1 August: 213

1^st August is the 213^th day of the year. 10 facts about the number 213:

1. Area code 213 is a telephone area code for downtown Los Angeles and environs, sometimes used to refer to the west coast of the USA in general.

2. This code was the inspiration behind the name of the hip-hop group whose members are Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg, who hail from Long Beach, California.

3. 213 is a song by Slayer on the album Divine Intervention.

4. Two:Thirteen (sometimes titled 2wo:Thirteen, or simply 2:13), is a 2009 horror/thriller film directed by Charles Adelman and starring Mark Thompson, Mark Pellegrino, Teri Polo, and Kevin Pollak. It’s about a cop who returns to work after psychiatric leave and is on the case of a serial killer who seems to be targetting him. The killer leaves masks and word games at the scene of each crime.

5. 213 Lilaea is a large main belt asteroid discovered by C. H. F. Peters in 1880, in Clinton, New York and named after Lilaea, a Naiad in Greek mythology.

6. American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer lived in apartment number 213.

7. London bus number 213 runs between Fairfield Bus Station and Sutton Bus Garage.

8. The year 213 was a common year starting on Friday, known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Calvinus.

9. The A213 is a road in London which runs between Sydenham and Broad Green.

10. In numerology the energy of 213 is nurturing and family oriented. Locations with the number 213 generally are a good fit for organisations related to remodelling homes, family planning, and relationship counselling. (The apartment mentioned at #6 being a notable exception.) People under its influence are nurturing, easy going, and idealistic. They take their responsibilities seriously.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

31 July: Waterskiing

Ralph Samuelson rode the world's first water skis on this date in 1922. Here are 10 facts about the sport of waterskiing.

1. Ralph Samuelson was inspired to invent waterskiing when watching someone surfing on the lake near his home in Minnesota. He used a pair of boards for skis and a clothesline as a tow-rope. His brother Ben towed him and they reached a speed of 32 kilometres per hour (20 mph). He spent around a year experimenting with different techniques and equipment, but never patented any of it.

2. The first patent for water skis was issued to Fred Waller, of Huntington, New York, on 27 October 1925.

3. The first man-made lake for the purpose of water skiing was built in 1969 by Jack Horton in Barstow, California.

4. It’s possible to waterski without skis. Barefoot waterskiing is a thing, but only recommended for people who’ve already mastered the sport. The tow boat has to go faster because feet are smaller and so there’s less lift from feet than from planks.

5. To water ski, you need at least two friends. It’s a legal requirement that there should be at least two people in the boat.

6. There are three main events in a tournament: slalom, jumping, and trick riding. Slalom, as the name would suggest, is skiing around staggered buoys without hitting them. Jumping involves being towed over a large ramp and trick riding is skiing while performing flips and twists and whatever is likely to impress the judges.

7. Two famous water skiers are: George Blair, a businessman who learned to waterski when he was 46 and went on to win many awards and set world records. He used to wear distinctive yellow wetsuits which earned him the nickname "Banana" George. Another is Freddy Krueger (yes, Freddy Krueger!) who is an 8-time World Record Holder, 5-time World Champion, and 14-time Masters Champion. He currently holds the World Ski Flying record at 312 feet. His nickname? The Nightmare.

8. Water skiing isn’t just a sport for human beings. Animals have been known to participate as well. Twiggy was a Squirrel who was rescued in 1978 Chuck and Lou Ann Best and adopted as a family pet. When they bought a remote control boat for their daughter, they decided to teach Twiggy to water ski, initially as a joke. They started training her in a bathtub using Peanut butter as rewards, but ended up taking Twiggy on national tours and performances, eventually full-time in a motor home, which continued for over 40 years. Needless to say, the original Twiggy didn’t live that long. There have been at least eleven different "Twiggy" squirrels, who would live out their lives as family pets after retirement.

9. It’s not just a sport for small animals, either. In the 1950s and 60s there was a waterskiing Elephant called Queenie. Queenie made appearances at state and county fairs, TV shows, and circuses with handler Liz Dane. According to Dane, Queenie really enjoyed waterskiing: “She would put her trunk in the water and get a big scoop of water and spray it all over the place! She loved it.”

