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Despite its American origins, the fast-paced and often acrobatic game of basketball commands the attention of audiences around the world. The sport's seeming simplicity--put the ball in the basket--is delightfully offset by the complexity of the athleticism and strategy required to be successful at the game. Recounting the evolution of basketball and profiling greats from George Mikan to Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and beyond, this gripping volume examines the story of a game that continues to dazzle American and global audiences alike.

A Child of the Sea is the true story of Jimmy Cornell's daughter sailing around the world on the family's small yacht from the age of 7 to 14, based on Doina's diaries, letters and memories. From 1975 to 1981 the Cornell family visited 54 countries, sailed more than 68,000 miles, and travelled about the same distance overland. The story is told from Doina's point of view, although the main part of the book focuses on the family's three-year stay in the Pacific when she is aged between 10 and 13. Child of the Sea is unusual in that it gives a glimpse into a life that most young children couldn't imagine, swimming, diving and playing the days away in deserted anchorages; visiting some of the most beautiful islands in the world; falling in love with the sea in all its ever-changing moods, from balmy trade wind ocean passages to the treacherous breakers that crash onto tropical reefs, and taking a full part in sailing and handling the yacht on passage. The book also tells the story of a girl's coming of age in the South Pacific, understanding different cultures and values, and experiencing at first-hand how people judge each other depending on the colour of their skin - from the time on Easter Island when tourists mistake Doina for a Polynesian girl, to her and her brother's hostile prejudiced reception back in an English school at the end of their journey. What do children need to grow up happy and healthy? Security with their family; an element of risk; freedom to explore the world; openness to other peoples and cultures; closeness with nature and the elements and an appreciation of the environment and our finite resources. The sailing life offers all this and more, and this book captures it all.

Video games have become a global industry, and their history spans dozens of national industries where foreign imports compete with domestic productions, legitimate industry contends with piracy, and national identity faces the global marketplace. This volume describes video game history and culture across every continent, with essays covering areas as disparate and far-flung as Argentina and Thailand, Hungary and Indonesia, Iran and Ireland. Most of the essays are written by natives of the countries they discuss, many of them game designers and founders of game companies, offering distinctively firsthand perspectives. Some of these national histories appear for the first time in English, and some for the first time in any language.Readers will learn, for example, about the rapid growth of mobile games in Africa; how a meat-packing company held the rights to import the Atari VCS 2600 into Mexico; and how the Indonesian MMORPGNusantara Onlinereflects that country's cultural history and folklore. Every country or region's unique conditions provide the context that shapes its national industry; for example, the long history of computer science in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, the problems of piracy in China, the PC Bangs of South Korea, or the Dutch industry's emphasis on serious games. As these essays demonstrate, local innovation and diversification thrive alongside productions and corporations with global aspirations.Africa • Arab World • Argentina • Australia • Austria • Brazil • Canada • China • Colombia • Czech Republic • Finland • France • Germany • Hong Kong • Hungary • India • Indonesia • Iran • Ireland • Italy • Japan • Mexico • The Netherlands • New Zealand • Peru • Poland • Portugal • Russia • Scandinavia • Singapore • South Korea • Spain • Switzerland • Thailand • Turkey • United Kingdom • United States of America • Uruguay • Venezuela

Following the success of prominent feature films shot on location, including Tolkien's wildly popular The Lord of the Rings, New Zealand boasts an impressive film tourism industry. This book examines the relationship between New Zealand's cinematic representation - as both a vast expanse of natural beauty and a magical world of fantasy on screen - and its tourism imagery, including the ways in which savvy local tourism boards have in recent decades used the country's film representations to sell New Zealand as a premiere travel destination. Focusing on the films that have had a strong impact on marketing strategies by local tourist boards, Touring the Screen will be of interest to all those working and studying in the fields of cinema, postcolonial history and tourism studies.

Alfred Hitchcock is a fascinating look at the life of one of the most influential filmmakers in the world -- a man known for his portly profile and distinct, leery voice almost as much as for his groundbreaking movies. From Hitchcock's first film, Blackmail -- the first British movie with sound -- to his blockbuster Hollywood successes, Psycho, The Birds, Rear Window, and Vertigo.

Triumphs and tragedies beyond the realm of organized sports.

In the ascendancy at the beginning of his book are the many efforts to discipline and coerce young people into becoming ideal citizens, beginning with the muscular Christianity and sports ethic ofigthcentury English public schools, and filtering down the social classes (but not to the very lowest ones) in the form of pre-military cadet organisations such as the Boy Scouts.