Search results for ""Author Leonard"

Meet the S.T.E.A.M. pioneer - Rachel Carson - and discover her fascinating life story and inspirations.Rachel Carson tells the story of this key scientific figure - covering her whole life's journey and her amazing legacy to science today. It follows her early inspirations and her determined and exemplary scientific skills as she uncovered the truth about the damage the pesticide DDT was doing to the environment. A fierce environmental campaigner and best-selling author, Carson is an inspiration to young scientists - in particular girls - as she navigated and succeeded in a male-dominated field.Masterminds introduces some of the world's great scientists, inventors and artists, retelling their lives and explaining why their work is important. Clear photographic designs bring a real-life quality to these biographies and major S.T.E.A.M. discoveries.Provides an understanding of scientific discoveries and presents inspirational lives from a variety of diverse backgrounds.Includes a timeline of the person's life and shows the ongoing legacy that we can see around us today.Perfect for readers aged 7 and up.Titles in this series:Rachel Carson George Washington CarverMarie Curie Rosalind Franklin Jane Goodall Stephen HawkingKatherine JohnsonNikola Tesla Leonardo da Vinci Frank Lloyd Wright

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The Italian Renaissance has come to occupy an almost mythical place in the popular imagination. The outsized reputations of the best-known figures from the period—Michelangelo, Niccolo Machiavelli, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Pope Julius II, Isabella d'Este, and so many others—engender a kind of wonder. How could so many geniuses or exceptional characters be produced by one small territory near the extreme south of Europe at a moment when much of the rest of the continent still labored under the restrictions of the Middle Ages? How did so many of the driving principles behind Western civilization emerge during this period—and how were they defined and developed? And why is it that geniuses such as Leonardo, Raphael, Petrarch, Brunelleschi, Bramante, and Palladio all sustain their towering authority to this day? To answer these questions, Kenneth Bartlett delves into the lives and works of the artists, patrons, and intellectuals—the privileged, educated, influential elites—who created a rarefied world of power, money, and sophisticated talent in which individual curiosity and skill were prized above all else. The result is a dynamic, highly readable, copiously illustrated history of the Renaissance in Italy—and of the artists that gave birth to some of the most enduring ideas and artifacts of Western civilization.

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Made famous by the Italian mathematician Leonardo De Pisa, the Fibonacci number series holds a Golden Ratio that is universally found in nature and used by architects, plastic surgeons, and many others to achieve “perfect” aesthetic proportions. Now, in this groundbreaking guide, noted technical trading advisor Carolyn Boroden shows you how Fibonacci pattern studies can be used as an extremely effective method for achieving greater profitability in stocks, futures, and Forex markets.Fibonacci Trading provides a one-stop resource of reliable tools and clear explanations for both identifying and taking advantage of the trade setups naturally occurring in the markets that will enable you to reach the highest rate of profitable trades. Inside, you'll find a unique trading methodology based on Fibonacci ratios, and the author's personal experience analyzing and setting up the markets in real time, which makes this practical volume invaluable to the self-directed investor. Complete with detailed charts and insightful graphics in each chapter, Fibonacci Trading features: Dependable guidance for determining important support and resistance levels, along with expert advice for using them to maximize profits and limit losses Step-by-step processes for using Fibonacci analysis to predict turning points in the market far enough in advance to generate substantial profit Valuable tips for using Fibonacci analysis to establish optimal stop-loss placement Revealing coverage on how Fibonacci relationships can create a roadmap for the trader based on high percentage patterns Fibonacci Trading also provides a four-step formula for applying the covered techniques in a highly effective approach. Flexible enough for all markets and trading styles, the formula helps you focus your newly developed knowledge and skill sets into a solid trading methodology, defined trading plan, successful trading mindset, and disciplined trading approach that stacks the odds for profit in your favor. This hands-on guide is packed with a wealth of actual trading situations, setups, and scenarios that bring the four-step formula to life so you can immediately use it in the real world.

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Sheds light on the skills and techniques of the medieval military engineer, over a thousand year sweep. The results of medieval engineering still surround us - cathedrals, castles, stone bridges, irrigation systems. However, the siege artillery, siege towers, temporary bridges, earthwork emplacements and underground mines used for war have left little trace behind them; and there is even less of the engineers themselves: the people behind the military engineering achievements. The evidence for this neglected group is studied here. The author begins byconsidering the evolution of military technology across centuries, and the impact of new technologies in the context of the economic and social developments which made them possible. He looks at how military engineers obtained their skills, and the possible link with scholastic scientific awareness. With the increased survival of government records from the middle ages, engineers acquire names and individuals can be identified. And the fifteenth century -the age of polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci - saw a new type of literate military engineer, part of a recognized profession, but with its roots in a thousand years of historical development. PETER PURTON, D Phil (Oxon), FSA, has written extensively on medieval fortifications and siege warfare; his publications include the comprehensive two-volume history of the medieval siege (Boydell, 2010).

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From beloved CBS Sunday Morning correspondent and humorist Mo Rocca, a rigorously researched, “funny and smart” (Jon Stewart) book that celebrates the dead people who have long fascinated him.Mo Rocca has always loved obituaries—reading about the remarkable lives of global leaders, Hollywood heavyweights, and innovators who changed the world. But not every notable life has gotten the send-off it deserves. His quest to right that wrong inspired Mobituaries, his #1 hit podcast. But here, in this “delightful, hilarious romp through history” (Booklist) he has gone much further, with all-new essays on artists, entertainers, sports stars, political pioneers, founding fathers, and more. Even if you know the names, you’ve never understood why they matter...until now. Take Herbert Hoover: before he was president, he was the “Great Humanitarian,” the man who saved tens of millions from starvation. But after less than a year in the White House, the stock market crashed, and all the good he had done seemed to be forgotten. Then there’s Marlene Dietrich, well remembered as a screen goddess, less remembered as a great patriot. Alongside servicemen on the front lines during World War II, she risked her life to help defeat the Nazis of her native Germany. And what about Billy Carter and history’s unruly presidential brothers? Were they ne’er-do-well liabilities…or secret weapons? Plus, Mobits for dead sports teams, dead countries, the dearly departed station wagon, and dragons. Yes, dragons. Rocca is an expert researcher and storyteller who offers “joy for curious minds” (Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci), and with his dogged reporting and trademark wit, he brings these men and women back to life like no one else can. “In our fact-challenged times, Rocca’s joyful tour through the didja know’s of history is an unexpected antidote” (The New Yorker).

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One of Esquire's 50 Best Biographies of All Time * One of The Economist's Best Books of 2022 * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * Nominated for The Next Big Idea Club * The Week Magazine Book of the WeekFrom Alec Nevala-Lee, the author of the Hugo and Locus Award finalist Astounding, comes a revelatory biography of the visionary designer who defined the rules of startup culture and shaped America’s idea of the future. During his lifetime, Buckminster Fuller was hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of the twentieth century. As the architectural designer and futurist best known for the geodesic dome, he enthralled a vast popular audience, inspired devotion from both the counterculture and the establishment, and was praised as a modern Leonardo da Vinci. To his admirers, he exemplified what one man could accomplish by approaching urgent design problems using a radically unconventional set of strategies, which he based on a mystical conception of the universe’s geometry. His views on sustainability, as embodied in the image of Spaceship Earth, convinced him that it was possible to provide for all humanity through the efficient use of planetary resources. From Epcot Center to the molecule named in his honor as the buckyball, Fuller’s legacy endures to this day, and his belief in the transformative potential of technology profoundly influenced the founders of Silicon Valley.Inventor of the Future is the first authoritative biography to cover all aspects of Fuller’s career. Drawing on meticulous research, dozens of interviews, and thousands of unpublished documents, Nevala-Lee has produced a riveting portrait that transcends the myth of Fuller as an otherworldly generalist. It reconstructs the true origins of his most famous inventions, including the Dymaxion Car, the Wichita House, and the dome itself; his fraught relationships with his students and collaborators; his interactions with Frank Lloyd Wright, Isamu Noguchi, Clare Boothe Luce, John Cage, Steve Jobs, and many others; and his tumultuous private life, in which his determination to succeed on his own terms came at an immense personal cost. In an era of accelerating change, Fuller’s example remains enormously relevant, and his lessons for designers, activists, and innovators are as powerful and essential as ever.

