Echoes in a Void

Richard A. Stothert retired some 10 years ago having enjoyed a very long career in the development of computer programmes forecasting strength or weakness of both individuals and businesses known as Credit Information Bureaus. This involved many international projects across the world. Australia, Botswana, Germany, Canada and many more. On retirement, he reviewed his learning of human attitudes toward each other throughout history and these are reflective in both positive and negative reactions. In the world of today self-destruction continues unabated.

Balance

For anyone seeking to navigate the maze of personal development, health, and well-being, Balance offers an undeniably unique perspective. This essential toolkit seamlessly bridges the gap between ancient wisdom, modern science, and common sense, empowering readers to achieve better wellness.By adopting a broader perspective that ‘everything is connected,’ wellness can be seen through a different, clearer lens. Balance illuminates how sleep changes body chemistry, how childhood experiences impact environmental choices, and how good nutrition affects the strength of our community, demonstrating that achieving true and sustainable balance engages far more than just mind, body, and spirit.Easily accessible and packed with helpful facts and guidance on building solid foundations for happier and more conscious living, Balance contains invaluable science-based information, reflections, exercises, and mantras to identify and implement lasting change.As the recommended text for The ALTR Group, this book serves as a gateway to a dynamic new framework for holistic health, perfect for beginners and experienced wellness-seekers alike.

A Shower of Shite

A Shower of Shite offers a gripping biographical narrative that charts the tumultuous journey of two parents as they navigate through a relentless storm of trials brought upon by their children. Their story, akin to the dramatic arcs of a British soap opera, unfolds with tragic twists and turns, an unceasing cascade of events that would seem overdrawn if not for their stark reality. These challenges, though uninvited and not of their own making, are met with a resilience that speaks to the profound sense of duty and unwavering compassion inherent in parental love. It’s a testament to the silent oath etched in the very fabric of biological bonds, a commitment to defend, sometimes even the indefensible, against the odds, all told with a humourous look back at life events faced by the family.

Prove It All Night

Can there be anything more uplifting than a great rock concert?

A concert where words like brilliant, fantastic, superb, amazing and incredible can never do it justice. They don’t even come close.

If you are blessed to have seen that one special gig that actually changed your life, a gig that you wished had never come to an end, then maybe, just maybe, you’ve been in the presence of greatness.

A night to remember that will never fade from your memory, however long you live. It’s as fresh today as it was all those years ago. It was a rock and roll epiphany.

Surviving the Asylum

In this raw and poignant memoir, Michael recounts his harrowing journey through the psychiatric system and his struggle to find purpose after losing custody of his beloved autistic grandson.

After a suicide attempt lands him in a geriatric psychiatric ward for the third time in recent years, Michael finds himself cut off from the outside world and the grandson he raised for three decades. Facing abuse and isolation, he contemplates ending it all.

But a lifeline appears in the form of his vocal coach and support worker, who encourage him to channel his pain into art. As Michael discovers new passions in singing, painting, and poetry, he forges an unexpected friendship with a fellow patient that reignites his will to live.

This powerful story of resilience and reinvention shows how creativity and human connection can offer hope even in the darkest of times. Michael’s journey reminds us that it’s never too late to find a new voice and a reason to keep singing.

Addicted

Humans are biologically hardwired to alter their mental state, drugs are the pathway, and America is their biggest consumer. From antiquity to modernity, use and prohibition have gone hand in hand. Addicted raises the curtain to expose the lies and fill in the blanks behind America’s failed 50 year war on drugs and makes sense of the quagmire of misinformed laws and policy, blending Miller’s investigative journalism with historical narrative.

In addition, Miller tells the story of nature’s three primary psychotropic plants and the history of government efforts to suppress them: Papaver Somniferum, the opium poppy, the drug of Asian mystery, which provides opium and its derivative alkaloids morphine and heroin; Erythroxylum Coca, which provides the cocaine of all night parties and glamor; and Cannabis Sativa, L., the historical intoxicant of rebellion and counterculture. These plants convert soil, water, nutrients, CO2, and light into complex chemical substances, which can elevate, intoxicate, and even heal.

Addicted unravels the institutional mechanism that fuels the war’s self-perpetuation, its abject failure, and its deplorable byproduct of racial injustice. The stories in Addicted feature a diverse cast of heroes, villains, and bureaucrats as well as all the post-Nixon Presidents who failed in their version of the war.

