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Tea, Anybody?
On the long and bone jarring ride to the racetrack, a nice break at Tea Kettle Junction
Desert Beauty
Even a view from our campground near the racetrack looks so picturesque.
You go your way and I'll go mine
Rocks on the racetrack make their way on the playa. The theory is that the wind pushes them when the playa is icy. Wonder how they move in opposite directions?
Separate Ways
The lone rock on the racetrack seems to be in stark disagreement with the other two.
Go Your Own Way
Some seem to converge while others move away. No rules on the racetrack.
The Racetrack
The sun has to be really low in the horizon to get good photos of the racetrack - especially the textures of the playa.
Scorched Earth
Layers and layers of delicious chocolate colored earth extend all around the Ubehebe crater. The van on the left gives you a perspective of how vast the area is.
Ubehebe Crater
This beautiful volcanic crater in Death Valley is right off the road to the racetrack. I didn't have much time to explore, but next time I'm going all the way to the bottom.
Morning Walk
Interesting to see how many people try to cut across the dunes by climbing down and up. We tried it once and realized how difficult it is and kept to the ridges like the guy up there.
Sitting on top of the world
He must have gotten there way before dawn to claim that perch. The star dune is the highest one in Mesquite Flat dunes and it's definitely a pain to climb with the loose sand.
Undulating Dunes
On our last day at Death Valley, we woke up early and went to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. It was pretty clear when we got there, but by the time the sun came up the wind had kicked up dust clouds and completely hidden the mountains at the horizon. Totally different scene than what we expected, but equally beautiful.
The Sweltering Sun
Well, it was actually pretty cold that morning in the desert, but the sun behind a blanket of dust makes it look so hot! Like it should be in the desert.
A lone man walks down the ridge of the colossal star dune.
Ephermeral Footsteps
The beautiful patterns in the sand dunes are broken by the footsteps of those passing through. The sandstorm on the horizon will make sure that they are wiped clean.
The Moon and the Dune
The moon was still high in the sky even after the sun lit up the sky. You look the opposite direction and you see a completely different scene with the burning sun.
Ripples in the Sand
It's interesting how the patterns in the sand is accentuated by the side lighting making it seem like a pool of sand nested between the dunes
The Star Dune
It's so difficult to convey the size and beauty of the star dune. Especially when the wind is blowing the sand right over the surface making it shimmer.
Fade Away
It's amazing to watch the wind erase your footsteps right in front of you. This is one place your treading around can do the least harm.
Light Flow
We spent only about 15 minutes at the very aptly named Golden Canyon. The light was already getting harsh, but it worked perfectly for outlining this slot canyon.
Dust over Badwater
From telescope peak to badwater basin, the landscape of Death Valley is so divers. Add to it dust storms, freezing nights and blistering hot days - it is one unique place.
Artist's Palette
All the diversity of Death Valley seems to be concentrated in this one spot with all those beautiful colors.


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With this week's "health care summit" between President Obama and the Republicans, one hopes that the GOP will do a better job than they have done thus far in promoting the benefits of Health Savings Accounts. If they had done so in the past, ObamaCare would likely never have come into consideration. While structured differently than traditional health insurance plans, it is precisely this structural difference that holds the key to reigning in runaway health care inflation. Health Savings Accounts should also have a nearly universal appeal to a particularly vital population in this debate, namely, doctors.
Our present system of medical spending and reimbursement is an unholy "mashup" of two concepts that need to remain separate: health care and health insurance. Health care is a product that seeks to meet our want and need to remain healthy. Health insurance is also a product, but is focused on risk management. All but the most die-hard socialists generally agree that free markets, when allowed to work, will best deliver solutions to meet human wants and needs. Yet for some reason our government has decided that the product called "health care" cannot be delivered via free markets. Thus, we now have 50% of health care expenditures being spent by government. And where insurance should kick in for unpredictable events whose low probability allows for the pooling of risk, we are instead using it as a general financing mechanism for events that take place with near certainty, such as annual physicals. One wonders why we are not being clothed and fed by similar "insurance" schemes. The more we finance routine expenditures with "insurance", the more we fight the consequences.
It is this fundamental distortion of the proper role of insurance that lies at the root of our unsustainable medical cost inflation. If a majority of people instead used HSA's, inflation of medical care costs would likely be no greater than the inflation seen in any other sector of our economy. Indeed, looking at the sub-specialties of laser eye surgery and cosmetic surgery, where insurance has played a dramatically smaller roll, there is a demonstrable trend of consumers getting better care for less money. Perhaps Obama can order a Presidential Commission to report back on that.
The Road to HSA's
It is not uncommon for a company to pay $10,000 a year or more to provide family coverage for an employee. The employee gets the "benefit" of the insurance coverage, as opposed to a higher salary or wage, and the company gets a tax deduction for the cost of the insurance. Of course, if the employee loses their job, they and their family lose their insurance coverage, too.
Rather than spending $10,000 on a "traditional" family insurance plan, the company could instead do the following: First, they spend $5,000 on a high-deductible insurance plan that would cover 100% of the above-deductible costs of any potentially financially devastating event that isn't likely to happen, such as a heart attack. Second, to cover this deductible, the employer deposits $4,000 (2010's limit is actually $6,150) into an account for the insured to spend on any medical expense, such as annual physicals, or a random trip to the doctor to be told they have the flu. The employee and family are free to choose any medical service providers they want, no questions asked. There's $1,000 left over, which can be returned to the employee in the form of a higher wage, re-invested by the company to grow the business, used to increase a corporate dividend, or any combination thereof.
The wonders of the HSA stem from the fact that of the $4,000 placed into the account, the employee rolls over whatever they don't spend into the following year, at which point they get another $4,000. Voila! The employee now has a strong incentive to watch how the money is spent. For the first time, as is typical with nearly any other purchase, the consumer will now likely ask "What does that cost?" It is precisely this "skin in the game" that is key to re-introducing market forces to health care delivery.
If President Obama is truly looking for new solutions to our health care and insurance issues, in a plan that won't bankrupt the country, Health Savings Accounts are just what the doctor ordered:
Better medical care, through restoration of the primacy of the doctor-patient relationship. Under our current system, the bogeyman of "the insurance company" enters into countless aspects of the doctor's decision-making. Doctors very often have to worry about pleasing "the insurance company" as much as they do the patient. Indeed, in many respects, their ability to freely exercise their accumulated knowledge is challenged at every step of the way by faceless staff workers having absolutely no knowledge of any particular patient's medical needs. With widespread HSA's, doctors would largely be free from the prying eyes of an insurance company and would instead be able to focus on delivering value to their customer, knowing full well that other providers in the marketplace were competing to do the same. Without insurance companies being involved for routine care, doctors would be free to innovate into modern-day delivery systems, such as direct patient communication via phone and e-mail (two procedures that currently don't have CPT codes).
Perhaps some doctors wouldn't like replacing the insurance company with a more competitive marketplace. But then again, like any competent service provider who is attentive to their customers' needs and fashions solutions to them, competition is not to be feared. Consumers would instead rightfully fear service providers who fear competition.
Reduced utilization leading to lower costs. True story: A couple of months ago, in a horrendously stupid gardening episode involving a suddenly motionless wheelbarrow, I managed to break my own rib (feel free to both wince and laugh). After several weeks of ongoing pain, I went back to my doctor and succeeded without too much pleading to get authorization for a CT-scan, as much to put my mind at ease that I hadn't done anything other than crack my rib. My cost: Ten bucks. Had my cash outlay been significantly more than that, (say, full-freight?) would I have skipped the CT-scan and carried on with the pain, just as the doctor predicted I would have for some time? Probably. But similarly, if the doctor had strongly urged the CT-scan, even knowing I would pay for it in full, perhaps I would have done so after getting a second opinion. The point is, my involvement in the decision-making processes concerning my medical care and the financing of that care would have skyrocketed.
Why are we surprised that virtually unlimited demand, made possible by virtually free services like my CT-scan, produces unusually high price inflation? To slow the rate of growth in health care costs, we simply have to keep utilization in check, and to do that, there is simply no match for the aforementioned "skin in the game". At ten dollars for a CT-scan, I have essentially none. Yours truly, part of today's problem? Guilty as charged.
However, once consumers knew exactly what procedures like a CT-scan cost, because they'd be more directly paying for them, the only way service providers would maintain their sales would be to either lower the price, increase the quality, or both. The free market's magic of "price discovery" would signal service providers to enter the market with higher-value alternatives under the hopes of capturing market share. So, paying "full freight" for my CT-scan would cost me less under a system of full price transparency. This is a critical point that many people miss: they assume that if we suddenly had to pay "full freight" for non-emergency medical care, we'd be paying today's artificially inflated prices.
Increased efficiency for doctors' offices. Under the dynamics of traditional insurance, a doctor's practice must often employ an army of office workers that handle all of the insurance-related issues, many of which are not stemming from low-probability, catastrophic events. With HSA's many of these costs can disappear, as the doctor is paid in full at the time of service from the patient's HSA account. The patient in turn receives regular statements detailing their expenditures and balances. With reduced operational costs for their offices, the doctor would be in a better position to lower the costs of their services. There's even a "green" angle in all of this: think of the reduction in paper usage!
True portability. As stated earlier, typically health insurance for an employee and perhaps their family disappears with the loss of the job. It is common to hear of people staying with jobs they don't like, "just to have the health insurance". What does the employer gain from that? What do the employer's customers gain from that? Note that the savings account of the HSA is owned by the employee, not the company. So over time, this pool of money can grow and provide financing for medical expenditures regardless of employment. Furthermore, since the accompanying catastrophic policy would be dramatically cheaper than a "traditional" plan, it would be inherently more affordable during an period of unemployment.
Ideally though, the catastrophic policy would be owned by the employee as well. This could be achieved by migrating our compensation practices towards taking the money that is earmarked towards an employee's insurance benefit and paying it directly to the employee instead, with the expectation that the employee would shop on their own for insurance, just the way they shop for any other product. Remember that employer-provided health insurance came about only as a response to wage controls during World War II, specifically the 1942 Stabilization Act. (Can we talk sometime about unintended consequences?)
Now consumers would be truly liberated to seek the best policies for themselves. No longer would they be forced to pick from a limited menu of choices provided by their employer's human resources department. Combining this aspect with the ability of consumers to seamlessly purchase any insurance product from any insurance provider in the world, and the proven value-creation capabilities of free markets would restored to 16% of our economy.
Pre-existing conditions. Under a long-standing existence of a system of privately owned HSA's, the current problem of "pre-existing conditions" would be greatly diminished. From "womb to tomb", a person should be covered by a catastrophic policy that would provide coverage for high-expense, low-probability events. These events would be priced into the insurance product, as this is precisely the role of insurance. So to be clear, if suddenly a person receives a diagnosis that results in large ongoing medical bills, but the person already has insurance, the insurance company should fully honor their contract and pay all claims.
