Conservation planning involves targeted management practices and land use decision-making based on careful analysis of landscape limitations in order to protect soil and water resources. Developing solutions to conservation planning is of worldwide interest due to anticipated population growth, growing demand of feedstocks for biofuels, decreasing freshwater resources, and increasing land degradation in the developed world. Recent advances in geospatial technologies now provide land managers with tools and resources to conserve soil and water resources more efficiently than has ever been possible before. GIS Applications in Agriculture, Volume 4: Conservation Planning presents approaches developed by leading researchers working at the intersection of conservation and spatial technologies. Among others, the technologies include global positioning systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), Internet mapping technologies, remote sensing, and various modeling applications. These advances allow improved prediction of soil erosion and environmental effects, better prioritization of land for conservation initiatives and funding, and enhanced prediction of the impact of management practices on natural resources. They also facilitate the development of conservation management plans and improve the accessibility of conservation knowledge and tools. The strategies presented are designed to provide the greatest benefit to preserving natural resources while reducing economic expenses. Each chapter includes a detailed background on the specific topic, with case studies describing the design and implementation of the solution. Readers are guided through step-by-step exercises to gain experience in executing the conservation practice. Substantial online data and modeling are available that can be immediately implemented or modified to suit users' needs. The exercises are accessible enough to be used in the classroom, yet detailed enough for self-instruction by highly motivated professionals active in developing conservation plans.

The best oils are made by authentic artist-craftsmen, who marry centuries-old agricultural wisdom with cutting-edge extraction technology, and now produce the finest oils in history. However, these producers are being steadily driven from the market: extra-virgin olive oil is difficult and expensive to make, yet alarmingly easy to adulterate. Skilled oil criminals are flooding the market with low-cost, faux extra-virgins, reaping rich profits and undercutting honest producers, whilst authorities in Italy, the US and elsewhere turn a blind eye. From the feisty pugliese woman of sixty struggling to keep the family business afloat to her industrialist neighbour who has allegedly grown wealthy on counterfeit oil, to Benedictine monks in Western Australia and poker-playing agriculture barons in northern California who make this ancient foodstuff in New World ways, Mueller distils the passions and life stories of oil producers, and explores the conflict, culinary vitality and cultural importance of great olive oil.

A David-and-Goliath story for our times: the riveting account of the heroes who are fighting a rising tide of wrongdoing by the powerful, and showing us the path forward.

We live in a period of sweeping corruption — and a golden age of whistleblowing. Over the past few decades, principled insiders who expose wrongdoing have gained unprecedented legal and social stature, emerging as the government’s best weapon against corporate misconduct–and the citizenry’s best defense against government gone bad. Whistleblowers force us to confront fundamental questions about the balance between free speech and state secrecy, and between individual morality and corporate power.

In Crisis of Conscience, Tom Mueller traces the rise of whistleblowing through a series of riveting cases drawn from the worlds of healthcare and other businesses, Wall Street, and Washington. Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than two hundred whistleblowers and the trailblazing lawyers who arm them for battle–plus politicians, intelligence analysts, government watchdogs, cognitive scientists, and other experts–Mueller anatomizes what inspires some to speak out while the rest of us become complicit in our silence. Whistleblowers, we come to see, are the freethinking, outspoken citizens for whom our republic was conceived. And they are the models we must emulate if our democracy is to survive.

For millennia, fresh olive oil has been one of life's necessities-not just as food but also as medicine, a beauty aid, and a vital element of religious ritual. Today's researchers are continuing to confirm the remarkable, life-giving properties of true extra-virgin, and "extra-virgin Italian" has become the highest standard of quality. But what if this symbol of purity has become deeply corrupt? Starting with an explosive article in The New Yorker, Tom Mueller has become the world's expert on olive oil and olive oil fraud-a story of globalization, deception, and crime in the food industry from ancient times to the present, and a powerful indictment of today's lax protections against fake and even toxic food products in the United States. A rich and deliciously readable narrative, Extra Virginity is also an inspiring account of the artisanal producers, chemical analysts, chefs, and food activists who are defending the extraordinary oils that truly deserve the name "extra-virgin."

'A terrifying story of profit before patients, and a chilling glimpse of what can happen when private companies are allowed to take charge of healthcare.' Gavin Francis Six decades ago, researchers achieved the impossible: developing a treatment that transformed kidney failure from a death sentence to a manageable condition. Yet, in the hands of a predatory medical industry, this triumph led to skyrocketing costs and worsening care. A gripping account of privatised healthcare gone wrong, How to Make a Killing recounts how the optimism of the 1950s and 1960s - when transplants and dialysis machines offered hope - gave way to anguished debates about the ethics of rationing and profiting from life-saving care, and how Big Dialysis proliferated at the expense of its patients. A triumph of investigative research, Tom Mueller's book features an unforgettable cast of characters: CEOs who dress as musketeers to exhort more aggressive profit-seeking, nephrologist insiders who reveal the substandard care this causes, and heroic patients who risk their lives to reveal the truth.

Who are you if you have lived half your life in one culture and the other half in another? This is the question that Helmut (Tom) Mueller dealt with, often feeling caught between the two cultures. In his memoir, Between Two Chairs, Tom details his life from coming of age in Nazi Germany to a successful life in the United States. This is his story. Born into an affluent family in Brandenburg, Germany in 1925, Tom became fascinated with flying in his youth and eventually joined the Luftwaffe where he saw action as a fighter pilot during WWII. At war's end, he surrendered to the American forces, but was turned over to the Russians the next day. His escape, the search for family, and the attempt to create a normal life dominated the decade after the war. Then came an opportunity to pursue the American Dream where Tom learned to appreciate the values of his new country. In the end, who was he? Helmut the German or Tom the American?

Kate Windsor an Interior Designer has recently returned from Venice, Italy, to find she has inherited a letter with two keys, a safe deposit box and an 1840's home in Louisiana, Missouri. Can a treasure hidden in the basement of the home for nearly a century by Aunt Katherine help Kate find the meaning of true love even when Chase McDermott /CEO has kept an important secret from her? The answer is found in, A LOUISIANA INHERITANCE by Penny Garrison.

The best oils are made by authentic artist-craftsmen, who marry centuries-old agricultural wisdom with cutting-edge extraction technology, and now produce the finest oils in history. However, these producers are being steadily driven from the market: extra-virgin olive oil is difficult and expensive to make, yet alarmingly easy to adulterate. Skilled oil criminals are flooding the market with low-cost, faux extra-virgins, reaping rich profits and undercutting honest producers, whilst authorities in Italy, the US and elsewhere turn a blind eye. From the feisty pugliese woman of sixty struggling to keep the family business afloat to her industrialist neighbour who has allegedly grown wealthy on counterfeit oil, to Benedictine monks in Western Australia and poker-playing agriculture barons in northern California who make this ancient foodstuff in New World ways, Mueller distils the passions and life stories of oil producers, and explores the conflict, culinary vitality and cultural importance of great olive oil.