A major monument, Luca Signorelli's Orvieto Cathedral frescoes rendered with vigor and invective the most ambitious consideration of the Apocalypse and the Last Judgment in Italian Renaissance art. In a fresh interpretation of these frescoes, Jonathan Riess explores the intriguing, violent style and complex iconography and places the works in their richly faceted historical setting. Begun by Fra Angelico in 1447 and completed by Signorelli at the turn of the century, the frescoes reflect the turmoil within the Papal States, the suffering brought on by a surge of natural disasters, the fear of the Turks, and the anti-Judaic campaigns of the day. The book centers on the mural depicting the "Rule of Antichrist," the single monumental portrayal of the subject during the Renaissance and a revealing indicator of widespread apocalyptic obsessions. Drawing on historical, theological, literary, and artistic sources, Riess examines the reasons behind the commissioning of the murals and considers the broad meaning of the program. "The Rule of Antichrist," for example, is seen as a "summa" of the doom-laden worlds of Rome and Orvieto and as a blistering condemnation of the political realm. Signorelli's references to Dante, Virgil, and Cicero and to contemporary theology and dramatic performances come into play as Riess interprets the monument as a representation of the struggle between a penitential Christianity and the forces of heresy and tyranny.

Is there a chance that a democratically elected African President can steer his country that lies below the equator to be an ethically, non-corruptive, law-abiding place to live? Could he achieve a similar sort of headway that Singapore succeeded to attain? Will this president become threatened by his countless enemies and stripped of his resources to then go about his work in an honest and undisputed way? Will the plundering and corruption that has been Africa’s trademark for centuries prevail? In this thought-provoking and intriguing novel, President Joshua Luombe Semba and his loyal team try to thwart an attack and prove precisely the opposite. Acting strongly and following his own belief and naivety, Semba goes through thick and thin - earning himself his nickname Tinga Tinga – the bulldozer. His wananchi’s, the proud citizens of Tanzania, are baffled. Slowly but surely, they too fall under the spell of the vigour and intensity. How long will he hang on in there? Read the philosophical verging on a true story written by the anonymous world citizen Ajeka & Fox, who wish to protect their creative privacy. For the consequences remain uncertain in this somewhat grisly tropical neck of the woods.

This 2005 book was the first ever overview of all aspects of Yiddish language and lingustics.

In the last one hundred years, a number of catastrophic events associated with rockslide dam formation and failure have occurred in the mountain regions of the world. This book presents a global view of the formation, characteristics and behaviour of natural and artificial rockslide dams. Chapters include a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of our global understanding natural and artificial rockslide dams, overviews of approaches to rockslide dam risk mitigation, regional studies of rockslide dams in India, Nepal, China, Pakistan, New Zealand, and Argentina. Rockslide dams associated with large-scale instability of volcanoes are also examined. Detailed case histories of well-known historic and prehistoric rockslide dams provide examples of investigations of rockslide dam behaviour, stability, and characteristics. The formation and behaviour of rockslide-dammed lakes ("Quake Lakes") formed during the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, China are also comprehensively summarised. The formation, sedimentology and stability of rockslide dams is examined in several analytical papers. An analysis of break-out floods from volcanogenic lakes and hydrological methods of estimating break-out flood magnitude and behavior are reviewed. The use of remote sensing data in rockslide-dammed lake characterisation is explored and a new approach to the classification of rockslide dams is introduced. Finally, a unique section of the book summarises Russian and Kyrgyz experience with blast-fill dam construction in two papers by leading authorities on the technology. The volume contains 24 papers by 50 authors from 16 countries including most of the recognised world authorities on the subject.