Jeff Wilson

"By turns heartfelt and humorous, thoughtful and fascinating, Wilson knows of what he writes, and he writes very well." -- Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour John E. McDonald believes himself to be very lucky indeed. A tenure-track professor who's been given the office once occupied by Lester B. Pearson, McDonald is admired for his take on Canadian history, which investigates the role played by Indigenous peoples and women, who made possible the exploits of the supposed "great men of history." McDonald's take is unorthodox, fresh, and challenging; it's more compassionate and inclusive. He's motivated in no small part to escape the long shadow of his bombastically conservative father. Quickly, though, McDonald's world begins to unravel. He loses his office to another professor, his beloved older brother is beset with a health issue, and he begins a romance with an opera singer. Determined to make a new start, he leaves his tenure-track position at a large urban university to be a sessional in a smaller institution, where he's asked to participate in a competition, the prize for which is a sixteen-million dollar endowment for a chair in Canadian history. With deft comic turns and strikingly touching moments, Jeff Wilson's The Castor's Choice touches the heart, the brain, and the funny bone.

Living Nembutsu is a sourcebook for Jodo Shinshu Buddhists and other interested readers looking to apply Pure Land perspectives to the problems of contemporary society. It lays out concepts and ideas that are central to Pure Land Buddhism but missing from the dominant North American Buddhist conversation (especially in engaged Buddhist circles), ones which offer new ways of thinking and organizing around shared problems.The book's central focus is an exploration of how the life and teachings of Shinran, the founder of Jodo Shinshu (aka Shin) Buddhism, can provide guidance in facing the social and environmental challenges of our times. It examines how Shinran's unique Buddhist philosophy centres marginalized and oppressed experiences, with particular relevance to the LGBTQ+ community, refugees, racialized persons, and other groups.Living Nembutsu also provides examples of Jodo Shinshu Buddhists in action, working to combat climate change, religious intolerance in prisons, racism, and other challenges.

Milk was once an important commodity for the railroads. Before refrigeration became mainstream, high-speed delivery was critical. Trains carried butter, milk and cheese from small town collecting stations and creameries to the production creameries in the big cities. In Milk Trains and Traffic, explore how these creameries operated, how dairy products were processed, and how everything evolved over time. Understand all the aspects of milk and dairy traffic through the use of photography in the only book on the market dedicated to milk trains and operations. This book is a key source for railfans and rail historians, as well as modelers who want to add creameries or milk platforms to their layouts.

Modern Freight Cars, a new book by Jeff Wilson, provides an overview of freight cars from the 1960s through today. This is an essential guide for model railroaders who model the 1960s through today, as well as railfans and freight train enthusiasts. The book features more than 200 photos and covers various types of cars, including boxcars, hoppers, and gondolas, and how they evolved, as well as new car types, including intermodal cars and 89-foot auto tracks. The book also gives a deeper look into how different industries use freight cars, when cars entered service, and the dates when rules and restrictions took place. Other topics include: Freight car evolution (size and weight increases; new car types) Car components (brake systems, trucks, and couplers) Hi-cube and specialty boxcars Intermodal cars (flat, spine, and well cars) Open and enclosed auto racks Mechanical and cryogenic refrigerator cars Center-beam flatcars And much more

In the tradition of Joe Sacco?s graphic journalism comes the first interview-based graphic novel treatment of Noam Chomsky?s political ideas and activism.An astonishing graphic novel that brings Chomsky?s political analysis to bear on real people?s stories on the frontlines of America?s struggle for economic justice and human dignity. The Instinct for Cooperation innovatively balances those real-life stories of struggle with conversations the author has had with Chomsky on how best to understand them. Although the themes are wide-ranging, this book is ultimately about the importance and need for spaces of resistance in countering state and other institutional forms of violence. For example, when discussing the removal of books by police and sanitation workers from Zuccotti Park in November of 2011, Chomsky paused to say ?Arizona knows all about that,? referring to the 2010 ban of Mexican American Studies in Tucson schools under Arizona House Bill 2281, which deemed classes that taught ?ethnic solidarity? to be illegal. Rather than footnote the reference, Wilson tells that story. Like Joe Sacco?s animated political journalism, this book offers a unique perspective on current issues, while providing a major contribution to the understanding of Chomsky?s political theories.

Jeff Wilson's new book, Guide to North American Diesel Locomotives, offers more than 300 pages of detailed information on diesel locomotives produced in North America from the 1930s to today. An essential guide for model railroaders and train enthusiasts, this comprehensive reference book includes: All-time rosters for more than 100 major railroads in the U.S. and Canada through the 1970s. Spotting features on all major locomotive types produced. Characteristics and operation of diesel locomotives. New and updated material (text, charts and, photos). 400 color/black&white photos And much more Guide to North American Diesel Locomotives is an important reference for railfans and model railroaders alike.

Model railroading is an easier hobby to join than ever before. This new book by Jeff Wilson helps modelers get started with the basics. It provides enough information for beginners to confidently build a layout, and it equips them with the knowledge to understand all the steps.

