Search results for ""author sam"

How did the dog become man’s best friend? A celebrated anthropologist unearths the mysterious origins of the unique partnership that rewrote the history of both species.Dogs and humans have been inseparable for more than 40,000 years. The relationship has proved to be a pivotal development in our evolutionary history. The same is also true for our canine friends; our connection with them has had much to do with their essential nature and survival. How and why did humans and dogs find their futures together, and how have these close companions (literally) shaped each other? Award-winning anthropologist Pat Shipman finds answers in prehistory and the present day.In Our Oldest Companions, Shipman untangles the genetic and archaeological evidence of the first dogs. She follows the trail of the wolf-dog, neither prehistoric wolf nor modern dog, whose bones offer tantalizing clues about the earliest stages of domestication. She considers the enigma of the dingo, not quite domesticated yet not entirely wild, who has lived intimately with humans for thousands of years while actively resisting control or training. Shipman tells how scientists are shedding new light on the origins of the unique relationship between our two species, revealing how deep bonds formed between humans and canines as our guardians, playmates, shepherds, and hunters.Along the journey together, dogs have changed physically, behaviorally, and emotionally, as humans too have been transformed. Dogs’ labor dramatically expanded the range of human capability, altering our diets and habitats and contributing to our very survival. Shipman proves that we cannot understand our own history as a species without recognizing the central role that dogs have played in it.

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This text is aimed at people who have some familiarity with high-resolution NMR and who wish to deepen their understanding of how NMR experiments actually ‘work’. This revised and updated edition takes the same approach as the highly-acclaimed first edition. The text concentrates on the description of commonly-used experiments and explains in detail the theory behind how such experiments work. The quantum mechanical tools needed to analyse pulse sequences are introduced set by step, but the approach is relatively informal with the emphasis on obtaining a good understanding of how the experiments actually work. The use of two-colour printing and a new larger format improves the readability of the text. In addition, a number of new topics have been introduced: How product operators can be extended to describe experiments in AX2 and AX3 spin systems, thus making it possible to discuss the important APT, INEPT and DEPT experiments often used in carbon-13 NMR. Spin system analysis i.e. how shifts and couplings can be extracted from strongly-coupled (second-order) spectra. How the presence of chemically equivalent spins leads to spectral features which are somewhat unusual and possibly misleading, even at high magnetic fields. A discussion of chemical exchange effects has been introduced in order to help with the explanation of transverse relaxation. The double-quantum spectroscopy of a three-spin system is now considered in more detail. Reviews of the First Edition “For anyone wishing to know what really goes on in their NMR experiments, I would highly recommend this book” – Chemistry World “…I warmly recommend for budding NMR spectroscopists, or others who wish to deepen their understanding of elementary NMR theory or theoretical tools” – Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry

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UMTS Performance Measurement is a practical guide that explains how to identify and measure the main problems seen in today's UMTS live networks and will make performance measurement results gathered in the UTRAN environment understandable for the reader. It provides a fundamental background for daily work in the field or lab, covering a wide range of performance measurements that help to troubleshoot and optimize the UTRAN environment. The content goes far beyond what has been defined by international standard bodies like 3GPP and closes the gap between international standards and definitions of network equipment manufacturers (NEM) and network operators. The emphasis is on definition of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and measurements that are not described in 3GPP standard documents, such as throughput measurements and the success/failure analysis of all possible handover types. Includes clear coverage of the fundamentals of performance measurement software architecture and ways to collect and present statistical data Contains numerous call flow diagrams, conversion tables, protocol message examples and sample measurement results that can be used as reference for daily work in the field or lab Explains measurement limitations and how tolerances provide valuable information for validation and evaluation of measurement results Provides an overview of how performance measurement software works as well as information on how data streams are captured and analyzed, and how analysis results are aggregated and presented in graphic user interfaces and reports Providing a gateway into the world of UMTS-specific measurement scenarios and a general overview of what can be defined and measured at an in-depth technical level, this book will appeal to those involved in network operation, planning, configuration and deployment, as well as consulting and training companies, students, technical journalists and measurement equipment manufacturers.

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Theodore Roosevelt's writing has the same verve, panache, and energy as the life he lived. Perhaps no president in U.S. history,not even Jefferson,had so many opinions and intellectual interests, believed in so many causes, or worked so hard to translate his beliefs into action. A hard-headed idealist, an unabashed interventionist, a crusader on behalf of environmental preservation and against big business "trusts," he was also a writer of uncommon grace and passion with a gift for the memorable phrase. His autobiography, one of the two or three finest ever written by a U.S. president, abounds in exciting episodes of personal transformation and insights into the bitter politics of the day. Roosevelt was a sickly youth who steeled himself for a life of vigor, growing up surrounded by wealth in nineteenth-century Manhattan but vacationing in the West, where he rode with cowboys and learned to revere and study the natural world. His book describes his early failures in his political career and his ascent from the New York City police board to assistant secretary of the Navy where he advocated war with Spain, to his brief stint and public renown as a Rough Rider and on to the governorship of New York, vice presidency under McKinley, and finally the presidency itself. Elting Morison's new introduction analyzes what Roosevelt has included,and not included,about his many political conflicts, his role in the acquisition of the Panama Canal, and the deaths of his wife and his mother.As everywhere in his writing, the personality of T.R.,alert, voluble, forceful, compassionate,shines forth from this book, which remains a singular study of a dynamic and, in many respects, exemplary man who was also a key figure in the Age of Reform.

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Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295804071 Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in the 1980s and 1990s in southern Sichuan, this pathbreaking study examines the nature of ethnic consciousness and ethnic relations among local communities, focusing on the Nuosu (classified as Yi by the Chinese government), Prmi, Naze, and Han. It argues that even within the same regional social system, ethnic identity is formulated, perceived, and promoted differently by different communities at different times. Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China exemplifies a model in which ethnic consciousness and ethnic relations consist of drawing boundaries between one’s own group and others, crossing those boundaries, and promoting internal unity within a group. Leaders and members of ethnic groups use commonalties and differences in history, culture, and kinship to promote internal unity and to strengthen or cross external boundaries. Superimposed on the structure of competing and cooperating local groups is a state system of ethnic classification and administration; members and leaders of local groups incorporate this system into their own ethnic consciousness, co-opting or resisting it situationally. The heart of the book consists of detailed case studies of three Nuosu village communities, along with studies of Prmi and Naze communities, smaller groups such as the Yala and Nasu, and Han Chinese who live in minority areas. These are followed by a synthesis that compares different configurations of ethnic identity in different communities and discusses the implications of these examples for our understanding of ethnicity and for the near future of China. This lively description and analysis of the region’s complex ethnic identities and relationships constitutes an original and important contribution to the study of ethnic identity. Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China will be of interest to social scientists concerned with issues of ethnicity and state-building.

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In these dense and startling stories, Maya Sonenberg telescopes seasons, decades, and generations in candid depictions of women’s family lives. What happens when the urge to ditch your family outpaces the desire to love them? The stories in Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters, winner of the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction, attempt to answer this question, heading straight for the messiness of domestic relationships and the constraints society places on women as they navigate their obligations. Daughters desert their rheumy-eyed elders in dusty museums, steal a mother’s favorite teacup, or consider throwing their dead parents’ nostalgia-riddled belongings out the window. Mothers conclude that they love one child more than their others. Fathers puzzle over a wife’s inability to balance family and career or accuse a partner of blaming their child for her own misdeeds. Women mourn the children they decided not to have and fret over the legacy they’ll leave the children they do have. But sometimes the generations reconcile or siblings manage to rescue each other. Love tears these people apart, but it mends them too. The emotions expressed in these stories are combustible, both fraught and nuanced, uncontrollable and common, but above all often ignored or hushed because we’re not supposed to be bored by our children or annoyed with our aged parents, even as we love them. The careful shapes of these stories adapted from fairy tales, verse, letters, or newspaper announcements, the surprise of their wordplay, and the blaze of their lyrical sentences allow them to dig into and contain all those messy emotions at the same time. In these works, constraint creates both understanding and fire.

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Winner, 2024 E. Gene Smith Inner Asia Book Prize, Association for Asian StudiesHonorable Mention, 2023 Joseph Levenson Prize Post-1900, Association for Asian StudiesIn the aftermath of the cataclysmic Maoist period, three Tibetan Buddhist scholars living and working in the People’s Republic of China became intellectual heroes. Renowned as the “Three Polymaths,” Tséten Zhabdrung (1910–1985), Mugé Samten (1914–1993), and Dungkar Lozang Trinlé (1927–1997) earned this symbolic title for their efforts to keep the lamp of the Dharma lit even in the darkest hour of Tibetan history.Lineages of the Literary reveals how the Three Polymaths negotiated the political tides of the twentieth century, shedding new light on Sino-Tibetan relations and Buddhism during this turbulent era. Nicole Willock explores their contributions to reviving Tibetan Buddhism, expanding Tibetan literary arts, and pioneering Tibetan studies as an academic discipline. Her sophisticated reading of Tibetan-language sources vivifies the capacious literary world of the Three Polymaths, including autobiography, Buddhist philosophy, poetic theory, and historiography. Whereas prevailing state-centric accounts place Tibetan religious figures in China in one of two roles, collaborator or resistance fighter, Willock shows how the Three Polymaths offer an alternative model of agency. She illuminates how they by turns safeguarded, taught, and celebrated Tibetan Buddhist knowledge, practices, and institutions after their near destruction during the Cultural Revolution.An interdisciplinary work spanning religious studies, history, literary studies, and social theory, Lineages of the Literary offers new insight into the categories of religion and the secular, the role of Tibetan Buddhist leaders in modern China, and the contested ground of Tibet.

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Ethnic cleansing and other methods of political and social exclusion continue to thrive in our globalized world, complicating the idea that unity and diversity can exist in the same society. When we emphasize unity, we sacrifice heterogeneity, yet when we stress diversity, we create a plurality of individuals connected only by tenuous circumstance. As long as we remain tethered to these binaries, as long as we are unable to imagine the sort of society we want in an age of diversity, we cannot achieve an enduring solution to conflicts that continue unabated despite our increasing proximity to one another. By envisioning the public as a multivoiced body, Fred Evans offers a solution to the dilemma of diversity. The multivoiced body is both one and many: heterogeneous voices that at once separate and bind themselves together through their continuous and creative interplay. By focusing on this traditionally undervalued or overlooked notion of voice, Evans shows how we can valorize simultaneously the solidarity, diversity, and richness of society. Moreover, recognition of society as a multivoiced body helps resists the pervasive countertendency to raise a chosen discourse to the level of "one true God," "pure race," or some other "oracle" that eliminates the dynamism of contesting voices. To support these views, Evans taps the major figures and themes of analytic and continental philosophy as well as modernist, postmodernist, postcolonial, and feminist thought. He also turns to sources outside of philosophy to address the implications of his views for justice, citizenship, democracy, and collective as well as individual rights. Through the seemingly simple conceit of a multivoiced body, Evans straddles both philosophy and political practice, confronting issues of subjectivity, language, communication, and identity. For anyone interested in moving toward a just society and politics, The Multivoiced Body offers an innovative approach to the problems of human diversity and ethical plurality.

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Updated to reflect the most recent species classifications, a second edition of the beautifully illustrated and beloved guide to 600 members of the suborder Serpentes. For millennia, humans have regarded snakes with an exceptional combination of fascination and revulsion. Some people recoil in fear at the very suggestion of these creatures, while others happily keep them as pets. Snakes can convey both beauty and menace in a single tongue flick, and so these creatures have held a special place in our cultures. Yet, for as many meanings as we attribute to snakes—from fertility and birth to sin and death—the real-life species represent an even wider array of wonders. Now in a new edition, reflecting the most recent species classifications, The Book of Snakes presents 600 species of snakes from around the world, covering roughly one in seven of all snake species. It will bring greater understanding of a group of reptiles that have existed for more than 160 million years and that now inhabit every continent except Antarctica, as well as two of the great oceans. This volume pairs spectacular photos with easy-to-digest text. It is the first book on these creatures that combines a broad, worldwide sample with full-color, life-size accounts. Entries include close-ups of the snake’s head and a section of the snake at actual size. The detailed images allow readers to examine the intricate scale patterns and rainbow of colors as well as special features like a cobra’s hood or a rattlesnake’s rattle. The text is written for laypeople and includes a glossary of frequently used terms. Herpetologists and herpetoculturists alike will delight in this collection, and even those with a more cautious stance on snakes will find themselves drawn in by the wild diversity of the suborder Serpentes.

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In September 1940, Walter Benjamin committed suicide in Port Bou on the Spanish-French border when it appeared that he and his travelling partners would be denied passage into Spain in their attempt to escape the Nazis. In 2002, one of anthropology's - and indeed today's - most distinctive writers, Michael Taussig, visited Benjamin's grave in Port Bou. The result is "Walter Benjamin's Grave," a moving essay about the cemetery, eyewitness accounts of Benjamin's border travails, and the circumstances of his demise. It is the most recent of eight revelatory essays collected in this volume of the same name. "Looking over these essays written over the past decade," writes Taussig, "I think what they share is a love of muted and defective storytelling as a form of analysis. Strange love indeed; love of the wound, love of the last gasp." Although thematically these essays run the gamut - covering the monument and graveyard at Port Bou, discussions of peasant poetry in Colombia, a pact with the devil, the peculiarities of a shaman's body, transgression, the disappearance of the sea, New York City cops, and the relationship between flowers and violence - each shares Taussig's highly individual brand of storytelling, one that depends on a deep appreciation of objects and things as a way to retrieve even deeper philosophical and anthropological meanings. Whether he finds himself in Australia, Colombia, Manhattan, or Spain, in the midst of a book or a beach, whether talking to friends or staring at a monument, Taussig makes clear through these marvelous essays that materialist knowledge offers a crucial alternative to the increasingly abstract, globalized, homogenized, and digitized world we inhabit. Pursuing an adventure that is part ethnography, part autobiography, and part cultural criticism refracted through the object that is Walter Benjamin's grave, Taussig, with this collection, provides his own literary memorial to the twentieth century's greatest cultural critic.

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Since the last century, the relationship between vanguard and self-taught artists has been defined by contradiction. The established art world has been quick to make clear distinctions between trained and untrained artists, yet at the same time it has been fascinated by outliers whom it draws selectively and intermittently into its orbits. For a new exhibition launching at the National Gallery of Art, curator Lynne Cooke explores shifting conceptualizations of the American outlier across the twentieth century, drawing on the inherent sociality of the exhibition in her installation of these works. This companion catalog, Outliers and American Vanguard Art, offers a fantastic opportunity to consider works by schooled and self-taught creators in relation to each other and defined by historical circumstance. The art works in Outliers and American Vanguard Art come from three distinct periods when the intersections between mainstream and outlier artists were most dynamic and productive, ushering in exhibitions of art based on various degrees of co-existence, inclusion, and assimilation. Works by such diverse artists as Charles Sheeler, Christina Ramberg, and Matt Mullican are set in conversation with a range of works by such self-taught artists as Horace Pippin, Janet Sobel, and Henry Darger. Cooke also examines a recent increase of radically expressive work that challenges what it means to be an outlier today. She reveals how these distinctions have been freighted with a particularly American point of view as she investigates our assumptions about creativity, artistic practice, and the role of the artist in contemporary culture. Outliers and American Vanguard Art is the most comprehensive show ever to examine outliers in dialogue with their established peers. It is sure to inspire vigorous conversation about how artists and the work they make are represented.

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The Trump administration’s peace agreements in the Middle East were the greatest foreign policy accomplishment in decades. Now, for the first time, his ambassador to Israel explains how they pulled it off.Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity. For decades, the U.S. State Department called it diplomacy.David Friedman was an outside candidate when President Trump appointed him U.S. ambassador to Israel. He took office to find U.S.-Israel policy stuck in stalemate. For years, accepted wisdom was that extensive experience and detailed knowledge of Middle Eastern history and culture were necessary to negotiate treaties. In truth, Friedman realized, all parties played on that accepted wisdom to stall—expecting to get a better deal further down the road.Tossing the State Department playbook aside and incorporating insights from his many years as a negotiator in the American private sector, Friedman and a small team with no prior diplomatic experience revamped American diplomacy to project “peace through strength.” He emphasized the importance of leverage, the key to any good negotiation. After painstaking, behind-the-scenes work, the Abraham Accords were signed: a historic series of peace deals between Israel and the five Muslim nations.In Sledgehammer, Friedman tells the true story of how the Abraham Accords came about. He takes us from the Oval Office to the highest echelons of power in the Middle East, putting us at the table during the intense negotiations that led to this historic breakthrough. The inside story of arguably the greatest achievement of the Trump Administration, Sledgehammer is an important, inspiring account of the hard, hopeful work necessary to bring long overdue—and lasting—peace to one of the most turbulent and tragic regions of the globe.

