Search results for ""Author Simon""

Black powder, the world’s first chemical explosive, was originally developed in the seventh century, during China’s Tang dynasty. It was a crude mixture at first, but over time chemists discovered the optimum proportion of sulfur, charcoal, and nitrates, as well as the best way to mix them so that the particles of each component were tiny and homogenous, resulting in a complete and powerful reaction. Author and chemistry buff Simon Quellen Field takes readers on a decades-long journey through the history of things that go boom, from the early days of black powder to today’s modern plastic explosives. Not just the who, when, and why, but also the how. How did Chinese alchemists come to create black powder? What accidents led to the discovery of high explosives? How do explosives actually work on a molecular scale? And though most people have a vague understanding that dynamite is more powerful than gunpowder, what does it mean to be more powerful? Boom! The Chemistry and History of Explosives goes back to the original papers and patents written by the chemists who invented them, to shed light on their development, to explore the consequences of their use for good and ill, and to give the reader a basic understanding of the chemistry that makes them possible.

Read more less

The Dionysiaca of Nonnus from Panopolis (5th/6th century AD), an epic about the life and deeds of the god Dionysus, is one of the most important works of late Greek antiquity. Book 12 is of particular importance within the Dionysiaca because it deals with the origin of wine, and thus the most important attribute of Dionysus. The commentary opens up the central book for the first time from a literary perspective and explains the "problematic" aspects of the Dionysiac. In doing so, he takes equal account of the unfinished state of the epic, the literary tradition and the "Dionysian" character of the work.

Read more less

This textbook covers topics of undergraduate mathematics in abstract algebra, geometry, topology and analysis with the purpose of connecting the underpinning key ideas. It guides STEM students towards developing knowledge and skills to enrich their scientific education. In doing so it avoids the common mechanical approach to problem-solving based on the repetitive application of dry formulas. The presentation preserves the mathematical rigour throughout and still stays accessible to undergraduates. The didactical focus is threaded through the assortment of subjects and reflects in the book’s structure.Part 1 introduces the mathematical language and its rules together with the basic building blocks. Part 2 discusses the number systems of common practice, while the backgrounds needed to solve equations and inequalities are developed in Part 3. Part 4 breaks down the traditional, outdated barriers between areas, exploring in particular the interplay between algebra and geometry. Two appendices form Part 5: the Greek etymology of frequent terms and a list of mathematicians mentioned in the book. Abundant examples and exercises are disseminated along the text to boost the learning process and allow for independent work.Students will find invaluable material to shepherd them through the first years of an undergraduate course, or to complement previously learnt subject matters. Teachers may pick’n’mix the contents for planning lecture courses or supplementing their classes.

Read more less

For a Jew, describing a place as 'home' conveys connotations of heritage as well as of residence. Additionally, feeling 'at home' suggests a sense of comfort in one's social surroundings. The questions at the heart of this volume are: what things make a home 'Jewish', materially and emotionally, and what is it that makes Jews feel 'at home' in their environment? The material dimensions are explored through a study of the symbolic and ritual objects that convey Jewishness and a consideration of other items that may be used to express Jewish identity in the home-something that the introduction identifies as 'living-room Judaism'. The discussion is geographically and ethnically wide-ranging, and the transformation of meaning attached to different objects in different environments is contextualized, as, for example, in Shalom Sabar's study of {h.}amsa amulets in Morocco and Israel. For diasporic Jewish culture, the question of feeling at home is an emotional issue that frequently emerges in literature, folklore, and the visual and performing arts. The phrase 'at-homeness in exile' aptly expresses the tension between the different heritages with which Jews identify, including that between the biblical promised land and the cultural locations from which Jewish migration emanated. The essays in this volume take a closer look at the way in which ideas about feeling at home as a Jew are expressed in literature originating in Brazil, Argentina, and the United States, and also at the political ramifications of these emotions. The question is further explored in a series of exchanges on the future of Jews feeling 'at home' in Australia, Germany, Israel, and the United States. Jews at Home is the first book to examine the theme of the Jewish home materially and emotionally from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including literature, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, art history, and folk and popular culture. The essays in the collection use the theme of home and the concept of domestication to revise understanding of the lived (and built) past, and to open new analytical possibilities for the future. Its discussion of domestic culture and its relevance to Jewish identity is one with which readers should feel right at home.

