text: The Vincent Valentine wiki last edited by agungungroho on 10/07/14 01:34AM View full history HistoryVincent was once a member of the Turks, then known as the Shinra Manufacturing Department of "Administrative Research" having relatively shorter hair than his current appearance and wearing a black suit. Vincent has a dark past, one that he carries with him every single day of his life. As a turk he underwent and took care of a lot of business, maybe even more than he wanted to see in his lifetime. One of his last missions was to supervise the Jenova Project in Nibelheim. It was here where he met a scientist who would then complicate his life, Lucrecia Crescent the only woman he ever loved. It was here where they decided to share a future together, but as a scientist her work came first. She decided to be injected with Jenova cells as an experiment and carry this child.Over time, she began to see visions of what her son would become and became very sick in the process. Her son being the one they call Sephiroth. Vincent confronted Hojo on the matter, which would result in him getting shot by the mad doctor. A down and unconscious Vincent was then used in a certain experiment by the Doctor. This resulted in a few drastic changes giving him the abilities of immortality, strength, stamina, healing, as well as the will or curse to transform into powerful beasts. This left Vincent in a lifeless state, and the experiment was labeled as a failure. After regaining consciousness in the mansion and left for dead, Vincent was to remain there with nothing to do but sleep and relive the nightmares in his dreams with every passing moment. With a fondness of the darkness he remained in the basement of the Shinra mansion only to find that he has taken drastic changes from his last memories known to be human. Vincent became shocked at what he had become. He regretted not taking the situation before with a higher regard. Vincent believed that this was payment and his sin, not being able to save his love, Lucrecia. To further his punishment, he locked himself in one of the coffins in the Shinra manor basement to sleep to be some sort of atonement for what he had done. He decided to stay there and sleep away the rest of his life as a way to repay for his dark sin of letting the one named Sephiroth into the world. Alone in a coffin with just his nightmare, he is awoken one day by a man named Cloud Strife and is convinced to join them in bringing Sephiroth and the company that made him this way to an end.Appearance Vincent is a man physically in his late 20s, and stands roughly six feet tall. He has crimson eyes and long black hair that streams about wildly at times. He wears a red band over his head with his fringe emerging over it. Vincent's most distinctive feature is his tattered red cape, held in place over his shoulders and lower face by several buckles. Underneath his cape, Vincent's attire is black with several straps and buckles. Vincent wears a holster for his gun against his right leg, and pointed metallic boots. He also wears a golden gauntlet on his left arm. His weapon of choice is the Cerberus, a three-barreled revolver. Vincent has kept this look in all his appearances, with subtle variations. In Advent Children, Vincent's cloak was meant to have an organic feel to it and was difficult to animate. Furthermore, the developers decided that changing his costume would be conflicting with his character, so Vincent was the only living character in the film to appear the same as he had in Final Fantasy VII, although there are still minor changes, such as a full bodysuit and a glove completely covering his previously partially bare right arm.In Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent's Galian Beast and Chaos forms incorporate his design into them; Galian Beast, for example, is wearing a shorter version of Vincent's cloak as a kilt, while Chaos's feet resemble Vincent's boots.Personality Dark and brooding over his past "sins", Vincent carries many burdens and secrets. Despite his cold personality, he is not uncaring: at a point where Cloud admits he thought Vincent was cold and did not care about the Planet, Vincent casually brushes off the remark. He also has a soft spot for Lucrecia, referring to her as a beautiful lady. He fiercely despises Hojo for his various immoral actions, and it is the promise of meeting him that stirs him to accompany the party in Final Fantasy VII. Vincent is reluctant to speak, although when he does, he typically has something important to say.Nojima has noted that Vincent is naturally a loner, and had he not been a former ally of Cloud and his friends, he probably would not have joined them to fight Bahamut SIN in Advent Children. His voice actor, Shougo Suzuki, noted that Vincent's few appearances had a profound impact each time they occur, and that Tifa's remark "they're our friends", after Vincent's arrival, shows his underlying warmth. He was also noted to be similar to Cloud, only more mature and older, which influenced his character and voice work. Vincent was originally intended to appear inKingdom Hearts with Cloud, but it was decided to remove him due to similar brooding personalities. Because of this, aspects of his design were worked into Cloud's new design for the series, which has been used for all of Cloud's appearances in the series thus far, excepting Kingdom Hearts II.AbilitiesVincent is a strong fighter and holds some of the most memorable Limit Breaks in the game or at least the most unique. His abilities are connected to genetic experiments that altered his body forever, and involve him transforming into a variety of powerful and dark creatures. Vincent's weapon of choice is the Cerberus as well as a wide array of pistols that are shot from long range. His dark past torments him frequently as the plot of the game unfolds. His dark powers makes him a great companion and a formidable fighter. Also skilled with a wide variety of different materia, he can make for a strategic fighter being able to attack his enemies with great force.Final Weapon - Death PenaltyLimit Breaks Level 1: Galian BeastAutomatically activated. Vincent morphs into a beast-like creature. He has two attacks which you cannot control. 1. Berserk Dance - Vincent hits a single enemy with a few slashes. 2. Beast Flare - He Jumps up and fires some bomb-like things at all enemies. Changes - HP, Dexterity, and Defense % increase.Galian Beast from Final Fantasy VIIGalian Beast from Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Level 2: Death GigasActivated after killing 60 enemies with Vincent. Vincent morphs into a sort of Frankenstein thing. Has two attacks that you cannot control. 1. Giga Dunk - Kinda like Berserk Dance but it does more damage. 2. Livewire - Uses a form of fire damage on all opponents. Changes - HP & Defense increase. Dexterity & Magic Defense decrease.Death Gigas from Final Fantasy VII Level 3: HellmaskerActivated after destroying another 60 enemies with Vincent. Vincent morphs into a weird looking monster with a chainsaw and hockey mask which also has an attack that, yes, you cannot control. 1. He attacks enemies 5 times and puts status ailments on them too. Changes - Defense increases.Hellmasker from Final Fantasy VIILevel 4: ChaosYou can get this on Disk 3 only. Get Vincent in your party and go to the Waterfall ring on the second continent with either a chocobo or Submarine. Go inside the waterfall. You'll see Lucrecia and a whole little storyline will be shown. You then leave the waterfall. (that part can be done on Disk 2 but it's quicker on Disk 3) Go back into the waterfall straight away and walk up to the alter. Vincent will say something and you'll receive his final limit and final weapon. Chaos turns Vincent into a winged being which looks pretty cool. It attacks with two attacks, which you can't control. 1. Chaos Saber - A powerful fire blast to all enemies. 2. Satan Impact - Looks different but still does fire damage to all enemies. Changes - Defense, Magic Defense and Dexterity increase.Chaos from Final Fantasy VIIChaos from Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VIIVoice Acting In the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII projects in which Vincent appears and is voiced, his English voice actor is Steven Blum and his Japanese voice actor is Shōgo Suzuki. His Japanese voice actor in Ehrgeiz is Kazuhiro Nakata.


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12.27: Placental Mammals
Is this kangaroo a placental mammal?
You know that female kangaroos have a pouch for the final development of their babies. So, no, kangaroos are not placental mammals. What is a placental mammal?
Therian Mammals
Like other female vertebrates, all female mammals have ovaries. These are the organs that produce eggs (see Figure below). Therian mammals also have two additional female reproductive structures that are not found in other vertebrates. They are the uterus and vagina.
- The uterus (plural, uteri) is a pouch-like, muscular organ. The embryo or fetus develops inside the uterus. Muscular contractions of the uterus push the offspring out during birth.
- The vagina is a tubular passageway through which the embryo or fetus leaves the mother's body during birth. The vagina is also where the male deposits sperm during mating.
Female Reproductive System of a Therian Mammal (Human). Therian mammals are viviparous, giving birth to an embryo or infant rather than laying eggs. The female reproductive system of all therian mammals is similar to that of humans.
Therian mammals are divided into two groups: placental mammals and marsupial mammals. Each group has a somewhat different reproductive strategy.
Placental Mammals
Placental mammals are therian mammals in which a placenta develops during pregnancy. The placenta sustains the fetus while it grows inside the mother's uterus. Placental mammals give birth to relatively large and mature infants. Most mammals are placental mammals.
The Placenta
The placenta is a spongy structure. It consists of membranes and blood vessels from both mother and embryo (see Figure below). The placenta passes oxygen, nutrients, and other useful substances from the mother to the fetus. It also passes carbon dioxide and other wastes from the fetus to the mother. The placenta lets blood from the fetus and mother exchange substances without actually mixing. Thus, it protects the fetus from being attacked by the mother's immune system as a "foreign parasite."
Placenta of a Placental Mammal (Human). The placenta allows the exchange of gases, nutrients, and other substances between the fetus and mother.
Pros and Cons of Placental Reproduction
The placenta permits a long period of fetal growth in the uterus. As a result, the fetus can become large and mature before birth. This increases its chances of surviving.
On the other hand, supporting a growing fetus is very draining and risky for the mother. The mother has to eat more food to nourish the fetus. She also becomes heavier and less mobile as the fetus gets larger. As a result, she may be less able to escape from predators. Because the fetus is inside her, she can't abandon it to save her own life if she is pursued or if food is scarce. Giving birth to a large infant is also risky. It may even result in the mother's death.
- Therian mammals are viviparous. They give birth to an embryo or infant rather than laying eggs.
- The female reproductive system of a therian mammal includes a uterus and a vagina.
- There are two groups of therian mammals: placental mammals and marsupials.
- Placental mammals give birth to a relatively large and mature fetus. This is possible because they have a placenta to nourish the fetus and protect it from the mother's immune system. This allows for a long period of growth and development before birth.
- Because the offspring of placental mammals is relatively large and mature at birth, it has a good chance of surviving. However, carrying and giving birth to a large fetus is risky for the mother. It also requires her to eat more food.
Use this resource to answer the questions that follow.
- http://www.hippocampus.org/Biology \begin{align*}\rightarrow\end{align*} Non-Majors Biology \begin{align*}\rightarrow\end{align*} Search: Mammals
- What are eutherians?
- What is the role of the placenta?
- What advantages does this developmental strategy give the newborn?
1. What are the functions of the uterus and vagina in therian mammals?
2. What is the placenta? What is its role?
3. Placental mammals greatly outnumber the other two groups of mammals. Infer why placental mammals have been so successful.
Notes/Highlights Having trouble? Report an issue.
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Term | Definition |
ovary | Organ where eggs form; characteristic of plants and animals. |
placenta | Temporary organ that consists of a large mass of maternal and fetal blood vessels; organ where the the mother's and fetus's blood exchange substances. |
placental mammal | Therian mammal in which a placenta develops during pregnancy to sustain the fetus while it develops inside the mother's uterus. |
therian mammal | Viviparous mammal; may be either a marsupial or placental mammal. |
uterus | (plural, uteri): Female reproductive organ in therian mammals where an embryo or fetus grows and develops until birth. |
vagina | Female reproductive organ that receives sperm during sexual intercourse and provides a passageway for a baby to leave the mother's body during birth. |
viviparous | Giving birth to an embryo or infant rather than laying eggs. |
Image Attributions
- Outline reproduction in placental mammals.

