May 15th: National Day of Paraguay

10 things you may not know about Paraguay:

Photo by Felipe Méndez. Monday Falls, Paraguay

1. Paraguay is a landlocked country in South America - but it still has a navy. In fact, it has the largest navy of any landlocked country. Novelist Augusto Roa Bastos described it as "an island surrounded on all sides by land". It is bordered by Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, and is about the size of California.
2. Due to its central location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as Corazón de América ("Heart of America").
3. It hosted the first ever conference of landlocked nations in 2005, with over 30 countries attending.
4. P.J. O'Rourke once said, "Paraguay is nowhere and famous for nothing," but is said to have regretted his words after visiting the place.
5. The country is named for the Paraguay River, which flows through the middle of the country from North to South. The name of the river is from the Guarani language and means "river of many varieties".
6. The capital and largest city is Asunción. Almost a third of the population live there.
7. Paraguay is a bilingual country, with two official languages - Spanish, which is spoken by 92% of the people, and Guaraní, spoken by 98%.
8. The Guarani is the national currency.
9. Paraguay’s first ruler after they overthrew the Spanish was the dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia. His aim was to create a Utopian society with little contact with the outside world, and strict rules about who colonial citizens could marry - they could marry native Paraguayans, black people or mixed race people, but not each other. A result of this policy is that today, 95% of the population are mestizo (i.e. of combined European and Native American descent).
10. In 1864, the then dictator, Solano López, led the country into the Paraguayan War, a bloody conflict with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The population at the start of the war was estimated as being between 450,000 and 900,000, but at the end of it the population was a mere 220,000, only 28,000 of which were adult males. (in 2013 the population was 6,800,284.)

14th May: Daniel Fahrenheit: Temperature

Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, who invented the Fahrenheit temperature scale, was born on this date in 1686. So some temperature and weather related facts today - temperature records. These have been obtained using the standard conditions of having the instruments two meters above ground and not in direct sunlight.

1. The highest temperature ever recorded was on 10 July 1913 at Furnace Creek Ranch, Death Valley, California: 134°F (56.7°C)
2. The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK was 101.3°F (38.5°C) in Faversham, Kent on 10 August 2003.
3. Antarctica has only managed to get up to 59°F (15°C) (on 5 January 1974) whereas at the South Pole, the recorded temperature has never been higher than 9.9°F (-12.3°F) (on Christmas Day 2011.)
4. The hottest temperature recorded in Africa was in Kebili, Tunisia, where it reached 131°F (55°C) on 7 July 1931.
5. If you want consistent heat, the place to be is Australia - Marble Bar, Western Australia to be exact, which holds the record for the most consecutive days with a temperature above 100°F: 160 days, from 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924.
6. The coldest temperature on record was at Vostok Station, Antarctica: -128.6°F (-89.2°C).
7. In terms of inhabited places, the record for being coldest is a tie between Verkhoyansk in Russia on February 7 1892, and Oymyakon, also in Russia, on 6 February 1933: -90°F (-68°C).
8. In the UK, the coldest temperature ever recorded was in Scotland where it has reached -17°F (-27.2°C) three times. Twice in Braemar, Aberdeenshire (11 February 1895 and 10 January 1982) and once in Altnaharra, Sutherland on 30 December 1995.
9. The fastest temperature rise took place in Spearfish, South Dakota when the temperature rose by 49°F (27°C) in two minutes on 22 January 1943.
10. South Dakota also holds the record for the fastest temperature drop. In Rapid City on 10 January 1911 the temperature fell by 49°F in fifteen minutes.

13th May: Leprechaun Day

Today is Leprechaun Day - so here are some things you may not know about leprechauns:

1. Leprechauns evolved from water spirits which appeared in tales around the eighth century, called luchorpán, meaning "small body".
2. The first appearance of the leprechaun in the English language was in Dekker's comedy The Honest Whore, (1604): "As for your Irish lubrican, that spirit / Whom by preposterous charms thy lust hath rais'd / In a wrong circle."
3. Leprechauns have a profession - they are shoemakers. The sound that would alert you to the presence of a leprechaun nearby would be the sound of their hammers tapping nails into shoes.
4. The popular image of a leprechaun dressed entirely in Green and wearing a tall hat is really a recent invention. Before the 20th century, Leprechauns were described as wearing red jackets and tri-cornered hats - and overcoats in wet and windy weather.
5. The leprechauns own the legendary pots of Gold at the end of the rainbow.
6. Anyone who manages to catch a leprechaun or steal some of his treasure, may be able to strike a bargain - Leprechauns are said to be able to grant their captor three wishes in exchange for their freedom.
7. They are notorious practical jokers, and traditionally often blamed for things that go wrong. There is a legend in which a man persuades a leprechaun to show him which tree his treasure was buried under. However, the man didn't have a shovel with him, so he let the leprechaun go, tied his red garter to the tree so he would recognise it, and went to get a shovel. When he came back, every single tree had a red garter tied to it.
8. Leprechauns do not only live in Ireland. They have similar legends in Holland, where they are called Kabouter, and on the Isle of Man, where they are known as fenodyree. In Portland, Oregon, there is a small landscaped garden, just two feet long, in the middle of a road, on the spot where a reporter named Dick Fagan claimed to have seen a leprechaun digging. Fagan captured the leprechaun and, as legend dictated, asked for three wishes. One wish was to have his own park, but as was often the case in such stories, the leprechaun tricked him, so that his park was just two feet long!
9. There are no female leprechauns - they are all solitary males. In case you're wondering how they get new ones, they are said to be the deformed children of fairies.
10. There has actually been a law filed with The EU to protect the leprechaun species! As recently as 1989, in Carlingford, Ireland, a publican called P.J. O'Hare claimed to have found the skeleton of a leprechaun in a well and put it on display in his pub. According to modern legend, there are only 236 leprechauns left in Ireland, and they live on a patch of land near Carlingford - which is officially their protected habitat. 