10. Finally, some world records. The largest number of waterskiers towed off one boat is 145. For a pyramid formation the record is 93. The fastest water skiing speed recorded is 230.26 km/h (143.08 mph) by Christopher Michael Massey (Australia). The farthest water ski jump is 77.4 m (253 feet 11 inches) by Ryan Dodd (Canada). And if you think you’re too old to try waterskiing, think again! The oldest waterskier was Tibor Kupferstein who took to the water in December 2021 at the age of 93 years and 136 days.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

30 July: Paperback books

Paperback Day marks the start of the paperback book revolution with publication of Penguin #1, in London in 1935. 10 facts about paperback books.

1. Paperback books are also known as soft covers or soft backs.

2. The covers are made from thicker paper and they are held together with glue, as opposed to hardbacks which have covers made from card covered with cloth, leather or Paper and with pages that are sewn or stapled together.

3. The paperback format has existed since the 19^th century and was used for pamphlets.

4. In the UK, the first paperback books for the mass market were produced by Allen Lane under the name of Penguin Books, in 1935. His initial run was ten reprints, and the first one on the list was Ariel, A Life of Shelley by Andre Maurois.

5. Book shops weren’t keen on stocking theses new fangled books at first. Woolworth’s was the first major retailer to see the potential and they placed a large order. When they sold well, other shops began selling them.

6. In the US, mass market paperbacks didn’t appear until 1939 when Robert de Graaf created the Pocket Books label, in partnership with Simon & Schuster.

7. From 1950, paperback originals began to appear. These were books that hadn’t been previously published as hardbacks but went straight to paperback. The first ones were published by Fawcett Publications.

8. The profit margin of a hardback is greater than that of a paperback, so the paperback version of a book is generally only released by publishers when interest in the hardback begins to die down. This is usually after about twelve months.

9. The most popular genre in paperback is romance. In 1982, 25% of paperback sales were romance novels, rising to 51% by 2013.

10. According to the Daily Express, the M6 toll road was built on two-and-a-half million copies of pulped Mills & Boon novels.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

29 July: Help!

On this date in 1965 The Beatles second feature film Help! had its UK première. 10 facts about the film:

1. The film was directed by Richard Lester, and as well as the Fab Four, featured Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Peter Sellers turned down a role because he didn't want to play second fiddle to The Beatles.

2. At one point, the film was going to be called Eight Arms to Hold You, a title suggested by George Harrison, a reference to the multi-armed statue of the goddess Kali which appears in the film. However, nobody else liked that title much and by the time the movie was edited, it didn't really fit the storyline. There was little enthusiasm by the group to write a song to fit the title, so they went with a song John Lennon had already written – Help! And used that as the title. They could only use it because of the exclamation mark, since the title Help without one had already been registered.

3. The plot is about the group trying to stop Ringo Starr from being captured by a sinister eastern cult and a pair of mad scientists who want a sacrificial ring which is in Ringo’s possession after a fan sent it to him.

4. The various locations around the world which appear in the film were chosen mainly because The Beatles had never been to them and wanted an excuse to visit. They’d say to the writers things like “We’ve never been to the Bahamas—could you write that in?” and “I’ve never been Skiing. I wonder if you could write in a scene with skiing?” Before the skiing scene, the band admitted they had never skied before so Lester handed them skis and told them, "What better time to learn? Find a hill and practice!" Their early attempts at skiing were filmed and used in the movie.

5. At one point they appear to ski under a musical score. Lester said later in an interview that it was to disguise some unsightly "telegraph wires”. This was in the days before CGI so it wasn’t possible to simply edit them out, so they added in the musical notes instead.

6. The Beatles interest in Indian culture, Yoga, working with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and sitar music, were almost certainly a result of their involvement with this film.

7. In one scene a cross Channel swimmer pops up and asks for directions to the White Cliffs of Dover. The swimmer is played by Mal Evans, The Beatles’ road manager. He appears again in the final scene in the Bahamas, swimming up to the beach. No dialogue is exchanged, The Beatles simply point in the presumed direction he’d need to go to get to the White Cliffs.

