Search results for ""author matt"

Federal judges, legal scholars, pundits, and reporters frequently describe the Supreme Court as the final word on the meaning of the Constitution. The historical record presents an entirely different picture. A close and revealing reading of that record, from 1789 to the present day, Reconsidering Judicial Finality reminds us of the “unalterable fact,” as Chief Justice Rehnquist once remarked, “that our judicial system, like the human beings who administer it, is fallible.” And a Court inevitably prone to miscalculation and error, as this book clearly demonstrates, cannot have the incontrovertible last word on constitutional questions.In this deeply researched, sharply reasoned work of legal myth-busting, constitutional scholar Louis Fisher explains how constitutional disputes are Settled by all three branches of government, and by the general public, with the Supreme Court often playing a secondary role. The Court’s decisions have, of course, been challenged and reversed in numerous cases—involving slavery, civil rights, child labor legislation, Japanese internment during World War II, abortion, and religious liberty. What Fisher shows us on a case-by-case basis is how the elected branches, scholars, and American public regularly press policies contrary to Court rulings—and regularly prevail, although the process might sometimes take decades. From the common misreading of Marbury v. Madison, to the mistaken understanding of the Supreme Court as the trusted guardian of individual rights, to the questionable assumptions of the Court's decision in Citizens United, Fisher’s work charts the distance and the difference between the Court as the ultimate arbiter in constitutional matters and the judgment of history.The verdict of Reconsidering Judicial Finality is clear: to treat the Supreme Court’s nine justices as democracy’s last hope or as dangerous activists undermining democracy is to vest them with undue significance. The Constitution belongs to all three branches of government—and, finally, to the American people.

Read more less

Best known for its World Heritage program committed to "the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity," the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded in 1945 as an intergovernmental agency aimed at fostering peace, humanitarianism, and intercultural understanding. Its mission was inspired by leading European intellectuals such as Henri Bergson, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, H. G. Wells, and Aldous and Julian Huxley. Often critiqued for its inherent Eurocentrism, UNESCO and its World Heritage program today remain embedded within modernist principles of "progress" and "development" and subscribe to the liberal principles of diplomacy and mutual tolerance. However, its mission to prevent conflict, destruction, and intolerance, while noble and much needed, increasingly falls short, as recent battles over the World Heritage sites of Preah Vihear, Chersonesos, Jerusalem, Palmyra, Aleppo, and Sana'a, among others, have underlined. A Future in Ruins is the story of UNESCO's efforts to save the world's heritage and, in doing so, forge an international community dedicated to peaceful co-existence and conservation. It traces how archaeology and internationalism were united in Western initiatives after the political upheavals of the First and Second World Wars. This formed the backdrop for the emergent hopes of a better world that were to captivate the "minds of men." UNESCO's leaders were also confronted with challenges and conflicts about their own mission. Would the organization aspire to intellectual pursuits that contributed to the dream of peace or instead be relegated to an advisory and technical agency? An eye-opening and long overdue account of a celebrated yet poorly understood agency, A Future in Ruins calls on us all to understand how and why the past comes to matter in the present, who shapes it, and who wins or loses as a consequence.

Read more less

Environmental and economic concerns have significantly spurred the search for novel, high-performance thermoelectric materials for energy conversion in small-scale power generation and refrigeration devices. This quest has been mainly fueled by the introduction of new designs and the synthesis of new materials. In fact, good thermoelectric materials must simultaneously exhibit extreme properties: they must have very low thermal conductivity values and both electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient high values as well. Since these transport coefficients are interrelated, the required task of optimization is a formidable one. Thus, thermoelectric materials provide a full-fledged example of interdisciplinary research connecting fields such as solid-state physics, materials science engineering, and structural chemistry and raise the need of gaining proper knowledge of the role played by the electronic structure in the thermal and electrical transport properties of solid matter. This book presents a detailed, updated introduction to the field of thermoelectric materials in a tutorial way, focusing on both basic notions and fundamental questions and illustrating the abstract concepts with suitable application examples. It discusses thermoelectric effects, the transport coefficients and their mutual relations, the efficiency of thermoelectric devices, and some notions on the characterization and related industry standards. It also reviews the two basic strategies for optimizing the thermoelectric performance of materials: the control of thermal conductivity and the power factor enhancement. It discusses structural complexity approach, focusing on complex enough lattice structures with heavy atoms in the unit-cell or nanostructured systems characterized by low-dimensional effects, and introducing different kinds of bulk materials of growing chemical and structural complexity. It also discusses the electronic structure engineering approach that focuses on obtaining a guiding principle, in terms of an electronic band structure tailoring process, and describes the role played by the electronic structure in the thermoelectric performance of different materials.

Read more less

A beautiful, full-color book showcasing 20 best practice designs from ecovillages around the world. Includes more than 300 photographs, maps and diagrams. • Features well-established ecovillages such as Findhorn in Scotland or Auroville in India and newer initiatives such as Hua Tao in China • Highlights the unique features of each project and their solutions to the global social and environmental challenges that confront us • Includes more than 300 full-color photographs, maps, and diagrams Offering a visual tribute to the work ecovillages do to alleviate climate change, social conflict, and environmental damage, including more than 300 full-color photographs, maps, and diagrams, this beautiful book highlights 20 best practice designs from ecovillages around the world to show how we can live lightly on the planet no matter where on earth we live, in all climate zones and cultures. It demonstrates how ecovillages have already achieved the climate goals all of us are now striving toward through practical lifestyle changes that promote peaceful and joyful coexistence both among people and between people and nature. Far from being only aesthetic choices, these changes give an increased quality of life, healthy homes, delicious organic food, playful interdependence, a new spiritual connection to our living planet, and much more. Through their regenerative, sustainable, and peace-promoting practices, ecovillages continue the culture of traditional village living in a modern way that addresses the critical challenges of our time. The book features the following 20 ecovillage projects: Hurdal Ecovillage and Hurdal Sustainable Valley, Norway; Svanholm, Denmark; Permatopia, Denmark; Solheimar, Iceland; Lilleoru, Tallin, Estonia; Findhorn, Scotland; Sieben Linden, Germany; Tamera, Portugal; Damanhur, Italy; Torri Superiore, Italy; Kibbutz Lotan, Israel; Sekem, Egypt; Chololo, Tanzania; Tasman Ecovillage, Australia; Narara, Australia; Hua Tao Ecovillage, China; Auroville, India; Ecovillage at Ithaca, New York, USA; Huehuecoyotl, Mexico; Ceo do Mapia, Brazil.

Read more less

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022, METRO, EVENING STANDARD, REFINERY29, COSMOPOLITAN 'Tenants should be compulsory reading for every politician' - Pandora Sykes 'Important heartbreaking and shocking ... it forces you to step back, look at the whole wretched system and think: "Why do we put up with this?" Whether you are a tenant or a landlord, or indeed a government minister, this is a vital read.' The Times 'A major new book on the history and politics of renting' Evening Standard A WATERSTONES BEST POLITICS BOOK OF 2022 A TIMES BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF 2022 Tony is facing eviction instead of enjoying retirement; Limarra isn't 'homeless enough' to get help from the council; and for Kelly and her asthmatic son Morgan, another new rented house is a matter of life and death. This is twenty-first century Britain, where millions are trying to build lives in privately rented accommodation, which creates profit for landlords but not safe and stable homes for tenants. This fierce and moving account tells their stories, and the story of how we built a housing system where homelessness is a constant threat. Award-winning housing journalist Vicky Spratt traces decades of bad decisions to show how and why the British dream of homeownership has withered and the safety net of social housing has unravelled. She has spent years talking with those on the frontline all around the country. Here, she illuminates the ways this national emergency cuts across generations, class and education and is devastating our health, destroying communities and transforming the social, economic and political landscape beyond recognition. But it is not irreversible. The Covid-19 pandemic showed that radical action is possible, and there are real steps we can take to give everyone the chance of a good home. This urgent, ground breaking book leads the way.

