Indiana Jones, full name Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, was born on July 1, 1899. The character first appeared in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark and is known for his bullwhip, fedora and satchel, his knowledge of ancient civilizations and languages, and his fear of Snakes. Here are 10 things you might not know about the character and the films:
- The
character was originally going to be called “Indiana Smith.”
However, there was a 1966 film called Nevada Smith which Steven
Spielberg deemed too similar so he asked that the name be changed.
Lucas suggested Jones as another universal and nondescript name. The
Indiana part was after Lucas’ Dog, an Alaskan malamute named
Indiana. The same dog inspired Chewbacca in Star Wars.
- The
character was nearly played by Tom Selleck rather than Harrison
Ford. Ford had already had starring roles in two of George Lucas's
films and he wanted someone different. Selleck, however, was tied up
with Magnum, P.I. at the time and had to turn it down.
- There
are a couple of nods to Star Wars in the Indiana Jones films.
In Raiders of the Lost Ark, look closely at the walls in the
Well of Souls and you might just spot a carving of R2-D2 and C-3PO.
Lao Che's club in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is
called Club Obi Wan.
- 7,000
snakes were needed to cover the floor in the Well of Souls scene.
Thankfully, Harrison Ford, unlike the character he plays, is not
afraid of snakes.
- Indiana
Jones's iconic hat was there for two reasons. Firstly, Spielberg and
Lucas wanted the character to have a distinctive silhouette.
Secondly, the tall-crowned, wide-brimmed fedora by Herbert Johnson
Hatters in England had a more practical use while filming. It hid
the actor's face so a stunt double could perform the more dangerous
stunts seamlessly. The character was meant to wear the hat at all
times during shooting unless there was a very good reason for taking
it off. If the hat fell off during a take, filming had to stop so
Ford could put it back on. This gave rise to an urban legend that he
stapled the hat to his head. He did once hold a Stapler to his head
to keep the hat in place but never actually stapled it.
- Ke
Huy Quan, who plays Short Round in Temple of Doom was
discovered by accident. His mother brought in his older brother to
audition but the younger brother kept telling his older brother what
to do during the screen test. The producers were impressed enough to
ask the younger brother to do a screen test himself.
- Also
in Temple of Doom, an expensive costume got eaten by an Elephant. When Willie, Indy, and Short Round are riding an elephant
to Pankot Palace, they stop to make camp, and Willie hangs her dress
up to dry. The elephant took a fancy to the dress and started to eat
it. The dress had been custom made and required an insurance claim
with the description on the form being “Eaten by elephant.”
- The
chilled monkey brains eaten at the feast in Temple of Doom
were actually custard with raspberry sauce.
- The
famous scene in Raiders where Indy shoots the Cairo swordsman
in the market instead of fighting him came about because of food
poisoning. Originally, Indy was supposed to fight the swordsman.
Most of the people on set had gone down with food poisoning that day
(apart from Spielberg himself who ate nothing but spaghetti o's
which he'd brought along from home). Nobody had much heart to
perform a fight sequence under the circumstances and eventually,
Harrison Ford came up with the idea of just drawing a gun and
shooting his opponent.
- Sean
Connery, who plays Indiana Jones's father in Indiana Jones and
the last Crusade, is just 12 years older than Harrison Ford.
Because much of the plot revolved around Indiana's relationship with
his father, Spielberg and Lucas wanted to make that relationship as
realistic as possible, so they hired playwright Tom Stoppard to
write most of their interactions. He was not credited.
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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
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30 June is Sky
Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about the sky:
- The
sky can be defined as everything that lies above the surface of the Earth, including the atmosphere and outer space. It is also
sometimes referred to as the celestial dome or celestial sphere.
- Why
is the sky Blue? It's down to a phenomenon called Rayleigh
Scattering, in which particles of dust and vapour in the atmosphere
scatter the light from the sun. Blue wavelengths of light get
scattered the most, making the sky appear blue.
- If
there is a lot of dust, however, other wavelengths get scattered as
well, making the sky appear whitish or hazy. When the Sun is low in
the sky the light has to pass through a longer path to reach our
eyes, which is why sunsets and sunrises can be Yellow or Red.
Pollution can turn the sky yellow or Brown because of the presence
of different particles which scatter those colours. All colours seen
in the sky are the result of scattering caused by molecules or
particles in the atmosphere.