8. The Hindu goddess Clang and his cult worships is "Kali" (also known as "Kali-Ma"). This is the same goddess worshipped by the cult in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

9. Eleanor Bron, who plays Ahme, has fourteen costume changes throughout the movie. She also inspired Paul McCartney who liked her name so much that he used it in a song (Eleanor Rigby).

10. A novelisation called The Beatles in Help! was written by Al Hine and published in 1965. It included a scene which was cut from the film because it was too long. The deleted scene featured Frankie Howerd and Wendy Richard. Frankie's character is called "Sam Ahab" (Bahamas backwards).

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

28 July: Over the Rainbow

On this date in 1939 Judy Garland recorded the studio version of Over the Rainbow. 10 facts about the song:

1. The tune was written by Harold Arlen and the lyrics by Yip Harburg. This duo often worked together and other songs of theirs include It's Only a Paper Moon, Brother Can You Spare a Dime and Lydia the Tattooed Lady.

2. When Harburg first heard the tune, he hated it, until Arlen was persuaded by Ira Gershwin to speed up the tempo a little.

3. It nearly didn’t get included in The Wizard of Oz at all. Some MGM executives thought it too slow a song to be included so early in the film, especially since they thought the film was already too long. However, associate producer Arthur Freed and Roger Edens, Judy Garland’s vocal coach, talked them into keeping it.

4. They were right: it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and was later chosen by RIAA as the #1 Song of the 20th Century and by AFI as the Greatest Movie Song Ever.

5. In the film version, Judy Garland is accompanied by a renowned Stradivarius Violin.

6. The song has been covered by many and at least eleven versions have been chart hits over the years throughout the world. Judy Garland’s original version, however, is not one of them.

7. There is an additional verse which isn’t in the film but is sometimes used in stage productions. It goes: “When all the world is a hopeless jumble; And the raindrops tumble all around; Heaven opens a magic lane. When all the clouds darken up the skyway; There's a Rainbow highway to be found; Leading from your windowpane; To a place behind the sun; Just a step beyond the rain.”

8. The song appears about five minutes into the film. Dorothy has just had an unpleasant account with the spinster Miss Gulch who threatened her dog, Toto. Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and the farmhands don’t believe her. Aunt Em tells her to "find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble". Dorothy wanders off, saying to Toto, "Someplace where there isn't any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat, or a train. It's far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain." Cue the song. Harburg said his inspiration was "a ballad for a little girl who... was in trouble and... wanted to get away from... Kansas. A dry, arid, colourless place. She had never seen anything colourful in her life except the rainbow".

9. It has been played in space. It was sent as an audio wakeup call to astronauts aboard the STS-88 Space Shuttle mission on Flight Day 4, dedicated to astronaut Robert D. Cabana by his daughter Sara.

10. Harry Connick Jr. sang this at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Dorothy Hamill skated as he sang.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

27 July: Thomas Campbell Quotes

On this date in 1777, Thomas Campbell, a Scottish poet, was born. 10 quotes from him:

1. The smaller your reality, the more convinced you are that you know everything.

2. Your belief systems limit your reality to a sub-set of the solution space that does not contain the answer.

3. Oh, how hard it is to find The one just suited to our mind!

4. Truth ever lovely – since the world began, The foe of tyrants, and the friend of man.

5. A man who will not leave his room because he does not know how, or is afraid to open the door, is trapped just the same whether or not the door is locked.

6. Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, and robes the mountain in its azure hue.

7. Tomorrow let us do or die!

8. Better be courted and jilted Than never be courted at all.

9. What millions died that Caesar might be great!

10. The truth is not delicate; it will stand up to vigorous testing.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

26 July: Esperanto Day

Today is Esperanto Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about Esperanto.

1. Esperanto is a constructed language created by Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof. He was born in 1859 in Bialystok, a multi-ethnic city that is in present-day Poland. Growing up there, he witnessed many arguments between people who spoke different languages. This gave him the idea of creating an entirely new language that was simple to learn, to bring people together. He eventually gave up his career as an eye doctor to concentrate on Esperanto, and became known as Doktoro Esperanto (Dr. Esperanto).

