1 June: Pembrokeshire Day

Today is Pembrokeshire Day. 10 facts about Pembrokeshire.

1. Pembrokeshire is a county in south-west Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the north-east, and by the sea.

2. Its coastline is spectacular and has been made into a national park, the only one in the UK primarily designated for its coastal landscape. Most of the park lies within 2 miles of the coast, and nowhere is more than 10 miles from it. There are more than 50 beaches and a coast path which is 190-miles/310 km long. The length of the coastline altogether is 420km and the are of the Park is around 615 sq. km.

3. The largest town, and the county town, is Haverfordwest, which is an important road hub as it is situated at the tidal limit of the river Cleddau. The name of the town means "ford used by heifers (or Goats)”. "West" was added in the 15th century, to distinguish it from Hereford. Other towns in the county include Milford Haven, Pembroke, Fishguard and Tenby.

4. There’s also a city, which is smaller than many of the towns. St David’s is the smallest city in the UK with a population of around 2,000 people (its cathedral is pictured above). City status was granted to St. Davids in 1994 on the anniversary of Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne. St. David’s cathedral and Christian heritage were the reason for making such a small place a city. St Davids has been a major site of pilgrimage since medieval times. Pope Calixtus II made a decree in the 12th century that “two pilgrimages to St Davids were equivalent to one to Rome”.

5. Pembrokeshire is home to the biggest theme park in Wales, Oakwood Theme Park, which also boasts the highest sky swing in the UK.

6. The county flower of Pembrokeshire is the thrift – clostog fair in Welsh. It means Mary’s pillow, and was given this name because its leaves look like a cushion. It has a pink flower and is found along the coast in cliffs or saltmarshes.

7. There are also some ancient forests. The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales is restoring a lost temperate rainforest, also known as a Celtic forest, in Trellwyn Fach, near Fishguard. There’s also Tŷ Canol Wood, where you can see bio-fluorescence under ultraviolet light at night. It has been described as "one of the most magical and special woodlands in the UK."

8. Milford Haven Waterway is the second largest natural harbour in the world after Port Philip in Australia.

9. The highest point is Foel Cwmcerwyn at 1,759 feet (536 m), in the Preseli hills.

10. Famous people from here include: Henry Tudor (later Henry VII), born in Pembroke Castle in 1457; Robert Recorde, the mathematician who gave us the = sign; the novelist Sarah Waters; and the actor Christian Bale, who was born in Haverfordwest.

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 May: Dark Side of the Moon

On this date in 1972 Pink Floyd began recording Dark Side Of The Moon. Here are 10 things you might not know:

1. The first song to be recorded on this date was Us and Them.

2. The concept of the album is mental health and the fragility of life. The title, Dark Side of the Moon, is nothing to do with outer space but rather the archaic idea that one's mental state fluctuated around the phases of the Moon.

3. Pink Floyd almost had to abandon that title, however, because another band, Medicine Head, released an album with the same title in spring 1972. Pink Floyd had to scrabble around looking for an alternative title, and came up with Eclipse. However, the Medicine Head album bombed and didn't make the UK Top 40, which meant Pink Floyd could use the title after all.

4. The cover art is by graphic artist George Hardie. His brief was to come up with a "simple and bold" design. He went with a beam of white Light shining through a prism and splitting into the colours of the spectrum. Well. Almost. Six out of seven, anyway. The colour indigo does not appear in the artwork.

5. Before coming up with the final cover art, Hardie considered using an image of the Marvel Comic character the Silver Surfer.

6. The band tried out the album, in its entirety, on live audiences more than a year before the album was released. The first performance was at Brighton Dome on 20 January 1972, although what Roger Waters called a “severe mechanical and electric horror” prevented them from performing the whole thing that night, they played it on the other dates of that tour.

