Search results for ""Author Matt"

This book is an attempt to coax Roman history closer to the bone, to the breath and matter of the living being. Drawing from a remarkable array of ancient and modern sources, Carlin Barton offers the most complex understanding to date of the emotional and spiritual life of the ancient Romans. Her provocative and original inquiry focuses on the sentiments of honor that shaped the Romans' sense of themselves and their society. Speaking directly to the concerns and curiosities of the contemporary reader, Barton brings Roman society to life, elucidating the complex relation between the inner life of its citizens and its social fabric. Though thoroughly grounded in the ancient writings--especially the work of Seneca, Cicero, and Livy--this book also draws from contemporary theories of the self and social theory to deepen our understanding of ancient Rome. Barton explores the relation between inner desires and social behavior through an evocative analysis of the operation, in Roman society, of contests and ordeals, acts of supplication and confession, and the sense of shame. As she fleshes out Roman physical and psychological life, she particularly sheds new light on the consequential transition from republic to empire as a watershed of Roman social relations. Barton's ability to build productively on both old and new scholarship on Roman history, society, and culture and her imaginative use of a wide range of work in such fields as anthropology, sociology, psychology, modern history, and popular culture will make this book appealing for readers interested in many subjects. This beautifully written work not only generates insight into Roman history, but also uses that insight to bring us to a new understanding of ourselves, our modern codes of honor, and why it is that we think and act the way we do.

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According to the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study, air pollution from fine particulate matter caused 6.4 million premature deaths and 93 billion days lived with illness in 2019. Over the past decade, the toll of ambient air pollution has continued to rise. Air pollution’s significant health, social, and economic effects compel the World Bank to support client countries in addressing air pollution as a core development challenge. This publication estimates that the global cost of health damages associated with exposure to air pollution is $8.1 trillion, equivalent to 6.1 percent of global GDP. People in low- and middle-income countries are most affected by mortality and morbidity from air pollution. The death rate associated with air pollution is significantly higher in low-and lower-middle income countries than in high-income countries. This publication further develops the evidence base for air-quality management through up-to-date estimates of air pollution’s global economic costs. The analyses presented here build on previous cost estimates by the Bank and its partners, as well as on more comprehensive air-quality data from monitoring stations in many cities across the world. By providing monetary estimates of air pollution’s health damages, this publication aims to support policy makers and decision-makers in client countries in prioritizing air pollution amid competing development challenges. Its findings build a robust economic case to invest scarce budgetary resources in the design and implementation of policies and interventions for improving air quality. Such investments will deliver benefits for societies at large, and particularly for vulnerable groups. This publication builds a strong case for scaling up investments for air pollution control in low-and middle-income countries.

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Winner of the Garden Media Guild Practical Book of the Year Award 2022 From the creator of the wildly popular website ‘Vertical Veg’ and with over 200k people in his online community of growers, comes the complete guide to growing delicious fruit, vegetables, herbs and salad in containers, pots and more – in any space at home – no matter how small! If you long to grow your own tomatoes, courgettes or strawberries but thought you didn’t have enough space, Mark Ridsdill Smith, aka the ‘Vertical Veg Man,’ will show you how. Make the most of walls, balconies, patios, arches and windowsills and create rich, beautiful and delicious homegrown food. With proven results from his ten years of experience growing in all kinds of containers and teaching people how to grow bountiful, edible crops in small spaces, Mark will show you how gardening in containers is more than just a hobby but rather a way of creating a significant amount of delicious, low-cost, nutritious food. In his second year of growing in containers, Mark grew over 80kg of food worth £900! Inside The Vertical Veg Guide to Container Gardening, you’ll find: Mark’s ‘Eight Steps to Success’ How to make the most of your space How to draw up a planning calendar so you can grow throughout the year Planting projects for beginners and the best plants to start with Compost recipes and wormery guide for the more experienced gardener Troubleshoots for the specific challenges of growing in small spaces Ways to support pollinators and other wildlife in urban areas How growing food at home can contribute to wellbeing, sustainability and the local community Don’t be confined by the space you have – grow all the food you want with Mark’s Vertical Veg Guide to Container Gardening.

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The high-yield leveraged bond and loan market is now valued at $4+ trillion in North America, Europe, and emerging markets. What’s more the market is in a period of significant growth. To successfully issue, evaluate, and invest in high-yield debt, financial professionals need credit and bond analysis skills specific to these instruments. This fully revised and updated edition of A Pragmatist’s Guide to Leveraged Finance is a complete, practical, and expert tutorial and reference book covering all facets of modern leveraged finance analysis. Long-time professional in the field, Bob Kricheff, explains why conventional analysis techniques are inadequate for leveraged instruments, clearly defines the unique challenges sellers and buyers face, walks step-by-step through deriving essential data for pricing and decision-making, and demonstrates how to apply it. Using practical examples, sample documents, Excel worksheets, and graphs, Kricheff covers all this, and much more: yields, spreads, and total return; ratio analysis of liquidity and asset value; business trend analysis; modeling and scenarios; potential interest rate impacts; evaluating leveraged finance covenants; how to assess equity (and why it matters); investing on news and events; early-stage credit; bankruptcy analysis and creating accurate credit snapshots. This second edition includes new sections on fallen angels, environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment considerations, interaction with portfolio managers, CLOs, new issues, and data science. A Pragmatist’s Guide to Leveraged Finance is an indispensable resource for all investment and underwriting professionals, money managers, consultants, accountants, advisors, and lawyers working in leveraged finance. It also teaches credit analysis skills that will be valuable in analyzing a wide variety of higher-risk investments, including growth stocks.

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An in-depth look at how U.S. Latino advocacy groups are using ethnoracial demographic projections to bring about political change in the presentFor years, newspaper headlines, partisan speeches, academic research, and even comedy routines have communicated that the United States is undergoing a profound demographic transformation—one that will purportedly change the “face” of the country in a matter of decades. But the so-called browning of America, sociologist Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz contends, has less to do with the complexion of growing populations than with past and present struggles shaping how demographic trends are popularly imagined and experienced. Offering an original and timely window into these struggles, Figures of the Future explores the population politics of national Latino civil rights groups.Based on eight years of ethnographic and qualitative research, spanning both the Obama and Trump administrations, this book investigates how several of the most prominent of these organizations—including UnidosUS (formerly NCLR), the League of United Latin American Citizens, and Voto Latino—have mobilized demographic data about the Latino population in dogged pursuit of political recognition and influence. In census promotions, get-out-the-vote campaigns, and policy advocacy, this knowledge has been infused with meaning, variously serving as future-oriented sources of inspiration, emblems for identification, and weapons for contestation. At the same time, Rodríguez-Muñiz considers why these political actors have struggled to translate this demographic growth into tangible political gain and how concerns about white backlash have affected how they forecast demographic futures.Figures of the Future looks closely at the politics surrounding ethnoracial demographic changes and their rising influence in U.S. public debate and discourse.

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This in-depth study examines the social, religious, and philosophical thought of Simone Weil. Simone Weil for the Twenty-First Century presents a comprehensive analysis of Weil’s interdisciplinary thought, focusing especially on the depth of its challenge to contemporary philosophical and religious studies. In a world where little is seen to have real meaning, Eric O. Springsted presents a critique of the unfocused nature of postmodern philosophy and argues that Weil’s thought is more significant than ever in showing how the world in which we live is, in fact, a world of mysteries. Springsted brings into focus the challenges of Weil’s original (and sometimes surprising) starting points, such as an Augustinian priority of goodness and love over being and intellect, and the importance of the Crucifixion. Springsted demonstrates how the mystical and spiritual aspects of Weil’s writings influence her social thought. For Weil, social and political questions cannot be separated from the supernatural. For her, rather, the world has a sacramental quality, such that life in the world is always a matter of life in God—and life in God, necessarily a way of life in the world. Simone Weil for the Twenty-First Century is not simply a guide or introduction to Simone Weil. Rather, it is above all an argument for the importance of Weil’s thought in the contemporary world, showing how she helps us to understand the nature of our belonging to God (sometimes in very strange and unexpected ways), the importance of attention and love as the root of both the love of God and neighbor, the importance of being rooted in culture (and culture’s service to the soul in rooting it in the universe), and the need for human beings to understand themselves as communal beings, not as isolated thinkers or willers. It will be essential reading for scholars of Weil, and will also be of interest to philosophers and theologians.

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Radio Life: a gripping adventure and a riveting political thriller: The Commonwealth, a post-apocalyptic civilisation on the rise, is locked in a clash of ideas with the Keepers . . . a fight which threatens to destroy the world . . . again.When Lilly was first Chief Engineer at The Commonwealth, nearly fifty years ago, the Central Archive wasn't yet the greatest repository of knowledge in the known world, protected by scribes copying every piece of found material - books, maps, even scraps of paper - and disseminating them by Archive Runners to hidden off-site locations for safe keeping. Back then, there was no Order of Silence to create and maintain secret routes deep into the sand-covered towers of the Old World or into the northern forests beyond Sea Glass Lake. Back then, the world was still quiet, because Lilly hadn't yet found the Harrington Box.But times change. Recently, the Keepers have started gathering to the east of Yellow Ridge - thousands upon thousands of them - and every one of them determined to burn the Central Archives to the ground, no matter the cost, possessed by an irrational fear that bringing back the ancient knowledge will destroy the world all over again. To prevent that, they will do anything.Fourteen days ago the Keepers chased sixteen-year-old Archive Runner Elimisha into a forbidden Old World Tower and brought the entire thing down on her. Instead of being killed, though, she slipped into an ancient unmapped bomb shelter where she has discovered a cache of food and fresh water, a two-way radio like the one Lilly's been working on for years . . . and something else. Something that calls itself 'the internet' . . .

