August 31: Day of the walnut

It is the day of the walnut, in the French Revolutionary calendar. Here are 10 things you might not know about walnuts:

1. The word walnut is of Germanic and Old English origin, and means "foreign nut".
2. The two most common major species of walnuts are the Persian or English walnut and the black walnut. The English walnut (Juglans regia) originated in Persia, and the black walnut (Juglans nigra) is native to eastern North America.
3. China is the world's largest producer of walnuts, but the USA is the largest exporter.
4. The Walnut Whip is Nestle Rowntree's oldest current brand, having been launched in 1910 by Duncan's of Edinburgh. The company uses over a million walnuts a week making them, and they claim someone in the UK eats one every two seconds.
5. A 100 gram serving of Walnuts contains 15.2 grams of protein, 65.2 grams of fat, 6.7 grams of dietary fibre, 654 calories and several dietary minerals, particularly manganese and B vitamins.
6. Walnut oil is used as a food ingredient, particularly in salad dressings. It has a low smoke point, which limits its use for frying.
7. Walnut is the main ingredient of Fesenjan, a khoresh (stew) in Iranian cuisine.
8. Walnuts have other uses besides eating them. They have been used to make inks and dyes. Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt used walnut ink. Walnut dyes were used in classical Rome and in medieval Europe for dyeing hair. The shells were at one time ground up and used by the US Army as a non-abrasive cleaner for aviation parts, until a walnut grit clogging up a helicopter's oil port caused a fatal crash in 1982.
9. In China, large, symmetrical walnuts are so highly prized that they are used as investments and can be worth thousands of dollars.
10. In Bach Flower Remedies, walnut is used to protect against the effects of change. It is recommended for transitions in life, such as birth, teething, starting school, puberty and marriage. It is said to help people break links with the past and move forward more easily.

30th August: Kazakhstan Constitution Day

Today is Kazakhstan's Constitution Day, so here are 10 things you might not know about Kazakhstan:

1. Kazakhstan is larger than the whole of Western Europe (2,724,900 square kilometres or 1,052,100 sq mi). This makes it the ninth largest country in the world and the largest landlocked one. As it extends across both sides of the Ural River, Kazakhstan is one of only two landlocked countries in the world that lies on two continents (the other is Azerbaijan).
2. Despite being landlocked, Kazakhstan has a navy, which is based on the Caspian Sea, which is itself landlocked.
3. "Kazakh" means free spirit, and "stan" means land or place of.
4. It is thought to be the place where Horses were first domesticated.
5. The largest city and financial capital is Almaty, which was named for the Apple trees which grow there - Alma is Kazakh for apple. Until 1998, it was the capital city.
6. In 1998, Astana became the capital city. The name Astana means "the Capital". It was a purposely planned capital - possibly because Almaty was not central enough. It was developed from a settlement which had already undergone a number of name changes. When it was founded in 1830 as a Cossack fort, it was called Akmoly (meaning "White Grave"). When it became a town, it was Akmolinsk, During the Soviet era it was Tselinograd, and from 1992 it was known by a modified version of its original name, Akmola.
7. The highest skating rink in the world is Medeo, in Almaty. Medeo was the name of a nomadic tribe which settled in the area. 170 world skating records have been set here.
8. Kazakhstan is also home to the tallest chimney in the world. The chimney of Ekibastuz GRES-2, a power station, is 420 meters tall.
9. Lake Balkhash, the largest lake in the country, is unique in that it is half Salt water and half fresh Water.
10. Thought the world's largest space launch facility would be in the US somewhere? You'd be wrong - it's in Kazakhstan. The Baikonur Cosmodome is not only the largest but was the first The first artificial satellite (Sputnik 1) and the first man (Yuri Garagrin) were sent into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome. It is leased by the Russians until 2050.

August 29th: Hathor

The Ancient Egyptians celebrated the birthday of their goddess, Hathor today, so here are 10 things you may not know about Hathor.

