Over the last decades, we have seen more than three dozen new infectious diseases appear, some of which could kill millions of people with one or two unlucky gene mutations or one or two unfavourable environmental changes. The risks of pandemics only increase as the human population grows; therefore to direct our future we should examine our past. Howard Phillips provides the first look into the history of epidemics in South Africa, probing lethal episodes which significantly shaped this society over three centuries.

Focusing on devastating diseases such as smallpox, bubonic plague, Spanish influenza, polio and HIV/Aids, Plague, Pox and Pandemics probes their origin, their catastrophic course and their consequences in both the short and long term. Their impact ranges from the demographic to the political, the social, the economic, the spiritual, the psychological and the cultural. As each of these epidemics occurred at crucial moments in the country's history - early in European colonisation, in the midst of the mineral revolution, during the South African War and World War I, as industrialisation was getting under way, and within the eras of apartheid and post-apartheid - the book also examines how these processes affected and were affected by the five epidemics, thereby adding important dimensions to an understanding of each.

To those who read this book, South African history will not look the same again.

Love can change your life. Can it survive marriage and middle age?

Lily falls in love with Sam the minute she sets eyes on him. It takes Sam a day or two longer. Curious, because Lily – independent, headstrong, rational – has never quite believed in love; while Sam – confident, passionate, romantic – thought he understood it inside out.

Lily is an award-winning television documentary maker. Sam is an award-winning playwright. Both are in relationships that have quietly expired, but their encounter makes Lily and Sam come alive again. As they begin to work together on the page and on screen, an affair takes hold that they are powerless to resist.

Arriving in mid-life, their relationship opens unexpected new worlds and, for Lily, offers her a surprising form of liberation. But what will happen to them when familiarity, illness and age begin to take their toll? What will survive? Taking us to the edge of desire, love and betrayal across a lifetime, What Will Survive of Us reveals what is left of us when we strip away every layer.

Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they’ve never quite lost touch with each other – or with their former teacher, Libor Sevcik, a Czech always more concerned with the wider world than with exam results.

Now, both Libor and Finkler are recently widowed, and with Treslove, his chequered and unsuccessful record with women rendering him an honorary third widower, they dine at Libor’s grand, central London apartment.

It’s a sweetly painful evening of reminiscence in which all three remove themselves to a time before they had loved and lost; a time before they had fathered children, before the devastation of separations, before they had prized anything greatly enough to fear the loss of it. Better, perhaps, to go through life without knowing happiness at all because that way you have less to mourn? Treslove finds he has tears enough for the unbearable sadness of both his friends’ losses.

And it’s that very evening, at exactly 11:30 pm, as Treslove, walking home, hesitates a moment outside the window of the oldest violin dealer in the country, that he is attacked. And after this, his whole sense of who and what he is, will slowly and ineluctably change.

The Finkler Question has been awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010.

A fascinating celebration of the world's most enormous animals! Discover the magnificent megafauna that have shaped our planet - from the mighty megalodon, sabre-toothed cats and giant birds that existed millions of years ago, to the elephants, giraffes and whales that live today. But why did some of the largest creatures on Earth go extinct? What do we know about their lives from the clues they left behind? And how can we protect the megafauna that roam our planet today? Unearth these secrets and many more in this captivating compendium. Written by zoology correspondent, science-writer and broadcaster Jules Howard With astonishing illustrations on every page by Gavin Scott With a mega jacket cover that unfolds to become a poster! The perfect gift for any child aged 7+ with an interest in animals and protecting our planet

The new, updated edition of this bestselling investment book will show readers that financial freedom is possible for everyone. It has been updated to include the current hot topics of investing offshore and online, while setting out distinct guidelines on how to do both carefully and prudently. Also new is the special chapter on analysing and understanding investment risk so that readers can figure out their own comfort level of where to invest their hard-earned money.

Aimed at the financial novice who needs clear basic guidelines on how to deal with money, the book covers all aspects of investment that a normal person would encounter in his or her life, from earning their first salary cheque, up to and including retirement. Readers will learn where and how to invest, how to diversify, whom to trust, how to save on costs, which investments perform the best, and so much more.

A highly accessible must-read for everyone who wants a financially secure future.

