Tuesday 30 June 2020

1st July: Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones, full name Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, was born on July 1, 1899. The character first appeared in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark and is known for his bullwhip, fedora and satchel, his knowledge of ancient civilizations and languages, and his fear of Snakes. Here are 10 things you might not know about the character and the films:

  1. The character was originally going to be called “Indiana Smith.” However, there was a 1966 film called Nevada Smith which Steven Spielberg deemed too similar so he asked that the name be changed. Lucas suggested Jones as another universal and nondescript name. The Indiana part was after Lucas’ Dog, an Alaskan malamute named Indiana. The same dog inspired Chewbacca in Star Wars.
  2. The character was nearly played by Tom Selleck rather than Harrison Ford. Ford had already had starring roles in two of George Lucas's films and he wanted someone different. Selleck, however, was tied up with Magnum, P.I. at the time and had to turn it down.
  3. There are a couple of nods to Star Wars in the Indiana Jones films. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, look closely at the walls in the Well of Souls and you might just spot a carving of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Lao Che's club in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is called Club Obi Wan.
  4. 7,000 snakes were needed to cover the floor in the Well of Souls scene. Thankfully, Harrison Ford, unlike the character he plays, is not afraid of snakes.
  5. Indiana Jones's iconic hat was there for two reasons. Firstly, Spielberg and Lucas wanted the character to have a distinctive silhouette. Secondly, the tall-crowned, wide-brimmed fedora by Herbert Johnson Hatters in England had a more practical use while filming. It hid the actor's face so a stunt double could perform the more dangerous stunts seamlessly. The character was meant to wear the hat at all times during shooting unless there was a very good reason for taking it off. If the hat fell off during a take, filming had to stop so Ford could put it back on. This gave rise to an urban legend that he stapled the hat to his head. He did once hold a Stapler to his head to keep the hat in place but never actually stapled it.
  6. Ke Huy Quan, who plays Short Round in Temple of Doom was discovered by accident. His mother brought in his older brother to audition but the younger brother kept telling his older brother what to do during the screen test. The producers were impressed enough to ask the younger brother to do a screen test himself.
  7. Also in Temple of Doom, an expensive costume got eaten by an Elephant. When Willie, Indy, and Short Round are riding an elephant to Pankot Palace, they stop to make camp, and Willie hangs her dress up to dry. The elephant took a fancy to the dress and started to eat it. The dress had been custom made and required an insurance claim with the description on the form being “Eaten by elephant.”
  8. The chilled monkey brains eaten at the feast in Temple of Doom were actually custard with raspberry sauce.
  9. The famous scene in Raiders where Indy shoots the Cairo swordsman in the market instead of fighting him came about because of food poisoning. Originally, Indy was supposed to fight the swordsman. Most of the people on set had gone down with food poisoning that day (apart from Spielberg himself who ate nothing but spaghetti o's which he'd brought along from home). Nobody had much heart to perform a fight sequence under the circumstances and eventually, Harrison Ford came up with the idea of just drawing a gun and shooting his opponent.
  10. Sean Connery, who plays Indiana Jones's father in Indiana Jones and the last Crusade, is just 12 years older than Harrison Ford. Because much of the plot revolved around Indiana's relationship with his father, Spielberg and Lucas wanted to make that relationship as realistic as possible, so they hired playwright Tom Stoppard to write most of their interactions. He was not credited.

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Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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Monday 29 June 2020