1. The ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor is usually depicted as a Cow goddess with horns in which is set a sun disc. She may also be wearing twin feathers and a menat necklace.
2. She was a goddess of Music, dance, foreign lands, trees, fertility, childbirth and the patron goddess of miners.
3. Symbols associated with her include the cow, lioness, falcon, cobra, Hippopotamus, Sistrum, musical instruments, Drums, mirrors and cosmetics.
4. Other names she was known by include "Mistress of the West" (welcoming the dead into the next life); Lady of the Sycamore (as a tree deity); Lady of the House of Jubilation, and The One Who Fills the Sanctuary with Joy.
5. Exactly what her relationship was with the sun god, Ra, is hard to pin down. The mythology suggests she was his daughter, sister, mother and lover. As his mother, she gives birth to him every morning and in the course of the day, makes love to him and conceives.
6. Hathor was one of the most popular Egyptian deities and had more feasts dedicated to her than any of the others.
7. More Egyptians named their children after Hathor than any other deity as well. A well known example is Princess Hathorhotep, daughter of King Amenemhat III.
8. Hathor was unusual in that both men and women could become her priests.
9. Despite Hathor's reputation as a gentle, joyful mother goddess, she had a dark side, too. One myth relates that when she got wind of a plot to assassinate Ra, she got so angry that she was transformed into a bloodthirsty war goddess and set out to slaughter those responsible, and drink their blood. No-one could stop her. In the end, Ra decided he had better put a stop to the chaos and bloodshed. He poured a large quantity of beer disguised as blood onto the ground. She drank it, and became so drunk that she reverted to her gentle, cow-like self.
10. The Greeks had a lot of respect for Hathor as well. They equated her with their own goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite.

28th August: Johann von Goethe

Johann von Goethe, the German writer, was born on this date in 1749. Here are 10 quotes from him:

1. The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.
2. Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.
3. The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.
4. Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.
5. As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
6. In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.
7. Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.
8. It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.
9. Live dangerously and you live right.
10. One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.

27 August: Moldova Independence Day

Today is Moldova Independence Day. 10 things you might not know about Moldova:

1. Moldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordering with Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south.
2. The capital city is Chișinău. pronounced “Kishi-now”.
3. Wine is a big thing in Moldova. It produces more wine per person than any other country, and comes 22nd in terms of volume. Most of it is exported, but many families produce their own wine. Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that Moldovans drink more alcohol than any other nation, and that the country is home to the world's largest collection of quality wines. The Milestii Mici wine collection consists of 1.5 million bottles and has been recognised by Guinness World Records.
4. Bălănești Hill is the highest point, at 430 m (1,411 ft).
5. Moldova has a breakaway state called Transnistria, which declared independence in 1990. This was never recognised by Moldova or by the United Nations, but since the end of the War of Transnistria in 1992, has held a de facto independent status, and if you want to visit the place you will need your passport in order to cross the border.
6. Moldova is home to Europe's largest Jewish cemetery. Prior to World War II, Moldova had one of Europe’s largest Jewish populations. Many fled before the Germans arrived, but nearly 60,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust in Moldova. Over 23,500 are buried in this cemetery which is located on the outskirts of Chisinau.
7. The country gets its name from the Moldova River, which, according to legend, was named by prince Dragoș, after his Dog, Molda, which drowned in the river during an aurochs-hunting expedition.
8. The currency in Moldova is the Moldovan Leu.
9. The National Anthem is "Limba noastră" which is Romanian "Our Language". It calls for the people to revive the usage of their native language. Romanian is the official language of Moldova.
10. The Flag is very similar to that of Romania, a vertical tricolor of blue, Yellow, and red, the difference being that Moldova's flag has the country's coat of arms in the centre stripe. The coat of arms features a dark golden eagle holding an Orthodox Christian cross in its beak and an Olive branch for peace. The shield on the eagle's chest shows the traditional symbols of Moldova: an aurochs' head, a Rose, a crescent and a star.

26th August: Ivan the terrible

Ivan the Terrible was born in 1530, on this date in the old style calendar. 10 things you might not know about Ivan the Terrible:

1. His correct title was Ivan IV Vasilyevich, Tsar of All the Russias. The name Ivan the Terrible is the nearest translation of his nickname in Russian, "grozny", which in fact means something a little different from our current day word, "terrible". It actually means formidable or threatening, tough, strict, authoritative.
2. Ivan became Prince of Moscow at just three years old, when his father died of complications from a boil on his leg. His mother was made regent, but she too died when Ivan was just eight, and it is suspected she was poisoned by assassins.
3. Ivan was married seven times (although his last three marriages were not recognised by the church and one of them could even have been made up in the 19th century). He believed his first wife had been assassinated, and it's thought her death might have affected his mental health. Two subsequent wives were packed off to monasteries, and one was later made a saint.
4. Ivan introduced printing to Russia. This move was not popular with the scribes, who burned the printing press down and the printers had to flee to Lithuania - but this proved to be a temporary blip on the road of progress!
5. It was Ivan who commissioned St Basil's Cathedral. There is a legend which says that Ivan was so impressed with it that he had the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, blinded so that he would never design anything that might surpass it. This isn't true - Postnik Yakovlev is known to have been still designing after Ivan's death.
6. Ivan tried to abdicate once. He was so fed up with the behaviour of the aristocracy and clergy that he left Moscow and went to Aleksandrova Sloboda, and sent two letters announcing that he was abdicating. The Boyars were unable to make any decisions without him, and begged him to come back. Ivan agreed to return on condition of being granted absolute power. He demanded that he should be able to execute and confiscate the estates of traitors without interference from the boyar council or church.
7. Ivan fostered close ties with England, initially through trade - the Muscovy Company was allowed to trade in Russia without having to pay customs fees. Through them, Ivan established a correspondence with Queen Elizabeth I, hoping for a military alliance. When the boyars were causing trouble, Ivan asked Elizabeth for a guarantee of asylum in England should he have to flee.
8. Ivan killed his son and chosen heir in a fit of temper. Ivan had beaten his son's wife for wearing immodest clothing. She was pregnant at the time and may have suffered a miscarriage as a result. This made Ivan Jr. very angry. He confronted his father, they argued, and in the course of the argument, Ivan Sr. hit his son with a pointed staff, killing him. This meant Ivan's younger son, Feodor, who wasn't suited to tsarship, and who would die without an heir, inherited the throne when Ivan died of a stroke during a game of Chess.
9. Ivan wrote the lyrics for the first Soviet produced CD. He'd written an Orthodox liturgical hymn, Stichiron No. 1 in Honour of St. Peter, and this, and excerpts from some of his letters, were put to music by Soviet composer Rodion Shchedrin. The recording was released in 1988, marking the millennium of Christianity in Russia.
10. There is a movement in Russia today that would like to have Ivan canonised as a saint. The church is not interested.

25 August: Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa was born on this date in 1910. Here are some things you might not know about her:

1. Her real name was Anjezë (Agnes) Gonxhe (Albanian for "rosebud") Bojaxhiu. Teresa was the name she adopted on taking her religious vows. She wanted to be named for Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries, but another nun in the same convent had already chosen that name, so Agnes opted for the Spanish spelling Teresa.
2. The young Agnes knew by the age of twelve that she wanted to be a nun. She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary, and never saw her mother or sister again.
3. Initially, her missionary work involved teaching in school in India, but later received what she referred to as "the call within the call", telling her to leave the convent and live among the poor. This she did, believing it to be a direct order from God. The first year was difficult - she experienced first hand what it was like to be poor and to have to beg for food. She was often sorely tempted to return to the relatively comfortable life at the convent, but resisted, writing in her diary that she believed she was being tempted by the devil, not unlike Jesus was during His forty days in the wilderness.
4. Her organisation, the Missionaries of Charity, began with permission from the Vatican in 1950. Mother Teresa herself stated that its mission was to care for, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."
5. Her first free hospice for the poor was a converted Hindu temple, and it opened in 1952.
6. In 1982, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children who were trapped in a hospital in Beirut. She brokered a temporary cease fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas, allowing her and Red Cross workers, to go into the war zone and get the children out.
7. You'd think someone like Mother Teresa would have an absolutely unshakeable faith - but her letters and diaries tell a different story. She often felt separated from God, and at times struggled to believe He even existed at all. This was a great source of pain for her, but a fairly common experience in the lives of saints, including Mother Teresa's namesake, St. Therese of Lisieux, who called it a "night of nothingness."
8. Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace." She gave the prize money to the poor of India. Earthly rewards were only important, she said, if they helped her help the world's needy.
9. In 2003, she was beatified as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta". The miracle required for this was recognised by the Vatican in 2002, when a woman was said to have been healed of cancer when a locket containing a picture of Mother Teresa was placed on her abdomen. Critics, including the woman's husband, claimed there was no miracle and that the woman had been cured by conventional medicine, and possibly never had cancer at all. A second miracle is needed before Mother Teresa can be made a saint.
10. On 28 August 2010, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth, the government of India issued a special 5 Rupee coin. This was the sum she first arrived in India with.

August 24: National Day of Ukraine

Today is the National Day of Ukraine, so here are some things you might not know about Ukraine.

1. The geographical centre of Europe is located in Ukraine. It is a small town called Rahiv.
2. Ukraine is the largest country to be situated entirely in Europe.
3. The capital and largest city is Kiev, which is home to the deepest metro station in the world, Arsenalnaya Metro Station at 105 meters, and the shortest main city street, Khreshchatyk Street, 1.2km.
4. The oldest map, dating back about 15 thousand years, was found in Ukraine. It was carved out of mammoth bone.
5. Ukraine also has the oldest constitution, dating back to 1710. It was introduced by Pylyp Orlyk and was entitled “Pacts and Constitutions of Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporizhian Host”.
6. George Gershwin's song Summertime was inspired by a Ukrainian lullaby called Sleep Is Tiptoeing About.
7. Ukraine has a national soup - Borscht, which is made with Beetroot, Potatoes and Cabbage.
8. In 1934, the Ukrainian language was voted one of the world’s three most beautiful languages in a competition in Paris. The other two were French (hardly surprising given the location of the contest) and Persian.
9. The national anthem is short - just six lines. There were other verses, but they are no longer used because they are deemed to be politically incorrect, for example, one verse implies a claim on territories belonging to Russia and Poland.
10. In a Ukrainian museum there is a shoed flea. A craftsman called Myrola Syadristy took up a challenge to shoe a flea using half a poppy seed and human hair. You can see his work at the Kyiv museum of micro-miniature.

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August 23rd: Gene Kelly's birthday

Dancer and actor Gene Kelly was born on this date in 1912. Here are 10 things you might not know about him:

1. When he was eight, Kelly's mother enrolled him and his brother James in dance classes. They both hated it. Looking back, Kelly said: "We didn't like it much and were continually involved in fistfights with the neighbourhood boys who called us sissies...I didn't dance again until I was fifteen."
2. He studied economics at university and after graduation, went on to study law - but dropped out after two months to pursue a career as a dance teacher.
3. His first film was For Me and My Gal (1942) co-starring Judy Garland.
4. Critics were not always kind. Noted critic Manny Farber was impressed with his acting but wrote, "The two things he does least well - singing and dancing - are what he is given most consistently to do." However, he later changed his tune after seeing Kelly dancing with Jerry Mouse. The he wrote, "Kelly is the most exciting dancer to appear in Hollywood movies."
5. In 1944, Kelly enlisted in the U.S. Naval Air Service and was commissioned as lieutenant junior grade. He was stationed in the Photographic Section, Washington DC, where he was involved in writing and directing documentaries. This got him interested in the production side of film-making.
6. He didn't just star in Singin' in the Rain. He was also co-director and choreographer.
7. Kelly was offered the job of directing The Sound of Music. He wasn't at all keen. He threw Ernest Lehman out of his house saying "Go find someone else to direct this piece of shit."
8. After Hollywood musicals declined, Kelly worked in TV, and starred as a Catholic priest in a series called Going My Way, which was cancelled after one series but was popular outside the US.
9. Kelly was married three times. To Betsy Blair from 1941 to 1957; Jeanne Coyne from 1960 to 1973, and Patricia Ward from 1990 until his death in 1996.
10. He was raised as a Roman Catholic, and he was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, but became disenchanted by the Roman Catholic Church's support for Francisco Franco against the Spanish Republic, and the church's failure to help the poor in Mexico. He severed his ties with the church in September 1939. He then became an agnostic and remained so for the rest of his life.

22 August: Flag Day, Russia

Today is Flag Day in Russia. Here are 10 things you might not know about Russia:

1. Russia is the largest country in the world. It covers more than an eighth of the world's inhabited land area and spans nine time zones. Its total area is 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi). This makes Russia larger than Pluto which has an area of 16.6 square kilometres.
2. It's hardly surprising, then, that Russia is home to the world's longest railway. It stretches 9200km or 5700 miles between the capital, Moscow and Vladivostock on the Pacific coast. It crosses eight time zones, visits 87 towns and cities and crosses 16 rivers. The entire journey takes 152 hours and 27 minutes.
3. One of the rivers it crosses is the Volga, the longest river in Russia and indeed in Europe, at 3,692 km (2,294 mi) long. The name of the river translates literally as "wetness". Europe's highest mountain is in Russia, too - it's Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 m (18,510 ft); also there is Eurasia's highest active volcano, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, (4,750 m/15,584 ft) and the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal. There is also a mountain in Russia which is made almost entirely of Iron.
4. Moscow has more billionaires than any other city in the world. At time of writing there are 74 of them, beating New York by just three.
5. Russians are very superstitious. Russian superstitions include never giving flowers as a gift, especially an even number because that is associated with funerals; never shaking hands in a doorway as that will lead to arguments; rubbing a Dog's paw with your left hand brings Money; and that the first to enter a brand new house would die - they get around that one by sending a Cat in first as it has nine lives and can afford to lose one! If the cat refused to go in, that was such a bad omen that they would have to tear down the house and re-build it somewhere else.
6. There is a village in Russia, Suzdal, which despite having an area of 15 square kilometers, has 53 churches.
7. A famous symbol of Russia are the wooden nesting dolls - the correct name for them is matryoshka doll. The world literally means "little matron". The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin, designed by Sergey Malyutin" a folk crafts painter. His design won an award at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 and their popularity skyrocketed from there.
8. The current flag of Russia is three horizontal fields of white, blue and red. Initially an ensign for Russian merchant ships, it was adopted as the official flag of the Tsardom of Russia in 1696. After the revolution in 1917, the Soviet flag took its place, until 1991 when it was re-adopted as the flag of the Russian Federation.
9. Russia is suspected to have at least 15 secret cities. These “closed cities” are officially classified by the Russian government with their names and location currently unknown. They appear on no maps, no road signs will direct you to them, and visits from foreigners are strictly prohibited.
10. The Russian word for dog is "saboka". The name of the Star Wars character Chewbacca derives from this word.

