Zea E-Books

Birds of the Central Platte River Valley and Adjacent Counties

Mary B. Brown et al. — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:54:44 PST

The central Platte River Valley region of Nebraska is described ecologically, and defined as encompassing 11 counties and nearly 10,000 square miles, and extending about 120 miles from the western edge of Lincoln County to the eastern edge of Merrick County. At its center is the Platte River, the historic spring staging area for Sandhill and Whooping cranes, five species of geese, and millions of waterfowl and water-dependent birds, in addition to providing the breeding habitats for more than 100 other bird species. Collectively, at least 373 bird species have been reported from the Central Platte Valley, making it the most species-rich bird location in Nebraska, and of the most species-diverse regions in the Great Plains. The abundance, distribution and habitats of these species are summarized, with special consideration given to the Valley’s three nationally threatened and endangered birds, the Whooping Crane, Interior Least Tern, and Piping Plover, and the now probably extinct Eskimo Curlew. Also included are a species checklist, a list of 82 regional birding sites, and a bibliography of 130 citations.

Contains 47 drawings and 2 color maps.

We survived … At last I speak

Leon Malmed — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:57:13 PST

This is Leon Malmed’s true story of his and his sister Rachel’s escape from the Holocaust in Occupied France. When their father and mother were arrested in 1942, their courageous and heroic French neighbors volunteered to watch their children until they returned. Leon’s parents were taken first to Drancy, then to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and they never returned. Meanwhile their downstairs neighbors, Henri and Suzanne Ribouleau, gave the children a home and family and sheltered them through subsequent roundups, threats, air raids, and the war’s privations. The courage, sympathy, and dedication of the Ribouleaus and others stand in strong contrast to the collaborations and moral weakness of many of the French authorities. Leon and Rachel each came to America after the war, but always kept their strongest ties to “Papa Henri and Maman Suzanne,” who were honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem in 1977. Leon bares his soul in this narrative of love and courage, set against a backdrop of tragedy, fear, injustice, prejudice, and the greatest moral outrage of the modern era. It is a story of goodness triumphing once more over evil.

Note: Release date will be on or about March 18, 2013.

Wings over the Great Plains: Bird Migrations in the Central Flyway

Paul A. Johnsgard — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:14:25 PST

The Central Flyway has been recognized as a collective North- South migratory pathway centered on the North American Great Plains for nearly a century, but it has never been analyzed as the species that most closely follow it, or the major stopping points used by those species on their journeys between their northern breeding and southern wintering grounds. A total of 114 U.S. and 21 Canadian localities of special importance to birds migrating within the Central Flyway are identified and described in detail. Judging from available regional, state and local information, nearly 400 species of 50 avian families regularly use the Central Flyway during their migrations. Nearly 90 Central Flyway species have wintering areas partly extending variably far into the Neotropic zoogeographic realm, and at least 50 of these winter entirely within the Neotropic realm. A few of these species undertake some of the longest known migrations of all birds, in excess of 8,000 miles in each direction. Seven maps, 49 figures and over 100 literature citations are included.

A Two-Hundred Year History of Ornithology, Avian Biology, Bird Watching, and Birding in Kansas (1810–2010)

Thomas G. Shane — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:15:16 PDT

The first two centuries of bird study in Kansas essentially can be split into 50 year intervals since Zebulon Pike’s 1810 publication, an account of his explorations. The first 50 years were records of explorers crossing Kansas collecting bird specimens; many were Army doctors. The second half of the 19th Century was a continuation of explorers and those affiliated with museums obtaining bird specimens and the establishment of colleges and universities with faculty members also collecting birds and making observations. The first half of the 20th Century was a period of college faculties primarily composed of vertebrate zoologists who had a few graduate students who studied birds. By 1960, active graduate programs were in place with many professors specializing in taxonomy, physiology, ecology, wildlife biology and behavior which continue to this day. Bird watchers and birders have also played an important role in the study of Kansas birds and continue to do so into the 21st Century.

