As the new millennium approaches the sacred and profane interface, conflict, and intermingle in novel ways. "The Encyclopedia of Religion and Society" provides a guide map for these developments. From succinct, brief notes to essay-length entries, this encyclopedia covers world religious leaders and scholars-past and present-in the United States and the world. This comprehensive volume is an essential reference for the study of the anthropology, psychology, politics, or sociology of religion.
The Houghton Mifflin Dictionary of Geography is a comprehensive, fully up-to-date dictionary of geographic place names that also includes the major peoples, ethnic groups, and languages of the world. Developed by the editors of the American Heritage(R) dictionaries, this handy reference work puts the world and its peoples at your fingertips with more than 10,000 entries.
Pinky and Brain are genetically enhanced laboratory mice who reside in a cage in the Acme Labs research facility. In each episode, Brain devises a new plan for the two mice (led by Brain) to take over the world, which ultimately ends in failure. In common with many other Animaniacs shorts, many episodes are in some way a parody of something else, usually a film or novel. The cartoon's tagline is: Pinky: "Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?" The Brain: "The same thing we do every night, Pinky-try to take over the world."
The 23rd edition of The Economist's annual compilation of forecasts, The World in 2009 examines critical issues that will shape the year ahead - including, of course, the aftershocks of the global financial crisis. Journalists from The Economist, prominent politicians and luminaries from the world of business look ahead to bring you their considered predictions on business, politics, technology and more. Among the contributors to The World in 2009 are: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil; Queen Rania of Jordan; Kevin Rudd, prime minister of Australia; José Luiz Rodríguez Zapatero, prime minister of Spain; and Henry Kissinger, a former US secretary of state. There are views on the future of finance and the global economy from Josef Ackermann of Deutsche Bank, Jeff Immelt of GE and Lakshmi Mittal of Arcelor Mittal. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of Nestlé, issues a mind-concentrating warning on water; his article is part of a special section on the environment (which will loom large in 2009 in the run-up to a mega-summit on global warming in Copenhagen at the end of the year). As ever, the publication is both entertaining and informative, telling readers what to expect in 2009 on topics ranging from Barbie to the International Year of Astronomy.