By strong contrast, to force a service provider to provide new coverage for a condition that will guarantee that the service provider pay more than they receive in return violates every aspect of free trade ever recorded. It should be no surprise that the "free market" hesitates in providing such a product! This is not a "failure" of the market. It is a consequence of a lack of financial planning and responsibility on the part of the consumer. Harsh words perhaps, but this is not a foreign concept to responsible market participants. Who seeks collision insurance for their car only upon wrecking it, or fire insurance only upon watching their house burn down? With such insurance in place before the catastrophic event, the concept of "pre-existing condition" disappears entirely and is rightfully replaced with peace of mind.
Would the increased "threat" of suffering the financial consequences of expensive medical conditions resulting from largely voluntary behavior, like smoking, eating and drinking too much, or not exercising be an incentive to taking better care of ourselves? Should it be?
To whatever extent we're asking an insurance provider to suddenly provide financing for a medical calamity that was not previously insured against, we're entering the realm of charity. The only way the math works, the only way the insurance company does not go bankrupt, thus jeopardizing everyone's coverage, is to charge all customers more, all the time, to be able to suddenly provide the coverage to the large new claimant. There is clearly room for emotional and passionate debate here, and for that reason, it is exactly the realm in which the government should not be involved.
Innovation in insurance products. With insurance returned to its proper role, there would be incentives for insurance companies to lower the costs of their catastrophic coverage if the policy holder could prove on a regular basis that they are doing their part to reduce risk. This would be a natural response to the Darwinian-sounding dynamic described above and would properly reward risk-reducing behavior. It is exactly the kind of thing that issuers of auto and fire insurance do already.
Tax benefits. Current legislation allows for tax-free growth of the funds in the HSA account, which adds additional appeal to consumers, but probably adds to legislators' lack of enthusiasm. It makes for a great excuse to dismiss HSA's as a tax-avoidance scheme, gift to the rich, or some other anti-big-government slur. We shouldn't confuse the two issues. With reduced government spending in general, taxes can come down naturally. Tax policy and health care policy need not have much to do with each other, mainly because the government need not have much to do with health care.
Sounds Interesting, But Do They Work?
Ironically, we can look to the experiences of a government for proof that they do. In 1995, Mayor Bret Schundler of New Jersey's Jersey City oversaw the introduction of HSA's for government employees. Costs went down and participants were happy. It is documented by Schundler here. Likewise, in the private sector, Whole Foods chairman John Mackey has described his company's positive experiences with HSA's. Steve Forbes has done similarly about the experiences at Forbes, Inc. But more generally, HSA's will work because the free market, with all of its aspects of informed consumers being satisfied by motivated producers, works. We don't have a free market in health care today, so it should be no surprise that the system is not working.
Unfortunately, there is a big loser in this entire approach, and that is the armies of government bureaucrats who want to retain control over our health care and the associated sectors of our economy. Perhaps that is the sole reason HSA's have not yet taken off. It is time for someone, perhaps a newly emboldened GOP, to call the bluff.

subset: commoncrawl


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300+ Romance Novels With Cheating Heroes
Learn more about author Anastasia Blackwell's latest projects at http://anastasiablackwell.com
ATTENTION READERS: Seductive new Romantic Fantasy, The Chamber of Curiosities is now available. Be the first to read, review, and comment on the love story set in an ancient carnival.
Listed below are 325 novels that feature cheaters:
1. A Counterfeit Betrothal by Mary Balogh - H drunk cheats w/ prostitute, while friends egg him on
2. Adora by Beatrice Small - bodice ripper many spouses for H/h
3. A Marriage Made on Earth by Sheila Bishop - H/h newlyweds, but H idealizes married OW, letting her direct h and such, H always visiting OW - no physical cheating
4. A Matter of Duty by Sandra Heath - MOC, H cheats w/ married OW, H falls in love with h
5. Amber Flame AKA His Bonnie Bride by Hannah Howell - H kisses OW, h leaves; H goes after
6. A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman - H kisses h's sister; Christian
7. A Valentine Wedding by Jane Feather -h jilted H at alter when discovers he had a mistress
8. Again and Again by Susan Johnson - H seduced his maid before story; erotic
9. Analise by Candace Camp - H makes h his mistress; H's family treats h poorly; H cheats
10. An Arranged Marriage by Jo Beverly - h raped by H's brother, H marries her; H sleeps w/ mistress because he is a spy and trying to get information
11. And Ladies of the Club follows two women's lives, one husband cheats - not a true romance novel
12. An Unquestionable Lady by Rosina Pyatt - h/H MOC w/ sex for heir, H cheats w/ OW
13. At her Service by Susan Johnson - H cheats, he is a spy; erotic
14. Beyond Scandal by Brenda Joyce - H/h forced to marry, unconsummated; H leaves and has mistresses
15. Blaze of Passion by Stephanie Blake - h leaves fiancé for H, he cheats several times w/ several females
16. Bold Angel - H won't accept his feelings for h so cheats
17. Bold Conquest by Virginia Henley- H married, cheats w/ h, marries her when she believes her husband dead, later she beds H's friend
18. Bride of the Lionby Elizabeth Stuart - H won't accept feeling for h so cheats
19. Bride of the Wind by Shannon Drake - H/h estranged he loved OW, found dead, he thinks h turned him in
20. Cactus Flower (Gone-to-Texas Trilogy Book 1) by Shirl Henke- H defends former fiancée, won't trust h, H has affair w/ prostitute
21. Caress and Conquer by Connie Mason bodice ripper -H cheats w/ OW
22. Captive Angel by Deana James - H tells h he is tired of land life, takes mistress and son and sails away
23. Captive Passions by Fern Michaels - H cheats many times
24. Captive Embraces by Fern Michaels - sequel to Captive Passions- H/h divorce because she pushed him away after loss of child, he engaged to new woman and, h marries new woman's dad
25.Chandra Catherine Coulter - H cheats w/ slave girl that belonged to him; later redone into Warrior's Song
26. Consequences Sheila Bishop - H/h married w/ children, H cheated w/ maid and got her pregnant as well as others
27.Dancing with Clara - Mary Balogh - H cheats many times; MOC
28. Duchess in Disguise, by Caroline Courtney - MOC - h is left in the country w/out consummating the marriage, and and H spents time in town w/ his mistress
29. Emerald Knight by Michelle M. Pillow - H cheats w/ servant few times, h catches him
30. Fire Song by Catherine Coulter - H rapist and cheats on h w/ servant
31. For Honor's Sake by Connie Mason - H cheats w/stepmom
32. Golden Lady, by Shirl Henke - h worked in brothel, someone tells H, he breaks off with her, cheats, then goes back after h
33. Harrigan's Bride, by Cheryl Reavis - H almost cheats but stopped by men walking in on them
34. Heaven Forbidsby Karen Ranney- H/h affair, H is married to h's niece
35. Highland Vow, by Hannah Howell Highland - H loves OW who is a serial "blackwidow"; h saved H when h younger, meet again, h sees H kiss OW and reaffirming his love for her, h leaves, then learns more
36. If He's Wicked by Hannah Howell - H marries manipulative OW who is cheating w/ H's uncle, H cheats w/ h
37. If you Deceive by Kresley Cole - H to cheat w/ h's mom but changes his mind at last minute, escapades witth others,h gives him another chance
38. Lady of Quality, by Rachelle Edwards - H cheats; H/h have kids, he falls in love w/mistress, h finds way to regain his interest
39. Last Chance My Love by Lynne Connolly - H contemplates taking a mistress because the H/h have been advised not to have relations because another pregnancy could be detrimental to her health
40. Lord Clayborne's Fancy by Laura Matthews -H shocked that h missing hymen doubts virginity, cheats w/ ex
41.Love Once Again by Jo Ann Simon (sequel to Love Once in Passing) H cheats, after h returns to his time, with his former fiancée, historical 1st person
42. Love Remember Me, by Jessie For - H sleeps w/ any willing female, sleeps w/ one for sake of spying, then h same night. Bodice ripper w/ incest, cheating H, kidnappings, and h gets roughed up
43. Love Song, Wind Song, Nightsong, by Valerie Sherwood - h/H meet in the 1st book and get together near end; 2nd book H meets OW and cheats, although H says he loves wife. H cheats w/ OW on voyage, h takes up w/ OM, lover of OW.
44. Love Storm, by Susan Johnson -H rapes h, MOC, and H constantly cheats
45. Love Unwilling, by Shirl Henke - H marries h then sleeps w/ servant who arranges to have wife kidnapped. H thinks she left him to cheat.
46. Love Wild and Fair by Bertrice Small - h raped several times, H cheats
47. Marna by Norah Hess - MOC h is 15-16 and H is 35; H takes up with OW
48. Margarita by Joan Wolf -H cheats w/ 2 OW because of his distrust of a woman's love
49.Masquerade in Venice by Velda Johnston -H not married to h, cheats her cousin who is married; mystery
50. Miracles Judith McNaught - forced MOC. H cheats w/ OW
51. Moon Flower by Shirl Henke - H cheats w/ mistress; h follows and confronts him, h leaves, H goes after h, yet meets w/ OW and mentions giving her another child
52. Mutual Consent Gayle Buck- h/H MOC, H cheats w/ mistress
53. Never Call It Love Veronica Jason - true bodice ripper
54. Never Call It Loving Gail Link - H cheats w/ prostitute on wedding night and flirts with other women
55. Night Flower Shirl Henke - h marries a friend of family who had crush on mom; H cheats w/ prostitute
56. Night Wind's Woman by Shirl Henke- H thinks h cheated, so H does and throws it in her face
57. Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas. H cheated on the eve of his marriage, and h, a doctor, was called to the same house and saw H; she marries H despite transgression and is passive/aggressive for a year then asks for a divorce and goes to another country, story takes place 3 years after the divorce
58. Olivia and Jai by Rebecca Ryman. H warns h not to fall in love w/ him, yet she does. H sails off w/ OW, who is his cousin, h is a Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned type
59. Once and Always Judith McNaught - H cheats on wife
60. Once Upon A Scandal (Once Upon Scandal) Barbara Dawson Smith - h raped, H didn't know, h pregnant on wedding night, she tells him it could be one of many. H leaves h destitute but returns to make a bargain
63. Prince of Dreams by Lisa Kleypas - H cheats several times, fathers a child, thrown back in time to a previous life w/ h where he learns to love, then tossed back to present
64. Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas - h schemes to ensnare H, he finds out and abandons her after their wedding night; h/H estranged and both cheat, come back together when h wants a divorce and H agrees after she gives him an heir
65. Promise Me by Kathleen Harrington - H engaged, cheats with h, his first wife whom he divorced 6 years before in a scandal
66. Promise of the Rose Brenda Joyce - H serviced by maid, h confronts, claims will not do again, H/h estranged , H w/ OW but unable to find satisfaction except to meet physical needs
67. Risk Everything H seduces h, then marries OW and intends to consummate the marriage, but doesn't
68. Sapphire by Rosemary Rogers - H cheats w/ neighbor in the same house w/h
69. Sea Fire Karen Robards - H repeatedly rapes h, H cheats w/ OW; bodice ripper; sequel toIsland Flame
70. Seducing the Duchess by Ashley March -H married h for revenge, keeps mistress, 3yrs later wants h, who is still celibate
71. Seized by Love Susan Johnson - H seduces h from her older husband, then cheats
72. Sexy as Hell Susan Johnson MOC but they can't keep their hands off each other, H cheats on h several times
73. Silver Lining Maggie Osborne - H cheats on his fiancée w/h, h saved miners lives, one of which is H. They offer her anything and she wants a child, H's name drawn, they force them to marry
74. Sinful Charlotte Featherstone - H cheats w/ h; H marries OW
75. Still in My Heart by kathyrn Smith- H/h engaged, he is an alcoholic and and one night mistakes h for sister
76. Tara's Song by Barbara Ferry Johnson - H has 2 wives, forces h to marry him, he cheats w/ servants, rapes 2nd wife for refusing him: bodice ripper
77. Tender Fury by Connie Mason bodice ripper - H cheats throughout, h is raped and cheats too
78. Terms of Love by Shirl Henke - h marries stranger to get her inheritance and they fall in love. H tells her his secret (he's on run) before the law catches up with him, so he thinks she turned him in. He beats charges, then starts affair with her worst enemy. He comes home to divorce her and discovers a sad chain of events have occured since his departure.