7. The album was recorded at Abbey Road studios. Roger Waters decided to record interviews with people working at the studio at the time, asking them everything from their favourite colour to their feelings about mental illness and death, an incorporate some of the replies into the recording. The line “There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark. The only thing that makes it look light is the Sun” came from doorman Gerry O’Driscoll. Waters interviewed Paul McCartney as well, but didn’t use any of his replies as McCartney “found it necessary to perform, which was useless, of course. He was trying to be funny, which wasn’t what we wanted at all.” However, The Beatles did find their way onto some versions of the album. The song Ticket to Ride was being played as O’Driscoll delivered his classic line, which appears at the end of the track Eclipse.

8. Dark Side of the Moon is the fourth best selling album of all time, after Michael Jackson’s Thriller, AC/DC’s Back in Black and the soundtrack of The Bodyguard featuring Whitney Houston. It has spent over 900 weeks on the American charts and is certified 14× platinum in the United Kingdom.

9. While recording the album, the band would take breaks to watch the TV show Monty Python’s Flying Circus. They were such big fans of the show that when they heard the Monty Python team were having difficulty raising the funds to make a film, they stumped up 10% of the movie’s budget from the proceeds of Dark Side of the Moon. So they were at least partly responsible for Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

10. While on the subject of films, it’s commonly said that the album can be played alongside Wizard of Oz, starting the record at the moment the MGM lion roars for the third time, the music synchronises with the action on screen. For example, The Great Gig In The Sky coincides with the tornado which carries Dorothy to Oz, and the final heartbeats on the album play just as the Tin Man reveals he doesn't have a Heart. This idea was first put forward by Charles Savage in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in 1995. The pairing is sometimes referred to as The Dark Side of the Rainbow, the Dark Side of Oz or The Wizard of Floyd. However, the band deny that there was ever any connection. Alan Parsons said: "a complete load of eyewash ... If you play any record with the sound turned down on the TV, you will find things that work." As far as he was concerned it’s merely apophenia the tendency to perceive connections between unrelated things. Drummer Nick Mason commented, “It’s absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with The Wizard Of Oz. It was all based on The Sound Of Music.”

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 May: 150

It's day 150 of 2025! 10 fun facts about the number 150.

1. 150 is the sum of eight consecutive primes (7 + 11 + 13 + 17 + 19 + 23 + 29 + 31).

2. There are 150 psalms in The Bible book of Psalms.

3. There are 150 degrees in the internal angle of a regular dodecagon.

4. 150 Nuwa is a large Asteroid discovered by James Craig Watson in 1875, and named after Nüwa, the Chinese creator goddess.

5. London bus number 150 runs between Becontree Heath Leisure Centre and Lambourne Road.

6. The Cessna 150 is a two-seat tricycle gear general aviation plane designed for flight training, touring and personal use.

7. 150 metres is a rarely contested sprint event in track and field. It is not an IAAF-recognised event.

8. It is the number of degrees in the quincunx astrological aspect explored by Johannes Kepler.

9. The British Rail Class 150 Sprinter is a class of diesel-hydraulic multiple unit passenger trains, developed and built by British Rail Engineering Limited.

10. The A150 was a road between Wisbech and Long Sutton. This designation is no longer in use, and that road is now the A1101.

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 May: Paper clips

Today is National Paper Clip Day. 10 things you never knew about paper clips:

1. According to the Early Office Museum, the first patent for a bent wire paper clip was awarded in the USA to Samuel B. Fay in 1867. His invention was for attaching tickets to fabric, although the patent did mention keeping papers together as an alternative use. It didn’t look much like the paper clips we use today, though.

2. The most commonly used paper clip design was never actually patented. It was in production in Britain in the early 1870s by "The Gem Manufacturing Company".

3. This design became so ubiquitous that the Swedish word for any paper clip is "gem".

4. During the second world war, patriots in Norway would wear paper clips in their lapels as a symbol of resistance to the German occupiers when badges or pins were banned. However, the Germans caught on eventually and made the wearing of paper clips a crime.

