"Featuring more than fifteen hundred full-color photographs, this handy guide provides essential information on four hundred of the most troublesome weedy and invasive plants found in the southern United States"--P. [2] of cover.

Ars Topica is the first full-length study of the nature and development of topoi, the conceptual ancestors of modern argument schemes, between Aristotle and Cicero. Aristotle and Cicero configured topoi in a way that influenced the subsequent tradition. Their work on the topos-system grew out of an interest in creating a theory of argumentation which could stand between the rigour of formal logic and the emotive potential of rhetoric. This system went through a series of developments and transformations resulting from the interplay between the separate aims of gaining rhetorical effectiveness and of maintaining dialectical standards. Ars Topica presents a comprehensive treatment of Aristotle’s and Cicero’s methods of topoi and, by exploring their relationship, it illuminates an area of ancient rhetoric and logic which has been obscured for more than two thousand years. Through an interpretation which is philologically rooted in the historical context of topoi, the book lays the ground for evaluating the relevance of the classical approaches to modern research on arguments, and at the same time provides an introduction to Greek and Roman theory of argumentation focussed on its most important theoretical achievements.

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.

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.

A moving meditation on grief, memory, and the way we return to ourselves after experiencing loss.