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A myth-busting book challenges the idea that we’re paid according to objective criteria and places power and social conflict at the heart of economic analysis.Your pay depends on your productivity and occupation. If you earn roughly the same as others in your job, with the precise level determined by your performance, then you’re paid market value. And who can question something as objective and impersonal as the market? That, at least, is how many of us tend to think. But according to Jake Rosenfeld, we need to think again.Job performance and occupational characteristics do play a role in determining pay, but judgments of productivity and value are also highly subjective. What makes a lawyer more valuable than a teacher? How do you measure the output of a police officer, a professor, or a reporter? Why, in the past few decades, did CEOs suddenly become hundreds of times more valuable than their employees? The answers lie not in objective criteria but in battles over interests and ideals. In this contest four dynamics are paramount: power, inertia, mimicry, and demands for equity. Power struggles legitimize pay for particular jobs, and organizational inertia makes that pay seem natural. Mimicry encourages employers to do what peers are doing. And workers are on the lookout for practices that seem unfair. Rosenfeld shows us how these dynamics play out in real-world settings, drawing on cutting-edge economics, original survey data, and a journalistic eye for compelling stories and revealing details.At a time when unions and bargaining power are declining and inequality is rising, You’re Paid What You’re Worth is a crucial resource for understanding that most basic of social questions: Who gets what and why?

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When German forces occupied the coastline of the English Channel in 1940, one of the measures undertaken to give early warning of attacks from the sea or air was to set up a line of radar stations. Although this invisible screen was a passive defence, it was a serious 'barrier' that had to be neutralised for the Allied invasion to be launched in 1944. Planners at RAF Medmenham had established there the Central Interpretation Unit (CIU) to examine the results of aerial photography over the Continent and the unit prepared plans of every enemy radar site ready for briefing pilots undertaking preinvasion attacks. Those once-secret plans are now reproduced in this book, alongside the wartime photography, with comparison views of the sites today. Where farmland has now reclaimed the sites little remains to be seen, but on others there are still significant traces of a oncepowerful weapon in the German armoury. To set the scene, Professor R. V. Jones, the Assistant Director of Intelligence at the Air Ministry, recounts the events leading up to the proposal to mount a raid on the radar site at Bruneval. The site had what became known as a 'Wurzburg' and the idea was to dismantle and remove the critical parts of the unit to bring then back to Britain and, hopefully, at the same time capture the operators for interrogation. The operation in February 1942 achieved all its aims, and over the following two years, the CIU built up a Target List with folders including detailed descriptions of all 66 sites in Belgium and France that would have a bearing on the invasion area in Normandy. Undoubtedly the information - now reproduced in this book - was of inestimable value in assuring the success of Operation 'Overlord' in June 1944.

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Jack Ruby changed history with one bold, violent action: killing accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV two days after the November 22, 1963, murder of President John F. Kennedy. But who was Jack Ruby, and how did he come to be in that spot on that day? As we approach the sixtieth anniversaries of the murders of Kennedy and Oswald, Jack Ruby’s motives are as maddeningly ambiguous today as they were the day that he pulled the trigger. The fascinating yet frustrating thing about Ruby is that there is evidence to paint him as at least two different people. Much of his life story points to him as bumbling, vain, violent, and neurotic; a product of the grinding poverty of Chicago’s Jewish ghetto; a man barely able to make a living or sustain a relationship with anyone besides his dogs. By the same token, evidence exists of Jack Ruby as cagey and competent, perhaps not a mastermind, but a useful pawn of the Mob and of both the police and the FBI; someone capable of running numerous legal, illegal, and semi-legal enterprises, including smuggling arms and vehicles to both sides in the Cuban revolution; someone capable of acting as middleman in bribery schemes to have imprisoned Mob figures set free.Cultural historian Danny Fingeroth's research includes a new, in-depth interview with Rabbi Hillel Silverman, the legendary Dallas clergyman who visited Ruby regularly in prison and who was witness to Ruby’s descent into madness. Fingeroth also conducted interviews with Ruby family members and associates. The book’s findings will catapult you into a trip through a house of historical mirrors. At its end, perhaps Jack Ruby’s assault on history will begin to make sense. And perhaps we will understand how Oswald’s assassin led us to the world we live in today.

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For readers of Being Mortal and When Breath Becomes Air, the acclaimed co-founder of Death over Dinner offers a practical, inspiring guide to life's most difficult yet important conversation Of the many critical conversations we will all have throughout our lifetime, few are as important as the ones discussing death - and not just the practical considerations, such as DNRs and wills, but what we fear, what we hope, and how we want to be remembered. Yet few of these conversations are actually happening. Inspired by his experience with his own father and countless stories from others who regret not having these conversations, Michael Hebb cofounded Death Over Dinner - an organization that encourages people to pull up a chair, break bread, and really talk about the one thing we all have in common. Death Over Dinner has been one of the most effective end-of-life awareness campaigns to date; in just three years, it has provided the framework and inspiration for more than a hundred thousand dinners focused on having these end-of-life conversations. As Arianna Huffington said, 'We are such a fast-food culture, I love the idea of making the dinner last for hours. These are the conversations that will help us to evolve.' Let's Talk About Death (over Dinner) offers keen practical advice on how to have these same conversations - not just at the dinner table, but anywhere. There's no one right way to talk about death, but Hebb shares time- and dinner-tested prompts to use as conversation starters, ranging from the spiritual to the practical, from analytical to downright funny and surprising. By transforming the most difficult conversations into an opportunity, they become celebratory and meaningful - ways that not only can change the way we die, but the way we live.

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Growing up in an Italian American family in Queens, New York, in the ’70s, Francesca Miracola was trained from an early age to keep up appearances at all costs—but behind closed doors, her parents’ toxic marriage served as a blueprint for dysfunction. So when she met Jason Axcel at a bar as a twentysomething, she ignored all the red flags—and there were plenty of them—and dove right in, normalizing his emotional and physical abuse just like she’d learned to do. She even married and had two children with him. But something in her clicked one night when Jason strolled out the door after a vicious fight that left her degraded on the floor, and she decided she was done. Except Jason wouldn’t let her go. Even after they finally divorced and Francesca fell in love with someone else, her ex-husband was keen enough to recognize that she was the same broken girl he’d met a decade earlier, and he exploited that fact at every turn. He called the cops to her home with bogus claims; he bombarded her with provoking emails and texts; he stalked her every move; and, worst of all, he used their little boys as pawns in his campaign. Then he went for the jugular and sued her for custody. But Francesca was stronger than he’d given her credit for. Raw and illuminating, I Got It from Here is one woman’s story of saving herself and her children from the grips of a sociopath posing as a family man—and from the inherited trauma passed down by her own family of birth—while learning to trust in the inner voice that’s been trying to guide her all along.

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Mystical, timeless, and full of adventure: embark on the trip of a lifetime to the jewel of Peru with Moon Machu Picchu. Inside you'll find:*Strategic trekking guides, including two to four days on the Inca Trail, five days on the Salcantay, and an Inca Jungle Trail itinerary, plus focused coverage of Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Lima*Unique experiences beyond the beaten path: Explore seldom-seen ruins like the Ollantaytambo Temple and visit remote Quechua-speaking villages. Go horseback riding on a caballo de paso in the Sacred Valley, mountain biking to the hilltop fortress of Sacsayhuamán, or set up camp on the riverbank after a day of rafting on the Río Apurímac. Sample coca tea and authentic local delicacies, or shop for handmade Peruvian weavings, pottery, and jewelry*Essential planning information on agencies, tour guides, and porters, food and accommodations, packing suggestions, finding the best airfares, and getting around by bus, train, taxi, car, or motorcycle*How to visit Machu Picchu respectfully, with tips from Lima local Ryan Dubé on and helping the local economy, minimizing your impact, and avoiding over-tourism *A guide to hazards, precautions, and gear, including how to avoid altitude sickness*Full-colour photos and easy-to-use maps throughout, plus a convenient foldout map*Thorough background information on the landscape, wildlife, plants, culture, history, and local customs*Handy tools including a Spanish phrasebook, visa information, volunteer and study opportunities, and tips for seniors, families, visitors with disabilities, women travelling alone, and LGBTQ+ travellersWith Moon Machu Picchu's practical advice and insider know-how, you can forge your own path. Doing a tour of South America? Try Moon Cartagena & Colombia's Caribbean Coast, Moon Ecuador & the Galápagos Islands, or Moon Chile.

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When corporations misbehave the consequences are devastating. The monetary costs of the 2008 financial crisis, a direct result of financial mismanagement, were in the trillions, and yet none of those responsible were held to account. The monetary costs of Criminal Code theft pale in comparison, and yet our prisons are filled with people who commit street theft. In order to understand why governments, regulators, unions, activists and community groups have such a difficult time preventing and sanctioning corporate criminals we must first recognize the vital role of corporate economic power. Focusing on crimes against workers/employees, and the environment and financial crimes, About Canada: Corporate Crime traces the ways that particular systems of government from nineteenth-century crony capitalism to neoliberalism and globalized capitalism develop policies regarding the socially harmful and illegal behaviour of corporations. This book shows why governments are reluctant to pass, enforce and administer meaningful regulation of corporations: institutions and actors with the power to put thousands of potential voters out of work, generate negative commentaries from highly respected experts, and produce critical editorials from 80 percent of Canadian media (owned and controlled, let us remember, by many of these same corporations). Assessing the present state and future prospects of corporate crime, this book asks: How did we get here? What do we know about corporate crime? Why does it matter? and What are the main issues/developments today? In the end, it asks the most important question of all: How can political and economic systems be changed to prevent, or at the very least mitigate, the tremendous damage corporate activities are inflicting on human lives, health, jobs, communities and economies?"

