Living in a world circumscribed by up-to-the-minute news and electronic tools we barely master before they are out-of-date, we attempt to shield ourselves from environmental events which threaten to overturn our constructed reality. Naturally, in such fast-paced and topsy-turvy surroundings we watch the sky and earth for signs of regularity; looking to the changing seasons for hope and rejuvenation, and seeking out the voices of those who speak of constancy in the changes of the natural world. Hal Borland was such a voice. Every week, beginning in 1941, in the editorial pages of The New York Times he would speak of living on the land—this natural world we all try to understand. In this collection of 365 of his essays, arranged daily within the twelve months, he writes with a familiarity of the ways of the country that is at once humble and resiliently knowledgeable. In Sundial of the Seasons you will find page-long ruminations on such topics as “Fog” (“a unique blend of mood and weather“), “The Bumblebee” (“Bumblebees tolerate man, up to a point”), “Dandelions” (“Neither flood nor drouth seems to discourage it”), and “Fishing” (“The fish caught are only a lesser part of the catch”), all in celebration of the everyday events of life in the country. Begin each day with the gentle wit and wisdom of the person who, for nearly four decades, wrote his “outdoor editorials” in an engaging and inimitable fashion eagerly read by thousands.

Everyone knows how important positive thoughts are and the consequences of negative thoughts. However, we go beyond this understanding and explain my "thoughts concept" in the form of the very light "micro thoughts" to the heavier "macro thoughts." Included are topics of flowers, plants, animals, physics, astronomy, and much more. Focusing on these amazing topics will open doors to many positive thoughts. Our lives are guided by our thoughts, and our thoughts not only determine who we are but who we will become.

Llewellyn's Herbal Almanac offers a wide variety of practical ideas on how to benefit from nature's most versatile plants. With hands-on projects, fresh ideas, and tips and techniques, this guide is designed for herb enthusiasts of all skill levels. It also features innovative herbal ideas that span gardening, cooking, crafts, health, beauty, history, and lore. This year's edition also includes profiles for ginger, rhubarb, chamomile, sunflower, and comfrey and articles on: Aromatics for Nervous, Respiratory, and Digestive Systems • Edible Wild Herbs and Grasses • Swedish Princess Cake with Matcha • Chewable Herbal Pills • Late-Season Herb Gardening • Italian Citrus Fruits • Soup Garden • Tinctures • Crafting with Recycled Materials • Herbal Bath Recipes • The Gardens of Pompeii • Gourmet Herbal Sandwiches • Conservation Plants • Homemade Herbal Scrubs • And Much More

Written as the successor to Virtual World Design: Creating Immersive Virtual Environments, this book carries the ideas brought forward in its predecessor to new levels of virtual world design exploration and experimentation. Written by an Emmy award-winning designer with 22 years of experience creating virtual environments for television and online communities, Extending Virtual Worlds: Advanced Design for Virtual Environments explores advanced topics such as multi-regional design, game-based sims, and narrative structure for environments. The book provides bedrock knowledge and practical examples of how to leverage design concepts within the intertwined structures of physics engines, level of detail (LOD) systems, and advanced material editors. It also shows designers new ways to influence the experience of virtual world visitors through immersive narrative and storytelling. With over 150 illustrations and 10 step-by-step projects that include the necessary 3D models and modular components, it delivers hours of stimulating creative challenges for people working in public virtual worlds or on private grids. By using this book, novices and advanced users will deepen their understanding of game design and how it can be applied to creating game-based virtual environments. It also serves as a foundational text for class work in distance learning, simulation, and other learning technologies that use virtual environments.

This volume surveys the life and work of the Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay, who is best known for his extraordinary garden, Little Sparta, a unique "poem of place" in which poetry, sculpture, and horticulture intersect. This book directs sustained attention to Finlay the verbal artist, revealing the full breadth and richness of his poetics. It illuminates the evolution from his early years of composing plays, stories, and lyrical poems to his discovery of Concrete poetry and his emergence as a key figure in the international avant-garde of the 1960s.

Traces how the day has served as a key organizing concept in Roman culture—and beyond. How did ancient Romans keep track of time? What constituted a day in ancient Rome was not the same twenty-four hours we know today. In The Ordered Day, James Ker traces how the day served as a key organizing concept, both in antiquity and in modern receptions of ancient Rome. Romans used the story of how the day emerged as a unit of sociocultural time to give order to their own civic and imperial history. Ancient literary descriptions of people's daily routines articulated distinctive forms of life within the social order. And in the imperial period and beyond, outsiders—such as early Christians in their monastic rules and modern antiquarians in books on daily life—ordered their knowledge of Roman life through reworking the day as a heuristic framework. Scholarly interest in Roman time has recently moved from the larger unit of the year and calendar to smaller units of time, especially in the study of sundials and other timekeeping technologies of the ancient Mediterranean. Through extensive analysis of ancient literary texts and material culture as well as modern daily life handbooks, Ker demonstrates the privileged role that "small time" played, and continues to play, in Roman literary and cultural history. Ker argues that the ordering of the day provided the basis for the organizing of history, society, and modern knowledge about ancient Rome. For readers curious about daily life in ancient Rome as well as for students and scholars of Roman history and Latin literature, The Ordered Day provides an accessible and fascinating account of the makings of the Roman day and its relationship to modern time structures.

STEMathematics is an instructional resource designed primarily for secondary level mathematics teachers and students interested in discovering how mathematics describes (and is applied to) our natural world. This resource provides both the historical elements and the technical aspects of various topics in mathematics that provide instructional context in the sciences, technology, and engineering, (STEM) disciplines. The purpose of STEMathematics is to help teachers become more personally interested in the topics they teach and to gain a broader perspective of how mathematics can be integrated with other subject disciplines.