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Big Bible Science 2 helps children and those who teach them to explore God’s World and God’s Word through real world science experiments. There are twenty–one different units taking students through scientific concepts such as Potential and Kinetic energy, Levers, Pulleys, Chemical Reactions, Condensation and Symbiosis. God creates young minds to ask questions and seek answers. This book is designed to stir the imaginations of students and develop a lasting love for Christ. The units are fun, interesting, and affirm the biblical worldview of creation. Big Bible Science is written to appeal to various ages and learning styles. This material is ideal for homeschoolers or classroom–based activities. It is for the head and the heart: a good mix of solid science and inspirational devotions. Each unit has: Objectives: These are the science learning goals. Materials: What you need before each lesson The Big Idea: A scientific explanation of the lesson that also ties in a biblical perspective. Activities: Demonstrations, games and experiments. Apply it: Ideas about how to find examples of the lesson in your world. Go Beyond: For more advanced students this will challenge them to think and experiment further. Units in Big Bible Science 2: Potential & Kinetic Energy Simple Machines in a playground Mechanical Advantage of a Lever Fixed Pulley: Changing the Direction of Force Angular Momentum & Centripetal Motion Buoyancy of Boats Law of Conservation of Matter Indicators of a Chemical Reaction Heat Capacity & Specific Heart Condensation Colligative Properties Symmetry of Nature Deciduous and Evergreen Trees Plant a Bean Parts of a Plant at the Dinner Table Symbiosis Bird Population Study Endoskeleton versus Exoskeleton Carnivores, Herbivores & Omnivores: The Food Chain How the Moon Shines Weathering & Erosion

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Just as a garden needs worms, we need bad feelings.... We tend to think about bad feelings--feelings like anger, envy, spite, and contempt--as the weeds in life's garden. You may not be able to get rid of them completely, but you're supposed to battle them as best you can. The best garden is one with no weeds. The best life is one with no bad feelings. But this isn't quite right, according to philosopher Krista K. Thomason. Bad feelings are the worms, not the weeds. They're just below the surface, and we like to pretend they aren't there, but they serve an important purpose. Worms are just as much a part of the garden as the flowers, and their presence means your garden is thriving. Gardens aren't better off without their worms, and neither are we. The trick is learning how to enjoy our gardens, worms and all. Thomason draws on insights from the history of philosophy to show what we've gotten wrong about bad feelings and to show readers how we can live better with them. There is nothing wrong with negative emotions per se. Their bad reputation is undeserved. Negative emotions are expressions of self-love--not egoism or selfishness, but the felt attachment to ourselves and to our lives. We feel negative emotions because our lives matter to us. After explaining this, Thomason helps us look at individual bad feelings: anger, envy and jealousy, spite and Schadenfreude, and contempt. As she demonstrates in this tour of negative emotions, these feelings are valuable parts of our attachment to our lives. We don't have to battle negative emotions or "channel" them into something productive. Bad feelings aren't obstacles to a good life; they are part of what makes life meaningful.

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Learn about planets, stars and black holes in The Astronomy Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Astronomy in this overview guide to the subject, great for beginners looking to learn and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Astronomy Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Astronomy, with: - More than 100 big astronomical ideas, theories and discoveries - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The Astronomy Book is the perfect introduction to the story of our ideas about space, time, and the physics of the cosmos, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you’ll discover more than 100 of the most important theories and discoveries in the history of astronomy and the great minds behind them. If you’ve ever wondered about the key ideas that underpin the wonders of the universe and the great minds who uncovered them, this is the perfect book for you. Your Astronomy Questions, Simply Explained How do we measure the universe? Where is the event horizon? What is dark matter? If you thought it was difficult to learn the science of celestial objects and phenomena, The Astronomy Book presents key information in an easy to follow layout. Learn ancient speculations about the nature of the universe, through the Copernican Revolution, to the mind-boggling theories of recent science such as those of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, with fantastic mind maps and step-by-step summaries. And delve into the work of the scientists who have shaped the subject, with biographies of key astronomers such as Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Hubble, and Hawking. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Astronomy Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.

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Featuring the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Belle is an enthralling adventure through three hundred years of art! Belle, a painted butterfly, has been quietly hovering over a beautiful white poppy in a seventeenth-century Dutch painting that has been her home for three hundred years. Suddenly and unexpectedly there is a sudden whoosh of air and she finds herself flying out of her picture into the void So begins the adventures of Belle, the red admiral butterfly in Jan Davidsz de Heem's Vase of Flowers. Accidentally dislodged, when her painting was being taken by museum staff to be examined by the Conservation Department, Belle and her sidekick Brimstone, a fellow butterfly who was ejected from the painting at the same time, must find their way back home. When their painting rolls into an elevator without them, their journey through the art museum begins. Because they are made of paint, they discover that they can blend into any of the other paintings in the museum, no matter what the subject or period. The characters travel through the museum galleries, morphing into and out of paintings by multiple artists and in many styles, while searching for their home painting. At the same time they must avoid becoming lunch for a painted bird in hot pursuit after being inadvertently released from another painting by an awkward bump from Brimstone! Belle and Brimstone tell their story as it happens with all the scary encounters and comic incidents that have them hiding out in unlikely places in the paintings they encounter. They dash and dart as the predatory bird flies after them, chasing them from room to room. Successful and safe in the end Brimstone is up for more adventures. Belle is not so sure! Maybe it will be safer if they stay put in their painting from now on. Can you find them? While the story is an adventure story written for young readers it will also enchant younger listeners. Featuring the collection of the National Gallery of Art, this tale is a fanciful romp through three hundred years of art history, inviting young people to delve into the world of art through the paintings of de Heem, Vermeer, Chardin, Goya, Rembrandt, Elisabeth Vigée-LeBrun, Mary Cassatt, Renoir, Monet, Tissot, Picasso, Derain, Marc, Matisse, Georgia O'keeffe, Rothko, Pollock, Lichtenstein and many others. As an added bonus Belle has taken the trouble to create Belle's Amazing, Astonishingly Magical Journal and illustrated it with her comments on each painting and ideas on where to hide when being chased! Let Belle and Brimstone be your guides and docents and mind out for that Bird! Mary Lee Corlett, an art historian and research associate at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., owes her love of art to her father, whose mechanical drawings and plans always seemed magical to her as a child, and to an inspired teacher who introduced her to the wonderful ideas and concepts that underlie all great art. As a child she drew and painted but later when, thinking she would like to teach art, she enrolled in college and attended studio art classes and studied education, she discovered that the art history classes were more exciting than her own studio work. Her first job after collecting her BA was as a teaching assistant in the Education department at the Cleveland Museum of Art, doing art projects in Mini-Masters classes of 4-5 year olds. She then moved to Washington and worked at the National Portrait Gallery before assuming her current position. She still draws and paints but her daughter has forsaken paint brush and easel for flute and music stand. They still visit the galleries together and walk through all the amazing, astonishing and magical rooms full of wonderful paintings and sculptures just to check that Belle and Brimstone are safe and sound! Phyllis Saroff is a professional artist who can't remember when she didn't draw pictures. Inspired in First Grade by an older girl drawing pictures for a story she had written Phyllis started to illustrate her own stories. Her father would bring home large stacks of used accordion-fold computer paper from his lab. It was printed on one side with his equations, and the other side was blank. The blank side was Phyllis' side. He let her leave her drawings all over the house, on the coffee table, the dining room table and the kitchen table. His daughter only had to get them out of the way to set the table for dinner. He thought each drawing was a masterpiece; each one greater than the last. He bought art supplies for every birthday and when she was eleven he bought her a small drafting table which she still uses in her studio. She now sells her paintings in galleries and illustrates books for a living and her 97 year-old father still thinks every one of her drawings is a masterpiece.

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Explore the human body like you've never known before with this ultimate kid's guide to what goes on under our skin. Forming part of a fantastic series of kid's educational books, this bold and brilliant kid's encyclopedia uses ground-breaking CGI imagery to reveal the human body as you've never seen it before. Informative, diverse in subject matter, easy-to-read and brimming with beautiful graphics, young learners can explore the incredibly detailed cross-sections and cutaways that reveal the inner workings of these fascinating and complex machines we know as our bodies!This charming children's encyclopedia opens the world in new ways, with: -Packed with facts, charts, infographics and illustrations that cover the human body head to toe.-Encompassing a visual approach with illustrations, photographs and extremely detailed 3D CGI images.-Crystal clear text distills the key information.-DK's encyclopedias are fact-checked by subject experts to offer accuracy beyond online sources of information.This fully-updated edition of Knowledge Encyclopedia Human Body! is the perfect encyclopedia for children aged 9-12, ideal for inquisitive minds, with a unique head-to-toe approach which makes the complex structure of the human body both appealing and accessible for curious young readers. Jam-packed with fun facts about the human body, including creative CGI artworks that can be rotated and animated to bring the aspects of this body book to life! Curious children can take a look at the life of a cell, discover the digestive system, and learn all about record-breaking bodies!Explore, Discover And Learn!DK's Knowledge Encyclopedia Human Body! uncovers the marvels of our body in unprecedented detail and with stunning realism. Encompassing engaging facts about the human body, including a closer look at each bodily system, such as the nervous system, muscle system and more, and exploring a timeline of medical milestones, you can spend quality time exploring the wonders of the human body with children, accompanied by impressive visuals to engage their senses. A must-have volume for curious kids with a thirst for knowledge, this enthralling encyclopedia is structured in such a way that your child can read a bit at a time, and feel comfortable to pause and ask questions. Doubling up as the perfect gift for young readers, who are always asking questions about our planet! At DK, we believe in the power of discovery. This thrilling kid's encyclopedia is part of the Knowledge Encyclopedia educational series. Celebrate your child's curiosity as they complete the collection and discover diverse facts about the world around them. Dive into the deep blue with Knowledge Encyclopedia Ocean! Travel back in time to when dinosaurs roamed the earth with Knowledge Encyclopedia Dinosaur! And hone your knowledge on how the human body works with Knowledge Encyclopedia Human Body! Whatever topic takes their fancy, there's an encyclopedia for everyone!

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Explore the deep blue like you've never known before with this children's encyclopedia perfect for a young explorer.Forming part of a fantastic series of kid's educational books, this bold and brilliant kid's encyclopedia uses ground-breaking CGI imagery to reveal the world as you've never seen it before. Informative, diverse in subject matter, easy-to-read and brimming with beautiful graphics, young learners can explore the incredibly detailed cross-sections and cutaways that reveal the inner workings of our incredible oceans. This charming children's encyclopedia opens the world in new ways, with: -Packed with facts, charts, timelines, and illustrations that cover a vast range of topics. -Encompassing a visual approach with illustrations, photographs and extremely detailed 3D CGI images.-Crystal clear text distills the key information.-DK's encyclopedias are fact-checked by subject experts to offer accuracy beyond online sources of information.This fully-updated edition of Knowledge Encyclopedia Ocean! is the perfect encyclopedia for children aged 9-12, ideal for inquisitive minds, covering the topics of ocean science, seashores, polar oceans, ocean maps and so much more! Jam-packed with fun facts about sea creatures and ocean environments, you can explore sharks, jellyfish, turtles, dolphins, octopuses, penguins, and seahorses, fish and an array of other animals that call the ocean their home. Explore, Discover And Learn!DK's Knowledge Encyclopedia Ocean! uncovers the marvels of the underwater world in unprecedented detail and with stunning realism. Encompassing engaging facts about animal behaviour under the water, including a closer look at the geography, geology, and ecology that lies beneath the waves from the dramatic landscapes of the deepest trench and towering underwater chimneys, to coastal coral reefs and kelp forests teeming with life, you can spend quality time diving into the deep blue with your children, accompanied by impressive visuals to engage their senses. A must-have volume for curious kids with a thirst for knowledge, this enthralling ocean encyclopedia is structured in such a way that your child can read a bit at a time, and feel comfortable to pause and ask questions. Doubling up as the perfect gift for young readers, who are always asking questions about the underwater world. At DK, we believe in the power of discovery. This thrilling kid's encyclopedia is part of the Knowledge Encyclopedia educational series. Celebrate your child's curiosity as they complete the collection and discover diverse facts about the world around them. Explore the animal kingdom like never before with Knowledge Encyclopedia Animal! Travel back in time to when dinosaurs roamed the earth with Knowledge Encyclopedia Dinosaur! And hone your knowledge on how the human body works with Knowledge Encyclopedia Human Body! Whatever topic takes their fancy, there's an encyclopedia for everyone!

