In this follow-up to his bestselling The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family, religion journalist Mark Pinsky explores the role that the animated features of Walt Disney played on the moral and spiritual development of generations of children. Pinsky explores thirty-one of the most popular Disney films, as well as recent developments such as the 1990s boycott of Disney by the Southern Baptist Convention and the role that Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg played in the resurgance of the company since the mid-1980s.

In June of 1970, the body of 24-year-old Nancy Morgan was found inside a government-owned car in Madison County, North Carolina. It had been four days since anyone had heard from the bubbly, hard-working brunette who had moved to the Appalachian community less than a year prior as an organizer for Volunteers in Service to America. At the time of her death, her tenure in the Tar Heel State was just weeks from ending, her intentions set on New York and nursing school and a new life that she would never see. The initial investigation was thwarted by inept police work, jurisdictional confusion, and the influence of local corruption. Fourteen years would pass before an arrest in the case would be made, but even then, a pall would be cast over the veracity of the evidence. Met Her on the Mountain is the culmination of former Los Angeles Times staff writer Mark Pinsky's efforts to solve the 40-year-old mystery once and for all. An exhaustive piece of investigative journalism, Pinsky's work, now with a new postscript, dissects this modern Southern Gothic tale and takes readers on a journey to convince them that the truth of Morgan's murder is within reach.

Examines the treatment of religion and spirituality in the animated television series, including its depiction of God, Jesus, heaven, hell, and prayer in chapters devoted to Homer, Lisa, Ned, Reverend Lovejoy, Krusty, and Apu.

In this follow-up to his best-selling The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family, religion journalist Mark Pinsky explores the role that the animated features of The Walt Disney Company have played in the moral and spiritual development of generations of children. Pinsky explores the religious, moral, and theological themes in 31 of the most popular Disney films, including Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and the Lion King, and discovers what he calls the Disney Gospel: faith that good will prevail, trust in yourself and your friends, and a little bit of something magical. Pinsky also looks at recent Disney developments, including the 1990s boycott of Disney by the Southern Baptist Convention, the impact of the theme parks on American culture, and the role that CEO Michael Eisner has played in the resurgence of the company since the mid-1980s.

A tangled web of family dysfunction, fatal attraction, and greed wends its way from the elegant Southern mansions of old Montgomery, Alabama, to the New Age salons of Boulder and rural, windswept Wyoming in Drifting Into Darkness, a true saga of bloodshed and betrayal. Two grisly murders—a brutal double parricide—a suicide, and a fourth death under suspicious circumstances. Drifting Into Darkness is a tangled tale of family dysfunction, fatal attraction, and greed, a saga that wends its way from the elegant Southern mansions of Montgomery, Alabama, to the New Age salons of Boulder, Colorado, to rural, windswept Wyoming. On Thanksgiving weekend in 2004, philanthropists Charlotte and Brent Springford Sr.―a wealthy, socially prominent Montgomery couple―were brutally beaten to death with an ax handle, echoing the infamous case of Lizzie Borden. Suspicion quickly fell on the Springfords' gifted but troubled son Brent Jr., who would be tried and sentenced to life without parole. But a mystery remained: Who was the mysterious, elusive woman who claimed to be a Native American shaman that investigators believed manipulated Brent into this murder? Journalists solving murders is a time-tested trope in movies, mysteries, and on television. But cops and cop reporters know that rarely happens in real life. Except when it does. Veteran crime reporter Mark I. Pinsky, who covered the sensational cases of serial killer Ted Bundy and Green Beret Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald, broke the cardinal rule of journalism by involving himself in the story. Pinsky’s extensive research prompted investigators to invite him to join their dogged pursuit of justice. His access to unique and heart-breaking behind-the-scenes material enables him to take readers with him into the troubled, tortured minds of the case's main players.

