In Germs, Genes and Civilization, Dr. David Clark tells the story of the microbe-driven epidemics that have repeatedly molded our human destinies. You'll discover how your genes have been shaped through millennia spent battling against infectious diseases. You'll learn how epidemics have transformed human history, over and over again, from ancient Egypt to Mexico, the Romans to Attila the Hun. You'll learn how the Black Death epidemic ended the Middle Ages, making possible the Renaissance, western democracy, and the scientific revolution. Clark demonstrates how epidemics have repeatedly shaped not just our health and genetics, but also our history, culture, and politics. You'll even learn how they may influence religion and ethics, including the ways they may help trigger cultural cycles of puritanism and promiscuity. Perhaps most fascinating of all, Clark reveals the latest scientific and philosophical insights into the interplay between microbes, humans, and society - and previews what just might come next.

Equal parts elegy and ode, Newly Not Eternal explores the startling suffering and sentiment implicit in human mortality. At the heart of this collection, a son has died on the cusp of his first breath, but the book’s stakes are larger and more universal than a single, silent, foreshortened life. Ranging from personal lyrics to monologues in persona, from triolets to a modified crown of sonnets, from surreal fantasy to natural landscape, George David Clark’s poems sing of the brutality of time and the beauty that transcends it.

In this engaging book David Clark guides the reader through the theology of CS Lewis and illuminates the use and understanding of scripture in the works of this popular author. Examines his life, work, world view, and the implications of his theology in relation to his other writings Looks at Lewis’ beliefs on the topics of redemption, humanity, spiritual growth, purgatory, and resurrection Examines the different perspectives on Lewis and his work: as prophet, evangelist, and as a spiritual mentor Explores the range and influence of Lewis’ work, from the bestselling apologetic, Mere Christianity, to the world-famous Chronicles of Narnia Features specially-commissioned artwork throughout Written in an accessible style for general readers, students, and scholars, and will introduce Lewis’ theology to a wider audience.

Compassionate wisdom for those facing a variety of end-of-life situations-from newborns to the elderly. Brief, practical, step-by-step advice.

Geometry has been an essential element in the study of mathematics since antiquity. Traditionally, we have also learned formal reasoning by studying Euclidean geometry. In this book, David Clark develops a modern axiomatic approach to this ancient subject, both in content and presentation. Mathematically, Clark has chosen a new set of axioms that draw on a modern understanding of set theory and logic, the real number continuum and measure theory, none of which were available in Euclid's time. The result is a development of the standard content of Euclidean geometry with the mathematical precision of Hilbert's foundations of geometry. In particular, the book covers all the topics listed in the Common Core State Standards for high school synthetic geometry. The presentation uses a guided inquiry, active learning pedagogy. Students benefit from the axiomatic development because they themselves solve the problems and prove the theorems with the instructor serving as a guide and mentor. Students are thereby empowered with the knowledge that they can solve problems on their own without reference to authority. This book, written for an undergraduate axiomatic geometry course, is particularly well suited for future secondary school teachers. In the interest of fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life, MSRI and the AMS are publishing books in the Mathematical Circles Library series as a service to young people, their parents and teachers, and the mathematics profession.

The millennium marked a symbolic transition in the history of human settlement. Over half of the world's six billion people now live in towns and cities. The world is an urban place. This book identifies and accounts for the characteristics of the contemporary city and of urban society. It analyses the distribution and growth of settlements and explores the social and behavioural characteristics of urban living. The latest theoretical and empirical developments and insights are synthesized and presented in an accessible way. Emphasis throughout is placed upon the world scale, urban developments being seen as the geographical consequences of the evolution of capitalism. Individual chapters focus upon populations and places, growth and urbanization, urban development as a global phenomenon, socio-economic consequences of global urban development, urban culture and global urban society, world cities and the urban future. This second edition has been extensively updated and referenced. Each chapter includes sets of learning objectives, annotated readings and topics for discussion.

Are you satisfied with your current and traditional grading system? Does it accurately reflect your students’ learning and progress? Can it be gamed? Does it lead to grade-grubbing and friction with your students?The authors of this book – two professors of mathematics with input from colleagues across disciplines and institutions – offer readers a fundamentally more effective and authentic approach to grading that they have implemented for over a decade. Recognizing that traditional grading penalizes students in the learning process by depriving them of the formative feedback that is fundamental to improvement, the authors offer alternative strategies that encourage revision and growth.Alternative grading is concerned with students’ eventual level of understanding. This leads to big changes: Students take time to review past failures and learn from them. Conversations shift from “why did I lose a point for this” to productive discussions of content and process.Alternative grading can be used successfully at any level, in any situation, and any discipline, in classes that range from seminars to large multi-section lectures. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to alternative grading, beginning with a framework and rationale for implementation and evidence of its effectiveness. The heart of the book includes detailed examples – including variations on Standards-Based Grading, Specifications Grading, and ungrading -- of how alternative grading practices are used in all kinds of classroom environments, disciplines and institutions with a focus on first-hand accounts by faculty who share their practices and experience. The book includes a workbook chapter that takes readers through a step-by-step process for building a prototype of their own alternatively graded class and ends with concrete, practical, time-tested advice for new practitioners. The underlying principles of alternative grading involve·Evaluating student work using clearly defined and context-appropriate content standards.·Giving students helpful, actionable feedback.·Summarizing the feedback with marks that indicate progress rather than arbitrary numbers.·Allowing students to revise without penalty, using the feedback they receive, until the standards are met or exceeded. This book is intended for faculty interested in exploring alternative forms of learning assessment as well as those currently using alternative grading systems who are looking for ideas and options to refine practice.

The Lonely Dreamer is a collection of short stories and free verse on an assortment of themes ranging from puppies to aviation, themes drawn from the author's imagination and life experience. The short story for which the book is named is about an older man who has invented a rich fantasy life to escape the bland reality of his own mediocrity, fantasies that lurch from romance to aviation to expertise in art to movie stardom. This is interwoven with glimpses of his very ordinary life with a wife he loves but can no longer draw close to because of a lack of personal confidence that has accumulated over his many years. At the end, his frustration about his own lack of fulfillment leads him to realize that those self-doubts can be cast side. Other selections include a fox and a toad who work in an office and bicker across the cubicle wall, a humorous parody about specialization in business, affection for a puppy, and a harrowing story about a pilot who gets in trouble during a night flight in bad weather. Included also is a personal account about overcoming performance anxiety, and there is more. Clark writes in a manner that is clear and concise in ways that can be either humorous or serious but is always entertaining. In other words, this book contains something of appeal for all readers.

Convinced that we can no longer have direct, unmediated access to the sense of Jesuss prayer but must account for the history of its effects, David Clark seeks to trace the meaning of one of Christianitys most repeated, and thus most effective texts through the early centuries of the faith. Clark begins by arguing that the prayers original context was in a revival of Jewish prayer, then sets it in the literary context of Gospels that, he argues, represented Jesus as recapitulating Israels testing in the wilderness in his own temptation. He then traces the prayers meaning within the narratives of Matthew and Luke and in the Didache, then examines the first full commentary on the prayer, that of Tertullian in the third century CE. Clark attends to the evolution of ideas and themes embodied in the prayer and of the understanding of prayer itself across epic transitions, from Judaism to the teaching of Jesus, from Jesus to the Gospels, and from the Gospels to earliest self- consciously catholic Christianity. This is an engaging narrative of the history behind and reception of the Lords Prayer; it illustrates how a texts reception may help us explore and understand the multivalent meaning of the text itself.