Visions For The Masses

This collection of Chinese shadow plays contains seven selected traditional shadow plays from the Qing and early Republican periods from Shaanxi and Shanxi. A minor operatic genre, the Chinese shadow theatre provides one of the best avenues for examining the mentality and sense of humor of the silent masses. Although Shaanxi sports the largest number of shadow traditions in China and is where the art form is most vibrant, its shadow plays have never before been published in either Chinese or English. Translated from rare hand-copied play scripts, this volume includes the most literary and refined plays of the genre as well as coarser popular plays and farcical Post-midnight skits. It also features a survey of the state of the shadow theatre in contemporary China, extensive critical introductions and bibliography.

First in a new back-to- back series from the New York Times bestselling author Hailed as "a star in any genre,"(New York Times bestselling author J. R. Ward) Christina Dodd delivers an exciting new paranormal romance that introduces The Seven, a secret society created to combat evil in all its deadly forms...

Plastic Madonnas, packaged holy tours, and biblical theme parks can arouse discomfort, laughter, and even revulsion in religious believers and nonbelievers alike. Scholars, too, often see the intermingling of religion and commerce as a corruption of true spirituality. Suzanne K. Kaufman challenges these assumptions in her examination of the Lourdes pilgrimage in late nineteenth-century France.Consuming Visions offers new ways to interpret material forms of worship, female piety, and modern commercial culture. Kaufman argues that the melding of traditional pilgrimage activities with a newly developing mass culture produced fresh expressions of popular faith. For the devout women of humble origins who flocked to the shrine, this intensely exciting commercialized worship offered unprecedented opportunities to connect with the sacred and express their faith in God.New devotional activities at Lourdes transformed the act of pilgrimage: the train became a moving chapel, and popular entertainments such as wax museums offered vivid recreations of visionary events. Using the press and the strategies of a new advertising industry to bring a mass audience to Lourdes, Church authorities remade centuries-old practices of miraculous healing into a modern public spectacle. These innovations made Lourdes one of the most visited holy sites in Catholic Europe.Yet mass pilgrimage also created problems. The development of Lourdes, while making religious practice more democratically accessible, touched off fierce conflicts over the rituals and entertainments provided by the shrine. These conflicts between believers and secularists played out in press scandals across the European continent. By taking the shrine seriously as a site of mass culture, Kaufman not only breaks down the opposition between sacred and profane but also deepens our understanding of commercialized religion as a fundamental feature of modernity itself.

Why do millions of tech startups fail every year? Despite having a good product, customers, and even help from accelerator and seed programs, many new tech companies simply don't succeed. What's missing? Operational structure.The Vision to Value Framework is an operational model designed to help tech organizations scale growth in a sustainable and profitable way. The book introduces the model, its scope, and its impact on organizations. Vision to Value compiles the experience and strategy of tech entrepreneur and startup co-founder Luis Gomes de Abreu in his journey to scaling Amsterdam-based Nmbrs, and the organization's 10-year journey of growth. With a focus on building mindset, strategy, and formal structure to support increasing operations, the book works to bridge the gap between startup and a scaled organization. Featuring theoretical as well as practical information, the Vision to Value lays the foundations for designing an organization around agility, scalability, and delivering value to the end-user. Strategy, tips, and ideas function to guide leaders in technical operations towards setting up product development structure, customer support, developing business processes, and organizing teams, while highlighting many of the issues contributing to organizational failure, and some approaches to solving them. Most importantly, Vision to Value focuses on designing structure, organizing teams, and creating an operational model designed to support growth - so that anyone can realize those ideas inside their own organization.

A companion to Diné Perspectives: Revitalizing and Reclaiming Navajo Thought, each chapter of Navajo Sovereignty offers the contributors' individual perspectives. This book discusses Western law's view of Diné sovereignty, research, activism, creativity, and community, and Navajo sovereignty in traditional education. Above all, Lloyd L. Lee and the contributing scholars and community members call for the rethinking of Navajo sovereignty in a way more rooted in Navajo beliefs, culture, and values.

The problem of mass blindness today stems largely from cataract which accounts for a total of 40 million cataract victims in the world — and it will worsen with the ageing population. Fortunately, this problem can be resolved with cost effective extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) and posterior chamber implantation (PCI).This book highlights how the use of ECCE and PCI can restore normal vision to cataract victims around the world.A successful approach is to establish training centres. The success of the International Intraocular Implant Training Centre (IIITC) in the Peoples' Republic of China is cited to show that implant surgery for cataracts can be successfully performed in communities in developing nations in Asia with appropriate training and supervision. The centre has since yielded excellent results with cost effective ECCE and PCI. The book challenges eye surgeons around the world to unite to address a global need to contain world cataract blindness.

The Future of Freedom¾as Explored by Top Science Fiction Writers in a New Volume of All Original Stories. As Thomas Jefferson put it, "That government is best which governs least." And, as Will Rogers wryly quipped, "We're lucky we don't get all the government we pay for!" In Visions of Liberty, ten top science fiction writers, several of them Hugo or Nebula award-winners, create ten very different futures in which Government does not exist and explore the possibilities of a truly free society. Among the roster: Hugo winner and Grand Master Jack Williamson; Michael Resnick, winner of four Hugos and a Nebula, and author of the international bestseller, Santiago; Michael A. Stackpole, author of eight New York Times best sellers; best-selling novelist Jane Lindskold, New York Times best-selling author James P. Hogan, Robert J. Sawyer, winner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year; and more. As threats to liberty arise in our own time, so it will be in the future. In this volume, a stellar cast of SF luminaries consider how the future might be different¾and how freedom might truly triumph. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). Praise for the science fiction anthologies of Martin Harry Greenberg: Greenbergs choices are impeccable. -Booklist That rare achievement: a theme anthology that works. . . . Provocative and well-planned. -Kirkus Reviews Sheer enjoyability. . . . a fine mix of stories provokes everything from meditation to laughter. -Library Journal