2. At first, he thought about reviving Latin as a universal language, but concluded that it was too complicated.

3. It was initially known as “International Language” but the early speakers began referring to it as Esperanto in 1889. “Esperanto” translates to “one who hopes.”

4. Today is Esperanto Day because it was on this date in 1887 that Zamenhof published the first book of Esperanto grammar.

5. Esperanto uses root words from the romance languages. It has one definitive article and no indefinite articles. Nouns have no gender, and verbs are all regular with only one form per tense. The Esperanto alphabet has 28 letters and is based on the Latin alphabet. It doesn’t include Q, w, X and Y, and adds ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, and ŭ.

6. The World Esperanto Association has a membership of 120 countries, but no country has adopted it as an official language. A small territory called Neutral Moresnet, between what is today Belgium and Germany, proposed to adopt it, but the first world war got in the way. Esperantujo ("Esperanto-land") is the name given to the collection of places where it is spoken.

7. Esperanto has a Flag. It features a green five-pointed star against a white canton, upon a field of green. It was proposed to Zamenhof by Richard Geoghegan, author of the first Esperanto textbook for English speakers, in 1887.

8. There are about 2 million speakers worldwide with about a thousand who were taught it from birth by their parents. It’s most popular in Europe, Asia and South America but there are speakers on other continents, too. In Africa, Togo has the most speakers.

9. Esperanto was added to Google Translate as its 64th language on February 22, 2012. Duolingo has an Esperanto course, and over 1 million people have started it. Esperanto Wikipedia (Vikipedio) is the 36th-largest Wikipedia by number of articles (359,000)

10. William Auld is a writer whose literary work in Esperanto has received three nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1999, 2004, and 2006.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

25 July: Arthur James Balfour

Born on this date in 1848 was Arthur James Balfour, British Prime Minister from 1902-5. 10 facts about him:

1. He was born in Whittingehame, East Lothian, the eldest son of James Maitland Balfour and Lady Blanche Gascoyne-Cecil.

2. He went to Grange Preparatory School at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, Eton College and the University of Cambridge, where he read moral sciences at Trinity College.

3. In 1874 he was elected the Conservative Member of Parliament for Hertford. Four years later he became private secretary to Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord Salisbury, then Foreign Secretary in Benjamin Disraeli The Earl of Beaconsfield’s government.

4. The prime minister he succeeded was his uncle, Lord Salisbury.

5. At the time, a lot of MPs didn’t take him very seriously. They thought he was only playing at politics as it was the thing to do for young people from his kind of background. When Lord Salisbury gave him the job as Secretary for Ireland, they no doubt thought it was favouritism and that he’d not be up to the job. Turned out he did fairly well, restoring the rule of law and calming the Irish conflict for a generation.

6. He never married, and his household was maintained by his also unmarried sister, Alice. One possible reason that he remained single is that the love of his life died of typhoid before he could propose to her. Balfour met May Lyttelton in 1870 when she was 19 and when she died, arranged for an emerald ring to be buried with her. May’s sister believed that they were about to announce an engagement, had May lived. On the other hand, May’s letters never mentioned any romance with Balfour, although she did talk about her other suitors. He visited her only once during her serious three-month illness, and was  accepting social invitations within a month of her death. Did he genuinely find it hard to express his feelings, or did he, as at least one historian has suggested, use May’s death as a convenient reason for never marrying when he was actually gay or asexual?

7. He was a fan of sports. He played Golf and Tennis and supported Manchester City F.C.

8. He was also very interested in dialects and donated money to Joseph Wright for his work on The English Dialect Dictionary. Wright wrote in the preface that the project would have been "in vain" without Balfour’s donation.

9. Balfour was interested in philosophy and belief systems. He wrote papers on philosophy: ‘A Defence of Philosophic Doubt’, ‘The Foundations of Belief’ and ‘Theism and Humanism’. He was also a member of the Society for Psychical Research, a society studying psychic and paranormal phenomena and served as its president for a time.