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From Josh Tickell, one of America’s most celebrated documentary filmmakers, comes a “fascinating, easy-to-follow blueprint for how eating in ways that nourish and regenerate the soil can not only help reverse global warming, but also bring greater vitality to our lives” (Wolfgang Puck). “A must read for anyone committed to healing our bodies and our Earth” (Deepak Chopra), Kiss the Ground explains an incredible truth: by changing our diets to a soil-nourishing, regenerative agriculture diet, we can reverse global warming, harvest healthy, abundant food, and eliminate the poisonous substances that are harming our children, pets, bodies, and ultimately our planet. This “richly visual” (Kirkus Reviews) look at the impact of an underappreciated but essential resource—the very ground that feeds us—features fascinating and accessible interviews with celebrity chefs, ranchers, farmers, and top scientists. Kiss the Ground teaches you how to become an agent in humanity’s single most important and time-sensitive mission: reverse climate change and effectively save the world—all through the choices you make in how and what to eat. Also a full-length documentary executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and narrated by Woody Harrelson, “Kiss the Ground both informs and inspires” (Marianne Williamson, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

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Beauty and Brutality provides an exciting, original, and critical encounter with this labyrinthine city’s imagined and material landscape. The authors and contributors investigate the “messy, fleshy, recalcitrant, mercurial, and immeasurable qualities of the city,” examining its urban space and smell: how it is represented in films, literature, music, and urban streetart; how it has endured the politics of colonialism, U.S. imperialism, neoliberalism, and globalization; as well as how its queer citizens engage with digital media platforms to communicate and connect with each other. The first volume to offer a cultural and urban studies approach to Manila, Beauty and Brutality considers the tensions of the Filipino diaspora as they migrate and “re-turn,” as well as the citizens’ responses to the Marcos (and post-Marcos) dictatorship, President Duterte’s authoritarianism, and “Drug War.” Essays also map out of geographies of repression and resistance in the urban war of classes, genders and sexualities, ethnicities and races, and generations, along with the violence of urban life and growth. Ultimately, Beauty and Brutality frames Manila as a vibrant and ever-evolving metropolis that, even in the face of its difficulties, instills hope. Contributors: Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza, Christine Bacareza Balance, Vanessa Banta, Rosa Cordillera A. Castillo, Roland Sintos Coloma, Gary C. Devilles, Faith R. Kares, John B. Labella, Raffy Lerma, Bliss Cua Lim, Ferdinand M. Lopez, Paul Nadal, Jema M. Pamintuan, Oscar Tantoco Serquiña, Jr., Louise Jashil R. Sonido, and the editors.

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We know that celebrities can make great muses: think of the work of Richard Phillips, who has painted an entire series of works inspired by Lindsay Lohan, Robert Pattinson, and Miley Cyrus, or of Urs Fischer, who recently showed a life-sized candle in the shape of Leonardo DiCaprio. Notoriously, the art collector Peter Brant commissioned the wickedly satirical Italian American artist Maurizio Cattelan to make a sculpture of his wife, the supermodel Stephanie Seymour. The work was technically called Stephanie, but became known in the industry as 'Trophy Wife'. With the sculpture valued at 1.5 million dollars, while Seymour herself is purportedly worth one hundred million dollars, you might be tempted to wonder which has the claim to be the 'better' work of art. In this illustrated essay, critic Philippa Snow asks whether all great, or iconic, celebrities can be considered technically self-authored artworks in and of themselves. Drawing on a wide range of cultural references from the past two decades, she proposes that increasingly - as celebrities' private lives become more visible and thus more art-directed, and especially as plastic surgery becomes de rigueur for even the most minor public figures - celebrity itself can be a medium for contemporary art, a form of mythmaking and image-making that is every bit as complex, conceptual, and compelling as the work of a traditional artist.

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One of Esquire's 50 Best Biographies of All Time * One of The Economist's Best Books of 2022 * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * Nominated for The Next Big Idea Club * The Week Magazine Book of the WeekFrom Alec Nevala-Lee, the author of the Hugo and Locus Award finalist Astounding, comes a revelatory biography of the visionary designer who defined the rules of startup culture and shaped America’s idea of the future. During his lifetime, Buckminster Fuller was hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of the twentieth century. As the architectural designer and futurist best known for the geodesic dome, he enthralled a vast popular audience, inspired devotion from both the counterculture and the establishment, and was praised as a modern Leonardo da Vinci. To his admirers, he exemplified what one man could accomplish by approaching urgent design problems using a radically unconventional set of strategies, which he based on a mystical conception of the universe’s geometry. His views on sustainability, as embodied in the image of Spaceship Earth, convinced him that it was possible to provide for all humanity through the efficient use of planetary resources. From Epcot Center to the molecule named in his honor as the buckyball, Fuller’s legacy endures to this day, and his belief in the transformative potential of technology profoundly influenced the founders of Silicon Valley.Inventor of the Future is the first authoritative biography to cover all aspects of Fuller’s career. Drawing on meticulous research, dozens of interviews, and thousands of unpublished documents, Nevala-Lee has produced a riveting portrait that transcends the myth of Fuller as an otherworldly generalist. It reconstructs the true origins of his most famous inventions, including the Dymaxion Car, the Wichita House, and the dome itself; his fraught relationships with his students and collaborators; his interactions with Frank Lloyd Wright, Isamu Noguchi, Clare Boothe Luce, John Cage, Steve Jobs, and many others; and his tumultuous private life, in which his determination to succeed on his own terms came at an immense personal cost. In an era of accelerating change, Fuller’s example remains enormously relevant, and his lessons for designers, activists, and innovators are as powerful and essential as ever.

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To save the world and our future, Sigma Force must embark on a dangerous odyssey into an ancient past whose horrors are all too present in this page-turning thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author James Rollins that combines cutting-edge science, historical mystery, mythology, and pulse-pounding action.For eons, the city of Troy—whose legendary fall was detailed in Homer’s Iliad—was believed to be myth, until archaeologists in the nineteenth century uncovered its ancient walls buried beneath the sands. If Troy was real, how much of Homer’s twin tales of gods and monsters, curses and miracles—The Iliad and The Odyssey—could also be true and awaiting discovery?In the frozen tundra of Greenland, a group of modern-day researchers stumble on a shocking find: a medieval ship buried a half-mile below the ice. The ship’s hold contains a collection of even older artifacts—tools of war—dating back to the Bronze Age. Inside the captain’s cabin is a magnificent treasure that is as priceless as it is miraculous: a clockwork gold map imbedded with an intricate silver astrolabe. The mechanism was crafted by a group of Muslim inventors—the Banū Mūsā brothers—considered by many to be the Da Vincis of the Arab world—brilliant scientists who inspired Leonardo’s own work.Once activated, the moving map traces the path of Odysseus’s famous ship as it sailed away from Troy. But the route detours as the map opens to reveal a fiery river leading to a hidden realm underneath the Mediterranean Sea. It is the subterranean world of Tartarus, the Greek name for Hell. In mythology, Tartarus was where the wicked were punished and the monstrous Titans of old, imprisoned.When word of Tartarus spreads—and of the cache of miraculous weapons said to be hidden there—tensions explode in this volatile region where Turks battle Kurds, terrorists wage war, and civilians suffer untold horrors. The phantasmagoric horrors found in Homer’s tales are all too real—and could be unleashed upon the world. Whoever possesses them can use their awesome power to control the future of humanity.Now, Sigma Force must go where humans fear to tread. To prevent a tyrant from igniting a global war, they must cross the very gates of Hell.

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From Leonardo Padura—whose crime novels featuring Detective Mario Conde form the basis of Netflix’s Four Seasons in Havana—'The Transparency of Time' sees the Cuban investigator pursuing a mystery spanning centuries of occult history. Mario Conde is facing down his sixtieth birthday. What does he have to show for his decades on the planet? A failing body, a slower mind, and a decrepit country, in which both the ideals and failures of the Cuban Revolution are being swept away in favour of a new and newly cosmopolitan worship of money. Rescue comes in the form of a new case: an old Marxist turned flamboyant practitioner of Santería appears on the scene to engage Conde to track down a stolen statue of the Virgen de Regla—a black Madonna. This sets Conde on a quest that spans twenty-first century Havana as well as the distant past, as he delves as far back as the Crusades in an attempt to uncover the true provenance of the statue. Through vignettes from the life of a Catalan peasant named Antoni Barral, who appears throughout history in different guises—as a shepherd during the Spanish Civil War, as vassal to a feudal lord—we trace the Madonna to present-day Cuba. With Barral serving as Conde’s alter ego, unstuck in time, and Conde serving as the author’s, we are treated to a panorama of history, and reminded of the impossibility of ever remaining on its sidelines, no matter how obscure we may think our places in the action. Equal parts 'The Name of the Rose' and 'The Maltese Falcon', 'The Transparency of Time' cements Leonardo Padura’s position as the preeminent literary crime writer of our time.

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Is your message getting through? The right communication tactics can motivate your people—and fuel your business.Get more of the ideas you want, from the authors you trust, with HBR's 10 Must Reads on Communication (Vol. 2). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you get your message across—whether you're speaking face-to-face or connecting with someone across the world.With insights from leading experts including Erin Meyer, Heidi Grant, and Douglas Stone, this book will inspire you to: Power your organization through conversation Unlock value in your organization by asking better questions Improve your ability to give—and receive—advice Achieve better outcomes in cross-cultural negotiations Create smart, effective data visualizations Spark collaboration, learning, and innovation using digital tools This collection of articles includes: "Leadership Is a Conversation," by Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind; "The Surprising Power of Questions," by Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John; "A Second Chance to Make the Right Impression," by Heidi Grant; "The Art of Giving and Receiving Advice," by David A. Garvin and Joshua D. Margolis; "Find the Coaching in Criticism," by Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone; "Visualizations That Really Work," by Scott Berinato; "What Managers Need to Know About Social Tools," by Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley; "Be Yourself, But Carefully," by Lisa Rosh and Lynn Offermann; "How to Preempt Team Conflict," by Ginka Toegel and Jean-Louis Barsoux; "Getting to Si, Ja, Oui, Hai, and Da," by Erin Meyer; and "Cultivating Everyday Courage," by James R. Detert.HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.

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Shiny Things combines an interest in visual art with a broad attention to popular culture – the wideness of its range is striking. It is more than just an expansion of subject matter, which many of today’s innovative books also have – it considers how a specific physical property manifests itself in both art and culture at large, and contributes to an analysis of and polemics about the world. It is accessibly written but with a careful application of contemporary theory. Interesting, informative, and entertaining, this will appeal to progressive thinkers looking for new ways of presenting ideas. This is scholarship that challenges stale thought and interacts with philosophical ideas in real time, with a versatility that can often be lacking in traditional academic scholarship. Using art, especially contemporary art, as its recurrent point of reference, the authors argue that shininess has moved from a time when rarity gave shiny things a direct meaning of power and transcendence. Shininess today is pervasive; its attraction is a foundation of consumer culture with its attendant effects on our architecture, our conceptions of the body, and our production of spectacle. Power and the sacred as readings of the shiny have given way to readings of superficiality, irony and anxiety, while somehow shininess has maintained its qualities of fascination, newness and cleanliness. Examines the meanings and functions of shininess in art and in culture more generally: its contradictions of both preciousness and superficiality, and its complexities of representation; the way shininess itself is physically and metaphorically present in the construction of major conceptual categories such as hygiene, utopias, the sublime and camp; and the way the affects of shininess, rooted in its inherent disorienting excess, produce irony, anxiety, pleasure, kitsch, and fetishism. All of these large ideas are embodied in the instantly noticeable, sometimes precious and sometimes cheap physical presence of shiny things, those things that catch our eye and divert our attention. Shininess, then, is a compelling subject that instantly attracts and fascinates people. The book engages primarily with visual art, although it makes frequent use of material culture, as well as advertising, film, literature, and other areas of popular and political culture. The art world, however, is a place where many of the affects of shininess come into clearest focus, where the polemical semiotics of shine are most evident and consciously explored. Artists as diverse as Anish Kapoor (whose popular Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago is a repeating example in the book), Olafur Eliasson, Jeff Koons, Carolee Schneemann, Audrey Flack, Fra Angelico and Gerard ter Borch centre the book in an art discourse that opens up to automobiles, Richard Nixon and Liberace. Will be relevant to academics, scholars and students with an interest in contemporary theory and material and popular cultures. Potential interest across the humanities: philosophy, gender studies, perhaps public relations, advertising and marketing. It will also appeal to more general readers with an interest in popular and material cultures, art and aesthetics. It is written in a genuinely accessible style, and its ideas and theory are embodied through examples and narratives. Will be of interest to readers of Oliver Sacks, James Gleick, George Lakoff, James Elkins or Rebecca Solnit.

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Extraordinary reference book of over 80 famous painters, their lives, their loves and their iconic paintings.This art book includes insightful biographies of artists accompanied with remarkable reproductions of their famous artworks. Begin with the early Renaissance and follow art movements through the centuries to some of the most well-known artists alive today.A gorgeous exploration of the defining people of the art world including pioneers like Giotto and Jan van Eyck, the greats like Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, and the visionaries like Frida Kahlo and Hokusai. The large format art book is overflowing with information and pictures of your favorite classics. The full-page prints are especially spectacular, allowing you to get the full effect of the work that inspired, defined and encapsulated art movements.Over 500 years of the craft is discussed, with the chapters organized by century starting with "Before 1500” and ending with “1945 – Present.” Each chapter features the relevant painters of those years with its own directory. Read about the historical context of art movements in sections which include timelines and fact panels giving incredible insight into the art world, the past lives of artists and their visions and techniques. Discover the unconventional stories of the artists' lives, including their influences, developments, friendships, loves and rivalries. Read about the portraits that Holbein did for Henry VIII to play matchmaker, Caravaggio's astonishing reaction to a badly cooked artichoke and the many romantic affairs of Picasso. Sometimes scandalous and often tumultuous, the lives of artists like Raphael, Hogarth, van Gogh, O'Keeffe, Magritte, Warhol and Kiefer are as interesting and captivating as their work. The Artists Behind the Paint BrushesA beautiful coffee table book that would make a lovely gift for those interested in art history and artist biographies, or to browse the attractive reproductions of the famous artworks. Includes a foreword by Ross King, who is the author of the bestselling Brunelleschi's Dome and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, as well as the novels Ex-Libris and Domino. • Over 80 biographies of the standout artists over the centuries since the early Renaissance. • Beautiful reproductions of artworks that allow you to get up close to their brush strokes. • Insight into historical art themes and movements that influenced the periods.

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Largely neglected for the four centuries after his death, the fifteenth century Italian artist Piero della Francesca is now seen to embody the fullest expression of the Renaissance perspective painter, raising him to an artistic stature comparable with that of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. But who was Piero, and how did he become the person and artist that he was? Until now, in spite of the great interest in his work, these questions have remained largely unanswered. Piero della Francesca: Artist and Man puts that situation right, integrating the story of Piero's artistic and mathematical achievements with the full chronicle of his life for the first time. Fortified by the discovery of over one hundred previously unknown documents, most unearthed by the author himself, James R. Banker at last brings this fascinating Renaissance enigma to life. The book presents us with Piero's friends, family, and collaborators, all set against the social background of the various cities and courts in which he lived - from the Tuscan commune of Sansepolcro in which he grew up, to Renaissance Florence, Ferrara, Ancona, Rimini, Rome, Arezzo, and Urbino, and eventually back to his home town for the final years of his life. As Banker shows, the cultural contexts in which Piero lived are crucial for understanding both the man and his paintings. From early masterpieces such as the Baptism of Christ through to later, Flemish-influenced works such as the Nativity, we gain a fascinating insight into how Piero's art developed over time, alongside his growing achievements in geometry in the later decades of his life. Along the way, the book addresses some persistent myths about this apparently most elusive of artists. As well as establishing a convincing case to clear up the long controversy over the year of Piero's birth, there are also answers to some big questions about the date of some of his major works, and a persuasive new interpretation of the much-debated Flagellation of Christ. This book is for all those who wish to know about the development of Piero as man, artist, and scholar, rather than simply to see him through a series of isolated great works. What emerges is a thoroughly intriguing Renaissance individual, firmly embedded in his social milieu, but forging an historic identity through his profound artistic and mathematical achievements.

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How do people of seemingly ordinary talent go on to achieve unexpected results? What can we learn from them? What are the ingredients for unreasonable success and how is it achieved?In this ground-breaking book, bestselling author Richard Koch charts a map of success, identifying the nine key attitudes and strategies can propel anyone to new heights of accomplishment.The pattern of success is fractal. It is endlessly varied but endlessly similar. Success does not require genius, consistency, all-round ability, a safe pair of hands or even basic competence. If it did, most of the people in this book would not have impacted the world as they did.Who could have predicted that Nelson Mandela, a once-obscure lawyer, could have averted disaster in South Africa, reconciling people of different heritages to each other and establishing a viable democracy? Or that Helena Rubinstein, a young woman growing up in the grotty ghetto of Krakow, could have changed the face of beauty throughout the world? Or that the illegitimate son of a notary would become one of the world's greatest painters, known universally by his first name, Leonardo?Successful people typically don't plan their success. Instead they develop a unique philosophy or attitude that works for them. They stumble across strategies which are shortcuts to success, and latch onto them. Events hand them opportunities they could not have anticipated. Often their peers with equal or greater talent fail while they succeed. It is too easy to attribute success to inherent, unstoppable genius.With this book, you can embark on a journey towards a new, unreasonably successful future.

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WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FACT CRIME SHORTLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NON-FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION **NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE STARRING LEONARDO DICAPRIO AND ROBERT DE NIRO** ‘A riveting true story of greed, serial murder and racial injustice’ JON KRAKAUER ‘A fiercely entertaining mystery story and a wrenching exploration of evil’ KATE ATKINSON ‘A fascinating account of a tragic and forgotten chapter in the history of the American West’ JOHN GRISHAM From the bestselling author of The Lost City of Z, now a major film starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland, and the Number One international bestseller The Wager, comes a true-life murder story which became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll climbed, the FBI took up the case. But the bureau badly bungled the investigation. In desperation, its young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. Together with the Osage he and his undercover team began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. ‘David Grann has a razor-keen instinct for suspense’ LOUISE ERDRICH

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How do people of seemingly ordinary talent go on to achieve unexpected results? What can we learn from them? What are the ingredients for unreasonable success and how is it achieved?In this ground-breaking book, bestselling author Richard Koch charts a map of success, identifying the nine key attitudes and strategies can propel anyone to new heights of accomplishment.The pattern of success is fractal. It is endlessly varied but endlessly similar. Success does not require genius, consistency, all-round ability, a safe pair of hands or even basic competence. If it did, most of the people in this book would not have impacted the world as they did.Who could have predicted that Nelson Mandela, a once-obscure lawyer, could have averted disaster in South Africa, reconciling people of different heritages to each other and establishing a viable democracy? Or that Helena Rubinstein, a young woman growing up in the grotty ghetto of Kraków, could have changed the face of beauty throughout the world? Or that the illegitimate son of a notary would become one of the world's greatest painters, known universally by his first name, Leonardo?Successful people typically don't plan their success. Instead they develop a unique philosophy or attitude that works for them. They stumble across strategies which are shortcuts to success, and latch onto them. Events hand them opportunities they could not have anticipated. Often their peers with equal or greater talent fail while they succeed. It is too easy to attribute success to inherent, unstoppable genius.With this book, you can embark on a journey towards a new, unreasonably successful future.

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This is the Golden Age of comic-book blockbusters. Since his introduction in August 1962, Spider-Man's pop culture reach has extended from comic books and clothing to video games, toys, and television shows. His strongest impact, however, is in the feature-film realm, where eight different Spider-Man movies collectively boast more than $7.2 billion in worldwide tickets sold. If Hollywood had a superhero throne, Spider-Man would be sitting on it. Of the five highest-grossing film franchises in Hollywood history, Spider-Man now plays a pivotal role in three: the Marvel Cinematic Universe; the four-film Avengers franchise; and the Spider-Man series. This ranks the character ahead of James Bond, the Transformers, every on-screen Batman, and Peter Jackson's complete Tolkien series in Hollywood's box-office hierarchy. Marvel's wall-crawler has come a long way since his earliest days, but his cinematic journey has yet to be documented. Unusual, since Spider-Man's Hollywood history is littered with A-list names (such as James Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio), behind-the-scenes squabbles, franchise reboots, and Tom Holland preventing Disney from booting Spidey out of the MCU. The prized creation of Marvel guru Stan Lee has helped create and cultivate the current Golden Age of comic-book blockbusters, and lessons learned on the Spider-Man franchises are applied to all comic-book movies today. Veteran film reporter and author Sean O'Connell uses his exclusive access to directors, actors, producers, and screenwriters to get the inside angles on Spider-Man's climb to the top of the superhero heap in With Great Power.

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The work of contemporary Italian thinkers, what Roberto Esposito refers to as Italian Theory, is attracting increasing attention around the world. This book explores the reasons for its growing popularity, its distinguishing traits, and why people are turning to these authors for answers to real-world issues and problems. The approach he takes, in line with the keen historical consciousness of Italian thinkers themselves, is a historical one. He offers insights into the great "unphilosophical" philosophers of life—poets, painters, politicians and revolutionaries, film-makers and literary critics—who have made Italian thought, from its beginnings, an "impure" thought. People like Machiavelli, Croce, Gentile, and Gramsci were all compelled to fulfill important political roles in the societies of their times. No wonder they felt that the abstract vocabulary and concepts of pure philosophy were inadequate to express themselves. Similarly, artists such as Dante, Leonardo Da Vinci, Leopardi, or Pasolini all had to turn to other disciplines outside philosophy in order to discuss and grapple with the messy, constantly changing realities of their lives. For this very reason, says Esposito, because Italian thinkers have always been deeply engaged with the concrete reality of life (rather than closed up in the introspective pursuits of traditional continental philosophy) and because they have looked for the answers of today in the origins of their own historical roots, Italian theory is a "living thought." Hence the relevance or actuality that it holds for us today. Continuing in this tradition, the work of Roberto Esposito is distinguished by its interdisciplinary breadth. In this book, he passes effortlessly from literary criticism to art history, through political history and philosophy, in an expository style that welcomes non-philosophers to engage in the most pressing problems of our times. As in all his works, Esposito is inclusive rather than exclusive; in being so, he celebrates the affirmative potency of life.

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Genius . With hints of madness and mystery, moral license and visionary force, the word suggests an almost otherworldly power: the power to create, to divine the secrets of the universe, even to destroy. Yet the notion of genius has been diluted in recent times. Today, rock stars, football coaches, and entrepreneurs are labeled'geniuses,' and the word is applied so widely that it has obscured the sense of special election and superhuman authority that long accompanied it.As acclaimed historian Darrin M. McMahon explains, the concept of genius has roots in antiquity, when men of prodigious insight were thought to possess,or to be possessed by,demons and gods. Adapted in the centuries that followed and applied to a variety of religious figures, including prophets, apostles, sorcerers, and saints, abiding notions of transcendent human power were invoked at the time of the Renaissance to explain the miraculous creativity of men like Leonardo and Michelangelo.Yet it was only in the eighteenth century that the genius was truly born, idolized as a new model of the highest human type. Assuming prominence in figures as varied as Newton and Napoleon, the modern genius emerged in tension with a growing belief in human equality. Contesting the notion that all are created equal, geniuses served to dramatize the exception of extraordinary individuals not governed by ordinary laws. The phenomenon of genius drew scientific scrutiny and extensive public commentary into the 20th century, but it also drew religious and political longings that could be abused. In the genius cult of the Nazis and the outpouring of reverence for the redemptive figure of Einstein, genius achieved both its apotheosis and its Armageddon.The first comprehensive history of this elusive concept, Divine Fury follows the fortunes of genius and geniuses through the ages down to the present day, showing how,despite its many permutations and recent democratization,genius remains a potent force in our lives, reflecting modern needs, hopes, and fears.