subset: commoncrawl


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Abuse & Copyright infringement claim Report
If you wish to report a copyright infringement, we need you to send us a proper notification. All notices should comply with the notification requirements of Copyright laws in effect. You must provide the following information: - Identify yourself as an owner of copyrighted work or exclusive rights that you believe were infringed, or a person acting on behalf of such owner. - State your contact information, including your name, street address, phone number, and email address. - Identify the copyrighted work that you believe is being infringed. This part is essential you should at least tell the "Item Title" and "Artist Name" - Identify the location of materials that allegedly are infringing your copyrighted work, by providing Web URLs on livingelectro.com. If you click the "Flag" button from the web page which contains inappropriate materials then our system will pre-fill the link for you. - State that you have "a good faith belief that use of the aforementioned material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agents, or the law". - State that the information in the notice is accurate, under penalty of perjury. A proper notification must contain the information above, or it may be ignored. You should be aware that, under Copyright Laws in effect, claimants who make misrepresentations concerning copyright infringement may be liable for damages incurred as a result of the removal or blocking of the material, court costs, and attorneys fees. |


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This Bear Is A Master Kung-Fu Fighter
"Everybody was bear-fu fighting/ those swings were fast as lightning." I don't know about you guys, but I certainly wouldn't want to take on this master martial artist.
Via Cute Overload
Newest 2 Comments
Who knew kung-fu panda had a retarded cousin?
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I especially love the "biting the toe" maneuver.
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0. phoneArena 01 Nov 2011, 19:01 posted on
With losses mounting Sony looks to sell its share of S-LCD to Samsung before the end of 2011...
This is a discussion for a news. To read the whole news, click here
posted on 01 Nov 2011, 19:14
1. dmn666 (Posts: 244; Member since: 19 Oct 2011)
Finally a Good call (if it's true) from moronic Sony management. Getting rid of Ericsson was another one - even though it may turn out even worse thanks to the dolts that run Sony.


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Going on holiday?
Wondering where the nearest church is?
This link will take you to a searchable database for churches in England, Wales and Scotland. http://www.catholicdirectory.org
Homily on the Assisted Suicide Bill
Message from InterCare
From everyone at Inter Care, we would like to thank you for supporting us with surplus medicines. To date we have recycled over £13 million pounds worth of aid to health units in sub-Saharan Africa, collectively benefitting approximately 10 million people.
In 2011, the EU adopted the Falsified Medicines Directive, which introduces harmonised safety and strengthened control measures across Europe. In 2013, this Directive was extended outside of the EU and Inter Care obtained a Wholesaler's Licence so that we could continue to send medicines to Africa.
The new Directive targets all levels of the supply chain for medicines, in an effort to ensure that there are no weak links and requires that there should be an unbroken licenced "audit trail" from the manufacturer to the "end user". These new measures for improving the distribution chain mean that Inter Care is failing to comply with this requirement because we obtain our patient returns as waste from GP practices or individuals that do not have Wholesaler's Licences. For further information on the Directive, please visit the European Medicines Agency website section on Falsified Medicines, at http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/index.jsp?curl=pages/special_topics/general/general_content_000186.jsp).


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It was with great sadness I read that Dylan, the A Reluctant Sinner blogger, is entering temporary retirement from blogging.
His blog has been the source of much edification, cultural, historical and spiritual uplift since I first began reading it. I am sure it had a similar effect on many, many people.
I can only hope this stout defender of Catholicism hurries back.
The net needs more Welsh Catholic voices. So please Dylan, when you can, come back and inform and educate us once again.
God Bless you in all you do.
A Reluctant Sinner's announcement
Saturday, 30 March 2013
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Tutorial | Creating a Java Client for del.icio.us RESTful Web Services
Doc Contributor; Amit Kumar Saha
del.icio.us is a bookmarking service where you can save, share your favorite/useful URL's.
It has a REST API: http://del.icio.us/help/api/. Using this API you can design clients (web/desktop) to use the service. NetBeans 6.1 comes bundled with the APIs for popular web-services, which includes del.icio.us.
[[{TableOfContentsTitle=TableOfContents} | {TableOfContents title='Table of Contents'}]]
Getting Started
Here, I shall code a simple Java console client for del.icio.us to fetch your recent posts. (For details, please refer https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/get?' at http://del.icio.us/help/api/posts).
You may download the complete NetBeans 6.1 Beta project here.
Needless to say, you will need a del.ico.us account to follow this tutorial.
Creating a Project
/* * To change this template, choose Tools I Templates * and open the template in the editor. */ package deliciousclient; /** * * @author amit */ public class Main { /** * @param args the command line arguments */ public static void main(String[[] args) { getPosts(); } private static void getPosts() { } }
Using RESTful WebServices
- Expand the Web Services node and hence expand the 'Del.icio.us' node to finally descend to the 'delicious.posts_get' API call.
- Once you are there, click on it and drag it onto the body of the 'getPosts()' method. You will be asked to configure the API parameters, which you can either set to your own values or leave the default values.
private static void getPosts() { try { String tag = "xml"; String dt = null; String url = ""; String result = DeliciousService.getDeliciousPostsGetResource(tag, dt, url); System.out.println("The SaasService returned: "+result); } catch (java.io.IOException ex) { //java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger(this.getClass().getName()).log(java.util.logging.Level.SEVERE, null, ex); ex.printStackTrace(); } }
Coding Contiunes...
- You will observe that some new classes have been added to your project. They are classes which take care of the REST API calls to the del.icio.us service.
- But before running your project and hence using the service, you will have to provide your del.icio.us account details in the 'profile.properties' file in the 'org.netbeans.saas.delicious' package. For eg.
username=amitkumarsaha password=password
- Run the project, you should get back the the XML representation of the result.
Thus, we have seen how easy it is to design a del.icio.us client using NetBeans 6.1. Similarly the other APIs can also be explored!
API Documentation
* You can view the API documentation by a 'Right-Click' on the service name,and you will be taken to the relevant API documentation (you will need to be online for this)
Happy NetBeaning!