- The
term night sky refers to the sky as seen at night, when the Moon and
stars are visible (clouds permitting). If there were no moon or
stars, it would not be possible to distinguish a silhouette of an
object against the sky. There are about 2000-2500 stars visible to
the human eye on a clear night. Every one of them is bigger and
brighter than our sun. The farthest stars which can be seen are 19 quadrillion miles away.
- Stars
don't twinkle. They only appear to do so because of the Earth's
atmosphere. The "scintillation" is caused by the light of
the star passing through layers of differing density, which deflects
the light. If you went into space and looked at the stars, they
wouldn't twinkle at all.
- The
lowest part of the sky is the atmosphere, which has five layers:
troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere.
The troposphere is the lowest of them (0 to 12 km/0 to 7 miles) and
is where most of Earth's weather happens. It comprises 80% of the
Earth's atmosphere. It gets its name from the Greek word "tropos"
meaning to turn. Higher up in the stratosphere and mesosphere, low
temperatures mean there is little water vapour and hardly any
weather, although there may be polar-mesospheric noctilucent clouds.
The aurora borealis and aurora australis occur in the exosphere and
thermosphere.
- The
troposphere is the only layer that can be accessed by
propeller-driven aircraft, and is in fact where most routine
aviation happens. Jet powered planes can reach as high as the
stratosphere (12 to 50 km/7 to 31 miles). Any higher than that
requires a rocket. There is no aviation in the Mesosphere (50 to 80
km/31 to 50 miles) - it's too high for any conventional plane to
reach and too low to be considered as orbit. The International Space Station orbits in the Thermosphere (80 to 700 km/50 to 440 miles).
The exosphere (700 to 10,000 km/440 to 6,200 miles) contains most of
the satellites orbiting Earth.
- These
five layers are mostly distinguished by temperature. Within them are
other layers determined by other things: the Ozone layer, the
ionosphere (characterised by ionisation of solar radiation and
includes the mesosphere, thermosphere, and parts of the exosphere),
homosphere, heterosphere (these two are determined by how well mixed
the atmospheric gases are) and planetary boundary layer which is
closest to the surface of the Earth and is most affected by it. The
depth of the planetary boundary layer ranges from about 100 metres
(330 ft) on a clear, calm night to 3,000m (9,800 ft) or more during
the afternoon when it is dry.
- The
ozone layer is located in the stratosphere, from about 15–35 km
(9.3–21.7 mi; 49,000–115,000 ft). It varies in thickness from
place to place and at different times of year. About 90% of the
ozone in Earth's atmosphere is contained in the stratosphere.
- Mythologies
usually have deities which are specifically associated with the sky.
These include the Egyptian goddess Nut, the Proto-Indo-European god
Dyeus, the Greek Zeus, the Roman Jupiter, the Australian Aboriginal
Altjira (or Arrernte) and the Iroquois Atahensic.
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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
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Today is the name day for people called Peter. Here is a list of famous Peters:
 |
| Peter Cushing |
- Saint
Peter: One of the twelve apostles, the one entrusted with the
keys to the kingdom of Heaven.
- Peter
Noone:
Also known as Herman, the front man of the 1960s pop band, Herman’s
Hermits, whose hits include Silhouettes
and No
Milk Today.
- Peter
Capaldi: Scottish actor, the twelfth Doctor Who, a lifelong fan
of the show, who, as a child, had a letter printed in the Doctor Who
Fan Club magazine. The fifth Doctor was also called Peter – Peter
Davison. Also one of the early Doctor Who companions was played by a
Peter – Peter Purves, who went on to become the presenter of
another fitting TV show – Blue Peter.
- Peter
Dinklage: American actor who plays Tyrion Lannister in Game
of Thrones. His first lead role was in a school production of
The Velveteen Rabbit. He is a vegan, and 4 feet 5 inches
(135cm) tall.
- Peter
Cushing: Horror film actor. He also appeared as Grand Moff
Tarkin in Star Wars. He played the role wearing slippers because the
boots given to him as part of his costume hurt his feet.
- Peter
Jackson: film director from New Zealand who is best known for
the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
- Peter
Gabriel: rock musician, formerly a member of Genesis. He left
the band in 1975 to pursue a solo career. His hits include Solsbury
Hill and Sledgehammer.
- Peter
Sellers: British actor who played Inspector Clouseau in The Pink
Panther films.
- Peter
Sutcliffe: Also known as the Yorkshire Ripper, English serial
killer.
- Peter
Parker: Also known as Spiderman.
MY LATEST BOOK!
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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
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John Wesley, evangelist and founder of the Methodist societies, was born on this date in 1703. Some words of wisdom from him:
- An
ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.
- Do
all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you
can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the
people you can, As long as ever you can.
- Light
yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to
watch you burn.
- Though
I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry.
- What
one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.
- We
should be rigorous in judging ourselves and gracious in judging
others.
- People
who wish to be offended will always find some occasion for taking
offence.
- Let
your words be the genuine picture of your heart.
- I
have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am
able to do it.
- As
to matters of dress, I would recommend one never to be first in the
fashion nor the last out of it.
MY LATEST BOOK!
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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
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The sun is now in the Cancer
zodiac sign. Here are 10 things you might not know about the sign:
- The
sign is named after a Crab in Greek mythology. The story goes that
while Heracles was fighting the Hydra, a crab appeared and bit him
in the foot. Heracles killed it, but his enemy Hera placed it in the
stars.
- The
constellation of Cancer is sometimes referred to as the “Dark
Sign” because the brightest star within it, Beta Cancri, only has
an apparent magnitude of 3.5.
- The
usual symbol for the sign is a crab, but through the ages it has
been represented by other aquatic creatures with exoskeletons, such
as Lobsters or Crayfish. In ancient Egyptian astrology, it was a
scarab and in Babylon it was sometimes represented as a snapping Turtle.
- Cancer
is a Water sign, ruled by the Moon.
- Famous
Cancerians include Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Elon Musk, Diana, Princess
of Wales, Sylvester Stallone, Robin Williams, George Michael, Nikola Tesla, Malala Yousafzai and the Dalai Lama.
- The
birth stones for people born under this sign are the ruby, Pearl,
emerald and moonstone.
- Their
lucky plants are those with White or Yellow flowers, moon shaped
leaves, those that grow near water or contain a lot of water.
Peppermint, water lily, Daisy, white Rose and watermelon, for
example.
- The
sign of cancer rules home and family, emotions, moodiness, secrets,
alcoholism and insecurity. In terms of the body, it rules the chest,
breasts and stomach.
- People
born under this sign are said to be homebodies who like to nurture
and care for others. They are emotional and secretive, likely to
retreat into their shell when threatened or wounded. They are
cautious and need security. They are affectionate and sympathetic,
but there is a danger of them smothering those that they love. They
may be collectors or hoarders.
- Dante mentions the sign in his Paradiso. The quote goes, “Thereafterward
a light among them brightened, So that, if Cancer one such crystal
had, Winter would have a month of one sole day.” In art, the
Italian painter and architect Giovanni Maria Falconetto depicted
Cancer as the guardian of the city of Verona.
MY LATEST BOOK!
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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
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Today is the last Friday in June, so it's National Cream Tea Day. Just to be clear, we're not talking about tea with cream in it, here, but the meal, traditionally eaten in the afternoon, consisting of scones, jam and clotted cream with tea to wash it down. Here are 10 facts.
- Most
sources say that the tradition of Tea and a snack in the afternoon
originated with Anna Russell, the seventh Duchess of Bedford in the
early 1800s. At that time, people ate two meals a day, breakfast and
dinner in the evening. The duchess decided she couldn't wait until
8pm for her next meal and started taking afternoon tea, at first by
herself, but as time went on, she invited others to join her and the
idea spread.
- Other
sources suggest afternoon tea goes back further than that, with
Catherine of Braganza (Charles II’s wife) introducing it to the
English court in 1662.
- Even
this isn't the earliest mention of cream teas. There are manuscripts
dating back to 997AD which state that monks at Tavistock Abbey in Devon served bread with clotted cream and Strawberry preserves to
workers who were helping to rebuild the Abbey after it was damaged
in a Viking raid.
- In
modern times, the term "cream tea" to describe such a meal
dates back to 1931 when the phrase was used in 'The Cornishman'
newspaper.
- Does
the jam go on first, or the cream? It depends whether you favour the
Devonshire or Cornwall method. In Cornwall the jam is applied first
with the cream on top; in Devon, the cream goes on first with the
jam on top.
- Another
potential source of argument connected to cream teas is how you
pronounce the word "scone". Should it rhyme with "gone"
or with "throne"? Again there's no right or wrong - it
depends on where in the country you come from. It's nothing to do
with social class.
