The true story of how lives were lost, taxpayer money squandered, and reputations destroyed as part of an ill-conceived effort to remake Afghanistan into something akin to our own image. What started as a project to reconstruct the highway between Kabul and Kandahar evolved into an ambitious effort to provide Afghanistan with new roads, bridges, schools, clinics, power plants, and irrigation projects. These assignments fell to a Texas-based security firm, US Protection & Investigation, LLC (USPI), which in the space of a few years rose to become the most pervasive and effective paramilitary force in Afghanistan. The initiatives required weapons, health and death benefits, ammunition, uniforms, and vehicles, which the underfunded Government of Afghanistan could not supply, but still mandated. Amendment 660 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1972 prohibited USAID from funding these items. Aware of these Vietnam-era legal restraints, Del Spier of USPI alerted U.S. officials to the implications and was assured repeatedly that a way would be found to solve the problem. This is the unbelievable true story of a normal American couple, Del and Barbara Spier, in unfriendly enemy territory, in the middle of a war. Unknown to Barbara, Del was forced to take matters into his own hands to accomplish U.S. objectives. He was caught in the crossfire of Afghanistan's endemic corruption, criminals, and ethnic rivalries and Washington's shifting military strategies and bureaucratic inertia. USPI security personnel worked across the country, where they encountered ambushes, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), warlords, drug kingpins, criminals and ordinary Afghans coping with the horrors of everyday life. These horrors struck a humanitarian nerve in the Spiers and without any government assistance they provided clothing, medicine, training, fuel, food and shelter to the unfortunate. As American troops are being withdrawn from Afghanistan, one overriding question will occupy the public for years: How could an endeavor that began with the toppling of the Taliban regime in Kabul a decade ago have evolved into the longest war in American history? The Spiers' path ultimately led them into a protracted legal battle. USAID turned on the very company that for years had protected its construction sites in Afghanistan and enlisted the FBI and the Justice Department in a three-year, multi-million dollar investigation vendetta against the Spiers and their company. Only dramatic courtroom decisions handed down in March and July 2010 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. brought the matter to a surprising conclusion. The Spiers' tragedy is a microcosm of America's misadventure in Afghanistan.
The true story of how lives were lost, taxpayer money squandered, and reputations destroyed as part of an ill-conceived effort to remake Afghanistan into something akin to our own image. What started as a project to reconstruct the highway between Kabul and Kandahar evolved into an ambitious effort to provide Afghanistan with new roads, bridges, schools, clinics, power plants, and irrigation projects. These assignments fell to a Texas-based security firm, US Protection & Investigation, LLC (USPI), which in the space of a few years rose to become the most pervasive and effective paramilitary force in Afghanistan. The initiatives required weapons, health and death benefits, ammunition, uniforms, and vehicles, which the underfunded Government of Afghanistan could not supply, but still mandated. Amendment 660 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1972 prohibited USAID from funding these items. Aware of these Vietnam-era legal restraints, Del Spier of USPI alerted U.S. officials to the implications and was assured repeatedly that a way would be found to solve the problem. This is the unbelievable true story of a normal American couple, Del and Barbara Spier, in unfriendly enemy territory, in the middle of a war. Unknown to Barbara, Del was forced to take matters into his own hands to accomplish U.S. objectives. He was caught in the crossfire of Afghanistan's endemic corruption, criminals, and ethnic rivalries and Washington's shifting military strategies and bureaucratic inertia. USPI security personnel worked across the country, where they encountered ambushes, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), warlords, drug kingpins, criminals and ordinary Afghans coping with the horrors of everyday life. These horrors struck a humanitarian nerve in the Spiers and without any government assistance they provided clothing, medicine, training, fuel, food and shelter to the unfortunate. As American troops are being withdrawn from Afghanistan, one overriding question will occupy the public for years: How could an endeavor that began with the toppling of the Taliban regime in Kabul a decade ago have evolved into the longest war in American history? The Spiers' path ultimately led them into a protracted legal battle. USAID turned on the very company that for years had protected its construction sites in Afghanistan and enlisted the FBI and the Justice Department in a three-year, multi-million dollar investigation vendetta against the Spiers and their company. Only dramatic courtroom decisions handed down in March and July 2010 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. brought the matter to a surprising conclusion. The Spiers' tragedy is a microcosm of America's misadventure in Afghanistan.
