14 June: Skunks

14 June is National Skunk Day. 10 things you might not know about skunks.

1. Skunks belong to the family Mephitidae, which means “stink.” There are about 10 different species in the family, native to North America.

2. A group of skunks is called a surfeit.

3. These animals are best known for spraying foul smelling stuff from their anal glands when threatened. That said, a skunk will try to avoid having to use the spray if it can, because it only has the capacity for five or six successive sprays and once that is used up, it takes about ten days to replenish. A skunk’s Black and White stripes actually point at the spray glands and act as a warning to any animal which has been caught out before. If that doesn’t deter the potential predator, the skunk will perform a warning dance first. The moves might include stomping the ground or slapping their tail. Some species will do handstands on their front paws. The spray is only used as a last resort.

4. If they do use it, though, it’s pretty potent stuff. It can cause temporary blindness in the case of a direct hit to the Eyes, as if the stench isn’t bad enough. It is made from thiols, sulphur-based compounds also found in garlic and onions. The Smell can be detected from over a mile away (unless you’re one of the one in a thousand people who can’t smell it) and can linger for weeks. It’s also flammable, not that the skunk makes use of that characteristic.

5. Skunks are omnivorous, so they’ll eat anything. Their diet includes berries, fungi, nuts, roots, grass, small mammals and Amphibians, Snakes (they are immune to snake venom), worms, eggs and insects, including Bees and Wasps. They have even been known to attack hives, their thick fur protecting them from stings.

6. They generally don’t wander more than 2 miles/3km from home, although a male skunk might extend his range to up to 5 miles/8km to look for females in the breeding season. A male skunk will mate with numerous females and plays no part in raising the young.

7. They have powerful front claws which they use for digging and breaking apart dead tree trunks for shelter or to get at tasty things inside.

8. Their senses of smell and hearing are excellent but they can’t see very well. If something is more than 10 feet/3 metres away, the skunk cannot see it.

9. They’re actually rather cute and intelligent and so some people believe they make great pets (with their spray glands removed). That said, keeping a skunk as a pet is only allowed in about 17 US states and even then there are restrictions on the type of skunk you can own and you need a permit. It’s legal to have a pet skunk in the UK, but it’s illegal since 2006 to remove the scent glands.

10. A famous fictional skunk is Pepé Le Pew, a Warner Brothers character depicted as an anthropomorphic French striped skunk, who is constantly in search of love and romance, but other characters run away from him because he stinks. Johnny Depp once said that he imagined Pirates of the Caribbean’s Captain Jack Sparrow as a blend of Keith Richards and Pepé Le Pew.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

3 April: Dugongs

Today is World Aquatic Animal day, so here are some facts about an aquatic animal I’ve not covered yet – dugongs.

1. Dugongs belong to the order Sirenia, which also includes their cousins, the Manatees. Dugong dungon is the only living dugon in the order. The only other true species of dugong, Hydrodamalis gigas, was hunted to extinction in 1767, just 36 years after its discovery. Dugongs are also related to Elephants.

2. There is a 5,000-year-old wall painting of a dugong, apparently drawn by Neolithic peoples, in Tambun Cave, Malaysia.

3. The word "dugong" derives from the Visayan language. It doesn’t, as is commonly thought, mean "lady of the sea". Other common names include "sea cow", "sea pig", and "sea camel".

4. They are strictly vegetarian, the only completely herbivorous marine mammal on the planet. Their diet consists mainly of seagrass which they tear up by the roots using their lips, leaving a bare trail behind them. Their grazing habits are one reason for them being known as sea cows. An adult dugong will eat up to 30 kilograms of seagrass a day, and if seagrass is scarce, they’ll eat algae.

5. Mature males and older females have tusks. It’s possible to tell by the rings on a dugong’s tusks how old it is. Dugongs can live up to 70 years.

6. They are sociable animals and live in groups of up to 200. They communicate with each other using chirps, whistles, barks and other sounds that echo underwater.

