Wicca is America’s fastest growing religion. By the year 2012, it’s projected to be the third largest religion in the United States. In Generation Hex, Marla Alupoaicei and Dillon Burroughs explore the history, culture, and practices of Wicca. As part of their research, they interviewed travelers to historic Salem, Massachusetts, consulted practitioners of leading neopagan conferences in the Pacific Northwest and Canada, and dialogued with several current and former adherents of Wicca and other forms of witchcraft to evaluate the past and present of this growing spiritual tradition. The result is a compelling account that will inform and equip Christians (especially parents) to understand Wiccan and New Age teachings. Readers will have confidence to explain this belief system to others and to communicate the gospel to those caught up in this practice. Generation Hex identifies with the spiritual hunger of a generation seeking truth, authenticity, and hope in a fragmented world. It’s perfect for personal study or as a gift for anyone interested or involved in Wicca.

Move over, older occultists - Generation Hex is in effect!

Highlights the Progression of Meshing Technologies and Their Applications Finite Element Mesh Generation provides a concise and comprehensive guide to the application of finite element mesh generation over 2D domains, curved surfaces, and 3D space. Organised according to the geometry and dimension of the problem domains, it develops from the basic meshing algorithms to the most advanced schemes to deal with problems with specific requirements such as boundary conformity, adaptive and anisotropic elements, shape qualities, and mesh optimization. It sets out the fundamentals of popular techniques, including: Delaunay triangulation Advancing-front (ADF) approach Quadtree/Octree techniques Refinement and optimization-based strategies From the geometrical and the topological aspects and their associated operations and inter-relationships, each approach is vividly described and illustrated with examples. Beyond the algorithms, the book also explores the practice of using metric tensor and surface curvatures for generating anisotropic meshes on parametric space. It presents results from research including 3D anisotropic meshing, mesh generation over unbounded domains, meshing by means of intersection, re-meshing by Delaunay-ADF approach, mesh refinement and optimization, generation of hexahedral meshes, and large scale and parallel meshing, along with innovative unpublished meshing methods. The author provides illustrations of major meshing algorithms, pseudo codes, and programming codes in C++ or FORTRAN. Geared toward research centers, universities, and engineering companies, Finite Element Mesh Generation describes mesh generation methods and fundamental techniques, and also serves as a valuable reference for laymen and experts alike.

The developments in mesh generation are usually driven by the needs of new applications and/or novel algorithms. The last decade has seen a renewed interest in mesh generation and adaptation by the computational engineering community, due to the challenges introduced by complex industrial problems.Another common challenge is the need to handle complex geometries. Nowadays, it is becoming obvious that geometry should be persistent throughout the whole simulation process. Several methodologies that can carry the geometric information throughout the simulation stage are available, but due to the novelty of these methods, the generation of suitable meshes for these techniques is still the main obstacle for the industrial uptake of this technology.This book will cover different aspects of mesh generation and adaptation, with particular emphasis on cutting-edge mesh generation techniques for advanced discretisation methods and complex geometries.

Hex: The Full Story is for anyone - hobbyist, professional, student, teacher - who enjoys board games, game theory, discrete math, computing, or history. hex was discovered twice, in 1942 by Piet Hein and again in 1949 by John F. nash. How did this happen? Who created the puzzle for Hein's Danish newspaper column? How are Martin Gardner, David Gale, Claude Shannon, and Claude Berge involved? What is the secret to playing Hex well? The answers are inside... Features New documents on Hein's creation of Hex, the complete set of Danish puzzles, and the identity of their composer Chapters on Gale's game Bridg-it, the game Rex, computer Hex, open Hex problems, and more Dozens of new puzzles and solutions Study guide for Hex players Supplemenetary text for a course in game theory, discrete math, computer science, or science history

Comprehensive Energy Systems, Seven Volume Set provides a unified source of information covering the entire spectrum of energy, one of the most significant issues humanity has to face. This comprehensive book describes traditional and novel energy systems, from single generation to multi-generation, also covering theory and applications. In addition, it also presents high-level coverage on energy policies, strategies, environmental impacts and sustainable development. No other published work covers such breadth of topics in similar depth. High-level sections include Energy Fundamentals, Energy Materials, Energy Production, Energy Conversion, and Energy Management. Offers the most comprehensive resource available on the topic of energy systems Presents an authoritative resource authored and edited by leading experts in the field Consolidates information currently scattered in publications from different research fields (engineering as well as physics, chemistry, environmental sciences and economics), thus ensuring a common standard and language