Over the past three decades, ''mindfulness'' has evolved from an Asian religious technique largely unknown in the west to a popular cure-all and a money-making industry. America has seen a rise in advocacy for and practice of mindful eating, mindful sex, mindful parenting, mindfulness at work, mindful sports, mindful divorce lawyers, mindfulness-based stress relief, and mindfulness-based addiction recovery. Mindfulness is being taught in the public schools, the hospitals, and now even in the military. In the first comprehensive study of this phenomenon, Jeff Wilson explores how mindfulness came to be applied to so many non-traditional concerns, how it has been reconceptualized, and where it fits in American Buddhism while increasingly influencing and being appropriated by non-Buddhists. Wilson demonstrates that the concept of mindfulness in America is a perfect example of how Buddhism enters new cultures and becomes domesticated: in each case, the new culture takes from Buddhism what they believe will relieve their specific distresses and concerns, in the process producing new Buddhisms adapted to their needs. In Japan, where concerns were dangerous ghosts and capricious elemental deities, Buddhism became funerary and exorcistic; in modern America the concerns are secular and therapeutic, with an orientation toward personal fulfillment and lifestyle management, but the underlying pattern is the same. Drawing on case studies focused on mindful eating, sexual intimacy, addiction, work, and parenting, Wilson shows how Buddhism shed its counter-cultural quality and was assimilated into common American lifestyles. He also examines the economics of the mindfulness movement, as embodied by services and products such as smartphone applications. Mindful America provides critical insight into the origins of mindfulness meditation practices in Asian Buddhist history, and shows how mindfulness meditation came to be popular (especially among the laity) in American Buddhism.

This is the one-source guide modelers need to learn to install trackwork properly for smooth operation in any scale. This updated edition showcases the newest products, current manufacturers, and the latest techniques, including how to lay flextrack, how to install turnouts and switch machines, how to install roadbed, how to ballast and detail track, and much more.

Large surface computing devices (wall-mounted or tabletop) with touch interfaces and their application to collaborative data analysis, an increasingly important and prevalent activity, is the primary topic of this book. Our goals are to outline the fundamentals of surface computing (a still maturing technology), review relevant work on collaborative data analysis, describe frameworks for understanding collaborative processes, and provide a better understanding of the opportunities for research and development. We describe surfaces as display technologies with which people can interact directly, and emphasize how interaction design changes when designing for large surfaces. We review efforts to use large displays, surfaces or mixed display environments to enable collaborative analytic activity. Collaborative analysis is important in many domains, but to provide concrete examples and a specific focus, we frequently consider analysis work in the security domain, and in particular the challenges security personnel face in securing networks from attackers, and intelligence analysts encounter when analyzing intelligence data. Both of these activities are becoming increasingly collaborative endeavors, and there are huge opportunities for improving collaboration by leveraging surface computing. This work highlights for interaction designers and software developers the particular challenges and opportunities presented by interaction with surfaces. We have reviewed hundreds of recent research papers, and report on advancements in the fields of surface-enabled collaborative analytic work, interactive techniques for surface technologies, and useful theory that can provide direction to interaction design work. We also offer insight into issues that arise when developing applications for multi-touch surfaces derived from our own experiences creating collaborative applications. We present these insights at a level appropriate for all members of the software design and developmentteam. Table of Contents: List of Figures / Acknowledgments / Figure Credits / Purpose and Direction / Surface Technologies and Collaborative Analysis Systems / Interacting with Surface Technologies / Collaborative Work Enabled by Surfaces / The Theory and the Design of Surface Applications / The Development of Surface Applications / Concluding Comments / Bibliography / Authors' Biographies

In 1996, Intersal Inc. made one of the most important maritime discoveries in history when they located the infamous Queen Anne's Revenge buried in shallow water off the coast of North Carolina. While excavating the site, divers with the Underwater Archaeology Branch recovered a bronze bell, cannon, and numerous eighteenth-century artifacts from the former slave vessel turned pirate flagship. They also found insignificant amounts of gold dust, but the stolen fortune of Captain Edward Teach; aka, the notorious Blackbeard, remained a mystery.Rose Rodriquez, a direct descendant of Henri, a former slave aboard the Queen Anne's revenge, is determined to wrap up the loose ends of her life with dignity and repair the severed relationship with her estranged daughter, Isabelle. Rose's latest project includes sorting through an old leather portfolio filled with mementos from her childhood spent searching for Blackbeard's lost treasure with her father. Rose gives the portfolio to her granddaughter, Sophie, without knowing the seemingly innocuous gift would set off a chain reaction exposing family secrets of love, betrayal and murder.As Sophie unravels the tapestry of clues to Blackbeard's real life, she also discovers the truth concerning the disappearance of her father, Alex. Immersed in a maze of adventure shrouded by a deadly curse, Sophie must decide what she is willing to risk for an opportunity at unimaginable wealth by solving the intriguing historical mystery surrounding the lost riches of Queen Anne's Revenge.