21st August: 21

10 things you didn't know about the number 21.

1. 21 is the sum of the first six natural numbers (1+2+3+4+5+6=21)
2. 21 is the atomic number of Scandium, a silvery-white metallic chemical element with symbol Sc. It was discovered in 1879.
3. The Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, thereby ending Prohibition in the USA.
4. Illinois was the 21st state to join the United States.
5. 21 is the number of spots on a standard six-sided Dice.
6. A 21-gun salute is a customary gun salute performed by the firing of cannons or artillery as a military honour. The custom stems from naval tradition, where a warship would fire its cannons harmlessly out to sea, until all ammunition was spent, to show that it was disarmed, signifying no hostile intent. 21 guns came to be fired for heads of state, or in exceptional circumstances for head of government, with the number decreasing with the rank of the recipient of the honour.
7. 21 grams is the weight of the soul, according to research by Duncan MacDougall.
8. 21 is a variation of street basketball, in which each player, of which there can be any number, plays for himself, not as part of a team. The name comes from the requisite number of baskets.
9. 21 is the key value and highest-winning point total of the casino game of Blackjack.
10. In numerology, 21 represents perfection, the harmony of creation and the unity of the Trinity (3 x7).

20 August: The Moon's birthday

The Aztecs celebrated the Moon's birthday on this date, so here are 10 things you may not know about the Moon.

1. On average, the moon is 384,400 km away from the Earth. It would take a Boeing 747 26 days to get there. Apollo 11 made it in three days.
2. The currently accepted theory as to where the moon came from is that about 4.5 billion years ago, Earth collided with another planet, about the same size as Mars, called Theia, and the moon is made up of the debris.
3. The adjective usually used for the moon is lunar, but a less common word is selenic, derived from the Ancient Greek Selene, as in selenography.
4. The scientific name for moon dust is regolith. Moon dust smells like spent gunpowder.
5. The Moon is exceptionally large relative to Earth: a quarter its diameter and 1/81 its mass. It is the largest moon in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet unless you count dwarf planets, in which case Pluto's Charon beats it at 1/9 Pluto's mass. The moon is bigger than Pluto. The moon is about 400 times smaller than the sun, but is 400 times nearer the Earth - so sun and moon appear the same size from Earth. A popular belief, stretching back at least to Aristotle in the 4th century B.C., is that the Moon appears larger when it's near the horizon due to a real magnification effect caused by the Earth's atmosphere. This is not true: the atmosphere does change the perceived colour of the Moon, but it does not magnify or enlarge it. In fact, the visual image of the moon is about 1.5% smaller when it is near the horizon than when it is high in the sky, because it is further away.
6. Twelve people have visited the moon - all American white males. The first was Neil Armstrong, of course, but lesser known is that the last one was Gene Cernan on the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. There is a dead guy up there, though. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, a Geological Surveyor, educated the Apollo mission astronauts about craters, but medical problems prevented him from going to the moon himself. After he died, his ashes were sent up to the moon, according to his wishes, on the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in 1999.
7. The moon isn't round and it doesn't have a dark side. It's shaped like an egg, and the side we don't see gets as much light from the Sun as the one we do see, as the moon rotates on its own axis.
8. We all know the moon causes the tides on Earth, but the gravitational pull of the Earth affects the moon as well, causing moonquakes, which can register 5.5 on the Richter scale and last up to 10 minutes.
9. Every year, the moon moves about 3.8cm away from us. In a few billion years, it will take 47 days to orbit the Earth instead of the current 27.3.
10. The features we can see on the moon are called "maria" or "seas" because it was once thought they were full of Water. Various cultures have interpreted them as looking like a face, a Rabbit, a buffalo or a toad. The largest feature isn't visible from Earth. It's the South Pole–Aitken basin, which is the largest known crater in the solar system at 2,240 km (1,390 mi) in diameter. At 13 km (8.1 mi) deep, its floor is the lowest point on the surface of the Moon. There are also some quite mysterious features which have been photographed during various missions which are said to look like obelisks which appeared to be arranged like the three great pyramids, a bridge over one of the craters, towers that are miles high which could not have been formed by any known natural process and even a floating castle. Naturally, conspiracy theorists have had a field day with those, suggesting that the moon is really an ancient alien space ship.

19 August: Afghanistan Independence Day

Afghanistan celebrates its Independence from the UK, which happened on this date in 1919.

1. Afghanistan was a monarchy until 1973, when the last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, was overthrown in a coup. He went into exile for a while, but eventually returned and was given the title 'Father of the Nation', which he held until his death.
2. The correct word for a person from Afghanistan is Afghan. Afghani, a word which is sometimes erroneously used is actually the currency.
3. 99% of the people are Muslims. Of the other minority religions, Judaism is the smallest, as there is just one Jewish person living in the entire country. His name is Zablon Simintov. He is a carpet trader and restaurateur aged about 56, who chose to remain when his family moved to Israel. He acts as a caretaker for the only synagogue in Kabul and had to get special permission from the nearest rabbi (in Uzbekistan) to be able to slaughter his own kosher meat. He was certainly still there in 2007, although at that time he was beginning to express interest in joining his family in Israel.
4. The Afghan hound is one of the oldest breeds of Dog in existence, and, for some genetic markers, shows the least divergence from Wolves.
5. The capital and largest city is Kabul. Other major cities include Kandahar, Herat, and Jalalabad.
6. Poetry is important in Afghan culture. The 14th Century poet Rumi is from there. Today, in Herat and other cities, Thursday night is poetry night, when families get together to read and share poetry with each other.
7. The national anthem dates from 2006, and mentions fourteen different ethnic groups.
8. There are a couple of UNESCO Heritage Sites in Afghanistan. One is the Minaret of Jam, a 62 metre high brick tower, thought to have been built around 1190, and the other is the caves of Bamiyan, which were once used by Buddhist monks for meditation and contain ancient cave paintings. They once held the two largest Buddha statues in the world, until the Taliban destroyed them in 2001, and used the caves for storing weapons.
9. The country's highest point is Noshaq, at 7,492 m (24,580 ft) above sea level.
10. The country's national game, buzkashi, or goat-grabbing, is regarded as the world's wildest game. It involves men on horseback competing to grab a dead Goat, ride off with it and drop it in a chalk circle. It has been played for centuries, and was once the sport of rich warlords. Nowadays, the sport is sponsored by airlines and phone companies. It's said Afghans would like to see buzkashi become an Olympic sport, although this is highly unlikely.

18 August: Helium Discovery Day

It's Helium Discovery Day. So here are 10 things you didn't know about Helium:

1. On August 18 1868, the French astronomer Jules Janssen detected a Yellow spectral line signature in sunlight during a Solar Eclipse. This was the first evidence that helium existed. The first evidence that it existed on Earth came in 1882, when Italian physicist Luigi Palmieri found its spectral line in the lava of Mount Vesuvius.
2. Most helium in the universe is helium-4, and is believed to have been formed during the Big Bang. Large amounts of new helium are still being created by nuclear fusion of hydrogen in stars. On Earth, it is mostly created through the breakdown of radioactive materials, and can be found trapped within natural gas.
3. Helium is named for the Greek god of the Sun, Helios.
4. The symbol for helium is He.
5. Helium's atomic number is 2. Its atom has two electrons and two protons. It is the second lightest element, the second most abundant element in the observable universe. It is the second least reactive noble gas and also the second least reactive of all elements.
6. Despite being abundant in the universe, helium is relatively rare on Earth. This is partly because, once released into the atmosphere, it will escape into space. In fact, the world's largest helium reserve in Dexter, Kansas, is expected to run out by 2018. More has been discovered in Qatar, but some scientists now criticise the use of it for frivolous things like balloons.
7. Balloons are only a small part of helium's uses. Because it is so inert, it is used in industry as a protective gas for producing silicon and germanium crystals, titanium and zirconium. Because it can diffuse so much faster than air, it is very useful for detecting leaks in high-vacuum equipment (such as cryogenic tanks) and high-pressure containers.
8. The speed of sound in helium is nearly three times the speed of sound in air. That is why, when people inhale a little from a balloon, it makes their voice sound funny.
9. Inhaling large amounts of helium is very dangerous - death by oxygen deprivation can occur. This is relatively rare among people using it to make their voice sound funny, but it has been known. Right-to-die groups have recommended it as a fast and painless method of suicide as there isn't the panic and sense of suffocation as there is with most means of oxygen deprivation. The cause of death is difficult to trace, too, if any canisters of helium are removed from the scene by a killer before reporting the death.
10. Its melting point is 0.95 K (−272.20 °C, −457.96 °F) and its boiling point is 4.222 K (−268.928 °C, −452.070 °F). Unlike any other element, helium will remain liquid down to absolute zero at normal pressures. Helium was first liquefied on July 10, 1908, by the Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in the Netherlands.

17 August: Gabon Independence Day

Today is Gabon's Independence Day celebrating independence from France on this date in 1960. Here are 10 things you may not know about Gabon.

1. Gabon's capital and largest city is Libreville, which translates as "Free Town". The city is so called because freed slaves in the 1800s landed there.
2. The country's name originates from "Gabão", Portuguese for "cloak", after the shape of the estuary of the Komo River by Libreville.
3. 85% of the country is covered in rainforest.
4. The Gabonese Flag consists of three horizontal stripes: Green, Yellow, and blue. Green symbolises the forest, yellow the equatorial sun, and blue the water from the sky and sea.
5. Gabon's longest river is the Ogooué which is 1200 km long, and the highest point is Mont Iboundji (1575 m) in the Chaillu Massif.
6. The country has hundreds of unexplored caves.
7. Gabon is home to 80% of Africa’s Gorilla population.
8. Any children born within marriage belong to the father - so if a couple divorce, the father takes the kids. Hence women are actually expected to have several children before they marry, because those children would stay with her in the event of a break-up.
9. The official language of Gabon is French and the other languages spoken are Fang, Myene, Bateke, Bapounou/Eschira and Bandjabi.
10. The dominant religion is Christianity, although older, animistic religions are also practised. Ceremonies for death, healing, and initiation often include the consumption of palm wine with eboga, a hallucinogenic root, which helps the people communicate with their ancestors. The ancestors will be offered food and wine, and there will be singing, dancing and drumming.

My Books

As well as this blog, I also write fiction and have published two novels (Death and Faxes and Glastonbury Swan) and a collection of short stories (Jigsaw). If you like ghost stories, crime stories, a bit of romance and anything slightly bizarre you might enjoy them. 

Further details on my books page

16th August: Lawrence of Arabia

Lawrence of Arabia, or Thomas Edward Lawrence, was born on this date in 1888. Here are 10 things you might not know about him:

1. His parents never married, although they called themselves Mr and Mrs Lawrence. His father left his wife for their daughter's governess. They had five sons of which Thomas Edward was the second.
2. Lawrence studied History at Jesus College, Oxford. As a student, he went on a three month tour of Syria, visiting Crusader Castles. During this trip, he travelled 1,000 mi (1,600 km) on foot, all by himself. He used this trip as a basis for his thesis entitled The influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture—to the end of the 12th century, which helped net him a first class honours degree.
3. After graduation, he started postgraduate research into medieval pottery at Magdalen College, Oxford but abandoned that when he was offered a position as an archaeologist in the Middle East.
4. Just before the first world war, he took part in a covert mission to produce a military survey of the strategically important Negev desert - under the cover of an archaeological survey.
5. When the war broke out, Lawrence enlisted and was posted to Cairo on the Intelligence Staff of the GOC Middle East. He took part in numerous successful raids against Turkish forces, but it wasn't all plain sailing. Once, to prevent a crippling blood feud, Lawrence had to personally execute a member of his own band. This haunted him for the rest of his life. ‘I’m not going to last out this game much longer: nerves going and temper wearing thin….This killing and killing of Turks is horrible.' He wrote.
6. He turned down a knighthood in 1918.
7. In the 1920s, he enlisted in the military twice under assumed names. He tried to join the Air Force under the name John Hume Ross, but the recruiting officer who interviewed him (who was, incidentally, W. E. Johns, who would later be known as the author of the Biggles series of novels) figured out that he was using a false name and false papers and turned him down. This decision was later overturned. Lawrence also joined the Royal Tank Corps under the name of T.E. Shaw, but was unhappy there and went back to the Air Force.
8. Lawrence wrote three major works - his best known was Seven Pillars of Wisdom, about his war experiences. He also translated Homer's Odyssey, and The Forest Giant, a work of French fiction. He was a prolific letter writer as well, writing several letters a day. He corresponded with many notable figures, including George Bernard Shaw, Edward Elgar, Winston Churchill, Robert Graves, Noël Coward, E. M. Forster, Siegfried Sassoon, John Buchan, Augustus John and Henry Williamson. When he died, he was working on another memoir, entitled The Mint, about his time in the RAF. It was published posthumously, edited by his brother, Professor A. W. Lawrence.
9. George Bernard Shaw helped him with the editing of Seven Pillars, giving lots of advice, in particular about the use of semicolons.
10. Lawrence died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 46, in Dorset. He swerved to avoid two cyclists, lost control and was thrown over the handlebars. One of the doctors who tried to save him was the neurosurgeon Hugh Cairns, who later did extensive research on fatal head injuries in motorcyclists and this led to the legal requirement for all motorcyclists to wear helmets.

15 August: India Independence Day

On this date in 1947, India achieved Independence from the UK. Here are 10 things you may not know about India:

1. India is the second most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and according to UN estimates, is set to overtake China by 2030. It is the largest democracy in the world, and holds the record for the largest number of candidates to stand in an election - 1,032 candidates stood for the Modakurichi assembly seat in the Tamil Nadu state elections in 1996 - only two of them kept their deposit, and 88 of them didn't get any votes at all. There is even a polling booth in the middle of the Gir Forest which is set up for just one person.
2. India produces more than 1,100 films a year, giving it the biggest film industry in the world. That's twice as many as the US and ten times as many as the UK. Contrary to popular perception, they are not all "Bollywood" movies. These account for just 200 or so films a year.
3. As well as films, India is the number one producer of mangoes, dried beans, Bananas and Milk.
4. India has more post offices than any other country - 55,015 of them, each serving 7,175 people. This number includes a floating post office in Dal Lake, Srinagar.
5. The Bengal Tiger is India’s national animal. The national tree is the banyan, or Indian fig tree, a symbol of immortality mentioned in many Indian myths and legends. The national fruit is the mango, and the national bird is the peacock.
6. As an ancient civilization with a lot of people it is hardly surprising that India has given the world many things. Things invented in India include: Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus; the decimal point system; the concept of zero; The value of "Pi" (first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, who also explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem long before the Europeans did); shampoo (the word comes from the Sanskrit "champu", meaning to massage); yoga; the refining of sugar; Cotton fabrics; plastic surgery (mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts); the art of navigation (which began in the river Sindh over 6000 years ago. The word Navigation comes from the Sanskrit word 'navgatih'. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'); the game of Chess; and the game of snakes and ladders, which was created by the 13th century poet Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat'. The ladders represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices; it was based on the concepts of reincarnation and karma.
7. The largest city is Mumbai (formerly Bombay) with a population of 15 million. Until 1661 the city was seven separate islands - until the British built a causeway to connect them all. The capital of India, however, is New Delhi.
8. India is a peace-loving place - it hasn't invaded any other country in the last 100,000 years. Even the road to independence was relatively peaceful since it was led by Mohandas K. Gandhi known around the world as Mahatma, who advocated civil disobedience rather than violence. Gandhi's birthday is still a public holiday in India.
9. India is home to the world's highest cricket ground, in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after levelling a hilltop, it is 2444 meters above sea level; and the world's highest bridge, The Baily Bridge in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in 1982.
10. Around 1,652 languages were spoken in India according to the 1961 census, although it's thought some of them were actually dialects, and some may have died out since then. The most common languages are Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu, with over 50 million speakers each. The official languages are Hindi and English - English wasn't intended to be an official language permanently, but there was opposition to the adoption of Hindi rather than any other main language and so English stayed. India is now the second largest English speaking country after the US - even though only ten percent of the population can actually speak it.

My Books

As well as this blog, I also write fiction and have published two novels (Death and Faxes and Glastonbury Swan) and a collection of short stories (Jigsaw). If you like ghost stories, crime stories, a bit of romance and anything slightly bizarre you might enjoy them. 

Further details on my books page