30 June: Sky Day

30 June is Sky Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about the sky:

  1. The sky can be defined as everything that lies above the surface of the Earth, including the atmosphere and outer space. It is also sometimes referred to as the celestial dome or celestial sphere.
  2. Why is the sky Blue? It's down to a phenomenon called Rayleigh Scattering, in which particles of dust and vapour in the atmosphere scatter the light from the sun. Blue wavelengths of light get scattered the most, making the sky appear blue.
  3. If there is a lot of dust, however, other wavelengths get scattered as well, making the sky appear whitish or hazy. When the Sun is low in the sky the light has to pass through a longer path to reach our eyes, which is why sunsets and sunrises can be Yellow or Red. Pollution can turn the sky yellow or Brown because of the presence of different particles which scatter those colours. All colours seen in the sky are the result of scattering caused by molecules or particles in the atmosphere.
  4. The term night sky refers to the sky as seen at night, when the Moon and stars are visible (clouds permitting). If there were no moon or stars, it would not be possible to distinguish a silhouette of an object against the sky. There are about 2000-2500 stars visible to the human eye on a clear night. Every one of them is bigger and brighter than our sun. The farthest stars which can be seen are 19 quadrillion miles away.
  5. Stars don't twinkle. They only appear to do so because of the Earth's atmosphere. The "scintillation" is caused by the light of the star passing through layers of differing density, which deflects the light. If you went into space and looked at the stars, they wouldn't twinkle at all.
  6. The lowest part of the sky is the atmosphere, which has five layers: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. The troposphere is the lowest of them (0 to 12 km/0 to 7 miles) and is where most of Earth's weather happens. It comprises 80% of the Earth's atmosphere. It gets its name from the Greek word "tropos" meaning to turn. Higher up in the stratosphere and mesosphere, low temperatures mean there is little water vapour and hardly any weather, although there may be polar-mesospheric noctilucent clouds. The aurora borealis and aurora australis occur in the exosphere and thermosphere.
  7. The troposphere is the only layer that can be accessed by propeller-driven aircraft, and is in fact where most routine aviation happens. Jet powered planes can reach as high as the stratosphere (12 to 50 km/7 to 31 miles). Any higher than that requires a rocket. There is no aviation in the Mesosphere (50 to 80 km/31 to 50 miles) - it's too high for any conventional plane to reach and too low to be considered as orbit. The International Space Station orbits in the Thermosphere (80 to 700 km/50 to 440 miles). The exosphere (700 to 10,000 km/440 to 6,200 miles) contains most of the satellites orbiting Earth.
  8. These five layers are mostly distinguished by temperature. Within them are other layers determined by other things: the Ozone layer, the ionosphere (characterised by ionisation of solar radiation and includes the mesosphere, thermosphere, and parts of the exosphere), homosphere, heterosphere (these two are determined by how well mixed the atmospheric gases are) and planetary boundary layer which is closest to the surface of the Earth and is most affected by it. The depth of the planetary boundary layer ranges from about 100 metres (330 ft) on a clear, calm night to 3,000m (9,800 ft) or more during the afternoon when it is dry.
  9. The ozone layer is located in the stratosphere, from about 15–35 km (9.3–21.7 mi; 49,000–115,000 ft). It varies in thickness from place to place and at different times of year. About 90% of the ozone in Earth's atmosphere is contained in the stratosphere.
  10. Mythologies usually have deities which are specifically associated with the sky. These include the Egyptian goddess Nut, the Proto-Indo-European god Dyeus, the Greek Zeus, the Roman Jupiter, the Australian Aboriginal Altjira (or Arrernte) and the Iroquois Atahensic.

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Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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Sunday 28 June 2020

29 June: Famous Peters

Today is the name day for people called Peter. Here is a list of famous Peters:

Peter Cushing
  1. Saint Peter: One of the twelve apostles, the one entrusted with the keys to the kingdom of Heaven.
  2. Peter Noone: Also known as Herman, the front man of the 1960s pop band, Herman’s Hermits, whose hits include Silhouettes and No Milk Today.
  3. Peter Capaldi: Scottish actor, the twelfth Doctor Who, a lifelong fan of the show, who, as a child, had a letter printed in the Doctor Who Fan Club magazine. The fifth Doctor was also called Peter – Peter Davison. Also one of the early Doctor Who companions was played by a Peter – Peter Purves, who went on to become the presenter of another fitting TV show – Blue Peter.
  4. Peter Dinklage: American actor who plays Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones. His first lead role was in a school production of The Velveteen Rabbit. He is a vegan, and 4 feet 5 inches (135cm) tall.
  5. Peter Cushing: Horror film actor. He also appeared as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars. He played the role wearing slippers because the boots given to him as part of his costume hurt his feet.
  6. Peter Jackson: film director from New Zealand who is best known for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
  7. Peter Gabriel: rock musician, formerly a member of Genesis. He left the band in 1975 to pursue a solo career. His hits include Solsbury Hill and Sledgehammer.
  8. Peter Sellers: British actor who played Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther films.
  9. Peter Sutcliffe: Also known as the Yorkshire Ripper, English serial killer.
  10. Peter Parker: Also known as Spiderman.




