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William Kamkwamba was only 14 years old when he built a windmill that could power 4 light bulbs and a radio in his village in Malawi. Watch his story here.
I have read what I consider the top three Vampire Romance/Mystery book series that are out there. My Vampire interest was recently acquired through the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, however I searched for a more adult approach on the subject matter and this is what I recommend.
In exchange for finding her father, Cat agrees to train with the sexy night stalker until her battle reflexes are as sharp as his fangs. She's amazed she doesn't end up as his dinner—are there actually good vampires? Pretty soon Bones will have her convinced that being half-dead doesn't have to be all bad. But before she can enjoy her newfound status as kick-ass demon hunter, Cat and Bones are pursued by a group of killers. Now Cat will have to choose a side . . . and Bones is turning out to be as tempting as any man with a heartbeat. Ok so Cat is a half vampire because her mother was raped by a newly made vampire and becomes pregnant with her. As a result of this her mother has a hatred to vampires and insist that Cat kill as many as she can find because they are all murderous monsters. Cat goes out to clubs and lets vampires hit on her and leaves the bar with them, when they make their move to drain her she kills them. This leads to her meeting Bones, a master vampire hit man, who notices Cat and her little mission. He kidnaps her because he thinks she it working for the man that he has been tracking to kill. When he discovers that she is something different and realizes her potential gives her a choice of death or partnership in his mission. Cat accepts because she knows that it is her only chance to live. Bones trains cat for weeks and they set out with Cat as bait to catch bad vampires with Bones waiting to question them before they kill them. Bones is trying to get to Hennessy a vampire who is selling young human girls to vampires for considerable amounts of money. He has been searching for him for 11 years and intends to track him with information form the vampires they hunt down. In this process Cat falls for Bones, who is already in love with her, but is fighting her feelings because she was brought up believing that all vampires are evil. Cat is also still scarred from her first serious relationship with a boy who left her as soon as she had sex with him. As Cat struggles with her feelings Bones tricks her into going out on a date with him and just as they are about to kiss Hennessy walks into the club. Cat lures Hennessy out of the club and her and Bones attempts to kill him but they fail. They continue hunting vampires to get to Hennessy. In the process Cat decided she loves Bones and they start dating, but she lies to her mother and tells her that she is dating her human neighbor. Hennessy's vampires find where Cat's family lives and they kill her grandparents and kidnap her mother in order to get Cat. Bones is busy killing Hennessy and Cat discovers that his partner is the governor, she goes straight to his house and kills him. The police show up and arrest her and the FBI comes in to take her into custody. On the way there the FBI agent Don tells her they are in a new devision in paranormal investigation and wants to hire Cat to hunt rogue vampires because she is the only of her kind. She is offered a job new identity and a home for her and her mother each, for 10 years in the FBI and no contact with vampires. She agrees knowing that this is the only way she will not go to prison and the only way to save them form killing Bones. Bones shows up just after Cat agreed to their terms and is unaware of her plans. He stops the car that has Cat in it and gets Cat and her mother. They go to a place to hide so he can make arrangements for them to leave the country. Cat has no intention on leaving with him because she knows the FBI will track them down and kill them, but she doesn't want to tell Bones because she knows he will talk her out of it. Bones leaves to take care of a few last minute plans and Cat leaves Bones a note breaking up with him. Cat and her and her mother leave and go meet Don and his crew where she starts her new job and is in command of a new crew she must train. She doesn't stop thinking about Bones but she knows this is the only way he will be safe. Book 4 of 50 in 365 Challenge!
The fourth installment of the Night Huntress Series will be released on July 28. Here is a promo clip from Jeaniene Frosts website.
Since half-vampire Cat Crawfield and her undead lover Bones met six years ago, they've fought against the rogue undead, battled a vengeful Master vampire, and pledged their devotion with a blood bond. Now its time for a vacation. But their hopes for a perfect Paris holiday are dashed when Cat awakes one night in terror. She's having visions of a vampire named Gregor who's more powerful than Bones and has ties to her past that even Cat herself didn't know about. Gregor believes Cat is his and he won't stop until he has her. As the battle begins between the vamp who haunts her nightmares and the one who holds her heart, only Cat can break Gregor's hold over her. She'll need all the power she can summon in order to bring down the baddest bloodsucker she's ever faced . . . even if getting that power will result in an early grave. Here is the real skinny. You start the book on a nice vacation with Cat and Bones and then things get really strange as they always do in the paranormal world. Cat is having dreams of a vampire she has never met but he claims her as his own. This vampire Gregor, is known as the Dreamsnatcher because he can steal people out of their dreams. It is revealed that he has met Cat years go and apparently they are married and bound to each other. Cat has no memories of this because Mencheres has erased them and then imprisoned Gregor for his own benefit (He wanted Cat to bond with Bones to strengthen his own line). Gregor escapes and states that he and Cat are married and wants to reclaim her but no one can confirm one way or the other if their bond is true (Mencheres hid Cats memories so deep that he cannot even replenish them) If Cat is truly bound to Gregor then her bond to Bones is void. Gregor needs to die but he is a powerful vampire and Bones is concerned of his strength. Many vampires will not side with Bones if Cat is bond to Gregor because by vampire law Cat then belongs to Gregor. They seek out the partnership of Marie Laveau to gain her on their side incase a battle erupts with Gregor. They fail in gaining her partnership but Cat learns from her that Gregor has the power to return Cat's memories of their time together. This puts a great strain on Cat and Bones relationship because she wants to go to Gregor and get her memories restored so she can know if there was a marriage. Gregor snatches Cat from her dreams and she ends up getting her memories restored by him and it is revealed that they were bound to each other by vampire marriage. Cat stabs Gregor with a silver knife and he allows her to call Vlad to come and get her and bring her back to Bones. This angers Bones to know that she had her memories restored and she does in fact belong to Gregor. Cat and Bones are constantly arguing and they eventually split up, Bones returns to New Orleans and Cat goes to stay with Vlad. Cat is taking sleeping pills that were supplied from her Uncle that would allow her to have dreamless sleep. When it was revealed that the pills side effects included a short temper and were the result of a majority of her and Bones fights she stops taking the pills. This makes her susceptible to Gregor snatching her from her dreams again. The only way he cannot invade them is if she a full vampire. Vlad offers to make the change but she only wants Bones to change her. After a series of misunderstandings Bones agrees to change her into a full vampire and their bond is as strong as ever. When Cat transforms into a vampire there is an odd twist, she only drinks dead blood from vampires, and she does form Bones and Vlad. When Gregor finds out she has become a vampire he is angry because he cant get to Cat in her dreams so he kidnaps her mother and transforms her into a vampire against her will. Cat, Bones and the crew break into Gregors place to take back her mother. In the ambush things were not going as planed and Cat managed to burn the house down with pyrokinetics that she did not know she possessed. They retrieved her mother but Rodney the Ghoul was killed in the process. Bones challenges Gregor to a fight to the death. Law Guardians along with several Master Vampires are there to observe and make sure rules are followed. Each vampire only had 3 knives to aid in the fight. They fought down to their last knives and Gregor used his last knife in Bones back, it was not a killing strike but Bones was dying from the injury and Cat could sense this but did not understand why. When Gregor went in for the killing he turned to smile at Cat and his almost victory over Bones. All of a sudden Gregor burst into flames and instantly was killed by Cats anger. The Law Guardian states that Cat dies for interfering with the fight. Bones then recover enough to reveal that hidden in Gregors weapons was an injection device that pumped liquid silver into him for a faster kill. This meant that Gregor was guilty of cheating and Cat was free. It is revealed that when Cat drinks from another vampire she acquires and special powers that they may posses like Vlad and his pyrokinetics. Cat and Bones are finally able to get back to their vacation. The End! Frost's next book is a sin off about Cat's Friend Denise, First Drop of Crimson due out in Feb 2010. Book 6 of 50 in the 365 Challenge!
Nine hundred dollars, (I know, only?) gets you the worlds cleanest keyboard. Great for popular coffee shops I guess, or ultra clean electronic rooms (chip makers). But $900? I'd be okay with just running it through the dishwasher at the end of the day. Yes you can do that, no soap though.
Check out the progress pics here. This is seriously a work of art and would not at all mind having it on my desk. My scanner sits in a hidden corner. Take it out when I need it type of thing. It was designed to accent another mod of his, The Computational Engine. Trust me your jaw will drop when you see this one. It's still a work in progress.
The scanner sits inside a sheetmetal framework with the book built around it. The covers and spine were made from pieces of a huge, oversized clipboard I had. I was having difficulty finding bookbinding leather in small enough quantities and high enough qualities, so I ended up dissecting a large envelope satchel thing my aunt gave me which she had kicking around in her basement. This explains the long stitch seam down the edge of the cover, but that will not be found on any future versions. The scanner then got a decorative cardboard shell (the white side of an old art pad cover). The parchment-colored page cover with the aged edges and the "illumination" design was made in vectors using Fireworks (yeah I'm a Macromedia guy). I had a printout made at Kinkos, then I traced over the design with gold marker to give it an embossed look. A piece of gold bridal ribbon was used to fake the gold page gilding around the outside. The horizontal threads in the ribbon look exactly like gilded book pages pressed flat together.