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Our thesis is that the archaeological evidence suggests a severe economic dislocation during the Late Minoan IB ceramic period in Crete. This appears to have been triggered, first by a tectonic earthquake and shortly afterwards by the eruption of Thera early in the Late Bronze Age (Late Minoan IA) after which the situation gradually worsened, accompanied by a general feeling of uncertainty caused by the eruption and its effects. The tectonic earthquake led to abandonments at some sites or an effort to rebuild in attempt to re-establish normal economic and social life. The result of these two natural disasters gave local centers greater independence from the traditional "Palaces". This fragmentation of Minoan Crete brought about the end of the most highly developed economic system in the Aegean although it was somewhat resurrected in the following "Mycenaean" period. The natural events which proved to be the catalysts for change, presaged the end of the traditional ruling elites which appeared to have lost their assumed divine support. They tried in vain to maintain their special status, but with major problems in food production and distribution, the existing system disintegrated resulting in a process of decentralisation with an increase in the regional exploitation of land chiefly for local consumption; numerous lesser elites may well have prospered in this environment. However, as in the Hellenistic period, the fragmentation of Crete into many small centres may have led to internal Cretan conflict and a massive wave of fire destructions in Late Minoan IB, indicating a state of anarchy by the end of the period. That Mycenaeans from Mainland Greece arrived on the island at some stage during the Late Bronze Age is clear, although precisely when they arrived is a matter of fierce debate. The "crisis years" of LM IB-II, in the fifteenth century B.C., appear the most likely and opportune. During the succeeding "Mycenaean" period, only the Palace at Knossos seems to have functioned as a major centre. During LM II-III, there was a gradual but general decrease in the sophistication of architecture and arts. The LM II period may perhaps be regarded as the final phase of decline which began in LM IB, with some major centres suffering destructions once again. By Late Minoan II, a new Knossian elite or dynasty appears to have taken control and installed a modified socio-political and economic system. The dynasty relied heavily on administration and bureaucraty to maintain its position. The Santorini eruption is here given the role of a precipitant or catalyst, which began an entire series of changes which eventually resulted in the absorption of Minoan Crete into the Mycenaean, and ultimately, the Greek world.

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**LONGLISTED for the CWA John Creasey NEW BLOOD Dagger** **LoveReading BOOK of the MONTH** ‘Gloriously funny but dark as hell, you will laugh and recoil in equal measure’ Sunday Express ‘By turns comic and shocking, an extraordinary debut from a striking new voice’ Michael Marshall Smith ‘Complex, inventive and a genuine shocker, this is the very opposite of a comfort read' Guardian ____________________ Jerry has a traumatic past that leaves him subject to psychotic hallucinations and depressive episodes. When he stands accused of stealing a priceless Van Gogh painting, he goes underground, where he develops an unwilling relationship with a woman who believes that the voices she hears are from God. Involuntarily entangled in the illicit world of sex-trafficking amongst the Hollywood elite, and on a mission to find redemption for a haunting series of events from the past, Jerry is thrust into a genuinely shocking and outrageously funny quest to uncover the truth and atone for historical sins. A complex, page-turning psychological thriller, riddled with twists and turns, Epiphany Jones is also a superb dark comedy with a powerful emotional core. You'll laugh when you know you shouldn't, be moved when you least expect it and, most importantly, never look at Hollywood, celebrity or sex in the same way again. This is an extraordinary debut from a fresh, exceptional new talent. ____________________ ‘One of the 25 Most Irresistible Hollywood Novels’ Entertainment Weekly ‘Engrossing ... a captivating story that manages to be funny, sinister and surprising’ New York Daily News ‘A thrilling and highly original debut that cuts to the dark heart of celebrity and pornography. Michael Grothaus is one to watch’ Eva Dolan ‘Startling, inventive, funny and disturbing, compelling and oddly beautiful – Epiphany Jones is a novel that marks the arrival of a truly talented writer’ Kevin Wignall ‘A scabrously funny and thrillingly original book about atoning for past sins and indiscretions’ David F. Ross ‘The emotional range is astounding – Grothaus is an exceptional talent’ J M Hewitt ‘A truly impressive debut by a London-based American journalist who has investigated both Hollywood and the sex trade and uses his research to best effect in a twisting tale at the same time realistically gripping and sardonic … Grothaus writes with a delicate fluency that contrasts with the depravity of his subject matter. Humour and emotions: what more could you ask for in a thriller?’ Maxim Jakubowski, LoveReading ‘A real seat-of-the-pants read, and utterly uncompromising. It’s graphic, visceral, mordantly funny, thought-provoking and at times profoundly moving. It’s not for all, but it was certainly all for this one. I absolutely loved it’ Raven Crime Reads

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This collection is an inspiration and a delight for those advocates fighting for access to knowledge in the 21st century. The work highlights a number of 21st century challenges - including the obstacles of restrictive licensing; the barriers and obstacles of intellectual property; and the threats posed by international trade agreements. This collection provides a toolbox of policy solutions to deal with such hazards. The work highlights how information and knowledge can be unlocked through open access licensing, progressive intellectual property law reform, and fair trade.'- Matthew Rimmer, Australian Research Council, ANU College of Law and the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture'In a knowledge economy, access to information and knowledge takes on an ever-increasing role. But certain knowledge outputs are protected by exclusive intellectual property rights, which in one way or another restrict access to some information. It is therefore timely to examine these access issues in greater detail. The fact that this volume offers such a detailed analysis is its greatest strength. The in-depth analysis of all these aspects makes this a truly fascinating book!'- Paul Torremans, University of Nottingham, UK'This is an important book that brings together leading scholars from Europe and the United States to explore the access challenge in intellectual property law. It reframes the debate by focusing on the critical role of timely access to information in innovation-based economies. Well worth the read.'- Michael W. Carroll, American University Washington College of Law, USMassive quantities of information are required to fuel the innovation process in a knowledge-based economy; a requirement that is in tension with intellectual property (IP) laws. Against this backdrop, leading thinkers in the IP arena explore the 'access challenge' of the 21st century, framed as the tension between the interest in the free flow of information and the fragmentation of knowledge resulting from strong IP laws.In some areas this tension seems to resolve in a shift of IP laws in the direction of greater openness, whether due to new business models, improved legal tools or access-friendly interpretations of existing laws. The book's chapters explore the challenges encountered by this 'opening' process from various perspectives, including:- open access to public sector and scientific research data- enhanced use of licensing- reshaping the contours of individual IP laws- inclusion of new stakeholders in the IP debate- challenges to the information flow in the international arena.In identifying some of the core IP-related challenges to the process of adapting to the knowledge needs of the new economy, this book will provide an enlightening read for academics, policymakers and lawyers concerned with IP laws and the flow of knowledge.Contributors: J. Axhamn, D. Beldiman, D.L. Burk, E. Ellyne, C. Geiger, L. Guibault, R. Kampf, M. Marzetti, M. Ricolfi, I. Schneider, M. Senftleben, A. Stazi, P. Yu

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Doctors have been able to cure some forms of congenital blindness and deafness for decades. But this has created another problem: most people end up hating their new senses. To ask someone to adapt to a new sense is to ask them to reshape their entire world. Many simply cannot. Every waking minute, they are bombarded by meaningless sights or sounds. Some sink into a depression so great that they lose their will to live and die.So then what to do with the cases of Liam McCoy and Zora Damji? Liam was born blind and Zora was born deaf. Both received surgeries to restore their senses as teenagers. Today, both lead healthy, independent lives. The question at the heart of Coming to Our Senses is: why? The answer reveals a common misunderstanding of how perception works. We tend to think of perception as a purely mechanical process, as a camera or microphone in the brain, recording the world objectively. But neurobiologist Susan Barry argues that your senses are completely your own. What you hear or see is influenced by your environment, history, age, relationships, preferences, fears, and needs. Your senses are so intimately connected to your experiences that they actually shape your personality. And as you grow, your senses grow with you, much further into adulthood than doctors once thought. The way you sense the world is part of what makes you, you.People like Liam and Zohra provide a clear view of how our sensory abilities intertwine with our personality, and Barry spent a decade with them, watching their process. Barry finds the environmental sources of Liam's exquisite sense of direction, as well his inability to learn to recognize even his own mother's face. And she considers how Zohra's world expands upon learning that sound allows you to observe things you can't see, as well as how the voice of Zohra's Aunt Najma influenced the kinds of voices Zohra can understand best. Ultimately, Liam and Zohra adapted to their new senses because their individual circumstances allowed them to do so, and in ways that reflect those circumstances. But there is no single answer to why some people adapt to their new senses while others do not, or for that matter, why two normally sighted people can see the same thing two different ways -- the answer depends upon the whole history and tenor of a person's life.Coming to Our Senses tells its stories with grace, empathy, and genuine curiosity. It is a testament to the power of resilience, and a moving account of how, regardless of how we're born, we must each find our own way.

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Peter Lindbergh and Azzedine Alaïa, the photographer and the couturier, were united by their love of black, a love that they would cultivate alike in silver print and solid color garments. Lindbergh ceaselessly turned to black and white to signify his search for authenticity in the faces he brought to light. Alaïa drew on the monochrome of timeless clothes to create veritable sculptures for the body. In this book, the unique dialogue between the two artists is immortalized in print. Illustrating their community of spirit, its images are a celebration of their artistic partnership and testament to their history-making achievements in photography and fashion. Despite their geographically opposed origins, Lindbergh and Alaïa pursued similar horizons. At the same time as Lindbergh’s reputation in Germany was growing thanks to his work in Stern magazine, and he set up his studio in Paris in 1978, Alaïa was the couturier shrouded in discretion whose sophisticated techniques were a treasured secret amongst the most important clients of Haute Couture. Alaïa became the architect of bodies, revealing and unveiling them, while Lindbergh distinguished them by shining a light on their soul and personality. Step by step, they became the creators that dominated their respective disciplines. Both rejected any artifice that distracted from their true subject, and it is with great ease that they came together for a number of powerful collaborations. Shared inspirations and aesthetic values are visible throughout their work. A beach in Le Touquet and the streets of old Paris reference a mutual love of black and white cinema and vast panoramas. The backdrop of an engine room illustrates the memory of an industrial German landscape for one and references the inordinate passion for functional design and architecture held by the other. Alaïa’s clothes act as pedestals for the smiles and eyes of the women who wear them: Nadja Auermann, Mariacarla Boscono, Naomi Campbell, Anna Cleveland, Dilone, Lucy Dixon, Vanessa Duve, Helene Fischer, Pia Frithiof, Jade Jagger, Maria Johnson, Milla Jovovich, Lynne Koester, Ariane Koizumi, Yasmin Le Bon, Madonna, Kristen McMenamy, Tatjana Patitz, Linda Spierings, Tina Turner, Marie-Sophie Wilson, Lindsey Wixson. For Lindbergh, who built his notoriety on the images of these supermodels, the authenticity of their traits is all that matters. The result is a potent black and white catalogue that reverberates with truthfulness and beauty.The book accompanies the exhibition Azzedine Alaïa, Peter Lindbergh at the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, 18 rue de la verrerie, Paris, France. With contritutions by Fabrice Hergott, director of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paolo Roversi, photographer, and Olivier Saillard, fashion historian and director of the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, Paris.

