What is happiness? What is moral excellence? How can you attain them? Can either be taught? For more than 2,000 years, thoughtful people have been turning to Aristotle (387-321 B.C.) to help them find answers to questions like these. In this meditation on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, an award-winning teacher shows you the clarity and ethical wisdom of one of humanity's greatest minds. In these lectures, Professor Koterski shows how and why this great philosopher can help you deepen and improve your own thinking on questions of morality and the best life.

Them and Us explores mental habits we all use and shows how they can easily lead to hidden bias and prejudice. Stereotype and prejudice is not limited to the ignorant or closed-minded. Its beginnings lie in the almost automatic need to group people into categories and to identify clear “us” and “them” groups. The program assumes it is better to identify and challenge your own bias rather than declare yourself bias-free.

Leading executive coach and business consultant Susan Scott says, our work, our relationships, and our lives succeed or fail one conversation at a time. In Fierce Conversations she gives listeners the principles and tools to engage colleagues, customers, friends, and family to provoke learning, tackle tough challenges, and enrich relationships.

However Judaism is defined, the beliefs, practices, attitudes, and institutions of Jews through the ages display a striking diversity, despite the fact that all would ascribe to a common heritage. Professor Isaiah M. Gafni of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem addresses these and other issues as he explores the ever-changing 4,000-year-old saga of Judaism, one of the world's most ancient and influential religions. 

University professor and international government and media consultant John L. Esposito guides you through the facts and myths surrounding Islam and its more than 1.2 billion adherents. This course will help you better understand Islam's role as both a religion and a way of life, and its deep impact on world affairs both historically and today. 

In this series, Professor Johnson provides an overview of Christianity, the world’s largest religion, and discusses why, in addition to being vast and popular, it is also extremely complex and often highly contradictory. "The lectures concentrate on the basics," says Professor Johnson. "They seek to provide a clear survey of the most important elements of this religious tradition and a framework for the student's further study."

The last decade saw the arrival of a new player in the creation/evolution debate--the intelligent design creationism (IDC) movement, whose strategy is to act as "the wedge" to overturn Darwinism and scientific naturalism. The book contains articles previously published in specialized, hard-to-find journals, as well as new contributions. Each section contains introductory background information, articles by influential creationists and their critics, and in some cases responses by the creationists. 

Lioness tells the story of a group of female Army support soldiers who were part of the first program in American history to send women into direct ground combat.

Professor Robert Bucholz presents a sweeping, 48-lecture course on one of the most intriguing times in modern history. England’s changing social, economic, religious, and political structures unfold while first the Tudors (1485–1603) and then the Stuarts (1603–1714) establish their monarchies. You learn about great works of art, important discoveries, castles, and coronations. And with the rich history of England’s monarchs you also learn how the English people were born, worked, played, worshipped, fell in love, and died.

Professor Childers has designed this course to answer two burning questions that have nagged generations for decades, ever since Hitler and Nazism were destroyed. 1) How could a man like Adolf Hitler and a movement like Nazism come to power in 20th-century Germany? An industrially developed country with a highly educated population, it lies within the very heart of Western Europe. 2) How were the Nazis able to establish the foundations of a totalitarian regime in such a short time and hurl all of Europe—and the world—into a devastating war that would consume so many millions of lives?

From the death of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. to the fall of Rome in 476 A.D., Dark History of the Roman Emperors reveals the adultery, incest, profligacy, sadism and insanity of Rome’s 500 year empire. Featuring such notorious names as Claudius, Tiberius, and Commodus, this book retells all of the most salacious and eye-opening accounts of imperial misdeeds, drawing on many original Roman sources.

The three-hour two-DVD set is divided into nine 20-minute segments that examine the Civil War from multiple perspectives: the background of the war, military campaigns, the African-American experience, leading Virginia personalities, the common soldiers, home front activities and legacies of the war for all Americans. 

The 2010 Edition of Who's Who in America provides information on over 95,000 of the nation's most noteworthy people in a single, comprehensive resource. Compiled by the Marquis Who's Who editors, this trusted book is the ultimate biographical reference tool for networking, prospecting, fact-checking, and numerous other research purposes.