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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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Saturday 27 June 2020

28 June: John Wesley Quotes

John Wesley, evangelist and founder of the Methodist societies, was born on this date in 1703. Some words of wisdom from him:

  1. An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.
  2. Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.
  3. Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn.
  4. Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry.
  5. What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.
  6. We should be rigorous in judging ourselves and gracious in judging others.
  7. People who wish to be offended will always find some occasion for taking offence.
  8. Let your words be the genuine picture of your heart.
  9. I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it.
  10. As to matters of dress, I would recommend one never to be first in the fashion nor the last out of it.

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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

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Friday 26 June 2020

27 June: Cancer Zodiac Sign

The sun is now in the Cancer zodiac sign. Here are 10 things you might not know about the sign:

  1. The sign is named after a Crab in Greek mythology. The story goes that while Heracles was fighting the Hydra, a crab appeared and bit him in the foot. Heracles killed it, but his enemy Hera placed it in the stars.
  2. The constellation of Cancer is sometimes referred to as the “Dark Sign” because the brightest star within it, Beta Cancri, only has an apparent magnitude of 3.5.
  3. The usual symbol for the sign is a crab, but through the ages it has been represented by other aquatic creatures with exoskeletons, such as Lobsters or Crayfish. In ancient Egyptian astrology, it was a scarab and in Babylon it was sometimes represented as a snapping Turtle.
  4. Cancer is a Water sign, ruled by the Moon.
  5. Famous Cancerians include Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Elon Musk, Diana, Princess of Wales, Sylvester Stallone, Robin Williams, George Michael, Nikola Tesla, Malala Yousafzai and the Dalai Lama.
  6. The birth stones for people born under this sign are the ruby, Pearl, emerald and moonstone.
  7. Their lucky plants are those with White or Yellow flowers, moon shaped leaves, those that grow near water or contain a lot of water. Peppermint, water lily, Daisy, white Rose and watermelon, for example.
  8. The sign of cancer rules home and family, emotions, moodiness, secrets, alcoholism and insecurity. In terms of the body, it rules the chest, breasts and stomach.
  9. People born under this sign are said to be homebodies who like to nurture and care for others. They are emotional and secretive, likely to retreat into their shell when threatened or wounded. They are cautious and need security. They are affectionate and sympathetic, but there is a danger of them smothering those that they love. They may be collectors or hoarders.
  10. Dante mentions the sign in his Paradiso. The quote goes, “Thereafterward a light among them brightened, So that, if Cancer one such crystal had, Winter would have a month of one sole day.” In art, the Italian painter and architect Giovanni Maria Falconetto depicted Cancer as the guardian of the city of Verona.



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Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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Thursday 25 June 2020

26 June: National Cream Tea Day

Today is the last Friday in June, so it's National Cream Tea Day. Just to be clear, we're not talking about tea with cream in it, here, but the meal, traditionally eaten in the afternoon, consisting of scones, jam and clotted cream with tea to wash it down. Here are 10 facts.

  1. Most sources say that the tradition of Tea and a snack in the afternoon originated with Anna Russell, the seventh Duchess of Bedford in the early 1800s. At that time, people ate two meals a day, breakfast and dinner in the evening. The duchess decided she couldn't wait until 8pm for her next meal and started taking afternoon tea, at first by herself, but as time went on, she invited others to join her and the idea spread.
  2. Other sources suggest afternoon tea goes back further than that, with Catherine of Braganza (Charles II’s wife) introducing it to the English court in 1662.
  3. Even this isn't the earliest mention of cream teas. There are manuscripts dating back to 997AD which state that monks at Tavistock Abbey in Devon served bread with clotted cream and Strawberry preserves to workers who were helping to rebuild the Abbey after it was damaged in a Viking raid.
  4. In modern times, the term "cream tea" to describe such a meal dates back to 1931 when the phrase was used in 'The Cornishman' newspaper.
  5. Does the jam go on first, or the cream? It depends whether you favour the Devonshire or Cornwall method. In Cornwall the jam is applied first with the cream on top; in Devon, the cream goes on first with the jam on top.
  6. Another potential source of argument connected to cream teas is how you pronounce the word "scone". Should it rhyme with "gone" or with "throne"? Again there's no right or wrong - it depends on where in the country you come from. It's nothing to do with social class.
  7. The term 'scones' was first used in 1513 according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The word 'scone' is believed to come from the Dutch word ‘schoonbrot’, which means beautiful Bread.
  8. In a traditional cream tea, the scones aren't buttered. They should be freshly baked and still warm and the cream should be clotted rather than whipped. The jam should be strawberry. Some say the tea should be taken without Milk.
  9. In Anna Russell's time, there were two terms used to describe a light meal in the afternoon - high tea or low tea. While it's easy to assume that high tea sounds posher, in fact, it was low tea that was enjoyed by the upper classes. It was so called because it was served on low tables (ie coffee tables) and consisted of snacks. High tea was served at the dining table and was traditionally the end of day meal of the working classes. It would be rather more substantial than scones, cream and jam - cold meats, pies, salad, pickles, bread and Butter, cakes, and a pot of tea would be served.
  10. The world’s most expensive afternoon tea included white Truffles costing £2,500 per kg and beluga caviar at £4,000 per kg. The tea was Da Hong Pao tea harvested from 1,000-year-old plants grown in the Wuyi Mountains of China.

