Nestling in the south of Germany and surrounded with Alpine ring, Bavaria is a blessed land of picture-book scenery. The sky over Bavaria so often resembles Bavarian flag - a symphony of blue and white, bathing the state in sunshine even when the clouds cover the rest of the country. This is due to the Foehn, a downwind from the Alps that blows away even the caravan of the thickest clouds. Enchanting medieval towns with postcard houses, the world's favorite Neuschwanstein Castle that upstages the Nature itself, sophisticated art and craft of making signature violins, endearing Bavarian corsets (Dirndl and Niederhausen), river surfing, opera festivals, Maibock and Schuhplattler, world's number one quality beer, hearty snacks in beer gardens, beautiful customs passed down through centuries, they all resonate resoundingly with Bavarian joie de vivre. While planning to visit Bavaria be prepared, for after seeing this true land of fairly tales, you will never wish to leave it.

"Four things in life are the older the better: wine, cheese, rug, and friendship." Cheese is more than a rich food, an iconic or cultural object. Cheese is information, an authentic element of heritage that brings people together. What's in the air, water and soil of a particular region, influences the flavor of cheese. Touching our palates cheese informs us about the place it was made, about people mastering it, and about the grass the cattle has consumed. The business of judging a crumb of cheese has been taken with a great seriousness over the centuries. The 'abracadabra' of a cheese-fancier and connoisseur is comparable to that of the wine, tea, sumptuous sauce or caviar tasters. Each type of cheese is ripened by a certain microflora which then interacts with lactobacilli in our intenstine. These lactobacilli are the 'white knights' that enhance our health, immune defense, appetite and sense of fullness. But their own requirements and outputs change every moment. That is why today you may wish a hard Gouda, tomorrow light Feta, the next day an extra-nutritious Saint Andre. But you will not wish eating them all together in one meal. With unique stories and illustrations, this book intends to entertain both the junior and adult, with the whereabouts, descriptions, and content of the 37 world-class cheeses. Designed as a pourquoi tale, it involves two scavengers, raccoons Maitre Fromager (cheese masters), who help the residents of the fictitious Alpine town Cheesebaden to improve their cheesemaking technology, by sharing with them their natural secrets of cheese aging inside the oak-logs, Kaselagerung."

FROM THE AUTHORS: Bound not for the connoisseurs or 'rockhounds, ' this book is for children aged 6-13 years. With a feast on eyes, witty illustrations, through a gem-mining adventure of two exotic animals (patas monkey and matamata turtle), it explains the chemical compositions and physical properties (hardness, refraction, flaw, saturation, asterism, hue) of 18 popular gemstones, their mine locations, mastery of the cut, value criteria, popularity among the pop and cardinal jewelry clientele. It displays variances and looks of each gems from different geographical regions. Displaying the worlds biggest ten signature diamonds (Cullinan, Orloff, Centenary, Regent, Kohi-i-Noor, Idols Eye, Taylor-Burton, Sancy, Blue Hope, and Hortensia) it runs their history, inclusive for Tiaras and Cameos belonging to many Queens. Equally referred to the boys and girls, basic knowledge in gems is important for the growing minds. This book is not for a 'junior gemologist.' Studying gems should be included in default in elementary education for many reasons. First and foremost, it exercises their common sense to appreciate the difference between 'good and great, ' 'great and crown.' Gemology incorporates several discplines: geology, chemistry, visual arts, craft, fashion, and even alternative medicine. It is about knowing our land, its secrets and treasures. It helps our children to ponder why gems containing aluminium or cadmium cations are deposited in hydro thermally formed rhyolites, while gems consisted of iron or copper cations are set at the volcaninc base in a different location; it makes them to think of unbeatable caprice of pure carbone that makes it famously hard to convert the graphite into diamond. It offers them many 'whereabouts, and 'hows.' It also upgrades their preparation for a savvy lifestyle. It would be noble, if instead of star-war games or fantasy footballs, children and teens would spend their spare time on studying gems, uncovering their beauty and value. A wake -up call, this book also reminds us about the rare animals, which require more attention than we actually pay.

The idea of this book was stemmed of scarce references about the first French king, the first Christian king. Despite of the wealth of publications about the French monarchy, or the Frankish kingdom reigned under 68 ultimate monarchs - from 486 to 1870, this particular effort is an oddity for the following reasons: (1) it is based on solid sources and not on the web links; (2) it is an unbiased, even-handed reference, and(3) it is the only existing book for children in English literature about the first French king. We trust you will enjoy the journey via this child-friendly and well-illustrated book.

