The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko [EPUB]
In late November 2006 the world was shaken by the ruthless assassination in London of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Lt Col of the Russian security service (FSB). The murder was the most notorious crime committed by the Russian intelligence on foreign soil in over three decades.
The author, Boris Volodarsky, who was consulted by the Metropolitan Police during the investigation and remains in close contact with Litvinenko’s widow, is a former Russian military intelligence officer and an international expert in special operations. His narrative reveals that since 1917 – beginning with Lenin and his Cheka – the Russian security services have regularly carried out bespoke poisoning operations all over the world to eliminate the enemies of the Kremlin. The author proves that the Litvinenko’s poisoning is just one episode in the chain of murders that continues until the present day. Some of these assassinations or attempted assassinations are already known, others are revealed here for the first time.
Uniquely Volodarsky has had a personal involvement in almost every each of the 20 cases, from the radioactive thallium poisoning of the Soviet defector Nikolai Khokhlov in Frankfurt in September 1957 to the ricin ‘umbrella murder’ of the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London in 1978.
"Here, for the fan of murder thrillers and modern history alike, is a cracking good read. In brilliant light we see what lay for nearly a century behind the London polonium poisoning of British citizen Alexander Litvinenko, former Russian. It was just one recent hit by the world's most prolific serial killer -- the Russian state. With original research guided by his insider's eye and scholarly care, Boris Volodarsky recounts scores of murders. Assassination emerges as state policy, as institutionalized bureacracy, as day-to-day routine, as laboratory science, as a branch of medicine researching ways not to stave off death but to deliver it in apparently innocent or accidental forms, and as engineering technology, devising ever-new devices to meet each new requirement, from umbrella tips and cigarette cases and rolled-up newspapers -- to Litvinenko's teacup." Tennent H. Bagley, former CIA chief of Soviet Bloc counterintelligence.
Finding the Space to Lead: A Practical Guide to Mindful Leadership [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 19:44
2014 | EPUB | 2.0MB
The complexity and relentless pace of our world places exceptional demands on leaders today. They work incredibly hard and yet feel that they are not meeting their own expectations of excellence. They feel disconnected from their own values and overburdened. By the thousands, they seek out books on leadership skills, time management, and "getting things done,?? but the techniques these volumes offer, useful as they are, don't often don't speak to the leader's fundamental sense that something is missing.
Janice Marturano, a senior executive with decades of experience in Fortune 500 corporations, explains how Mindful Leadership training integrates the practice of mindfulness-meditation and self-awareness-with the practical tools of management, enabling leaders to bring a wider range of their capacities to the challenges at hand. We already know from scientific research that mindfulness practices enhance mental health and improve clarity and focus. FINDING THE SPACE shows how this training has specific value for leaders.
This is not a new "leadership system?? to add to the burden of already overworked people. It brings the concepts of mindfulness into the everyday life of anyone in a leadership role, through specific exercises that address practical issues-the calendar, schedule, phone usage, meetings, to-do list, and strategic planning, as well as interpersonal challenges such as listening and working with difficult colleagues.
Leaders who have experienced mindfulness training report that it provides a "transformative experience?? with significant improvements in innovation, self-awareness, listening, and making better decisions. In FINDING THE SPACE TO LEAD, Marturano masterfully lays out her proven techniques for promoting mindfulness in the busy executive's working life.
Risk Wise: Nine Everyday Adventures [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 19:41
2015 | EPUB | 9.77MB
Risk often gets a bad press. From the seemingly unnecessary actions of extreme sportspeople to the excessive risk appetites of serial entrepreneurs, the term 'risky' is often seen as synonymous with 'reckless', 'foolhardy' or even downright dangerous.
But could any of us live in a world without risk, and would it be desirable to do so?
The stories in Risk Wise address fundamental questions about risk and our perceptions about risk-taking. It argues that being risk wise - the ability to understand and accept risk as a force for good - is an essential part of the human experience and a route to living a full and rewarding life.
31 May 2016, 19:37
2016 | EPUB | 0.7MB
For the full course of his remarkable career, Gary Snyder has continued his study of Eastern culture and philosophies. From the Ainu to the Mongols, from Hokkaido to Kyoto, from the landscapes of China to the backcountry of contemporary Japan, from the temples of Daitokoji to the Yellow River Valley, it is now clear how this work has influenced his poetry, his stance as an environmental and political activist, and his long practice of Zen. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Asia became a vocation for Snyder. While most American writers looked to the capitals of Europe for their inspiration, Sndyer looked East. American letters is profoundly indebted to this geographical choice.
Long rumored to exist, The Great Clod collects more than a dozen chapters, several published in The Coevolution Quarterly almost forty years ago when Snyder briefly described this work as “The China Book,” and several others, the majority, never before published in any form. “Summer in Hokkaido,” “Wild in China,” “Ink and Charcoal, “ “Stories to Save the World,” “Walking the Great Ridge,” these essays turn from being memoirs of travel to prolonged considerations of art, culture, natural history and religion. Filled with Snyder’s remarkable insights and briskly beautiful descriptions, this collection adds enormously to the major corpus of his work, certain to delight and instruct his readers now and forever.
Life Among the Qallunaat [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 19:33
2015 | EPUB | 1.94MB
Life Among the Qallunaat is the story of Mini Aodla Freeman’s experiences growing up in the Inuit communities of James Bay and her journey in the 1950s from her home to the strange land and stranger customs of the Qallunaat, those living south of the Arctic. Her extraordinary story, sometimes humourous and sometimes heartbreaking, illustrates an Inuit woman’s movement between worlds and ways of understanding. It also provides a clear-eyed record of the changes that swept through Inuit communities in the 1940s and 1950s.
Mini Aodla Freeman was born in 1936 on Cape Hope Island in James Bay. At the age of sixteen, she began nurse's training at Ste. Therese School in Fort George, Quebec, and in 1957 she moved to Ottawa to work as a translator for the then Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources. Her memoir, Life Among the Qallunaat, was published in 1978 and has been translated into French, German, and Greenlandic.
Life Among the Qallunaat is the third book in the First Voices, First Texts series, which publishes lost or under appreciated texts by Indigenous writers. This reissue of Mini Aodla Freeman’s path-breaking work includes new material, an interview with the author, and an afterword by Keavy Martin and Julie Rak, with Norma Dunning.
World War I: The 'Great War' [TTC Video]
31 May 2016, 19:09
Course No 8210 | AVI, DivX, 640x480 | MP3, 128 kbps, 2 Ch | 36x30 mins | + PDF Guidebook | 6.18GB
From August 1914 to November 1918, an unprecedented catastrophe gripped the world that continues to reverberate into our own time. World War I was touched off by a terrorist act in Bosnia and all too quickly expanded far beyond the expectations of those who were involved to become the first "total war"—the first conflict involving entire societies mobilized to wage unrestrained war, devoting all their wealth, industries, institutions, and the lives of their citizens to win victory at any price.
The cost was ghastly: Altogether, at least nine million soldiers died. Twenty million were wounded, seven million of them permanently disabled. Some estimates put the civilian deaths at almost six million. And countless survivors suffered from psychological trauma for decades after.
