Joe R. Lansdale (b. 1951), the award-winning author of such novels as Cold in July (1989) and The Bottoms (2000), as well as the popular Hap and Leonard series, has been publishing novels since 1981. Lansdale has developed a tremendous cult audience willing to follow him into any genre he chooses to write in, including horror, western, crime, adventure, and fantasy. Within these genres, his stories, novels, and novellas explore friendship, race, and life in East Texas. His distinctive voice is often funny and always unique, as characterized by such works as Bubba Ho-Tep (1994), a novella that centers on Elvis Presley, his friend who believes himself to be John F. Kennedy, and a soul-sucking ancient mummy. This same novella won a Bram Stoker Award, one of the ten Bram Stoker Awards given to Lansdale thus far in his illustrious career. Wielding a talent that extends beyond the page to the screen, Landsdale has also written episodes for Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series. Conversations with Joe R. Lansdale brings together interviews from newspapers, magazines, and podcasts conducted throughout the prolific author's career. The collection includes conversations between Lansdale and other noted peers like Robert McCammon and James Grady; two podcast transcripts that have never before appeared in print; and a brand-new interview, exclusive to the volume. In addition to shedding light on his body of literary work and process as a writer, this collection also shares Lansdale's thoughts on comics, atheism, and martial arts.

'The book contains a lot of examples, a lot of non-standard material which is not included in many other books. At the same time the authors manage to avoid numerous cumbersome calculations … It is a great achievement that the authors found a balance.'zbMATHThis book presents the study of symmetry groups in Physics from a practical perspective, i.e. emphasising the explicit methods and algorithms useful for the practitioner and profusely illustrating by examples.The first half reviews the algebraic, geometrical and topological notions underlying the theory of Lie groups, with a review of the representation theory of finite groups. The topic of Lie algebras is revisited from the perspective of realizations, useful for explicit computations within these groups. The second half is devoted to applications in physics, divided into three main parts — the first deals with space-time symmetries, the Wigner method for representations and applications to relativistic wave equations. The study of kinematical algebras and groups illustrates the properties and capabilities of the notions of contractions, central extensions and projective representations. Gauge symmetries and symmetries in Particle Physics are studied in the context of the Standard Model, finishing with a discussion on Grand-Unified Theories.

This book is intended to help you enhance your common sense (your intuitive decision making skills) as well as your critical thinking skills (your rational planning and decision-making skills). A big claim, to be certain, but undoubtedly a valid one. As you are aware, your common sense, and with it your ability to make many decisions almost intuitively with minimum thought, is vastly better today than it was when you were a teenager. Experience and learning that translated itself into better judgment and reasoning ability, accounts for this change. More precisely, new knowledge led to thought habits that became so solid that you spend hardly a moment on decisions to which they apply. That is how common sense and judgment mature. Practicing the relatively simple formula that this book offers, and developing the habit to apply it regularly, will help you take another quantum step toward a higher level of common sense and intuitive reasoning when you develop plans and make decisions. At the same time, the book will provide you with tools that will sharpen your ability to think about work and personal decisions you are facing from a more comprehensive perspective than you are probably doing now. In addition to helping with plans and decisions, the book will show you how to be an more effective leader. If you manage anything, with or without staff, are preparing for managerial responsibities as a college student, or if you seek to take a managerial career track, this book can be of significant use to you. It does not matter whether your career is in business, non-profit organization, or government, in health care, retail, engineering, or transportation, just to name a few. The concept presented here addresses decisions on matters which, directly or indirectly, involve people. If you are, or expect to be a manager with a small or a large staff, this book will not only help you make better managerial decisions, it will also help you become a better leader. However, even if you are on a professional track where you manage a function, but do not, or will not have anyone reporting to you, your work still has impact on people. In these professional positions the leadership aspects of your managerial responsibilities may just be of smaller impact, overall, on your plans and decisions. You will, nevertheless bring better results if you consider many of the thoughts and concepts discussed here. Moreover, most professionals are frequently in positions on teams or projects where they are likely to assume leadership responsibilities. In these situations, the concepts discussed in this book can be most useful. Even where your leadership and management responsibilities, and decisions, involve family affairs, most of the sections of this book can be valuable. They address key issues for decision- making and interpersonal relations, and they do it from a unique and comprehensive perspective.