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From Jordan Belfort, author of The Way of the Wolf and subject of the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street, comes his long-anticipated guide for mastering the stock market. The Wolf of Investing teaches you when to buy, sell, hold, and cash out; how to make smarter (and safer) investments; and how to build significant wealth over both the short- and long-term. Unlike traditional investment books, each page of Jordan's lessons, colorful stories, and principles entertains you with the charismatic swagger portrayed so famously on the silver screen by Leonardo DiCaprio.When Belfort's brother-in-law, Fernando, lost nearly $100,000 dollars in investments in under sixty days, Jordan sat him down for some tough love. Using the financial acumen and insider's knowledge he learned during his time working on Wall Street, Jordan taught Fernando how to turn his portfolio around. Along the way, he explained which decisions were bad and why, as well as how to pivot from failure to success.Belfort teaches you everything you need to know about savvy investing-even if, like Fernando, whatever stock you've touched has turned to yesterday's trash. As you read this guide, you will not only learn life's most profitable lessons, but you'll also laugh out loud at Belfort's brazen honesty and salty wit. After being enraged by watching big banks steal money from individual investors, and determined to right the wrongs of his own infamous past, Belfort now shows regular investors how we can use Wall Street to our advantage.Whether you're new to investing or want to take your portfolio to the next level, you will learn everything Belfort knows about the stock market from The Wolf of Investing.

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In Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science, Jim al-Khalili celebrates the forgotten pioneers who helped shape our understanding of the world. For over 700 years the international language of science was Arabic. Surveying the golden age of Arabic science, Jim Al-Khalili reintroduces such figures as the Iraqi physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who practised the modern scientific method over half a century before Bacon; al-Khwarizmi, the greatest mathematician of the medieval world; and Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, a Persian polymath to rival Leonardo da Vinci. 'Jim Al-Khalili has a passion for bringing to a wider audience not just the facts of science but its history ... Just as the legacy of Copernicus and Darwin belongs to all of us, so does that of Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haytham' Independent 'He has brought a great story out of the shadows' Literary Review 'His command of Arabic and mathematical physics invests his story with sympathy as well as authority' Guardian 'A fascinating and user-friendly guide' Sunday Telegraph 'This captivating book is a timely reminder of the debt owed by the West to the intellectual achievements of Arab, Persian and Muslim scholars' The Times Jim Al-Khalili OBE is Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey, where he also holds the first Surrey chair in the public engagement in science. He was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for science communication in 2007, elected Honorary Fellow of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and has also received the Institute of Physic's Public Awareness of Physics Award. Born in Baghdad, Jim was educated in Iraq until the age of 16 and it was there, being taught by Arabic teachers in Arabic that he first heard and learnt about the great Arab scientists and philosophers.

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“A compilation of leading Dada-influenced artists from around the world." ―TRIBE LA Magazine The 2022 edition of the world’s premiere journal of contemporary dada writing and art continues a revolutionary approach to creation, inspired by the Dada movement. These days you hear a lot about NET ZERO, in reference to steps being taken to combat climate change. NET ZERO refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. At this time, NET ZERO is an ambition lacking absolute definition as corporate energy titans pledge distant adherence without clear or immediate commitments to act. In fact, these so-called “innovative” scions of wealth seem to not even be able to remove the layer of hot air greenhouse gases spewing from the mouths of the pundits and politicos pushing the affirmation of their endlessly pernicious promises. Enter NYET ZERO. With NYET ZERO, MAINTENANT 16 makes an artistic power grab using DADA—in the form of original art, poetry, and writing aimed at exposing the hypocrisy of the engine-idle rich on recycled paper. We can change the now with art and thought. Otherwise, the future has NOTENTIAL. When the corporate powers that be control all of the energy resources, Art Becomes A Necessity!!! Or as Tristen Tzara put it in his Dada Manifesto, “Dada Dada Dada, a roaring of tense colors, and interlacing of opposites and of all contradictions, grotesques, inconsistencies: LIFE!” For the first time since debuting in 2008, MAINTENANT 16 includes work from all seven continents on the planet, with more than 250 creators from 35 countries. The MAINTENANT series gathers the work of internationally-renowned contemporary Dada artists and writers. MAINTENANT 16 offers compelling proof that concepts of Dada continue to serve as a catalyst to creators more than a century later. Contributors to Maintenant 16 include: Derek Adams • Susan Shoshannah Adler • Jamika Ajalon • Ina Al-soqi • Youssef Alaoui • Linda J. Albertano • Austin Alexis • Joel Allegretti • Santiago Amaya • Avelino de Araujo • Wayne Atherton • Liz Axelrod • Mahnaz Badihian • Amy Barone • Vittore Baroni • Amy Bassin • Brent Bechtel • Peter Beda • Regina Lafay Bellamy • C. Mehrl Bennett • Carla Bertola • Volodymyr Bilyk • József Bíró • Lucy Jane Bledsoe • Mark Blickley • Karen Boissonneault-Gauthier • Clemente Botelho • Bob Branaman • Kathy Bruce • Michael Lane Bruner • Imanol Buisan • Fork Burke • Billy Cancel • Angela Caporaso • Peter Carlaftes • Mutes César • Peter Ciccariello • Hal Citron • Lynette Clennell • Andrei Codrescu • Terese Coe • Roger Conover • Anthony Cox • Lars Crosby • Malik Ameer Crumpler • Tchello d’Barros • Wer Da • Steve Dalachinsky • Allison A. Davis • Heather Dawish • Holly Day • Quỳnh Iris de Prelle • Laylah DeLautréamont • Lily Despic • Sam Dodson • Bruce Louis Dodson • Gabriel Don • Carol Dorf • Robert Duncan • Malcolm Easton • Salvatore Esposito • Jeff Farr • Becky Fawcett • Federico Federici • Rich Ferguson • Cheryl J. Fish • Kathleen Florence • Giovanni Fontana • Robert C. Ford • Kofi Fosu Forson • Patrick Forsythe • Abigail Frankfurt • Dorothy Friedman • Thomas Fucaloro • Ignacio Galilea • Sandra Gea • Kat Georges • Christian Georgescu • Robert Anthony Gibbons • Mark Glista • Gemma Goette • Gustavo Gómez-Mejía • S.A. Griffin • Fausto Grossi • Meghan Grupposo • Egon Guenther • Genco Gulan • Elancharan Gunasekaran • Ana-Maria Guta • Janet Hamill • Bibbe Hansen • Jesper Hasseltoft • Heide Hatry • Erica ESH Henry • Aimee Herman • Jan Herman • Karen Hildebrand • Mark Hoefer • Lawrence Holzworth • Richard Humann • Matthew Hupert • Frie J. Jacobs • Ayushi Jain • Annaliese Jakimides • Mathias Jansson • Jerry T. Johnson • Boni Joi • Milana Juventa • Marina Kazakova • Anthony D. Kelly • Rose Knapp • Doug Knott • Ron Kolm • Mark Kostabi • Eleni Kourti • Hope Kroll • Paweł Kuczyński • Zygimantas Kudirka • Bénédicte Kusendila • David Lawton • Serge Lecomte • Jane LeCroy • Sarah Legow • Patricia Leonard • Linda Lerner • Martin H. Levinson • Alexander Limarev • Richard Loranger • Ruggero Maggi • Sara Maino • Gerard Malanga • Jaan Malin • Sophie Malleret • Mary Rose Manspeaker • Philippe Marcade • Fred Marchant • Eliette Markhbein • Bronwyn Mauldin • Jesse McCloskey • Philip Meersman • Lois Kagan Mingus • Charles Mingus III • Julian Mithra • Richard Modiano • Mike M. Mollett • Thurston Moore • Luiz Morgadinho • Alexander Nderitu • Dustin Nelson • J. D. Nelson • Karen Neuberg • Gerald Nicosia • Lance Nizami • Harry E. Northup • Anna Gabrielle O’Meara • Ruth Oisteanu • Valery Oisteanu • Suzi Kaplan Olmsted • Marc Olmsted • John Olson • Jane Ormerod • Yuko Otomo • Bibiana Padilla Maltos • Csaba Pal • Lisa Panepinto • Pamela Papino-Wood • Gay Pasley • John S. Paul • Oladipo Kehinde Paul • Giorgia Pavlidou • Puma Perl • Raymond Pettibon • Charles Plymell • Renaat Ramon • Nicca Ray • Mado Reznik • Travis Richardson • Wes Rickert • Benjamin Robinson • Radoslav Rochallyi • L. Rose • Alison Ross • Martina Salisbury • William Seaton • Jack Seiei • Silvio Severino • Susan Shup • Bertholdus Sibum • Paul Siegell • Denise Silk-Martelli • Zoltan Simon • Lily Simonson • Neal Skooter Taylor (LA Dada) • Angela Sloan • Valerie Sofranko • Paul Sohar • Pere Sousa • Orchid Spangiafora • Dd. Spungin • Marilyn Stablein • Laurie Steelink • J. J. Steinfeld • Christine Sloan Stoddard • Thomas Stolmar • Rich Stone • W. K. Stratton • Belinda Subraman • Kelly Talbot • Zev Torres • John J. Trause • Ann Firestone Ungar • Yrik-Max Valentonis • Anoek van Praag • Lynnea Villanova • Barbara Vos • Matina Vossou • Silvia Wagensberg • George Wallace • Scott Wannberg • Mike Watt • Poul R. Weile • Syporca Whandal • Brenda Whiteway • Maw Shein Win • A. D. Winans • Tracy Witt • Francine Witte • Jeffrey Cyphers Wright • Yaryan • Gerald Yelle • Karen Romano Young • Andrena Zawinski • Larry Zdeb • Nina Živančević • Joanie HF Zosike

