The moving and evocative story of Napier Waller’s masterpiece – the Hall of Memory – the spiritual heart of the Australian War Memorial. The one-armed Melbourne artist Napier Waller OBE CMG created the great Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Waller died in 1972 without knowing that 20 years later his greatest work would be the place for a tomb that would be central to Australia’s remembrance of war dead. The Glass Cricket Ball is a story of Waller’s life, the creation of a great artwork and the bringing home and re-burial of the remains of an Unknown Australian Soldier from a French World War I battleground cemetery. Napier Waller was a casualty at the battle of Bullecourt. A watercolour artist on the Western Front should be out of his comfort zone when his wounds include the loss of his right painting arm. But Napier Waller’s answer was to become Australia’s greatest monumental artist – with his left hand. Waller and the war historian Charles Bean had a fine time deciding which words described the quintessential qualities of Australian fighting men and women in World War I. The words would be included at the foot of each of the fifteen windows of the Hall of Memory and would define fighting, social and personal qualities. The window defined as “ancestry” would include a sporting image and Waller chose to include a stained-glass cricket ball and stumps – a tradition of the Anzacs of World War I.
A true and moving story of love, war, courage and indomitable spirit… One day the tall, gaunt father came to the house with the new wife and called the puzzled seven-year-old to him. She had never seen him before… ‘I am your father and you will call me Father, and this is your new mother and you will call her Mother,’ he said. Then he went away again, leaving little Bell with confusion in her mind and emptiness in her heart. In Mackie and Jack, the author travels with Mary ‘Bell’ Todd on a journey to remember a lonely childhood, a wartime marriage and what it took for her to succeed as a woman alone in a man’s world of livestock breeding in Australia. Empowered by inner strength and resilience, she confronted her challenges and overcame them. In 1942-1944, Mary’s husband, Squadron Leader Jack Todd faced challenges of another kind. Armed with bombs, depth charges and mines, the Catalinas of 11 and 20 Squadrons, Royal Australian Air Force, took the war directly to the Japanese by reaching out from Cairns in flights across the Pacific. From these squadrons alone, 187 men did not return. Jack Todd piloted the ill-fated mission of Catalina A24.34. Jack’s story is one of courage, leadership and valour in a war against an enemy that showed no mercy. An outstanding account of Australian war history and that of a woman who brushed aside those who stood in her way.
If we must look for demons in our lives, we may also try to destroy them before we die. In James Twining’s life the demon of his declining memory, like Don Quixote’s windmill, is a tractor. Forged in Germany, the machine came to be known as Hitler’s tractor – it ploughed, sowed and reaped. But did Hitler’s tractor have a sinister purpose? This is a story that takes the reader through chapters in the lifetime of one man – childhood, adolescence, a professional life and finally old age when he struggles to remember. It tells of hardship farming in 1930s Australia, the confusion of a boy’s conflict with a teacher traumatised by war, his artistic mother’s battle against the unforgiving land, a father who dreams of something better, and a marriage under strain. But glowering over an apparently simple tale is the ‘evil one’ – the German tractor that seems to have an unimaginably dangerous machine-like power over those who would dare to stoke its fire and tame its strength. Character rich and sweeping from the Depression years to the Australia of today, Hitler’s Tractor speaks to the strength of human spirit when faced by adversity – drought, flood, cruel fate and the futility of revenge. It is a poignant, beguiling and exquisitely told Australian story.