Read more less

Experience a year of discovering how to swap worry and anxiety for joy and contentment using this guidebook of weekly prompts and activities. Happiness is sought by all – but what, really, is happiness? Sometimes our confusion over just what it is we are looking for can make it seem elusive. Here, Lois Blyth explains what happiness is – and what it is not – and shows how it is within everyone's reach. She details the science of happiness, such as developing a happy brain, and its power to heal and even extend life. Then, she suggests simple activities for each week of the year that will help you reframe your view of the world. Some will lead you to self-reflection: look at what you're grateful for; increase your self-esteem and appreciate your uniqueness; become aware of your thoughts and language to note negative phrases and replace them with positive ones; tackle procrastination; and find happiness at work. Others encourage you to give back to the world, including a ‘good deeds pledge’ and developing a greater empathy for those around you. Spend a week living in the moment and exploring the wonder of the world through all your senses, experience the healing power of colour or try incorporating more exercise into each day, no matter how small, as being active is a key way to improve mental wellbeing. Taking on each activity for just a week at a time makes it seems much less challenging, but also, once you've spent seven days consciously doing something new or thinking in a different way, you'll find that week's activity starts to become a habit. Journal pages with friendly reminders follow each activity so that you can reflect on your experience and what you are discovering. Through simple shifts in approach, you can choose to be happy and love life, laugh more and live longer.

Read more less

In this heart-pounding tale of deception, a young P.I. must unravel the secrets behind the murders of a Los Angeles heiress's parents. Four years ago, a beautiful young heiress survived an attack that claimed the lives of both of her parents. The crime made headlines all over Los Angeles, both for the vicious nature of the killings and the seemingly random nature of the attack: nothing was stolen, and the van Aust family had no obvious enemies. Melia van Aust fled the city soon after the murders – which were never solved – but her brother Jasper has not been seen since. After a childhood spent in the shadow of her famous parents, Rainey Hall understands the dynamics of a dysfunctional family. She still hasn’t recovered from a tragedy that tore her own family apart six years before. It's part of the reason why she started her own private investigation agency—to aid victims of crimes that might otherwise go unsolved. When Melia returns to Los Angeles and moves back into her family home, someone begins sending her increasingly violent messages that allude to the killing of her parents. She hires Rainey to track down the culprit and find her missing brother. Touched by the similarities between their lives, Rainey feels compelled to protect Melia, even when it becomes clear that their relationship has become more than professional. Soon, Rainey finds herself falling down the rabbit hole of Melia’s life. Her quest to find Melia’s stalker will bring her in contact with disgraced royals, seedy neighbours, violent ex-boyfriends and former staff, each one with their own set of secrets. As the threats against Melia escalate and the two women are drawn together, it’s only a matter of time before another victim turns up.

Read more less

Lack of family structure, violence in the schools, and overcrowded classrooms spur a never-ending cry for "reforms" to confront such issues. Quentin L. Quade cuts through the alarming din to what he feels is the real heart of the matter- the ways society assigns tax dollars dedicated to education, what he refers to as educational finance monopoly or EFM.In the United States, contrary to the practice of many other modern democracies, tax dollars are assigned by state bureaucratic structures to each state's own schools. Such a system spawns structures and personnel that stay in place irrespective of merit, and keep control of all finances. An alternative to EFM, at work in various other democracies, is programs aimed to permit school choice without financial penalty. In such systems, parents determine the allocation of education-dedicated tax dollars, and can select schools most suited to their children. In contrast, under EFM state schools are sheltered from competitive incentives to excel, to make themselves choiceworthy. And independent schools are damaged because they are deprived of the resources they would have if parents were free to choose.On the one side, defenders of EFM want political control for financial advantage and to block efforts to change. On the other side, critics want parents to be free to decide the educational environment for their children. Quade maintains that EFM is fundamentally injurious to children, parents, and the nation; that it is maintained by political defenses of financial interests, not for reasons of educational merit; and that school choice without financial penalty would create better educational conditions and outcomes.Financing Education examines the major problems of American K-12 education, establishes the casual connections with EFM, offers school choice without financial penalty as a powerful and obvious cure, and examines several American school choice proposals. It will be of interest to policymakers, policy analysts, educators, taxpayers, parents, and all persons concerned about American's educational quality.

Read more less

Making decisions just got easierYou make decisions all the time in everyday life: what to eat, what clothes to wear, with whom you spend your leisure time and how you spend your money. In your business life you are also constantly making decisions: the different activities you - and your business colleagues - need to carry out in order to arrive at a sound decision. At work, you are deciding how to spend your time, which emails to answer, what subjects to raise at a meeting, when is the best time for your company to launch a new product, what companies you should invest in, what you are not willing to compromise on in negotiations, what policies to develop and how best to market your products and services. Some of these decisions may have already been made for you by other colleagues, usually those above you in your company or organization, and your task is merely to implement them. In other matters, however, you can exercise some control over the actual decision-making process.Each of the seven chapters in Decision Making In A Week covers a different aspect of the decision-making process:- Sunday: Know your aims clearly. What are you actually making a decision about?- Monday: Collect relevant information. Consider all the relevant factors as you gather the information you need.- Tuesday: Identify different options. Widen your thinking, challenge assumptions and consider creative solutions.- Wednesday: Work effectively as a team. Make decisions as a group so that colleagues will feel motivated to implement the decision.- Thursday: Evaluate different options. Set objective criteria against which you can examine the various options you have identified.- Friday: Make an informed decision and implement it, communicating it well to all the relevant parties.- Saturday: Review the decision carefully, evaluating the whole decision-making process, noting what went well and learning from mistakes.

Read more less

Achieve more, do more, create more with the power of creative courage Creative Courage challenges you to step outside of your comfort zone and truly make an impact. Set aside the same old routine and break the status quo—because you can only rise to new heights if you first smash the ceiling. Written by the former Executive Creative Director of Creations at Cirque du Soleil, this book shows you how to step up your game, flex your creativity, and make big things happen. Whether you work independently or as part of a team, whether you're self-employed or part of an organization, and even if you think creativity isn't a part of the work that you do—this book gives you the perspective, courage, and kick start you need to think differently about the things you do every day. Creative courage is more than a strategy, it's a way of life. It opens your mind—and the minds of those around you—to new approaches, new ideas, and new schools of thought that can revolutionize the way you work. This book invites you to experience the freedom and power at the intersection of courage and creativity so you can finally: Foster a more collaborative culture Bring depth and meaning to every project Turn challenge into opportunity Create work that matters The value of creative thinking extends far beyond the arts, but the work it allows you to produce has the power to touch like great art can. You gain the ability to make a more profound impact, and you inspire and motivate others to do the same; you become a catalyst for bigger, better things, driven by the enormous potential of the free-thinking mind. Creative Courage helps you break out of the box and start making things happen today.

Read more less

The Female Complaint is part of Lauren Berlant’s groundbreaking “national sentimentality” project charting the emergence of the U.S. political sphere as an affective space of attachment and identification. In this book, Berlant chronicles the origins and conventions of the first mass-cultural “intimate public” in the United States, a “women’s culture” distinguished by a view that women inevitably have something in common and are in need of a conversation that feels intimate and revelatory. As Berlant explains, “women’s” books, films, and television shows enact a fantasy that a woman’s life is not just her own, but an experience understood by other women, no matter how dissimilar they are. The commodified genres of intimacy, such as “chick lit,” circulate among strangers, enabling insider self-help talk to flourish in an intimate public. Sentimentality and complaint are central to this commercial convention of critique; their relation to the political realm is ambivalent, as politics seems both to threaten sentimental values and to provide certain opportunities for their extension. Pairing literary criticism and historical analysis, Berlant explores the territory of this intimate public sphere through close readings of U.S. women’s literary works and their stage and film adaptations. Her interpretation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and its literary descendants reaches from Harriet Beecher Stowe to Toni Morrison’s Beloved, touching on Shirley Temple, James Baldwin, and The Bridges of Madison County along the way. Berlant illuminates different permutations of the women’s intimate public through her readings of Edna Ferber’s Show Boat; Fannie Hurst’s Imitation of Life; Olive Higgins Prouty’s feminist melodrama Now, Voyager; Dorothy Parker’s poetry, prose, and Academy Award–winning screenplay for A Star Is Born; the Fay Weldon novel and Roseanne Barr film The Life and Loves of a She-Devil; and the queer, avant-garde film Showboat 1988–The Remake. The Female Complaint is a major contribution from a leading Americanist.