- The
term 'scones' was first used in 1513 according to the Oxford English
Dictionary. The word 'scone' is believed to come from the Dutch word
‘schoonbrot’, which means beautiful Bread.
- In
a traditional cream tea, the scones aren't buttered. They should be
freshly baked and still warm and the cream should be clotted rather
than whipped. The jam should be strawberry. Some say the tea should
be taken without Milk.
- In
Anna Russell's time, there were two terms used to describe a light
meal in the afternoon - high tea or low tea. While it's easy to
assume that high tea sounds posher, in fact, it was low tea that was
enjoyed by the upper classes. It was so called because it was served
on low tables (ie coffee tables) and consisted of snacks. High tea
was served at the dining table and was traditionally the end of day
meal of the working classes. It would be rather more substantial
than scones, cream and jam - cold meats, pies, salad, pickles, bread
and Butter, cakes, and a pot of tea would be served.
- The
world’s most expensive afternoon tea included white Truffles costing £2,500 per kg and beluga caviar at £4,000 per kg. The tea
was Da Hong Pao tea harvested from 1,000-year-old plants grown in
the Wuyi Mountains of China.
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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
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Today is National
Catfish Day, so here are ten things you might not know about catfish.
- Catfish
get their name from the barbels around their mouths which resemble a Cat’s whiskers. That said, there are some species of catfish which
don’t have them.
- The
order they belong to, the Siluriformes, is one of the most diverse
orders on the planet. It contains 36 families with over 3,000
different species. 1 out of every 20 vertebrate species is a
catfish. Not only that, but scientists are continually discovering
new ones. Between 2003 and 2005, over 100 species were named,
including an entire new family.
- As you might expect, then, catfish can be found virtually everywhere. They live inland and in coastal waters of every continent except Antarctica. They can live in temperatures from just above freezing to nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
- There is even a type of catfish which lives in swamps, ponds and slow moving or stagnant water which has a tendency to dry up. This fish is called the walking catfish (Clarias batrachus), because it has evolved the ability to “walk” (or more accurately, wiggle) so that if the pond it is living in dries up it can move to another.
- They also vary considerably in size. The three largest species are the Mekong giant catfish, the Wels catfish and the Piraiba catfish. The largest catfish ever recorded was a giant Mekong catfish caught in Thailand in 2005 that weighed 293 kilograms (646 lb). At the other end of the scale are the Trichomycteridae are a family of catfishes commonly known as pencil catfishes or parasitic catfishes, which can measure just 1cm. This family includes the candiru fish (Vandellia cirrhosa), which is said to have a habit of swimming up the human urethra.
- They don’t have scales. Instead they have smooth, mucus covered skin. Some species breathe through their skin; they all taste with their skin, having thousands of taste buds all over their bodies so they can detect chemicals in the Water around them.
- Their
diets also vary considerably. In general, they eat insects, Snails,
other fish and fish eggs, but there are some types which eat wood
and algae and others which are parasitic and live off the Blood of
other animals. Some will eat waste and decaying material from the
sea or river bottom. There are some which people keep as pets, as
they help keep the tank clean, although their diet needs to be
supplemented with ordinary fish food as well.
- Catfish
can communicate with one another. One characteristic of the species
is an organ called the Weberian apparatus, which not only allows
them to make a variety of sounds, but also improves their hearing
and ability to discriminate between sounds. They also rub parts of
their bodies together to make even more different sounds.
- They
have a number of nicknames, especially in the USA where they are
known as mud cats, polliwogs, chuckleheads, big bullheads,
shovelheads, scoopers and flatties, to name but a few regional
nicknames.
- They
are mostly harmless but some have stings and need to be handled with
care. Most of the stings aren’t venomous but stings from striped
eel catfish have been known to be fatal in rare cases.
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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
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This date in 1915 saw the birth of Sir Fred Hoyle, astronomer. 10 things he said:
- When
I was young, the old regarded me as an outrageous young fellow, and
now that I'm old the young regard me as an outrageous old fellow.
- Space
isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car
could go straight upwards.
- There
is a coherent plan to the universe, though I don't know what it's a
plan for.
- The
man who voyages strange seas must of necessity be a little unsure of
himself. It is the man with the flashy air of knowing everything,
who is always with it, that we should beware of.
- The
notion that not only the biopolymer but the operating program of a
living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic
soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.
- Science
is prediction, not explanation.
- the
establishment defends itself by complicating everything to the point
of incomprehensibility.