Jan Smith's Confessions... is finally out! Self-acknowledged victim of too many books and too much liveliness, this is an almost intergalactic memoir where small town life at Eumundi, Queensland meets the political changes of war-time Australia, Catholics and Protestants hold an uneasy truce, and Irish black humour abounds: By English standards there wasn't a Right in Australia, just men who'd stopped being Left. We visit Brisbane and Longreach in less-than-fashionable 50s, then the urban thrall of Sydney and Woman magazine. Marriage, motherhood and the enigmas of the Bulletin. Separation, independence, even editor of Forum magazine, topped off with a home birth at 40... But with city nights there was no question of mysterious and marvellous changes, boiled tongue in the press becoming jelled by morning, sick animals healing or dying, a hundred chickens doubled in size under their aluminium tent. The Pleiades and Orion's Belt struggled for attention in a petulant sky which ached to be properly black, even the moon you had to be quick about before it disappeared too, like the Russian Sputnik with the whimpering dog inside. Jan Smith is the author of two novels, An Ornament of Grace (Sun Books, 1966) and The Worshipful Company (Cassell, 1969), and co-author, with Dr William Vayda, of Health for Life: Are You Allergic to the Twentieth Century? (Sphere Books 1981) After dropping out of the University of Queensland and working as a cadet journalist on The Courier Mail Jan went to Sydney and joined Woman's Day magazine. After three years on Woman's Day, she was forced to resign because she had married a staff member, and for the next fifty years survived by freelancing, notably for The Bulletin and Pol magazine, apart from a year on Forum UK, the sex magazine, and Australian Business. She now lives happily in King's Cross, Sydney, with her cat, doing what she'd have rather done all along.
The official prequel novel of the epic film After Earth, directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Jaden Smith and Will Smith After their exodus from Earth, the last humans settled a remote planet, Nova Prime. When an alien force known as the Skrel descended from the skies, the United Ranger Corps, an elite defense unit, valiantly resisted. Centuries passed without an attack, and many colonists believed that, with other security measures in place, the resources devoted to maintaining their military strength would be better spent elsewhere. Little did they know that trouble was coming to Nova Prime—and it had a taste for blood. The latest in a long line of decorated warriors, Conner Raige is one of the Rangers’ most promising young cadets, although his brash confidence and tendency to act on instinct have earned him as many skeptics as admirers. Conner’s ancestors were on the front lines of humanity’s victory against the Skrel. But when a deadly ground war breaks out, Conner’s up against an entirely different beast—because, this time, the Skrel have brought a secret weapon: ferocious killing machines designed to eliminate humanity from Nova Prime . . . and the universe. BONUS: Includes the first three novellas of Ghost Stories, the thrilling eBook original prequel series!
A thrilling prequel comic book to After Earth, the highly anticipated science fiction adventure film starring Will Smith and Jaden Smith! A NEW HOME. A NEW ENEMY. More than two centuries ago, as Earth’s atmosphere became too toxic to support life, humans fled the only home they had ever known. The survivors wandered the universe for a hundred years in massive spaceship “arks.” They colonized a remote planet, Nova Prime, and began to rebuild civilization. Humanity had yet to make contact with another intelligent species. Until now. 243 A.E.: “After Earth.” Even on this new planet, society is suffering from deep divisions, with scientific innovators and spiritual leaders often at bitter odds. But when a terrifying assault by an alien species, the Skrel, interrupts life on Nova Prime, the last humans must band together to protect their fragile claim. Their best hope might be Jason Raige, an ace pilot of the United Ranger Corps, but in the chaos a new hero emerges: Jason’s twelve-year-old son, Carter. The age of innocence is over—and the future is just beginning.
On a distant planet called Nova Prime, the United Ranger Corps defends the galaxy’s remaining humans from an alien race known as the Skrel and their genetically engineered predators, the Ursa—and one Ranger will learn just how high the cost of victory can be. “Ghost Stories: Saviour” is the fifth of six eBook short stories that lead up to the events of After Earth, the epic science fiction adventure film directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Jaden Smith and Will Smith. Ranger Jon Blackburn wakes up from voluntary brain surgery, dazed and confused. He is a hero . . . or at least he will be one, if the delicate operation to remove his sense of fear was successful. Blackburn consented to take part in the experimental initiative to increase the Rangers’ reserve of “Ghosts,” soldiers whose lack of fear renders them invisible to the deadly Ursa. All indications are that it’s a spectacular success—but Blackburn doesn’t feel special; he doesn’t feel honored when Cypher Raige, the Original Ghost, personally thanks him. In fact, he doesn’t really feel much of anything. Doctors say that his fear is gone, but something else is missing, too; something Blackburn may not be able to get back, unless he can piece together this twisted jigsaw puzzle and find a way to become whole again.
People in India form images of Jesus Christ that link up with their own culture. Hindus have given Jesus a place among the teachers and gods of their own religion, seeing in his life something of the wisdom and mysticism that is so central to Hinduism. Christians in India also make use of the concepts provided by Hinduism when they wish to express the meaning of Christ. Thus, in any case, Jesus is--for Hindus and Christians--a guru, a teacher of wisdom who speaks with divine authority. But for many Hindu philosophers and Christian theologians there is much more that can be said about him within the Indian framework. He can be described as an avatara, a divine descent, or linked to the Brahman, the all-encompassing Reality. This study looks at both Hindu and Christian views of Christ, starting with that of the Hindu reformer Rammohan Roy at the beginning of the nineteenth century, as well as those of the first Christian theologians of India. The views of Mahatma Gandhi and the monks of the Ramakrishna Mission are discussed, and those of influential Christian schools such as the Ashram movement and dalit theology. Five intermezzos indicate how artists in India portray Jesus Christ.
Ranging across the 4.6 billion year history of the planet, geology is the subject that encompasses almost all that we see around us, in one way or another, and also much that we cannot see, beneath our feet, and on other planets. The fruits of geology provide most of the materials that give us shelter, and most of the energy that drives our modern lives. Within the study of geology lie some of the clues to the extraordinary impact our species is going to play out on the planet, in centuries and millennia to come. In this Very Short Introduction Jan Zalasiewicz gives a brief introduction to the fascinating field of geology. Describing how the science developed from its early beginnings, he looks at some of the key discoveries that have transformed it, before delving into its various subfields, such as sedimentology, tectonics, and stratigraphy. Analysing the geological foundations of the Earth, Zalasiewicz explains the interlocking studies of tectonics, geophysics, and igneous and metamorphic petrology and geochemistry; and describes how rocks are dated by radiometric dating. Considering the role and importance of geology in the finding and exploitation of resources (including fracking), he also discusses its place in environmental issues, such as foundations for urban structures and sites for landfill, and in tackling issues associated with climate change. Zalasiewicz concludes by discussing the exciting future and frontiers of the field, such as the exploration of the geology of Mars. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
This revised edition of the original reference standard for urban legends provides an updated anthology of common myths and stories, and presents expanded coverage of international legends and tales shared and popularized online. From roasted babies to vanishing hitchhikers to housewives in football helmets, this exhaustive and highly readable encyclopedia provides descriptions of hundreds of individual legends and their variations, examines legend themes, and explains scholarly approaches to the genre. Revised and expanded to include updated versions of the entries from the award-winning first edition, this work provides additional entries on a wide range of new topics that include terrorism, recent political events, and Hurricane Katrina. Entries in Encyclopedia of Urban Legends, Updated and Expanded Edition discuss the presence of urban legends in comic books, literature, film, music, and many other areas of popular culture, as well as the existence of "too good to be true" stories in Argentina, China, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and several other countries. Serving as both an anthology of stories as well as a reference work, this encyclopedia will serve as a valuable resource for students and a source book for journalists, professional folklorists, and others who are researching or interested in urban legends.
Presents a history of climate to reveal that the climatic changes happening hardly compare to the changes the Earth has seen over the last 4.5 billion years.
This book explores the importance of history to Elizabethan and early Stuart gentry and how this led to a vibrant antiquarian culture. The family, town and county histories written by the community, which form the core of the study, had an influence on the development of local history in England which lasted into the twentieth century and is still felt today.
Texas Biographical Dictionary contains biographies on hundreds of persons from diverse vocations that were either born, achieved notoriety and/or died in the state of Texas. Prominent persons, in addition to the less eminent, that have played noteworthy roles are included in this resource. When people are recognized from your state or locale it brings a sense of pride to the residents of the entire state.