The world itself would never be the same. Governments had been given broad new powers to marshal resources for the battle to the death, and these powers have persisted ever since, even in peacetime. Another legacy can be seen almost daily in today's headlines, as border disputes, ethnic conflicts, and ideological arguments smolder on, almost a century after they were first ignited in the Great War.
Most narratives of the war focus on the Western Front in France and Flanders, with its mazelike trenches, gas attacks, constant shelling, assaults "over the top" into withering machine gun fire, and duels of dog-fighting aviators in the sky. Professor Liulevicius devotes great attention to this theater, which has become emblematic of World War I in the popular imagination. But the war had other important arenas of engagement that you will also explore in depth, including:
- Eastern Front: In his writings Winston Churchill called this theater the "Unknown War," and its battles throughout Eastern Europe were much more fluid than those in the West—but certainly equally bloody.
- Southern Fronts: In a disastrous attempt to break the stalemate in the West, the Allies landed troops at Gallipoli in the Turkish Dardanelles in 1915. Major action also raged in the southern Alps, Serbia, and northern Greece.
- War at Sea: The war introduced submarines as a potentially decisive strategic weapon, particularly as deployed by Germany against Allied shipping. On the Allied side, Great Britain used its naval supremacy to blockade German ports.
- Arab Revolt: Aided by archaeologist turned intelligence officer T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), the British encouraged Arab attacks against Turkish forces in the Middle East, feeding the cause of Arab nationalism.
- Communist Revolution: A battle-exhausted Russia succumbed to the Bolshevik seizure of power in the fall of 1917, introducing a new factor into world politics: the ideologically guided utopian state, which would cast a dark shadow over subsequent history.
- Armenian Massacre: The war formed the backdrop for the first full-scale modern genocide: the 1915 Armenian massacres in Ottoman Turkey, in which as many as one million men, women, and children of the Armenian minority were killed or died from abuse.
- Spanish Influenza: As a crowning horror in the concluding stages of the conflict, a worldwide pandemic swept the globe. The Spanish Influenza killed an estimated 50 million people, exceeding the war itself in lethality.
What You Will Learn
Professor Liulevicius combines chronological and thematic approaches for a sweeping survey of World War I's many dimensions. In Lectures 1–6 he depicts the state of Europe and the world in 1914 as the war approached. In Lectures 7–9 he examines the Western Front and the horrors of trench warfare. Then in Lectures 10 and 11 he covers the Eastern and Southern Fronts.
Lectures 12–15 are devoted to various war themes: the military and political objectives of the combatant nations; the experience of those living under foreign occupation; the wounds, psychological suffering, and medical treatment of ordinary soldiers; the fate of prisoners of war; the phenomenon of storm troopers and other enthusiasts for battle; and the technological advances that produced ever greater bloodshed through innovations such as the machine gun, poison gas, and recoilless artillery.
Lectures 16–18 explore the battleground in the air, at sea, and around the globe. Lectures 19–23 investigate issues on the home front: how different nations reacted to the war; the effects of propaganda, privation, and stress on the civilian populations; popular dissent; and the efforts of war leaders to remobilize domestic support in the last years of the struggle.
Lectures 24–28 examine some of the dramatic departures in world history brought about by the conflict: the Armenian massacres; the Communist revolution; and the entry of the United States into the fighting and how this affected life in America and the war's outcome. Lectures 29–33 cover the path to peace and the aftershocks worldwide.
Finally, in Lectures 34–36 Professor Liulevicius looks at the deeper and lasting impact of the war, which some scholars have called a civil war, or even a suicide attempt, of Western civilization.
On the most significant level, the war led to changes in the status of the state, society, and the individual. Ironically, the widespread disillusionment engendered by the war produced an ideological style of politics with extremist views brooking no neutrality that culminated in the even worse disaster of World War II. Important figures in that conflict were molded by their experiences in the Great War, including Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, and Harry Truman.
World War I is still part of us. Paradoxically, the totality of the war is difficult for us to grasp precisely because our own identities, our own understandings of ourselves in the world, have been shaped by the experience of that total war and the totality it revealed.
Course No 3830 | WMV, VC1, 640x360 | WMA, 128 kbps, 2 Ch | 36x30 mins | + PDF Guidebook | 14.33GB
Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan loom large in the popular consciousness as two of history’s most fearsome warrior-leaders. Accounts of the ruthless conquests of these men called “The Scourge of God” and “Universal Lord” both fascinate and repel. Yet few people today are aware of their place in a succession of nomadic warriors who used campaigns of terror to sweep across the Eurasian steppes, toppling empires and seizing control of civilizations.
From antiquity through the Middle Ages, nomadic warriors repeatedly emerged from the steppes, exerting direct and indirect pressure on sedentary populations and causing a domino effect of displacement and cultural exchange.
It’s a part of history that’s often overlooked, but to have an accurate view of how civilization evolved, it’s important to have a clear understanding of who these people were and the magnitude of their impact on the world.
Consider these turning points set into motion by steppe nomads, each of which reverberates still:
- The fall of the Roman Empire can be blamed at least in part on the Huns.
- Christians of Asia Minor converted to Islam after the clergy fled the nomadic Turks.
- The Mongol sack of Baghdad destroyed the city and its role in the Muslim world.
- China’s modern-day Great Wall was constructed in response to the humiliation of Mongol rule.
- The spread of Buddhism and trade followed the Silk Road, which allowed cultural exchange between nomads and settled zones across Eurasia.
- Russia’s preemptive expansion into the northern regions was a reaction to the horror of being conquered by Mongols.
In controlling massive swaths of land and forcing wave after wave of displaced populations to make contact, these invaders facilitated a transfer of language, religion, culture, trade, weaponry, and technology that affects us to this day. Their military technology and tactics in particular—from stirrups and saddles to gunpowder and the strategic use of terror—would be adopted by civilizations on the edges of the Eurasian landmass, as well as by subsequent civilizations.
An Epic Thousands of Years in the Making
Opening in antiquity on the western steppes known as the Pontic-Caspian, this course first introduces you to the Indo-Europeans as it illuminates how the harsh environment of the steppes led nomadic populations to develop a way of life hearty in hunting and war.
You’ll then travel to early China to explore the Xiongnu, who were so feared by the Han Chinese that their leader was lavished with a tribute system know as “the five baits,” featuring the promise of marriage to a Chinese princess.
As you progress to the Middle Ages, you’ll take a detailed look at powerful Turkish-speaking nomads who brought Islam to the peoples of the steppes. Finally, you’ll delve into the Mongol Empire starting with the life and career of Temujin, as Genghis Khan was known before he was declared Universal Lord.
Along the way, you’ll
- meet a cavalcade of fascinating figures such as Tamerlane, known as the “Prince of Destruction,” and Harun ar-Rashid, the caliph famously known from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights;
- trace the dispersion of Indo-European speakers across Europe, western Eurasia, and India, while examining the linguistic legacy of this migration;
- encounter political confederations of nomads capable of challenging the great urban literate civilizations of Eurasia;
- witness the creation of an early global economy and struggles to control trade along the legendary Silk Road; and
- learn why Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and, most of all, Buddhism, were appealing to steppe nomads.