5. The paperclip is widely used as the symbol for an attachment in most email services.

6. Clippy was an animated paperclip that used to appear in Microsoft Office products to offer help.

7. The operation to fly German scientists to America after the second world war to ensure that their expertise didn’t fall into the hands of the Soviet Union, was called Operation Paperclip.

8. The largest paperclip in the world is 9 m 28 cm (30 ft 5 in) high and 2 m 72 cm (8 ft 11 in) wide. It is made of stainless steel and was created by Evgeny Stepovik in Miass, Russia in May 2010.

9. The longest paperclip chain to be made by an individual is 2,527 m (8,290 ft 8.19 in), by Imran Sharif (Bangladesh), in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 15 February 2019. If you get a few people together it’s possible to make even longer chains. The longest paper clip chain in the world at time of writing was made by sixty 9th Grade students at Eisenhower Junior High School in Taylorsville, Utah in 2004, which was 22.17 miles long and used 1,560,377 paper clips.

10. Kyle Macdonald from Canada managed to swap a red paperclip for a house. He did it by means of a series of trades online in which he swapped items for other items of slightly larger value. He started by swapping a paperclip for a fish-shaped pen and kept going until he got the house.

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 May: Thomas Moore Quotes

Today, 10 quotes from Thomas Moore, Irish poet, singer, songwriter, born this date in 1779.

1. Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

2. The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.

3. It is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed.

4. Finding the right work is like discovering your own soul in the world.

5. Usually, the main problem with life conundrums is that we don't bring to them enough imagination.

6. And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.

7. Romantic love is an illusion. Most of us discover this truth at the end of a love affair or else when the sweet emotions of love lead us into marriage and then turn down their flames.

8. I have plenty of machinery around me; what I really need is a more enchanting world in which to live and work.

9. Disguise our bondage as we will, 'Tis woman, woman, rules us still.

10. I thought that the light-house looked lovely as hope, That star on life's tremulous ocean.

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 May: Isodora Duncan

Born on this date in 1878 was the dancer Isadora Duncan. Here are ten facts about her:

1. She was born in San Francisco. Her father, a banker, turned out to be an embezzler. Not only was he embezzling at work, but he’d stolen his wife’s jewellery and the family silver and shared the proceeds with his mistress. Isodora’s mother divorced him and moved her four children to Oakland.

2. Isodora was a free spirit from a young age. She dropped out of school at 10 and taught herself in the local library. She had already decided that marriage was slavery and that she wanted to dedicate her life to the arts.

3. She started teaching dance classes when she was 14 years old.

4. She wasn’t a fan of Ballet, though. It deformed the female body, she said, and simply wasn’t natural.

5. She took her dance inspiration from ancient Greece: natural and free. She would dance to classical music, such as Strauss, Chopin and Beethoven, but in her own way.

6. She lived in many places. In 1899, her mother moved to London with Isodora and her siblings. There, Isodora met Mrs. Patrick Campbell, who introduced her to London society. In 1903 she moved to Berlin, where she embraced the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, and started a dance group called the Isadorables.

7. In 1917, she moved to Moscow, where she married for the only time, to poet Sergei Esenin who was 17 years younger than she was. She returned to America with him on tour, but he left her and went back to Russia. He had a mental breakdown and was later found dead in a hotel room. His death has never been explained.

8. Prior to her marriage, Isodora had three children by three different fathers. The first two fathers were Gordon Craig and Paris Singer, heir to the Sewing machine fortune. These two children died in a tragic accident. The car they were in accidentally rolled into the River Seine in Paris and both children drowned. In her grief, Isodora begged the Italian sculptor Romano Romanelli to get her pregnant. Her third child was stillborn. After her children died, Duncan adopted six of her international dance students who migrated to America and took her last name.

9. She was not without her critics. George Balanchine said of her, "To me it was absolutely unbelievable-a drunken, fat woman who for hours was rolling around like a pig." Elsa Lanchester described her as "an untalented bag of bones".

