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c00a77f
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what's a tomb without a curse?
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Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child |
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b554279
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Lead me into all misfortune. Only by that path can I transform the negative into the positive.
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Douglas Preston |
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be84fee
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jennie confirmed my suspicions that television advertising is directed mainly at people with the iq of a pongid
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pong
tv
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Douglas Preston |
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47ef5b3
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Inside the "cells" there were no normal-looking organelles, no nuclei, endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, or Golgi bodies."
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Douglas Preston |
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20496ef
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An accident is only a puzzle piece that hasn't yet found its place in the picture. A good detective collects all 'accidents,' no matter how insignificant.
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Douglas Preston |
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f92c3bc
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Those who can't do, teach, and those who can't teach, critique.
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Douglas Preston |
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e3c4cc1
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What was that line of Sophocles from Oedipus Rex? "How awful a knowledge of the truth can be."
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Douglas Preston |
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6a7e61c
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sometimes not knowing can be a lot worse than knowing--even if knowing proves to be very painful.
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Douglas Preston |
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efee2e7
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This was a Third World disease attacking First World people. The world is now divided into Third and First, not Old and New. Pathogens once confined to the Third World are now making deadly inroads into the First. This is the future trajectory of disease on planet Earth.
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Douglas Preston |
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9d3459f
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Chauncy made a huge effort to control himself. "I had lunch at Maisie's Diner." "And?" "And what? It was the most revolting lunch it has been my misfortune to consume." "And after?" "Diarrhea, of course."
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food
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Douglas Preston |
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dfb47bd
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Do what? Kill me? Then my blood would be on your hands--more than it already is--as well as that of your four dear friends. Because you, frater, are responsible for all this. You know it. You made me what I am." "I made you nothing." "Well said! Well said!" A dry, almost desiccated laugh came over the tiny speaker. Listening,"
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Douglas Preston |
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c73763d
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You mean, let our most excellent Congress deal with this situation in the same way it has handled our other pressing national problems, such as global warming, terrorism, education, and our crumbling infrastructure?
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Douglas Preston |
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79f5e5a
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Global warming has opened the southern door of the United States not just to leish but to many other diseases. The big ones now entering our country include Zika, West Nile virus, chikungunya, and dengue fever. Even diseases like cholera, Ebola, Lyme, babesiosis, and bubonic plague will potentially infect more people as global warming accelerates.
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Douglas Preston |
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6b2f155
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Lines from an old film came back to him unbidden: That I should want you at all suddenly strikes me as the height of improbability. You're an improbable person, and so am I.
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Douglas Preston |
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aa4d7e2
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The third board popped off. The opening was now big enough to squeeze through. The dogs in town were barking hysterically.
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Douglas Preston |
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978f592
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She picked up the book she was reading, Beyond the Ice Limit, found her dog-eared place at the beginning of chapter six, and began to read. The sea horizon lay against the sky, blue against perfect blue, and it seemed to beckon the ship southward, ever southward. She closed the book, put it down again. Not bad, but it lacked the punch of the original.
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Douglas Preston |
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bdb7c35
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All power structures, by their very nature, eventually get taken over by psychopaths. Almost all governments in the world have been taken over by gifted psychopaths who have a great command of human psychology and use normal people to their advantage. This race of pathological deviants can't feel compassion, they have no conscience. They have an insatiable need for power--and they rule the world.
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Douglas Preston |
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03419ad
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She learned her first two signs five weeks later, on--let's see here--June 4, 1967. They were hug and me. On June 6, she spontaneously signed Hug me Jennie to Mrs. Archibald, her surrogate mother. Mrs. Archibald was under the impression that Jennie's first sign had been directed at her. I didn't correct that misapprehension. Why? I should suppose the reason's obvious.
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Douglas Preston |
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f3d67c1
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to support this privileged class as long as they kept up their end of the bargain with effective rituals. But after 650, deforestation, erosion, and soil exhaustion began reducing crop yields. The working classes, the farmers and monument builders, may have suffered increasing hunger and disease, even as the rulers hogged an ever-larger share of resources. The society was heading for a crisis. Diamond writes: "We have to wonder why the king..
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Douglas Preston |
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bc27d19
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Waga tomo yasurakani", he said. Farewell, my friend."
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grief-and-loss
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Douglas Preston |
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0ff0417
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Pendergast," Ridder said. His voice was low and very, very cold. Despite herself, Corrie shivered when she saw the look on his face. Pendergast stopped. "Yes?"
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still-life-with-crows
pendergast
witty
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Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child Still Life With Crows |
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cce33a6
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people were like icebergs--most of what really went on, especially the ugliness, was submerged
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Douglas Preston Lincoln Child |
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8cbfdcb
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In the most deadly variety of smallpox, the hemorrhagic form, called the bloody pox or black pox, the skin turns a deep purple or takes on a charred look, and comes off in sheets. The victim often "bleeds out," blood pouring from every orifice in the body. It is extremely contagious. Unlike most other viruses, smallpox can survive and remain virulent for months or years outside the body in clothing, blankets, and sickrooms."