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Get organized, declutter, and find more calm in your days with this accessible, step-by-step guide to lasting order in your home sweet home. Do you feel overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious about the clutter in your home? Have you spent countless hours organizing your home only to find it all destroyed in a matter of seconds? Does it seem like you will never get organized enough? Keeping order in your home can feel like a daunting and never-ending task, especially when you have little ones, but with Home Sweet Organized Home, you will be able to declutter your home easily and maintain lasting order in your sacred space. Jessica Litman, the mama, organizing expert, and creator behind The Organized Mama will help you optimize and maintain order in your home, so you can find more calm in your everyday life. Her practical organizing and decorating advice will make it simpler for you to keep your space exactly how you like it. Each chapter offers a step-by-step guide to organize a single room in your home—from your bedroom closet to your junk drawer to your kids’ rooms and toys—you will learn how to keep it all tidy. Have a stress-free and clutter-free home. In Home Sweet Organized Home, you will: Learn how to easily keep lasting order in your home. Tackle toy clutter and kid spaces. Use realistic tips to create a home that is welcoming. Beautify your space so it always feels fresh and calm. Find ways to keep yourself motivated and tricks to help you feel more at ease. Transform your space and your life with this guide to a cozy and peaceful home. Now more than ever, the idea of “home” is incredibly important. Home is not only where the heart is, but it has also transformed into a school, workplace, and self-care sanctuary. The Inspiring Home series explores how to expertly feather your nest and create spaces for you and your family that are both purposeful and cozy. Learn how to get every family member organized even when everyone is on different schedules, find the balance between great design and helpful function in every room of the house, and update and upgrade your spaces to the latest trends without breaking the bank. With amazing style suggestions and spot-on tips from experts in the home design and organization fields, the Inspiring Home series will have you living the luxe life faster than you can say “accent wall.” Also in this series: Blissful Nest and Simply Spaced.

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Social impact communication is quickly become a mandatory skill for leaders of modern businesses and nonprofits, at all levels of an organization. Yet using strategy, language and influence to advance game-changing societal breakthroughs isn’t something most people learn in college. This book provides a pathway for empathy, clarity and persuasive communication to advance the social impact work that can help people, their families and society.Too often, workplaces leave these essential capabilities to chance or trust osmosis to do the work. These aren’t skills you can learn in a classroom. They must be learned while actively engaged in the work of social impact leadership. Too many organizations treat social impact communication and programmatic leadership as “just another marketing project.” It’s a tremendous missed opportunity for businesses seeking to add value to society and deepen their client/customer relationships. What’s more, it directly damages other aspects of organizations’ ESG priorities— specifically, their cultivation of a healthy, safe and engaged workplace with team members whose personal values and professional activities are in harmony.Journalist and social impact business executive Nate Birt walks you through the essential mindset shifts and principles needed perform the social impact work that matters and have confidence your headed toward true north. The book includes firsthand insights, how-to strategies and social impact leadership anecdotes, along with insights and tips from dozens of social impact communicators whose perspective will provide you with real-world validation, strategies and encouragement. Each chapter includes a call for personal reflection or action that features a series of question-based prompts to encourage further introspection and journaling. At the end of the book, you'll get access to other resources to continue the conversation and professional development in the area of social impact communication.What You'll Learn Understand what makes social impact communication fundamentally different from conventional advertising, journalism or marketing See why social impact communication requires translational communication capabilities within an organization, across partner stakeholders, and with external audiences, clients and customers. Examine how social impact communication cultivates more engaged leaders and teams by unlocking the power of team members’ individual values and personal purpose Who This Book Is ForSocial-impact executives and their teams in corporate or non-profit settings; non-ESG-focused executives seeking to better understand social impact and associated leadership/management strategies; college or university students seeking to specialize in social impact leadership; think-tank leaders, policymakers or others whose work intersects with social impact disciplines and decision-making.

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In this moving and inspirational memoir, singer Ally Brooke recalls her journey to fame, reveals how she has remained true to her beliefs through her most difficult moments. Featuring sixteen pages of never-before-seen photos, Finding Your Harmony takes readers behind-the-scenes of her proudest musical accomplishments, solo success, and her time on Dancing with the Stars.Ally Brooke burst onto the music scene as a member of Fifth Harmony, and quickly became a fan favorite with her infectious positivity and approachable attitude – not to mention her incredible voice. Following the band’s meteoric rise to fame, she embarked on a solo career, releasing her own hit singles, joining the twenty-eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, and showing people everywhere the rewards of hard work and faith.Now in this moving and inspirational memoir, Ally opens up about the experiences that led her to the spotlight, offering lessons from the heart and revealing how her tight-knit, Mexican-American family have helped her to live fearlessly since she was first catapulted into stardom. Tracing her success from its beginnings in San Antonio, Texas, Ally details the passion for music that took hold of her at a young age, and how with the help of her family she pushed herself to achieve her dreams, no matter how impossible they seemed. While her rise to fame was rapid, it wasn’t always smooth, and Ally candidly discusses the challenges she faced along the way, sharing how she navigated tough moments by staying true to herself and her beliefs. Opening up about her journey since Fifth Harmony disbanded, Ally recalls her tireless efforts to make music on her terms, charting back to back singles in the top 40 and amassing over 200 million collective worldwide streams. She also delves into her time on Dancing with the Stars, demonstrating how she conquered her fears and insecurities on her way to a top three finish and further established herself as a role model for young people the world over. Infused with the positive approach to life and spiritual openness that have fueled Ally’s journey, Finding Your Harmony uses her stories to help others follow their inner voices—even when the outside world makes it hard. Wise, grounded, and filled with sixteen pages of never-before-seen photos, Finding Your Harmony is a fascinating glimpse into the life and heart of one of popular music’s rising stars.

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Based on the eponymous symposium and exhibition, Fulfilled: Architecture, Excess, and Desire considers the role of architecture in a culture shaped by the excessive manufacturing and assuagement of desire. Until the term became synonymous with Amazon warehouses, the concept of fulfilment described the achievement of a desire - sometimes tangible, often psychological or spiritual. With the rapid growth of e-commerce, our understanding of fulfilment has evolved to reflect a seemingly endless cycle of desire and gratification - one whose continuity hinges on our willingness to overlook the cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of our ever-increasing expectation of quick and efficient fulfilment. A closer look at fulfilment reveals a social, typological, formal, aesthetic, and economic practice constructed collectively through both digital and physical interactions. It is a cultural practice which evolves like a language, both universally transferable and contextually specific. As a symposium, exhibition, and now publication, this project aims to draw out these new arrangements, sticky relationships, and material by-products of cultural production and to ask again the age-old question, “What does it mean to be fulfilled?” This book examines the architecture of fulfilment through three lenses: logistical, material, and cultural fulfilment. Each reveals the new forms of architectural practice and research that are possible, typical, and even surreptitiously encouraged in the age of Amazon. Fulfilment networks are not invisible systems; they are tangible objects - warehouses, suburban houses, parking lots, cardboard boxes, shopping malls, mechanical systems, shipping containers - with which architects necessarily interact. From political mapping and questions of labour to digital and physical storage typologies, contemporary architects learn from and work critically within the architecture of fulfilment. Their interests and approaches include the material and environmental shortcomings of global logistics and the formal, representational, and cultural potentials of a culture of excess. This book highlights architecture’s unique capacity to offer methodologies for confronting an increasingly ambiguous, alienating world and produce new knowledge and unexpected solutions that go beyond the dichotomies of rural and urban territories. Featuring new texts and visual work by more than a dozen contemporary architects: Ana Miljački – Boston, MA; Ang Li – Boston, MA; Ashley Bigham – Columbus, OH; Cristina Goberna Pesudo – Madrid, Spain; Curtis Roth – Columbus, OH; Jesse LeCavalier – Toronto, Canada; John McMorrough – Ann Arbor, MI; Keith Krumwiede – San Francisco, CA; Laida Aguirre – Ann Arbor, MI; Leigha Dennis – New York, NY; Lluís Alexandre Casanovas Blanco – Barcelona, Spain; Michelle Chang – Boston, MA; Miles Gertler – Toronto, Canada; Mira Henry & Matthew Au (Current Interests) – Los Angeles, CA

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Many teacher resources explore the fundamentals of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This one takes UDL to the next level for educators who understand the basics—and can’t wait to start using UDL in their lesson plans and classrooms.In this practical, accessible guidebook, UDL expert Patti Kelly Ralabate walks teachers through the entire UDL lesson planning process, from developing learning goals to monitoring student progress. Through vignettes, exercises, video demonstrations, and other immediately useful resources, K—12 educators will discover how to translate UDL from theory to practice and plan lessons that meet every learners needs. An essential guide for teachers, college instructors, specialized instructional support personnel, IEP team facilitators, curriculum planners, and inclusion facilitators, this book will help educators supercharge their lesson plans with one of todays best teaching approaches—and improve outcomes for students with and without special needs.This book helps teachers: Review and understand the big ideas of UDL—what it is, what it’s not Create effective learning goals based on content and performance standards Make sure learning goals are S.M.A.R.T.: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-oriented, and Time-bound Design lesson plans that address learner variability—even when teachers don’t yet know the specific needs of every student Measure what matters by applying UDL principles to assessment of student progress Infuse UDL features into traditional instructional methods (with examples of how 10 other educators did it!) Enhance UDL lessons with materials, tools, and media that add real value Use self-reflection strategies and professional learning communities to continuously strengthen everyday practice Practical Materials: To guide teachers through each phase of the lesson planning process, the book includes scenarios, models, charts, application exercises, reflection questions, check-ins, and 7 classroom videos (available online) that bring key UDL concepts to life. Educators will also follow the lesson planning process of three teachers as they apply UDL for the first time.

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Jesus Becoming Jesus, Volume 3 follows upon the previous two volumes of this series entitled Jesus Becoming Jesus. Volume 1 was a theological interpretation of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and volume 2 was a theological interpretation of the Prologue and Book of Signs of John's Gospel (chapters 1–12). Unlike many conventional biblical commentaries, Weinandy concentrates on the theological content contained within John's Gospel. This is accomplished through a close reading of John's Gospel, theologically interpreting each chapter of the Gospel sequentially. In so doing he also takes into account the Johannine corpus as a whole. He also relates John's Gospel to relevant material found within the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Corpus and other New Testament writings.In this present volume, Weinandy's original theological interpretation focuses first on the Evangelist's narrative of the Last Supper, which includes Jesus' washing of his disciples' feet, followed upon his lengthy farewell address and his ensuing High Priestly Prayer (chapter 13–17). Although Jesus speaks of his leaving his disciples, yet their hearts should not be troubled, for he is going to prepare a place for them in his Father's house, and he will also send them another Counselor, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not only convict the world sin, but he will also empower the disciples to profess their faith in Jesus as the Father's Son, even in the midst of persecution. All that Jesus tells his disciple in his final discourse, he then prays that his Father will accomplish through his forthcoming death and resurrection—above all that his disciples will share in the same oneness of love that he and his Father possess.Weinandy masterfully treats John's Passion and Resurrection Narratives. He not only theologically interprets the uniqueness of the Evangelist's narratives, but also how his narratives insect with the Synoptic accounts. Moreover, Weinandy's theological reading of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection weaves together John's soteriology, ecclesiology, and sacramentality—all of which are founded upon the Incarnation, that Jesus is the Father's Spirit-filled incarnate Son. As the title suggests, Jesus, being named Jesus, in his death and resurrection, definitively enacts his name and so becoming who he is—YHWH-Saves.

