Showing results by author "christian" in All Categories

Buddhism aims for the development of a flexible mind and skillful responsiveness-whether toward problems in one's personal life or broader issues like the ecological crisis. But in a culture now saturated with cliches about mindfulness and unrealistic fantasies about happiness, what does it truly mean to walk this path? The key practice is that of embodied aliveness.

Fifty-five years ago, in 1964, an incredibly honest and revealing memoir by one of the America's best-loved comedians and activists, Dick Gregory, was published. With a shocking title and breathtaking writing, Dick Gregory defined a genre and changed the way race was discussed in America.

Blood, Iron, and Gold reveals the huge impact of the railways as they spread rapidly across the world, linking cities that had hitherto been isolated, stimulating both economic growth and social change on an unprecedented scale. From Panama to the Punjab, Christian Wolmar describes the vision and determination of the pioneers who developed railways that would one day span continents, as well as the labour of the navvies who built this global network.

Breakups are typically synonymous with rocky road ice cream, rom-com reruns, and rough crying sessions. But not this one! This is an invitation to liberation, a chance to release who you've been and discover who you truly are. Often, our former mistakes and regrets hold us back from where we're called to be. How can one heal and move on? To find your breakthrough, you must break up with what broke you.

If you enter a conversation in French with no training to listen to it, you will not be able to get what is coming back to you. Then your French studies will be worth nothing. On the other hand, even if you feel hesitant to speak French, you can have a conversation saying just “yes” or “no”, as long as you understand the other person. That’s why developing listening skills is so important. With SmartFrench you will develop two-way conversation skills. Learn smart French.

Everyone loves a bedtime story. And here are eight of the best from BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime, each with a Christmas theme, written by an array of literature's best-known names. They include Laurie Lee, Charles Dickens, and Hans Christian Andersen - just some of the storytellers included in this collection.

1903. Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson have tickets to the newly arrived Egyptian Circus. Holmes is puzzled by his brother Mycroft's cryptic gift but is intrigued enough to attend the next production. The performers, dressed as wondrous half-animal, half-human gods from Egyptian mythology, display superhuman agility and stunts. But they speak no Arabic, sequester themselves in the stables after each show and take orders from a mysterious ring master who is yet to be seen. And then one of the performers is murdered.

A magical storyteller's timeless tales. Here are 127 of Andersen's classic stories, translated by "Mrs. Edgar Lucas" in the 19th century. Included are such well-known tales as "The Emperor's New Suit", "The Little Match-Seller", "Thumbelina", "The Little Mermaid", and "The Snow Queen".

From 1934 until 1944, Mussolini met Hitler numerous times, and the two developed a relationship that deeply affected both countries. While Germany is generally regarded as the senior power, Christian Goeschel demonstrates just how much history has underrepresented Mussolini's influence on his German ally. Goeschel, a scholar of 20th-century Germany and Italy, revisits all of Mussolini and Hitler's key meetings and asks how these meetings constructed a powerful image of a strong Fascist-Nazi relationship that still resonates with the general public.

As he stumbled through high school, struggling to find a community among other fans of punk rock music, Christian Picciolini was recruited by a now notorious white power skinhead leader and encouraged to fight with the movement to "protect the white race from extinction." Soon, he had become an expert in racist philosophies, a terror who roamed the neighborhood, quick to throw fists. When his mentor was arrested and sentenced to 11 years in prison, 16-year-old Picciolini took over the man's role as the leader of an infamous neo-Nazi skinhead group.

In retelling the story of the radical Alexander Hamilton, Parenti rewrites the history of early America and global economic history writ large. For much of the 20th century, Hamilton - sometimes seen as the bad boy of the founding fathers or portrayed as the patron saint of bankers - was out of fashion. In contrast his rival Thomas Jefferson, the patrician democrat and slave owner who feared government overreach, was claimed by all. But more recently, Hamilton has become a subject of serious interest again.

Hernán Cortés toma la pluma nuevamente hacia el final de su vida. Esta vez no se dirige al emperador ni a un numeroso y anónimo lector, sino a su primogénito, Martín Cortés, hijo de la Malinche, para contarle su vida. Le habla de su infancia en Medellín, de sus días de estudiante en Salamanca y, por supuesto, de su llegada al Nuevo Mundo y de sus amores con doña Marina. Acompañamos a Martín en el descubrimiento de sus padres. Hallamos a una mujer dulce y determinada, arquitecta del México moderno.

Fifteenth Century Europe. Tom Swan is not a professional soldier. He's really a merchant and a scholar looking for remnants of Ancient Greece and Rome - temples, graves, pottery, fabulous animals, unicorn horns. But he also has a real talent for ending up in the midst of violence when he didn't mean to. Having used his wits to escape execution, he begins a series of adventures that take him to street duels in Italy, meetings with remarkable men - from Leonardo Da Vinci to Vlad Dracula - and from the intrigues of the War of the Roses to the fall of Constantinople.

Glory. Death. Well-born Athenian cavalry officer Kineas fought shoulder to shoulder with Alexander in his epic battles against the Persian hordes. But on his return from the east to his native city, he finds not glory but shame - and exile. With nothing to his name but his military skills, Kineas agrees to lead a band of veterans to the city of Olbia, where the Tyrant is offering good money to train the city's elite cavalry.

When we think about the future of war, the military and Washington and most everyone gets it backwards. We think in terms of buying single military systems, such as fighter jets or aircraft carriers. And when we think about modernizing those systems, we think about buying better versions of the same things. But what really matters is not the single system but "the battle network"—the collection of sensors and shooters that enables a military to find an enemy system, target it, and attack it.

Christian Beamish, a former editor at The Surfer's Journal, envisioned a low-tech, self-reliant exploration for surf along the coast of North America, using primarily clothes and instruments available to his ancestors, and the 18-foot boat he would build by hand in his garage. How the vision met reality - and how the two came to shape each other - places The Voyage of the Cormorant in the great American tradition of tales of life at sea, and what it has to teach us.

An ancient foe lurks in the shadows...licking its wounds and assembling its forces. Risen from the ashes and shrouded in darkness, these ancient beings are waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike back and set the universe on fire. After their world is ambushed in a devastating onslaught, the Star Alliance is nearly wiped out in one fell swoop. Hotheaded pilot Chase Athanatos leads the barely surviving fleet to the far edge of space and a small backwater planet.

Hans Christian Andersen's story of the tin soldier and the hardships he endures for the love of a ballerina has enchanted children over the years. This elegant narration of the poignant classic by Jeremy Irons will charm young and old alike.

Arimnestos of Plataea has already lived through several lifetimes' worth of adventure, from being a rich man's slave in Ephesus to winning glory at the battle of Marathon against the might of the Persian Empire. But the gods - and the Persians - aren't finished with him yet. As an experienced sea captain - his enemies might say pirate - he has a part to play in the final epic confrontation of the Long War between the Greeks and Persians, the Battle of Salamis.

This is SmartFrench Course Two. You will learn French as spoken by the French. There are three parts. In the first one, you will repeat very common French words. The sounds are given to you by referencing them to the sounds in the English language.