10. She’s perhaps most famous for the way she died. On September 14, 1927 she got into the passenger seat of an open topped car. She had been advised to wear a cape because it was cold, but she refused, and just wore her flowing silk scarf, which had been created by the Russian-born artist Roman Chatov, and was a gift from her friend Mary Desti. As her friends waved her off, she reportedly said, "Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire!" ("Farewell, my friends. I go to glory!"), although this account was disputed and witnesses claimed she actually said "Je vais à l'amour" ("I am off to love"), and her friend Mary Desti altered her words so it wouldn’t sound as if she was off for a romantic tryst. The scarf caught in the wheels of the car and strangled her. Death caused by entanglement of neckwear with a wheel or other machinery has been named Isadora Duncan Syndrome after this occurrence.

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 May: Al Jolson

On this date in 1886 Al Jolson, US singer and actor, was born. Here are 10 facts about him.

1. His real name was Asa Yoelson, and he was born in Seredzius, Lithuania.

2. His father was a rabbi, who left his family temporarily to establish himself in America. Once he’d saved up enough money, he sent for his family, so Jolson arrived in the US at the age of seven. His mother died not long after, when he was eight.

3. He had an older brother called Hirsch, who went by Harry. The brothers would perform together on street corners for coins, using the money to pay for theatre tickets. The brothers moved on to singing on stage together, and entertained troops headed for the Spanish-American War.

4. He had a few short lived jobs with theatre companies, and with a circus, where he was hired as an usher but when his singing voice came to the attention of the circus owner, he was given a singing role. The circus folded, though.

5. He became popular in New York theatres in musicals such as La Belle Paree, Honeymoon Express, Bombo, Big Boy and Sinbad. His signature song, Swanee, was a number from the latter show. Other songs he was known for were Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Mammy, California Here I Come, and April Showers.

6. He married four times. He married Henrietta Keller in 1907. They divorced in 1919; his next wife was Broadway actress Alma Osbourne. They married in 1922 and divorced in 1928. His third wife was another actress, Ruby Keeler. He married her in 1928 and they adopted a child. They divorced in 1940. Jolson then married an X-ray technician called Erle Galbraith. They adopted two more children and remained married until Jolson died in 1950.

7. He starred in the first full length film with sound, The Jazz Singer, and several other film musicals. Jolson has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to radio, motion pictures, and the recording industry. However, at 63 he failed a screen test to play himself in Jolson Sings Again, and the role went to Larry Parks. Also, he once entered a sound-a-like contest as himself as a joke and came third.

8. He was one of the first celebrities to endorse a presidential candidate when he publicly backed Republican Warren G. Harding in 1920. He wrote the theme song for the campaign, Harding, You're the Man for Us!.

9. He entertained troops in World War II, in in Africa and Sicily, but caught malaria and pneumonia and had to stop. In 1950, against his doctor's orders, Jolson went to Korea to entertain the troops there, but his health declined even more.

10. He died of a heart attack while playing cards in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. His last words were allegedly “Oh, God, this is it! I'm going!” He had 150 overcoats in his closet when he died. He was 64.

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 May: 145

25 May is the 145^th day of the year. Here are 10 fun facts about the number 145.

1. The Alfa Romeo 145 is a small family car produced by Italian automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo between 1994 and 2000.

2. 145 Adeona is a large Asteroid discovered by C. H. F. Peters in 1875. He named it after Adeona, the Roman goddess of homecoming, because he had recently returned from a journey across the world to observe the transit of Venus.

3. Psalm 145 begins: I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.

4. According to Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, Joseph and Rose Kennedy spent their 1914 honeymoon in room 145 of their hotel.

5. London Bus route 145 runs from Dagenham Asda to Leytonstone Station.

6. The 145 is a 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m) two person sailing dinghy with main, jib, spinnaker and trapeze, popular in Australia in the late 20th century.

7. A pleasing progression of chords, as heard in "Cat Empire"'s song 1,4,5. Feelgood and uplifting.

8. The A145 is an A road in Suffolk. It runs from east of the town of Beccles, close to the border with Norfolk, to the village of Blythburgh where it joins the A12.

