THE BOOK RIOT 50 #19 The Well-Readhead Inn

THE BOOK RIOT 50 #19 The Well-Readhead Inn To celebrate Book Riots  first birthday on Monday, were running our best 50 posts from our first year this week. Click here for the running list. This post originally ran February 6, 2012. ____________________________ Previously on The Well-Readheads, we revealed our book hoarding tendencies and fantasized about opening a bed-and-breakfast to cater to booklovers and help them conquer their TBRs. We’ve been working on the business plan and look forward to inviting you to fund our Kickstarter campaign soon. For now, a preview: Inn Packages The Jane Austen: 2 nightsOne copy of an average-length Classic Novel You’ve Been Meaning To Read Forever. 3 meals and 2 snacks per day. Unlimited coffee or tea. One fluffy bathrobe dusted with Cheeto crumbs. In-room video displays Colin Firth encouraging you to keep going or singing “Moves Like Jagger” until you achieve a page count sufficient to shut him up (reader’s choice). The Miller-Nin: 3 nightsThis couples package includes a customized selection of erotic literature and love poetry. All meals delivered to room via a secret compartment to maximize privacy. Staff will not contact you during stay but expect to receive a written report of your activities within one month after check-out. (Why get down and dirty if you’re not going to document it?) Extra charge for breaking furniture or if the lingerie you toss onto a lampshade starts a fire. Optional upgrade to the Sartre-de Beauvoir package for guests who prefer to, uh, play in groups. The John Irving: 4 nightsOne copy of a long-ish Book You Want To Read And Don’t Have Time For, one “palate cleanser” collection of short stories or essays. 3 meals and 2 snacks per day. Unlimited coffee or tea. Cocktail service beginning at 3pm daily. One stuffed armadillo, one in-room wrestling mat. Bunk beds optional (to re-create that boarding school feel). Encouragement provided by man who is missing a limb but has A VERY STRANGE VOICE. Finish the book before checkout and see the bicycle-riding bear for free! The Tolstoy: 7 nightsOne copy of a Large Classic Tome, two “palate cleansers” for when you start to go cross-eyed from reading tiny print and long footnotes. 3 meals, 2 snacks, and 1 midnight nibble per day. Unlimited coffee, tea, and cigarettes (you’ll be a smoker by the time we get done with you). In-room applause machine to sound at each 100-page mark. Daily visits from helpful and not-at-all-annoying professor. One massage by an attractive but frigid Victorian Lady. Visits to the John Irving Suite’s wrestling mat when you get ahead of schedule and need to blow off some, er, steam. The Agatha Christie: 7 nightsChoose between a train compartment or a ship’s cabin. Package includes 20 randomly chosen Christie novels, one monocle, one nosy elderly guest next door, one cry in the night and one masseuse/housekeeper/concierge/server played by the same person. The room includes a well-hidden venomous snake, a draught of poison, a smoking gun, bloodstains, and the feeling youre being watched. (We also offer a half-price deal on the Christie, in which we tear the last ten pages out of the books, and we set the snake right on top of your pillow.) The Rowling: 10 nightsOne boxed set of the Harry Potter series, one cloak (invisibility not included), one personal butler dressed as a house elf. Do not under any circumstances give him your socks. 3 meals daily in the communal dining hall (with other Rowling package guests). Unlimited coffee, tea, and butterbeer. Daily meetings with your reading nemesis for motivation. One middle-of-the-night appearance by the Dark Lord to scare the pants off of you. (We said they were optional!)  May be substituted for The Tolkien (inquire for details, includes second breakfasts). The George R. R. Martin: 10 nightsone furnished castle tower, complete with swords, furs, a direwolf, and a robe monogrammed with your personal sigil. Front desk will call once a day to remind you that winter is coming. Upon finishing a book, we make you wait an exorbitant   amount of time before we deliver the next one. We also execute your favorite staff member halfway through your stay. Dragons egg omelets served at breakfast; try our specialty drink, the White Walker! The Douglas Adams Hitchhiker Suite42 nights in the Beeblebrox Stateroom; a towel; a nightly swim with dolphins; three meals served in five parts in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe; one babel fish to translate any books you may wish to read in another language; one witty alien roommate. House Rules 1. Upon arriving at the Well-Readhead Inn, you must surrender all electronic devices. Guests found with such items after check-in will immediately be moved to the Twilight Room. (Managers note: the body glitter is temporary and will wash away after a few weeks. The shame is yours forever.) 2. Guests are invited to walk the grounds, sit a spell in the veranda rocking chairs, and enjoy therapeutic soaks in the outdoor hot tub. Those found doing so without a book will lose all out-of-room privileges for the remainder of their stay. Those found doing so without pants will be given a high-five and our undying respect. 3. The Well-Readhead Inn observes a strict “no spoilers” policy. Guests caught revealing plot points to those for whom they will ruin the experience will be exiled in the Dungeon of Distraction and forced to play Angry Birds for a period consummate with the severity of their offense. 4.   Guests are expected to respect each other’s personal space and to observe the posted quiet hours when reading in the Inn’s public spaces. Anyone who makes like the annoying seatmate who won’t shut up on a three-hour flight will be sent to the Clockwork Orange Suite, the details of which are confidential. 5. All books are property of the Well-Readhead Inn; guests inclined to highlight or underline in books may pre-purchase copies. (In the case of the Miller-Nin package, cost of books is factored into the price we dont want those back.) Our promise to you: You will never hear the words I wish *I* had time to read uttered on these grounds. Recommend additional packages and house rules in the comments below. We look forward to welcoming you to The Well-Readhead Inn soon! Sign up to Unusual Suspects to receive news and recommendations for mystery/thriller readers.