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SOLO 2 Sergey PROKOFIEV (1892-1953) Solo Violin Sonata in D major Op.115 (1947) [13:49] Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963) Solo Sonata Op.31 No.1 (1924) [13:40] Solo Sonata Op.31 No.2 'Es ist so schönes Wetter draussen' (1924) [12:07] Bela BARTÓK (1881-1945) Solo Sonata Sz117 (1944) [28:30] Ning Feng (violin) rec. Westvest, Schiedam Netherlands, February-March 2012 CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS SA 34413 [69:44] The solo Sonatas and Partitas of Bach cast a long and enduring shadow over the entire solo violin repertoire that post-date them. Just about every work written - of any artistic stature - seems to be a reaction against or a homage to those remarkable pieces. Certainly, the thesis holds true for the four works recorded here, which for all the unmistakeable fingerprints of their composers are pulled with a kind of musical gravitation back towards the sun of the Bach originals. In purely technical terms this is a CD of quite stunning violin playing. Every aspect of Ning Feng's playing seems to be under extraordinary control. The even-ness of his tone production whether high, low, slow and sustained or precipitously fast is remarkably similar. Usually you can perceive a degree of technical strain in the way the tone hardens or some passage-work might fractionally blur - not here, every note and strand of music remains crystal clear. The Prokofiev and Bartok Sonatas in particular have entered near-enough standard repertoire ever since their 1940s composition so they have been recorded by many top virtuosi since. On the level of technical address Feng is the equal of any. Here's the snag, though; my listening notes refer time and again in the most glowing terms to this technical skill, but almost never to the musical aspect of the performances. I am not saying for one second that these are not intelligent and perfectly sane centrist performances because they are, simply that the level of musical insight does not match the technical brilliance. I feel almost ungrateful and churlish asking for more in the presence of such skill. Take one simple and immediately audible example; the opening of the Prokofiev Sonata and compare it to another version I know played by a favourite violinist Gil Shaham. Feng is given a generous acoustic which gives his already superb playing a rich veneer. Indeed his opening has a Bachian grandeur that it wholly impressive ... if not very Prokofievian. Shaham, more closely and drily recorded - not totally in his favour it has to be said - is instantly more capricious and sly. The notes still echo Bach but now refracted through Prokofiev's troubled 20th Century glass. I have no doubt that there will be many who prefer Feng's approach but I find Shaham's personality far more individual and more impressive. Much the same can be said of the rest of the programme - with a growing sense that Feng does not makes enough of the different sound-worlds of the three composers. If you want streams of remarkable playing this is this disc for you and again, perhaps Feng is right to find a continuity where I sense a greater divide. I have to say that the Hindemith Solo Sonatas were unknown to me and as such are a delightful discovery. It struck me that this repertoire - with the closest homage of all in the Op.31 No.1 sonata - most suits Feng, certainly as recorded here. Hindemith never manages to throw off the stigma of being a 'dry' and 'academic' composer but pick any movement of either sonata to have this caricature refuted. Feng's ability to sustain double-stopped lines makes the second movement of this Sonata; Sehr langsame Viertel - surely a direct tribute to the opening of the 3rd Bach Sonata - quite superb. Compare Ruggiero Ricci who rather more feverishly takes just 2:42 to Feng's 4:28 for the same movement; the laurels here rest most certainly with Feng. Indeed this whole sonata seems to most clearly chime with Feng's style and extraordinary technique. Hindemith wrote these two sonatas for his violinist colleagues in the Amar Quartet of which he played viola. I wonder if the players were delighted or daunted by the gift. The Op.31 No.2 Sonata - subtitled "It's such fine weather outside" - owes less to Bach. Again while I marvel at the stream of beauty that Feng produces I struggle more to hear the structural skeleton that lies beneath. For sure Feng is willing to play with a single hair of the bow or full-blooded intensity but in the more expressionist Op.31 No.2 I feel that the music would support a more challenging - even ugly - approach. Fine though all of the music on this disc is there is surely just one masterpiece and that is the Bartók Sonata. Its genesis is well-known, an ailing homesick composer stranded in a foreign country managing to produce a late Indian Summer of major works including the 3rd Piano Concerto and Concerto for Orchestra as well as this Sonata. A masterpiece I would say because it finds a near-perfect balance between originality, homage - the first two movements are marked after all tempo di ciaccona and Fuga - and an innate appreciation of just what could be achieved in the medium. This is great music that happens to have been written for a solo violin. All too often composers wrestle with the understandable limitations that an essentially monophonic single instrument brings. Since I am not alone in recognising the genius at work here it is no surprise that comparative versions in this piece abound and competition is fierce. Again the sheer skill of Feng's playing astounds. Aided by the rich acoustic this feels like a performance that emphasises the homage more than the originality of the work. Bartók is surely the composer who most successfully fused contemporary and folk-idioms and this work displays this as well as any. Feng's lush playing understates the spiky fiddling aspect. Try for example Leila Josefowicz or Christian Tetzlaff who are just two of many who project an earthier quality that I personally prefer. Important to note though that in this company Menuhin - the violinist who encouraged Bartók to produce the work and gave the first performance - sounds harsh and effortful. As a major piece clearly both approaches will 'work' and will have their admirers. I find the analogy of driving rather fast in a Rolls Royce appropriate; a wonderful ride for sure but where's the visceral excitement of the driving experience? Some other passing comments; the liner note is perfectly adequate and offered in English, German and French. Feng's agent's website states that he performs on a Stradivarius although on this disc considerable point is made of the fact that he is playing a 2007 Stefan-Peter Greiner violin. As an advert for this maker's instruments this is superb because, as I have made clear, Feng produces a brilliant even tone across the entire range and as recorded the violin sounds full and rich. The recording is a Super Audio CD listenable to as a 5.0 surround sound disc. My system allows standard reproduction which as I have mentioned places the instrument slightly back in the resonant acoustic. There is one odd quirk which is that - over headphones in particular - Feng's breathing sounds closer than his violin. Logically that cannot be but that is how it sounded to me. Overall I would say the recorded style suits Feng's approach very well. A disc that left me hugely impressed yet strangely unmoved at the same time. Nick Barnard


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Great War Dust Jackets
Ford Madox Fords' Tietjen quartette. Duckworth 1924, 5, 6 & 8.( from the Roger Rechler sale at Christie's, Oct.2002. Rather nicer than my set!) The only example I can think of where a publisher has failed to provide a unified design for a series. Perhaps Ford didn't tell them there'd be more than one volume!
Brown on Resolution by C S Forester Bodley Head 1929. from Peter Harrington
The General by C S Forester Michael Joseph 1936. Novel
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (Hueffer)
Bodley Head 1915. I know its not a war book but its such a rare jacket I had to put it in! (from Sotheby's)
Narrative of a Naval Nobody by Douglas Fairbairn Murray 1929 (from Tom Donovan) Life with the Royal Navy included service in the Eastern Med & at Gallipoli.
The Fighting at Jutland by H W Fawcett Hutchinson 1929. Concise ed.
Baron Fritz by Karl Federn Farrar & Reinhart 1930. Humorous tales of an artillery officer in Eastern Germany
The Grand Fleet by H C Ferraby Herbert Jenkins 1917. A guide to the Ships of the Fleet and their role in the War.
A Naval Digression by Gordon Franklin Blackwood 1916.Well-
Soldier's Pay by William Faulkner US & UK 1sts. Boni 1926 & Chatto 1930 (not mine I'm afraid!). Rejected by the Army (too short) was in training with the RAF in Canada but did not see action.
Macmillan 1929. Ford's autobiography including his war time experiences, not published in the UK.
The House of Torchy by Sewell Ford Clode 1918. Jacket by A. W. Brown. Part of a series of novels about a wholesome army reserve officer (from Babylon Revisited)
The Sky Hawk by Guy Fowler Readers Library 1930 (from Jeremy Carson) & Grosset & Dunlap 1929. (from Babylon Revisited) Novelisation of the film from the novel by Llewellyn Hughes 'Chap called Bardell'
Tom Slade with the Flying Corps by Percy Fitzhugh Grosset & Dunlap 1919. Boy Scouts in the Flying Corps
Merchants of Death by H C Engelbrecht Dodd, Mead 1937 2nd issue
Field Guns in France by N Fraser-
(from David & Helen Pritchard)
War Letters to a Wife by Rowland Feilding Medici 1929 Company Commander with the Coldstream Guards
Tank Tales by Tank Major Cassell 1919 by (Stephen Foot) & Eric Wood. Short stories of Tank Warfare
As Told to Mary by Major Alan Fillingham Houghton 1932. Lightly fictionalised account of the authors time with the RFA during which he won the MC.
Lilac Time by Guy Fowler (from Babylon Revisited)
Gas by C H Foulkes Blackwood 1934. Maj.Gen. Foulkes was with the 11th Forward Com. RE, 2nd Div. & became the British army's Gas expert (from David & Helen Pritchard).
Tom Slade with the boys over there by Percy Fitzhugh G & D 1918 (from Fons)
Grosset & Dunlap 1925 & 1926 (from Fons)
Iron Gustav by Hans Fallada (pseud. of Rudolf Ditzen) Putnam 1940 From pre-
Three Lives -
The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the World War by Frank Fox Constable 1928 (from JRF)
Flying Dutchman by Anthony Fokker Routledge 1932 Popular ed (fp 1931) The Dutch airman's biography.
The First Birmingham Battalion in the Great War by J E B Fairclough Cornish Bros. 1933. History of the 14th Service Batt. Warwickshires. (from Tom Donovan)
Wings in the Night by Willis Fitch Marshall Jones, Boston 1938. Flying with the US Air Service over the Piave (from JRF)
Rough & Brown 1920. 5th ed. Story poems from France (from Fons).
Holt 1931 (from Shelley & Son Books)
Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald Scribner 1934. Dick Diver at the Front. My favourite jacket of all (from Reed Orenstein Rare)
Michael Joseph 1951. Jacket by Biro. An Infantry officers' dilemmas at Ypres & on the home front. First of a projected series along the 'river of time'.
Grant, Richards 1921 with illustrations by F. Carpenter, RFC. A VAD in Salonika
Privately Printed, Salford 1930 by Sgt. Alfred Francis. The history of a 3rd Line Territorial Unit (not in BL)
Heinemann 1931. The C.-
Privately Printed by the Company 1919 (no jacket issued). A history of the company detailing its wartime production with detailed descriptions of all the planes made
Three Englishmen by Gilbert Frankau Hutchinson 1935. Some scenes set during the war.
below Dutton 1935 Jacket by Robert Haberstock. (from Babylon Revisited).
Peter Jackson by Gilbert Frankau Hutchinson 1920 1st with later jacket. An outstanding novel
What of the Dardanelles by Granville Fortesque Hodder 1915. An analysis of the Gallipoli campaign (from Michael Taylor)
3 more Tom Slades. All Grosset & Dunlap 1918 (from Fons).
Hodder 1917 A slightly sanitised account of Women Munition workers by a factory overseer. A rare survivor & one of the very few books dealing with this aspect of the War
Women and War Work by Helen Fraser Arnold Shaw 1918. Based on her lectures as a Treasury Official.
Constable 1931. The Naval Secret Service before & during the War.
Macdonald 1949 (from Fons)
2 volumes of Gilbert Frankau's War poetry both Chatto 1918 (City of Fear is the 3rd imp. but identical to the 1st)
(from Timothy d'Arch Smith)
Constable 1918. A Horticultural writer visits the War in Flanders, Italy & Paris. Falls thought the later view was mostly seen from the Ritz hotel!
Grace Harlowe by Jessie Flower Henry Altemus 1920. Seemingly endless series following Miss Harlowe through school to several adventures in France
(from Read 'Em Again Books)
Hutchinson 1937 issue.
Blackie 1926. With the 52nd Division at Gallipoli, Egypt & France & Flanders (from Leakie's Bookshop)
Constable 1915. War-
Privately printed 1920 without jacket. Foley fought throughout the War with the 6th & 7th Somerset Light Infantry until his capture during the German advance of 1918. Indispensable but remarkably scarce memoir.
Steinhauer ed. by S. T. Felstead Bodley Head 1930
(from Little Stour Books)
Arrowsmith 1922. In the rear areas with the YMCA towards the end of the War.
Hodder 1919. Admiral of the Fleet during the Dardanelles Campaign, sharing responsibility for it with Churchill.
(from Clive Hughes).
Hodder 1915
(from Peter Harrington).
Skeffington 1941. The author in the Boer War, WW1 France & Macedonia & the beginnings of the WW2.
Hodder 1916 (originally pub. HMSO 1916). Documents on the treatment of the Armenian minority by the Turks.
Newnes n.d. (1940) The events of her death based on the German Secret Police dossier.
Cavalry of the Air by 'Flight Commander' Burrow 1918. Over the front with a Sopwith Strutter Sqd. (from David & Helen Pritchard)
Newnes 1940
Blackwood 1918. With a Scottish Battalion at Passchendaele. Lightly fictionalised.
Holden & Hardingham 1920. Short stories for each year of the War. (from J & M Books)
Khaki Vignettes by Phil Fisher Joseph Johnson 1917 with illustrations by the author.
Heinemann 1934
Houghton Mifflin 1931. An account by the Chateau's owner of its shifting occupancy throughout the War by retreating French officers & advancing German ones (from Fons).
At Ypres with Best-
Chatto & Windus 1934


