The briefest glimpse of this beautiful bird swooping across a field reassures us that all is well in our beloved countryside-but is that really the case? With its universal appeal, it is no surprise that the barn owl is one of the most studied birds in the world. In this book Jeff Martin has compiled both his own research findings and those of the world's leading experts to give a detailed insight into the barn owl's fascinating lifestyle and behaviours. The barn owl Tyto alba belongs to the worldwide genus of Tyto, which presently comprises some 12 species of barn owl and 13 other closely related species. How this family of birds has managed to spread itself around the world has been a puzzle to ornithologists for many years, and Jeff is the first one to address this question formally by presenting some thought-provoking theories. He also discusses the origins of the name and the history that has brought the barn owl to the forefront of wildlife conservation. The more we learn about barn owls the more we need to look at their environment. How fragile is their future? How dependent is their existence on our conservation efforts? Jeff explores the issues and discusses possible longer-term strategies to ensure that barn owls will continue to thrive in Britain. If we get things right for the barn owl, our countryside will benefit too.

Over 50 new and improved recipes to put Visual Studio 2015 to work in your crucial development projects About This Book * Get to grips with all the new Visual Studio 2015 features regardless of your preferred programming language * Apply Visual Studio to all areas of development: writing, debugging, and application lifecycle maintenance * Straightforward and hands-on advice for building both Windows and Android apps Who This Book Is For If you are a developer excited about the new features introduced in Visual Studio 2015, then no matter what your programming language of choice is, Visual Studio 2015 Cookbook is for you. You should have a good knowledge of working with previous versions of Visual Studio to benefit from the recipes in this book. What You Will Learn * Customize the editor's new abilities to fit your development style * Create apps for Windows * Use Visual Studio to debug parallel and concurrent programs * Integrate .NET Framework 4.6 effectively * Put TypeScript to work in your web applications * Develop modern C++11 with Visual Studio 2015 * Protect and manage your source code with Team Foundation Server In Detail Visual Studio 2015 is the premier tool for developers targeting the Microsoft platform. Learning how to effectively use this technology can enhance your productivity while simplifying your most common tasks, allowing you more time to focus on your project. Visual Studio 2015 is packed with improvements that increase productivity, and this book walks you through each one in succession to help you smooth your workflow and get more accomplished. From customization and the interface to code snippets and debugging, the Visual Studio upgrade expands your options - and this book is your fast-track guide to getting on board quickly. Visual Studio 2015 Cookbook will introduce you to all the new areas of Visual Studio and how they can quickly be put to use to improve your everyday development tasks. With this book, you will learn not only what VS2015 offers, but what it takes to put it to work for your projects. Style and approach This book is a practical guide to using Visual Studio 2015 and will help you become familiar with the improvements made in previous versions. Each recipe provides a hands-on approach to the new features with step-by-step instructions on how to increase your productivity.

Teddy Welmont Had a hard life, every time he tired to make things better for him self everything just got worse. One day Teddy lost everything he ever had, so he went on a trip to find out what he should do with himself.

This book is a practical guide to using Visual Studio 2013 that will help you become familiar with the improvements made over previous versions. Each recipe provides a handson approach to the new features with step by step instructions on how to increase your productivity. If you are a developer excited about the new features introduced in Visual Studio 2013, then no matter what your programming language of choice is, Visual Studio 2013 Cookbook is for you. You should have a good knowledge of working with previous versions of Visual Studio to enjoy the recipes in this book. This book provides practical examples to help you use Visual Studio 2013 more effectively.

What if Gatson Leroux's characters were created with more recently? What if the infamous Paris Opera House was a rock-n-roll hall in New Orleans? Would the romance be so suffocating? Or would the Phantom be as sinister as Freddy Krueger or Pinhead?

The way we absorb information has changed dramatically. Edison's phonograph has been reincarnated as the iPod. Celluloid went digital. But books, for the most part, have remained the same--until now. And while music and movies have undergone an almost Darwinian evolution, the literary world now faces a revolution, a sudden change in the way we buy, produce, and read books. Scholars, journalists, and publishers have turned their brains inside out in the effort to predict what lies ahead, but who better to comment on the future of the book than those who are driven to write them? In The Late American Novel, Jeff Martin and C. Max Magee gather some of today's finest writers to consider the sea change that is upon them. Lauren Groff imagines an array of fantastical futures for writers, from poets with groupies to novelists as vending machines. Rivka Galchen writes about the figurative and literal death of paper. Joe Meno expounds upon the idea of a book as a place set permanently aside for the imagination, regardless of format. These and other original essays by Reif Larsen, Benjamin Kunkel, Victoria Patterson, and many more provide a timely and much-needed commentary on this compelling cultural crossroad.

Jeff Martin was born in 1980. Jeff Martin made millions on the stock market. Jeff Martin lost millions on the stock market. Jeff Martin stopped a Chinese tank at Tiananmen Square. Jeff Martin managed Michael Dukakis's 1988 presidential campaign. Jeff Martin co-wrote Aliens 2: More Aliens with James Cameron. Jeff Martin had a torrid and brief creative relationship with Disney's animation department. Jeff Martin disguised himself as a midget, joined NASA, and became the first-ever child in space, all in tribute to the Challenger space shuttle tragedy. Such is only a sample of the amazing life of Jeff Martin, a modern-day renaissance man/child, adept at everything, and uniquely attuned to the goings-on of our evolving planet. He is equal parts Doogie Howser and Forest Gump -- as likely to break an age barrier as to coincidentally find himself in the trenches of history. Get ready for a groundbreaking memoir overflowing with action, history, social commentary, and unchecked facts. Along the way, there will be love, loss, cool drawings from Truth Serum cartoonist Jon Adams, and some more unchecked facts. And as a free promotion, we're offering a money-back guarantee that this book will not disgrace Oprah.

From mom-and-pop general stores to big-box, strip-mall chains, it is impossible to consider the American experience without thinking about the buying-and-selling retail culture: the sales and the stockrooms, the shift managers, and the clock punchers. If you've ever worked in retail--and most likely you have--you probably have a funny, frantic, moving, mortifying, outrageous, or ridiculous story to tell. The Customer Is Always Wrong is a tragicomic and all-too-revealing collection of essays by writers from all corners of the literary world--writers who have done their time behind the counter and lived to tell their tales. Jim DeRogatis, author of Let It Blurt, for example, describes hanging out with Al himself at Al Rocky's Music Store, while Colson Whitehead explains how three summers at a Long Island ice cream store gave him a lifelong aversion to all things dessert-like. This book not only shines a light on the absurdities of retail culture but finds the delight in it as well. If it weren't for the customer, after all, our economy would not function--nor would we slaves-to-the-paycheck get our turn to shop until we drop. And for every abusive customer or moronic employee, there are those people who come into our stores--and our lives--and change them forever... one price tag at a time.

In the brutal, dark world of ancient Europe, a vast hidden treasure could determine the fate of the Roman Empire. Voterix, a Celtic warlord, seeks the lost gold to fund a massive army to overthrow the Roman occupation of Gaul. The stage is set for a bloody Celtic uprising until Jules, a beautiful Galatian slave girl, arrives in Genava. Mysterious Druids and the legions of Rome are on a collision course with Voterix as they desperately race to find the elusive treasure of Cimbrionis. Centuries later, two college roommates receive a mysterious package that sets in motion a deadly hunt for the ancient treasure. They are tracked by shadowy assassins until they stumble on to the greatest archaeological discovery of all time. The startling find sends shockwaves throughout the religious world, and provides a key to the birth of Christianity.