Read more less

This is a thought-provoking work, capturing the march of time which overtook the maritime world in the last quarter of the 20th century. The final crumbling of the British register caused officers like Hall to find themselves in a strange new world, sailing under flags of convenience with all the old certainties of life at sea having vanished. There is both sadness and a rage at seeing a way of life disappear forever under the wheels of commerce, made more poignant by the author himself swallowing the anchor and moving on. Expelled from Indonesia as an undesirable, medically discharged in Honolulu, confined in Nigeria, Hall's turbulent life takes him from West Africa to Japan, from Europe to the Persian Gulf to the South Pacific. At last a Master Mariner, he serves on one last break-bulk general cargo ship, before transferring to the new maritime world. The prose is as elegantly expressed as in his earlier works. Steaming along the Yemeni coast, he writes: The bleakness of the South Yemen coastline made the green sea seem sharper in contrast, almost emerald in colour.The sun sat as a bright white orb in a blue white sky, the colours scourged out by dust blown offshore from the desert interior. In a typhoon near the Macclesfield Bank: Us; wild-eyed in the wheelhouse, braced against the forward bulkhead, awaiting our fate, helpless against a show of nature's fickle anger that could take us down among the fishes before we could cry Noo-ooooo...Maturity and marriage finally see off his tendency towards alcohol abuse: I began to yearn to make myself a better person and abandon the self-serving creature I had become. Wistful, unvarnished, droll, in powerless rage against the changes, this is an important companion to Hall's previous acclaimed books, a fine work that captures, in arresting style, the life of men who go down to the sea in ships. .

Read more less

The Handbook of Employee Engagement contains cutting edge contributions from a wide array of world-class scholars and consultants on state-of-the-art topics key to the science and the practice of employee engagement. The volume presents comprehensive and global perspectives to help researchers and practitioners identify, understand, evaluate and apply the key theories, models, measures and interventions associated with employee engagement. The Handbook provides many new insights, practical applications and areas for future research. It will serve as an important platform for ongoing research and practice on employee engagement.Combining an excellent balance of academic perspectives and practical applications this Handbook will prove to be invaluable for academic researchers in the field of organizational behaviour, organizational development and organizational psychology. In addition, human resource and organizational development practitioners and consultants should not be without this `state-of-the-art' and informative resource.

Read more less

While the notion of social harm has long interested critical criminologists it is now being explored as an alternative field of study, which provides more accurate analyses of the vicissitudes of life. However, important aspects of this notion remain undeveloped, in particular the definition of social harm, the question of responsibility and the methodologies for studying harm. This book, the first to theorise and define the social harm concept beyond criminology, seeks to address these omissions and questions why some capitalist societies appear to be more harmful than others. In doing so it provides a platform for future debates, in this series and beyond. It will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers across criminology, sociology, social policy, socio-legal studies and geography.

Read more less

This highly innovative and intriguing book applies principles of microeconomics to unusual settings to inspire students, teachers and scholars alike in the 'dismal science'. Leading experts show how economics reaches into the strangest of places and throws light onto the occasionally dark side of human nature. 'Sins and Needles' examines the economics of drug addiction, prohibition and liberalization; 'Guns and Roses' looks at the contribution economists can make to understanding crime as well as marriage and divorce; 'Body and Soul' investigates the economics of pornography, prostitution, suicide and religion; 'Conception and Rejection' explores the controversial economics of assisted reproduction and abortion; and 'Fun and Games' considers the economics of sport, gambling and music. Not only does Economics Uncut illustrate how economics can be used to promote our understanding of a broad range of human behaviour, but it also draws upon research conducted in other disciplines from the social sciences. As such, this fascinating and highly accessible book will be of great interest to academics, students and researchers in economics, criminology, sociology, and psychology alike

Read more less

Have you ever done something stupid, dangerous or self-sabotaging just to get one over someone else? Most of us have. Simon McCarthy-Jones draws on psychology, current affairs, literature and genetics to illuminate – whether we admit it or not – our spiteful side. What is that part of us that secretly wants our friends to fail? Did Americans put Trump in the White House just to stick it to Hillary Clinton? And then there are the legion of stories about toxic behaviour in supermarkets and over the privet hedge, ramping up to incendiary divorces, vicious business practices, backbiting politics and scorched-earth terrorism. There’s a hopeful message too – the upside of our dark side. Spite can drive us forward, and Simon provides a fresh perspective on the concept by showing the evolutionary benefits of spite as a social leveller, an enabler of defiance, a wellspring of freedom and a vital weapon in our everyday armoury.