Read more less

Explores liturgical practice as formative for how three Victorian women poets imagined the world and their place in it and, consequently, for how they developed their creative and critical religious poetics. This new study rethinks several assumptions in the field: that Victorian women’s faith commitments tended to limit creativity; that the contours of church experiences matter little for understanding religious poetry; and that gender is more significant than liturgy in shaping women’s religious poetry. Exploring the import of bodily experience for spiritual, emotional, and cognitive forms of knowing, Karen Dieleman explains and clarifies the deep orientations of different strands of nineteenth-century Christianity, such as Congregationalism’s high regard for verbal proclamation, Anglicanism’s and Anglo-Catholicism’s valuation of manifestation, and revivalist Roman Catholicism’s recuperation of an affective aesthetic. Looking specifically at Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, and Adelaide Procter as astute participants in their chosen strands of Christianity, Dieleman reveals the subtle textures of these women’s religious poetry: the different voices, genres, and aesthetics they create in response to their worship experiences. Part recuperation, part reinterpretation, Dieleman’s readings highlight each poet’s innovative religious poetics. Dieleman devotes two chapters to each of the three poets: the first chapter in each pair delineates the poet’s denominational practices and commitments; the second reads the corresponding poetry. Religious Imaginaries has appeal for scholars of Victorian literary criticism and scholars of Victorian religion, supporting its theoretical paradigm by digging deeply into primary sources associated with the actual churches in which the poets worshipped, detailing not only the liturgical practices but also the architectural environments that influenced the worshipper’s formation. By going far beyond descriptions of various doctrinal positions, this research significantly deepens our critical understanding of Victorian Christianity and the culture it influenced.

Read more less

The scribes of early medieval England wrote out their vernacular poems using a format that looks primitive to our eyes because it lacks the familiar visual cues of verse lineation, marks of punctuation, and capital letters. The paradox is that scribes had those tools at their disposal, which they deployed in other kinds of writing, but when it came to their vernacular poems they turned to a sparser presentation. How could they afford to be so indifferent? The answer lies in the expertise that Anglo-Saxon readers brought to the task. From a lifelong immersion in a tradition of oral poetics they acquired a sophisticated yet intuitive understanding of verse conventions, such that when their eyes scanned the lines written out margin-to-margin, they could pinpoint with ease such features as alliteration, metrical units, and clause boundaries, because those features are interwoven in the poetic text itself. Such holistic reading practices find a surprising source of support in present-day eye-movement studies, which track the complex choreography between eye and brain and show, for example, how the minimal punctuation in manuscripts snaps into focus when viewed as part of a comprehensive system. How the Anglo-Saxons Read Their Poems uncovers a sophisticated collaboration between scribes and the earliest readers of poems like Beowulf, The Wanderer, and The Dream of the Rood. In addressing a basic question that no previous study has adequately answered, it pursues an ambitious synthesis of a number of fields usually kept separate: oral theory, paleography, syntax, and prosody. To these philological topics Daniel Donoghue adds insights from the growing field of cognitive psychology. According to Donoghue, the earliest readers of Old English poems deployed a unique set of skills that enabled them to navigate a daunting task with apparent ease. For them reading was both a matter of technical proficiency and a social practice.

Read more less

Start signing with your baby today! This comprehensive book makes signing easy with photos of real kids using 100+ signs, plus expert advice on teaching your baby to communicate early. In Baby Sign Language, Mary Smith—ASL interpreter and founder of popular sign language education business Sign ’n Grow—shares everything you need for learning how to sign with your 0–3-year-old. Maybe you’ve seen it online or remember a friend and their baby signing MILK or MORE. No matter why you’re interested, what you’ve heard is true: signing is one of the best ways to kickstart communication. When your baby can sign, they'll get frustrated less—and you will be able to bond more closely. At the heart of the book are a broad array of photographed signs that are easy to understand thanks to the real kids signing them. You’ll find everything your baby wants to tell you, including: Mealtime Signs: Milk, Food, More, All Done, Drink, Water, Please, Thank You, Yes, No, Hungry, Thirsty Daytime Signs: Help, Open, Up, Pacifier, Light, Bath, Diaper, Blanket, Bed, Sleep, Morning, Night, Potty, Poop, and A Variety of Clothing Signs Playtime Signs: Again, Read, Book, Play, Toy, Dance, Music, Ball, Try, Friend, Take Turns, Gentle, Dog, Cat Family Signs: Love, Mommy, Daddy, Baby, Sister, Brother, Grandma, Grandpa, How Baby Feels Signs: Feel, Happy, Silly, Sad, Angry, Scared, Frustrated, Sleepy, Hurt Outdoors Signs: House, Walk, Outside, Playground, Grass, Tree, Car, Airplane, Sun, Moon, Stars, Rain, Snow …And many more! With songs, stories, and games to encourage learning, and insider tips to boost your baby's language development, this is truly an all-in-one guide for helping your baby tell you their wants and needs before they start to talk.

Read more less

A cultural history of the South Bronx that reaches beyond familiar narratives of urban ruin and renaissance, beyond the “inner city” symbol, to reveal the place and people obscured by its myths.For decades, the South Bronx was America’s “inner city.” Synonymous with civic neglect, crime, and metropolitan decay, the Bronx became the preeminent symbol used to proclaim the failings of urban places and the communities of color who lived in them. Images of its ruins—none more infamous than the one broadcast live during the 1977 World Series: a building burning near Yankee Stadium—proclaimed the failures of urbanism.Yet this same South Bronx produced hip hop, arguably the most powerful artistic and cultural innovation of the past fifty years. Two narratives—urban crisis and cultural renaissance—have dominated understandings of the Bronx and other urban environments. Today, as gentrification transforms American cities economically and demographically, the twin narratives structure our thinking about urban life.A Bronx native, Peter L’Official draws on literature and the visual arts to recapture the history, people, and place beyond its myths and legends. Both fact and symbol, the Bronx was not a decades-long funeral pyre, nor was hip hop its lone cultural contribution. L’Official juxtaposes the artist Gordon Matta-Clark’s carvings of abandoned buildings with the city’s trompe l’oeil decals program; examines the centrality of the Bronx’s infamous Charlotte Street to two Hollywood films; offers original readings of novels by Don DeLillo and Tom Wolfe; and charts the emergence of a “global Bronx” as graffiti was brought into galleries and exhibited internationally, promoting a symbolic Bronx abroad.Urban Legends presents a new cultural history of what it meant to live, work, and create in the Bronx.

Read more less

At the beginning of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln sought to bind important political leaders to the Union by appointing them as generals. The task was formidable: he had to find enough qualified officers to command a military that would fight along a front that stretched halfway across the continent. West Point hadn't graduated enough officers, and many of its best chose to fight for the Confederacy. Lincoln needed loyal men accustomed to organization, administration, and command. He also needed soldiers, and political generals brought with them their constituents and patronage power. As the war proceeded, the value of the political generals became a matter of serious dispute. Could politicians make the shift from a political campaign to a military one? Could they be trusted to fight? Could they avoid destructive jealousies and the temptations of corruption? And with several of the generals being Irish or German immigrants, what effect would ethnic prejudices have on their success or failure? In this book, David Work examines Lincoln's policy of appointing political generals to build a national coalition to fight and win the Civil War. Work follows the careers of sixteen generals through the war to assess their contributions and to ascertain how Lincoln assessed them as commander-in-chief. Eight of the generals began the war as Republicans and eight as Democrats. Some commanded armies, some regiments. Among them were some of the most famous generals of the Union--such as Francis P. Blair Jr., John A. Dix, John A. Logan, James S. Wadsworth--and others whose importance has been obscured by more dramatic personalities. Work finds that Lincoln's policy was ultimately successful, as these generals provided effective political support and made important contributions in military administration and on the battlefield. Although several of them proved to be poor commanders, others were effective in exercising influence on military administration and recruitment, slavery policy, and national politics.

Read more less

The verb "declutter" has not yet made it into the Oxford English Dictionary, but its ever-increasing usage suggests that it's only a matter of time. Articles containing tips and tricks on how to get organized cover magazine pages and pop up in TV programs and commercials, while clutter professionals and specialists referred to as "clutterologists" are just a phone call away. Everywhere the sentiment is the same: clutter is bad. In The Hoarders, Scott Herring provides an in-depth examination of how modern hoarders came into being, from their onset in the late 1930s to the present day. He finds that both the idea of organization and the role of the clutterologist are deeply ingrained in our culture, and that there is a fine line between clutter and deviance in America. Herring introduces us to Jill, whose countertops are piled high with decaying food and whose cabinets are overrun with purchases, while the fly strips hanging from her ceiling are arguably more fly than strip. When Jill spots a decomposing pumpkin about to be jettisoned, she stops, seeing in the rotting, squalid vegetable a special treasure. "I've never seen one quite like this before," she says, and looks to see if any seeds remain. It is from moments like these that Herring builds his questions: What counts as an acceptable material life - and who decides? Is hoarding some sort of inherent deviation of the mind, or a recent historical phenomenon grounded in changing material cultures? Herring opts for the latter, explaining that hoarders attract attention not because they are mentally ill but because they challenge normal modes of material relations. Piled high with detailed and, at times, disturbing descriptions of uncleanliness, The Hoarders delivers a sweeping and fascinating history of hoarding that will cause us all to reconsider how we view these accumulators of clutter.

