Most Popular Books by Michael Todd

Blood calls to blood. Power demands its price. A warlord without an army. A lord without lands. A dragon without wings. Peter Taraskharn is all of these things, leading a ragged convoy of refugees toward the one sanctuary left in a world gone mad: Drakonnen Castle, the cursed fortress of his bloodline. He never asked for this responsibility. He certainly never asked for the ancient power now burning through his veins. The thousand souls following him see a savior. His enemies see a threat that must be eliminated. The warrior women who guard his back see something else entirely, something that both terrifies and compels them. Peter just sees the next sunrise he has to survive. Someone has been hunting them since they began this desperate march. Professional soldiers strike from the shadows. Mysterious forces manipulate events from afar. Every league traveled brings new horrors, new betrayals, new tests of the terrible gift awakening in his blood. The castle calls to him in dreams, promising safety for his people and power beyond imagination. His grandmother's lessons whisper warnings about the fate of every Drakonnen king before him. History says his bloodline is cursed. His enemies say he's already damned. Peter says he'll burn them all before he lets his people fall.

In the treacherous training grounds of Heaven's Peak, are Ike and his cycle truly prepared to become Earth's next guardians? While they've conquered initial challenges, the mysterious Engineer believes they've only just begun. Their newfound powers are impressive, but is individual strength enough? Or will their overconfidence be their downfall? The next trial, notorious for its staggering failure rates, looms. Can Ike rise as the leader they desperately need? Will the team learn to trust and rely on each other before it's too late? They aim to do more than just survive. But do they have what it takes to surpass the Engineer's toughest expectations?

Sex and sexuality are hot topics these days. But many single adults are tired of the "how far is too far?" approach because it doesn't go far enough. Why does the discussion stop at the physical? What about the deeper spiritual and relational aspects of sexuality? Pioneering Christian sex therapists Doug Rosenau and Michael Todd Wilson team up in this helpful and hopeful book about understanding sexuality and intimacy beyond what our "do it if it feels good" culture says it is. Providing a much-needed spiritual perspective to the sexuality debate, the authors tackle difficult topics from a biblical foundation to help single adults establish practical models for maintaining purity and creating a healthy sexuality. With real-life personal stories, Soul Virgins helps singles accept their sexuality as a godly discipline. Rosenau and Wilson provide a 3-D discussion of body, soul, and spirit that proves sexuality is ultimately more about relational intimacy than just the physical act of sex. Originally published in Paperback by Baker Books.

Master the art of using combustionO to combine digital elements (such as a 3D Studio MAX rendering) with video footage or stills! The newest addition to our Ground Rules series, this how-to manual is one of the first resources available for computer artists and animators who want to learn how to make optimal use of combustion u a powerful Macintosh-- and Windows--based desktop solution from Discreet- that provides a unified paint, animation and 3D composition environment in which to create cutting-edge graphics and compelling visual effects. Step-by-step tutorials based on real-world applications of combustion take center stage in this book, acquainting beginning through intermediate users with 90% of the features of their combustion software while introducing professional 2D and 3D compositing and painting techniques. Fast-paced and thoroughly engaging, these tutorials provide a swift and effective means of gaining first-hand insights into the combustion interface and workflow. In addition, because the tutorials are based on real-world applications, all new skills gained as a result of working through this book are directly relevant to the needs of technically-savvy computer artists and animators working in today's highly sophisticated post-production and 3D animation environments."

It's time to ask the right team for the solution. The Demons have turned the tables on the Damned, and it takes a little while to catch up. It's quiet, too quiet. Pandora reveals a little bit more about herself, who she is, and what she can do. And Damian has to make some hard choices. There is someone new coming to the team, and he is just this side of ... different. The war with the enemy is burning - and it's time the General calls for special backup. Because now even he spells backup 'K.A.T.I.E.' Scroll back to the top and click "Read for Free" or "Buy Now," and kick back for a fun supernatural action-packed adventure that will have you yelling for the good guys and laughing at the arguments between Katie and...her. --- NOTE: This book contains cursing. Perhaps humorous cursing, but cursing nonetheless. If this offends you, I suggest you don't read this book.