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Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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Wednesday 24 June 2020

June 25: National Catfish Day

Today is National Catfish Day, so here are ten things you might not know about catfish.


  1. Catfish get their name from the barbels around their mouths which resemble a Cat’s whiskers. That said, there are some species of catfish which don’t have them.
  2. The order they belong to, the Siluriformes, is one of the most diverse orders on the planet. It contains 36 families with over 3,000 different species. 1 out of every 20 vertebrate species is a catfish. Not only that, but scientists are continually discovering new ones. Between 2003 and 2005, over 100 species were named, including an entire new family.
  3. As you might expect, then, catfish can be found virtually everywhere. They live inland and in coastal waters of every continent except Antarctica. They can live in temperatures from just above freezing to nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
  4. There is even a type of catfish which lives in swamps, ponds and slow moving or stagnant water which has a tendency to dry up. This fish is called the walking catfish (Clarias batrachus), because it has evolved the ability to “walk” (or more accurately, wiggle) so that if the pond it is living in dries up it can move to another.
  5. They also vary considerably in size. The three largest species are the Mekong giant catfish, the Wels catfish and the Piraiba catfish. The largest catfish ever recorded was a giant Mekong catfish caught in Thailand in 2005 that weighed 293 kilograms (646 lb). At the other end of the scale are the Trichomycteridae are a family of catfishes commonly known as pencil catfishes or parasitic catfishes, which can measure just 1cm. This family includes the candiru fish (Vandellia cirrhosa), which is said to have a habit of swimming up the human urethra.
  6. They don’t have scales. Instead they have smooth, mucus covered skin. Some species breathe through their skin; they all taste with their skin, having thousands of taste buds all over their bodies so they can detect chemicals in the Water around them.
  7. Their diets also vary considerably. In general, they eat insects, Snails, other fish and fish eggs, but there are some types which eat wood and algae and others which are parasitic and live off the Blood of other animals. Some will eat waste and decaying material from the sea or river bottom. There are some which people keep as pets, as they help keep the tank clean, although their diet needs to be supplemented with ordinary fish food as well.
  8. Catfish can communicate with one another. One characteristic of the species is an organ called the Weberian apparatus, which not only allows them to make a variety of sounds, but also improves their hearing and ability to discriminate between sounds. They also rub parts of their bodies together to make even more different sounds.
  9. They have a number of nicknames, especially in the USA where they are known as mud cats, polliwogs, chuckleheads, big bullheads, shovelheads, scoopers and flatties, to name but a few regional nicknames.
  10. They are mostly harmless but some have stings and need to be handled with care. Most of the stings aren’t venomous but stings from striped eel catfish have been known to be fatal in rare cases.


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        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. 

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        Tuesday 23 June 2020

        24 June: Sir Fred Hoyle Quotes

        This date in 1915 saw the birth of Sir Fred Hoyle, astronomer. 10 things he said:


        1. When I was young, the old regarded me as an outrageous young fellow, and now that I'm old the young regard me as an outrageous old fellow.
        2. Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.
        3. There is a coherent plan to the universe, though I don't know what it's a plan for.
        4. The man who voyages strange seas must of necessity be a little unsure of himself. It is the man with the flashy air of knowing everything, who is always with it, that we should beware of.
        5. The notion that not only the biopolymer but the operating program of a living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.
        6. Science is prediction, not explanation.
        7. the establishment defends itself by complicating everything to the point of incomprehensibility.
        8. A junkyard contains all the bits and pieces of a Boeing 747, dismembered and in disarray. A whirlwind happens to blow through the yard. What is the chance that after its passage a fully assembled 747, ready to fly, will be found standing there? So small as to be negligible, even if a tornado were to blow through enough junkyards to fill the whole Universe.
        9. Words are like harpoons. Once they go in, they are very hard to pull out.
        10. It is the true nature of mankind to learn from mistakes, not from example.