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When Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States in 1860, he came into office with practically no experience in military strategy and tactics. Consequently, at the start of the Civil War, he depended on leading military men to teach him how to manage warfare. As the war continued and Lincoln matured as a military leader, however, he no longer relied on the advice of others and became the major military mind of the war. In this brief overview of Lincoln’s military actions and relationships during the war, John F. Marszalek traces the sixteenth president’s evolution from a nonmilitary politician into the commander in chief who won the Civil War, demonstrating why Lincoln remains America’s greatest military president.As tensions erupted into conflict in 1861, Lincoln turned to his generals, including Winfield Scott, George B. McClellan, and Henry W. Halleck, for guidance in running the war. These men were products of the traditional philosophy of war, which taught that armies alone wage war and the way to win was to maneuver masses of forces against fractions of the enemy at the key point in the strategic area. As Marszalek shows, Lincoln listened at first, and made mistakes along the way, but he increasingly came to realize that these military men should no longer direct him. He developed a different philosophy of war, one that advocated attacks on all parts of the enemy line and war between not just armies but also societies. Warfare had changed, and now the generals had to learn from their commander in chief. It was only when Ulysses S. Grant became commanding general, Marszalek explains, that Lincoln had a leader who agreed with his approach to war. Implementation of this new philosophy, he shows, won the war for the Union forces.Tying the necessity of emancipation to preservation of the Union, Marszalek considers the many presidential matters Lincoln had to face in order to manage the war effectively and demonstrates how Lincoln’s determination, humility, sense of humor, analytical ability, and knack for quickly learning important information proved instrumental in his military success. Based primarily on Lincoln’s own words, this succinct volume offers an easily-accessible window into a critical period in the life of Abraham Lincoln and the history of the nation.

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Inspiring stories and success secrets from business leader and entrepreneur Amy Hilliard Pivot for Success tells business leader and entrepreneur Amy Hilliard’s stories of success, struggle, and sustainability to inspire you to become resilient. Hilliard offers her hard-won perspective on what it takes to "make it" in American business and in life. She talks about the tough stuff, the stuff that most people who rise to her level of accomplishment aren't eager for others to know. Few women, and few women of color, have created multi-million-dollar brands in senior corporate positions, legendary entrepreneurial environments, and start-ups. Hilliard’s fearless honesty in revealing her experience can help you find your way forward, even if you face obstacles in today's business environment. While Hilliard is a Harvard Business School graduate, Pivot for Success contains lessons not taught in school. Her perspective on success and the failure it often takes to succeed are invaluable. In this book, you will learn the 10 Pivot Points that have led Hilliard to where she is today, including Purpose, Passion, Perseverance, Positivity, Priorities, and more. The 10 Pivot Points you'll learn in Pivot for Success have been tried and tested, and even endorsed by Michelle Obama. In this book, Hilliard shares her impactful life lessons. No matter who you are or where you are in your life’s journey, you’ll need to gain vision, shift your energy, and make moves in order to get where you’re going. Through Pivot for Success, you’ll find that you can succeed, even when you think you've lost it all. Gain inspiration from Amy Hilliard's rise and resilience to multi-million-dollar success Leverage the 10 Pivot Points to best fit your goals in business and in life Learn to recognize when you’re on the right track or bounce back if your situation calls for a change of outlook and strategy Build the courage to take risks, shift your perspective, and discover new opportunities As the owner of three businesses, Amy Hilliard knows what it takes to hustle and get there. In Pivot for Success, she shows you how.

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This book Drylands: Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, edited by Victor R. Squires, Mahesh K. Gaur and Salah Attia Ismail, fills a gap in the literature admirably. It gets away from 'species lists' and designation of species and habitats as 'endangered' or 'at risk'. Instead, it opens up discussion on a range of issues relating to the important matters of biodiversity, land management and efforts at conservation (wise use) of natural resources that support an area's biodiversity. Dryland ecologists, land use change specialists, policy makers from UN agencies or from bilateral and multilateral donors and other natural resource management agencies will find the book very useful. It is also a valuable reference book for university students in ecology, geography, environmental studies and development studies in general. Key points â¶Provides a synoptic overview of the current problems and prospects for biodiversity conservation in a changing world based on a focus on selected ecosystems across Africa, Asia and the Middle East â¶Discusses the path forward to maintain and improve dryland ecosystems, conserve biodiversity and achieve land protection This edited volume is devoted to the examination of the implications of the inevitable changes wrought by global change on the welfare and livelihoods of tens of millions of people who live in dryland-dominated regions on all continents except Antarctica. Global change is more than just climate change. The shift to the market economy and demographic factors (population growth, urbanization and resettlement) receive attention here. The implications of change (including an analysis of the drivers of change) and the role of humans as agents of these changes are canvassed. Chapters by leading experts who live and work in lands focus on examples that are drawn from a number of sources including previously unpublished studies. The key purpose is to provide an up to date and in-depth global overview of drylands and give readers insights into the status of these vulnerable biomes and to alert readers to the consequences of a loss of biodiversity to the tens of millions of people, their livestock and the myriad of plants and animals that make up dryland ecosystems across the globe. Maintenance of biodiversity ensures the continued flow of ecosystems' goods and services on which most of us depend!

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The politics of building dams and levees and other structures are just part of the policies determining how American rivers are managed or mismanaged. America's well-being depends upon the health of those rivers and important decisions go beyond just dam-building or dam removal. American rivers are suffering from poor water quality, altered flows, and diminished natural habitat. Current efforts by policymakers to change the ways American rivers are managed range from the removal of dams to the simulation of seasonal flows to the restoration of habitat, all with varying degrees of success. Efforts to restore American rivers are clearly delineated by William Lowry in "Dam Politics" as he looks at how public policy and rivers interact, examines the physical differences in rivers that affect policies, and analyzes the political differences among the groups that use them. He argues that we are indeed moving into an era of restoration (defined in part as removing dams but also as restoring the water quality, seasonal flows, and natural habitat that existed before structural changes to the rivers), and seeks to understand the political circumstances that affect the degree of restoration. Lowry presents case studies of eight river restoration efforts, including dam removals on the Neuse and Kennebec rivers, simulation of seasonal flows on the Colorado river, and the failed attempt to restore salmon runs on the Snake river. He develops a typology of four different kinds of possible change - dependent on the parties involved and the physical complexity of the river - and then examines the cases using natural historical material along with dozens of interviews with key policymakers. Policy approaches such as conjunctive water management, adaptive management, alternative licensing processes, and water marketing are presented as possible ways of using our rivers more wisely. "Dam Politics" provides a useful and systematic account of how American waterways are managed and how current policies are changing. American rivers are literally the lifeblood of our nation. Lowry has written a lively and accessible book that makes it clear as a mountain stream that it matters deeply how those rivers are managed.

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The conventional wisdom on how technology will change the future is wrong. Mark Mills lays out a radically different and optimistic vision for what’s really coming.The mainstream forecasts fall into three camps. One considers today as the “new normal,” where ordering a ride or food on a smartphone or trading in bitcoins is as good as it’s going to get. Another foresees a dystopian era of widespread, digitally driven job- and business-destruction. A third believes that the only technological revolution that matters will be found with renewable energy and electric cars. But according to Mills, a convergence of technologies will instead drive an economic boom over the coming decade, one that historians will characterize as the “Roaring 2020s.” It will come not from any single big invention, but from the confluence of radical advances in three primary technology domains: microprocessors, materials, and machines. Microprocessors are increasingly embedded in everything. Materials, from which everything is built, are emerging with novel, almost magical capabilities. And machines, which make and move all manner of stuff, are undergoing a complementary transformation. Accelerating and enabling all of this is the Cloud, history’s biggest infrastructure, which is itself based on the building blocks of next-generation microprocessors and artificial intelligence.We’ve seen this pattern before. The technological revolution that drove the great economic expansion of the twentieth century can be traced to a similar confluence, one that was first visible in the 1920s: a new information infrastructure (telephony), new machines (cars and power plants), and new materials (plastics and pharmaceuticals). Single inventions don’t drive great, long-cycle booms. It always takes convergent revolutions in technology’s three core spheres—information, materials, and machines. Over history, that’s only happened a few times. We have wrung much magic from the technologies that fueled the last long boom. But the great convergence now underway will ignite the 2020s. And this time, unlike any previous historical epoch, we have the Cloud amplifying everything. The next long boom starts now.

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Some 200 years after the original invention, internal design of a Stirling engine has come to be considered a specialist task, calling for extensive experience and for access to sophisticated computer modelling. The low parts-count of the type is negated by the complexity of the gas processes by which heat is converted to work. Design is perceived as problematic largely because those interactions are neither intuitively evident, nor capable of being made visible by laboratory experiment. There can be little doubt that the situation stands in the way of wider application of this elegant concept. Stirling Cycle Engines re-visits the design challenge, doing so in three stages. Firstly, unrealistic expectations are dispelled: chasing the Carnot efficiency is a guarantee of disappointment, since the Stirling engine has no such pretentions. Secondly, no matter how complex the gas processes, they embody a degree of intrinsic similarity from engine to engine. Suitably exploited, this means that a single computation serves for an infinite number of design conditions. Thirdly, guidelines resulting from the new approach are condensed to high-resolution design charts – nomograms. Appropriately designed, the Stirling engine promises high thermal efficiency, quiet operation and the ability to operate from a wide range of heat sources. Stirling Cycle Engines offers tools for expediting feasibility studies and for easing the task of designing for a novel application. Key features: Expectations are re-set to realistic goals. The formulation throughout highlights what the thermodynamic processes of different engines have in common rather than what distinguishes them. Design by scaling is extended, corroborated, reduced to the use of charts and fully Illustrated. Results of extensive computer modelling are condensed down to high-resolution Nomograms. Worked examples feature throughout. Prime movers (and coolers) operating on the Stirling cycle are of increasing interest to industry, the military (stealth submarines) and space agencies. Stirling Cycle Engines fills a gap in the technical literature and is a comprehensive manual for researchers and practitioners. In particular, it will support effort world-wide to exploit potential for such applications as small-scale CHP (combined heat and power), solar energy conversion and utilization of low-grade heat.

