"To understand the history and spirit of America, one must know its wars, its laws, and its presidents. To really understand it, however, one must also know its cheeseburgers, its love songs, and its lawn ornaments. The long-awaited Guide to the United States Popular Culture provides a single-volume guide to the landscape of everyday life in the United States. Scholars, students, and researchers will find in it a valuable tool with which to fill in the gaps left by traditional history. All American readers will find in it, one entry at a time, the story of their lives."--Robert Thompson, President, Popular Culture Association. "At long last popular culture may indeed be given its due within the humanities with the publication of The Guide to United States Popular Culture. With its nearly 1600 entries, it promises to be the most comprehensive single-volume source of information about popular culture. The range of subjects and diversity of opinions represented will make this an almost indispensable resource for humanities and popular culture scholars and enthusiasts alike."--Timothy E. Scheurer, President, American Culture Association "The popular culture of the United States is as free-wheeling and complex as the society it animates. To understand it, one needs assistance. Now that explanatory road map is provided in this Guide which charts the movements and people involved and provides a light at the end of the rainbow of dreams and expectations."--Marshall W. Fishwick, Past President, Popular Culture Association Features of The Guide to United States Popular Culture: 1,010 pages 1,600 entries 500 contributors Alphabetic entries Entries range from general topics (golf, film) to specific individuals, items, and events Articles are supplemented by bibliographies and cross references Comprehensive index

This all-in-color follow-up to the popular Lunchbox Puzzles cooks up another serving of entertainment and challenges. As before, the book comes shaped like a lunchbox, with perforated pages that parents can easily tear out and pack along with the lunch. Choose from Rhyming Picture Puzzles, Scramblers, Rebuses, Fractured Phrases, and What's Wrong with this Picture?

A follow up to 2007's Classic Home Video Games, 1972-1984, this reference work provides detailed descriptions and reviews of every U.S.-released game for the Nintendo NES, the Atari 7800, and the Sega Master System, all of which are considered among the most popular video game systems ever produced. Organized alphabetically by console brand, each chapter includes a description of the game system followed by substantive entries for every game released for that console. Video game entries include publisher/developer data, release year, gameplay information, and, typically, the author's critique. A glossary provides a helpful guide to the classic video game genres and terms referenced throughout the work, and a preface provides a comparison between the modern gaming industry and the industry of the late 1980s.

Q. What is the most-watched TV format in history, seen by about 100 million people weekly around the world? A. Wheel of Fortune, a game show. Without putdowns or pandering, the author looks at 260 such shows, concluding that culture has triumphed over technology. For despite our capacity to transmit the same content world-wide, McLuhan's global village has not come to pass. Technology has, however, encouraged already-existing "cultural continents" to coalesce. About one-third of the world's game shows have been licensed or adapted from another country, especially from the United States. Conversely, a single program can cross borders unchanged, such as Sabado Gigante, which appeals to Spanish speakers in 18 countries. The first truly global study of TV entertainment, this book includes interviews with producers, contestants, and licensers. With its tables, illustrations and appendices, the text provides details on content and audiences, as well as explanatory overviews.

Game and quiz shows first started appearing on radio broadcasts in the 1930s, led by the CBS network’s Professor Quiz, hosted by a man who was neither a professor nor even a college graduate, the first of several frauds that seemed to be endemic to the genre. Professor Quiz was followed by other such game shows as Uncle Jim’s Question Bee and Ask It Basket, which in turn spawned successful box games for at-home play. The show Truth or Consequences made the transition from radio to television in the late 1940s and was so popular that a town in New Mexico was named for the show. Television proved to be the perfect platform for game shows since they were very popular and cheap to produce. Even in reruns today, the older shows still draw huge audiences. This book describes the evolution of the game show, its larger-than-life producers and hosts, as well as the scandals that have rocked it from time to time, including bloopers from such “adult” oriented shows as The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and Hollywood Squares. This is an entertaining and lively look at an American phenomenon whose popularity doesn’t seem to be going away.

