1 March: Ohio

Today is Ohio Admission Day. It became the 17^th state of the Union in 1803, although it didn't get the presidential stamp of approval until President Dwight D Eisenhower signed it off in 1953. He backdated the declaration to the original date. Here are 10 things you might not know about Ohio:

1. The state was named after the Ohio River, which in turn was named for the Native American Seneca word “ohi:yo” which means “great river”. Its nickname is the Buckeye State, after a tree native to the state which produces nuts that look like a deer’s eye. Ohio legend says that carrying one of these nuts in your pocket is good luck.
2. Another state nickname is “Birthplace of Aviation”. While the Wright Brothers historic flight took place in North Carolina, they hailed from Ohio, as did John Glenn, the first man to orbit the Earth, and Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. According to NASA, 25 astronauts are Ohio natives, having made nearly 80 space flights, including three trips to the Moon.
3. A fair number of US Presidents were born here, too. They are: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William H. Taft, and Warren G. Harding. 4 of them died while still in office. Ulysses S. Grant was the only one to complete two terms. However, Ohio hasn’t provided any presidents in the last 100 years.
4. Columbus is the state capital and largest city. The state has two other major cities: Cleveland and Cincinnati.
5. There’s a river here which has caught fire 13 times, and a fire in a coal mine which has been smouldering since 1884. The latter started during a workers’ dispute over pay. Disgruntled miners set fire to cars and pushed them into the mine, and the coal is still burning. The Cuyahoga River was one of the most polluted rivers in the country and would catch fire when sparks from a nearby railway line hit the water. In 1969, one of these fires hit the national headlines and Congress was inspired to do something about it. The Environmental Protection Agency was established as a result.
6. You can also find here a Bridge which is the only one in the world which you can cross and still be on the same side of the river. It’s the Y Bridge in Zanesville, built in 1814 to span the confluence of the Licking and Muskingum Rivers.
7. Some of Ohio’s wacky laws: If you own a Tiger and it escapes, you must notify the authorities within one hour. In Cleveland, you must have a hunting licence in order to catch Mice. Cleveland women must not wear patent Shoes, in case men see reflections of their underwear. In Toledo it is illegal to throw Snakes at people. Men with hairy chests must wear shirts at the beach; and it’s illegal to borrow Water.
8. Agriculture is the number one industry here. The state ranks number one in the country’s production of Swiss Cheese. Perhaps no coincidence, then, that Sugarcreek, Ohio is home to the world’s largest fully functional cuckoo clock and is known as the “Little Switzerland of Ohio.”
9. Cleveland became the world’s first city to be lit by Electricity in 1879. The first Traffic Light in America was installed in Cleveland in 1914, and in 1948 the city became home to the first pedestrian controlled crossing.
10. Ohio’s state Flag is the only one in the US to have a pennant shape. The official state motto of Ohio is ‘With God, all things are possible’. More state symbols: State tree: the buckeye; flower: Carnation; bird: cardinal; insect: ladybird; beverage: tomato juice. Beautiful Ohio is the state song. There’s also a state rock song, Hang On Sloopy.

Character Birthday

Julia Lovell: She was the nurse who cared for Unicorn after his accident, and fell in love with him. When he was discharged from hospital they started dating and in due course, married. The couple were unable to have children of their own, and so adopted Brian Watson (Hercules). Julia is a confidant to many of the young superheroes associated with Unicorn’s Freedom League. She appears in Running in the Family and Eternal Flame.

28 February: Nylon

On this date in 1935, Nylon was discovered by Dr Wallace H Carothers. 10 things you might not know about nylon:

1. Some say that the word nylon was coined from New York and London, because neither group of scientists could have invented it without the other, because the temperatures in their labs were different and a combination of different temperatures was needed. This, however, is a myth. The name derived from “no-run”, an earlier proposed name. Anyone who’s ever worn nylon stockings will know nylon isn’t actually run proof, so it was proposed to call it “nuron” instead (No-run backwards). Only this sounded like a nerve tonic. Changing a couple of the letters they eventually came up with nylon.
2. Other names considered were “klis” (silk backwards, since it was an alternative to silk) and “Duparooh,” an acronym for “DuPont (the company which made it) Pulls A Rabbit Out Of a Hat.”
3. Wallace H Carothers was the lead chemist at DuPont, who’d been headhunted away from Harvard with an offer of twice the salary. He was a brilliant chemist, also responsible for neoprene, the first commercially successful artificial rubber. He lived for some time in a house share with three other single men which was dubbed “Whiskey Acres” because they liked to drink and party. Carothers had a long term affair with a married woman before eventually marrying a DuPont co-worker 15 years his junior. He suffered from severe depression, though, and used to carry a capsule of cyanide on his watch chain, so he could end it all when he chose. He suffered self doubt about his work and then his sister died which sent him into a downward spiral that not even his wife’s pregnancy announcement could pull him out of. Before nylon had even been made available commercially, he took himself off to a hotel and drank his cyanide with Lemon juice, which, as a chemist, he knew would make it work faster. He was just 41, and never even saw his daughter, born later that year.
4. The first product DuPont made from nylon was bristles for Toothbrushes.
5. Perhaps the most popular in the late 1930s was ladies’ stockings. The fabric was first introduced to the world at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and stockings went on sale the next year. DuPont sold four million pairs of nylon stockings in the first two days.
6. However, a couple of years later, DuPont stopped making stockings when the US entered the second world war, so all its manufacturing capability was channelled into production for military gear, including parachutes, tents, ropes and hammocks and you couldn’t get stockings for love nor money. Just over a week after the end of the war, DuPont announced it would again produce nylon for stockings. Customers had missed nylon stockings so much that department stores saw “Nylon Riots,” with customers clawing and fighting for their hosiery.
7. The American flag that was planted on the Moon is made from nylon.
8. Kevlar, the stuff bullet proof vests are made from, is also a type of nylon.
9. Nylon is strong, tough, elastic, lightweight, and doesn’t attract Moths, mould or fungi; but it’s not good for the environment. Nylon takes hundreds of years to decompose, and as it does, it releases toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases. Large quantities of Water are used to produce nylon. The textile industry is responsible for 17-20% of the world's waste water.
10. There is a band called The Nylons. They are a Canadian male acappella group, who chose the name as a tongue-in-cheek fabricated tribute to the 1960s girl group, the Chiffons.

Character birthday

Willow, real name Melissa Honey. Her full code name is Will o’ the Wisp due to her ability to turn into mist, but this has been shortened by her Freedom League team mates to Willow. She can also repulse attackers. She is known for being into crystals and energy and other “New Age” ideas, having lived in Glastonbury for a while. Her story is told in The Power of Love.

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

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27 February: Elizabeth Taylor

The actress Elizabeth Taylor was born on this date in 1932. Here are 10 things you might not know about her.

1. She was born in London, in Barnet to be exact, and lived in London until the age of seven. Her parents were American, and had come to England to set up an art gallery. The family moved to America when the second world war was brewing and set up home in Los Angeles.
2. It was there that a family friend suggested Elizabeth should take a screen test. Universal Pictures signed her, and she made her first film with them, There's One Born Every Minute, which was released when she was ten. Universal dropped her contract after that one film, but Elizabeth was soon picked up by MGM.
3. She had unique Eyes. Not only were they such a deep Blue that they sometimes appeared Purple, she also had a genetic mutation known as lymphedema-distichiassyndrome which meant she had twice as many eyelashes as anyone else.
4. She was 15 when she first appeared on a magazine cover, that of Life magazine. She went on to appear on many more covers during her life. In fact, the only person who's been on the cover of People more than she has is Princess Diana.
5. She was the first woman to make a million dollars for a single movie. That was Cleopatra.
6. Taylor was raised as a Christian Scientist, and converted to Judaism in 1959.
7. She broke her back while filming National Velvet in 1944, but the fracture went undetected for years. That, and the fact she was born with scoliosis, meant she suffered from back problems for most of her life.
8. She was married eight times, twice to the same man. Her first marriage was to Conrad Hilton Jr. when she was 18. He turned out to be violent and abusive, so the marriage only lasted 8 months. The second was British actor Michael Wilding. They had two children but drifted apart eventually and were divorced. The third was film producer Mike Todd, which might have lasted as in later years Elizabeth would say he was one of the loves of her life; but he died in a plane crash. Her affair and subsequent marriage to Eddie Fisher was probably on the rebound from that, and three years later she began an affair with the other love of her life, Richard Burton. They married and divorced twice. She married her sixth husband, John Warner, in 1976 and her seventh husband, Larry Fortensky, in 1991. She would claim in an interview in her later life that had Richard Burton not died, she would have considered marrying him for a third time.
9. She was the first celebrity to create a signature fragrance. In collaboration with Elizabeth Arden, Inc., she launched two best-selling perfumes – Passion in 1987, and White Diamonds in 1991, and went on to create nine more.
10. She also owned some serious jewellery including the "Krupp Diamond", the Duchess of Windsor’s Diamond brooch, the Grand Duchess of Russia’s emeralds, the "LaPeregina Pearl", and the famous pear-shaped 69-carat "Burton-Cartier Diamond". She was actually a jewellery expert as well.