A Piece of the Action

What is it like to spend a lifetime doing research in a wide variety of fields in the physical sciences? Studying distant planets, binary stars, neutron stars, stellar mass black holes and active galaxies using optical and near-infrared ground-based telescopes. Designing and constructing equipment as a member of international teams studying the high-energy X-ray emissions from many of these objects. Flying these detectors on short duration sounding rocket flights, utilising huge balloons to carry experiments to high altitude, or installing them on long duration satellite missions. Being a scientist engaged in fieldwork studying the physical properties of the world’s oceans, or the sea ice and glaciers around the coastline of Antarctica. This lifetime involved living in the UK and Australia for many years, with a four-year interlude in the USA, as well as working in or visiting many other countries. How lucky can you get? This book describes numerous projects in an unusually diverse range of research areas – the fun and adventure of STEM activities – without getting into excessive technical or specialist detail.

Cherubell

Who was I to question reality?

As the light fractured into its familiar colors, I questioned again.

I balanced my treaded foot on a granite surround, these words etched deep:

‘It’s not the size of the person in the fight, but the size of the fight in the person.’

This balancing act in a garden within a sanctuary became my new reality. A crossroads, a junction, a tightrope walk between the firm, enduring granite and the sodden grass of the everyday.

A sense of poetic inevitability washed over me as the words of my life – past and future – enveloped me with the comfort of bedrock and splintered light. How fitting that these words formed in prose, a passion from my youth now reignited, burning too bright to ignore. Were they my words, or those of a power greater than myself? The mystery lingers.

Is life a simple journey? Not in my experience.

This is my journey, told in prose.

What is Evidence? Understanding Rational Proof

This book is about evidence. Its purpose is to shed light on the nature of evidence and to do away with the mystique associated with the meaning of the word. Concepts falling within the subject are defined and explained, as are the different categories of evidence.

Without dealing with the question of causation, an explanation of the nature of evidence would not be complete. Part of a complete treatment of the subject is to explain the place and importance of causation. This, the book does, showing the reader how to identify causal relationships and how to answer the question of causation according to the context at hand.

Whether you are a student of law, a debater, or someone interested in assessing the evidentiary value of claims or arguments, this book, I trust, will be an indispensable aid to you.

Living the Dream!

This is the story of my life, from childhood struggles with polio to leaving home at seventeen for an apprenticeship with British Aircraft Corporation, working on the iconic Concorde. My career path took me through Westland Helicopters and British Rail, before a 22-year career at British Airways in London, where I became a Senior Airline Engineer, licensed to maintain a fleet of company aircraft.

After that, I turned to flying for pleasure and eventually became a Chief Flying Instructor, starting my own flying school. Over 36 years of training pilots, I experienced fourteen engine failures, three near misses, and two bird strikes—the most dramatic being a fight with a buzzard that smashed through the windscreen, hitting my student in the face, leaving him with a black eye and a split lip, and ending up draped around his neck like a scarf. I also survived a cockpit fire shortly after takeoff that burned my left leg.

Then there’s the story of a mild-mannered, religious pilot who became a good friend. He once told me about the day his ejection seat failed during a jet spin-out, sending him plummeting toward the ground. Resigned to death, he was saved by a voice in his head that he believed was God, offering the solution just in time.

The Classic Longbow

Immerse yourself in The Classic Longbow, the definitive guide for bow enthusiasts and craftsmen alike. If you’ve ever found yourself intrigued by the mechanics of bow design, or spent hours in pursuit of the perfect draw weight, this is the book for you. Richly illustrated and meticulously researched, our guide offers unparalleled insights into the art of bowyery.

Struggling to fine-tune your bow’s performance? Our step-by-step instructions demystify the process, leading you toward mastery. Frustrated by the elusive quest for arrows that complement your bow and shooting style? Our comprehensive guide to arrow-making will turn those challenges into triumphs.

So, next time you step into your workshop with aspirations of crafting the ideal bow and arrow set, make sure The Classic Longbow is at your side – your indispensable companion on the journey to archery excellence.

Art and Institutional Racism

Why is the history of modern art only about the work of White/European artists? This question is not rhetorical, but about the reality of Eurocentric legacies of colonialism and racism, which not only sees artists of Asian and African origins as outside of art history but also excludes them from it. In this pioneering work, Art & Institutional Racism, Rasheed Araeen reveals how Asian, African and the Caribbean artists in Britain have challenged this exclusion.

Their work not only confronts the Eurocentricity of art history but also redefines modernism and its art history. And in doing so it aims to liberate art from Eurocentrism and also society as a whole from its lingering imperialism.