15th August: Liechtenstein National Day

Today is Liechtenstein's National Day. 10 things you might not know:

1. Liechtenstein is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world, that is, a country surrounded by other landlocked countries (the other is Uzbekistan).
2. It is the only country whose boundaries lie entirely within the Alps.
3. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan.
4. It hasn't had an army since 1868. After the Austro-Prussian War, Liechtenstein was no longer obliged to have an army and so the Government decided not to fund one. Their last soldier died in 1939, aged 95.
5. During the 1980s the Swiss army fired off shells during an exercise and mistakenly burned a patch of forest inside Liechtenstein. The incident was said to be resolved "over a case of white Wine."
6. There is very little crime. There is one prison, with hardly any inmates, because if any are sentenced to more than two years, they are transferred to Austria.
7. There is no airport in Liechtenstein. The nearest airports are in Switzerland (Zurich or St Gallen) or Germany (Friedrichshafen).
8. Liechtenstein was the last European country to give women the vote - on 1 July 1984.
9. Though small (160 square kilometres) it is very prosperous - Liechtenstein has the highest gross domestic product per person in the world when adjusted by purchasing power parity. In terms of of GDP per capita it is the richest German speaking country. Liechtenstein also has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world at 1.5%.
10. The low business tax rate and easy incorporation rules have meant that huge numbers of foreign businesses have registered "letter box companies" there, making Liechtenstein a country which has more registered companies (about 73,700) than citizens (the population is 35,000).

14th August: First printed, dated book

On this date in 1457 the oldest known exactly dated printed book was issued in Mentz. So some quotes about books:

1. If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison
2. Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher
3. Computers will never take the place of books. You can’t stand on a floppy disc to reach a high shelf Sam Ewing
4. I am reading a very interesting book about anti-gravity. I just can't put it down.
5. Whenever I get a little money, I buy books, and if there’s any left, I buy food. Erasmus
6. Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. Groucho Marx
7. There’s nothing like going to bed with a good book - or a man who’s read one.
8. Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light. Vera Nazarian
9. A great book should leave you with many experiences and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. William Styron
10. A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend. Laurence Peter

13th August: John Logie Baird (television)

John Logie Baird, Scottish Inventor, credited with inventing television, was born on this date in 1888. So today, 10 jokes and quotes about the goggle box.

1. Television? No good will come of this device The word is half Greek and half Latin. Charles Prestwich Scott (1846-1932)
2. There’s so much comedy on television - does that cause comedy in the streets? Dick Cavett
3. It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every 12 minutes you are interrupted by 12 dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper. R. Serling
4. If it wasn't for those who invented electricity in what is aptly called the dim and distant past, we'd all be watching television by candlelight every night. Manchester Evening News
5. One thing in favor of real life--it takes your mind off all that suffering on television. Kelly Fordyce in The Wall Street Journal
6. Daytime TV: A plot by corporations to punish workers for staying home.
7. Viewer discretion may be advised, but it’s never really expected.
8. Opportunity often knocks, statistics still are showing, but the reason we don't hear it is: we've got the TV going. Stephen Schlitzer in The Lion
9. One of the earliest programmes to be screened in colour was The Black and White Minstrel Show.
10. Sex on Television can’t hurt you unless you fall off.

12th August Schrodinger's Cat

The scientist Erwin Schrodinger was born this date in 1887. He is famous for a thought experiment in which a cat in placed in a sealed box with a vial of poison which may or may not be released and which may or may not kill the cat. Schrodinger's idea was that, until you open the box and look inside, you don't know whether the cat is dead or alive, and so, as long as the box stays shut, it's both. 10 Schrodinger's cat jokes:

1. Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
2. Curiosity may have killed Schrodingers' cat
3. Life is a series of Schrodinger's boxes.
4. Schrodinger's parrot. "He's dead." "No, he's just resting."
5. Do you think Erwin Schrodinger ever actually owned a cat? Well, he did and he didn't
6. Wanted: Schrodinger's cat. Dead and alive.
7. Schrödinger gets pulled over for speeding. The cop opens the boot of the car. "Hey" says the cop. "Do you know you have a dead cat in here?" An angry Schrödinger replies "Well I do now."
8. Schrodinger was arrested for cruelty to animals. His fate is uncertain.
9. Schrodinger's cat: Think outside the box
10. Hi, I'm Schrödinger. This is my cat. And he's tired of your worn out jokes. When he hears them he gets depressed and crawls into a box and stays there for days just moping and won't eat or drink. Sometimes I'm afraid to look in the box, not knowing if he'd dead or alive inside. So cease the jokes. Seriously.