- A
junkyard contains all the bits and pieces of a Boeing 747,
dismembered and in disarray. A whirlwind happens to blow through the
yard. What is the chance that after its passage a fully assembled
747, ready to fly, will be found standing there? So small as to be
negligible, even if a tornado were to blow through enough junkyards
to fill the whole Universe.
- Words
are like harpoons. Once they go in, they are very hard to pull out.
- It
is the true nature of mankind to learn from mistakes, not from
example.
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
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Q-Day was 23 June 1945, the day of the dress rehearsal of the first atom bomb test. Nowadays it is sometimes used informally to mean "Quality Day", or the first day of the calendar quarter. 10 things you might not know about the letter Q:
- It’s
the 17th
letter in the English alphabet, and the second least frequently
used, after Z.
- The
earliest forms of the letter may have been a symbol representing a
knot, a threaded Needle, or a monkey with its tail hanging down.
- It
was common up until the 19th
century for some capital Qs to have longer tails. This is thought to
have originated in Latin texts, where Q is much more likely to be
the first letter of a word. They
still used shorter tailed Qs, however, for shorter words. The long
tailed Q fell out of use with the advent of digital fonts. One
person who would have been glad to see the back of them was the
American typographer D.B. Ukdike, who claimed that printers would
use them simply to “outdo each other”.
- The
letter Q is usually followed by a letter U in the English language,
but there are exceptions – according to Wikipedia, 4,422 of them
to be exact. They are often obscure words which have been
assimilated into the English language from other tongues such as
Arabic, Chinese or French. For example, qigong (Chinese exercise
system), qi (the Chinese word for the life force), qat (a shrub with
narcotic properties) and
cinq (the number five in a pack of cards.
- The
Estonian, Icelandic, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish,
Serbo-Croatian, Scottish Gaelic, Slovenian, Turkish, Welsh and
Cornish alphabets do not include the letter Q.
- Q
is the symbol for the Guatemalan quetzal, the currency of Guatemala.
- In
Medieval times, Q was sometimes
included
in the Roman numeral system and was used to represent 90, 500 or
500,000.
- In
the NATO phonetic alphabet, “Quebec” is Q. In Morse Code - –.-
represents Q.
- In Star Trek, Q is not only a character (played by John de Lancie) but
the name of the race he belongs to, who all refer to each other as
Q. They are the only race which can access the Q Continuum. Gene Roddenberry chose the letter Q for this character/race in honour of
a friend, Janet Quarton.
- Q
is also a character in the James Bond novels and films. Q in this
case stands for “Quartermaster” and is therefore a job title. In
military usage a quartermaster is a senior officer who co-ordinates
the distribution of supplies. In the James Bond universe, he’s the
one who issues Bond with gadgets.
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
Available on Amazon:
On this date in 1896
Marconi patented his invention of the wireless. 10 things you might
not know about radio.
- In
the early days, the technology that produced radio was called
wireless telegraphy, which is where we get the old fashioned word
“wireless” for a radio.
- The
word “broadcast” came from an agricultural term for a wide
scattering of seeds.
- Radio
waves were discovered by Heinrich Hertz in 1887.
- The
first radio transmitters were called spark gap transmitters but they
couldn’t transmit sound as radios do today, only pulses. They
could be used for communication however, by means of Morse Code,
using different lengths of pulses as dots and dashes.
- The Earth’s core can be used as a radio antenna, and is, in fact, to
allow radio communications to reach submerged Submarines.
- In
the 1980s it was possible to download computer games from the radio.
How? The game was coded into sounds which could be recorded onto a
cassette tape and loaded onto a computer.
- Radio
saved the Eiffel Tower. It was meant to be torn down and scrapped
after 20 years but the military saw its potential as a radio tower
and started using it as such during the first world war. In 1908, a
man named Lee de Forest was probably the first to use it that way.
In Paris for his honeymoon in 1908, he climbed to the top of the
tower and broadcast music to the suburbs of Paris. This made him,
arguably, the first radio DJ. What his new wife thought of it is
anyone’s guess.
- The
reception is better for some radio stations at night. This is
because radio waves travel in straight lines. The curvature of the
Earth means, therefore, that radio stations shouldn’t be able to
transmit for more than about 40 miles. However, at night, the
composition of the ionosphere changes when it is not facing the Sun,
allowing radio waves to bounce off it more easily and the waves to
be picked up from greater distances.
