Author: Lisa Mungovan

After months of discussions, the United Kingdom’s government has decided to continue to keep the country’s national museums fee-free. They had considered charging international visitors an entry fee to visit museums like the National Gallery or the British Museum, but concluded it was better to continue educating and entertaining generations to come, no charge.

Last week, a powerful nor’easter storm hit the East Coast of the United States. In New Jersey, floodwaters gave a dogfish shark the rare opportunity, to swim down a neighborhood road. A Surf City resident filmed the shark’s dorsal fin sticking out above the water, until it disappeared into a driveway.

Today is World Animal Day, so give all your animal friends a special treat. Squirrels and birds love sunflower seeds, and raccoons love leftovers. Can you name an animal that starts with each letter of the alphabet? B is for Bobcat, S is for Squid, and W is for Wombat. Your turn!

October 4th is Ten-Four Day, a good day to practice your CB radio lingo. Ten-four means OK, or message received. Now you’re ready to communicate with truck drivers, for Truckers Day! Say Over-and-out to end your conversation , then go eat a delicious cinnamon roll, for Cinnamon Roll Day!

Today is Butterfly And Hummingbird Day. They both fly and drink nectar from flowers, but their similarities end there. Butterflies are insects, that transform from caterpillars. Hummingbirds are tiny birds that can hover in midair, by beating their wings up to 200 times-per-second. They hatch from eggs the size of a small jelly bean!

Today is Look At The Leaves Day. Are they turning red, orange, and yellow yet? The Fall Foliage Prediction Map, at SmokyMountains.com, has updates so leaf peepers, can travel to see the colors at their peak. Search for spectacular leaves in your yard or the park, to press them, or create a colorful bouquet.

Today is International Frugal Fun Day. Frugal means thrifty, so do something that doesn’t cost a lot of money. How about a hike in the woods, to find different-colored leaves! You can make cards with them, for Card Making Day. It’s cheaper than buying a card, and a way to give frugal fun away.

Today is Virus Appreciation Day. What? Viruses are pretty amazing, the way they spread so quickly between people, or computers. Show them you respect how dangerous they are, by washing your hands! To prevent computer viruses, keep your computer up to date, don’t open unexpected email attachments, and use anti-viruses and malware scanners.

The results are in, for Katmai National Park’s “fattest bear” competition, and 20-year-old Backpack was the big winner. The brown bears have a few more weeks to stuff themselves, before they start to hibernate for the winter. You can still watch them catch salmon, on explore.org’s Brooks Falls bearcam.

Sargassum seaweed can blanket coastlines, leaving smelly decay that releases harmful carbon. A robotics company designed robots shaped like manta rays, to keep that carbon from reaching the air. The robots collect sargassum floating on the surface, and deposit it deep, where the lack of sunlight will cause it to die and sink.