The Barbarian Empires of the Steppes is also filled with riveting accounts of battles fought by hordes of horse archers and compelling stories, such as Attila’s marriage proposal from the bored and scandalous Empress Honoria in A.D. 450. You’ll be enthralled as you listen to how her offer and his demand-laden acceptance—which was rejected by her brother Valentinian, the Roman emperor—led him to amass the “barbarian army to end all barbarian armies” and ruthlessly ravage western Europe.
A Portrait of Barbarians beyond Brutality
With Professor Harl’s guidance, you’ll look past the stereotyped images of the barbarians so you can develop a true comprehension of the central roles these people played in history by linking the settled civilizations along the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile, Indus, and Yellow rivers.
He delivers a wealth of information contrary to the popular notion that the region’s ancient and early modern peoples were culturally backward. For example, you’ll learn how
- the domestication of the horse and the invention of light chariots by the Indo-Europeans gave the nomads a military edge and allowed for stock raising and the mobility of families;
- the Scythians ushered in an era of cavalry warfare by perfecting the saddle;
- Islamic Turks maintained a policy of protection toward Christians and Jews;
- Genghis Khan used Chinese engineers and mapmakers to help his army conquer the Jin Empire and Transoxiana; and
- Turkish rulers and the conqueror Tamerlane adopted the distinct architecture originated by the Samanid emirs, Islamizing the cities of Transoxiana.
You may also be surprised to learn of the relationships some of these tribes had with the Greek world and the great Roman and Persian empires, or to see how steppe nomads even built great states within the wider Mediterranean world. This is particularly true of the Parthians, who created the first nomadic empire in the Near East.
Of course, these conquerors did use extreme violence, and these lectures recount shocking atrocities, including accounts of leaders being wrapped in carpets and trampled by horses, combatants being interred in walls, and at least one official having silver poured down his throat. More than once, you’ll witness a defeated leader’s skull being used as a drinking goblet, as was the nomadic tradition.
The Epitome of All Steppe Empires
In the final third of the course, you’ll discover how the Mongols amassed a world empire that made the 13th century the Mongol century. Professor Harl leaves no doubt as to why they were exceptional in terms of logistics, military organization, vision of empire, and knowledge of the world, surpassing all previous nomadic peoples who had constructed empires on or adjacent to the steppes.
Without minimizing the horrendous costs on the subjected people, he leads you through the long-range benefits of the Mongol conquests, with an analysis of the cultural exchange and prosperity that resulted from the Mongol Peace. Here, you’ll see how the Mongol kaghans set up courts, promoted trade along the Silk Road, introduced gunpowder to the Europeans, and promoted policies favorable to the spread of Buddhism.
An Unparalleled Learning Opportunity
A course this ambitious could only be possible with a skilled lecturer like Professor Harl, who pored over hundreds of original sources in synthesizing this material into a clear and powerful presentation. With so many years, so many miles, so many personalities, and so many civilizations covered so comprehensively, this course is truly unlike any you’ll find.
Aided by detailed maps and schematics of military engagements, these often neglected areas of history come alive in The Barbarian Empires of the Steppes. Whether your interest lies in Western or Eastern civilization, this course will provide you with startling new insights on how the world was shaped and introduce you to cultures and empires you’ve likely never encountered.
31 May 2016, 18:28
2014 | EPUB | 49.06MB
Master MIG welding and the metal fabrication techniques you need to repair, create, and duplicate projects in your home welding studio. Learn to Weld starts with the basics: setting up your studio, the right safety gear and safety procedures, and the equipment and materials you will need to begin with welding. With the help of step-by-step metalworking photos and tutorials, you will learn detailed techniques for cutting and grinding, and for joinery using a MIG welder. Practice the techniques and projects, and you’ll soon be able to repair, create, and duplicate metal fabrication projects in your own welding studio. Best of all, you will have both the fundamental skills and the confidence you need to create whatever is in your imagination. With Learn to Weld you’ll be equipped to conquer a world of welding projects.
Rooted in Design: Sprout Home's Guide to Creative Indoor Planting [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 18:26
2015 | EPUB | 32.67MB
A stylish and full-color guide to creatively integrating indoor plants with home decor from the owners of the popular Sprout Home garden design boutiques.
Indoor plants play a large role in the design and feel of a space. Focusing on indoor gardening--from small containers and vertical installations with air plants to unique tabletop creations--Rooted in Design provides readers with the means to create beautiful and long-lasting indoor landscapes. Tara Heibel and Tassy De Give, owners of the successful Sprout Home gardening stores, offer expert advice for choosing plant varieties and pairing them with unique design ideas. Sharing practical tips honed through hundreds of plant design classes, Heibel and DeGive tell readers everything they need to know to care for their one-of-a-kind green creations.
Hand-Built Outdoor Furniture: 20 Step-by-Step Projects Anyone Can Build [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 18:12
2016 | EPUB | 67.59MB
With a few basic tools and a weekend, anyone can build a beautiful project out of wood for their outdoor space!
Hand-Built Outdoor Furniture covers twenty step-by-step, fully illustrated projects with hundreds of clear and easy-to-follow photographs. Finished pieces include simple items include a trellis, a flower box, and a plant stand and more complicated projects include a chaise lounge, a sectional with built-in storage, and a slat bench. Katie Jackson's projects are simple, clean, and timeless and work well within a wide variety of styles. Hand-Built Outdoor Furniture is the perfect primer for people new to woodworking, DIYers, and homeowners looking for a simple and affordable to decorate their space.
Portland Farmers Market Cookbook [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 18:07
2016 | EPUB | 147.12MB
The Portland Farmers Market is a year-round farmers market consistently named among North America’s Top Ten. This cookbook is a tribute to the farmers, chefs and shoppers, who embrace their world-class market like no other. With 100, seasonally organized recipes for every meal of the day, stories of the market’s farmers and producers, shopping and cooking tips, and glorious color photography, the Portland Farmers Market Cookbook is a celebration of a place and its people, who are proud to share their bounty with the Portland community and beyond.
Sushi Chef: Sukiyabashi Jiro [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 18:05
2016 | EPUB | 295.71MB
Revered restaurateur Jiro’s extended chat on all things sushi shocked the industry and aficionados alike when it was first published in 1997 and has remained indispensable over the years thanks to his nonchalant revelation of top trade secrets. While first and last things cannot be so easily taught and the Sukiyabashi experience has stayed as unique as he warned with a wink, it is no exaggeration to call this book, finally available in English, the Bible of sushi chefs. Based on countless interviews over an extended period by a critic who had been better known for his comfort food expertise, marvelously retaining the maestro’s pleasantly down-to-earth voice, and amply illustrated with color photos, here is a belated surprise gift to all serious lovers of sushi who must rely on the vernacular.