People of African heritage have traveled to Monterey since the 1770s, when African Spaniard Alexo Nino, a ship's caulker, traveled with Fr. Junipero Serra to Monterey via the San Antonio. For centuries since Nino, black men and women migrated to the Monterey Bay area in search of a new life. In the 20th century, some African Americans established businesses, bought homes, and encouraged family members and friends to settle in Monterey County. Others pursued military careers. Out of these communities came churches, schools, service organizations, and social groups. For the next century, the history of Monterey County's African American communities have mirrored the nation's slow progress toward integration with triumphs and setbacks that have been captured in images of employment opportunities, churches, business successes, and political struggles.
Over half a billion years ago life on earth took an incredible step in evolution, when animals learned to build skeletons. Using many different materials, from calcium carbonate and phosphate, and even silica, to make shell and bone, they started creating the support structures that are now critical to most living forms, providing rigidity and strength. Manifesting in a vast variety of forms, they provided the framework for sophisticated networks of life that fashioned the evolution of Earth's oceans, land and atmosphere. Within a few tens of millions of years, all of the major types of skeleton had appeared. Skeletons enabled an unprecedented array of bodies to evolve, from the tiniest seed shrimp to the gigantic dinosaurs and blue whales. The earliest bacterial colonies constructed large rigid structures - stromatolites - built up by trapping layers of sediment, while the mega-skeleton that is the Great Barrier Reef is big enough to be visible from space. The skeletons of millions of coccolithophores that lived in the shallow seas of the Mesozoic built the white cliffs of Dover. These, and insects, put their scaffolding on the outside, as an exoskeleton, while vertebrates have endoskeletons. Skeletons may be hydrostatic, or, as is common, made of calcium phosphate, or from carbonate, or silica - the latter used to create delicate and elegant designs by diatoms and radiolarians. They need to be light and strong for flight. Plants use tubes of dead tissue for rigidity and transport of liquids - which in the case of tall trees need to be strong enough to extend 100 m or more from the ground. Others simply stitch together a coating from mineral grains on the seabed. In Skeletons, Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams explore the incredible variety of the skeleton innovations that have enabled life to expand into a wide range of niches and lifestyles on the planet. Discussing the impact of climate change, which puts the formation of some kinds of skeleton at risk, they also consider future skeletons, including the possibility that we might increasingly incorporate metal and plastic elements into our own, as well as the possible materials for skeleton building on other planets.
A true and moving story of love, war, courage and indomitable spirit… One day the tall, gaunt father came to the house with the new wife and called the puzzled seven-year-old to him. She had never seen him before… ‘I am your father and you will call me Father, and this is your new mother and you will call her Mother,’ he said. Then he went away again, leaving little Bell with confusion in her mind and emptiness in her heart. In Mackie and Jack, the author travels with Mary ‘Bell’ Todd on a journey to remember a lonely childhood, a wartime marriage and what it took for her to succeed as a woman alone in a man’s world of livestock breeding in Australia. Empowered by inner strength and resilience, she confronted her challenges and overcame them. In 1942-1944, Mary’s husband, Squadron Leader Jack Todd faced challenges of another kind. Armed with bombs, depth charges and mines, the Catalinas of 11 and 20 Squadrons, Royal Australian Air Force, took the war directly to the Japanese by reaching out from Cairns in flights across the Pacific. From these squadrons alone, 187 men did not return. Jack Todd piloted the ill-fated mission of Catalina A24.34. Jack’s story is one of courage, leadership and valour in a war against an enemy that showed no mercy. An outstanding account of Australian war history and that of a woman who brushed aside those who stood in her way.