Read more less

The saga of 1962 is one of failure at multiple levels. Starting from the failure of the Prime Minister and the government to formulate a coherent national security policy, to the failure of the diplomats to effectively engage and gauge the Chinese. It was a failure on the part of the senior military leadership to provide sound military advice to the political leadership. In fact, they are guilty of ignoring basic military precepts in order to meet political requirements.This book traces the historical background of the boundary dispute and the slow build-up of mistrust, suspicion and acrimony between India and China that started sometime after the `Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai` phase of relationships and resulted in the outbreak of war in October 1962. It documents the course of the battle, where the robust junior leadership and steadfastness of the Indian Jawan are the two factors that stand out as saving grace amidst the overall disaster. Everywhere small bodies of men fought isolated battles under desperate conditions and extreme shortages. In every instance, the junior leaders on the spot led from the forefront, often to their last breath. And the jawans followed their leaders unquestioningly, unhesitatingly and uncomplainingly. Never once were the `Naam, NamakaurNishaan` let down. This was a testimony to the strong espirit de corps forged by the regimental system of the army, which continues to stand the test of time even to date.1,383 soldiers had lost their lives, 1,696 were missing and 3,968 had been captured, of which 36 died in captivity.Written with the lay reader in mind, this book avoids military jargon and can be easily followed by readers without any prior knowledge of military matters . It is suitable for students, youth and others who are interested in learning more about the dispute and the war.

Read more less

Text in English and German. Mankind needs to relate to inanimate matter as well. Manking 'animates' stones, mountains, rivers, yes even the world and the cosmos so that it can communicate with them. There is quite clearly a need to initiate individual contact also with architecture, with our surroundings. This is easier if we can also recognise certain characteristics of our own bodies in the constructed bodies of the built environment. We can go well beyond the common phenomenon of corporeality to find countless analogies between buildings and human beings, thus demonstrating a first step towards an anthropomorphy of architecture. These statements become clearer if a column is interpreted as an anthropomorphic element. If certain features in facades are reminiscent of a pair of eyes, then architectural physiognomy helps us to a dialogue: the building is looking at us, in the direct sense of the word. In the world of Christian symbolism the church -- spatially and theologically -- is constantly compared with the body of Christ, and thus becomes an image of a man-god. The church is the 'mysterious body of Christ', and all parts of the building become metaphors of Christ and his congregation.The 'organic' architecture of the 20th century in its three-dimensional and sculptural manifestations constantly addresses the corporeality of biological creatures. In very recent times we are surprised how often the metaphor of man and architecture occurs: in the work of Ricardo Porro, Imre Makovecz, Santiago Calatrava, Reima Pietila and others. Zoomorphic architecture is a variant of anthropomorphic architecture. Elephants, birds, fishes, insects do not just appear in many current works of modern architecture like those of Frank O Gehry and Coop Himmelblau, they are also absurd manifestations of trivial architecture that has also to be considered in its everyday quality. If we are talking about 'expanded' architecture, then cities, the world and even the cosmos have to be included. Mankind is still moved by the transfer from man as microcosm to the universe as macrocosm.

Read more less

This title focuses on the work, well-being and lives of doctors during a period of constant change and crisis in the National Health Service and of growing anxiety about levels of clinical competence and accountability. The alarming number of well-publicized "failures" by medics - at the Royal Bristol Children's Hospital, the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, for instance, and the appalling breach of trust by Dr Harold Shipman -the Manchester General Practitioner found guilty of murdering 15 patients - has led to a Government enquiry into the accountability of the profession. All, it seems, is far from well among medics. The text shows how GPs are responding to their changing roles in a changing society; and how such responses may be understood in a context of whole life histories as well as within the norms of medical culture. Doctors, as a profession, have tended, for many reasons, to hide behind a professional curtain in what can be a very "male" world. Some matters - surrounding the emotional well-being of doctors - are hard for doctors to talk about in this world where, too often, they have been taught to cope, like "good men should". The book reveals the emotional problems doctors face and, unlikely, provides space for them to tell their stories of struggles to become more authentic, and reflective as well as "effective" practitioners. We are presented with insights into what is a deeply gendered world in which many women doctors feel torn between caring at work and for their families, and where men can be absent from "women's work", at home and in the surgery; a culture too where racism still pervades attitudes towards "minority" doctors. This is also an environment in which cultural and emotional understandings have tended to be disparaged as "soft" in the name of a harder science. The book provides heroic tales of GPs transcending the shortcomings of training, and the misogyny and racism pervading their profession.

Read more less

Geoff Inverarity writes poems for people who don't like poetry (and those who do). In this debut collection Inverarity writes of broken things, things that have come apart at the seams, things that ought not to but sometimes do dissolve with time: friendships, relationships, promises, aging parents, hearts, bodies, love, and even time itself. But it's not all shattered dreams and sad-luck stories here, there is hope and optimism too - in the future, in the Now, and in the heat and power of the coming generations. And there are poems of memory, poems for grandfathers and aging aunts, children and lost loves. Inverarity also probes the the multitude of possibilities "in this fallen world of compromises," gently reminding us that "we're stockpiling for the short term / the long term we don't know. / No matter how much you prepare / there's always something new looming / like the Unexploded Grief Bomb." It is a world where we struggle to give back the past, to finally get to the point "where the past does not exist" and "where all history is now." The penultimate entry is "Mars Variations," a wonderfully extended suite of complementary poems, a time-traveling fractal narrative: a sci-fi horror movie for the ears, referencing works as disparate as Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars and H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, Wordsworth's "Prelude," and horror films like Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man along with nods towards the various iterations of Godzilla; and of course the classic 1962 "Mars Attacks" Topp's Bubble Gum cards - which form a framing device. The sequence explores the relationship between time, fiction, and facts; between public history and private experience. The book concludes with a short Epilogue, assuring us that "one day, all the broken things will be mended."

Read more less

Speaking to audiences in Denmark, Germany and France, Rudolf Steiner discusses a wide range of topics: from positive and negative human soul capacities, true self-knowledge and karma, to changes in human consciousness, from ancient times to the modern era - all in the context of the incarnation of Christ on earth. The lectures illustrate the diversity of Steiner's approach when speaking to different audiences. Reflecting on the polymath Novalis, for example, he is urgent about the responsibility of spiritual science to help humanity awaken to the new age. A few months later, talking of Hegel and deploring the fact that an interest in spiritual matters often fails to be accompanied by an equal interest in logical thought, Steiner uses a dispassionate, philosophical tone. But throughout the lectures he is consistent in his view that spiritual science does not reject conventional science. Trained philosophical thinking leads to different conclusions than materialism, he says, but there is nothing in the field of spiritual science that need be rejected by rigorous scientific thought. Although the lectures were given to a variety of audiences, ideas recur from different perspectives and in different contexts, with strong thematic links binding them together. These include the relationship between philosophy and science; the nature of clairvoyance; Christ's presence in the etheric realm; reincarnation and karma; the mystery drama The Portal of Initiation; Christmas and its symbols; and the transformation of consciousness that occurred when Christ incarnated physically on earth. In the final lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks inspiringly about the Christmas festival, contrasting the feeling of inwardness that people used to experience with the hectic cultural environment of modern cities. However, this does not lead Steiner to be nostalgic about the past. Rather, he states, we should seek to recreate a mood of inwardness in a new way, appropriate to our modern age and consciousness. These lectures give us the tools to bring such a contemporary spiritual approach to our lives.

Read more less

The inside story of Israel’s secret negotiations to bring home their soldiers taken hostage by terrorist groups.Suppose one day, your son or husband, while serving in the military or working as a journalist, is taken hostage by a terrorist group—and you have no idea whether your loved one is dead or alive or how to even make contact with the insurgents holding him. It’s a nightmare scenario that has sadly taken place dozens of times in the past twenty years in the Middle East. Here in the U.S., the government does not always get involved. Instead, it will engage the services of a neutral country to negotiate with the terrorists. Unfortunately, many times the terrorists insist on never-ending demands in order to torment the family of the hostage. Unlike Israel, we’ve never had a central address for these types of scenarios. But maybe after reading this book, it’s an idea we could, and should, consider. Ory Slonim, the international “door knocker” was an invention of necessity by the Israeli government. There were many good and brave human beings involved in this matter. Here for the first time is the story of the one man in Israel who, for more than two decades, was known as the “door knocker.” He had been a private Israeli lawyer when he was asked to undertake, on behalf of the Israeli government, secret negotiations to find out the whereabouts of Israeli soldiers who were taken hostage by terrorist groups. His ultimate mission was to bring them home, dead or alive. In his capacity as negotiator, his story will take into you into the worlds of the furtive Mossad, the twisted minds of terrorists, the forever traumatized lives of the parents whose children never came home from battle, and into Ory’s own resilient, compassionate, and amazingly resolute negotiations when ordinary people would have easily broken down.

