20 November: Writing on the Wall Day

For Writing on the Wall Day, 10 quips about graffiti.

1. Graffiti is for people who can't write books.
2. Graffiti is the curse of the cleaning classes.
3. If God had not meant us to write on walls He would never have given us the example.
4. If you disagree with graffiti, sign a partition!
5. If you don’t see my message on the wall then you know I wasn’t here.
6. Next to a series of rivets on a lavatory partition: For our blind readers.
7. Only fools write on walls. Oops, I forgot again.
8. This is an art form. Stop council vandals ruining it!
9. When society turns to graffiti the writing is on the wall.
10. Your lives are graffiti on the walls of time.

19 November: Puerto Rico Discovery Day

It's Puerto Rico Discovery Day, marking the discovery of the US territory. Here are some things you may not know about the place:

1. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated United States territory located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea. Although the people who live there are US citizens, and their head of state is the President of the United States, they don't get to vote in presidential elections. They have been given several chances to vote on their future, however and whether they want to stay as they are, become the 51st US state or become an independent country. Although the most recent poll in 2012 came out in favour of statehood, there was more than one question on the ballot paper and quite a few voters didn't answer all the questions, making the result inconclusive.
2. It is an archipelago that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands as Mona, Culebra, and Vieques.
3. The capital is San Juan, which also happens to be the oldest city in any US territory. Originally, Christopher Columbus named the entire island San Juan and the port Puerto Rico, meaning rich port, but as time went on, traders and other visitors referred to the port as San Juan and the whole island as Puerto Rico. The island is also known in Spanish as la isla del encanto, meaning "the island of enchantment."
4. Puerto Ricans often call the island Borinquen – a derivation of Borikén, its indigenous Taíno name, which means "Land of the Valiant Lord." The terms boricua and borincano are often used to identify someone of Puerto Rican heritage.
5. Puerto Rico is home to the largest single-aperture Telescope in the world, at Arecibo Observatory. The radio telescope measures 1000 feet (305 meters). Discoveries made using this telescope include: that the rotation period of Mercury was not 88 days, as previously thought, but only 59 days; the first solid evidence of neutron stars; the first binary Pulsar; the first millisecond pulsar and the fastest spinning pulsar. It was also the source of the Arecibo Message, which consisted of 1,679 binary digits, approximately 210 bytes, aimed at the current location of globular star cluster M13. The total broadcast was less than three minutes long. However, ET won't get the message for 25,000 years, by which time the target cluster will have moved anyway. If ET decides to reply, the reply will take another 25,000 years to get back to us. So nobody is holding their breath waiting for alien contact to come from it.
6. More than 70% of the rum sold in the U.S. comes from Puerto Rico. It is also the home of the rum cocktail, Pina Colada, which is Puerto Rico's national drink.
7. Puerto Rico has an unofficial national animal - the coquí, an inch long tree frog with a distinctive call.
8. Cerro de Punta is the highest point at 1,338 meters (4,390 ft). The view from the top is said to be the best view in all of Puerto Rico. On a clear day, it is possible to see virtually the entire island, including San Juan, which is over 75 miles away.
9. At the other extreme, there is the Puerto Rico Trench, which at 280 km (170 mi) long and 8,400 m (27,600 ft) deep at its deepest point, is the largest and deepest trench in the Atlantic.
10. El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. National Forest System.

18 November: Oman National Day

Oman's National Day is today, so here are some things you may not know about Oman:

1. It is one of the oldest countries on earth and the oldest independent state in the Arab world. Humans have lived in what is now known as Oman for at least 106,000 years and the city of Dereaze is at least 9,000 years old.
2. The capital and largest city is Muscat, which was named the second best city to visit in the world in 2012 by the travel guide publisher Lonely Planet.
3. Oman is an absolute monarchy. Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said is the longest serving ruler in the Middle East. His dynasty, the Al-Saids took power in 1749.
4. The population of around 3.2 million (about the same as the population of Wales) live in a land area of 119,500 square miles (309,500 square kilometres) – around 15 times the size of Wales.
5. Oman is one of the few countries in the world where Frankincense trees grow. In fact, in ancient times, Oman was one of the richest countries in the world because of incense production. Ship-building was another traditional industry.
6. Today, it produces oil, the 25th largest oil producer in the world, but also produces dates, Limes, grains, and vegetables, and is a growing tourist destination. Prospective visitors may wish to note that violent crime and terrorism are virtually non-existent in Oman.
7. The Omani Rial is the official currency.
8. The male national dress in Oman consists of the dishdasha, a simple, ankle-length, collarless gown with long sleeves. It is usually adorned with a tassel sewn into the neckline, which is often impregnated with perfume.
9. Oman's traditional sports are dhow racing, Horse racing, Camel racing, bull fighting and falconry.
10. The national Flag of Oman consists of three stripes (White, Green and Red) with a red bar on the left which contains the national emblem of Oman (a Dagger and two swords).