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Articles about reggae music, reviews, interviews, reports and more...
Sizzla is actually doing an European tour backed by the Firehouse Crew. On March 8th, he was in Hasparren, South France. Support was done by Diana Rutherford.
Reproduction without permission of United Reggae and Benjamin Delong is prohibited.
© 2007-2017 United Reggae. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. Read about copyright
Terms of use | About us | Contact us | Authors | Newsletter | A-Z


text:
Photo gallery of Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers with My Morning Jacket, at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA. Shot on the second of two shows there, Saturday August 21, 2010.
Great photos, Tim! Good show?
Petty's one of the vanguard when it comes to US songwriters, but My Morning Jacket put on one HELL of an opening performance...Petty is clearly not afraid to have high-octane openers, as the last time I saw him had The Replacements opening. Yep, good show!


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Angry Birds
Through innovation and technology, California think tank Singularity University aims to push the frontiers of progress. But what happens when high-tech advances end up in the wrong hands? Economics correspondent Paul Solman raises some disturbing questions as part of his ongoing reporting series, Making Sen$e of financial news. Continue reading


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The PlayXtreme 2 is a media player running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) that also converts a HD TV into an Internet-enabled one, allowing users to email and chat with their friends on the big screen.
Processor | Amlogic 800MHz (ARM Cortex-A9) |
Memory | DDR2 512MB |
Storage | NAND 2GB |
Image Format Support | BMP, JPG, TIF, PNG, GIF |
Video Format Support | DAT, MPEG, MPE, MPG, M2V, ISO, TS, VOB, AVI, MKV, MP4, MOV, 3GP, 3GPP, FLC, AVI, WMA, TS, M2TS, M3TS, M4TS, M5TS, MTS, M4V, FLV, 3G2, RMVB |
Audio Format Support | MP1, MP2, MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, OGA, FLAC, ALAC, APE, AAC, M4A, AC-3, DTS, RM |
I/O Ports |
Wireless Connectivity & Standards | 802.11n Wi-Fi |
Remote Control | Yes, wireless QWERTY remote control with touch pad |
Power | 5.0V/2A DC |
Dimensions | 9 x 9 x 1.5cm |
Weight | 152g |
Me again. After throwing this aside for several months. I decided to try it to catch some funshion movies. The movie went into buffering very often. I thought my wireless was slow so I tried catching the movie on my laptop on wireless. The movie played smoothly. I am beginning to suspect the 512MB RAM could be just too small. It was the same when playing youtube HD. It went into buffering very often. Again, tested it with my laptop. Everything played smoothly.
Bought this at Sitex 2012. This one cannot make it took it back to the retailer got a full refund.
Original one was not performing took it back got it replaced 1 on 1 the second one was even worse. AZTECH is good for some of this stuff but this product is a total failure.
Me too, bought at Comex 2012 and regret 100%. Should have paid $20 more to get AC Ryan Veolo. Very cheapskate product and very very lousy remote that always got hand, arrow went missing and keys got stuck. Very lousy quality. I would not recommend getting this.
Just bought this at Comex 2012. Less than satisfactory experience. Screen freezes a few times. Before you buy this, try surfing using the installed browser. Totally frustrating.
Please login to write your review.


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This utility scans the process lists for the servers specified
using instances of the
option and selects
those that match the conditions specified using the
options. For a process to match,
all conditions given must match. The utility then either prints
the selected processes (the default) or executes certain actions
on them.
If no --age
options are given, the utility
selects all processes.
The --match-xxx
options correspond to the
columns in the
table. For example,
specifies a
matching condition for
PROCESSLIST.COMMAND column
values. There is no --match-time
option. To
specify a condition based on process time, use
Processes that can be seen and killed are subject to whether the account used to connect to the server has the PROCESS and SUPER privileges. Without PROCESS, the account cannot see processes belonging to other accounts Without SUPER, the account cannot kill processes belonging to other accounts
To specify how to display output, use one of the following values
with the --format
grid (default)
Display output in grid or table format like that of the mysql client command-line tool.
Display output in comma-separated values format.
Display output in tab-separated format.
Display output in single-column format like that of the
command for the mysql
client command-line tool.
mysqlprocgrep accepts the following command-line options:
Display a help message and exit.
Display license information and exit.
Select only processes that have been in the current state more
than a given time. The time value can be specified in two
formats: either using the hh:mm:ss
with hours and minutes optional, or as a sequence of numbers
with a suffix giving the period size.
The permitted suffixes are s (second), m (minute), h (hour), d (day), and w (week). For example, 4h15m represents 4 hours and 15 minutes.
For both formats, the specification can optionally be preceded
by +
or -
, where
means older than the given time, and
means younger than the given time.
Sets the client character set. The default is retrieved from
the server variable
Specify the output display format. Permitted format values are grid (default), csv, tab, and vertical.
Kill the connection for all matching processes (like the
Kill the query for all matching processes (like the
Match all processes where the Command field matches the pattern.
Match all processes where the Db field matches the pattern.
Match all processes where the Host field matches the pattern.
Match all processes where the ID field matches the pattern.
Match all processes where the Info field matches the pattern.
Match all processes where the State field matches the pattern.
Match all processes where the User field matches the pattern.
Print information about the matching processes. This is the
default if no
option is
given. If a kill option is given,
information about the processes before killing them.
Perform pattern matches using the
REGEXP operator. The
default is to use LIKE for
matching. This affects the --match-xxx
Connection information for a server. Use this option multiple times to search multiple servers.
To connect to a server, it is necessary to specify connection parameters such as user name, host name, password, and either a port or socket. MySQL Utilities provides a number of ways to provide this information. All of the methods require specifying your choice via a command-line option such as --server, --master, --slave, etc. The methods include the following in order of most secure.
Use login-paths from your .mylogin.cnf
(encrypted, not visible). Example :
Use a configuration file (unencrypted, not visible) Note: available in release-1.5.0. Example : <configuration-file-path>[:<section>]
Specify the data on the command-line (unencrypted, visible). Example : <user>[:<passwd>]@<host>[:<port>][:<socket>]
Instead of displaying the selected processes, emit the
SELECT statement that
retrieves information about them. If the
option is
given, the utility generates a stored procedure named
for killing the queries
rather than a SELECT
Like --sql
, but produces
the output as the body of a stored procedure without the
CREATE PROCEDURE part of
the definition. This could be used, for example, to generate
an event for the server Event Manager.
When used with a kill option, code for killing the matching
queries is generated. Note that it is not possible to execute
the emitted code unless it is put in a stored routine, event,
or trigger. For example, the following code could be generated
to kill all idle connections for user
shell>mysqlprocgrep --kill-connection --sql-body \
--match-user=www-data --match-state=sleep
DECLARE kill_done INT; DECLARE kill_cursor CURSOR FOR SELECT Id, User, Host, Db, Command, Time, State, Info FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PROCESSLIST WHERE user LIKE 'www-data' AND State LIKE 'sleep' OPEN kill_cursor; BEGIN DECLARE id BIGINT; DECLARE EXIT HANDLER FOR NOT FOUND SET kill_done = 1; kill_loop: LOOP FETCH kill_cursor INTO id; KILL CONNECTION id; END LOOP kill_loop; END; CLOSE kill_cursor;
Specify how much information to display. Use this option
multiple times to increase the amount of information. For
example, -v
= verbose, -vv
more verbose, -vvv
= debug.
Display version information and exit.
For the --format
option, the
permitted values are not case sensitive. In addition, values may
be specified as any unambiguous prefix of a valid value. For
example, --format=g
specifies the grid format. An error occurs if a prefix matches
more than one valid value.
The path to the MySQL client tools should be included in the
environment variable in order to use the
authentication mechanism with login-paths. This will allow the
utility to use the my_print_defaults tools
which is required to read the login-path values from the login
configuration file (.mylogin.cnf
For each example, assume that the root
user on
has sufficient privileges to kill
queries and connections.
Kill all queries created by user john
that are
less than 1 minute:
shell>mysqlprocgrep --server=root@localhost \
--match-user=john --age=-1m --kill-query
Kill all connections that have been idle for more than 1 hour:
shell>mysqlprocgrep --server=root@localhost \
--match-command=sleep --age=1h --kill-connection
The user must have the SELECT privilege on the mysql database.