From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals in his spellbinding new book, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a fifty-five-year epic that is at once tragic, heroic, exhilarating, and profound.

Spotsylvania County, Virginia, was established in 1721, but it was not until after the Civil War that the names of approximately 4,700 African Americans born and/or living in the county were recorded for the first time. The African American community emerged from the ravages of war after more than 140 years of slavery. The community formalized the institutions they developed for survival during those years and charted a path for their growth. This volume pays homage to religion, work, service, education, and the human touch that brought families through undeniably difficult times.

“Provide anonymous feedback.” “Hire smart people.” “Hold people accountable.” These are all sound, business practices, right? Not so fast, says leadership visionary and bestselling author Susan Scott. In Fierce Leadership, Scott teaches us how to spot the worst “best” practices in our organizations using a technique she calls “squid eye”–the ability to see the “tells” or signs that we have fallen prey to disastrous behaviors by knowing what to look for.

In Leading Change, Kotter identifies an eight-step process that every company must go through to achieve its goal, and shows where and how people—good people—often derail. Emphasizing again and again the critical need for leadership to make change happen, Leading Change provides unprecedented access to our generation's business master and a positive role model for leaders to emulate.

In Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni offers more specific, practical guidance for overcoming the Five Dysfunctions—using tools, exercises, assessments, and real-world examples. He examines questions that all teams must ask themselves: Are we really a team? How are we currently performing? Are we prepared to invest the time and energy required to be a great team? Written concisely and to the point, this guide gives leaders, line managers, and consultants alike the tools they need to get their teams up and running quickly and effectively.

Charon introduces sociology by posing ten questions and answers that reveal the field's approach to the study of society, human nature, and the role of the individual in society. This book examines the philosophies of the classical sociologists such as Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Mead, and Berger and looks at how the field of sociology has approached these questions over the past 150 years.

Roger Nierenberg, a veteran conductor, is the creator of The Music Paradigm, a unique program that invites people to sit INSIDE a professional symphony orchestra as the musicians and conductor solve problems together. He captures that experience in this book, a parable about a rising executive tough challenges. The narrator befriends an orchestra conductor and is inspired to think about leadership and communication in an entirely new way.

This video series explores some of the many religions and cultures with which law enforcement officials come into contact. For each culture, attention is given to language, customary practices in social interaction, dominant religious beliefs, and dominant attitudes toward police in the countries where the culture is present. Each video clip offers tips on working with people of different faiths and backgrounds, including suggestions for inoffensive law enforcement techniques. 

Ultimate Survivors II includes dramatic, heart-stopping, life-or-death situations in which five officers rely upon their training, quick thinking, instinct and will to survive. The 89-minute DVD features stories of survival, such as a routine traffic stop that erupted into a gun battle for two officers, an officer gunned down after a high-speed pursuit and more.

Featuring New York University professors, this program examines issues in cross-cultural communication. It discusses public behavior and taboos, power, stereotyping and prejudice, miscommunication, time conceptualization, socialization, direct and indirect communication, and high context versus low context cultures. The program features illustrative vignettes and offers practical applications for cross-cultural communication skills.

This book is an annual supplement to the Officer’s Search and Seizure Handbook, it contains many of the most important cases from throughout the United States for 2008. Each case includes the court’s holdings, the facts of the case, and an analysis. The cases are organized to follow the topics in the chapters, so it is easy to follow trends in this area of law. 

This is the new edition of the Modern Language Association's handbook, the origin of which goes back to the "style sheet" first published in 1951. Writing style, abbreviations, proper citations, and formatting are covered, along with new material on citing electronic information. The new edition presents a comprehensive guide to preparing research papers and includes detailed coverage using computers for research and citing electronic publications.

A must-read for anyone concerned with the disturbing fact that Americans can no longer count on each generation being better educated than the last. This groundbreaking book sheds light on such serious issues as dropout rates linked to race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Probing graduation rates at twenty-one flagship public universities and four statewide systems of public higher education, the authors focus on the progress of students in the entering class of 1999--from entry to graduation, transfer, or withdrawal. They examine the effects of parental education, family income, race and gender, high school grades, test scores, financial aid, and characteristics of universities attended (especially their selectivity).

"Washtenaw Community College is truly a grass-root institution, born of the needs, vision, and dreams of the people of Washtenaw County," observed Tony Procassini, former WCC Board of Trustees Chairman. This is the story of the turbulent times, remarkable people, and the fierce commitment that built the fledgling College into a remarkable, ground-breaking educational institution. 

This course can permanently enrich your life: With Professor Greenberg as your teacher, you will hear and understand an entire language of unmatched beauty, genius, and power. He provides understanding of musical forms, techniques, and terms and of the reciprocal relationship of social context and musical creation, using digitally recorded music to illustrate points and examining the contributions of nearly every major western composer. 

Ranging from Hollywood movies and prime-time dramas to reality programming and the local news, the film examines how media violence forms a pervasive cultural environment that cultivates in heavy viewers, especially, a heightened state of insecurity, exaggerated perceptions of risk and danger, and a fear-driven propensity for hard-line political solutions to social problems.

A Beautiful Mind stars Russell Crowe in an astonishing performance as brilliant mathematician John Nash, on the brink of international acclaim when he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. Now only his devoted wife (Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly) can help him in this powerful story of courage, passion and triumph.

As uplifting as the tale of Scrooge itself, this is the story of how one writer and one book revived the signal holiday of the Western world. Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay. His publisher turned it down, so Dickens used what little money he had to put out A Christmas Carol himself. With warmth, wit, and an infusion of Christmas cheer, Les Standiford whisks us back to Victorian England, its most beloved storyteller, and the birth of the Christmas we know best. The Man Who Invented Christmas is a rich and satisfying read for Scrooges and sentimentalists alike.

New Presidential Administration, the Auto Industry, and Energy Among Topics, with Speeches by Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, Bobby Jindal, Adolfo Carrion, Jr., and Others. Twenty-two speeches are presented in total. Each is prefaced by an editor's introduction noting the date and audience and summarizing the speech and its context.

When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory -- a victory with profound implications for NASA policy and the impending presidential election. To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. 

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives. Told with deceptive simplicity, this is the proactive story of a boy who experiences something incredible and undertakes something impossible. 

Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife.

Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm.

The Help is set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. 

Trofim Lysenko's campaign against genetics and biology during the era of Stalin and Khrushchev is one of the great tragedies of modern science. In the purges that Lysenko (1898-1976) instigated, even the greatest of Soviet scientists were not safe. Only in 1964, when Khrushchev fell from power and when massive crop failures revealed the emptiness of the peasant-scientist's theories, did Lysenko lose favor. Even now, his long shadow stretches over the countries of the former Soviet Union as they deal with the disastrous consequences of Lysenkoist policies on science, agriculture, medicine, and the environment.

In this intellectually challenging book, Ilya Prigogine tackles some of the difficult questions that bedevil physicists trying to provide an explanation for the world we observe. Time, the fundamental dimension of our existence, has fascinated artists, philosophers, and scientists of every culture and every century. All of us can remember a moment as a child when time became a personal reality, when we realized what a "year" was, or asked ourselves when "now" happened. Common sense says time moves forward, never backward, from cradle to grave. 

Global warming is contentious and difficult to measure, even among the majority of scientists who agree that it is taking place. Will temperatures rise by 2oC or 8oC over the next hundred years? Will sea levels rise by 2 or 30 feet? The only way that we can accurately answer questions like these is by looking into the distant past, for a comparison with the world long before the rise of mankind. We may currently believe that atmospheric shifts, like global warming, result from our impact on the planet, but the earth's atmosphere has been dramatically shifting since its creation. Drawing on evidence from fossil plants and animals, computer models of the atmosphere, and experimental studies, David Beerling reveals the crucial role that plants have played in determining atmospheric change—and hence the conditions on the planet we know today— something that has often been overlooked amidst the preoccuputations with dinosaur bones and animal fossils. 

