Dax Shepard writes, directs and stars in this fast-paced, low-budget car chase action comedy. After testifying against some bad people he was associated with in Los Angeles, former getaway driver Charlie Bronson (Shepard) is placed under the Witness Protection Plan to keep him safe. However, when his girlfriend, Annie (Kristen Bell) - who is unaware of his troubled past - is offered an interview for her dream job in LA, Charlie manfully puts his safety to one side and agrees to drive her there. Unfortunately, he hasn't allowed for the jealously of Annie's ex, Gil (Michael Rosenbaum), who discovers Charlie's former identity and passes the details to the relevant people. Soon Charlie and Annie find themselves involved in a high speed pursuit, with vengeful gangsters, federal agents and their loyal Witness Protection Agent, Randy (Tom Arnold), on their tail...

This volume responds to a renewed focus on tragedy in theatre and literary studies to explore conceptions of tragedy in the dramatic work of seventeen canonical American playwrights. For students of American literature and theatre studies, the assembled essays offer a clear framework for exploring the work of many of the most studied and performed playwrights of the modern era. Following a contextual introduction that offers a survey of conceptions of tragedy, scholars examine the dramatic work of major playwrights in chronological succession, beginning with Eugene O'Neill and ending with Suzan-Lori Parks. A final chapter provides a study of American drama since 1990 and its ongoing engagement with concepts of tragedy. The chapters explore whether there is a distinctively American vision of tragedy developed in the major works of canonical American dramatists and how this may be seen to evolve over the course of the twentieth century through to the present day. Among the playwrights whose work is examined are: Susan Glaspell, Langston Hughes, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, August Wilson, Marsha Norman and Tony Kushner. With each chapter being short enough to be assigned for weekly classes in survey courses, the volume will help to facilitate critical engagement with the dramatic work and offer readers the tools to further their independent study of this enduring theme of dramatic literature.

The metaverse is so much more than just a technology and immersive experience. Join digital visionary and global platform innovation expert David Palmer on this exciting journey exploring the metaverse and its myriad commercial, impact and career opportunities for business. The Business of Metaverse outlines the building blocks for success in the metaverse and how organizations can effectively position themselves to transition and benefit from it. It presents a unique framework showing how different components of the metaverse and the physical worlds can come together, providing a basis for strategic positioning for different sectors and industries and equipping readers with valuable insights into how they can anticipate and navigate key opportunities and challenges. Delving into this new world with embedded immersive capabilities, it explores what metaverse business entities could look like, the new business models in waiting and how businesses can gain competitive advantage through the power of interoperability. Taking a panoramic approach to opportunity, it examines the wide-ranging transformative impacts that the metaverse can bring to the business landscape, from equality and inclusive impact, new work and career paths and digital identities to new digital and data currencies in the metaverse economy.

Arthur Miller for the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Views of His Writings and Ideas brings together both established Miller experts and emerging commentators to investigate the sources of his ongoing resonance with audiences and his place in world theatre. The collection begins by exploring Miller in the context of 20th-century American drama. Chapters discuss Miller and Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, David Mamet, and Sam Shepard, as well as thematic relationships between Miller's ideas and the explosion of significant women and African American dramatists since the 1970s. Other essays focus more directly on interpretations of Miller's individual works, not only plays but also essays and fiction, including a discussion of Death of a Salesman in China. The volume concludes by considering Miller and current cultural issues: his work for human rights, his depiction of American ideals of masculinity, and his anticipation of contemporary posthumanism.

Arthur Miller for the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Views of His Writings and Ideas brings together both established Miller experts and emerging commentators to investigate the sources of his ongoing resonance with audiences and his place in world theatre. The collection begins by exploring Miller in the context of 20th-century American drama. Chapters discuss Miller and Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, David Mamet, and Sam Shepard, as well as thematic relationships between Miller's ideas and the explosion of significant women and African American dramatists since the 1970s. Other essays focus more directly on interpretations of Miller's individual works, not only plays but also essays and fiction, including a discussion of Death of a Salesman in China. The volume concludes by considering Miller and current cultural issues: his work for human rights, his depiction of American ideals of masculinity, and his anticipation of contemporary posthumanism.

