Author: Rosemary Ellen Guiley File Type: pdf Uncover the magic and truth behind this compelling topic.Praise for the previous hardcover editionsHighly recommended...ChoiceHighly recommended...Library JournalInterest in witchcraft, magic, and the occult is strong, fueled by popular books and movies such as the Harry Potter series. Wicca as a religion has exploded in popularity in recent years, leading to a boom in books and products pertaining to spells, witchcraft, and the Wiccan lifestyle. Though witchcraft has a long history both in folklore and in practice, the truth about it has often been obscured by fiction and myth.In more than 480 entries, The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca, Third Edition is an exciting update to one of the landmark references on the subjectby paranormal expert Rosemary Ellen Guiley. This new edition provides unparalleled coverage of witchcraft practices around the worldspanning different time periods and societiesincluding entries on magic, shamanism, the occult, and wizardry. Now covering Wicca-related material not included in the previous editions as well as updates of contemporary biographies and Wicca material, this encyclopedia is perfect for casual readers and those fascinated by this spellbinding topic. All content has been expanded considerably, providing updates and new information about the key topics of witchcraft.New and revised coverage includesAmuletsBiographies of contemporary and historical figuresBook of ShadowsCharmsDemonsFamiliarsFolklore relating to witchcraftHand of gloryHistorical cases of witchcraft trialsThe InquisitionMagic and WiccaSalem witches and other historical cases of witchcraft trialsSpellsTools, such as altars, amulets, cauldrons, and charmsWicca practices, rituals, beliefs, and traditionsWiccan organizationsWitches in entertainment films, television, stage, and popular fiction.
Author: W. H. Finlay
File Type: pdf
Here is a unique and fascinating reference book for every serious deep-sky observer! Entries for each of more than 500 deep-sky objects provide far more than the usual astronomical data - they also detail, in every case, the most interesting facts. Physical factors, astrophysical information, evolution, unusual features, the list is endless. The objects are all listed in NGC order.Astronomers can now get an insight into exactly what they are looking at, to add a new level of insight and enjoyment to deep-sky observing.
Author: Daniel Yergin
File Type: epub
The Quest continues the riveting story Daniel Yergin began twenty years ago with his No.1 International Bestseller The Prize, revealing the on-going quest to meet the worlds energy needs - and the power and riches that come with it. A master story teller as well as our most expert analyst, Yergin proves that energy is truly the engine of global political and economic change. From the jammed streets of Beijing, the shores of the Caspian Sea, and the conflicts in the Middle East, to Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley, Yergin tells the inside stories of the oil market, the rise of the petrostate, the race to control the resources of the former Soviet empire, and the massive corporate mergers that have transformed the oil landscape. He shows how the drama of oil - the struggle for access to it, the battle for control, the insecurity of supply, its impact on the global economy, and the geopolitics that dominate it - will continue to shape our world. And he takes on the toughest questions will we run out are China and the United States destined for conflict what of climate change? Yergin also reveals the surprising and turbulent histories of nuclear, coal, and natural gas, and investigates the rebirth of renewables- biofuels, wind, and solar energy - showing how understanding this greening landscape and its future role are crucial to the needs of a growing world economy. The Quest presents an extraordinary range of characters and dramatic stories to illustrate the principles that will shape our energy security system for the decades to come. It is essential reading.
Author: Roy Flechner
File Type: epub
A gripping biography that brings together the most recent research to shed provocative new light on the life of Saint PatrickSaint Patrick was, by his own admission, a controversial figure. Convicted in a trial by his elders in Britain and hounded by rumors that he settled in Ireland for financial gain, the man who was to become Irelands patron saint battled against great odds before succeeding as a missionary. Saint Patrick Retold draws on recent research to offer a fresh assessment of Patricks travails and achievements. This is the first biography in nearly fifty years to explore Patricks career against the background of historical events in late antique Britain and Ireland.Roy Flechner examines the likelihood that Patrick, like his father before him, might have absconded from a career as an imperial official responsible for taxation, preferring instead to migrate to Ireland with his familys slaves, who were his source of wealth. Flechner leaves no stone unturned as he takes readers on a riveting journey through Romanized Britain and late Iron Age Ireland, and he considers how best to interpret the ambiguous literary and archaeological evidence from this period of great political and economic instability, a period that brought ruin for some and opportunity for others. Rather than a dismantling of Patricks reputation, or an argument against his sainthood, Flechners biography raises crucial questions about self-image and the making of a reputation.From boyhood deeds to the challenges of a missionary enterprise, Saint Patrick Retold steps beyond established narratives to reassess a notable figures life and legacy.