79. Terms of Surrender Shirl Henke - H claims to love h, makes deal w/ h's father even though h engaged to OM, H seeing OW, H/h marry, h is cold to him and H continues to see OW
81. The Captain's Doxy Lafayette Hammet - Bodice Ripper - h is 16, H is twice her age and a jealous cheating, abusive pirate who kidnaps and forces her; H cheats w/ OW, slave girl
82. The Coming Home Place Mary Spencer -H cheats w/ OW, his first love. She returns from dead and he leaves wife by herself on her birthday to sit and wait
83. The Conqueror Brenda Joyce - H cheats w/ h, he married her sister for property, then forces one of his men to marry h, but he takes the wedding night for self
84. The Court of the Flowering Peach by Janette Radcliffe aka Rebecca Danton (Star Sapphire) - Emotional cheating and possibly physical by husband who wants his sister-in-law; cheating by wife who's neglected and unwanted by husband
85. The Devil's Love by Julia London - H/h forced and tricked into marriage, H cheats w/ OW
86. The Duchess's Next Husband by Terri Brisbin- H has a mistress ,thinks he is dying ,and makes a list of husbands for his wife, h
87. The Earl Claims his Wife by Cathy Maxwell - Married H believes he loves OW. He goes away to war and returns to mistress. h prepares to take a lover. H learned mistress cheated.
88. The Fifth Kiss by Elizabeth Mansfield - H married to h's sister and has taken a mistress because of some physical problems between him and her sister; h condemns him for cheating on her sister
89. The French Bride by Evelyn Anthony - H cheats, set around French Revolution
90. The Harem Bride by Blair Bancroft - H saves from a harem and he marries her. Their marriage is not consummated, and they are estranged for years - H has OW
91. The Lady's Tutor by Robin Schone - h cheats w/ H who is to tutor her so she can seduce her husband
92. Bride of the Lion by Elizabeth Stuart - H cheats w/ OW doesn't want to love h
93. The Lover by Nicole Jordon - H cheats and writes, gives details w/ him and OW; rewrite H kisses the OW but takes no further
94. The Marriage Bed by Laura Lee Ghurke - estranged H cheats a lot then h/H get back together
95. The Obedient Bride by Mary Balogh - H keeps a mistress, h finds out and is devastated
96. The Offer by Catherine Coulter H/h forced marriage, H cheats on h lots, h follows H to OW
97. The Painted Lady Lucia Grahame H sees h years before w/ her husband and he falls in love, they run into each other when h is widowed, she has had a recent traumatic event, H gets her to marry him but she is cold and shut off, he cheats w/ OW that remind him of h
99. The Rake's Rainbow by Allison Lane - H obsessed w/ OW; h/H forced to marry, OW marries older man for title, H talks in his sleep about OW and h hears, h manages estate and is very independent, unlike dependent OW
100. The Rebel and the Rose by Joan Wolf Vanessa H at war cheats w/ OW a widow who gets pregnant and gives child to H who sends the baby to h; H gives OW money to move away to start a new life
101. The Stranger I Married - H/h MOC, unconsummated, agreed to have open relationship instead, H's married OW dies in childbirth(H's child) after he grieves, H comes to care for h via letters, H wants h's love, so H returns to win it, but later cheats again.
102. The Taming by Jude Devereau - H has a mistress for every day of the week, H/h is MOC; H is dirty, castle dirty and he needs h's money to fight an enemy; H sits the bed on fire when he is in it w/ OW
103. The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly H drunk cheats w/ OW who gets pregnant marries, h goes on to make a success of self and returns years later
106. The Wives of Bowie Stone by Maggie Osborne - h knowing that she can save the life of a condemned man by offering to marry him, opts for a MOC to H, who promises to save her rundown farm as his part of the agreement. h doesn't know H is already married.(MOC ) H/h fall in love, H feels honor bound to his wife.
107. This Duchess of Mine (Desperate Duchess #5) - Eloisa James series - h walks in on H with mistress; runs off has 2 affairs over 9 years; H remains celibate
108. Thorn in my Heart, Fair is the Rose, and Whence Came a Prince - Liz Curtis Higgs - H falls in love w/ pretty sister, ends up w/ OS falls in love w/ her, goes back and forth. Christian based on Biblical story of Jacob, Sarah, and Leah
109. To the Castle by Joan Wolf - H cheats on h before they consummate the marriage
110. Vixen Jane Feather - H is h's guardian who is 17, he sleeps w/ her, then brings back OW and sleeps w/ her practically in front of h
111. Wanton Angel by Linda Lael Miller h/H lost a child, H takes up with other women, then goes off to be a soldier. h leaves H and gets a divorce and returns to hometown. She is dating OM when H returns for h
112. Whitefire - Fern Michaels -H raped h while she was virgin, misses OW when with h
113. Wicked by Susan Johnson H cheats on h to end of the book; erotica
114. Wild Star by Catherine Coulter H cheats w/ stepmom, caught by father; h/H meet; h follows H to mistress' house
Contemporary Cheater Novels
H cheats w/ h or OW
117. A Cowboy Christmas (Marry Me, Cowboy) Marin Thomas H/h together in highschool, h's friend sees H making out with another girl at drive-in
118. A Father's Promise -H cheats w/OW, marries, then seeks h out to help w/baby because wife took off
119. A Late Loving by Robyn Donald - H had OW before marriage to h, OW pregnant, H won't give her up
120. A Long Walk In Wintertime by Libby Purves -H cheats w/ student affair over before book starts, Christian
121. A Morning like This by Deborah Bedford - H cheats w/ OW yrs ago, not one time; OW comes back w/ sick child; Christian
122. A Slice of Heaven by Sherryl Woods - H cheats w/ OW 1 time, h/H forced to get back because daughter ill
123. A Verdict of Love by Jenna Mills - H cheats with h in college, tells h he'll be back but doesn't come back, and instead he marries girlfriend
124. Accidental Hero by Loralee Lillibridge - town believed h/H were to marry, H left town w/OW & married her; returns later from rodeo accident w/out OW
125. All Our Lives by Nancy Wagner - H cheats wants to reunite w/ h(ex-wife)
126. All She Wants for Christmas by Jaci Burton - h finds H in bed w/ her bf and takes off; returns yrs later
127. Always a Bridesmaid by Elaine Hopper - H drunk got OW pregnant eloped w/ OW (h's bf) ret. 9yrs later
128. An Affair To Forget by Rachel Lindsay - h is engaged to H, H cheats w/ OW ex-gf after encounter w/ h in which he loses cool prematurely, so H needs to prove not impotent, and OW still attract him
129. The Substitute Wife by Dallas Schulze - H almost cheats w/ h's step-sister that he was expected to marry
130. And Then Came You by Maureen Child - H/h married, H goes off to study, h writes-pregnant, divorce papers come back, H's mother POW gets granddaughter that h put up for adoption; H returns years later w/ daughter and OW fiancée, H cheats w/ h
131. Aristides' Convenient Wife by Jacqueline Baird - MOC, but a week before H had "sex" w/ OW
132. Baby Makes Six by Shelley Galloway - H cheats with h ex-wife, divorced after loss of a child
133. Big Temptation by Robin L. Rotham (Ellora's Cave) H/h relationship, H pulls back, h pregnant, leaves and cheats; erotic
134. Bitter Sweet by LaVyrle Spencer - H/h were highschool sweethearts, H, who is married, cheats w/ h when they meet again, H and wife trying to conceive, h becomes pregnant w/ H's baby, H's wife says she pregnant (she lied), and there's more to come.
