New Releases by Ian Jackson

The micro Amusings of Australian author Ian Jackson suggests a definitive ''without fanfare'' approach to humour and satire. His stories and ditties sweep across different genres and subjects with a thought-provoking approach to debate and discussion. A former London resident, his narratives are ensconced deep within the heart of Hampstead, the traditional London borough that is home to some of the richest inhabitants of our planet, yet also harbours the lower orders of the population, such as the jobless man at the end of his wits who finds himself thrust into the limelight when he suddenly inherits divine spiritual aptitude. Then there is the uber ambitious estate agent hatching a plot to use counter intelligence to inject dynamism into the housing market and the erstwhile leader of a secret mystical organisation burdened by the calling to make the most important announcement of his life to his followers. Jackson also tackles domesticity with the long suffering wife wondering how to spice up her staid marriage and politics comes under the radar when a Parliamentary Senate Committee is recalled to discuss the most far reaching scientific discovery of our age. Jackson''s writing takes in spies, extra terrestrials, religion and intergalactic Superheroes in equal measure. Whether the reader is a political observer or a radical dreamer, has interest in religion or race, society or nature, conservation or the vagaries of one super power or t''other, Amusings tickles the edges of humour with its eclectic and succinct micro narratives. Subtle, laconic, surrealist and at times acerbic witticisms offer a translucent glance at generic satire, whimsically casting a glance at our post modern world.

Do you heard about the Arduino ecosystem and maybe already tried to understand and get familiar with the library without success? Do you think there are too many boards and choose which one fits best to your needs seems hard? Do you want to learn which are the most popular and essential Arduino libraries that help you to build your project without pain? Searching over the Internet for all these pieces of information, without a clear path, can be stressful. Sometimes we start a new project with a specific library and hardware. In the middle of programming, we figure out that we have chosen the wrong library, maintained by no one, and without clear documentation. There are thousands of libraries out there, and filtering the most useful and workings ones is a considerable work. This book has done this work for you. In this book you will learn: How to choose the best Arduino board for your project Discover which all-in-one Arduino Library can help you with most of the standard functions that every project should have Discover the best libraries for controlling LCD and OLED screens Get how to connect Arduino to the Cloud using WIFI and GSM How to use low-cost humidity and temperature sensors Control Servo motors and learn about the most critical parameters to control Discover the best library to write and read from SD cards Choose the best graphics library for displaying circles, pints, lines Learn the best way to manage and customize LED strips Uncover what is the most popular Internet of Things platform to connect hardware to the Cloud Discover how to let the Arduino board act as a Keyboard or a Mouse Learn how to build your custom remote controller using infra-red signals Learn which library provides support for ultrasonic sensors And so much more! Even if you think you can find all these pieces of information over the Internet, this book can help you because it is based on the library''s usage data shared by the company. So it means that you will discover libraries actually used by the community!

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Hegel''s 1807 Phenomenology of Spirit is renowned for being one of the most challenging and important books in Western philosophy. Above all, it is famous for laying out a new approach to reasoning and philosophical argument, an approach that has been credited with influencing Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, and many other key modern philosophers. That approach is the so-called "Hegelian dialectic" - an open-ended sequence of reasoning and argument in which contradictory concepts generate and are incorporated into a third, more sophisticated concept. While the Phenomenology does not always clearly use this dialectical method - and it is famously one of the most difficult works of philosophy ever written - the Hegelian dialectic provides a perfect template for critical thinking reasoning skills. A hallmark of good reasoning in the construction of an argument, and the searching out of answers must necessarily consider contradictory viewpoints or evidence. For Hegel, contradiction is key: it is precisely what allows reasoning to progress. Only by incorporating and overcoming contradictions, according to his method, is it possible for thought to progress at all. While writing like Hegel might not be advisable, thinking like him can help take your reasoning to the next level.

Hegel’s 1807 Phenomenology of Spirit is renowned for being one of the most challenging and important books in Western philosophy. Above all, it is famous for laying out a new approach to reasoning and philosophical argument, an approach that has been credited with influencing Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, and many other key modern philosophers. That approach is the so-called “Hegelian dialectic” – an open-ended sequence of reasoning and argument in which contradictory concepts generate and are incorporated into a third, more sophisticated concept. While the Phenomenology does not always clearly use this dialectical method – and it is famously one of the most difficult works of philosophy ever written – the Hegelian dialectic provides a perfect template for critical thinking reasoning skills. A hallmark of good reasoning in the construction of an argument, and the searching out of answers must necessarily consider contradictory viewpoints or evidence. For Hegel, contradiction is key: it is precisely what allows reasoning to progress. Only by incorporating and overcoming contradictions, according to his method, is it possible for thought to progress at all. While writing like Hegel might not be advisable, thinking like him can help take your reasoning to the next level.

Few historians can claim to have undertaken historical analysis on as grand a scale as Geoffrey Parker in his 2013 work Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century. It is a doorstop of a book that surveys the ‘general crisis of the 17th century,’ shows that it was experienced practically throughout the world, and was not merely a European phenomenon, and links it to the impact of climate change in the form of the advent of a cold period known as the ‘Little Ice Age.’ Parker’s triumph is made possible by the deployment of formidable critical thinking skills – reasoning, to construct an engaging overall argument from very disparate material, and analysis, to re-examine and understand the plethora of complex secondary sources on which his book is built. In critical thinking, analysis is all about understanding the features and structures of argument: how given reasons lead to conclusions, and what kinds of implicit reasons and assumptions are being used. Historical analysis applies the same skills to the fabric of history, asking how given chains of events occur, how different reasons and factors interact, and so on. Parker, though, takes things further than most in his quest to understand the meaning of a century’s-worth of turbulence spread across the whole globe. Beginning by breaking down the evidence for significant climatic cooling in the 17th-century (due to decreased solar activity), he moves on to detailed study of the effects the cooling had on societies and regimes across the world. From this detailed spadework, he constructs a persuasive argument that accounts for the different ways in which the effects of climate change played out across the century – an argument with profound implications for a future likely to see serious climate change of its own.

Thomas Paine’s 1776 Common Sense has secured an unshakeable place as one of history’s most explosive and revolutionary books. A slim pamphlet published at the beginning of the American Revolution, it was so widely read that it remains the all-time best selling book in US history. An impassioned argument for American independence and for democratic government, Common Sense can claim to have helped change the face of the world more than almost any other book. But Paine’s pamphlet is also a masterclass in critical thinking, demonstrating how the reasoned construction of arguments can be reinforced by literary skill and passion. Paine is perhaps more famous as a stylist than as a constructor of arguments, but Common Sense marries the best elements of good reasoning to its polemic. Moving systematically from the origins of government, through a criticism of monarchy, and on to the possibilities for future democratic government in an independent America, Paine neatly lays out a series of persuasive reasons to fight for independence and a new form of government. Indeed, as the pamphlet’s title suggested, to do so was nothing more than ‘common sense.’

Francis Fukuyama’s controversial 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man demonstrates an important aspect of creative thinking: the ability to generate hypotheses and create novel explanations for evidence. In the case of Fukuyama’s work, the central hypothesis and explanation he put forward were not, in fact, new, but they were novel in the academic and historical context of the time. Fukuyama’s central argument was that the end of the Cold War was a symptom of, and a vital waypoint in, a teleological progression of history. Interpreting history as “teleological” is to say that it is headed towards a final state, or end point: a state in which matters will reach an equilibrium in which things are as good as they can get. For Fukuyama, this would mean the end of “mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government”. This grand theory, which sought to explain the end of the Cold War through a single overarching hypothesis, made the novel step of resurrecting the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel’s theory of history – which had long been ignored by practical historians and political philosophers – and applying it to current events.

David Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical classic that displays a powerful mastery of the critical thinking skills of reasoning and evaluation. Hume’s subject, the question of the existence and possible nature of God, was, and still is, a persistent topic of philosophical and theological debate. What makes Hume’s text a classic of reasoning, though, is less what he says, than how he says it. As he noted in his preface to the book, the question of ‘natural religion’ was unanswerable: so ‘obscure and uncertain’ that ‘human reason can reach no fixed determination with regard to it.’ Hume chose, as a result, to cast his thoughts on the topic in the form of a dialogue – allowing different points of view to be reasoned out, evaluated and answered by different characters. Considering and judging different or opposing points of view, as Hume’s characters do, is an important part of reasoning, and is vital to building strong persuasive arguments. Even if, as Hume suggests, there can be no final answer to what a god might be like, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion shows high-level reasoning and evaluation at their best.

John Locke’s 1689 Two Treatises of Government is a key text in the history of political theory – one whose influence remains marked on modern politics, the American Constitution and beyond. Two Treatises is more than a seminal work on the nature and legitimacy of government. It is also a masterclass in two key critical thinking skills: evaluation and reasoning. Evaluation is all about judging and assessing arguments – asking how relevant, adequate and convincing they are. And, at its heart, the first of Locke’s two treatises is pure evaluation: a long and incisive dissection of a treatise on the arguments in Sir Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha. Filmer’s book had defended the doctrine that kings were absolute rulers whose legitimacy came directly from God (the so-called “divine right of kings”), basing his arguments on Biblical explanations and evidence. Locke carefully rebutted Filmer’s arguments, on their own terms, by reference to both the Bible and to recorded history. Finding Filmer’s evidence either to be insufficient or unacceptable, Locke concluded that his argument for patriarchy was weak to the point of invalidity. In the second of Locke’s treatises, the author goes on to construct his own argument concerning the sources of legitimate power, and the nature of that power. Carefully building his own argument from a logical consideration of man in “the state of nature”, Locke creates a convincing argument that civilised society should be based on natural human rights and the social contract.

Cover -- Half Title -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- WAYS IN TO THE TEXT -- Who Was Immanuel Kant? -- What Does Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason Say? -- Why Does Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason Matter? -- SECTION 1: INFLUENCES -- Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context -- Module 2: Academic Context -- Module 3: The Problem -- Module 4: The Author''s Contribution -- SECTION 2: IDEAS -- Module 5: Main Ideas -- Module 6: Secondary Ideas -- Module 7: Achievement -- Module 8: Place in the Author''s Work -- SECTION 3: IMPACT -- Module 9: The First Responses -- Module 10: The Evolving Debate -- Module 11: Impact and Influence Today -- Module 12: Where Next? -- Glossary of Terms -- People Mentioned in the Text -- Works Cited

At 30, Alex Kingbridge never new his parents. He spent his normal day doing electrical work on farm machinery. When he finds that his father had left money to himself and a vague list of people across Australia, he is engaged by a law firm to track them down. The clues that link them all come from a string of unique spiral wooden staircases that his father had built in different towns from thirty years before. Find the missing staircase and he has a chance to find the missing person.Alex goes on an adventure that traverses Australia and New Zealand and meets a lot of interesting people along the way. Only with his special methods of problem solving and a little luck can he complete his mission.

Humorous watercolor drawing and vignette by Ian Jackson concerning the deletion of the word "scylline" from a quotation of Eric Korn in the second edition of Chamberpot & Motherfuck: the price-codes of the book trade, as proposed by publisher Bruce McKittrick.

Story of the Jacobovitch family from Stazow in Russian occupied Poland and their story of Samuel and his family in early 20th century London''s East End. The conditions and what was happening.

The betrayal, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ told in verse with this story also presented as a short play with the text in play-script format.

The combination of severe ocular and distal limb malformations is rare. Ophthalmo-acromelic syndrome (OAS; MIM 206920) is characterised by anophthalmia with lower limb oligodactyly. To date 40 cases of this autosomal recessive disorder have been reported. Genome-wide analysis of ~10,000 SNPs typed on two apparently unrelated families - comprising a total of three affected individuals, four unaffected siblings and their consanguineous parents - identified a large region of overlapping autozygosity on chromosome 14q. Adding data from a third consanguineous family gave a combined LOD score of 5 with no evidence of locus heterogeneity. Collaborative data from a further 6 individuals refined the critical interval to a 3.4 Mb region on chromosome14:69,652,605-73,059,612 Mb. To sequence all 19 known protein-coding genes in the region, the 238 exons were ranked by evolutionary sequence conservation and divided equally between the Edinburgh and Nijmegen groups. Complete sequence coverage has been obtained for 61% of the "Edinburgh" exons but no potentially causative mutations have been identified. Further mutation analysis of the OAS locus is on-going. Mice homozygous for the X-ray induced Mp mutation were reportedly anophthalmic with hind limb oligodactyly and thus represented a potential model for human OAS. This line was rederived in Edinburgh and phenotypic analysis of Mp/Mp homozygotes showed runting, malformed pinnae with microphthalmia but not anophthalmia. The apparent hind-limb oligodactyly was due to osseous syndactyly. Mp heterozygotes had milder microphthalmia and pinnae deformities, but lacked the syndactyly. In both heterozygotes and homozygotes the eye malformations were fully penetrant, pan-ocular and characterised by failure of both the ciliary apparatus and vitreous body to form and abnormal retinal lamination. Genome-wide microsatellite marker analysis showed linkage of the Mp phenotype to chromosome 18. Fbn2 mapped within the linkage interval and was a good candidate for Mp based on the finding of hind limb osseous syndactyly in Fbn2-null mice. However, Fbn2-null mice have no eye phenotype. 3''-RACE identified that Mp was as a 660 kb inversion affecting the 3''-regions of Fbn2 and the adjacent gene Isoc1. This created two aberrant reciprocal fusion transcripts: Fbn2 exons 1-63 are fused to Isoc1 exon 5; and Isoc1 exons 1-4 are fused to Fbn2 exons 64-65. This predicts nonsense-mediated decay of the Isoc1 Mp transcript and production of a truncated Fbn2 Mp protein. Ocular development was analysed in homozygote and wild type embryos to define the basis of the "worse than null phenotype" seen in Mp mice. RNA in situ hybridisations (ISH) failed to detect expression of Isoc1 in the embryonic eye. In contrast, normal expression of Fbn2 in the ciliary body and retina was consistent with the Mp phenotype. A combination of EM and immunocytochemistry showed that truncated Fbn2 (Fbn2Mp) was retained within the ER. Fbn2Mp co-localised with markers of ER stress: Grp78 expression and UPR-specific Xbp1 splicing. Signalling by Wnt2b is thought to be critical for ciliary development and Lef1, a Wnt-responsive transcription factor, showed increased and ectopic ocular expression in the region affected by ER stress. Sox2 is a direct transcriptional target of Lef1 and we observed apparent ectopic expression of Sox2 in the ciliary body. Throughout the developing retina in mutant embryos we also observed individual cells that were ectopically expressing the transcription factor Chx10 and other cells expressing the apoptotic marker Activated- Caspase-3. The apoptotic marker did not specifically co-localise with Fbn2Mp. Taken together, these findings suggest that the ocular malformations in Mp are a direct result of the ER stress induced by Fbn2Mp in a specific group of cells in the early ciliary body. The ER stress presumably halts post-translational modification of a developmentally critical signaling molecule, possibly Wnt2b, which happens to be expressed in the same cells. We have termed the resulting pathological mechanism a synodiporic effect (synodiporia = the ones walking the street together or fellow travellers). Such effects may have significant implications for human genetic disease analysis, and may provide an explanation for other "worse than null" mutations.

Describes the history of Ancient Egypt, from its origins as a group of settlements along the banks of the Nile, to its transformation into one of the world''s earliest and greatest civilizations.

A celebration of animal life as seen through the work of one of the best natural history artists in the business. Observations from writers as diverse as Herman Melville, Robert Frost, Gerald Durrell and Sir David Attenborough are brought into dramatic focus by Jackson''s artworks.

Ian Jackson draws on his inside knowledge of the rapidly changing market in nukenomics. He describes the major trends and market forces that are actively shaping the future development of the nuclear industry today, by explaining not just what things are happening but, more fundamentally, why.