text:
Tenure Track Positions:
Non-Tenure Track Positions:
All hiring for Adjunct employment are done through the CWU Human Resource website. Applications sent directly to the department either electronically or on paper are destroyed without review.
There is an annual lecturer pool from which we hire full time non-tenure track as well as part-time non-tenure track positions. This pool remains open throughout the year and will be used if openings arise.
In addition, listings for tenure-track positions are posted at the same site when they become available.
The Mathematics Department maintains a list of students who are interested in tutoring other students. Please contact the Department Secretary Brenda Bland for more information.
Students may also find employment at the University Math Center as tutors or instructors. Please contact the University Learning Support Services Director Prairie Brown for more information.
CWU is an AA/EOE/Title IX Institution.
Once again, the Mathematics Department has been recognized for its outstanding faculty. Central Was
More Than 100 Middle School Students To Attend GEAR UP Math FestivalMore than 100 middle-school students in will descend upon the Central Washington University campus t
$20,000 Scholarships Available To Junior STEM Students, April 1 DeadlineApproximately seven, two-year scholarships in the amount of $20,000 will be awarded to academically


text:
Routes : North America : Canada : Quebec : Outaouais : Lac du Poisson Blanc : Main Wall : The Good Book
The Good Book - 5.7
Average Rating : 0.00 out of 5Route sequence (left to right): 1
Route Summary | Ascent Notes (0)
Premier Sponsor:
Excellent gear in the corner crack all the way up. But will the pillar stay still?
When you approach the cliff, this is the climb that makes you go "Holly crap, look at that!" Classic layback like you won't find many around here.
Submitted by: yeti on 2003-02-12
Views: 728
Route ID: 32288


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Janus-Faced Dances, Interrupted, Look Forward and Back
Ben Munisteri's work evokes the discarded Christmas trees littering our sidewalks, each with its perfect, natural structurea long, straight axis and branches splayed in neat, spoke-like patternsand its own capricious flair: needle cowlicks, broken limbs, and sad tufts of tinsel. Take, for example, his world premiere, Tuesday, 4 a.m., inspired by the mysterious, pre-dawn state of mind that, he says, sets up a duality between structure and spontaneity, for the "formalist plunge" he's taking with his DTW program. The theme of the evening, he says, is "dances that are at once structured and unstructured."
What makes Tuesday unique is the challenge of its score, Stravinsky's Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, which Munisteri (who studied music at Oberlin) used as his choreographic road map. "The only reason I knew what was coming next," he says, "is that I had the sheet music in front of me." Stravinsky is no gracious guidehe's wily and whimsical, apt to interrupt his own train of thought with gloriously unpredictable rhythms and sudden dynamic changes. Munisteri and his six dancers (all of whom deserve their own accolades) can handle anything. Amid a ballet-based structure of impeccably clean linessearing diagonals that send the eye racing from one corner of the stage to anotherand graceful ensemble work, the choreographer punches holes in his own meticulously displayed order: A dancer jetés across the floor, then gets a piggyback ride to where she started; chaîné turns become cleverly clumsy when performers spot in the wrong direction. In the middle of a highly technical sequence, one woman slips in a shoulder shimmy and then undulates her torso, resembling a sea creature at a rave. Dancers cavort like overdramatized cartoon characters, wave coyly, give bear hugs, and huddle together and drum their feet like football players. As in Stravinsky's music, the action is quirky without being campy and erratic without being discordant. "It's all about finding that balance," says Munisteri.
In Case You Missed It
Upcoming Events
TicketsSun., Mar. 26, 3:00pm
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text:
Or 6 payments of $1,812.50
"LIST PRICE" is the suggested retail price provided to us by our suppliers and/or manufacturers. We make no representation that a substantial number of these products have been sold or offered for sale at the list price. Actual retail prices in your area may be substantially different. Because we sell our merchandise over the internet on a national basis, it is not possible to know if our merchandise is sold at list price in any particular location or at any particular time. In addition, manufacturers may use formulas to determine the suggested retail price which may not correspond to what a product actually sells for regularly. "SAVINGS" and/or the "% OFF" shown throughout our site reflects the difference between our price and the supplier/manufacturer provided list price shown on our sites. Because the list price may be different than the actual retail prices in your area, you may not actually realize a savings of this amount and may want to make an exact comparison for yourself by checking the prices of other internet or local retailers prior to making a purchase.
Or 6 payments of $1,812.50
Product Specs
Case Size (mm): | |
Movement: | |
Band Type: | |
Band Material: | |
Gender: | |
Water resistant: |
Other Items You May Like
The Pasha collection from Cartier has a variety of timepieces suitable for any man's tastes. This particular watch features an elegant automatic silver-tone dial set in a round, 18K rose gold case with a brown genuine leather strap, all coming together to form a simple yet stylish accessory that will complete any man's collection.
Brand: | Cartier |
WOW Id: | 290304 |


text:
About Us At Pebble Grey we are dedicated to providing an extensive range of bathroom mirrors, cabinets and accessories that are at the forefront of design Quality Value Innovation Trust
Our Story Pebble Grey was born in 2008, during Director Helena Sheldrake's summer holiday. Having finished college Helena wanted to earn some money to go away with her boyfriend before starting university. She began to sell bathroom mirrors via eBay and quickly got the bug! She loved the thrill of buying and selling so much that she postponed university for a year in order to build up a reserve of money to see her through uni life. After a research trip to China with boyfriend Mike, Director of kitchen lighting company Sensio, Helena officially registered Pebble Grey in late 2008. From there she began to move away from eBay and invest time and money into building a website and brand. When the time came around again to make the decision about university, Helena opted for an Open University degree in Business Studies with Economics, so she could continue to grow Pebble Grey whilst studying. By February 2010 Helena had employed her first member of staff and a year later the company had grown to a four-man team, moved into their first proper premises and was exhibiting at the industry-leading Grand Designs Live show in London. 2013 has seen further success for Pebble Grey. In July the team moved into new, bigger premises to cope with demand, alongside family-owned, furniture lighting solutions company, Sensio. Pebble Grey's branding and website has also had an overhaul, making buying via the website much easier. And the company is on target to reach a projected turnover of £2m by year-end.
OUR MISSION Our mission is to run a successful and profitable business and become the UK's leading online retailer in the bathroom industry. Delivering value through excellence in design, quality and customer service at a competitive price achieved by working faster, smarter and together. In pursuing this mission we strive to deliver value to: Our Customers: through great value, marketing leading products and delivering a first class secure internet shopping experience. Our People: through a stimulating environment that encourages innovation and team working, inspiring individuals to be the best. Our Business: through maximising return on investment and increased productivity, becoming a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organisation to support and sustain reinvestment for future growth and development of the company.
Our Products We love bathrooms and we want you to love yours too! Our extensive range of market-leading, modern and contemporary mirrors and cabinets are at the forefront of design and the range is constantly updated to provide you with the latest features and trends. Many of our mirrors come with pre-installed extras, such as demister pads, shaver sockets and motion sensor switches, instantly transforming the practicality of your bathroom. All of our mirrors carry the IP44 rating for installation in bathrooms and our pre-installed additional mirror features are rigorously tested to ensure that they comply with UK regulations. The shaver socket comes with a protective covering to ensure customer safety and practicality. You can also rest assured that all of our LED mirrors use the latest technology and are extremely energy efficient, running at low wattage, reducing your energy costs.
Our Promise We understand that electrical items in the bathroom can be tricky to install. So, not only do we strive to provide the highest quality products, but also the best possible customer service too. All mirrors purchased from Pebble Grey are delivered complete with a step-by-step support guide to assist with installation. We have a dedicated customer service team on hand, who offer telephone support to answer any queries regarding our bathroom mirrors, cabinets and finishing touches. Our after sales team will keep you fully informed at every stage regarding your order status and you can conveniently track delivery online. We take great care to ensure safe delivery of your Pebble Grey mirror and use anti-damage protective packaging. Quality Value Innovation Trust


text:
ஒ ! சட்டை மேலே எவ்ளோ பட்டன்
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Thanks for sharing such useful information. I think this is really a very nice post. Thanks for the great content!
Thanks for nice animal picture.worldisfunny