9. 145th Street is a major crosstown street in Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It forms the southern border of Jackie Robinson Park.

10. In numerology, 145 energy initiates things. It is independent, self-sufficient and methodical. It likes to explore new things in its own way and in its own time.

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 May: Brooklyn Bridge

On this date in 1883, after over 15 years of construction, the Brooklyn Bridge, connecting the cities of New York and Brooklyn, opened. 10 facts about the bridge:

1. It wasn’t called the Brooklyn Bridge when it opened. During construction, it had been referred to as the “Great East River Bridge” or the “Great East River Suspension Bridge." When it was opened it was dubbed the “New York and Brooklyn Bridge.” It wasn’t called the Brooklyn Bridge until 1915.

2. Construction of the first fixed crossing of the East River began on 2 January  1870. It was also the first bridge to use steel for cable wire. For a time, it was the longest bridge in the world with a span of just over 1,595 feet/486 metres. Its reign ended in 1890 when the Firth of Forth cantilever bridge in Scotland was built. It remained the longest suspension bridge in the world until 1903 when Williamsburg Bridge was built nearby.

3. Around 20-30 people lost their lives during construction (there were no official figures kept at the time). The first fatality was John A. Roebling, the designer of the bridge, who was taking readings for a survey before construction even started. His foot got crushed between pilings and a boat; he died of tetanus a few days later.

4. His son, Washington Roebling, took over the overseeing of the construction, but he suffered an accident too, and ended up bedridden. His wife, Emily Warren Roebling, stepped in to help. At first, her job was mainly to relay messages from her husband to the site, but she ended up doing much more and ended up taking charge of overseeing the design, construction, and business management. Once the bridge was finished, Emily was regarded as a pioneering female engineer. She went on to take a degree in law.

5. A number of the deaths and injuries, including that of Washington Roebling, were caused by decompression sickness, or the bends. This was because they had to work in underground structures called caissons, sealed chambers that kept the riverbed dry and allowed for digging. The air inside was compressed and coming back up could cause decompression sickness. Doctors at the time didn’t know what it was, and called the condition “caisson disease”.

6. Emily Warren Roebling was the first person to cross the bridge when it opened. She rode over in a carriage with a rooster on her lap, the bird being a symbol of good luck and victory. After that, President Chester Arthur, New York Governor (and future president) Grover Cleveland and various local politicians marched onto the bridge, along with a military band and troops. When they reached the opposite side a cannon was fired and there was a Firework display that lasted for an hour. There were speeches and receptions before the bridge opened to the public. More than 150,000 people went across in the first day.

7. However, the bridge’s troubles weren’t quite over. About a week later there was a stampede in which 12 people were crushed on a crowded stairwell. It started because of a rumour that the bridge was about to collapse. No changes came about in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, except that more police were stationed on the pedestrian promenade. Fears that the bridge could collapse didn’t go away, and to show that it was perfectly safe, P.T. Barnum took 21 Elephants over the bridge in May 1884.

8. When the bridge first opened, people had to pay a toll to cross. It cost one cent to cross by foot, 5 cents for a Horse and rider and 10 cents for a horse and wagon. Farm animals cost 5 cents per Cow and 2 cents per Sheep or Pig. The pedestrian toll was repealed in 1891, and the vehicle toll in 1911 with the support of New York Mayor William J. Gaynor, who said, “I see no more reason for toll gates on the bridges than for toll gates on Fifth Avenue or Broadway.”

9. The engineers built vaults up to 50 feet tall into the bridge under its anchorages. These were rented out to the public as wine cellars until World War I. During the cold war, one of them was turned into a fallout shelter which was rediscovered in 2006 during a routine structural inspection of the bridge.

10. The bridge appears in works by Georgia O'Keeffe and Andy Warhol, and has been a filming location many times. It Happened in Brooklyn, Moonstruck, Godzilla and Spider-Man are among the films it has appeared in. It has also become home to a pair of peregrine falcons.

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