Character birthday

Papa Razzi, aka Gideon, a member of the Fortelli gangster family based in New York. His name derives partly from the fact he has a couple of children and partly from his use of a modified camera, which not only takes pictures but can be used as a dazzling weapon or emit a paralysing gas. At crime scenes, he is often assumed to be a reporter rather than one of the gangsters.

26 February: 57

Today is the 57th day of the year. 10 facts about the number 57

1. The advertising slogan for the Heinz company is “57 varieties”. Heinz chose "5" because it was his lucky number and the number "7" was his wife's lucky number.
2. It’s the atomic number of Lanthanum, a chemical element with the symbol La. Lanthanum is a soft, ductile, silvery-white metal that tarnishes slowly when exposed to air.
3. Passenger 57 is an American action thriller film directed by Kevin Hooks. The film stars Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne. Snipes plays a security consultant who finds himself forced to foil a plot to free a captive terrorist during a commercial airline flight.
4. The M57 motorway was designed as a ring road for Liverpool. It’s 10 miles (16 km) long and is also known as the Liverpool Outer Ring Road.
5. Agent 57 is the name of the master of disguise in the television series Danger Mouse.
6. The code for international direct dial phone calls to Colombia is +57.
7. Among the first thousand prime numbers, 57 is the most common two digit ending.
8. B'hrian Bloodaxe, the first Low King of the dwarfs, killed 57 trolls in the legendary Battle of Koom Valley on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.
9. In the movie Contagion, Vaccine #57 is the one that successfully protects the lab Monkey from infection.
10. In numerology, people under the influence of this number are sociable, creative and witty. While they are generally extravert, they can be quite introspective at times.

Character birthday

Gavin Black, son of schoolteacher and Viper agent Douglas Black and his wife Veronica. He is gay and in a relationship with one of his father’s former pupils. He appears in Killing Me Softly.

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:

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25 February: Embroidery

February is International embroidery month. Here are 10 things you might not know about embroidery:

1. Embroidery has been around a long time. Since 30,000 BC at least. In 1964 remains of a Cro-Magnon were discovered in Russia with clothing decorated with ivory beads. Primitive embroidery has been found all over the world, dating back thousands of years, so historians have no idea where the craft first originated.
2. Greek mythology offers the explanation that the goddess Athena passed down the art of embroidery and weaving to humans, leading to the famous competition between herself and the mortal Arachne.
3. In the Muslim world, embroidery was historically a way to tell the status of an individual. In general, it was only the higher social classes who would wear embroidered clothing. Gold and Silver thread, in particular, were a symbol of power and status on clothing or religious objects all over the world.
4. Embroidery is often seen as something only women do, but Gustaf V, King of Sweden and Henry Fonda and both enjoyed this hobby.
5. In 18th century England and its colonies, embroidery was a skill marking a girl’s passage into womanhood as well as conveying rank and social standing. Historically, women would be taught embroidery even if they weren’t taught to read or write. Hence some marginalised groups who were illiterate or not allowed access to pen and paper, would tell their stories through embroidery, which can now be used as a way to study their everyday lives.
6. The world’s largest piece of embroidery is 50 cm in height and 70 m in length, and is on display in the Bretagne Museum in northern France. It’s called the Bayeux Tapestry.
7. The first embroidery machine was the hand embroidery machine, invented in France in 1832 by Josué Heilmann.
8. The word embroidery conjures up work on fabric, but fabric isn’t the only material which can be embroidered. Medieval artists would use it to repair holes in their manuscripts. It’s also possible to embroider leaves and even wood.
9. In 16th century England, fine books might have embroidered bindings. The Bodleian Library in Oxford contains one presented to Queen Elizabeth I in 1583. It also owns a copy of The Epistles of Saint Paul, whose cover was reputedly embroidered by the Queen herself.
10. It’s even possible to embroider using human hair rather than thread. It was a tradition in Mexico that scarves would be embroidered with a man’s hair as part of the formal marriage proposal; and there is Buddhist art from late Imperial China which uses human Hair.

