14th January: V

Today is V for victory Day - marking the anniversary of the day when the V sign was first suggested as a rallying emblem during WWII. 10 facts about the letter V:

1. The 22nd letter of the English alphabet derives from the Semitic letter, Waw.
2. In the middle ages, the letter V was used interchangeably with the letter U depending on its position in the word. 'Have' and 'upon' were printed as 'haue' and 'vpon', for example.
3. It is the 6th least common letter in the English language, with a frequency of about 1.03% in words. It's more common in the Romance languages where it is the first letter of the second person plural (eg. French - vous) and in the Polish alphabet it is not used at all.
4. V is the only letter that cannot be used to form an English two-letter word in the Australian version of the game of Scrabble.
5. V is the chemical symbol for the element Vanadium.
6. V (Roman numeral for five) is the fifth studio album by American pop rock band Maroon 5.
7. The first few notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony have the same rhythm as the Morse Code representation of the letter V: ...-. Was this because Beethoven knew Roman numerals and Morse code? That isn't either of the theories about what inspired Beethoven to start his symphony that way. One of the composer's pupils claimed "the little pattern of notes had come to [Beethoven] from a yellow-hammer's song, heard as he walked in the Prater-park in Vienna," while others have said Beethoven intended for it to represent the idea of "fate knocking at the door". Whichever it was, the fact it was V in Morse code made it an audio representation of the visual V for Victory sign which could be broadcast over the radio as a call sign during the war. V for Victory, and Fate knocking at the enemy's door.
8. The visual V sign, a hand gesture in which the index and middle fingers are raised and parted, while the other fingers are clenched, with the signer's palm facing the observer, was suggested as a symbol for Victory by Victor de Laveleye, former Belgian Minister of Justice and director of the Belgian French-speaking broadcasts on the BBC. As well as the English and French words for Victory, it's also the first letter of vrijheid, the Dutch word for freedom. More recently, it came to represent "peace".
9. It is a sign that must be used with great care. Get it wrong, and you could be misunderstood. The exact same gesture, but with the back of the hand facing the observer, is an insulting gesture in Australia, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. This gesture is said to have originated with longbowmen fighting at the Battle of Agincourt. If captured, these two fingers would be removed by the enemy so they could no longer use their bows. Holding those two fingers up essentially says, "I've still got my fingers, up yours". There isn't, however, any historical evidence for this and according to Desmond Morris, we may never know exactly how this gesture originated.
10. In television, V is a science fiction franchise created by American writer, producer and director Kenneth Johnson, about an alien invasion. The aliens pretend to be friendly and are called "Visitors" but it becomes apparent that they really want to farm humans for food. In the 1983 V miniseries, children spray paint graffiti over the Visitors' propaganda posters, but are shown how to spray the V over the posters by Holocaust survivor Abraham Bernstein, who explains the meaning of the sign to them.

13 January: Togo Liberation Day

Today is Togo liberation day - so here are some facts about Togo.

1. Before it became independent in 1960, Togo was controlled by Germany, then Britain, and then France.
2. Togo is one of the smallest countries on Earth. It covers about 21, 900 square miles (56,785 square kilometers) and has a population of 7,154,237.
3. It borders with Burkina Faso to the north, Ghana to the west and Benin to the east.
4. The Capital and largest city is Lomé. Other important cities are Sokode, Kpalimé, Atakpame, and Bassari.
5. Lomé is the country's only working port along its 56km of coastline.
6. Togo means ‘house of sea’ in the indigenous Ewe language.
7. The Flag was designed by artist Paul Ahyi. It has five equal horizontal bands of Green alternating with Yellow. There is a white five-pointed star on a red square in the upper hoist-side corner. The red represents the Blood shed by the martyrs of independence, and the white star, hope. The green represents the forests, agriculture and hope for the future. The yellow bands represent the natural resources of the land.
8. Cocoa,  Coffee, and Cotton generate about 40% of export earnings with cotton being the most important crop.
9. Togo is a large producer of phosphate, which brings in another 40% of its export earnings. Togo is the world's fourth-largest producer of phosphate.
10. The highest mountain in Togo is Mount Agou at 986 metres (3,235 ft).