Read more less

The captivating and heroic story of Hudson Stuck—an Episcopal priest—and his team's history-making summit of Denali.In 1913, four men made a months-long journey by dog sled to the base of the tallest mountain in North America. Several groups had already tried but failed to reach the top of a mountain whose size—occupying 120 square miles of the earth’s surface —and position as the Earth’s northernmost peak of more than 6,000 meters elevation make it one of the world’s deadliest mountains. Although its height from base to top is actually greater than Everest’s, it is Denali's weather, not altitude, that have caused the great majority of fatalities—over a hundred since 1903. Denali experiences weather more severe than the North Pole, with temperatures of forty below zero and winds that howl at 80 to 100 miles per hour for days at a stretch. But in 1913 none of this mattered to Hudson Stuck, a fifty-year old Episcopal priest, Harry Karstens, the hardened Alaskan wilderness guide, Walter Harper, part of the Koyukon people, and Robert Tatum, a divinity student, both just in their twenties. They were all determined to be the first to set foot on top of Denali. In A Window to Heaven, Patrick Dean brings to life this heart-pounding and spellbinding feat of this first ascent and paints a rich portrait of the frontier at the turn of the twentieth century. The story of Stuck and his team will lead us through the Texas frontier and Tennessee mountains to an encounter with Jack London at the peak of the Yukon Goldrush. We experience Stuck's awe at the rich Inuit and Athabascan indigenous traditions—and his efforts to help preserve these ways of life. Filled with daring exploration and rich history, A Window to Heaven is a brilliant and spellbinding narrative of success against the odds.

Read more less

Harness the power of meditation to reveal what your angel guides are trying to tell you in the numbers you encounter every day. Have you ever noticed repeated number sequences in the world around you? In this petite yet potent magic handbook, you will find the meaning behind “angel numbers,” and how they apply to your life.Angel Numbers introduces the history and roles of angels and how to communicate with them, and then delves into the unique energies of each of the root numbers, 0 through 9, as well as more advanced numbers such as 1010 and 3456. Each angel number profile concludes with a meditation to help you embody the meanings and use them to move forward on your spiritual path. Find insight with meditations like:As you sit in your clear space, let every material thing fall away from your consciousness.You don’t need them. Instead, ask yourself what’s important to you in this life. Is it family? Friendships? Community?Whatever it is, hold that thought in the forefront of your mind.Then picture the number 6 encompassing it in its center.Let the characteristics of 6 guide you and put a magnifying glass on what matters most to you.Aim for it and let 6 lead you forward. Follow these powerful number sequences to awaken yourself to a new world filled with meaning. The Pocket Spell Books series encompasses all your greatest desires and guides you through the spells, potions, rituals, and charms necessary to achieve your goals. These diminutive but powerful books each contain a carefully selected collection of useful spells for seasoned witches and new practitioners alike. Take your magical practice further by collecting all the Pocket Spell Books, which include:Protection Spells, Moon Spells, Love Spells, Candle Magic, and Pendulum Magic.

Read more less

What does it really take to get a job in academia?Do you want to go to graduate school? Then you're in good company: nearly 80,000 students will begin pursuing a PhD this year alone. But while almost all new PhD students say they want to work in academia, most are destined for something else. The hard truth is that half will quit or fail to get their degree, and most graduates will never find a full-time academic job. In Good Work If You Can Get It, Jason Brennan combines personal experience with the latest higher education research to help you understand what graduate school and the academy are really like. This candid, pull-no-punches book answers questions big and small, including• Should I go to graduate school—and what will I do once I get there?• How much does a PhD cost—and should I pay for one?• What does it take to succeed in graduate school? • What kinds of jobs are there after grad school—and who gets them? • What happens to the people who never get full-time professorships? • What does it take to be productive, to publish continually at a high level? • What does it take to teach many classes at once? • How does "publish or perish" work? • How much do professors get paid?• What do search committees look for, and what turns them off? • How do I know which journals and book publishers matter? • How do I balance work and life?This realistic, data-driven look at university teaching and research will help make your graduate and postgraduate experience a success. Good Work If You Can Get It is the guidebook that anyone considering graduate school, already in grad school, starting as a new professor, or advising graduate students needs. Read it, and you will come away ready to hit the ground running.

Read more less

This guide book is filled with practical advice to help you curb your obsessions and build boundaries between your work, your job, and your life. In her workshops on healing and creative process, Marlee Grace helps people acknowledge their blocks and address them by setting distinct parameters that change their behavior. Now, she brings her methods and ideas to the wider world, offering all of us concrete ways to break free from our devices and focus on what’s really important—our own aliveness.Part workbook, part advice manual, part love letter, How to Not Always Be Working ventures into the space where phone meets life, helping readers to define their work—what they do out of sense of purpose; their job—what they do to make money; and their breaks—what they do to recharge, and to feel connected to themselves and the people who matter to them. Grace addresses complex issues such as what to do if your work and your job are connected, provides insights to help you figure out how much is too much, and offers suggestions for making the best use of your time.Essential for everyone who feels overwhelmed and anxious about our hyper-connected world—whether you’re a corporate lawyer, a student, a sales person, or a yoga instructor—How to Not Always Be Working includes practical suggestions and thoughtful musings that prompt you to honestly examine your behavior—how you burn yourself out and why you’re doing it. A creative manifesto for living better, it shows you how to carve sacred space in your life.From business anecdotes about fulfilling orders to more personal stories about Grace’s recovery from divorce and addiction, this book is full of wisdom and resilience, with plenty of discussion about ritual and routine as ways to create effective and positive creative life change.

Read more less

New York Times BestsellerDiscover the critical link between your brain and the food you eat and change the way your brain ages, in this cutting-edge, practical guide to eliminating brain fog, optimizing brain health, and achieving peak mental performance from media personality and leading voice in health Max Lugavere. After his mother was diagnosed with a mysterious form of dementia, Max Lugavere put his successful media career on hold to learn everything he could about brain health and performance. For the better half of a decade, he consumed the most up-to-date scientific research, talked to dozens of leading scientists and clinicians around the world, and visited the country’s best neurology departments—all in the hopes of understanding his mother’s condition. Now, in Genius Foods, Lugavere presents a comprehensive guide to brain optimization. He uncovers the stunning link between our dietary and lifestyle choices and our brain functions, revealing how the foods you eat directly affect your ability to focus, learn, remember, create, analyze new ideas, and maintain a balanced mood. Weaving together pioneering research on dementia prevention, cognitive optimization, and nutritional psychiatry, Lugavere distills groundbreaking science into actionable lifestyle changes. He shares invaluable insights into how to improve your brain power, including the nutrients that can boost your memory and improve mental clarity (and where to find them); the foods and tactics that can energize and rejuvenate your brain, no matter your age; a brain-boosting fat-loss method so powerful it has been called “biochemical liposuction”; and the foods that can improve your happiness, both now and for the long term. With Genius Foods, Lugavere offers a cutting-edge yet practical road map to eliminating brain fog and optimizing the brain’s health and performance today—and decades into the future.

