Dire rat

A dire rat is a fictional animal from the Dungeons & Dragons RPG. It is one of the more common dire creatures, which are all are larger, tougher, meaner versions of regular animals. They can be found on any land or underground, and are either encountered individually, or in packs of 11-20 individual creatures. Being of animal intelligence, they carry no equipment or treasure.

Publication history

The dire rat first appeared in the third edition in Dragon #277 (November 2000). The dire rat appeared in the third edition Monster Manual (2000) under the "dire animal" entry, and then in the 3.5 Monster Manual (2003). The dire rat familiar appeared in Tome and Blood (2001), and in the 3.5 revised Dungeon Master's Guide (2003).

Appearance

Dire rats look basically the same as a normal rat, but they can grow up to 3 feet long and weigh over 60 pounds (27 kilograms). According to the general description of dire animals, they have a 'feral, prehistoric look'. They are adept swimmers and climbers, relying on their dexterity ability score rather than their strength for these skills. They also have better vision and scent than humans.

Rat

Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus. Many members of other rodent genera and families are also referred to as rats, and share many characteristics with true rats.

Rats are typically distinguished from mice by their size. Generally, when someone discovers a large muroid rodent, its common name includes the term rat, while if it is smaller, the name includes the term mouse. The muroid family is broad and complex, and the common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific. Scientifically, the terms are not confined to members of the Rattus and Mus genera, for example, the pack rat and cotton mouse.

Species and description

The best-known rat species are the black rat (Rattus rattus) and the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). The group is generally known as the Old World rats or true rats, and originated in Asia. Rats are bigger than most Old World mice, which are their relatives, but seldom weigh over 500 grams (1.1 lb) in the wild.

Rat (zodiac)

The Rat (子) is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Rat is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 子.

Years and the Five Elements

People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Rat", while also bearing the following elemental sign:

Basic astrology elements

Description

See also

References

List of Pearls Before Swine characters

This is a partial list of characters in the comic strip Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis.

Rat

Personality

Rat is a megalomaniacal, misanthropic rat, who is frequently critical of the strip's style and artwork, as well as the other characters in his and other strips, real life people, and almost all living (and often nonliving) things. He believes himself to be much more intelligent than he actually is, and thinks more or less anybody else is stupid with the only person he believes worthy of his respect being Leonardo da Vinci. He tends to irritate people, particularly his intelligent friend Goat, and is easily irritated by his naïve, dim-witted housemate Pig. Rat believes himself to be the wisdom of the strip, if not wisdom itself, and that anybody else is more or less dumb, whereas most other characters view him as "a loudmouth, pompous malcontent". He may or may not be a personification of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Rat is very prideful and arrogant (he once made a list of all the geniuses in the world that only said "Mozart, da Vinci, Me", and then said that he only put 'that music dude' there to be nice), and is constantly dreaming up schemes that invariably would keep him away from anyone and everyone else, though these inevitably backfire. He often appears incapable of seeing his own faults.

Dire (woreda)

Dire is one of the woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Miyu was separated from Dire woreda. Located in the southern part of the Borena Zone, Dire is bordered on the south by Kenya, on the west by Teltele, on the north by Yabelo, on the northeast by Arero, and on the east by Moyale. Towns in Dire include Mega and Dubuluk.

Overview

The altitude of this woreda ranges from 750 to over 2400 meters above sea level; Mount Gaamud (2486 meters) is the highest point. There are no rivers in this woreda. A survey of the land in this woreda shows that 14.3% is arable (7.3% was under cultivation), 47.5% pasture, 17.5% forest, and the remaining 20.7% is considered swampy, degraded or otherwise unusable. Notable landmarks include the Bowe Soda Salt House, the Gumigayo cultural center and the Boke Dilo well. Corn, haricot beans, wheat and barley are important crops.

Industry in the woreda includes 12 grain mills.Salt has been traditionally extracted from sites like the mountain craters, such as Sod or Sogid near Mega, and transported elsewhere in the Borana and south to Banaadir. However, other known mineral deposits -- olivine and carnet -- have not been commercially developed. There were 31 Farmers Associations and 8 Farmers Service Cooperatives; about 59% of the farmers were pastoralists. Dire has 137 kilometers of dry-weather and 124 all-weather road, for an average road density of 96 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers. About 16.5% of the urban and 33.5% of the total population has access to drinking water.

Phantom Blood

Phantom Blood (ファントムブラッド, Fantomu Buraddo) is the first story arc of the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1987 for 44 chapters, which were later collected into 5 tankōbon volumes. It was licensed and released in North America by Viz Media.

The arc was originally known as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1 Jonathan Joestar: His Youth (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 第一部 ジョナサン·ジョースター ―その青春―, JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken Dai Ichi Bu Jonasan Jōsutā -Sono Seishun-), and was followed by Battle Tendency. Phantom Blood was adapted as a 2006 PlayStation 2 video game, a 2007 anime film, and as the first part of a 2012 television anime series by David Production.

Characters

Main characters

Jonathan's allies

Friends and family

Tonpetty is a Hamon master who trained Zeppeli, as well as others. He trained the then 25-year-old Zeppeli in the ways of Hamon and eventually revealed to him that he would face a gruesome death. The only other known Hamon students of Tonpetty are Dire and Straizo, both who accompanied him to Dio's town. However, they did not meet with Jonathan and Speedwagon until after Zeppeli had died. During the final battle between Jonathan and Dio, Dire is killed, and Tonpetty and Straizo help kill Dio's remaining zombies. After the battle, Tonpetty is last seen at the docks (together with Straizo, Speedwagon, and others) to say farewell to Jonathan and Erina as they go on their honeymoon. Named after singer Tom Petty.