12th January: Iron

In the French Revolutionary Calendar, today celebrates Iron. Some facts about the element iron:

1. Iron has an atomic number of 26 and its chemical symbol is Fe (from the Latin, ferrum).
2. It is the most common element on Earth and the sixth most abundant in the entire universe. It is created by fusion reactions in large stars. There are significant amounts of iron in the Sun.
3. Pure iron is a soft metal - the hardness of industrial iron and steel comes from impurities created by the smelting process, in particular, carbon.
4. Iron is necessary for life. It is present in the compounds haemoglobin and myoglobin which transport Oxygen in animals. Blood is red because of the iron in it, and human blood smells of it. Plants use it as part of the process of photosythesis. An average man has a total of around 3.8 g of iron in his body and the average woman about 2.3 g.
5. Sources of iron in the diet include red meat, Lentils, beans, poultry, fish, leaf vegetables, watercress, tofu and chickpeas. However, don't overdo it. In large amounts, iron can be extremely toxic. 20 milligrams of iron per kilogram of body weight is toxic, while 60 milligrams per kilogram is lethal.
6. Mars is red because the dust on its surface is rich in iron oxide.
7. There are Bacteria which eat iron. They are found in the hulls of sunken ships, including the Titanic. It’s estimated that within 50 years the hull and structure of the Titanic will collapse entirely because of the bacteria eating it. Nom nom nom.
8. There is a mountain in Russia, called Magnitogorsk that is made almost entirely of iron with an estimated 7-10 Billion pounds of Iron Ore. A city grew up around it, and much of it has now been mined.
9. In superstition, iron is associated with blood and therefore the life force. It's said to be harmful to ghosts, Fairies, Witches, and other supernatural beings. Hence hanging an iron Horseshoe over the door of a house keeps evil spirits out, an iron fence around a cemetery keeps the ghosts in, and burying an iron knife under the threshold of a house means witches cannot enter.
10. There may only be 100 years worth of mineable iron left on Earth. However, scientists have identified an asteroid in our solar system, 16 Psyche, which has enough iron to keep us supplied for millions of years.

11th January: Milk Day

Today is Milk Day. Ten things you may not know about milk:

1. Cow’s milk was first drunk by humans 10,000 years ago in what is now Afghanistan and Iran.
2. Scientists think the ability of humans to digest cow's milk is the result of a chance mutation somewhere in Europe. Before that, only children could produce lactase, an enzyme necessary for digesting the lactose in milk and the ability was lost in adulthood. This could explain why huge numbers of people are lactose intolerant in the USA, including 75% of Native Americans and African Americans, and 90% of Asian Americans. Lactose intolerance is less common among those descended from northern Europeans. It could be argued, then, that anyone who is not lactose intolerant is a mutant and their super-power is digesting milk!
3. Cow's milk contains, on average, 3.4% protein, 3.6% fat, and 4.6% lactose, 0.7% minerals and supplies 66 kcal of energy per 100 grams.
4. The white colour of milk is caused by light reflecting off the fat in it.
5. Cows are not the only animals whose milk is drunk by humans. Others include buffalo, Goat, sheep, Camel, Donkey, Horse, Reindeer and yak.
6. Mammals are known to produce milk but they don't have an absolute monopoly. Some birds produce a milk-like substance to feed their young as well. Pigeon milk is generated inside the crop, a storage area in the oesophagus, and is a vital part of the diet of baby pigeons.
7. India is the largest producer of milk products followed by the United States of America, China, Pakistan and Brazil. The country which consumes the most milk per person is Ireland, where they consumed 135.6 litres each per year in 2011.
8. Milk was first packaged in glass bottles in the 1870s in New York. The idea caught on in England in 1880. In 1884, Hervey Thatcher, an American inventor from New York, invented a glass milk bottle, called 'Thatcher's Common Sense Milk Jar', which was sealed with a waxed paper disk. Plastic coated paper cartons were introduced in 1932. Milk is rarely sold in glass bottles now.
9. Pasteurization was originally developed as a way to stop Beer and Wine from going off, and it was 20 years before it was used for milk.
10. According to a 2001 study by researchers at the University of Leicester, playing slow songs to cows increases their milk production. Perfect Day by Lou Reed, Bridge over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel, What a Difference a Day Makes by Aretha Franklin, and Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. were found to be particularly effective.

10th January: Francium

The element Francium was discovered on this date in 1939. Here are some things you probably don't know about this element.

