Why are there such significant and persistent differences in living standardsacross countries? This is one of the most important and challenging areas ofdevelopment thinking and policy. Much of the focus in the academic andpolicy literature on‘growth’has been on steady-state or long-run average rateof growth of output per capita or, equivalently, comparinglevelsof income.But the focus onone…
Belgium once had an empire in Central Africa. The historical processes inform-ing this imperial presence – the foundation of the Congo Free State (CFS) in 1885, its demise, the emergence of the Belgian Congo in 1908, and the subse-quent absorption of ‘Ruanda-Urundi’ by Belgium under the aegis of the League of Nations in 1922 – are well documented and …
Fragile states expose their societies to the risk of meltdown or collapse, endangering the lives of their citizens and leaving them unable to sustain ordinary life. When this happens, famine, violent disorder and economic distress can displace many millions of people, with consequent impacts on surrounding regions. State fragility can also threate…
Traditional approaches to teaching, researching, and advancing human rights need a refresh. The Sustainable Development Goals, the Leave No One Behind ethos, and the SDG16 agenda for peaceful, just, and inclusive communities offer a refreshed way to research and teach human rights and social justice in the twenty first century. Exploring how to ground an emerging paradigm shift and field build …
To undertake a scholarly project on the Wonderful World of Disney, in particular one focused on the historical, cultural and artistic significance of its celebrated cel-animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, 1937), is an endeavour that often feels like jumping headlong ‘into burning coals’. Over eighty years after its ini…
Imagine studying a building not by walking its hallways or perusing its blueprints, but by examining each of its bricks: the pockmarks produced by air bubbles in the clay, the whorls of reds and browns, the trowel’s impressions in the mortar. Imagine evaluating a mosaic not for the bigger picture but for the glint of indi-vidual tesserae. Or imagine not watching a film but looki…
The Koran has constituted a remarkably resilient core of identity and continuity for a religious tradition that is now in its fifteenth century. In this Very Short Introduction, Michael Cook provides a lucid and direct account of the significance of the Koran both in the modern world and in that of traditional Islam. He gives vivid accounts of its role in Muslim civilization, illustrates the di…
There have been many studies of the women in the Gospels, but this is a new kind of book on the subject. Rather than offering a general overview of the Gospel women or focusing on a single theme, Richard Bauckham studies in great depth both the individual women who appear in the Gospels and the specific passages in which they appear. This unique approach reveals that there is much more to be…
As the founder of Islam, a religion with over one billion followers, Muhammad is beyond all doubt one of the most influential figures in world history. But learning about his life and understanding his importance has always proven difficult, as our only source of knowledge comes from the biography of him written by his followers, the reliability of which has been questioned by Western scholars.…
In recent years, the disciplines of biblical studies and systematic theology have grown apart and largely lost the means of effective communication with one another. Unfortunately, this relational disconnect affects more than just these particular fields of study; it impacts the life of the church as a whole. The first St. Andrews Conference on Scripture and Theology brought leading biblical sc…
Eminent biblical scholar Michael D. Coogan offers here a wide-ranging and stimulating exploration of the Old Testament, illuminating its importance as history, literature, and sacred text. Coogan explains the differences between the Bible of Jewish tradition (the "Hebrew Bible") and the Old Testament of Christianity, and also examines the different contents of the Bibles used by Roman Cathol…
Exploring the cultural and institutional dimensions of Christianity, and tracing its course over two millennia, Linda Woodhead provides a fresh, lively, and candid portrait of Christianity's past and present. Addressing topics including the competition for power between different forms of Christianity, the churches' use of power, and its struggles with modernity, this new edition includes up to…
Award-winning religious scholar Richard Bauckham here explores the historical figure of Jesus, evaluating the sources and showing that they provide us with good historical evidence for his life and teaching. To place Jesus in his proper historical context, as a Jew from Galilee in the early first century of our era, Bauckham looks at Jewish religion and society in the land of Israel under Roman…
The oceans are our planet's most distinctive and imposing natural habitat. They cover 71 percent of its surface; support a remarkably diverse and exquisitely adapted array of life forms, from microscopic viruses, bacteria, and plankton to the largest existing animals; and possess many of Earth's most significant, intriguing, and inaccessible ecosystems. In an era in which humans are significant…
Thailand joined the ranks of the upper-middle-income countries in 2011, with sustained high growth and rapid poverty reduction. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew an average of 9.5% per year between 1987 and 1996 on the back of political stability, a business-friendly regulatory environment, a large domestic market, open access to foreign investment, and greater participation in regional value c…
A series of unforeseen events caused an abrupt halt to the Philippines’ strong growth momentum in early 2020. As a result, the Philippine economy contracted by 0.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, a sharp reversal from the 5.7 percent growth over the same period a year ago. The growth contraction – the first in over two decades – was driven by a series of unexpected even…
The country is divided into three main geographical areas from north to south: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The capital city, Manila, is located in Luzon, while the country's most populous city is Quezon City. Both cities, together with other 15 cities and municipalities, form part of Metropolitan Manila (Metro Manila), known as the National Capital Region. Metro Manila is the most densely popu…
