Spitooey! Grown-ups expect kids to avoid all sorts of “rude” behaviors. But in nature, spits, burps, and toots can happen for surprisingly strategic reasons. When animals exhibit every gross habit—from toxic sneezes to deadly farts— they’re not aiming to act rude. They do what they can to survive. This book features the most dazzlingly disgusting creatures on planet Earth—indecent insects, repulsive reptiles, cute-yet-crude mammals, and more. You’ll also hear from scientists who are investigating what humans can learn from these bold behaviors. Prepare to be gobsmacked by good reasons for rudeness.
Spitooey! Grown-ups expect kids to avoid all sorts of “rude” behaviors. But in nature, spits, burps, and toots can happen for surprisingly strategic reasons. When animals exhibit every gross habit—from toxic sneezes to deadly farts— they’re not aiming to act rude. They do what they can to survive. This book features the most dazzlingly disgusting creatures on planet Earth—indecent insects, repulsive reptiles, cute-yet-crude mammals, and more. You’ll also hear from scientists who are investigating what humans can learn from these bold behaviors. Prepare to be gobsmacked by good reasons for rudeness.
Don't want to be a divorce statistic? Ready for a long-lasting relationship? Then this is the book for you! Marriage is the best thing out there! However, given the 'divorce culture' in which we live, too many of us have stopped trusting our ability to build a loving and lasting marriage. I ONLY WANT TO GET MARRIED ONCE provides readers with the tools and knowledge to choose the right marriage partner and help build a successful marriage...the first time around.With this book, readers will learn how to tell the difference between infatuation and true love. Infatuation can be destructive and can cloud your judgment when it comes to love. Renowned relationship counselor and coach, Chana Levitan, reveals the 10 essential questions everyone should ask themselves before and during the dating process in order to spot long-term potential. Filled with real-life anecdotes and insightful advice, this book will help you re-evaluate your approach to love and better understand yourself and what you really need to succeed in building a loving marriage. There is no rule that heartbreak must be a prerequisite for good judgment! I ONLY WANT TO GET MARRIED ONCE will help you get it right the first time and gain the confidence to steer through the decision making process of dating.
Cities around the world are responsible for ever-growing shares of people, assets, and economic activities vulnerable to climate disasters. They are also responsible for the majority of the world's carbon emissions. Cities in low- and middle-income countries still have a window of opportunity to grow in resilient and low-carbon ways, to protect their populations and build strong and sustainable economic foundations. What are the resilient and low-carbon investments that these cities could make in the coming decades? How much will these investments cost, and where can cities look for resources to pay for these investments? These are the questions that Banking on Cities: Investing in Resilient and Low-Carbon Urbanization considers. The publication provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of key resilient and low-carbon investment costs in major urban sectors in all low- and middle-income countries to 2050. These include investments in urban transportation, energy-efficient buildings, solid waste management, water and wastewater, flood protection, and heat resilience. The estimated total cost of these investments revealed by this analysis is sobering: between US$256 and US$821 billion per year. However, "climate" investments are not a separate category of investments that cities need to make in addition to their regular investments. These are core urban investments that cities need to make for their local economic and social benefits in addition to their climate benefits. Banking on Cities advances the discussion on urban climate finance by exploring how cities can identify sources of funding and finance that are suited to different types of resilient and low-carbon urban investments. Just as climate investments are not a separate category of investments, climate finance is not necessarily a separate category of finance. While climate-specific sources, including carbon markets, green bonds, and others, are part of the picture, making these investments will require cities to address their financial fundamentals, including revenues, transfers, creditworthiness, and fiscal efficiency. This report will be a helpful guide for cities and national governments as they develop their urban investment strategies.