10. After the First World War, Balfour submitted a design to the Imperial War Graves Commission for a cruciform headstone for war graves. His design was rejected. He was offered the chance to submit another, but declined to do so, having been rejected once.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

24 July: Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, was born on this date in 1802. 10 facts about him:

1. His father, Thomas-Alexandre, was the illegitimate son of Marquis Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie and one of his slaves, Marie Cessete Dumas. When Thomas decided to join the French army, his father disapproved of him using the name Davy de la Pailleterie, so he took his mother’s name, Dumas. At 31, he became one of Napoleon’s most valued generals and had acquired the nickname “Black Devil.” It was this background which made Dumas the author afraid to travel to the US for fear of being sold into slavery.

2. His son, the author Alexandre Dumas, came to be known as Alexandre Dumas père to distinguish him from his son, also called Alexandre Dumas and also a writer. The latter was known as Alexandre Dumas fils. He became a writer, too, and wrote La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias), which was adapted as the opera La Traviata by Guiseppe Verdi.

3. However, it’s the one in the middle we’re focussing on. He is best known for penning The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, but these are by no means all he wrote. He wrote a Christian history about the conversion of St Paul, numerous adventure and fantasy stories, including a novel about Vampires (The Pale Lady) and The Wolf Leader, one of the first novels to feature Werewolves. He wrote romances featuring Marie Antoinette and lots of articles and journals about politics and history.

4. He was also a playwright. In fact, he started his career writing plays. His first play, Henry III and His Court, was produced in 1829 when Dumas was 27 years old, and met with much acclaim. His second play, Christine, produced the following year, was equally popular. The income from these two plays meant he could quit his day job and write full time.

5. The day job in question was as a scribe for duc d’Orléans who later became King Louis Philippe.

6. Dumas married actress Ida Ferrier in 1840. She died in 1849. The couple had no children together. He is said, however, to have had about 40 mistresses and four illegitimate children that we know about. He acknowledged Alexandre Dumas fils at age seven and took over his education, separating him from his mother. One article I read said that Dumas actually claimed to have fathered more than 500 children.

7. Dumas was a member of a group called the Club des Hashischins, which also included Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire and Honore de Balzac. The purpose of the club? To get together and smoke weed.

8. Dumas was a chronic insomniac, and went to the doctor about it. The doctor prescribed an Apple, to be eaten every day at 7:00 AM under the Arch of Triumph in Paris. The reasoning behind this odd prescription was that it would help Dumas get into a daily routine.

9. With the profits from his books, Dumas built a home at Port Marly, Yvelines, France, which he called Château de Monte Cristo. It is now a museum.

10. He died in 1870, aged 68, probably from a heart attack. In 1970, on the centenary of his death, the Paris Métro named a station in his honour.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

23 July: 204

Today is the 204^th day of the year. 10 facts about the number 204.

1. The year 204 was a leap year starting on Sunday, known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Cilo and Flavius. During this year, a trade recession in the Leptis Magna region of Africa was alleviated by Emperor Septimius Severus, who bought up the country's Olive oil for free distribution in Rome.

2. 204 is the HTTP status code indicating the request was successfully fulfilled and that there is no additional content to send in the response payload body.

3. The A204 road runs between Brixton and Tulse Hill.

4. 204 is the number of different sized squares you can find in a chessboard.

5. The Peugeot 204 is a small family car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot between 1965 and 1976.

6. In London, the 204 bus runs between Sudbury Town Station and Edgware Station.

7. Area code 204 is the telephone area code for the Canadian province of Manitoba, including the Environment Canada weather station at Eureka, Nunavut.

8. 204 Kallisto is a Main belt Asteroid discovered by Johann Palisa in 1879, and was named after the same nymph Callisto in Greek mythology as Jupiter's moon Callisto.

9. 204 is a square pyramidal number, which means 204 balls can be stacked in a pyramid with an 8 × 8 square base.

10. In numerology, 204 resonates with family and doing things together. A person with number 204 will feel they are a member of a family, which may be a biological family or a group of close friends. The house or company or geographical area with an intrinsic number 204 as part of its name or address is permeated by a family energy of nurture and harmony. There is teamwork and a sense that anything is possible.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book