In Interruptions and Transitions Barbara Baert discusses the in-between space where humans and their artistic expression meet by linking the sensory experiences in medieval and early modern visual culture, the hermeneutics of imagery, and the interdisciplinarity of contemporary Art Sciences.
A new edition of Barbara Taylor's classic book, with a new introduction. In the early nineteenth century, radicals all over Europe and America began to conceive of a 'New Moral World', and struggled to create their own utopias, with collective family life, communal property, free love and birth control. In Britain, the visionary ideals of the Utopian Socialist, Robert Owen, attracted thousands of followers, who for more than a quarter of a century attempted to put theory into practice in their own local societies, at rousing public meetings, in trade unions and in their new Communities of Mutual Association. Barbara Taylor's brilliant study of this visionary challenge recovers the crucial connections between socialist aims and feminist aspirations. In doing so, it opens the way to an important re-interpretation of the socialist tradition as a whole, and contributes to the reforging of some of those early links between feminism and socialism.
“Hilarious. Barbara Park makes reading fun.” —Dav Pilkey, author of Dog Man Barbara Park’s #1 New York Times bestselling chapter book series, Junie B. Jones, has been keeping kids laughing—and reading—for more than twenty-five years. Over 65 million copies sold! Meet the World’s Funniest Kindergartner—Junie B. Jones! Junie B. is the bestest spier in the world. That’s ’cause she has sneaky feet. And her nose doesn’t whistle when she breathes. But guess what? Junie B. might be real sneaky. And real peeky. But when she spies on Mrs., she could get into real trouble! USA Today: “Junie B. is the darling of the young-reader set.” Publishers Weekly: “Park convinces beginning readers that Junie B.—and reading—are lots of fun.” Kirkus Reviews: “Junie’s swarms of young fans will continue to delight in her unique take on the world. . . . A hilarious, first-rate read-aloud.” Time: “Junie B. Jones is a feisty six-year-old with an endearing penchant for honesty.”
Basic Environmental Toxicology provides a thorough, systematic introduction to environmental toxicology and addresses many of the effects of pollutants on humans, animals, and the environment. Readers are introduced to the fundamentals of toxicology and ecotoxicology, the effects of different types of toxicants, and how toxicants affect different compartments of the environment. Fundamental aspects of environmental health, occupational health, detection of pollutants, and risk assessment are discussed. The book is excellent for anyone involved in risk assessment or risk management, toxicologists, state and local public health officials, environmental engineers, industrial managers, consultants, and students taking environmental toxicology courses.
The sieve exhibits a wide-ranging symbolism that extends across art history, philosophy, anthropology, psychoanalysis, and gender studies. Barbara Baert looks at the sieve from an interdisciplinary perspective and from four different innovative methodological angles: as motif and symbol, as technique and as paradigm. The sieve as motif goes back to Roman stories the Vestal Virgins. In later times, their impermeable sieve, which - according to legend - they used to fetch water from the River Tiber, was iconographically transferred to Elisabeth I as a sign of her integrity. Furthermore, the long durée life of sieves as symbolic-technical utilitarian object is investigated: in examples from the Jewish folklore, the Berber culture, and ancient Egypt.
