Despite the flood of self-help guides and our current therapeutic culture, feelings of alienation and spiritual longing continue to grip modern society. In this book, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn offers a fresh solution: a return to classic philosophy and the cultivation of an inner life. The ancient Roman philosopher Cicero wrote that philosophy is ars vitae, the art of living. Today, signs of stress and duress point to a full-fledged crisis for individuals and communities while current modes of making sense of our lives prove inadequate. Yet, in this time of alienation and spiritual longing, we can glimpse signs of a renewed interest in ancient approaches to the art of living. In this ambitious and timely book, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn engages both general readers and scholars on the topic of well-being. She examines the reappearance of ancient philosophical thought in contemporary American culture, probing whether new stirrings of Gnosticism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, and Platonism present a true alternative to our current therapeutic culture of self-help and consumerism, which elevates the self’s needs and desires yet fails to deliver on its promises of happiness and healing. Do the ancient philosophies represent a counter-tradition to today’s culture, auguring a new cultural vibrancy, or do they merely solidify a modern way of life that has little use for inwardness—the cultivation of an inner life—stemming from those older traditions? Tracing the contours of this cultural resurgence and exploring a range of sources, from scholarship to self-help manuals, films, and other artifacts of popular culture, this book sees the different schools as organically interrelated and asks whether, taken together, they can point us in important new directions. Ars Vitae sounds a clarion call to take back philosophy as part of our everyday lives. It proposes a way to do so, sifting through the ruins of long-forgotten and recent history alike for any shards helpful in piecing together the coherence of a moral framework that allows us ways to move forward toward the life we want and need.

The federal government wastes your tax dollars worse than a drunken sailor on shore leave. The 1984 Grace Commission uncovered that the Department of Defense spent $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer. Twenty years later things weren't much better. In 2004, Congress spent a record-breaking $22.9 billion dollars of your money on 10,656 of their pork-barrel projects. The war on terror has a lot to do with the record $413 billion in deficit spending, but it's also the result of pork over the last 18 years the likes of: - $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa - $102 million to study screwworms which were long ago eradicated from American soil - $273,000 to combat goth culture in Missouri - $2.2 million to renovate the North Pole (Lucky for Santa!) - $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in California - $1 million for ornamental fish research Funny in some instances and jaw-droppingly stupid and wasteful in others, The Pig Book proves one thing about Capitol Hill: pork is king!

Combining Chinese Taoist astrology, Western zodiac astrology, and birth destiny cards to develop your innate talents and transform your negative traits • Includes charts to discover your Chinese animal year, your Western zodiac sun sign, your moon sign, and your birth destiny card as well as those of your friends, lovers, relatives, and colleagues • Provides insightful and accurate descriptions for each animal year, zodiac sun sign, and birth card as well as each year and sun sign combination and each sun and moon sign combination • Offers career suggestions based on your innate gifts and relationship advice on which animals, sign combos, and birth cards to seek out and which to avoid With your first breath of life, you take in the energy pattern radiated by the sun, moon, and stars at that moment in time and space. This internal energy pattern underlies your persona--your behavioral patterns, personality traits, and life’s path. Understanding these underlying patterns enables you to balance and transform your negative traits and highlight and develop your innate talents. Blending Eastern and Western astrological methods, Master Mantak Chia and William Wei explain how to identify the five key patterns of your internal energy persona based on the year, month, and day of your birth. Including charts to discover your Chinese animal year, your Western zodiac sun sign, your moon sign, and your birth destiny card, they explore how each of these astrological profiles interact to build your unique persona and provide profoundly accurate descriptions for each year and sun sign combination, each sun and moon sign combination, and each birth card. Each description also includes career recommendations to best utilize your innate gifts and relationship advice on which animals, sign combinations, and birth cards to seek out and which to avoid. Not only useful for personal insight and self-development, this new astrological approach can also be used to understand the underlying energetic personality patterns of your lovers, friends, relatives, and colleagues.

The Navy of World War II, 1922-1946 comprehensively covers the vessels that defined this momentous 24-year period in U.S. naval history. Beginning with the lean, pared-down navy created by the treaty at the Washington Naval Conference, and ending with the massive, awe-inspiring fleets that led the Allies to victory in the Second World War, the fourth volume in the celebrated U.S. Navy Warship series presents a detailed guide to all the warships that exhibited the might of the U.S. Navy to the fullest. Showcasing all the ships—both the famous and the often overlooked-that propelled the U.S Navy to prominence in the first half of the twentieth century, The Navy of World War II catalogues all the warships from this era, including those that did battle in the European, Mediterranean, and Pacific Theaters from 1941-1946. From the fleet attacked at Pearl Harbor, to those that fought valiantly in the Battle of the Guadalcanal, to the official surrender of the Japanese on the deck of the USS Missouri, this latest volume is the definitive guide to the warships that defined this pivotal period in U.S. naval history. Each volume in the U.S. Navy Warship series represents the most meticulous scholarship for its particular era, providing an authoritative account of every ship in the history of the U. S. Navy from its first incarnation as the Continental Navy to its present position as one of the world’s most formidable naval superpowers. Featuring convenient, easy-to-read tabular lists, every book in the series includes an abundance of illustrations, some never before published, along with figures for actions fought, damages sustained, casualties suffered, prizes taken, and ships sunk, ultimately making the series an indispensable reference tool for maritime buffs and military historians alike. A further article about Paul Silverstone and the Navy Warships series can be found at: http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s18s180&SecId=180&AId=58892&ATypeId=1

"International Accounting + Finance Handbook" - Jetzt neu in der 3. aktualisierten Auflage. Ein ausgezeichnetes Nachschlagewerk für alle, die mit Rechnungslegung, Finanzberichterstattung, Controlling und Finanzen im internationalen Umfeld zu tun haben. Es vermittelt Managern die notwendigen Tools, um die Unterschiede bei Bilanzierungsgrundsätzen, Finanzberichterstattung und Buchprüfungsverfahren in der internationalen Finanzarena in den Griff zu bekommen. Der Band gibt einen Überblick über internationale Rechnungslegungs- und Finanzfragen und weist auf wichtige Trends in der internationalen Rechnungslegung und Finanzwirtschaft hin. Mit Beiträgen von Vertretern der "Großen 5" amerikanischen Anwalts- und Finanzfirmen sowie von bekannten Akademikern. Mit ausführlichem Beispielmaterial aus der Praxis sowie zahlreichen Fallstudien. Autor Frederick Choi ist ein führender Experte auf dem Gebiet der internationalen Rechnungslegung und Finanzwirtschaft und verfügt über umfangreiche praktische Consulting-Erfahrung.