7th January: National pass gas day

Passing gas goes by hundreds of slang terms and euphemisms. The correct medical term is flatulence, but other words you can chose from include break wind, drop one, toot, anal acoustics, thunder down under, trouser cough, rectal honk, Butt bongos, Drop a bomb, Ghost turd, Let the beans out, parp, play the trouser tuba, and fart. Here are ten facts about farting. More tea, Vicar?

1. The average healthy human being farts 14 times a day. There's no difference between the amount of flatulence produced by males and females - males just show off about it more. The average volume of daily farts is 700ml, enough to blow up a birthday balloon. Someone with too much time on their hands once calculated that all the humans who ever lived have released approximately 17 quadrillion farts. Another person with too much time on their hands worked out that if one person farted non-stop for six years and nine months, or if everyone on Earth farted nine times all at once, they'd generate as much energy as an atomic bomb.
2. The word “fart” was been coined in 1632 and was defined as “to send forth wind from the anus.” It comes from the Old English word “feortan,” which means “to break wind.” Shakespeare may have pre-dated the word "fart" but that didn't stop him from mentioning flatulence five times in his plays. Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante Alighieri and Jonathan Swift all made reference to passing gas. James Joyce claimed to be able to pick out his lover's farts "in a room full of farting women". There's even a word for finding farting sexy - eproctophilia.
3. A fart leaves the human body at around seven miles an hour.
4. Flatulence is caused by swallowing air and by Bacteria in the gut breaking down certain foods. 99% of what comes out is actually odourless - carbon dioxide, Oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and methane. It's the 1% of sulphur compounds that make farts stink.
5. Humans are an inventive species so someone will always try to come up with a solution to any problem, and smelly farts are no exception. It is possible to buy underwear with carbon panels which can neutralise up to 77% of the smell. If that doesn't appeal, you can try the pill invented by Frenchman Christian Poincheval, which, he claims, make your farts smell like Roses or Chocolate.
6. That said, in 2014 scientists discovered that smelling farts might be good for you. Hydrogen sulfide, the gas that makes that rotten egg smell, might prevent mitochondrial damage, which can help prevent strokes, dementia, cancer, and heart attacks.
7. Farting is funny. In fact, the earliest recorded joke was a fart joke. It dates back to Sumeria in 1900 BC and has been translated thus: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap." Toys which make farting noises have been around since Roman times although the best known, the Whoopee cushion, wasn't invented until 1920. Fart gags move with the times - there are at least 60 apps for the iPhone which recreate the sound of human flatulence.
8. Need to fart more when you fly? There's a medical term for that, High Altitude Flatus Expulsion. It's also true that mountain climbers fart more the higher they go. That's because the pressure changes cause your intestines to expand. The opposite is true for deep sea divers. The pressure at depths of 33 or more feet below sea level stops digestive gas from forming bubbles so it festers inside the scuba diver’s colon instead of being expelled.
9. Humans aren't the only animals who fart. Cows are said to produce tons of methane, but neither humans nor cows are the Earth's champion farters. Termites are the creatures which fart the most, producing 11% of all the planet's methane emissions. The female Southern Pine Beetle uses pheromone-laden farts to attract males, while herrings use underwater farts to communicate with each other.
10. There are people who make careers out of farting. “Professional Fart Smeller” is an actual job in China. These strong-stomached individuals can make up to $50,000 a year diagnosing digestive illnesses through the scent of the patient’s flatulence. In the UK, there's Mr. Methane, who farts to the tunes of well-known songs. While he claims to be the world’s only performing flatulist, he's not the first. A legendary French performer known as “Le Pétomane”—which roughly translates as “Fartomaniac”—performed at Le Moulin Rouge in Paris. He used his anus to create “sound effects of cannon fire and thunderstorms” and played songs on an ocarina through a rubber tube in his anus.

See also: 
World Toilet Day

New!

Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

Amazon Paperback

Amazon Kindle

6 January: E L Doctorow

This date in 1931 saw the birth of E.L. "Edgar Lawrence" Doctorow, the US novelist known for his works of historical fiction. Here are some of his thoughts on writing, vices and experience.

1. Writing is like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
2. Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
3. Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.
4. We're always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy.
5. Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.
6. Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.
7. The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.
8. I have a number of vices, one of which is moderation.
9. I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad.
10. In fiction, you know, there are no borders. You can go anywhere. 

