Benjamin Kunkel’s brilliantly comic debut novel concerns one of the central maladies of our time–a pathological indecision that turns abundance into an affliction and opportunity into a curse.Dwight B. Wilmerding is only twenty-eight, but he’s having a midlife crisis. Of course, living a dissolute, dorm like existence in a tiny apartment and working in tech support at the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer are not especially conducive to wisdom. And a few sessions of psychoanalysis conducted by his sister have distinctly failed to help with his biggest problem: a chronic inability to make up his mind. Encouraged by one of his roommates to try an experimental pharmaceutical meant to banish indecision, Dwight jumps at the chance (not without some meditation on the hazards of jumping) and swallows the first fateful pill. And when all at once he is “pfired” from Pfizer and invited to a rendezvous in exotic Ecuador with the girl of his long-ago prep-school dreams, he finds himself on the brink of a new life. The trouble–well, one of the troubles–is that Dwight can’t decide if the pills are working. Deep in the jungles of the Amazon, in the foreign country of a changed outlook, his would-be romantic escape becomes a hilarious journey into unbidden responsibility and unwelcome knowledge.How to affirm happiness without living in constant denial of the ways of the world? How to commit, and to what? At once funny and poignant, gentle and outrageous, finely intelligent and proudly silly, Indecision rings with a voice of great energy and originality, while its deeper inquiries reflect the concerns and style of a generation."Here’s what Indecision gives you: sustained social and intellectual comedy, possibly the last but certainly the funniest Superfluous Man in modern literature, drive-by satire, plus detailed set-piece send-ups of Young Adult colgrads at work and play. The mockery ishumane. The tale of Dwight Wilmerding is told with style and care. And there’s a surprising ending. Benjamin Kunkel, welcome!"–Norman Rush, author of Mating
After the financial crash and the great recession, the media rediscovered Karl Marx, socialist theory, and the very idea that capitalism can be questioned. But in spite of the publicity, the main paths of contemporary critical thought have gone unexplored outside of the academy. Benjamin Kunkel’s Utopia or Bust leads readers – whether politically committed or simply curious – through the most important critical theory today. Written with the wit and verve of Kunkel’s best-selling novel, Indecision, this introduction to contemporary Leftist thinkers engages with the revolutionary philosophy of Slavoj Žižek, the economic analyses of David Graeber and David Harvey, and the cultural diagnoses of Fredric Jameson. Discussing the ongoing crisis of capitalism in light of ideas of full employment, debt forgiveness, and “fictitious capital,” Utopia or Bust is a tour through the world of Marxist thought and an examination of the basis of Western society today.
Dwight B. Wilmerding is only twenty-eight, but he’s having a midlife crisis. He lives a dissolute existence in a tiny apartment with three (sometimes four) slacker roommates, holds a mind-numbing job at the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and has a chronic inability to make up his mind. Encouraged by one of his roommates to try an experimental drug meant to banish indecision, Dwight jumps at the chance (not without some vacillation about the hazards of jumping) and swallows the first fateful pill. And when all at once he is “pfired” by Pfizer and invited to a rendezvous in exotic Ecuador with the girl of his long-ago prep-school dreams, he finds himself on the brink of a new life. The trouble–well, one of the troubles–is that Dwight can’t decide if the pills are working. Deep in the jungles of the Amazon, in the foreign country of a changed outlook, his would-be romantic escape becomes a hilarious journey into unbidden responsibility and unwelcome knowledge–and an unexpected raison d’être.
The crisis and fall of the Roman Republic spawned a tradition of political thought that sought to evade the Republic's fate--despotism. Thinkers from Cicero to Bodin, Montesquieu, and the American Founders saw constitutionalism, not virtue, as the remedy. This study traces Roman constitutional thought from antiquity to the Revolutionary Era.
Walter Benjamin was fascinated by the impact of new technology on culture, an interest that extended beyond his renowned critical essays. From 1927 to ’33, he wrote and presented something in the region of eighty broadcasts using the new medium of radio. Radio Benjamin gathers the surviving transcripts, which appear here for the first time in English. This eclectic collection demonstrates the range of Benjamin’s thinking and his enthusiasm for popular sensibilities. His celebrated “Enlightenment for Children” youth programs, his plays, readings, book reviews, and fiction reveal Benjamin in a creative, rather than critical, mode. They flesh out ideas elucidated in his essays, some of which are also represented here, where they cover topics as varied as getting a raise and the history of natural disasters, subjects chosen for broad appeal and examined with passion and acuity. Delightful and incisive, this is Walter Benjamin channeling his sophisticated thinking to a wide audience, allowing us to benefit from a new voice for one of the twentieth century’s most respected thinkers.
