The truth about what happens when capitalism meets a mind-altering substance. Colorado’s Amendment 64, the game-changing amendment that authorized the use and regulation of marijuana in the state, sounded to most people who voted for it like a victory for social justice, a way to solve the problem of prison overcrowding, and a windfall for state and local governments that could reap the benefits from sales taxes. In Weed, Inc., author Ben Cort shows the truth. This was not simple legalization of a plant or decriminalization for those possessing it. Instead, the law was written to allow for the commercialization of the mind-altering component of marijuana, THC, by an industry now seeking to make it stronger and to get it into the hands of as many new users as possible. Controlled by a powerful, wealthy lobby, the industry has no federal oversight and has grown at a pace that’s made building and enforcing responsible regulation totally impossible, with adverse impacts to society, health, and the environment. Consider this: There are more marijuana dispensaries in Denver than Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. You’d have to smoke 15 joints in 1970 to get the same high as just one joint today. In 1996, the average level of THC in marijuana was 5% or less. Today, 30% THC is the norm in Colorado, and there are now powerful concentrates that have THC levels as high as 98%. Indoor marijuana-growing operations account for 1% of total electricity use in the US, producing greenhouse gas emissions equal to that of 3 million cars. Pesticide levels six times the maximum allowed by the federal government have been found on plants quarantined at marijuana grow houses in Denver. The black market has not disappeared; in fact, it has only grown since legalization. This essential book will take you in the complex, real world of legalized weed and keep open the debate as more states follow Colorado’s lead. We are only at the beginning of a social experiment that has wide-reaching ramifications.
In Siva's Saints, Gil Ben-Herut challenges common notions about the Virasaiva tradition in its nascent phases. By closely reading the saints' stories in this text, Siva's Saints takes a more nuanced historical view than commonly-held notions about the egalitarian and iconoclastic nature of the early tradition, arguing instead that early bhakti (devotionalism) in the Kannada-speaking region was less-radical and more accommodating toward traditional religious, social, and political institutions than thought of today.
The Norse men and women who sailed to Iceland brought stories with them-stories of their lives and their ancestors, passed down for centuries, going back in time to great Vikings, legendary heroes, and even the ancient gods and goddesses. A new wave of stories entered with Christianity-stories of exotic lands and beasts, of saints and holy men facing demons and monsters. A third wave of stories came to Iceland via Norway, whose king had commissioned translations of tales of chivalry-of the courtly love of gallant knights and beautiful ladies. And all of these blended together in Iceland, creating swashbuckling sagas unlike any other medieval literature. This book presents eleven sagas and six shorter texts tracing the growth of these sagas of adventure, from Norse legends of King Half and Asmund Champion's Bane, to the life of the Apostle Bartholomew, to tales of Parceval and King Arthur, to the sagas of heroes like Vilmund the Outsider and Yngvar the Far-Traveler and Samson the Fair.
A smart, gossipy, and very funny examination of celebrity culture from New York’s premiere social columnist. Ben Widdicombe is the only writer to have worked for Page Six, TMZ, and The New York Times—an unusual Triple Crown that allowed him personal access to the full gamut of Hollywood and high society’s rich and famous, from billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump, and the Koch brothers, to pop culture icons Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton. Now, in Gatecrasher, New York’s premiere gossip-turned-society writer spills the sensational stories that never made it to print. Widdicombe has appeared at nearly every gossip-worthy venue—from the Oscars and the Hamptons, to the Met Gala and Mar-a-Lago—and has rubbed elbows with a dizzying array of celebrities (and wannabes), and he whisks us past the clipboard and velvet rope to teach us the golden rules of gatecrashing, dishing on dozens of boldface names along the way. Widdicombe shares secrets for how to crash the parties, climb the ladder, avoid the paparazzi, or make small talk with Henry Kissinger and Anna Wintour. Endlessly fun and extremely telling, Gatecrasher makes the unnerving argument that Paris Hilton conquering pop culture two decades ago lead to Donald Trump winning the White House. “As the gossip pages go, so goes the country,” he says.