New!

Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

Amazon Paperback

Amazon Kindle

5th January: Drums

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: twelve drummers drumming - and all the rest - but for today, here are some things you might not know about drums.

1. Drums are one of the oldest, if not the oldest, musical instruments known to man. Drums from Neolithic times have been found, which could date back as far as 5500BC. These drums were made from alligator skins and are thought to have been used in Shamanic rituals.
2. Humans aren't the only animals to use the principle of drumming. Macaque monkeys drum objects in a rhythmic way to show social dominance. We've all seen gorillas beating their chests. Even rodents such as kangaroo rats have been known to drum their paws on the ground.
3. Making music isn't the only use for drums. In Africa, talking drums have been used for centuries to communicate over vast distances. These drums are shaped like hourglasses and built so that the pitch can be adjusted so that the drumming mimics the patterns of human speech. Sri Lanka has also used drums to communicate for over 2500 years. They have also been, and still are, used in shamanic and spiritual rituals.
4. The sound a drum makes is determined by several factors. These include the shape and construction of the shell of the drum - the larger the diameter of the shell, the lower the pitch, and the deeper a drum shell is, the louder the volume. The other main factor is the drum head, or the membrane stretched across the top of the drum. What the drum head is made from and how tightly it is stretched will affect the sound produced.
5. Drumming is good for you. Drumming burns more calories in half hour session than cycling, weight lifting and hiking, and it also lowers the level of stress hormones in the body. It's also good for the brain. Psychologists studying the effects of steady rhythms on people's brains found that students exposed to rhythm therapy improved their grades, and further, that this kind of therapy had a similar effect to Ritalin and was helpful to children with ADD. Researchers in Stockholm also found a link between the ability to keep a steady beat and intelligence and problem solving.
6. Drums are part of the percussion class of instruments, and within that category, instruments such as drums which produce sound through a vibrating membrane are called membranophones. Other percussion instruments such as bells and triangles, which produce sound because the whole thing vibrates, are called idiophones.
7. In 1909, the Ludwig Drum Company marketed the first bass drum foot pedal. The drum kit as we know it, however, didn't come along until the 1930s. Before that, a band would need more than one person to play the drums. The average drum kit has 5 pieces – the bass drum, snare drum, two toms, and a floor tom, and it may also have several cymbals. Not every drum kit is average. There is one, built by Dr. Mark Temperato which has 813 pieces. It took him 36 years to build it; it takes four people 15 hours to assemble it and to hit every individual piece takes an hour. However, it could be even bigger by now, since Dr Temperato's goal is to create a thousand piece drum kit.
8. The first electronic drum was created by Graeme Edge, drummer of The Moody Blues, in the early 1970s. They were popular during the 1980s and it looked as if they might replace acoustic drums completely - but it turned out that most drummers find the acoustic sets more satisfying to play.
9. Some drum related Guinness Records, according to the Guinness web site at time of writing. The largest drum in the world is a traditional Korean "CheonGo" drum which measures 5.54 m (18 ft 2 in) in diameter is 5.96 m (19 ft 6 in) tall and weighs 7 tonnes (15,432 lb 5.76 oz). I couldn't find any references for the smallest. The record for the longest drum roll by an individual was set by Jayson Brinklet, from Dagenham, Essex in May 2015. He drummed for 12 hours, five minutes and five seconds; but this is where the idea that drumming is good for you falls down - he had to stop in the end because his wrist completely seized up. The longest drumming marathon lasted 133 hours and 3 minutes. This was achieved by Carlos Santos in Castelo Branco, Portugal, in November 2014. The most drumbeats in a minute using drumsticks is 2,109, by Siddharth Nagarajan from India, in February 2017. Col Hatchman, the drummer with a band called Dirty Skanks holds the record for the loudest drumming - 137.2 decibels during a show. Only 2.8 decibels less than the recognised pain threshold where his audience would have been required to wear ear protection.
10. One of the first professional female drummers and one of the most famous is a woman called Viola Smith. As of 2016, she was still performing at the age of 104.

New!

Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

Amazon Paperback

Amazon Kindle

4th January: Utah Admission Day

Utah became the 45th US state on this date in 1896. Here are ten facts about Utah:

1. The name Utah comes from the Native American Ute tribe and means people of the mountains.
2. The capital and largest city is Salt Lake City, which has the distinction of being the only state capital whose name is made up of three words. It once had four words - its original name was Great Salt Lake City but the "Great" was dropped in 1868. Two interesting facts about Salt Lake City are that it has more plastic surgeons per person than any other US city, and that the Mormon Temple there took 40 years to build. Another is that it is home to Loftus International, which is the US's leading producer of rubber chickens.
3. The city is named after the Great Salt Lake which covers 2,100 square miles, and has an average depth of 13 feet. The lake is actually bigger than the state of Rhode Island and is four times as salty as the ocean. Jim Bridger, the first European to discover it in 1824 thought at first that he'd reached the Pacific Ocean, because it was so big and salty.
4. Staying with salt for a moment, Utah is home to the Bonneville Salt Flats, a 104 square kilometer (40 square mile, 30,000 acre) salt pan which is remarkably flat and smooth. This makes it a popular location for setting land speed records, such as the fastest motorcycle ride, set by Rocky Robinson who hit a top speed of 634 km/h (394 mi/h). As with anything, things don't always go to plan. In 1964, a man named Norman Craig Breedlove set a world record he probably didn't set out to break - the longest continuous tire skid which resulted in skid marks which were 6 miles long.
5. Utah is the only state where every county contains some part of a national forest. In one of these forests, Fishlake National Forest, you can see what appears to be 106 acres of aspen trees. All these trees are actually stems of one huge quaking aspen tree. They are all genetically identical and share the same root system. This tree is believed to be at least 80,000 years old, and could be as old as a million years. Not only is it one of the oldest living things on the planet, it's also one of the heaviest, weighing in at an estimated 6,000,000 kilograms (6,600 short tons). It has been called Pando, Latin for "I spread" and nicknamed "The Trembling Giant". It's thought that it has managed to live this long thanks to its root system which enabled it to survive the forest fires which decimated the populations of competing trees.
6. Some social statistics. Utah is the most religiously-homogeneous state in the nation as 60% of the population are Mormons (compared to 2% nationally). Utahans are more likely to be married and on average, get married younger than in any other state. However, the divorce rate is slightly higher as well, although divorced people in Utah are more likely to remarry. It has the highest birth rate in America and the youngest population (31% are under 18). While Mormons used to practice polygamy widely, it was officially banned in 1890 as a condition of being granted statehood. That doesn't mean it no longer happens at all. There are an estimated 40,000 polygamous marriages in Utah today, mostly among breakaway Mormon fundamentalist groups. People in Utah are also more generous with their time and money than people in any other state. In 2013, a survey found 71% had donated money to charities and 56% had volunteered. 48% did both.
7. Famous people from Utah include Butch Cassidy, Robert Redford, Roseanne Barr, Loretta Young, Orson Scott Card, Walter Frederick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, Philo T. Farnsworth, the man best known for inventing a prototype of the first all-electric television, and, of course, The Osmonds.
8. It's known as the Beehive State which symbolises thrift and industry, two qualities which were important to the early Mormon settlers. They also adopted the honey bee as the state insect. They originally wanted to call their new state “Deseret,” which is the word for “Honey Bee” in the Book of Mormon. The state bird is California Gull, which also has its roots in Mormon history. In 1847, seagulls helped save the lives of pioneers by consuming the swarms of Crickets which were eating their crops. The event was dubbed the “Miracle of the Gulls”. Utah is the only state to have an official state cooking pot - The Dutch oven was approved as a state symbol in 1997. Sego lilies, which stand for peace, are the state flower. The state animal is the The Rocky Mountain Elk. The state fish is either the Rainbow Trout or the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout - I found references to both being the state fish. Colorado Blue Spruce is the state tree, cherry is the state fruit, Allosaurus the state fossil, Coal the state rock and Topaz is the state gemstone. Utah also has a state snack, green Jell-O. Utahans eat more of this stuff than in any other state, and sometimes add grated Carrots to it.
9. At the centre of Utah is a town called Levan. While the official story is that the town was given its name by Mormon founder Brigham Young, a more popular story is that is was so named because it is "navel" spelled backwards.
10. The Mormon religion's prohibition of alcohol has led, rather than to a total ban, to some unique laws such as bars and restaurants having what is known as "Zion Curtains" - screens which prevent customers seeing alcoholic drinks being prepared. Restaurants are only allowed to sell Wine to customers who specifically ask to see the wine list. Utah may not be a place to live if you're lactose intolerant or vegan - it is illegal there not to drink Milk. If you swear by gunpowder as a headache cure, Utah isn't for you either as pharmacists are not allowed to sell gunpowder for that purpose. Other things you must not do in Utah include carrying a Violin down the street in a Paper bag, fish from a Horse, have sex in an ambulance while it is responding to an emergency and hire a trombone player to advertise an auction.