135. Blonde Heat by Susan Johnson - group of h's; one h's H cheats w/ client he claims would have lost a job if he didn't, h catches him, OW leaves,h takes OM home and H stalks them and makes OM leave
136. Breakfast in Bed by Sandra Brown - H cheats w/h who happens to be H's fiancée's best friend
137. Bring on the Rain by Eve Asbury, sequel to I Run to You -secondary characters cheating; they get their story in the sequel; H cheated on h with h's bf who gets pregnant; they come back together in the sequel
138. Brothers and Wives by Cydney Rax - sequel to My Husband's Girlfriend - H leaves, brings OW back in this book, previous H and OW dance around despite both are married now, and OW is previous H's SIL;
139. Buying MacKenzie's Baby by Kim Rees - H cheats and is emotionally abusive
140. The Ultimate Betrayal by Michelle Reid - H emotionally cheats w/ OW
141. Cassidy Harte and the Comeback Kid by RaeAnne Thayne - part of a series that should be read in order but can stand alone as well, includes Taming Jesse James, The Valentine Two-Step
142. Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts- h's fiancé cheats w/ ex, h gets back at him, later meets H
143. Count on Me by by Kathryn Shay-H cheats w/ ex-wife, dumps h to get back w/ ex then leaves ex for h
144. Cowboy Come Home by Eve Graddy - H marries someone else while engaged to h
145. Daniel's Gift by Barbara Freeth - H gets h pregnant, then offers to pay for abortion
146. Day by Day by Sandra Steffen - H cheats w/ h's sis, comfort cheat, thought h was dying
147. Days Gone by Sally Tyler Hayes - H/h married; H cheats he believes h loves OM, H bargains w/ OM - makes h hate H,then OM marry h; h catches H w/ OW,H leaves, returns later to see his child and try to work things out
148. Desire Unchained by Larissa Ione - part of a series; H cheats w/ 2 women, h catches them, and he invites h to join, series, Demonica
149. Distant Shores by Kristin Hannah - H cheats several times over the course of their marriage, he is an ex-football star, latest because h wants to find herself
150. Dogism by Mark Anthony - H serial cheater, it's part of his lifestyle
151. Doing the Right Thing by Barbara Elsborg - H/h hook up, but his divorce not finalized and he keeps stringing h along while still with wife
152. East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Carole Bellacera - Husband cheats, then h cheats
153. Escapades of Romantically Challenged Meby Maya Jax - 1st person chic lit, H cheated
154. Except my Love by Mary Burchill - h/H MOC, H cheats w/ OW who he loves, h leaves H , she is pregnant and moves w/ friend to have baby, later reconcile w/ H
155. Fall from Grace by Kristi Gold - H cheats because h took child when he kept putting work first
156. Fire in the Blood by Charlotte Lamb H thinks h cheated, H cheats, then they divorce, H wants h back when finds out the truth
157. Firebird by Janice Graham - H cheats; h takes on characteristics of other woman
158. First Love, Last Love by Ginna Gray - H cheats as he believe h cheated first and flaunts it to h
159. Forgotten Lover by Carole Mortimer -h/H cheat w/ each other; h engaged to be married, H is married
160. Forbidden Fruit by Erica Spindler - H involved w/ h's former bf when he slept w/ h, the bf loved H but could not handle his relationship w/ h
161. Forever Again by Shannon Stacey- H emotionally cheats w/ h; they were previously married, he had gotten her pregnant but he sees some evidence that leads him to believe that she lied and he walks out on their marriage and gets a divorce, meet up again and he discovers how wrong he was
162. For the Love of Pete by Sherryl Woods - H cheats on h, gets girl pregnant and they marry
163. Gypsy by Carole Mortimer -H cheats w/ h; H won't divorce wife so h marries H's brother, who dies later and she meets back up with H
164. Hearts Kept Waiting by Julianne Elliott - H/h fall in love while H is still married, H/h struggle then succumb; H was divorcing wife before h entered picture
165. Hearts of Fire series - Seduction and Sacrifice; Desire and Deception; Passion and the Past; Fantasies
and the Future; Sandals and Secrets; Marriage and Miracles by Miranda Lee
166. Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin - H cheats; 1st person from h and OW chic lit
167. Heart of the Outback byEmma Darcy - H cheats w/ h after ill wife tells him he can; h get pregnant and h/H meet up yrs later
168. Hell Bent by Heather Killough-Walden - H cheats emotionally w/ h
169. Her Best Friend's Lover by Shiloh Walker - h loves H and they are best friend, H gets drunk, sleeps w/ h and gets her pregnant, doesn't realize he is father and is very jealous of OM
170. His Other Lover by Lucy Dawson - H cheats
171. His Secret Heir by Elizabeth Harbison - H/h have affair, she thinks H a waiter, he's not. H cheated w/ h as he is engaged to be married to a woman of his class, h is pregnant, tries to contact him to tell him he doesn't respond; h/H meet again
172. Hold Fast 'til the Dawn by Mary Haskell - H emotionally and almost cheats w/ OW, believes he still has feelings for OW wants h to wait for him to decide
173. Hollywood Husband, Contract Wife by Jane Porter - H emotionally betrays h
174. Home in Carolina by Sheryl Woods - H cheats repeatedly while on road, has child w/ OW returns to
hometown and everyone urges h to forgive him and get back with him
176. Husbands and Wives by Leah Stewart - H admits to an affair and wrote about it in his book; h also has an affair but does not tells husband; 1st person
177. Husband for Hire by Susan Wiggs - H cheated w/h; H is engaged to be married, h gets him goes to h HS reunion; fiancée shows up later
178. I Hunger for You by Susan Sizemore - H after encounter w/ h cheats repeatedly; paranormal
179. I'm Watching You by Mary Burton -H cheats and he is an alcoholic; mystery
180. In a Bind by Stephanie Bond -h/H cheat with each other
181. In Name Only by Roberta Leigh - H/h MOC, H loves OW, h sees OM, double standard H's part, consummates marriage, OW makes trouble
182. Infidelity by Pat Tucker - H contrives to move OW into marital home w/ wife
184. The Forbidden Mistress by Anne Mather - H cheats, MOC
185. Just One Night by Kathryn Shay - H says he doesn't want kids, h thinks she is pregnant, he believes she did it on purpose, she later catches him w/ OW and he tries to talk to her and sugar coat; divorce, meet up later
187. Killer Heat by Brenda Novak - H had cheated w/ h's bf and got her pregnant. The baby was adopted. H/h meet up years later on an investigation, they are both PI types, mystery
188. Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger - author of "The Devil Wears Prada" offers up contemporary story set in legendary hotel of escapades.
190. Lightning by Danielle Steel- h diagnosed w/ breast cancer, H doesn't support her in treatments or anything, instead he cheats, H falls in "love" w/ OW who runs off on him, so he wants h back, h gets OM who actually supports her through her ordeal, but H wants her back
191. Lingering Embers by Lynsey Stevens H cheated w/ h; left h to return to wife and child
192. Lipstick on His Collar by Elizabeth Villars- H cheats w/ h's bf, div., h moves on, H continues w/ OW; chic lit
193. Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas - H emotional cheat w/ OW, separate, h cheats w/OM
194. Love Unspoken by Carole Mortimer -H/h married, H cheats w/ OW (fiancée) not divorced from h; H rapes, beats h, and causes h to miscarry; h leaves H who later returns w/ OW, cheats w/ h , gets her pregnant
195. Love Will Find A Way by Barri Bryan - H cheats w/ OW, divorce, h sees OM, H wants h back
196. Lover Eternal by JR Ward, Black Dagger Brotherhood Series - H cheats because he thinks relations w/ h will kill her; para
197. Lovers and Strangers Diane Chamberlain - H/h both cheat after marriage falls apart after death of a child
198. Magnolia by Diana Palmer - (Emotional Cheat) H/h MOC to dissuade rumors of H and OW, boss's wife, H caught with OW; h catches H kissing OW, she leaves
199. Make Room for Baby by Kristin Morgan - H cheats w/ OW one night stand, goes off to boot camp and returns to be w/ h but OW shows up pregnant and he marries her; years later his son and h's daughter fall in love at college and are expecting
200. Man, Woman & Child by Erich Segal - H cheats w/ OW; OW dies, leaves a child behind and h finds out
201. Mansion for My Love by Robyn Donald - H emotionally cheats w/ SIL, brother dies, h releases him to SIL
202. Marriage Meltdown by Emma Darcy - H comes close -
203. Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope - H older man cheats w/ younger OW
204. Mate to Order by Maddie James - H cheats w/ OW before book begins
205. McKettrick's of Texas by Austin Linda Lael Miller - H cheats on h w/ OW h's worst enemy
206. McKettricks of Texas: Tate - sequel - H cheats w/ OW, marries-pregnant w/ twins, divorce and H/h meet up again
207. Meant for each Other by Lee Duran - H drugged and slept w/OW , h walks in
208. Mercy by Jodi Picoult - H cheats on h w/ her co-worker and believes he loves the OW
209. Montana Creeds: Tyler by Linda Lael Miller - H cheated when they were teenager w/ older OW
210. Mr. and Mistress by Heidi Betts - H cheats w/ OW; h just one of H's mistresses
211. My Heart Can't Tell You No by M.K. Heffner H cheats w/ h, h raped by H; h marries OM; H comes back to rape again, OM beats her, chokes her; H/h free now, H discovers two kids, rapes h again
212.My Husband's Girlfriend by Cydney Rax - h/H agree for H to have OW, but he gets OW pregnant
213. Nicholas: The Lords of Satyr by Elizabeth Ambe -r H cheats w/ OW; part of a series; paranormal
214. Night, Sea and Stars by Heather Graham - H cheats w/ h; crash on an island, H is married w/ a 20 year old son, and h has a BF back home
215. Nightswimming by Rebecca James - H cheats w/ OW; h walks in on him and OW in their bed
216. Night Watch - Suzanne Brockman - H believes he is in love w/ OW, h's ex-husband was a cheater; emotional cheating
217. No Easy Way S.R. Claridge - H cheats, separated from h but wants her back, H cheats w/ a married woman abused by husband
218. No Longer Mine - Shiloh Walker -H cheats w/ OW when drunk, gets pregnant, marries her; h pregnant
219. Not His Kind of Woman by Roberta Leigh - H cheats w/ h while he had a girlfriend who is h's friend & roommate
220. Obsession by Kayla Perrin - H cheats w/ OW, threatens sex harassment suit, h has fling w/ psycho OM
221. Oceans Apart Karen Kingsbury - H cheated w/ OW, she dies and child is sent to H/h; Christian
222. Once a Stranger by Megan Alexander - H cheats w/ OW, divorced, yrs later H wants h back
223. Once Forbidden by Carla Cassidy - H cheats w/ OW, comfort cheat; H/h break up, yrs later OW needs attorney, H wants h to defend OW
224. One Summer Evening - Mary Lynn Baxter - young h loves older H (h's father's friend) H/h walk on beach and have passionate quickie. When they return to house H announces engagement to h's aunt.
