A multifaceted cultural history of pilgrimage and travel to the Holy Land from the Middle Ages to the dawn of the twentieth centuryFor countless pilgrims throughout history, the Holy Land was a destination unlike any other. Travelling there could free you of your sins, get you knighted, or offer hope of being cured of illness. Above all, it brought you closer to the mystery surrounding places laden with religious meaning. But for Christians in particular, the journ...

A practical, all-inclusive roadmap to understanding and executing advanced surgical researchAdvanced Concepts in Surgical Research is a practical, reader-friendly guide to planning, conducting, and evaluating solid, evidence-based surgical research that leads to high-quality results. Geared to the investigator who has already mastered basic principles, this book focuses on more advanced topics such as randomized controlled trials, survey design, o...

In today's IT architectures, microservices and serverless functions play increasingly important roles in process automation. But how do you create meaningful, comprehensive, and connected business solutions when the individual components are decoupled and independent by design? Targeted at developers and architects, this book presents a framework through examples, practical advice, and use cases to help you design and automate complex processes.As systems are more distributed, asyn...

When award-winning writer and biologist Bernd Heinrich became the unwitting -- but doting -- foster parent of an adorable gosling named Peep, he was drawn into her world. And so, with a scientist's training and a nature lover's boundless enthusiasm, he set out to understand the travails and triumphs of the Canada geese living in the beaver bog adjacent to his home. In The Geese of Beaver Bog, Heinrich takes his readers through mud, icy waters, and overgrown sedge hummocks to unravel the my...

From flying squirrels to grizzly bears, and from torpid turtles to insects with antifreeze, the animal kingdom relies on some staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter. Unlike their human counterparts, who must alter the environment to accommodate physical limitations, animals are adaptable to an amazing range of conditions.Examining everything from food sources in the extremely barren winter land-scape to the chemical composition that allows certain creatures to surviv...

In Mind of the Raven, Bernd Heinrich, award-winning naturalist, finds himself dreaming of ravens and decides he must get to the truth about this animal reputed to be so intelligent.Much like a sleuth, Heinrich involves us in his quest to understand their world, letting one clue lead to the next. But as animals can only be spied on by getting quite close Heinrich adopts ravens, thereby becoming a "raven father," as well as observing them in their natural habitat. Through th...

An enlightening look at animal behavior and the cycle of life and death, from "one of the finest naturalists of our time" (Edward O. Wilson).When a good friend with a severe illness wrote, asking if he might have his "green burial" at Bernd Heinrich's hunting camp in Maine, it inspired the acclaimed biologist to investigate a subject that had long fascinated him. How exactly does the animal world deal with the flip side of the life cycle? And what are the lessons, ...

Many Canadians see the role their country's military plays in Afghanistan as an anomaly. However, this assumption is far from the truth. As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has commented, "Canadians are fierce fighters." Fortune Favours the Brave certainly proves this point in a collection of essays that showcases the fighting spirit and courage of Canada's military.Daring actions featured in the book include the intrepid assault on the Fortress of Louisbourg and the cat-an...

The first English translation of writings that capture the lives and thoughts of German soldiers fighting in the trenches and on the battlefields of WWI.German Soldiers in the Great War is a vivid selection of firsthand accounts and other wartime documents that shed new light on the experiences of German frontline soldiers during the First World War. It reveals in authentic detail the perceptions and emotions of ordinary soldiers that have been covered up ...

The next phase of the internet—multimodal, vision-enabled AI that will transform societyWritten by Irena Cronin, renowned consultant in the immersive space, and Cathy Hackl, globally recognized tech and gaming executive, futurist, and speaker, Spatial Computing: An AI-Driven Business Revolution reveals exclusive insider knowledge of what's happening today in the convergence of AI and spatial computing. Spatial Computing is an evolving 3D-centric form of co...

“Bernd Heinrich is one of our greatest living naturalists in the tradition of Gerald Durrell….A national treasure.”—Los Angeles TimesSummer World is an intimate, accessible, and eloquent illumination of animal survival in the Summer months from Bernd Heinrich, bestselling author of Winter World and “our latter-day Thoreau” (Publishers Weekly). Pulitzer Prize-winner Edmond O. Wilson (On Human Nature) calls Heinrich’s fascinating exploration and appreciation of the natural or...

An entertaining and informative voyage through cultural fantasies of the North, from sea monsters and a mountain-sized magnet to racist mythmaking.Scholars and laymen alike have long projected their fantasies onto the great expanse of the global North, whether it be as a frozen no-man’s-land, an icy realm of marauding Vikings, or an unspoiled cradle of prehistoric human life. Bernd Brunner reconstructs the encounters of adventurers, colonists, and indigenous commun...