New!

Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

Amazon Paperback

Amazon Kindle

3rd January: Drinking Straw Day

Today is Drinking Straw Day because it was on this date in 1888 that the Paper drinking straw was patented. It's also a topical subject right now because the single use plastic ones are clogging up the planet and there have been calls to ban them altogether. Here are ten facts about drinking straws.

1. The earliest known drinking straw was found in a Sumerian tomb, dating back to 2000-3000 BC, in what is now Iraq. It was made from Gold inlaid with lapis lazuli. There was a seal in the same tomb with a picture of people drinking (in all probability Beer) with straws.
2. The first modern straws were made from rye grass. Good from the point of view of being biodegradable, but it tended to turn to mush in people's drinks and make them taste of rye grass.
3. It was this which prompted an inventor called Marvin Stone from Ohio to invent the paper straw in the 1880s. He was drinking a Mint julep in Washington DC one summer day and didn't like the fact the straw made his drink taste like grass. He wound a piece of paper around a Pencil and used the paper as a straw instead. Initially the straws were all hand wound, but in 1906 his Stone Straw Company invented a machine to wind the straws.
4. The idea was adapted for use in other industries, too, using other materials but the same idea, a spiral-wound tube. You can find them in electric motors, electronic devices, textiles, cars, fuses, batteries, transformers, Fireworks and packaging.
5. Early straws were most likely invented so that drinkers could avoid the solid by-products of fermentation which sink to the bottom. Today, they are generally used by children (although straws are often provided with alcoholic drinks such as cocktails) and it has been claimed that drinking straws help prevent tooth decay because using one means sugary drinks are less likely to come into contact with the teeth.
6. Is it true that drinking alcoholic drinks through a straw makes you more drunk than drinking them without one? In theory, yes, because a straw works by creating a vacuum as you suck the air out, causing a change in air pressure which makes the liquid rise. The boiling point of alcohol decreases in a vacuum and so you'd be inhaling alcohol vapour which would get into the bloodstream more quickly - however, the amount of alcohol vapour you'd actually get in a straw would not be enough to make any difference. What is more likely to make a difference is that it can be easier to drink though a straw, especially if the drink has ice in it, which means you drink more, and that's what makes you drunk.
7. There are a number of Guinness World Records relating to drinking straws. The record for the longest straw used to drink Coca Cola is held by Mel Sampson who drank Coca-Cola from a straw that was 75.82 meters long. Another record is how many straws a person can hold in their mouth, either using their hands to hold them, or not. The no-hands record is is 459, achieved by Manoj Kumar Maharana (India), in Odisha, India, on 28 August 2017. The with hands record is held by Guinness Rishi, also from India, who managed 496 on 17 March 2011. According to one website, he'd had all his teeth removed so he could stuff more straws into his gob. If that's true, that's true dedication!
8. Variations on a theme of drinking straws include the bendy straw, invented in 1937 by Joseph Friedman after his young daughter had difficulty drinking through a straight straw in her milkshake. There's also the "crazy straw" which has any number of twists and turns and is popular with children. For fussy children who don't like to drink their Milk, there are straws with flavouring in them, and straws which change colour if hot or cold liquid passes through them.
9. Marvin Stone decided the ideal straw was 8 1/2-inches long with a diameter just wide enough to prevent things like Lemon seeds from getting stuck in the tube. McDonalds claims that their wider than average straws make drinks taste better.
10. Talking of McDonald's, it's estimated that McDonald's alone uses at least 60 million plastic straws a day, while the USA in general gets through 500 million a day. That's enough every year to wrap the circumference of the Earth 2.5 times or to fill Yankee Stadium over 9 times. The bad news is that they don't degrade and so they're there forever. People use them once and throw them away because they're difficult to clean. The Ocean Conservancy found plastic straws are in the top 10 most picked up items on the beach on their annual clean up days. Paper straws are making a comeback although most are still plastic. What can we do about it? In Uganda, they've come up with a way to recycle plastic straws and make them into mats and bags. They have uses in arts and crafts - they can be made into mosaics and used to support flower arrangements. One website suggested threading thin jewellery chains through a straw and closing the clasp to stop them getting tangled.