Author: Niklas Wagner
File Type: pdf
Featuring contributions from leading international academics and practitioners, Credit Risk Models, Derivatives, and Management illustrates how a risk management system can be implemented through an understanding of portfolio credit risks, a set of suitable models, and the derivation of reliable empirical results. Divided into six sections, the book Explores the rapidly developing area of credit derivative products, including iTraxx Futures, iTraxx Default Swaptions, and constant proportion debt obligations Addresses the relationships between the DJ iTraxx credit default swap (CDS) index and the stock market as well as CDS spreads and macroeconomic factors Investigates systematic and firm-specific default risk factors, compares CDS pricing results from the CreditGrades industry benchmark to a trinomial tree approach, and applies the HullWhite intensity-based model to the pricing of names from the CDX index Analyzes aggregate default and recovery rates on corporate bond defaults over a twenty-year period, the responses of hazard rates to changes in a set of economic variables, low-default portfolios, and tests on the accuracy of the Basel II framework Describes benchmark models of implied credit correlation risk, copula-based default dependence concepts, the fit of various copula models, and a common factor model of systematic credit risk Studies the pricing of options on single-name CDSs, the pricing of credit derivatives, collateralized debt obligation (CDO) price data, the pricing of CDO tranches, applications of Gaussian and Students t copula functions, and the pricing of CDOs Using mathematical models and methodologies, this volume provides the essential knowledge to properly manage credit risk and make sound financial decisions.(Chapman and HallCRC Financial Mathematics Series)
Author: Laura Perdew
File Type: pdf
This title examines how Internet addiction affects individuals and society, investigates how people are working to adapt to a digital future, and analyzes the controversies and conflicting viewpoints surrounding the issue. Features include a glossary, selected bibliography, websites, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and essential facts. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO. **From School Library Journal Gr 5-9-This informative series focuses on eight issues that could negatively affect teens. The texts are both credible and readable the authors employ an engaging narrative style supplemented by text boxes and footnotes, relying upon both research and anecdotal evidence from teens. An attractive layout, featuring full-color, captioned photos, enhances these books. The series is marred by some flaws, such as problematic phrasing that may alienate readers , and other sections border on the didactic. Overall, though, this is a clearly written and well-organized series.(c) 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Author: Guy C. Taylor
File Type: epub
Forgotten for more than a century in an old cardboard box, these are the letters of Guy Carlton Taylor, a farmer who served in the Thirty-Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War. From March 23, 1864, to July 14, 1865, Taylor wrote 165 letters home to his wife Sarah and their son Charley. From the initial mustering and training of his regiment at Camp Randall in Wisconsin, through the siege of Petersburg in Virginia, General Lees surrender at Appomattox, and the postwar Grand Review of the Armies parade in Washington, D.C., Taylor conveys in vivid detail his own experiences and emotions and shows himself a keen observer of all that is passing around him. While at war, he contracts measles, pneumonia, and malaria, and he writes about the hospitals, treatments, and sanitary conditions that he and his comrades endured during the war. Amidst the descriptions of soldiering, Taylors letters to Sarah are threaded with the concerns of a young married couple separated by war but still coping together with childrearing and financial matters. The letters show, too, Taylors transformation from a lonely and somewhat disgruntled infantryman to a thoughtful commentator on the greater ideals of the war. This remarkable trove of letters, which had been left in the attic of Taylors former home in Cashton, Wisconsin, was discovered by local historian Kevin Alderson at a household auction. Recognizing them for the treasure they are, Alderson bought the letters and, aided by his wife Patsy, painstakingly transcribed the letters and researched Taylors story in Wisconsin and at historical sites of the Civil War. The Aldersons preface and notes are augmented by an introduction by Civil War historian Kathryn Shively Meier, and the book includes photographs, maps, and illustrations related to Guy Taylors life and letters. **
Author: John Simon
File Type: pdf
