“And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer. Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on a tripod stand… Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which gripped a young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange body. It picked its road as it went striding along, and the brazen hood that surmounted it moved to and fro with the inevitable suggestion of a head looking about. Behind the main body was a huge mass of white metal like a gigantic fisherman’s basket, and puffs of green smoke squirted out from the joints of the limbs as the monster swept by me.”

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The Kindle Challenge is a new initiative by Amazon to encourage people to buy and read Kindle books, it’s an interesting concept that Kobo started years ago but then abandoned. 

Basically every month there will be some challenges and you will need to take part and complete them to gain badges. You can also earn credits to buy Kindle Books.  The challenges so far has been easy like reading a book, buying a book or subscribing to Kindle Unlimited. 

There is obviously a large marketing element but the Kindle Challenge can be fun for users by gamifying the experience users can be motivated to read more. 

How do I take part in the Kindle Challenge?

So far it is at a kind of pilot stage and you must have an invitation, there will be more invites sent in the next few months. Sadly you must live in the United States to take part for the time being. The Challenge might be extended to other countries in future, although there are no details yet. 

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Everyone should know the writer Thomas Hardy, famous for writing novels such as Tess D’Ubberville and several others.

This is a bit of a gruesome story but we are assured that it is true, which is perhaps even worse. Do not read it if you are very sensitive.

Being a successful author when he died in 1928 it seemed appropriate to bury him at Westminster Abbey along with other people in the fields of literature, politics or science. But Hardy was very attached to his homeland; Dorset and had asked to be buried in the small graveyard next to Stinsford church, which the writer has always frequented since he was a child. 

It was then decided to make a compromise, Hardy’s body would be buried at Westminster Abbey while the heart would remain in Dorset and buried in the church graveyard as the writer wished.

The village doctor made the delicate operation of removing the heart from the corpse, once removed he placed it wrapped in a cloth on the table. When he returned shortly after, he no longer found his heart but saw that his cat had stolen it and ate it.

He then decided to kill the cat that contained the heart and have it buried. The photos of Hardy’s heart funeral in fact show a container where the heart should have been, which was undoubtedly a little too big to hold a heart but just the right size to hold a cat.

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