Hopi Nation: Essays on Indigenous Art, Culture, History, and Law

Edna Glenn et al. — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:18:12 PDT

Contents

EDITOR’S NOTE

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PREFACE: Edna Glenn, Texas Tech University and John R. Wunder, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

COMMENTARY I: CELEBRATION: Edna Glenn

1 THE HOPI NATION IN 1980: “It is a time to recall and to revitalize the good things of Hopi life and to celebrate Hopism.” Abbott Sekaquaptewa, Chairman, Hopi Tribal Council

EXEMPLARY ARTS: SECTION A — Subject: Concepts of Emergence and Migration: Edna Glenn

2 HOPI MESAS AND MIGRATIONS: LAND AND PEOPLE: “Here among the sandstone mesas you will find the Hopis. ‘Among them we settled as rain....’” Lomawywesa (Michael Kabotie), Hopi Cultural Center and Museum, Second Mesa

EXEMPLARY ARTS: SECTION B — Subject: Corn as Life Essence: Edna Glenn

3 THE HOPI WAY: ART AS LIFE, SYMBOL, AND CEREMONY: “As artists, we try to document every aspect of Hopi life. We know the Hopi way; we live it, we can taste, we can see, and we can smell Hopi.” Honvantewa (Terrance Talaswaima), Hopi Cultural Center and Museum, Second Mesa

EXEMPLARY ARTS: SECTION C — Subject: Ceremony - Ancient and Contemporary Images: Edna Glenn

EXEMPLARY ARTS: SECTION D — Subject: Contemporary Arts and Crafts: Edna Glenn

COMMENTARY II: CEREMONY: Edna Glenn

4 HOPI KACHINAS: A LIFE FORCE: “Everything has an essence or life force, and humans must interact with these or fail to survive.” Barton Wright , Museum of Man, San Diego

EXEMPLARY ARTS: SECTION E — Subject: Kachinas: Edna Glenn

5 HOPI SOCIAL STRUCTURE AS RELATED TO TIHU SYMBOLISM: “Life is the highest good; in an environment where survival requires constant effort, . . . the richest blessing is abundance of food and children.” Alice Schlegel, University of Arizona

6 CONTEMPORARY HOPI COURTS AND LAW: “We believe we are ‘at the center’ and this gives us a very secure feeling about where we are, where we have been, and what we are going to do.” Piestewa (Robert H. Ames), Chief Judge, Hopi Tribal Trial Court

7 THE ENDURING HOPI: “What then is the meaning of the tricentennial observance? It is a reaffirmation of continuity and hope for the collective Hopi future.” Peter Iverson, Arizona State University

COMMENTARY III: CHALLENGE: Edna Glenn

HOPI ESSENCE: SELF-PORTRAIT AND POEM: Lomawywesa (Michael Kabotie)

CONTRIBUTORS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A Prairie’s Not Scary

Paul Johnsgard — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 11:49:27 PST

Twenty poems and 23 drawings illustrate the integrated habitat and denizens of the North American prairies: mammals, birds, insects, and plants. Probably only 1-3 percent of Nebraska’s original tallgrass prairie still exits. There are very few remaining tallgrass prairies in Nebraska as large as Spring Creek Prairie. They represent important repositories for our natural heritage of native plants and animals. It is not uncommon for tallgrass prairies to have 250-300 species of plants present and several hundred species of insects.

Dedicated to our children, who will eventually replace us and have to decide if our remaining prairies are to be preserved.