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"If baseball is really a metaphor for life, then Kill the Ampaya -- Dick Cluster's wonderful collection of Latin American baseball stories -- is an astonishing record of its beauty and coarseness, redemption and tragedy. You don't have to be a baseball fan to appreciate these stories, each one hinged on baseball directly or indirectly, and delight in this reading."-Achy Obejas, author of The Tower of Antilles and Other Stories "These are stories we have lived...Some are funny, some cruel or violent, but in the end they are part of our culture that makes us act the way we do. They make me think of the millions of stories that got lost behind us." -Omar Vizquel, from Venezuela, one of baseball's all-time best fielding shortstops who played for the Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, and Toronto Blue Jays. "Baseball is in the soul of millions in Puerto Rico and the other countries that play the game with a Latino flair. These stories are portraits of its place in our lives." -Benjie Molina, former Texas Rangers catcher and first base coach. A rich variety of baseball fiction exists south of the Florida Straits and the Rio Grande, but almost none available in English. This collection translates for the first time stories ranging from the highly literary to the vernacular. These inventive and entertaining stories reveal the place of baseball in Latin America. Mixing fan and fandom, baseball and politics, rural and urban life, sexism and poverty, Kill the Ampaya! reveals how baseball shapes the social fabric of everyday Latin American life. The collection includes well known writers such as Leonardo Padura from Cuba (The Man Who Loved Dogs), Sergio Ramirez from Nicaragua (Divine Punishment, A Thousand Deaths Plus One). Others are well known writers in their home countries such as Arturo Arango and Eduardo del Llano in Cuba, Alexis Gomez Rosa and Jose Bobadilla in the Dominican Republic, Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro in Puerto Rico, Vicente Lenero in Mexico as well as emerging literary figures such as Salvador Flejan and Rodrigo Blanco Calderon in Venezuela, Sandra Tavarez and Daniel Reyes German in the D.R., Carmen Hernandez Pena in Cuba.

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When a war ends provisionally, the agreement is called a ceasefire. But when peace ends, there is only war. War and peace are co-dependent. Perhaps it is now time for a “Peacefire.” In Maintenant 17: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art, nearly 250 artists from more than 40 countries explore the concept of the end of both war and peace, exploring provocative outsider ideas as dada has done since its inception. With searing cover art by Uta Kaxniashvili, this issue of the renowned journal elaborates on dada’s original premise as an antiwar movement. The Maintenant series, established in 2008, explores themes of politics, humanity, philosophy, and current concerns from an antiwar, anarchic (and often eye-opening) perspective. Past issues include work by artists Mark Kostabi, Raymond Pettibon, Joel Hubaut, Heide Hatry, Avelino de Araujo, Pawel Kuczynski, Inas Al-Soqi, Giovanni Fontana, Nicole Eisenmann, Syporca Whandal, and Kazunori Murakami; past writers have included Gerard Malanga, Charles Plymell, Andrei Codrescu, Harry E. Northup, Malik Crumpler, Maw Shein Win, and more, with a strong contingent of artist-writers from the world of punk rock, including Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, Bibbe Hanson and more. Critics have praised the series since its inception. Seattle Book Review calls Maintenant, “A smorgasbord for those who are sick and tired of it.” Tribe LA dubs the journal, "A compilation of leading Dada-influenced artists from around the world that is timely and relevant.” Serbia's Madjan Magazine proclaims that the Maintenant series proves "Dada is not dead." The Maintenant series is archived in leading institutions worldwide, including Museum of Modern Art New York. Contributors to Maintenant 17 include: Derek Adams • Mariam Ahmed • Jamika Ajalon • Youssef Alaoui • Linda J. Albertano • Austin Alexis • Joel Allegretti • Daina Almario-Kopp • Hala Alyan • Jim Andrews • Wayne Atherton • Liz Axelrod • Mahnaz Badihian • David Barnes • Amy Barone • Vittore Baroni • Tchello d’ Barros • Gaby Bedetti • Regina Lafay Bellamy • C. Mehrl Bennett • Volodymyr Bilyk • Mark Blickley • Clemente Botelho • Gedley Belchior Braga • Michael Georg Bregel • Kathy A. Bruce • Imanol Buisan • Fork Burke • Billy Cancel • Peter Carlaftes • Wendy Cascade • Nick Cash • Mutes César • Sarah M. Chen • Nguyễn Bá Chung • Hal Citron • Lynette Clennell • Andrei Codrescu • William Cody • Chuck Connelley • Roger Conover • Anothony Cox • Malik Ameer Crumpler • Raf Cruz • Tchello d’Barros • Wer Da • Steve Dalachinsky • Allison A. Davis • Holly Day • Avelino De Araujo • Francesca Dharmakan-Bremner • Natalie DiFusco • Dario Roberto Dioli • Rachel Dixon • Sam Dodson • Carol Dorf • Eric Drooker • Robert Duncan • Salvatore Esposito • Fong Fai • Agenta Falk • Massimo Fantuzzi • Jeff Farr • Becky Fawcett • Rich Ferguson • Maria Filek • Cheryl J. Fish • Kathleen Florence • Robert C. Ford • Dorothy Friedman • Thomas Fucaloro • Ignacio Galilea • Sandra Gea • Kat Georges • Christian Georgescu • Robert Gibbons • Gordon Gilbert • James J. Gleeson • Mark Glista • Ed Go • Gemma Goette • John Goodby • Odeon Grace • S.A. Griffin • Fausto Grossi • Meghan Grupposo • Egon Guenther • Genco Gülan • Ana Maria Guta • Bibbe Hansen • Jesper Hasseltoft • Heide Hatry • Jeffrey Hecker • László 2 Hegedűs • Aimee Herman • Robert Hieger • Karen Hildebrand • Mark Hoefer • Juleigh Howard-Hobson • Matthew Hupert • Frie J. Jacobs • Annaliese Jakimides • Marta Janik • Mathias Jansson • Lisa Marie Jarlborn • Debra Jenks • Dale Jensen • Jerry Johnson • Boni Joi • Milana Juventa • Jerry Kamstra • Suzi Kaplan Olmsted • Christine Karapetian • Adeena Karasick • Uta Kaxniashvili • Marina Kazakova • Oladipo Kehinde • Trần Đăng Khoa • Doug Knott • Kollasch • Daniel Kolm • Gregory Kolm • Ron Kolm • Daina Kopp • Mark Kostabi • Paul Kostabi • Inna Krasnoper • Paweł Kuczyński • Béné Kusendila • Wang Lan • Gary Lawless • Mercedes Lawry • David Lawton • Jane LeCroy • Sarah Legow • Patricia Leonard • Linda Lerner • Martin H. Levinson • Alexander Limarev • Frédéric Lipczynski • Richard Loranger • Mina Loy • Ruggero Maggi • Sara Maino • Gerald Malanga • Jaan Malin • Jessica Manack • Fred Marchant • Marronage • Bronwyn Mauldin • Jesse McCloskey • Pierre Merejkowsky • Ashley Miller • Lois Kagan Mingus • Charles Mingus III • Richard Modiano • Mike M. Mollett • Thurston Moore • Luiz Morgadinho • Karen Neuberg • James B. Nicola • Gerald Nicosia • Lance Nizami • Harry E. Northup • Anna O’Meara • Ruth Oisteanu • Valery Oisteanu • Marc Olmsted • John Olson • Jane Ormerod • Yuko Otomo • Bibiana Padilla Maltos • Csaba Pál • Erzsébet Palásti • Lisa Panepinto • Gay Pasley • John S. Paul • Giorgia Pavlidou • James Penha • Puma Perl • Robert Petrick • Raymond Pettibon • Charles Plymell • Kai Pohl • Leslie Prosterman • Renaat Ramon • Nicca Ray • Mado Reznik • D.M. Rice • Travis Richardson • Wes Rickert • Benjamin Robinson • Bruce Robinson • Edel Rodriguez • Mykyta Ryzhykh • Martina Salisbury • Paulo Sanches • Kellie Scott-Reed • Beatriz Seelaender • Jack Seiei • Silvio Severino • Sheree Shatsky • Susan Shup • Jeff Shutt • Bertholdus Sibum • Denise Silk-Martelli • Zoltán Simon • Angela Sloan • Katherine R. Sloan • Phil Demise Smith • Valerie Sofranko • Paul Sohar • J. R. Solonche • Pere Sousa • Orchid Spangiafora • Dd. Spungin • Marilyn Stablein • Alex Starr • Laurie Steelink • Eva Helene Stern*** • Christine Stoddard • Thomas Stolmar • Rich Stone • W.K. Stratton • Belinda Subraman • Neal Skooter Taylor • Robin Tomens • Zev Torres • John J. Trause • Ann Firestone Ungar • Yrik Max Valentonis • Anoek Van Praag • Nico Vassilakis • Maggs Vibo • Lynnea Villanova • Voxx Voltair • Barbara Vos • Silvia Wagensberg • George Wallace • Scott Wannberg • Mike Watt • Poul R. Weile • Ingrid Wendt • Benjamin B. White • Brenda Whiteway • A. D. Winans • Francine Witte • Yaryan • Gerald Yelle • Andrena Zawinski • Larry Zdeb • Nina Zivancevic • Lorene Zarou-Zouzounis • Joanie HF Zosike

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Homer, Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy; Curie, Darwin, Einstein, Galileo, and Newton. What do these world-famous artists and scientists have in common?- apart from the fact that their achievements predate our own time by a century or more. Most of us would probably answer: all ten possessed something we call genius, which in each instance permanently changed the way that humanity perceived the world. But pressed to be more precise, we find it remarkably hard to define genius. Genius is highly individual and unique, of course, yet it shares a compelling, inevitable quality for professionals and the general public alike. Darwin's ideas are still required reading for every working biologist; they continue to generate fresh thinking and experiments around the world. So do Einstein's theories among physicists. Shakespeare's plays and Mozart's melodies and harmonies continue to move people in languages and cultures far removed from their native England and Austria. Contemporary 'geniuses' may come and go, but the idea of genius will not let go of us. Genius is the name we give to a quality of work that transcends fashion, celebrity, fame, and reputation: the opposite of a period piece. Somehow, genius abolishes both the time and the place of its origin. This Very Short Introduction uses the life and work of familiar geniuses-and some less familiar-to illuminate both the individual and the general aspects of genius. In particular: the roles of talent, heredity, parenting, education, training, hard work, intelligence, personality, mental illness, inspiration, eureka moments, and luck, in the making of genius. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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Take Care of Your Customers--or Someone Else Will!Legendary ServiceGreat customer service is a concept organizations love to be known for. Yet most people consider the service they receive to be average, at best. Successful companies make the connection between legendary customer service and athriving business--they recognize that the way employees treat customers is directly related to the way managers treat employees.Kelsey Young is an optimistic but disillusioned sales associate working her way through college. Her world opens up when one of her professors challenges her to create a culture of service at her workplace by putting the five components of Legendary Service into practice. AlthoughFerguson's, the store where Kelsey works, certainly isn't known for service excellence, Kelsey believes she can make a positive difference. She quickly learns that culture change isn't easy--and that her role as a frontline employee is more significant than she ever could have imagined.In characteristic Blanchard style, Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care is a quick and entertainingread for people at all organizational levels in every industry. When applied, its lessons will have a profound impact on the service experience your customers will receive. Whether a CEO or a part-time employee, every person can make a difference--and customer service iseveryone's job.PRAISE FOR LEGENDARY SERVICE:"Read this book and establish a service culture in your organization." -- Horst Schulze, Chairman/CEO, Capella Hotel Group"Legendary Service has great learnings for people at all organizational levels: for executives and managers, the value of a service culture; and for frontlinestaff, the reality that they are the face of the company and can make a difference. Legendary service--it's everyone, always." -- Mark King, CEO and President, TaylorMade Golf"Everything I know about service I learned from my career at Hilton Hotels, Marriott International, The Walt Disney Company, and Ken Blanchard. The One Minute Manager dramatically changed my thinking 32 years ago. LegendaryService will teach the next generation how to deliver sensational service. Buy it, study it, implement it." -- Lee Cockerell, Executive Vice President, Walt Disney World (Retired & Inspired), and author of Creating Magic and The Customer Rules"Kathy Cuff and Vicki Halsey have created a fantastic customer service model called ICARE. When you add their voices to that of the master storyteller KenBlanchard, you have a masterpiece entitled Legendary Service. It is a must-read for everyone who, like me, has a passion for service." -- Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus, Southwest Airlines, and coauthor of Lead with LUV"Ken Blanchard has done it again and delivered the right book at the right time. Legendary Service provides the essentials of hospitality and servant leadership in a way that everyone can adopt--right now--today!" -- John Caparella, President and COO,The Venetian, The Palazzo, and Sands Expo"Ken, Kathy, and Vicki show us how to change everyday service events into memorable experiences. Their book is a must-read for anyone unwilling to acceptmediocrity." -- Leonardo Inghilleri, coauthor ofExceptional Service, Exceptional Profit

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Presenting a new interpretation of humanist historiography, Donald J. Wilcox traces the development of the art of historical writing among Florentine humanists in the fifteenth century. He focuses on the three chancellor historians of that century who wrote histories of Florence—Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, and Bartolommeo della Scala—and proposes that these men, especially Bruni, had a new concept of historical reality and introduced a new style of writing to history. But, he declares, their great contributions to the development of historiography have not been recognized because scholars have adhered to their own historical ideals in judging the humanists rather than assessing them in the context of their own century.Mr. Wilcox introduces his study with a brief description of the historians and historical writing in Renaissance Florence. He then outlines the development of the scholarly treatment of humanist historiography and establishes the need for a more balanced interpretation. He suggests that both Hans Baron’s conception of civic humanism and Paul Oscar Kristeller’s emphasis on the rhetorical character of humanism were important developments in the general intellectual history of the Renaissance and, more specifically, that they provided a new perspective on the entire question of humanist historiography.The heart of the book is a close textual analysis of the works of each of the three historians. The author approaches their texts in terms of their own concerns and questions, examining three basic elements of their art. The first is the nature of the reality the historian is recounting. Mr. Wilcox asks, “What interests the writer? What is the substance of his narrative?… What does he choose from his sources…and what does he ignore? What does he interpolate into the account by drawing on his own understanding of the nature of history?” The second is the various attitudes—moral judgments, historical conceptions, analytical views—with which the historian approaches his narrative. And the third is the aspect of humanist historiography to which previous scholars have paid the least attention: the historian’s narrative technique. Mr. Wilcox identifies the difficulties involved in expressing historical ideas in narrative form and describes the means the historians developed for overcoming those difficulties. He emphasizes the positive value of rhetoric in their works and points out that they “sought by eloquence to teach men virtue.”He devotes three chapters to Bruni, whom he considers the most original and important of the three historians. The next two chapters deal with Poggio, and the last with Scala. Throughout the book Mr. Wilcox exposes the internal connections among the three histories, thus illustrating the basic coherence of the humanist historical art.