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        Monday 22 June 2020

        23 June: Q Day

        Q-Day was 23 June 1945, the day of the dress rehearsal of the first atom bomb test. Nowadays it is sometimes used informally to mean "Quality Day", or the first day of the calendar quarter. 10 things you might not know about the letter Q:

        1. It’s the 17th letter in the English alphabet, and the second least frequently used, after Z.
        2. The earliest forms of the letter may have been a symbol representing a knot, a threaded Needle, or a monkey with its tail hanging down.
        3. It was common up until the 19th century for some capital Qs to have longer tails. This is thought to have originated in Latin texts, where Q is much more likely to be the first letter of a word. They still used shorter tailed Qs, however, for shorter words. The long tailed Q fell out of use with the advent of digital fonts. One person who would have been glad to see the back of them was the American typographer D.B. Ukdike, who claimed that printers would use them simply to “outdo each other”.
        4. The letter Q is usually followed by a letter U in the English language, but there are exceptions – according to Wikipedia, 4,422 of them to be exact. They are often obscure words which have been assimilated into the English language from other tongues such as Arabic, Chinese or French. For example, qigong (Chinese exercise system), qi (the Chinese word for the life force), qat (a shrub with narcotic properties) and cinq (the number five in a pack of cards.
        5. The Estonian, Icelandic, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Scottish Gaelic, Slovenian, Turkish, Welsh and Cornish alphabets do not include the letter Q.
        6. Q is the symbol for the Guatemalan quetzal, the currency of Guatemala.
        7. In Medieval times, Q was sometimes included in the Roman numeral system and was used to represent 90, 500 or 500,000.
        8. In the NATO phonetic alphabet, “Quebec” is Q. In Morse Code - –.- represents Q.
        9. In Star Trek, Q is not only a character (played by John de Lancie) but the name of the race he belongs to, who all refer to each other as Q. They are the only race which can access the Q Continuum. Gene Roddenberry chose the letter Q for this character/race in honour of a friend, Janet Quarton.
        10. Q is also a character in the James Bond novels and films. Q in this case stands for “Quartermaster” and is therefore a job title. In military usage a quartermaster is a senior officer who co-ordinates the distribution of supplies. In the James Bond universe, he’s the one who issues Bond with gadgets.

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        Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

        Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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        Sunday 21 June 2020

        22 June: Radio

        On this date in 1896 Marconi patented his invention of the wireless. 10 things you might not know about radio.

        1. In the early days, the technology that produced radio was called wireless telegraphy, which is where we get the old fashioned word “wireless” for a radio.
        2. The word “broadcast” came from an agricultural term for a wide scattering of seeds.
        3. Radio waves were discovered by Heinrich Hertz in 1887.
        4. The first radio transmitters were called spark gap transmitters but they couldn’t transmit sound as radios do today, only pulses. They could be used for communication however, by means of Morse Code, using different lengths of pulses as dots and dashes.
        5. The Earth’s core can be used as a radio antenna, and is, in fact, to allow radio communications to reach submerged Submarines.
        6. In the 1980s it was possible to download computer games from the radio. How? The game was coded into sounds which could be recorded onto a cassette tape and loaded onto a computer.
        7. Radio saved the Eiffel Tower. It was meant to be torn down and scrapped after 20 years but the military saw its potential as a radio tower and started using it as such during the first world war. In 1908, a man named Lee de Forest was probably the first to use it that way. In Paris for his honeymoon in 1908, he climbed to the top of the tower and broadcast music to the suburbs of Paris. This made him, arguably, the first radio DJ. What his new wife thought of it is anyone’s guess.
        8. The reception is better for some radio stations at night. This is because radio waves travel in straight lines. The curvature of the Earth means, therefore, that radio stations shouldn’t be able to transmit for more than about 40 miles. However, at night, the composition of the ionosphere changes when it is not facing the Sun, allowing radio waves to bounce off it more easily and the waves to be picked up from greater distances.
        9. Between 1922 and 1971, people in the UK couldn’t listen to the radio without a licence. It cost 10 shillings (50p).
        10. UVB-76 is a mysterious Russian radio signal which has been transmitting continuously since 1982. Nobody knows who sends the signal, or why. It is located near Moscow, and the transmission consists of a buzzing sound 25 times a minute. Every few years it broadcasts a string of random names and numbers.