- Between
1922 and 1971, people in the UK couldn’t listen to the radio
without a licence. It cost 10 shillings (50p).
- UVB-76
is a mysterious Russian radio signal which
has been transmitting continuously since 1982. Nobody knows who
sends
the signal, or
why. It
is located near Moscow, and
the transmission consists of
a buzzing sound 25 times a minute. Every
few years it
broadcasts
a string of random names and numbers.
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
Available on Amazon:
On the Summer Solstice Stonehenge isn’t the only place people go to celebrate. Glastonbury Tor is another popular venue. It has belonged to the National Trust since 1933. Here are 10 things you might not know about it.
- Glastonbury
Tor is a conical hill formed of clay and Blue Lias, formed when
surrounding softer deposits were eroded, leaving the hard cap of
sandstone exposed. Its rocks date from the early Jurassic Period. At
one time the Somerset Levels were covered in Water, and the Tor was
effectively an island.
- Glastonbury
Tor is visible for over 20 miles.
- The
sides of the Tor have seven deep, roughly symmetrical terraces. How
or why these are there isn’t known. If they are man made, there
are numerous theories as to their purpose. Agriculture is one, so
the Tor could be used for growing crops, but they’re not just on
the best side for growing things. Why would ancient farmers go to a
great deal of effort to terrace the north facing side as well as the
south? Perhaps they formed a defensive rampart. Another theory is
that there was a spiritual purpose – a three dimensional labyrinth
dating to Neolithic times.
- There
were certainly people visiting, if not living on, the Tor in
Neolithic times. Flint tools have been found at the top of the hill.
- By
Saxon times, there were buildings up there. Evidence has been found
of at least four buildings. It’s possible one of the buildings was
a church or hermitage, because the head of a stone cross was found
partway down the hill. By the Middle Ages there was a metalworker’s
forge there.
- A
wooden church dedicated to St Michael was built on the summit in the
11th or 12th century. It was common at that
time for Christian churches to be built on the sites formerly used
for pagan worship, and those churches would often be dedicated to St Michael. St Michael was often the saint to whom places of worship in
high places was dedicated (Hence St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall and Mont St-Michel in Normandy). This church was destroyed in an Earthquake in 1275. The epicentre was in the area around Portsmouth
or Chichester and could be was felt in London, Canterbury and Wales.
- In
the 14th
century, another church dedicated to St Michael was built on the
summit. This one was made from local sandstone by Abbot Adam of
Sodbury, incorporating the foundations of the previous building. It
was probably a daughter house of Glastonbury Abbey in the nearby
town. There is a record of Henry III granting a charter for a
six-day fair there in 1243. Most of this church was demolished in
1539 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, although the
tower is still there. Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury
Abbey, and
two of his monks, John Thorne and Roger James, were
executed on the Tor.
- There
is a lot of myth and legend associated with Glastonbury Tor. The
Celts called it Ynys Witrin, or the Isle of Glass, and believed it
was a gateway to the underworld, home of Gwyn ap Nudd, Lord of the
Underworld, and also of fairies. Another legend says the Tor is the
Island of Avalon, burial site of King Arthur. Christian legend has
it that Joseph of Arimathea, a merchant, used to travel to the area
for trading purposes, and on one occasion, brought a young Jesus
with him; that after the crucifixion, Joseph returned and as well as
planting his staff on nearby Wearyall Hill to form the Glastonbury Thorn, he hid the Holy Grail somewhere near the Chalice Well, and
iron rich spring at the base of the Tor. It’s also said that St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, led a group of hermits there in
the 13th
century. A more recent legend is that the Tor forms part of the
Glastonbury Zodiac, a huge zodiac carved into the landscape in
ancient times. This theory was first put forward in 1927 by
Katherine Maltwood. The Tor forms part of the representation of Aquarius.
- The
mysterious nature of the landmark is enhanced by visual effects
which can be observed at times. One of these is a phenomenon known
as a Fata Morgana (derived, appropriately enough, from Morgan le
Fay, a powerful sorceress in Arthurian legend) in which rays of
light are strongly bent when they pass through air layers of
different temperatures. This makes the Tor appear to float above the
mist.
- A
representation of the Tor played a part in the opening ceremony of
the London Olympics in 2012. A model based on the Tor (with a tree
on top instead of the tower) was used to display the national Flags of the athletes as they entered the stadium.
MY LATEST BOOK!
Killing Me Softly
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena.
Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.
Available on Amazon:
Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.