11th August: Alcatraz Day

Alcatraz day On this date in 1934, 80 years ago, the first prisoners arrived at Alcatraz. 137 of them were transferred from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas by train, along with 60 special FBI agents, U.S. Marshals and railway security officials. Waiting for them were 155 prison staff, including the first warden James A. Johnston and associate warden J. E. Shuttleworth, both considered to be "iron men". The staff were highly trained in security, but not rehabilitation. 10 things you may not know about Alcatraz:

1. Historically, Native Americans believed the island to be cursed. They called it "Evil Island" and kept well away from it.
2. The first person to survey the island was Juan Manuel de Ayala in 1775, when he was charting San Francisco Bay. He named it "La Isla de los Alcatraces," which translates as "The Island of the Pelicans," because large numbers of the birds were nesting there.
3. The earliest recorded owner of the island of Alcatraz is Julian Workman, to whom it was given by Mexican governor Pio Pico in June, 1846, with the understanding that Workman would build a lighthouse on it.
4. In 1853, the US Army started to build a fortress there to defend the city. When the US Civil War broke out, it was used as an arsenal - a safe place to store firearms where the Confederates couldn't get at them.
5. From 1907 to 1933, Alcatraz was a military prison. During World War I, the prison held conscientious objectors.
6. A gangster named Alvin "Creepy" Karpis spent the most time (26 years) in the prison.
7. One of the most famous inmates was Robert Franklin Stroud, also known as the Birdman of Alcatraz. He never kept any birds in Alcatraz, though. At Leavenworth, he kept, raised and sold birds and became a respected ornithologist, but he was forced to leave them all behind when transferred to Alcatraz, where birds weren't allowed.
8. The authorities claimed that no prisoners ever escaped from Alcatraz, although 36 of them tried (and two tried twice). 23 were caught, 6 shot and killed and two drowned. There are five, including three men who tried to escape in an inflatable raft in June 1962, who were never accounted for, but were presumed to have drowned.
9. By 1969, the Native Americans had overcome their fear of the island. After the prison closed, a group of Native American students occupied the island in protest. They wanted it to be given back to the Native American peoples, who had discovered it thousands of years before the white people did, and turned into a Native American cultural centre. While that didn't happen, the occupation did raise awareness and led to Richard Nixon changing Government policy on Native Americans. Today, Native Americans still hold sunrise ceremonies on the island on Columbus Day and Thanksgiving Day.
10. A proposal to knock down the prison and build a peace centre was defeated in 2008. The argument that the prison was too rich in history to be destroyed won the day. Those who wanted the prison knocked down will just have to wait until 2259 when the Starship Vengeance crashes on it (Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)).

10th August: Herbert Hoover

Former US President Herbert Hoover was born on this date in 1874. Here are 10 things he said:

1. About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.
2. Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.
3. All men are equal before fish.
4. Peace is not made at the council table or by treaties, but in the hearts of men.
5. Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.
6. A good many things go around in the dark besides Santa Claus.
7. New discoveries in science will continue to create a thousand new frontiers for those who still would adventure.
8. Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one.
9. Whatever doubt there may be as to the quality or purpose of our free speech we certainly have ample volumes in production.
10. Many women are now holding posts of grave responsibility in city and country and state and nation, and their number must be greatly increased.

9th August PL Travers

On this date in 1899 P. L. Travers (Helen Lyndon Goff), writer, creator of Mary Poppins, was born. 10 facts about her:

1. Her real name was Helen Lyndon Goff, known as Lyndon to her family.
2. She was an actress as well as a writer, using Pamela Lyndon Travers as her stage name. Travers was her father's name.
3. She was a big fan of J.M. Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan, and her first publisher was Peter Llewelyn Davies, Barrie's adopted son, widely regarded as the model for Peter Pan.
4. Travers was very interested in mythology, and spent two summers living among the Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo peoples studying their mythology and folklore.
5. She also studied Zen mysticism in Japan.
6. At the age of 40, she adopted a son, Camillus, who was one of seven grandchildren of W.B. Yeats's biographer. Camillus had a twin brother, Anthony, but Travers only took one of the twins, on advice from an astrologer. Camillus had no idea he had a brother until he was 17, and his brother arrived at their house, drunk and demanding to see his twin. After a row with his adopted mother, Camillus went and found his brother in a pub on King's Road.
7. The inspiration for Mary Poppins may have been Travers's great aunt, Helen Morehead, who used to say 'Spit spot, into bed'.
8. Although there were several Mary Poppins novels, only one was made into a film. The rest never were, because Travers hated the Disney film, especially the animation, and refused to allow Disney to make any more.
9. She also wrote a number of non-fiction books, including What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol and Story.
10. She died aged 96, according to her grandchildren, "loving no one and with no one loving her".