National Parks of the West


Book Description

"In New Digital Musical Instruments Eduardo Reck Miranda and Marcelo Mortensen Wanderley focus on musical instruments that use the computer as the main sound-generating device. Such instruments often consist of a gestural controller driving the musical parameters of a sound synthesizer in real-time." "Over the last few decades a community that remained largely marginalized by the academy and industry for a number of years has been the source of various interesting developments in this area. Apart from a few papers scattered in various journals and the proceedings of the relatively new NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) conference, there is no concise literature on this fascinating new topic. This book is an attempts to introduce such developments and inform researchers and musicians interested in designing new digital instruments with control and interaction beyond the conventional keyboard paradigm."--BOOK JACKET.













Bringing Nature Home


Book Description

“With the twinned calamities of climate change and mass extinction weighing heavier and heavier on my nature-besotted soul, here were concrete, affordable actions that I could take, that anyone could take, to help our wild neighbors thrive in the built human environment. And it all starts with nothing more than a seed. Bringing Nature Home is a miracle: a book that summons butterflies." —Margaret Renkl, The Washington Post As development and habitat destruction accelerate, there are increasing pressures on wildlife populations. In his groundbreaking book Bringing Nature Home, Douglas W. Tallamy reveals the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife—native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plants disappear, the insects disappear, impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. Luckily, there is an important and simple step we can all take to help reverse this alarming trend: everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity by simply choosing native plants. By acting on Douglas Tallamy's practical and achievable recommendations, we can all make a difference.




National Geographic


Book Description