This 5,800-page encyclopedia surveys 100 generations of great thinkers, offering more than 2,000 detailed biographies of scientists, engineers, explorers and inventors who left their mark on the history of science and technology. This six-volume masterwork also includes 380 articles summarizing the time-line of ideas in the leading fields of science, technology, mathematics and philosophy.
Acoustic Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive guide of its type ever produced, covering decades of great instruments and the people who played them. You will find here the highest quality photos of acoustic guitars produced by every significant maker, from Alvarez to Zemaitis, plus detailed information, and a host of action pictures of important players from pop, rock, jazz, country classical, blues, and folk. An acoustic guitar need not be a simple brown box with a neck attached. Acoustic Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia celebrates the unusual, the different and the purely bizarre in addition to the assured roots-based craft of the finest unadorned instruments, underlining the sheer diversity and variety of the acoustic stringed instruments that have been built and sold and played through three centuries. Here are resonator guitars made since the 1920s by Dobro, National, and others, often with highly decorated metal bodies; revered flat-tops from Martin, Taylor, Gibson, and more; peculiarly shaped and oddly featured creations from many of the custom builders; early 20th-century harp guitars with extra strings and extended bodies; creative archtops from D’Angelico, Epiphone, Benedetto, and more; and plastic-equipped constructions from Ovation. The comprehensive and informative text is in a clear A-to-Z format organized by brand name, written and researched by a unique team of the world’s leading authorities on the subject. Acoustic Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia shows in words and pictures just why and how the acoustic guitar continues to be the most popular musical instrument in the world.
“Polyphonic fiction. . . . A reminder of the short story’s power. . . . The History of Sound marks Shattuck as one of the form’s brightest lights. . . . A terrific writer. . . . Deeply resonant.” —The Boston Globe “Exquisitely crafted, deeply imagined, exhilaratingly diverse, The History of Sound places Ben Shattuck firmly among the very finest of our storytellers.” —Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Horse “Magnificent. . . . Poignant. . . . Exquisite.” —Publishers Weekly A stunning collection of interconnected stories set in New England, exploring how the past is often misunderstood and how history, family, heartache, and desire can echo over centuries In twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck's ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries and murders are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven through characters and families. The haunting title story recalls the journey of two men who meet around a piano in a smoky, dim bar, only to spend a summer walking the Maine woods collecting folk songs in the shadow of the First World War, forever marked by the odyssey. Decades later, in another story, a woman discovers the wax cylinders recorded that fateful summer while cleaning out her new house in Maine. Shattuck’s inventive, exquisite stories transport readers from 1700s Nantucket to the contemporary woods of New Hampshire and beyond—into landscapes both enduring and unmistakably modern. Memories, artifacts, paintings, and journals resurface in surprising and poignant ways among evocative beaches, forests, and orchards, revealing the secrets, misunderstandings, and love that linger across centuries. Written with breathtaking humanity and humor, The History of Sound is a love letter to New England, a radiant conversation between past and present, and a moving meditation on the abiding search for home.
The NASCAR drivers featured in these pages are the drivers who make stock car racing one of the fastest, and fastest-growing, sports around. They come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, from all corners of the country. Some of NASCAR’s top racers bear an impressive racing pedigree, with names like Earnhardt, Gordon and Andretti, names that have been part of stock car racing history for decades. Others have worked their way through anonymity to reach the top, possibly to begin a new line of racing greatness. NASCAR Racers profiles former champions and up-and-coming stars alike. An array of colorful photographs accompany the personal and professional stories behind the leading racers on the circuit today, as well as a couple of veritable legends from recent years. Statistical tables allow you to compare the on-track successes of the different racers over the years. In words, images, and numbers, this book puts all you need to know about your favorite drivers at your fingertips.