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Douglas Preston |
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7246f61
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I have my books. I don't live in the actual world.
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Douglas Preston |
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12dcda6
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To put that statistic into personal terms, make a list of the nineteen people closest to you: All but one will die. (This
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Douglas Preston |
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ad74835
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The ultimate offense was the idea that Europeans "discovered" the New World to begin with, as if the people living here didn't exist before Europeans saw them."
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Douglas Preston |
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f2c975c
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Nobody knows what language is. It isn't just speech, that's for sure. But try to explain that to some of these reductionist structural linguists.
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Douglas Preston |
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094ae16
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When I walk to the pulpit on a Sunday and see my parishioners seated so properly in their rows, so neatly dressed, so assured and expectant, I am filled with a sense of panic. I have not done what I set out to do. In forty years, what have I given these people? Only a sense of complacency?
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Douglas Preston |
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86c0ff2
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Behind Hagedorn's back, Kawakita had nicknamed the administrator "Stumpy." Only Margo and a few of Frock's other graduate students had known the name referred not to Hagedorn's diminutive size, but to Stumpiniceps troglodytes, a particularly mundane kind of bottom-feeder that populated the oceans of the Carboniferous period."
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Douglas Preston |
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0c61171
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To one side, a vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, polished to a gem-like brilliance, sat on a flatbed trailer, ready to be taken to its new owner. Constance looked from Pendergast to the Rolls and back again. "I really don't need two, you know," he said."
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Douglas Preston |
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77cb217
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William Duncan Strong was a scholar, a man ahead of his time: quiet, careful and meticulous in his work, averse to spectacle and publicity. He was among the first to establish that Mosquitia had been inhabited by an ancient, unknown people who were not Maya. Strong spent five months traversing Honduras in 1933, going by dugout canoe up the Rio Patuca and several of its tributaries. He kept an illustrated journal, which is preserved in the S..
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Douglas Preston |
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594defa
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Russo drew his service revolver and pointed it at Jennie. Sandy, of course, went berserk, screaming and grabbing at the gun and wrapping himself around Jennie. He called Russo the most horrid names, fascist pig and that sort of thing. It must have been just awful, thinking this moron was going to shoot Jennie. I'm sure he would have if Sandy hadn't stopped him. Sandy saved Jennie's life.
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Douglas Preston |
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eb461e1
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The three-million-dollar Omega-9 Parallel Processing Computer, which took up a series of large gray boxes along one wall, was now completely silent.
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Douglas Preston |
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cb392a2
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every single decent lead has gone to hell. I feel like I'm rolling a ball of shit up an endless mountain." "My dear Vincent, Sisyphus would be proud."
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Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child |
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3901e3a
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I feel like I'm rolling a ball of shit up an endless mountain." "My dear Vincent, Sisyphus would be proud."
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Douglas Preston |
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d856e3e
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In the twentieth century the Mormon Church sent a number of well-funded archaeologists to Mexico and Central America to try to confirm the stories through site excavations. Although this resulted in valuable, high-quality research, it also proved difficult for the scientists themselves; facing clear evidence that disproved the Mormon view of history, some of the archaeologists ended up losing their faith, and a few of those who voiced their..
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Douglas Preston |
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5f682a6
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Jennie taught me just how worthless that is. Being smart. Jennie wasn't smart by human standards, but she had a set of values. Real values. You see, for Jennie, freedom was the highest value. Language gave Jennie freedom. Although I didn't know it at the time, she taught me the real meaning of the word "freedom," not the bullshit meaning you get from politicians and priests."
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Douglas Preston |
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d054eb2
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Charles backed down. He is reputed to have said, Capon, Capon, vous etes un mauvais chapon. 'Capon, Capon, you are one evil chicken.' " "Chicken jokes are quite prevalent in the family," the countess said. The count said, "We eat capons at Christmas. It's a little cannibalistic."
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Douglas Preston |
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421e846
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She felt his shoulders began to convulse, faintly, regularly, almost as if he was weeping. But that was, of course, impossible, as Pendergast would never cry.
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Douglas Preston |
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a5f9f80
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the value of work? Have I taught them self-reliance? Have I taught them to take care of each
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Douglas Preston |
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fea58b3
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And what better place to sow vengeance--to, quite literally, turn Gotham into a City of Endless Night?
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Douglas Preston |
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987f9b7
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When the team excavated, they uncovered the shattered ruins of a fortress, over fifteen centuries old, with massive walls and eight towers, matching the description in the Koran. They also figured out what had happened: The constant removal of water from the watering hole undermined the fortress, which one day collapsed into a sinkhole and was buried by drifting sands. The legend recorded in the Koran was based on a real event.
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Douglas Preston |
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bb34183
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who the heck is dorothy gale?
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Douglas Preston |
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af93b9a
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nothing motivated a person quite as much as the desire for vengeance.
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Douglas Preston |