According to the libertarian position on free will, people sometimes exercise free will, but this freedom is incompatible with the truth of causal determinism. Frequently maligned within the history of philosophy, this view has recently gained increasingly sympathetic attention among philosophers. But stark questions remain: How plausible is this view? If our actions are not causally determined, how can we have control over them? Why should we want our actions to be breaks in the deterministic causal chain?
The recent resurgence of interest in libertarianism is due, most significantly, to Robert Kane, who is the leading contemporary defender of this view of free will. This book is a collection of new essays on the libertarian position on free will and related issues that focuses specifically on the views of Kane. Written by a distinguished group of philosophers, the essays cover various areas of philosophy including metaphysics, ethics, and philosophy of mind. Kane contributes a final essay, replying to the criticisms offered in the previous chapters and developing his view in new directions.

The metaverse is so much more than just a technology and immersive experience. Join digital visionary and global platform innovation expert David Palmer on this exciting journey exploring the metaverse and its myriad commercial, impact and career opportunities for business. The Business of Metaverse outlines the building blocks for success in the metaverse and how organizations can effectively position themselves to transition and benefit from it. It presents a unique framework showing how different components of the metaverse and the physical worlds can come together, providing a basis for strategic positioning for different sectors and industries and equipping readers with valuable insights into how they can anticipate and navigate key opportunities and challenges. Delving into this new world with embedded immersive capabilities, it explores what metaverse business entities could look like, the new business models in waiting and how businesses can gain competitive advantage through the power of interoperability. Taking a panoramic approach to opportunity, it examines the wide-ranging transformative impacts that the metaverse can bring to the business landscape, from equality and inclusive impact, new work and career paths and digital identities to new digital and data currencies in the metaverse economy.

Recent events - from strife in Tibet and the rapid growth of Christianity in China to the spectacular expansion of Chinese Buddhist organizations around the globe - demonstrate that one cannot understand the modern Chinese world without attending closely to the question of religion. The "Religious Question in Modern China" highlights parallels and contrasts between historical events, political regimes, and cultural movements to explore how religion has challenged and responded to secular Chinese modernity from 1898 to the present. Vincent Goossaert and David A. Palmer piece together the puzzle of religion in China not by looking separately at different religions in different contexts, but by writing a unified story of how religion has shaped, and in turn been shaped by, modern Chinese society. From Chinese medicine and the martial arts to communal temple cults and revivalist redemptive societies, the authors demonstrate that from the nineteenth century onward, as the Chinese state shifted, the religious landscape consistently resurfaced in a bewildering variety of old and new forms. The "Religious Question in Modern China" integrates historical, anthropological, and sociological perspectives in a comprehensive overview of China's religious history that is certain to become an indispensable reference for specialists and students alike.

Intrinsic investing is based on the concept that an asset is worth what it pays or saves the owner, and not its market price. This style of investing allows you to estimate the value of almost any asset. The investor therefore has some idea when the market price is high and purchase should be avoided, and when the price is low and investment is advantageous. It is an alternative approach to simply placing your money in a mutual fund, or any other investment, and hoping that the market price increases.

Concerned that many Christians and churches live below their potential, David Palmer wrote this book to show how to be empowered under God's covering successfully. He provides an illustrated explanation of righteousness - one that takes right-standing out of the realm of 'theological' concept into a practical applicable hands-on understanding of our position in Christ and everyday living. He also gives a profound understanding of how Jesus-type leadership, faith, prophecy, intercession and gracious words provide a supernatural covering under which believers an grow in grace to their maximum potential without unnecessary hinderances. This book contains revelation vital to anyone wanting to live an empowered Christian life or desiring to provide leadership that facilitates the empowering of others.