This volume draws together a remarkable range of expertise in the study of medieval warfare and crusading. Its fifteen essays cover a wide variety of topics, spanning chronologically from the Carolingian period through to the early fourteenth century. Some offer new insights upon long-contested issues, such as the question of whether a new form of cavalry was created by Charles Martel and his successors or the implications of the Mongol defeat at Ayn Jalut. Others use innovative methodologies to unlock the potential of various types of source material including manuscript illuminations depicting warfare, Templar graffiti, German crusading songs, and crusading charters. Several of the articles open up new areas of debate connected to the history of crusading. Malcolm Barber discusses why Christendom did not react decisively to the fall of Acre in 1291. Bernard Hamilton explores how the rising Frankish presence in the Eastern Mediterranean during the central medieval period reshaped Christendoms knowledge and understanding of the North African cultures they encountered. In this way, this work seeks both to advance debate in core areas whilst opening new vistas for future research.**
Author: David Kushner
File Type: epub
An engrossing microcosm of the internets Wild West years (Kirkus Reviews), award-winning journalist David Kushner tells the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for control for what still powers the internet today love and sex. In 1994, visionary entrepreneur Gary Kremen used a $2,500 loan to create the first online dating service, Match.com. Only 5 percent of Americans were using the internet at the time, and even fewer were looking online for love. He quickly bought the Sex.com domain too, betting the combination of love and sex would help propel the internet into the mainstream. Imagine Kremens surprise when he learned that someone named Stephen Michael Cohen had stolen the rights to Sex.com and was already making millions that Kremen would never see. Thus follows the wild true story of Kremens and Cohens decade-long battle for control. In The Players Ball, author and journalist David Kushner provides a front seat to these must-read Wild West years online, when innovators and outlaws battled for power and money. This cat-and-mouse game between a genius and a con man changed the way people connect forever, and is key to understanding the rise and future of the online world. Kushner delivers a fast-paced, raunchy tale of sex, drugs, and dial-up. Publishers Weekly **Review Kushner delivers another digestible look at transformations spurred by unpredictable technologies, turning the dry topic of domain-name battles into a lively representation of the eras hype, confusion, and outsized personalities... An easily consumed, worthwhile addition to the literature reconstructing how the online world has become both profitable and pervasive. *Kirkus Reviews* Award-winning journalist Kushner revisits this tumultuous period by recounting a quirky episode of website tug-of-war between two of the digital worlds most colorful pioneers. *Booklist* A real-life Wade Watts, David Kushner found the Golden Easter Egg of internet historythe spy vs spy story of the struggle over Sex.com at the very dawn of the World Wide Weband he tells the tale masterfully. Adam Fisher, author of *Valley of Genius The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley* David Kushner has written any number of remarkable books and articles about howthe American tech industry hasinvaded our lives and dreams. With The Players Ball, hes found his raunchiest, funniest,most fascinating story yet. Youll tell yourselffrequentlywhile reading this book, That cant possiblybe true, butit is. Then again, truth is stranger than fiction only when its this well told. Tom Bissell, author of *Extra Lives Why Video Games Matter* As usual, Kushner delivers a funny and thorough history of some corner of our technological era. He also paints a compelling portrait of two men whose genius and obsession drives them to an almost operatic confrontation played out over decades. Fast and funny, but also tragic and bizarre, Kushner delivers what might be his most unusual and thought provoking work about two men both way ahead of, and emblematic of, their time. Zak Penn, coscreenwriter of *Ready Player One* The epic battle of the internet visionary behind sex.com and the man who stole it right out from under him, making millions in the process.David Kushner brilliantly tells a fascinating and often hilarious true story about the early days of the web. *Terence Winter*, creator and executive producer of Boardwalk Empire and screenwriter of The Wolf of Wall Street About the Author David Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. A contributing editor of Rolling Stone, he has written for publications including Wired, New York Times Magazine, New York, GQ, and Details. He served as the digital-culture commentator for National Public Radios Weekend Edition Sunday. He has been included in The Best American Crime Reporting and The Best Music Writing and is an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.