“Hilarious. Barbara Park makes reading fun.”—Dav Pilkey, author of Dog Man Barbara Park’s #1 New York Times bestselling chapter book series, Junie B. Jones, has been keeping kids laughing—and reading—for more than twenty-five years. Over 65 million copies sold! Laugh yourself silly with the world’s funniest kid in this puzzle and activity book perfect for holiday, birthday, and back to school gifts! Dear People Who Are Puzzled . . . Ha! That was a little puzzle joke by me! JUNIE B. JONES! On account of this is my very own PUZZLE BOOK! And it is full of games and puzzles about me, me, me . . . for Y-O-U! This book has: * mazes (starring me!) * connect-the-dots * triangle puzzles * tangles * secret codes * coloring activities *creative-writing activities * and also, word games!!!!! And so quick! Grab a pencil and start puzzling yourself! Have fun! Your friend, Junie B., Puzzler USA Today: “Junie B. is the darling of the young-reader set.” Publishers Weekly: “Park convinces beginning readers that Junie B.—and reading—are lots of fun.” Kirkus Reviews: “Junie’s swarms of young fans will continue to delight in her unique take on the world. . . . A hilarious, first-rate read-aloud.” Time: “Junie B. Jones is a feisty six-year-old with an endearing penchant for honesty.”
In Reading Globally, K-8, the authors make the case for why it is necessary to be globally literate and multiculturally aware in today's shrinking world, and they provide the tools teachers need to incorporate appropriate reading selections into primary and secondary school classrooms. By using books from or about other countries, teachers empower students to view the world in a more positive manner, enriching and broadening their students' lives, and ultimately preparing them for life in a global economy and culture. This reader-friendly resource guides teachers and reading programme coordinators in selecting quality books for their classrooms, incorporating global literature into different content areas, and facilitating the discussions that follow. Practical guidance is provided on how to: - Integrate the reading of global texts across the curriculum, with specific application to language arts, social studies, science, maths, and the arts - Locate and evaluate the authenticity and literary merit of potential books, avoiding those that depict stereotypes - Get started!-with an annotated list of children's books, samples of student work, and classroom vignettes from teachers.
Josef von Sternberg's 1930 film The Blue Angel (Der blaue Engel) is among the best known films of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933). A significant landmark as one of Germany's first major sound films, it is known primarily for launching Marlene Dietrich into Hollywood stardom and for initiating the mythic pairing of the Austrian-born American director von Sternberg with the star performer Dietrich. This fascinating cultural history of The Blue Angel provides a new interpretive framework with which to approach this classic Weimar film and suggests that discourses on mass and high culture are integral to the film's thematic and narrative structure. These discourses surface above all in the relationship between the two main characters, the cabaret entertainer Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich) and the high school teacher Immanuel Rath (one-time Oscar winner Emil Jannings). In addition to offering insight into some of the major debates that informed the Weimar Republic, this book demonstrates that similar issues continue to shape the contemporary cultural landscape of Germany. Barbara Kosta thus also looks at Dietrich as a contemporary cultural icon and at her symbolic value since German unification and at Lola Lola's various "incarnations.
Within this fascinating new book, Barbara Morrill analyses the journal writings of Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish woman in the 1940s, as she began analysis with a Jungian oriented practitioner in 1941. While Anne Frank is an inspirational figure, little is known about Etty Hillesum, also from Amsterdam, who kept a diary recounting her life and experiences during early World War II. This book is a compelling example of how we can use Etty Hillesum’s writings in the present to stand firm against the problems we’re currently facing globally. Being a Jungian oriented Integral psychologist and professor, the author examines what Hillesum recorded in her time, as well as employing Etty’s ideas to illuminate the chaos in our time. She explores Hillesum’s own process of individuation and realization, encouraging others to “develop yourselves!” This will be a unique volume of interest to Jungian analysts, analysts in training, as well as readers with an interest in the time period and concern about democracy and “our times.”
The Rough Guide Snapshot to Johannesburg and Pretoria is the ultimate travel guide to this fascinating part of South Africa. It guides you through the region with reliable information and comprehensive coverage of all the sights and attractions, from the Apartheid Museum to Soweto and the Cradle of Humankind to the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre. Detailed maps and up-to-date listings pinpoint the best cafés, restaurants, hotels, shops, bars and nightlife, ensuring you have the best trip possible, whether passing through, staying for the weekend or longer. Also included is the Basics section from the Rough Guide to South Africa, with all the practical information you need for travelling in and around this historic region of South Africa, including transport, food, drink, costs, health, national parks and festivals. Also published as part of the Rough Guide to South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland. Full coverage: The Carlton Centre, Newtown, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Brramfontein, Hillbrow, Parktown, Melville, Sophiatown, Gold Reef City, the Apartheid Museum, Soweto, the Cradle of Humankind, Museum of Natural History, National Zoological Gardens, the Correctional Services Museum, the Freedom Park, Doornkloof Farm and Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre. (Equivalent printed page extent 90 pages).