Is there anything holy in Springfield, the home to irascible Bart Simpson and his naive dad Homer, their enthusiastic evangelical neighbor Ned Flanders, the sourpuss minister Rev. Lovejoy, and the dozens of other unique characters who inhabit the phenomenally popular TV show? In this revision of the 2001 bestseller, author Mark Pinsky says yes! In this entertaining and enlightening book, Pinsky shows how The Simpsons engages issues of religion and morality in a thoughtful, provocative, and genuinely respectful way. With three new chapters and updates to reflect the 2001-2006 seasons, Pinsky has given a thorough facelift to the book that Publishers Weekly called "thoughtful and genuinely entertaining." The new material includes chapters on Buddhism and gay marriage and an extensive afterword that explores how religion is treated on the animated shows that have followed in the footsteps of The Simpsons: South Park, Family Guy, Futurama, American Dad, and King of the Hill.

Serving as the foundation for a one-semester course in stochastic processes for students familiar with elementary probability theory and calculus, Introduction to Stochastic Modeling, Fourth Edition, bridges the gap between basic probability and an intermediate level course in stochastic processes. The objectives of the text are to introduce students to the standard concepts and methods of stochastic modeling, to illustrate the rich diversity of applications of stochastic processes in the applied sciences, and to provide exercises in the application of simple stochastic analysis to realistic problems. New to this edition: Realistic applications from a variety of disciplines integrated throughout the text, including more biological applications Plentiful, completely updated problems Completely updated and reorganized end-of-chapter exercise sets, 250 exercises with answers New chapters of stochastic differential equations and Brownian motion and related processes Additional sections on Martingale and Poisson process Realistic applications from a variety of disciplines integrated throughout the text Extensive end of chapter exercises sets, 250 with answers Chapter 1-9 of the new edition are identical to the previous edition New! Chapter 10 - Random Evolutions New! Chapter 11- Characteristic functions and Their Applications

Provides a comprehensive analysis of modern theories of cloud microphysical processes and their representation in numerical cloud models.

The Simpsons is one of the longest running, funniest, most irreverent, and, according to some religious leaders, the most theologically relevant show on television today. Journalist Mark Pinsky explores the religious and spiritual aspects of Bart, Homer, and the rest of cartoon's first family-a show strongly denounced by many conservative Christians back in 1989, but now viewed favorably by fans from all across the theological spectrum.Pinsky looks at the use of God, Jesus, heaven and hell, the Bible, prayer in the Simpson household, the evangelistic next-door neighbor Ned Flanders, and the town's church and pastor, Rev. Lovejoy. He also discusses whether the character of Lisa is the voice of Jesus, and explores the many moral dilemmas that the characters, in particular Bart and Homer, face. Pinsky concludes with a discussion that suggests that, on the whole, The Simpsons is supportive and not subversive of faith. This is must reading for any Simpsons' fan, and an insightful exploration of how religion and faith influences popular culture.

When Judge Ernest N. "Dutch" Modal was elected "the first black mayor" of this South Coast city November 13,1977, political observers all around the country sat up to take notice. New Orleans is the nation's fourth blackest city (relative to percent of total population), and the largest and most powerful city in the third blackest state in the country. When he took over the reins of the nation's second largest port — the Southern terminus of the mid continent grain export/oil import traffic carried by the Mississippi River — Dutch Morial became perhaps the country's most powerful elected black official. The true significance of Morial's November victory can really be understood only in the context of the history of Afro-American involvement in the city's political and cultural life. African slaves were first imported into the state of Louisiana, then a French colony, after Indian slavery was abolished in 1719. By 1724, colonial administrators had finished compiling the Code Noir, a document outlining the mutual rights and obligations of Louisiana's masters and slaves. By Bill Rushton's first book, on the French speaking Cajuns of South Louisiana, will be issued this fall by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. comparison to conditions in Anglo- American colonial areas, the results of the Code Noir were relatively progressive. All slaves were required to be baptized in the Catholic Church, establishing common cultural ties between blacks and whites in Louisiana that were closer than those anywhere else in the South — ties that were preserved through the Civil War until separate, black Catholic parishes began to be formed with the consent of the Archbishop of New Orleans in 1897. Colonial-era slaves were permitted to retain a good many of their own cultural traditions as well, and in New Orleans they were allowed Sunday afternoons off to gather in what was then called Congo Square to dance the bamboula to their own music, forming a unique milieu which helps explain why jazz originated here rather than in, say, Savannah or Charleston.