31 May 2016, 17:56
2012 | EPUB | 9.22MB
Vodka is the most versatile of spirits. While people in Eastern Europe and the Baltic often drink it neat, swallowing it in one gulp, others use it in cocktails and mixed drinks—bloody marys, screwdrivers, white russians, and Jell-O shots—or mix it with tonic water or ginger beer to create a refreshing drink. Vodka manufacturers even infuse it with flavors ranging from lemon and strawberry to chocolate, bubble gum, and bacon. Created by distilling fermented grains, potatoes, beets, or other vegetables, this colorless, tasteless, and odorless liquor has been enjoyed by both the rich and the poor throughout its existence, but it has also endured many obstacles along its way to global popularity.
In this book, Patricia Herlihy takes us for a ride through vodka’s history, from its mysterious origins in a Slavic country in the fourteenth century to its current transatlantic reign over Europe and North America. She reveals how it continued to flourish despite hurdles like American Prohibition and being banned in Russia on the eve of World War I. On its way to global domination, vodka became ingrained in Eastern European culture, especially in Russia, where standards in vodka production were first set. Illustrated with photographs, paintings, and graphic art, Vodka will catch the eye of any reader intrigued by how “potato juice” became an international industry.
Look. Swirl. Sniff. Taste. Savor. Whether you’re tasting a refreshing white or an aromatic red, these well-known steps are the only proper way to take the first sip of wine.
Oenophiles have never been rare, but over the past decade, wine culture has exploded. Amateur wine enthusiasts join dedicated collectors at tastings and on vineyard vacations, and young professionals pack trendy wine bars. Even Hollywood has gotten in on the action—movies like Sideways, Bottle Shock, and French Kiss relate the deep love we have for a glass of pinot noir, a bottle of chardonnay, and the grapes that produce them. But how did wine surpass all other beverages to achieve global domination? In Wine, Marc Millon travels back to the origins of modern man to find the answer, discovering that this heady drink is intertwined with the roots of civilization itself.
Wine takes us from Transcaucasia some eight thousand years ago across the Mediterranean Sea, following wine as it spread along with classical civilization throughout Europe, and showing how, thanks to the myths of Dionysus and Bacchus, many of the major wine-producing regions were established in Western Europe. Millon then details how the Spanish conquistadors first brought European grapes to the New World to develop wines for the Catholic mass, and he depicts how wine production traveled to the distant lands of Australia and New Zealand. Today, it is even part of the burgeoning economies of India and China. Millon also explores the types of wine developed in each region, describing the many varieties of grapes and the process of fermentation and storage.
Crisp and concise, with a hint of cherry and a soupcon of citrus, Wine provides the perfect introduction for wine novices seeking to impress at their first tasting while offering an engaging chronicle for experts looking to learn more about this most mysterious and magical of beverages.
Beer: A Global History [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 17:50
2014 | EPUB | 8.02MB
Pilsners, blonde ales, India pale ales, lagers, porters, stouts: the varieties and styles of beer are endless. But as diverse as the drink is, its appeal is universal—beer is the most-consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. From ballparks to restaurants, bars to brewpubs, this multihued beverage has made itself a dietary staple around the globe. Celebrating the heritage of these popular libations in this entertaining tome, Gavin D. Smith traces beer from its earliest days to its contemporary consumption.
While exploring the evolution of brewing technology and how it mirrors technological changes on a wider economic scale, Smith travels from Mexico to Milwaukee, Beijing, Bruges, and beyond to give a legion of beer brands their due. He then delves into the growth of beer-drinking culture and food-beer pairings and provides information on beer-related museums, festivals, publications, and websites. He also provides a selection of recipes that will be enhanced with the downing of a glass or two of the amber nectar. Containing a wealth of detail in its concise, wonderfully illustrated pages, Beer will appeal to connoisseurs and casual fans alike.
Hamburgers, pot roast, stew, steak, brisket—these mouthwatering dishes all have cows in common. But while the answer to the question, “Where’s the beef?” may be, “everywhere,” links to obesity and heart disease, mad-cow disease, and global warming have caused consumers to turn a suspicious eye onto the ubiquitous meat. Arguing that beef farming, cooking, and eating is found in virtually every country, Beef delves into the social, cultural, and economic factors that have shaped the production and consumption of beef throughout history.
Lorna Piatti-Farnell shows how the class status of beef has changed over time, revealing that the meat that was once the main component in everyday stews is today showcased in elaborate dishes by five-star chefs. She considers the place beef has occupied in art, literature, and historical cookbooks, while also paying attention to the ethical issues in beef production and contemplating its future. Featuring images of beef in art and cuisine and palate-pleasing recipes from around the world, Beef will appeal to the taste buds of amateur grillers and iron chefs alike.
31 May 2016, 17:44
2011 | EPUB | 3.35MB
Other than that it tastes delicious with butter, what do you know about the knobbily-armoured, scarlet creature staring back at you from your fancy dinner plate? Food writer Elisabeth Townsend here charts the global rise of the lobster as delicacy.
Part of the Edible Series, Lobster: A Global History explores the use and consumption of the lobster from poor man’s staple to cultural icon. From coastal fishing in the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution and modern times, Townsend describes the social history of the consumption of lobsters around the world. As well, the book includes beautiful images of rarely seen lobsters and both old and contemporary lobster recipes.
Whether you want to liberate lobsters from their supermarket tanks or crack open their claws, this is an essential read, describing the human connection to the lobster from his ocean home to the dinner table.
Eggs: A Global History [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 17:40
2014 | EPUB | 7.34MB
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In Hindu scripture, the world began as an egg. Laid by a swan floating on the waters of chaos, after a year the egg split into silver and gold halves, with the silver becoming the earth and the gold transforming into the sky. Throughout history, the egg has taken on numerous meanings outside of the famous philosophical dilemma: it was used for curing the evil eye by the Mayans, as protection against lightning in Greece, and to signify rebirth in Christian tradition. In Eggs, Diane Toops offers a fascinating tour of egg history and lore, looking at how its significance has represented the preoccupations of the cultures that consume it.
After explaining the many varieties of eggs and the places that favor them, Toops sketches a history of its uses from its origins until the present day, when it has become an integral part of modern cuisine. She explores how eggs are today marketed as a health food and discusses the debates over their nutritional status. Filled with appetizing recipes and beguiling images, this protein-packed book will enthrall anyone with an interest in cuisine or cultural history.
Pudding: A Global History [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 17:37
2013 | EPUB | 12.81MB
Pudding usually brings to mind flavors like chocolate, vanilla, and tapioca, but prepackaged pudding cups don’t even scratch the surface of global pudding varieties—the term can denote dishes containing candied fruits and nuts or even frugal blends of little more than flour and suet. Pudding: A Global History explains how puddings developed from their early savory, sausage-like mixtures into the sweet and sticky confections we are now familiar with, and he describes how advances in kitchen equipment have changed puddings over time.
Tackling blood, bread, rice, batter, and vegetable puddings, Jeri Quinzio describes the diverse ways cooks around the world make their puddings and how versions from different countries vary—England’s rice pudding, for instance, is flavored with vanilla, nutmeg, or cinnamon, whereas in India it is made with nuts or raisins. In addition to investigating the history of puddings on the dining table, Quinzio also looks at the prominent place puddings have had in novels, poems, songs, and cartoons. He shows how authors and artists like Anthony Trollope, Robert Burns, and George Cruikshank have used puddings to illustrate their characters’ sorrows, joys, and even political leanings. Bursting with choice morsels about puddings past and present, this is a book for fans of blood pudding and plum pudding alike.