Media Revolution: Early Prints from the Sheldon Museum of Art

Gregory Nosan et al. — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:49:28 PST

In the digital age, when videos are streamed and books can be read electronically, it is hard to fathom the revolutionary impact that printed images had when they fi rst appeared in Europe around 1400. Th eir introduction changed forever the traditional practice of manually crafting images one by one, creating a world in which pictures could be reproduced almost without limit on a new material called paper, expanding the possibilities and audiences for images and texts of all kinds. Th is publication, which brings to light little-seen masterpieces from the Sheldon Museum of Art’s collection, explores the three major print techniques of the early modern period: woodcut, engraving, and etching. Along the way, it suggests not only how the print revolution evolved as it spread across Europe and the British Isles, but also how it gave rise to images that are intimate and public, sacred and secular. Th ese pictures, which transformed the everyday lives of their original users, remind us of the many ways in which print technology continues to shape our own.

Wetland Birds of the Central Plains: South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas

Paul Johnsgard — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:05:30 PST

This 100,000-word monograph summarizes the distribution, abundance and breeding biology of the 183 species of wetland-adapted birds reliably reported from South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas through 2011. These include 91 species known to breed or have historically bred in the region, 51 species that migrate through the region but are not yet known to breed or have bred there, and 41 species that are extremely rare, probably extinct, or for which evidence as to their current occurrence is questionable. Brief summaries of the breeding biology of all the regionally nesting species are provided, and information for all species is summarized as to seasonal migrations, habitats, and (in most cases) population status. There is an introductory account of the topography, climate and vegetation of the region insofar as these environmental factors influence wetland birds, six regional maps, and more than 500 references.

Rocky Mountain Birds: Birds and Birding in the Central and Northern Rockies

Paul A. Johnsgard — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:33:13 PDT

“The Rocky Mountain region has fascinated me ever since I traveled to Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks as a teenager, and saw for the first time such wonderful birds as ospreys, American dippers, and Lewis’s woodpeckers.”

This book is in part based on the author’s earlier Birds of the Rocky Mountains (1986, revised 2009), but over a third of the original text has been eliminated. The rest has been updated, expanded and modified to be less technical and more useful to birders in the field. Bird enthusiasts will find viewing locations and updated contact information for hundreds of sites in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Alberta, and British Columbia. Part 1 outlines the habitats, ecology, and bird geography of the Rocky Mountains north of the New Mexico–Colorado border, including recent changes in the ecology and avifauna of the region. It provides detailed lists of major birding locations and guidance about where to search for specific Rocky Mountain birds. Part 2 considers all 328 regional species individually, with information on their status, habitats and ecology, suggested viewing locations, and population. Includes 3 maps and 11 drawings by the author.

Paul A. Johnsgard is the Foundation Regents Professor (emeritus) in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is an internationally renowned ornithologist and the author of more than fifty books on natural history.

Musica mechanica organoedi • Musical mechanics for the organist

Jacob Adlung et al. — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 07:59:52 PDT

This is the first English translation of Musica mechanica organoedi, originally published in Berlin in 1768. Its author Jacob Adlung (1699-1762) was a musician and scholar and organist at the Predigerkirche in Erfurt.

The Musica mechanica organoedi focuses primarily on the organ, from the perspective of the information an organist might need to know about the instrument; specifically, it encompasses the following:

• an evaluation, from an 18th-century perspective, of earlier works on its subject: Praetorius, Werkmeister, Mattheson, Niedt, Kircher and others

• an appreciation of the organ: its value and regard

• the history of the organ

• a thorough description of all the parts of an organ, and all facets of the organbuilder’s art, including definitions of several hundred organ stops.

• suggestions about organ registration: the use and combination of stops, and how to go about choosing what stops an organ shall have

• advice to those who intend to purchase an organ: cost, advantages and faults, testing, maintenance and repair

• temperament and tuning

• construction and assessment of other keyboard instruments, notably the harpsichord and clavichord with pedal

• stoplists of almost 90 organs of various types and sizes (most of them in Germany).