In 2011, the international community watched as a shockingly unlikely community of citizens toppled three of the world's most entrenched dictators: Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, and Qaddafi in Libya. This movement of cascading democratization, commonly known as the Arab Spring, was planned and executed not by political parties, but by students, young entrepreneurs, and the rising urban middle class. International experts and the popular press have pointed to the near-identical reliance on digital media in all three movements, arguing that these authoritarian regimes were in essence defeated by the Internet. Is that true? Should Mubarak blame Twitter for his sudden fall from power? Did digital media "cause" the Arab Spring? In Democracy's Fourth Wave?, Philip N. Howard and Muzammil M. Hussain examine the complex role of the Internet, mobile phones, and social networking applications in the Arab Spring. Examining digital media access, level of grievance, and levels of protest for popular democratization in 16 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Howard and Hussain conclude that digital media was neither the most nor the least important cause of the Arab Spring. Instead, they illustrate a complex web of conjoined causal factors for social mobilization. The Arab revolts cascaded across countries largely because digital media allowed communities to realize shared grievances and nurtured transportable strategies for mobilizing against dictators. Individuals were inspired to protest for personal reasons, but through social media they acted collectively. Democracy's Fourth Wave examines not only the unexpected evolution of events during the Arab Spring, but the longer history of desperate-and creative-digital activism through the Arab world.

Examining the different bodies that publish official material, this book describes the types of material published, how it is made available and how it is recorded. Finding Official British Information focuses on the digital availability of official information and considers how much is now freely available on the web and how to locate it as well as addressing issues of web only publishing. It covers public bodies in the UK and includes publications issued by central and local government as well as the devolved assemblies and the many other organisations that issue official publications.
Quick how to find section for each areaDesigned for the non-specialistCovering central and local government, the devolved assemblies and other public bodies in the UK "

That the longstanding antagonism between science and religion is irreconcilable has been taken for granted. And in the wake of recent controversies over teaching intelligent design and the ethics of stem-cell research, the divide seems as unbridgeable as ever.
In Science vs. Religion, Elaine Howard Ecklund investigates this unexamined assumption in the first systematic study of what scientists actually think and feel about religion. In the course of her research, Ecklund surveyed nearly 1,700 scientists and interviewed 275 of them. She finds that most of what we believe about the faith lives of elite scientists is wrong. Nearly 50 percent of them are religious. Many others are what she calls "spiritual entrepreneurs," seeking creative ways to work with the tensions between science and faith outside the constraints of traditional religion. The book centers around vivid portraits of 10 representative men and women working in the natural and social sciences at top American research universities. Ecklund's respondents run the gamut from Margaret, a chemist who teaches a Sunday-school class, to Arik, a physicist who chose not to believe in God well before he decided to become a scientist. Only a small minority are actively hostile to religion. Ecklund reveals how scientists-believers and skeptics alike-are struggling to engage the increasing number of religious students in their classrooms and argues that many scientists are searching for "boundary pioneers" to cross the picket lines separating science and religion.
With broad implications for education, science funding, and the thorny ethical questions surrounding stem-cell research, cloning, and other cutting-edge scientific endeavors, Science vs. Religion brings a welcome dose of reality to the science and religion debates.

Robert E Howard's Classic novel of a strange and barbarous planet
Esau Cairn is a man-mighty of frame and quick of temper-out of time and place and now the corrupt forces of the modern world are closing in on him. As he turns at bay he takes refuge with a scientist who provides the extraordinary solution for his problems by transporting Cairn across space to a new world Instantaneously transported to the planet of Almuric where he arrives naked and unarmed and is immediately beset by strange predators and equally strange hirsute and ferocious warriors. Now begins an adventure in the classic Robert E Howard tradition of savage warfare, beautiful women, bizarre civilisations and flesh eating, black winged vampire creatures led by a terrible Queen who has particular plans for Cairn. Howard enthusiasts will be familiar with this famous fantasy, presented in this new Leonaur edition in softcover and collectors hardcover with dustjacket.

In Leaves from the Garden of Eden, Howard Schwartz, a three-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award, has gathered together one hundred of the most astonishing and luminous stories from Jewish folk tradition.
Just as Schwartz's award-winning book Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism collected the essential myths of Jewish tradition, Leaves from the Garden of Eden collects one hundred essential Jewish tales. As imaginative as the Arabian Nights, these stories invoke enchanted worlds, demonic realms, and mystical experiences. The four most popular types of Jewish tales are gathered here--fairy tales, folktales, supernatural tales, and mystical tales--taking readers on heavenly journeys, lifelong quests, and descents to the underworld. King David is still alive in the City of Luz, which the Angel of Death cannot enter, and somewhere deep in the forest a mysterious cottage contains the candle of your soul. In these stories, a bride who is not careful may end up marrying a demon, while the charm sewn into a dress may drive a pious woman to lascivious behavior. There is a dybbuk lurking in a well, a book that comes to life, and a world where Lilith, the Queen of Demons, seduces the unsuspecting. Here too are Jewish versions of many of the best-known tales, including "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Rapunzel." Schwartz's retelling of one of these stories, "The Finger," inspired Tim Burton's film Corpse Bride.
With its broad selection from written and oral sources, Leaves from the Garden of Eden is a landmark collection, representing the full range of Jewish folklore, from the Talmud to the present. It is a must-read for everyone who loves fiction and an ideal holiday gift.

Principles of Market Abuse Regulation: A Comparative South African Perspective arguably offers the most comprehensive study of the regulation and enforcement of anti-market abuse laws in South Africa today. Accordingly, the book examines the regulation of the South African securities and financial markets to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the country's anti-market abuse laws. In this regard, the book provides that inadequate and inconsistent regulation of the securities and financial markets could give rise to low investor confidence, market volatility and poor market integrity. The author traces the regulation of market abuse under the Financial Markets Act 19 of 2012 and recommends measures that could enhance the combating of market abuse in the South African securities and financial markets. The Financial Sector Regulation Act 9 of 2017, which is set to expand the mandate of the Financial Services Board, is also considered. The global financial crisis of 2007-2009 provides context for the book. Events covered include South African and American international banks' collusion and market manipulation involving price-fixing, market allocation and rigging in the trading of foreign currency pairs of the South African rand since 2007.

This book is collection of published and unpublished essays on the philosophy of religion by Howard Wettstein, who is a widely respected analytic philosopher. Over the past twenty years, Wettstein has attempted to reconcile his faith with his philosophy, and he brings his personal investment in this mission to the essays collected here. Influenced by the work of George Santayana, Wittgenstein, and A.J. Heschel, Wettstein grapples with central issues in the philosophy of religion such as the relationship of religious practice to religious belief, what is at stake in the debate between atheists and theists, and the place of doctrine in religion. His discussions draw from Jewish texts as well as Christianity, Islam, and classical philosophy. The challenge Wettstein undertakes throughout the volume is to maintain a philosophical naturalism while pursuing an encounter with God and traditional religion. In the Introduction to this volume, Wettstein elucidates the uniting themes among the collected essays.

The nature of the authority of the Bible is crucial. In this outstanding study, the author first considers various theories of the nature of inspiration. This leads to a consideration of the 'entire trustworthiness' of the Bible, the inerrancy debate, and the place of biblical criticism. From determining the original meaning of the text, Professor Marshall turns to the Bible's contemporary significance and meaning before finally presenting the authority of Scripture for today. 'The Bible is precious to the Christian believer, not because it is regarded as some kind of magical oracle but because here one hears and receives the message of a gracious God who, having revealed himself supremely in this Son Jesus Christ, continues to reveal himself and through the pages of Scripture'

The legendary adventure of a medieval outlaw is now available in an unabridged paperback edition for today’s young readers. He stole from the rich and gave to the poor, and in so doing became a lasting symbol of virtue. The thrilling adventures of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men will keep young readers turning the pages. Who can resist the arrows flying, danger lurking, and medieval intrigue? This unabridged edition of Howard Pyle’s celebrated text, based on an English folktale, is perfect for young readers’ libraries.

Michel Gondry directs this mega-budget superhero action film starring Seth Rogen and Cameron Diaz, based on the 1960s television series starring Bruce Lee. Britt Reid (Rogen), son and heir to the biggest newspaper fortune in Los Angeles, is a spoiled playboy who has hitherto led a charmed but directionless existence. But after the death of his father (Tom Wilkinson), Britt joins forces with company employee and martial arts expert Kato (Jay Chou) to fight crime across the city as masked superhero The Green Hornet. Armed with their super-powered automobile The Black Beauty, the pair set out to take down the dastardly Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), a kingpin of the criminal underworld who plans to unite the various gangs of the city in an attempt to eliminate The Green Hornet.

From where they are located to the various animals that live there, early readers discover the lush forests of the world in this inviting nonfiction reader that features vivid, brilliant images in conjunction with informational text and intriguing facts about this amazing ecosystem.

From the earliest of times, coins have been used by states or monarchs to communicate with people; Coins of England is therefore not only a reference book for collectors, but a fascinating snapshot of British history, illuminating its economics, technology, art, politics and religion. As always, the content has been updated and improved throughout by the editors, with numerous new images, revisions of key sections and several thousand price changes reflecting activity in the market over the previous year. This historic reference work for British coins is still the only catalogue to feature every major coin type from Celtic to the Decimal coinage of Queen Elizabeth II, arranged in chronological order and divided into metals under each reign, then into coinages, denominations and varieties. All decimal coinage since 1968 is listed in a second, stand-alone volume. The catalogue includes up-to-date values for every coin, a beginner's guide to coin collecting, numismatic terms explained and historical information about each British coin, from our earliest (Celtic) coins, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman coins, the coins of the Plantagenet Kings, the Houses of Lancaster and York, the Tudors and Stuarts, to the more modern Milled coinage, minted for the first time in 1561 during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Learn about the process of electing government leaders! This nonfiction book explains how elections work and ways for individuals to stay involved in government. The book also includes a related fiction piece, a glossary, an extension activity, and other helpful features. Perfect for young readers, this book will show students how to be informed citizens when it comes to elections and campaigns. This 32-page full-color book describes the presidential election process with examples from United States history. It also explores essential topics such as leadership and civic duty and includes an extension activity for grade 3. Perfect for the classroom, at-home learning, or homeschool to explore political parties, government leaders, and the structure of America s representative democracy.

A guidebook to walking the Camino Portugues (Portuguese Way), 620km from Lisbon in Portugal to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The book gives stage-by-stage directions for the Central Camino, starting from Lisbon, Porto or Tui, the Coastal Camino between Porto and Redondela, and the Spiritual Variant route from Pontevedra to Padrón. It also describes link routes that can be used to swap from one route to another. Detailed route guidance and maps are accompanied by fascinating information about historic and religious sites passed along the way. It is packed with essential information for pilgrims, with advice on getting there, when to go, where to stay and equipment. An indispensable facilities table showing the availability of accommodation, refreshments, supermarkets, ATMs and pharmacies along the route, and a handy glossary, make this the complete guide to the Camino. Since 1211 Santiago de Compostela has been a place of holy pilgrimage and the Camino Portugués is the second most travelled pilgrim route. The largely rural journey takes in four UNESCO World Heritage Areas - the Knights Templar Castle at Tomar, Portugal's oldest University at Coimbra, and the old towns of Porto and Santiago - culminating at the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela.

Perceiving in Depth is a sequel to Binocular Vision and Stereopsis and to Seeing in Depth, both by Ian P. Howard and Brian J. Rogers. This three-volume work is much broader in scope than previous texts and includes mechanisms of depth perception by all senses, including aural, electrosensory organs, and the somatosensory system. The work contains three extensively illustrated and referenced volumes. Volume 1 reviews sensory coding, psychophysical and analytic procedures, and basic visual mechanisms. Volume 2 reviews stereoscopic vision. Volume 3 reviews all mechanisms of depth perception other than stereoscopic vision. Together, these three volumes provide the most detailed review of all aspects of perceiving the three-dimensional world. Volume 1 contains a historical background and address basic coding process, an account of basic psychophysical procedures and principles of sensory coding, and an account of basic mechanisms underlying visual depth perception. It starts with a review of the history of investigations of visual depth perception from the ancient Greeks to the early 20th century. Depth-detection mechanisms in senses other than vision were not investigated before the 19th century. Special attention is devoted to the discovery of the principles of perspective in 15th century Florence, and the discovery of the principles of stereoscopic vision. The chapter ends with a review of early visual display systems, such as panoramas and peepshows, and the discovery and development of stereoscopes and stereophotography. One chapter reviews the psychophysical and analytic procedures used in behavioral investigations of depth perception. Another chapter deals with the broad topic of sensory coding, including the geometry of visual space, mechanisms of attention, and experience-dependent plasticity of visual functions. A review of the structure and physiology of the primate visual system proceeds from the eye through the LGN to the visual cortex and higher visual centers. This is followed by a review of the early evolution of visual systems and of the development of the mammalian visual system in the embryo and post-natal period, with an emphasis on mechanisms of neural plasticity. The development of perceptual functions, especially depth perception, in human infants is then reviewed. These chapters provide a foundation for a review of the effects of early visual deprivation during the critical period of neural plasticity on the development of the various types of amblyopia and of defects in visual depth perception. Various forms of deprivation are discussed, including dark rearing, binocular and monocular enucleation, strabismus, and eyelid suturing. Volume 1 ends with reviews of the accommodation mechanism of the human eye and vergence eye movements.

Bessie Quinn was an early 20th century New Woman, a mother living her love story in the enchanted world of the Garden City. When she died in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-19, her shattered husband abandoned her memory, belongings and life history. Her disappearance reverberated down generations. Starting with only an Arts and Crafts kettle, one photo and a linen smock, Ursula has restored her grandmother to life. After long searches she found Bessie in the Scottish Borders, eighth child of working-class Irish parents who'd fled hunger after the Great Famine of the 1840s. This biography of a poor family unearths hard journeys of love, luck and loss, weaving historical fact with memory and imagination into a compelling story.

THE EYES OF THE UNIVERSE ARE ALWAYS WATCHING YOU! If you believe, or if you don't ... Life - is but a fragile cycle of everlasting consciousness within the parallels and the order of time, where all things are known: past - present - future. This novel tells the story of George, a conscientious Lancaster Bomber Pilot, who crosses the parallels of life and experiences the wisdom of the universe, the mystery of space-time consciousness and the fraught history of his past ... But what lies ahead in the enigma of his future?