225. Only In My Dreams Halle Pumas series - h thinks H cheating, makes H jealous, paranormal
226. Outsider by Diana Palmer- H in love w/ OW, H/h forced to marry, he leaves the next day, gets annulled, H marries OW; h/H meet up again
227. Paper Husband by Diana Palmer -H/h forced to marry, H's ex-wife shows up w/ dying husband, OW kisses H in front of her dying husband, h walks in
228. Perfect Marriage by Laurey Bright -MOC, H cheats w/ OW, separate, thinks h moved on, h pregnant
229. Private Affairs by Judith Michael - H cheats w/ OW, h eventually does too; OW dumps H who goes back to h
230. Progress of Passion by Alison Kelley - H caught w/ OW, denies ever consummating his affair
231. Proud Revenge, Passionate Wedlock by Janette Kenny - H believes h ran off w/ OM, cheats
232. Ranch Christmas' Bah Humbug Cowboy- Starla Kaye -26 yr old h catches H kissing her bf and he defends bf later,then spanks her for running off, her father spanks her as well
233. Reason to Believe by Kathleen Eagle - H alcoholic and cheats w/ OW, divorce, before story begins
234. Red Erica Spindler - H cheats w/ OW, OW invites h to join, she runs off and marries H's half-brother, H wants h back;romantic suspense
235. The Santangeli Marriage by Sara Craven -H/h estranged, H cheats w/ OW who is married
236. Return to Yesterday by Robin Donald - H/h MOC, H cheats w/ OW before consummated, h catches them
237. Castle in the Sand by Megan Hart H cheats w/ OW, h finds out and drowns self, then returns to haunt cabin; H later dies and they are reunited; paranormal
238. Savage Innocence by Anne Mather - H cheats w/ h; H's wife paralyzed from car accident
239. Save the Last Dance by Roxanne Rustand - H cheats w/ OW
240. Second Chance at Love by Irene Brand - h miscarries, H cheats w/ OW, divorce, H celibate 15 yrs, Christian
241. Second Chances by Kristie Leigh Maguire -H cheats w/ OW, marries, OW leaves, H wants h back
242. Sex With Your Ex by Dakota Cassidy - H cheats w/ OW before book starts; deseased MIL helps h to forgive H
243. Second Chances by Carolyn Faulkner - h catches H kissing OW, h kicks H out, time passes with promises, groveling, apologies by H
244. Second Thyme Around Katie Fforde -H cheated, h didn't stand up for self; H wants h back, chic lit
245. Secrets Never Told by Rochelle Alers H cheats and has affairs, h has one and H claims they are even
246. Secrets of Paris by Luannce Rice - H cheats w/ OW, leaves as he is in love with the OW. They later get back together
247. Secret Sins by Jasmine Kresswell - H cheats w/ OW before story, mystery
248. Seducing Sullivan byJulie Elizabeth Leto - H cheated w/ h's bf who dies, h/H meet at reunion
249. Trust Me by Brenda Novak H divorced but trying to reconcile w/ ex for child; H cheats w/ h while trying to get back w/ ex wife and continues see both women
250. Sheltered in his Arms Tara Taylor Quinn - H cheats w/, divorce, returns years later
251. The Silence of Midnight by - Karen Young H cheats w/ OW, she has baby, then dies. The offspring approaches H/h , after their own child is kidnapped
252. Sinful Truths by Anne Mather - H thinks h cheated and had OM's baby, takes up w/ OW
253. So Long at the Fair by Christina Schwarz - H cheats w/ OW, h not aware
254. Slow Heat in Heaven by Sandra Brown - H cheats w/ married OW; h catches sister w/ H in compromising position
255. Smoke in the Wind by Robyn Donald - H cheats w/ OW, h's cousin, marries, h pregnant, doesn't tell H
256. Solo Jill Mansell - h gets pregnant, H tries to marry her, cheats w/ married OW when h giving birth; chic lit
257. Some Enchanted Season by Marilynn Pappano - H cheats w/ h's bf, h almost dies, suffers from amnesia, H takes care of h
258. Stranger at the Door by Laura Abbot - H cheated w/ OW during war tour in Vietnam, grown son shows up
259. Spin Devil and Spin it Again by Red Garnier - in 1st book 6 alumni get drunk and have orgy; one is engaged, owns up to it in the second book; h dumps H who becomes ho, H blames h for not forgiving him; erotica
260. Squeeze Play by Kate Angell - 3 stories in one that involve cheating
261. The Wilder Sisters by Jo-Ann Mapson - H cheats w/ OW ex-wife, H literally crawls for forgiveness at the end
262. The Scarlet Thread Francine Rivers H/h move for H's job; h didn't want to move, H cheats w/ OW, H confesses, H/h split, H breaks up w/ OW, wants h back; Christian
263. Tell No LiesJulie Compton - H cheats w/ OW, wife finds out from reporters; mystery
264. Tempt Me Tonight by Toni Blake - H cheated w/ OW; h returns and seeks revenge against H
265. Temptation H 39 crashes car on farm. He is taken in by a 17 year old girl and her father. H seduces h, then leaves. She attempts suicide, then proceeds to seek revenge. One day she meets his son -
266. Temperatures Rising by Sandra Brown - H cheats w/ h
267. The Substitute Wife by Dallas Schulze - H almost cheats w/ h's step-sister who he was supposed to marry
268. The Boss's Virgin by Charlotte Lamb - H cheats w/ h, she leaves 5 yrs later, engaged h cheats w/ H
269. The Bride Said "Surprise" by Cathy Gillen Thacker- H cheated w/h which resulted in a child, H doesn't know, years later they come back together
270. The Bronze Horseman Trilogy by Paullina Simons - H meets h's sister first, h defers to sister although she is in love
271. The Bride Means Business by Anne Marie Winston - H thought h cheated, so he follows suit
272. The Caleb Trees by Dee Holmes -H cheats w/ OW, son sees (son in love w/OW) commits suicide
273. The DeWilde Affair by Jasmine Cresswell series - H cheats w/ OW, secondary characters cheat
274. The Dollmaker by Amanda Stevens - H cheats w/OW, tragedy happens, divorce, H wants h back; thriller
275. The Dream by Kat Martin - H cheats, h has dreams about a previous life involving her and H
276. The Failed Marriage by Carole Mortimer - H/h child died, h thinks H cheated and going away w/ OW
277. The First Time by Joy Fielding- H cheats w/ OW, plans to leave h, diagnosed w/ ALS, H returns to take care of h
278. The Fourth Child :9 Months Later by CJ Carmichael - H thinks in love w/ OW; h pregnant
279. The French Gardener by Santa Montefiore - H cheats w/ OW, H/h move, h reads journals
280. The Goddess of Kitchen Avenue Barbara Samuel several stories, one husband cheats; 1st person chic lit
281.The Sicilian's Defiant Mistress by Jane Porter H cheats w/ h; H's wife is in a coma and h didn't know
282. The Greek Tycoon's Pregnant Bride by Anne Mather - estranged H cheats; h thought he had child w/ OW
283. The Heart Will Lead You Home by Kristi Leeds. H hooks up w/ h's nemesis, h catches them and they break up. 10 yrs later H still loves h, wants her back, h engaged
284. The Italian's Rightful Bride by Lucy Gordon - h/H set for MOC, H falls for OW, h catches H/OW kissing-hears confession of love, breaks engagement; H/OW marry on h/H wedding day.
285. The Last Grand Passion by Emma Darcy - H cheats w/ h; H's wife in coma on life support
286. The Lies We Told by Diane Chamberlain - H cheat's w/ h's sis, believes h is dead, 1st person
287. The Marriage Renewal by Maggie Cox -H/h estranged, H lives w/ OW, still married
288. The Marriage Truce by Sara Craven - H cheats w/ OW
289.The Marriage War by Charlotte Lamb - H almost cheats w/ OW
290. The Mill House by Susan Lewis - H cheats w/ OW bf; h leaves, cheats w/ OM, gets pregnant
291. The Mistress Wife by Lynne Graham - h thinks H cheated, leaves, then H does cheat
292. The Night we Met by Tara Taylor Quinn - H cheats w/OW
293. The Unfaithful Wife Lynne Graham H/h forced to marry, unconsummated H cheats w/ OW
294. The Opposite Shore by Maryanne Stahl - H meets sister first, they don't get together because he is her teacher, instead H marries h and they have a daughter, then years later h catches H and sister kissing
295. The Other Woman by Patricia Kay - H cheats w/ h, H's wife schemes to keep them apart
296. The Perfect Sinner by Penny Jordan - H serial cheater, emotional abuser, changed by circumstance
297. The Prince of Tides by Pat conroey - H falls in love with OW, may not be physical, but his wife never knows.
298. The Prodigal Husband by Jacquelin Thomas - H drunk cheats w/ OW, h sees and leaves, tragedy, H leaves, returns to get h back, OW still in picture. Christian
299. The Rancher Takes a Wife by Jackie Merritt- H cheats when they are in college
300. The Sanchez Tradition by Anne Mather - h has miscarriage pushes H away, H cheats when estranged
301. The Scarlet Thread by Francine Rivers -H/h move for H's job; h didn't want to move, H cheats w/ OW, H confesses, H/h split, H breaks up w/ OW, wants h back; Christian
302. The Way Home by Jean Brashear - H cheats w/ OW, h leaves, accident, amnesia, H is searches for her
303. The Wrong Kind of Wife by Roberta Leigh - h catches H kissing OW, says means nothing tries to get h in bed, estranged h wants divorce eventually, H not celibate through years, but h is
304. The Wrong Kind of Wife by Debbie Macomber - seems that H cheats w/ ex-wife
304. Three Seductions and a Wedding by Julie Leto - H cheats w/ OW when drunk, anthology
305. Ties that Bind by Kate Pearce - H think h betrayed him, gets drunk and rapes her, leaves and cheats w/ OW; while H gone h cheats w/ OM; erotic
306. Tomorrow Began Yesterday by Sarah Holland - H caught kissing OW right after marrying h ,separated for year
307. Too Much Too Soon by Jacqueline Briskin - H marries h, impregnates sister, H/ wife split-rapes wife
308. Trial By Fire by Jo Davis - H almost cheats and h smacks him with a fishing pole
309. True Blue by Luanne Rice - H cheats w/ OW, h's sis, gets pregnant, marry, divorce, returns 20 yrs later
310. Truly Married by Phyllis Halldorson -H cheats w/ OW; divorce, H marries OW who later dies, back to defend h
311. Trust a Cowboy by Judy Christenberry - H cheated w/ OW
312. Trust in Summer Madness by Carole Mortimer - h/H engaged, h sees him kissing, ex, break up, comes back 3 yrs later, h is engaged to OM, h cheats w/ H, h's fiancée cheats w/ h's sister
313. Trust Me by Brenda Novak - H divorced but trying to reconcile w/ ex for child; H cheats w/ h while trying to get back w/ ex wife and continues to gravitate between the two
314. Twice Kissed by Lisa Jackson - H drunk and cheated w/ OW, twin sister of h, later marries, then divorce
315. Wedding Bliss by Barbara Metzgern - H cheated
316. What Mattered Most by Linda Winfree - emotional cheating, H is in love w/ OW
317. What Price Paradise by Katherine Allred - H's fiancée serial cheater, breaks up makes up, H sleeps w/ h when broken up from fiancée, but appears to put fiancée 1st
318. Wicked Caprice by Anne Mather - H cheats w/ h
319. Wicked Night Before Christmas by Tierney O'Malley - H/h together, H leaves, promises to return; H comes back with w/ OW, h catches H kissing; erotic
320. Wife for hire by Amy J. Fetzer - H cheated w/ OW, claimed to be pregnant, married her, h left town so H stayed w/ OW, eventually they have twins, OW dies; h comes back into H's life as H's wife for hire
321. Wife to Christopher by Mary Burchell - h manipulates H to marry her, H in love w/ OW, h miscarriage, refuses divorce later, leaves H, finds illegitimate nephew, adopts him, h/H reconcile
322. Willow by Linda Lael Miller - 2nd characters cheat, h about to be married and H, who has a fiancée, stops ceremony, H and brother's were playing a joke on h, but joke is on H as h/H are married
323. You Owe Me by Penny Jordan - H/h in love, h sees H w/ OW, OW pregnant, h made guardian after OW dies; another OW wants H, causes problems
324. Switcheroo by Olivia Goldsmith - H cheating w/OW; h and OW switch places, they look alike
325. Taming the Texas Tycoon by Katherine Garbera - H cheats on his fiancée w/ h


text:
A U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to cap, and in some cases cut, prices charged for widely used business data lines is probably dead after Republicans in Congress pressured the agency to drop a scheduled vote.
