Happy Birthday Alessandro Volta!

Today is the 270th birthday of Alessandro Volta (no he isn't still living, he died aged 82, otherwise he would probably be more famous for that!).

You might not necessarily have heard of him, but looking back he was certainly a very influential figure in the 18th and 19th centuries. And his surname gives a big clue regarding his work.

The Italian scientist invented the first type of battery, able to supply a reliable and steady flow of electricity. Weirdly enough, it was when he and another recognised name, Luigi Galvani (think galvanise), were working with a frog that they discovered the idea of "animal electricity".

This led to Volta inventing the voltaic pile - an electrical battery - at the end of the 1700s, which would power a huge amount of industry well into the late 19th century.

His revelation and invention was the catalyst for a number of others, and was an essential element in the Industrial Revolution.

So a big thank you and happy birthday to Alessandro Volta!

Mardi Gras Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day!

Pancake Day is here! Maybe you are chomping through one as you read this. But what is it all about?

Pancake Day is more formally known as Shrove Tuesday, and sometimes referred to as Mardi Gras, and is followed by Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent.

The festival derives from the idea of using up all the fattier and richer foods before sacrificing them for 40 days before Easter. Pancakes tick all the boxes, however nowadays the practice has become less about religious beliefs and more about making dinner time more special and exciting for kids.

Over 100 million of these thin, flat, fried delights are scoffed in the UK alone - think of the quantities of milk and eggs needed!

In other countries there are different rituals. For example, Poland celebrates Fat Thursday the week before Ash Wednesday. And forget pancakes, it is all about consuming donuts, endlessly!

How about eating pea soup in Estonia, or salted meat in Iceland?

Do you have any traditions on this day? What do you prefer to eat? And will you be giving anything up for Lent?

Over 50% of UK adults are single?

According to the latest research and statistics, 51% of people over 16 in the United Kingdom are single.

Data from the 2011 census reveals that over half of the adult population in Britain is 'available'. And of the top ten locations with the highest concentration of single people, unsurprisingly 7 are in the capital.

So London's reputation for being a big, lonely city would seemingly ring true.

However, as always, the statistics might not tell 100% of the story.

Unmarried couples who live together and would happily describe themselves as 'taken', actually count as single in these figures.

So maybe after all Valentine's Day wasn't such a damp squib for over half the British population as the numbers would suggest.


For more info follow this link: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31461595

Real Life Room Escapes - Tkalnia Zagadek, Lodz

Fancy paying to walk into an unlit room with blacked out windows an
d the door locked behind you?

How about having a 45-minute timer tick down as you try to piece together mysterious elements of the disappearance of an unknown person in order to discover a key to let you out of the room?

Well, a new trend of real-life room escapes is popping up across lots of countries, and I decided to check one out for myself.

Marketed as an alternative source of small group entertainment, forget bowling, cinema or traditional team-building activities, and tackle both mental and physical challenges presented to you in the locked room. Enter the mind of a missing or murdered person, find clues and hints to get you closer to unlocking the mystery and then the door.

Put on your critical thinking hat, take a step back to look from another perspective, and become your very own Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Jonathan Creek (female fictional detectives are available), and unravel the secrets of the room within the time limit.

With two others I visited Tkalnia Zagadek in Łódź, Poland, the title of which translates roughly as Puzzle Factory - a Polish play-on-words as Łódź has a strong industrial past.

We entered the Insomnia room and were immediately plunged into the dark and told to search for flashlights and clues to get out. Having to solve a huge variety of challenges to open cupboards and undo padlocks, shining lights on certain objects, resolving chess games and leafing through books, all in the attempt to find a key to get out of the room, was simply exhilarating.

The experience was immense: thrilling, nerve-wracking, panic-inducing, stimulating, but also exceedingly pleasing when you figured something out and moved on to the next step, piecing together something you discovered 20 minutes ago with something scribbled on the wall or under a desk, unlocking a cupboard and edging ever closer to escaping the locked room.

I would highly recommend this type of activity, and if you ever visit Łódź then Tkalnia Zagadek is the place to go. The staff were very friendly and helpful and made sure that our time there was just perfect. I will certainly be going back to confront the second room there.

And the best thing about this type of adventure activity? It's hugely interactive, it lets every member of your group take part, it lasts for 45 minutes and definitely leaves you wanting more, and afterwards you can go out for drinks and dinner on a high, whether you solve it or not!

Enjoy! To find out more about Tkalnia Zagadek follow this link:

http://tkalniazagadek.pl/en/

Sherlock Showcases Squandered Stash

Every year thousands of items are lost on buses, trains, tubes and in taxis, unsurprising in London, a metropolis with over 8 million inhabitants.

That new smartphone that you were proudly displaying to your companions; the umbrella left under a seat and promptly remembered once back outside under the rain clouds; the hat that was too hot to wear once inside and sheltered from the cold; the teddy that the crying child just realised went all the way to the end of the line.

All these sorts of items turn up to the Lost Property Office in their thousands, and most have a banal or explainable story behind them. For others, however, this certainly is not the case.

I'm always at a loss to understand how people can leave behind certain pieces of clothing. Do they remove their trousers on the tube and walk home in their underwear, or was it 'Bring a spare pair to work' Day and they just happened to slip out of a bag.

How about prosthetic limbs? A wedding dress? A lollipop man's sign? If you can come up with the reasoning for any of these then I'd love to hear it.

All of this is in light of the lost property office in Baker Street opening its doors for its 80th anniversary and showcasing some of the weird and wonderful belongings that have been forgotten on the network. The computer system used to deal with the treasure trove is very fittingly named Sherlock after this street's most famous occupant.

The good news is that a surprisingly large percentage of items are returned to their rightful owners, and the ones that don't find their way home are recycled or donated to charity whenever possible. So, be comforted by knowing that one chappy has been made happy by the tearful toddler's loss.

For more information and some interesting pictures follow this link.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-30213457

Che Guevara Hugo Chavez and Cologne

The release of perfume rarely hits the front pages, even if Posh Spice or George Clooney are endorsing it.

However, two rather unlikely male models have been posthumously promoting a Cuban perfumery's latest scents to much discontent, and even a ban, in the country.

Whilst many think that these revolutionary symbols are almost divine and that this act is a form of political blasphemy, others have seen the lighter side.

I have to admit that I'm not sure who would be enticed into buying colognes honouring a rather overweight, middle-aged statesman and a guerilla leader who spent 9 months travelling and smelling of motorbikes.

The Che Guevara eau de cologne was woodsy with tangs of refreshing citric odours and talcum powder, whilst the Venezuelan leader's displayed fruitier scents.

All in all a rather bizarre set of creations, blown way out of proportion by the prohibiting of these perfumes and the call from some quarters to prosecute the apparent 'offenders'.


Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29396873

Royal Birth Announced - Kate expects second child

It was announced today that The Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant and expecting her second child.

Whilst it is not going to be the groundbreaking event like last year that caused more than just a flurry in the media, no doubt much attention will be garnered as the weeks and months progress.

In a similar vein to her first child, the pregnancy has had to be revealed early due to Catherine's bouts of violent morning sickness that have caused royal officials to cancel some of her obligations.

Another royal birth signals the increasing distance between Prince Harry and the throne; when the child is born he will demoted another place to fifth in line, behind his father Prince Charles, his brother William, and William's son George and the next arrival.