This book is about the dramatic experience of religious conver sion. The phenomenon of religious conversion lies at the crossroad of several disciplines. As the title of this book indicates, my own interest in religious conversion is not sociological, historical, nor anthropolog ical. My primary interest is not even in the domain of the psychology of religion. That is, this book is not a comprehensive review of the social psychological factors that shape religious beliefs in general and religious conversions in particular. Rather, my primary interest is in the experience of conversion as an instance of a meaningful, sudden change in the course of individu al lives. Religious conversion is examined in this book prinwrily from the point of view of the psychology of the self. My aim is to elucidate the experience of religious conversion as a change in the self and to raise suggestions for the study of the self that derive from the data on religious conversion. This interest dictated the scope as well as the methods of the present investigation. Namely, I have chosen to study individuals who have indeed changed visibly as a result of their conversion. My inquiry was based on self-report, assuming the importance of the person's own point of view. Finally, my inquiry was semi-clinical, vii viii PREFACE based on the assumption of an underlying structure to the varieties of conversion experiences.
In many rapidly urbanizing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, local politics undermines the effectiveness of urban planning. Politicians have incentives to ignore formal urban plans and sideline planners, and instead provide urban land and services through informal channels in order to cultivate political constituencies (a form of what political scientists refer to as "clientelism"). This results in inequitable and environmentally damaging patterns of urban growth in some of the largest and most rapidly urbanizing countries in the world. The technocratic planning solutions often advocated by governments and international development organizations are not enough. To overcome this problem, urban planners must understand and adapt to the complex politics of urban informality. In this book, Chandan Deuskar explores how politicians in developing democracies provide urban land and services to the urban poor in exchange for their political support, demonstrates how this impacts urban growth, and suggests innovative and practical ways in which urban planners can try to be more effective in this challenging political context. He draws on literature from multiple disciplines (urban planning, political science, sociology, anthropology, and others), statistical analysis of global data on urbanization, and an in-depth case study of urban Ghana. Urban planners and international development experts working in the Global South, as well as researchers, educators, and students of global urbanization will find Urban Planning in a World of Informal Politics informative and thought-provoking.
Parasha Meditations facilitates a new way of learning by infusing selected Torah sections into your entire being: mind, heart and soul - and even into the reflexes of your body. Tap into each Torah portion through a wealth of classical, mystical and chassidic commentaries conducive for meditative contemplation. Integrate the message of each parasha point through unique guided meditations for spiritual renewal. Allow these original meditations to touch your heart and soul and connect deeply with the wisdom of the Torah. Glean a personal message from of each parasha to facilitate your own spiritual journey. This book does not attempt to give you an overview of each of the Torah portions. Rather than offering the breadth and scope of the entire parasha, we deliberately delve into a particular concept that can be integrated into the very fibers of our existence. Each meditation takes only five to ten minutes, so even the busiest among us may find time to sit down with our souls, mindfully relaxing and opening ourselves to allow the Torah of the times to enter into our spirit, emotions and superconscious mind. You may choose to do the meditation with a partner, reading the meditation aloud to one another, or to record your own reading so you can leisurely listen and enjoy the meditations without having to look in the book. Alternatively, I have prepared downloadable recordings of each of the meditations available upon request.
Parasha Meditations facilitates a new way of learning by infusing selected Torah sections into your entire being: mind, heart and soul - and even into the reflexes of your body. Tap into each Torah portion through a wealth of classical, mystical and chassidic commentaries conducive for meditative contemplation. Integrate the message of each parasha pearl through unique guided meditations for spiritual renewal. Allow these original meditations to touch your heart and soul and connect deeply with the wisdom of the Torah. Glean a personal message from of each parasha to facilitate your own spiritual journey. While the Book of Bereishit described how our Patriarchs and Matriarchs endeavored to return the lost the light of Eden, and the Book of Shemot transformed this light into a holy fire; the focus in the Book of Vayikra is building proper vessels. The Book of Vayikra is about establishing true relationships both with other people and with G*d, following the example of Moshe, our teacher, who reached the ultimate relationship with Hashem. The foundation of a good relationship is good communication. Thus, the Book of Vayikra opens with Hashem's calling to Moshe from the Tent of Meeting, expressing His love and desire for an ongoing, continuous, open relationship with Moshe and the Jewish people. Our speech is our main vehicle of communication through which we rectify every relationship. By gaining complete freedom from both our external and internal enemies, we will be ready to form the highest and deepest relationship with Hashem and walk upright eye-to-eye with G*d in our Holy Land. I have faith that this third book of Parasha Meditations will help bring us closer to consummate such relationship.
