Rice straw is a residual byproduct of rice production at harvest. The total biomass of this residue depends on various factors such as varieties, soils and nutrient man-agement and weather. At harvest, rice straw is piled or spread in the field depending on the harvesting methods, using stationary threshers or self-propelled combine harvesters, respectively. The amount of rice straw t…
To consider comedy in its many incarnations is to raise diverse but related questions: what, for instance, is humour, and how may it be used (or abused)? When do we laugh, and why? What is it that writers and speakers enjoy - and risk - when they tell a joke, indulge in bathos, talk nonsense, or encourage irony?
An argument for simplicity from the best-selling authors of Profit from the Core. Is radical reinvention the key to winning in today’s fast-paced world? Not judging by the results of some of the world’s best-performing companies. In Repeatability, Chris Zook and James Allen - leaders of Bain & Company’s influential Strategy practice - warn that complexity is a silent killer of profitab…
This Open Access volume highlights how tree ring stable isotopes have been used to address a range of environmental issues from paleoclimatology to forest management, and anthropogenic impacts on forest growth. It will further evaluate weaknesses and strengths of isotope applications in tree rings. In contrast to older tree ring studies, which predominantly applied a pure statistical approach t…
David Allen reads an all-new edition of his popular self-help classic for managing work-life balance in the 21st century - now updated for the new challenges facing individuals and organizations in today's rapidly changing world. Since it was first published more than 15 years ago, David Allen's Getting Things Done has become one of the most influential business books of its era and the ulti…
The Albertian paradigm of architecture as an allographic1practice implies that architectural design comprises forms of notation and representation. It would seem that mediums2 are all that architects engage with. Architecture is primarily a cultural, visual practice that operates through design, understood as composition and the arrangement of relations. While architects work with drawings and …
Middle Egyptian introduces the reader to the writing system of ancient Egypt and the language of hieroglyphic texts. It contains twenty-six lessons, exercises (with answers), a list of hieroglyphic signs, and a dictionary. It also includes a series of twenty-five essays on the most important aspects of ancient Egyptian history, society, religion and literature. The combination of grammar lesson…
How online affinity networks expand learning and opportunity for young people Boyband One Direction fanfiction writers, gamers who solve math problems together, Harry Potter fans who knit for a cause. Across subcultures and geographies, young fans have found each other and formed community online, learning from one another along the way. From these and other in-depth case studies of online affi…
Imagine what it is like to hear language for the first time. No, really: imagine. Did you picture yourself in a crib listening to your mother? Understandable, but think again. We hear language before we are even born. As you will know from those noisy neighbours who drive you mad, sound passes through solid barriers – not just the walls of houses but also through the wall of the womb. And it …
It was in November 2021 that we shared the intriguing idea of co-editing a book project on the historical figure of saxophonist Elise Hall. After sending several messages back and forth, we finally found a mutually agreeable time for a video meeting. Kurt was at his home in Brussels, while Adrianne was in Chicago, a sev-en-hour time difference. We had first met at a conference in 2016, “Prepo…
The autobiography of the fastest man of all time and a superstar whose talent and charisma have made him one of the most famous people on the planet. Whether you know Athletics or not, and even whether you know sport or not, chances are you know Usain Bolt. The fastest man on the planet, not just now but ever, Usain has won the hearts of people everywhere with his mind-blowing performances and…
EVERY SINGLE MOMENT IS A CHANCE TO TURN IT ALL AROUND. Are you happy? It may be the wrong question. Most of us think we are relatively happy, while at the same time knowing that we could be happiermaybe even a lot happier. Ordinary people and the finest philosophers have been exploring the question of happiness for thousands of years, and theories abound. But this is not a book of theory. Resi…
Some people still like King Leopold II of Belgium. In 2015, the city of Brussels planned to celebrate the king with “un hommage sur la place du Trône, devant la statue de Léopold II” (a tribute at the place du Trône, in front of the statue of Leopold II),3 a large equestrian monument that sits just outside the Royal Palace along the capital city’s inner ring road.4 The event was meant …
The study of signs, portents observed in the physical and social worlds indicating the will of supernatural agents and the course of future events, was undoubtedly important in all ancient cultures. The first written evidence for a concept of sign, however, comes from cuneiform texts of ancient Mesopotamia.
"Reach into this trickbox of memory and rummage around: you may find a tiny spaceship, or perhaps a signpost, a parade, a raised fist, an entire museum. The essays in Trickbox of Memory: Essays on Power and Disorderly Pasts draw on literary criticism, post-qualitative inquiry, new materialism, and political activism to dismember and reanimate the field of memory studies. In the trickbox, concep…
In recent international literature addressing the history of twentieth-century archi-tectural theory, the year 1968 is often seen as a decisive moment, giving rise to a “new” architectural theory. From that moment onwards, less emphasis was placed on the aesthetics of architecture, and more on its critical potential. Increasingly, and also from that moment onwards, architectural theory beca…
Insects and closely related arthropods are the dominant and most diverse forms of terrestrial and aquatic (non-marine) animal life on the planet. Other than marine systems, insects occupy every conceivable environment and habitat on the Earth. Crustaceans and Annelids (worms) are the dominant and most diverse groups of animals in marine systems. T…
In last year’s introduction to the Factfile I looked forward to the prospect of emerging from the Covid pandemic. How desperately mistaken that prediction has proved to be. Once again, for prisoners and their families, the pains of imprisonment have been terribly amplified by the restrictions imposed to prevent infection. Prisons have relaxed more slowly, and tightened up more quickly, than t…
The processing of plant ingredients for food has characterized the genus Homo, with the grinding, fermentation and cooking of plant ingredients improving their nutrient intake and leading to increases in brain-size, improved population sustainability, and cultural development (e.g. Stahl 1989; Wrangham 2009). Plants have fed human societies since Palaeolithic times and th…
This open access book brings together a collection of cutting-edge insights into how action can and is already being taken against climate change at multiple levels of our societies, amidst growing calls for transformative and inclusive climate action. In an era of increasing recognition regarding climate and ecological breakdown, this book offers hope, inspiration and analyses for multi-level …
In hisremarkable study of the Upper Palaeolithic parietal art of Western Europe, The Mind in the Cave, David Lewis-Williams suggests that some imagery present in caves such as Chauvet and Lascaux was inspired by ex-periences of altered states of consciousness.1 Emergence from such altered states can be accompanied by the appearance of afterimages, mental pic-tures that hang suspended in the fie…
Europe has a long history of urbanisation, with the first cities dating back some 8,000 years. While the formal means of decision-making (if any) used to shape the form of these settlements are lost in the mists of time, it is highly likely that from the earliest times some form of control was enacted on where and how people could build. Inadvertent controls would certainly have di…
In Betty Smith’s description of the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima), also known as the “ghetto palm,” the tree is contrasted with the memory of a school poem that evoked the “forest primeval” with its “murmuring pines and hemlocks.” For Smith, writing in the early 1940s, the presence of this tree was a marker, or even harbinger, of neighbourhood decline. The tree of heaven se…
In this story the author makes clear the sinking of the English fishing schooners by the Baltic fleet of Russia and brings in all kinds of events that seemed hallucinations when the story appeared serially, but which have since come true in startling manner.
Secrets of a good DIGESTION How to keep the system trouble-free, medicines that work, recognizing signs of danger, exposing the ucler myths, gall bladder surgery-often unnecessary?
Building sound BONES AND MUSCLES Fatigue-proof ways to stand, walk and lift; Exercisesthat save your back; Speeded-up healing for broken bones; Shoes that help the feet; New treatments for arthritis