Monday, January 31, 2011

Oman: Politics and Society in the Qaboos State (Columbia/Hurst) Reviews



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Oman: Politics and Society in the Qaboos State (Columbia/Hurst)





With the help of British advisors, Sultan Qaboos overthrew his father, the ruler of Oman, in 1970, yet few expected the new leader to thrive. Sultan Qaboos was an unfamiliar figure to his own people, and Oman was a poor country wracked by multiple civil wars. Nevertheless, Sultan Qaboos cemented his rule by introducing a policy of national unification and assimilating all of Oman into an oil rentier state framework. He also promoted the idea that the figure of the sultan could embody the state, which later led to a celebration of the sultan as an incarnation of Oman's "renaissance."

Based on years of research, Marc Valeri treats the political career of Sultan Qaboos as a case study revealing the social and political mechanisms of authoritarianism in postcolonial states. Valeri examines how Sultan Qaboos established and constantly renewed his base in order to meet internal and external challenges to his power. He also considers what happens when one part of this model, namely an oil-rent economy, falters, and the privileges enjoyed by half the population are no longer tenable.

In particular, Valeri addresses the creation of a different model and how this pursuit depends as much on the network of power and privilege that has developed alongside polity as on the interference of economic and technological forces. At the same time, different and overlapping identities-ethnic, religious, historical, or a combination thereof-persist and in some cases reemerge, intertwining with challenges to wider state- and nation-building exercises and to the regime's legitimizing strategies. In conclusion, Valeri expands his focus beyond the state of Oman, evaluating the practices of other Arab monarchies in Morocco, Jordan, and the Persian Gulf.











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Utah Camping Guide : The essential handbook for planning and enjoying your next outdoors trip



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Utah Camping Guide : The essential handbook for planning and enjoying your next outdoors trip





The Utah Camping Guide is the ultimate Western camping directory detailing thousands of state, federal and private camping sites in Utah and the surrounding states. Each campground listing details the location, number of campsites, maximum RV lengths, facilities and accommodations, reservation information, dates open, limit of stay, fees and managing agency.









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NYC – Metropolitan Museum of Art: Marble statue of Aphrodite



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Some cool Museums images:

NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art: Marble statue of Aphrodite

Museums


Image by wallyg

Marble statue of Aphrodite
Roman, Imperial period, 1st or 2nd century, A.D.
Copy of Greek statue of the 3rd or 2nd century B.C.
The lower legs have been restored with casts taken from the Roman copy in Florence known as the Medici Venus

The goddess of love is shown as though surprised at her bath. Originally, her arms reached forward to shield her breasts and pubis in a gesture that both concealed and accentuated her sexuality.

Statues of Aphrodite in the nude proliferated during the Hellinistic period. All were inspired to some degree by the Aphrodite of Cnidus (Knidos) by Attic sculptor Praxiteles (c.350 BC). That statue, the first major Greek work to show the goddess without clothing, was celebrated throughout antiquity as one of the seven wonders of the world. This particular work has the same gesture of modesty as the Knidos and is very similar to another Roman copy, the so called Medici Venus, which has stood in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence since 1688. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was considered one of the finest ancient works in existence.

Purchase, 1953

**
The April 20, 2007 unveiling of the 30,000 square foot Greek and Roman Galleries concluded a 15-year project and returned thousands of works from the Museums permanent collection to public view. Over 5,300 objects, created between about 900 B.C. and the early fourth century A.D., are displayed, tracing the parallel stories of the evolution of Greek art in the Hellenistic period and the arts of southern Italy and Etruria and culminating in the rich and varied world of the Roman Empire from from the Late Republican period and the Golden Age of Augustuss Principate to the conversion of Constantine the Great in A.D. 312. The centerpiece of the new installation is the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, a monumental, peristyle cour court with a soaring two-story atrium that links the various galleries and themes.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.

In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.