31 May 2016, 17:33
2010 | EPUB | 11.53MB
Be it a birthday or a wedding—let them eat cake. Encased in icing, crowned with candles, emblazoned with congratulatory words—cake is the ultimate food of celebration in many cultures around the world. But how did cake come to be the essential food marker of a significant occasion? In Cake: A Global History, Nicola Humble explores the meanings, legends, rituals, and symbolism attached to cake through the ages.
Humble describes the many national differences in cake-making techniques, customs, and regional histories—from the French gâteau Paris-Brest, named for a cycle race and designed to imitate the form of a bicycle wheel, to the American Lady Baltimore cake, likely named for a fictional cake in a 1906 novel by Owen Wister. She also details the role of cake in literature, art, and film—including Miss Havisham’s imperishable wedding cake in Great Expectations and Marcel Proust’s madeleine of memory—as well as the art and architecture of cake making itself.
Featuring a large selection of mouthwatering images, as well as many examples and recipes for some particularly unusual cakes, Cake will provide many sweet reasons for celebration.
31 May 2016, 17:18
2012 | EPUB | 14.72MB
Salsa and guacamole wouldn’t be the same without cilantro, and you can’t make pizza without oregano or a mojito without mint. You can use peppermint to settle an upset stomach, ease arthritis pain with stinging nettle, and heal burns and wounds with aloe vera. And then there is cannabis—perhaps the most notorious and divisive herb of all. Despite the fact that herbs are often little more than weeds, cultures around the globe have found hundreds of uses for them, employing them in everything from ancient medicines to savory dishes. While much has been written on cooking and healing with herbs, little has been told about the history of the plants themselves and the incredible journeys they have made.
This book elucidates how these often overlooked plants have become a staple in our lives. Unlike spices that quickly traversed the globe through trade, Gary Allen shows that herbs were often hoarded by their cultivators and were central to distinctive regional dishes. He draws on his extensive knowledge of food history to examine herbs in new ways, making Herbs essential reading for any serious foodie. Filled with beautiful illustrations and delicious recipes, this book will complete the kitchen library.
Mushroom: A Global History [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 17:15
2013 | EPUB | 9.53MB
Known as the meat of the vegetable world, mushrooms have their ardent supporters as well as their fierce detractors. Hobbits go crazy over them, while Diderot thought they should be “sent back to the dung heap where they are born.” In Mushroom, Cynthia D. Bertelsen examines the colorful history of these divisive edible fungi. As she reveals, their story is fraught with murder and accidental death, hunger and gluttony, sickness and health, religion and war. Some cultures equate them with the rottenness of life while others delight in cooking and eating them. And then there are those “magic” mushrooms, which some people link to ancient religious beliefs.
To tell this story, Bertelsen travels to the nineteenth century, when mushrooms entered the realm of haute cuisine after millennia of being picked from the wild for use in everyday cooking and medicine. She describes how this new demand drove entrepreneurs and farmers to seek methods for cultivating mushrooms, including experiments in domesticating the highly sought after but elusive truffles, and she explores the popular pastime of mushroom hunting and includes numerous historic and contemporary recipes. Packed with images of mushrooms from around the globe, this savory book will be essential reading for fans of this surprising, earthy fungus.
Potato: A Global History [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 17:12
2011 | EPUB | 9.24MB
From obscure Pre-Columbian beginnings in the Andes Mountains to global popularity today, the story of the potato is one of rags to riches. In Potato, esteemed culinary historian Andrew F. Smith reveals the captivating story of a once lowly vegetable that has changed—and continues to change—the world.
First domesticated by prehistoric people in the Andes, the potato has since been adopted by cultures around the globe. For instance, the potato was aggressively adopted by cooks in India and China, where it has become a dietary staple. In fact, these two countries now stand as the world’s largest potato producers. Nonetheless, despite its popularity, in this era of both fast food and health consciousness, the potato is now suffering negative publicity regarding its low nutritional value. Its health benefits continue to be debated, especially considering that the potato is most often associated with the ubiquitous but high-calorie french fry.
Potato is a captivating read that provides a concisely written but thoroughly researched account of the history, economy, politics, and gastronomy behind this beloved starch—as well as recipes. As loaded with goodies as a well-dressed baked potato, this book is comforting and satisfying.
Poet Charles Lamb described the pineapple as “too ravishing for moral taste . . . like lovers’ kisses she bites—she is a pleasure bordering on pain, from fierceness and insanity of her relish.” From the moment Christopher Columbus discovered it on a Caribbean island in 1493, the pineapple has seduced the world, becoming an object of passion and desire. Beloved by George Washington, a favorite of kings and aristocrats, the pineapple quickly achieved an elite status among fruits that it retains today. Kaori O’Connor tells the story of this culinary romance in Pineapple, an intriguing history of this luscious fruit.
O’Connor follows the pineapple across time and cultures, exploring how it was first transported to Europe, where it could only be grown at great expense in hothouses. The pineapple was the ultimate status symbol, she reveals—London society hostesses would even pay extravagantly to rent a pineapple for a single evening to be the centerpiece of a party. O’Connor explains that the fruit remained a seasonal luxury for the rich until developments in shipping and refrigeration allowed it to be brought to the major markets in Europe and America, and she illustrates how canning processes—and the discovery of the pineapple’s ideal home in Hawaii—have made it available and affordable throughout the year. Packed with vivid illustrations and irresistible recipes from around the world, Pineapple will have everyone falling in love with this juicy tropical fruit.
31 May 2016, 17:06
2011 | EPUB | 7.71MB
Gravenstein. Coe’s Golden Drop. Mendocino Cox. The names sound like something from the imagination of Tolkien or perhaps the ingredients in a dubious magical potion rather than what they are—varieties of apples. But as befits their enchanting names, apples have transfixed and beguiled humans for thousands of years.
Apple: A Global History explores the cultural and culinary importance of a fruit born in the mountains of Kazakhstan that has since traversed the globe to become a favorite almost everywhere. From the Garden of Eden and Homer’s Odyssey to Johnny Appleseed, William Tell, and even Apple Computer, Erika Janik shows how apples have become a universal source of sustenance, health, and symbolism from ancient times to the present day.
Featuring many mouthwatering illustrations, this exploration of the planet’s most popular fruit includes a guide to selecting the best apples, in addition to apple recipes from around the world, including what is believed to be the first recorded apple recipe from Roman gourmand Marcus Apicius. And Janik doesn’t let us forget that apples are not just good eating; their juice also makes for good drinking—as the history of cider in North America and Europe attests.
Janik grew up surrounded by apple iconography in Washington, the “apple state,” so there is no better author to tell this fascinating story. Readers will eat up this surprising and entertaining tale of a fruit intricately linked to human history.
Figs: A Global History [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 17:03
2014 | EPUB | 12.34MB
Figs, fresh and dried, have become the fruit of celebrations and festivities throughout the Western world, and have been typically associated with Christmastime since the nineteenth century.