Many scholars have written about eighteenth-century English novels, but no one really knows who read them. This study provides historical data on the provincial reading publics for various forms of fiction - novels, plays, chapbooks, children's books, and magazines. Archival records of Midland booksellers based in five market towns and selling printed matter to over thirty-three hundred customers between 1744 and 1807 form the basis for new information about who actually bought and borrowed different kinds of fiction in eighteenth-century provincial England. This book thus offers the first solid demographic information about actual readership in eighteenth-century provincial England, not only about the class, profession, age, and sex of readers but also about the market of available fiction from which they made their choices - and some speculation about why they made the choices they did. Contrary to received ideas, men in the provinces were the principal customers for eighteenth-century novels, including those written by women. Provincial customers preferred to buy rather than borrow fiction, and women preferred plays and novels written by women - women's works would have done better had women been the principal consumers. That is, demand for fiction (written by both men and women) was about equal for the first five years, but afterward the demand for women's works declined. Both men and women preferred novels with identifiable authors to anonymous ones, however, and both boys and men were able to cross gender lines in their reading. Goody Two-Shoes was one of the more popular children's books among Rugby schoolboys, and men read the Lady's Magazine. These and other findings will alter the way scholars look at the fiction of the period, the questions asked, and the histories told of it.
Mormonism is one of the fastest growing, most misunderstood, and most debated religions of recent times. Even the simple act of defining WHAT Mormonism is (or should be) has been filled with controversy. The author reconstructs the signal events of early Mormonism as perceived from INSIDE the faith.
If we must look for demons in our lives, we may also try to destroy them before we die. In James Twining’s life the demon of his declining memory, like Don Quixote’s windmill, is a tractor. Forged in Germany, the machine came to be known as Hitler’s tractor – it ploughed, sowed and reaped. But did Hitler’s tractor have a sinister purpose? This is a story that takes the reader through chapters in the lifetime of one man – childhood, adolescence, a professional life and finally old age when he struggles to remember. It tells of hardship farming in 1930s Australia, the confusion of a boy’s conflict with a teacher traumatised by war, his artistic mother’s battle against the unforgiving land, a father who dreams of something better, and a marriage under strain. But glowering over an apparently simple tale is the ‘evil one’ – the German tractor that seems to have an unimaginably dangerous machine-like power over those who would dare to stoke its fire and tame its strength. Character rich and sweeping from the Depression years to the Australia of today, Hitler’s Tractor speaks to the strength of human spirit when faced by adversity – drought, flood, cruel fate and the futility of revenge. It is a poignant, beguiling and exquisitely told Australian story.
When discussing unsolved murders of women in late Victorian London, most people think of the depredations of Jack the Ripper, the Whitechapel Murderer. But he was just one of a string of phantom murderers whose unsolved slayings outraged late Victorian Britain. The mysterious Great Coram Street, Burton Crescent and Euston Square murders were talked about with bated breath, and the northern part of Bloomsbury got the unflattering nickname of the ‘murder neighbourhood’ thanks to its profusion of unsolved mysteries. Marvel at the convoluted Kingswood Mystery, littered with fake names and mistaken identities; be puzzled by the blackmail and secret marriage in the Cannon Street Murder; and shudder at the vicious yet silent killing in St Giles that took place in a crowded house in the dead of night. Rivals of the Ripper is the first to resurrect these unsolved Victorian murder mysteries, and to highlight the ghoulish handiwork of the Rivals of the Ripper: the spectral killers of gas-lit London.
The result of more than twenty years' research, this seven-volume book lists over 23,000 people and 8,500 marriages, all related to each other by birth or marriage and grouped into families with the surnames Brandt, Cencia, Cressman, Dybdall, Froelich, Henry, Knutson, Kohn, Krenz, Marsh, Meilgaard, Newell, Panetti, Raub, Richardson, Serra, Tempera, Walters, Whirry, and Young. Other frequently-occurring surnames include: Greene, Bartlett, Eastman, Smith, Wright, Davis, Denison, Arnold, Brown, Johnson, Spencer, Crossmann, Colby, Knighten, Wilbur, Marsh, Parker, Olmstead, Bowman, Hawley, Curtis, Adams, Hollingsworth, Rowley, Millis, and Howell. A few records extend back as far as the tenth century in Europe. The earliest recorded arrival in the New World was in 1626 with many more arrivals in the 1630s and 1640s. Until recent decades, the family has lived entirely north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
This book is a long-term study of organisational capabilities as parts of early modern state formation. Sweden was a largely non-maritime society which nevertheless maintained a large navy as part of the armed forces which created a Baltic empire. Many of the resources came from the peasant society which was exploited in an entrepreneurial fashion by a highly ambitious dynasty. For a long time Sweden was organisationally more advanced than its neighbours but the empire ceased to grow and finally collapsed when other Northern powers developed strong states. The book provides detailed information about the strength of the navy in terms of warships, equipment, guns and men and it relates changes in size and structure to changes in policy.