New!

Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

Amazon Paperback

Amazon Kindle

2nd January: Georgia (US state)

Today is Georgia Ratification Day. Georgia became the 4th state to ratify the US Constitution in 1788. This post refers to Georgia the US state. If you want facts about Georgia the country, you'll find them here: Georgia (country).

1. Georgia was founded in 1732 by British Member of Parliament and social reformer James Oglethorpe. He wanted to use the place as a rehabilitation colony for prisoners who couldn't pay their debts. He believed they deserved a new start in a new place. The colony was named after King George II of England.
2. The Capital of Georgia is Atlanta, but the most haunted city in Georgia, and indeed, the US as a whole, is Savannah, according to the American Institute of Parapsychology. The city has had voodoo, plagues, wars, fires and habitation built on old cemeteries. It has a restaurant, called the Pirate's House which was once frequented by actual pirates in the 18th century and if all that's not enough, Savannah's airport runway was built on top of two graves. The runway incorporates the headstones. They are the only graves anywhere to be embedded in an airport runway.
3. Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River. It has 159 counties - only Texas has more. It is home to the largest swamp in North America (The Okefenokee), the world's largest drive-in restaurant (The Varsity, Atlanta, with room for 600 cars) and the largest Hindu temple outside India.
4. Georgia is the only state with an official State Crop, the Peanut. The peanut is celebrated in Ashburn by the world's largest fake peanut. Georgia also produces Pecans and Peaches. Cordele claims to be the watermelon capital of the world, and Gainesville the Poultry Capital of the World. The state also produces the vidalia Onion, one of the sweetest tasting onions in the world.
5. Things which are illegal in Georgia: tying a Giraffe to a telephone pole; spitting on the pavement after dark; swearing in front of a corpse; eating chicken with a fork; or saying "Oh boy!" It's also illegal for Chickens to cross the road, so there goes a whole category of jokes you can't tell there!
6. The state fruit is the peach, which at first glance may explain why there are so many streets called "Peachtree". There are over 55 streets in Atlanta alone with the name “Peachtree.” There are more streets of that name in the city than there are actual peach trees. However, historians believe these streets were named after a Native American village called “Standing Pitch Tree.”
7. Famous people from Georgia include James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr, the only native Georgian to become the President of the United States, Martin Luther King Jr, Ray Charles, actresses Holly Hunter and Julia Roberts, Otis Redding, Gone With The Wind author Margaret Mitchell and Kanye West.
8. Georgia's state symbols are as follows: fish: largemouth bass; flower: Cherokee Rose; tree: live Oak; bird: brown thrasher; motto: "Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation"; song: Georgia on My Mind; marine mammal: right whale; insect: Honey Bee; reptile: Gopher tortoise; shell: Knobbed whelk; fossil: Shark tooth; mineral: Staurolite; gem: Quartz; fruit: peach; amphibian: green tree frog; vegetable: Vidalia onion. There's even a state possum, an animated character called Pogo.
9. Georgia was the first state to give women degrees (Wesleyan College in 1839) and allow 18 year olds to vote, in 1945.
10. Georgia has the only national forest in the USA to be situated within a city limits. The city is Rome, and the forest is Marshall Forest.

New!

Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

Amazon Paperback

Amazon Kindle

January 1st: Parliament

The Acts of Union 1800 merged the British and Irish Parliaments, creating the UK Parliament as we know it today. Here are a few things you might not know about Parliament in the UK.