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To date, little has been written about the Territorial Air Force as a voluntary military organisation and no sustained analysis of its recruitment and social composition undertaken. Made up of three different parts, the Auxiliary Air Force, the Special Reserve and the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, these three separate and different groups have not featured significantly in existing literature. Current historiography of the AAF and SR is dominated by the experiences of Nos. 600 and 601 Squadrons, which were based in London, and presents a popular image of a gentlemen's flying club, whilst that of the RAFVR presents an image of a much more egalitarian institution, intended to be a citizens' air force. This book will present the history of the Territorial Air Force from its creation in the early 1920s until 1957\. It will consider the ideas behind the formation of two different types of reserve for the RAF and it will examine the way in which men were recruited for the three different groups. Woven throughout the text will be an analysis of how the volunteers joined, and what kinds of men were accepted into the organisations as both pilots and officers. It will also analyse the influences class and social status had on recruitment in the run up to the Second World War. It will explore the key differences between the Auxiliary squadrons and the SR squadrons, as well as the main reasons for the idea of merging the SR squadrons into the AAF squadrons. It will briefly discuss the newly formed University Air Squadrons which were set up to promote air mindedness and to stimulate an interest and research on matters aeronautical. Military voluntarism continued to play a key role in the defence of twentieth-century Britain, but the underlying tensions and weaknesses associated with a class-based voluntary culture meant that the TAF had to change in response to new pressures. Class ceased to be the key determining factor in the recruitment of officers as the organisations faced new challenges. Within both the AAF and the RAFVR the pre-war impression of a gentlemen's flying club finally gave way to a more meritocratic culture in the post-war world.

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Long Strange Journey presents the first critical analysis of visual objects and discourses that animate Zen art modernism and its legacies, with particular emphasis on the postwar “Zen boom.” Since the late nineteenth century, Zen and Zen art have emerged as globally familiar terms associated with a spectrum of practices, beliefs, works of visual art, aesthetic concepts, commercial products, and modes of self-fashioning. They have also been at the center of fiery public disputes that have erupted along national, denominational, racial-ethnic, class, and intellectual lines. Neither stable nor strictly a matter of euphoric religious or intercultural exchange, Zen and Zen art are best approached as productive predicaments in the study of religion, spirituality, art, and consumer culture, especially within the frame of Buddhist modernism. Long Strange Journey's modern-contemporary emphasis sets it off from most writing on Zen art, which focuses on masterworks by premodern Chinese and Japanese artists, gushes over “timeless” visual qualities as indicative of metaphysical states, or promotes with ahistorical, trend-spotting flair Zen art’s design appeal and therapeutic values. In contrast, the present work plots a methodological through line distinguished by “discourse analysis,” moving from the first contacts between Europe and Japanese Zen in the sixteenth century to late nineteenth–early twentieth-century transnational exchanges driven by Japanese Buddhists and intellectuals and the formation of a Zen art canon; to postwar Zen transformations of practice and avant-garde expressions; to popular embodiments of our “Zenny zeitgeist,” such as Zen cartoons. The book presents an alternative history of modern-contemporary Zen and Zen art that emphasizes their unruly and polythetic-prototypical natures, taking into consideration serious religious practice and spiritual and creative discovery as well as conflicts over Zen’s value amid the convolutions of global modernity, squabbles over authenticity, resistance against the notion of “Zen influence,” and competing claims to speak for Zen art made by monastics, lay advocates, artists, and others.

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Evidence-Based Statistics: An Introduction to the Evidential Approach – from Likelihood Principle to Statistical Practice provides readers with a comprehensive and thorough guide to the evidential approach in statistics. The approach uses likelihood ratios, rather than the probabilities used by other statistical inference approaches. The evidential approach is conceptually easier to grasp, and the calculations more straightforward to perform. This book explains how to express data in terms of the strength of statistical evidence for competing hypotheses. The evidential approach is currently underused, despite its mathematical precision and statistical validity. Evidence-Based Statistics is an accessible and practical text filled with examples, illustrations and exercises. Additionally, the companion website complements and expands on the information contained in the book. While the evidential approach is unlikely to replace probability-based methods of statistical inference, it provides a useful addition to any statistician’s "bag of tricks." In this book: It explains how to calculate statistical evidence for commonly used analyses, in a step-by-step fashion Analyses include: t tests, ANOVA (one-way, factorial, between- and within-participants, mixed), categorical analyses (binomial, Poisson, McNemar, rate ratio, odds ratio, data that's 'too good to be true', multi-way tables), correlation, regression and nonparametric analyses (one sample, related samples, independent samples, multiple independent samples, permutation and bootstraps) Equations are given for all analyses, and R statistical code provided for many of the analyses Sample size calculations for evidential probabilities of misleading and weak evidence are explained Useful techniques, like Matthews's critical prior interval, Goodman's Bayes factor, and Armitage's stopping rule are described Recommended for undergraduate and graduate students in any field that relies heavily on statistical analysis, as well as active researchers and professionals in those fields, Evidence-Based Statistics: An Introduction to the Evidential Approach – from Likelihood Principle to Statistical Practice belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who wants to amplify and empower their approach to statistical analysis.

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DID YOU KNOW?While organizational entities cannot be sent to prison, they can be heavily fined, ordered to make restitution, placed on probation, forced to forfeit property, suffer public and stakeholder recriminations, and can be forced out of business. Avoid these unnecessary repercussions with Occupational Crime: Deterrence, Investigation, and Reporting in Compliance with Federal Guidelines. Whether you are starting from scratch or you wish to benchmark an existing program against another framework, this book takes you from legal mandates and program design to implementation and maintenance to help you develop an effective Employee Security-Awareness Program that accommodates the compliance needs specific to your organization.DON'T LET YOUR COMPANY BE THE NEXT STATISTICWe all watched it happen: the demise of a powerhouse corporation caused by the irreverent and illegal actions of a handful of employees and executives. If it wasn't clear before the Enron/Arthur Andersen fiasco, it's painfully obvious now: Not only do we have to worry about our employees committing crimes against us as employers, we may even be held accountable for their actions! From governmental entities to partnerships to non-profit establishments - organizations can be indicted, criminally charged, prosecuted, and found guilty of criminal conduct. If you haven't yet heard of the US Sentencing Commission, and more specifically Chapter Eight, Sentencing of Organizations, of the United States Sentencing Guidelines, it's time to learn.Occupational Crime: Deterrence, Investigation, and Reporting in Compliance with Federal Guidelines clearly explains how Chapter Eight sets forth punishment for organizations convicted of federal crimes, including felonies and Class A misdemeanors, and describes an effective compliance program and other incentives that can mitigate sanctions. It begins by defining the problem of organizational crime and puts into perspective the abusive employee behavior problem. Then the book examines the price that businesses, institutions, individuals, and the nation pays for organizational crime and shows how to calculate those costs. Thirdly, it provides the tools for the solution of the problem - through the implementation and maintenance of a customized Employee Security-Awareness Program. Finally, the book provides supplemental materials you can use for program planning, records, and communications media.In every venue, societal and governmental, abusive employee behavior and occupational crime is a costly and intricate issue demanding vigilant management attention and diverse remedies. Considering the uniqueness of each company, there is no "one size fits all" formula for an effective compliance program. Written by a 25-year veteran of corporate internal security and a certified fraud examiner, Occupational Crime helps you customize, no matter the size or type of company, a compliance program that will meet and exceed federal guidelines. With its step-by-step presentation, you will learn how to prevent, detect, and report crimes committed by employees on behalf of or against your organization.

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"Although the Devil still 'lives' in modern popular culture, for the past 250 years he has become marginal to the dominant concerns of Western intellectual thought. That life could not be thought or imagined without him, that he was a part of the everyday, continually present in nature and history, and active at the depths of our selves, has been all but forgotten. It is the aim of this work to bring modern readers to a deeper appreciation of how, from the early centuries of the Christian period through to the recent beginnings of the modern world, the human story could not be told and human life could not be lived apart from the 'life' of the Devil. With that comes the deeper recognition that, for the better part of the last two thousand years, the battle between good and evil in the hearts and minds of men and women was but the reflection of a cosmic battle between God and Satan, the divine and the diabolic, that was at the heart of history itself."—from The Devil Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub; Ha-Satan or the Adversary; Iblis or Shaitan: no matter what name he travels under, the Devil has throughout the ages and across civilizations been a compelling and charismatic presence. In Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, the supposed reign of God has long been challenged by the fiery malice of his opponent, as contending forces of good and evil have between them weighed human souls in the balance. In The Devil, Philip C. Almond explores the figure of evil incarnate from the first centuries of the Christian era. Along the way, he describes the rise of demonology as an intellectual and theological pursuit, the persecution as witches of women believed to consort with the Devil and his minions, and the decline in the belief in Hell and in angels and demons as corporeal beings as a result of the Enlightenment. Almond shows that the Prince of Darkness remains an irresistible subject in history, religion, art, literature, and culture. Almond brilliantly locates the "life" of the Devil within the broader Christian story of which it is inextricably a part; the "demonic paradox" of the Devil as both God's enforcer and his enemy is at the heart of Christianity. Woven throughout the account of the Christian history of the Devil is another complex and complicated history: that of the idea of the Devil in Western thought. Sorcery, witchcraft, possession, even melancholy, have all been laid at the Devil's doorstep. Until the Enlightenment enforced a "disenchantment" with the old archetypes, even rational figures such as Thomas Aquinas were obsessed with the nature of the Devil and the specific characteristics of the orders of demons and angels. It was a significant moment both in the history of demonology and in theology when Benedict de Spinoza (1632–1677) denied the Devil's existence; almost four hundred years later, popular fascination with the idea of the Devil has not yet dimmed.

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Back pain is the commonest form of rheumatism and it is estimated to affect between 65% and 80% of populations sampled. The costs of back pain-related medical care and disability compensation make it one of society's most significant non-lethal medical conditions. Whilst mortality is low, its morbidity is high, inconvenience great, and economic burden massive. The actual symptom of back pain is one of the commonest and most perplexing encountered in medical practice. A proper understanding of what it means is crucial for further medical advance. However, the field of back pain research probably has more experts than any other. Anybody who has back pain will, as often as not, expound views on all matters concerning causation and expectations. Indeed, it is not for a lack of ideas that this field of investigation has failed to make progress. A respected senior investigator advised me early on that patients could not even tell which side their pain was on. It was only many years later that I discovered why. Though the initial incident or accident would seem important to the patient and to the researcher, it is remarkable how little it helps distinguish patterns of back pain. Tests of inappropriate behaviour in the past have been widely disseminated and yet even the originators have said that they cannot be sure of the implications of positive non-organic test findings. This book will show that these 'indicators' are not what they seem to be. In many cases, it is difficult to tell which level in the lumbar spine the pain comes from, and thus treatments such as injections or operation, may be given at the wrong level, let alone the wrong side. Though the various forms of back pain treatment seem to help some patients, when these same treatments are subjected to randomised controlled trials, the evidence for efficacy seems to all but vanish. With all these difficulties and uncertainties, it can be seen why low back pain presents one of the most fallible fields of healthcare. This book indicates that there are ways of dealing with the majority of these problems. Many of the answers from the research conducted were most unexpected. The reader is also advised that the scientific approach cannot deliver hard and fast answers to all contemporary questions in such a wide field and much has depended on the choice of problems to study. Whilst the tests used to distinguish the patterns in this study have their limitations, and whilst there is, as yet, only limited evidence as to the underlying pathology for the patterns recognised, it is felt that some of the other patterns identified are descriptive of diagnoses that are generally accepted. If the answers that are put forward appear to change the direction of understanding, it is hoped that you, the reader, will be able to carry the enquiry further when you see patients, advise treatment or even experience back pain yourself!