Read more less

She saved her son once. Would she do the same again?Sara and her family needed a fresh start after a tragedy that ruined many lives. They have found peace since arriving at their new home in the Kielder Forest National Park twelve months ago. That is, unless you count the dark cloud that has settled over them, and the crippling tension behind closed doors. Sara tries to pretend everything is normal, but in reality she is haunted by a devastating truth about one of her children.Travis has a reputation as a counsellor skilled at helping troubled teens. He has been watching Sara. He sees her fragility, and believes that he can fix her and her eldest son. Like his mother, Scott barely speaks, and has a look in his eye that hints at unimaginable trauma. If Travis could only get close to Sara she would see that he can protect her, and put an end to their suffering.Yet below the surface, Sara is anything but weak. No matter what, she won’t give up on her child. And when she is cornered, she will go to extreme lengths to protect her most precious boy.A compulsive tale of family secrets with twists you won’t see coming. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Shalini Boland and K.L. Slater.Praise for The Other Son 'This was such a good read that I finished in one sitting... It was fast paced, twisty and unpredictable. I really enjoyed it.' NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Draws you in from the start. I enjoyed it immensely' NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'A really well written book. I thought that it was gripping and also original' NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐I loved this one. Very fast paced, had me turning pages as I tore through it – I had to see how it would end. The characters were well rounded and the narrative felt believable. Gave me chills. Solid five. NetGalley reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read more less

Forget everything you thought you knew about reality.The world is a seriously bizarre place. Things can exist in two places at once and travel backwards and forwards in time. Waves and particles are one and the same, and objects change their behaviour according to whether they are being watched. This is not some alternative universe but the realm of the very small, where quantum mechanics rules. In this weird world of atoms and their constituents, our common sense understanding of reality breaks down - yet quantum mechanics has never failed an experimental test. What does it all mean? For all its weirdness, quantum mechanics has given us many practical technologies including lasers and the transistors that underlie computers and all digital technology. In the future, it promises computers more powerful than any built before, the ability to communicate with absolute privacy, and even quantum teleportation. The Quantum World explores the past, present and future of quantum science, its applications and mind-bending implications. Discover how ideas from quantum mechanics are percolating out into the vast scale of the cosmos - perhaps, in the future, to reveal a new understanding of the big bang and the nature of space and time.ABOUT THE SERIESNew Scientist Instant Expert books are definitive and accessible entry points to the most important subjects in science; subjects that challenge, attract debate, invite controversy and engage the most enquiring minds. Designed for curious readers who want to know how things work and why, the Instant Expert series explores the topics that really matter and their impact on individuals, society, and the planet, translating the scientific complexities around us into language that's open to everyone, and putting new ideas and discoveries into perspective and context.

Read more less

'First there was Fire and Fury, then there was Siege, now there is Landslide. The third is the best of the three' Guardian 'Cruel, unforgiving, muckracking, scandalous . . . Michael Wolff concludes his Trump trilogy - with the best book' Telegraph 'Wolff is the shrewdest chronicler of Trump' Sunday TimesPolitics has given us some shocking and confounding moments but none have come close to the careening final days of Donald Trump's presidency: the surreal stage management of his re-election campaign, his audacious election challenge, the harrowing mayhem of the storming of the Capitol and the buffoonery of the second impeachment trial. But what was really going on in the inner sanctum of the White House during these calamitous events? What did the president and his dwindling cadre of loyalists actually believe? And what were they planning?Drawing on an exclusive and wide range of sources who took part in or witnessed Trump's closing moments, Michael Wolff finds the Oval Office more chaotic and bizarre than ever before, a kind of Star Wars bar scene. At all times of the day, Trump, hunched behind the Resolute desk, is surrounded by schemers and unqualified sycophants who spoon-feed him the 'alternative facts' he hungers to hear - about COVID-19, Black Lives Matter protests, and, most of all, his chance of winning re-election. In this extraordinary telling of a unique moment in history, Wolff gives us front-row seats as Trump's circle of plotters is whittled down to the most enabling and the least qualified - and the president pushes the bounds of political convention, entertaining the idea of martial law and balking at calling off the insurrectionist mob that threatens the hallowed seat of democracy itself.Michael Wolff pulled back the curtain on the Trump presidency with his globally bestselling blockbuster Fire and Fury. Now, in Landslide, he closes the door with a final, astonishingly candid tale.

Read more less

A definitive guide to the metaverse: why it's important, why it matters to society, and how to create a metaverse that works for all of us---------------'Brimming with big and convincing arguments about where human life is heading' Arianna Huffington---------------The metaverse is a vision of how the next generation of the internet will operate. Many people believe it is the future. But what will that future look like? An immersive digital playground? The next generation of online gaming? Or just the latest manifestation of our human tendency to create other realities?Herman Narula argues that it is all of these things and more. His vision of the metaverse, deeply rooted in history and psychology, looks to the Egyptians, whose concept of death inspired them to build the pyramids, to modern-day sports fans whose fantasy leagues are as competitive as the real thing, and finds that humanity has always sought ways to supplement our day-to-day lives with a rich diversity of alterative immersive experiences.Virtual Society reveals why the metaverse offers a new universe of ideas that gives everyone the chance to create, explore and find meaning. It's an essential guide for anyone who wants to understand the true shape of our virtual future.---------------Reader reviews'This book unlocked my understanding of the Metaverse in a completely new refreshing way. This is a must read book which needs to be introduced in every school curriculum globally for our upcoming metaversial society and "fulfilment economy".' *****'I've been trying to follow what tech professionals and commentators mean when talking about the metaverse over the last two years. Herman's description of what the metaverse may become, however, is by the far the most compelling. What makes it compelling is the fact that it is routed in human history. The metaverse is not a new concept; and you don't need a degree from Cambridge to understand it.' *****

Read more less

___________________________________ A gripping Temperance Brennan novel from world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, the international no. 1 bestselling crime thriller writer and the inspiration behind the hit TV series Bones.On a bitterly cold March night in Montreal, forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan is exhuming the remains of a nun in the grounds of an old church.Hours later, Tempe is called to the scene of a horrifying arson. A young family has perished, but there is no explanation, no motive, and no witnesses.From the charred remains of the inferno, to a trail of sinister cult activity, Tempe faces a nerve-shattering case which will test her forensic expertise - and her instinct for survival.___________________________________ Dr Kathy Reichs is a professional forensic anthropologist. She has worked for decades with chief medical examiners, the FBI, and even a United Nations Tribunal on Genocide. However, she is best known for her internationally bestselling Temperance Brennan novels, which draw on her remarkable experience to create the most vividly authentic, true-to-life crime thrillers on the market and which are the inspiration for the hit TV series Bones. ___________________________________ Many of the world's greatest thriller writers are huge fans of her work: 'Kathy Reichs writes smart – no, make that brilliant – mysteries that are as realistic as nonfiction and as fast-paced as the best thrillers about Jack Reacher, or Alex Cross.' JAMES PATTERSON 'One of my favourite writers.' KARIN SLAUGHTER 'I love Kathy Reichs? – always scary, always suspenseful, and I always learn something.' LEE CHILD 'Nobody does forensics thrillers like Kathy Reichs. She’s the real deal.' DAVID BALDACCI 'Each book in Kathy Reichs’s fantastic Temperance Brennan series is better than the last. They’re filled with riveting twists and turns – and no matter how many books she writes, I just can’t get enough!' LISA SCOTTOLINE 'Nobody writes a more imaginative thriller than Kathy Reichs.' CLIVE CUSSLER

Read more less

A meat feast awaits! Become an expert on buying, preparing, and cooking meat.From discovering why cuts matter to learning how to recognise top-quality meat, this is your one-stop, practical guide. It contains everything you've ever wanted to know about meat.Inside the pages of this meat recipe book, you'll find: - A comprehensive course in preparing and cooking meat with over 250 recipes- Recipes feature timing and temperature charts to help you create the perfect flavour, plus help you choose which herbs go with different dishes- A unique "How to Butcher" section provides illustrated step-by-steps and focuses on cuts of meat that can be easily butchered at home- Expert advice from butchers on the best cooking techniques, as well as tips on how to use a meat thermometer, how to test your meat for rare, medium and well-done cooking stages, and how to experiment with flavour pairingsWhether you want to learn how to slow-cook for maximum flavour or create the perfect Sunday roast, this cookbook has all the answers for meat lovers keen to try working with different meats and cuts. Get the best from your meat with step-by-step preparation and cooking techniques, and learn key home butchery skills, such as needling, frenching, rolling, and tying.Find out everything there is to know about well-raised meat - where to buy it and why it tastes better. Cook more than 250 of the world's best poultry, pork, beef, lamb, and game dishes such as Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Portuguese Pork with Clams, Kerala Beef, and Barbecued Moroccan Lamb. With this butchery and cookery book in-one, you'll become a connoisseur in no time! Looking as good on your coffee table as the dishes that you can create with it's content, The Meat Cookbook is the perfect gift for any meat lover.