The bowl is one of the most traditional forms, but contemporary artists who work in wood understand that it has tremendous potential. These 500 exquisite examples, many by pioneering artisans, show just how much the bowl has been “reinvented” by craftpeople all over the world as both an iconic object and as a departure for self-expression. On display are a wide range of woodworking approaches, from chisel to chainsaw to router to bandsaw. Some have carvings on the suface; others feature paint and mixed media; while many more stay close to what nature provided, with the wood simply sanded and sealed. The talented creators include James Prestini, Bob Stocksdale, Rude Osolnik, Mel Lindquist, Ed Moulthrop, Mark Lindquist, David Ellsworth, and William Hunter.
For more than 140 years, the Hash Knife brand has intrigued Western history lovers. From its rough-and-ready-sounding name to its travels throughout Texas, Montana, and Arizona, the Hash Knife sports a romance like few others in the cattle industry. Several outfits have been proud to call the brand their own, and the stories behind the men who worked for these companies are the epitome of Western lore and truth combined. Beginning in 1884, the Hash Knife--owned by the Aztec Land and Cattle Company--came to Arizona. The brand left a lasting impression on places like Holbrook, Joseph City, Winslow, and the famed OW Ranch while shaping Northern Arizona. From its historic roots to the famed Hash Knife Pony Express Ride that takes place each January, the Hash Knife has left its mark as a beloved mainstay of the American West.
Massacres, mayhem, and mischief fill the pages of Outlaw Tales of Colorado, with compelling legends of the Centennial State's most despicable desperadoes. Ride with horse thieves and cattle rustlers, duck the bullets of murderers, plot strategies with con artists, and hiss at lawmen turned outlaws.
Which of Edinburgh’s most gruesome murders has happened in your street? And were they committed by Burke and Hare, by the Stockbridge Baby-Farmer, by the Demon Frenchman of George Street, by the Triple Killer of Falcon Avenue, or perhaps by one of the Capital’s many faceless, spectral slayers
Ever since the 2007–8 global financial crisis and its aftermath, Hyman Minsky’s theory has never been more relevant. Throughout his career, Jan Kregel has called attention to Minsky’s contributions to understanding the evolution of financial systems, the development of financial fragility and instability, and designing the financial structure necessary to support the capital development of the economy. Building on Minsky, Kregel developed a framework to analyze how different financial structures develop financial fragility over time. Rather than characterizing financial systems as market-based or bank-based, Kregel argued that it is necessary to distinguish between the risks that are carried on the balance sheets of banks and other financial institutions. This volume, brought together by Felipe C. Rezende, highlights these major contributions from Kregel through a collection of his influential papers from various journals and conferences. Kregel’s approach provides a strong theoretical background to understand the making and unfolding of the crisis and helps us to draw policy implications to improve financial stability, and suggest an alternative financial structure for a market economy. In this book, his knowledge is consolidated and the ideas he puts forward offer a path for future developments in economics which will be of great interest to those studying and researching in the fields of economics and finance.
If aliens came to Earth 100 millions years in the future, what traces would they find of long-extinct humanity's brief reign on the planet? This engaging and thought-provoking account looks at what our species will leave behind, buried deep in the rock strata, and provides us with a warning of our devastating environmental impact.
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