In Figs: A Global History, David C. Sutton examines the festive and celebratory importance of figs in many countries by placing this luscious and festive fruit in its historical context. Beginning with an account of the strange biology of the fig – which is botanically not a fruit at all, but rather a cluster of ingrowing flowers – Sutton moves on to consider the Arabian origins of figs, including the possibility that the earliest fig seeds were transported from Yemen to Mesopotamia in the dung of donkeys.
Proposing that the ‘forbidden fruit’ eaten by Adam and Eve was in fact a fig rather than an apple, this book explores the history of the fruit in fascinating detail, from the Crusaders to the wonderful fig festivals of the modern world. Including numerous recipes both sweet and savoury, and countless facts, myths and stories about the fig, such as the bizarre tale of the American fig-wasp, Figs is a fascinating account of this unique and delicious food.
Since the start of recorded history, and probably even before, people have been interested in answering questions about why we behave the way we do. In fact, many fields of human endeavor—such as philosophy, psychology, and even theology—are focused on finding explanations for the nature of human behavior. But it's only in recent decades, with the emergence of advanced scientific methods and tools, that researchers can finally approach, understand, and solve the mysteries of emotion, thought, and behavior in the same way that oceanographers investigate the ocean depths or astronomers study the stars above our heads.
To understand the secrets of human behavior is to better know yourself and the people around you—whether they're friends, family members, coworkers, or just acquaintances. Not only will you have a more solid understanding of what it means to be human, you will also have a stronger foundation from which to live more effectively with others and to grasp their intricate behaviors and quirks.
Join award-winning Professor Mark Leary of Duke University, a preeminent force in social psychology and neuroscience education, on a fascinating journey into the complex heart of who you are with Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior. Using the latest theories and research from psychology and other behavioral sciences, you'll find answers—many of them startling—to provocative questions about a variety of rather ordinary (but often quite puzzling) aspects of human behavior. With the powerful insights you'll find in these 24 intellectually scintillating lectures, you'll start looking at your own and other people's behavior with a little more insight and curiosity. And undoubtedly a little more wonderment as well.
"We usually don't think much about our everyday behaviors, even though they can be quite fascinating,"notes Professor Leary. "These things are such a part of human nature that they seem ordinary and unremarkable. And maybe they are, in the sense that we do them regularly. But they are also puzzling and fascinating. Human beings are very unusual animals.”
According to Professor Leary, many of the answers to the puzzles of our behaviors, thoughts, and emotions lie in three broad themes that, taken together, provide us with a more thorough, multidimensional approach for understanding human behavior.
- Evolution: In some cases, a behavior that is difficult to understand today makes sense when you consider the possibility that the behavior dealt with a particular problem our ancestors faced in the distant past.
- Self-awareness: No other animal can think consciously about itself with such abstraction as we can. Self-awareness is an important lens through which to view human behavior because much of what you do is influenced by your self-image, your future goals, and your concerns with what other people think, each of which requires abstract self-awareness.
- Culture: Often, we do odd things because our culture has taught us to. Many puzzling behaviors that appear inexplicable when seen through the eyes of one culture may be understandable when seen through the eyes of another.
Throughout these lectures, you'll also learn about the various interacting forces that influence your behavior. These include your genetic blueprint, your personal experiences, your upbringing, and the people and social groups surrounding you.
Answers to Pressing Questions about Yourself
Every lecture of Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior examines a central question about human behavior we've all experienced at one time or another and that only now, with the aid of scientific research, we can actually explain in ways our ancestors never could.
- Why do your feelings get hurt? Like physical injury, a loss of social connection compromises your well-being. The brain areas involved in hurt feelings from rejection overlap with the areas involved in the experience of physical pain. Neuroscientists believe that the social pain system was built on top of the older system that mediates physical pain.
- Why do you sometimes forget things? One explanation for forgetfulness holds that a memory trace in your brain has deteriorated over time. In fact, the brain appears designed to allow disused memories to become less accessible so that you're not overwhelmed with memories that are unimportant or that interfere with the acquisition of new information.
- Why do you fall in love? Research suggests that romantic love has three components—intimacy, passion, and commitment. Neuroscientists studying the biochemical bases of love have discovered that adrenalin, dopamine, and other chemicals are responsible for physical attraction, the desire for closeness, energetic feelings, and other symptoms of being in love.
- Why do you blush? Many people think of blushing as a social signal that communicates a nonverbal apology for breaking some social rule. But why do we sometimes blush when we are complimented or praised? Research suggests that blushing is analogous to appeasement displays in other animals. Humans blush when we receive unwanted social attention—negative or positive.
Of course, not all of the mysteries of human behavior have been completely solved. You'll also explore behaviors that still need more definitive study, such as dreaming, kissing, consciousness, and even the creation and appreciation of art and music.
Experiments and case studies (involving both humans and primates) form the backbone of the scientific study of our behavior. Appropriately enough, Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior is filled with fascinating research and anecdotes that shed much-needed light on the subject—stories that are not only illuminating but also intriguing and, sometimes, even shocking.
- Potato-washing monkeys: In 1952, scientists began feeding sweet potatoes to macaque monkeys on an island off the Japanese coast. In one instance, a female monkey washed sand off her potatoes in the water; other monkeys started imitating her and within a few years, virtually all of the young monkeys in the group were washing their potatoes. These observations showed scientists how culture and behavior—in monkeys and humans as well—can be transmitted from generation to generation.
- Competitive summer camp: A famous study concerns the recruitment of a group of 12-year-old boys for a summer camp—all of them from the same socioeconomic background. Randomly assigned to two groups, the boys began competing with one another in sports. As time wore on, the groups became so aggressive that researchers had to keep them separated so no one would get hurt. This study helped illustrate the processes that underlie discrimination and conflict.
As Professor Leary shines a sharp light into the human mind, he demonstrates just why he is so respected by his scholarly peers. Winner of the Lifetime Career Award from the International Society for Self and Identity and a Scholarly Book Award from the Speech Communication Association, he has a way of drawing you into the psychology of human beings and unearthing the captivating features of seemingly mundane aspects of our lives.
After finishing the lectures of Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior, you'll realize how much about everyday life you take for granted, develop a deeper understanding of yourself and others, and see how much has yet to be fully explained.
Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and One Man's Story of Redemption in an American Prison [Audiobook]
31 May 2016, 14:50
2016 | MP3@64 kbps + EPUB | 6 hrs 39 mins | 183.24MB
In 1991, Shaka Senghor was sent to prison for second-degree murder. Today he is a lecturer at universities, a leading voice on criminal justice reform, and an inspiration to thousands.
In life, it's not how you start that matters. It's how you finish.
Shaka Senghor was raised in a middle-class neighborhood on Detroit's east side during the height of the 1980s crack epidemic. An honor roll student and a natural leader, he dreamed of becoming a doctor - but at age 11, his parents' marriage began to unravel, and the beatings from his mother worsened, sending him on a downward spiral that saw him run away from home, turn to drug dealing to survive, and end up in prison for murder at the age of 19, fuming with anger and despair.
Writing My Wrongs is the story of what came next. During his 19-year incarceration, seven of which were spent in solitary confinement, Senghor discovered literature, meditation, self-examination, and the kindness of others - tools he used to confront the demons of his past, forgive the people who hurt him, and begin atoning for the wrongs he had committed. Upon his release at age 38, Senghor became an activist and a mentor to young men and women facing circumstances like his. His work in the community and the courage to share his story led him to fellowships at the MIT Media Lab and the Kellogg Foundation and invitations to speak at events like TED and the Aspen Ideas Festival.
In equal turns, Writing My Wrongs is a portrait of life in the shadow of poverty, violence, and fear; an unforgettable story of redemption, reminding us that our worst deeds don't define us; and a compelling witness to our country's need for rethinking its approach to crime, prison, and the men and women sent there.
31 May 2016, 14:36
2012 | EPUB | 1.6MB
"Probing deep into four hidden histories... the material released should dispel any notions of 'lone nuts' or coincidence... These articles cut a clear path through the thick jungle of disinformation that has grown around these events and expose the truly hideous teratomas that thrive and bloom under the canopy of 'national security.'"—New York Press
The War Before Independence: 1775-1776 [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 14:32
2016 | EPUB | 4.63MB
The United States was creeping ever closer to independence. The shot heard round the world still echoed in the ears of Parliament as impassioned revolutionaries took up arms for and against King and country. In this captivating blend of careful research and rich narrative, Derek W. Beck continues his exploration into the period preceding the Declaration of Independence, just days into the new Revolutionary War.
The War Before Independence transports readers into the violent years of 1775 and 1776, with the infamous Battle of Bunker Hill – a turning point in the Revolution – and the snowy, wind-swept march to the frozen ground at the Battle of Quebec, ending with the exciting conclusion of the Boston Campaign. Meticulous research and new material drawn from letters, diaries, and investigative research throws open the doors not only to familiar figures and faces, but also little-known triumphs and tribulations of America's greatest military leaders, including George Washington.
Wonderfully detailed and stunningly layered, The War Before Independence brings America's early upheaval to a ferocious boil on both sides of the battlefield, and vividly captures the spirit of a fight that continues to inspire brave hearts today.
31 May 2016, 14:03
2016 | EPUB | 2.36MB
A grand and startling work of American history
America was founded, we’re taught in school, by the Pilgrims and other Puritans escaping religious persecution in Europe—an austere and pious lot who established a culture that remained pure and uncorrupted until the Industrial Revolution got in the way.
In The Money Cult, Chris Lehmann reveals that we have it backward: American capitalism has always been entangled with religion, and so today’s megapastors, for example, aren’t an aberration—they’re as American as Benjamin Franklin.
Tracing American Christianity from John Winthrop to the rise of the Mormon Church and on to the triumph of Joel Osteen, The Money Cult is an ambitious work of history from a widely admired journalist. Examining nearly four hundred years of American history, Lehmann reveals how America’s religious leaders became less worried about sin and the afterlife and more concerned with the material world, until the social gospel was overtaken by the gospel of wealth.
Showing how American Christianity came to accommodate—and eventually embrace—the pursuit of profit, as well as the inescapability of economic inequality, The Money Cult is a wide-ranging and revelatory book that will make you rethink what you know about the form of American capitalism so dominant in the world today, as well as the core tenets of America itself.
Buying Trances: A New Psychology of Sales and Marketing [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 14:00
2011 | EPUB | 0.45MB
What if you could master a sales and marketing technique that worked almost like magic? What if you could turn reluctant skeptics into loyal customers just by saying the right words at the right time? What if you could control the way customers perceived you and your product? If you knew marketing guru Joe Vitale's secrets of buying trances, you could do all that and more!
In Buying Trances, Vitale reveals the most powerful secret of effective persuasion the world has ever known. Combining the basics of good marketing with cutting-edge concepts in influence and persuasion, he shows you how to help customers enter a "buying trance"—a special mental state in which they become more suggestible and pliant than usual. Once in the buying trance, you'll have the freedom to frame and position yourself and your product in the minds of customers—leading them to the almost inevitable decision to buy.
When you read a book, focus on a conversation, or just think deeply about life, you block out much of the surrounding world and put yourself in a sort of personal trance. These kinds of trances aren't that uncommon at all. But the ability to connect with people while they're in a trance truly is. The best marketing and selling messages are designed to break into the customer's trance and connect with the customer on the level of his or her deepest concerns and interests, creating a window for the marketing message to get through.
Buying Trances explains these everyday trances and offers practical guidance for marketers and salespeople who want to take advantage of them. By learning to inject themselves into a customer's personal trance, good marketers can turn that personal trance into a buying trance. It sounds like science fiction, but it's not. Trances are real and easy to manipulate if you know their secrets. For daring marketers and salespeople who want to make the sale every time, these cutting-edge techniques in persuasion offer the key to incredible success.
The Four Pillars of Spiritual Transformation [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 13:56
2009 | EPUB | 3.48MB
Objective and illuminating, this treatise, written by Sufi leader Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, presents a fundamental analysis of spiritual practice. Underscoring the importance of silence, seclusion, hunger, and vigilance, this guide demonstrates that these activities are both physical and spiritual. Providing the necessary tools for an enlightened life, this dual-language edition incorporates the first critical edition of the Arabic text, gathered from the best-surviving manuscripts. An introduction, and translation of chapter 53 of the renowned Futuhat al-Makkiyya, are also included.
The Code Book for Young People [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 13:53
2002 | EPUB | 7.25MB
For those curious about Alan Turing, breaking Nazi Germany's Enigma Code, or The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, Simon Singh's The Code Book for Young People has all you need to know about the science of secrecy. Cryptography: the encoding and decoding of private information. And it is history's most fascinating story of intrigue and cunning. From Julius Caesar and his Caesar Cipher to the code used by Mary Queen of Scots and her conspiracy to the use of the Engima machine during the Second World War, Simon Singh follows the evolution of secret writing.
Accessible, compelling, and timely, this international bestseller, now adapted for young people, is sure to make readers see the past--and the future--in a whole new way.
2015 | EPUB | 14.56MB
Is there life after death? Can we prove the big bang theory? In his engrossing and accessible style, Dr Kerry Spackman uses everyday examples to answer these questions and other diverse issues. The Ant and the Ferrari is a magical tour-de-force that takes on the big questions in life and answers them in Dr Kerry Spackman's easily accessible writing style. this is one of those rare books that will change your beliefs - and in doing so will change your life.
The Ant and the Ferrari offers readers a clear, navigable path through the big questions that confront us all today. What is the meaning of life? Can we be ethical beings in today's world? Can we know if there is life after death? Is there such a thing as Absolute truth? What caused the Big Bang and why should you care?
Strong Song Tows Us: The Life of Basil Bunting [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 13:44
2013 | EPUB | 5.47MB
Basil Bunting, one of the greatest modernist poets, had an extraordinary life. Born in the mining village of Scotswood in Tyneside in 1900, after a largely Quaker education, during which at the age of 13 he met the love of his life, he left school in 1918 and went straight to prison as a conscientious objector. In Paris in the early 1920s after working as an artist’s model and road mender he was rescued from another spell in prison by Ezra Pound and Ford Madox Ford and became Ford’s assistant on the pioneering modernist magazine, the Transatlantic Review.