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This book is a collection of interwoven historical narratives that present an intriguing and little known account of the Ogasawara (Bonin) archipelago and its inhabitants. The narratives begin in the seventeenth century and weave their way through various events connected to the ambitions, hopes, and machinations of individuals, communities, and nations. At the center of these narratives are the Bonin Islanders, originally an eclectic mix of Pacific Islanders, Americans, British, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and African settlers that first landed on the islands in 1830. The islands were British sovereign territory from 1827 to 1876, when the Japanese asserted possession of the islands based on a seventeenth century expedition and a myth of a samurai discoverer. As part of gaining sovereign control, the Japanese government made all island inhabitants register as Japanese subjects of the national family register. The islanders were not literate in Japanese and had little experience of Japanese culture and limited knowledge of Japanese society, but by 1881 all were forced or coerced into becoming Japanese subjects. By the 1930s the islands were embroiled in the Pacific War. All inhabitants were evacuated to the Japanese mainland until 1946 when only the descendants of the original settlers were allowed to return. In the postwar period the islands fell under U.S. Navy administration until they were reverted to full Japanese sovereignty in 1968. Many descendants of these original settlers still live on the islands with family names such as Washington, Gonzales, Gilley, Savory, and Webb. This book explores the social and cultural history of these islands and its inhabitants and provides a critical approach to understanding the many complex narratives that make up the Bonin story.

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A service-oriented architecture is fundamental to many new IT applications, from web development to social software and cloud computing. The same principles can be applied to every aspect of the service-oriented enterprise – not just in IT. In this book, you’ll explore how an enterprise architecture and viable services can link together to create a simpler yet far more powerful view of the enterprise, as a dynamic, unified whole. You can use the ideas, principles and methods described here in business transformation, workflow mapping, system design and much else besides, in every type of enterprise - including those in which there may be little or no IT at all. Step by step, you’ll walk through the basics of service-oriented architectures, the four key categories of services and how they connect, and how all of this comes together in real-world service design, implementation and operations. From this, you’ll discover how to identify and describe the different types of services that you need for your enterprise, and how to distinguish between the services that you can safely outsource, versus those that you do need to keep in-house. By the end of this book, you’ll learn how to construct function models and service models of your enterprise as a base for service-mapping, and how to pinpoint and map the information flows you need for service-management and service-performance, to keep everything on-track to purpose. What You'll Learn See how an enterprise architecture can work as a literal architecture Understand Stafford Beer’s "Viable System Model" and adapt it as a robust model Study how a Viable Services Model provides a template for service design that covers functionals, non-functionals and operational governance for services Who This Book Is ForEnterprise architects, Business architects, Service designers, Workflow designers

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From the former Head of Brand Strategy at Reddit comes a proven and thought-provoking approach to the digital economy and how brands can create authentic engagement that is rooted in the fundamental motivations behind human psychology Leading marketing practitioner and thought leader Joe Federer draws on evolutionary biology, anthropology, neuroanatomy, and psychology, as well as more than a decade of hands-on experience, to explain why people act so differently in various online spaces and what they are seeking from participating in each one. With a framework based on Freud’s Id, Ego, and Superego model of the human psyche, he demonstrates how the internet is a digital reflection of the collective human psyche and how different social networks correspond to different mindsets: platforms like Reddit to the unfiltered Id, Facebook and Twitter to the managed Ego, and Instagram to the ideal Superego. In the same way you behave differently when you’re home alone, out with friends, communicating with family, or interacting with coworkers, people act and express themselves differently in these various online spaces. Context matters. Understanding this will enable you to develop and execute effective engagement strategies to reach your target audiences on each social network. Learn: how to create content that drives sharing and word-of-mouth how brands can fit natively into different types of social channels how to balance branded social presences across different networks why authenticity will only grow in importance to consumers Fascinating and deeply compelling, The Hidden Psychology of Social Networks will equip you to make vastly more efficient use of your media buys, establish more thoughtful strategies, develop better creative, and, in the end, deliver more effective marketing that provides value.

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How would you describe yourself? Do you like to stand out, or fit in? Are you an Instagram junkie, or is Snapchat more your thing? Are you watching Zoella on YouTube, or reading Rookie on your phone? We're all different, and no-one's teenage years are the same. But we do all have one thing in common - being a teenager is about discovering who we are, and who we want to be. It can be tricky, building and forming your own identity and sense of self, and sometimes, advice from someone who has been there and done it in the not-too-distant past can come in useful. Enter Rosalind Jana, who's crammed more into her 20-odd years than most (including winning the Vogue Talent Contest for Young Writers AND 'Well Dressed' at the Observer Ethical Awards, but don't tell her we told you that...). Notes on Being Teenage covers all aspects of teenhood, from the serious (mental health issues, bullying, staying safe online), to the slightly-less-so (dating, style, fashion, starting a blog) and everything in between. Rooted in her own experiences as a blogger, part-time model and eco-fashion-expert, but also as a teen who struggled with scoliosis, bullying and her dad's depression, Rosalind is well-placed to offer advice and guidance to anyone navigating their teenage years. She's also spoken to loads of teens about their experiences, too, and their stories, problems, advice and wisdom are gathered here as well, along with interviews with inspirational and interesting people like Louise O'Neill, Juno Dawson and Rosianne Halse-Rojas. All this combines to form a warm, witty, wise book not just on how to survive but how to thrive as a teen. Essential reading for smart girls of any age.

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A story of migration, identity and belonging, drawing on the stories of people from Audrey Osler's mixed-heritage family, over three centuries. Whether or not we trace our families from beyond the shores of Britain, we British people deserve a better understanding of our shared past, and opportunities to explore and recognise the complexities and contractions of empire. Careless or wilful amnesia has allowed the British migration narrative to begin in the mid-twentieth century, with migrants from India, Pakistan and the Caribbean forming the foundation of present-day multicultural Britain. A racist fixation means that some twenty-first-century Britons fantasise that people of colour arrived after World War Two, without any link to the country, to exploit the British welfare state and British hospitality.For people of colour the questions, Where are you from? No, where are you really from? often imply more than simple curiosity. They are political questions of identity, since the assumption (naive or aggressive) is that to be British and to belong you must be white. Says Audrey Osler: 'The British Empire frames and shapes my family's history. Whether born in Britain, like me or my father, or in some other distant British territory, like my mother, we all continue to experience the legacy of this same empire and the impact of its ambitions, politics, and economics. My family story, back to the eighteenth century, across every generation, is one of migration in different directions, over four centuries, journeys prompted by war, study, a global economic crisis, a fresh start, love, and even child abduction. The stories I tell here reveal as much about Britain as they do about the countries of the British Empire. This is not just my history, it elucidates the largely untold history of a nation and of its citizens, both people of colour and white.'

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Apply advanced techniques for optimising machine learning processes For machine learning practitioners confident in maths and statistics. Bayesian Optimization in Action shows you how to optimise hyperparameter tuning, A/B testing, and other aspects of the machine learning process, by applying cutting-edge Bayesian techniques. Using clear language, Bayesian Optimization helps pinpoint the best configuration for your machine-learning models with speed and accuracy. With a range of illustrations, and concrete examples, this book proves that Bayesian Optimisation doesn't have to be difficult! Key features include: Train Gaussian processes on both sparse and large data sets Combine Gaussian processes with deep neural networks to make them flexible and expressive Find the most successful strategies for hyperparameter tuning Navigate a search space and identify high-performing regions Apply Bayesian Optimisation to practical use cases such as cost-constrained, multi-objective, and preference optimisation Use PyTorch, GPyTorch, and BoTorch to implement Bayesian optimisation You will get in-depth insights into how Bayesian optimisation works and learn how to implement it with cutting-edge Python libraries. The book's easy-to-reuse code samples will let you hit the ground running by plugging them straight into your own projects! About the technology Experimenting in science and engineering can be costly and time-consuming, especially without a reliable way to narrow down your choices. Bayesian Optimisation helps you identify optimal configurations to pursue in a search space. It uses a Gaussian process and machine learning techniques to model an objective function and quantify the uncertainty of predictions. Whether you're tuning machine learning models, recommending products to customers, or engaging in research, Bayesian Optimisation can help you make better decisions faster.