The coauthors of this theoretically innovative work explore the relationships among anthropological fieldwork, museum collecting and display, and social governance in the early twentieth century in Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, and the United States. With case studies ranging from the Musée de l'Homme's 1930s fieldwork missions in French Indo-China to the influence of Franz Boas's culture concept on the development of American museums, the authors illuminate recent debates about postwar forms of multicultural governance, cultural conceptions of difference, and postcolonial policy and practice in museums. Collecting, Ordering, Governing is essential reading for scholars and students of anthropology, museum studies, cultural studies, and indigenous studies as well as museum and heritage professionals.
Medicinal plants and plant-derived medicine are widely used in traditional cultures all over the world and they are becoming increasingly popular in modern society as natural alternatives to synthetic chemicals. As more and more natural remedies are being commercialised, there is a need for a user-friendly reference guide to the plants and their products. The book gives the reader a bird's eye view of more than 350 of the best known medicinal plants of the world and their uses, in a compact, colourful and scientifically accurate reference text. It provides quick answers to the most obvious questions: Where does this plant originate? What does it look like? In which culture is it traditionally used? What is it used for? Which chemical compounds does it contain? How safe is it? What is known about its pharmacological activity? What evidence is there that it is effective? The authors also provide short overviews of the various health conditions for which medicinal plants are used and the active compounds (secondary metabolites) found in the plants and their modes of actions. This new edition has an additional 30 plant species, many new and improved photographs and the text has been fully updated to reflect the latest regulatory status of each plant.
Watch out for muddy puddles! Because you never really know ... what there might be lurking down in the depths below. Have you ever thought about what could be in the world below the surface of puddles? Join in as one boy finds that some are very, very deep; some are teeming with particularly peckish crocodiles – eek! – and some icy puddles hurt your bottom when you slip – ouch! Others are full of frogs, underwater kings, lost socks and – WATCH OUT! – the BIG, BAD duck ... A joyous celebration of the imagination and splashing in puddles with the talents of the bestselling illustrator of Aliens Love Underpants.
A celebration of the four longhaired, oddly dressed chaps who took over America—filled with facts, stories, and photos. Within just two months of the Beatles’ debut on Ed Sullivan’s variety hour, the band had secured all five top spots on Billboard’s Hot 100, and before year’s end would sell an astonishing ten million records. Filled with dozens of color and black and white photographs, The Beatles details the rise and fall of the Fab Four, and the stories behind the men, their relationships, the creation of the songs, the tours, the albums, and the unstoppable spread of Beatlemania around the globe. Topics covered include: The band's rise to fame in 1964 and their grueling schedule of sixty-six tours in three years The unique songwriting partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartney The Soviet Union's banning and bashing of the band—and how it backfired A debate over the best Beatles tunes The inevitable demise of the Fab Four, and the reasons behind it The long solo careers of the four artists after the dissolution of the band The five top contenders for the “Fifth Beatle” (plus ten runners-up) The story of Capitol Records exec who nearly stalled the Beatles’ entrance into America A look at the band’s children, discussing the music careers of Julian Lennon, Sean Lennon, Zak Starkey, James McCartney, and Dhani Harrison
The trinity of government, military and publics has been drawn together into immediate and unpredictable relationships in a "new media ecology" that has ushered in new asymmetries in the waging of war and terror. To help us understand these new relationships, Andrew Hoskins and Ben O'Loughlin here provide a timely, comprehensive and highly readable survey of the field of war and media. War is diffused through a complex mesh of our everyday media. Paradoxically, this both facilitates and contains the presence and power of enemies near and far. The conventions of so-called traditional warfare have been splintered by the availability and connectivity of the principal locus of war today: the electronic and digital media. Hoskins and O'Loughlin identify and illuminate the conditions of what they term "diffused war" and the new challenges it raises for the actors who wage and counter warfare, for their agents and mechanisms of the new media and for mass publics. This book offers an invaluable review of the key literature and presents a fresh approach to the understanding of the dynamic relationships between war and media. It will be welcomed by a broad range of students taking courses on war and media and related modules, especially in media, communication and cultural studies, politics and international relations, sociology, journalism, and security studies.
Ancient Roman historian Aelius Spartianus attempts to untangle a mystery involving a lost and eagerly sought letter by the long-dead emperor Hadrian, a possible conspiracy against the Roman Empire, and the lost grave of Hadrian's drowned favorite.
Combining the full text and illustrations of the revised editions of... ""APc-48..."" and ""APc-48 Journeys..."" into one volume, celebrating the return of calmer seas, and honoring the service of all who stepped forward in the defense of freedom... With a foreword by Neal Ash, and additional text not found in the original volumes...
The American Musical is a comprehensive history of an American art form. It delivers a detailed and definitive portrait of the American musical’s artistic evolution over the course of seven distinct, newly defined eras, with a unique perspective gleaned from research at more than twenty different archives across the United States. Individual in both its approach and coverage, The American Musical traces the form’s creative journey from its 19th century beginnings, through its 20th century maturation, and to the turn of the 21st century, shedding new light on a myriad of authors, directors, and craftspeople who worked on Broadway and beyond. This book actively addresses the form’s often overlooked female and African-American artists, provides an in-depth accounting of such outside influences as minstrelsy, vaudeville, nightclubs, and burlesque, and explores the dynamic relationship between the form and the consciousness of its country. The American Musical is a fascinating and insightful read for students, artists, and afficionados of the American musical, and anyone with an interest in this singular form of entertainment.
Dopamine is a small molecule traditionally regarded as a brain-derived neuronal modulator implicated in many neurological and psychiatric disorders. Outside the brain, dopamine fulfills all the criteria of a circulating hormone which affects normal and abnormal functions of multiple organs and regulatory systems and is also involved in many aspects of cancer formation and progression. This book provides a much needed systematic account of dopamine as an endocrine and autocrine/paracrine hormone and fills a major gap in the overall understanding of the production, distribution and actions of this very important molecule. Key Features: Explores the many different faces of dopamine as autocrine, paracrine and endocrine molecule Documents the adverse effects of antipsychotics on dopamine functions Reviews the many ways dopamine affects the cardiovascular, renal and reproductive systems Provides updates on receptor oligomerization and signaling Examines the role of dopamine in tumorigenesis Related Titles Jones, S. ed. Dopamine - Glutamate Interactions in the Basal Ganglia (ISBN 978-0-3673-8197-4) Luo, L. Principles of Neurobiology (ISBN 978-0-8153-4494-0) Sidhu, A. et al., eds. Dopamine Receptors and Transporters (ISBN 978-0-8247-0854-2)
Ironically, many people who appear to be fit and healthy on the outside struggle with health and lifestyle issues like insomnia, gas, bloating, low libido, aging too fast, injuries, performance plateaus, brain fog, and a basic lack of time for career, family, and friends. So this book supplies a step-by-step, done-for-you guide to eliminating all these issues, helping you get the most out of life while still achieving amazing feats of physical performance.
This book is a fully revised and updated version of Hans van den Doel's Democracy and Welfare Economics. It presents the economic theory of political decision-making (otherwise known as new political economy, or public choice), providing students with an accessible and clear introduction to this important subject. The authors identify four different methods of decision-making by which the political process transforms the demands of individual citizens into government policy, and these are analyzed in turn with reference to economic theory.
In the thirty years following the end of the Second World War Leicester underwent some of the most dramatic changes in its history. Along with the rest of Britain it saw the austerity of the late 1940s and '50s, the shortages and rationing, followed by the boom period of the '60s, when full employment brought an interlude of prosperity. During these postwar decades sweeping changes were made to the physical structure of Leicester: areas of bomb damage and slum housing were cleared from the old city centre, and an intensive building programme in both the public and private sectors resulted in people moving out to new housing estates on the edges of the city. Ben Beazley vividly describes the story of everyday life in Leicester during this period. Illustrated with more than 120 photographs, maps and plans, Postwar Leicester will capture the imagination of anyone who knows the city today, and will rekindle memories for those who lived through the years of redevelopment and change.
