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Terms of Service - Code Quality Products @ Diligences Inc.
Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using the Website. By accessing or using any part of the web site, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the Website or use any services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by Diligences, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms. The Website is available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old.
If you create an account on the Website, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account. You must immediately notify Diligences of any unauthorized uses of your account or any other breaches of security. Diligences will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.
you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by Diligences or otherwise.
User contributions are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Diligences has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Diligences’s sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in Diligences’s reasonable opinion, violates any Diligences policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in Diligences’s sole discretion. Diligences will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.
Optional paid services or upgrades may be available on the Website. When utilizing an optional paid service or upgrade, you agree to pay Diligences the monthly or annual subscription fees indicated. Payments will be charged on a pre-pay basis on the day you begin utilizing the service or upgrade and will cover the use of that service or upgrade for a monthly or annual subscription period as indicated. These fees are not refundable.
Unless you notify Diligences before the end of the applicable subscription period that you want to cancel a service or upgrade, your subscription will automatically renew and you authorize us to collect the then-applicable annual or monthly subscription fee (as well as any taxes) using any credit card or other payment mechanism we have on record for you. Subscriptions can be canceled at any time.
Optional Hosting and Support services may be provided by Diligences under the terms and conditions for each such service. By signing up for a Hosting/Support or Support services account, you agree to abide by such terms and conditions.
We offer HTTPS as a paid add-on. By signing up and using a custom domain on diligences.com, you authorize us to act on the domain name registrant’s behalf (by requesting the necessary certificates, for example) for the sole purpose of providing HTTPS on your site.
Enterprise Hosting services are provided by Diligences under the terms and conditions for each such service, which are determined by a customer-specific contract. By signing up for an Enterprise Hosting account you agree to abide by such terms and conditions.
Diligences has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to the Website, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating the Website, Diligences does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Website may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. Diligences disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Website, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.
We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which diligences.com links, and that link to diligences.com. Diligences does not have any control over those non-diligences.com websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-diligences.com website or webpage, Diligences does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. Diligences disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-diligences.com websites and webpages.
As Diligences asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by diligences.com violates your copyright, and if this website resides in the USA, you are encouraged to notify Diligences in accordance with Diligences’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Policy. Diligences will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. Diligences will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the Website if, under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Diligences or others. In the case of such termination, Diligences will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to Diligences.
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In no event will Diligences, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to Diligences under this agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. Diligences shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.
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This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between Diligences and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Diligences, or by the posting by Diligences of a revised version. Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement, any access to or use of the Website will be governed by the laws of the state of California, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County, California. Except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or claims regarding intellectual property rights (which may be brought in any competent court without the posting of a bond), any dispute arising under this Agreement shall be finally settled in accordance with the Comprehensive Arbitration Rules of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, Inc. (“JAMS”) by three arbitrators appointed in accordance with such Rules. The arbitration shall take place in San Francisco, California, in the English language and the arbitral decision may be enforced in any court. The prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce this Agreement shall be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; Diligences may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

lowercased:
terms of service - code quality products @ diligences inc.
please read this agreement carefully before accessing or using the website. by accessing or using any part of the web site, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. if you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the website or use any services. if these terms and conditions are considered an offer by diligences, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms. the website is available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old.
if you create an account on the website, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account. you must immediately notify diligences of any unauthorized uses of your account or any other breaches of security. diligences will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.
you have, in the case of content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by diligences or otherwise.
user contributions are licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 3.0 unported license. without limiting any of those representations or warranties, diligences has the right (though not the obligation) to, in diligences’s sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in diligences’s reasonable opinion, violates any diligences policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the website to any individual or entity for any reason, in diligences’s sole discretion. diligences will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.
optional paid services or upgrades may be available on the website. when utilizing an optional paid service or upgrade, you agree to pay diligences the monthly or annual subscription fees indicated. payments will be charged on a pre-pay basis on the day you begin utilizing the service or upgrade and will cover the use of that service or upgrade for a monthly or annual subscription period as indicated. these fees are not refundable.
unless you notify diligences before the end of the applicable subscription period that you want to cancel a service or upgrade, your subscription will automatically renew and you authorize us to collect the then-applicable annual or monthly subscription fee (as well as any taxes) using any credit card or other payment mechanism we have on record for you. subscriptions can be canceled at any time.
optional hosting and support services may be provided by diligences under the terms and conditions for each such service. by signing up for a hosting/support or support services account, you agree to abide by such terms and conditions.
we offer https as a paid add-on. by signing up and using a custom domain on diligences.com, you authorize us to act on the domain name registrant’s behalf (by requesting the necessary certificates, for example) for the sole purpose of providing https on your site.
enterprise hosting services are provided by diligences under the terms and conditions for each such service, which are determined by a customer-specific contract. by signing up for an enterprise hosting account you agree to abide by such terms and conditions.
diligences has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to the website, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. by operating the website, diligences does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. you are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. the website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. the website may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. diligences disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the website, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.
we have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which diligences.com links, and that link to diligences.com. diligences does not have any control over those non-diligences.com websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. by linking to a non-diligences.com website or webpage, diligences does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. you are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. diligences disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-diligences.com websites and webpages.
as diligences asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. if you believe that material located on or linked to by diligences.com violates your copyright, and if this website resides in the usa, you are encouraged to notify diligences in accordance with diligences’s digital millennium copyright act (“dmca”) policy. diligences will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. diligences will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the website if, under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of diligences or others. in the case of such termination, diligences will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to diligences.
this agreement does not transfer from diligences to you any diligences or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with diligences. diligences, diligences.com, the diligences.com logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with diligences.com, or the website are trademarks or registered trademarks of diligences or diligences’s licensors. other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the website may be the trademarks of other third parties. your use of the website grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any diligences or third-party trademarks.
diligences reserves the right to display attribution links such as ‘powered by diligences.com,’ theme author, and font attribution in your content footer.
diligences reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this agreement. it is your responsibility to check this agreement periodically for changes. your continued use of or access to the website following the posting of any changes to this agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. diligences may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the website (including, the release of new tools and resources). such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this agreement.
diligences may terminate your access to all or any part of the website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. if you wish to terminate this agreement or your diligences.com account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using the website. all provisions of this agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.
the website is provided “as is”. diligences and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. neither diligences nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the website will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. if you’re actually reading this, here’s a treat. you understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, the website at your own discretion and risk.
in no event will diligences, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to diligences under this agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. diligences shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. the foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.
you agree to indemnify and hold harmless diligences, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of the website, including but not limited to your violation of this agreement.
this agreement constitutes the entire agreement between diligences and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of diligences, or by the posting by diligences of a revised version. except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this agreement, any access to or use of the website will be governed by the laws of the state of california, u.s.a., excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in san francisco county, california. except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or claims regarding intellectual property rights (which may be brought in any competent court without the posting of a bond), any dispute arising under this agreement shall be finally settled in accordance with the comprehensive arbitration rules of the judicial arbitration and mediation service, inc. (“jams”) by three arbitrators appointed in accordance with such rules. the arbitration shall take place in san francisco, california, in the english language and the arbitral decision may be enforced in any court. the prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce this agreement shall be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees. if any part of this agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. a waiver by either party of any term or condition of this agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. you may assign your rights under this agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; diligences may assign its rights under this agreement without condition. this agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.