For more than a decade, some U.S. businesses and advocacy groups have been pushing the FCC to regulate prices for middle-mile business broadband connections largely owned by AT&T and Verizon. This so-called duopoly has forced customers to pay billions of dollars in inflated prices, critics say.
Supporters of price caps were oh-so-close, with the FCC scheduled to vote on a plan from Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday, but the agency abruptly canceled the vote Wednesday afternoon after pressure from congressional Republicans. The proposal remains under consideration by the FCC but appears to be dead, observers said.
Republican lawmakers called on the FCC to halt controversial votes because the incoming Republican president, Donald Trump, will appoint a new Republican majority at the commission early next year. Republicans noted the FCC often limits its actions in the final months before a presidential transition.
Wheeler ripped into Republicans, saying the items removed from Thursday's agenda were "controversial" because they were opposed by large telecom incumbents. Wheeler hopes the incoming Republican-controlled FCC will address business broadband and other issues, he said after Thursday's meeting.
"It is unfortunate that hospitals and small businesses in search of competitive [broadband] alternatives will be denied that opportunity," he said. "They deserve better from this commission."
Some business data connections run on slow, copper-based networks, but the networks are still in wide use and generate tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue for telecom carriers. Business data networks, sometimes called special access networks, link ATMs, credit-card scanners, mobile towers, and many office broadband networks.
Wheeler's plan, released in October, would have capped and actually cut prices on low-speed TDM lines by 11 percent over three years, and it would have allowed businesses to file complaints with the FCC about pricing. It would have applied "light touch" regulation to high-speed business broadband, where cable providers are competing with the two large telecom carriers.
Advocacy group Public Knowledge called the FCC decision to scrap the vote disappointing. The business data price-cap proposal and three other items scheduled for votes were "essentially completed and ready to move," Harold Feld, senior vice president at the digital rights group, said in an email.
"It seems absurd that if Chairman Wheeler had scheduled the meeting on Election Day, we would have already resolved the decade-old proceeding on legacy business data services pricing," he added.
The votes that were canceled — on the business-broadband price caps, expanded video description services for the blind, mobile roaming, and mobile network subsidies — addressed "real and pressing problems," Feld added. "These problems do not simply go away due to an administration change. When Republicans take over, they will need to address the same competitive problems, or explain to the American people why they plan to perpetuate our broadband duopoly."
INCOMPAS, a trade group for small telecom carriers, blasted the FCC for canceling the vote.
"Failure to act tarnishes this FCC's competition legacy and punishes small businesses, schools, and libraries who have been promised faster speeds, lower prices and more competition," Chip Pickering, CEO of the trade group, said in a press release. "The voters … want more competition and better pricing. The market is rigged for broadband monopolies."


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World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a distributed system of hyperlinked documents accessible on the Internet. The short term used to describe the World Wide Web is simply Web. The Web consists of a large collection of documents that are stored on computers around the world, and is a way to access information by using the Internet. Web documents contain graphics, sounds, text, and video.
Users access Web servers by using a software program called a Web browser. Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, are software programs that enable people to view and explore Web sites. People use Web browsers to access Web documents called Web pages. Web pages are linked to one another through hyperlinks.
Documents on the Web are uniquely identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A technical definition of the Web is defined as, "All the resources and users on the Internet that are using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) protocol." That is why http:// always appears at the beginning of a Web address, as in http://www.conservapedia.com. URLs are used to allow users to browse from one website, such as Conservapedia, to another.
One of the major contributors to the development and invention of the Web is Tim Berners-Lee.
The World Wide Web is not the only way to access information on the Internet. The Internet, not the Web, is used for e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, and instant messaging. E-mail relies on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP or the "outgoing e-mail server") protocol. Usenet newsgroups and instant messaging use the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) protocol. FTP is used to make files and folders publicly available for transfer over the Internet.
A protocol is a standard for communication between computers.


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This luxury apartment is located in the heart of Prague near Old Town Square and Charles Bridge. Luxurious Apartment Charles Bridge consists of two rooms: bedroom and living room with fully equipped kitchen. In the apartment is also possible to use fast Wi-Fi connection. The historic building in which the apartment is located was built in the 15th century and is now listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. This apartment is suitable for couples who want to enjoy a nice romantic moments in one of the most beautiful historic cities in Europe. In the surroundings there are many cafes and restaurants suitable for spending evenings.
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Enter not the PV-9 but the Evolution 20 'SE' version the one Chassis Premier Seven with all the right ergonomics and great sound.
'SE' version had the same updates as the Premier Seven 'B' and the same tubecomplement.
Today, Conrad-Johnson is firmly established as the second most highly regarded manufacturer of tubed audio products. (In fact, ARC's recent ventures into hybridizationthe combining of tubes and transistorsmay have disqualified that firm from being counted as a "tube-electronics manufacturer," in which case C-J must now be considered the preeminent name in the field, footnote 1)
Until 1983, all of Conrad-Johnson's products were designed as "best value for the money," to provide much of the best that tubes had to offer at less-than-princely prices. Audio Research, for its part, has tried with each new product to redefine the state of the art in tubed design, as well as the amounts of money perfectionists would pay for it. But then C-J entered the no-holds-barred arena in 1983 with their first Premier product, the Model One power amplifier, which was very well received by critics. (When I reviewed this behemoth in Vol.6 No.5, I felt it to be the best amplifier at that time for driving big electrostatic panels.) The Premier Seven is C-J's latest cost-no-object product. It's also their most expensive preamp to date, and the costliest one on the market, apart from the most expensive version of the Cello Audio Suite. (As I write this, I'm mulling over the recent announcement of ARC's latest no-holds-barred, cost-no-object preamp, the SP15, which is expected to sell for $10,000. Where, oh where, will this madness end?)
Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson have pulled out all the stops in designing the Premier Seven. It appears that nothing which could possibly have improved its sound has been omitted. For example, we all know that so-called dual-mono circuitry enhances soundstaging, but the Premier Seven is dual mono like no other preamp I've seen. The power-supply "unit" contains two completely separate supplieseach on its own chassis, each with its own line cord and on/off switch, and each containing separate power transformers for the tube heaters and the B+ supply.
Even the volume-control circuitry is completely isolated. There is no master volume control, and no balance control; each channel has its own volume control, and there is not even a mechanical coupling between them. Of course, this means that there is also no mono operating mode. The volume control in each channel is a 22-position detented rotary switch. Under each volume knob is a horizontal row of LEDs, with panel markings indicating decibels of attenuation from 0 (at the far right) to infinity. (Unlike the usual LED bargraph, which displays a lengthening line of glowing lights as the signal level increases, only one light on each of these is lit at any one time.) The volume increments are in 2dB steps down to 32dB, below which the steps become increasingly large. One set of contacts on each volume switch connects the appropriate voltage-divider resistors, while the other set draws from a DC power source to light up the appropriate LED on the volume indicator array.
There are 12 gold-plated signal receptacles at the rear, connected to the appropriate traces on the glass-epoxy circuit board by short lengths of 300-micron linear-crystal, solid-silver wire. The Source and Record selector switches are at the rear of the chassis, near the circuits they control, with long shafts coupling them to the front-panel knobs. Power-supply connections are via hermetically sealed, collar-locking MIL-spec connectors and a pair of fat, 4' umbilical cords sheathed in black braided nylon sleeves.
The main circuit board in each signal chassis is shock-mount "floated" from the external case by rubber grommets, and all the 6GK5 tubes are fitted with damper rings. (Actually, they're large rubber grommets.) All of this is intended to minimize modulation of the signal by tube microphonics in response to external vibrations, but while I can see how the rings around the tubes might help here, the subchassis suspension seems too stiff to give effective isolation. The tubes are, in fact, incredibly free from microphony; at normal volume settings, even tapping them with a fingernail elicited nothing more than a dull and very brief "thunk." I suspect, however, that this is more a matter of their construction and the way they are used than of vibration isolation and damping.
The Circuitry
Each signal channel in the Premier Seven consists of three gain blocks (C-J's nomenclature), each comprised of a triode and a cathode-follower. The 6CW4, the first tube in the phono preamp stage, is a nuvistora thumbnail-sized tube introduced for ultrahigh-frequency radio applications just when transistors were taking over electronics design. The input of the 6CW4 is bridged by a small 10-position rotary switch that provides a choice of pickup loading resistors, ranging from 70 to 47k ohms.
RIAA equalization happens between the first cathode follower and the second preamp gain stage, and is entirely passive. The second cathode follower feeds the Source and Record switches, and also provides a low-impedance source that should be immune to the loading effects of long signal leads to the recorders.
Enter not the PV-9 but the Evolution 20 'SE' version the one Chassis Premier Seven with all the right ergonomics and great sound.
'SE' version had the same updates as the Premier Seven 'B' and the same tubecomplement.


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Laparoscopy is a type of surgery done using very small incisions. This type of surgery is possible because of the laparoscope (a long, slender tool with a camera and light). It lets your surgeon see inside the abdomen. To perform the surgery, special instruments are inserted into the abdomen through the small incisions. Pelvic laparoscopy is often used to diagnose and treat the causes of pelvic problems, such as pain and infertility. Laparoscopy often involves:
A short hospital stay. (You can most likely go home the same day.)
A quick recovery.
Minimal anesthesia.
Small external scars.
Mild to moderate postoperative pain.
To prepare for surgery:
Tell your surgeon about any medications you take. Include herbs, supplements, and over-the-counter medications. You may need to stop taking certain medications, such as aspirin, for2 weeks before surgery.
Do not eat or drink anything after the midnight before surgery.
Arrange for a ride home after surgery.
You will most likely be given general anesthesia to make you sleep during the procedure. A catheter may be inserted to drain urine from the bladder.
