are the Vultures of the sea. They can get inside the bodies of larger dead or dying sea creatures and eat them from the inside out. They can go for months between meals, but are opportunistic and when a chance of a meal presents itself, they act quickly. This can make them a nuisance to fishermen. If hagfish get caught in deep sea trawling nets they can spoil or devour most of the catch.
10. The slime and the fact they are pretty ugly means they are not generally eaten by humans but they are a delicacy in Korea. The slime is also eaten, used in cooking in a similar way to egg whites. Their skin is durable and leathery and used to produce wallets and belts. If you have an eel-skin bag, chances are it's made out of hagfish.

18 October: Ada Lovelace Day

Ada Lovelace Day is an annual event celebrated on the third Tuesday of October to "... raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths," and to "create new role models for girls and women" in these fields. So who was Ada Lovelace? Why celebrate her? The following ten facts will tell you.

1. Her real name was Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace. Ada married William King in 1835. King was made Earl of Lovelace in 1838, and she became Countess of Lovelace.
2. Her father was the poet, Lord Byron - she was his only legitimate child, although he left her mother when Ada was a month old and never saw her again. Ada didn't even see a picture of her father until she was 20 years old.
3. Ada's mother, Annabella, was very bitter towards Lord Byron and this bitterness was the reason behind Ada being taught maths from an early age, because her mother didn't want her turning out like her father. The bitterness even extended to Ada herself - she was often left with her grandmother and referred to in Annabella's letters as "it". However, since society at the time favoured custody of the children going to the father she had to pretend to be a loving mother and wrote frequent letters to her mother about the child's welfare, with instructions to her mother to keep them all, in case she was ever required to produce evidence that she was a loving mother.
4. At 12, Ada was interested in flight, and determined to fly. She researched the topic thoroughly, including the best material to make wings out of and the anatomy of birds. She decided to write a book, Flyology, on the subject, with illustrations.
5. Before her marriage, she had an affair with her tutor and tried to elope with him. However, being well known at the time, her tutor's relatives recognised her and told her mother, who covered the whole thing up to prevent scandal.
6. She met Charles Babbage through a friend and became most interested in his mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine. She worked on it with him and made notes, including an algorithm to be carried out by a machine. Although her algorithm was never actually tested on the machine, it is regarded as the first computer programme and she is regarded as the first computer programmer.
7. Despite her mother's efforts, Ada was interested in poetry as well as science and didn't believe maths and poetry were all that different.
8. Unlike Babbage, who believed computers were little more than calculators, Ada envisaged that the machines, in time, would be able to do so much more than add up.
9. She had a bit of a gambling addiction. She formed a syndicate with some male friends, and came up with a mathematical model for making bets. Sadly, it didn't work. She got into debt and had to admit this to her husband.
10. A few weeks before she died from cancer at the age of 36, she confessed something to her husband on her deathbed. Nobody knows what she said, but her husband walked out and never saw her again. She was buried, at her request, next to her father at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

17 October: Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan, author of The Wheel of Time books, was born on this date in 1948. Here are ten quotes from him:

1. A beautiful battle is one you don't have to fight.
2. It’s too late to change your mind after you’ve jumped off the cliff.
3. Hardness shatters; strength endures.
4. Hammer the iron that lies on your anvil instead of daydreaming about working silver.
5. Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
6. The men in my family are strong because the women in my family kill and eat the weak ones.
7. Run when you have to, fight when you must, rest when you can.
8. There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet.
9. We are always more afraid than we wish to be, but we can always be braver than we expect.
10. Most of those we call heroes only did what they had to do.

16 October: Learn a Word Day

Learn a Word day is the birthday of Noah Webster, who created the first American dictionary. Here are ten of my favourites from the new words I've learned over the past few months:

1. Chatoyant Like a cat’s eye.
2. Tintinnabulation Tinkling.
3. Librocubularist One who reads in bed.
4. Pluviophile A person who takes great joy and comfort in rainy days.
5. Barbigerous Characterised by having a Beard.
6. Cattywampus in disarray.
7. Callipygian possessing a shapely derrière.
8. Susurrous Whispering, hissing.
9. Hornswoggle to dupe or hoax.
10. Tatterdemalion raggedly dressed person.

15 October: Mushroom Day

Today is Mushroom Day. So here are ten facts about mushrooms:

1. Nobody is sure where the word "mushroom" comes from but it may derive from French word "mousseron", meaning moss. Poisonous mushrooms are sometimes referred to as toadstools, and nobody is sure where that comes from, either, but it could be German folklore. Some mushrooms are said to attract flies, hence the idea of toads sitting on them and catching their dinner.
2. We think of mushrooms as being quite small, but scientists believe that before trees evolved, the Earth was covered in forests of giant mushrooms. The oldest known mushroom, a fossil found in 1859, was 420 million years old and nearly 30 feet tall.
3. Today, the largest living organism on the planet is a mushroom. A giant honey mushroom in Oregon covers 2,200 acres and is still growing.
4. Mushrooms are more closely related to humans than to plants.
5. Mushrooms produce vitamin D when in sunlight, just like we do - so are the only non-animal food source of this vitamin. They contain virtually no Salt, but are rich in Potassium (there is more potassium in a medium sized small mushroom than in a Banana) and selenium, which is good for the immune system. Mushrooms are composed of 90% water.
6. The spores of mushrooms are made of chitin, the hardest naturally-made substance on Earth. Therefore, they are pretty tough. Some mushrooms' spores can sit dormant for decades or even a century, and still grow. This has led to speculation that they could survive in space, and that mushrooms could actually have come here from outer space.
7. A person who studies mushrooms is called a mycologist, from the Greek word for fungus.
8. People have been eating mushrooms for centuries. The "Iceman" discovered in the Italian Alps in 1991, thought to have died 5,000 years ago) was carrying dried mushrooms. Ancient Egyptians believed that mushrooms grew by magic, because of the way they could appear overnight, and were a delicacy enjoyed by the Pharaohs.
9. Some mushrooms are hallucinogenic - so called "magic" mushrooms. Fly Agaric mushrooms contain a psychoactive chemical that can cause micropsia/macropsia, or the illusion that objects around you are larger or smaller than they actually are (Alice in Wonderland, anyone?). Reindeer go crazy for magic mushrooms, and not only eat the mushrooms themselves, but they'll also eat the "yellow snow" produced by other reindeer who've been eating them. Some say this is how the myth of Santa's flying reindeer came about.
10. It is thought Viking “Berserkers” would take hallucinogenic mushrooms to induce their battle rage. Greeks believed that mushrooms provided strength for warriors in battle. There could be a scientific basis for that. Modern studies have found that Mice dosed up with the active ingredient of magic mushrooms, psilocybin, didn't freeze in fear when they heard a noise they'd come to associate with a painful electric shock - so the stuff may actually remove fear.