Katherine Frances's Blog, page 262
January 13, 2016
thebookhangover:
i could blacklist shadowhunters until i watch it. but i could also just scroll...
i could blacklist shadowhunters until i watch it. but i could also just scroll past really really fast.
That’s how I handle spoilers tbh
January 12, 2016
Romeo and Juliet in YA!
Hello lovelies,
I’ve started my MA thesis which is basically researching Juliet in modern YA lit! Anyone knows any stories I should use??!!
So far I have Twilight, Warm Bodies and Juliet Immortal.
I’ll be forever grateful!
I sent Emma the list from the Epic Reads infographic. Any others, lovelies?
Daughter of Smoke and Bone series
SPOILERS
She’s a ‘devil’ he’s an angel, two waring factions, they fall in love… Neither die, though close…
"That’s what makes me sad: life is so different from books. I wish it were the same: clear, logical,..."
- Pierrot le fou (1965), Dir. Jean-Luc Godar (via wnq-movies)
Kim Shimmers and the Diviner’s Curse
A Harry Potter Fanfic by me (and sequel to Kim Shimmers and the Screech Owl)
(Art not mine, couldn’t find credits. Let me know if you know them!)
This Harry Potter fanfic will be posted, if all goes well, every weekend.
Chapter 15
Grit
Once the new term had begun, there wasn’t nearly as much time to ponder on the enigma that was Fred Weasley. Kim was back to her classes, and back to stuffing her nose in divination text books that were far beyond the fourth year required reading level. She needed to find a way to hone her meditation and bring about specific visions, and she needed to do it fast if she was going to be any help at all with the Triwizard Tournament.
That, and once classes were in session there was another bit of unpleasant news awaiting Kim. Hagrid was not in Care of Magical Creatures class, because Hagrid was not the teacher anymore, at least temporarily. He had apparently disclosed everything Kim had feared he might to Rita Skeeter, and more. Now everyone new that he had illegally bred the skrewts, and that he was half giant. This bit was news to Kim, though she couldn’t say it was that surprising, given Hagrid’s enormity. Still, the skrewt business Dumbledore could probably get him out of. But his being half giant? Prejudice ran deep in the wizarding community when it came to magical creatures. It was half of what her class on intelligent magical creatures was about, and it was what had forced Professor Lupin to quit the year before. Kim worried the same thing would happen to Hagrid.
But, the new professor had a much better lesson plan for them involving unicorns, which was immensely exciting to Kim. So not only did she have her worry for Hagrid to combat, but also the guilt that she was enjoying his absence a little.
By mid January there was a Hogsmeade visit that Kim considered skipping in favor of a guaranteed empty dormitory in which she could perform her meditation and hopefully bring about a vision for Harry. But Fred was determined to convince her out of it by saying things like, “Harry’s not staying to work on the egg, are you Harry?” to which Harry said no, to which Hermione scowled. He also made the argument that the tournament was still a long ways away and Hogsmeade only came around so often. She was so flattered by his invested interest in her attendance that she caved in and went along with them.
“Now look who we have here,” George said as they were passing by the Three Broomsticks. Kim followed his gaze and saw Bagman sitting inside, talking with Harry of all people. Kim frowned, but Fred and George were already making a beeline for the entrance to the pub so she scurried after them.
“…think I’m nearly there with the egg… couple more days should crack it,” Harry was saying to Bagman as the group walked into the pub. Bagman looked offended at whatever point Harry was getting across, but Kim didn’t have time to ponder it.
“Hello, Mr. Bagman,” said Fred brightly. “Can we buy you a drink?”
“Er… no,” said Bagman, still glancing at Harry with disappointment. “No thank you boys…”
“We really just—“ George began but was cut off.
“I must dash,” Bagman said, sounding apologetic, but Kim new it was false. “Nice seeing you all. Good luck, Harry.” He then hurried out of the pub, followed by a group of goblins that had been sitting in a nearby booth. They seemed to be purposefully following Bagman, and he seemed rather aware of it, and not in a pleasant sort of way. Harry slid from his stool and went to rejoin with Ron and Hermione at their booth as Fred and George watched Bagman hurry down the street outside, speaking quickly with the goblins.
“It’s okay,” Kim said under her breath to Fred, who was still staring out the window even though there was nothing left to see, jaw clenched tight.
“I’m getting really sick of playing nice.”
“What else are we supposed to do?” George asked, equally deflated.
“Maybe he was really busy,” Kim offered, though she was sure they were getting sick of this suggestion. “He seemed to have some business with those goblins he was dealing with…” She took hold of Fred’s forearm firmly until he looked her in the eye. “We’ll try again.”
His brow relaxed as he looked at her and she could feel his body loosening. Kim felt the inner frost that in recent days was always freezing in her chest start to warm. It was these tiny looks he sometimes gave her that she lived for.
“Thanks,” he said quietly. But, as usual, he brought himself from the moment, slating his features yet again and looking away. Kim let her arm drop, disappointed as she always was at this exchange.
“Hey George,” Fred said in a confident tone, “why don’t you shove off for a bit. Give Kim and I some alone time,” he said, nodding toward the door as he put an arm around Kim’s shoulders. Kim’s eyes widened with surprise, her jaw almost dropping. George looked at his brother for a second, his mouth going tight in the smallest of ways that only someone who knew him very well would even noticed. Then he relaxed himself again, back to normal.
“Fine. See you two later,” he said, and pushed out of the pub, stuffing his hands into his pockets and watching his feet as he made his way down the street. Kim now looked at Fred, who for some reason had a screwed up expression, looking almost exasperated or perhaps surprised at his brother’s reaction. He dropped his arm off Kim and let it hit his side with disbelief, shaking his head a little. Kim was looking exasperated and surprised too, but not at George’s reaction, at what Fred had said.
“That was mean!” Kim whispered loudly. Fred looked down at her then, a bit like he was just noticing she was still there.
“C’mon then,” he said with a small sigh, heading for the bar. He ordered them two butterbeers and turned back to Kim as they waited for them.
“I feel bad,” Kim confessed after a moment, their butterbeers sliding across the bar to them. Fred grabbed them and headed for a table.
“Why?”
“For making George go off on his own!”
“Again, why?” he asked slowly, squinting at her like this was a test. She scooted into a booth beside him and wrapped her chilly fingers around the butterbeer.
“I don’t know…” she said in a high voice. She didn’t like this line of questioning. “Because he’s your brother and my friend… and, I mean, I care about him of course, I don’t want to make him feel weird about anything…”
Fred smiled at this. She supposed she must’ve passed, but there was still an almost painful look in Fred’s eyes that Kim didn’t understand. He took a long drink of butterbeer.
“You’re good, Kim,” he said, wiping his lip. He looked sideways at her, eyes measuring. “You’re really good. And any guy would be lucky to have you.”
Kim felt her heart thundering, but her desire for Fred to understand how she felt, her desire for them to talk about what was happening between them was just enough for her to say, “I don’t want just any guy.”
Fred stared at her meaningfully for a moment, his face starting to soften. Kim thought he looked almost like he had when they were standing outside the castle during the ball, but not quite. He caught himself sooner this time, straitening and looking at the empty bench across from them.
“Yes well,” he muttered ruefully, “you deserve someone who’s going to actually go out of their way for you, at least once for crying out loud.” Kim frowned. What is he talking about? He has gone out of his way for me. He looked into his drink like there was something unfortunate in it; a hair or a fly. “What am I saying,” he murmured even lower.
“What are you saying?” Kim asked. He looked at her, brow still furrowed.
“Sorry,” he said, working to control his expression. “I’m just… upset about the whole Bagman thing.” He shook his hand in gesture at the bar. “My heads not present, is all…”
“Okay…” Kim said, not sure what to think. She knew there must be something bothering him that he wasn’t telling her, but perhaps it was just more worry about Bagman, as he claimed. She was contemplating what she could say to comfort him when he managed a much brighter expression.