Focusing on evolution, oddities of nature, remote connections between historical figures and the battle against creationism, these essays record a sixty-year battle against creationism, the bicentennial of the French Revolution, the triumph of Voyager's fly-by of Neptune, and other wonders of the world.

Biology until recently has been the neglected stepchild of science, and many educated people have little grasp of how biology explains the natural world. Yet to address the major political and moral questions that face us today, we must acquire an understanding of their biological roots. This magisterial new book by Ernst Mayr will go far to remedy this situation. An eyewitness to this century's relentless biological advance and the creator of some of its most important concepts, Mayr is uniquely qualified to offer a vision of science that places biology firmly at the center, and a vision of biology that restores the primacy of holistic, evolutionary thinking.

Cradle of Life is a great primer for those interested in the fossil record and its relation to evolutionary theory. Profusely illustrated, this chronicle of amazing discoveries and bizarre questions covers wide ground, including the basics of cell biology and microevolution as well as the careers of the big-name scientists who have set the fossil record straight. 

This new book, a collection of some revised and some new essays, explores biology as an autonomous science, offers insights on the history of evolutionary thought, critiques the contributions of philosophy to the science of biology, and comments on several of the major ongoing issues in evolutionary theory. Those interested in evolutionary theory or the philosophy and history of science will find useful ideas in this book, which should appeal to virtually anyone with a broad curiosity about biology. 

Microbes have long been considered dangerous and disgusting-in short, "scum." But by forming mutually beneficial relationships with nearly every creature, be it alga with animals or zooplankton with zebrafish, microbes have in fact been innovative players in the evolutionary process. Now, biologist and award-winning science writer Tom Wakeford shows us this extraordinary process at work. He takes us to such far-flung locales as underwater volcanoes, African termite mounds, the belly of a cow and even the gaps between our teeth, and there introduces us to a microscopic world at turns bizarre, seductive, and frightening, but ever responsible for advancing life in our macroscopic world. 

Life's Solution builds a persuasive case for the predictability of evolutionary outcomes. The case rests on a remarkable compilation of examples of convergent evolution, in which two or more lineages have independently evolved similar structures and functions. The examples range from the aerodynamics of hovering moths and hummingbirds to the use of silk by spiders and some insects to capture prey. Going against the grain of Darwinian orthodoxy, this book is a must read for anyone grappling with the meaning of evolution and our place in the Universe.

With unparalleled wit, clarity, and intelligence, Richard Dawkins, one of the world's most renowned evolutionary biologists, has introduced countless readers to the wonders of science in works such as The Selfish Gene. Now, in The Ancestor's Tale, Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and a riveting read.

Why Evolution Is True weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy that demonstrate the “indelible stamp” of the processes first proposed by Darwin. In crisp, lucid prose accessible to a wide audience, Why Evolution Is True dispels common misunderstandings and fears about evolution and clearly confirms that this amazing process of change has been firmly established as a scientific truth.

The Greatest Show on Earth is a stunning counterattack on advocates of Intelligent Design, explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist argument. Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics. Combining these elements and many more, he makes the airtight case that we find ourselves perched on one tiny twig in the midst of a blossoming and flourishing tree of life and it is no accident, but the direct consequence of evolution by non-random selection.

Scientists, theologians, and philosophers have all sought to answer the questions of why we are here and where we are going. Finding this natural basis of life has proved elusive, but in the eloquent and creative Into the Cool, Eric D. Schneider and Dorion Sagan look for answers in a surprising place: the second law of thermodynamics. This second law refers to energy's inevitable tendency to change from being concentrated in one place to becoming spread out over time. In this scientific tour de force, Schneider and Sagan show how the second law is behind evolution, ecology, economics, and even life's origin.