Character birthday

Amanda Somerset-Liquorish: A non-powered character who eventually married Gary Winchcombe (Chain) and had four children with him before they divorced.

24 February: Steve Jobs Quotes

Born on this date in 1955 was Steve Jobs co-founder of Apple inc. 10 quotes from him:

1. My favourite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.
2. Things don't have to change the world to be important.
3. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.
4. For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
5. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.
6. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
7. The things you regret most in life are the things you didn’t do.
8. Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?
9. I think different religions are different doors to the same house.
10. One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are.

Character birthday

Skippi: A small alien who resembles a cute monkey, and is able to teleport. While his actual birthdate isn’t known, on realising humans all had birthdays and enjoyed celebrating them, he chose 24 Feb as his birthday and has celebrated it ever since. He is a member of Superwil’s Ultra League. He can understand English but is unable to speak it, or any other language. His native tongue appears to be a series of warbles and squeaks, which members of the Ultra League claim they can often understand. Skippi doesn't have his own apartment but teleports between those of his team mates, spending time in whichever one has the best food or entertainment, or has the most suitable temperature. In return he will perform small errands for the owner of the apartment, like bringing cups of coffee. He appears in Eternal Flame and A Very Variant Christmas.

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 Amazon and Amazon Kindle

23 February: John Keats

John Keats died on this date in 1821. Here are 10 things you might not know about him:

1. John Keats was born on 31 October 1795 in London, England to Edward Keats and Frances Jenning. The family owned stables in what is now Moorgate.
2. He was the eldest of four children, with two brothers and a sister.
3. His father died when he was eight, from a fractured Skull after falling from his Horse on his way home from visiting John and his brother at boarding school. His mother died of TB when he was 14.
4. He almost became a doctor. At 15, he was taken out of school by his guardian and apprenticed to an apothecary in Enfield. At 19 or 20, he registered at Guy's Hospital in London for further training. Within a month, he was assisting surgeons during operations, doing work equivalent of a junior house surgeon today.
5. By this time, however, he was already writing poetry as a hobby, and was resenting the amount of time his day job took away from that. In 1816, his first published poem, O Solitude appeared in The Examiner.
6. He left the hospital and moved to Hampstead with his brothers. By this time, one of them, Tom, had TB, or consumption as it was then known. Keats nursed his brother. In those days consumption wasn’t recognised as an infectious disease but was rather thought to be something weakness and sexual repression could cause, and so carried something of a stigma. So much so that Keats never mentioned the disease by name in any of the letters he wrote.
7. Keats first met Frances (Fanny) Brawne between September and November 1818, possibly when her family were visiting friends in the area before they moved there. Romance blossomed between them, but was marred by Keats’s brother’s illness, and then by Keats contracting TB himself.
8. He left for Rome, having been advised by his doctors to move to a warmer climate. He knew he was dying and would never see Fanny again. He couldn’t bear to write to her or read her letters, but he did correspond with her mother. He died of TB in Rome at just 25 years old. His last request was that his tombstone should bear no name or date, only the words, "Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water." However, the friends who commissioned the tombstone had other ideas and so his epitaph reads: “This Grave contains all that was Mortal, of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET, Who, on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart, at the Malicious Power of his Enemies, Desired these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water Feb 24th 1821.”
9. Keats’s poems weren’t well received during his lifetime. His poem Endymion was damned by the critics. One, John Gibson Lockhart, described Endymion as "imperturbable drivelling idiocy". Lockhart went on to write, "It is a better and a wiser thing to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet; so back to the shop Mr John, back to plasters, pills, and ointment boxes."
10. John Keat’s career lasted just five years.