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Reboots the debate on 'code as law' to present a new cross-disciplinary direction that sheds light on the fundamental issue of software legitimacy Reinvigorates the debate at the intersection of legal theory, philosophy of technology, STS and design practice Synthesises theories of legitimate legal rulemaking with practical knowledge of code production tools and practice Proposes a set of affordances that can legitimise code in line with an ecological view of legality Draws on contemporary technologies as case studies, examining blockchain applications and the Internet of Things Laurence Diver combines insight from legal theory, philosophy of technology and programming practice to develop a new theoretical and practical approach to the design of legitimate software. The book critically engages with the rule(s) of code, arguing that, like laws, these should exhibit certain formal characteristics if they are to be acceptable in a democracy. The resulting digisprudential affordances translate ideas of legitimacy from legal philosophy into the world of code design, to be realised through the 'constitutional' role played by programming languages, integrated development environments (IDEs), and agile development practice. The text interweaves theory and practice throughout, including many insights into real-world technologies, as well as case studies on blockchain applications and the Internet of Things (IoT). Whenever you use a smartphone, website, or IoT device, your behaviour is determined to a great extent by a designer. Their software code defines from the outset what is possible, with very little scope to interpret the meaning of those 'rules' or to contest them. How can this kind of control be acceptable in a democracy? If we expect legislators to respect values of legitimacy when they create the legal rules that govern our lives, shouldn't we expect the same from the designers whose code has a much more direct rule over us?

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The Fifth Edition of Gass' Atlas of Macular Diseases, by Dr. Anita Agarwal, provides expert diagnostic guidance on macular disorders and quickly brings you up to date on this evolving specialty. Using a case-based approach, it richly depicts a full range of retina and macular diseases, including new infectious, degenerative, and dystrophic conditions. Take advantage of the latest imaging technologies to identify common and rare disorders, and confirm difficult diagnoses with the aid of more than 5,500 high-quality images. Printed in full color for the first time, this edition is accessible online at www.expertconsult.com. "... appropriate for highly ambitious residents, retina fellows and specialists, and general ophthalmologists who are looking for an excellent reference book with a proud lineage and impeccable reputation." Reviewed by ESCRS EuroTimes (European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery), Apr 2015 Rely on the same unique, richly illustrated case-descriptive format-encompassing history, clinical examination, and follow-up-that popularized the original book by the late Dr. Donald Gass, the famed ophthalmologist whose clinical expertise set new standards in macular diagnosis. Get expert diagnostic guidance under the new authorship of Dr. Anita Agarwal, a protégé of Dr. Gass who has compiled the ultimate collection of images and hard-to-find case studies. Evaluate macular diseases using the latest techniques including fluorescein angiography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), indocyanine green (ICG), and fundus autofluorescence. Visualize the conditions you're likely to see in practice and confirm your diagnoses by comparing your clinical findings to more than 5,500 images and illustrations (over 3,500 in full color). Search the complete text online, download the illustrations and view a bonus stereoscopic image gallery at www.expertconsult.com.

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Investigates the connections between jazz, sexual identity, and radical black politics In his controversial essay on white jazz musician Burton Greene, Amiri Baraka asserted that jazz was exclusively an African American art form and explicitly fused the idea of a black aesthetic with radical political traditions of the African diaspora. In the Break is an extended riff on “The Burton Greene Affair,” exploring the tangled relationship between black avant-garde in music and literature in the 1950s and 1960s, the emergence of a distinct form of black cultural nationalism, and the complex engagement with and disavowal of homoeroticism that bridges the two. Fred Moten focuses in particular on the brilliant improvisatory jazz of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, and others, arguing that all black performance—culture, politics, sexuality, identity, and blackness itself—is improvisation. For Moten, improvisation provides a unique epistemological standpoint from which to investigate the provocative connections between black aesthetics and Western philosophy. He engages in a strenuous critical analysis of Western philosophy (Heidegger, Kant, Husserl, Wittgenstein, and Derrida) through the prism of radical black thought and culture. As the critical, lyrical, and disruptive performance of the human, Moten’s concept of blackness also brings such figures as Frederick Douglass and Karl Marx, Cecil Taylor and Samuel R. Delany, Billie Holiday and William Shakespeare into conversation with each other. Stylistically brilliant and challenging, much like the music he writes about, Moten’s wide-ranging discussion embraces a variety of disciplines—semiotics, deconstruction, genre theory, social history, and psychoanalysis—to understand the politicized sexuality, particularly homoeroticism, underpinning black radicalism. In the Break is the inaugural volume in Moten’s ambitious intellectual project-to establish an aesthetic genealogy of the black radical tradition

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The Silk Road is as iconic in world history as the Colossus of Rhodes or the Suez Canal. But what was it, exactly? It conjures a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different, and far more interesting, as revealed in this new history. In The Silk Road, Valerie Hansen describes the remarkable archaeological finds that revolutionize our understanding of these trade routes. For millennia, key records remained hidden--often deliberately buried by bureaucrats for safe keeping. But the sands of the Taklamakan Desert have revealed fascinating material, sometimes preserved by illiterate locals who recycled official documents to make insoles for shoes or garments for the dead. Hansen explores seven oases along the road, from northwest China to Samarkand, where merchants, envoys, pilgrims, and travelers mixed in cosmopolitan communities, tolerant of religions from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism. Hansen notes that there was no single, continuous road, but a chain of markets that traded between east and west. China and the Roman Empire had very little direct trade. China's main partners were the peoples of modern-day Iran, whose tombs in China reveal much about their Zoroastrian beliefs. Hansen writes that silk was not the most important good on the road; paper, invented in China before Julius Caesar was born, had a bigger impact in Europe, while metals, spices, and glass were just as important as silk. Perhaps most significant of all was the road's transmission of ideas, technologies, and artistic motifs. The Silk Road is a fascinating story of archeological discovery, cultural transmission, and the intricate chains across Central Asia and Southeast Asia.

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Why is it that Tony Blair always wore the same pair of shoes when answering Prime Minister's Questions? That John McEnroe notoriously refused to step on the white lines of a tennis court between points? And that President-elect Barack Obama played a game of basketball the morning of his victory in the Iowa primary, and continued the tradition the day of every following primary? Superstitious habits are common. Do you ever cross your fingers, knock on wood, avoid walking under ladders, or step around black cats? Sentimental value often supersedes material worth. If someone offered to replace your childhood teddy bear or wedding ring with a brand new, exact replica, would you do it? How about £20 for trying on a jumper owned by Fred West? Where do such feelings come from and why do most of us have them? Humans are born with brains designed to make sense of the world and that need for an explanation can lead to beliefs that go beyond reason. To be true they would have to be supernatural. With scientific education we learn that such beliefs are irrational but at an intuitive level they can be resistant to reason or lie dormant in otherwise sensible adults.It now seems unlikely that any effort to get rid of supernatural beliefs or superstitious behaviours will be completely successful. This is not all bad news - such beliefs are a useful glue that binds us together as a society. Combining brilliant insight with witty example Hood weaves a page-turning account of our 'supersense' that navigates a path through brain science, child development, popular culture, mental illness and the paranormal. After reading SuperSense, you will realize why you are not as reasonable as you might like to think - and why that might be no bad thing.

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This short book calls to account the government misrulers and corporate criminals who made suffering from the global coronavirus pandemic more acute. Modeled on a famous 1940 bestseller--a pamphlet exposing appeasers of Nazi Germany--Guilty Men shows how the crisis has been stoked by the callous and opportunistic decisions of powerful men. The rogues gallery begins with Donald Trump, who deliberately downplayed the crisis despite knowing its dangers, as well as his international political allies, above all Boris Johnson. Billionaire politicians like Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler moved stocks at the same time they were telling Americans all was well . Political charlatans like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos undermined public safety in order to advance their agenda, Trump-controlled agencies, led by the ever-crooked Federal Reserve, bailed out Wall Street while failing to provide basic relief for workers. Libertarian "think tanks" like the Ayn Rand Institute decried public expenditures but were first in line to get bailout checks. Pharmaceutical companies gamed the vaccine race, and the most rapacious global corporations like Facebook, Visa, and Pfizer have found the pandemic to be very profitable indeed, vastly enriching the already grotesquely bloated fortunes of trillionaires like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Charles Koch. Guilty Men closes with a call for a version of the Pecora Commission, initiated by newly elected Franklin Roosevelt, that took aim at what FDR called "speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, and profiteering" that stoked the Depression. The commission led to some of the most far-reaching reforms in US history, as well as sensational hearings that led to the fall of the leading bankers and financiers of that era.

