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An Orange Revolution: A Personal Journey Through Ukrainian History
by Askold KrushnelnyckyIn December 2004, the world watched as hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians gathered to defy the results of a transparently rigged presidential election. The charismatic popular candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, had been poisoned and disfigured by his opponents. The security forces threatened violent repression. But the demonstrators stayed and, as international pressure grew, the corrupt old regime that had been supported by Putin's Kremlin was deposed. It was the most significant moment for Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall.An Orange Revolution is the gripping account of this historic uprising and the events that led to it. Ukraine was treated roughly by the twentieth century, occupied by the Germans and annexed by the Soviets. It saw guerrilla fighting after the Second World War and dissent was crushed by successive Communist administrations. Its history has been one of corruption, power struggles, organised crime, but a resiliently optimistic population.Based on firsthand observation and interviews with major players and anonymous demonstrators alike, this is about a people who have forced a lasting change: judges who defied death threats, a murdered journalist, amateur musicians who composed an anthem for the people, and soldiers who staked their lives to back the opposition. An Orange Revolution also traces the story of the author's family, who paid a high price for speaking out. An Orange Revolution is a captivating book about a defining moment in European history.
Oradour: The Massacre and Aftermath (Battleground South West France)
by Philip BeckThis WWII pictorial history illustrates a horrifying episode of destruction in Nazi-occupied France. In June of 1944, the Second SS Panzer Division Das Reich was stationed in Southern France until it was called north to help stop the Allied advance. On its way toward Normandy, Das Reich destroyed the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane and massacred its population. The brutal event ranks as one of the most notorious atrocities of the Second World War. While the scars left behind will never fully heal, many believe they should remain as a lesson to future generations. Though a new village was built nearby, President Charles de Gaulle ordered the ruins of Oradour to be preserved as a memorial to the victims. This fully illustrated volume recounts the history and legacy Oradour&’s destruction, complete with photographs of the ruins throughout
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) GoldenGate: Real-world Examples
by Y V Ravi Kumar Raghavendra S Ankur GoelThis book focuses on the utilization of GoldenGate Services (GGS) in conjunction with a microservices architecture on the Oracle cloud (OCI), primarily for data migration and integration across various data sources and targets.The book begins with a practical example of utilizing GGS on a Marketplace VM, progressively advancing to in-depth discussions on implementing GoldenGate as a Service on OCI. The book offers illustrative guides for data replication between RDBMSs (such as Oracle, Postgres, and big data targets such as Kafka). Additionally, it explores monitoring techniques using Enterprise Manager and Grafana dashboards. A comparative analysis is presented between traditional VM-based GoldenGate installations and the OCI service model. Special attention is given to Zero Downtime Migration (ZDM) and leveraging GGS for database migration from on-premises to OCI. Some chapters address multi-cloud replication using OCI GGS and include real-life case studies.By the end of this book you will have gained comprehensive insights into the architectural design of GoldenGate Services and will be adept at replicating data using GGS, enabling you to replicate setups in your own environments.What You Will LearnSet up GoldenGate Services for high availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR), migration of data to cloud, and moving data into the data lake or lakehousePerform logical migration of data to the cloud using the ZDM tool (ZDM uses GoldenGate internally).Replicate data to big data targetsMonitor GGS using Enterprise Manager and GrafanaReplicate data in a multi-cloud environment Who This Book Is ForOracle database administrators who want to replicate data or use Oracle GoldenGate Services for migration and setup of high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR); and data engineers who want tobuild the data warehouse, data lake, data lakehouse to push data in near real-time
The Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age: All 203 Photographs from "Artistic Houses," with New Text (Dover Architecture)
by Arnold Lewis James Turner Steven McQuillinOriginally published in 1883 to 1884, Artistic Houses comprised more than 200 photographs of the interiors of the homes of the well-to-do, with commentary on the woodwork, wall coverings, color schemes, and other aspects of interior décor. Today, historians consider Artistic Houses the best source of information and illustrations for private houses in major Eastern cities in the early 1880s. Although its authorship is not certain, the text is generally attributed to noted author and art critic George William Sheldon.This volume retains all of the photographs from the original two-volume work; the text, however, has been replaced with a version specially written for this edition. In addition to an introductory essay on the period's social and esthetic trends, extensive captions for each plate include most of the valuable information from Sheldon's descriptions plus biographical comments on the homeowners and their families, comments on paintings and sculptures, present condition of the houses, and locations.Over 200 photographs of 97 grand buildings include rare photographs of the New York homes of Hamilton Fish and Ulysses S. Grant; multiple views of the Henry Villard house, now part of the Helmsley Palace Hotel in Manhattan; rooms from William H. Vanderbilt's Fifth Avenue residence; interiors from J. Pierpont Morgan's Madison Avenue home; the Marshall Field house in Chicago, and many others. Here are richly paneled rooms that rivaled the baronial halls of European castles, miniature art galleries, magnificent tapestries, plush draperies, and brilliant chandeliers. With its thorough scholarship and wealth of detail, this impressive survey offers not only inside views of the homes of the rich and powerful families during the Gilded Age but also fascinating insights into the social history and architectural development of the United States.