Wildfire smoke events can occur without warning – but we can be prepared. This Guide is intended to provide state, tribal, and local public health officials with information they need to be prepared for smoke events and, when wildfire smoke is present, to communicate health risks and take measures to protect the public. Although developed for public health officials, the information in this d…
If managed sustainably, forests play an indispensable role in climate and biodiversity protection. They protect soils and water resources, provide livelihoods, and contribute to the wellbeing of rural and urban communities. European forests are multifunctional, providing a range of ecosystem services, including the production of renewable materials that are able to substitute for alternatives w…
Forests are home to a huge variety of plant and animal life – from tiny microscopic fungi species, to enormous trees that are sometimes taller than 80 metres high. Forests provide vital services that ensure people have clean air to breathe and water to drink (and they do it all for free!). For some people, the forest is a place where they go for work, for religious practices or even just for …
For Americans, preparedness must now account for man-made disasters as well as natural ones. Knowing what to do during an emergency is an important part of being prepared and may make all the difference when seconds count. Some of the things you can do to prepare for the unexpected, such as making an emergency supply kit and developing an emergency plan, are the same for both a natural or man-m…
The Church’s liturgical seasons are a study in change, especially during Lent and Easter. In this booklet, we focus on the dramatic changes in the life of Jesus—and on Lent’s insistent call to change our own lives. Jesus’ encounters with darkness and evil, including his betrayal and arrest and his death on the cross, attest to the reality of suffering in life, accepting what we must, an…
Every culture and society has read stories in the night sky. From the careful attention of astronomers across all times and all parts of the world to the search for alien life, the stories found in the shapes of constellations to the expansive imaginings of science fiction, there has always been life up there, at the very least, for our imaginations. Mythologies of Outer Space brings together a…
The authors comprehensively analyze all the available information regarding the ritual practices of Slavic pre-Christian religion that can be found in written medieval texts. After investigating every kind of reference to such practices, they offer a reconstruction of Slavic pre-Christian religion on the basis of these medieval testimonies. In doing so, they overcome the challenges presented by…
This book examines the ways in which people wrote about and engaged with infertility in the German Middle Ages. Striking differences emerge across the vernacular stories, legends, and romances concerned. For some, childlessness is a huge problem, for others, a high ideal. Regina Toepfer considers the reasons for these differences, and how ideas changed over the period, revealing different narra…
Soils long have been taken for granted being so commonplace and lacking often striking features. However, soil is one of the most complex media on Earth, vital for the biogeosphere and human civilization. With increased usage of soil for world food production, building materials, waste repositories, etc awareness has grown for the need of better global understanding of soil and its processes. …
The interplay between Geology and Biology has shaped the Earth from the early Precambrian, 4 billion years ago. Moving beyond the borders of the classical core disciplines, Geobiology strives to identify chains of cause-and-effect and synergisms between the geo- and the biospheres that have been driving the evolution of life in modern and ancient environments. Combining modern methods, geobiolo…
Earned Outstanding Academic Title distinction for Earth Sciences titles 2010 from the library magazine CHOICE While the human imprint is becoming increasingly apparent, Earth’s climate has shifted dramatically and frequently during the last few million years, alternating between ice ages, when vast glaciers covered Northern Europe and much of North America, and interglacials ? warm periods…
What are the forces behind ballistics? Why do rocks and rockets soar through the air in an arch? The game is on the line. Suddenly, you hear the crack of a bat and the roar of crowd. Where will the ball land? How far will it travel? Is it a home run? You might think that hitting a home run or nailing a three-pointer is just luck, but there are many forces at work that determine if you’v…
Perjalanan panjang Valadin mengumpulkan Relik Elemental selesai sudah. Berbekal kepingan-kepingan kekuatan Aether, Valadin menuju Laut Kematian untuk menyatukan ketujuh Relik. Tapi sebelum bisa melakukannya, masih ada SATU ujian terakhir. Ujian yang sangat berat, yang berakar dari sejarah kelam Benua Ther Melian. Sementara itu, Vrey dan teman-temannya mendapat bantuan dari seorang wanita mist…
This anthology explores food and cultural heritage from various eras to show how food history helps us understand the past, present, and future. It provides new insight into local food cultures and focuses on the creative use of historical food culture for the future. The chapters cover new research on medieval food culture, starting with the Viking ship excavation at Gjellestad, which sheds li…
Education, mental health and the arts all share a concern for human beings and for how they live their lives. Living one’s life, and living it well, has always been a challenge – life never simply happens. But what the particular challenges are, differs from time to time, from location to location, and even from individual to individual.In both education and mental health there is a strong …
Veronika yang berumur 24 tahun seakan memiliki kehidupan sempurna -- muda dan cantik, punya kekasih, keluarga yang menyayanginya, pekerjaan yang disukainya. Namun ada sesuatu yang hilang dalam hidupnya. Maka, pada suatu pagi bulan November yang dingin, Veronika menenggak segenggam pil tidur dan berharap tidak akan bangun lagi. Tapi dia terbangun -- di rumah sakit jiwa, dan diberitahu hidupnya t…