1. Nobody knows for sure when the first Parliament met but it was long before 1800. The word "Parliament" comes from the French verb meaning to talk. The first parliaments were meetings called by the king to discuss matters of state, and they took place wherever the king happened to be, which needn't be in Westminster or even London. The House of Commons didn't have a permanent meeting place until 1547. Even then emergencies like an outbreak of plague would force them to meet elsewhere.
2. The House of Commons was one of the first places to bring in a smoking ban - a few hundred years ago. However, the powers that were realised that MPs might not be able to sit through lengthy debates without a tobacco hit, and so they had a snuffbox installed by the front door. It is kept full of snuff although there's no evidence to suggest anyone uses it these days.
3. The UK Parliament is bicameral, which means there are two chambers - the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Commons has Green seats, and corridors used by MPs have green carpets, which originally signified they were the least important people in Parliament. The areas used by the House of Lords are Red and gold was the colour of the areas used by the monarch. Westminster Bridge is painted the same shade of green as the seats in the Commons.
4. The monarch, and members of the royal family, are not allowed to enter the House of Commons. The last monarch to go in there was Charles I, who stormed in to arrest some MPs for treason. The State Opening of Parliament takes place in the House of Lords, where the monarch is allowed to go, and there's a throne in there for them to sit on. So on this occasion, an official called the Black Rod goes to the House of Commons to summon the plebs to the House of Lords to hear the Queen's speech.
5. There is a lot of pomp and ceremony, and rituals which to our modern eyes, may seem archaic at best and at worst rather ridiculous. For example, the official who brings the symbolic mace into the House of Commons still has to wear a Medieval outfit and affect a funny walk. MPs and people in the public gallery are instructed not to laugh, which, according to one of my sources, is quite difficult.
6. There are rules and regulations presumably intended to stop fights breaking out. There are strict rules about the language which can be used during a debate. Swearing isn't allowed, because it might “offend the dignity” of Parliament, and MPs are not allowed to insult each other or accuse each other of lying. Euphemisms for lying have therefore evolved, such as "being economical with the truth" and they call their opponents "the honourable gentleman" (or lady) because they are not allowed to call them swine, git, blackguard, liar, coward, traitor or any other insulting name you can think of. Even the physical dimensions of the House are carefully designed so that members of the opposition are sitting more than two sword lengths apart. In the days when everyone had a sword, they were expected to leave their weapons with their coats in the cloakroom. Purple ribbons were supplied on the coathangers for this purpose - and they are still there. One blogger who wrote about their tour of Parliament said some plastic swords were hanging there, suggesting some MPs were making fun of the tradition.
7. The Houses of Parliament cover eight acres of land and have 100 staircases, over 1,000 rooms and three miles of corridors. Westminster Hall is the oldest part of the Houses of Parliament, built in 1097 (approximately 500 years after the Hagia Sofia in Turkey) by King William II. At that time, it was the largest hall in Europe at about 17,000 square feet. Parliament produces 80 million printed pages a year, ranging from the official parliamentary record - Hansard - to committee reports and draft legislation.
8. A frequent occurrence in Parliament is a vote, commonly called a "division". When there is to be a vote, a bell called the Division Bell is rung and MPs have eight minutes to get from wherever they are in the building to the Commons chamber. Traditionally the vote is first taken by means of MPs yelling "Aye" or "No" in answer to the Speaker's statement of the question. The Speaker expresses his opinion as to which side has won but it's not always easy to tell so they are asked to stand for aye or no and if it's still not clear they have to go to opposite sides of the room to be counted. This is a very old system dating back to Roman times. Any MP who was afraid of the party whips could hide in a toilet behind an oak panel. Once a bill is passed, the clerk of the Commons writes "Soit bail as Seigneurs" on it - "let it be sent to the House of Lords" in Norman French. When the Lords vote, they use the terms "content" or "not content". The final stage is "Royal Assent" where the monarch signs it off. It is virtually unknown for a monarch to refuse to do this. The last one to do so was in 1708, when Queen Anne refused the Scottish Militia Bill. The bill aimed to give arms back to the Scottish Militia.
9. If an MP was too shy to speak in public, they had the option of placing their petition in a velvet bag hanging from the Speaker's chair, known as the Partition Bag. This is where the phrase "in the bag" comes from.
10. There are less seats in the House of Commons than there are MPs. Anyone who has watched Parliament on TV will know this often isn't a problem but on occasions like Prime Ministers' Question time or the budget, it will be standing room only for some. There is a way MPs can be sure of getting a seat. They place a prayer card on the seat they want to reserve. It does mean they have to attend the prayers, which have opened every session for over four hundred years.

New!

Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

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