For nearly eighty years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed “overmined” and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air.

Entering Die Sperrgebiet (“The Forbidden Zone”) is like entering an eerie ghost town, but Frank is surprised by the number of people willing—even eager—to talk with him. Soon he meets Msizi, a young diamond digger, and his pigeon, Bartholomew, who helps him steal diamonds. It’s a deadly game: pigeons are shot on sight by mine security, and Msizi knows of smugglers who have disappeared because of their crimes. For this, Msizi blames “Mr. Lester,” an evil tall-tale figure of mythic proportions.

From the mining towns of Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth, through the “halfway” desert, to Kleinzee’s shores littered with shipwrecks, Frank investigates a long overlooked story. Weaving interviews with local diamond miners who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, Frank reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town.

Interwoven throughout this obsessive quest are epic legends in which pigeons and diamonds intersect, such as that of Krishna’s famed diamond Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, and that of the Cherokee serpent Uktena. In these strange connections, where truth forever tangles with the lore of centuries past, Frank is able to contextualize the personal grief that sent him, with his wife Louisa in the passenger seat, on this enlightening journey across parched lands.

Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa.

Managing Business Projects: The Essentials differs from many other project management textbooks. Foremost, it is about business projects as opposed to construction or engineering projects. Although many techniques, like schedule management, apply to both, they are usually applied differently. As its title conveys, the book explains the essential techniques and perspectives needed for business projects to be successful. The focus is on small- and medium-sized projects, up to $20 million, but often below $1 million. Some literature favors large and mega-projects, but for every mega-project, there are many thousands of smaller projects that are vital to the organization and could involve considerable complexity and risk. Nevertheless, the techniques outlined here also apply to mega-projects and their many subprojects; they even apply to some aspects of construction or engineering projects.

This book does not aim to cover all project management techniques. In real life there is simply no time for sophisticated ‘should-dos.' Rather, it covers the essentials that apply to almost all business projects; these are unlikely to change in the future even as technology and methodologies advance. The driving idea, which is stated repeatedly, is to do the essentials and to do them consistently and well.

Strong emphasis is placed on things that happen before, around, and after the project itself. So, while the basic disciplines like engaging with stakeholders, managing scope, schedules, costs, risks, issues, changes, and communication, are thoroughly explained, other important aspects are covered. These include: governance of a project and of a portfolio of projects, project selection with its financial and non-financial aspects, effective use of the business case through to benefits realization, procurement, outsourcing and partnership, and also the agile mindset that is valuable beyond Agile projects.

Besides project managers and sponsors, this book is intended for people who are working in business or government, at any level, or for MBA students. It offers perspectives that enable them to learn more from their everyday experience. It is not aimed at undergraduate students, although many would benefit from the contents.

Lloyd’s of London aptly refers to insurance as “the protection of the few, by the many”, with its purpose being to restore the insured to the position that existed immediately prior to the incident that led to a loss, damage or liability. Insurance uses the pooling concept to provide cover against financial losses by collecting premiums, investing some of the funds and using the pool of money to pay out claims, simultaneously covering operating expenses and ensuring sustainability by creating reserves and adding value to the insurance company. Fundamentals of insurance is a concise yet comprehensive introduction to insurance, specifically for South African circumstances.

Fundamentals of insurance highlights the need for commercial and personal insurance by explaining the financial objectives of firms and individuals, the role of financial statements and financial analysis, the valuation of assets and how risk management and insurance are related. It details how insurance business needs to be conducted, the procedures for handling claims, as well as the fundamental aspects of personal and commercial insurance. It provides a comprehensive framework and guidelines, with self-assessment questions at the end of each chapter, and prepares aspiring insurers for the entry level of the insurance industry.

Fundamentals of insurance is aimed at insurance students as well as organisations and institutions in the insurance field.

Set in quintessential 1950s England, The Darling Buds Of May is rural idyllic bliss in its full glory as we follow the exploits of the Larkin family.