1. What is it? A highly radioactive alkaline metal.
2. It was the last element to be discovered in nature rather than made in a lab.
3. Francium was discovered by Marguerite Perey, who was a student of Marie Curie. In 1962, she was the first woman to be elected to the French Académie des Sciences, an honour Curie herself was denied.
4. The atomic number of Francium is 87 and its chemical symbol is Fr.
5. It used to be known as eka-caesium and actinium K. Perey first proposed the name catium for her newly discovered element, but this was opposed because although the name referred to cation, or positive charge, her supervisor thought it would remind people of Cats. So Perey came up with Francium instead.
6. Francium is named after France, because the element was discovered in Paris. It is one of two elements named after France, the other one being gallium.
7. In nature, it's extremely rare with only about 20–30 g (one ounce) existing in the Earth's crust at any given time. The largest amount produced in a laboratory was a cluster of more than 300,000 atoms.
8. Because it's so rare, nobody really knows what its melting point or boiling point is but scientists have come up with a best guess of 27 °C/80 °F for the melting point and 677 °C/1250 °F for the boiling point.
9. There are 34 known isotopes of francium, the most stable of which has a half-life of just 22 minutes.
10. Again because it is so rare and radioactive, it has no commercial uses. Perey hoped it might be useful as a diagnostic tool for cancer but this proved not only impractical but dangerous as the substance is carcinogenic. Perey developed bone cancer which eventually killed her.

9th January: Manatees

On this date in 1493 Christopher Columbus reported in his log his first sighting of manatees. Here are ten fascinating facts about these creatures.

1. Christopher Columbus reported in his ship's log on this date that he “distinctly saw three mermaids, which rose well out of the sea; but they are not so beautiful as they are said to be, for their faces had some masculine traits.” This is because he was looking at manatees, not mermaids.
2. Manatees are placid, usually slow moving aquatic mammals (usually swim at 5 to 8 kilometres per hour (3 to 5 mph), but can manage up to 30 kilometres per hour (20 mph) in short bursts) sometimes known as sea cows.
3. They belong to the family Trichechidae, which consists of three species: the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis), the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus), and the West African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis). The African and Amazonian species are shy and secretive, so most of what we know about these animals relates to the West Indian variety which migrate to the coast of the US and are frequently found in Florida.
4. They have been spotted as far north as Cape Cod and New York, but this is rare because they don't like the cold. They cannot survive below 15 °C (60 °F), and will suffer stress in temperatures of less than 60 degrees F. Despite their rotund appearance they are not that well insulated. Most of their bulk is made up of their digestive system. In winter they seek out warm springs and even power plant output areas.
5. The closest living relative of the manatees are Elephants and hyraxes.
6. They differ from most mammals in several ways. Most mammals have seven neck vertebrae. Manatees and tree Sloths are the only mammals which have just six. Manatees also replace their teeth throughout their lifetime, and the only other mammals with this characteristic are elephants and Kangaroos.
7. The manatee has a smooth brain, and the smallest brain of all mammals in relation to its body mass. They are not stupid, however. Studies have shown they perform as well as Dolphins in discrimination and learning tests and their long term memory is good. They can learn basic tasks, are extremely sensitive to touch and can differentiate colours, although they cannot see the colour red. It's harder to study their intelligence than it is for dolphins, though, partly because they move slower but also, according to scientist Roger L. Reep "because having no taste for fish, they are more difficult to motivate.”
8. Manatees don't have any natural predators other than people. Native Americans made war shields, canoes, and shoes from manatee hides, and they used to eat their meat. They also used their ground up bones to treat asthma and earache. Now endangered, it is illegal to hunt them or even harass them (as Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, of St. Petersburg found to her cost in 2012 when she was arrested after being photographed riding one). The greatest danger to manatees nowadays is boats. Because they move quite slowly and their hearing is in a higher frequency range than might be expected for such a large animal, they don't always hear a larger boat coming. In Florida, people can often identify individual manatees by their propeller scars.
9. In West African folklore, manatees were considered sacred and were thought to have been human. Killing one was taboo and required penance.
10. The oldest manatee in captivity is Snooty, who lives at the South Florida Museum's Parker Manatee Aquarium in Bradenton, Florida. He was born at the Miami Aquarium and Tackle Company and at time of writing is 66 years old. 

8th January: Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers was born on this date in 1902. He's known for person-centred counselling. Here are some things he said:

1. The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.
2. The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
3. When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic.
4. The facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that much closer to what is true.
5. People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, "Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner." I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.
6. The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change
7. What is most personal is most universal.
8. I'm not perfect... But I'm enough.
9. True empathy is always free of any evaluative or diagnostic quality. This comes across to the recipient with some surprise. "If I am not being judged, perhaps I am not so evil or abnormal as I have thought.”
10. To be what one is, is to enter fully into being a process.