Read more less

'A great book if you are seeking small space inspiration.' Evening StandardFrom House & Garden's book picks of the year:'Whether you dream of a Mediterranean oasis, a rose-filled retreat or a tropical jungle, Green will help you to make the most of your space, proving that small can indeed be beautiful.'From Daily Mail's best books of the year:'Can a really small space ever be turned into a beautiful garden? Fashionable garden designer Ula Maria shows how even the tiniest balcony or courtyard can become something special. Featuring numerous case histories and practical advice on storage, paving, furniture and lighting, this is an excellent reference source for anyone with limited space and big dreams.''Garden designer Ula Maria takes us on a safari through small but perfectly formed oases...to inspire your very own Eden.' - Elle Deco'Urban garden design has inspired books ever since the Victorians started to green their sprawling new neighbourhoods. But where Maria's Green differs is that it focuses on the possibilities of growing in small spaces rather than the restrictions. The 22 gardens she has brought together (by various designers) erupt with potential...In Green urban gardens, so often prone to a twinge of pity from those who tend larger, more rural spaces, become deeply aspirational.' - Alice Vincent, the Daily Telegraph 'A must for apprehensive city gardeners and for anyone wanting to make the most out of their outdoor space, no matter how small it might be. [...] Flicking through it feels almost as enjoyable and relaxing as sitting in the garden.' - Gardens Illustrated'The first book from rising star Ula Maria tackles the perennial challenge of how to create a garden in a small space. [...] Whether you dream of a Mediterranean oasis, a rose-filled retreat or a tropical jungle, Green will help you to make the most of your space, proving that small can indeed be beautiful.' - House & Garden'Spending so much time outdoors in my childhood made me think of a garden as a natural extension of my home - an inseparable part of everyday life. It wasn't until I moved into a rented property in the city that I felt an undeniable urge to make the most of the little exterior space that we had and re-evaluate it. In time, creating outdoor spaces that people truly care for, no matter how small or large, became much more rewarding than perfecting any indoor space. Many say that a home is a true reflection of self, but I believe it is the garden, where personalities and relationships with our surroundings truly blossom.' - Ula MariaIn Green, Ula Maria takes a completely fresh look at creating a garden in whatever outdoor space is available - be it a roof terrace, balcony, small back yard or patio. Perfect for first-time gardeners, the book approaches creating a garden as if decorating a room - exploring how to work with scale, colour and texture, to choosing the plants that will thrive in an urban space. At the heart of the book are 22 genuinely small and innovative gardens with a dazzling range of ideas to copy - from a small backyard garden using reclaimed timber, evergreens and grasses to a rental rooftop terrace in the heart of the city where a cottage-style garden has been created in simple containers. Using low-maintenance plants and affordable furniture, lighting and containers, Green offers simple solutions that don't involve major structural work but will quickly result in a stylish and hugely rewarding urban sanctuary. The book was shot by award-winning photographer, Jason Ingram.

Read more less

This twenty-seven chapter book provides an excellent and accessible overview of the literature on rent seeking since its inception. What makes the book a fascinating reading is its application to different areas, such as regulation and economic aid, and presentation of an array of highly readable cases studies, including on China, Greece, India and Russia. It is a must for both students of public finance and policy makers.'- Sanjeev Gupta, International Monetary Fund'Indeed, this book is an indispensable companion to everyone working on rent seeking or the theory or politics of contests. It combines excellent surveys and innovative work of the most eminent researchers in this field.'- Kai Konrad, Director, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, Munich, GermanyThe quest for benefit from existing wealth or by seeking privileged benefit through influence over policy is known as rent seeking. Much rent seeking activity involves government and political decisions and is therefore in the domain of political economy, although rent seeking can also take place in personal relations and within firms and bureaucracies. The contributions in this outstanding volume provide an accompaniment or 'companion' to the literature on rent seeking and the related political economy of rent creation and extraction. The chapters, written by leading scholars in the field, demonstrate the centrality of rent-related incentives to the study of economics, politics, culture, public administration and history.The expert and original contributions summarize and extend the literature in both theoretical and applied areas of research. The book begins with a clear and comprehensive description of the theory of rent seeking and of contest design for political and bureaucratic rent extraction. This is followed by a series of case studies showing the relevance of rent seeking for regulatory policies, international-trade policies, public finance, natural-resource discoveries, development aid, behavior in international bureaucracies, litigation and judicial systems. The applied chapters also include overviews of rent seeking and rent extraction in Europe, Russia, Asia, Africa and the US.This volume will appeal to a broad readership, including economists, political scientists and development practitioners, wishing to gain an understanding of the concept of rent seeking. The chapters in this book also provide an excellent introduction to the extensive literature.Contributors: J. A. Amegashie, M. Brooks, R.D. Congleton, G. Dari-Mattiacci, R.T. Deacon, G.S. Epstein, S. Flamand, R.J. Hagan, A.L. Hillman, R.G. Holcombe, C. Kang, M.S. Kimenyi, E. Langlais, M.I. Levin, N. Van Long, B. Lovat, B. Luppi, S. Marjit, J.M. Mbaku, Y. Mealem, T. Moutos, D. C. Mueller, V. Mukherjee, S. Nitzan, M. Paldam, F. Parisi, L. Pechlivanos, L. Qijun, A. Rode, G.A.Satarov, R.M. Sheremeta, W.F. Shughart II, D.W. Thomas, G. Tridimas, O. Troumpounis, R. Vaubel, K. Wärneryd

Read more less

Presents a fully interdisciplinary approach with a stronger emphasis on polymers and composites than traditional materials books Materials science and engineering is an interdisciplinary field involving the properties of matter and its applications to various areas of science and engineering. Polymer materials are often mixed with inorganic materials to enhance their mechanical, electrical, thermal, and physical properties. Materials: Introduction and Applications addresses a gap in the existing textbooks on materials science. This book focuses on three Units. The first, Foundations, includes basic materials topics from Intermolecular Forces and Thermodynamics and Phase Diagrams to Crystalline and Non-Crystalline Structures. The second Units, Materials, goes into the details of many materials including Metals, Ceramics, Organic Raw Materials, Polymers, Composites, Biomaterials, and Liquid Crystals and Smart Materials. The third and final unit details Behavior and Properties including Rheological, Mechanical, Thermophysical, Color and Optical, Electrical and Dielectric, Magnetic, Surface Behavior and Tribology, Materials, Environment and Sustainability, and Testing of Materials. Materials: Introduction and Applications features: Basic and advanced Materials concepts Interdisciplinary information that is otherwise scattered consolidated into one work Links to everyday life application like electronics, airplanes, and dental materials Certain topics to be discussed in this textbook are more advanced. These will be presented in shaded gray boxes providing a two-level approach. Depending on whether you are a student of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Technology, MSE, Chemistry, Physics, etc., you can decide for yourself whether a topic presented on a more advanced level is not important for you—or else essential for you given your professional profile Witold Brostow is Regents Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of North Texas. He is President of the International Council on Materials Education and President of the Scientific Committee of the POLYCHAR World Forum on Advanced Material (42 member countries). He has three honorary doctorates and is a Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Mexico, Foreign Member of the National Academy of Engineering of Georgia in Tbilisi and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in London. His publications have been cited more than 7200 times. Haley Hagg Lobland is the Associate Director of LAPOM at the University of North Texas. She is a Member of the POLYCHAR Scientific Committeee. She has received awards for her research presented at conferences in: Buzios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; NIST, Frederick, Maryland; Rouen, France; and Lviv, Ukraine. She has lectured in a number of countries including Poland and Spain. Her publications include joint ones with colleagues in Egypt, Georgia, Germany, India, Israel, Mexico, Poland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

Read more less

Discover, or return to, the world's greatest heroic fantasy artist, Frank Frazetta in this landmark art collection entitled, Fantastic Paintings of Frazetta. The New York Times said, "Frazetta helped define fantasy heroes like Conan, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars with signature images of strikingly fierce, hard-bodied heroes and bosomy, callipygian damsels" Frazetta took the sex and violence of the pulp fiction of his youth and added even more action, fantasy and potency, but rendered with a panache seldom seen outside of major works of Fine Art. Despite his fantastic subject matter, the quality of Frazetta’s work has not only drawn comparisons to the most brilliant of illustrators, Maxfield Parrish, Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth but, even to the most brilliant of fine artists including Rembrandt and Michelangelo and, major Frazetta works sell for millions of dollars, breaking numerous records. This innovator’s work has not only inspired generations of artists, but also movies and directors including the Conan films, John Carter of Mars, the sensationally successful Lord of the Rings trilogy, Robert Rodriguez’ films including From Dusk Till Dawn, Ralph Bakshi films, the epic, award-winning Game of Thrones series, Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, Disney’s animated Tarzan films, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and George Lucas’ Star Wars series. The Forbes magazine article Schwarzenegger's Sargent led with the line, "Which artist helped make Arnold governor? Frank Frazetta, the Rembrandt of barbarians." J. David Spurlock started crafting this book by reviving the original million-selling 1970s mass market art book, Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta. But, he expanded and revised to include twice as many images and, presents them at a much larger coffee-table book size of 10.5 x 14.625”! The collection is brimming with both classic and previously unpublished works of the subjects Frazetta is best remembered for including barbarians, beasts, and buxom beauties. Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin said, “Though he bears only a passing resemblance to the Cimmerian as Robert E. Howard described him, Frazetta’s covers of the Conan paperback collections became the definitive picture of the character… still is.” Schwarzenegger said, “I have not been intimidated that often in my life. But when I looked at Frazetta’s paintings, I tell you, it was intimidating.” Game of Thrones, Conan and Aquaman film star Jason Momoa said, “I am a huge Frank Frazetta fan. Both of my parents are painters, so I'd known Frazetta's paintings, that's what I wanted to bring to life.” See the revolutionary art that helped inspire Schwarzenegger, Momoa, the Lord of the Rings films and Game of Thrones: FRAZETTA!

