Topical Tens

Power Blaster is a superhero who lives in a dimension not unlike our own, in the mega-nation of Innovia. No-one knows who he is or where his powers come from.
After saving the life of the President several times, Power Blaster learns that a test of a nuclear warhead to defend the planet against asteroid strikes will have devastating consequences for his world and sets out to prevent it.

Power Blaster's actions lead to an unexpected result - a wormhole opens between his dimension and our own. Anyone in the vicinity is pulled through. People from diverse backgrounds and cultures must co-operate to survive and learn to live with the powers travel through the wormhole has bestowed on some of them.

A stable wormhole is established between the two dimensions. Power Blaster is determined to bring Desi Troyes, the person responsible for the bomb, to justice. Help comes from some rather unexpected sources. Meanwhile, Shanna Douglas sets out on a mission of her own, to find out if there is a cure for the life altering condition the wormhole gave her friend, Benedict Cole. Little does she know that she will stumble upon the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious origins.

26th June: Glastonbury Festival

Glastonbury festival is back. After having 2018 off as a fallow year, the 2019 festival starts today. Here are 10 things you might not know about Glastonbury festival.

It wasn't always known as Glastonbury Festival. Between 1914 and 1925 there was a classical music festival in the town of Glastonbury which was called the Glastonbury Festival. Hence when Michael Eavis began his event in 1970, it was called the Worthy Farm Pop Festival instead. It was also referred to as the Pilton Festival or the Pilton Pop Party until 1981, when it was renamed the Glastonbury Festival.
The first festival was on September 19 1970, which happened to be the day after Jimi Hendrix died. Tickets cost just £1 (£15 in today's money) and free Milk from local farms was included in the price. There were eight acts, with T Rex as the headliners after the Kinks pulled out. Michael Eavis stated that he'd organised the festival in order to pay off debts, expecting about 5,000 people to show up. Only 1,500 people did, and Eavis actually made a loss. Today, the allocation of 175,000 tickets sell out immediately they go on sale, even though a ticket sets you back £238. Eavis makes enough profit virtually every year to be able to make sizable donations to causes such as Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid. The only other year the festival made a loss was 2008, the year of the banking crisis.
The venue for the festival, Worthy Farm, is a working dairy farm, producing 10,000 litres of milk a day. Allegedly, Michael Eavis still gets up at 5.30am to milk the Cows. The cows are kept indoors for the ten weeks before the festival so there won't be any cow pats on the site. Every few years, there is a "fallow year" when the festival doesn't happen, to let the site recover.
Some statistics: there are more than 100 stages on over 1,000 acres of land (500 football pitches), 2,000 performers and the BBC broadcasts the festival to 30 countries. There are more than 4,500 Toilets, 100,000 rolls of Toilet paper - in 2007, apparently there were 2,485 miles of toilet roll on site, enough to reach from London to Baghdad. There are over 40,000 bins, reservoirs holding 2 million litres of water and 10 miles of security fencing. About 30 megawatts of Electricity is used throughout the festival, equivalent to the power used by the city of Bath which has a population of over 84,000. It costs about £22 million to stage the festival but it will usually make £82 million.
Thanks to downpours in 1997 which turned the site into a quagmire, Glastonbury Festival has ever since been associated with rain and mud, although the weather isn't always abysmal - in 2002, the welfare tent handed out 40,000 tubes of sun block.
None of these statistics got Glastonbury into the Guinness Book of Records, though. What it's in the record books for is Juggling. In 1984, 826 people juggled at least 3 objects to keep 2,478 objects in the air at once.
Another notable year was 1987, when thieves stole hundreds of pairs of Trousers from people's tents in order to pick the pockets. This resulted in hundreds of embarrassed people having to walk around in their underwear until the trousers were found, dumped in a muddy ditch.
So who is the man behind all this? Michael Eavis was born in 1935 and christened Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis. His father was a Methodist preacher who died when Michael was just 19, leaving him 150 acres of land, 60 cows and an overdraft. Michael abandoned his plans to go to sea with the Merchant Navy and came home to run the farm. He got the idea of holding a pop festival after sneaking through a hedge to see Led Zeppelin at the Shepton Mallet Blues Festival in 1971. Now in his 80s, he is a clean-living guy who believes everyone should live by Christian moral values - he goes to Methodist chapel every Sunday, swims for 30 minutes in one of the farm's reservoirs daily and is anti-smoking, anti-drinking and anti-drugs. “This whole festival thing is better than alcohol, better than drugs,” he said, in 2017. One of Eavis's eccentricities is always wearing shorts, even to smart events. He confessed that the reason for this was that once, when he was wearing shorts for an anti-bomb, anti-Thatcher CND march taking place on a warm day, his GP's wife commented on what amazing legs he had.
The iconic Pyramid Stage has been around since 1981. In the beginning, the stage was was made of corrugated Iron and telegraph poles and was used as a cowshed for the rest of the year.
If you don't want to spend £238 to experience a few days of crowds and grotty toilets, you could become a celebrity and fork out £9,000 for a "glamping" tent which comes with proper bathrooms and flushing toilets, double beds, a TV and possibly even a butler. Huge stars such as Glastonbury attracts these days are hardly going to rough it with the rest of us!

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June 25: Custer's Last Stand

On this date in 1876, Custer’s last stand took place at Little Bighorn, Montana. 10 things you might not know about Custer's last stand.

George Armstrong Custer was born in Ohio in 1839, and attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His record there in no way reflected his future renown as a war hero - during the four years he spent there, he amassed a record-total of 726 demerits, one of the worst conduct records in the academy's history and graduated last in his class.
When the Civil War broke out, Custer joined the Union Army’s Cavalry. In real battle situations, Custer proved himself a competent, reliable soldier and by the time the war ended, he was a Major General in charge of a Cavalry division. His dogged pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia is often credited for helping end the Civil War. Unlike many generals, he led his men from the front instead of from behind; he was often the first to plunge into battle.
Even so, his reputation wasn't spotless. In 1867, he was court martialled for deserting and going back to his wife. He was suspended without rank or pay for a year. His actions baffled his superiors, who wondered why a highly-decorated and well-respected commander would do such a thing. One thing it did show was that he had a tendency to make rash decisions.
After the Civil War, land in the west of America was becoming scarce, but there was still plenty of Plains land. The US government granted 10% of that land for settlers and railways. However, they were essentially stealing that land from the Native Americans who lived there. The Plains Indians were determined not to be forced onto reservations and set out to defend their land.
The government's tactic was to attack the buffalo the Native Americans depended on for their livelihood. They encouraged hunters to kill as many buffalo as possible and even passengers on trains were encouraged to shoot buffalo for fun. Trains would stop for that very purpose if a herd of buffalo was spotted. The Native Americans were, as you might guess, extremely angry about this. They retaliated by slaughtering settlers and railway workers, women and children and all. By 1866, it was full out war.
The US army needed all the men it could get to fight Indians - so Custer was brought back before his court martial sentence was up and put in command of the 7th Cavalry. He soon gained a reputation as a ruthless fighter of Indians.
In 1868, the U.S. government signed a treaty recognising South Dakota’s Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation. However, in 1874, the government decided to break the treaty and take land back. Why? Human greed again. Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills. The Native Americans, therefore, had to be moved out of the area and it was Custer who was given the job of relocating them, by force if need be. The Indians were justifiably angry. Not only did those in the area amass to fight, but others who could left their reservations and travelled to join Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse on the banks of the Little Bighorn River.
The US army's response to this fast growing force of Native Americans was to send three groups of soldiers, including Custer and his 7th Cavalry, to round them up and send them back to their reservations. Some of the troops were delayed, but Custer decided to attack anyway. Whether this was an impetuous decision, like deciding to desert and go back to his wife, or a tactical strike carried out in the belief that reinforcements were on their way, we shall never know.
Exactly what happened at Custer’s Last Stand isn't known, since none of Custer's men lived to tell the tale. The 7th Cavalry were outnumbered and out gunned, and didn't stand a chance. It's possible they panicked and tried to flee, but the Native Americans shot them all. The other troops who were in the area, led by Captain Frederick Benteen and Major Marcus Reno, didn't go and help, despite reports that Custer sent orders for them to do so. Perhaps they knew it was a suicide mission! Eventually, the reinforcements did arrive and it was the Native Americans who were outnumbered and they retreated. Custer's body, and those of 40 of his men, including his brother and nephew, and dozens of dead horses, were found at Custer Hill, also known as Last Stand Hill. Custer had suffered two bullet wounds, one near his heart and one in the head. It’s not known which one killed him.
In the aftermath, rumours abounded. Some said Custer's eardrums had been pierced because he'd refused to listen to the Indians; others said he'd not been scalped because he wasn't in uniform at the time and the Indians had taken him for an innocent bystander. There was also a rumour that he'd been spared because he had an Indian lover, with whom he'd had two children. The events of the day are steeped in controversy with many historians believing Custer was arrogant and disregarded the original battle plan, causing the deaths of all his men. One person who wanted Custer to be hailed as a hero was his wife, Libby. She promoted him as a brave hero cut down in the prime of his life while defending his country, and must be at least partially responsible for Custer's Last Stand becoming one of the most famous events in American history.

