Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Cyril Queck seemed to levitate as he glided through his deliberate stroll along the outskirts of the baccarat pit. Most surmised his eyes were closed, but the mystery would forever remain unsolved beneath those blackened shades. As he moved closer to the various baccarat tables, the dealers seated at those tables did their level best to stare straight ahead, avoiding any hint of their abounding curiosity. The entourage adopted Queck's identical pace, foot for foot, stride for stride, maintaining a holy silence throughout. Outside the baccarat pit, in the heart of the casino, a player whispered to his dealer: What's he looking for? The dealer whispered back, He's not looking for anything. He gets vibrations from the tables. That's how he picks the one he wants to play at. How long does he do that? It varies. Last time he was here, it took him two hours before he settled on one. Two hours? Did he end up winning? Dropped four million, said the dealer with a grin. Hell, he could have hand-built his own table and installed a vibrator in it for a lot less than that, the player whispered.

A first person narrative of a family at a moment in time when their lives veer sharply away from one another.

Finally, alarm wristwatches are recognized for their mechanical ingenuity and the beauty of their design. This new book traces the development of mechanical wristwatches with an acoustic alarm function, one of the first wristwatch complications, and gives detailed information for collectors. Hundreds of watches are examined in 535 color images. In addition to the external design of the watch, special attention is paid to the movements and how their creators solved the multitude of challenges that confronted them. Michael Philip Horlbeck, a scholar and collector of alarm wristwatches, has written the standard work, a complete history of the alarm wristwatch. Nearly every model ever produced is chronicled, in words and pictures. The international array of companies include Eterna, Omega, Bruguet, Bulova, Citizen, Corum, Cyma, Jaeger-Le Coultre, Lemania, Pierce, Poljot, Ronda, Seiko, Venus, Vulcain, and Wittnauer, and many more. The technical data for each watch is recorded. This is required reading for all wristwatch fans and all who may become such. Whether you are interested in the design or the mechanics of these watches, you will not be disappointed.

The first Christians to encounter Islam were not Latin-speakers from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speakers from Constantinople but Mesopotamian Christians who spoke the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Under Muslim rule from the seventh century onward, Syriac Christians wrote the most extensive descriptions extant of early Islam. Seldom translated and often omitted from modern historical reconstructions, this vast body of texts reveals a complicated and evolving range of religious and cultural exchanges that took place from the seventh to the ninth century. The first book-length analysis of these earliest encounters, Envisioning Islam highlights the ways these neglected texts challenge the modern scholarly narrative of early Muslim conquests, rulers, and religious practice. Examining Syriac sources including letters, theological tracts, scientific treatises, and histories, Michael Philip Penn reveals a culture of substantial interreligious interaction in which the categorical boundaries between Christianity and Islam were more ambiguous than distinct. The diversity of ancient Syriac images of Islam, he demonstrates, revolutionizes our understanding of the early Islamic world and challenges widespread cultural assumptions about the history of exclusively hostile Christian-Muslim relations.

In 2000 the American electoral system was tested by a political ordeal unlike any in living memory. Not since 1876-77 has the outcome of a national election remained so unsettled for so long. The past elections recount conundrum shook the nations faith in the mechanisms that support the democratic process. Led by former Presidents Ford and Carter, the National Commission on Federal Election Reform undertook a study of the American electoral system. The resulting report describes where and what went wrong during the 2000 election, and makes clear and specific recommendations for reform, directed at state government, Congress, news organizations, and others. This volume also includes the full text of the Task Force Reports from the Commission.

