America the Beautiful has become America the Bizarre. Christians are prosecuted for their faith, the government dictates what kind of car and lightbulbs you can buy, children "transition" to the opposite sex, the president defends our enemies, men marry men and women marry women, and 130 million Americans depend on mind-altering substances just to get through life.

Without a doubt, in the age of Obama, long-coalescing forces of the political and cultural left are bringing about their much-promised fundamental transformation of America.

But this revolution is also causing a fundamental transformation of Americans – in profoundly negative, though heretofore largely unreported, ways. InThe Snapping of the American Mind, bestselling author and journalist David Kupelian shows how the secular left – which has come to dominate most of America's key institutions, from the news and entertainment media to education to government itself – is accomplishing much more than just enlarging government, enacting progressive redistributionist policies and de-Christianizing the culture. It is also, whether intentionally or not, promoting widespread dependency, family breakdown, crime, corruption, addiction, despair, and suicide. The evidence Kupelian presents is devastating and overwhelming.

In the end, The Snapping of the American Mind explores how America can be restored to her former, and still underlying, greatness – and just as important, how individuals, despite living in an age of high anxiety, moral confusion, and growing chaos can find genuine happiness and personal healing.

A Jewish schoolteacher tells the story of Wilhelm Götz and Erwin Meyer in the process of researching the deaths of his relatives during World War II. These two SS officers were assigned to drive a hermetically sealed truck in which concentration-camp prisoners were slowly asphyxiated. Soon this knowledge overwhelms day-to-day life, and the teacher comes to see past and present merge in a heartbreaking moment of remembrance. Among the best and most haunting novels about the Holocaust to emerge in the final years of the twentieth century, Götz and Meyer is David Albahari's masterpiece.

Learning Cyrillic presents a selection of fiction by Serbian master David Albahari written since his departure from Europe. In these twenty short stories, written and published in their original language over the past twenty years, Albahari addresses immigrant life -- the need to fit into one's adopted homeland -- as well as the joys and terrors of refusing to give up one's essential 'strangeness' in the face of an alien culture.

Compiles the presentations of the first 'Starmus' conference, featuring the transcripts of interviews, presentations, and lectures from astronauts and scientists on astrobiology, the origins of the universe, and spaceflight experiences.

Now updated with commentary on the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as a new foreword by Lynne Hybels and Gabe Lyons, this book offers hope and insight that can help each of us learn to live at peace in a world of tension and terror.

With the elements of a road story this novella by David Elias reveals his particular craft for seamlessly grounding a compelling narrative in the authentic and off-putting details in lives of his characters, in this case, Henry and his troubled family. Elias takes on a broad scope in this darkly humorous take on Henry, a chess columnist who finds himself under attack by realities he would rather not think about. An alcoholic friend has died and his wife has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. When Henrys family insists the situation calls for a road trip to Disneyland, he must learn adapt or parish in life beyond the chess board.

Biological and other natural processes have always been a source of inspiration for computer science and information technology. Many emerging problem solving techniques integrate advanced evolution and cooperation strategies, encompassing a range of spatio-temporal scales for visionary conceptualization of evolutionary computation.The previous editions of NICSO were held in Granada, Spain (2006), Acireale, Italy (2007), Tenerife, Spain (2008), and again in Granada in 2010. NICSO evolved to be one of the most interesting and profiled workshops in nature inspired computing. NICSO 2011 has offered an inspiring environment for debating the state of the art ideas and techniques in nature inspired cooperative strategies and a comprehensive image on recent applications of these ideas and techniques.The topics covered by this volume include Swarm Intelligence (such as Ant and Bee Colony Optimization), Genetic Algorithms, Multiagent Systems, Coevolution and Cooperation strategies, Adversarial Models, Synergic Building Blocks, Complex Networks, Social Impact Models, Evolutionary Design, Self Organized Criticality, Evolving Systems, Cellular Automata, Hybrid Algorithms, and Membrane Computing (P-Systems).

Mercy Thompson has the ability to transform herself into a coyote, and as the town's wolves, witches, and vampires seek to prey on her and attack her friends, Mercy must uncover secrets of a dark conspiracy for anyone to be safe.

The Longman Anthology of British Literature is the most comprehensive and thoughtfully arranged text in the field, offering a rich selection of compelling British authors through the ages.

 

With its first edition, The Longman Anthology of British Literature created a new paradigm for anthologies. Responding to major shifts in literary studies over the past thirty years, it was the first collection to pay sustained attention to the contexts within which literature is produced, even as it broadened the scope of that literature to embrace the full cultural diversity of the British Isles. Within its pages, canonical authors mingle with newly visible writers; English accents are heard next to Anglo-Norman, Welsh, Gaelic, and Scottish ones; female and male voices are set in dialogue; literature from the British Isles is integrated with post-colonial writing; and major works are illumined by clusters of shorter texts that bring literary, social, and historical issues vividly to life.

 

The Fifth Edition builds on the pioneering features of the previous four editions, expanding the strong core of frequently taught works while continuing to lead the way in responding to the shifting interests of the discipline.

 

Mercy Thompson's next-door neighbor is a werewolf, her former boss is a gremlin, and she's fixing a VW bus for a vampire, but Mercy isn't exactly normal herself. Original.

David Kupelian, veteran journalist and bestselling author of The Marketing of Evil, probes the millennia-old questions of evil—what it is, how it works, and why it so routinely and effortlessly ruins our lives—once again demonstrating his uncanny knack for demystifying complex, elusive, and intimidating subjects with fresh insights into the hidden mechanisms of seduction, corruption, religion, and power politics. Analyzing today's most electrifying news stories and hot-button topics, Kupelian explores such profoundly troubling questions asWhy are big lies more believable than little ones?How does terrorism really work?Why do so many celebrities who “have it all” end up self-destructing?Why are boys doing worse in school today than girls?Why do we treat the problems of anger and depression with drugs?. . . and much more. Fortunately, once we really understand “how evil works”—both in our own lives and in the world at large—evil loses much of its power and the way out becomes more clear.

The first compilation of its kind in 15 years, More Digressions collects nearly 100 essays from Peter David's long-running But I Digress opinion column (as published in the pages of Comics Buyer's Guide) on comic books, science-fiction and more. For this new collection, David has personally selected But I Digress pieces written from 2001 to the present day and has also included many personal reflections and historical notes. More Digressions features a new foreword by the legendary Harlan Ellison and bears a cover by J.K. Woodward (Fallen Angel) that highlights some of David's comic-book creations. Peter David is the author of Ben 10: Alien Force for Del Rey's Ben Folds Four manga which is not yet published. He is also the author of:

• After the Fall: 11,500 sold
• Armies of Light and Dark: 13,000 sold
• Being Human: 38,000 sold
• Before Dishonor: 25,000 sold
• Fantastic Four: 23,000 sold
• Iron Man: 30,742 sold

In this landmark book, first published in English in 1958, renowned scholar of religion Mircea Eliade lays the groundwork for a Western understanding of Yoga. Drawing on years of study and experience in India, Eliade provides a comprehensive survey of Yoga in theory and practice from its earliest antecedents in the Vedas through the twentieth century.

A new introduction by David Gordon White provides invaluable insight into Eliade's life and work, highlighting the key moments in Eliade's academic and spiritual education, as well as the personal experiences that shaped his worldview. Yoga is not only one of Eliade's most important books, it is also his most personal--the only one to analyze a religious tradition that he had truly lived.

Shows that theological reflection on non-human animals and related issues are an important though hitherto neglected part of the agenda of Christian theology and related disciplines. This book offers a interdisciplinary conversation between theologians, philosophers and scientists. It is suitable as a text on the theology of non-human animals.

After a cyclone transports her to the land of Oz, Dorothy must seek out the great wizard in order to return to Kansas.

Alla scoperta del benefico e salutare impiego degli ormoni per ridurre, mantenere o regolare il peso corporeo. Un volume davvero unico che affronta il tema del peso corporeo da un punto di vista finora poco esplorato. Una guida accurata che spiega in modo semplice come gli ormoni influenzano i cambiamenti che il corpo umano subisce con il trascorrere del tempo e quali sono le possibili soluzioni per conservare benessere e forma fisica. 'Magre a tutte le età': è davvero possibile? Sì, grazie a questo libro che svela una delle chiavi del benessere finora poca conosciuta: gli ormoni! Durante tutta la vita il corpo, e di conseguenza il peso, cambiano continuamente. Il dottor David Elia, stimato ginecologo francese, presta da sempre attenzione alla relazione tra peso corporeo femminile e ormoni. Compendio del suo lavoro è questo volume che racchiude le spiegazioni sugli aumenti di peso, suggerisce le soluzioni da adottare per sentirsi bene e in forma, descrive le varie terapie che si possono seguire per perdere peso e propone soluzioni praticabili per risolvere l'annoso problema. Si tratta di consigli autorevoli e facili da seguire che, giorno dopo giorno, vi faranno scoprire (o riscoprire) il piacere della vita.

This rare and important contribution to the field of Islamic studies, philosophy, and comparative religion achieves a twofold objective. First, it draws from a broad and authoritative well of sources, especially in the domain of Sufism, or Islamic mysticism. The scholarship is impeccable. Second, it is an in-depth meditation on the relationship between love and knowledge, multiplicity and unity, the example of the Prophet Muhammed viewed as Universal Man, spiritual union, heart and intellect, and other related themes--conveyed in fresh, contemporary language.The book is as much a work of Sufism as it is a book about Sufism. Many of these themes have a universal appeal for students of mysticism; consequently, there are distinct resonances with other traditions, especially within certain schools of Christian mysticism dominated by the language of love.In our day, when the divisions between many Muslims and many Christians have broadened into chasms of suspicion and fear, books such as this one are especially important for the help they can offer in bridging these rifts. The capacity of scholars to understand these two religions, which stem from the same Abrahamic source, is of the utmost significance, and the best approach to better understanding may be through the mystical traditions, which tend to reflect more tolerance and to recognize a potential for seeing unity in a multiplicity of perspectives. This work conveys the beauty at the heart of the Islamic tradition in a language devoid of technical terminology.

Gerardus van der Leeuw was one of the first to attempt a rapprochement between theology and the arts, and his influence continues to be felt in what is now a burgeoning field. Sacred and Profane is the fullest expression of his pursuit of a theological aesthetics, surveying religion's relationship to all the arts -- dance, drama, literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, and music. This edition makes this seminal work, first published in Dutch in 1932, newly available. A new foreword by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona analyzes the continuing relevance of van der Leeuw's thought.
Van der Leeuw's impassioned and brilliant investigation of the relationship between the holy and the beautiful is founded upon the conviction that for too long the religious have failed to seriously contemplate the beautiful, associating it as they do with the kingdom of sensuality and impermanence. Similarly it has been alien to literati and aesthetes to reflect upon the holy, for they choose to consider this physical world to be permanent, and therefore to be glorified through beauty alone. In truth, as van der Leeuw undertakes to show in Sacred and Profane Beauty, the holy has never been absent from the arts, and the arts have never been unresponsive to the holy. Whether one considers the Homeric epics, the dancing Sivas and Vedic poems, the sacred wall paintings of ancient Egypt, the primitive mask, or the range of sacred arts developed out of Latin and Byzantine Christianity, primordial creation in the arts was always directed toward the symbolization and interpretation of the holy. The fact that in our day this original connection is obscured and the artistic impulse is more generally regarded as wholly individualistic and autonomous does not contradict van der Leeuw's thesis; indeed, the breakdown of the unity of the holy and the arts is central to his thesis.
Van der Leeuw was the rare thinker who combined profundity of insight, grace of style, and a willingness to take daring intellectual chances. In Sacred and Profane, he describes each of the arts in its original unity with the religious and then analyzes its historical disjunction and alienation. After a penetrating investigation of the structural elements within the arts which illumines a crucial dimension of the religious experience, van der Leeuw points toward the reemergence of an appropriate theological aesthetics on which a reunification of the arts could be founded.

Inspired by the British pastime of 'letterboxing,' questing has become one of the fastest growing recreational-educational activities on this side of the Atlantic. In scores of communities, people from toddlers and teens, parents and grandparents follow maps, clues, and rhyming riddles seeking treasure boxes hidden in natural and cultural locations. In this book, two experts in community education explain how individuals and organizations can create and organize permanent quests to foster place-based education, stewardship, adventure, and fun.

In the process of undertaking quests participants 'celebrate and strengthen community life' by forging 'lifelong connections to the distinct landscapes and cultural features of their home ground.' This book is intended to offer inspiration and practical advice for parents, teachers, community group leaders, and others interested in learning about where they live and building community ties through questing.

Questing draws upon the well-established success of a program in New England in which individuals, students, and organizations create clues and maps highlighting the special places and stories of their community. The book presents a rationale for place-based education and quest program goals and objectives that can easily be implemented in any community.

Non è facile senza una guida muoversi bene in una città così grande, vivace e pazza come Londra ecco perché chiunque voglia visitarla ha bisogno di acquistare questa preziosa guida. Una vasta selezione di hotel da quelli più classici a quelli di design fra cui scegliere. Inoltre una lista di impedibili boutique, ristoranti, bar e caffe; la guida vi dirà dove potrete acquistare un vero abito di taglio inglese o dove sorseggiare un vero te con gli scones. Il concetto di queste nuove guide, è che una volta che avrete scelto il vostro albergo, potrete anche testare tutti gli altri locali nei dintorni che sono già stati personalmente provati da Angelica Taschen.