In this sequel to The Pangaea Solution, David Blum once again battles the shadowy Global Futures Alliance and their plans for reshaping humanity. Partnering with fellow agent Tina Santini, the pair uncovers a diabolical new plot to integrate artificial intelligence with "The Sugar Cube," a massive optical computer configured to experience artificial emotion. The GFA's goal? Dissect the internal language of the brain and synthesize sounds that can drive people to extreme emotional ...

When a cryptic note sends former FBI agent turned wealth advisor David Blum on a journey to discover the truth behind his father’s recent death, all clues point to Otto Feldmann, a world-renowned professor of genetics, with secrets to hide. Further digging leads Blum to Kay Westfield, a bank executive who once witnessed a bizarre explosion on Feldmann’s experimental farm.As Blum and Westfield team up to unravel the labyrinth of funding behind the professor’s research center, a pict...

In this sequel to The Pangaea Solution, David Blum once again battles the shadowy Global Futures Alliance and their plans for reshaping humanity. Partnering with fellow agent Tina Santini, the pair uncovers a diabolical new plot to integrate artificial intelligence with “The Sugar Cube,” a massive optical computer configured to experience artificial emotion. The GFA’s goal? Dissect the internal language of the brain and synthesize sounds that can drive people to extreme emotional ...

How do four instrumentalists with strong individual tastes and temperaments manage to forge a distinctive approach to the music they play? This extraordinary book ushers readers into the workshop of one of the world's most accomplished string quartets. In rich and probing conversations with their longtime friend and musicologist and conductor David Blum, the members of the Guarneri String Quartet, both individually as a group, tell what it is like to play together.

An insider's view of the most successful show in the history of TV, 60 Minutes.The most popular TV show in America isn't American Idol, and it's not Survivor. Month in, month out, the most–watched program in America is 60 Minutes, drawing a staggering 25 million viewers in an average week.For its entire 34–year history, 60 Minutes was the brainchild (and personal fiefdom) of Don Hewitt, the take–no–prisoners visionary who hustled the show into being and kept it afloat with ...

Quintet presents compelling portraits of five artists known and loved by aficionados of classical music: the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the conductor Jeffrey Tate, the violinist Josef Gingold, the pianist Richard Goode, and the opera singer Birgit Nilsson. This gracefully written book offers a deeply personal look at the lives of these immensely talented and hard-working performers. The essays grew out of conversations the musicians had with the late David Blum, who was himself distinguished both a...

"This is an immensely valuable book and one which is clearly designed to appeal to all musicians—not just string players...Mr. Blum has captured in great detail the little things that so often make a great teacher. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Art of Interpretation."—Music Teacher"The volume belongs to an exceptional class of literature: it is to be welcomed as a significant contribution. In his Forward, Antony Hopkins in a most el...

This commentary examines the book of Amos as it appears in the Hebrew Bible: a collection of messages from a prophet in the 8th century BCE who warned that the Kingdom of Israel would fall because of the wrongs of its wealthy elite. Despite this warning, the book ultimately offers hope for a restored future to the survivors in Judah and Israel. The analysis traces how Amos's original message - now only faintly visible - was reshaped by later scribes after Israel=s fall, leading to the fina...

Making music offers enormous possibilities--and faces significant limitations--in its power to generate belonging and advance social justice. Tony Perman and Stefan Fiol edit essays focused on the forms of interplay between music-making and community-making as mutually creative processes. Contributors in the first section look at cases where music arrived in settings with little or no sense of community and formed social bonds that lasted beyond its departure. In the sections that follow, ...

Was ist ein gutes Leben? Was macht mein Leben einfacher, ohne es einzuschränken? Was tut mir gut, aber gleichzeitig auch anderen? Es sind bestimmte Werte, die sich in einer Einstellung, aber auch im Verhalten, im Tun ausdrücken. Welche das sein könnten, zeigt dieses Buch mit Themen wie Achtsamkeit und Beharrlichkeit, Ehrfurcht und Geduld, Gönnen und Risikobereitschaft, Vertrauen und Humor, bis hin zu Toleranz und Zivilcourage. Die Beiträge dieses Buches sind – aus ganz verschiedenen Richtu...

Are you puzzled by team development? You're not alone. Getting people from group formation to high performance team is an enigma, a riddle -- choose your metaphor. And that's what this book is for: to unlock the puzzle of teamwork, to make it easy and unstandable. In this book, you'll find 20 chapters or "clues" to unlocking the team puzzle, with sections on leadership, roles, communication and motivation. By the end, you'll be tje Sherlock Holmes of your organization, fully "clued in" on ...

This commentary sets the ancient Jewish story of Tobit within a broad tradition-historical context, analyzing the conceptions of angels and demons it contains, as well as its notions of ancient medicine, together with its understanding of the Torah. Presented along with this is a synchronically oriented interpretation of the whole text, which shows that the narrative should ultimately be understood in terms of historical theology. It reveals how, in the days of Hellenistic rule, ancient Ju...