This book addresses the two-stroke cycle internal combustion engine, used in compact, lightweight form in everything from motorcycles to chainsaws to outboard motors, and in large sizes for marine propulsion and power generation. It first provides an overview of the principles, characteristics, applications, and history of the two-stroke cycle engine, followed by descriptions and evaluations of various types of models that have been developed to predict aspects of two-stroke engine operation.

A champion racer and professional stunt driver reveals the secrets of peak performance in any endeavor. Optimum Drive is the complete step-by-step guide to maximizing human performance. As a professional racing driver and a driving coach for over twenty years, Paul F. Gerrard gives you his unique perspective on what causes people to stagnate with the idea of being merely good, when each of us has the potential to be great. Gerrard believes that peak performance is within our grasp. Gerrard helps you understand the mental toughness that it takes to reach that greatness. He starts off by taking you onto the track as he explores what driving at 200 mph can teach us about who we are. Using his experiences from behind the wheel at death-defying speeds, Gerrard breaks down the psychology of driving, what it takes, and how we can use it to achieve greatness in life. The key, he says, is the nirvana-like sensation of flow psychology, or being in the zone—a mental state in which one who is performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and joy. It is through flow psychology that Gerrard introduces a blend of holistic mindset combined with a competitive edge, which is essential to successful professional driving. This mix of guts, tenacity, and endurance is the foundation of Gerrard’s philosophy for attaining greatness—and can be put to work for you too, on or off the track.

The second volume in the collected works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi covers about thirty years of Csikszentmihalyi‘s work on three main and interconnected areas of study: attention, flow and positive psychology. Describing attention as psychic energy and in the footsteps of William James, Csikszentmihalyi explores the allocation of attention, the when and where and the amount of attention humans pay to tasks and the role of attention in creating ‘experiences’, or ordered patterns of information. Taking into account information processing theories and attempts at quantifying people’s investment, the chapters deal with such topics as time budgets and the development and use of the Experience Sampling Method of collecting data on attention in everyday life. Following the chapters on attention and reflecting Csikszentmihalyi’s branching out into sociology and anthropology, there are chapters on the topic of adult play and leisure and connected to that, on flow, a concept formulated and developed by Csikszentmihalyi. Flow has become a popular concept in business and management around the world and research on the concept continues to flourish. Finally, this volume contains articles that stem from Csikszentmihalyi’s connection with Martin Seligman; they deal with concepts and theories, as well as with the development and short history, of the field and the “movement” of positive psychology.

IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP YOUR INNER WARRIOR. To be a true champion you must remain mentally resourceful and access your skills whilst competing in an unpredictable and dangerous environment. In head-to-head battles you must outthink, outmanoeuvre and outperform your rivals. You must do this whilst risking your life and limbs as you fight your way to victory. To perform at your best in such an environment you need to share the same mental coding as a thoroughbred warrior. In this book you will be walked through the whole process for recoding your mind so you can create the warrior mindset needed to reach your North Star. You will build a mental model that will help you automatically perform as you want. What you are about to learn here has been tried, tested and proven to work in all levels of motorsport. This is designed to help you reach your next level. Highlights of what is covered in the Warrior's Mind: - Create a warrior's mental model - Reinstall a new belief system - Prime your mind - Control your emotions - Have bulletproof self-belief - Handle fear and nerves - Overcome your past - Learn leadership skills - Deal with criticism - Overcome challenges. The real battlefield is in your mind; so be the commander.

By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Selected by Time as One of the Ten Best Books of the Year | A New York Times Notable Book | Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, Rocky Mountain News, and Kirkus Reviews | A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist | Winner of the ALA Alex Award | Finalist for the Costa Novel Award From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new. Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons. Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s subtlest and most effective achievement to date. Praise for Black Swan Green “[David Mitchell has created] one of the most endearing, smart, and funny young narrators ever to rise up from the pages of a novel. . . . The always fresh and brilliant writing will carry readers back to their own childhoods. . . . This enchanting novel makes us remember exactly what it was like.”—The Boston Globe “[David Mitchell is a] prodigiously daring and imaginative young writer. . . . As in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Herman Melville, one feels the roof of the narrative lifted off and oneself in thrall.”—Time