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24 June: St John's Wort

Plant of the day for 24 June is St John's wort. 10 things you might not know about this herb.

The botanical name is Hypericum perforatum. The genus name is derived from the Greek words hyper (above) and eikon (picture) because of the practice of hanging the plants above religious pictures and icons to ward off evil spirits.
Perforatum refers to the appearance of the leaves, which have translucents dots on them which look like tiny perforations when held up to the light.
The plant is known by numerous other names, of which I will list a few: Amber, Tipton's weed, rosin rose, goatweed, chase-devil, Hardhay, or Klamath weed. The Celts called it “sol terrestis” meaning “terrestrial sun”.
The plant has been named after St John the Baptist because it is traditionally harvested on June 24th which is also St John's Day. Alternatively, it might have been so named because it was used as a treatment for wounds incurred during battles in the Crusades by the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of St John.
Crushing the buds and stems produces a reddish liquid which has been compared to the Blood of St John the Baptist when his head was cut off.
The flowers don't smell particularly nice - their fragrance is rather like turpentine, but they are lovely to look at. They are bright Yellow and measure up to 2.5 cm (0.98 in) across. They attract bees, but not adult Butterflies as they do not produce nectar. Caterpillars may eat the leaves, however.
There are numerous superstitions attached to this plant. It was believed to ward off evil spirits and witches thought to be active on Midsummer's Day, which is why it was hung over religious pictures and also over doors. It was also said to protect from illness, the evil eye, fire and lightning. Some people would pin sprigs of it to their clothing, as well, so they'd be protected outside the house as well. St. John's Wort was also used for divination - if members of a household hung a sprig over their beds overnight on Midsummer Eve, the spring which had wilted the most in the morning indicated that person would be the next to die. Placed under the pillow, it was said to grant a vision of St John who would promise that you would live for another year. If you didn't get a vision, you were doomed. Step on the plant, according to one legend, and you will be stolen away by a faerie horse.
Although the herb was hung in stables to protect the livestock, it would be necessary to hang it where the animals couldn't reach it, because, ironically, it is poisonous to cattle, sheep, Goats and Horses. It can cause hyperactivity, including running in circles until exhausted, skin irritation and miscarriages in pregnant animals.
It has long been used as a medicinal herb, dating back to ancient Greece and Rome. As well as wounds, it was used to treat sores, burns, scars, bruises, skin irritations, symptoms of menopause and nerve pains. Drinking an infusion of St John's wort was said to ward off insanity. Rubbing the oil into joints was said to ease rheumatism.
Some people still swear by it today as a remedy for mild mental health problems, anxiety and insomnia. St John's wort hasn't been proven to be effective in treating any medical condition, however, so it might be down to the placebo effect. Anyone thinking of trying it should be aware that it can have potentially dangerous side effects. One side effect is increased sensitivity to the sun. It can also interfere with some prescription medicines including birth control pills (although, contrarily, it's also said to reduce fertility), cancer medication, warfarin and several others. Hence it would be very unwise to use it without seeking advice from a doctor first.

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June 23rd: National Pink Day

June 23rd is National Pink Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about the colour pink.