Led by the loveable Pop Larkin (Sir David Jason) and Ma Larkin (Pam Ferris) family life is never short of surprises, not least when their eldest daughter Mariette (Catherine Zeta-Jones) falls for the rather haphazard tax inspector Charlie.

Life never looked anything short of perfick on Home Farm.

Contains all 11 episodes from seasons 1, 2 and 3.

In an Italian monastery, an infamous sculptor lays on his death bed.

During Mimo's final hours, he reveals his life story: his impoverished childhood, his unlikely rise to fame and most importantly, his meeting with Viola, the daughter of a powerful aristocratic family.

Mimo and Viola are instantly drawn to one another. Together, they traverse the unrest of the twentieth century. While Mimo becomes a celebrated artist, Viola fights to claim her education and independence.

Over the decades, they will lose and find each other, but never will they give up on the love they share.

Frank Rautenbach left South Africa for Los Angeles with stars in his eyes. After having great success with Egoli, 7de laan and movies like Faith like Potatoes and The Bang-Bang Club he thought the world was his oyster.

After years of trying and driving more than 10 000 kilometres to one failed audition after the other Frank had to find a job - a proper job that could put food on his table. He ended up driving a taxi in Los Angeles, just to lose that job too.

Eventually became the church's janitor.

But Frank felt betrayed - God promised him a life of abundance - why hasn't he received it yet? Frank felt like all God’s promises had come to nothing; he felt angry and embarrassed.

Frank had to learn that he couldn't ask God to make all this dreams come true, he is in God's service, not the other way around. Life is not about him, it is about God.

African Doctoral and Masters researchers in Environmental Humanities, in the past 6 years, working in Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Burundi, Ghana, Tanzania, Lesotho, Kenya, and DR Congo have consistently and independently come up against a similar story: that struggles in rural Africa are against neoliberal ideas of market-driven development, and neoliberal notions of environmentalism, that have proven fundamentally at odds with both economic and ecological wellbeing. Building on Contested Ecologies: Dialogues in the South on Nature and Knowledge (HSRC 2013; 275 citations to date), this volume develops an approach that identifies the ways in which environment and society is conceptualized by development “experts”, environmentalists and state officials, and contrasts those conceptualizations with understandings of ecology and wellbeing at ground level.

No comparable work on this topic has been done across ten African countries. Drawing on in-depth field research by African graduates, many of whom have pursued field research in their home languages, the collection makes a sustained and powerful case that local people’s struggles for livelihood have intensified against globalized corporate extractivism across the continent. Individual papers describe struggles over soil, mining, water, seed, pastoralism, energy, technology, forestry, and carbon trading.

Linking African struggles to Latin American rejection of extractivism and South Asian resistance to industrial agriculture and monocropping, the collection will be the first of its kind to make the case that indigenous and other political minorities’ forms of relation to land are vital resources for the protection of African ecological wellbeing, and that they define a contemporary African environmentalism that makes a crucial contribution to rethinking and re-storying climate negotiations, conservation, and development.

The Limits of Criminal Law shines light from the outer edges of the criminal law in to better understand its core. From a framework of core principles, different borders are explored to test out where criminal law's normative or performative limits are, in particular, the borders of crime with tort, non-criminal enforcement, medical law, business regulation, administrative sanctions, counter-terrorism and intelligence law.The volume carefully juxtaposes and compares English and German law on each of these borders, drawing out underlying concepts and key comparative lessons. Each country offers insights beyond their own laws. This double perspective sharpens readers critical understanding of the criminal law, and at the same time produces insights that go beyond the perspective of one legal tradition.The book does not promote a single normative view of the limits of criminal law, but builds a detailed picture of the limits that exist now and why they exist now. This evidence-led approach is particularly important in an ever more interconnected world in which different perceptions of criminal law can lead to profound misunderstandings between countries. The Limits of Criminal Law builds picture of what shapes the criminal law, where those limits come from, and what might motivate legal systems to strain, ignore or strengthen those limits. Some of the most interesting insights come out of the comparison between German systematic approach and doctrinal limits with English laws focus on process and judgment on individual questions.

