22 April: Mme de Stael Quotes

Born this date in 1766 was Mme de Stael, aka Anne Louise Germaine Necker, writer. 10 quotes from her:

1. Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man's power is increased, the checks that restrain him from abusing it must be strengthened.

2. The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.

3. Happiness is a wondrous commodity: the more you give, the more you have.

4. Who understands much forgives much. To understand everything makes us very forgiving.

5. Love is admiring with the heart. And admiring is loving with the mind.

6. The more I see of man, the more I like dogs.

7. Men do not change; they unmask themselves.

8. Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.

9. No nation has the right to bring about a revolution, even though such a change may be most urgently needed, if the price is the blood of one single innocent individual.

10. Anyone who can see as far as tomorrow in politics arouses the wrath of people who can see no farther than today.

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

21 April: 111

Today is day 111 of 2025. 10 fun facts about the number 111:

1. 111 is the atomic number of Roentgenium, a synthetic chemical element; with the symbol Rg. It is extremely radioactive and can only be created in a laboratory.
2. 111 Ate is an Asteroid discovered by the German-American astronomer C. H. F. Peters in 1870, and named after Ate, the goddess of mischief and destruction in Greek mythology.
3. 111 is the debut studio album recorded by American dance duo Her Majesty & the Wolves. It was released on 11 July 2011 in the UK.
4. In London, the 111 Bus runs from Heathrow Central Bus Station to Cromwell Road Bus Station.
5. In Cricket, 111 is said to be an unlucky score, and to combat the bad luck, spectators must lift their feet off the floor. Warding off the bad luck is a problem, therefore, for the umpire, who can’t sit down and do that. Some umpires, including international umpire David Shepherd, hop, shuffle or jiggle to negate the ill fortune. A score of 111 is sometimes called a Nelson, after Admiral Nelson, who allegedly had "One Eye, One Arm and One Leg" at the end of his life. This is in fact untrue. Nelson never lost a leg. Multiples of 111 are called a double Nelson (222), triple Nelson (333), quadruple Nelson (444; also known as a salamander).
6. 111 is the emergency telephone number in New Zealand and also a free-to-call single non-emergency number medical helpline operating in England, Scotland and Wales.
7. The A111 is a road in England which runs from Palmers Green to Potters Bar.
8. Swissair Flight 111 was Swissair’s deadliest air accident, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada. The crash site was 8 kilometres (5 mi; 4 nmi) from shore, roughly equidistant from the small fishing and tourist communities of Peggy's Cove and Bayswater, killing all 215 passengers and 14 crew members. Also lost was a Picasso painting worth $1.5 million.
9. The Roman numeral for 111 is CXI. In Binary it’s 1101111.
10. In numerology, 111 is a creative and independent number. 111 won't let itself be slotted into a team member role, except as a leader who is free to lead the team in their own creative way. The person is a great communicator, likely to come up with new ways of doing things, and to inspire others.

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

20 April: The Chinese language

Today is Chinese Language Day. 10 things you might not know about the Chinese language:

1. It is one of the oldest languages on Earth. Chinese writing, dating back to 1250 BC have been found, engraved on animal bones.

2. It doesn’t have an alphabet, but uses pictorial characters, not unlike Egyptian hieroglyphs. Chinese is, in fact, the only pictorial language still in use today.

3. And it’s used by a lot of people: something like 1.3 billion, or 15% of the people in the world. It’s not only spoken in China but also in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.

4. Mandarin is the most widely spoken form of the language, and the official language of China. However, there are many other forms, including Wu, Xiang, Cantonese, Putonghua, Min, Hakka and Gan.

5. There are over 50,000 distinct Chinese characters, with more being added every year as the language evolves. The good news for anyone thinking of learning Chinese, is that you only need to know about 2,500 characters to read a Chinese newspaper. You could probably manage without the most complicated character, “biang”, which is made up of 57 strokes and has to be written twice. It’s an unofficial character representing the sound of noodles being banged against a table.

6. The spoken language is tonal, which means that the same word can mean several different things depending on the pitch or tone which is used. For example, in Mandarin, the syllable "ma" can mean "mother," "hemp," "horse," or "scold," depending on the tone.

7. Chinese has no articles, verb inflections, or plurals; no masculine, feminine or neuter words. There is no word for “yes”, either. If a Chinese speaker wants to affirm something, they repeat a key verb or phrase from the question. For example, the answer to “Are you coming?” would be “Coming.”

8. Learning Chinese is said to be good for the Brain because it uses a range of different functions including recognising pictures and interpreting tones.

9. Chinese has been an official United Nations language since 1946, but it wasn’t used for the UN General Assembly until 1973.

10. Chinese texts were written right to left because in ancient times, they didn’t use pens, but brushes. This was the best way to write so that the writing didn’t smudge.

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

19 April: Knife superstitions

In the French Revolutionary calendar, today was the day of the knife. 10 superstitions about knives.

1. Giving a knife as a gift will sever a friendship unless the recipient gives the giver a coin, which makes the gift a purchase instead. This superstition is said to date back to the Vikings, who believed that giving someone a knife implied they were too poor to buy their own. This would have been an insult.

2. It’s bad luck to stir anything using a knife. The saying goes, stir with a knife and stir up strife.

3. Crossed knives on a table mean there will be a quarrel unless the knives are uncrossed immediately. A knife crossed with a fork, in Catholic countries is said to be an insult to the cross. In the 17^th century, it was believed that a knife crossing another piece of cutlery was a sign of witchcraft. In some parts, crossing a knife with a for or spoon might be interpreted as an insult to the cook.

4. In Greece, a black-handled knife placed under the pillow is used to keep away nightmares. In China, sleeping with a knife under the Bed or under the pillow keeps evil spirits away.

5. Putting a knife under the bed of a woman giving birth is said to ease her pain.

6. Some people believe that sharpening a blade after the sun goes down is bad luck.

7. Knives were included in some Anglo-Saxon burial rites, so the dead person would not be defenceless in the next world.

8. Dropping knives: a common belief is that if you drop a knife, a man will visit you and your luck will change, for better or worse. A variation is that luck will come from the direction the knife is pointing in when it lands. In Iceland, if someone drops a knife while cleaning fish and the knife points in the direction of the sea, the fisherman will get a good haul the next time he goes fishing. If it points inland, however, he won’t catch anything.

9. It is bad luck to say the word "knife" while at sea.

10. A common superstition from Romania is that if you play with knives, your guardian angel will run away.

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

18 April: 108

 Today is the 108^th day of the year. 10 fun facts about the number 108.

1. The number 108 is considered sacred by a number of eastern religions. For example, the Hindu god Shiva has 108 attendants; Lord Krishna in Brindavan had 108 followers; there are 108 temples of Vishnu, who is armed with a spinning weapon called the Sudarshana Chakra, which has 108 edges. Buddhist malas or rosaries generally have 108 beads. The Lankavatara Sutra has a section where the Bodhisattva Mahamati asks Buddha 108 questions.

2. This is no doubt the reason why, in Japan, at the end of the year, a bell is chimed 108 times in Buddhist temples to finish the old year and welcome in the new one; and why it’s a significant number in martial arts traditions. According to Marma Adi and Ayurveda, there are 108 pressure points in the body, where consciousness and flesh intersect to give life to the living being.

3. 108 is an emergency telephone number in several states in India.

4. Hassium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Hs and atomic number 108. It is highly radioactive: its most stable known isotopes have half-lives of about ten seconds. It is a superheavy element which has been produced in laboratories in tiny quantities. Natural occurrences of hassium have been hypothesised but never found.

5. The 108 Heroes are the main characters in the classic Chinese novel The Water Margin, which was written in the 14th century by Shi Nai'an. The heroes are divided into the 36 Heavenly Spirits and 72 Earthly Fiends, groups that are based on a belief in Daoism that Ursa Major has 36 Heavenly stars and 72 Earthly stars.

6. The number regularly occurs in the TV show Lost. The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42, which appear frequently throughout the series, add up to 108. It is said that the Oceanic Six left the island after 108 days. Also, the button in the hatch had to be pushed every 108 minutes.

7. 108 is an American hardcore band founded in 1991. Their music reflects the fact that the band members are followers of the Hare Krishna faith.

8. 108 is an Italian artist in the field of street art and contemporary art from Alessandria. He has moved from working in traditional graffiti art to painting large and mysterious figures that invade public spaces.

9. 108 is the shirt number that Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt was wearing when he suffered a fatal crash in the Giro d'Italia in 2011. As a tribute, many supporters held replicas of his race number by the side of the road the next day. The Giro d'Italia decided not to issue race number 108 again, to commemorate him.

10. 108 Hecuba is a main-belt Asteroid discovered by Karl Theodor Robert Luther in 1869, and named after Hecuba, wife of King Priam in the legends of the Trojan War.

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

17 April: American Samoa

Today is Flag Day in American Samoa. The day celebrates the first raising of the American Flag there in 1900. 10 things you might not know about American Samoa.

1. It is an unincorporated territory of the United States in the Polynesia region of the South Pacific Ocean, and the southernmost territory of the USA, situated 2,200 miles (3,500 km) southwest of Hawaii. It’s actually closer to New Zealand than it is to the continental U.S. It is one of two U.S. territories south of the Equator, along with Jarvis Island, which is uninhabited.

2. It consists of inhabited volcanic islands: Tutuila, Aunuʻu, Ofu, Olosega and Taʻū and the uninhabited Rose Atoll and Swains Island, a remote Coral atoll. The territory is 117,500 square miles (30,400 square km) in total, about the size of New Zealand. However, most of that is ocean; only 76.1 square miles (197 square km), or 0.1% of the territory, is dry land.

3. The waters were used in the 60s and 70s as the splash landing area for the astronauts who had been to the Moon, A small American Samoa flag was taken to the moon on one mission, and later presented, with three moon rocks, to American Samoa by Richard Nixon.

4. The capital is Pago Pago, which is located on the island of Tutuila.

5. The only mammals native to these islands are Bats. They are two species of fruit bat and one species of bat which eats insects.

6. The highest point in American Samoa is 3,056 feet at Olamatimu.

7. Since 2013, fares on Samoa Air are determined by how much the passenger and their luggage weigh. The fatter you are, the more expensive it is to fly.

8. The islands are nicknamed "Football Island," as the islands produce more American football players than anywhere else in the world. A young man from here is 56 times more likely to play in the NFL than the average young man in the USA.

9. The main industry here is Tuna canneries. These employ 80% of the working population and make up 93% of the exports. All the tuna canned here is exported to the US.

10. American Samoa is slowly moving towards China. The Pacific plate moves about 3 inches nearer to China each year. 

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

16 April: Anatole France Quotes

Anatole France, French writer, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921, was born on this date in 1844. 10 quotes from him:

1. It is human nature to think wisely and to act in an absurd fashion.

2. If it were absolutely necessary to choose, I would rather be guilty of an immoral act than of a cruel one.

3. To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

4. Only men who are not interested in women are interested in women's clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear.

5. Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

6. Stupidity is far more dangerous than evil, for evil takes a break from time to time, stupidity does not.

7. If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

8. If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.

9. It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.

10. All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

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