The word pink comes from the flower of the same name which belongs to the genus Dianthus. The name of the flower, in turn, comes from the frilled edge of the petals which derives from the verb "to pink" which means "to decorate with a perforated or punched pattern" - which is why pinking shears are so named. In other languages, it's a different story. In many European languages, such as French, the word for pink is rose or rosa, after the Rose flower. In others, such as Danish, Faroese and Finnish, the word for pink literally translates as "light Red".
Pink is generally associated with the feminine gender, although that hasn't always been the case. In the 19th century, the opposite was true, because men often wore red uniforms, and little boys were seen as small men and dressed in pink, and it was girls who wore Blue. That said, babies in that era were usually dressed in White because their clothing needed to be washed in hot water, so any colour would fade. In the late 19th century, blue and white sailor suits became fashionable attire for little boys, which might partially explain the reversal.
People associate pink with charm, politeness, sensitivity, tenderness, sweetness, softness, childhood, the feminine, and the romantic. Most connotations of the colour are positive, so it is perhaps surprising that only 2% of people say it is their favourite colour. Women are more likely to be fond of pink than men, while older people are more likely to like it than younger ones.
Pink wasn't all that common in clothing and art in the middle ages. Nobles generally liked brighter reds. Artists did use pink for skin tones, and some artists painted the baby Jesus dressed in pink. Pastel colours became fashionable in European courts in the 18th century. Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France, was particularly fond of pink and even had a tint of pink specially made for her by the Sevres porcelain factory.
In Thailand, pink is associated with Tuesdays. Anyone born on a Tuesday may adopt pink as their colour. Other people can wear pink on Tuesdays.
In law courts in England and Wales, pink has traditionally been associated with the defence (prosecution was white). Hence a brief delivered to a barrister by a solicitor is usually tied with pink ribbon.
Pink has become a signature colour for the LGBT community. This began in Nazi Germany where people accused of homosexuality were forced to wear a pink triangle. The modern gay rights movement subsequently adopted it. The pink pound is an economic term for the spending power of gay people.
While on the subject of economics, the Financial Times has used a distinctive pink color for its newsprint since 1893, originally because pink dyed paper was less expensive than bleached white paper. Later on, they kept the pink newsprint because it stood out from all the other newspapers, which were white. The financial section of a white newspaper is often printed in pink.
The Pink Panther is a cartoon character who first appeared in the opening and/or closing credit sequences of films in the series of comedy-mystery films featuring an inept French police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. The reason for this is that the first film in the series was called Pink Panther, because the story was about the theft of a pink diamond which had a flaw in it that looked like a leaping pink panther. Six of the eleven films in the series featured this diamond.
Why do sunsets and sunrises look pink? As white light from the sun travels through the atmosphere, the component colours are scattered. At sunrise and sunset, when the path of the sunlight through the atmosphere to the eye is longest, colours with a shorter wavelength get filtered out, leaving the longer wavelength Orange, red and pink light. This light is scattered even more by cloud droplets in the sky.

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22 June: Chocolate Eclair Day

Today is Chocolate éclair day. 10 things you might not know about Chocolate éclairs.

These tasty treats get their name from the French word for Lightning. There are two possible explanations for this - one is that the glaze on it sparkles so that it resembling a lightning bolt, the other is that it refers to the speed at which they get eaten.
We don't know the origin of Chocolate éclairs for certain, but the best guess is that they were invented by Marie Antoine Carême, a chef popular with the French royal family, in the early 1800s.
At that time, they weren't called éclairs, but rather, ‘pain à la duchesse’ or ‘petite duchesse’, which mean ‘bread duchess’ and ‘little duchess’ respectively.
The word éclair was first mentioned in the English language in an 1861 edition of Vanity Fair magazine.
The first known English-language recipe for éclairs appeared in the Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Mrs. D.A. Lincoln, published in 1884.
They are made from the same type of pastry as a profiterole, only made into a shape like a Hot dog bun.
The most popular chocolate eclair fillings are vanilla cream or whipped cream, but you can get them filled with fruit, nut, Coffee or Rum. Savoury versions are also available.
In America, you may hear people refer to them as “Long Johns”. A Long John is a slightly different type of cake - they are made from Doughnut pastry rather than profiterole Pastry.
An éclair with a Caramel glazing instead of chocolate is called a bâton de Jacob.
Theodore Roosevelt once commented about someone, “He has no more backbone than a chocolate éclair.”

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21 June: Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of the town of Amesbury.

The Summer Solstice is one of the few occasions when people can actually get inside the stone circle of Stonehenge - although access is only granted to people belonging to neo-pagan religions for whom the Summer Solstice is a sacred day. Here are some facts about Stonehenge you may not be aware of.

Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC, which means there are no written records explaining how or why it was built. Hence there are legends. One says that it was originally erected by giants in Ireland, but the wizard Merlin brought it to Wiltshire and rebuilt it as a memorial to 3,000 nobles slain in battle with the Saxons. Another legend maintains that the Devil bought the stones from a woman in Ireland and declared that no-one would ever know how they came to be in Wiltshire. A local monk stood against the Devil, saying, "That’s what you think!" but the Devil threw one of the stones at him, striking him on the heel. The stone is still there and is the largest one, the Heel Stone, and weighs 30 tons. A more scientific explanation put forward by modern archaeologists suggests that the monument was built in stages. Around 3000 BCE, a ditch 6 feet deep was dug in a field to form a circular enclosure. The stones were added between 2500 and 1500 BCE. It has been estimated that the construction of Stonehenge took more than thirty million hours of labour.
There are two different types of stone which make up Stonehenge. The larger stones, which weigh on average 25 tons, are sarsens, probably brought from Marlborough Downs (20 miles away). The smaller stones are bluestones, so called because they appear bluish when cut or wet. These weigh 4 tons on average. It is these stones which are believed to have come from 140 miles away in South Wales. How they got them there, nobody knows but theories include teams of oxen or carrying them on water, on rafts. Another possibility which has been suggested is that the stones were carried closer to Wiltshire by ice age glaciers so the builders didn't need to move them quite so far.
Who built Stonehenge? Again, we don't really know but there is plenty of archaeological information about people who lived in the area. People lived there at least 500 before Stonehenge's first earthwork enclosure. From studying the remains of their houses, and of the people themselves, we know they had a rich diet of meat and dairy products, meaning they probably weren't slaves. One of the objects on display in the visitor's centre is a Cow's jaw, dating back further than the time when Stonehenge was built, and which had been kept in good condition, probably a family heirloom or talisman, suggesting cattle were important to those people.
Lots of ancient human remains have been found there, which has led to conjecture that it was a burial site. Some of the people buried there were likely to have been of high status, because of the precious objects buried with them. Several of them were women. Whether Stonehenge was built as a cemetery or if the remains found were of people who simply happened to die there is not certain.
Other theories range from it being built as a Druid temple (although Druids worshipped in forest groves rather than in buildings which tends to discredit this idea), an observatory (at the summer solstice, the sun rises over the Heel stone), a venue for the coronation of kings and queens, or that it was built by aliens. Another theory is that it was built because there was good hunting to be had in the area, since there is plenty of evidence, such as animal bones and flint arrows, that plenty of hunting took place. The presence of abundant game may have led people to consider the area sacred. Other historians suggest it was built at a time when Britain was becoming a unified entity, with people all over the islands making houses and tools in similar styles, and was a monument to co-operation.
Why these particular stones? Perhaps it is down to their unusual acoustic properties – when struck they produce a loud clanging sound, so they are known as “ringing rocks”. They were believed, by some ancient cultures, to have healing properties. Could Stonehenge have been a hospital? Or a shrine similar in function to Lourdes?
Ever gone out shopping for a specific thing and come home with an extra bargain you didn't even know you needed or wanted when you left home? That's exactly what happened to a businessman called Cecil Chubb in 1915. The story goes that he attended an auction to buy some dining chairs but ended up buying Stonehenge for £6,600. Three years later, presumably not having found a use for it, he donated it to the nation.
1.3 million people visit Stonehenge every year, and there are a couple of marriage proposals there on average every month.
Through the years, Stonehenge has required repairs and conservation work. Stones have been known to topple over - in 1797 an entire trilithon fell down. Surveys were done, and stones leaning at a dangerous angle were straightened. The fallen trilithon was re-erected in 1958. According to Charles Darwin, the main factor to blame for stones sinking into the soil was... earthworms. In modern times, conservation of Stonehenge has meant that people in general can no longer go inside the stones unless they are neo-pagan worshippers or school children on special tours (there was a time when not only could anyone and everyone climb on the stones but people were issued with chisels so they could take a piece of Stonehenge home with them!) and a road, the old A344, which ran right next to it, was closed in 2013 in order to reconnect Stonehenge with its ancient setting.
It was the site of a battle as recently as 1985. The battle was between about 600 New Age travellers who wanted to hold a festival at Stonehenge, and about 1,300 police officers who had set up a roadblock seven miles from the monument in order to stop them from doing so. Eight police offers and 16 travellers being hospitalised as a result of the ensuing riot. 537 of the travellers were arrested in one of the biggest mass arrests of civilians in English history. This event is known as The Battle of the Beanfield.

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