Recent advances in statistical approaches called phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) have provided paleontologists with a powerful set of analytical tools for investigating evolutionary tempo and mode in fossil lineages. However, attempts to integrate PCMs with fossil data often present workers with practical challenges or unfamiliar literature. This Element presents guides to the theory behind and the application of PCMs with fossil taxa. Based on an empirical dataset of Paleozoic cri...

Today we are all too well acquainted with a view of work and economics as necessary evils—means to an end. Our culture shouts its disapproval of work as bothersome, if necessary. It is conflicted over competing economic views and challenges the notion that one system can be better than all the rest. Even in the church the importance of work and economics can be undermined or dismissed. But what if we took great joy in our work? What if we began to develop an economic vision that reflects G...

This fascinating book is aimed at all those modellers who wish to create a model railway set in an urban landscape. It covers the selection and the construction of a wide range of urban buildings, and presents many detailed photographs of real buildings from which the modeller can gain ideas, identify specific features and draw inspiration. Special attention is paid to modelling architectural details and to the effects of weathering. Scratch-building techniques and materials, as well as re...

Solar power has come of age. Not only has it become one of the key alternatives to fossil fuels, it can now be deployed in a way that makes a viable business with a financial profit. This book shows industry professionals and students how to do just that.Solarnomics describes the economics of building and operating a solar power plant today and provides a window into a future in which several technologies collaborate, and in which all participants in the electricity grid b...

The year 2020 brought about dramatic changes that have impacted the U.S. and the entire world, affecting different areas of our lives from financial markets, freedoms, fuels, and the future. The retirement landscape in particular is continuously evolving, and retirement portfolios must be managed effectively to avoid losses and recognize opportunities.Investors can no longer rely solely on computer-simulated allocations or robo-advisors that use algorithms to direct allocations. Th...

When an American pilot on loan to the RAF shoots down three British spitfires in his own squadron, and then crash-lands at a German airbase in Holland, the Nazi SS have more than a few questions about his identity. Who is this American? A deserter? A traitor? A maniac? Or truly a German spy as he claims to be? Before they can interrogate him to find the answers, Henrik escapes the airbase and travels on foot to Amsterdam for mysterious reasons of his own. Apparently, he has returned from A...

My reason for writing this book was to have something to do after I got fired from C.W. Post. It was one in a long line of failed jobs over the years. The theme of luck grew out of the fact that through all the job losses there was Millie, my wife, and how having her in my life was a stroke of luck. All the things that happen in your life, good and bad, have a tinge of luck attached to them. By putting things into perspective I was able to cope with what was going on in my life and make pe...

A victim with no memory.Maria woke with no memory, rescued from the sex dungeon of a man who had held her captive. With her captor dead, now she may be the only hope for police to find another missing woman.A cop ordered to lie.Detective Cody McGraw is tasked to help Maria recover her memories. Just one problem — Maria isn’t who she thinks she is. She’s not even human. She’s a robot that shouldn’t exist, a model so close to human th...

This book demonstrates the many different modelling techniques used in the creation of realistic historical buildings and convincing imaginary or fantasy structures. Aimed at the railway and diorama modeller, it includes photographs of existing structures, detailed illustrations and plans, followed by step-by-step photographs of the various stages in their creation; practical tips and constructive advice are provided alongside. Special emphasis has been placed on the use of scrap and low-c...

Natural toxins are commonly used to subdue or incapacitate potential prey organisms but may also act as a defence against predators or parasites. Additionally, these compounds may act to give their producers an advantage when competing for food and other natural resources. Competing organisms may also deploy their own counteractive chemical measures in a form of biological warfare.Because of their enormous range of bioactive properties, many natural toxins have been isolated and re...

After a tragic accident the Wrights find a new beginning moving from the city with all its conveniences to a forty acre farm on the banks of Holliday Creek. Told from the perspective of their nineyear- old son David, the Wrights meet the neighboring Jones family. Dick Wright is a rising star in the Fort Dodge public school system. Old Jim Jones introduces himself as a flunky who works for United States Gypsum. The two families send their children to Holliday Creek School two miles away. Th...

For 150 years, Down's Syndrome has constituted the archetypal mental disability, easily recognisable by distinct facial anomalies and physical stigmata. In a narrow medical sense, Down's syndrome is a common disorder caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. It is named after John Langdon Down, the British asylum medical superintendent who described the syndrome as Mongolism in a series of lectures in 1866. In 1959, the disorder was identified as a chromosome 21 tr...