text:
This is the first Randy Singer novel I’ve read and I’m certain it won’t be the last. The combination of the legal, military, political and intrigue is compelling. Yes, some of the legal mumbo-jumbo and Supreme Court protocols were at times a bit tiresome but it wasn’t long before Singer brought us back to the human element. Special forces soldiers who were fighting for their country were killed in a bungled raid in Yemen. And now their loved ones had no father, no husband, no son, no brother and no explanation as to what really happened to their men.
Paige Chambers and Wyatt Jackson are two excellent creations. So different in style, mannerism and attitude but a terrific combination of youthful innocence and seasoned cynicism. And Amanda Hamilton, the President, was a leader with heart and courage to do what is best for the people of the nation not just make the right political move.
I suspect the story line borders on the truth – are the CIA effectively a rogue unit when operating outside the US without appropriate Congressional authority to act? When acts of war occur without appropriate authority are the executive branch protected by the “state secrets” provisions allowing such acts to not be properly brought to account and the perpetrators brought to trial?
Like many novels the novel is set up well and the first 200 pages are compelling. The story sagged a little in the middle as our lawyers went through their processes to testify in multiple court situations. But the last 50 pages or so are brilliant. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and I was kinda sad when it all came to an end.
I do hope Randy Singer has found himself a new hero that he can use in a series of JAG-style novels: Paige Chambers. I know I’ll certainly be reading that series.
If you enjoy watching TV shows like JAG and Madam Secretary you going to enjoy Rule of Law (without the soap opera that sometimes comes with TV shows).
I received a Net Galley copy of Rule of Law as part of the Litfuse Blog Tour with no expectations of a favourable review.
Spirit Bridge is the third and final episode in the Well Spring series. And wow, it sure finishes in a mighty way, so much so I’m very sad that it has now ended.
I’d suggest all readers read the first two in the series: Soul’s Gate and Memory’s Door, not just because they are fabulous novels but they provide a valuable introduction to this final episode.
This one starts where the last one ended, the Warriors Riding hoping to take some time out to rest and convalesce after the battle with Zennon and his demonic warlords. However, the Spirit has other ideas and it isn’t long before the battle is renewed and with tragic circumstances.
Two additional characters play pivotal roles. Simon, who we’ve met previously, and are never quite sure whose side he’s on. Rubart manages this ambiguity brilliantly. The second, Miyo, is in fact a new character and she plays an important leadership role in discerning the insidious plot of Zennon.
Brandon and Dana’s characters are well developed in this episode and I especially grew to like both of them. The romantic tension between them continues as an undercurrent but doesn’t distract the reader in developing empathy for them both.
What I particularly appreciated about this episode is how Rubart presents spiritual warfare in the context of the daily battle we all have in surrendering our desires and hopes to God. He explores it through Reece, Brandon and Dana demonstrating how each of them unknowingly allows the enemy to infiltrate through some form of self-glorification.
This culminates in a fantastic final battle scene that is magnificently described allowing the reader to visualize it effortlessly.
This is a wonderful series that so powerfully demonstrates spiritual warfare in a fictional context that is uplifting, challenging and thrilling in its suspensefulness.
I can’t recommend it enough and so look forward to reading Rubart’s next creation.
Seventeen year old Nyah Parks is a genius hacker whose world is unraveling. Desperate and with no other choice, Nyah turns her programming skills to cracking the firewalls of the world’s largest corporations. She exposes their weaknesses, and then offers her services to secure their systems from hackers.
But when the most dangerous job of her life backfires and forces her to go on the run, she encounters an impossible reality that shouldn’t exist, but does.
A hack unlike any other. A hack that will take her beyond the firewall of the human brain itself. A hack, which may be the only way to save her mother now.
What if there was a way to tap into the unseen reality that surrounds us all? Would you hack in? How far would you go to find the answers to your deepest questions? The answer lies deep beyond the firewall.
As part of the FirstLook Blog Tour Worthy Publishing provided a Q&A with Ted Dekker which adds good background to the above teaser.
I was given the opportunity to participate in Worthy Publishing’s First Look blog tour for Ted Dekker’s latest novel: “Hacker”.
“THE OUTLAW CHRONICLES consist of EYES WIDE OPEN, WATER WALKER and HACKER. Although related through one common character, Stephen, they can be read in any order.
Written in the vein of Ted’s thrillers like Thr3e and Blink, these are transformational stories that take the reader on an intense ride full of twists that unravel the deep mystery or reality in ways rarely seen.
This first instalment in “The Quiet Professionals” series has everything we’ve come to love about Kendig’s writing: thrills a plenty, heart-pounding pace, solid character development, great military heroes, some crazy mad bad guys and a love story in a war zone.
But in this novel, it’s wonderful to see how Kendig has excelled in upping the ante so everything I’ve mentioned is even better.
What I’ve always loved about Kendig’s writing is her tremendous craftsmanship in drawing the reader into her war zone. In Raptor 6 it is no exception. She takes us right into the thick of it. We can feel the tension, hear the guns being fired, smell the sweaty testosterone within the cramped confines of the military vehicle and taste the grittiness of the dust.
And then there’s the love story. A young military leader passionately responsible for leading his small troop go where very few dare but emotionally wounded by events of the past. Torn by serving his nation and opening his heart to what has only led to heartbreak in his past.
The soldier soon meets a striking American but with Afghani blood and an absolute ripper of a name: Zahrah Zarrick. The daughter of a military hero who has returned to her mother’s homeland to bring hope to the children who know no other life than living in a war zone.
Zahrah falls hard for her soldier hero, he reminds her of her father, the decorated General. But it’s her faith and willingness to die serving God that attracts me the most to Zahrah. Kendig handles this well in demonstrating the challenge it can be when faced with terrible consequences for one’s faith.
I’ll stop there before I start giving too much of the engrossing story away.
This is a great start to the series and I can’t wait for next one.
This is different to Tom Pawlik’s first two novels that I enjoyed immensely. Pawlik describes it himself as a ‘coming-of-age’ sort of novel which it is, but one filled with gripping suspense that kept me turning (well flicking, is that what it’s called on a Kindle?) the pages.
Pawlik is masterful in how he describes his settings. In particular, the way he describes Jake and Buck’s boat trip through a creepy swamp had me feeling like I was a third passenger on it. The suspense he creates when danger is at hand is riveting. His scenes with a certain large crocodilian creature reminded me a lot of Peter Benchley’s Jaws.
But it was his character, Abe Garner, an elderly man, misunderstood and rejected by his small community, that grabbed my heart. It is his story that lingers in my mind on finishing the novel. His story is such a beautiful one of grace in action, of forgiveness and not allowing one’s mistreatment to malign one’s life with bitterness, mistrust and hatred.
Read this so you can meet Abe Garner. Oh, and one very large water-dwelling reptile.
Two teenage friends, Austin and Christy, both with “forgotten” childhoods get accidentally lost in a mental hospital. You’d think once they could explain their situation, all would be fine and they’d leave and go on their way.
But this is a Ted Dekker novel.
The hospital authorities re-admit them both as Scott and Alice. So who are they? Are they Austin and Christy or Scott and Alice? Dekker weaves his clever story telling skills in a thrill-of-a-minute ride where even we the reader are unsure of the truth.
The truth? What is it? How can we be certain we know the truth? Why do our perceptions of our reality play such an important part in our understanding of our individual lives? Who can provide the truth, about who we are? about our childhood?
These are great questions which Dekker asks as we the confused reader try to understand what’s going on in the two protagonists lives. Are the doctors and even delightful psychiatrist Nancy really the bad guys?
I love the Gabriel Allon series.
And this one sure doesn’t disappoint. As other reviewers have stated, Daniel Silva has used the same formula with the other books in the series. This is now my third so I’m not tired of it.
I thoroughly enjoy Gabriel’s character, however, wish we’d see some development in Chiara, his wife. She’s obviously very smart but we seem to see her mostly presented as the gorgeous, young wife who is also an extraordinary cook.
Nadia who plays a critical role in this book is a strong character. Rich due to inheritance and desiring to make a difference in the Saudi world as a woman who cares, she is both captivating and very believable.