Character birthday

Smasher: aka Lee Pullman, a member of the Freedom League. He was a child martial arts champion who was later discovered to have genetic variant powers. He went to university in Birmingham where he could allow Unicorn to study his abilities. He joined the Freedom League when Electric Blue and Superwil left, although felt a bit of an outsider until after he graduated and had to move out of the halls of residence. Then he took a room in the Freedom League’s HQ. Despite his fighting skills, he is a gentle soul with a fascination for all things Oriental, and is a Buddhist by faith. He appears in Power of Love.

22 February: 53

Today is the  53rd day of the year. 10 things you might not know about the number 53:

1. Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. Iodine is a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions. It melts to form a deep violet liquid at 114 °C (237 °F), and boils to form a violet gas at 184 °C (363 °F). It was discovered by the French chemist Bernard Courtois in 1811.
2. 53 is the racing number of Herbie, a fictional Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of his own, first appearing in the 1968 film The Love Bug.
3. In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Grinch says he's put up with the Whos' Christmas cheer for 53 years.
4. In America, the first ever Thanksgiving was celebrated by 53 pilgrims.
5. According to the History Channel, 53 was a significant number in the WWII battle for Iwo Jima in 1945. Task Force 53 brought the 71,000 soldiers and 41,000 marines. The officer commanding the Japanese troops was Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, age 53. The average height of a Japanese infantryman was 5'3".
6. +53 is the code for international direct dial phone calls to Cuba.
7. There are 53 beads in a standard Catholic Rosary.
8. 53 More Things To Do In Zero Gravity is a book mentioned in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
9. There will be 53 Sundays in a year if it starts on a Sunday in a non-leap year (as is the case in 2023), or if either of the first two days is a Sunday during a leap year.
10. In numerology, people influenced by 53 are realistic and efficient. They have good business sense and will pursue their chosen goals regardless of what anyone else thinks. They are curious, creative and mentally sharp.

Character birthdays

Whirlwind and Sky Wolf are Tilly and Elliott Wulfson, the twin offspring of Bluebird and Wolf of the Raiders. They live in the Infinitus dimension. Sky Wolf inherited his parents’ powers – wings and hypersenses and a telepathic link with two tame wolves. Tilly was born without any powers but as a teenager she and a friend ran away to Portal Island, where the wormhole to our dimension is located, and travelled through it in order to gain powers. Tilly gained the ability to manipulate winds. They have not yet appeared in a published story.

21 February: New Orleans

In 2023, the famous Carnival is taking place in New Orleans. 10 things you might not know about New Orleans:

1. The city was named by French explorer Sieur de Bienville, after the Prince Regent of France, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans.
2. Its nicknames include The Big Easy (possibly because in the early 20^th century it was easy for musicians to find work there); Crescent City (because the Lower Mississippi River flows in a crescent shape in and around the city) and NOLA, the acronym for New Orleans, Louisiana.
3. One of the things the city is famous for is the Mardi Gras celebrations. The first Mardi Gras was held in New Orleans in 1837 and continues to this day with parades, costumes, beaded necklaces and parties in the streets.
4. It’s also known for Music, especially Jazz. What you might not know is that in 1796, New Orleans was the first US city to put on an Opera performance, namely, a performance of Sylvain, written in 1770. Hence the city became known as the Opera Capital of North America.
5. It’s home to the longest Bridge to stretch continuously over water. It’s called the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which spans 23.86 miles over Lake Pontchartrain and was built in 1956. The bridge is so long that in the middle, you can’t see the land on either side.
6. St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest continually operating cathedral in the US, dating back to 1794.
7. Also here is the oldest family-run restaurant in the country, Antoine’s.
8. Bourbon Street, a focal point of the Carnival and music scene, wasn’t named after booze. It was actually named after the French royal family ruling at the time the city was founded, the House of Bourbon.
9. The city sits at the same latitude as Cairo, Egypt.
10. The motto of New Orleans is “laissez les bon temps rouler”, which is a Cajun/French translation for “let the good times roll”.

Character birthday

Kingfisher, son of Aqua and Speedy and one of the next generation of the G-Men superhero team. He has flight and water powers. He lives in the mansion owned by Ultra Grav, although is keen to leave home and go to university. He appears in Fire in Her Blood.

Fire in her Blood

A Superhero love story.

Sent away to school to get her away from undesirable company, Agnes finds herself homesick and lonely. A brief connection with Jason Warner leads to the teenage crush to end all teenage crushes. Jason is barely aware Agnes exists, but she plans her whole future around him.

