Tracks And Shadows

Intellectually rich, intensely personal, and beautifully written, Tracks and Shadows is both an absorbing autobiography of a celebrated field biologist and a celebration of beauty in nature. Harry W. Greene, award-winning author of Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature, delves into the poetry of field biology, showing how nature eases our existential quandaries. More than a memoir, the book is about the wonder of snakes, the beauty of studying and understanding natural history, and the importance of sharing the love of nature with humanity. Greene begins with his youthful curiosity about the natural world and moves to his stints as a mortician's assistant, ambulance driver, and army medic. In detailing his academic career, he describes how his work led him to believe that nature’s most profound lessons lurk in hard-won details. He discusses the nuts and bolts of field research and teaching, contrasts the emotional impact of hot dry habitats with hot wet ones, imparts the basics of snake biology, and introduces the great explorers Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. He reflects on friendship and happiness, tackles notions like anthropomorphism and wilderness, and argues that organisms remain the core of biology, science plays key roles in conservation, and natural history offers an enlightened form of contentment.

Nonlinear (NLE), or digital, editing software permits the manipulation of digitized video. Editors can cut, splice, create transitions, and do much more than was ever possible with conventional film editing techniques. In Vegas Editing Workshop 5, novice to intermediate Vegas users, including professional and hobbyist filmmakers, learn how to master the craft of editing with the latest version of Vegas, an NLE software application for the PC platform. This editing workshop, complete with a DVD Architect tool set, delivers firsthand guidance on the art and technique of editing using tutorial lessons that cover every essential operation. Experienced editors and novices alike benefit from real-world examples of how to work more efficiently. The book also covers the application's exceptional audio features.

The New York Times bestseller “The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero.” —Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice) “One gorgeous read.” —Stephen King Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

The Surveillance Systems Project is directed toward increasing knowledge related to the techniques and procedures for interpreting aerial imagery and reducing extracted information to its most usable form. One Task, specifically concerned with image interpretation displays, conducts research to develop improved reference materials to assist image interpreters in locating and correctly identifying objects of military significance in aerial photographs. Specially developed reference keys are tested in controlled studies with interpreter output measures as criteria. The present publication describes one of the first such studies. An 'error key', developed through analysis of interpreter errors and designed to help interpreters avoid common misidentifications, and a 'rights key' similar to keys currently used by image interpreters, were provided to accompany two sets of aerial imagery. Two performance measures based on this imagery were administered to three matched groups of interpreter trainees. One group used the 'error key', another group used the 'rights key', and a control group used no reference key. Performance data for the three groups--correct identifications, errors, and interpreters' confidence in their identifications--were analyzed. The 'error keys' resulted in substantial decrease in errors and increase in accuracy, but no difference in number of correct identifications. They also affected the differential between interpreters' confidence in right and wrong identifications, increasing the amount of difference in one performance measure, and decreasing the amount in the other. The 'rights key' did not have a significant effect on any aspect of performance measured.

Sylvie Lightner is no ordinary P.I. She specializes in cases involving the unusual, in a world where magic is real-and where death isn't the worst thing that can happen to you. But when an employee is murdered in front of her, Sylvie has had enough. After years of confounding the dark forces of the Magicus Mundi, she's closing up shop-until a man claiming to be the God of Justice wants Sylvie to find his lost lover. And he won't take no for an answer.