The Evolution of the First Mammals

Ask the average person on the street, and he or she might guess that the first mammals didnt appear on the scene until after the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, and, moreover, that the last dinosaurs evolved into the first mammals. The truth, though, is very different. In fact, the first mammals evolved from a population of vertebrates called  therapsids (mammal-like reptiles) at the end of the Triassic period and coexisted with dinosaurs throughout the Mesozoic Era. But part of this folktale has a grain of truth. It was only after the dinosaurs went kaput that mammals were able to evolve beyond their tiny, quivering, mouselike forms into the widely specialized species that populate the world today. These popular misconceptions about the mammals of the Mesozoic Era are easy to explain. Scientifically speaking, dinosaurs tended to be very, very big and early mammals tended to be very, very small. With a couple of exceptions, the first mammals were tiny, inoffensive creatures, rarely more than a few inches long and a few ounces in weight, about on a par with modern shrews. Thanks to their low profiles, these hard-to-see critters could feed on insects and small reptiles (which bigger ​raptors and tyrannosaurs tended to ignore), and they could also scurry up trees or dig into burrows to avoid getting stomped on by larger ornithopods and sauropods. The Evolution of the First Mammals Before discussing how the first mammals evolved, its helpful to define what distinguishes mammals from other animals, especially reptiles. Female mammals possess milk-producing mammary glands with which they suckle their young. All mammals have hair or fur during at least some stage of their life cycles, and all are endowed with warm-blooded (endothermic) metabolisms. Regarding the fossil record, paleontologists can distinguish ancestral mammals from ancestral reptiles by the shape of their skull and neck bones, as well as the presence, in mammals, of two small bones in the inner ear (in reptiles, these bones constitute part of the jaw). As mentioned above, the first mammals evolved toward the end of the Triassic period from a population of therapsids, the mammal-like reptiles that arose in the early Permian period and produced such uncannily mammal-like beasts as Thrinaxodon and Cynognathus. By the time they went extinct in the mid-Jurassic period, some therapsids had evolved proto-mammalian traits (fur, cold noses, warm-blooded metabolisms, and possibly even live birth) that were further elaborated upon by their descendants of the later Mesozoic Era. As you can imagine, paleontologists have a hard time distinguishing between the last, highly evolved therapsids and the first, newly evolved mammals. Late Triassic vertebrates like Eozostrodon, Megazostrodon  and Sinoconodon appear to have been intermediate missing links between therapsids and mammals, and even in the early Jurassic period, Oligokyphus  possessed reptilian ear and jaw bones at the same time as it showed every other sign (rat-like teeth, the habit of suckling its young) of being a mammal. If this seems confusing, bear in mind that the modern-day platypus is classified as a mammal, even though it lays reptilian, soft-shelled eggs rather than giving birth to live young! The Lifestyles of the First Mammals The most distinctive thing about the mammals of the Mesozoic Era is how small they were. Although some of their therapsid ancestors attained respectable sizes. For example, the late Permian Biarmosuchus was about the size of a large dog. Very few early mammals were larger than mice, for a simple reason: dinosaurs had already become the dominant terrestrial animals on earth. The only ecological niches open to the first mammals entailed a) feeding on plants, insects and small lizards, b) hunting at night (when predatory dinosaurs were less active), and c) living high up in trees or underground, in burrows. Eomaia,  from the early Cretaceous period, and Cimolestes,  from the late Cretaceous period, were fairly typical in this regard. This isnt to say that all early mammals pursued identical lifestyles. For example, the North American Fruitafossor  possessed a pointed snout and mole-like claws, which it used to dig for insects. And, the late Jurassic Castorocauda  was built for a semi-marine lifestyle, with its long, beaver-like tail and hydrodynamic arms and legs. Perhaps the most spectacular deviation from the basic Mesozoic mammalian body plan was Repenomamus, a three-foot-long, 25-pound carnivore that is the only mammal known to have fed on dinosaurs (a fossilized specimen of Repenomamus has been found with the remains of a Psittacosaurus in its stomach). Recently, paleontologists discovered conclusive fossil evidence for the first important split in the mammal family tree, the one between placental and marsupial mammals. Technically, the first, marsupial-like mammals of the late Triassic period are known as metatherians. From these evolved the eutherians, which later branched off into placental mammals. The type specimen of Juramaia, the Jurassic mother, dates to about 160 million years ago, and demonstrates that the metatherian/eutherian split occurred at least 35 million years before scientists had previously estimated. The Age of Giant Mammals Ironically, the same characteristics that helped mammals maintain a low profile during the Mesozoic Era also allowed them to survive the K/T Extinction Event that doomed the dinosaurs. As we now know, that giant meteor impact 65 million years ago produced a kind of nuclear winter, destroying most of the vegetation that sustained the herbivorous dinosaurs, which themselves sustained the carnivorous dinosaurs that preyed on them. Because of their tiny size, early mammals could survive on much less food, and their fur coats (and warm-blooded metabolisms) helped keep them warm in an age of plunging global temperatures. With the dinosaurs out of the way, the Cenozoic Era was an object lesson in convergent evolution: mammals were free to radiate into open ecological niches, in many cases taking on the general shape of their dinosaur predecessors. Giraffes, as you may have noticed, are eerily similar in body plan to ancient sauropods like Brachiosaurus, and other mammalian megafauna pursued similar evolutionary paths. Most important, from our perspective, early primates like Purgatorius were free to multiply, populating the branch of the evolutionary tree that led eventually to modern humans.