17 November: Coping With Uncertainty Day

It's Coping With Uncertainty Day. A day we probably need more than usual in 2016. Here are ten quotes about uncertainty:

1. The World falls apart, but some things stay in place. Billy Bragg
2. I always fight against routine because I believe that a person should not have one day which is exactly like another: he loses the feeling that each day of life is God’s gift. Mstishv Rostropovich
3. There must be a spice of mischief and wilfulness thrown into the cup of our existence to give it its sharp taste and sparkling flavour. Mazlitt
4. Order is the pleasure of the reason; but disorder is the delight of the imagination. Paul Claudel
5. Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood. Henry Miller
6. Maturity is the capacity to endure uncertainty. John Finley
7. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. William James
8. One of the advantages of being disorderly is that I am constantly making exciting discoveries. Alan Milne
9. Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. Oscar Wilde
10. No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all your knowledge is about the past and all your decisions are about the future. Ian E Wilson

16 November: Oklahoma Admission day

Today is Oklahoma admission day - so here are ten facts about Oklahoma.

1. The name "Oklahoma" comes from the Choctaw language and it means "Red people."
2. The capital, Oklahoma City, is equidistant from New York and Los Angeles. It's also one of only two US state capitals to include the name of the state. The other is Indianapolis.
3. Cimarron County is unique because it is the only county in the US to border four other states - Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas.
4. Per square mile, Oklahoma has more Tornadoes than any other place in the world. The highest wind speed ever recorded on Earth was during a tornado in Oklahoma in May 1999. Not surprising then, that Oklahoma was the first state to issue a tornado warning, in 1948.
5. Oklahoma has produced more astronauts than any other state. It is also the home state of Jennifer Jones, Brad Pitt, Reba McEntire and Garth Brooks.
6. Oklahoma has the largest Native American population of any state in the U.S., and more man made lakes than any other state.
7. State symbols are as follows: Animal: American Bison; Bird: Scissor-tailed flycatcher; Fish: White or sand bass; Flower: Mistletoe; Insect: Honey Bee; Reptile: Mountain boomer (collared lizard); Tree: Redbud; Musical Instrument: Fiddle.
8. Oklahoma's inventions include the shopping cart, invented in Ardmore in 1936 by Sylvan Goldman; and the aerosol can. It was the first state to install a parking meter, and a "Yield" sign.
9. Boise City, OK, was the only city in the United States to be bombed during World War II - and that was by mistake when a B-17 Bomber based at Dalhart Army Air Base, Texas, dropped six practice bombs on the town, mistaking the city lights for target lights.
10. It is illegal to tie a Horse in front of Yukon City Hall, but there is a law in Oklahoma that requires cars to be tethered outside public buildings. In parts of the state, it is illegal to: wash your clothes in a bird bath; open a soft drink can unless supervised by a trained engineer; take a bite out of someone else’s Hamburger; wear boots in bed; carry a goldfish in a bowl on a bus (it's also illegal to get a fish drunk); own more than two adult Cats; tip the coffin over at a funeral; own a stink bomb or cause "annoying vibrations". Whaling is illegal, not to mention difficult, since Oklahoma is landlocked.