Optimus Prime and Megatron's Racetrack Recon! (Transformers: EarthSpark)
by Ryder WindhamTransformers: EarthSpark is a kids animated series from Nickelodeon and Hasbro introducing the first Transformers bots to be born on Earth, now airing! Follow the beloved characters on a new adventure in this action-packed chapter book with an all-new, original story!A big auto race is happening nearby, and G.H.O.S.T. has a top-secret mission for Optimus Prime and Megatron: make sure there are no rogue Transformers robots competing in their alt modes. At first, Optimus Prime and Megatron figure this will be an easy mission…until they arrive and discover Bumblebee, the Terrans, Robby, and Mo all at the racetrack. If G.H.O.S.T. finds out about Bumblebee and the Terrans, everyone&’s cover will be blown! Can Optimus Prime and Megatron work together to save the day and keep everyone&’s secret safe? TRANSFORMERS © 2023 Hasbro. Transformers: EarthSpark TV series © 2023 Hasbro/Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Optimum Healing: A Practical Guide to Finding Holistic Health/Inner Peace
by Craig BrownOPTIMUM HEALING is an essential guide to everyone interested in what good health really means - and how to encourage it. Through case histories which mirror the lives of ordinary people everywhere, Dr Craig Brown shows that physical illness is often the expression of a deeper emotional and spiritual problem. He explains that five negative attributes underly all illness: anger, depression, guilt, attachment and worry, and that unless these are released, as one physical symptom is cured, so another will inevitably occur. In this highly readable book, Dr Brown offers practical suggestions, excercises and ideas to help you: *Confront and release your own negative attributes *Find a balance between your body, mind and spirit *Establish harmony with your environment *Discover your own path to optimum healing and inner peace
Optimizing Play: Why Theorycrafting Breaks Games and How to Fix It
by Christopher A. PaulAn unexpected take on how games work, what the stakes are for them, and how game designers can avoid the traps of optimization.The process of optimization in games seems like a good thing—who wouldn&’t want to find the most efficient way to play and win? As Christopher Paul argues in Optimizing Play, however, optimization can sometimes risk a tragedy of the commons, where actions that are good for individuals jeopardize the overall state of the game for everyone else. As he explains, players inadvertently limit play as they theorycraft, seeking optimal choices. The process of developing a meta, or the most effective tactic available, structures decision making, causing play to stagnate. A &“stale&” meta then creates a perception that a game is solved and may lead players to turn away from the game.Drawing on insights from game studies, rhetoric, the history of science, ecology, and game theory literature, Paul explores the problem of optimization in a range of video games, including Overwatch, FIFA/EA Sports FC, NBA 2K, Clash Royale, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends. He also pulls extensively from data analytics in sports, where the problem has progressed further and is even more intractable than it is in video games, given the money sports teams invest to find an edge. Finally, Paul offers concrete and specific suggestions for how games can be developed to avoid the trap set by optimization run amok.
Optimization of Chemical Processes: A Sustainable Perspective
by José María Ponce-Ortega Rogelio Ochoa-Barragán César Ramírez-MárquezThis textbook introduces readers to a comprehensive framework for the application of deterministic optimization strategies in the field of chemical processes, with a strong emphasis on sustainability.The book establishes a vital connection between fundamental deterministic optimization principles, optimization tools, and real-world application instances, all within the context of environmentally responsible practices. The approach put forth in this book is exceptionally versatile, allowing for the use of many optimization software and deterministic techniques.Contained in the book are many fundamental optimization concepts, encompassing linear programming, nonlinear programming, integer programming, and multi-objective optimization, all tailored to promote sustainable decision-making. Furthermore, the book provides practical examples illustrating the application of these techniques within sustainable chemical processes as tutorials.The textbook also explores the utilization of popular optimization software platforms such as GAMS, MATLAB, and Python, demonstrating how these tools can be leveraged for eco-friendly process optimization. Through this comprehensive framework, readers can not only acquire the skills needed to optimize a wide range of processes but also learn how to do so with sustainability at the forefront of their considerations. This approach streamlines the optimization process, eliminating unnecessary complications along the way and ensuring that environmental and ethical considerations are integral to the decision-making process.
The Optimistic Child: A Proven Program to Safeguard Children Against Depression and Build Lifelong Resilience
by Martin E. Seligman Karen Reivich Lisa Jaycox Jane GillhamNew York Times bestselling author Martin E. P. Seligman's The Optimistic Child is "the first major work to provide an effective program for preventing depression in childhood — and probably later in life" (Aaron T. Beck, author of Love is Never Enough).The epidemic of depression in America strikes 30% of all children. Now Martin E. P. Seligman, the bestselling author of Learned Optimism, and his colleagues offer parents and educators a program clinically proven to cut that risk in half. With this startling research, parents can teach children to apply optimism skills that can curb depression, boost school performance, and improve physical health. These skills provide children with the resilience they need to approach the teenage years and adulthood with confidence. For more than thirty years the self-esteem movement has infiltrated American homes and classrooms with the credo that supplying positive feedback, regardless of the quality of performance, will make children feel better about themselves. But in this era of raising our children to feel good, the hard truth is that they have never been more depressed. As Dr. Seligman writes in this provocative new book, "Teaching optimism is more than, I realized, than just correcting pessimism...It is the creation of a positive strength, a sunny but solid future-mindedness that can be deployed throughout life — not only to fight depression and come back from failure, but also to be the foundation of success and vitality."
The Ophelia Girls: A Novel
by Jane HealeyA mother&’s secret past and her daughter&’s present collide in this richly atmospheric novel from the acclaimed author of The Animals at Lockwood Manor. In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings—and a little bit obsessed with each other. Drawn to the cold depths of the river by Ruth&’s house, the girls pretend to be the drowning Ophelia, with increasingly elaborate tableaus. But by the end of that fateful summer, real tragedy finds them along the banks. Twenty-four years later, Ruth returns to the suffocating, once grand house she grew up in, the mother of young twins and seventeen-year-old Maeve. Joining the family in the country is Stuart, Ruth&’s childhood friend, who is quietly insinuating himself into their lives and gives Maeve the attention she longs for. She is recently in remission, unsure of her place in the world now that she is cancer-free. Her parents just want her to be an ordinary teenage girl. But what teenage girl is ordinary? Alternating between the two fateful summers, The Ophelia Girls is a suspense-filled exploration of mothers and daughters, illicit desire, and the perils and power of being a young woman.
Operator and Matrix Theory, Function Spaces, and Applications: International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications 2022, Kraków, Poland (Operator Theory: Advances and Applications #295)
by Marek Ptak Hugo J. Woerdeman Michał WojtylakThis volume features presentations from the International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications that was held in Kraków, Poland, September 6-10, 2022. The volume reflects the wide interests of the participants and contains original research papers in the active areas of Operator Theory. These interests include weighted Hardy spaces, geometry of Banach spaces, dilations of the tetrablock contractions, Toeplitz and Hankel operators, symplectic Dirac operator, pseudodifferential and differential operators, singular integral operators, non-commutative probability, quasi multipliers, Hilbert transform, small rank perturbations, spectral constants, Banach-Lie groupoids, reproducing kernels, and the Kippenhahn curve. The volume includes contributions by a number of the world's leading experts and can therefore be used as an introduction to the currently active research areas in operator theory.
Operative Techniques in Laryngology
by Clark A. Rosen C. Blake SimpsonThis book provides the laryngeal surgeon with essential background information on laryngological disorders, step-by-step surgical information, and key pearls and pitfalls for laryngeal surgery. The field of laryngeal surgery for voice, swallowing, and airway pathologic conditions has dramatically changed over the last 20 years, and the impetus for this book was to reflect these major paradigm shifts and bring together in one place the essential information on the rapidly growing and changing field of laryngeal surgery. Introductory chapters provide a foundation for the diagnosis and preoperative management of laryngeal pathological conditions. These are followed by the procedural chapters, which encompass a wide range of laryngeal procedures. They have been organized around the broad categories of phonomicrosurgery, awake laryngeal surgery, laryngeal framework surgery, and open airway reconstruction. Each procedural chapter is brief, consisting of five to ten pages, and presents progressive instructions for different laryngeal surgical approaches. The individual steps of the procedure are clearly demonstrated through a series of high-quality intraoperative photos and schematic illustrations. In addition, key aspects of certain procedures are accompanied by a short video. All pertinent information regarding equipment, instrumentation, post-operative care, and possible complications associated with the surgical approach is summarized in bullet format at the end of each chapter. Most of the laryngeal procedures feature an expert commentator who has provided unique insights on important steps and different approaches to the described surgical procedure to provide the reader a variety of perspectives. Operative Techniques in Laryngology is aimed at general otolaryngologists, residents, laryngology fellows, and laryngologists. The emergence and growth of laryngology as a sub-specialty of otolaryngology has established this field as an important partof general otolaryngology training.
Operational Research: IO 2022—OR in Turbulent Times: Adaptation and Resilience. XXII Congress of APDIO, University of Évora, Portugal, November 6–8, 2022 (Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics #437)
by João Paulo Almeida Filipe Pereira e Alvelos Jorge Orestes Cerdeira Samuel Moniz Cristina RequejoThis book presents the XXII Congress of APDIO – IO 2022 which is the 22nd edition of the regular meeting of the Portuguese Association of Operational Research (APDIO). The APDIO regular meetings aim to gather Portuguese and international researchers, scholars and practitioners, as well as M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, working in the field of Operations Research to present and discuss their latest research works. The main theme of the XXII Congress of APDIO is OR in Turbulent Times: Adaptation and Resilience.Readers find interesting results and applications of Operational Research cutting-edge methods and techniques in the wide variety of the addressed problems. Of particular interest are the applications of, among others, linear, nonlinear and mixed-integer programing, multiobjective optimization, metaheuristics and hybrid heuristics, multicriteria decision analysis, data envelopment analysis, simulation, clustering techniques and decision support systems, in different areas such as, supply chain management, scheduling problems, production management, logistics, energy, telecommunications, finance and health.
Operation Moonlight: A compelling and emotionally moving historical fiction novel
by Louise MorrishPassion, war and deadly secrets . . .'A charming novel full of fascinating detail about the Second World War, AND a heart-warming love story. I loved every word of it!' Katie Fforde'Wonderfully moving. A book to curl up with' Fern Britton'I absolutely loved this heart-warming story' Susan Lewis'Enthralling from beginning to end' Alan Titchmarsh'Well researched and extremely moving. I really enjoyed it' Jill Mansell____________WARTIME FRANCE, 1944Trust absolutely no one.This is the only advice newly recruited SOE agent Elisabeth Shepherd is given when faced with the impossible.Her mission: to enter Nazi-occupied France and monitor the Germans' deadly long-range missiles.GUILDFORD, 2018Betty is celebrating her 100th birthday when she receives an invite from the Century Society to reminisce on the past.She remains mysteriously tight-lipped about her past, however.And then her carer, Tali, discovers a box full of maps, letters and a gun . . .____________Readers love Operation Moonlight . . .***** 'Beautifully written and researched, this was a truly compelling read, emotionally moving and with the perfect amount of jeopardy to keep me glued to the pages!'***** 'Goes beyond just another historical fiction tale of a woman in WWII to a real page-turning literary account which was a pleasure to read.'***** 'This is a wonderful book, very gripping with a slight hint of romance.'***** 'It was very well written, totally absorbing, and with a very authentic feel.'***** 'It's one that will be staying on my shelf.'
Operation Goodwood: Operation Goodwood (Over the Battlefield)
by Ian DaglishThis ground-level WWII history describes the British armored offensive into occupied France with rare wartime photos. Military historian Ian Daglish presents an authoritatively detailed chronicle of the greatest armored battle undertaken by the British during the Second World War. After the Normandy Landings, Operation Goodwood sent British tanks south out of the Orne bridgehead. Though the operation failed to break through German defenses, it exposed critical vulnerabilities that would ultimately assist the Allies in the liberation of France. Along with the engaging and informative text, this volume includes newly discovered aerial photos taken during the fighting by the RAF. This amazing imagery makes it possible to trace the course of the battle and to track the movement of the armored regiments and troops of both sides.
Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan—and the Path to Victory
by Anthony ShafferOperation Dark Heart tells the story of what really went on—and what went wrong—in Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer led a black-ops team on the forefront of the military efforts to block the Taliban's resurgence.For a moment he saw us winning the war. Then the military brass got involved. He witnessed firsthand the tipping point, when what seemed like certain victory turned into failure.This wasn't the first time he had seen bureaucracy stand in the way of national security. He had participated in Able Danger, the aborted intelligence operation that identified many of the future 9/11 terrorists but failed to pursue them. His attempt to reveal the truth to the 9/11 Commission would not go over well with the higher-ups.Operation Dark Heart made headlines when the Department of Defense bought the entire unredacted first printing. The book's revised second printing includes redactions, which, according to The New York Times, "offer a rare glimpse behind the bureaucratic veil that clocks information the government considers too important for public airing." But most importantly, Operation Dark Heart remains a stirring indictment against military bureaucracy and a culture of cover-ups.
Operation Crossbow: The Untold Story of the Search for Hitler’s Secret Weapons
by Allan WilliamsThe story of the photographic intelligence work undertaken from a country house at Medmenham, Buckinghamshire, is one of the great lost stories of the Second World War . At its peak in 1944, almost 2,000 British and American men and women worked at the top-secret Danesfield House, interpreting photographs - the majority stereoscopic so they could be viewed in 3D - to unlock secrets of German military activity and weapons development. Millions of aerial photographs were taken by Allied pilots, flying unarmed modified Spitfires and Mosquitos on missions over Nazi Europe. it was said that an aircraft could land, the photographs be developed and initial interpretation completed within two hours - marking the culmination of years of experiments in aerial intelligence techniques.Their finest hour began in 1943, during the planning stages of the Allied invasion of Europe, when Douglas Kendall, who masterminded the interpretation work at Medmenham, led the hunt for Hitler's secret weapons. Operation Crossbow would grow from a handful of photographic interpreters to the creation of a hand-picked team, and came to involve interpreters from across the Medmenham spectrum, including the team of aircraft specialists led by the redoubtable Constance Babington Smith. In November that year, whilst analysing photographs of Peenemunde in northern Germany, they spotted a small stunted aircraft on a ramp. This intelligence breakthrough linked the Nazi research station with a growing network of sites in northern France, where ramps were being constructed aligned not only with London, but targets throughout southern Britain.Through the combined skill and dedication of the Crossbow team and the heroism of the Allied pilots, throughout late 1943 and 1944 V-weapon launch sites were located and through countermeasures destroyed, saving hundreds of thousands of lives, and changing the course of the war.Operation Crossbow is a wonderful story of human endeavour and derring-do, told for the first time.
Opening Windows: Embracing New Perspectives and Practices in Natural Resource Social Sciences (Society and Natural Resources Book Series)
by Douglas Jackson-Smith Jaye Mejía-Duwan Michaela Hoffelmeyer Angie Carter Gabrielle Roesch-McNally John Schelhas Jasmine K. Brown Michael Dockry Sarah Hitchner Sarah Naiman Grace Wang Evan J. Andrews Christine Knott Solange Nadeau Courtenay Parlee Archi Rastogi Rachel Kelly Maria Andrée Lópex Gómez Madu Galappaththi Ana Carolina Esteves Dias E. Carina H. Keskitalo Richard Dimba Kiaka Paul Hebinck Rodgers Lubilo Prativa Sapkota Rebecca M. Ford Maddison Miller Andrea Rawluk Kathryn J. H. Williams John R. Parkins Christopher Jadallah Eliza Oldach Abraham Miller-Rushing Caitlin Hafferty Ian Babelon Robert Berry Beth Brockett James Hoggett Bryanne Lamoureux Melanie Zurba Yan Chen Durdana Islam Kate Sherren Robert Emmet Jones Tobin N. Walton Simon West Wiebren Johannes Boonstra Sasha Quahe Jessica Cockburn Nosiseko Mtati Vanessa Masterson Gladman Thondhlana Anna Haines Brett Alan Miller Polly Nguyen William Stewart Daniel R. WilliamsThe third decennial review from the International Association for Society and Natural Resources, Opening Windowssimultaneously examines the breadth and societal relevance of Society and Natural Resources (SNR) knowledge, explores emergent issues and new directions in SNR scholarship, and captures the increasing diversity of SNR research. Authors from various backgrounds—career stage, gender and sexuality, race/ethnicity, and global region—provide a fresh, nuanced, and critical look at the field from both researchers’ and practitioners’ perspectives. This reflexive book is organized around four key themes: diversity and justice, governance and power, engagement and elicitation, and relationships and place. This is not a complacent volume—chapters point to gaps in conventional scholarship and to how much work remains to be done. Power is a central focus, including the role of cultural and economic power in “participatory” approaches to natural resource management and the biases encoded into the very concepts that guide scholarly and practical work. The chapters include robust literature syntheses, conceptual models, and case studies that provide examples of best practices and recommend research directions to improve and transform natural resource social sciences. An unmistakable spirit of hope is exemplified by findings suggesting positive roles for research in the progress ahead. Bringing fresh perspectives on the assumptions and interests that underlie and entangle scholarship on natural resource decisionmaking and the justness of its outcomes, Opening Windows is significant for scholars, students, natural resource practitioners, managers and decision makers, and policy makers.
Opening Up the University: Teaching and Learning with Refugees (Higher Education in Critical Perspective: Practices and Policies #5)
by Céline Cantat, Ian M. Cook Prem Kumar RajaramThrough a series of empirically and theoretically informed reflections, Opening Up the University offers insights into the process of setting up and running programs that cater to displaced students. Including contributions from educators, administrators, practitioners, and students, this expansive collected volume aims to inspire and question those who are considering creating their own interventions, speaking to policy makers and university administrators on specific points relating to the access and success of refugees in higher education, and suggests concrete avenues for further action within existing academic structures.
Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy
by Julia Preston Samuel DillonThe Story of Mexico's political rebirth, by two pulitzer prize-winning reportersOpening Mexico is a narrative history of the citizens' movement which dismantled the kleptocratic one-party state that dominated Mexico in the twentieth century, and replaced it with a lively democracy. Told through the stories of Mexicans who helped make the transformation, the book gives new and gripping behind-the-scenes accounts of major episodes in Mexico's recent politics.Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party, led by presidents who ruled like Mesoamerican monarchs, came to be called "the perfect dictatorship." But a 1968 massacre of student protesters by government snipers ignited the desire for democratic change in a generation of Mexicans. Opening Mexico recounts the democratic revolution that unfolded over the following three decades. It portrays clean-vote crusaders, labor organizers, human rights monitors, investigative journalists, Indian guerrillas, and dissident political leaders, such as President Ernesto Zedillo-Mexico's Gorbachev. It traces the rise of Vicente Fox, who toppled the authoritarian system in a peaceful election in July 2000.Opening Mexico dramatizes how Mexican politics works in smoke-filled rooms, and profiles many leaders of the country's elite. It is the best book to date about the modern history of the United States' southern neighbor-and is a tale rich in implications for the spread of democracy worldwide.
Opening Acts
by Suki CunninghamWhen London actress Holly Parker arrives in a remote Cornish village to begin rehearsing a new play, everyone there - from her landlord to her theatre director - seems to have an earthier attitude towards sex. Brought to a state of constant sexual arousal and confusion, Holly seeks guidance in the form of local therapist, Joshua Delaney. He is the one man who can't touch her - but he is the only one she truly desires. Will she be able to use her new-found sense of sexual adventure to seduce him?
Openhearted: Eighty Years of Love, Loss, Laughter and Letting Go
by Ann IngleSHORTLISTED FOR TWO IRISH BOOK AWARDS'Something they don't tell you about getting older is that you fall. Oh, you hear about it in passing, of course, "She had a fall, poor thing". Falling is not something you ever think about as a younger woman. You think about falling in love . . .'At 20 Londoner Ann Ingle fell madly in love with an Irish fellow she met on holiday in Cornwall. At the church to arrange their shotgun wedding she discovered that he hadn't even told her his real name.Sixty-odd years later Ann looks back on that first glorious fall and in a series of essays considers what she has learned from the life that followed - bringing eight children into the world, their father's years of mental illness and tragic death at 40, being a cash-strapped single mother in 1980s Dublin, coming into her own in her middle years - going to college, working and writing, and continuing to evolve and learn into her ninth decade, even as she accepts the realities of being 'old'.Candid about everything that matters - love, sex, heartbreak, money, class, religion, mental health, rearing children (and letting them go), reading and writing, ageing - Open-Hearted is a compelling story about living life in a spirit of curiosity and delight and with a willingness to look for good in others._________________________________'By some distance the most courageous, most poignant, most life-affirming memoir I've read in the last twenty years and more' Paul Howard'Genuinely inspirational. I LOVE ANN INGLE' Marian Keyes'What a beautiful openhearted, at times broken-hearted memoir ... honest, funny, searingly direct, a wonderful voice ... remarkable' Joe Duffy'Really beautiful. Searingly honest, astonishingly frank and very, very funny' Maia Dunphy
Open Wide: A Cookbook for Friends
by benny blanco Jess Damuck* INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *The debut cookbook from benny blanco—pop music super-producer, artist, actor on FXX’s Dave, and consummate food freak—teaches you everything you need to know about cooking, enjoying life, and throwing the greatest dinner party of all time.Hi, I’m benny blanco. I’m in a television show with my best friend Dave and I probably produced most of the songs you have heard on the radio from 2008 until now. When I was thirteen, my friend got a George Foreman Grill and it changed my life forever. We would invite friends over, get stoned, and make the most elaborate sandwiches our prepubescent minds could fathom. I became obsessed with food and cooking for friends. I know what you are going to say, and I get it. Cooking is scary. But I promise you, once you get into it, it will be your new addiction. Slicing an onion is like taking a Xanax to me. I made this cookbook to teach you everything I know about food, cooking, and throwing the greatest dinner party of all time. There are the basics to get your kitchen ready, a little advice from my expert friends, then all of the dinner party menus I love to make, like: 5 Dishes to Get You Laid and One for the Morning AfterI Wish I Were an Italian GrandmaTake Me to the Cheesy RodeoF*ck Morton’s Steakhouse Which are filled with insane recipes like: Lose Your Mind Lobster Rolls“I Might Go Vegetarian” Veggie SandwichChicken Cutlets with Honey, Peppers, and Parm“I Hope We Didn’t Make a Baby” Breakfast Burrito. I’ve been told some of the finest stories over meals. I’ve laughed so hard I thought I was going to actually die. I’ve fallen in love—sometimes with the food, sometimes with the person across the table. I’ve cried in good ways, and I’ve cried in bad ways. I hope you’ve been lucky enough to have all these same memories and then some. But if you haven’t, I can make you a promise. If you follow these three simple steps, it will all become a reality: Open this book. Open your heart. And open wide, baby.