Traditional Chinese Edition of Relationship Goals

This dissertation fills gaps in the existing literature by discussing in more explicit ways the links between power and authority and migration management; by discussing with more empirical detail the rise of assisted voluntary return and reintegration programming EU states; and by demonstrating intra-organizational messaging consistency on AVRR and migration governance more generally. The dissertation also contributes new empirical data with regard to IOM-managed AVRR programming in Cyprus, Malta, and Greece.

The future of aviation technology is transitioning to cleaner, more efficient and higher endurance aircraft solutions. As fully electric propulsion systems still fall short of the operational requirements of modern day aircraft, there is increasing pressure and demand for the aviation industry to explore alternatives to fossil fuel driven propulsion systems. The primary focus of this research is to experimentally evaluate hybrid electric propulsion systems (HEPS) for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) which combine multiple power sources to improve performance. HEPS offer several potential benefits over more conventional propulsion systems such as a smaller environmental impact, lower fuel consumption, higher endurance and novel configurations through distributed propulsion. Advanced operating modes are also possible with HEPS, increasing the vehicle's versatility and redundancy in case of power source failure. The primary objective of the research is to combine all of the components of a small-scale HEPS together in a modular test bench for evaluation. The test bench uses components sized for a small-scale UAV including a 2.34kW two-stroke 35cc engine and a 1.65kW brushless DC motor together with an ESC capable of regenerative braking. Individual components were first tested to characterize performance, and then all components were assembled together in a parallel configuration to observe system-level performance. The parallel HEPS is capable of functioning in the four required operating modes: EM Only, ICE Only, Dash Mode (combined EM and ICE power) as well as Regenerative Mode where the onboard batteries get recharged. Further, the test bench was implemented with a supervisory controller to optimize system performance and run each component in the most efficient region to achieve torque requirements programmed into mission profiles. The logic based controller operates with the ideal operating line (IOL) concept and is implemented with a custom LabView GUI. The system is able to run on electric power or ICE power interchangeably without making any modifications to the transmission as the one-way bearing assembly engages for whichever power source is rotating at the highest speed. The most impressive of these sets of tests is the Dash mode testing where the output torque of the propeller is supplied from both the EM and ICE. Working in tandem, it was proved that the EM was drawing 19.9A of current which corresponds to an estimated 0.57Nm additional torque to the propeller for a degree of hybridization of 49.91%. Finally, the regenerative braking mode was proven to be operational, capable of recharging the battery systems at 13A. All of these operating modes attest to the flexibility and convenience of having a hybrid-electric propulsion system. The results collected from the test bench were validated against the models created in the aircraft simulation framework. This framework was created in MATLAB to simulate the performance of a small UAV and compare the performance by swapping in various propulsion systems. The purpose of the framework is to make direct comparisons of HEPS performance for parallel and series architectures against conventional electric and gasoline configuration UAVs, and explore the trade-offs. Each aircraft variable in the framework was modelled parametrically so that parameter sweeps could be run to observe the impact on the aircraft's performance. Finally, rather than comparing propulsion systems in steady-state, complex mission profiles were created that simulate real life applications for UAVs. With these experiments, it was possible to observe which propulsion configurations were best suited for each mission type, and provide engineers with information about the trade-offs or advantages of integrating hybrid-electric propulsion into UAV design. In the Pipeline Inspection mission, the exact payload capacities of each aircraft configuration could be observed in the fuel burn versus CL,cruise parameter sweep exercise. It was observed that the parallel HEPS configuration has an average of 3.52kg lower payload capacity for the 35kg aircraft (17.6%), but has a fuel consumption reduction of up to 26.1% compared to the gasoline aircraft configuration. In the LIDAR Data collection mission, the electric configuration could be suitable for collection ranges below 100km but suffers low LIDAR collection times. However, at 100km LIDAR collection range, the series HEPS has an endurance of 16hr and the parallel configuration has an endurance of 19hr. In the Interceptor mission, at 32kg TOW, the parallel HEPS configuration has an endurance/TOW of 1.3[hr/kg] compared to 1.15[hr/kg] for the gasoline aircraft. This result yields a 13% increase in endurance from 36.8hr for gasoline to 41.6hr for the parallel HEPS. Finally, in the Communications Relay mission, the gasoline configuration is recommended for all TOW above 28kg as it has the highest loiter endurance.