lowercased:
this is the first randy singer novel i’ve read and i’m certain it won’t be the last. the combination of the legal, military, political and intrigue is compelling. yes, some of the legal mumbo-jumbo and supreme court protocols were at times a bit tiresome but it wasn’t long before singer brought us back to the human element. special forces soldiers who were fighting for their country were killed in a bungled raid in yemen. and now their loved ones had no father, no husband, no son, no brother and no explanation as to what really happened to their men.
paige chambers and wyatt jackson are two excellent creations. so different in style, mannerism and attitude but a terrific combination of youthful innocence and seasoned cynicism. and amanda hamilton, the president, was a leader with heart and courage to do what is best for the people of the nation not just make the right political move.
i suspect the story line borders on the truth – are the cia effectively a rogue unit when operating outside the us without appropriate congressional authority to act? when acts of war occur without appropriate authority are the executive branch protected by the “state secrets” provisions allowing such acts to not be properly brought to account and the perpetrators brought to trial?
like many novels the novel is set up well and the first 200 pages are compelling. the story sagged a little in the middle as our lawyers went through their processes to testify in multiple court situations. but the last 50 pages or so are brilliant. i couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and i was kinda sad when it all came to an end.
i do hope randy singer has found himself a new hero that he can use in a series of jag-style novels: paige chambers. i know i’ll certainly be reading that series.
if you enjoy watching tv shows like jag and madam secretary you going to enjoy rule of law (without the soap opera that sometimes comes with tv shows).
i received a net galley copy of rule of law as part of the litfuse blog tour with no expectations of a favourable review.
spirit bridge is the third and final episode in the well spring series. and wow, it sure finishes in a mighty way, so much so i’m very sad that it has now ended.
i’d suggest all readers read the first two in the series: soul’s gate and memory’s door, not just because they are fabulous novels but they provide a valuable introduction to this final episode.
this one starts where the last one ended, the warriors riding hoping to take some time out to rest and convalesce after the battle with zennon and his demonic warlords. however, the spirit has other ideas and it isn’t long before the battle is renewed and with tragic circumstances.
two additional characters play pivotal roles. simon, who we’ve met previously, and are never quite sure whose side he’s on. rubart manages this ambiguity brilliantly. the second, miyo, is in fact a new character and she plays an important leadership role in discerning the insidious plot of zennon.
brandon and dana’s characters are well developed in this episode and i especially grew to like both of them. the romantic tension between them continues as an undercurrent but doesn’t distract the reader in developing empathy for them both.
what i particularly appreciated about this episode is how rubart presents spiritual warfare in the context of the daily battle we all have in surrendering our desires and hopes to god. he explores it through reece, brandon and dana demonstrating how each of them unknowingly allows the enemy to infiltrate through some form of self-glorification.
this culminates in a fantastic final battle scene that is magnificently described allowing the reader to visualize it effortlessly.
this is a wonderful series that so powerfully demonstrates spiritual warfare in a fictional context that is uplifting, challenging and thrilling in its suspensefulness.
i can’t recommend it enough and so look forward to reading rubart’s next creation.
seventeen year old nyah parks is a genius hacker whose world is unraveling. desperate and with no other choice, nyah turns her programming skills to cracking the firewalls of the world’s largest corporations. she exposes their weaknesses, and then offers her services to secure their systems from hackers.
but when the most dangerous job of her life backfires and forces her to go on the run, she encounters an impossible reality that shouldn’t exist, but does.
a hack unlike any other. a hack that will take her beyond the firewall of the human brain itself. a hack, which may be the only way to save her mother now.
what if there was a way to tap into the unseen reality that surrounds us all? would you hack in? how far would you go to find the answers to your deepest questions? the answer lies deep beyond the firewall.
as part of the firstlook blog tour worthy publishing provided a q&a with ted dekker which adds good background to the above teaser.
i was given the opportunity to participate in worthy publishing’s first look blog tour for ted dekker’s latest novel: “hacker”.
“the outlaw chronicles consist of eyes wide open, water walker and hacker. although related through one common character, stephen, they can be read in any order.
written in the vein of ted’s thrillers like thr3e and blink, these are transformational stories that take the reader on an intense ride full of twists that unravel the deep mystery or reality in ways rarely seen.
this first instalment in “the quiet professionals” series has everything we’ve come to love about kendig’s writing: thrills a plenty, heart-pounding pace, solid character development, great military heroes, some crazy mad bad guys and a love story in a war zone.
but in this novel, it’s wonderful to see how kendig has excelled in upping the ante so everything i’ve mentioned is even better.
what i’ve always loved about kendig’s writing is her tremendous craftsmanship in drawing the reader into her war zone. in raptor 6 it is no exception. she takes us right into the thick of it. we can feel the tension, hear the guns being fired, smell the sweaty testosterone within the cramped confines of the military vehicle and taste the grittiness of the dust.
and then there’s the love story. a young military leader passionately responsible for leading his small troop go where very few dare but emotionally wounded by events of the past. torn by serving his nation and opening his heart to what has only led to heartbreak in his past.
the soldier soon meets a striking american but with afghani blood and an absolute ripper of a name: zahrah zarrick. the daughter of a military hero who has returned to her mother’s homeland to bring hope to the children who know no other life than living in a war zone.
zahrah falls hard for her soldier hero, he reminds her of her father, the decorated general. but it’s her faith and willingness to die serving god that attracts me the most to zahrah. kendig handles this well in demonstrating the challenge it can be when faced with terrible consequences for one’s faith.
i’ll stop there before i start giving too much of the engrossing story away.
this is a great start to the series and i can’t wait for next one.
this is different to tom pawlik’s first two novels that i enjoyed immensely. pawlik describes it himself as a ‘coming-of-age’ sort of novel which it is, but one filled with gripping suspense that kept me turning (well flicking, is that what it’s called on a kindle?) the pages.
pawlik is masterful in how he describes his settings. in particular, the way he describes jake and buck’s boat trip through a creepy swamp had me feeling like i was a third passenger on it. the suspense he creates when danger is at hand is riveting. his scenes with a certain large crocodilian creature reminded me a lot of peter benchley’s jaws.
but it was his character, abe garner, an elderly man, misunderstood and rejected by his small community, that grabbed my heart. it is his story that lingers in my mind on finishing the novel. his story is such a beautiful one of grace in action, of forgiveness and not allowing one’s mistreatment to malign one’s life with bitterness, mistrust and hatred.
read this so you can meet abe garner. oh, and one very large water-dwelling reptile.
two teenage friends, austin and christy, both with “forgotten” childhoods get accidentally lost in a mental hospital. you’d think once they could explain their situation, all would be fine and they’d leave and go on their way.
but this is a ted dekker novel.
the hospital authorities re-admit them both as scott and alice. so who are they? are they austin and christy or scott and alice? dekker weaves his clever story telling skills in a thrill-of-a-minute ride where even we the reader are unsure of the truth.
the truth? what is it? how can we be certain we know the truth? why do our perceptions of our reality play such an important part in our understanding of our individual lives? who can provide the truth, about who we are? about our childhood?
these are great questions which dekker asks as we the confused reader try to understand what’s going on in the two protagonists lives. are the doctors and even delightful psychiatrist nancy really the bad guys?
i love the gabriel allon series.
and this one sure doesn’t disappoint. as other reviewers have stated, daniel silva has used the same formula with the other books in the series. this is now my third so i’m not tired of it.
i thoroughly enjoy gabriel’s character, however, wish we’d see some development in chiara, his wife. she’s obviously very smart but we seem to see her mostly presented as the gorgeous, young wife who is also an extraordinary cook.
nadia who plays a critical role in this book is a strong character. rich due to inheritance and desiring to make a difference in the saudi world as a woman who cares, she is both captivating and very believable.


text:
Later today, the Super Bowl will have its first male cheerleader. Australia has been more progressive with male NRL cheerleaders for awhile now – when Patrick isn’t playing games, he’s probably not rooting for the Parramatta Eels, but it’s the best picture that I could find.
We’re coming to the end of the reviews generated by our Essen Review weekend now. A bit more winnowing, a bit more culling, but some keypers (ahem) as well. There are more coming still, being in the hands of friends, but they just haven’t got to the table yet. And there are so many more out there we’ll never get to. We don’t want really want or need to get to all of them mind you, but it’s fun trying.
I was pleasantly surprised by this thinky filler. It’s in the Hey, That’s My Fish vein of taking the tile that you move off, but moves it away from territory denial and into set collection instead. Each tile has two elements – animals (majorities in each will score) and symbols (for bonus movement points, or a majorities race, or one that scores point on a geometric scale). If you want to play it seriously, you need to pay real attention to what everyone’s picking up and where they intend to go next. But the game is enjoyable in friendly mode as well, because it replaces that cut-throat denial nature with a friendly gather-stuff-and-let’s-see-how-it-plays-out feel. Some tiles adjust the values of what each animal scores, so that’s another consideration to play with if you like that kind of thing. If you don’t, go for the symbol scores instead. Options are open to suit different play preferences, and that flexibility is a positive in a game that can play relatively quickly if you want it to.
Your initial plays are hampered by too much explaining – all the different scoring systems (this goes with that at Sussan), to begin with and throughout, and then for each character as it’s revealed in each of the 22 rounds (they’re all unique). The second issue is that the game is laden with the dreaded simultaneous blind bid mechanic, meaning you can never be sure what you’re going to get – each player must simply make the best of whatever’s left. Sure, there are rounds where you don’t care and can bid low, and rounds you do care and bid high, but in the main, your scoring feels just too much out of your hands. Unless of course you’re totalling up the mass of scoring at the end, in which case the scoring is in your hands for entirely too long while the other players watch a Western to pass the time. The scoring variety is also the main strength however, and it may well lead to ongoing interest once your group has the hang of it so I’m not writing it off entirely!
This felt like fresh Euro. The main point of interest was that the dice selection felt non-mean. The chosen dice have two functions – the pips indicate your bid for card selection (and card synergies are the bread and butter) and the colour indicates which of the four income tracks you’ll score. If you get to take three dice of the same colour, you’ll score that same form of income three times! And that, my friends, felt fresh. It meant you always felt like you had a good option and an interesting decision. The other plus is that the game only went four rounds, so all your choices mattered. I’m not sure there’s a wealth of different strategies to explore, for the game is mostly about bidding smartly for cards that riff off what you’ve built and then exploiting your income strengths. It somehow manages to find that sweet spot of providing plenty to think about but with little downtime, which is sweet indeed.
A by-the-numbers light Euro. Play tiles to earn resources. Spend resources to buy VP cards from the draft. Repeat for 13 rounds. It has a nice mini-Java-esque approach of playing tiles on top of tiles, building up your house. There are the inevitable bonus cards for buying cards of this type, or your tiles this many levels high, and the like. There’s a fair bit of luck in what tiles you draw (which will drive your future resources) vs what cards come out when (re what resources they require), but it’s not inappropriate for the game’s length. It works, it’s pleasant, it’s non-objectionable, I can see why it’s been produced, but for the older hands at play, there’s not much to explore here either.
All the nice things about Keyflower in waaayy less time. Get cards 7 Wonders style, play a building card, or a one off resource creator card, or play a meeple card to trigger a building (which to start with usually means triggering your home building to move resources off their creator cards over to building cards that will convert the resources into points or other benefits). You’re trying to maximise a select few things, as directed by the end-game bonus cards that you have sight off from the beginning (you get one for free, the others will go into the draft). It’s still make the most of whatever you get and try to collect different things than your neighbours, but the decisions you make need to be focused, so each play feels important. It goes pretty fast, packs some oomph, there are enough cards to ensure you see different things each game, and I liked it a lot.
Ahh, this is the game that Villa Paletti always wanted to be and should have been. The stupid win condition (where you win if the player after you crashes) is replaced by co-op mode where you’re setting up the next player to succeed. There’s a decision to make each turn on how challenging a turn you want and how much risk to take, The actual placement is just as fun, but it’s a satisfying shared achievement when the tower gets as high as it needs to be for the win. As a bonus, you can play Jenga afterwards for the tower deconstruction! Although I rate this and Villa Paletti the same (because I only play this style of game occasionally), this is the better, more interesting, and more fun version.
Clever and interesting, but plastering over a layer of perhaps too much randomness to climb higher up the replay ladder. You build resource converter buildings (from cards in your hand). At the beginning of the round, half the resources available this turn will be flipped from the deck. You decide which of your buildings you’ll attempt to fire up – do you play safe with a low scoring building that almost has all the resources it needs, or will you gamble on a higher scoring building that needs more resources? Then we flip for more resources and see what scores, supplementing from the hand if needed. There are interesting building decisions, trying to build stuff that will parlay stuff you’ve already built into better scoring stuff (read me an engine), but on the other hand it can be pretty random getting that engine firing. The good news is that it comes in at a nice timeframe where the randomness can leave an itch to want to play again at some point.
Team based real-time dexterity game that hits the right spots. One side plays up to 3 pieces on the base, and flips the timer. Then the other teams adds up to 3 pieces on top, flips the timer, and turns continue to alternate, adding pieces to the pile. A team gets points if they get their last piece on, or if the other team crashes the pile, or lets the timer run out. Either way, they discard a piece from the other team’s collection (usually the easiest to place), making future rounds harder and faster. First team to 4 points wins. It’s only a small base, and not many pieces, but they’re wide and varied, so rounds go fast, points are gathered quickly, and it’s all over in a perfect fun-filled timeframe where you can share glory or commiserations with your partner. A nice game, and I’d be tempted to rate higher if there was a touch more variety from game to game.
Some fun for when you have 6 players and a real-time dice rolling team game is called for. Which isn’t often, but it’s nice to have up your sleeve when the time comes (Strand Cup used to be an option here.) This channels the Space Alert vibe, having to co-ordinate the allocation of dice to the right places at the right time to load torpedoes, move to somewhere in range to fire the torpedoes, set up shields, etc. The dice rolling is constant and semi-frantic, but you need to get your head up along the way to make sure you’re building the right things at the right time, especially when you have tractor beams available to put the enemy ship exactly where you want them. It has the potential for going a little long, but eliminating the healing-the-ship option should fix that. With “commands” and “requests” for energy being thrown around frenetically, it captures the feel of a hyper-busy bridge in the throes of battle nicely, and good fun is had along the way.
This is quite the fun card game that I imagine a lot of people don’t know given its lack of ratings and comments on BGG. I’m told it has Dutch / German pub heritage, where the loser of the round buys the next round. There’s a lot of luck with the cards, with only 4 cards in the hand plus benefits to leading in the first, but the ability to bluff people out of the round by knocking and driving up the score being played for (backgammon-style) is what makes the game, as the winner of the hand is whoever wins the last trick. That’s all it comes down to. So, can you drive other people out and win with a nothing card? Does he have the Ace or is he bluffing? Anyway, there are lots of laughs along the way with bluffs called and made, and we’ve had good fun with it over the years.
Jeff Allers: I picked up MENARA in Essen and wonder why someone hasn’t thought of a cooperative dexterity game before (maybe someone already has, but I hadn’t heard of it). In any case, it’s the best thing since chocolate met peanut butter. It’s not only a Villa Paletti-killer (which hasn’t seen any playing time in my circles since it won Spiel des Jahres ages ago), it’s now my preferred (non-flicking) dexterity game of all time. Elegant mechanics, great team-building tension and beautiful to look at. Publisher Zoch has gone back to its dexterity roots (Bausack, Bamboleo, Hamster Rolle, Gulo Gulo, Riff Raff, and the aforementioned Villa Paletti) and this one may be their best ever.
Alan How: I’ve only played Carson City: The Card Game, but it works really well and is a solid little filler. For me it’s a 7. I want to get some multiplayer games in to check this style of game out.
I was a play tester for Key Flow, so maybe I’m slightly biased, but I’d agree with Patrick’s thoughts. The simultaneous play is a major plus for me, as well as only needing to focus on your neighbours for options to place your Keyple cards. My rating would be 8 or 9. I’ve also found it easy to teach to newcomers and it is far easier to appreciate the options in this game over Keyflower. The cards are unusual size so more difficult to find sleeves for those that are concerned about these things.
Oh My Goods works really well and it’s only downside was it was over too quickly for me. I’ve picked up the expansions but not yet tried them out yet to see if the games last a bit longer. Pretty enjoyable engine building fun though. A least a 7.
Larry: Coimbra is very good and the best thing about it is it’s very elegant dice selection mechanism. Another great game from that wonderful crop of Italian designers. I love it.
Key Flow is also excellent. Keyflower is a wonderful design, but there’s too much going on for me to deal with. Key Flow focuses things much better by taking away the auction. I came up with a variant where you keep two of your Winter scoring cards during the Winter Is Coming interphase instead of one and it’s worked so well that it’s the only way we play now. I love it.
Oh My Goods is another clever design from Pfister, but it’s really hard to set up your building combinations in time before the game ends. I understand the second edition of the game introduced some new rules that made long chains of buildings more feasible, but I’ve never had the chance to try it out. I like it.
Brandon: Gingerbread House was one of the surprises of all the Essen time releases. A nice gateway, thematic tile placement game, with fun little micro transactions to drive the victory points.
Menara is easily in my Top 10 games of 2018, a wonderful production from the folks at Zoch and it works wonderfully. I love how the towers can grow separate from each other but the necessity to bring them together for architectural sturdiness is quickly learned.
Fraser: What Larry said about Oh My Goods.
I have enjoyed Gingerbread House, it is reasonably lightweight, but has some things going on in terms of positioning your tiles for future moves. It has been very popular with the people I have taught it to, including non-gamers and casual gamers.
Matt Carlson: I do enjoy the real time dice games so am a fan of both Escape the Curse of the Temple and Space Cadets: Dice Duel. Escape is cooperative, so that is nice, but Dice Duel has the advantage of a stronger interdependence between players. Trying to communicate more involved topics (than just “I need suns”) during Dice Duel makes the game seem even more frantic (which is a good thing.) Dice Duel is best with a full, or nearly full complement, so I prefer Escape with fewer people. The expansion with its “fighter ships” is an excellent way to even out lopsided teams as well as add some variety. Dice Duel captures much of what I like about the original Space Cadets game, but in a shorter, more intense timeframe.
I love these articles! I walk away with a couple of titles to bug my dealer into getting (Key Flow and Menara). I don’t really see how I would have noticed these without OG. That makes for a lot of thanks from me.
Oh My Goods! falls a little short for me. I like the idea of it and think there is possibly a great game in there but the actual plays seem to end up being less interesting and more frustrating as things often don’t go your way (and the workers mechanism is very rigid so hard to make that better). The revised end of game scoring (where all your buildings get a chance to fire even without activation) was a step in the right direction but that it was added later does seem to show it was put out a little under-cooked.
Only have one learning game of Coimbra but I enjoyed it a lot.