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Wall Street Journal BestsellerCNN news anchor Brooke Baldwin explores the phenomenon of “huddling,” when women lean on one another—in politics, Hollywood, activism, the arts, sports, and everyday friendships—to provide each other support, empowerment, inspiration, and the strength to solve problems or enact meaningful change. Whether they are facing adversity (like workplace inequity or a global pandemic) or organizing to make the world a better place, women are a highly potent resource for one another. Through a mix of journalism and personal narrative, Baldwin takes readers beyond the big headline-making huddles from recent years (such as the Women’s March, #MeToo, Times Up, and the record number of women running for public office) and embeds herself in groups of women of all ages, races, religions and socio-economic backgrounds who are banding together in America. HUDDLE explores several stories including: The benefits of all-girls learning environments, such as Karlie Kloss’s Kode with Klossy and Reese Witherspoon’s Filmmaker Lab for Girls in which young women are given the freedom to make mistakes, and find their confidence. The tactics employed by huddles of women who work in male-dominated industries including a group of US veterans/Democratic Congresswomen, a huddle of African-American judges in Harris County, Texas, and an all-female writers room in Hollywood. The wisdom of huddling from trusted pioneers such as Gloria Steinem, Billie Jean King, and Madeleine Albright as well as contemporary trailblazers like Stacey Abrams and Ava DuVernay. How professionals such as Chef Dominique Crenn and sports agent Lindsay Colas use their success to amplify other women in their fields. The ways huddles of women are dedicated to making seismic change, including a look at Indigenous women saving the planet, the women who founded Black Lives Matter, the mothers fighting for sensible gun laws, America’s favorite female athletes (Megan Rapinoe, Hilary Knight, and Sue Bird to name a few) agitating for equal pay, and female teachers rallying to improve their working conditions. The bond between women who practice self-care and trauma healing together, including the women who courageously survived sexual abuse, and the women who heal together in The Class and GirlTrek. The ways women are becoming more intentional about the life-saving power of friendship, including the bonds between military wives, new moms, and nurses getting through the time of Covid. Throughout her examination of this fascinating huddle phenomenon, Baldwin learns about the periods of huddle ‘droughts” in America, as well as the ways that Black women have been huddling for centuries. She also uncovers how huddling can be the “secret sauce” that makes many things possible for women: success in the workplace, effective grassroots change, confidence in girlhood, and a better physical and mental health profile in adulthood. Along the way, Baldwin takes readers through her own personal journey of growing up in the South and climbing the ladder of a male-dominated industry. Like so many women in her field, she encountered many sharp elbows on her career path, but became an early believer in adding more seats to the table and huddling with other women for strength and solidarity. In the process of writing HUDDLE, Baldwin learns that this seemingly new phenomenon is actually something women have been doing for generations—a quiet, collective power she learns to unlock in her transformation from journalist to champion for women.

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In this refreshingly candid memoir, Kal Penn recounts why he rejected the advice of his aunties and guidance counselors and, instead of becoming a doctor or “something practical,” embarked on a surprising journey that has included acting, writing, working as a farmhand, teaching Ivy League University courses, and smoking fake weed with a fake President of the United States, before serving the country and advising a real one. You Can’t Be Serious is a series of funny, consequential, awkward, and ridiculous stories from Kal’s idiosyncratic life. It’s about being the grandson of Gandhian freedom fighters, and the son of immigrant parents: people who came to this country with very little and went very far—and whose vision of the American dream probably never included their son sliding off an oiled-up naked woman in a raunchy Ryan Reynolds movie…or getting a phone call from Air Force One as Kal flew with the country’s first Black president. With intelligence, humor, and charm on every page, Kal reflects on the most exasperating and rewarding moments from his journey so far. He pulls back the curtain on the nuances of opportunity and racism in the entertainment industry and recounts how he built allies, found encouragement, and dealt with early reminders that he might never fit in. And of course, he reveals how, after a decade and a half of fighting for and enjoying successes in Hollywood, he made the terrifying but rewarding decision to take a sabbatical from a fulfilling acting career for an opportunity to serve his country as a White House aide. Above all, You Can’t Be Serious shows that everyone can have more than one life story. Kal demonstrates by example that no matter who you are and where you come from, you have many more choices than those presented to you. It’s a story about struggle, triumph, and learning how to keep your head up. And okay, yes, it’s also about how he accidentally (and very stupidly) accepted an invitation to take the entire White House Office of Public Engagement to a strip club—because, let’s be honest, that’s the kind of stuff you really want to hear about.

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Whatever your position is on Black Lives Matter, defunding the police, and equity in law enforcement, former police chief Carmen Best shares the leadership lessons she learned as the first Black woman to lead the Seattle Police Department—a personal insider story that will challenge your assumptions on how to move the country forward. Chief Carmen Best has spent the last 28 years as a member of a big-city police force, an institution where minorities and women have historically found it especially difficult to succeed. She defied the odds and became the first Black woman to lead the Seattle Police Department. During her tenure, she was successful in bringing significantly more diversity to the force. However, when the city council cut her budget amid months of protests against police violence, she had no choice but to step aside. Without the city’s support, she felt she wouldn’t be able to continue changing the status quo of the police force from within.Throughout her career, Chief Best has learned lessons that those coming up behind her can benefit from. In this book, she will use her story to share those urgent lessons. Readers will read about: How Chief Best grew up to believe in the change she set out to create. Her early days in the police force, including lessons from the academy and her time on patrol. How she progressed in her career within a primarily white law enforcement culture and the events that led to her becoming Chief. How she built her team and overcame the politics involved in her high-level position until the call for defunding came. Carmen Best teaches readers the core qualities and mindset to persevere and rise through the ranks, even within a workplace whose culture and leadership must be challenged, and policies changed on the way to achieving that vision. Her motivating story serves as a master class in guiding principles for anyone striving to serve their community and rise to the highest echelon of success.

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The poem is perhaps the highest verbal form of communication. It illuminates and it conceals. It is as precise and as vague as a mirror."-David Meltzer Two-Way Mirror is a classic book of poetics. Written in short remarks, autobiographical anecdotes, and inspirational quotations drawn from philosophical, ethnographic, and literary sources, Two-Way Mirror is both a nondidactic guide to the art Meltzer has devoted his life to, and a literary pleasure in itself. With its various writing prompts, Two-Way Mirror has proven to be both inspirational and practical, a teaching tool and a guide to creativity that makes the perfect gift for poets at any stage of development. Attractively bound and printed in a deluxe gift edition, and featuring Meltzer's collection of found artwork collaged from thrift-store grammar books, this new and expanded edition retains the charm of the original while updating it for the present day.Building upon the version he self-published in 1977, Meltzer has written additional material that considers the effect of technological developments since the book's publication, as well as an afterword in which he reflects on the history of the volume, its inception, and its usefulness. Praise for Two-Way Mirror Reading Two-Way Mirror, I feel continually surprised, excited, alive. This book makes me want to make poems, and readers, beware: if you are not already a poet, this book could very well turn you into one."----Matthew Zapruder "I know of no better amalgam of poetry & poetics & no better introduction to the ways in which poetry can emerge for us & lead us beyond ourselves & toward our own fulfillments. Meltzer's grace of mind & the life of poetry that surrounds it make the case complete."--Jerome Rothenberg "A great book of learning from a lifetime's thoughts of the poem. Ramble, scribble, tickle, lightbulb! Timely and highly worthwhile."--Clark Coolidge "Invaluable for anyone who reads or writes poetry, or has a restless desire of any kind, this wondrous, zany compendium gives us 'a biography of poetry' that directly enters our veins, bypassing all the crud and restoring our sense of the art, and David Meltzer is a champion of the impossible to have compiled it ...a gift of delight and wisdom-keep it in your bag by day and by your bed at night."-Mary Ruefle

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In 1865 the Victorian poet Matthew Arnold rejoiced in the charm of Oxford, 'that sweet City with her dreaming spires'. A century and a half later, That Sweet City offers a visual and poetic tribute to what is still one of the fairest and most enthralling places in the world. Designed in the form of seven walks across and around Oxford, and radiating out into the surrounding countryside, this book evokes the buildings and landscapes, both famous and less well-known, that have witnessed and shaped the city's history. The first sequence of pictures and poems, Seven Sights of Oxford, leads the reader (and walker) from Christ Church Meadow across the High Street to the Radcliffe Camera; thence down Broad Street to St. Giles, the University Parks and Port Meadow. The second, Seven Secret Sights, offers a circular tour of lesser-known landmarks from the Town Hall to Folly Bridge, the Old Railway Bridge and Isis Lock, the re-emergent Radcliffe Campus, Mesopotamia and The Plain. Seven Ages of Oxford, starting with the Saxon Tower of St. Michael's Church in the Cornmarket, and finishing in the University s science area in South Parks Road (via the Castle, Worcester College, Christ Church, the Sheldonian Theatre and the University Museum), provides a short and eclectic history of the city and its ancient University. Other sequences of poems and paintings include Seven Treasures of Oxford (with the Alfred Jewel and the Bodleian Library), Seven Sights around Oxford (with Otmoor, Kelmscott and Blenheim Palace) and Seven Products of Oxford (including marmalade, books and Oxfam). A final walk, Seven Gardens of Oxford, celebrates the diversity of the city s many green spaces. An introduction provides a concise history of Oxford and explains the choice of sights, the structure of the poetry and the inspiration behind the illustrations. Maps make it easy for visitors to follow the walks and find their way around the city. In words and images, That Sweet City evokes a place constantly changing yet timeless in its beauty.