7. They can mate at any time of year. A group of males will pursue a female: the “following phase”. This is followed by the “fighting phase”, which is what it says on the tin: the males fight each other for the female and the female may fight off unwanted males as well. Finally there is the “mounting stage” which is also what it says on the tin, where several of the males will get lucky. Female dugongs only produce one calf every 2.5 – 7 years and are pregnant for 13 – 14 months.

8. There is a myth in some parts of the world that dugongs were once human women, and that they cry when they are butchered or beached. It is therefore bad luck to kill one, so they don’t get hunted for food in these areas. In other places, however, dugong meat is said to have aphrodisiac properties and is considered a luxury food. In some places, the tusks were used as sword handles.

9. They have been hunted, or trapped in fishing nets enough to make them endangered. Australia has created a number of dugong protection parks where it is illegal to hunt them, even for Aboriginal Peoples.

10. It is tricky and expensive to keep dugongs in captivity, because the seagrass that they eat is hard to grow in an aquarium.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

31 March: Red Rum

On this date in 1978 the racehorse Red Rum retired from competition. 10 things you might not know about Red Rum.

1. His name comes from the names of his parents. His dam was Mared and his sire Quorum.

2. He was born on 3 May 1965 at Rossenarra Stud in Kells, County Kilkenny. His dam’s owner, Martyn McEnery, had taken her to Balreask Stud, near Dublin airport and paid £251.12s for the stud fee and Mared’s board for two weeks.

3. His first ever race was at Aintree, at the Grand National meeting, though not in the big race itself. The result was a dead heat with a filly also bred at Rossenarra Stud. It was on this day that he first came to the attention of Donald “Ginger” McCain, who would later become Red Rum’s owner and trainer, although the first time the horse came up for sale, he didn’t bid as Red Rum was at that time being touted as a sprinter and McCain’s speciality was steeplechasers.

4. McCain was a second hand car dealer who trained horses from stables behind his car showroom in Birkdale. He got engaged to his wife Beryl on Grand National day and married her on Grand National Day two years later. Hence they were always at the National, celebrating their anniversary. His lifelong dream was to train a National winner. He was, as he’d say, always on the lookout for “one good horse”. McCain eventually bought Red Rum in 1972 on behalf of a businessman called Noel Le Mare whose lifelong ambition was to own a Grand National Winner. Le Mare paid 6,000 guineas for the Horse.

5. There was a problem, however. When they got Red Rum home, it looked like, as a car dealer might say, they’d been sold a lemon; for Red Rum was lame. Le Mare had already commented that Red Rum backwards spelled “murder” and that had to be a bad sign. It turned out the horse had pedolostisis, a debilitating and thought to be incurable bone disease, the equine equivalent of arthritis and bone spurs. However, there was one cure and that was training on a beach and in the sea. McCain knew this, having seen working horses recover from it after working on the beach. He was also the only trainer in England who exercised his horses on a beach. As it happened, Red Rum loved the sea and would go in up to his chest any chance he got – and it did the trick. His lameness disappeared.

6. Comedian Lee Mack was a stable boy before he became famous, and the horse on which he took his first riding lesson was Red Rum.

7. Red Rum is the only horse to win both the Aintree Grand National and the Scottish Grand National in the same season in 1974. That said, Aintree seemed to be Red Rum’s favourite course where he gave his best performances, often doing less well at other venues.

8. Red Rum won the Grand National in 1973, 1974 and 1977, finishing second in 1975 and 1976. He was all set to give it another go in 1978, but the day before the race it was discovered he had a hairline fracture which could have led to collapse of the bone if he’d taken part in the race. So he was retired, although he would return to Aintree as a celebrity horse and lead the opening parade after that. In retirement, he earned more from merchandise, opening supermarkets, a roller coaster and switching on the Blackpool Illuminations, than he’d ever won in prize money. Since he was a gelding, his owners missed out on another potential goldmine they could have earned from stud fees.

9. Red Rum lived to the grand old age (for a horse) of 30. The McCains kept him at their country home in Cheshire until he died on 18 October 1995. He was buried beside the winning post at Aintree, where his epitaph reads “Respect this place, This hallowed ground; A legend here, His rest has found; His feet would fly, Our spirits soar; He earned our love, For evermore.” There is also a statue of him at Aintree.