lowercased:
later today, the super bowl will have its first male cheerleader. australia has been more progressive with male nrl cheerleaders for awhile now – when patrick isn’t playing games, he’s probably not rooting for the parramatta eels, but it’s the best picture that i could find.
we’re coming to the end of the reviews generated by our essen review weekend now. a bit more winnowing, a bit more culling, but some keypers (ahem) as well. there are more coming still, being in the hands of friends, but they just haven’t got to the table yet. and there are so many more out there we’ll never get to. we don’t want really want or need to get to all of them mind you, but it’s fun trying.
i was pleasantly surprised by this thinky filler. it’s in the hey, that’s my fish vein of taking the tile that you move off, but moves it away from territory denial and into set collection instead. each tile has two elements – animals (majorities in each will score) and symbols (for bonus movement points, or a majorities race, or one that scores point on a geometric scale). if you want to play it seriously, you need to pay real attention to what everyone’s picking up and where they intend to go next. but the game is enjoyable in friendly mode as well, because it replaces that cut-throat denial nature with a friendly gather-stuff-and-let’s-see-how-it-plays-out feel. some tiles adjust the values of what each animal scores, so that’s another consideration to play with if you like that kind of thing. if you don’t, go for the symbol scores instead. options are open to suit different play preferences, and that flexibility is a positive in a game that can play relatively quickly if you want it to.
your initial plays are hampered by too much explaining – all the different scoring systems (this goes with that at sussan), to begin with and throughout, and then for each character as it’s revealed in each of the 22 rounds (they’re all unique). the second issue is that the game is laden with the dreaded simultaneous blind bid mechanic, meaning you can never be sure what you’re going to get – each player must simply make the best of whatever’s left. sure, there are rounds where you don’t care and can bid low, and rounds you do care and bid high, but in the main, your scoring feels just too much out of your hands. unless of course you’re totalling up the mass of scoring at the end, in which case the scoring is in your hands for entirely too long while the other players watch a western to pass the time. the scoring variety is also the main strength however, and it may well lead to ongoing interest once your group has the hang of it so i’m not writing it off entirely!
this felt like fresh euro. the main point of interest was that the dice selection felt non-mean. the chosen dice have two functions – the pips indicate your bid for card selection (and card synergies are the bread and butter) and the colour indicates which of the four income tracks you’ll score. if you get to take three dice of the same colour, you’ll score that same form of income three times! and that, my friends, felt fresh. it meant you always felt like you had a good option and an interesting decision. the other plus is that the game only went four rounds, so all your choices mattered. i’m not sure there’s a wealth of different strategies to explore, for the game is mostly about bidding smartly for cards that riff off what you’ve built and then exploiting your income strengths. it somehow manages to find that sweet spot of providing plenty to think about but with little downtime, which is sweet indeed.
a by-the-numbers light euro. play tiles to earn resources. spend resources to buy vp cards from the draft. repeat for 13 rounds. it has a nice mini-java-esque approach of playing tiles on top of tiles, building up your house. there are the inevitable bonus cards for buying cards of this type, or your tiles this many levels high, and the like. there’s a fair bit of luck in what tiles you draw (which will drive your future resources) vs what cards come out when (re what resources they require), but it’s not inappropriate for the game’s length. it works, it’s pleasant, it’s non-objectionable, i can see why it’s been produced, but for the older hands at play, there’s not much to explore here either.
all the nice things about keyflower in waaayy less time. get cards 7 wonders style, play a building card, or a one off resource creator card, or play a meeple card to trigger a building (which to start with usually means triggering your home building to move resources off their creator cards over to building cards that will convert the resources into points or other benefits). you’re trying to maximise a select few things, as directed by the end-game bonus cards that you have sight off from the beginning (you get one for free, the others will go into the draft). it’s still make the most of whatever you get and try to collect different things than your neighbours, but the decisions you make need to be focused, so each play feels important. it goes pretty fast, packs some oomph, there are enough cards to ensure you see different things each game, and i liked it a lot.
ahh, this is the game that villa paletti always wanted to be and should have been. the stupid win condition (where you win if the player after you crashes) is replaced by co-op mode where you’re setting up the next player to succeed. there’s a decision to make each turn on how challenging a turn you want and how much risk to take, the actual placement is just as fun, but it’s a satisfying shared achievement when the tower gets as high as it needs to be for the win. as a bonus, you can play jenga afterwards for the tower deconstruction! although i rate this and villa paletti the same (because i only play this style of game occasionally), this is the better, more interesting, and more fun version.
clever and interesting, but plastering over a layer of perhaps too much randomness to climb higher up the replay ladder. you build resource converter buildings (from cards in your hand). at the beginning of the round, half the resources available this turn will be flipped from the deck. you decide which of your buildings you’ll attempt to fire up – do you play safe with a low scoring building that almost has all the resources it needs, or will you gamble on a higher scoring building that needs more resources? then we flip for more resources and see what scores, supplementing from the hand if needed. there are interesting building decisions, trying to build stuff that will parlay stuff you’ve already built into better scoring stuff (read me an engine), but on the other hand it can be pretty random getting that engine firing. the good news is that it comes in at a nice timeframe where the randomness can leave an itch to want to play again at some point.
team based real-time dexterity game that hits the right spots. one side plays up to 3 pieces on the base, and flips the timer. then the other teams adds up to 3 pieces on top, flips the timer, and turns continue to alternate, adding pieces to the pile. a team gets points if they get their last piece on, or if the other team crashes the pile, or lets the timer run out. either way, they discard a piece from the other team’s collection (usually the easiest to place), making future rounds harder and faster. first team to 4 points wins. it’s only a small base, and not many pieces, but they’re wide and varied, so rounds go fast, points are gathered quickly, and it’s all over in a perfect fun-filled timeframe where you can share glory or commiserations with your partner. a nice game, and i’d be tempted to rate higher if there was a touch more variety from game to game.
some fun for when you have 6 players and a real-time dice rolling team game is called for. which isn’t often, but it’s nice to have up your sleeve when the time comes (strand cup used to be an option here.) this channels the space alert vibe, having to co-ordinate the allocation of dice to the right places at the right time to load torpedoes, move to somewhere in range to fire the torpedoes, set up shields, etc. the dice rolling is constant and semi-frantic, but you need to get your head up along the way to make sure you’re building the right things at the right time, especially when you have tractor beams available to put the enemy ship exactly where you want them. it has the potential for going a little long, but eliminating the healing-the-ship option should fix that. with “commands” and “requests” for energy being thrown around frenetically, it captures the feel of a hyper-busy bridge in the throes of battle nicely, and good fun is had along the way.
this is quite the fun card game that i imagine a lot of people don’t know given its lack of ratings and comments on bgg. i’m told it has dutch / german pub heritage, where the loser of the round buys the next round. there’s a lot of luck with the cards, with only 4 cards in the hand plus benefits to leading in the first, but the ability to bluff people out of the round by knocking and driving up the score being played for (backgammon-style) is what makes the game, as the winner of the hand is whoever wins the last trick. that’s all it comes down to. so, can you drive other people out and win with a nothing card? does he have the ace or is he bluffing? anyway, there are lots of laughs along the way with bluffs called and made, and we’ve had good fun with it over the years.
jeff allers: i picked up menara in essen and wonder why someone hasn’t thought of a cooperative dexterity game before (maybe someone already has, but i hadn’t heard of it). in any case, it’s the best thing since chocolate met peanut butter. it’s not only a villa paletti-killer (which hasn’t seen any playing time in my circles since it won spiel des jahres ages ago), it’s now my preferred (non-flicking) dexterity game of all time. elegant mechanics, great team-building tension and beautiful to look at. publisher zoch has gone back to its dexterity roots (bausack, bamboleo, hamster rolle, gulo gulo, riff raff, and the aforementioned villa paletti) and this one may be their best ever.
alan how: i’ve only played carson city: the card game, but it works really well and is a solid little filler. for me it’s a 7. i want to get some multiplayer games in to check this style of game out.
i was a play tester for key flow, so maybe i’m slightly biased, but i’d agree with patrick’s thoughts. the simultaneous play is a major plus for me, as well as only needing to focus on your neighbours for options to place your keyple cards. my rating would be 8 or 9. i’ve also found it easy to teach to newcomers and it is far easier to appreciate the options in this game over keyflower. the cards are unusual size so more difficult to find sleeves for those that are concerned about these things.
oh my goods works really well and it’s only downside was it was over too quickly for me. i’ve picked up the expansions but not yet tried them out yet to see if the games last a bit longer. pretty enjoyable engine building fun though. a least a 7.
larry: coimbra is very good and the best thing about it is it’s very elegant dice selection mechanism. another great game from that wonderful crop of italian designers. i love it.
key flow is also excellent. keyflower is a wonderful design, but there’s too much going on for me to deal with. key flow focuses things much better by taking away the auction. i came up with a variant where you keep two of your winter scoring cards during the winter is coming interphase instead of one and it’s worked so well that it’s the only way we play now. i love it.
oh my goods is another clever design from pfister, but it’s really hard to set up your building combinations in time before the game ends. i understand the second edition of the game introduced some new rules that made long chains of buildings more feasible, but i’ve never had the chance to try it out. i like it.
brandon: gingerbread house was one of the surprises of all the essen time releases. a nice gateway, thematic tile placement game, with fun little micro transactions to drive the victory points.
menara is easily in my top 10 games of 2018, a wonderful production from the folks at zoch and it works wonderfully. i love how the towers can grow separate from each other but the necessity to bring them together for architectural sturdiness is quickly learned.
fraser: what larry said about oh my goods.
i have enjoyed gingerbread house, it is reasonably lightweight, but has some things going on in terms of positioning your tiles for future moves. it has been very popular with the people i have taught it to, including non-gamers and casual gamers.
matt carlson: i do enjoy the real time dice games so am a fan of both escape the curse of the temple and space cadets: dice duel. escape is cooperative, so that is nice, but dice duel has the advantage of a stronger interdependence between players. trying to communicate more involved topics (than just “i need suns”) during dice duel makes the game seem even more frantic (which is a good thing.) dice duel is best with a full, or nearly full complement, so i prefer escape with fewer people. the expansion with its “fighter ships” is an excellent way to even out lopsided teams as well as add some variety. dice duel captures much of what i like about the original space cadets game, but in a shorter, more intense timeframe.
i love these articles! i walk away with a couple of titles to bug my dealer into getting (key flow and menara). i don’t really see how i would have noticed these without og. that makes for a lot of thanks from me.
oh my goods! falls a little short for me. i like the idea of it and think there is possibly a great game in there but the actual plays seem to end up being less interesting and more frustrating as things often don’t go your way (and the workers mechanism is very rigid so hard to make that better). the revised end of game scoring (where all your buildings get a chance to fire even without activation) was a step in the right direction but that it was added later does seem to show it was put out a little under-cooked.
only have one learning game of coimbra but i enjoyed it a lot.