May 12th: Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra is an American baseball player and manager, who, like the UK's David Coleman, is famous for his mangled quotes. To celebrate his birthday here are 10 "Berraballs":

Photo by pdphoto.org

1. You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.
2. If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.
3. Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.
4. If you come to a fork in the road, take it.
5. I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.
6. Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.
7. It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.
8. You can observe a lot by watching.
9. If people don't want to come out to the ball park, nobody's gonna stop 'em.
10. It gets late early out there.

May 11: Richard Feynman

Physicist Richard Feynman was born on this date in 1918. 10 Richard Feynman quotes:

1. Everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough.
2. Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
3. Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.
4. You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.
5. The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.
6. Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organisation of the entire tapestry.
7. I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.
8. We are not to tell nature what she’s gotta be. She's always got better imagination than we have.
9. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
10. It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong.

May 10th: Fred Astaire

Dancer and film star Fred Astaire was born on this date in 1899. 10 things you may not know about Fred Astaire:

1. While you probably know that Fred Astaire's real name was Frederick Austerlitz, You may not know that the name change was his mother's idea. Mrs Austerlitz was a typical pushy parent who saw her talented children (Fred and his sister, Adele) as a way out of their humdrum life in Nebraska. She thought "Austerlitz" sounded like the name of a battle. There was an uncle called L'Astaire, so the act was named after him.
2. The young Fred actually refused to take dancing lessons with his sister at first, but soon found himself copying her steps.
3. Fred's first stage appearance with Adele was in a show with the catchy title of Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty. He was dressed in a top hat and tails for the first half, to make him look taller, and was dressed as a lobster in the second half. The local paper wrote, "the Astaires are the greatest child act in vaudeville."
4. He did not do so well in screen tests for films. Fred and Adele were turned down flat by Paramount, who deemed them unsuitable for films. When he auditioned by himself, after Adele married and left the act, the report on his performance was "Can't sing. Can't act. Balding. Can dance a little." However, Astaire's performance won over David O. Selznick, who wrote in a memo: "I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test."
5. When it was suggested that he and Ginger Rogers became a dance team, Astaire wasn't keen. In a letter to his agent, he wrote, "I don't mind making another picture with her, but as for this 'team' idea, it's 'out!' I've just managed to live down one partnership and I don't want to be bothered with any more." Nevertheless, the pair went on to make 10 films together.
6. Astaire was a great fan of horse racing and owned racehorses himself, with some success. In 1946 his horse Triplicate won the Hollywood Gold Cup and San Juan Capistrano Handicap.
7. Fred Astaire was the first artist to be entered into the Internet Movie Database.
8. He would curl his middle fingers while dancing in order to disguise the fact that he had very large hands.
9. He remained fit and active late into life. At the age of 78, he broke his wrist while riding his grandson's skateboard.
10. There has never been a film made of the life of Fred Astaire. In his lifetime, he was adamant that he did not want his life to be misinterpreted, as he was sure would happen in a Hollywood movie. He felt so strongly about it that he even included a clause in his will that his life would never be made into a film.

May 9th: Barbara Woodhouse: Dogs

Barbara Woodhouse, the dog training lady, would have been 104 today. Since we had Hug Your Cat Day earlier this month, today is for the dog people! 10 quotes about Dogs:

1. Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in. Mark Twain
2. Whoever said you can’t buy happiness forgot about puppies. Gene Hill
3. Money will buy you a pretty good dog, but it won’t buy you the wag of his tail.
4. Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can't eat it or hump it, piss on it and walk away.
5. Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you saw two living creatures, one of them does a poo and the other carries it for him, who would you think is in charge?
6. News from the Biggleswick sheepdog trials. None of the sheepdogs were guilty.
7. What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Dwight D Eisenhower
8. Only one member of our family eats the right things, gets plenty of exercise, sleeps well and never worries. Some people call him clever. We call him “Rover.”
9. Never stand between a dog and a lamp post!
10. Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. Groucho Marx