The Rough Guide Snapshot to Kruger National Park and Mpumalanga is the ultimate travel guide to this fascinating part of South Africa. It guides you through the region with reliable information and comprehensive coverage of all the sights and attractions, from Blyde River Canyon to Pilgrim's Rest and Kruger game drives to private reserves. Detailed maps and up-to-date listings pinpoint the best cafés, restaurants, hotels and shops, ensuring you have the best trip possible, whether passing through, staying for the weekend or longer. Also included is the Basics section from the Rough Guide to South Africa, with all the practical information you need for travelling in and around this beautiful region of South Africa, including transport, food, drink, costs, health, national parks and festivals. Also published as part of the Rough Guide to South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland. Full coverage: The Escarpment, Dullstroom, Sabie, Pilgrim's Rest, Blyde River Canyon, Nelspruit, Hazyview, Kruger National Park and private reserves in Greater Kruger. (Equivalent printed page extent 72 pages).
Wester's environmental history of Yakama and Euro-American cultural interactions during the 19th and early 20th century explores the role of law in both curtailing and promoting rights to subsistence resources within a market economy. Her study, using original source files, case histories, and contemporary writings, particularly describes how the struggle to assert treaty rights both sprang from and impacted the daily lives of the Yakama people. The study is now widely available in this new digital edition (and in paperback), adding a 2014 foreword by Harry Scheiber, professor of law and history at Berkeley. This book, he writes, “is a masterful study of the complex, extended series of confrontations between the native Indian cultures of the Yakima region and the regime of the conquering white nation. Her analysis is based on a blending of materials from rich archival sources and from the literatures of legal history, administrative history, anthropology, ecology, and cultural theory. Most remarkably, the book makes important new contributions to all these fields of scholarship.” "In her remarkable book Land Divided by Law, Barbara Leibhardt Wester eloquently portrays the Yakama Indians of the Columbia River Basin as actors defending a threatened, living landscape from encroachments by settlers. Using federal officials and the courts to advocate for their rights, they reasserted a spiritual heritage of the earth as body, heart, life, and breath. Anyone interested in Native peoples and their interactions with Euro-Americans will want to read this lively, engaging account." —Carolyn Merchant Professor of Environmental History, University of California, Berkeley "This is a remarkable work that brims with insight about the inter-relatedness of nature, work, law, and culture. Wester blends expertise in several different academic disciplines with a superb gift for narrative into her analysis of the Yakama people's defense of their traditional way of life. The book is a testament not only to the skill and resilience of its subjects but also to the power of the author's empathy and respect for them." —Arthur F. McEvoy Associate Dean for Research, and Paul E. Treusch Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School
While the careers of secret agents have inspired many genres of popular culture, relatively little research has been carried out until now on spying as a profession. Through the lens of personnel management, the authors offer a unique and compelling analysis of secret service employee biographies and autobiographies, giving the reader an improved understanding of people management in all organisations.
Dear Person Who Is Reading This, Hurray! Hurray! Now you can laugh out loud with the first four books in my First Ever Ebook Collection! (The “E” stands for “Excellent,” I believe.) Look inside for Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus, Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business, Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth, and Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying. These books will make you laugh out loud, I think. Love, your friend, Junie B. Jones Junie B. Jones has kept kids laughing—and reading—for 20 years. Hurray for Barbara Park and the Junie B. Jones® books! New York Times Bestsellers “Junie B. is a darling of the young-reader set.” —USA Today “Park convinces beginning readers that Junie B.—and reading—are lots of fun.” —Publishers Weekly “Junie’s swarms of young fans will continue to delight in her unique take on the world. . . . A hilarious, first-rate read-aloud.” —Kirkus Reviews “Although Junie B. is a kindergartner, she’s sure to make middle graders laugh out loud.” —School Library Journal
No matter what type of long-term education a mother prefers, she can start to give her child a passion for books and a lifelong love of reading at home with Mommy, Teach Me to Read. The easy-to-learn and fun-to-follow reading programs and activities presented here offer a wonderfully rewarding way to spend time with your children before they start school. This at-home educational resource will help any child age 7 or younger become a better, more enthusiastic reader in a world where reading means succeeding.