10. A Merseyrail train and a fire engine in Southport were named after him.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

22 December: Amphibians

According to the Sagan calendar, Amphibians first appeared on earth on this date. 10 facts about amphibians.

1. The word amphibian comes from the Greek word amphibios meaning “living a double life,” which reflects the ability of such animals to live in Water and on land.

2. There are about 8,100 living species of amphibian.

3. They can be divided into three orders: Frogs and Toads (Anura), Newts and salamanders (Caudata), and caecilians (Gymnophiona). Caecilians are limbless, worm or snake-like amphibians, with either no eyes or very small eyes.

4. Amphibians first appeared about 340 million years ago during the Middle Mississippian Epoch.

5. Breeding strategies vary, although in general eggs are laid in fresh water and hatch into a larval form, frog tadpoles being an example. Most find their own food and do what they can to avoid predators from hatching, while developing into the adult form which can live on land.

6. There are no marine amphibians. Nor are there any living in Antarctica, but they are found everywhere else. Amphibians have been found up to 5,270 m above sea level.

7. They have moist skin through which they can breathe and absorb water. Some very small amphibian species do not have lungs at all. A big down side of having permeable skin is that they are vulnerable to pollution in the water.

8. The largest amphibian is the Chinese Giant Salamander, Andrias davidianus, which can grow up to 1.8 m in length. There were amphibians which are now extinct which were even bigger. Prionosuchus plummeri, a South American amphibian which lived 270 million years ago in swamps and was a bit like a crocodile, could grow up to 30 ft. in length, which is about the size of a bus.

9. The smallest species is the Brazilian Flea Toad, Brachycephalus pulex, which at 7.1 mm is not only the smallest amphibian but the smallest vertebrate.

10. The longest living amphibian is probably the olm, Proteus anguinus. Individuals in captivity have lived for over 70 years, and the predicted maximum lifespan is over a century.

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

Available from Amazon and Amazon Kindle

27 October: National Black Cat Day

Today is National Black Cat Day, designated by Cats Protection in the United Kingdom. In the US they have an equivalent day on 17 August: Black Cat Appreciation Day. Here are 10 facts about black cats:

1. The purpose of the day is to encourage people to adopt a Black Cat, because they are allegedly harder to place in forever homes because of their associations with bad luck. However, according to Wikipedia this is a myth, and black cats are actually adopted at a higher rate than other cats.

2. That said, some cat shelters are said to limit adoptions of black cats in October for fear they might be used in sacrificial rituals. They have certainly been associated with Witches and Satan in the past, which resulted in mass murder of black cats and their owners.

3. Black is also the most common colour for a cat to be. The colour is caused by the amount of melanin pigment the cat has, and the gene which produces the black colour is dominant. There are also possible evolutionary reasons why black cats are common: firstly, being a dark colour may make it easier for them to stalk prey at night without being seen, so without humans to open tins for them, they’d be better fed. It has also been found that the genes producing black fur are also linked to immunity from some diseases.

4. This same pigment causes a cat’s eyes to be Yellow or gold, so this is the most common eye colour for black cats.

5. The black pigment can be easily damaged by UV light. A black cat which spends a lot of time basking in the Sun can end up with fur that turns a rusty colour in places. When the rusty hair falls out, however, it will grow back black.

6. The idea that black cats are unlucky seems to be widespread mostly in the US. Other cultures see them as positively good omens. In the UK, a black cat crossing your path is lucky; in Latvia, black cats on farms mean prosperity and a good harvest; in Scotland, a house visited by one can expect a financial windfall; in Japan, owning a black cat is good for your love life, and in parts of England, a black cat given as a wedding gift means the bride will be lucky and happy.

7. In America, where the number 13 is also considered unlucky, Space Shuttle missions were numbered so that there was no STS-13, possibly influenced by the ill-fated Apollo 13. Of course, even re-named as STS-41C, one mission still had to be the 13^th launched. The crew of this mission rolled with that and made a humorous mission patch that included a black cat and a number 13. Nevertheless, they not only made it home safely after a successful mission, they landed on Friday 13th.

