Semper Cool

The history and lore of the United States Marine Corps are likely unmatched. Steeped in the rich history and tradition of the Corps since its founding in 1775, this book focuses on more recent history, specifically the author’s experiences as a young Marine in the 1960s, including his tour of duty in Vietnam. It also includes biographical profiles of more than 100 other Marines who fought in Vietnam or other conflicts. Most of those profiled are Marines with whom the author served or has come to know since his active military service. The 30th Marine Commandant, General Carl Mundy, has written: “Few who have borne the title [United States Marine] fail to identify with it throughout their entire lives.” Marines are, as Shakespeare has written, “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” And brothers are members of a family. This family is “The few. The proud. The Marines.”

This is a story of a man's journey, searching for the answers to his sons' questions. As the man learns the truth-how one person was able to do an unspeakable thing to make herself feel better on the pain and humiliation of an innocent man-he is haunted in his dreams by his past. The only way he can find peace is for the people that caused the pain and humiliation to reveal the truth and answer his sons' questions. The consequences of that decision ends in reality.

Basic Christian Living is a survey course covering the fundamentals of the Christian life. The book's topics can be divided into three broad categories: basic doctrine for new believers (confession of sin, the nature of worship, assurance of salvation, and more), basic wisdom for living in community(relationships, conversation, the meaning of masculinity and femininity, etc.), and cultural criticism for beginners (authenticity, the "cool," and competition and ambition, for starters). Each bite-size chapter contains a worksheet of questions from relevant portions of the Bible, along with a full answer key. Whether you're a teacher wanting to offer a practical class on Christianity for students, a pastor needing a text for new believers, or a mature Christian reviewing the big picture, Basic Christian Living is a helpful, important, and encouraging introduction to the foundations of the gospel.

Sailing up the furthest reaches of the Amazon on assignment for the British Secret Service, Alex Hawke is captured by a brutal tribe of indigenous cannibals. Forced into slave labour, he witnesses the unimaginable: vast armies are being recruited and trained deep within the Amazonian jungle. Possessing weapons only dreamed of by the Western allies, their aim is to launch a vicious jihad that will unite one continent - and destroy another. Somehow Hawke must escape his captors and live to tell the tale. From black magic, poison-tipped arrows and blowguns to an awesome arsenal of the most advanced military hardware, Hawke faces insurmountable odds as he searches for a river with no name in a quest to seek out and destroy a lawless mastermind who threatens the West's very existence.

The papers in this volume comprise the refereed proceedings of the Second IFIP International Conference on Computer and Computing Technologies in Agriculture (CCTA2008), in Beijing, China, 2008. The conference on the Second IFIP International Conference on Computer and Computing Technologies in Agriculture (CCTA 2008) is cooperatively sponsored and organized by the China Agricultural University (CAU), the National Engineering Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture (NERCITA), the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering (CSAE) , International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), Beijing Society for Information Technology in Agriculture, China and Beijing Research Center for Agro-products Test and Farmland Inspection, China. The related departments of China’s central government bodies like: Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Education and the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation, Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, etc. have greatly contributed and supported to this event. The conference is as good platform to bring together scientists and researchers, agronomists and information engineers, extension servers and entrepreneurs from a range of disciplines concerned with impact of Information technology for sustainable agriculture and rural development. The representatives of all the supporting organizations, a group of invited speakers, experts and researchers from more than 15 countries, such as: the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Germany, Greece, Australia, Estonia, Japan, Korea, India, Iran, Nigeria, Brazil, China, etc.