Read more less

“This is a book you should read, for understanding what went wrong in the past is our only hope of doing better in the future?” - Paul Krugman, Nobel prize-winner Why did governments adopt austerity policies, and why were they so harmful? Why did the media largely ignore the experts who opposed these policies, and allow politicians to get away with lies? And why did voters choose Brexit when the economic consensus was that it would harm living standards? Simon Wren-Lewis, winner of the SPERI/New Statesman Prize for Political Economy, is one of Britain's most respected economists. Since 2012, his widely-read Mainly Macro blog has been an influential resource for policymakers, academics and social commentators around the world. This book presents some of his most important work, telling the story of how the damaging political and economic events of recent years became inevitable.

Read more less

Design and build innovative, custom, data-driven Alexa skills for home or business. Working through several projects, this book teaches you how to build Alexa skills and integrate them with online APIs. If you have basic Python skills, this book will show you how to build data-driven Alexa skills. You will learn to use data to give your Alexa skills dynamic intelligence, in-depth knowledge, and the ability to remember. Data-Driven Alexa Skills takes a step-by-step approach to skill development. You will begin by configuring simple skills in the Alexa Skill Builder Console. Then you will develop advanced custom skills that use several Alexa Skill Development Kit features to integrate with lambda functions, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Internet data feeds. These advanced skills enable you to link user accounts, query and store data using a NoSQL database, and access real estate listings and stock prices via web APIs.What You Will Learn Set up and configure your development environment properly the first time Build Alexa skills quickly and efficiently using Agile tools and techniques Create a variety of data-driven Alexa skills for home and business Access data from web applications and Internet data sources via their APIs Test with unit-testing frameworks throughout the development life cycle Manage and query your data using the DynamoDb NoSQL database engines Who This Book Is ForDevelopers who wish to go beyond Hello World and build complex, data-driven applications on Amazon's Alexa platform; developers who want to learn how to use Lambda functions, the Alexa Skills SDK, Alexa Presentation Language, and Alexa Conversations; developers interested in integrating with public APIs such as real estate listings and stock market prices. Readers will need to have basic Python skills.

Read more less

As calls mount for resistance to recent political events, Simon Morgan Wortham rethinks how psychoanalysis, political thought and philosophy can be brought together. He explores the political implications and complexities of a psychoanalytic resistance through close readings of authors from within and outwith the psychoanalytic tradition.

Read more less

A fully updated edition of the million-copy-selling SUNDAY TIMES No.1.

Read more less

Edward Poeton’s The Winnowing of White Witchcraft was written in the 1630s and has never been printed. Poeton, a physician, was one of few non-clergymen to write about magic during the early modern period, and the treatise offers new insights into the problem of popular errors concerning the nature of witchcraft. As well as advancing a number of standard and not-so-standard arguments for the sinfulness of white witches, the treatise offers fascinating insight into Poeton’s practice as a physician and his own youthful dalliance with magic. It is thus a significant new source in the history of early modern medicine and witchcraft belief. This edition includes an introduction and explanatory notes.Edited with an introduction and notes by Simon F. Davies

Read more less

This book analyses how modern conceptions of ethics, psychoanalysis and aesthetics are linked through the question of pain. Through a series of rigorous encounters with key critical figures, this monograph argues that modern thought is, in a double sense, the thought of pain. This book argues that modern European philosophy after Kant offers less the conceptual equipment to tackle pain in explanatory terms, than an experience of thought that participates in the forms of pain and suffering about which it speaks. Perhaps surprisingly, the question of pain establishes a ground from which to examine key debates in 20th-century European philosophy, most recently between forms of post-structuralist and ethical thinking imagined to be in crisis and the resurgence of discourses of political emancipation arising from traditions of thought associated with Marxism. It offers a systematic account of the modern European tradition's relationship to the question of pain and suffering, and new interpretation of "ethics" and "evil". It questions longstanding distinctions - between physical and psychological pain, 'my' pain and the pain of the other, human pain and animal pain. It sets new agendas for reading post-Kantian philosophy.