This book is mainly about people who have experienced the blessings and joy of recovery from their addictions, how they did it, and how you can do it. My purpose in writing it is to give you, the reader, hope and encouragement. The rest is up to you. You will find my story, the one I tell at 12-Step meetings, in appendix 1 of the book. I hope you will conclude when you read it that, "If this guy can do it, I can, too." There are also nineteen chapters in the book that will help you better understand the resources available to you. There are chapters, for example, on people we are especially interested in-adolescents, veterans, and prison inmates-and about programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, and Celebrate Recovery. I call these chapters "pathways to serenity" in the title of the book and emphasize taking it no more than "one day at a time," a vital key to recovery. The photo of my wife and me on the cover is meant to reassure those who seek recovery that there can be happiness after you drop the alcohol, drugs, or other addictions. And there will be moments of serenity, but not every moment. That's where the "one day at a time" comes in. The stories about people and programs are snapshots. People and programs change; some in recovery have slips and may never come back, while others succeed. It is also true that some programs succeed while others fade away. That's life, and readers must take this into account in charting their own recovery. This, then, is a freeze frame of people dealing effectively with their addictions through programs that work. We must remember that they are contending with an adversary-addiction-which chapter 5 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous describes as "cunning, baffling and powerful." Maybe so, but we have access to the God of the universe. The late Joe McQuany, who wrote a text book on recovery used by treatment centers, travelled the world over carrying the message, helped integrate AA meetings in the deep south and taught what the 12 Steps of AA, had this to say about God and man. "I look at the battles that go on in life, and I look at the resentments and fears, guilt, and remorse, and how these things block us from God and shackle us to the self. Then I look at love, tolerance, patience, courage, and wisdom. These qualities have come from God and they are always within us. In our outer and inner conflicts, we can see the powers of self-contending with the powers of God." Amen

"Qigong"& mdash;a regimen of body, breath, and mental training exercises& mdash;was one of the most widespread cultural and religious movements of late-twentieth-century urban China. The practice was promoted by senior Communist Party leaders as a uniquely Chinese healing tradition and as a harbinger of a new scientific revolution, yet the movement's mass popularity and the almost religious devotion of its followers led to its ruthless suppression.

In this absorbing and revealing book, David A. Palmer relies on a combination of historical, anthropological, and sociological perspectives to describe the spread of the "qigong" craze and its reflection of key trends that have shaped China since 1949, including the search for a national identity and an emphasis on the absolute authority of science. "Qigong" offered the promise of an all-powerful technology of the body rooted in the mysteries of Chinese culture. However, after 1995 the scientific underpinnings of "qigong" came under attack, its leaders were denounced as charlatans, and its networks of followers, notably Falungong, were suppressed as "evil cults."

According to Palmer, the success of the movement proves that a hugely important religious dimension not only survived under the CCP but was actively fostered, if not created, by high-ranking party members. Tracing the complex relationships among the masters, officials, scientists, practitioners, and ideologues involved in "qigong," Palmer opens a fascinating window on the transformation of Chinese tradition as it evolved along with the Chinese state. As he brilliantly demonstrates, the rise and collapse of the "qigong" movement is key to understanding the politics andculture of post-Mao society.

Recent events--from strife in Tibet and the rapid growth of Christianity in China to the spectacular expansion of Chinese Buddhist organizations around the globe--vividly demonstrate that one cannot understand the modern Chinese world without attending closely to the question of religion. "The Religious Question in Modern China" highlights parallels and contrasts between historical events, political regimes, and cultural movements to explore how religion has challenged and responded to secular Chinese modernity, from 1898 to the present.

Vincent Goossaert and David A. Palmer piece together the puzzle of religion in China not by looking separately at different religions in different contexts, but by writing a unified story of how religion has shaped, and in turn been shaped by, modern Chinese society. From Chinese medicine and the martial arts to communal temple cults and revivalist redemptive societies, the authors demonstrate that from the nineteenth century onward, as the Chinese state shifted, the religious landscape consistently resurfaced in a bewildering variety of old and new forms. "The Religious Question in Modern China "integrates historical, anthropological, and sociological perspectives in a comprehensive overview of China's religious history that is certain to become an indispensible reference for specialists and students alike.

An Atlantic BestsellerNew Brunswick is home to more than five billion trees, many native to the Acadian forest and some exotics introduced by settlers. For this new edition of The Great Trees of New Brunswick (the first edition was published in 1987), forester David Palmer and conservationist Tracy Glynn have prepared a book that doubles as an informative guide to the province's native and introduced species and a compendium of "champion" trees, drawn from nominations from all corners of the province.Divided into sections on hardwoods, softwoods, and exotics and lavishly illustrated with full-colour photographs, The Great Trees of New Brunswick features chapters on all thirty-two native species and nine introduced species. Each chapter includes information on the tree's defining features, habitat and uses, as well as photographs and a detailed description of champion trees. Rounding out the book is an introductory essay on the Acadian forest -- its history, survival, and future.Whether you're an avid hiker, outdoors person, or simply someone who wants to know more about the trees of the Acadian forest, you'll find The Great Trees of New Brunswick to be an essential reference to New Brunswick's forests and its panoply of trees.Co-published with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick