Large surface computing devices (wall-mounted or tabletop) with touch interfaces and their application to collaborative data analysis, an increasingly important and prevalent activity, is the primary topic of this book. Our goals are to outline the fundamentals of surface computing (a still maturing technology), review relevant work on collaborative data analysis, describe frameworks for understanding collaborative processes, and provide a better understanding of the opportunities for research and development. We describe surfaces as display technologies with which people can interact directly, and emphasize how interaction design changes when designing for large surfaces. We review efforts to use large displays, surfaces or mixed display environments to enable collaborative analytic activity. Collaborative analysis is important in many domains, but to provide concrete examples and a specific focus, we frequently consider analysis work in the security domain, and in particular the challenges security personnel face in securing networks from attackers, and intelligence analysts encounter when analyzing intelligence data. Both of these activities are becoming increasingly collaborative endeavors, and there are huge opportunities for improving collaboration by leveraging surface computing. This work highlights for interaction designers and software developers the particular challenges and opportunities presented by interaction with surfaces. We have reviewed hundreds of recent research papers, and report on advancements in the fields of surface-enabled collaborative analytic work, interactive techniques for surface technologies, and useful theory that can provide direction to interaction design work. We also offer insight into issues that arise when developing applications for multi-touch surfaces derived from our own experiences creating collaborative applications. We present these insights at a level appropriate for all members of the software design and development team. Table of Contents: List of Figures / Acknowledgments / Figure Credits / Purpose and Direction / Surface Technologies and Collaborative Analysis Systems / Interacting with Surface Technologies / Collaborative Work Enabled by Surfaces / The Theory and the Design of Surface Applications / The Development of Surface Applications / Concluding Comments / Bibliography / Authors' Biographies

Over the past three decades, ''mindfulness'' has evolved from an Asian religious technique largely unknown in the west to a popular cure-all and a money-making industry. America has seen a rise in advocacy for and practice of mindful eating, mindful sex, mindful parenting, mindfulness at work, mindful sports, mindful divorce lawyers, mindfulness-based stress relief, and mindfulness-based addiction recovery. Mindfulness is being taught in the public schools, the hospitals, and now even in the military. In the first comprehensive study of this phenomenon, Jeff Wilson explores how mindfulness came to be applied to so many non-traditional concerns, how it has been reconceptualized, and where it fits in American Buddhism while increasingly influencing and being appropriated by non-Buddhists. Wilson demonstrates that the concept of mindfulness in America is a perfect example of how Buddhism enters new cultures and becomes domesticated: in each case, the new culture takes from Buddhism what they believe will relieve their specific distresses and concerns, in the process producing new Buddhisms adapted to their needs. In Japan, where concerns were dangerous ghosts and capricious elemental deities, Buddhism became funerary and exorcistic; in modern America the concerns are secular and therapeutic, with an orientation toward personal fulfillment and lifestyle management, but the underlying pattern is the same. Drawing on case studies focused on mindful eating, sexual intimacy, addiction, work, and parenting, Wilson shows how Buddhism shed its counter-cultural quality and was assimilated into common American lifestyles. He also examines the economics of the mindfulness movement, as embodied by services and products such as smartphone applications. Mindful America provides critical insight into the origins of mindfulness meditation practices in Asian Buddhist history, and shows how mindfulness meditation came to be popular (especially among the laity) in American Buddhism.

Many Western visitors to Japan have been struck by the numerous cemeteries for aborted fetuses, which are characterized by throngs of images of the Bodhisattva Jizo, usually dressed in red baby aprons or other baby garments, and each dedicated to an individual fetus. Abortion is common in Japan and as a consequence one of the frequently performed rituals in Japanese Buddhism is mizuko-kuyo, a ceremony for aborted and miscarried fetuses. Over the past forty years, mizuko-kuyo has gradually come to America, where it has been appropriated by non-Buddhists as well as Buddhist practitioners.
In this book, Jeff Wilson examines how and why Americans of different backgrounds have brought knowledge and performance of this Japanese ceremony to the United States. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork in Japan and the U.S., as well as the literature in both Japanese and English, Wilson shows that the meaning and purpose of the ritual have changed greatly in the American context. In Japan, mizuko-kuyo is performed to placate the potentially dangerous spirit of the angry fetus. In America, however, it has come to be seen as a way for the mother to mourn and receive solace for her loss. Many American women who learn about mizuko-kuyo are struck by the lack of such a ceremony and see it as filling a very important need. Ceremonies are now performed even for losses that took place many years ago. Wilson's well-written study not only contributes to the growing literature on American Buddhism, but sheds light on a range of significant issues in Buddhist studies, interreligious contact, women's studies, and even bioethics.

101 Track Plans has been a classic for model railroaders since its publication five decades ago. Now, a new book follows up where the original leaves off. 101 More Track Plans for Model Railroaders evokes the look and feel of its predecessor, with a simple premise: a multitude of track plans to inspire modelers. Featuring plans from Model Railroader magazine from the '60s, '70s, and early '80s, each track plan has a newly written, informational description of the design. The track plans range in size from simple 4 x 8 foot and smaller layouts to room- and garage-sized showpieces, with the majority focusing on mid-size layouts.

Modern Freight Cars, a new book by Jeff Wilson, provides an overview of freight cars from the 1960s through today. This is an essential guide for model railroaders who model the 1960s through today, as well as railfans and freight train enthusiasts. The book features more than 200 photos and covers various types of cars, including boxcars, hoppers, and gondolas, and how they evolved, as well as new car types, including intermodal cars and 89-foot auto tracks. The book also gives a deeper look into how different industries use freight cars, when cars entered service, and the dates when rules and restrictions took place. Other topics include: Freight car evolution (size and weight increases; new car types) Car components (brake systems, trucks, and couplers) Hi-cube and specialty boxcars Intermodal cars (flat, spine, and well cars) Open and enclosed auto racks Mechanical and cryogenic refrigerator cars Center-beam flatcars And much more!

A collection of Fiction and Creative Nonfiction stories as well as Poetry by promising contemporary authors from Jacksonville, FL.

Any modeler who wants to paint, decal, or weather locomotives, rolling stock and structures will find plenty of in-depth, how-to techniques in this updated edition New prototype photos, current manufacturers, and the latest products are featured along with several new projects that include making your own decals with an inkjet printer and a multi-color painting project for a locomotive.

In 1996, Intersal Inc. made one of the most important maritime discoveries in history when they located the infamous Queen Anne's Revenge buried in shallow water off the coast of North Carolina. While excavating the site, divers with the Underwater Archaeology Branch recovered a bronze bell, cannon and numerous eighteenth century artifacts from the former slave vessel, turned pirate flagship. They also found small amounts of gold dust, but the stolen fortune of Captain Edward Teach; aka, the notorious Blackbeard, remained a mystery. * Rose Rodriquez, a direct descendant of Henri, a former slave aboard the Queen Anne's revenge, is determined to wrap up the loose ends of her life with dignity and repair the severed relationship with her estranged daughter, Isabelle. Rose's latest project includes sorting through an old leather portfolio filled with mementos from her childhood spent searching for Blackbeard's lost treasure with her father. Rose gives the portfolio to her granddaughter, Sophie without knowing the seemingly innocuous gift would set off a chain reaction exposing family secrets of love, betrayal and murder. * As Sophie unravels the tapestry of clues to Blackbeard's real life, she also discovers the truth concerning the disappearance of her father, Alex. Immersed in a maze of adventure shrouded by a deadly curse, Sophie must decide what she is willing to risk for an opportunity at unimaginable wealth by solving the intriguing historic mystery surrounding the lost riches of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a key figure in the introduction of Buddhism to the non-Asian world. Many outside Japan encountered Buddhism for the first time through his writings and teaching, and for nearly a century his work and legacy have contributed to the ongoing religious and cultural interchange between Japan and the rest of the world, particularly the United States and Europe. This third volume of Selected Works of D. T. Suzuki brings together a diverse collection of Suzuki's letters, essays, and lectures about non-Buddhist religions and his thoughts on their relation to Buddhism, as well as his reflections on the nature of religion itself. Some of these writings have been translated into English for the first time in this volume. As a long-term resident of the United States, a world traveller, and a voracious consumer of information about all forms of religion, Suzuki was one of the foremost Japanese mediators of Eastern and Western religious cultures for nearly seven decades. An introduction by Jeff Wilson and Tomoe Moriya analyzes Suzuki's frequent encounters with texts and practitioners of many religions, considers how events in Suzuki's lifetime affected his interpretations of Christianity, Shinto, and other traditions, and demonstrates that his legacy as a scholar extends well beyond Buddhism.

Buddhism in the United States is often viewed in connection with practitioners in the Northeast and on the West Coast, but in fact, it has been spreading and evolving throughout the United States since the mid-nineteenth century. In Dixie Dharma, Jeff Wilson argues that region is crucial to understanding American Buddhism. Through the lens of a multidenominational Buddhist temple in Richmond, Virginia, Wilson explores how Buddhists are adapting to life in the conservative evangelical Christian culture of the South, and how traditional Southerners are adjusting to these newer members on the religious landscape. Introducing a host of overlooked characters, including Buddhist circuit riders, modernist Pure Land priests, and pluralistic Buddhists, Wilson shows how regional specificity manifests itself through such practices as meditation vigils to heal the wounds of the slave trade. He argues that southern Buddhists at once use bodily practices, iconography, and meditation tools to enact distinct sectarian identities even as they enjoy a creative hybridity.

Widely acclaimed as the greatest Western ever made, Lonesome Dove has become a true American epic. Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was a New York Times best seller, with more than 2.5 million copies currently in print. The Lonesome Dove miniseries has drawn millions of viewers and won numerous awards, including seven Emmys.

A Book on the Making of Lonesome Dove takes you on a fascinating behind-the-scenes journey into the creation of the book, the miniseries, and the world of Lonesome Dove. Writer John Spong talks to forty of the key people involved, including author Larry McMurtry; actors Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Anjelica Huston, Diane Lane, Danny Glover, Ricky Schroder, D. B. Sweeney, Frederic Forrest, and Chris Cooper; executive producer and screenwriter Bill Wittliff; executive producer Suzanne de Passe; and director Simon Wincer. They and a host of others tell lively stories about McMurtry's writing of the epic novel and the process of turning it into the miniseries Lonesome Dove. Accompanying their recollections are photographs of iconic props, costumes, set designs, and shooting scripts. Rounding out the book are continuity Polaroids used during filming and photographs taken on the set by Bill Wittliff, which place you behind the scenes in the middle of the action.

Designed as a companion for A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove, Wittliff's magnificent fine art volume, A Book on the Making of Lonesome Dove is a must-have for every fan of this American epic.