Delve into ETFs for smarter investing and a weatherproof portfolio Beyond Smart Beta is the investor's complete guide to index investing, with deep analysis, expert clarification and smart strategies for active portfolio management. From the general to the obscure, this book digs into every aspect of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) including ETCs and ETNs to break down the jargon and provide accessible guidance on utilising the indices as part of a more productive investment strategy. Succinct explanations of terms and concepts help you better grasp ETP anatomy, mechanics and practices, while examples, charts and graphs provide quick visual reference for total understanding. The expert author team examines the risks and benefits associated with various indexing approaches, sharing critical review of next-generation methods to help you make well-informed investment decisions. ETFs provide a solid foundation within mature and well-researched markets, allowing investors to focus on areas where active management has the potential to reap higher returns. This book shows you how to take full advantage of the growth of this market to strengthen your portfolio for the long term. Assess the current landscape and the anatomy of ETFs/ETPs Understand ETP handling, costs, trading, and investment Evaluate the pros and cons of next-generation indexing approaches Avoid risk while incorporating indices into an active portfolio management strategy Index concepts have evolved from basic, passive investments through Smart Beta, and are evolving into a third generation of products that will quickly become an important element of investor portfolios. Key benefits have propelled ETFs to surpass hedge funds in global capital, and the growth shows no sign of slowing. Beyond Smart Beta provides a primer for investors seeking to understand — and take advantage of — these lucrative new products.

Natural Organics Removal Using Membranes: Principles, Performance, and Cost provides a unique combination of important new data and operational parameters on the role of membranes in removing natural organic materials during water treatment. It examines and compares the three pressure-driven membrane processes of choice-ultrafiltration, microfiltra

The most comprehensive, authoritative and widely cited reference on photovoltaic solar energy Fully revised and updated, the Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering, Second Edition incorporates the substantial technological advances and research developments in photovoltaics since its previous release. All topics relating to the photovoltaic (PV) industry are discussed with contributions by distinguished international experts in the field. Significant new coverage includes: three completely new chapters and six chapters with new authors device structures, processing, and manufacturing options for the three major thin film PV technologies high performance approaches for multijunction, concentrator, and space applications new types of organic polymer and dye-sensitized solar cells economic analysis of various policy options to stimulate PV growth including effect of public and private investment Detailed treatment covers: scientific basis of the photovoltaic effect and solar cell operation the production of solar silicon and of silicon-based solar cells and modules how choice of semiconductor materials and their production influence costs and performance making measurements on solar cells and modules and how to relate results under standardised test conditions to real outdoor performance photovoltaic system installation and operation of components such as inverters and batteries. architectural applications of building-integrated PV Each chapter is structured to be partially accessible to beginners while providing detailed information of the physics and technology for experts. Encompassing a review of past work and the fundamentals in solar electric science, this is a leading reference and invaluable resource for all practitioners, consultants, researchers and students in the PV industry.

Dimensions of Uncertainty in Communication Engineering is a comprehensive and self-contained introduction to the problems of nonaleatory uncertainty and the mathematical tools needed to solve them. The book gathers together tools derived from statistics, information theory, moment theory, interval analysis and probability boxes, dependence bounds, nonadditive measures, and Dempster–Shafer theory. While the book is mainly devoted to communication engineering, the techniques described are also of interest to other application areas, and commonalities to these are often alluded to through a number of references to books and research papers. This is an ideal supplementary book for courses in wireless communications, providing techniques for addressing epistemic uncertainty, as well as an important resource for researchers and industry engineers. Students and researchers in other fields such as statistics, financial mathematics, and transport theory will gain an overview and understanding on these methods relevant to their field. - Uniquely brings together a variety of tools derived from statistics, information theory, moment theory, interval analysis and probability boxes, dependence bounds, nonadditive measures, and Dempster—Shafer theory - Focuses on the essentials of various, wide-ranging methods with references to journal articles where more detail can be found if required - Includes MIMO-related results throughout