text:
Interested and qualified candidate can download the website from tnteu.ac.in in prescribed form and send your application on or before 27-09-2018. The prescribed format with photocopy of all relevant documents should be submitted to the address specified below.
"Registrar i / c (by designation only), Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University, Chennai-600 097"
"Registrar I / C, Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University" payable in Chennai.

lowercased:
interested and qualified candidate can download the website from tnteu.ac.in in prescribed form and send your application on or before 27-09-2018. the prescribed format with photocopy of all relevant documents should be submitted to the address specified below.
"registrar i / c (by designation only), tamil nadu teacher education university, chennai-600 097"
"registrar i / c, tamil nadu teachers education university" payable in chennai.


text:
An optical experiment realizes one of the room-changing operations in the Hilbert Hotel—a fictitious establishment that illustrates some perplexing properties of infinity.
The Hilbert Hotel is a famous mathematical paradox about an imaginary inn with infinite rooms. Even when completely full, vacancies can be made through coordinated room switching. You obviously won’t find this place in any guidebook, but the energy levels in a quantum system can mimic the rooms in the Hilbert Hotel. In an experiment using optical modes of a laser beam, researchers perform a “room switching” operation that creates a vacancy by transforming one quantum state into another.
In 1924, the mathematician David Hilbert highlighted the counterintuitive nature of infinity with a tale about a hotel with an infinite number of rooms, each having a single occupant. If a new guest arrives, the hotel manager can create a vacancy in room 1 by moving all occupants up one room ( n→n+1). If infinite guests arrive, the manager can open up all the odd-number rooms by shifting everyone to twice their room number ( n→2n).
In a recent study, John Jeffers from the University of Strathclyde, UK, and his colleagues showed how to perform the n→n+1 shift in a quantum system with an unlimited number of energy levels. The same group has now extended this work to the n→2n shift using a laser beam with discrete orbital angular momentum modes, or “rooms,” which are characterized by petal-like intensity lobes. The team demonstrated a procedure that changes the room n state to the room 3n state (but it also works for other multiplication factors like 2). This operation could be useful in creating frequency gaps between multiple channels before combining (or multiplexing) them into a single communication signal.

lowercased:
an optical experiment realizes one of the room-changing operations in the hilbert hotel—a fictitious establishment that illustrates some perplexing properties of infinity.
the hilbert hotel is a famous mathematical paradox about an imaginary inn with infinite rooms. even when completely full, vacancies can be made through coordinated room switching. you obviously won’t find this place in any guidebook, but the energy levels in a quantum system can mimic the rooms in the hilbert hotel. in an experiment using optical modes of a laser beam, researchers perform a “room switching” operation that creates a vacancy by transforming one quantum state into another.
in 1924, the mathematician david hilbert highlighted the counterintuitive nature of infinity with a tale about a hotel with an infinite number of rooms, each having a single occupant. if a new guest arrives, the hotel manager can create a vacancy in room 1 by moving all occupants up one room ( n→n+1). if infinite guests arrive, the manager can open up all the odd-number rooms by shifting everyone to twice their room number ( n→2n).
in a recent study, john jeffers from the university of strathclyde, uk, and his colleagues showed how to perform the n→n+1 shift in a quantum system with an unlimited number of energy levels. the same group has now extended this work to the n→2n shift using a laser beam with discrete orbital angular momentum modes, or “rooms,” which are characterized by petal-like intensity lobes. the team demonstrated a procedure that changes the room n state to the room 3n state (but it also works for other multiplication factors like 2). this operation could be useful in creating frequency gaps between multiple channels before combining (or multiplexing) them into a single communication signal.


text:
On Christmas Eve in 1988, seven-year-old Alfie Marsden vanished in the dark Wentshire Forest Pass, when his father, Sorrel, stopped the car to investigate a mysterious knocking sound. No trace of the child, nor his remains, have ever been found. Alfie Marsden was declared officially dead in 1995. Elusive online journalist, Scott King, whose ‘Six Stories’ podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the disappearance, interviewing six witnesses, including Sorrel and his ex-partner, to try to find out what really happened that fateful night. Journeying through the trees of the Wentshire Forest – a place synonymous with strange sightings, and tales of hidden folk who dwell there, he talks to a company that tried and failed to build a development in the forest, and a psychic who claims to know what happened to the little boy… Intensely dark, deeply chilling and searingly thought-provoking, Changeling is the latest in the critically acclaimed, international bestselling Six Stories series, written as six Serial-style podcasts, and which are being adapted for TV by a major US studio.
So first of all I’m going to apologise as I’m really not sure my review can ever put across how utterly brilliant this book really is. Even weeks later I am still thinking about the events in this story which is a true sign of a book ticking every box. As usual in this series you hear six stories from six different people and in this book all regarding the events of seven year old Alfie’s disappearance. With each one giving you just that little bit more information to digest. I found this way of storytelling to be a brilliant way of engaging me, making me ask questions along with keeping me well and truly invested in the story. It is all skillfully woven together to create the most mesmerising story as slowly but surely the story is revealed. The big question is will there be any new light shone on this case?
I really can’t recommend this book enough it has a very special appeal with a little bit of everything to draw the reader in. If you are like me you will feel plenty of emotions while reading Changeling along with being completely on edge just waiting to discover the truth. I felt like I wanted to fly through the pages but also at the same time wanting to savour the story as it unfolded. Rich in detail Matt Wesolowski really sets the scene with a delicious touch of creepiness that I loved! I thought Hydra was a fantastic story but Changeling really excels, I can’t fault it!
With folklore, tension and twists along with an ending where I just sat there thinking wow! Changeling is an absolutely amazing story!
With thanks to Anne Cater & Orenda Books for the invite to join the tour and for my copy.
I’ve seen this book pop up on twitter and other blogs quite a bit, it does sound really good.
Excellent review of an excellent novel :-)!

lowercased:
on christmas eve in 1988, seven-year-old alfie marsden vanished in the dark wentshire forest pass, when his father, sorrel, stopped the car to investigate a mysterious knocking sound. no trace of the child, nor his remains, have ever been found. alfie marsden was declared officially dead in 1995. elusive online journalist, scott king, whose ‘six stories’ podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the disappearance, interviewing six witnesses, including sorrel and his ex-partner, to try to find out what really happened that fateful night. journeying through the trees of the wentshire forest – a place synonymous with strange sightings, and tales of hidden folk who dwell there, he talks to a company that tried and failed to build a development in the forest, and a psychic who claims to know what happened to the little boy… intensely dark, deeply chilling and searingly thought-provoking, changeling is the latest in the critically acclaimed, international bestselling six stories series, written as six serial-style podcasts, and which are being adapted for tv by a major us studio.
so first of all i’m going to apologise as i’m really not sure my review can ever put across how utterly brilliant this book really is. even weeks later i am still thinking about the events in this story which is a true sign of a book ticking every box. as usual in this series you hear six stories from six different people and in this book all regarding the events of seven year old alfie’s disappearance. with each one giving you just that little bit more information to digest. i found this way of storytelling to be a brilliant way of engaging me, making me ask questions along with keeping me well and truly invested in the story. it is all skillfully woven together to create the most mesmerising story as slowly but surely the story is revealed. the big question is will there be any new light shone on this case?
i really can’t recommend this book enough it has a very special appeal with a little bit of everything to draw the reader in. if you are like me you will feel plenty of emotions while reading changeling along with being completely on edge just waiting to discover the truth. i felt like i wanted to fly through the pages but also at the same time wanting to savour the story as it unfolded. rich in detail matt wesolowski really sets the scene with a delicious touch of creepiness that i loved! i thought hydra was a fantastic story but changeling really excels, i can’t fault it!
with folklore, tension and twists along with an ending where i just sat there thinking wow! changeling is an absolutely amazing story!
with thanks to anne cater & orenda books for the invite to join the tour and for my copy.
i’ve seen this book pop up on twitter and other blogs quite a bit, it does sound really good.
excellent review of an excellent novel :-)!


text:
How to Find the Right Wooden Doors for Your Home?
A wooden door can add appeal to your home. No matter whether you choose a classic or vintage style, it remains one of the oldest structures in the human history. You can find its significance in history where alder, cherry, timber, oak or mahogany was used for the protection of forts. Now customization on doors is available. You can customize a wood depending on your budget and the functional requirements. Wood doors add more charm to the overall look of your home. It is a practical choice to opt for wooden doors.
You should stay updated about various options to make it a good choice for you.
These doors feature a frame which is covered with a layer of wood or veneer on its both sides. Solid timber strips with its edges are also available in the market. The supports in between the face veneers provide the rigidity. Face veneers can also be availed in varnished or painted plywood. Different in-fills make it durable to the hollow core doors. A cardboard honeycomb is the most widely used type of such doors and easily available with wooden door suppliers. You can position a solid timber area at a specific height on one door side. You can use it to put the lock and handle. Hollow core doors come as an affordable option in comparison to the most solid wood doors. They are lighter and easier to install. The only disadvantage is that they cannot absorb sound effectively.
Flush doors have the thin sheets of hardwood veneer which is placed on the top of the core of particle board, wood or fiberboard. The veneer helps in protecting the door from stabilizing and warping. You can always enhance the face veneers using decorative panels. Two kinds of cores are used in flush doors. It includes stile and rail core and wood-stave block core. A wood-stave core has vertical wood strips of low-density. A stile and rail core includes wood blocks that are glued inside the rails and stiles. It comes with more reliability as compared to wood stave.
Panel doors are more popular nowadays. They feature a series of solid wood panels that are available in a variety of shapes and sizes. These panels are arranged next to each other. Panel doors have grooved frames coupled with thinner panels of pine, oak or beech. The moldings can be installed to ensure the panels remain in its place. The size and number of panels will depend on your requirements including the door and size you need. Four panels are the most common kinds of panel wooden doors these days.
Due to inset glass panels, the lited doors are in demand. There are doors with interior or exterior openings. For instance, the office doors or patio doors serve as the perfect example of the lited doors. Often wooden door manufacturers call doors lited doors because of the number of glass panels they have.
Welcome to D.P. Woodtech Pvt. Ltd, one of the India’s leading manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of high-quality wooden furniture for homes and offices.

lowercased:
how to find the right wooden doors for your home?
a wooden door can add appeal to your home. no matter whether you choose a classic or vintage style, it remains one of the oldest structures in the human history. you can find its significance in history where alder, cherry, timber, oak or mahogany was used for the protection of forts. now customization on doors is available. you can customize a wood depending on your budget and the functional requirements. wood doors add more charm to the overall look of your home. it is a practical choice to opt for wooden doors.
you should stay updated about various options to make it a good choice for you.
these doors feature a frame which is covered with a layer of wood or veneer on its both sides. solid timber strips with its edges are also available in the market. the supports in between the face veneers provide the rigidity. face veneers can also be availed in varnished or painted plywood. different in-fills make it durable to the hollow core doors. a cardboard honeycomb is the most widely used type of such doors and easily available with wooden door suppliers. you can position a solid timber area at a specific height on one door side. you can use it to put the lock and handle. hollow core doors come as an affordable option in comparison to the most solid wood doors. they are lighter and easier to install. the only disadvantage is that they cannot absorb sound effectively.
flush doors have the thin sheets of hardwood veneer which is placed on the top of the core of particle board, wood or fiberboard. the veneer helps in protecting the door from stabilizing and warping. you can always enhance the face veneers using decorative panels. two kinds of cores are used in flush doors. it includes stile and rail core and wood-stave block core. a wood-stave core has vertical wood strips of low-density. a stile and rail core includes wood blocks that are glued inside the rails and stiles. it comes with more reliability as compared to wood stave.
panel doors are more popular nowadays. they feature a series of solid wood panels that are available in a variety of shapes and sizes. these panels are arranged next to each other. panel doors have grooved frames coupled with thinner panels of pine, oak or beech. the moldings can be installed to ensure the panels remain in its place. the size and number of panels will depend on your requirements including the door and size you need. four panels are the most common kinds of panel wooden doors these days.
due to inset glass panels, the lited doors are in demand. there are doors with interior or exterior openings. for instance, the office doors or patio doors serve as the perfect example of the lited doors. often wooden door manufacturers call doors lited doors because of the number of glass panels they have.
welcome to d.p. woodtech pvt. ltd, one of the india’s leading manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of high-quality wooden furniture for homes and offices.


text:
A four star luxury Hotel that defines tradition, prestige and hospitality in a peaceful atmosphere.The hotel is ideally situated just a walking distance from the centre of Tirana, cultural and tourist attractions. The hotel offer a unique blend of Albanian hospitality and friendly service which makes it the Inspired Choice for Business or Leisure.
The comfortable and spacious accommodation features the latest facilities and outstanding view over Tirana. It is defined as best quality hotel in Tirana, and it has conference rooms, restaurant and luxury accommodation.
With 53 rooms and professional conference facilities, Hotel Doro City is the ideal location and a best value hotel for a business or leisure activity in Tirana. Its location makes this four star Hotel pretty accessible from either Mother Theresa Airport which takes 20 minutes or Center Tirana only 5 minutes far away respectively.

lowercased:
a four star luxury hotel that defines tradition, prestige and hospitality in a peaceful atmosphere.the hotel is ideally situated just a walking distance from the centre of tirana, cultural and tourist attractions. the hotel offer a unique blend of albanian hospitality and friendly service which makes it the inspired choice for business or leisure.
the comfortable and spacious accommodation features the latest facilities and outstanding view over tirana. it is defined as best quality hotel in tirana, and it has conference rooms, restaurant and luxury accommodation.
with 53 rooms and professional conference facilities, hotel doro city is the ideal location and a best value hotel for a business or leisure activity in tirana. its location makes this four star hotel pretty accessible from either mother theresa airport which takes 20 minutes or center tirana only 5 minutes far away respectively.


text:
The scheme has a range of several hundred thousand years. Test your knowledge of food vocabulary! While uranium is water-soluble, thorium and protactinium are not, and so they are selectively precipitated into ocean-floor sediments , from which their ratios are measured. The residence time of 36 Cl in the atmosphere is about 1 week.
Omar Hassan: thanks for sharing. Liked it a lot.
Quentin Aziz: ime so impressed and turned on.oh to spend a night stretching eachothers asses.
SteelJM1: So, did she get white bred?
Daquan Bayne: Theres more to this.plz upload the rest!
Uranium—lead dating is often performed on the mineral zircon ZrSiO 4 , though it can be used on other materials, such as baddeleyite , as well as monazite see: When an organism dies, it ceases to take in new carbon, and the existing isotope decays with a characteristic half-life years. By allowing the establishment of geological timescales, it provides a significant source of information about the ages of fossils and the deduced rates of evolutionary change.
Ask the Editors Ghost Word The story of an imaginary word that managed to sneak past our editors and enter the dictionary. This converts the only stable isotope of iodine I into Xe via neutron capture followed by beta decay of I.
The Swedish National Heritage Board. After one half-life has elapsed, one half of the atoms of the nuclide in question will have decayed into a "daughter" nuclide or decay product.
This is well-established for most isotopic systems. The use of radiometric dating was first published in by Bertram Boltwood and is now the principal source of information about the absolute age of rocks and other geological features, including the age of the Earth itself, and can be used to date a wide range of natural and man-made materials.
Origin and Etymology of radiometric International Scientific Vocabulary. For example, a study of the Amitsoq gneisses from western Greenland used five different radiometric dating methods to examine twelve samples and got agreement to within 30 million years on an age of 3,my. Meteoritics and Planetary Science. The system is dedicated to this special application and will considerably improve radiometric dating and trace element analysis in pure and applied science in an interdisciplinary perspective. To anchor this sequence to a specific time frame, scientists used radiometric dating to measure the absolute ages of samples returned by the Apollo astronauts four decades ago.
Radiometric dating (often called radioactive dating) is a way to find out how old something is. The method compares the amount of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products, in samples. Radiometric dating definition, any method of determining the age of earth materials or objects of organic origin based on measurement of either short-lived radioactive elements or the amount of a long-lived radioactive element plus its decay product.
Samples are exposed to neutrons in a nuclear reactor. The awkward case of 'his or her'.
A method for determining the age of an object based on the concentration of a particular radioactive isotope contained within it. Planetary Sciences , page Measurements should be taken on samples from different parts of the rock body.
Thus an igneous or metamorphic rock or melt, which is slowly cooling, does not begin to exhibit measurable radioactive decay until it cools below the closure temperature. This field is known as thermochronology or thermochronometry. After one half-life has elapsed, one half of the atoms of the nuclide in question will have decayed into a "daughter" nuclide or decay product. At a certain temperature, the crystal structure has formed sufficiently to prevent diffusion of isotopes. The trapped charge accumulates over time at a rate determined by the amount of background radiation at the location where the sample was buried. If a material that selectively rejects the daughter nuclide is heated, any daughter nuclides that have been accumulated over time will be lost through diffusion , setting the isotopic "clock" to zero. Accurate radiometric dating generally requires that the parent has a long enough half-life that it will be present in significant amounts at the time of measurement except as described below under "Dating with short-lived extinct radionuclides" , the half-life of the parent is accurately known, and enough of the daughter product is produced to be accurately measured and distinguished from the initial amount of the daughter present in the material.

lowercased:
the scheme has a range of several hundred thousand years. test your knowledge of food vocabulary! while uranium is water-soluble, thorium and protactinium are not, and so they are selectively precipitated into ocean-floor sediments , from which their ratios are measured. the residence time of 36 cl in the atmosphere is about 1 week.
omar hassan: thanks for sharing. liked it a lot.
quentin aziz: ime so impressed and turned on.oh to spend a night stretching eachothers asses.
steeljm1: so, did she get white bred?
daquan bayne: theres more to this.plz upload the rest!
uranium—lead dating is often performed on the mineral zircon zrsio 4 , though it can be used on other materials, such as baddeleyite , as well as monazite see: when an organism dies, it ceases to take in new carbon, and the existing isotope decays with a characteristic half-life years. by allowing the establishment of geological timescales, it provides a significant source of information about the ages of fossils and the deduced rates of evolutionary change.
ask the editors ghost word the story of an imaginary word that managed to sneak past our editors and enter the dictionary. this converts the only stable isotope of iodine i into xe via neutron capture followed by beta decay of i.
the swedish national heritage board. after one half-life has elapsed, one half of the atoms of the nuclide in question will have decayed into a "daughter" nuclide or decay product.
this is well-established for most isotopic systems. the use of radiometric dating was first published in by bertram boltwood and is now the principal source of information about the absolute age of rocks and other geological features, including the age of the earth itself, and can be used to date a wide range of natural and man-made materials.
origin and etymology of radiometric international scientific vocabulary. for example, a study of the amitsoq gneisses from western greenland used five different radiometric dating methods to examine twelve samples and got agreement to within 30 million years on an age of 3,my. meteoritics and planetary science. the system is dedicated to this special application and will considerably improve radiometric dating and trace element analysis in pure and applied science in an interdisciplinary perspective. to anchor this sequence to a specific time frame, scientists used radiometric dating to measure the absolute ages of samples returned by the apollo astronauts four decades ago.
radiometric dating (often called radioactive dating) is a way to find out how old something is. the method compares the amount of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products, in samples. radiometric dating definition, any method of determining the age of earth materials or objects of organic origin based on measurement of either short-lived radioactive elements or the amount of a long-lived radioactive element plus its decay product.
samples are exposed to neutrons in a nuclear reactor. the awkward case of 'his or her'.
a method for determining the age of an object based on the concentration of a particular radioactive isotope contained within it. planetary sciences , page measurements should be taken on samples from different parts of the rock body.
thus an igneous or metamorphic rock or melt, which is slowly cooling, does not begin to exhibit measurable radioactive decay until it cools below the closure temperature. this field is known as thermochronology or thermochronometry. after one half-life has elapsed, one half of the atoms of the nuclide in question will have decayed into a "daughter" nuclide or decay product. at a certain temperature, the crystal structure has formed sufficiently to prevent diffusion of isotopes. the trapped charge accumulates over time at a rate determined by the amount of background radiation at the location where the sample was buried. if a material that selectively rejects the daughter nuclide is heated, any daughter nuclides that have been accumulated over time will be lost through diffusion , setting the isotopic "clock" to zero. accurate radiometric dating generally requires that the parent has a long enough half-life that it will be present in significant amounts at the time of measurement except as described below under "dating with short-lived extinct radionuclides" , the half-life of the parent is accurately known, and enough of the daughter product is produced to be accurately measured and distinguished from the initial amount of the daughter present in the material.