From the National Jewish Book Award-winning author of The Prince of West End Avenue comes a sparkling new novel that confirms Alan Isler's unique gift for mingling comedy and tradgedy. Despite a severe lack of piety and the inconvenient fact of his Jewish birth, Edmond Music chose the priesthood as a career. Much to the Vatican's chagrin, he is entrenched at an English estate possessed of a fabulous library. There, he would rather pursue a decades-long liaison with his Irish housekeeper, Maude, than crack down on his assistant's dial-a-confession phone ministry. He would rather immerse himself in his study of an eighteenth-century Jewish mystic, the epigrammatic Pish, than deal with a Shakespeare quarto gone missing on his watch. Then Father Music's car is found wrapped around the famous Stuart Oak (blessedly, without Edmond inside). Are Vatican henchmen to blame? What's more, Edmond's persistent nemesis, the American priest Twombly, is headed to town, eager to prove Edmond a thief. And the once passionate Maude is having an inconvenient religious revival. With his forty-year idyll thoroughly disrupted, Edmond can no longer ignore the present danger. Nor can he evade the reach of his buried past. Rife with Alan Isler's characteristic wit and wordplay, Clerical Errors is a deeply moving exploration of a world of faith, love, and identity, a world lost and found again, perhaps too late.
Alan Lomax (1915-2002) began working for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress in 1936, first as a special and temporary assistant, then as the permanent Assistant in Charge, starting in June 1937, until he left in late 1942. He recorded such important musicians as Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, Aunt Molly Jackson, and Jelly Roll Morton. A reading and examination of his letters from 1935 to 1945 reveal someone who led an extremely complex, fascinating, and creative life, mostly as a public employee. While Lomax is noted for his field recordings, these collected letters, many signed "Alan Lomax, Assistant in Charge," are a trove of information until now available only at the Library of Congress. They make it clear that Lomax was very interested in the commercial hillbilly, race, and even popular recordings of the 1920s and after. These letters serve as a way of understanding Lomax's public and private life during some of his most productive and significant years. Lomax was one of the most stimulating and influential cultural workers of the twentieth century. Here he speaks for himself through his voluminous correspondence.
From the National Jewish Book Award-winning author of The Prince of West End Avenue comes a sparkling new novel that confirms Alan Isler's unique gift for mingling comedy and tradgedy. Despite a severe lack of piety and the inconvenient fact of his Jewish birth, Edmond Music chose the priesthood as a career. Much to the Vatican's chagrin, he is entrenched at an English estate possessed of a fabulous library. There, he would rather pursue a decades-long liaison with his Irish housekeeper, Maude, than crack down on his assistant's dial-a-confession phone ministry. He would rather immerse himself in his study of an eighteenth-century Jewish mystic, the epigrammatic Pish, than deal with a Shakespeare quarto gone missing on his watch. Then Father Music's car is found wrapped around the famous Stuart Oak (blessedly, without Edmond inside). Are Vatican henchmen to blame? What's more, Edmond's persistent nemesis, the American priest Twombly, is headed to town, eager to prove Edmond a thief. And the once passionate Maude is having an inconvenient religious revival. With his forty-year idyll thoroughly disrupted, Edmond can no longer ignore the present danger. Nor can he evade the reach of his buried past. Rife with Alan Isler's characteristic wit and wordplay, Clerical Errors is a deeply moving exploration of a world of faith, love, and identity, a world lost and found again, perhaps too late.
Methods for the Oxidation of Organic Compounds: Alcohols, Alcohol Derivatives, Alkyl Halides, Nitroalkanes, Alkyl Azides, Carbonyl Compounds, Hydroxyarenes and Aminoarenes describes the different methods used for the controlled oxidation of alcohols, alcohol derivatives, alkyl halides, nitroalkanes, alkyl azides, carbonyl compounds, hydroxyarenes, and aminoarenes. Most of the oxidative techniques considered are illustrated with detailed experimental procedures taken from the literature. This book is comprised of eight chapters and begins with a discussion on the oxidation of alcohols, with particular emphasis on the formation of carbonyl compounds and carboxylic acids. The following chapters focus on the oxidation of esters and alkyl halides; ethers, acetals, and metal derivatives of alcohols; amines, nitro compounds, and azides; carbonyl compounds; 1,2-diols and related compounds; and hydroxyarenes, aminoarenes, dihydroxyarenes, diaminoarenes, and aminohydroxyarenes. Methods such as catalytic oxidation, catalytic dehydrogenation, and electrochemical and biochemical oxidation are mentioned. This monograph should be of interest to organic chemists and research students.