8. Because the colour black is associated with anarchism, the black cat has been adopted as a symbol of anarchy.

9. Bastet, the Egyptian Goddess, was depicted as a black cat.

10. Black cats are not a specific breed. In fact, there are over 20 breeds of cat which can come with a solid black coat, or they can be of mixed breed. There is one breed of cat which is always black, however, the Bombay, which has been bred that way.

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

9 September: Mounted police

On this date in 1904 Mounted police were used for the first time in New York. 10 things you might not know about mounted police:

1. The first country to organise a mounted police force was France. In the early 18th century, the French military used fully mounted units to patrol the countryside and hunt down criminals in rural areas. They were called the Maréchaussée and the modern French police force, the gendarmerie, evolved from these units.

2. The UK got its first mounted police force in 1793 when Sir John Fielding, the magistrate at Bow Street Magistrates' Court, set one up with a government grant of £600 for a civilian "night Horse patrol" to protect travellers from highwaymen. To begin with, this consisted of eight men who had served in the cavalry regiments, armed with a cutlass, pistol and truncheon. They had to be at least 5 feet 5 inches tall. They patrolled the turnpike roads around London and into Kent. They were called The Bow Street Horse Patrols.

3. Boston was the first US city to have mounted police. Later, the United States Park Police Horse Mounted Patrol was founded in 1934 with a single horse rented from a local stable.

4. Which brings us to one of the reasons police on horses might be deployed rather than police in cars. A horse can reach places a motor vehicle can’t, so if you’re patrolling vast rural areas, forests, Mountains and the like, whether chasing criminals or involved in search and rescue, a horse beats a car hands down.

5. The best known mounted police force in the world has to be The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or “Mounties”. This is the national police service of Canada. It was founded in 1873 as the ‘North West Mounted Rifles’ and later re-named ‘North West Mounted Police’. It began with 300 men whose job was to seek out smugglers and illegal traders across 300,000 square miles. They also played a role in keeping the peace during the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway and helping new settlers who lacked experience in how to survive in the wilderness.

6. Police horses are a common sight at events like Football matches and protests, where it may become necessary to control a crowd or even a riot. The horses allow officers to see and be seen. From the higher vantage point on a horse’s back, the officers can observe more, and they are also more visible and this can help deter crime. One officer and his horse can provide more force than 10 officers on foot. Also, for some, a police officer on a horse is more approachable.

7. Horses aren’t specifically bred to become police horses. The kinds of horse usually used are draft horses or quarter horses, because they are large and typically have a calm demeanour.

8. Both horses and riders undergo years of training. It takes around two years to train a police horse. They have to be introduced gradually to noisy or stressful situations. They may start, for example, at a school fair where the children will be asked to shout or cheer, then a football match at a small local club, and so on. They’ll be trained to walk on unfamiliar surfaces and to cope with flares, smoke, loud noises and so on. The riders will need to have spent a couple of years as a regular police officer before applying to the mounted force. They, too, will undergo specialist training in crowd control, managing and caring for horses. The officers are responsible for feeding and mucking out their horses, and cleaning and polishing their tack.

9. Most police horses have the hair clipped from their entire body, including legs and heads, so they won’t sweat too much, as this is bad for them. They will wear thick rugs when it’s cold. They are equipped with wear facial armour, made of perspex so they can still see.

10. There are thirteen mounted police sections in the UK. London’s Metropolitan Police has between 100 and 116 horses, which, in 2016, cost £5,558 per horse, not including stabling. There were 142 police officers qualified to ride. The City of London Police, which is separate from the Met Police, also maintains a mounted unit. New York, at the same time, had 55 horses.