Read more less

XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is everywhere: the syntax of choice for newly designed document formats across almost all computer applications. Now used daily by developers, XML is living up to its reputation as one of the most important developments in document interchange in the history of computing. A perennial bestseller, the handy "XML Pocket Reference" from O'Reilly has been revised once again to give you quick access to the latest goods. In addition to its comprehensive look at XML, this third edition has been updated with new material on Namespaces and XML Schema - considered among the most important elements in current XML use; along with RELAX NG and Schematron, additional powerful tools for describing XML document structures. Like other titles in O'Reilly's "Pocket Reference" series, the "XML Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition" features a well-organized format that gets right to the point. As a result, it's already won over the allegiance of developers everywhere. If you need XML answers quick and on the fly, this compact book is most definitely the book for you.

Read more less

"Making Japanese Citizens" is an expansive history of the activists, intellectuals, and movements that played a crucial role in shaping civil society and civic thought throughout the broad sweep of Japan's postwar period. Weaving his analysis around the concept of shimin (citizen), Simon Avenell traces the development of a new vision of citizenship based on political participation, self-reliance, popular nationalism, and commitment to daily life. He traces civic activism through six phases: the cultural associations of the 1940s and 1950s, the massive U.S.-Japan Security Treaty protests of 1960, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the antipollution and antidevelopment protests of the 1960s and 1970s, movements for local government reform and the rise of new civic groups from the mid-1970s. This rich portrayal of activists and their ideas illuminates questions of democracy, citizenship, and political participation both in contemporary Japan and in other industrialized nations more generally.

Read more less

This book offers the term 'ecophobia' as a way of understanding and organizing representations of contempt for the natural world. Estok argues that this vocabulary is both necessary to the developing area of ecocritical studies and for our understandings of the representations of 'Nature' in Shakespeare.

Read more less

‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.’ This ancient prayer has been known and loved by generations of Christians for hundreds of years. It is a way of entering into the river of prayer which flows from the heart of God: the prayer of God himself, as Jesus continually prays for his people and for the world he loves. Simon Barrington-Ward teaches us how to use the Jesus Prayer as a devotional practice, and opens up the Bible passages that are crucial to understanding it. ‘Written out of long experience, Simon Barrington-Ward's book is one of the clearest, practical and most timely introductions available.’ David Runcorn, author of Spirituality Workbook: A guide for explorers, pilgrims and seekers

Read more less

Simon Russell Beale is one of Britain''s most recognisable and well-loved actors. He has played many roles on stage, film, television and radio - ranging from Winston Churchill to Stalin, George Smiley to King Arthur. But ever since his appearance at school as a glamorous Desdemona, complete with false eyelashes that rendered him half-blind, he has been captivated by Shakespeare. In A Piece of Work, Russell Beale tries to get under the skin of the playwright and find out what interested him. Was Shakespeare an instinctive ''conservative'' or, rather, gently subversive? How collaborative was he? Did he add a line to Hamlet in order to accommodate his ageing and increasingly chubby principal actor, Richard Burbage? Did he suffer from insomnia and experience sexual jealousy? Russell Beale describes what it is to approach and live with some of Shakespeare''s most famous characters. Some of the actor''s inspiration comes from surprising sources. Watching

Read more less

In terms of structural complexity, the natural world presents innumerable examples of stunning beauty and high functionality, usually with the minimum of material and energy expenditure. Materials chemists can harness these amazing structures as ready-made scaffolds on which to grow inorganic phases which replicate the underlying complexity, thereby producing materials with greatly enhanced physical properties. This book comprehensively describes the entire range of natural materials that have been used in this way and the inorganic phases which result from them. The book covers simple molecules such as cellulose and chitin, to large biological constructs such as bacterial proteins, viruses and pollen. Practically every inorganic material has been synthesized using biotemplating methods and the book reflects this, ranging from simple oxides and carbonates such as silica and calcite, to complex semi- and superconducting materials. The book also discusses the formation of these materials from a mechanistic point of view, thereby enabling the reader to better understand the processes involved in biotemplated mineralization.