text: PCR TOOL 8 Participatory Design Introduction PCR Tool 5: Learning from the Housing Sector, describes how housing is produced in varying contexts. The use of a professional architect to design a house to a client's individual specifications is predominantly reserved for the rich. Most who purchase housing in the formal sector have their houses designed by a developer and built by a contractor, with limited opportunity to influence the process. These two cases refer to formal urban housing. With informal housing, both urban and rural, residents may engage local builders who use traditional designs. One example of this is in East Africa, with the "Swahili House". This generally contains a central corridor, with rooms on each side and a veranda to the front. Where housing is built by residents themselves, or built incrementally, there may be less thought about the design. Therefore, when a disaster strikes, it is usually the low-income, informal housing that suffers the greatest damage. This is mostly attributed to poor location, poor construction and maintenance, and low-quality materials. However, the design may also be to blame. For a building to be disaster resistant it must comply with certain rules related to the location of buildings, their shape, the position of openings, and their structure. Many architects and engineers know these rules, but residents and informal builders frequently do not. Hence the involvement of architects and engineers in reconstruction is important. This is no reason to advocate a topdown reconstruction process, however. Participatory design brings together residents and professionals, to ensure that both have a say in how houses are rebuilt. This not only creates safer housing, but also ensures that the people's own resources are mobilised and contribute effectively. Participatory design enables residents to stamp their own identity on their living environment, generating greater satisfaction and ownership. Why is design important for building back better? A good design can dramatically change the resilience of a building to disasters. This is evident in studies of the design and production of housing in a given location, and disaster-damage assessments. In PCR Tool 5: Learning from the housing sector, we described three predominant housing production processes and how these influence disaster performance. Informal housing was shown to perform worst as a result of underlying factors, such as poverty and vulnerability, forcing people to build on risky sites with poor materials and designs. Some of these factors may change following a disaster, for example, there may be temporarily more resources available for housing, but many factors will remain unchanged and need to be considered when designing for disasterresistance. Fortunately, informal housing does not always perform badly. Some is designed following informal traditional rules based on previous disaster experience; architects or engineers may be able to identify these features and incorporate them in reconstruction. For example, following the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, traditional timber frames, dhajji dewari, were used based on experience of their resilience. In PCR Tool 3: Learning from Disasters, we explained how damage assessments of housing following a disaster can help define which designs and technologies are most disaster resistant. Studies of the damage caused by earthquakes have highlighted the most common design weaknesses: poor site selection,(on slopes prone to landslides or in plains that suffer from liquefaction); irregular building shapes; openings too close to corners or intersections or irregularly distributed; heavy roofs; absence of horizontal reinforcement and lintels over openings that do not protrude sideways sufficiently; poor or absent foundations; weak bonding, particularly at corners; poor structural connections; alterations to buildings; and weak first floors, very open in plan and with overhanging higher floors. Similar studies after storms point at the following common design problems: selection of exposed sites; poor foundations not anchored strongly to the ground or well connected to the walls; open verandas or large eaves the wind can get under to lift the roof; buildings partly on stilts that can be lifted; poor structural connections and lack of bracing; low roof pitches that cause the roof to be sucked off; poor fixing of roof sheets that can send them flying; openings too near to corners; openings only on the wind side, with no outlet on the opposite site; and louvred windows. 1 Whilst Tool 5 helps explain why and how people design houses the way they do, Tool 3 has highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of those designs. We need to take into account both of these factors in reconstruction. The simplistic approach of providing cash grants is insufficient to ensure effective reconstruction. Used alone it will frequently result in poorly resistant housing, because people: • may not understand how and why certain house-types are more resistant to disasters than others; • are unlikely to use a knowledgeable designer; • may copy what others are doing, without being able to verify whether that is good or bad; • may build hybrid houses, a mixture of modern and traditional shapes and materials, which tend to be less resistant; • may try to build on top of partially destroyed houses, perpetuating the risks. • can be over-ambitious, starting to build a house that is too big for their budget, then leave it unfinished or finish it poorly, increasing their vulnerability. These problems can be avoided through involving of architects and experienced professionals in the planning and reconstruction process. However, architects must understand local building techniques and preferences. A study of the housing sector can help them to do so. They also need to know existing local approaches to withstanding disasters which can be understood through conducting damage assessments, observations, published documents and talks with key informants. Disaster-resistant design principles From decades of disaster damage observations and experience designing reconstruction projects and programmes, we now have a good knowledge of disaster-resistant design principles. Those applicable to small buildings such as houses are listed in the table on the opposite page for the most common disasters: storms; earthquakes; floods and landslides. A lot more detail can be found in the literature; see, e.g. Coburn et al. (1995) in the Resources section. The importance of participation It was recognised as early as the 1970s by authors such as John Turner (1976). that residents make most of the decisions in low-income housing. He argued that the process of producing housing is more important than the actual end product, since it builds people's capacities and empowers them. In 1976, the first Habitat Conference in Vancouver made people's participation a central element of 2 future housing policies and strategies. But housing agencies struggled to implement it, facing the dilemma of determining : 'whose participation in whose decisions and whose actions'? (Turner 1976) In today's terminology, we would probably call this the dilemma of good governance. There is ample evidence now that participation and the establishment of partnerships between various stakeholders can be effective in solving deficiencies in housing and related services, whilst at the same time building the social and human assets of those involved (see e.g. Hamdi, 1995).Yet, many humanitarian agencies involved in reconstruction are still struggling with this dilemma. They tend to work in a 'supply mode' when providing relief, which makes it hard to shift to a 'support mode', when they get to reconstruction. As a result, participation is practised in current reconstruction projects and programmes, but not in the design stage. If people are to be less vulnerable to disasters in the future, they not only need more resilient houses, but also to become more resilient themselves. The process of participation helps to empower them, to build their capabilities and social networks, and to consider livelihoods issues in reconstruction, all of which are key components of vulnerability reduction. Thus, participation needs to be ensured from an early stage in the entire reconstruction process, including the design stage. A changing role for architects In some countries, the traditionally elitist role of the architect who mainly works for wealthy clients, is changing. The Dutch architect Johan van Lengen, working with the people of Mexico and later Brasil, described these reoriented professionals as 'barefoot architects' (1982); others, like Rod Hackney in the UK (1988) call them 'community architects'. Pioneers in the USA include Michael Pyatok and Hanno Webber. In North America and Europe, community architects are assisting low-income families and homeless people to renovate derelict inner city buildings into living spaces; others work with the inhabitants of old and poor quality neighbourhoods to upgrade or renovate housing. Also in North America and in Japan, a network of community design centres has been set up, generally in lower-income urban areas, where local residents can obtain advice and information, get drawings prepared for buildings or renovations and get in touch with builders who have been vetted on the quality of their work. Rodolfo Livingston is well-known for his work in Argentina and Cuba. In the latter country, the Programme of the Architect of the Community is now well established, in which architects work with communities to develop housing designs that they or organised building brigades can use for construction. It is from such pioneer architects, Some principles of designing for safety Designing for wind resistance Designing for earthquake resistance • Select a sheltered site; avoid long and narrow (<6 m) streets; position houses in a staggered way rather than in rows; create wind breaks by planting trees, hedges etc.; • Make buildings heavy, so it is more difficult for the wind to blow them away; • Use a compact shape, with low walls, to present minimum obstruction to winds; • a hipped roof, pitched at 30-45º, with small eaves to prevent uplift; avoid gables, as they may be pushed inwards; • If a veranda is required, separate veranda frame and covering from the main roof; • Tie roofing sheets well to the roof frame; flying sheets can be lethal; in the case of gci sheet roofing, provide overlaps of 2.5 corrugation, and closer spaced 'U' bolts along ridges and external walls; • Reinforce structural connections with 'hurricane straps'; • Make solid foundations, well anchored to the ground; • Provide strong structural joints and fixings, especially between walls and foundations, and walls and roof; use diagonal bracing; • Give walls a rough finish to reduce wind suction; • Position openings centrally and away from corners and intersections; provide openings on both sides of rooms, so that the wind can eventually pass through, rather than lift the roof; • Ensure all windows can be closed; avoid louvres - if they are essential, provide storm shutters or board them up before storms. • Select a solid site; avoid landfills, flood plains and steep slopes; • Make buildings light to reduce the horizontal forces caused by earthquakes; • Make roofs light to avoid them pushing walls sideways and falling-in on people; • Design compact buildings with a symmetrical shape and closely spaced walls in both directions. If that cannot be done, design them in separate blocks; • Separate adjacent small buildings by at least 75 mm; • Avoid gables, they may fall inwards; • If buildings have more than one floor, opt for similar floor shapes and designs; • Position the foundations on rock or firm soil, avoid stepped foundations; • Provide strong joints between structural components; use a ring beam and a plinth beam where possible; use bracing at corners; • If masonry walls are used, create good bond especially at corners and intersections; • If concrete pillars are used, lap vertical reinforcements mid way between floors and not just above floors; • Keep openings to a minimum, well distributed over the building and within walls; keep them centrally positioned, at least 60 cm away from the inside of corners and intersections and from the nearest other opening Designing to cope with floods Designing to cope with landslides • Avoid sites close to rivers and other waterways that are known to flood; • Provide for good site drainage and good waste management, as waste may block waterways; • Plan for measures, such as small dams or gabions that can reduce the speed of water; • Plan any new infrastructure very carefully. Some, such as road or railway embankments, may have devastating effects by re-directing flood waters; • Lift buildings onto stilts or raised platforms - where the latter is used, a larger platform for a cluster of houses is preferable over single platforms, to reduce the effect of erosion; • Provide deep foundations that keep buildings in place even in strong currents, eventually include a ring beam at plinth level. The minimum depth should be 600 mm in solid soils - if stones are used, select angular, not round ones; • Avoid the use of soil in foundations or walls that may be reached by flood waters. These lower sections of walls should be made of more durable materials that can resist the shocks of debris floating in water; • Protect organic materials such as timber and bamboo from the effects of humidity. • Avoid building on steep slopes do not make steep cuts in slopes to make space for infrastructure or housing; keep any cuts shallow, as steep cuts may become unstable; • Drain slopes well, as they can become unstable and lose bearing capacity when soaked. For the same reason, avoid the use of soakaways, e.g. for sanitary systems or used household water, on slopes. Use stepped drains to reduce the speed of downward flow of water; • Avoid blocking natural drainage ways with buildings or infrastructure; • Avoid stepped buildings where possible; create terraces for small buildings, but avoid deep cuts and fills; keep any infill at the lower end to a minimum, and stabilise this well; • Foresee retaining walls to retain the slope above terraces, and any infill at the lower end; • Reduce erosion by planting appropriate vegetation on slopes. 3 that we can learn a lot about participatory design. Essentially, in participatory design, architects and residents jointly design a dwelling that is culturally and climatically appropriate. The architects, although giving up their traditional lead role and professional responsibility, assist and technically guide residents, CBOs and their local builders, on disaster-resistant design. Participatory design can be used to develop plans for individual households, but this approach is not necessarily as effective in meeting the needs of large target groups. In non-disaster situations, participatory design is generally used by architects working with communities, e.g. in a street, apartment block, or an organised group of people who want to build anew or turn an existing building into houses, but the key is in striking a balance between these individual needs and plans, and the needs of the community. Often the result is the development of a number of standard house plans, from which community members then can choose. This method could be applied to reconstruction projects. It is possible, however, to incorporate a degree of flexibility in order to respond to individual needs. One solution is to jointly decide on the shape, structure and essential internal divisions of a house, but then leave it to the inhabitants to decide on some of the infills and finishes (anything that has no essential structural role, including resisting disasters). The idea of separating "supports" (structure) from "infill" (internal completion) in housing was first suggested by the Dutch architect N. John Habraken (1972), as a way of giving inhabitants a meaningful participatory role in design. Another option is to allow a certain degree of modification of standard house plans, through collaboration of a designer with individual households. The advance of computer-aided design (CAD) has now made this a lot easier, as illustrated by Practical Action's post-tsunami reconstruction in Sri Lanka. CAD systems, however, are still relatively expensive. Wikipedia provides a comparison of different types of software; see the Resources section. Participatory design can also be used to design other community buildings, such as community centres, schools; health centres; markets or commercial areas; workshops; communal water and sanitation blocks, etc. This is closely linked with participatory planning (see PCR Tool 7: Planning with the People), and is best done immediately after, or even during, the planning process. Whilst planning is mainly concerned with settlement layout, the provision of infrastructure, and the position of house plots, participatory design will 4 photo © IFRC Where and when to use participatory design? Participatory design in Bangladesh then specify how these plots are to be filled in. The discussion with communities on design needs to address house plans as well as specifications for materials and components. The design group will also need to think about how the houses will be built - by themselves, by local builders or others - as the availability and skills of those builders determine which construction technologies are feasible. Furthermore, they will need to consider whether materials can be salvaged, produced and supplied locally, or have to come from elsewhere. It is important to consider at this stage that using local materials and builders can also serve to rebuild local livelihoods. Design with communities has limitations. It may be difficult: if a group of disaster-affected people is not really a community, e.g. if they are households prioritised from an official waiting list where it may then be very time consuming for them to build relations and generate sufficient trust for a communal design process to work. Similarly, it can at times be difficult in urban contexts, particularly if these contain much more heterogeneous categories of people. There can also be problems if there is a mixture of tenants and owners and tenure issues cannot be easily resolved or landlords suppress tenants' right to involvement. These issues may be resolved by dividing such groups into more homogeneous smaller groups for which individual plans can be designed. Who needs to be involved? A participatory development process tends to involve different parties that can be divided into the community to be housed and outsiders who support the development process. In the case of participatory design, the latter will always include an architect or otherwise suitably qualified designer. This person may be supported by an engineer who can advise on making buildings disaster resistant and on services required, such as water. The outsiders may also include a representative of the agency funding the building(s), and possibly a representative of the local authority. One 'outsider' people should facilitate the design process, and ensure every participant can have a say. It is important not to have too many outsiders, however, as they may dominate discussions. On behalf of the community, it is important that all sections are represented, but it is not a requirement that every household takes part. It becomes difficult to run a design workshop if there are more than 30 participants, and it is often possible, in relatively homogeneous communities, to develop a series of standard house plans with the participation of less. It is preferable for a community to select its own representatives, unless there are good reasons not to, e.g. if the selection process could be biased. There needs to be sufficient women representation as women's design priorities often differ to those of men. It is also useful to have some older participants who may know more about the history, culture and tradition of housing in the location, and have a memory of previous disasters as well as young participants who have more formal education. Local builders have valuable knowledge of vernacular technologies and designs. It is important to remember that, following a disaster, the proportion of households with missing, ill or disabled members can be much higher than usual; those households may have special design or construction requirements, and therefore need proper representation. If there are a number of very different sections in a target group – a heterogeneous community a participatory design process can become very difficult, as it may be hard to reach agreement. One solution for such cases is to divide the target group into smaller sub-groups and have a participatory design exercise with each of those. Sometimes, communities decide themselves to form smaller groups; this quite often happens when they decide to organise the construction of clusters of houses themselves, in mutual aid. Such groups tend to accommodate a limited number of households, frequently between about 10 and 30, as the management of larger groups in mutually aided construction is quite complex. In such cases, it may also be preferable to have a participatory design exercise with each of those groups. The participatory design process A participatory process for designing houses in a reconstruction programme needs a good facilitator. This is not necessarily the architect or engineer, but could be another member of a support agency with the right skills. The process may involve the following steps: 1. Determine design requirements. Organise meetings with small groups of people and ask them how they design and build their houses, and use the space in them. If, in a separate needs assessment (see PCR Tool 4, Assessment of Reconstruction Needs and Resources), people have listed economic activities, seasonal calendars, or daily activities, it is useful to bring these into the discussion too, as these can highlight livelihood and other activities that may have to be accommodated in or around the house. Distinguish the activities and needs of men and women. 2. Discuss disaster resistance. Ask the groups what they normally do to protect their houses from natural hazards. Have some houses received less damage than others during the recent disaster? Why do people think this is so? Can some of the local designs and construction technologies be retained for reconstruction? Would they have to be improved? (see PCR Tool 3, Learning from Disasters). 3. People produce sketches. Ask the groups to produce some outlines of how their houses might look like using pens and papers (or even lines in the soil, they could be photographed to retain the sketches). Ask them to think about what they would like to retain from their traditional house types. Aim to get approximate floor plans for a ground floor and any upper storeys (if there is a need for those). If some people can draw well, they could be asked to produce elevations too. It can be helpful to give names to the rooms, and write in them what activities take place there. The facilitator should keep in mind that producing a vast number of drawings would create a lot of work and time; experience tells us that five or six type designs are sufficient for most locations, and that people rarely select more than three out of those. This may mean that compromises have to be reached between groups over some details. 4. Groups produce models. Groups use the sketches to produce housing models, using wood, hardboard, plastic, canvas etc. Models of individual houses should not be smaller than one twentieth of the real size. People can make some changes to the sketch plans on the models, as the purpose of the modelling is to create a clearer picture and encourage further discussion. Any changes made on the models should be marked on the sketches too. The facilitator should remind people to include measures to mitigate disasters in the models, as well as the sketches, as discussed in step 2; if there are no appropriate local disaster-resistant 5