It is only when they meet again as adults that the connection becomes mutual; but before it can develop, Jason makes a discovery which rocks his entire world. He needs time alone, away from everyone, including Agnes. When Jason is finally ready to go back to his old life, Agnes has moved on and he cannot find her.

Agnes is now a single parent to the remarkable Seraphina. The Power League want to harness Seraphina's powers for evil before the Freedom League become aware of her. Agnes has no idea her new colleague and friend is a supervillain with his own agenda, and his willingness to babysit is not as innocent as she thinks. As Incendio starts teaching Seraphina to use her powers, the Freedom League intervene. Little do they know that they have found one of their own.

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20 February: Seaweed

The International Seaweed Symposium is taking place in Australia now (in 2023). Here are 10 things you might not know about seaweed:

1. Seaweeds are not plants. Although they photosynthesise like plants do, they don’t have roots, but rather attaches itself to rocks with structures called holdfasts. Nor do seaweeds have Flowers. They’re actually a type of algae.
2. There are over 12,000 species of seaweeds. There is 9 times more seaweed in the seas than plants on land.
3. They are classified into three types, based on their colours: Green, Red and Brown. Green is the least common, and includes sea lettuce. Red seaweeds sometimes grow in Coral reefs, and include Irish moss. Brown seaweeds include giant kelp.
4. Most of the Oxygen in the atmosphere, about 70%, comes from seaweed.
5. It’s also good at absorbing heavy metals and other harmful chemicals from the sea. Seaweeds also absorb carbon dioxide and turn it into seaweed biomass in a process called carbon sequestration.
6. The fact that seaweeds can grow very fast means they can help a lot in combating climate change. The giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera, for example, can grow nearly a metre (three feet) a day.
7. Seaweed can be farmed and used for numerous purposes. It’s a common ingredient in Asian cooking. The largest seaweed-producing countries are China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Wakame, Kombu and Nori are all well-known seaweeds used as ingredients in Asian dishes. Other uses include making gels which can be used in dairy products, desserts, Toothpaste, air freshener gels, processed meats, and pet food. Agar is made from seaweed and it can even be used to make fire-proof clothing for firefighters.
8. Seaweed is rich in iodine and has been used for centuries for medicinal purposes. The ancient Romans used seaweed to treat wounds, burns and rashes, and still, alginate is widely used in hospital dressings. The general good health of the Japanese people have been attributed to the amount of seaweed in their diet.
9. In Victorian times, collecting seaweed, drying and pressing it was a common hobby.
10. Seaweed is sometimes used to build roofs on houses on Læsø in Denmark

Character birthday

Snazz, aka Elroy Fortelli. He’s known as Snazz due to his tendency to wear brightly coloured and often clashing outfits. It’s rumoured he is colour blind which is why his clothes often clash. This may be linked to his genetic variant ability to cause hallucinations in others. The Fortellis are one of three rival gangster families based in New York City.

19 February: EastEnders

The first episode of EastEnders was broadcast on this date in 1985. 10 things you might not know about EastEnders:

1. Creators Julia Smith and Tony Holland considered a number of potential titles for the show, which included Square Dance, Round The Square, E8 and London Pride. It was only when Julia Smith started ringing round agents and asked “Do you have any real East Enders on your books?” that the show got its name.
2. Both Julia Smith and Tony Holland were actually born in East London, and Walford, the fictitious area of London the show is set in is actually a portmanteau of the areas they came from: Walthamstow and Stratford. The postcode, E20, was also fictitious, at least to begin with. Back then, the highest “E” postcode in London was E18 (South Woodford). E20 sounded better than E19. However, in 2011 the Olympic Park was given the postcode E20 so it’s no longer fake. The real-life inspiration for Albert Square is a place called Fassett Square in the Dalston area of Hackney.
3. Actor Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale) has been a part of the show since the very first episode, when he was a teenager, making him the show’s longest-serving character. He’s also been a prime suspect in three murders over the years.
4. The longest serving costume is Dot Cotton’s Christmas dress. She wore the same dress every single Christmas. It is the oldest costume in the entire EastEnders cast wardrobe – it’s almost as old as the show itself. Most of Dot’s other outfits came from charity shops.
5. There’s nothing behind the door to the Queen Vic aside from a corner bar which is visible in shot. Scenes set in the pub are filmed in a studio elsewhere. Most of the drinks are fake, too. Vodka is actually water; Whiskey is water and burnt Sugar; Wine wine is diluted Apple juice. The one exception is the Beer. The beer in the pumps is real.
6. Every episode is 27 minutes and 15 seconds long.
7. The highest viewed episode of any soap in UK television history was the Christmas Day episode of EastEnders in 1986. The one where Dirty Den handed divorce papers to Angie.
8. Fictional tube station Walford East is located between Bow Road and West Ham, on the Hammersmith & City and District lines. The trains, however, are as fake as the Queen Vic vodka, having been animated with CGI since 2010.
9. Also fake are the leaves on the trees and Daffodils in spring. Because episodes are filmed up to 12 weeks in advance fake leaves are added to trees and plastic daffodils placed in the ground to make it look like spring in the middle of winter.
10. Barbara Windsor was actually the fourth choice to play landlady Peggy Mitchell. Emma Bunton auditioned for the role of Bianca before becoming Baby Spice.