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In autumn 2006 an unnerving phenomenon hit the United States: honeybees were mysteriously disappearing from hives across the nation, with beekeepers reporting losses of between 30 and 90 per cent of their entire colonies. The problem soon spread to parts of Europe and even Asia, earning the name Colony Collapse Disorder. To this day nobody is absolutely sure why it is happening and what the exact causes are. However, in 1923 Rudolf Steiner, a scientist, philosopher and social innovator, predicted that bees would die out within 100 years if they were to be reproduced using only artificial methods. Startlingly, and worryingly, his prediction appears to be coming true. "Queen of The Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?" is a companion book to the critically-acclaimed film of the same name. Compiled by the film's director Taggart Siegel, it makes a profound examination of the global bee crisis through the eyes of biodynamic and organic beekeepers, scientists, farmers, philosophers and poets. Revealing the mysterious world of the beehive and the complex social community of bees, the book unveils millennia of beekeeping, highlighting our historic and sacred relationship with bees, and how this is being compromised by highly-mechanized and intensive agro-industrial practices. The bees are messengers and their disappearance is a resounding wake-up call for humanity! With full colour, stunning photography throughout, this engaging, alarming but ultimately uplifting anthology begins with an account of how Siegel's film came to be made. It continues with a wealth of articles, interviews and poems that offer unique philosophical and spiritual insights. Besides investigating many contributory causes of Colony Collapse Disorder, the book offers remedies as well as hope for the future. "Queen of the Sun" features contributions from Carol Ann Duffy, Taggart Siegel, Jon Betz, David Heaf, Gunther Hauk, Horst Kornberger, Jennifer Kornberger, Jacqueline Freeman, Johannas Wirz, Kerry Grefig, Michael Thiele, Raj Patel, Vandana Shiva, Jeffery Smith and Matthew Barton. These compelling voices signal a growing movement striving to found a culture fully in balance with nature.

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'I am a big fan of Jenny Kane' Katie Fforde Welcome back to Mill Grange in the latest uplifting romance in the bestselling Mill Grange series! Helen Rogers has been lying to herself over her feelings for Tom since the moment they met. And for good reason; not only are they colleagues, working together with the archaeology groups at Mill Grange, but her sabbatical is almost over and she'll soon have to return to Bath. Tom Harris knows he's falling in love with Helen. How could he not? She's smart, kind and great with his son Dylan. But with his ex suddenly offering him a chance to spend more time with Dylan, and the staff of Mill Grange about to host a wedding, everything else has to be put to one side. Even his feelings for a certain archaeologist. As Helen's time at Mill Grange runs short, the two are forced to consider what matters most... *Can be read as a standalone, but best as a part of the wider series: get your hands on Midsummer at Mill Grange to start from book one!* Readers are loving Spring Blossoms at Mill Grange: 'What a fantastic story this was, I loved it from start to finish. This is a well written, truly delightful read' – Reader review 'Don't you just love a book that sweeps you away and transports to a sunnier, happy time. Well this book is the perfect escape. Curl up and enjoy this romantic comedy. I loved it' – Reader review 'Ah, Jenny has done it again... I am already champing at the bit for book 4! Being back with the gang at Mill Grange is like meeting up with long lost friends' – Reader review 'What a lovely feel-good story! It's a fantastic mixture of romance and humour, filled with enough laughable and serious moments to balance it out' – Reader review 'Kane's writing style, with its gorgeous and vivid descriptions, allows readers to visit places and follow the characters as if they'd been there themselves' – Reader review 'This is a really easy read which definitely had me smiling and maybe I did shed a tear or two as well. I will be waiting impatiently for the next instalment' – Reader review 'A truly delightful read, which definitely had me smiling... I will be waiting impatiently for the next instalment' – Reader review

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The digital era is beset by distraction, and it feels like things are only getting worse. At times like these, the distant past beckons as a golden age of attention. We fantasise about escaping our screens. We dream of recapturing the quiet of a world with less noise. We imagine retreating into solitude and singlemindedness, almost like latter-day monks. But although we think of early monks as master concentrators, a life of mindfulness did not, in fact, come to them easily. As historian Jamie Kreiner demonstrates in The Wandering Mind, their attempts to stretch the mind out to God—to continuously contemplate the divine order and its ethical requirements—were all-consuming, and their battles against distraction were never-ending. Delving into the experiences of early Christian monks living in the Middle East, around the Mediterranean, and throughout Europe from 300 to 900 CE, Kreiner shows that these men and women were obsessed with distraction in ways that seem remarkably modern. At the same time, she suggests that our own obsession is remarkably medieval. Ancient Greek and Roman intellectuals had sometimes complained about distraction, but it was early Christian monks who waged an all-out war against it. The stakes could not have been higher: they saw distraction as a matter of life and death. Even though the world today is vastly different from the world of the early Middle Ages, we can still learn something about our own distractedness by looking closely at monks’ strenuous efforts to concentrate. Drawing on a trove of sources that the monks left behind, Kreiner reconstructs the techniques they devised in their lifelong quest to master their minds—from regimented work schedules and elaborative metacognitive exercises to physical regimens for hygiene, sleep, sex and diet. She captures the fleeting moments of pure attentiveness that some monks managed to grasp, and the many times when monks struggled and failed and went back to the drawing board. Blending history and psychology, The Wandering Mind is a witty, illuminating account of human fallibility and ingenuity that bridges a distant era and our own.

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American politics is not just a combination of high ideals and low cunning. It is also the story of thousands of local influencers, fixers, activists, and run-of-the-mill voters who shape the destinies of candidates. It's about the flawed and ambitious people who become candidates and must first grind it out for one vote at a time, if they want to ascend to the nation's highest office. Nowhere is this more true, and more carefully preserved, than in the state of New Hampshire.Utterly atypical of the country as a whole, New Hampshire has nonetheless afforded itself the status of the beacon of American democracy. New Hampshire has, by law, been the first state to cast its votes in the presidential primaries since 1920. Between that year and 1992, no one became president without first winning the New Hampshire primary. Since then, every commander-in-chief has finished in the top two, and the state has retained its clout in the twenty-first century. A win in New Hampshire is said by statisticians to boost a candidate's chances nationwide by twenty-seven percent. For that reason, the state is also often the graveyard of political ambitions: the list of sitting presidents whose terms ended with primary challenges launched from New Hampshire's granite rocks includes Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson. New Hampshire has also ruined the White House ambitions of a long list of well-known, well-funded challengers who couldn't figure out how to win it the hard way.Scott Conroy followed the 2016 campaign up and down the state of New Hampshire and used that experience to uncover the peppery local officials, wiley operatives, wide-eyed activists, and complicated handlers who have determined the state's primary outcomes for generations. Through the eyes of these sometimes anonymous but always deeply influential characters, he reveals the workings of American presidential politics at a point in the campaign when the White House is still a distant dream, and the votes that matter most can be found in far-flung hamlets like Dixville Notch, Berlin and Wolfeboro.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* From the writer and executive producer of the award-winning Netflix series The Good Place that made moral philosophy fun: a foolproof guide to making the correct moral decision in every situation you ever encounter, anywhere on earth, forever *'An absolute breeze to read; funny and enlightening and revealing' - Guardian'Enormously enjoyable, useful and readable' - The TimesHow can we live a more ethical life?This question has plagued people for thousands of years, but it's never been tougher to answer than it is now, thanks to challenges great and small that flood our day-to-day lives and threaten to overwhelm us with impossible decisions and complicated results with unintended consequences.Plus, being anything close to an 'ethical person' requires daily thought and introspection and hard work; we have to think about how we can be good not, you know, once a month, but literally all the time.To make it a little less overwhelming, this fascinating, accessible and funny book by one of our generation's best writers and adept minds in television comedy, Michael Schur, boils down the whole confusing morass with real life dilemmas (from 'should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?' to 'can I still enjoy great art if it was created by terrible people?'), so that we know how to deal with ethical dilemmas. Much as Chidi used humour and philosophy to make Eleanor a less selfish person, Schur takes us on a journey through the 2,500-year discussion of ethics, sketching a roadmap for how we ought to act along the way.By the time the book is done, we'll know exactly how to act in every conceivable situation, so as to produce a verifiably maximal amount of moral good. We will be perfect, and all our friends will be jealous. OK, not quite. Instead, we'll gain fresh, funny, inspiring wisdom on the toughest issues we face every dayWith contributions from Professor Todd May of Clemson University, who served as an advisor on The Good Place, this is a brilliant, clever and hugely entertaining book about one of the most important topics in the world.'The problem is, if all you care about in the world is the velvet rope, you will always be unhappy, no matter which side you're on.' - Tahani Al-Jamil, The Good Place

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The Roman emperor Commodus wanted to kill a rhinoceros with a bow and arrow, and he wanted to do it in the Colosseum. Commodus' passion for hunting animals was so fervent that he dreamt of shooting a tiger, an elephant, and a hippopotamus; his prowess was such that people claimed he never missed when hurling his javelin or firing arrows from his bow. For fourteen days near the end of AD 192, the emperor mounted one of the most lavish and spectacular gladiatorial games Rome had ever seen. Commodus himself was the star attraction, and people rushed from all over Italy to witness the spectacle. But this slaughter was simply the warm-up act to the main event: the emperor was also planning to fight as a gladiator. Why did Roman rulers spend vast resources on such over-the-top displays - and why did some emperors appear in them as combatants? Why did the Roman rabble enjoy watching the slaughter of animals and the sight of men fighting to the death? And how best can we in the modern world understand what was truly at stake in the circus and the arena? In The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino, Jerry Toner set out to answer these questions by vividly describing what it would have been like to attend Commodus' fantastic shows and watch one of his many appearances as both hunter and fighter. Highlighting the massive logistical effort needed to supply the games with animals, performers, and criminals for execution, the book reveals how blood and gore were actually incidental to what really mattered. Gladiatorial games played a key role in establishing a forum for political debate between the rulers and the ruled. Roman crowds were not passive: they were made up of sophisticated consumers with their own political aims, which they used the games to secure. In addition, the games also served as a pure expression of what it meant to be a true Roman. Drawing on notions of personal honor, manly vigor, and sophisticated craftsmanship, the games were a story that the Romans loved to tell themselves about themselves.

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Virtual, hands-on learning labs allow you to apply your technical skills in realistic environments. So Sybex has bundled AWS labs from XtremeLabs with our popular AWS Certified Data Analytics Study Guide to give you the same experience working in these labs as you prepare for the Certified Data Analytics Exam that you would face in a real-life application. These labs in addition to the book are a proven way to prepare for the certification and for work as an AWS Data Analyst.AWS Certified Data Analytics Study Guide: Specialty (DAS-C01) Exam is intended for individuals who perform in a data analytics-focused role. This UPDATED exam validates an examinee's comprehensive understanding of using AWS services to design, build, secure, and maintain analytics solutions that provide insight from data. It assesses an examinee's ability to define AWS data analytics services and understand how they integrate with each other; and explain how AWS data analytics services fit in the data lifecycle of collection, storage, processing, and visualization. The book focuses on the following domains: • Collection • Storage and Data Management • Processing • Analysis and Visualization • Data Security This is your opportunity to take the next step in your career by expanding and validating your skills on the AWS cloud. AWS is the frontrunner in cloud computing products and services, and the AWS Certified Data Analytics Study Guide: Specialty exam will get you fully prepared through expert content, and real-world knowledge, key exam essentials, chapter review questions, and much more. Written by an AWS subject-matter expert, this study guide covers exam concepts, and provides key review on exam topics. Readers will also have access to Sybex's superior online interactive learning environment and test bank, including chapter tests, practice exams, a glossary of key terms, and electronic flashcards. And included with this version of the book, XtremeLabs virtual labs that run from your browser. The registration code is included with the book and gives you 6 months of unlimited access to XtremeLabs AWS Certified Data Analytics Labs with 3 unique lab modules based on the book.

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