This broad and innovative self-development guide shows readers how they can use scientific findings from contemporary positive psychology to enhance their lives. Containing dozens of practical exercises and real-life examples, it helps bring positive psychology findings from the lab into day-to-day life. Divided into six parts and covering a wide array of themes, this book is designed to help people with or without mental health problems enhance their well-being. It answers questions like: what is well-being? What are the main determinants of well-being, and how can we sustain it? There are also chapters on physical exercise, progressive muscle relaxation and mindfulness meditation, savouring pleasures, creative solution-finding and developing compassionate relationships. This non-technical and highly accessible book will be of interest to those from all backgrounds with an interest in self-development, as well as mental health workers and related professionals.
Two-person zero-sum game theory deals with situations that are perfectly competitive—there are exactly two decision makers for whom there is no possibility of cooperation or compromise. It is the most fundamental part of game theory, and the part most commonly applied. There are diverse applications to military battles, sports, parlor games, economics and politics. The theory was born in World War II, and has by now matured into a significant and tractable body of knowledge about competitive decision making. The advent of modern, powerful computers has enabled the solution of many games that were once beyond computational reach. Two-Person Zero-Sum Games, 4th Ed. offers an up-to-date introduction to the subject, especially its computational aspects. Any finite game can be solved by the brute force method of enumerating all possible strategies and then applying linear programming. The trouble is that many interesting games have far too many strategies to enumerate, even with the aid of computers. After introducing ideas, terminology, and the brute force method in the initial chapters, the rest of the book is devoted to classes of games that can be solved without enumerating every strategy. Numerous examples are given, as well as an extensive set of exercises. Many of the exercises are keyed to sheets of an included Excel workbook that can be freely downloaded from the SpringerExtras website. This new edition can be used as either a reference book or as a textbook.
Music is central to human cultural and intellectual experience. It is vitally important for the welfare of human society and - this book argues - should become more widely accepted in our community as a mainstream educational and therapeutic tool. This book explores the importance of music throughout human evolution, and its continued relevance to modern-day human society. Throughout, the emphasis is on the origin of music and how (and where) it is processed in our brains, exploring in detail the genetic and cultural evolution of modern, loquacious humans, how we may have evolved with unique neural and cognitive architecture, and why two complementary but distinct communication systems - language and music - remain a human universal. In addition the book explores, in some depth, the different theories that have been put forward to explain why musical communication was (and remains) advantageous to our species, with a particular emphasis on the role of music and dance in enhancing altruistic and prosocial behaviours. The author suggests that music, and the social harmonization it brings, was of vital importance in early humans as we became more and more individualized by the emergence of modern language and the modern mind, and the realization that we are mortal. 'Music, Evolution, and the Harmony of Souls' demonstrates the evolutionary sociobiological importance of music as a driver of cooperative and interactive behaviour throughout human existence, and what this evolutionary imperative means to twenty-first century humanity and beyond, from social and medical/neurological perspectives
Major Richard J. "Dick" Meadows is renowned in military circles as a key figure in the development of the U.S. Army Special Operations. A highly decorated war veteran of the engagements in Korea and Vietnam, Meadows was instrumental in the founding of the U.S. Delta Force and hostage rescue force. Although he officially retired in 1977, Meadows could never leave the army behind, and he went undercover in the clandestine operations to free American hostages from Iran in 1980. The Quiet Professional: Major Richard J. Meadows of the U.S. Army Special Forces is the only biography of this exemplary soldier's life. Military historian Alan Hoe offers unique insight into Meadows, having served alongside him in 1960. The Quiet Professional is an insider's account that gives a human face to U.S. military strategy during the cold war. Major Meadows often claimed that he never achieved anything significant; The Quiet Professional proves otherwise, showcasing one of the great military minds of twentieth-century America.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.