The Language of Mathematics

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Ian Hawkey

"Feet of the Chameleon is a comprehensive study of African football, tracing the development of the world's favourite sport through the tangled history and complex social and political life of this fascinating continent. Drawing on a range of sources, including interviews conducted with individuals involved in all levels of the African game, his own extensive experience and years of research, Ian Hawkey, international football correspondent for the Sunday Times, has crafted a unique and remarkable book to satisfy the surge of interest in African football as South Africa prepares to host the FIFA World Cup in 2010. The book explains the rise to prominence of today's African players; a real force in world football --^ strong, athletic midfielders like Chelsea's Michael Essien and Barcelona's Yaya Toure; and skillful, deadly strikers like Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor, Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o. They have supplied some of the most memorable and audacious moments in modern football, whether playing in domestic leagues like the Premier League and La Liga or in international competition. Their talents excite millions of fans, but Eto'o, Essien, Adebayor and others of their class are just the most recent crop of African players to capture the imagination of the public. Feet of the Chameleon shows that the scramble for African talent is not a new phenomenon, placing the search for the next football prodigy in historical context and presenting as evidence the careers of Larbi Ben Barek, Salif Keita and Eusebio, who were all great footballing successes in twentieth-century Europe.^ Analysing these cases, the author reveals such sporting 'exports' to be rooted in Africa's colonial past, when African players first had isolated success in Europe --^ notably Arthur Wharton, the first black professional footballer in the 1890s, Hassan Hegazi, Fulham's 'Egyptian wizard' and Matateu, Eusebio's predecessor and the first great Mozambican-born Portuguese footballer. Although these breakthroughs would seem to be positive, the negative side of this tradition is also highlighted. In the modern age, hundreds of football 'academies' have sprung up throughout Africa, some of which are genuine portals to European stardom, while others prey on the dreams of young footballers. In 2006, for example, 34 teenage footballers were found crammed into a house in the Malian city of Sissako, having been enrolled into an 'academy' that had promised trials with dozens of top European clubs. The boys' families had paid thousands to the academy, lured by false promises of fame and football stardom." Publisher description.

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Michael F. Land, Benjamin W. Tatler

"The cooperative action of different regions of our brains gives us an amazing capacity to perform activities as diverse as playing the piano and hitting a tennis ball. Somehow, without conscious effort, our eyes find the information we need to operate successfully in the world around us. The development of head-mounted eye trackers over recent years has made it possible to record where we look during different active tasks, and so work out what information our eyes supply to the brain systems that control our limbs. We are now in a position to explore the strategies that the eye movement system uses in the initiation and guidance of action." "Looking and Acting examines a wide range of visually guided behaviour; from sedentary tasks like reading and drawing, to dynamic activities such as driving and playing cricket. A central theme is that the eye movement system has its own knowledge about where to find the most appropriate information for guiding action - information not usually available to conscious scrutiny. Thus each type of action has its own specific repertoire of linked eye movements, acquired in parallel with the motor skills themselves. Starting with a brief background to eye movement studies, the book then reviews a range of observations and analyses of different activities. It ends with discussions of the nature of visual representation, the neurophysiology of the systems involved, and the roles of attention and learning."--BOOK JACKET.

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James W. Pipkin

"Examines autobiographies by athletes such as Wilt Chamberlain, Babe Ruth, Martina Navratilova, and Dennis Rodman, and analyzes common themes and recurring patterns in the accounts of their lives and sporting experiences"--Provided by publisher.

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Dick Lally

An overview of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, discussing its players, history, last season, great moments, records, and prospects.