The Facts On series has sold more than 1.9 million copies and continues to provide information, facts, and foundational truths to help Christians understand their faith and their world. With their extensive knowledge of comparative religion, the Facts On creators explore and compare the basic teachings and practices of the world's four major belief systems-- Islam Hinduism Buddhism Christianity The authors also discuss some less-widespread religions. Readers will discover that Christianity stands alone in the integrity of its divine revelation--the Bible--and in its consistency with history, the natural world, and human experience. Rerelease with new cover and minor updates.

Essential Comics Values! From the authoritative stuff at Comics Buyer's Guide, the world's longest running magazine about comics, Comic Book Price Guide is the only guide on the market to give you extensive coverage of more than 150,000 comics from the Golden Age of the 1930s to current releases. In addition to the thousands of comic books from such publishers as Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Image, this collector-friendly reference includes listings for comic books from independent publishers, underground publishers, and more! This indispensable guide features: • Alphabetical organization by comic book title • Thousands of detailed photos • An exclusive photo grading guide to help you determine your comics' conditions accurately • Current values for more than 150,000 comics Comic Book Price Guide is the reliable reference for collectors, dealers, and anyone passionate about comic books!

Total Propaganda moves the study of propaganda out of the exclusive realm of world politics into the more inclusive study of popular culture, media, and politics. All the participatory functioning elements of the society are aspects of membership in the popular culture. Thus, the values of popular music, media, politics, debates over social issues, and even international trade become everyday propaganda to which everyone may relate. To emphasize the necessity for new thinking about propaganda, Edelstein creates the concepts of the new propaganda and the old, and he devises a language of "uninyms" to convey their meanings more quickly. "Oldprop" is characteristic of mass cultures and utilizes totalitarian methods of conflict, hegemony, minimization, demonization, and exclusiveness to achieve its goals. By contrast, "newprop" is created by members of the popular culture to allow them to engage in accomodation, enhance the individual, and promote inclusiveness. Shifts in the old and the new propaganda are tracked across social issues such as race, religion, sexuality, gender, gun control, and the environment, as well as in fashion, politics, advertising, sports, media, and politics. Central to the concept of total propaganda is that it is not simply additive; it is the product of new energies that are produced by the fusing of propaganda in such related forums as music, art, advertising, sports and politics. It is these synergies, and their production of new energies, that make total propaganda greater than the sum of its parts. Edelstein concludes that the most important distinction that should be drawn between mass culture and popular culture is its text; i.e., its propaganda. In a popular culture, everyone creates and consumes propaganda; in a mass culture almost everyone consumes it but only a few create it. This formulation offers new ways to discuss power and ideology in media texts. As an example, where once the least informed and the least educated were the most subject to propaganda, now the most informed and most educated often are the first to create propaganda and the first to consume it.

For use as a primary or supplemental text for Introductory Sociology, Social Theory, and senior "capstone" courses. An unabashedly "critical" text for those who want to connect their students′ personal experiences with what is happening at the societal, global level today. The emphasis is on teaching "the sociological imagination" (i.e., to instill in students a unique and radical form of consciousness that will allow them to conceptualize today′s chief global and individual problems and the relations between them). Dandaneau adopts a perspective like that of C. Wright Mills and argues that the sociological imagination is the "most needed" type of consciousness in the world today. The author encourages students to think through a wide variety of topics - from ecological crises to panic disorder, from hyperreality to the sociology of disability, from Generation X to Generation Next. As Dandaneau says, "The point ... is not so much to learn the truth, but to learn how to think about essential issues and troubles as sociologists themselves try to do, to become a participant with others in facing down the challenges of our present epoch." "It is an elegant and profound meditation on thinking sociologically. Written with a rare panache one seldom finds in sociology... it′s the product of a view of contemporary social life that is profoundly troubling... What this adds up to is a distinctive sociological and moral voice." - Peter Kivisto, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois