WITH A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR TO HIS CANADIAN READERS It is said that a picture may be worth a thousand words but an old photograph can inspire many more. In this beguiling book, McCall Smith casts his eye over five “orphaned” photographs from the era of black-and-white photography and imagines the stories behind them. Who were those people, what were their stories, why are they smiling, what made them sad? What emerges are surprising and poignant tales of love and friendship in a variety of settings an estate in the Highlands of Scotland, a travelling circus in Canada, an Australian gold-mining town, a village in Ireland, and the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. A dapper, roguish-looking man perching on a lady’s knee sparks the story of a ventriloquist and an animal handler who work in a circus, and who, under the most delightfully unexpected circumstances, fall in love. The image of a woman haloed by light in a train station becomes the lighthearted tale of a nun’s decision to leave the sisterhood and discover what and whom the big city has to offer. Some will find joy and fulfillment; others would prefer happier endings. Each of them, though, will find love, and that is ultimately what matters. Romantic, wistful and poignant, Chance Developments brims with flourishes of grace and humor that could only come from the pen of Alexander McCall Smith.

The productivity slowdown of the 1970s and 1980s and the resumption of productivity growth in the 1990s have provoked controversy among policymakers and researchers. Economists have been forced to reexamine fundamental questions of measurement technique. Some researchers argue that econometric approaches to productivity measurement usefully address shortcomings of the dominant index number techniques while others maintain that current productivity statistics underreport damage to the environment. In this book, the contributors propose innovative approaches to these issues. The result is a state-of-the-art exposition of contemporary productivity analysis. Charles R. Hulten is professor of economics at the University of Maryland. He has been a senior research associate at the Urban Institute and is chair of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Michael Harper is chief of the Division of Productivity Research at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Edwin R. Dean, formerly associate commissioner for Productivity and Technology at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is adjunct professor of economics at The George Washington University.

Fluvial-Tidal Sedimentology provides information on the 'Tidal-Fluvial Transition', the transition zone between river and tidal environments, and includes contributions that address some of the most fundamental research questions, including how the morphology of the tidal-fluvial transition zone evolves over short (days) and long (decadal) time periods and for different tidal and fluvial regimes, the structure of the river flow as it varies in its magnitude over tidal currents and how this changes at the mixing interface between fresh and saline water and at the turbidity maximum, the role of suspended sediment in controlling bathymetric change and bar growth and the role of fine-grained sediment (muds and flocs), whether it is possible to differentiate between 'fluvial' and 'tidally' influenced bedforms as preserved in bars and within the adjacent floodplain and what are the diagnostic sedimentary facies of tidal-fluvial deposits and how are these different from 'pure' fluvial and tidal deposits, amongst other topics. The book presents the latest research on the processes and deposits of the tidal-fluvial transition, documenting recent major field programs that have quantified the flow, sediment transport, and bed morphology in tidal-fluvial zones. It uses description of contemporary environments and ancient outcrop analogues to characterize the facies change through the tidal-fluvial transition. - Presents the latest outcomes from recent, large, integrated field programs in estuaries around the world - Gives detailed field descriptions (outcrop, borehole, core, contemporary sediments) of tidal-fluvial deposits - Accesses new models and validation datasets for estuarine processes and deposits - Presents descriptions of contemporary environments and ancient outcrop analogues to characterize the facies change through the tidal-fluvial transition

Remote Sensing of Geomorphology, Volume 23, discusses the new range of remote-sensing techniques (lidar, structure from motion photogrammetry, advanced satellite platforms) that has led to a dramatic increase in terrain information, and as such provided new opportunities for a better understanding of surface morphology and related Earth surface processes. As several papers have been published (including paper reviews and special issues) on this topic, this book summarizes the major advances in remote sensing techniques for the analysis of Earth surface morphology and processes, also highlighting future challenges. Useful for MSc and PhD students, this book is also ideal for any scientists that want to have a single volume guideline to help them develop new ideas. In addition, technicians and private and public sectors working on remote sensing will find the information useful to their initiatives.

The latest edition of The Illustrated Book of Development Definitions breaks new ground. It addresses traditional and new planning problems: natural and industrial disasters such as hurricanes and oil spills; new housing types and living accommodations; changes in urban design and practice like new urbanism; sustainability; pedestrian and bicycle friendly environments; and more. Joining Harvey S. Moskowitz and Carl G. Lindbloom, authors of the first three editions, are two prominent, nationally known planners: David Listokin and Richard Preiss. Attorney Dwight H. Merriam adds legal annotations to almost all 2,276 definitions. These citations from court decisions bridge the gap between land use theory and real world application, bringing a new dimension to this edition. More than 20,000 copies of previous editions were sold over four decades to professionals and government representatives, such as members of planning and zoning boards and municipal governing bodies. This first revision in ten years updates what is widely acknowledged as an essential, standard reference for planners.