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        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:

        Paperback



        Saturday 20 June 2020

        21 June: Glastonbury Tor

        On the Summer Solstice Stonehenge isn’t the only place people go to celebrate. Glastonbury Tor is another popular venue. It has belonged to the National Trust since 1933. Here are 10 things you might not know about it.

        1. Glastonbury Tor is a conical hill formed of clay and Blue Lias, formed when surrounding softer deposits were eroded, leaving the hard cap of sandstone exposed. Its rocks date from the early Jurassic Period. At one time the Somerset Levels were covered in Water, and the Tor was effectively an island.
        2. Glastonbury Tor is visible for over 20 miles.
        3. The sides of the Tor have seven deep, roughly symmetrical terraces. How or why these are there isn’t known. If they are man made, there are numerous theories as to their purpose. Agriculture is one, so the Tor could be used for growing crops, but they’re not just on the best side for growing things. Why would ancient farmers go to a great deal of effort to terrace the north facing side as well as the south? Perhaps they formed a defensive rampart. Another theory is that there was a spiritual purpose – a three dimensional labyrinth dating to Neolithic times.
        4. There were certainly people visiting, if not living on, the Tor in Neolithic times. Flint tools have been found at the top of the hill.
        5. By Saxon times, there were buildings up there. Evidence has been found of at least four buildings. It’s possible one of the buildings was a church or hermitage, because the head of a stone cross was found partway down the hill. By the Middle Ages there was a metalworker’s forge there.
        6. A wooden church dedicated to St Michael was built on the summit in the 11th or 12th century. It was common at that time for Christian churches to be built on the sites formerly used for pagan worship, and those churches would often be dedicated to St Michael. St Michael was often the saint to whom places of worship in high places was dedicated (Hence St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall and Mont St-Michel in Normandy). This church was destroyed in an Earthquake in 1275. The epicentre was in the area around Portsmouth or Chichester and could be was felt in London, Canterbury and Wales.
        7. In the 14th century, another church dedicated to St Michael was built on the summit. This one was made from local sandstone by Abbot Adam of Sodbury, incorporating the foundations of the previous building. It was probably a daughter house of Glastonbury Abbey in the nearby town. There is a record of Henry III granting a charter for a six-day fair there in 1243. Most of this church was demolished in 1539 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, although the tower is still there. Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, and two of his monks, John Thorne and Roger James, were executed on the Tor.
        8. There is a lot of myth and legend associated with Glastonbury Tor. The Celts called it Ynys Witrin, or the Isle of Glass, and believed it was a gateway to the underworld, home of Gwyn ap Nudd, Lord of the Underworld, and also of fairies. Another legend says the Tor is the Island of Avalon, burial site of King Arthur. Christian legend has it that Joseph of Arimathea, a merchant, used to travel to the area for trading purposes, and on one occasion, brought a young Jesus with him; that after the crucifixion, Joseph returned and as well as planting his staff on nearby Wearyall Hill to form the Glastonbury Thorn, he hid the Holy Grail somewhere near the Chalice Well, and iron rich spring at the base of the Tor. It’s also said that St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, led a group of hermits there in the 13th century. A more recent legend is that the Tor forms part of the Glastonbury Zodiac, a huge zodiac carved into the landscape in ancient times. This theory was first put forward in 1927 by Katherine Maltwood. The Tor forms part of the representation of Aquarius.
        9. The mysterious nature of the landmark is enhanced by visual effects which can be observed at times. One of these is a phenomenon known as a Fata Morgana (derived, appropriately enough, from Morgan le Fay, a powerful sorceress in Arthurian legend) in which rays of light are strongly bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures. This makes the Tor appear to float above the mist.
        10. A representation of the Tor played a part in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012. A model based on the Tor (with a tree on top instead of the tower) was used to display the national Flags of the athletes as they entered the stadium.

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