Dedicated to the National Holiday of Monaco, celebrated each year on November 19th, this travel-guide is for those who want to know the Principality of Monaco inside and out. Get a glimpse of Cote d'Azur (Monaco), the place where the outrageously wealthy live a lifestyle beyond imagination. From the Oscar winning Grace Kelly, the Grimaldi family, Ferrari races of 1960's, to the modern reality of Monaco, including state-of-art gambling at Monte Carlo, landing on Palais Princier in a helicopter, taking a race with Formula-One, lodging at Metropol or Hotel De Paris, meeting the holy expert Nose at Fragonard factory and choosing your right fragrance, visiting Henri Matisse's collection of cut-outs at the Gallery of Marlborough Fine Arts, or staying a night in a jardin of Chateau Eza of the village Eze in neighboring France, this tour-book has it all. If you are up to touch the elegance and taste of the high life where the luxury is a common theme, but meantime want to save your valet from being pampered hundreds of thousands, then take your dream voyage through this book at your coffee table, and enjoy a tour with the travelers in rosettes - father jaguar and the cub. A true-friend for Monaco-fans, this book is dense with composite illustrations which make your experience delightful.

"And it was then that all these kinds of things thus established received their shapes from the Ordering One, through the action of Ideas of Numbers" (Plato: in Timaeus). Indeed, the Hamilton's 'Principle of Least Action' is a mathematical discrimination between inorganic and organic systems. The geometrical progression of organic life has the property of producing by simple addition, a succession of numbers or similar shapes making the homothetic (gnomonic) growth-work by 'imbibition' (from inside outwards). Whereas, inorganic matters (crystals, snowflakes, rocks) grow by 'agglutination' (from outside inwards) and final distribution of energy to cause no further motion. While in inorganic growth (hexagonal), the Principle of Least Actions tends to save energy, in organic or gnomonic growth (pentagonal) there is a tendency to save the substance. Involving the avid travelers "father jaguar and the cub," this tourbook of the "snow gallery" mathematically and geometrically analyzes the deposition, aggregation, capacitance, and velocity of the snowflake formation, vis a vis the hexagonal (honeycomb) tendency. When the tour is over, the cub classifies his most favorite snowflakes, giving them names.

The volume of literature devoted to Mary Stuart is indeed prodigious. Few royal lives had been held up to such detailed scrutiny, as Mary's. Every document, fragment, table-talk, letter, code, or scrap of gossip has been picked over and over again, and analyzed for the fresh angles or made to fit the old prejudices. More than four centuries later, Mary continued to exert her fascination over many generations and literary mediums, from the polemics of Bishop Leslie to the historical romances of Jean Plaidy and Reay Tannahill, and the animation pictures casting Hal Wallis or Meryl Streep. Reflecting the much more objective approach to Scottish history in recent years, as the sectarian propaganda and political polemics have given way to a more systematic, scientific examination of the facts, a clearer picture of Mary is beginning to emerge. A queen from her age of only one week old, she was the subject of a misfortune to be a pawn in the game of international politics throughout her turbulent life. Queen Mary of Scots and Queen Elizabeth of England had never met in person. Yet their names and lives were inextricably woven together. This particular effort aims: (1) to retest the truth or falsehood of many legends surrounding the name of Mary of Scots, (2) to determine the type of codes in Mary's secret correspondence with Anthony Babington, and (3) to set Mary Stuart anew in the context of the epoch she lived in, beyond the mystery of Kirk O'Field's murder, or the Casket Letters.

Involving avid travelers father jaguar and the cub, and a supersmart kid Evan Messenger, this book is packed with descriptions of the rare pediatric diseases that are poorly attended due to the health insurance constraints: Batten disease, Carpenter syndrome, Ellis van Creveld syndrome, Fucosidosis, Gaucher disease, Krabbe disease, Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, Niemann-Pick disease, and Prune Belly syndrome. An awareness raising brochure, it is dedicated to the Global Health Humanitarian Summit that takes place each year at Emory University, Atlanta, GA.

Equipped with cartoony descriptions of the aquatic turtles (life cycle, reproduction, coping with the natural disasters) this pourquoi tale is for the reader aged 13-103, who cares for the marine - habitat.