Read more less

Papers presented at the Twelfth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 1995 (see also Studia Patristica 30, 31, 32 and 33). The successive sets of Studia Patristica contain papers delivered at the International Conferences on Patristic Studies, which meet for a week once every four years in Oxford; they are held under the aegis of the Theology Faculty of the University. Members of these conferences come from all over the world and most offer papers. These range over the whole field, both East and West, from the second century to a section on the Nachleben of the Fathers. The majority are short papers dealing with some small and manageable point; they raise and sometimes resolve questions about the authenticity of documents, dates of events, and such like, and some unveil new texts. The smaller number of longer papers put such matters into context and indicate wider trends. The whole reflects the state of Patristic scholarship and demonstrates the vigour and popularity of the subject.

Read more less

Papers presented at the Eleventh International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 1991 (see also Studia Patristica 24, 25, 27 and 28). The successive sets of Studia Patristica contain papers delivered at the International Conferences on Patristic Studies, which meet for a week once every four years in Oxford; they are held under the aegis of the Theology Faculty of the University. Members of these conferences come from all over the world and most offer papers. These range over the whole field, both East and West, from the second century to a section on the Nachleben of the Fathers. The majority are short papers dealing with some small and manageable point; they raise and sometimes resolve questions about the authenticity of documents, dates of events, and such like, and some unveil new texts. The smaller number of longer papers put such matters into context and indicate wider trends. The whole reflects the state of Patristic scholarship and demonstrates the vigour and popularity of the subject.

Read more less

Papers presented at the Eighth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 1979. The successive sets of Studia Patristica contain papers delivered at the International Conferences on Patristic Studies, which meet for a week once every four years in Oxford; they are held under the aegis of the Theology Faculty of the University. Members of these conferences come from all over the world and most offer papers. These range over the whole field, both East and West, from the second century to a section on the Nachleben of the Fathers. The majority are short papers dealing with some small and manageable point; they raise and sometimes resolve questions about the authenticity of documents, dates of events, and such like, and some unveil new texts. The smaller number of longer papers put such matters into context and indicate wider trends. The whole reflects the state of Patristic scholarship and demonstrates the vigour and popularity of the subject.

Read more less

You read all the birthing books, took the Lamaze classes, and made it through labor (mostly) unscathed, but now the baby is home—and it’s a whole new ballgame!There are plenty of books and resources about how to properly care for your new baby, but what about caring for yourself? Maria Lianos-Carbone, founder of AMotherWorld.com, outlines the “proper care and feeding” of mothers during their baby’s first year with humor and honesty. From the physical and emotional changes a new mom will undergo to rekindling intimacy with her partner, Oh Baby! Mom’s Survival Guide for the First Year keeps the focus on moms—because you can’t draw water (or breastmilk, for that matter) from an empty well. Maria's straight-talking, no-nonsense approach will give new moms everything they need to survive as they embark on the journey of motherhood.This book is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hestia International, Inc., the trademark owner and publisher of Oh Baby! Magazine in Canada.

Read more less

Vitaly Leonidovich Katayev was an eyewitness to history as he saw the arms race accelerating at an absurd and inexplicable pace, and he understood why. His perspective was from inside the Soviet system, in an office that was devoted to analysis of arms control and defense matters in the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party and later in an interdepartmental working group. Vitaly Katayev was a skilled designer and an acute observer. His recollections in this book, along with documents he deposited at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, offer an extraordinary window into Soviet decisions and calculations. This monograph shows how Soviet leaders were often hobbled by a poor understanding of what was happening in the United States, but it also demonstrates that Americans, too, had a weak grasp of what was happening in Moscow, before and after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. The misunderstandings on both sides were a symptom of the deepest chasm of the Cold War and A Memoir of the Missile Age provides a valuable key with which to open the Soviet black box.

Read more less

Death is one thing, it's what you do afterward that matters. Aspiring-comedian Raely is the sole survivor of a disastrous train wreck. While faced with the intense grief of losing her best friend, she realizes that someone is following her—and has been following her all her life. Trouble is, no one else can see him. For a ghostly tag-along, Casper's not so bad. He might even be the partner Raely needs to fight the evil spirit hell-bent on destroying her.Raely and her friend must learn why this demonic spirit is haunting Raely and how she can stop him before he destroys her life—and her soul. Which, much to her chagrin, means she needs the help of a psychic (although she's sure they are all charlatans) and must rid herself of the pesky ghost hunter who's interested in exploiting her new abilities.For readers who enjoy Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House and Clay McLeod Chapman's Ghost Eaters.

Read more less

A reckoning with the way we choose to see and define ourselves, Self-Portrait in Black and White is the searching story of one American family’s multigenerational transformation from what is called black to what is assumed to be white. Thomas Chatterton Williams, the son of a “black” father from the segregated South and a “white” mother from the West, spent his whole life believing the dictum that a single drop of “black blood” makes a person black. This was so fundamental to his self-conception that he’d never rigorously reflected on its foundations—but the shock of his experience as the black father of two extremely white-looking children led him to question these long-held convictions. It is not that he has come to believe that he is no longer black or that his kids are white, Williams notes. It is that these categories cannot adequately capture either of them—or anyone else, for that matter. Beautifully written and bound to upset received opinions on race, Self-Portrait in Black and White is an urgent work for our time.

Read more less

Tree by Tree is a warning and a toolkit for the future of forest recovery. Scott J. Meiners investigates the critical biological threats endangering tree species native to the forests of eastern North America, providing a needed focus on this plight. Meiners suggests that if we are to save our forests, the first step is to recognize the threats in front of us. Meiners focuses on five familiar trees—the American elm, the American chestnut, the eastern hemlock, the white ash, and the sugar maple—and shares why they matter economically, ecologically, and culturally. From outbreaks of Dutch elm disease to infestations of emerald ash borers, Meiners highlights the challenges that have led or will lead to the disappearance of these trees from forests. In doing so, he shows us how diversity loss often disrupts intricately balanced ecosystems and how vital it is that we pay more attention to massive changes in forest composition. With practical steps for the conservation of native tree species, Tree by Tree offers the inspiration and insights we need to begin saving our forests.

Read more less

Untimely Sacrifices questions why individuals may give their time and energy to the collective against their own self-interest. Turning to Finland where public health officials named occupational burnout as a "new hazard" of the new economy, Daena Funahashi asks: What moves people to work to the point of pathological stress? Contrary to health experts who highlight the importance of self-management and energetic conservation, Funahashi questions the very economic premise of cognitive psychology that one could "economize" one's energy and thus save oneself. By pitting anthropological takes on sacrifice next to the clinical discourses on pressure, work, and coping, Funahashi offers ways to rethink what drives stress. Untimely Sacrifices also provides a compelling critique of state welfare and political economy, contesting the tendency to treat the gift economy as something separate from the force that makes redistributive mechanisms of state welfare work. It is a book essential to those interested in how forces unassimilable to conventional economy come to matter in issues of labor, stress, and welfare.

Read more less

In The Anarchy of Black Religion, J. Kameron Carter examines the deeper philosophical, theological, and religious history that animates our times to advance a new approach to understanding religion. Drawing on the black radical tradition and black feminism, Carter explores the modern invention of religion as central to settler colonial racial technologies wherein antiblackness is a founding and guiding religious principle of the modern world. He therefore sets black religion apart from modern religion, even as it tries to include and enclose it. Carter calls this approach the black study of religion. Black religion emerges not as doctrinal, confessional, or denominational but as a set of poetic and artistic strategies for improvisatory living and gathering. Potentiating non-exclusionary belonging, black religion is anarchic, mystical, and experimental: it reveals alternative relationalities and visions of matter that can counter capitalism’s extractive, individualistic, and imperialist ideology. By enacting a black study of religion, Carter elucidates the violence of religion as the violence of modern life while also opening an alternate praxis of the sacred.

Read more less