The number of non-religious men and women has increased dramatically over the past several decades. Yet scholarship on the non-religious is severely lacking. In response to this critical gap in knowledge, The Nonreligious provides a comprehensive summation and analytical discussion of existing social scientific research on the non-religious. The authors present a thorough overview of existing research, while also drawing on ongoing research and positing ways to improve upon our current understanding of this growing population. The findings in this book stand out against the corpus of secular writing, which is comprised primarily of polemical rants critiquing religion, personal life-stories/memoirs of former believers, or abstract philosophical explorations of theology and anti-theology. By offering the first research- and data-based conclusions about the non-religious, this book will be an invaluable source of information and a foundation for further scholarship. Written in clear, jargon-free language that will appeal to the increasingly interested general readers, this book provides an unbiased, thorough account of all relevant existing scholarship within the social sciences that bears on the lived experience of the non-religious.

Mexican statues and paintings of figures like the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Lord of Chalma are endowed with sacred presence and the power to perform miracles. Millions of devotees visit these miraculous images to request miracles for health, employment, children, and countless everyday matters. When requests are granted, devotees reciprocate with votive offerings. Collages, photographs, documents, texts, milagritos, hair and braids, clothing, retablos, and other representative objects cover walls at many shrines. Miraculous Images and Votive Offerings in Mexico studies such petitionary devotion-primarily through extensive fieldwork at several shrines in Guanajuato, Jalisco, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, and Zacatecas. Graziano is interested in retablos not only as extraordinary works of folk art but: as Mexican expressions of popular Catholicism comprising a complex of beliefs, rituals, and material culture; as archives of social history; and as indices of a belief system that includes miraculous intercession in everyday life. Previous studies focus almost exclusively on commissioned votive paintings, but Graziano also considers the creative ex votos made by the votants themselves. Among the many miraculous images treated in the book are the Cristo Negro de Otatitlan, Nino del Cacahuatito, Senor de Chalma, and the Virgen de Guadalupe. The book is written in two voices, one analytical to provide an understanding of miracles, miraculous images, and votive offerings, and the other narrative to bring the reader closer to lived experiences at the shrines. This book appears at a moment of transition, when retablos are disappearing from church walls and beginning to appear in museum exhibitions; when the artistic value of retablos is gaining prominence; when the commercial value of retablos is increasing, particularly among private collectors outside of Mexico; and when traditional retablo painters are being replaced by painters with a more commercial and less religious approach to their trade. Graziano's book thus both records a disappearing tradition and charts the way in which it is being transformed.

Recent decades have seen growing concern about problems of electoral integrity. The most overt malpractices used by rulers include imprisoning dissidents, harassing adversaries, coercing voters, vote-rigging counts, and even blatant disregard for the popular vote. Serious violations of human rights, undermining electoral credibility, are widely condemned by domestic observers and the international community. Recent protests about integrity have mobilized in countries as diverse as Russia, Mexico, and Egypt. Elsewhere minor irregularities are common, exemplified by inaccurate voter registers, maladministration of polling facilities, lack of security in absentee ballots, pro-government media bias, ballot miscounts, and gerrymandering. Long-standing democracies are far from immune to these ills; past problems include the notorious hanging chads in Florida in 2000 and more recent accusations of voter fraud and voter suppression during the Obama-Romney contest. In response to these developments, there have been growing attempts to analyze flaws in electoral integrity using systematic data from cross-national time-series, forensic analysis, field experiments, case studies, and new instruments monitoring mass and elite perceptions of malpractices. This volume collects essays from international experts who evaluate the robustness, conceptual validity, and reliability of the growing body of evidence. The essays compare alternative approaches and apply these methods to evaluate the quality of elections in several areas, including in the United States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.