One or more small (quarter- or half-inch) incisions are made near the navel or the pubic hairline. The laparoscope is inserted through an incision. It sends images to a video screen, allowing the surgeon a close-up view of the organs. Gas is used to inflate the abdomen, allowing the surgeon room to see and work. Depending on what is found, surgery to treat the problem may be done at this time.
You'll be taken to a post-op area to wake up and recover from anesthesia.
You may feel some shoulder pain. This is due to irritation from the gas used to inflate the abdomen.
You may have some discharge from the vagina. If so, ask the nurse for a pad.
You will be asked to walk around to improve breathing and blood flow.
If you had a catheter, it will most likely be removed before you go home.
You can go home as soon as you recover from anesthesia and your condition is stable.
Your recovery from pelvic laparoscopy may take up to2 weeks. While you recover, be sure to follow your doctor's instructions. During this time:
Take pain medication as prescribed.
Start eating solid food when you feel ready. To avoid constipation, eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Drink plenty of fluids.
Don't lift anything over20 pounds until your doctor says it's safe.
Take it easy for a few days. Ask your doctor when you can return to work, exercise, and sex.
Arrange for a follow-up visit with your doctor to discuss the results of the procedure.
Have chills, or a fever of101For higher.
Notice that the incision is red, swollen, or draining.
Have heavy, bright-red vaginal bleeding or a smelly discharge.
Have difficulty urinating.
Experience severe abdominal pain or bloating.
Have leg pain, redness, or swelling.
Have persistent nausea or vomiting.
Are not improving daily.
Date Last Reviewed: 2007-01-15T00:00:00-07:00
Date Last Modified: 2005-10-04T00:00:00-06:00
Awesome. Highly recommend. I drive 2 hours just to see doctor Miller and staff. Well worth the drive.
Always treated well at Dr Millers office Love her bedside manner and staff is always pleasant.
As always very nice great doctor and great staff.
Dr.Miller is a great doctor.


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- Science
- Educational
Pterosaurs—Lords of the Ancient Skies
Read a National Geographic magazine article about pterosaurs, the largest animals that ever flew, and get information, facts, and more about these prehistoric flying reptiles.
Three flying reptiles from Earth's distant past glide above the gray Pacific, far beyond the rollers breaking on the shore of Point Reyes, California. They flap their wings slowly for a few beats, gain some altitude, then turn toward the beach. One peels out of formation and dives into the water with a splash, sinking just as far as its shoulders to snatch a fish with its long snout. Then, with a few powerful wing strokes, the beast takes off, using its webbed feet to hop off the waves until it clears the water. As it draws near, the primeval pterosaur transforms into an ordinary brown pelican.
Keven Padian, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley, stands on the beach gazing at the birds through binoculars. Watching coastal birds helps Padian envision the time when pterosaurs occupied the same ecological niche, plunging for fish like pelicans, soaring like gulls, and pecking at the sand like sandpipers.
"Pterosaurs were just the coolest things that were ever in the air," says Padian. "They were the first vertebrates to fly. They did it long before birds and bats. And it terms of size, they pushed the envelope as far as it could go for a flying animal."
Like their cousins the dinosaurs, pterosaurs stand out as one of evolution's great success stories. They first appeared during the Triassic period, 215 million years ago, and thrived for 150 million years before going extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period. Their endurance record is almost inconceivable compared with the span of humans, whose ancestors started walking upright less than four million years ago. Uncontested in the air, pterosaurs colonized all continents and evolved a vast array of shapes and sizes. Of more than 120 named species, the smallest pterosaur measured no bigger than a sparrow; the largest reached a wingspan of nearly 40 feet (12 meters), wider than an F-16 fighter.
Until recently most paleontologists would not have put pterosaurs in the same league as birds in terms of flying ability. Because pterosaurs were reptiles, generations of scientists imagined that these creatures must have been cold-blooded, like modern snakes and lizards, making them awkward aerialists at best.
In the past three decades, however, a surge of fossil discoveries around the globe has prompted researchers to reexamine their views. The emerging picture of pterosaurs reveals that they were unlike any modern reptile. From a fossil discovered in Kazakhstan, paleontologists suspect that pterosaurs had a hairlike covering, perhaps akin to fur. If so, this detail provides evidence of a high-revving, warm-blooded physiology that could sustain the kind of exertion needed to stay in the air. Judging from the skulls of other fossils, scientists reason that many pterosaurs were gifted air-borne predators, built to feed on the wing. They darted after insects, dive-bombed for fish, and soared hundreds of miles over open ocean on extended hunting expeditions.
"For about 150 years pterosaurs were regarded as typical slow-moving, cold-blooded reptiles. People had the idea that pterosaurs could glide, but they couldn't flap their wings," explains Alexander Kellner, a Brazilian paleontologist. "We thought they couldn't take off from the ground."
Pterosaurs first grabbed Kellner's attention when he was a child in Rio de Janeiro, where he became hooked on a television cartoon featuring one. His early fascination might have foundered, but when Kellner was a student, Brazilian scientists started to uncover a mother lode of pterosaur fossils in the northeastern part of the country, on the slopes of the Araripe Plateau. In the past 30 years Araripe has yielded remains of 19 new species, an unrivaled pace of discovery.
These pterosaurs soared over South America during the middle of the Cretaceous period, more than a hundred million years ago. At that time a large saltwater lagoon covered the Araripe area, and the African continent lay just over the horizon, separated by a young sliver of ocean that would later grow into the Atlantic.
Among the Araripe discoveries some of the strangest have been identified by Kellner and his mentor Diogenes Campos of the Brazilian Department of Mineral Production. At his office in Rio de Janeiro, Campos pulled out one of his favorite characters, a 110-million-year-old Araripe pterosaur that he and Kellner christened Anhanguera, or "old devil." It's an apt name—the fossilized skull could easily have flown out of a gothic ghost story.
Still partly entombed in rock, the glossy fossil looked leaden and cold. But as I ran my fingers over the 20-inch-long (50-centimeter-long) jawbone, tracing its curves and pits, I could imagine the Araripe pterosaurs sailing over the ancient lagoon. A solitary Anganguera takes flight, its 13-foot (4-meter) wingspan silhouetted against the sky. The pterosaur sweeps its large keen eyes over the water, pulls its wings inward to pick up speed, and swoops low. Dropping its mouth into the water, the hunter uses its beak to slice through the waves like a black skimmer bird. In a flash the pterosaur jerks its head up and veers skyward, gripping a wriggling fish in its teeth.
Along the shore diminutive pterosaurs called Tapejara wellnhoferi pluck nuts and fruit from scrubby trees with their toucan-like beaks. Above the whole tableau soars the most impressive Araripe species, a giant called Tupuxuara, with a 20-foot (6-meter) wingspan. This toothless pterosaur had a rounded four-foot-long (1.2-meter-long) crest protruding from its skull like an exaggerated Mohawk haircut.
Paleontologists can paint this vivid portrait of Araripe pterosaurs because their bones were exquisitely fossilized, intact and uncrushed, within the quiet sediments at the bottom of the lagoon. By comparison, the flattened pterosaurs from most other sites around the world look like prehistoric roadkill. The Araripe fossils have enabled researchers to get a better fix on what pterosaurs actually looked like and how their bones fit together. They can see, for example, how the upper arm bone, or humerus, produced the flapping motion that kept pterosaurs in the air. The bone looks something like a hatchet: a stout shaft topped by a flared-out blade where it joined the shoulder. The wide head must have provided a broad anchoring point for the powerful chest muscles pterosaurs needed to flap their wings.
The weight of these large muscles was offset by lightweight, eggshell-thin bones filled with air. Larger species had slender struts inside hollow wing bones, adding strength without many additional pounds. So even with wings almost as wide as a house Tupuxuara may have weighed no more than a child. "They were so light," Campos said, "it's possible that they only had to open their giant wings and the wind would pick them up."
Hollow bones gave pterosaurs an advantage during life but were a hindrance to their immortality. Pterosaur skeletons were so delicate that they survived as fossils only when their corpses came to rest in a protected environment. For that reason most pterosaur remains come from species that lived near the ocean—the soft seafloor ooze entombed their bodies for eternity.
Even with the new discoveries, the rarity of fossils leaves major gaps in knowledge about pterosaurs. No one knows how they evolved flight, why they vanished, or exactly what they looked like. Debate swirls around these reptiles like the air currents they once rode.
Controversy has surrounded pterosaurs since the first discovery of one at the end of the 18th century. At the Bavarian State Collection of Paleontology and Historical Geology in Munich, paleontologist Peter Wellnhofer pulled out a large drawer filled with fossils and pointed out a fragile skeleton, which was no bigger than my hand. "Here is the famous Pterodactylus antiquus," he said. Embedded in a slab of limestone 150 million years old, the creature lay with its mouth agape in a pose of prehistoric horror. It has a long toothy snout, a giraffe-like neck, and lanky legs, but its most unusual feature is its forelimbs. Next to three small fingers is a fourth that extends ten times the length of the other digits.
Cosimo Alessandro Collini, the first natural historian to study the fossil, was stumped when he described it in 1784. Seventeen years later the great French anatomist Georges Cuvier deduced that the animal was a flying reptile, whose fourth finger supported a wing. Although the wing surface had not fossilized, Cuvier surmised that a membrane of skin had attached to the forelimb in life.
He later named the fossil Pterodactylus, combining the Greek words for wing and finger. A few decades later the term pterosaur, or winged reptile, was coined to describe the growing list of similar fossils.
In 1873 a remarkable pterosaur specimen came to light that confirmed Cuvier's deduction. Unlike earlier fossils, this new find near the Bavarian town of Solnhofen contained delicate wing impressions, clear proof that extinct reptiles could fly.
Even with more than a thousand pterosaur specimens known today, such wing impressions remain rare. Normally only bones survive the fossilization process. Material as ephemeral as skin or hair disintegrates long before an animal turns to stone. But time was kind to the pterosaurs that died near Solnhofen because many were preserved in the sediments of a Jurassic lagoon.
Wellnhofer slid open another drawer and gingerly removed a gull-size pterosaur named Rhamphorhynchus, with a wing so beautifully preserved that I could see impressions left by delicate folds of its skin. Under the microscope the surface of the wing looked corrugated, almost like corduroy. This texture comes from fine fibers only two-thousandths of an inch thick that were inside the membrane. Paleontologists don't know what the fibers were made of, but they suspect that they added strength to the wing, in much the same way the thin metal frame of an umbrella supports the fabric.
"This is a unique characteristic of pterosaurs," Wellnhofer said. "The fibers may have helped stiffen the wing membrane. They could also have kept the wing bent, cambering its surface."
Some 150 million years after Rhamphorhynchus flew, aeronautical engineers would use the same cambered-wing principle when building planes.
Rhamphorhynchus would have displayed its piloting skills while fishing for food over the Jurassic lagoons, Wellnhofer said, pointing out the spearklike snout on one specimen. "Look at the end of the lower jaw. It is very long and pointed. They skimmed above the water, with just the tip of the lower jaw plowing through the water. And if they met a fish, they could catch it with their long slender teeth like so," he said, clamping his hands together.
Pterosaurs could carry out these precise actions because they had a highly specialized brain. Their enlarged cerebellum, a characteristic more like the brain of birds than reptiles, provided the enhanced muscular coordination required for maneuvering on the wing. Such adaptations of brain and body must have taken untold millennia to transform a four-legged reptile into a full-fledged flier.
But the evolutionary path to the air remains in dispute. Most researchers conclude that pterosaurs descended from a small arboreal reptile that spent its life jumping between branches. Like the modern flying squirrel, this creature would have spread its limbs, using flaps of skin attached to its limbs and body to brake its fall. Over many generations the fourth finger on each forelimb grew longer, enlarging the skin surface and enabling the animal to glide farther.
The competing theory holds that pterosaurs evolved from bipedal reptiles that ran along the ground, perhaps spreading their arms for balance. Through gradual growth, the forelimbs would have evolved into wings.
All paleontologists admit, however, that the question of origins remains open, awaiting new fossil discoveries of early forms of pterosaurs. "It's very difficult to say how they evolved because the first pterosaurs we have are true, complete pterosaurs," said Fabio Dalla Vecchia, a researcher at the Paleontology Museum in Monfalcone, Italy. "Their fourth finger has already transformed into a wing."
The earliest known pterosaurs come from the mountains of northern Italy, where Dalla Vecchia has spent years prospecting for flying reptiles. These species have shorter wings than later forms, but there is evidence that they were over open water. I found proof of this prowess while examining the fossil of a Eudimorphodon, a 215-million-year-old pterosaur unearthed near Bergamo, Italy, in 1973. Under a microscope in the Civic Museum of Natural Science in Bergamo, several fish scales glistened in the abdominal region of the specimen—the remnants of this pterosaur's last meal.
Rupert Wild, a German paleontologist who discovered the scales, suggests that the pterosaur caught its prey much like brown pelicans do, dive-bombing under the water to grab its victims. "Eudimorphodon had a wrist that could bend 180 degrees backward," Wild said. "So they could fold their wings very tight to the body and then plunge into the water."
Until the discovery of Eudimorphodon, paleontologists thought that pterosaurs originated 200 million years ago, near the beginning of the Jurassic period. The find pushed the record back 15 million years, to the Triassic period.
When Eudimorphodon first took to the skies, it gazed down on a landscape completely alien to modern eyes. The continents were gathered together into one landmass called Pangaea that stretched nearly from Pole to Pole. Crocodile-like reptiles reigned as top carnivores, while dinosaurs were increasing in number.
The balance of power shifted as the Triassic closed. Extinctions dethroned the prevailing reptiles, and fleet, meat-eating dinosaurs took over. During this period pterosaurs went through their own transformations, diversifying into dozens of species that ruled the winds. A clue to their evolutionary success came from the Qaratai (Karatau) Mountains of Kazakhstan in the 1960s when zoologist A.G. Sharov discovered fossils of an unknown species with well-preserved hairlike fibers. He named the new pterosaur Sordes pilosus, or "hairy devil."
Sordes clearly set pterosaurs apart from the reptiles known today. Crocodiles and lizards don't need an insulating layer over their bodies because they are cold-blooded: Their body heat and activity rise and fall with the ambient temperature. But the fibers on Sordes suggest that pterosaurs needed to keep their body temperature elevated. It's one clue that they may have evolved an advanced, warm-blooded physiology similar to birds and mammals.
This discovery of a "hairy" coat meshes perfectly with the animal's image as active fliers, said David Unwin, a paleontologist at Humboldt University's Museum of Natural History in Berlin. Warm-bloodedness would have given pterosaurs the endurance to power their muscles for long periods of time.
"There is no way that pterosaurs could have managed sustained flapping flight unless they had an elevated metabolic rate, unless they could get oxygen into their cells and carbon dioxide out rapidly," he said. "They couldn't have flapped for more than a few minutes if they had been cold-blooded. They would have crashed to the ground."
Like all early pterosaurs, Sordes had a long reptilian tail. By the time of Sordes' last hurrah at the end of the Jurassic, 144 million years ago, short-tailed pterosaurs called pterodactyloids had arrived. Over the next 80 million years these new forms would flourish, diversifying into an arkful of different species with unusual specializations for feeding and flight.
Some pterodactyloids evolved jaws lined with hundreds of needle-thin teeth, perfect tools for filtering tiny plants and animals from shallow lakes. Others such as the North American Pteranodon had no teeth. Its smooth jaws probably had a covering of hornlike material, similar to the beak of a bird.
What Pteranodon lacked in teeth, it more than compensated for with its imposing skull. One species had a head nearly six feet (1.8 meters) long, balanced on its neck like the top bar of the letter "T." The rear half of the skull consisted of a bony crest that grew straight backward. Pteranodon and its crest have perplexed researchers since the 1870s, when its bones turned up in the chalk layers of western Kansas. Some viewed the crest as a forward rudder, enabling the almost tailless pterosaur to steer while flying. Other scientists proposed that Pteranodon's crest served as an air brake: To slow down for landing, the animal would simply turn its head broadside to the wind.
Chris Bennett, a paleontologist, dismissed both theories while showing me a Pteranodon fossil in the museum basement at the University of Kansas. The animal looked comically out of proportion, with a stretched-out skull that dwarfed its torso and hind limbs. To explain its huge head, Bennett invoked the same reason that teenage boys swagger: To establish rank among the guys and to impress the girls.
While studying Pteranodon fossils, Bennett concluded that the adult specimens fell into two categories. One group had big crests and small pelvises. The other had small crests and big pelvises. The latter were females, Bennett reasoned, because the large pelvises helped in laying eggs. The big crests belonged to the males. "My explanation for this is that the crest was a display device like the horns and antlers of mammals or the fancy feathers of birds," Bennett said. "I believe that Pteranodon was polygynous, that one male would mate with many females and only the dominant males would be mating with the females."
Although the mating rituals of Pteranodon remain speculative, one aspect of its behavior is clear from the fossil record. The remains of Pteranodon are found in rocks that lay more than a hundred miles (160 kilometers) out to sea in the Cretaceous period. This fish catcher, which had a wingspan of up to 24 feet (7.3 meters), must have regularly soared vast distances over the waves, its wings outspread to catch the steady ocean winds.
Aeronautical engineers once imagined that Pteranodon pushed the boundaries of animal flight. They calculated that a creature any larger would have been too heavy to lift itself into the air. The beast that broke those rules glares down at visitors milling about the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, California. It is a life-size model of Quetzalcoatlus northropi, with a yellow beak the size of a man and a wingspan wider than many of the planes exhibited nearby. Paleontologists estimate that this pterosaur and a related form had wingspans of at least 36 feet (11 meters), making them the largest flying animals known. Birds don't come close. The wingspan of the largest living bird, the wandering albatross, measures only 11 feet (3.3 meters).
Quetzalcoatlus represents the pinnacle of pterosaur design, capping a trend toward larger sizes that had started at the beginning of the Cretaceous, 144 million years ago. Unlike smaller pterosaurs, they could exploit natural up currents to stay aloft without having to flap continuously, said Paul MacCready, an aeronautical engineer. "Most animals don't get anything free from nature," he added "but as some pterosaurs and birds got larger, they stumbled upon evolutionary benefits from soaring, making use of a free energy source. With their hollow bones, these pterosaurs had a super lightweight construction ideal for soaring."
As we circled underneath the Quetzalcoatlus in Santa Monica, MacCready pointed out its similarity to sailplanes, the most efficient of airplanes. Both have long slender wings designed to fly with minimum power. During flight, sailplane pilots routinely search for places where heat radiates from sunbaked earth, creating rising air currents called thermals. Undoubtedly Quetzalcoatlus would have exploited thermals as well, lazily circling over the river deltas that once covered the Big Bend region of Texas.
The triumphant reign of pterosaurs ended with this giant flier. At the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, a meteorite or comet slammed into Earth. That calamity—and other events—wiped out roughly three-quarters of all animal species, including all remaining pterosaurs and dinosaurs. But the number of pterosaur species appears to have dwindled for millions of years before the cataclysm, suggesting that something else contributed to their fate.
It could be that the evolutionary achievements of pterosaurs ultimately led to their downfall. Quetzalcoatlus and other late pterosaurs had evolved gigantic wings ideal for soaring, but the specialization came at a price. Longer wings make an animal less maneuverable and don't work as well in the strong winds that may have been typical in the late Cretaceous, said Wann Langston, Jr., a paleontologist at the University of Texas and an expert on Quetzalcoatlus.
"Pterosaurs were very delicate creatures. They were as light as butterflies, and if there were turbulent winds in the area, they would have had to remain on the ground," he said. "This may have been a factor in their extinction because the world climate was deteriorating. And if climate deteriorates, the bigger the pterosaur, the bigger the disadvantage."
Whatever the cause of their demise, pterosaurs enjoyed unparalleled success. They trailblazed a path into sun-drenched skies before any other vertebrate. For 150 million years they sailed the winds on the strength of a fragile finger. What a glorious ride they had.


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Workshop on
Mon. Oct. 27, 2008 - Alexandria VA, USA
General description
In the last few decades, Information Security has gained numerous standards, industrial certifications, and risk analysis methodologies. However, the field still lacks the strong, quantitative, measurement-based assurance that we find in other fields. For example, Networking researchers have created and utilize Quality of Service (QoS), Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and performance evaluation measures. Empirical Software Engineering has made similar advances with software measures: processes to measure the quality and reliability of software exist and are appreciated in industry.
Security looks different. Even a fairly sophisticated standard such as ISO17799 has an intrinsically qualitative nature. Notions such as Security Metrics, Quality of Protection (QoP) or Protection Level Agreement (PLA) have surfaced in the literature, but they still have a qualitative flavor. Furthermore, many recorded security incidents have a non-IT cause. As a result, security requires a much wider notion of "system" than do most other fields in computer science. In addition to the IT infrastructure, the "system" in security includes users, work processes, and organizational structures.
The goal of the QoP Workshop is to help security research progress towards a notion of Quality of Protection in Security comparable to the notion of Quality of Service in Networking, Software Reliability, or measures in Empirical Software Engineering.
The 4th QoP Workshop is co-located with the 15th ACM Conference on Computer and Communication Security CCS-2008 which will be on Oct 27 - Oct 31.
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