Read more less

Alfie Parker has bagged the hottest date to prom hasn't he? Bestselling LGBTQ+ writer Simon James Green makes his Barrington Stoke debut with a life-affirming teen romance.Harvey is popular, cool, plays football and has been in a relationship with his girlfriend Summer for as long as anyone can remember. Alfie is not popular, not cool, has a sick note so he doesn't have to play any sport, and has been in a relationship with his Xbox since forever. So when Summer dramatically dumps Harvey just a few days before the school prom, no one is expecting Alfie to ask Harvey to be his date. Least of all Alfie. But sometimes amazing things can happen when you take a chance

Read more less

'A dense narrative and a wealth of examples' Literary Review'Reid-Henry narrates this story with elegance and gusto' Washington Post'[Reid-Henry] conveys an important message: Individual political action must become accountable to society's interests' Kirkus'Reid-Henry's scholarship is impressive, gathering a wide range of historical anecdotes and referencing a diverse set of thinkers' Publishers Weekly The first panoramic history of the Western world from the 1970s to the present day: Empire of Democracy is the story for those asking how we got to where we are.In this epic narrative of the events that have shaped our own times, Simon Reid-Henry shows how liberal democracy, and Western history with it, was profoundly re-imagined when the postwar Golden Age ended. As the institutions of liberal rule were reinvented, a new generation of politicians emerged: Thatcher, Reagan, Mitterrand, Kohl. The late twentieth-century heyday they oversaw carried the Western democracies triumphantly to victory in the C old War and into the economic boom of the 1990s. But equally it led them into the fiasco of Iraq, to the high drama of the financial crisis in 2007/8, and ultimately to the anti-liberal surge of our own times.The present crisis of liberalism enjoins us to revisit these as yet unscripted decades. The era we have all been living through is closing out, democracy is turning on its axis once again. As this panoramic history poignantly reminds us, the choices we make going forward require us first to come to terms with where we have been.

Read more less

This might be his biggest coup yet! Legendary master thief Gideon Sable is on the hunt for the ghost of an alien-possessed man in this fast-paced supernatural heist thriller.The Preserve in Bath - the British Area 51 - is the secret government dumping ground for all things supernatural and out of space. It is one of the most heavily-guarded places in the world. However, it''s not what protects it that makes it so dangerous but the things that are inside . . . Gideon Sable - master thief, con artist and self-proclaimed vigilante - faces a challenge he can''t refuse. His client, the former Head of the British Rocketry Group, Professor Neil Sharpe, wants him to break into the Preserve. Once inside, Gideon and his crew of supernatural misfits can get any mystical artefact they desire out of the Preserve''s collection. The catch? To reach it, they must go through the treacherous Box Tunnel complex and not only face trained guards and booby traps but steal so

Read more less

For many organizations data is a by-product, but for the smarter ones it is the heartbeat of their business. Most businesses have a wealth of data buried in their systems which, if used effectively, could increase revenue, reduce costs and risk and improve customer satisfaction and employee experience. Beginning with how to choose projects which reflect your organization's goals and how to make the business case for investing in data, this book then takes the reader through the five 'waves' of organizational data maturity. It takes the reader from getting started on the data journey with some quick wins, to how data can help your business become a leading innovator which systematically outperforms competitors. Data and Analytics Strategy for Business outlines how to build consistent, high-quality sources of data which will create business value and explores how automation, AI and machine learning can improve performance and decision making. Filled with real-world examples and case studies, this book is a stage-by-stage guide to designing and implementing a results-driven data strategy.

Read more less

For humanity to survive there must always be people performing the minute-to-minute miracle of thought. 'Excellent and beyond timely.' A. C. Grayling Scientific advances and new technologies are letting others manipulate our minds more easily than ever before. Now, those tasked with protecting our minds are finally preparing to fight back. As we speak, the United Nations is seeking to pin down a concrete right to free thought and enshrine it in international law alongside life, education and protest. But what is thought? And what makes it free? And how can it best be protected? Freethinking explores what an effective right to freedom of thought would look like, and asks how we might build a culture of free thought, and whether that’s even what we want. In an uncertain and rapidly evolving world, Freethinking shows that there are solutions to the forces buffeting our minds.

Read more less