March:

Personal Demon, Kelley Armstrong Got it!
Wrath of a Mad God, Raymond E. Feist Got it!
Camelot's Blood, Sarah Zettel Got it!

April:

Where Demons Dare, Kim Harrison Got it!
The Darkest Kiss, Keri Arthur Got it!

May:

The Twisted Citadel, Sara Douglass

June:

Ravensoul, James Barclay

July:

Cry Wolf, Patrica Briggs

August:

Iron Kissed, Patrica Briggs
Victory of Eagles, Naomi Novik
Acheron, Sherrilyn Kenyon
The Summoning, Kelley Armstrong
Daemons Are Forever, Simon R. Green

September:

The Gypsy Morph, Terry Brooks

October:

The Pirate King, (Forgotten Realms), R. A. Salvatore

November:

Living With the Dead, Kelley Armstrong
One Silent Night, Sherrilyn Kenyon

I was looking through Amazon today and got a shock:

A mass market paperback novel I was going to buy is £8.99 in the shops. Am I the only one who thinks that's way too excessive? I can understand it if it was one of those large trade paperbacks you can get, since they're essentially the hardback version in paperback. I can remember when trade paperbacks were only £3.99 - £4.99. What a rip off!

Dirty, dirty dirty....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7392213.stm

Makes you wonder now where the Children In Need and Comic Relief money goes, don't it?

The OU course is nearly finished. I just have one more week to go with it and then that's it.

However, I think it's time now to look at some of the more bizzare stuff that's cropped up in the course.

1. A parsec is an actual unit of measurement, not just something George Lucas made up so Han Solo could brag about how good a pilot he is.

2. Crystals may have had a role in the origin of life (werid, don't ask me how they thought that one up. Sometimes I wonder if scientists are grasping at straws trying to explain life's origins.)

3. Europa and Titan may have the condictions to support life.

4. Microfossils of "bactria" are thought to have been found in a metorite from Mars. (Old news, but some people might have forgotten about that one.)

5. Amino acids and other organic molecules have been found in comets. (But not formed by living microbes.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7385949.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7379775.stm

This is just typical that after years of hard work by conservationists, elephant poaching is starting to become rife again...Why? All because efforts to preserve them have been too successful and their population has grown.

At least today didn't turn out to be all that bad. I managed to get the new Keri Arthur novel, so I see werewolf smut in my future...(don't ask!)

I managed to get a vegetarian recipe magazine I saw at the weekend, as well. In case anyone was wondering, I eat a lot of vegetrarian/vegan for health reasons - most processed food is laced with salt, fat and way too much sugar and that's probably why a lot of folks these days are suffering from diabetes, heart disease, etc, aside from also being predisposed to it if it's coded somewhere in your genes. Cooking my own food at least gives me some control of what goes into it. (Usually comes out better, too)

Also went to the Body Shop and they'd finally restocked that tea tree face masque which I've been looking for for ages, so I'll be getting a pot of that on Monday. (Boring, I know, and though I'm not a girly girl, I still like that stuff in moderation.)

When I was at the fruit shop, I picked up some strawberries for a treat. (What, I can't have chocolate anymore, which sucks...)

Yup, it's that time of the week again and I've been tearing the place apart looking for the stuff I need for the appointment I have later on today, stressing myself out in the process. I took it out on the phone, 'cos it was just in the way...(besides, I can't stand the thing anyway...) Now it's time for me to try and at least get half my stress levels back to normal before i go out, because the appointment's going to be bad enough on it's own as it is without that....AGGGGGGGGH!

Finished the geology TMA. Wahoo! Now, all I need to do is finish the end of course assessment, and the science course is done and I can do some fan fic.

From: Defenders of Wildlife

America’s bears are facing a poaching plague. The reason? The lucrative black market for bear parts is on the rise.

But bipartisan legislation in Congress can help put an end to this disturbing trend.

Urge your Representative to sign on as a cosponsor to the Bear Protection Act (H.R. 5534) -- a bill that would help save America’s bears.

Many bears are killed just for their gallbladders, which are used in traditional Asian medicines to treat a variety of illnesses. Although accepted alternatives exist in traditional medicines, demand for bear parts is soaring.

As Asian bear populations have fallen, poachers are turning to bears in the U.S. to satisfy a flourishing black market. Each year, 30,000 or more bears are killed illegally in the U.S.

Poachers target hibernating bears in their dens and even track radio-collared bears that are part of scientific studies. And law enforcement agents report grisly findings: bear carcasses left in the woods with only the gallbladder and other parts removed.

Representatives Raul Grijalva (AZ) and John Campbell (CA) have introduced legislation that will help bears by banning the trade in gallbladders at the federal level.

The Bear Protection Act will end a patchwork of state laws that creates an enforcement nightmare and allows the illegal killing of bears to continue.

Help End A Bear Poaching Plague