Replete with practical advice for anyone considering a career in federal, state, or local government, Caught between the Dog and the Fireplug, or How... to Survive Public Service conveys what life is really like in a public service job. The book is written as a series of lively, entertaining letters of advice from a sympathetic uncle to a niece or nephew embarking on a government career. Kenneth Ashworth draws on more than forty years of public sector experience to provide advice on the daily challenges that future public servants can expect to face: working with politicians, bureaucracy, and the press; dealing with unpleasant and difficult people; leading supervisors as well as subordinates; and maintaining high ethical standards. Ashworth relates anecdotes from his jobs in Texas, California, and Washington, D.C., that illustrate with humor and wit fundamental concepts of public administration. Be prepared, says Ashworth, to encounter all sorts of unexpected situations, from the hostile to the bizarre, from the intimidating to the outrageous. He shows that in the confrontational world of public policymaking and program implementation, a successful career demands disciplined, informed thought, intellectual and personal growth, and broad reading. He demonstrates how, despite the inevitable inefficiencies of a democratic society, those working to shape policy in large organizations can nonetheless effect significant change-and even have fun along the way. The book will interest students and teachers of public administration, public affairs, policy development, leadership, or higher education administration. Ashworth's advice will also appeal to anyone who has ever been caught in a tight spot while working in government service.

Most of us have become so immersed in a book or game or movie that the activity temporarily assumed a profound significance and the outside world began... to fade. Although we are likely to enjoy these experiences in the realm of entertainment, we rarely think about what effect they might be having on us. Precisely because it is so pervasive, entertainment is difficult to understand and even to talk about.To understand the social role of entertainment, Caught in Play looks closely at how we engage entertainment and at the ideas and practices it creates and sustains. Though entertainment is for fun, it does not follow that it is trivial in its effect on our lives. As this work reveals, entertainment generates commitments to values we are not always willing to acknowledge: values of pleasure, self-indulgence, and consumption.For more information, please visit www.caughtinplay.com.

A wondrous, uproarious, and surprisingly informative account of a year spend surfing, Caught Inside marks the arrival of an exuberant new voice of the... outdoors. This remarkable narrative of Daniel Duane’s life on the water is enhanced by good-humored explanations of the physics of wave dynamics, the intricate art of surfboard design, and lyrical, sharp-eyed descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Pacific wilderness. From Captain Cook and Mark Twain to Robinson Jeffers and Jack London, from portraits of famous (and infamous) surfers to an analysis of Gidget’s perverse significance, Duane expertly uncovers the myths and symbols bound up in one of our most vibrant and recognizably American subjects.

“A superb analysis of the crisis in the Midwest and sober advice on how to alleviate, if not eliminate, the region’s pain…Caught in the Middle... provides a brilliant battle plan.”—Chicago Tribune The Midwest has always been the heart of America—both its economic bellwether and the repository of its national identity. Now, in a newly globalized age, the Midwest is challenged as never before. In Caught in the Middle, longtime Chicago Tribune reporter Richard Longworth explores the new reality of life in today’s heartland and reveals what these changes mean for the region—and the country.

American postwar efforts to ameliorate Arab-Israeli relations entangled the United States in the Arab-Israeli conflict in complex ways. Peter L. Hahn... explores the diplomatic and cultural factors that influenced the policies of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower as they faced the escalation of one of the modern world's most intractable disputes.Truman tended to make decisions in an ad hoc, reactive fashion. Eisenhower, in contrast, had a more proactive approach to the regional conflict, but strategic and domestic political factors prevented him from dramatically revising the basic tenets Truman had established. American officials desired--in principle--to promote Arab-Israeli peace in order to stabilize the region. Yet Hahn shows how that desire for peace was not always an American priority, as U.S. leaders consistently gave more weight to their determination to contain the Soviet Union than to their desire to make peace between Israel and its neighbors. During these critical years the United States began to supplant Britain as the dominant Western power in the Middle East, and U.S. leaders found themselves in two notable predicaments. They were unable to relinquish the responsibilities they had accepted with their new power--even as those responsibilities became increasingly difficult to fulfill. And they were caught in the middle of the Arab-Israeli conflict, unable to resolve a dispute that would continue to generate instability for years to come.

As one of the country's most outspoken critics of standards and testing, and a former inner-city teacher, Susan Ohanian is no stranger to the "f" word:... failure. She often referred to it in her best-seller, One Size Fits Few, to point out "the folly of educational standards." And now, in her follow-up book, Caught in the Middle, it's the fulcrum upon which she dares to reveal what schools are really like when nonstandard kids and a standardized curriculum collide in the classroom. Offering both a warning and a clarion to teachers everywhere-Susan tells an insider's story of living day in and day out with students who are not likely to succeed in a world with only one definition of success. In the first of a series of heart-wrenching and heroic portraits, you'll meet twelve-year-old Sylvia ("Nobody messes with Sylvia"), who is failing all her courses but, somehow, teams up with the author in a bizarre mutual-aid arrangement. Next, one by one, you'll get to know Anita (sweet, compliant, and then pregnant) . . . Jimmy (who discovers fairy tales ten years after all his peers did) . . . Tiffany (unkempt, unwashed, whiny, and then suddenly transformed into the proud owner of words when introduced to a thesaurus) . . . Jean (teller of tall tales, including a whopper Susan fell for) . . . Clarice (the most polite kid in school, but with a locker bursting with stolen goods) . . . and Arnold ("certifiably crazy," but who is always promoted because nobody wanted him to stay another year). Although admitting to failure, Caught in the Middle is not a downer. Hope shines through, and it comes, not from political initiatives or even from wonderful programs, but from individual interactions between teacher and students; it comes from matters of the heart. Visit www.susanohanian.org Visit Susan Ohanian online for a wealth of information on education issues and to learn more about her. You'll find commentary, cartoons, letters, resources, quotes and a word of the day offering children a provocative way to increase their vocabulary.

Face-to-face with some of America's most terrifying killers, FBI veteran and ex-Army CID colonel Robert Ressler learned form then how to identify the... unknown monsters who walk among us--and put them behind bars. Now the man who coined the phrase "serial killer" and advised Thomas Harris on The Silence of the Lambs shows how is able to track down some of today's most brutal murderers.Just as it happened in The Silence of the Lambs, Ressler used the evidence at a crime scene to put together a psychological profile of the killers. From the victims they choose, to the way they kill, to the often grotesque souvenirs they take with them--Ressler unlocks the identities of these vicious killers of the police to capture.And with his discovery that serial killers share certain violent behaviors, Ressler's gone behind prison walls to hear the bizarre first-hand stories countless convicted murderers. Getting inside the mind of a killer to understand how and why he kills, is one of the FBI's most effective ways of helping police bring in killers who are still at large.Join Ressler as he takes you on the hunt for toady's most dangerous psychopaths. It is a terrifying journey you will not forget.

From the foreword by Diana DiNittoCaught in the Storm tells the story of Helping Hands, a small nonprofit social service agency set in the fictional... community of River City. Readers will recognize Helping Hands as the type of agency where social workers are often employed to assist individuals and families to meet basic economic needs. In fact, many social workers have founded agencies like Helping Hands to meet pressing needs in their own communities. But Caught in the Storm stands in sharp contrast to didactic textbook accounts of agencies and their clients. It also differs from the accounts others have written of individuals trying to survive since Congress and President Bill Clinton ended welfare as we knew it.Caught in the Storm is most compelling in its use of narrative to tell the story of an agency, its staff, and its clients. The issues about social welfare policy and administration the authors have chosen to highlight emerge through action and dialogue among the book's characters. Readers will identify with Martha, the insightful and energetic executive director, as she and her staff reach out to other nonprofit and faith-based organizations to implement a welfare-to-work program, which will make a difference in the lives of the low-income clients they serve. Caught in the Storm also incorporates personal and ethical issues and political differences among staff and clients, revealing the day-to-day dramas with which social service agencies must deal even as they assume a larger role in the delivery of important social welfare services.Features: Readable narrative formspecifically written for introduction to social work, first-year policy, and macro-practice courses; Discusses multiple federal programs and policies in a client-centered context; Real-world view of non-profit management, staff and clinical supervision, and program evaluation issues; Street-level view of disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; Innovative assignments and compelling discussion questions for each chapter; Glossaries of policies, terms, abbreviations, and Spanish words and phrases;

Nuclear astrophysics is, in essence, a science that attempts to understand and explain the physical universe beyond the Earth by studying its smallest... particles. Cauldrons in the Cosmos, by Claus E. Rolfs and William S. Rodney, serves as a basic introduction to these endeavors. From the major discoveries in the field to a discussion of the makeup of stars to an explanation of standard lab techniques, this text provides students and scientists alike a thorough and fascinating survey of the accomplishments, goals, and methods of nuclear astrophysics. A classic in its field, Cauldrons in the Cosmos will surely remain an important reference in nuclear astrophysics for years to come."One could not wish for a better account of the current state of knowledge (and uncertainty) about nuclear reactions in stars."—B. E. J. Pagel, Nature"Written in an informal style that those uninitiated into the jargon of nuclear astrophysics and astronomy will find readable and illuminating. . . . A useful and long-awaited introduction to nuclear astrophysics."—G. J. Mathews, Science

Written by one of the preeminent researchers in the field, this book provides a comprehensive exposition of modern analysis of causation. It shows how... causality has grown from a nebulous concept into a mathematical theory with significant applications in the fields of statistics, artificial intelligence, economics, philosophy, cognitive science, and the health and social sciences. Judea Pearl presents and unifies the probabilistic, manipulative, counterfactual, and structural approaches to causation and devises simple mathematical tools for studying the relationships between causal connections and statistical associations. The book will open the way for including causal analysis in the standard curricula of statistics, artificial intelligence, business, epidemiology, social sciences, and economics. Students in these fields will find natural models, simple inferential procedures, and precise mathematical definitions of causal concepts that traditional texts have evaded or made unduly complicated. The first edition of Causality has led to a paradigmatic change in the way that causality is treated in statistics, philosophy, computer science, social science, and economics. Cited in more than 5,000 scientific publications, it continues to liberate scientists from the traditional molds of statistical thinking. In this revised edition, Judea Pearl elucidates thorny issues, answers readers' questions, and offers a panoramic view of recent advances in this field of research. Causality will be of interests to students and professionals in a wide variety of fields. Anyone who wishes to elucidate meaningful relationships from data, predict effects of actions and policies, assess explanations of reported events, or form theories of causal understanding and causal speech will find this book stimulating and invaluable.

Casual models - formal theories stating the relationships between precisely defined variables - have become an indispensable tool of the social... scientist. This book draws upon the best writing in a variety of fields to provide a comprehensive picture of contemporary work on this subject. This collection of articles stands alone as a course book on the causal modeling approach to theory construction and data analysis.

This volume presents a selection of the most influential recent discussions of the crucial metaphysical question: What is it for one event to cause... another? The subject of causation bears on many topics, such as time, explanation, mental states, the laws of nature, and the philosophy of science. Contributors include J.L Mackie, Michael Scriven, Jaegwon Kim, G.E.M. Anscombe, G.H. von Wright, C.J. Ducasse, Wesley C. Salmon, David Lewis, Paul Horwich, Jonathan Bennett, Ernest Sosa, and Michael Tooley.

Through wonderful readings and carefully designed activities, this best-selling series helps students develop reading skills and systematically increase... their active vocabulary. Learners develop useful and relevant vocabulary while exploring and expanding critical thinking skills.