Character birthday

Crusher: Power armour wearer and member of Combat Team Delta. Former stunt double who first wore his armour for his role in a superhero movie. Has not yet appeared in a published story.

18 February: Humpback Whales

February is Humpback Whale awareness month. 10 things you might not know about humpback whales:

1. They have a hump in front of their small dorsal fin, which is why they are called humpback whales. The Latin name is Latin name, Megaptera novaeangliae, means "big wing of New England." This refers to their large pectoral fins and the fact that Europeans first spotted them off the coast of New England.
2. Humpbacks can grow to 60 feet (18 meters) long, and they can weigh 40 tons, but they’re not the largest whales. This is the blue whale, which is twice as big.
3. Their flippers can grow up to 16 feet (5 m), the largest appendage of any animal in the world.
4. Humpbacks often propel themselves above the Water and then splash back down. This is called breaching. They also do something called spyhopping (rising nose-first out of the water) and penduncle throws (raising their rear torso and tail out of the water, twist, and slamming onto the ocean surface), and flapping their pectoral fins like wings. It’s not known why they do it. The boring theory is that it dislodges pests from their bodies; the less boring theory is that they do it simply because it’s fun.
5. Humpback whales are baleen whales. This means they don’t have teeth, but instead have 270 to 400 fringed overlapping plates hanging down from each side of the upper jaw. These are made of keratin, the same stuff human Hair and nails are made of. They eat by taking big gulps of water and using the plates to filter food from it.
6. Humpbacks are unique among whales for a co-operative hinting technique called 'bubble netting'. The whales dive below a school of fish, then spiral back upwards blowing air bubbles as they go. As the bubbles rise they disorientate and trap the fish into a tight ball. The whales swim quickly upwards into the shoal and gulp down a concentrated mouthful of fish. This behaviour is often performed in groups; some groups know how to do it and others don't, suggesting it’s a behaviour they learn rather than it being instinctive.
7. Humpback whales are known for their haunting songs. Only the males sing, which has led scientists to believe that they do so to attract a female. Each humpback population has its own song. Males within the population sing the same song, although it will gradually change from year to year. The songs have an audio frequency between 80 and 4,000 hertz and can be heard 20 miles away. That said, whale calves sometimes vocalise to their mothers much more quietly, like whispering, and their sounds only travel a short distance. This may help them to avoid predators and big males.
8. A female humpback has a baby every two to three years. Their pregnancies last about 12 months. Newborns are between 10 and 15 feet (3 to 4.5 m) long and weigh up to a ton (907 kg). Their mother's milk is 45-60% fat and the calf will drink about 158 gallons (600 litres) of milk per day.
9. Humpback whales migrate farther than any other mammal on Earth. In the summer, they typically spend their time in high-latitude feeding areas and in winter, they swim to warmer waters closer to the Equator. The longest ever recorded migration was 11,706 miles (18,840 km), when a whale went from American Samoa to the Antarctic Peninsula.
10. The shape and colour pattern on their dorsal fins and flukes is unique to each individual, like human fingerprints.

Character birthday

Ultimeck: An android invented by Obsidian and Phazer of the group of Villains known as the Sinister Squad. It was designed so that only they can re-programme or control it. It was first activated on this date.