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The reflections in this book are based predominantly on the gospel readings for the weekdays of the coming liturgical year, 2023/24, with occasional references to the first reading. They follow the sequence of the weekdays of the liturgical year, beginning with the Monday of the first week of Advent on the 4th of December. In the course of the liturgical year, the gospel readings present us with a significant selection of the words and deeds of Jesus from all four gospels. In and through these gospel readings we encounter the living word of the risen Lord to his church. There is rich fare here to nourish our faith life and to help us to grow in our knowledge and love of the Lord. These short reflections attempt to listen to the gospel readings on their own terms while showing how they can continue to speak to our lives today. Many people feel drawn to basing their prayer on the Scriptures, in particular the gospels. It is hoped that these reflections will serve as a help to prayer. They may also be of service to priests who seek to offer a short reflection on the gospel reading of the day in the context of the Eucharist. Where there is a weekday Liturgy of the Word, with or without Holy Communion, they can be read as a reflection on the readings. On most week days, the same gospel reading is proclaimed in the church throughout the world. To read and reflect upon the gospels for the weekdays of the liturgical year is to go on a spiritual journey with the universal church.Those who travel this journey will discover that the Lord is very near to them in and through his word. Our baptismal calling is to allow the Lord's word to take root in our hearts and to bear fruit in our lives.

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Working equitation is a competitive equestrian sport that originated in Europe, with the first European Championship held in 1996. It quickly gained a fanbase for its beauty and its focus on classical horsemanship ideals and developing handiness under saddle. In 2004 the World Association for Working Equitation (WAWE) was established, and today, many countries have their own national organizations for governing working equitation competitions, including the United States—the USAWE was formed in 2020. Heralding the advent of a brand-new way to pursue and demonstrate horse-and-rider connection, working equitation competitor and trainer Ali Kermeen has written a much-needed reference for preparing both horse and rider to participate. The Working Equitation Training Manual provides a one-of-a-kind progressive training system to those new to the sport. Lessons focus on developing confidence with the obstacle phases of working equitation while incorporating dressage principles. The elements of each obstacle are broken down and then brought back together in step-by-step exercises that: - Prepare horse and rider to perform an obstacle properly. - Introduce horses and riders to competition obstacles. - Help improve and polish an obstacle's execution. With clear diagrams and color photographs, a helpful glossary of terms to help those unfamiliar with working equitation terminology, and variations and benefits for every exercise, readers are provided an appealing introduction to an exciting option for adding diversity to daily training, as well as showing and competing in other sports. “I started teaching these skills to all my students, regardless of their riding discipline,” says Ali. “These working equitation exercises help my riders excel at dressage, endurance, trail riding, pony clubbing, eventing, jumping, gaited horses, groundwork, Cowboy Dressage, and breed shows.” The Working Equitation Training Manual promises to do the same for you.

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*A MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING SPORTS WRITER*'Hamilton's book is a marvel . . . I'm not sure he could write a dull sentence if he tried' Spectator One of Duncan Hamilton's favourite writers on cricket, Edmund Blunden, wrote how he felt going to watch a game: 'You arrive early, earlier even than you meant . . . and you feel a little guilty at the thought of the day you propose to give up to sheer luxury'.Following Neville Cardus's assertion that 'there can be no summer in this land without cricket', Hamilton plotted the games he would see in 2019 and write down reflectively on some of the cricket that blessed his own sight. It would be captured in the context of the coming season in case subsequent summers and the imminent arrival of The Hundred made that impossible. He would write in the belief that after this season the game might never be quite the same again.He visits Welbeck Colliery Cricket Club to see Nottinghamshire play Hampshire at the tiny ground of Sookholme, gifted to the club by a local philanthropist who takes money on the gate; his village team at Menston in Yorkshire; the county ground at Hove; watches Ben Stokes's heroics at Headingley, marvels at Jofra Archer's gift of speed in a Second XI fixture for Sussex against Gloucestershire in front of 74 people and three well-behaved dogs; and realises when he reaches the last afternoon of the final county match of the season at Taunton, 'How blessed I am to have been born here. How I never want to live anywhere else. How much I love cricket.'One Long and Beautiful Summer forms a companion volume to Hamilton's 2009 classic, A Last English Summer. It is sports writing at its most accomplished and evocative, confirming his reputation as the finest contemporary chronicler of the game.

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'Barack Obama had a special talent for making different kinds of people feel comfortable around him because of his biracial life experience, says Adekoya. By the same token, Adekoya himself seems poised to become one of the most important and subtle new voices in Britain's never-ending conversation about race' David Goodhart, UnherdMixed-race is the fastest-growing minority group in Britain. By the end of the century roughly one in three of the population will be mixed-race, with this figure rising to 75 per cent by 2150. Mixed-race is, quite literally, the future.Paradoxically, however, this unprecedented interracial mixing is happening in a world that is becoming more and more racially polarized. Race continues to be discussed in a binary fashion: black or white, we and they, us and them. Mixed-race is not treated as a unique identity, but rather as an offshoot of other more familiar identities - remnants of the twentieth century 'one-drop' rule ('if you're not white, you're black') alarmingly prevail. Therefore, where does a mixed-race person fit? Stuck in the middle of these conflicts are individuals trying to survive and thrive. It is high time we developed a new understanding of mixed-race identity better suited to our century.Remi Adekoya (the son of a Nigerian father and a Polish mother, now living in Britain) has come to the conclusion that while academic theories can tell us a lot about how identities are socially constructed, they are woeful at explaining how identities are felt. He has spoken to mixed-race Britons of all ages and racial configurations to present a thoughtful and nuanced picture of what it truly means to be mixed-race in Britain today.A valuable new addition to discussions on race, Biracial Britain is a search for identity, a story about life that makes sense to us. An identity is a story. These are our stories.

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Discover the classic mystery from Dick Francis, one of the greatest thriller writers of all time'An excellent, gripping story in true Francis style' 5***** Reader Review'As always, Dick Francis keeps you reading until you get past the finishing post!' 5***** Reader Review______Cheltenham Races, New Year's Eve.Gerard Logan witnesses the death of his close friend, jockey Martin Stukely, after a fall from his horse. In the aftermath, Gerard is left to pick up the pieces - including a mysterious unmarked videotape that Martin secretly left him. But before Gerard gets to watch it, the videotape is stolen. And soon further crimes against Gerard and those close to him start to occur. What was on the missing videotape? And why are the attacks continuing? In order to stay alive, Gerard needs to keep one step ahead of his enemies and uncover the truth - before his livelihood and everything he loves is shattered for good . . .Packed with intrigue and hair-raising suspense, Reflex is just one of the many blockbuster thrillers from legendary crime writer Dick Francis.Praise for Dick Francis:'As a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his stride. The same is true of his crime writing' Daily Mirror'The narrative is brisk and gripping and the background researched with care . . . the entire story is a pleasure to relish' Scotsman'Dick Francis's fiction has a secret ingredient - his inimitable knack of grabbing the reader's attention on page one and holding it tight until the very end' Sunday Telegraph'A regular winner . . . as smooth, swift and lean as ever' Sunday Express'The master of suspense and intrigue' Country Life'Francis writing at his best' Evening Standard'Still the master' Racing Post

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Discover the classic mystery from Dick Francis, one of the greatest thriller writers of all time'Riveting from start to finish' 5***** Reader Review'Nothing beats a good Francis, and this is as good as they come' 5***** Reader Review'An excellent thriller. Spellbinding up to the end' 5***** Reader Review______When inventor Stephen Scott abruptly fires his winning trainer Jody Leeds, the racing world is shocked and disgusted - though not quite as angry as Leeds, who swears revenge on his former friend. But Steven is convinced that Leeds has been stealing from him - and worse - and felt he had no choice. And when Leeds decides to enact his vengeance, Steven finds out just what a nasty piece of work he really is. Because now Steven is not only in fear of losing everything - but also his life.Somehow, he must prove to the world that Leeds is a vicious crook - or die trying . . .Packed with intrigue and hair-raising suspense, High Stakes is just one of the many blockbuster thrillers from legendary crime writer Dick Francis.Praise for Dick Francis:'As a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his stride. The same is true of his crime writing' Daily Mirror'The narrative is brisk and gripping and the background researched with care . . . the entire story is a pleasure to relish' Scotsman'Dick Francis's fiction has a secret ingredient - his inimitable knack of grabbing the reader's attention on page one and holding it tight until the very end' Sunday Telegraph'A regular winner . . . as smooth, swift and lean as ever' Sunday Express'The master of suspense and intrigue' Country Life'Francis writing at his best' Evening Standard'Still the master' Racing Post

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GOING SOLO is the empowering and uplifting story of one woman's choice to become a single mother. 'I hope this story gives hope to anyone who wants children and to anyone who finds themselves single. Not to follow this path necessarily, but to remember that there are always many options.'Aged thirty-seven, single and having experienced two miscarriages, Genevieve Roberts found out that her fertility levels were dwlindling. On hearing this news, she made the courageous decision to embark on motherhood solo and eventually became pregnant using a sperm donor.Genevieve describes her initial fear of the prospect of birth without a partner, and the trepidation she felt towards all the responsibility she has taken on. She recounts all the milestones of pregnancy and motherhood that most women share with their partner -- going to NCT classes alone, taking part in birthing workshops with her sister-in-law, her amazement that two people in her pregnancy yoga class are following the same path as her. But ultimately what triumphs is Genevieve's excitement at meeting her daughter. She recalls the first months of parenthood, navigating the love, worry and tiredness of life with a newborn without a partner. She describes the beautiful simplicity of the relationship between herself and her daughter, as she gets to know Astrid without having to consider a partner. GOING SOLO is for anyone whose life has taken an unexpected twist; for people who are interested in modern families and for those who want to take control of their life and follow their dreams of parenthood. It celebrates the fulfilment that comes from following what makes you happy, and reminds us that beauty may be found when life offers a surprise or a deviation from convention.

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In Forty Autumns, Nina Willner recounts the history of three generations of her family - mothers, sisters, daughters and cousins - separated by forty years of Soviet rule, and reunited after the fall of the Berlin Wall.Shortly after the end of the Second World War, as the Soviets took control of the eastern part of Germany, Hanna, a schoolteacher's daughter, escaped with nothing more than a small suitcase and the clothes on her back. As Hanna built a new life in the West, her relatives (her mother, father and eight siblings) remained in the East. The construction of the Berlin Wall severed all hope of any future reunion. Hanna fell in love and moved to America. She made many attempts to establish contact with her family, but most were unsuccessful. Her father was under close observation; her mother, younger sister Heidi and the others struggled to adjust to life under a bizarre and brutal regime that kept its citizens cut off from the outside world. A few years later, Hanna had a daughter - Nina - who grew up to become the first female US Army intelligence officer to lead sensitive intelligence collection operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. At the same time, Heidi's daughter, Cordula, was training to become a member of the East German Olympic cycling team. Though separated by only a few miles, Nina and her relatives led entirely different lives. Once the Berlin Wall came down, and the families were reunited, Nina Willner discovered an extraordinary story. In Forty Autumns she vividly brings to life many accounts of courage and survival, set against the backdrop of four decades that divided a nation and the world.

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For Frieda Klein the days get longer, the cases darker . . .Psychotherapist Frieda Klein thought she was done with the police. But once more DCI Karlsson is knocking at her door.A man's decomposed body has been found in the flat of Michelle Doyce, a woman trapped in a world of strange mental disorder. The police don't know who it is, how he got there or what happened - and Michelle can't tell them. But Karlsson hopes Frieda can get access to the truths buried beneath her confusion.Painstakingly, Frieda uncovers a possible identity for the corpse: Robert Poole, a jack of all trades and master conman. But the deeper Frieda and Karlsson dig into Poole's past, the more of his victims they encounter - and the more motives they find for murder. Meanwhile, violent ghosts from Frieda's own past are returning to threaten her.Unable to discover quite who is telling the truth and who is lying, they know they are getting closer to a killer. But whoever murdered Poole is determined to stay free - and anyone that gets too close will meet the same fate. A gritty heroine, a gruesome crime and a terrifying hunt for a psychotic killer, Tuesday's Gone is not to be missed by fans of psychological thrillers. Praise for Nicci French:'Nicci French's sophisticated, compassionate and gripping crime novels stand head and shoulders above the competition. No one understands human psychological frailty better. No one writes better about grief, love, fear or emotional damage. Not many books are as insightful as they are addictive; Nicci French's are.' Sophie Hannah'Nicci French knows just how to play on our worst fears' Daily Mail

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A FINANCIAL TIMES & SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘Fascinating . . . a refreshing counterblast to many popular ideas about wellbeing’ Prospect‘Excellent . . . anyone reading it will come away with a kinder, better understanding of themselves’ Lucy FoulkesThere are many routes to mental wellbeing and award-winning neuroscientist Camilla Nord is at the forefront of finding them. In this ground-breaking book, she offers a revelatory tour of the scientific and technological developments that are revolutionizing the way we think about mental health, showing why and how events - and treatments - can affect people in such different ways.In The Balanced Brain, Nord reframes mental health as an intricate, self-regulating process, one which is different for all of us. She examines a huge diversity of treatments, from therapy and medication to recreational drugs and electrical brain stimulation, to show how they work, and why they sometimes don't. In doing so, she reveals how the small things we do to lift our mood during the course of a day - a piece of chocolate, a coffee, chatting to a friend - often work on the same pathways in our brain as the latest pharmacological treatments for mental health disorders. Whether they help us to manage pain, learn from experience or expend energy on the things that are important for our survival, these conscious actions are part of a complex process that is unique to each individual and the constant backdrop to our everyday lives.Nord shows that, with so many factors at play, there are more possibilities for recovery and resilience than we might think. Whether you're suffering or simply doing your best to stay afloat, this book is an invitation to discover what makes each of us feel better, and why. 'Compelling, revolutionary, compassionate . . . down-to-earth and insightful’ Irish Times

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The creator and host of My Cupcake Addiction-one of the world's most widely viewed online baking shows-shares her most dazzling and delicious dessert recipes and ingenious entertaining tips so you can throw the perfect party.Whether you're putting together a simple treat for a friend or an over-the-top extravaganza, baking cupcakes for the office or planning a trick-or-treat to be remembered, Sweet! Celebrations will be your go-to book in the kitchen. Organised around special occasions throughout the year-from spring parties to Christmas-the book includes Elise's favourite recipes for a rustic wedding, backyard barbecue celebration, elegant afternoon tea, colourful children's birthday bash and many more. Get the party started with a centrepiece cake-the Jack O' Lantern Smash Cake for a wickedly fun Halloween event or the Tree Stump Cake, dressed with flowers, for a magical woodland theme-and build from there. Elise's easy, innovative drinks, 'small bakes' and 'no bake' recipes are great for filling out your display and adding extra 'wow' factor. You'll find beautiful double-page photos of each theme party and step-by-step photographs that make decorating these gorgeous cakes easy-even for beginners. Using the same accessible approach that has drawn millions of followers to My Cupcake Addiction, Elise's cherished recipes for classic cakes, frostings and toppings will make any novice baker feel like a pro.Elise Strachan has become a household name in the world of sweets, attracting the attention and hearts of millions with her YouTube channel My Cupcake Addiction. Elise shares her passion for baking with her family, friends and an online community that believes, as she does, that life is sweet!youtube.com/MyCupcakeAddiction - facebook.com/cupcakeaddiction - instagram.com/mycupcakeaddiction - elisestrachan.com

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'I am grateful to add Flavour, quite simply a gorgeous book, to my Sabrina Shelf. As ever, deliciousness abounds...' - Nigella Lawson'Sabrina Ghayour has a knack for colourful, intensely flavoured, no-fuss recipes ... Perfect for relaxed family suppers' - Daily Mail'Sabrina Ghayour's appeal is in offering simple Persian and Middle Eastern-inspired recipes that are fuss-free and burst with flavour... this new book has that appeal in spades - Delicious MagazineThe new collection of simple, delicious, crowd-pleasing recipes from the bestselling Middle-Eastern chef.Enjoy over 100 fabulously flavourful recipes with a Middle-Eastern twist - perfect for family, friends and every occasion. CONTENTS INCLUDE:SaladsChicken shawarma salad; Halloumi, blood orange & pistachio rocket salad; Spice roasted butternut & black rice saladLittle bites & savoury treatsCurried cheese & potato puffs; Tamarind chicken wings; My sweet, salty & sublime BHTMeat, poultry, fish & seafoodHerb koftas with warm yogurt sauce & spiced mint butter; Ras el Hanout & orange lamb cutlet platter; Pan-fried salmon with barberry butterVegetables & pulsesSmoked aubergine with lime & maple dressing; Charred broccoli with lemons, chillies & yogurt; Mama ghanoushPasta, noodles & grainsHarissa, tahini & lamb spaghetti; Nut butter noodles; samosa pastaSweetFeta, basil & strawberry cheesecake cups; Lime, coconut & cardamom loaf cake; Pistachio & chocolate dream cakePraise for Sabrina Ghayour:'Sabrina Ghayour's Middle-Eastern plus food is all flavour, no fuss - and makes me very, very happy' - Nigella Lawson'I don't think she could write a dull recipe if she tried. Every one an elegantly spiced delight.' - Tom Parker Bowles'The golden girl of Persian cookery' - Observer

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'Such a charming read' CURTIS SITTENFELD'Smart, fresh and romantic . . . I loved this book with my whole heart' BETH O'LEARY'Absolutely irresistible - funny, addictive and deliciously romantic' ROSIE WALSH*****Nora's life is about to get a rewrite . . .Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it's her job. But when her husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns the collapse of her marriage into the best script of her life. When it's picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her picturesque Hudson Valley home, Nora's life will never be the same - especially after world-famous Hollywood actor and former 'Sexiest Man Alive' Leo Vance is cast as her ex-husband.The morning after the crew leaves, Nora finds Leo on her porch with a half-empty bottle of tequila and a proposition. He'll pay a thousand dollars a day to stay for an extra week. Seven days: it's the blink of an eye or an eternity, depending on how you look at it. It's enough time to fall in love. Enough time to break your heart . . .Filled with warmth, wit, and wisdom, Nora Goes Off Script is the best kind of love story - the real kind where love is complicated by work, kids, and the emotional baggage that comes with life. For Nora and Leo, this kind of love is bigger than the big screen.*****Readers love Nora Goes Off Script!'You will want to read this in one sitting! Gorgeous!'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review'A perfect beach read'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review'A five-star rom com!'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review'This book will have you laughing one minute and shedding a tear the next'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review'A lovely treat of a read'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review

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Three is the magic number!Change your life for ever with Faya Nilsson's Scandi-inspired, three-week food, fitness and mindfulness plan. With 60 delicious, healthy recipes.'During my career as a personal trainer, I've helped hundreds of clients arm themselves with the knowledge to achieve a happy, healthy and balanced life - with minimum sacrifice. FIT IN 3 will empower you to do the same.'Inspired by her childhood in rural Sweden - where fresh ingredients, fresh air and freshly baked cakes were a fundamental part of everyday life - personal trainer and award-winning blogger Faya Nilsson has created FIT IN 3. In this essential guide, the three key elements of a healthy life - food, fitness and mindfulness - work in harmony in a way that will change how you think about your mind and body for ever.With 60 easy-to-make, healthy recipes that don't skimp on fun or flavour (including some Scandi favourites!), calming mindfulness and yoga routines to help ease even the most over-stressed minds and highly effective, time-efficient workouts that don't require a gym membership, FIT IN 3 provides you with a simple formula for an enjoyable, healthy life. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3!To get you started on your journey, FIT IN 3 includes a three-week plan with daily menus, step-by-step HIIT and bodyweight-resistance workouts - suitable for beginners - and mindfulness exercises. It's everything you need to kick-start a new and sustainable way of life. 'You don't need to be fit already, you don't need to spend a fortune, you needn't be twenty-something years old and (crucially) you don't need to give up chocolate! Anyone can participate, and this book with provide you with the fundamental knowledge to understand how to do it forever. Let's get started!'Faya x

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55 Successful Harvard Law School Application Essays is the best book for anyone looking for that edge. Through the most up-to-date sample essays from the Harvard Law School students who made the cut and the most insightful critiques advice from the staff at The Harvard Crimson, it teaches applicants how to: stand out; argue their case effectively; arrange their accomplishments for maximum impact; and, avoid common pitfalls. 55 Successful Harvard Law School Application Essays guides applicants toward writing essays that reveal their passion for the law, the discipline they bring to this demanding profession, and the strength of character they possess for the ethical and moral challenges that lie ahead. The no-nonsense advice and all new essays give applicants all the help they'll need to write the essays that will get them in to the best law schools in the world.

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Multiple advanced neuroimaging applications in various neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease (PD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), vascular dementia (VaD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are covered in this book. Relatively novel techniques such as integrated PET/MRI and independent component analysis (ICA)-based dual regression (DR) methods were developed to capture multi-level molecular/functional and structural/microstructural as well as high-order inter-network coordination abnormalities. For instance, both PET dopamine transporter and striatal binding ratio reductions in the caudate and putamen were found in PD, consistent with the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) fractional anisotropy (FA) reduction and fMRI voxel-mirrored homotopic correlation (VMHC) in the substantia nigra (swallow tail sign signature of PD). Furthermore, dopamine storage and pathway labeled with the vesicular monoamine transporter tracer identified decreased densities in the bilateral mesial temporal cortex, caudate, orbitofrontal cortex, left frontal and occipital cortices, consistent with the morphological atrophy, functional connectivity and conductivity deficits in PD. Similarly in FTD patients, the advanced MRI methods such as ICA-DR, VMHC, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) as well as PET tracer for amyloid accumulation and FDG glucose uptake identified typical brain atrophy, structural dis-connectivity, glucose hypometabolism, higher neuropathological burden, lower interhemispheric correlation as well as disrupted intra- and inter-network modulation in the orbitofrontal and anterior temporal cortices together with insular and frontoparietal networks, with the cerebellum and dorsolateral attentional network as typical compensations. Functional and structural abnormalities had further been elucidated in the VaD dependent participants and autistic children. For instance, both lower FA and VMHC, brain atrophy and functional connectivity deficits, demyelination, axonal degeneration and white matter integrity damage in several white matter tracts were present in the dependent compared to independent participants in VaD data cohort. Increased neuronal activity with higher global fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (fALFF) in the conventional and slow-wave sub-band was confirmed with less efficiency of systematic integration in VaD dependent group. Moreover, in ASD compared to controls, regional gray matter volume and cortical thickness in all four brain lobes increased, whereas white matter volume were decreased in addition to the lower temporal, visual and superior frontal but higher inferior and dorsolateral prefrontal cortical functional connectivities exhibited in ASD. The differences in each type of disease could also be revealed with the same imaging method based on either unique region or distinct brain circuit inter-connection, using VMHC, ICA-DR, DTI, VBM, fALFF and graph-theory based small-worldness analysis. In this book, we have developed and generalized conventional and advanced imaging methodologies to several common neurodegenerative diseases. For instance, we have identified the unique imaging signature for each disease type and the underlying neuropathological mechanism connections with conductivity, structural and microstructural connectivity, intra- and inter-network correlation, systematic integration and efficiency analyses. Our objective, comprehensive and confirmative results indicated great potential in utilizing these quantifications for accurate disease classification and staging. With solid imaging evidence, thorough analysis and generalized applications, this book should capture the interests of readers in the broad fields of brain science, disease diagnosis and effective treatment.

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This book is an approach, in the wider theoretical considerations on scientific research and study, of issues relating to energy resources and energy security and, at the same time, it is a case study on Eastern Mediterranean energy security. The Mediterranean has been known since ancient times as a large semi-enclosed sea, surrounded by more than two states as it lies between three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. However, developments in the 21st century have necessitated viewing it conceptually as a distinct "new" region with specific characteristics. Comprised by Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Turkey, Italy the region is assuming increased significance in world affairs. More specifically, the region of the Eastern Mediterranean is currently of vital importance for the EU, due to several prospects and challenges, such as migration flows, energy, security and sustainability of the region. The individual objectives are the recognition of energy actions and resources, forms of energy, energy security and in general, all actions at the energy level mentioned in the specific area. Research this study will focus on the qualitative method to the subject. The structure of the present study was developed as follows: The Preface provides a general presentation of the topic. The first chapter presents an overview of eastern Mediterranean and energy issues. The second chapter reports on energy resources and it focuses on energy security and its basic principles. The third chapter is about energy and security. The fourth Chapter offers discussion on European Union's energy policy development and on the EU interests, strategy and policy regarding the Eastern Mediterranean region. The fifth chapter presents the changes in the East Mediterranean energy map and data on geopolitical chessboard. The last chapter presents the conclusions. A useful tool in completing this study was the understanding of the delicate ethnocultural and religious synthesis of the region, the current challenges and underlying controversies, considering the interlinked nature of interests and the importance of cross-border affiliations. All the findings of the study demonstrate certain dimensions of a reality, which are expected to be dynamic, creating risk but also future opportunities. The main finding of the study points out not only the strong correlation between energy, power, economics and politics but also the increased dependence of the latter two on the former, thus creating a hotbed of tensions, rivalries, and conflicts every time the existing relationship between economy and energy are destabilized. The shifting to energy sources, which are safe and eco-friendly, is a one-way process, the only means of survival and safe development for humanity. Generating energy based on economic, safe, cost-efficient and renewable criteria is the current ecological and technological challenge if, firstly, the vast interests in the energy sector are dealt with successfully. Finally, this book will be of key interest to scholars and students, for researchers in the fields of Energy Economics, Policy, and Security, Energy Law, Business, Regulation and Policy, Geopolitics, who aim to have a better understanding of the current trends or research in the relevant fields, for professionals in EU politics and foreign policy, energy policy and security, and more broadly to security studies, European politics and international relations and newcomers in the profession of energy security, and for policymakers who intend to apply the collective knowledge included into this volume into policy and decision -making.

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