In Where Our Food Comes From, Gary Paul Nabhan weaves together Vavilov’s extraordinary story with his own expeditions to Earth’s richest agricultural landscapes and the cultures that tend them. Retracing Vavilov’s path from Mexico and the Colombian Amazon to the glaciers of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, he draws a vibrant portrait of changes that have occurred since Vavilov’s time and why they matter. In his travels, Nabhan shows how climate change, free trade policies, genetic engineering, and loss of traditional knowledge are threatening our food supply. Through discussions with local farmers, visits to local outdoor markets, and comparison of his own observations in eleven countries to those recorded in Vavilov’s journals and photos, Nabhan reveals just how much diversity has already been lost. But he also shows what resilient farmers and scientists in many regions are doing to save the remaining living riches of our world.

Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik--the "missing link" that made headlines around the world in April 2006--tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria. 

All creatures fit in one of two groups or domains of life: single-celled and multi-celled organisms -- or do they? Archaea, biochemically & genetically unique organisms live & thrive in some of the most inhospitable environments on Earth & are an entirely distinct form of life. The Third Domain tells the story of their strange potential and investigates their incredible history to provide a riveting account of an astonishing discovery.

Featuring 450 large full-color illustrations, this comprehensive atlas shows how more than 200 disorders can disrupt the human body's equilibrium. It is designed to help healthcare professionals visualize disease processes, understand the rationales for clinical interventions, and explain to patients how diseases develop and progress.

This concise guide to EKG interpretation is the perfect resource for nurses in the clinical setting. It’s a concise yet complete resource which includes topics such as brief anatomy of the heart, action potential of the cardiac cell, depolarization, and repolarization, abnormal electrical conduction pathways, blood flow of the cardiac conduction system, EKG leads and electrical activity, calculations of heart rate, speedy six step method for twelve lead EKG analysis and much more.

This book provides a quick reference to nursing diagnoses and collaborative problems authored by the foremost authority on NANDA diagnoses. It uses a two-part format (nursing diagnoses and diagnostic clusters) and an easy-access organization for speedy reference. This edition has been revised to incorporate the 2009/2011 NANDA-approved nursing diagnoses.

An essential resource for any nursing student, this invaluable guide gives you the tools you need to overcome text anxiety and develop effective study habits. Key topics include time management, critical thinking, and problem solving, with tips to help you tackle any nursing test - from a routine quiz to the NCLEX examination. You'll learn how to confidently evaluate and identify the correct answer for a variety of test question types, including alternate item formats, with chapters on the nursing process, prioritization methods, and safety strategies. 

Real Nursing Skills offers students the essential foundation for competency in performing clinical nursing skills. This series consist of 2 DVD-ROMs with comprehensive procedures for over 175 skills.  Demonstrated in hundreds of realistic video clips, animations, illustrations, and photographs.  Throughout the videos, students will experience the real-life aspects of: therapeutic communication between the nurse and the client, the client's reaction to invasive skills, and cultural, gender, and age diversity among nurses and clients. 

In this course, you will explore the political, social, cultural, and economic revolutions that transformed Europe between the arrival of the Black Death in the 14th century and the onset of the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. A remarkable breadth of subjects are covered relating to European history from 1348 to 1715. While religion, politics, wars, and economics dominate Professor Fix's presentation, you will also learn about art, exploration, science, and technology.

William Sannwald guides librarians and other members of a building design team through the stages of the design process. Planning construction of a new library facility or renovation of an existing one can be a daunting task. This book covers everything from choosing an architect to compliance with ADA regulation, telecommunications and electrical equipment, and dealing with graffiti. New to this edition are sections on environmentally friendly design approaches, assessment of current facilities, alternatives to new construction, young adult and children's spaces, and technology advancements.

The Youth Services Forum of the Virginia Library Association sponsors one division-wide award, the Jefferson Cup Award. Instituted in 1983, the Jefferson Cup Award is presented annually to the most distinguished book published for young people in the fields of United States history, biography, or historical fiction. The purpose of the award is to encourage the writing of quality books for young people, to give recognition to authors who write in these disciplines, and to promote the reading of books that illustrate America’s past.