Excluded from France he found himself with Pound and W. B. Yeats in Rapallo on the Italian Riviera where he worked on sand boats and wrote the poems that formed the backbone of Pound’s influential Active Anthology. Bunting spent the first part of the 1930s in the Canary Islands but fled to London with his young family at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. After his newly pregnant wife left him and took their two children to the US he lived on a boat on the south coast of England, trained as a seaman and captained yachts in America.
During the Second World War his knowledge of classical Persian earned him a job as a translator in Iraq, after which he served as a spy in the region culminating in his promotion to Vice Consul in Isfahan. Compelled to leave the embassy because of his remarriage to a local woman, he became Middle East correspondent for the Times until he was thrown out of Iran by Mossadeq in 1953. A barren period followed until his poetic masterpiece, Briggflatts, caught the literary world’s attention in 1965.
Literary fame brought Bunting no relief from grinding poverty and he died at the age of 85, impoverished but with a lasting poetic legacy. Underneath this captivating tale of action, adventure and lasting friendships with some of the greatest writers of the 20th century (Yeats, Pound, T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Louis Zukofsky and many more) lies one of the greatest love stories of the twentieth century.
More Shibari You Can Use: Passionate Rope Bondage and Intimate Connection [AZW3]
31 May 2016, 13:40
2015 | AZW3 | 5.62MB
Sexually curious adults can learn how to enjoy bedroom bondage in an easy step-by-step fashion while still being tasteful, playful, and authentic
Rope bondage is not just about tying someone up; it is an opportunity for sensuality, creativity, playfulness, connection, and passion. Bondage artist and educator Lee Harrington takes you on a journey through easy step-by-step ties and exercises for bringing you and your partner closer together through this beautiful art form. The second book in the Shibari You Can Use series, More Shibari You Can Use picks up where the first book left off, with all new ties in a playful, down-to-earth, and engaging voice. But it’s about more than the bondage. This time you also get a chance to connect more with your partner through a variety of exercises that explore touch, dominance and submission, intimacy, and trust. With beautifully shot images by RiggerJay, this guide offers intermediate techniques for those ready for a challenge, broken down into clear directions for new and experienced “riggers” alike.
Find techniques for learning rope bondage negotiation, speed restraint (Texas handcuffs and speed-release corsets), intricate confinement (the reverse box tie and the woven head cage), beautiful erotic rope (from the Triskelion crotch rope to the floral chest harness), and much more. Are you ready to have fun? To deepen your connection with your partner? To create beautiful artwork woven on the human form? To add some spice to your erotic life? Now is your chance. Set aside your concerns about tying someone up, grab this book and some rope, and learn passionate rope bondage for an intimate connection.
The great British pudding, versatile and wonderful in all its guises, has been a source of nourishment and delight since the days of the Roman occupation, and probably even before then. By faithfully recreating recipes from historical cookery texts and updating them for today’s kitchens and ingredients, Regula Ysewijn has revived over 80 beautiful puddings for the modern home cook.
There are ancient savoury dishes such as the Scottish haggis or humble beef pudding, traditional sweet and savoury pies, pastries, jellies, ices, flummeries, junkets, jam roly-poly and, of course, the iconic Christmas pudding. Regula tells the story of each one, sharing the original recipe alongside her own version, while paying homage to the cooks, writers and moments in history that helped shape them.
31 May 2016, 13:33
2015 | EPUB | 49.94MB
Here is the solution to every cook's weeknight dilemma - what to cook tonight? Delicious, simple-to-follow, nutritious recipes that your family and friends will love from the My Food Bag team and Nadia Lim.
These recipes have been rated as favourites by My Food Bag customers, so you can relax in the knowledge that each recipe is tasty, easy to make and foolproof. They're organised by season, and Nadia's background as a dietitian and her strong healthy food philosophy ensures that they are nutritionally balanced and good for you.
This is the one cookbook you need for cooking successfully during the week, and getting back to loving your weeknight meals.
The New American Cooking [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 13:29
2011 | EPUB | 24.27MB
Joan Nathan, the author of Jewish Cooking in America, An American Folklife Cookbook, and many other treasured cookbooks, now gives us a fabulous feast of new American recipes and the stories behind them that reflect the most innovative time in our culinary history.
The huge influx of peoples from all over Asia--Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India--and from the Middle East and Latin America in the past forty years has brought to our kitchens new exotic flavors, little-known herbs and condiments, and novel cooking techniques that make the most of every ingredient. At the same time, health and environmental concerns have dramatically affected how and what we eat. The result: American cooking has never been as exciting as it is today. And Joan Nathan proves it on every page of this wonderfully rewarding book.
Crisscrossing the country, she talks to organic farmers, artisanal bread bakers and cheese makers, a Hmong farmer in Minnesota, a mango grower in Florida, an entrepreneur of Indian frozen foods in New Jersey, home cooks, and new-wave chefs.
Among the many enticing dishes she discovers are a breakfast huevos rancheros casserole; starters such as Ecuadorean shrimp ceviche, Szechuan dumplings, and Malaysian swordfish satays; pea soup with kaffir leaves; gazpacho with sashimi; pasta dressed with pistachio pesto; Iraqi rice-stuffed Vidalia onions; and main courses of Ecuadorean casuela, chicken yasa from Gambia, and couscous from Timbuktu (with dates and lamb). And there are desserts for every taste.
Old American favorites are featured, too, but often Nathan discovers a cook who has a new way with a dish, such as an asparagus salad with blood orange mayonnaise, pancakes made with blue cornmeal and pine nuts, a seafood chowder that includes monkfish, and a chocolate bread pudding with dried cherries.
Because every recipe has a story behind it, The New American Cooking is a book that is as much fun to read as it is to cook from--a must for every kitchen today.
Three World Cuisines: Italian, Mexican, Chinese [EPUB]
31 May 2016, 13:26
2012 | EPUB | 14.64MB
The text begins with a comprehensive theory of cuisine in the introduction and moves to the parallel culinary histories of Italy, Mexico, and China: the independent domestication of crops in each, the social, political, and technological developments that gave rise to each cuisine, and cooking in both professional and home settings. It also compares the internal logic of the cooking style and techniques in a way that will resonate with students.
It answers the big questions, such as, why did the wok prevail in China, while the sautée pan and comal were used in Italy and Mexico, respectively? Why is bread baked in the Mediterranean but more often steamed in the Far East? How are certain ingredients used in completely different ways by different cultures and why? Why is corn transformed into tortillas and tamales in one place and into polenta in another? Why do we find tomato salsa in the Americas, long-cooked sauces in Italy, and tomatoes mixed with scrambled eggs in China?
Albala also challenges the notion of authenticity, providing ample evidence that cuisines are constantly evolving, adapting over time according to ingredients and cooking technologies. More than 150 of Albala’s recipes complete the instruction, inspiring readers to learn how to cook in a fundamental way.