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

5 July: Dolly the Sheep

Born this day in 1996 was Dolly, a female domestic Sheep remarkable in being the first mammal to be cloned. 10 things you may not know about Dolly the Sheep:

1. Dolly was cloned by Keith Campbell, Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, part of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics, based near Edinburgh.
2. She had three mothers: one provided the egg, another the DNA, and a third carried the cloned embryo to term.
3. The cell used to obtain the DNA was that of a mammary gland, which not only proved that clones could be made from specific adult cells, but also gave rise to her name. Wilmut said, "Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."
4. Dolly lived her entire life at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian. She had to be kept indoors for security reasons.
5. She had six offspring by a Welsh Mountain ram in the time honoured fashion. Her lambs were named Bonnie, Sally, Rosie, Lucy, Darcy and Cotton.
6. There were also four clones of her: Daisy, Debbie, Dianna, and Denise.
7. Dolly developed arthritis at the age of four, and at the age of six, had to be put to sleep due to a form of lung cancer.
8. There was speculation that she died young (her breed, Finn Dorsets, have a life expectancy of 11 to 12 years) because she was a clone and her cells were older. However, scientists have pointed out that this form of lung cancer is common in sheep and especially those kept indoors. Other sheep in Dolly’s flock also died of it, and her clones lived to be at least nine years old in good health. After her death Dolly's body was preserved via taxidermy and is currently on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
9. She has been called "the world's most famous sheep" by sources including BBC News and Scientific American.
10. There’s even a computer game about her. "Dolly The Sheep" was released on November 13, 2012 and in it, Dolly is being chased by evil scientists.

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

10 June: Koi

This week is Carp Week, so here are some facts about koi, a member of the carp family.

1. Koi are a brightly coloured form of the species Amur carp (Cyprinus rubrofuscus), which were selectively bred for their colours in Japan during the early 19^th century.

2. In Japan, they are called nishikigoi, which literally means "brocaded carp".

3. Koi is also similar in sound to the Japanese word for love, so they are a symbol of friendship in Japan. In Japanese symbolism koi have many more positive meanings including Luck, prosperity and perseverance in the face of adversity.

4. The colours they come in are White, Black, Red, Yellow, Blue, and cream. Metallic shades of gold and platinum in the scales have also been developed through selective breeding. A black koi is said to be especially lucky.

5. Butterfly koi, longfin koi, or dragon carp were developed in the 1980s and are notable for their long and flowing fins.

6. Koi are distant cousins of Goldfish and it can be hard to distinguish a young koi from a goldfish. They can even interbreed, although their offspring will be sterile.

7. The average lifespan of a koi is 40 years, although they have been known to live much longer. In 1974, studying the growth rings on the scales of a koi named Hanako revealed that she was 226 years old.

8. They can grow quite large as well. Koi enthusiast Geoff Lawton bought one which was four feet long, the largest koi ever recorded. He called her Big Girl.

9. If you want to keep koi as pets, you’ll need a deep pond. A pond at least 8 feet in depth is recommended so that the fish can experience different temperatures, and won’t completely freeze in winter. Each individual will need 250 gallons of Water. A deep pond will also mean that wading birds like herons can’t stand there and eat them. A high overhang will stop next door’s Cat or other predatory mammals from getting them. Also, koi can get sunburn, so you’ll need plants like Water lilies, water lettuce, and water hyacinth in the pond as well.

10. They are also highly intelligent and can be trained to ring a bell for food and eat from their owner’s hand. They’re clever enough to recognise the person who feeds them.

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 May: Endangered Species Day

Endangered Species Day is observed on the third Friday in May, 16 May in 2025. 10 facts about endangered species:

1. A species is classified as endangered when its population has declined by at least 70 percent from known causes, or by at least 50 percent from unknown causes.

2. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List (founded in 1964) lists the conservation status of the worlds animals and plants. The categories are: Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Threatened, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Near Threatened, Conservation Dependent and Least Concern. There are also categories for species for which data is not available.

3. Factors deciding which category a species goes into include: The rate of population decline; The geographic range; Whether the species already has a small population; Whether the species has a very small geographic distribution or lives in a restricted area; Whether the results of a quantitative analysis indicates a high probability of extinction in the wild.