This book examines the contribution that petitioning and litigation made to the maintenance of the social order in Roman Egypt between 30 BC and AD 284. Through the analysis of the many hundreds of documents surviving on papyrus, especially petitions, reports of court proceedings, and letters, Kelly focuses on how the legal system achieved its formal goals (that is, the resolution of disputes through judgments), and discusses in detail the contribution made by the litigation process to informal methods of social control. With particular emphasis on the roles that this process played in the transmission of political ideologies, in the maintenance of family solidarity, and in the fostering of 'private' mechanisms of dispute resolution, the book argues that although the legal system was less than successful when judged by its formal aims, it did have a real social impact by contributing indirectly to some of the informal mechanisms that ensured order in this province of the Roman Empire. However, arguing that, on occasion, one can also see petitioning and litigation being abused for the pursuit of feud and vengeance, Kelly also recognizes that the social impacts of petitioning and litigation were multifaceted, and in some senses even contradictory.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A sharp, funny grammar guide they’ll actually want to read, from Random House’s longtime copy chief and one of Twitter’s leading language gurus NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • Paste • Shelf Awareness “Essential (and delightful!)”—People We all write, all the time: books, blogs, emails. Lots and lots of emails. And we all want to write better. Benjamin Dreyer is here to help. As Random House’s copy chief, Dreyer has upheld the standards of the legendary publisher for more than two decades. He is beloved by authors and editors alike—not to mention his followers on social media—for deconstructing the English language with playful erudition. Now he distills everything he has learned from the myriad books he has copyedited and overseen into a useful guide not just for writers but for everyone who wants to put their best prose foot forward. As authoritative as it is amusing, Dreyer’s English offers lessons on punctuation, from the underloved semicolon to the enigmatic en dash; the rules and nonrules of grammar, including why it’s OK to begin a sentence with “And” or “But” and to confidently split an infinitive; and why it’s best to avoid the doldrums of the Wan Intensifiers and Throat Clearers, including “very,” “rather,” “of course,” and the dreaded “actually.” Dreyer will let you know whether “alright” is all right (sometimes) and even help you brush up on your spelling—though, as he notes, “The problem with mnemonic devices is that I can never remember them.” And yes: “Only godless savages eschew the series comma.” Chockful of advice, insider wisdom, and fun facts, this book will prove to be invaluable to everyone who wants to shore up their writing skills, mandatory for people who spend their time editing and shaping other people’s prose, and—perhaps best of all—an utter treat for anyone who simply revels in language. Praise for Dreyer’s English “Playful, smart, self-conscious, and personal . . . One encounters wisdom and good sense on nearly every page of Dreyer’s English.”—The Wall Street Journal “Destined to become a classic.”—The Millions “Dreyer can help you . . . with tips on punctuation and spelling. . . . Even better: He’ll entertain you while he’s at it.”—Newsday
Ben Pierce is recognized for his ability to make the complex subject of genetics as accessible as possible, giving students the big picture. By helping students easily identify the key concepts in genetics and by helping them make connections among concepts, Pierce allows students to learn the material with greater ease. W.H. Freeman is proud to introduce the Fourth Edition of Pierce’s Genetics: A Conceptual Approach. Visit the preview site at www.whfreeman.com/pierce4epreview
When published in 1980, Benjamin B. Beck’s Animal Tool Behavior was the first volume to catalog and analyze the complete literature on tool use and manufacture in non-human animals. Beck showed that animals—from insects to primates—employed different types of tools to solve numerous problems. His work inspired and energized legions of researchers to study the use of tools by a wide variety of species. In this revised and updated edition of the landmark publication, Robert W. Shumaker and Kristina R. Walkup join Beck to reveal the current state of knowledge regarding animal tool behavior. Through a comprehensive synthesis of the studies produced through 2010, the authors provide an updated and exact definition of tool use, identify new modes of use that have emerged in the literature, examine all forms of tool manufacture, and address common myths about non-human tool use. Specific examples involving invertebrates, birds, fish, and mammals describe the differing levels of sophistication of tool use exhibited by animals.
The Fifth Ir Gene Workshop was held at the Chase-Park Plaza Hotel, St. Louis, MO, August 28-31, 1982; 240 scientists participated in the Workshop. The man uscripts compiled in this book describe the state of the art concerning Ir genes. Although the notion of Ir Genes: Past, Present, and Future has not been ad dressed specifically by each author, the reader is certain to get this flavor from the contributions. In this Preface, we have tried to summarize some of the salient ob servations and discussions from the Workshop. The mUltiple genes of the I region have been defined traditionally by serolog ical analysis of intra-H-2 recombinant mice and the pattern of immune responses to certain antigens developed by these recombinant mice. The application of sev eral new techniques, such as gene cloning and DNA sequencing, production of T and B cell hybridomas, and development of cloned T cell lines has changed this tradition and introduced a new phase into the analysis of the I region, Ia antigens, and Ir genes.