The 5-Minute Rule for Samples Personal Essay

The 5-Minute Rule for Samples Personal Essay Where to Find Samples Personal Essay If it's not coherent enough, unfortunately, your essay winds up in the thrash and you receive a rejection email. Finally, the essay should have a list of all the secondary materials used within a bibliography section. Writing essay might be a real headache including all of the research and meeting academic standards. When you're writing an apa essay, it's necessary for you to observe its normal formatting rules. Let EssayEdge help you compose an application essay which gets noticed. It is essential that you totally eliminate any kind of grammatical errors in your essays. You also need to observe that the precise structure for your essay will actually rely on the form of paper you're writing. Keep in mind that a high degree of detailing is a feature of all great narrative essay examples. The Samples Personal Essay Cover Up If you must do a term paper for a history program, for instance, skim via your history textbook to locate a broad subject area which interests you. A personal essay is a tool that's utilized to equalize all participants who might have different varieties of experiences or accomplishments. Analyzing personality based on the career it's great to have a comprehensive analysis of what character lies when it has to do with achieving the goals of expected. Both examples handle the very same theme (sick parent) but utilize various approaches. Assuming that you would like to get hired by an excellent company, generally you'll be requested to write an expert goals essay to demonstrate that you're the most appropriate candidate to occupy the available position. Regardless of what's the goal of your essay, there's a preset number of points you will be. The very first criterion is easily the most important. The second criterion is also critical. Scholarship sponsors search for applicants with vision and motivation, so they may ask about your targets and aspirations. Finest Essay Education has produced a scholarship essay competition to encourage students to produce their very own amazing essays and have the chance to win a sizeable financial award to assist with their very own educational expenses. College is an enormous, huge investment. Students lead busy lives and frequently forget about a coming deadline. Where to Find Samples Personal Essay With a little bit of tweaking, one particular scholarship essay can fit the requirements of several distinct contests. If you've already graduated from college or university and are looking for an excellent job, you will need to get a persuasive resume to impress your future employer. Now you can get genuine college essay online, one that is going to fit your financial plan and get your work done too. 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Especially, write the way the scholarship is able to help you continue your education including the financial conditions of your loved ones and the way you'll have the ability to help them as well. Vital Pieces of Samples Personal Essay Unders tanding of vital components of succeeding from the very inception will cause the life objectives and plans formation. In earlier times however, home has been connected to houses of varying sizes, colours and forms. The total format of your essay, for example, font size and margins, will solely are based on the instructions offered to you. The key to succeeding, in regards to weight loss and fitness, is to simply do it.