4. Each year, thousands of scientists around the world assess and reassess species according to these criteria. The IUCN Red List is regularly updated accordingly.

5. Biodiverse regions that require protection on the grounds that they host a significant number of endangered species are called hot spots.

6. 1 million animal and plant species are currently under threat of extinction. As many as 30 to 50 percent of all species are possibly heading toward extinction including 440 tree species with than 50 left in the wild.

7. A species is declared extinct after many years of not being spotted. It is probable that there are many species already gone that we are unaware of. Or species which have been declared extinct but there are still some out there which are good at hiding.

8. While extinction does happen naturally, the rate expected would be about one to five species per year. Scientists estimate we’re now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times that. 99% of currently threatened species are at risk because of human activity. This includes: habitat loss, introducing new animals or plants from elsewhere which become invasive; over-hunting and overfishing (the passenger pigeon, Tasmanian tiger and steller’s sea cow all went extinct for this reason); and, needless to say, climate change.

9. Scientists say that ‘extinction breeds extinction’. Close ecological interactions of species on the brink tend to move other species towards extinction, creating a domino effect.

10. Internationally, 195 countries have signed an accord to create Biodiversity Action Plans that will protect endangered and other threatened species. (Though if one of those was the US, it’s probably down to 194 since saving animals isn’t as important to them these days as lining billionaire’s pockets.)

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

11 April: Tardigrades

On this date in 2019, a space craft containing tardigrades crashed on the Moon. Here are 10 things you might not know about tardigrades:

1. The word tardigrade means “slow-moving.” They are also known as “water bears” and “moss piglets”.

2. There are about 1,300 species of tardigrade, and they are found just about everywhere, because they can survive just about anything. Scientists have found they can live through temperatures of 0.05 kelvins (-272.95 degrees Celsius or functional absolute zero), and at the other extreme, temperatures of 150 degrees Celsius. They can withstand extremely high pressure – they have survived being shot from a gun. Radiation is no problem to them, either. They can survive in space and would probably even survive a nuclear explosion. They have survived all five mass extinction events and have been around since way before the Dinosaurs. Scientists estimate that tardigrades have been around for 600 million years. Dinosaurs first appeared about 230 million years ago.

3. How do they do it? You may ask. It’s because they are capable of entering a cryptobiotic state when the going gets tough. It’s called a tun state; the creature curls into a ball, slows its metabolism down to virtually nothing and waits until conditions get better. A tardigrade can exist in this state for as much as a century and re-animate successfully.

4. That said, when they are not in the tun state, they don’t live anything like as long. Outside their tun state, they live between 3 months and 2.5 years.

5. So does that mean the tardigrades on the moon are busy colonising up there? Unlikely. While scientists think they may well have survived the crash, they can’t re-animate without Water, and what would they eat, anyway?

6. So what do they eat here on Earth? The answer is mostly plants and algae, although some species eat smaller creatures, like microscopic worms or tiny, wheel-shaped animals called rotifers.

7. They are microscopic. The largest species may reach 1.3 mm (0.051 in). They are short and plump, with four pairs of legs, ending in claws or sticky pads. They are covered in a tough material similar to that of grasshoppers and other insects, and they must shed this outer skin in order to grow.

8. It is possible to observe them at home if you happen to have a microscope. A low magnification — 15x to 30x should be enough. Simply collect some moss and keep it in water overnight. Shake or squeeze the excess water from the moss and put it in a shallow dish such as a petri dish and you will probably see tardigrades using the microscope.

9. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them Kleiner Wasserbär 'little water bear'. In 1776, the Italian biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani named them Tardigrada, which means 'slow walker'. They have inspired science fiction writers, starting with geologist and explorer Douglas Mawson in 1908. He wrote a short story about an expedition to the South Pole where explorers encounter all manner of things, including giant mushrooms and tardigrades.

10. There’s even a song about them. It’s by Cosmo Sheldrake and the lyrics go: "If I were a tardigrade ... Pressure wouldn't squash me and fire couldn't burn ... I can live life in vacuums for years with no drink (A ha)"

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