This beautifully written book weaves reflections on anthropological fieldwork together with evocative meditations on a spectacular landscape as it takes us to the remote indigenous villages on the shore of Lake Titicaca, high in the Peruvian Andes. Ben Orlove brings alive the fishermen, reed cutters, boat builders, and families of this isolated region, and describes the role that Lake Titicaca has played in their culture. He describes the landscapes and rhythms of life in the Andean highlands as he considers the intrusions of modern technology and economic demands in the region. Lines in the Water tells a local version of events that are taking place around the world, but with an unusual outcome: people here have found ways to maintain their cultural autonomy and to protect their fragile mountain environment. The Peruvian highlanders have confronted the pressures of modern culture with remarkable vitality. They use improved boats and gear and sell fish to new markets but have fiercely opposed efforts to strip them of their indigenous traditions. They have retained their customary practice of limiting the amount of fishing and have continued to pass cultural knowledge from one generation to the next--practices that have prevented the ecological crises that have followed commercialization of small-scale fisheries around the world. This book--at once a memoir and an ethnography--is a personal and compelling account of a research experience as well as an elegantly written treatise on themes of global importance. Above all, Orlove reminds us that human relations with the environment, though constantly changing, can be sustainable.
By now you know the drill: Ben White draws his life everyday in 3 comic panels. This was his first book, collecting quite a few various zines. After describing dozens of various Snakepit titles I'm going to defer to the wisdom of Jimmi Payne's Punk Zine, "Taken individually, each strip resembles what a friend would say if you asked what they had done that day. Ben sifts through the minutiae of life as well as the full experience of time in a day. This is different than James Kochalka's work as there is no pretense at narrative or point. The narratives in Snakepit open up on the macro level. If Snakepit is to be read on the toilet, a mere bowel movement is enough time to live months through the protagonist's eyes. Patterns emerge and story arcs materialize and years of common actions load into a highly concentrated snapshot that wakes you up to the ongoing machinations of life beyond your present day. This has led many to label Snakepit an existential text." Introduction about doing cocaine by Aaron Cometbus.
An NYPD robbery detective uses his insider cop knowledge to rob rich criminals. The latest from Ben Sanders, following his novels American Blood and Marshall’s Law. Rip-offs are a dangerous game, but heist man Miles Keller thinks he’s found a good strategy: rob rich New York criminals and then retire early, before word’s out about his true identity. New town, new name, no worries. Retirement can’t come soon enough, though. The NYPD is investigating him for the shooting of a hitman named Jack Deen, who was targeting Lucy Gates—a former police informant and Miles’s ex-lover. Miles thinks shooting hitmen counts as altruism, but in any case a murder charge would make life difficult. He’s ready to go to ground, but then Nina Stone reappears in his life. Nina is a fellow heist professional and the estranged wife of LA crime boss Charles Stone. Miles last saw her five years ago, and since then her life has grown more complicated: her husband wants her back, and he’s dispatched his go-to gun thug to play repo man. Complicating matters is the fact that the gun thug in question is Bobby Deen, cousin of the dead Jack Deen—and Bobby wants vengeance. The stakes couldn’t be higher, but Nina has an offer that could be lucrative. Maybe Miles can stick around a while longer...
Ben Bova's The Silent War is the breakneck continuation to The Asteroid Wars series that can end only in earth's salvation--or the annihilation of all that humankind has ever accomplished in space. When corporations go to war, standard business practice goes out the window. Astro Corporation is led by indomitable Texan Pancho Lane, Humphries Space Systems by the rich and ruthless Martin Humphries, and their fight is over nothing less than resources of the Asteroid Belt itself. As fighting escalates, the lines between commerce and politics, boardroom and bedroom, blur--and the keys to victory will include physics, nanotechnology, and cold hard cash. As they fight it out, the lives of thousands of innocents hang in the balance, including the rock rats who make their living off the asteroids, and the inhabitants of Selene City on Earth's moon. As if matters weren't complicated enough, the shadowy Yamagata corporation sets its sights on taking advantage of other people's quarrels, and space pirate Lars Fuchs decides it's time to make good on his own personal vendetta. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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