The Earth has no moons. 'The Moon', according to most recent scientific thinking, is now outside the definition of 'moon' and is actually a binary planet.
2. Everybody - even the uneducated - in medieval times knew the Earth was a sphere. Probably since the 4th century BC, in fact.
The 'Flat Earth' idea seems to have come from the American writer Washington Irving in 1829.
3. At the 'Southern Pole of Inaccessibility' - the loneliest place on the planet, there is one object to mark the spot - a bust of Lenin. It's been there since Russian explorers reached the spot in 1958.
4. You might have heard of the 'Seven Seas' but it never existed as an entity.
The Earth has 5 oceans (NOAA) (or technically, one big one) .. or just 4, as the 'Antarctic Ocean' still has to be officially recognised as such by the IHO.
And 5. : The Earth does not have 2 Poles.
There are 2 geographic poles, 2 geomagnetic poles, 2 magnetic poles, 2 poles of inaccessibility, 2 celestial poles, and 1 ceremonial south pole.
Just rewatched 'A Room With A View' (1985) because my partner insisted. She's a romantic.
In my naive youth when I last saw it, I tagged it as a harmless, albeit competent little love story ...
In my maturity I see what it is, now. An indictment of out-of-date social class and manners. And a gentle comedy. With some kissing.
It's a beautiful film, even nearly 40 years on. Every line of dialogue, every glance, is perfect.
Three Oscars, Five BAFTAs.
Ah, Helena Bonham-Carter in her breakout role. That Edwardian hair is amazing. How do they even do that? Is there a wire framework under that? Scaffolding?
THIS DAY in 1945, as Paris was liberated from the Nazis, with street fighting still ongoing between Germans and Resistance, Alex Allegrier-Carton of the famous Lucas-Carton restaurant went down to his basement with a team of workers ...
Through the war, because his place was a favourite of the German officers (they'd read about it in guidebooks) he encouraged the Paris Resistance to meet in an upstairs room - the last place the Gestapo would ever think to check, and they never did ...
On this day he had a task to perform.
He pointed to an old wall, telling the workmen to knock it down.
Behind it was the greatest wine cellar in Paris, bricked up in 1940 using antique stones, disguised from the Germans throughout the entire war.
At some point in this campaign, an increasingly desperate Tory Party might drop the Zinoviev Bomb.
Let me give you some context.
The 1924 General Election:
Just 4 days before voting, the Daily Mail ran a story about a letter - the now infamous 'Zinoviev' Letter - from the Soviet Communist Party to the British Labour Party, suggesting (among other things) ... a UK and Empire-wide Bolshevik Revolution.
Just came across this lovely little history story:
Back in 1962, EMI were working on various computerised systems for various purposes. Due to funding issues, the entire department was to be closed down.
EMI were losing cash and in real trouble.
Then their music division discovered a band in Liverpool that looked quite promising ...
The cash generated by the global success of the Beatles propped up other struggling divisions within EMI, including the division run Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield, allowing him to continue his research ...