15 November: State of Palestine Independence day

The State of Palestine gained Independence on this date in 1988. Here are some things you may not know about this country:

1. There is some controversy over whether the State of Palestine exists as a country or not. In 1923 the region became the British Mandate of Palestine. This area included the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the present day state of Israel. In 1948, Israel declared independence and during the ensuing war, the Palestinian people fled, in what they call the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe". The Palestinian national movement gradually regrouped in the West Bank and Gaza. Since then, efforts to create a Palestinian state on the West Bank of the River Jordan and Gaza on the Mediterranean coast have been frustrated by the continuing conflict with Israel.
2. That said, in 2012, the UN General Assembly voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians to that of a "non-member observer state", suggesting the UN does recognise the Palestinian state as a country.
3. The principal river in the area is the River Jordan which is 251-kilometre (156 miles) long and flows into the Dead Sea. The name "West Bank" refers to the river, which also has great religious significance to Christians - Jesus was baptised in it, and crossing it is symbolic with reaching the Promised Land.
4. As for the Dead Sea, that is the largest body of water in Palestine, and is known for its extreme saltiness. It isn't the world's saltiest lake, but it's up there among the top few. It is 9.6 times saltier than the ocean and is the deepest Salt lake in the world.
5. The name Palestine comes from the word Plesheth, meaning "invaders". In English it is usually written "Philistine".
6. Dabka is a traditional circle dance which dates far back to pre-islamic times and is traditionally danced in Palestine and Lebanon. It is danced only at special occasions like weddings, births and other celebrations. Dancers follow a complicated pattern of steps around a circle, to the beating of a Drum.
7. The administrative centre is in Ramallah, although in an ideal world the Palestinian people would like Jerusalem to be their capital. However, Israel claims it, too, and maintains its primary governmental institutions there.
8. Gaza is the largest city. The name means fierce, or strong.
9. Gaza has a surfing scene.
10. The Flag is a tricolour of three equal horizontal stripes (Black, White, and Green from top to bottom) overlaid by a Red triangle at the hoist side. In 1967, the State of Israel banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. It was even against the law in the 1980s to display artwork composed of those four colours.

14 November: Oranges

It's Orange Day in the French Revolutionary Calendar. 10 things you might not know about oranges.

1. The colour Orange was named for the fruit, not the other way round. The word orange comes from the sanskrit word naranga, which comes from the Tamil word naru, meaning “fragrant.” The first recorded use of orange as a colour in English was in 1512. In other European languages, the origin of the name is different. In Romanian and Greek, the fruit was named for the Portuguese traders which introduced them, and in German the word is Apfelsine, which literally translates as "Apple from China".
2. There is no such thing as a wild orange. They are only found where cultivated by people.
3. An orange is actually a hybrid of a pomelo and a mandarin. We know this because scientists have sequenced the genome of the sweet orange. They found that about 25% of its genes come from the pomelo and about 75% from the mandarin.
4. They were first cultivated in China around 2500 BC and were first mentioned in Chinese literature in 314 BC.
5. The Moors introduced the orange to Europe, specifically in modern Andalucia, Spain, with large scale cultivation starting in the 10th century. Spanish travellers went on to introduce the orange to America. Spanish missionaries are said to have introduced the fruit to Arizona and California, while Christopher Columbus himself is thought to have planted the fruit in Hispaniola.
6. Ripe oranges aren't always orange. They can be Green, or have patches of green on them and still be ripe and perfectly okay to eat. One place you won't find a green orange is in shops in Texas, Arizona, California and Florida, where it is illegal to harvest immature fruit. There, a ripe orange with some green on it will be exposed to ethylene gas to turn all the skin orange. If left on the tree, an orange will turn from green to orange and back to green again as the temperature fluctuates and still be perfectly edible.
7. The biggest producer of oranges (and orange juice) in the world is Brazil. Brazil produces more than the next three largest producers (USA, China and India) put together. Orange trees are the most cultivated fruit tree in the world.
8. Oranges are one of the best sources of Vitamin C, and as they don't spoil easily, were great for stopping sailors getting scurvy. Citrus trees were planted along trade routes by Spanish and Dutch traders. The peel is also rich in vitamin C.
9. Florida celebrates the orange by having orange blossom as its state flower, the orange as its state fruit and orange juice as its state beverage. While on the subject of America, there is a wacky law in California which states that it's illegal to eat an orange in the bath!
10. Commercially grown oranges are propagated by grafting. It is possible to grow them from seeds, but the new plant may produce fruit that is different from the parent plant or may not produce fruit at all.