While much has been written on alternative paradigm research, there is little concrete advice on how to effectively use the theoretical notions of naturalistic inquiry in practice. Doing Naturalistic Inquiry is the practical guide designed to help beginning researchers apply the constructivist paradigm. Based upon the theoretical work of Lincoln and Guba in developing the naturalistic—or constructivist--paradigm, Erlandson and his colleagues show readers how these ideas shape the practice of conducting alternative paradigm research. The book covers the research process from design through data collection analysis and presentation and examines important issues generally minimized in positivist research texts ethics, trustworthiness, and authenticity. Cases from a wide variety of disciplines demonstrate the efficacy of the methods described. Doing Naturalistic Inquiry is a highly useful teaching tool for anyone using a constructivist lens on research.
Understanding Language Contact offers an accessible and empirically grounded introduction to contact linguistics. Rather than taking a traditional focus on the outcomes of language contact, this book takes the novel approach of considering these outcomes as an endpoint of bilingualism and multilingualism. Covering speech production and comprehension, language diffusion across different interactional networks and timeframes, and the historical outcomes of contact-induced language change, this book: Discusses both how these areas relate to one another and how they correspond to different theoretical fields and methodologies; Draws together concepts and methodological/theoretical advances from the related fields of bilingualism and sociolinguistics to show how these can shed new light on the traditional field of contact linguistics; Presents up-to-date research in a digestible form; Includes examples from a wide range of contact languages, including Creoles and pidgins; Indigenous, minority, and heritage languages; mixed languages; and immigrants' linguistic practices, to illustrate ideas and concepts; Features exercises to test students’ understanding as well as suggestions for further reading to expand knowledge in specific areas. Written by three experienced teachers and researchers in this area, Understanding Language Contact is key reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students approaching bilingualism and language contact for the first time.
This comprehensive listing and discussion of poetic works supports the standards of all areas of the curriculum, helping librarians and teachers working with kindergarten through middle school students. This second edition of Using Poetry Across the Curriculum: Learning to Love Language offers a comprehensive list of poetry anthologies, poetic picture books, and poetic prose works in a wide variety of subject areas. While it maintains the original edition's focus on ideas and resource lists for integration of poetry into all areas of the curriculum, it is thoroughly revised to cover current issues in education and the wealth of new poetry books available. The book is organized by subject areas commonly taught in elementary and middle schools, and, within these, by the national standards in each area. Numerous examples of poetry and poetic prose that can be used to help students understand and appreciate aspects of the standard are listed. A sampling of units that arise from groups of works, writing and performance ideas, and links across the curriculum is also included. While many teaching ideas and topics provide references to the standards they meet, this title is unique in starting with those standards and making links across them.
A guide to this city, including accounts of all the attractions from the historic city centre and Robben Island, to the African townships and Table mountain. It includes details on trips around Cape Town including whale spotting, the Winelands, and Cape Point. The best hotels, restaurants, bars, beaches and shops are reviewed and complemented by the colour maps with grid references for every sight and recommendation.
In an organized and organic way, this book covers all the possible theoretical and empirical facets of delisting, adding to the well-developed literature on IPOs. IPO and delisting are strictly related; the reasons for delisting may be found in the loss of the incentives that drove the firm to the public market in the past. However, the book presents unique motivations not directly related to the IPO decision. This book covers what the existing literature has not in focusing on specific aspects such as market liquidity and microstructure, listing costs, market for corporate control, corporate governance issues and so on. Of interest to academics and students, this contribution puts all pieces in order and finds a thread that can link each theory to the others.