Historical Fiction Book Report Free Essays

Furthermore, after almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader, Greenroom finally surrendered with his armed forces to General Nelson Miles. Also during 1886, a massive and destructive hurricane demolished the town of Dianna in the state of Texas. Based on my knowledge of life in 1886, if the story were to take place in in Daly City in 2014, the story would greatly differ. We will write a custom essay sample on Historical Fiction Book Report or any similar topic only for you Order Now Roads would be evenly and more efficiently paved. Modernized cars would replace horseback transportation. Likewise, farms would be replaced by studier homes, markets, and stores. Ellen Elizabeth Hawkins features as the main character of the story. A motherless twelve-year old, Ellen is adventurous and protective of others. Ellen is spirited and is willing to journey to far off lands. As in the story, because she enjoys an adventure, Ellen sets off into the distance to go rescue her Grandfather who has mysteriously disappeared. Just as her mother, Ellen is protective of animals, family, and all living beings. She treats her mare, Detroit with respect and is always concerned of Grandpa’s safety. However, Ellen may be rebellious at times of suspense. In addition, Grandpa and Detroit, as stated before, are also two important characters of the story. Grandpa, humorous and welcoming, is the only support that is given to Ellen. He has also taught Ellen the hard life as a cowboy and the effort that it may take. Detroit, loyal and obedient, is Allen’s fierce mare and use of transportation that travels without rest or fear of what is to come. To get the story started, author Kathleen Due uses a strong introduction that describes the conflict or situation, an intense drought and its immense heat. She begins by stating the shortage of water and supplies. As said, the central problem consists of a fearful drought that is causing immense heat and water shortage. The farm windmill is broken and the herd of bulls and cows has scattered in search of water. Allen’s father is away on business and Grandpa is hurt. Ellen is now left alone with her toughest challenge to save the ranch. The central problem is soon resolved with Allen’s determination and perseverance. The drought finally comes to an end and it begins to rain. Ellen heals Grandpa’s wounds and returns the Hereford bull after a dangerous aisle. Her father is home safe and Ellen has proved her worth as a cowboy. â€Å"American Diaries: Ellen Elizabeth Hawkins† is an exciting and action-packed story. This story is similar to another story I have read, entitled â€Å"Warriors: Fire and Ice† because both main characters face tough challenges and fierce conditions. Both main characters must also prove their worth in being or becoming something. Both stories are also alike in that they revolve around a journey or conflict to find or save something. Just as in † American Diaries: How to cite Historical Fiction Book Report, Papers

Modernization And Medicine Essays - Health In China, Medicine

Modernization And Medicine On the first day of class, we discussed how modernization has brought the institution of medicine so far. Although the cost of modernization is seen as the social germ, modernization has also brought enormous improvement in health. Modern medicine defies all ancient reason. In primitive societies the division of labor was vague, no real specializing in anything, but over years of experimentation and development, the establishment of medicine was born. We now have overflowing systems of specialization and technological advancements, but this did not happen overnight. Originally, religion had made medicine its own institution, despite Hypocrites suggestion to take medicine out of religion and make it its own; health depends on other things Doctors, when they existed, were not always the powerful profession that they are today. They had far less prestige, and before 1900, were rather despised. But there has always been a need to care for the sick. This dependence eventually called on those in the professional medical field. Being dependent on doctors means that we must submit to their authority and recognize their power, something that took years to come to. The acceptance of this professional authority was a revolution. This revolution created a pyramid of power, defining authority of various groups in a hierarchical sense. But this authority was not readily accepted. The people of the 19th century did not accept doctors as authoritative. They had more common sense that that and werent ready to give up their own good judgment and submit to a physi cians. But time, world events, and changes made the people more dependent. Self- reliance faded at the end of the 19th century, making folks more needy of specialized skill. People spread out geographically and couldnt rely on their neighbors as much anymore, turning them to professional strangers for help. Technologies such as transportation, telephones and hospitals helped welcome the professional world. The sick no longer lay in bed at home, but went into the hospitals to confide in the physicians for healing. Science began to get respect, forcing the scientific world of medicine to be recognized as well. No longer was it up to the woman of the house to keep remedies for illnesses on hand and care for the sick of the house. Domestic medicine was fading out of the picture by the late nineteenth century and professional medicine was rearing its costly head. Professional medicine began to gain legitimacy. It began to convince the public of its value, a necessary component to becomin g a dominant profession. Physicians began to raise their standards and prestige through medical schools and licensing. Professional standards were established, although the cost of an education in medicine was low, making physicians popular and readily available. Unlike today, many physicians found in difficult to support themselves solely from medical practice. Although, there were still definite prestige inequalities among doctors. The wealthier families received help from the elite of the medical professionals the poor received from physicians of lower status and less training. The elite might have gone to Europe to study, expanding their knowledge, demanding more money from their patients. Despite the status of the physician, it was guaranteed that he still earns more money than the average factory worker. Physicians incomes never increased as much as the early 20th century. The income and prestige of medical professionals grew immensely. Twice as many people were applying to medical schools as were bein g accepted and highly selective admissions had come about. The profession was developing high entry standards, another component necessary to achieving high status in the professional world. The Civil War brought an enormous amount of experimentation for those in the medical field. Experience on wounded soldiers gave the medical profession dummies and the war created a laboratory. The physicians documented their work and much of what is known today is owed to that accident of history. This experience only brought the profession more authority, demanding more respect, power, and money. The war proved that the professionals were indeed skilled and they were starting to gain trust among the public. The medical profession had become a monopoly. People no longer question whether or not they will go to a doctor when theyre sick. No one would think to