This thematic report documents concerns regarding Israel's use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas during the escalation in hostilities in Gaza since 7 October 2023, and how this complies with international humanitarian law (IHL), particularly in relation to the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack. It details six individual inc…
This paper is a review of research on psychological abuse in interpersonal and family relationships including in settings such as long-term care residences. There is no simple definition of psychological abuse. Generally, researchers and front line service providers define it as the systemic destruction of a person’s self-esteem and/or sense of safety, often occurring in relationships where t…
Mexico is a nation undergoing rapid change. Past characterizations of the country as rural, undemocratic, and protectionist have been replaced in the last decades of the twentieth century bydescriptions that refer to Mexico as urban, opening to democracy, and market-oriented. For a country composed mostly of peasants before the Revolution (1910—20), Mexico has undergone broad and rapid urbani…
According to the 2023 Democracy Index, 74 of the 167 countries and territories covered by the model are democracies of some type. The number of “full democracies” (those scoring more than 8.00 out of 10) remained at 24 in 2023, the same as the previous year. The number of “flawed democracies” increased from 48 in 2022 to 50 in 2023. Of the remaining 95 countries in our index, 34 are cla…
The way in which these six problems interact has far-reaching consequences for the day-to-day conduct of public affairs, the rights and freedoms of citizens and the legitimacy of the democratic system. The assessment points to the economic vulnerability of the lower middle class, due to the fragmentation of the labor market (formalityinformality, low-high productivity) and the segmentation of …
In 2024, the Biden administration issued a policy that will make over four million workers newly eligible to qualify for overtime pay. The U.S. Department of Labor did this by raising the “overtime threshold,” which is the salary ceiling under which salaried workers still qualify automatically for overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours in a week, even though those workers are not …
Spurred by public investment, its growth rate averaged more than 9 percent between 2000 and 2017. Gross domestic product per capita (measured in purchasing power parity or PPP has risen nine-fold since 1991, but remains low compared to other parts of the world (for example, emerging and developing Asian countries (figure 1)). Initially, per capita GDP growth barely exceeded population growth b…
Ethiopia is a landlocked country with boundaries from latitude 3N to 15N and from longitude 33 to 48, enclosing an area of 1,127,127 square kilometers (435,186 square miles). Occupying most of the orn of frica, the landmass of Ethiopia is roughly three times the size of alifornia. thiopia comprises two geographic areas: the cool highlands and the hot lowlands. The Great ift Valley divides the…
The fishing vessel owner has a duty to ensure the health and safety of fishermen and other persons so far as is reasonably practicable. The fishing vessel owner (which includes the manager if they have assumed responsibility for the operation of the vessel) has overall responsibility to ensure that the skipper is provided with the necessary resources and facilities to comply with the regulation…
Chapter 1 of this report provides an overview of the agricultural sector, paying particular attention to the Poultry sub-sector in South Africa. The first section of this chapter looks at the scope of the Poultry sub-sector’s coverage. The second section describes the AgriSETA stakeholders and key role-players in the Poultry sub-sector. The third section looks at the economic performance of t…
The development of Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Poultry is an important initiative of Australian governments to guide new, nationally consistent policies to enhance animal welfare arrangements in all Australian states and territories. The development process is supported and funded by all governments and the major poultry industries. The standards provide a basis for d…
The manual was produced by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and developed for the Knowledge Centres for Organic Agriculture (KCOA) in Africa implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany. All the information contained in this manual has been compiled …
In Canada, dietary risks are one of the three leading risk factors for disease burden, as measured by death and disability combined.7 Tobacco use and high body mass index (BMI) are the other two.Chronic diseases impacted by diet—namely ischemic heart disease, stroke, colorectal cancer, diabetes, and breast cancer— are among the leading causes of premature death in Canada.7,8 The burden of …
Another way to reach Bali is through the sea by ferry boat. There are two harbours in Bali, namely Gilimanuk Harbour that can be reached from Ketapang Port, Banyuwangi, by crossing Bali Strait. Another harbor is Padang Bai that can be reached from Lembar Port, Lombok by crossing Lombok Strait. There are a lot of public transportations and taxi around tourist attractions in Bali. Visitors also c…
The following information is provided for individuals preparing for the physical demands of Initial Military Training (IMT). The staff of the U.S. Army Physical Fitness School (USAPFS) prepared this Pocket Physical Training Guide. This document is the sole property of United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and is intended for use by U.S. Army Recruiters to assist future Soldi…
DK Eyewitness Travel Guides: the most maps, photography, and illustrations of any guide. DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Krakow is your in-depth guide to the very best of the city of Krakow. Enjoy the old-world beauty of Krakow with our DK Eyewitness Travel Guide, your companion for discovering what the oldest city in Poland has to offer visitors. Enjoy scenic walks exploring Krakow's unique ar…
With the arrival of a so-called Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, Christian leaders gained the long-awaited tolerance of the empire. Christianity’s transition into the favored religious cult of the imperial household and Roman elite involved significant growing pains. The road to conformity was anything but smooth, as a series of controversial ecumenical councils demonstrated. I…