This book presents the most important problems of reference and considers their solution. It presupposes no technical knowledge, presents analyses from first principles, illustrates every stage with examples, and is written with verve and clarity. This is the ideal introduction to reference for students of linguistics and philosophy of language.
In Essays on Turkish Literature and History Barbara Flemming makes available essays partly previously published in German. They offer insights gained through decades of scholarship. Although the Ottoman period is central, a wide range is covered, including an early Turkish principality, Mamluk and Ottoman Egypt, and contemporary southeastern Turkey. The essays look into historical and political factors involved in the preoccupation with the world’s ending, into Muslim-Christian dialogue, the sultan’s prayer before battle, and the bilingualism of poets. Of particular interest are the sections on female participation in mysticism, on an anti-Sufi movement in Cairo, on the Ottoman capital’s appeal to collectors and emigrants (Diez, Süssheim, Böhlau), and on the far-reaching effects of alphabet change.
Full-colour throughout, The Rough Guide to Cape Town, the Winelands and the Garden Route is the ultimate travel guide to one of the world's most captivating regions. With 30 years experience and our trademark 'tell it like it is' writing style Rough Guides cover all the basics with practical, on-the-ground details, as well as unmissable alternatives to the usual must-see sights. At the top of your to-pack list, and guaranteed to get you value for money, each guide also reviews the best accommodation and restaurants in all price brackets we know there are times for saving, and times for splashing out. In The Rough Guide to Cape Town, the Winelands and the Garden Route: - Over 50 colour-coded maps featuring every listing - Area-by-area chapter highlights - Top 5 boxes - Things not to miss section Make the most of your trip with The Rough Guide to Cape Town, the Winelands and the Garden Route. Now available in ePub format.
This established text--now revised and updated--reveals how spoken language skills are acquired and how they affect children’s later reading and writing achievement. With a unique focus on the needs of educators, the book examines the foundations of language in the developing brain. It explores the relationship of language processes to core literacy skills and probes the impact of motivational and sociocultural factors on children’s learning. Implications of developmental knowledge for classroom instruction are highlighted, and effective practices reviewed. Revealing vignettes, clear explanations of research, and lists of “main ideas” enhance the text’s accessibility for preservice teachers. New to This Edition *Chapter on emergent literacy and the predictors of reading success. *Incorporates the latest research, including findings from key longitudinal studies. *Increased attention to English learners, low-income children, and children with disabilities. *Updated and expanded topics, including usage-based theories of language acquisition, morphological knowledge in vocabulary and comprehension, phonological processing skills, and writing development.
Revised and updated, this third edition of Barbara Johnstone’s Discourse Analysis encourages students to think about discourse analysis as an open-ended set of techniques. Exploring a variety of approaches, including critical discourse analysis, conversation analysis, interactional and variationist sociolinguistics, ethnography, corpus linguistics, social semiotics, and other qualitative and quantitative methods, the book balances its comprehensive coverage with extensive practical examples, making it the ideal introductory text for students new to the subject. This new edition reflects the increased importance within the field of new media discourse, multi-modal discourse and the analysis of large corpora of discourse data. Updated material expands the discussion of stancetaking, whilst new material addresses recontextualization, precontextualization, and language and the body. Pedagogical features have been refreshed, including discussion questions, exercises, and ideas for small research projects, with suggested supplementary readings at the end of each chapter to encourage further discovery. Chapters in this book are self-contained, so they can be handled in any order Suggested supplementary readings are featured at the end of every chapter Book is written specifically for a non-specialist, interdisciplinary audience Examples of computer-aided corpus analysis (reflecting the improvements made to theories and tools) supplement every chapter Discussion questions and ideas for small research projects are interspersed throughout The combination of breadth of coverage, practical examples, and student-friendly pedagogical features ensures Discourse Analysis remains the ideal textbook for students taking their first course in linguistic approaches to discourse.
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