Perl Array unshift() Function Tutorial

Perl Array unshift() Function Tutorial Perls unshift() function is used to add value or values onto the beginning of an array (prepend), which increases the number of elements. The new values then become the first elements in the array. It returns the new total number of elements in the array. Its easy to confuse this function with push(), which adds elements to the end of an array. Picture a row of numbered boxes, going from left to right. The unshift() function would add the new value or values on to the left side of the array, and increase the elements. In the examples, the value of myNames becomes (Larry, Curly, Moe). The array can also be thought of as a stack- picture a stack of numbered boxes, starting with 0 on the top and increasing as it goes down. The unshift() function would add the value to the top of the stack, and increase the overall size of the stack. You can unshift() multiple values onto the array directly: Or by unshift()-ing an array:

5 Great Short Story Tips for Writers - Proofeds Writing Tips

5 Great Short Story Tips for Writers - Proofeds Writing Tips 5 Great Short Story Tips for Writers Short stories are a great way to hone your writing skills before setting to work on your long-planned novel. They’re also an art form in themselves. Whatever your motivation for writing, though, we have some great short story tips for authors. Read on to find out more! 1. Some Stories Are Shorter than Others A short story will typically be between 1,500 and 7,500 words long. However, some are longer and others are as short as a single sentence. It is up to you! You can see how different short stories are sometimes classified, as well as how these compare to a novel, below: Fiction Format Average Length Microfiction Under 100 words Flash fiction 100 to 1,000 words Short story 1,000 to 7,500 words Novelette 7,500 to 17,500 words Novella 17,500 to 50,000 words Novel 50,000 words or more Before you start writing, think about which format to use and set yourself a word limit. This can work as a guideline when planning your story. 2. Work with Limitations To make sure your short story doesn’t accidentally grow into a novella, set some limitations on the plot as well as the word count. These could be physical (e.g., a story that takes place in a single room) or time based (e.g., a story that takes place in a single day). You could even set a limitation on the number of characters or â€Å"scenes† that your short story will involve. Whatever limitation you choose, working with a narrower scope will help you focus on the core of your story. 3. Think About the World of the Story The best short stories feel like they belong to a larger, lived-in world. You won’t have space to explain this world fully, but you can think about how it would shape the tale you are telling. Make notes about the history of your characters and the world they belong to before you begin writing. This can give you a better sense of what they are like and how they would interact with one another. You can even hint at this by alluding to your characters’ pasts in your writing. 4. Edit Ruthlessly! Thanks to the limitations of a short story, you will almost certainly write too much on your first draft. This is completely fine. The key is to take what you’ve written and then refine it. Think about cutting anything that isn’t essential to the story you’re telling. And remember the old advice about showing, not telling: i.e., that it is better to use action to show how a character feels than telling the reader directly. In a short story, this can also help cut down on unnecessary narration. 5. Look for a Publisher If you are proud of your short story, you might want to share it with the world! Check out some of the many magazines and blogs that feature short stories. Once you find one that carries the same type or genre of writing as your own, look up their rules for submitting stories and follow these closely.