doctor who - How did the Daleks regain their numbers?

Since the end of the Time War the Daleks have been near extinct and some of the plots of the previously released seasons have been about the Daleks regaining their former strength (Bad Wolf Station, The Cult of Scaro's Genesis Ark and experiments in New York, the Daleks Paradigm). the only time that we see they suddenly appeared with their former numbers was when Daleks Thane of the Cult of Scaro broke the Time Lock during an emergency Temporal Shift and inadvertently saved Davros's ship.

Yet after The Doctor caused a second Big Band with the Pandorica the Daleks seem to be a full blown empire as we see when they capture him, Amy and Rory to deal with the Daleks Asylum.

I am wondering, is it explained how the Daleks regained their numbers, or did The Doctor inadvertently bring them back to full strength with the Pandorica?

story identification - Woman who gets trained by a soldier; dead soldier returns as a ghost; bird/raven people

I am writing in hope that someone might be able to recognize a book series that I read some years ago. Can't find anything that resembles my memories of it. From what I recall it contains a strong female lead. In the beginning of the book, she gets training from a soldier, older than her, and they fall in love. The man gets killed and returns later in the story as a ghost.

The female has got magical powers and fights an evil old man, from whom she must escape and travel distant lands. I think she might have had some magical animal with her (a big cat, or something similar) but again, this is very vague in my mind. I recall a character named Sarah, and a man that Sarah used to be together with called Alvar (?), whom the female lead eventually ends up with at the end of the story. I also remember a character of some kind of bird/raven people (maybe she is even called Raven?), who is betraying the lead and her company to the men of the evil old dude. I think there are some problems with her people or something about wings or the ability to fly that makes her do it.

Not very much to go on perhaps, but it someone recognizes anything that might help out I would be most grateful!

tv - To whom did Jaime Lannister lose on a previous tournament that people talk about in season one and what was the tournament honoring?

I'm going to hazard an educated guess and say that you're talking about the tourney that Jaime lost to Loras Tyrell. This was only of note because Petyr's dagger (implicated in the attempted murder of Bran and assault of Catelyn) was allegedly lost to Tyrion because of the upset.

I don't believe we were given many more details on the tourney than that, i.e. who it was in honour of.

harry potter - Why does Peeves listen to the Bloody Baron?

Peeves the poltergeist very rarely takes commands from anyone. However, he does listen to the Bloody Baron. What's the story behind this?

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Let me summarize some of what we know about Peeves.

We learn that the Baron is the only one who can really control Peeves in Philosopher's Stone chapter 7, when we first meet Peeves, and Percy Weasley says

‘You want to watch out for Peeves,’ said Percy, as they set off again. ‘The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us Prefects. […]’

This later becomes a plot point: in PS chapter 16, Peeves catches the trio under the invisibility cloak, but Harry gets rid of him by pretending to be the Bloody Baron. Peeves is apparently terrified of having insulted the Baron (“almost fell out of the air in shock”), and leaves.

We know Peeves cooperates with Filch to catch students out of bed, and with the Weasley twins to wreak havoc in the castle and annoy Umbridge, but he does this in his own interest, enjoying what he does, and isn't actually controlled by Filch or the Weasleys.

Professors like McGonagall and Lupin and probably Dumbledore do sometimes have some authority over Peeves, see eg. PS. chapter 9 when McGonagall orders Peeves out of a room. This could be because they are powerful enough magic users to do magic on Peeves if he doesn't obey. Also, Peeves is very connected to Hogwarts, as we can see in Deathly Hallows, so that might be why he respects the authority figures of Hogwarts somewhat. Peeves thus tries to mostly stay out of their ways unless necessary, but it doesn't look like he's as terrified of them or respectful to them as he is to the Baron.

In PS chapter 7, the house ghosts are arguing about Peeves, mentioning things like “haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves?” and that “he gives us a bad name.” I think there's a possibility that any ghost has some way to interact with Peeves and control him more easily than the students, and the Baron just uses this in the most skilled way among the ghost, or is the only really terrifying personality among them.

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Now a few facts about the Baron. We know his story. In short, he was a liege of the Hogwarts founder Rowena Ravenclaw, and the lover of her daughter Helena. Rowena Ravenclaw had sent him after Helena, who wouldn't return with him, so the Baron killed the girl in a rage, then committed suicide. As a ghost, he wears the chains and the blood as penance.

We don't know everything though, as the story doesn't explain why he became the Slytherin house ghost if he was a liege of Ravenclaw. (The Grey Lady is Helena, the daughter of Ravenclaw, and the Fat Friar claims that Hufflepuff was his former house, which explains how they got associated with their houses.)

Short story about an alien bomb

I've been trying to find out the name of a short story, any help will be appreciated:

• Setting (I think) was World War II


• There was a gunboat in the latter part of the story


• The bomb is sentient, and can move around - it also looks like a rock.


• The bomb cannot see water, so it looks like boats are flying.


• It scans boats using radiation, trying to learn about them - which kills a bunch of the crew.


• In turn they fire on the 'rock' - which prompts it to remember its purpose.


• The story ends with the bomb saying something like "ah yes, that's what I was supposed to do" and detonating.

The story turns up in a bunch of anthologies, I just don't have them anymore to check - and google results are swamped by the World War II references.

Many thanks.

Fastest form of travel in the Star Trek universe

Perhaps not the fastest, but a VERY fast form of propulsion was that used by the Aldeans. They managed to transport the Enterprise-D 3 days away at warp 9 almost instantaneously:

RADUE [on viewscreen]: Captain, we want you to understand the nature of your choice. A small demonstration of our power.
(Something whizzes around the planet and knocks the Enterprise spinning out of orbit, into deep space)

PICARD: What was that?

DATA: I believe it was a repulsor beam.

PICARD: Position report.

LAFORGE: This is unbelievable, sir. According to my calculations, we're three days from Aldea. At warp nine.

RIKER: And they call that a small demonstration?

PICARD: Geordi, get us back to Aldea. Warp nine.

LAFORGE: Aye, sir.

RADUE [on viewscreen]: Captain, if you don't accept our terms, the Enterprise will be pushed so far away that by the time you return, your children will be grandparents.

(TNG 'When the Bough Breaks')

After doing some calculations, this is a speed of approximately 3.93 x10^12km/s (assuming it took them about 3 seconds to travel that distance) i.e. 3,930,000,000,000 km per second

Whether or not this was a 'small demonstration' or not is up for debate, but considering their technological feats of being able to cloak an entire planet, it wouldn't at all surprise me if they could push them that far away.

This is pretty fast indeed!

story identification - Identify this book in which time/magic vary locally from east to west

I saw a review of a book two or three years ago in which time and/or magic vary from east to west. It sounded fascinating, but I sadly forgot to write down the key information. I'm pretty sure that the review was on BoingBoing, but their archive search is not particularly good, and I'm turning up nothing.

This one should be a lot easier than my other stumper!