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'To effectively combat corruption globally, the collection and dissemination of knowledge is crucial. This excellent book takes us a step forward in our collective efforts to better understand the causes and effects of corruption from an international perspective. Through its detailed analysis of the economic impact of corruption in a diverse range of countries, this publication provides us with a new resource to draw on in our future efforts to reduce corruption together worldwide.'- Dimitri Vlassis, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Vienna, AustriaCorruption presents many legal and regulatory challenges, but these challenges cannot be met by the law in isolation. This book presents economic analysis of crime as an essential tool for shaping an effective legal apparatus.The authors contend that in order to assess whether and how to regulate corruption, it is necessary to start with a thorough inquiry into the causes, institutional and social effects, and most of all, actual and potential economic and financial consequences of crimes. This, they argue, should inform and help shape a balanced legal and regulatory approach to corruption.Economic analysis is also the key to measuring the efficacy of current anti-corruption instruments, and in the light of this the book finds many existing legal counter-measures lacking. On the other hand, its assessment of new international instruments and their domestic implementation and enforcement, and the monitoring mechanisms embedded by certain international organizations, demonstrates a clear relationship between realistic economic analysis and effective solutions to the economic and legal problems posed by corruption.Offering a comprehensive legal study of corruption and grounded in economic analysis, this detailed book will appeal to scholars and researchers in crime and corruption, international public organizations and anti-corruption agencies.Contents: Foreword Preface Introduction Part I: Economics, Finance, and Governance Section 1: Economics 1. Opening Remarks: Corruption and Economic Analysis 2. Firms, Markets, and Corruption 3. Corruption and Macroeconomic Performance Section 2: Finance 4. Financial Markets: Bonds, Stocks, and Politically-connected Firms 5. The Impact of Corruption in Shares Returns of Euro-area Listed Industrial Firms 6. Operational Efficiency, Corruption, and Political Stability in Microfinance Section 3: Governance 7. Governance, Corruption, and Effects on Institutions Part II: Birth and Evolution of an Anti-corruption Global Legal Standard Trans-national Corruption and Effective Regulation Section 4: Cases of Trans-national Corruption: Description and Legal Issues 8. How Corruption Affects the Economic and Institutional Textures of States: three case examples Section 5: Horizontal Assessment of the International Hard Law Instruments 9. The US FCPA as the Archetype of the Supra-national Anti-bribery Regulation 10. The Emergence of an International Framework: Regional, International, and Multilateral Treaties and Initiatives 11. Criminalization of the Offence 12. Sanctions and Corporate Liability 13. Jurisdictional Issues 14. Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition 15. Preventive and Non-criminal Related Measures 16. Follow up Procedures as Specific Cases of International Supervision 17. Asset Recovery Afterword Bibliography Index

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Although he was a suburban husband and father, living a far different life than the “Wolf of Wall Street,” Michael Kimelman had a good run as the cofounder of a hedge fund. He had left a cushy yet suffocating job at a law firm to try his hand at the high-risk life of a proprietary trader — and he did pretty well for himself. But it all came crashing down in the wee hours of November 5, 2009, when the Feds came to his door—almost taking the door off its hinges. While his wife and children were sequestered to a bedroom, Kimelman was marched off in embarrassment in view of his neighbors and TV crews who had been alerted in advance. He was arrested as part of a huge insider trading case, and while he was offered a “sweetheart” no-jail probation plea, he refused, maintaining his innocence.The lion’s share of Confessions of a Wall Street Insider was written while Kimelman was an inmate at Lewisburg Penitentiary. In nearly two years behind bars, he reflected on his experiences before incarceration—rubbing elbows and throwing back far too many cocktails with financial titans and major figures in sports and entertainment (including Leonardo DiCaprio, Alex Rodriguez, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan, to drop a few names); making and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in daily gambles on the Street; getting involved with the wrong people, who eventually turned on him; realizing that none of that mattered in the end. As he writes: “Stripped of family, friends, time, and humanity, if there’s ever a place to give one pause, it’s prison . . . Tomorrow is promised to no one.” In Confessions of a Wall Street Insider, he reveals the triumphs, pains, and struggles, and how, in the end, it just might have made him a better person.Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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Outer Beauty Inner Joy is a spiritual book. It seeks to give the reader space in which to contemplate and strengthen values that reason alone cannot reach. The Renaissance was an age of spiritual rediscovery of the art and wisdom of the ancients. Today in an age as fully dysfunctional and violent as the Renaissance itself we need to go on the same quest in our own time. We honor and revere the art of the Italian Renaissance, but not all of us are familiar with the philosophy that inspired it. The Renaissance was an explosion of beauty and art in Western history. It was also a time when writers and scholars like Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, and artists such as Leonardo, Boticelli, Tintoretto and Michaelangelo, were seeking a common thread among the world's ancient spiritual traditions. It was the beginning of a freer and more ecumenical way of looking at spirituality and at life. For Renaissance thinkers, the role of the artist and the making of art held an important place in society. Artists could contact unseen forces, bringing the beauty of higher realms into their earthly creations. Through contemplating this beauty, viewers too could touch its divine essence. Renaissance philosophers placed a new emphasis on the value of life: personal experiences with nature, art, and love could be ways of communing with the Divine here and now. Outer Beauty Inner Joy seeks through this selection of passages and images from some of the great writers and artists of the Italian Renaissance, to express the classic Renaissance ideal of beauty, and reveal an ecumenical wisdom; one that reaches across boundaries of different belief systems. Mixing contemporary values with the teachings of the ancients, Italian philosophers forged an inclusive, holistic philosophy. They spoke of a new way to experience life and a new understanding of the individual's place in the cosmos. What in the Renaissance was seen as the Anima Mundi, the divine essence which embraces and energizes all of life, permeates the pages of Outer Beauty, Inner Joy. The ideal of eloquence, persuasive, powerful discourse that moves the listener, was prized during the Renaissance, and is evident in the words of these writers. Soulful words matched with evocative images create a book that reveals the attitude and quality of mind of the Italian Renaissance, a time when concepts fundamental to modern Western culture were born. This philosophy, and this book itself, which reveres the wisdom and art, as well as equality, and tolerance for all beings, could not be more timely. Julianne Davidow has an enduring fascination with the Italian Renaissance. She began spending time in Italy in 1990 and has lived in Rome and Venice. She conducted research for Outer Beauty, Inner Joy at the Marciana Library in Venice, at the New York City Public Library, at conferences sponsored by the Renaissance Society of America and the New York Open Center, and through independent study. Having studied comparative religion and literature at Sarah Lawrence College, she continues to take a deep interest in these subjects. She writes on art, history, travel, and spirituality, and loves to photograph ancient art and artifact. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in the U.S. and in Europe. This immensely attractive and important book shows in visual images, words, and description a point of view that has been utterly lost to the modern mind: the idea that divinity and humanism go together. This means that to be a fully human person, developing all your latent abilities and points of character, you have to be in contact with that which is beyond you, the profound and visionary mysteriousness of your situation. Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul; A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Every day Life

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On the surface, James Joyce's work is largely a political. Through most of the twentieth century he was the proud embodiment of the rootless intellectual. This title includes essays that bring Joyce within the ambit of postcolonial studies.

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Lutwack looks at birds in poetry and as metaphor (the swan, the nightingale); birds and the supernatural; birds trapped and hunted; birds and the erotic (D.H. Lawrence's work); and birds in the future, in terms of environmental threat.

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Annalee marries Ned with a need in her heart to rescue, a personal sense of unworthiness, and a desperate need to be loved. Ned comes to his second marriage grieving for his young children who were kidnapped by a family member and abused before being placed in foster care. Annalee uses her background in legal work to negotiate the return of Ned's children to his custody. While working on her plans to adopt the children, Ned has a tragic accident leaving him with brain trauma. His emotional abuse escalates to outbursts of rage. Their home becomes a place of violence and terror. Although Annalee still loves Ned, she realizes the devastating effects of Ned's abuse on both her and the children. She feels trapped, terrified of the children being returned to foster care—or worse— returned to the abusive family member. Since the adoption is incomplete, Annalee has no legal right to take the children to safety, so she chooses to stay herself. While remaining married, Annalee and her children learn to break the cycle of abuse, reclaim their dignity, and hope for a future. This story is a testament to the overcoming power of faith, family, and forgiveness.

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Lenny Chang, the young protagonist of this autobiographical novel, is transplanted from New York City to a suburb on Long Island, and navigates his fractured family in this new, hostile environment. His alcoholic father, a Navy veteran struggling with his unhappy life, dominates and terrorizes his mother who valiantly tries to keep their family intact. Lenny's older brother drifts away from the turmoil while his younger sister attaches herself to Lenny for safety. As Lenny adjusts to this chaotic world in which the family spirals more and more out of control, he withdraws into himself and his martial arts movies, searching for some kind of solace. However, it isn't until Lenny befriends the local marijuana grower and dealer, Sal, that he begins to see a world beyond his own. This unusual friendship sets Lenny on a path toward independence, and becomes the bedrock on which this young boy moves into adulthood, finding the tools for self-reliance and fortitude that will sustain him throughout his life.

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