National Historic Register #86003556

British Museum Great Court (#229)

Museums


Image by Christopher Chan

The court has a tessellated glass roof by Foster and Partners (Architects) and Buro Happold (Engineers) covering the entire court and surrounds the original circular British Museum Reading Room in the centre, now a museum. (Wikipedia)

Top Explore Position : 229

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NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art: Winslow Homer's Eagle Head, Manchester, Massachusetts (High Tide)

Museums


Image by wallyg

Eagle Head, Manchester, Massachusetts (High Tide)
1870
Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
Oil on canvas; 26 x 38 in. (66 x 96.5 cm)

When this work was first exhibited in New York in 1870, contemporary critics focused on Homer's technical shortcomings, his subject matter, and the lack of propriety in the bathers' costumes. The discomforting character of the painting, however, went unnoticed by all but a few. Three women bathers, physically close yet estranged and anonymous, are represented with a little dog on a beach. A distant sailboat, birds in flight, and small figures on the shore at the left , add minute, anecdotal notes of interest to an otherwise desolate scene. The unembellished starkness of the image, and the harsh light and long shadows intensify the disquieting quality of the painting.

Gift of Mrs. William F. Milton, 1923 (23.77.2)

**
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.

In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.

National Historic Register #86003556

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Becoming a Family Counselor: A Bridge to Family Therapy Theory and Practice Reviews



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Becoming a Family Counselor: A Bridge to Family Therapy Theory and Practice





A complete and accessible resource for working with couples and families

Becoming a Family Counselor sets a new standard for family therapy texts. Working from a broad historical orientation, it focuses on the common themes that reappear across various theoretical approaches and connects family practice with individual approaches. Crossing boundaries of generation, gender, race, and culture, this useful introduction presents current thinking related to today's practice issues.

The text begins with an overview of couple and family counseling, emphasizing the diversity and unity in the field. The development of the field is examined, from its roots in the nineteenth century through its identity crisis in the 1980s. Subsequent chapters lay out an integrated approach to contemporary family research, theory, and therapy; core chapters focus on understanding the contributions of Behavioral, Organizational, Narrative, Emotional, and Spiritual perspectives (BONES). The last section of the book offers practical chapters on conducting family therapy in organizational contexts that often define the client in individual terms. A change orientation is balanced with a respect for continuity and tradition.

Complete with illuminating case studies, self-evaluation exercises, suggestions for independent study, and current ethics codes, Becoming a Family Counselor is a dynamic resource suitable for both students and practicing mental health professionals. (edited by author)









Price: $ 83.12










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ActiveBeta Indexes: Capturing Systematic Sources of Active Equity Returns (Wiley Finance)



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ActiveBeta Indexes: Capturing Systematic Sources of Active Equity Returns (Wiley Finance)



  • ISBN13: 9780470610022
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed


An informative guide offering new and innovative ways to think about active management and investing


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ActiveBeta Indexes presents exciting new research that shows how above-market returns can be achieved in a low-cost, transparent, and efficient fashion.  Active Betas reflect fundamental investment principles that have long been the foundation of active equity returns, but are commonly masqueraded as investment skill, or alpha.  This groundbreaking book lifts the veil to uncover the common sources of active returns and reveals their beta-like properties.


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Developed by leading investment practitioners at Westpeak Global Advisors, ActiveBeta Indexes introduces Active Beta sources and explains how the behavior of short- and long-term earnings growth gives rise to systematic sources of active equity returns.
  • Details a new index framework and research findings that could change the face of active portfolio management
  • Presents patent-pending innovations for constructing style indexes and informationally-efficient active portfolios
  • Explores the historical performance of ActiveBeta Indexes


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Wealth advisers, consultants, pensions and endowments, and other institutional investors will find the intellectual honesty of ActiveBeta Indexes a refreshing perspective on the active management industry.  They will also find it a useful guide to a more strategic allocation of their risk and management fee budgets â€" a growing necessity in these challenging times.









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A Matter of Justice: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery (Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries)



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A Matter of Justice: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery (Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries)






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The superb new entry in the historical series the New York Times Book Review hails as "outstanding" and the Cleveland Plain Dealer calls "superb"


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At the turn of the century, in a war taking place far from England, two soldiers chance upon an opportunity that will change their lives forever. To take advantage of it, they will be required to do the unthinkable, and then to put the past behind them. But not all memories are so short.


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Twenty years later, a successful London busi-nessman is found savagely and bizarrely murdered in a medieval tithe barn on his estate in Somerset. Called upon to investigate, Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge soon discovers that the victim was universally despised. Even the man's wifeâ€"who appears to be his wife in name onlyâ€"and the town's police inspector are suspect. But who, among the many, hated him enough to kill?


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Rutledge tenaciously follows a well-concealed trail reaching back to an act so barbarous and with consequences so devastating that even the innocent are enveloped by the murderous tide of events. As he summons all his skills to break through a wall of silence in time to stem this tide, others are eager to twist the truth for their own ends. When justice takes a malevolent turn, can Rutledge's own career survive?











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How to Write a Mystery



  • ISBN13: 9780345397584
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed


WHODUNIT? YOUDUNIT!
So you want to write a mystery. There's more to it than just a detective, a dead body, and Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with the candlestick. Fortunately, Larry Beinhart--Edgar Award-winning author of You Get What You Pay For, Foreign Exchange, and American Hero--has taken a break from writing smart, suspenseful thrillers to act as your guide through all the twists and turns of creating the twists and turns of a good mystery.
Drawing on advice and examples from a host of the best names in mystery writing--from Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane to Scott Turow and Thomas Harris--plus some of his own prime plots, Larry Beinhart introduces you to your most indispensable partners in crime:
*Character, plot, and procedure
* The secrets to creating heroes, heroines, and villains ("All writers draw upon themselves and their experience. While the whole of yourself might not be capable of being either a serial killer or an FBI agent, there are parts in each of us that are capable of almost anything.")
* The fine art of scripting the sex scene
*The low-down on violence ("A crime novel without violence is like smoking pot without inhaling, sex without orgasm, or a hug without a squeeze." )
*And much more!
From the opening hook to the final denouement, Larry Beinhart takes the mystery out of being a mystery writer.










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Minute Maid Ballpark from Hilton Americas Hotel – MLB All Star Game 2004 Houston



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A few nice Games images I found:

Minute Maid Ballpark from Hilton Americas Hotel - MLB All Star Game 2004 Houston

Games


Image by Al_HikesAZ

View from our hotel. 2004 MLB All-Star Baseball Game 2004 in Houston at Minutemaid Stadium. This was Enron Field before that debacle.

SINGAPORE-2010 YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES-OPENING CEREMONY

Games


Image by Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games

SINGAPORE, 14 Aug 2010 - An athlete from Chile takes pictures as he enters the stage before the opening ceremony of the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games at the Marina Bay in Singapore, August 14, 2010. The 2010 Youth Olympic Games opened here on Saturday.

Gaming mouse

Games


Image by sjarvinen

Taken for Computer Mouse theme at
The World Through My Eyes

Larger version

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Mother and Child: Visions of Parenting from Indigenous Cultures



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Mother and Child: Visions of Parenting from Indigenous Cultures





Mothers shape the world in which we live through the love and guidence they give their children. Award-winning journalist and photographer Jan Reynolds explored the mother/child relationship through seven stages of life-marriage, pregnancy, birth, infancy, toddling, independence, and adolescence-while living with women in the Himalaya, the Sahara, the Aboriginal Outback, the Amazon Territory, above the Arctic Circle, and Mongolia. Reynolds was struck by the special relatinship of these women and children and their deep connection with the natural environment. Her stories and photographs chronicle the ancient art of mothering and describe ways mothers in the modern world can incorporated these indigenous methods into their own lives.









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