“After this, we can go to Zonko’s.”
Kim smiled. “Yeah. Sounds good.”
But as it would turn out, Kim wouldn’t get the chance. As her and Fred were making their way to the joke shop she saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione heading off somewhere looking very upset.
“What’s going on guys?” Kim asked, worriedly.
“Rita Skeeter,” Hermione snapped.
“What’s she done this time?” Kim implored, immediately worried there was another article about Harry’s trouble childhood or Hagrid’s misuse of magical creatures.
“What hasn’t that evil woman done,” Hermione said. Kim looked at Fred, torn about whether to follow the group or stay with him.
“Go ahead, I’m going to find George,” he said. Kim was immediately relieved. Not only did she want to find out what was going on with her other friends, she also wanted Fred and George to talk. Make up. Do whatever it was they needed to do after the weird events to that afternoon.
“Where are you going?” Kim asked, following Harry, Ron and Hermione out of Hogsmeade.
“We’re going to talk to Hagrid. I’ve had just about enough of this. I won’t let that article shut him in forever.”
“Oh, good,” Kim said. “I’ve tried banging on his door a few times, but no luck.”
“Same,” Harry said. They all hurried to Hagrid’s cabin, upon arriving to which Hermione marched up to the door and started hammering her fist against it.
“Hagrid!” she shouted. “Hagrid, that’s enough! We know you’re in there! Nobody cares if your mum was a giantess, Hagrid! You can’t let that foul Skeeter woman do this to you! Hagrid, get out here, you’re just being—“ the door opened just as Hermione was saying “absolutely daft about it—“
She stopped herself short because instead of Hagrid at the door it was Professor Dumbledore.
"The museum gallery whispered with the sound of wings and flight and she thought of the starlings..."
- Marisa Silver, Mary Coin
murder-and-lee:
Bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA) is one of...
Bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA) is one of several forensic science specialities that can help determine what exactly came to pass on a scene of a violent crime. Technologies for it are evolving constantly, which leads to a higher degree of accuracy than in the past.
Eduard Piotrowski published a paper entitled “on the formation, form, direction, and spreading of blood stains resulting in blunt trauma at the head” in 1895. The various publications that followed did not lead to a systematic analysis the way we know today. Herbert Leon MacDonell advanced the research that eventually culminated in the 1971 publishing of “Flight Characterisics and Stain Patterns of Human Blood”. He went on to present the first formal training course for bloodstain pattern analysis.
Crime scene investigator Sherry Gutierrez put forth some general principles for the analysis of gunshot wounds in particular that roughly indicate what can be deduced from those. These are as follows:
The amount of forward spatter (away from the shooter) is greater than the back spatter (towards the shooter).
The velocity of the forward spatter is greater than the velocity of the back spatter.
Both forward and back spatter have a lower velocity than the bullet. (The relationship of the velocities from high to low can therefore be visualised as bullet –> forward spatter –> back spatter.)
Both forward and back spatter form a “cone” of mist.
The density of the fluid droplets from an impact to a fluid-containing structure decreases as the distance from the bullet impact increases.
High velocity wounds to bone may cause bone to go both forward and backward alongside the spatter.
The bullet exits in the direction opposite of the shooter.Forward spatter usually travels farther than the back spatter in the same incident. It also holds a larger volume of blood that expresses as individual stains than the back spatter does. Targets may move with the direction of the projectile upon the moment of impact, so (for example) someone who was shot in the back may move forward. Similarly, if the target is located in a moving vehicle the wind and other circumstances may affect the forward and back spatter to a degree.
Bloodstain pattern analysis can also be made visual by documenting bloodstains at the scene of the crime and measuring the angles of impact that can lead every trajctory back to an ‘origin point’. Nowadays, computer programs are used to visualise these calculations further and create a 3D-model of the circumstances of the crime. An older method is called “stringing” and consists of attaching a coloured string to the point of impact and running it to the termination point (like the wall or floor). The convergences and crossing points of these strings can then be used for crime scene reconstructions.