Kissing Christians Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church Michael Philip Penn "Penn has succeeded admirably. . . . "Kissing Christians" has broken new ground, greatly enriching our understanding of this important Christian liturgical ritual and community-forming practice."--"The Medieval Review" "This fascinating study should serve as an invitation to scholars of ancient Christian discourse, symbol, and liturgy to take the kiss seriously, but not only that: "Kissing Christians" invites a reconsideration of the intersection of discourse and practice throughout the early Christian period."--"Church History" In the first five centuries of the common era, the kiss was a distinctive and near-ubiquitous marker of Christianity. Although Christians did not invent the kiss--Jewish and pagan literature is filled with references to kisses between lovers, family members, and individuals in relationships of power and subordination--Christians kissed one another in highly specific settings and in ways that set them off from the non-Christian population. Christians kissed each other during prayer, Eucharist, baptism, and ordination and in connection with greeting, funerals, monastic vows, and martyrdom. As Michael Philip Penn shows in "Kissing Christians," this ritual kiss played a key role in defining group membership and strengthening the social bond between the communal body and its individual members. "Kissing Christians" presents the first comprehensive study of the ritual kiss and how controversies surrounding it became part of larger debates regarding the internal structure of Christian communities and their relations with outsiders. Penn traces how Christian writers exalted those who kissed only fellow Christians, proclaimed that Jews did not have a kiss, prohibited exchanging the kiss with potential heretics, privileged the confessor's kiss, prohibited Christian men and women from kissing each other, and forbade laity from kissing clergy. "Kissing Christians" also investigates connections between kissing and group cohesion, kissing practices and purity concerns, and how Christian leaders used the motif of the kiss of Judas to examine theological notions of loyalty, unity, forgiveness, hierarchy, and subversion. Exploring connections between bodies, power, and performance, "Kissing Christians" bridges the gap between cultural and liturgical approaches to antiquity. It breaks significant new ground in its application of literary and sociological theory to liturgical history and will have a profound impact on these fields. Michael Philip Penn teaches religion at Mount Holyoke College. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion 2005 200 pages 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 ISBN 978-0-8122-3880-8 Cloth $59.95s 39.00 ISBN 978-0-8122-0332-5 Ebook $59.95s 39.00 World Rights History, Religion Short copy: Kissing was one of the most widely practiced early Christian rituals. "Kissing Christians" presents the first comprehensive study of how ancient controversies concerning this rite became part of larger debates regarding the internal structure of ancient Christian communities and their relations with outsiders.

The first Christians to encounter Islam were not Latin-speakers from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speakers from Constantinople but Mesopotamian Christians who spoke the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Under Muslim rule from the seventh century onward, Syriac Christians wrote the most extensive descriptions extant of early Islam. Seldom translated and often omitted from modern historical reconstructions, this vast body of texts reveals a complicated and evolving range of religious and cultural exchanges that took place from the seventh to the ninth century. The first book-length analysis of these earliest encounters, Envisioning Islam highlights the ways these neglected texts challenge the modern scholarly narrative of early Muslim conquests, rulers, and religious practice. Examining Syriac sources including letters, theological tracts, scientific treatises, and histories, Michael Philip Penn reveals a culture of substantial interreligious interaction in which the categorical boundaries between Christianity and Islam were more ambiguous than distinct. The diversity of ancient Syriac images of Islam, he demonstrates, revolutionizes our understanding of the early Islamic world and challenges widespread cultural assumptions about the history of exclusively hostile Christian-Muslim relations.

The first Christians to meet Muslims were not Latin-speaking Christians from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speaking Christians from Constantinople but rather Christians from northern Mesopotamia who spoke the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Living under Muslim rule from the seventh century to the present, Syriac Christians wrote the first and most extensive accounts of Islam, describing a complicated set of religious and cultural exchanges not reducible to the solely antagonistic. Through its critical introductions and new translations of this invaluable historical material, When Christians First Met Muslims allows scholars, students, and the general public to explore the earliest interactions between what eventually became the world's two largest religions, shedding new light on Islamic history and Christian-Muslim relations.

Philips defends a middle ground between the view that there is a set of standards binding on rational beings as such (universalism) and the view that differences in morals reduce ultimately to matters of taste (skepticism). He begins with a sustained critique of universalist moral theories and of certain familiar approaches to concrete moral questions that presuppose them (most appeals to intuitions, respect-for-persons moralities, and versions of contractarianism and wide reflective equilibrium). He goes on to criticize major recent attempts to develop nonuniversalist alternatives to skepticism, arguing that they rely on excessively abstract and philosophically indefensible preference satisfaction theories of the good. According to Philips's positive alternative, ethics as social artifact, moral codes are social instruments and they are justified to the extent that they effectively do their jobs, which is to promote reasonably valued ways of life. Accordingly, he argues that different standards may be justified for different societies, depending on their circumstances, traditions, and current institutions. His account of a reasonably valued way of life depends on a "falsifiability" approach to reasonable values according to which existing values are treated as reasonable unless good arguments can be made against them. He describes many strategies for making such arguments, the upshot being an approach to the justification of moral standards that is sufficiently "grounded" to settle many controversies and to mark off areas in which rational persons are free to disagree. It also explains why the weight of a moral consideration may vary reasonably from one "domain" of social life toanother. An original approach to the uses and limits of reason in ethics, Between Universalism and Skepticism provides a theoretical basis for approaching actual moral controversies and questions of applied and professional ethics in a systematic way.