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Then Danish Crown Jewels are here along with some amazing rooms where Royalty ruled the land.
Honest reviews of Hawaii restaurants and travel experiences from the Santos family in Honolulu, Hawaii. Please join to follow this blog and leave comments about the places you read about. You may also check the boxes under each blog to give us your reaction. Click on "Older Posts" at the bottom of each page to continue your adventure. This blog is for fun only. I am not a food critic. Just call them like I eat them. Enjoy!


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White House touts role in Bennet win
White House officials are using Sen. Michael Bennet's primary victory last night to show that the president and his political team can make a difference for vulnerable Dems when it counts — hoping to spotlight Colorado as the counter-example to previous failures in Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and others.
White House officials contacted various national news outlets over the last 12 hours with a list of the things they had done to push Bennet over the finish line, including helping the Senator target women and Latinos that came out for Obama big in the state in 2008.
Bennet acknowledged the help in an interview this morning on Good Morning America but promptly hedged over the question of how much he wants the President to campaign for him in November, given Obama's low approval ratings with independent voters. "We will have to see," he told George Stephanopoulos when asked whether the Obama would campaign for him this fall.
Here's the list the White House is putting out on the help it provided Bennet, via the Wall Street Journal's political blog:
— Securing an automated call to Hispanics from comedian George Lopez, who called Bennet "the real deal" and said he "has stood by our community," including on immigration issues.
— Automated calls and call-ins to radio shows by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.
— An e-mail to Bennet's fundraising list from Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe.
— A mailer, targeting women, touting Bennet's vote for the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act under the headline: "Michael Bennet and President Obama. Making sure women and their families get equal pay for equal work."
— Raising $700,000 for the campaign from fundraisers with Obama in February, Education Secretary Arne Duncan in March, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan in June.
— Help from the Democratic National Committee's "targeting team" in honing the Bennet campaign's voter target list.
— An automated call from Obama, as well as his participation last week in a telephone town hall meeting with voters who had not yet cast their mail-in ballots.


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Moving my compressor (electrical)
Hi All,
You talked me into replacing my PVC airlines, so I'm gonna go one better and move my compressor out of the shop to my back garage where it'll be in a cleaner environment. It's a 7.5 HP, 240V, 29 cfm, with 80 gal tank, currently on a 5 ft run of 10-2 wire and 30A breaker. The new placement will take 60 ft of wire and a simple switch box (keeping the original breaker as-is). Does anyone have a chart that shows wire size vs. run length? I'm thinking 10-2 should still be OK even at 60 ft... Russ
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I just installed my compressor, which sounds a lot like yours. Here is the link to the thread. Hope this helps.
James What size wire? |
Just guessing, that motors gonna be somewhere around 30-34 RLA, so I would use at least #8 wire with a 50A breaker. I bet that 5 feet of #10 got hot when your compressor ran before lol. Cuz Im sure it was loaded! And Im surprised it didnt trip that 30A breaker occasionally. Do you know exactly how many amps the motor draws?
P.S. Congrats on ridding yourself of the PVC |
I couldn't find RLA specs on the motor and it's turned so that I cannot see the tag. The run load is 24.3A. I think I'm gonna use 6-2 w/G just to be sure. I found this write-up for wire sizing, but it specifically precludes high-load motors. Shows 8ga safe for 55A and 6ga safe for 75A. My calcs show a VDI of 7.5 using 30A on 60ft of wire.
Russ |
Bought 60ft of 6-2 w/ground @ $1.79 per (ouch!) total of $108.00. The 8-2 was only $0.20 per cheaper or $12.00 less... Wiring was almost as much as the 1/2" copper piping!
Russ |
YIKES!!! Thats high alright. Probably cuz theres as much copper in the wire as the pipe lol. Good luck with it
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Enter the enchanting world of the Carpathians, where dark adventure, mystery, and love await, and the desires of two daring hearts unite in one irresistible passion.
A telepathic hunter of serial killers, Raven Whitney helps to catch some of the most depraved criminals. But her work keeps her from getting close to others, and has drained her body and spirit. In need of rest and rejuvenation, she embarks for a vacation far from home.
Mikhail Dubrinsky is the prince of the Carpathians, the powerful leader of a wise and secret ancient race that thrives in the night. Engulfed by despair, fearful of never finding the mate who can save him from the encroaching darkness, his soul cries out in loneliness - until the day that a beautiful voice full of light and love responds, softly soothing his pain and yearning.
From the moment they meet, Raven and Mikhail are helpless to resist the desire that sparks between them. But just as fate unexpectedly brings these life mates together, malevolent forces threaten to destroy them and their fragile love. Yet even if they survive, how can these two lovers - Carpathian and human - build a future together? And how can Mikhail bring Raven into his dark world without extinguishing her beautiful goodness and light?
©2011 Christine Feehan (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers
I love books, it's my great escape.
"The 2nd time around is just as good or better"
Christine Feehan is Awsome, I did not think she could make this story any better, but I was wrong. The narrator is great too, you will not be disappointed.
"Induces excessive eye rolling"
Although I have enjoyed other books written by Christine Feehan, I couldn't recommend this to anyone. It was honestly difficult to finish. I think the storyline had great potential, but unfortunately, the main characters never gained appeal to me. At first I thought it was just the narrator's voice for Raven (the female protagonist) that was grating on my nerves, but after a while, I realized it was just the character herself. If there was a stupid choice to be made, Raven predictably made it every time. Trying to understand her reasoning (her compassion for others, her belief in free will, etc.) didn't help at all. She came across as ridiculous damsel, who was always in distress. And the male lead, as attractive as he was written, lost some of his appeal to me, because of his willingness to cater to and coddle such a dolt! So disappointed. Don't waste your credit here. If you want to listen to Christine Feehan, I'd recommend the Ghostwalker series over this.
"Utterly Supurb!!!"
Like the last reviewer said Juanita Parker didn't do this series justice. Abby Craden does a fantastic job, and she can actually say 'Gregori' instead of 'Gregory' unlike her predecessor. Is there any chance she could re-do Ms Parkers efforts??
"Could have been so much better"
To start with...the narrator was absolutely fantastic! I have a soft spot for Phil Gigante but Abby Craden was even better because she was able to do an excellent job even with the male voices. FANTASTIC!
The story line was good and could have been great. Truthfully, if I hear "possession" one more time - I am going to puke! If you're a female who enjoys being "possessed" by a male, then go for it. It irked me to no end. The heroine is smart but stupid, Mikael gentle but possessive. How idiotic. She kept saying she has a mind but acted like a stupid ditsy girl. He kept saying he wants to accommodate her independence but when it came down to it, it was "do as I say or I will take over and do it for you!"
I really like the story but was greatly annoyed by the two main characters. I had also listened to another Feehan novel (out of sequence) with a similar annoyance ( so, I haven't learned my lesson!) and this one seemed to be the first of the series. But, it was added very recently. It made the whole storyline a little confusing for me.
Overall, if you can manage the cons, there is none better than Feehan to write those steamy scenes. But, beware of being 'possessed'.
"Good but...."
I'm a guy who can enjoy an occasional romance and this book is a good one, occasionally. The sex is drawn out, overblown, full of every cliche imaginable and hard to get through sometimes. Come to think of it, that describes much of the book. The premise is interesting though and keeps me listening. Have large doubts about making it "deep into her velvet sheath" of a series.
A narrator can really ruin a book and that is what Juanita Parker did to the first few books in the dark series. Abby Craden did a much better job and I really enjoyed listening to this book again!!!
"Good book"
Great start to the series - good storyline - took a bit to get past the long drawn out sex scenes but ffwd works well.
The best thing about this book was the narrator. Smooth as silk voice. The rest was just well, boring. Whiny heroine, arrogant male hero and just endless dialogue that really didn't move me emotionally or entertain me with the plot. I know that's asking a lot of PNR BUT JR Ward and Jeanine Frost seem to manage it.
I love books and love to get lost in the fantasy. I'm always looking for a new good story to bury myself in. :)
"Very good start to the series :)"
4 stars
This was a very good story. I've actually read it before (3-4 years ago) and didn't review it then. This time around I listened to the extended audio version of the story but it's been so long since I read the normal version I can't tell the difference. I liked the story and will be continuing the series.
Raven is a american woman that has psychic abilities. She's used her abilities to help the police catch 4 serial killers but at a great cost to her own mind and risking her sanity. Raven goes on vacation to the Carpathian mountains to rest up and recover but finds an unexpected adventure along the way.
Mikhail is a Carpathian male and the prince of his people (there's no king so he's the top dog). Carpathians are born vampires with other abilities like shape shifting (to any form, even mist), magic spells and psychic powers. The males of the Carpathians have a darkness in them and if they don't find their lifemates, they can loss their souls and become evil. Mikhail's people are in dire straights because they don't have many women and the woman that do get pregnant usually give birth to males so their males aren't finding lifemates. Mikhail himself is close to the edge when the story begins.
Raven is in an inn in the Carpathian mountains and she feels a horrible pain being broadcast over psychic wavelengths. The pain is so great that she can't help but reach out to try to sooth whomever it is. Mikhail has been riding close to going evil and thought to meet the sun instead of letting himself go bad. When Raven reaches out to him, he feels hope for the first time and he has to find out who she is. When he does, Mikhail is surprised that she's human but he's sure she's his lifemate. He pulls Raven into his life without her being able to put up much of a protest. Because they're lifemates there's a strong pull between them but regardless of this, Raven is kind of freaked by Mikhail and is stuck between wanting to run from him and wanting to do anything she can to save him from his sadness.
The relationship between Raven and Mikhail begins roughly to say the least. Mikhail is the leader of his people and tends to command and be domineering which doesn't go over to well with Raven. Although he tries to continue his domineering ways for a bit, Mikhail soon realizes he's going to have to change to keep Raven happy. He does bond them before Raven truly knows what's going on though and that comes back to bite him in the behind but it also helps ensure Raven sticks around long enough for their bond to cement. There are some problems with another psychic and some vampire hunters with loose morals who are content to kill people they hope are vampires. They cause much drama and danger that has to be dealt with but may still have lasting repercussions. Things work out well for Mikhail and Raven though and they end the story starting a well deserved HEA together.
This was a very enjoyable story. I liked Mikhail very much. He was a bit domineering at times but he soon curbed his more overly pushiness. I liked Raven for the most part but she had issues with being a TSTL heroine at times. Mikhail told her that once they bonded that if she died, he'd died and that was that. Then a few different times when things were really tough, she sought death as both a way out and to "save" Mikhail...conveniently forgetting that her dying would kill Mikhail. It just happened one too many times to no be stupid. Outside of that I liked Raven pretty well. The story was very good and kept me interested through the end. I'd recommend this book.
"not able to go beyond the 1st of the 3 sections"
I was really looking forward to this book. It started great and within literally 5 min the hero was in love and in another 2 minutes the heroin was returning the sentiments. Oh ppppppppppp--lease. Soooo goofy. Literally nothing happened the entire first third. A little sex and I guess we should all be good to go. No twists necessary after that. I really tried but I was board out of my mind. So decided to stop torturing myself. I deleted the book from my phone. Phew. Now on to something with an actual story.
"Louis, Louis, Louis... Still whining, Louis..."
The story was ok, but then I was expecting that because I've read the paperback version of this book. By ok, I mean that it's not going to win any awards but it was entertaining, and I went on to ready the rest of the series.
What put me off is the way the heroine whines and simpers her way through every interaction. It grates on the ears and ruins any lingering notion that she is actually an independently functioning human adult. I couldn't even enjoy the saucy scenes because of it.
"Dark Prince authors cut"
I loved this book so much I ordered the next 4 books. I love how the characters blend with each other and learn to adjust to each others differences both species, beliefs, Social, how the Carpathian species who are used to being dominant in a relationship learn that the Female of the species are just as stubborn. It is good to watch them resolve their issues or compromise. I have read hundreds of books in this genre' each author beliefs are different however' they nearly all believe that if our human species suddenly became aware of another species . Our first reaction would be to destroy it. We fear what we don't understand either because we can't control the new species or for our own selfish reasons.
Mikial finds our human species cruel, destructive and selfish however like the humans he judges from his own moral code and beliefs and Raven is the same however they learn that despite their differences they can gain more than they lose by learning to adapt to each others beliefs. They also have to deal with the world around them the Fanatics whose only aim is the destruction of any species they feel may have more than them or become more
powerful. Their fears are based on greed, religious fanaticism, hatred of anyone who they deem to be different. since reading this series I have gone on to the next and so on I love the fact that you go on to see some of the other characters find their True mates. the stories have everything love hate anger sex healing paranormal basically everything you want from a book and more keep it up Christine K.
I've read a few of her books but confess that I tried 5 times to get into this and found myself more and more annoyed each time. The girl Raven drove me nuts, she has less spine than Bella Swan who at least had the idea of what was going on, but not this one. Sadley I have consigned this book to the back bedroom shelf to gather dust!