One of Mmo’s most valuable features is its attempt to be a compendium of information from earlier sources. Adlung not only recorded his own ideas and observations, but incorporated those of every previous major German publication that treats the organ, beginning with Praetorius’s Syntagma musicum (1619). This attempt at comprehensiveness is interesting because it gathers information from so many diverse sources, and because in commenting on his predecessors Adlung offers yet another perspective (closer to the sources than any commentary from our time) on the matters they treat. His work is therefore, more than any other contemporary publication, a mirror of the state of knowledge and preferences concerning the 18th-century German organ.

Left unpublished at Adlung's death, the work was entrusted to Johann Lorenz Albrecht (1732-73), Cantor and Music Director at the Marienkirche in Mühlhausen. The book's publisher subsequently entrusted the work to his local collaborator Johann Friedrich Agricola (1720-1774), the Royal Prussian Court Composer and a former student of J. S. Bach, who added a further layer of commentary.

The work has been translated into English by Dr. Quentin Faulkner, Larson Professor of Organ and Music Theory/History (emeritus) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr Faulkner holds the degrees B.Mus. cum laude from Westminster Choir College, M.S.M. and M.Th. from Southern Methodist University, and S.M.D. from Union Theological Seminary, and is the author of J.S. Bach's Keyboard Technique: A Historical Introduction (1984) and Wiser Than Despair: The Evolution of Ideas in the Relationship of Music and the Christian Church (1996). He was formerly an organist at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. In addition to the extensive annotations, he has added a compendium of the many organ stoplists cited but not originally included in the Mmo.

This electronic edition of the work is arranged to show the German original on the left and the English translation on the facing right-hand pages. It runs 1222 pages or 68 Mb in this version. Chapter-opening bookmarks are provided for easier navigation.

A Nebraska Bird-Finding Guide

Paul A. Johnsgard — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 09:16:35 PDT

Nebraska lies in the transition zone between North American eastern and western avifaunas and is home to more than 200 breeding and 150 migrant species. This definitive guide to Nebraska birdwatching by the state’s preeminent ornithologist includes a county-by-county rundown of the best sites, a calendar of migrations, an annotated checklist of regularly occurring Nebraska birds, and recommendations for optical equipment, publications and reference materials, and contact information for conservation and ornithological groups. It features 48 maps as well as photographs and drawings by the author.

Paul Johnsgard, Foundation Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, is the author of more than 50 books and 150 articles on birds and other wildlife.

The Wonders of the Invisible World. OBSERVATIONS As well Historical as Theological, upon the NATURE, the NUMBER, and the OPERATIONS of the DEVILS.

Cotton Mather et al. — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:17:27 PDT

Cotton Mather’s mythic image rests largely on his involvement in the Salem witchcraft debacle (1692–93) and on his Wonders of the Invisible World (1693). The work aims at several purposes. On the one hand, Wonders is New England’s official defense of the court’s verdict and testimony to the power of Satan and his minions; on the other, it is Mather’s contribution to pneumatology, with John Gaul, Matthew Hale, John Dee, William Perkins, Joseph Glanville, and Richard Baxter in the lead. Before Mather excerpts the six most notorious cases of Salem witchcraft, he buttresses his account with the official endorsement of Lt. Governor William Stoughton, with a disquisition on the devil’s machinations described by the best authorities that the subject affords, with a previously delivered sermon at Andover, and with his own experimentations. Mather’s Wonders, however, does not end without a due note of caution. While exposing Satan’s plot to overthrow New England’s churches, Mather also recommends his father’s caveat Cases of Conscience (1693), thus effectively rejecting the use of “spectral evidence” as grounds for conviction and condemning confessions extracted under torture. What ties the various parts together is Mather’s millenarian theme of Christ’s imminence, of which Satan’s plot is the best evidence. Robert Calef ’s accusation that Mather and his ilk incited the hysteria is, perhaps, unfounded, but Calef ’s charge of Mather’s ambidextrous disposition seems warranted. For while Mather defends the court’s verdict and justifies the government’s position, he also voices his great discomfort with the court’s procedure in the matter. Wonders appeared in print just when the trials were halting, but it remains, in his own words, “that reviled Book,” a bane to his name.

Mathematics for Classical Information Retrieval

Dariush Alimohammadi et al. — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:56:35 PDT

This book is about Information Retrieval (IR), particularly Classical Information Retrieval (CIR). It looks at these topics through their mathematical roots. The mathematical bases of CIR are briefly reviewed, followed by the most important and interesting models of CIR, including Boolean, Vector Space, and Probabilistic.

Mathematics is a foundation and building block of all areas of knowledge. It particularly affects disciplines concerned with information organization, storage, retrieval, and exchange. Information is manipulated using computers, and computers have a mathematical basis. The word “computer” reveals this relationship. Students and practitioners of computer science, library and information science (LIS), and communications need a foundation in mathematics. IR, a subfield in all these disciplines, also needs mathematics as a common and formal language. Understanding CIR is not possible without basic mathematical knowledge.

The primary goal of book is to create a context for understanding the principles of CIR by discussing its mathematical bases. This book can be helpful for LIS students who are studying IR but have no knowledge of mathematics. Weakness in math impairs the ability to understand current issues in IR. While LIS students are the main target of this book, it may be of interest to computer science and communications students as well.

The Fish Doctor: Autobiography of a World Fish Parasitologist

Glenn L. Hoffman — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:52:46 PDT

Described in 1986 as “a living legend,” Glenn Hoffman was one of the world’s foremost authorities on the parasites of fishes. This book narrates his life and 65-year professional career as a scientist, researcher, ambassador, colleague, and family man.
Born in 1918 to “hard working Iowa farm folks,” Dr. Hoffman grew up trapping and fishing for fun and profit. At the University of Iowa, he majored in zoology and worked for the Iowa State Conservation Department. From 1942 through 1946, he served in the U.S. Army as a lab technician, bacteriologist, and parasitologist in France, England, Germany, and Belgium. He returned to Iowa to earn his PhD in 1950, and taught at the University of North Dakota 1950–1957. From 1958 to 1975 he worked at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services Eastern Fish Disease Laboratory in Leetown, WV, and then at the U.S. Fish Culture Station in Stuttgart, Arkansas, until his retirement in 1985. He was the author of four major books and more than 100 articles on the causes, spread, and cures of parasite-related diseases in fish, including Parasites of North American Freshwater Fishes (1967, 2nd ed. 1999), called “the bible of American fish parasitology.” His work and his generosity in collaboration developed an international following, and he made many trips abroad to share his expertise and receive the honors earned from his wide-ranging research and publication work.
Personal, insightful, and reflective, this autobiography gives a glimpse inside the mind of a American scientist of the first rank.

De bestiis marinis, or, The Beasts of the Sea

Georg Wilhelm Steller et al. — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:47:22 PDT

Steller’s classic work, published in Latin in 1751 and in German in 1753, contains the only scientific description from life of the Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas), as well as the first scientific descriptions of the fur seal or “sea bear” (Callorhinus ursinus), Steller’s sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus), and the sea otter (Enhydra lutris). Steller’s sea cow was a sirenian, or manatee, inhabiting the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. It was first discovered by Europeans in 1741 and rendered extinct by 1768. It was a 30-foot long, plant-eating aquatic mammal, weighing up to 12 tons, that lived in large herds on the coasts of Alaska and Kamchatka. Steller made his observations as part of Vitus Bering’s second voyage, during which the crew was shipwrecked for 9 months on Bering Island, from November 1741 to August 1742. This voyage was undertaken as part of the Great Northern Expedition, commissioned by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, to prosecute the exploration of the North Pacific and western North America. This English translation originally appeared in 1899, in an appendix to The Fur Seals and Fur-Seal Islands of the North Pacific Ocean, edited by David Starr Jordan, Part 3 (Washington, 1899), pp. 179–218. A brief bibliography, links to online works and sites, and illustrations have been added by the present editor.