Regional Development and Planning for the 21st Century examines a number of related themes including: the traditional approach of local and regional planning initiatives developed within the context of national goals; the current decline of bi-polar political and ideological blocs; political decentralization and concurrent economic centralization including the growth of multi-national corporations; devolution of centralized planning powers to regions and localities, and the rise and acceptance of sustainable development concepts. The book is divided into five parts addressing: 1 - adjustments to political, economic and social change; 2 the problems of urban housing and housing and health; 3 - adjustments to environmental change, development policies and sustainability; 4 - the problem of rapid urban growth and mega cities; 5 - adjustments of changing urban networks. The contributors are from several countries worldwide and the chapters examine the issues at a global level.

Advances in Immunology presents current developments as well as comprehensive reviews in immunology. Articles address the wide range of topics that constitue immunology, including molecular and cellular activation mechanisms, phylogeny and molecular evolution, and clinical modalities. Edited and authored by the foremost scientists in the field, each volume provides up-to-date information and directions for future research.
Immunology is vital to the understanding of infection and disease. Application of this information may lead to resistance and cures for higher animals and humans.

"A vivid, engaging exploration of Cuban politics, culture and economic life."--America "Considerably deeper than much of the work on the subject. It takes on the challenge of describing what's in a black box with energy and candor."--VisitCuba.com "The most informative, accurate, insightful, detailed account available on twenty-first century Cuba."--HavanaTimes.org "Marc Frank is the best foreign journalist reporting from Cuba today. We now have a behind-the-scenes look at the changes large and small taking place as the Cuban revolution molts from Fidel to Raul to the next generation."--Julia Sweig, author of Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know "A must-read book to grasp what has been happening in Cuba over the past ten years."--Wayne Smith, director of the Cuba Project, Center for International Policy "Frank enriches his fascinating reportage with his unparalleled access to expressive Cubans from all walks of life."--Richard Feinberg, University of California, San Diego "With a sharp eye for human detail and a clear understanding of what makes Cuba tick, Frank's narrative bears eloquent, balanced, and always sensitive witness to the troubled trajectory of Cuba from the 'dark days' of the 1990s economic collapse through to the challenging changes under Raul. It genuinely gets 'inside' the otherwise confusing system and society, and is all the more welcome for that."--Antoni Kapcia, coeditor of The Changing Dynamic of Cuban Civil Society "Gripping and insightful. It is rare indeed to find reporting as authoritative and well sourced as this about what remains an impenetrable and opaque regime."--Michael Reid, author of Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul As a U.S.-born journalist who has called Havana home for almost a quarter century, Mark Frank has observed in person the best days of the revolution, the fall of the Soviet bloc, the great depression of the 1990s, the stepping aside of Fidel Castro, and the reforms now being devised by his brother. In Cuban Revelations, Frank offers a first-hand account of daily life in Cuba at the turn of the twenty-first century, the start of a new and dramatic epoch for islanders and the Cuban diaspora. Examining the effects of U.S. policy toward Cuba, Frank analyzes why Cuba has entered an extraordinary, irreversible period of change and considers what the island's future holds. The enormous social engineering project taking place today under Raul's leadership is fraught with many dangers, and Cuban Revelations follows the new leader's efforts to overcome bureaucratic resistance and the fears of a populace that stand in his way. In addition, Frank offers a colorful chronicle of his travels across the island's many and varied provinces, sharing candid interviews with people from all walks of life. He takes the reader outside the capital to reveal how ordinary Cubans live and what they are thinking and feeling as fifty-year-old social and economic taboos are broken. He shares his honest and unbiased observations on extraordinary positive developments in social matters, like healthcare and education, as well as on the inefficiencies in the Cuban economy. Ultimately, Cuban Revelations is an objective account by a reporter who has lived with the Cubans for many years as their old world falls apart and they set about trying to build a new one.

Foundations of Engineering Acoustics takes the reader on a journey from a qualitative introduction to the physical nature of sound, explained in terms of common experience, to mathematical models and analytical results which underlie the techniques applied by the engineering industry to improve the acoustic performance of their products. The book is distinguished by extensive descriptions and explanations of audio-frequency acoustic phenomena and their relevance to engineering, supported by a wealth of diagrams, and by a guide for teachers of tried and tested class demonstrations and laboratory-based experiments.
Foundations of Engineering Acoustics is a textbook suitable for both senior undergraduate and postgraduate courses in mechanical, aerospace, marine, and possibly electrical and civil engineering schools at universities. It will be a valuable reference for academic teachers and researchers and will also assist Industrial Acoustic Group staff and Consultants.
Comprehensive and up-to-date: broad coverage, many illustrations, questions, elaborated answers, references and a bibliography
Introductory chapter on the importance of sound in technology and the role of the engineering acoustician
Deals with the fundamental concepts, principles, theories and forms of mathematical representation, rather than methodology
Frequent reference to practical applications and contemporary technology
Emphasizes qualitative, physical introductions to each principal as an entree to mathematical analysis for the less theoretically oriented readers and courses
Provides a 'cook book' of demonstrations and laboratory-based experiments for teachers
Useful for discussing acoustical problems with non-expert clients/managers because the descriptive sections are couched in largely non-technical language and any jargon is explained
Draws on the vast pedagogic experience of the writer"

Developed for the new International A Level specification, these new resources are specifically designed for international students, with a strong focus on progression, recognition and transferable skills, allowing learning in a local context to a global standard.

Features:

• Recognised by universities worldwide and fully comparable to UK reformed GCE A levels.
• Supports a modular approach, in line with the specification.
• Appropriate international content puts learning in a real-world context, to a global standard, making it engaging and relevant for all learners.
• Reviewed by a language specialist to ensure materials are written in a clear and accessible style.
• The embedded transferable skills, needed for progression to higher education and employment, are signposted so students understand what skills they are developing and therefore go on to use these skills more effectively in the future.
• Exam practice provides opportunities to assess understanding and progress, so students can make the best progress they can.

Read and colour in the story of the First Easter from the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to his return to heaven. The story of Easter is introduced at the beginning of the book for children and parents to enjoy together. Then simple phrases from the story are used for each colouring page so the child is able to engage with the story step by step.

The logical choice for lavatory reading. Easy sudoku are perfect for solving when you have a few minutes on your hands...wherever you may be. Just toss this pocket-size book into your bag or leave it in a convenient location, and you'll be ready for sudoku-solving enjoyment at any moment!

The two years since publication of the first edition of The Law of EU External Relations: Cases, Materials, and Commentary on the EU as an International Actor have been characterized by the large amount of case law on the new provisions on external relations, which have found their way into the Lisbon Treaty. Moreover, there have been important changes in EU secondary law on external relations as a consequence of these changes to the Lisbon Treaty. In this second edition, new case law and legislative developments are critically discussed and analysed in this comprehensive collection of EU Treaty law. Combining chapters on the general basis of the Union's external action and its relation to international law, with chapters which further explore the law and practice of the EU in the specialized fields of external action, this book presents the law of EU external relations in a concise and accessible manner for students, practitioners, and academics in the field. Topics include the common commercial policy, development cooperation, cooperation with third countries, humanitarian aid, the enlargement and neighbourhood policies, the external environmental policy, and the common foreign and security policy. Carefully selected primary documents are accompanied with analytic commentary on the issues they raise and their significance for the overall structure of EU external relations law. The primary materials selected include many important legal documents that are hard to find elsewhere but give a vital insight into the operation of EU external relations law in practice.

A year-round escape for one million annual tourists, Catalina Island is gaining popularity as a world-class eco-destination. Eighty-eight percent of the island is under the watch of the Catalina Island Conservancy, which preserves, manages and restores the island's unique wild lands. Bison, foxes and bald eagles are its best-known inhabitants, but Catalina is home to more than sixty other animal and plant species that exist nowhere else on earth. And they are all within the boundaries of one of the world's most populous regions: Los Angeles County. Biologists Frank Hein and Carlos de la Rosa present a highly enjoyable tour through the fascinating origins, mysterious quirks and ecological victories of one of the West Coast's most remarkable places.

The logical choice for lavatory reading. If you're going to be sitting in one place for a while, a tricky sudoku is just the thing to pass the time. (Make sure you've got a spare eraser under the sink.)