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Bruce Thomas is best-known as the former bass player with Elvis Costello and the Attractions and as the writer of the best-selling biogrpahy of Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit. As a session-musican he played on many hit records -- and trained in the martial art of Body, Mind and Spirit kung fu.
A collection of essays on music and life by the famed classical pianist and composer Stephen Hough is one of the world’s leading pianists, winning global acclaim and numerous awards, both for his concerts and his recordings. He is also a writer, composer, and painter, and has been described by The Economist as one of “Twenty Living Polymaths.” Hough writes informally and engagingly about music and the life of a musician, from the broader aspects of what it is to walk out onto a stage or to make a recording, to specialist tips from deep inside the practice room: how to trill, how to pedal, how to practice. He also writes vividly about people he’s known, places he’s traveled to, books he’s read, paintings he’s seen; and he touches on more controversial subjects, such as assisted suicide and abortion. Even religion is there—the possibility of the existence of God, problems with some biblical texts, and the challenges involved in being a gay Catholic. Rough Ideas is an illuminating, constantly surprising introduction to the life and mind of one of our great cultural figures.
Discover a fresh perspective on the art of leading in Dr. Kevin Leman's story about a young reporter who lands the meeting of a lifetime and walks away with the keys to exceptional leadership. The Way of the Shepherd points you beyond dated trends and out-of-touch management techniques to the strategies that will make you a truly outstanding leader. When William Pentak had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interview Ted McBride, one of the most respected CEOs in America, he was shocked by what McBride was willing to share. McBride taught him the seven secrets he inherited long ago from his mentor--an eccentric but brilliant professor who passed on these time-tested management principles that, while ancient in their origin, are still applicable in today's fast-paced, high-tech world. Throughout The Way of the Shepherd, you'll learn how to infuse your work with meaning, no matter your role, title, industry, or the size of your team. Uncover the tried-and-true best practices for how to engage, energize, and ignite your workforce by: Getting to know your team, one person at a time Relentlessly communicating your values and your mission Defining the cause for your people and showing them where they fit in Having a heart for the people that you're leading Understanding that great leadership isn't just professional, it's personal If you're ready to transform your team, create a culture of belonging, and truly learn to lead by example, it's time to discover The Way of the Shepherd.
Volume Two of General Bell’s memoirs begins with his journey back to Britain from India, stopping on the way at St. Helena to pay his respects at the tomb of Napoleon. He is then posted to Canada, taking part in putting down a rebellion led by republican Canadians, and his further travels lead him back to Europe via the United States. His reminiscences form a travelogue with a military slant, capturing the environs and habits of the populations with a delicate piquancy. Frustrated by court intrigue and influence stunting his further advancement in the service, in peacetime circumstances he would have been stuck with dismal prospects for the future. Many years after his baptism of fire in the Napoleonic Wars, he is posted as part of the British expeditionary force under Lord Raglan to the Crimea. Despite horrific conditions, he leads his men in the battles of Alma and Inkerman. His commentary of the daily life in the trenches recalls the slough of despond of the First World War: the mud, blood, shelling and disease are recalled along with the scarcity of supplies. Infuriated by the blundering politicians, Bell writes a passionate letter to the Times, which (although truthful) does nothing to help his advancement. By a stroke of luck he is plucked from his pestilent surroundings by a staff posting offered by an old comrade. As he recovers his health, he travels once more to Canada and to the United States, just at the turn of the Civil War, meeting such luminaries as General McClellan and General Scott. He briefly meets with the great Lincoln who he describes as “thin and wiry...very kind and familiar in his manner to all, but a very commonplace-looking man”. As with his first volume, Bell maintains his narrative with wit and verve, not without a few passing shots at his particular gripes, the Army hierarchy and Roman Catholicism. Author – Major-General George Bell C.B. – (1794 - 1877)
With many updates and additional exercises, the second edition of this book continues to provide readers with a gentle introduction to rough path analysis and regularity structures, theories that have yielded many new insights into the analysis of stochastic differential equations, and, most recently, stochastic partial differential equations. Rough path analysis provides the means for constructing a pathwise solution theory for stochastic differential equations which, in many respects, behaves like the theory of deterministic differential equations and permits a clean break between analytical and probabilistic arguments. Together with the theory of regularity structures, it forms a robust toolbox, allowing the recovery of many classical results without having to rely on specific probabilistic properties such as adaptedness or the martingale property. Essentially self-contained, this textbook puts the emphasis on ideas and short arguments, rather than aiming for the strongest possible statements. A typical reader will have been exposed to upper undergraduate analysis and probability courses, with little more than Itô-integration against Brownian motion required for most of the text. From the reviews of the first edition: "Can easily be used as a support for a graduate course ... Presents in an accessible way the unique point of view of two experts who themselves have largely contributed to the theory" - Fabrice Baudouin in the Mathematical Reviews "It is easy to base a graduate course on rough paths on this ... A researcher who carefully works her way through all of the exercises will have a very good impression of the current state of the art" - Nicolas Perkowski in Zentralblatt MATH
Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate “Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection. Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.