Open the Cage, Murphy!: Hilarious tales of the rise of Lily Savage
by Paul O'GradyTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'With typical razor-sharp wit and candour, Paul tells of his rise to fame as Lily Savage . . . Riveting.' Daily MirrorFrom Britain's most beloved TV star, Open the Cage, Murphy is an action-packed roller-coaster ride through a decade of Paul O'Grady's life, stuffed full to the gunwales with hilarious stories, extreme situations and outrageous one-liners.A must read for any Paul O'Grady fan, Open the Cage, Murphy follows his brilliant comic creation Lily Savage as she embraces success and world domination beckons.From being involved in a plane crash, to getting caught up in the LA riots and a close encounter with Madonna, the stories come thick and fast. Paul takes us with him to a gay-themed weekend in Butlin's in Skegness, on a rowdy tour with Prisoner Cell Block H - the Musical and into the depths of the Australian rainforest, where he befriends a rare bird that can disembowel a man with a single kick. The dramatis personae include a family of dolphins, Charlton Heston and the ghost of Joan of Arc - and there's a starring role for a certain remarkable dog, Buster Elvis Savage.But whether he's writing about star-studded Hollywood parties, the devastating loss of close friends to AIDS, or late night shenanigans at the end of Blackpool Pier, Paul's wit and humanity never desert him.Open the Cage, Murphy is a genuine delight - all the more so for being delightfully genuine.Readers love Open the Cage, Murphy!'I couldn't put it down . . . Paul comes across as a very intelligent man . . . with a heart of gold under that naughty exterior.' *****'This is such a great read, Paul is excellent when describing things makes you feel as though you are there with him. His humour warmth and caring comes out in abundance.' *****'An excellent read. He takes you through the highs and lows of his life, you laugh and cry with him.' *****
Open-Set Text Recognition: Concepts, Framework, and Algorithms (SpringerBriefs in Computer Science)
by Xu-Cheng Yin Chun Yang Chang LiuIn real-world applications, new data, patterns, and categories that were not covered by the training data can frequently emerge, necessitating the capability to detect and adapt to novel characters incrementally. Researchers refer to these challenges as the Open-Set Text Recognition (OSTR) task, which has, in recent years, emerged as one of the prominent issues in the field of text recognition. This book begins by providing an introduction to the background of the OSTR task, covering essential aspects such as open-set identification and recognition, conventional OCR methods, and their applications. Subsequently, the concept and definition of the OSTR task are presented encompassing its objectives, use cases, performance metrics, datasets, and protocols. A general framework for OSTR is then detailed, composed of four key components: The Aligned Represented Space, the Label-to-Representation Mapping, the Sample-to-Representation Mapping, and the Open-set Predictor. In addition,possible implementations of each module within the framework are discussed. Following this, two specific open-set text recognition methods, OSOCR and OpenCCD, are introduced. The book concludes by delving into applications and future directions of Open-set text recognition tasks.This book presents a comprehensive overview of the open-set text recognition task, including concepts, framework, and algorithms. It is suitable for graduated students and young researchers who are majoring in pattern recognition and computer science, especially interdisciplinary research.