BAROQUE TOMORROW, written by energy and finance expert Jack Michalowski, questions why information technology advances havem failed to deliver post-industrial nations from rising unemployment, poverty and inequality, longer working hours and declining pay. Comprehensive and topical, this volume looks through today's issues at cycles of our history over the last few hundred years to search for answers to the key question of the day: why are post-industrial societies declining and why pace of progress is slowing. Discover why technology falls short and why even the world's leading economies are still struggling in this fast-paced book that reads like a thriller.

This is a nonchronological introduction to Baroque, one of the great periods of European art. John Martin's descriptions of the essential characteristics of the Baroque help one to gain an understanding of the style. His illustrations are informative and he has clearly looked with a fresh eye at the works of art themselves. In addition to the more than 200 illustrations, the volume contains an appendix of translated documents.

"Nearly four hundred and fifty years in, ballet still resonates-though the stages have become international, and the dancers, athletes far removed from noble amateurs. While vibrations from the form's beginnings clearly resound, much has transformed. Nowadays ballet dancers aspire to work across disciplines with choreographers who value a myriad of abilities. Dance theorists and historians make known possibilities and polemics in lieu of notating dances verbatim, and critics do the daily work of recording performance histories and interviewing artists. Ideas circulate, questions arise, and discussions about how to resist ballet's outmoded traditions take precedence. In the dance community, calls for innovation have defined palpable shifts in ballet's direction and resultantly we have arrived at a new moment in its history that is unquestionably recognized as a genre onto its own: Contemporary Ballet. An aspect of this recent discipline is that its dancemakers, more often than not, seek to reorient the viewer by celebrating what could be deemed vulnerabilities, re-construing ideals of perfection, problematizing the marginalized/mainstream dichotomy, bringing audiences closer in to observe, and letting the art become an experience rather than a distant object preciously guarded out of reach. Hence, the practice of ballet is moving to become a less-mediated and more active process in many circumstances. Performers and audiences alike are challenged, and while convention is still omnipresent, choices are being made. For some, this approach has been drawn on for decades, and for others it signifies a changing of the guard, yet however we arrive there, the conclusion is the same: Contemporary Ballet is not a style. That is to say, it is not a trend, phase, or fashionable term that will fade, rather it is a clear period in ballet's time deserved of investigation. And it is into this moment that we enter"--

Tomorrow Through the Past: Neal Stephenson and the Project of Global Modernization is the first collection of scholarly essays dedicated exclusively to this important voice in contemporary American fiction. The collection grew from five essays originally presented at the 2006 XXth Century Literature Conference at the University of Louisville, and the contributors are made up of graduate students, independent scholars, and university professors who hope the collection will aid general readers as well as instructors teaching Stephenson and professionals building the critical response to his work. Reading through the lenses of history and linguistic, cultural, and science fiction studies, the essays in the collection examine each of Stephenson’s novels from The Big U to The Baroque Cycle as well as his long non-fiction work on computer operating systems, In the Beginning … Was the Command Line. Included in this collection is a new interview conducted with Stephenson during the summer of 2006.

Discover the beauty of Polish music and fables through "Vistula Resonances", an amazing journey through time and space. Travel through the remnants of pre-medieval themes, the majesty of Renaissance and Baroque movements and the patriotism in the Romantic period. Discover postwar Polish music creativity and the changes in the country's musical life in the post-communist period. This book is a tremendously detailed account of how Polish music is not just a mirror of the nation's character, but an active element in its formation. Starting with the eerie anthems of folk songs from prehistoric times, through dance and techno music of today's Poland, "Vistula Resonances" provides the unique opportunity to experience the gradual development of a nation that finds its essence in music. This outstanding compendium is specifically tailored for scholars, interested laymen as well as for anybody eager to discover more about the history of Poland and its music – a true masterpiece, which certainly furthers the understanding and appreciation of its profound subject.

"Bruce Sterling on speed? The imagination of Sterling squared? All of the glitz, glibly tossed-off newly invented, or hybrid tech-terms thrown at the reader like an info blizzard at hurricane force, but with more core storyline than in some of Sterling's "Deep Eddy" stories? ... if you like Sterling, you're gonna love Stross. In an ironic sense, Bruce Sterling was the buffer we needed to be able to handle Charles Stross." - Tangent.