In a society in which only a fraction of the population was literate and numerate, being one of the few specialists in reading, writing and reckoning meant the possession of an invaluable asset. The fact that the Roman state heavily relied on these professional scribes in financial and legal administration led to their holding a unique position and status. By gathering and analysing the available source material on the Roman scribae, Benjamin Hartmann traces the history of Rome's public scribes from the early Republic to the Later Roman Empire. He tells the story of men of low social origin, who, by means of their specialised knowledge, found themselves at the heart of the Roman polity, in close proximity to the powerful and responsible for the written arcana of the state – a story of knowledge and power, corruption and contested social mobility.
This is a textbook for medical students covering orthopaedics, trauma and rheumatology, offering both core information regarding what the student needs to know about these subject areas and an extensive series of cases with questions and answers that illustrate the thinking behind common everyday practice. The package also offers online access to the text and images, plus an additional 80 interactive MCQs and answers (on www.studentconsult.com). Provides a comprehensive overview of musculoskeletal medicine and surgery perfectly tailored for the busy medical student Illustrated in full colour throughout Succinct coverage of essential topics helps aid understanding whilst avoid unnecessary detail thus saving time Uniform style of chapters throughout allows readers to easily scan through for the information required Useful summary boxes outline the main points of each condition including aetiology, pathology, epidemiology, clinical features, investigations, management and prognosis 100 case histories with questions illustrate the range of clinical problems that students will encounter during their clinical placements Direct linking of cases to chapters so that readers can refer back to sections of core text whenever required, or look up cases relevant to a particular chapter Online access to the text and images, plus 80 interactive MCQs and answers, on www.studentconsult.com
Examining the legal history of the order to pay money initiating a funds transfer, the author tracks basic principles of modern law to those that governed the payment order of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Exploring the legal nature of the payment order and its underpinning in light of contemporary institutions and payment mechanisms, the book traces the evolution of money, payment mechanisms and the law that governs them, from developments in Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, Rome, and Greco-Roman Egypt, through medieval Europe and post-medieval England. Doctrine is examined in Jewish, Islamic, Roman, common and civil laws. Investigating such diverse legal systems and doctrines at the intersection of laws governing bank deposits, obligations, the assignment of debts, and negotiable instruments, the author identifies the common denominator for the evolving legal principles and speculates on possible reciprocity. At the same time he challenges the idea of 'law merchant' as a mercantile creation. The book provides an account of the evolution of payment law as a distinct cohesive body of legal doctrine applicable to funds transfers. It shows how principles of law developed in tandem with the evolution of banking and in response to changing circumstances and proposes a redefinition of 'law merchant'. The author points to deposit banking and emerging technologies as embodying a great potential for future non-cash payment system growth. However, he recommends caution in predicting both the future of deposit banking and the overall impact of technology. At the same time he expresses confidence in the durability of legal doctrine to continue to evolve and accommodate future payment system developments.
Mucosal Health in Aquaculture is an essential reference on mucosal health for the diverse aquaculture community. Rich in explanatory figures and schematics, the book includes important concepts such as structural and cellular composition of mucosal surfaces in fish and shellfish, known functional roles of molecular and cellular actors during pathogen invasion, impacts of nutrition on the mucosal barriers, impacts of chemical treatments on mucosal surfaces, mucosal vaccines and vaccination strategies, and more. The health of cultured aquaculture species is critical in establishing the sustainable growth of the aquaculture industry worldwide, and mucosal health is of particular interest to those working in aquaculture because mucosal surfaces (skin, gill, intestine, reproductive tissues) constitute the first line of defense against pathogen invasion. Mucosal Health in Aquaculture captures the latest research on mucosal barriers in aquaculture species and their impacts on nutrition and immunity to ensure sustainable aquaculture development. - Includes research case studies to exhibit the importance of various integrated approaches to mucosal health - Examines the latest scientific methods and technologies to maximize efficiencies for healthy fish production for farming - Brings together the latest knowledge and research on mucosal barriers and mechanisms from world-wide experts in mucosal health - Utilizes detailed diagrams and figures to enhance comprehension
The immune system can deal effectively with the majority of viruses and bacteria, less effectively with parasites, and very poorly with cancer. Why is this so? Why are McFarlane Burnet's and Lewis Thomas' predictions that the immune system is in volved in ridding the body of cancer cells, encapsulated in the catchy phrase "immunologic surveillance," so difficult to experi mentally establish? Cancer differs from infectious agents in being derived from the host. Hence, it has been postulated that cancer cells lack anti gens that the immune system can recognize. They are not "im munogenic. " However, this argument is seriously weakened by the existence of numerous human autoimmune diseases, in which the immune system effectively recognizes and attacks a va riety of self tissues. Thus, the potential clearly exists for recogni tion of the surfaces of tumor cells. Professor Naor and his colleagues have written a book that explores another possible reason: cancer cells are recognized by the immune system-but is it possible that the consequence of recognition is inhibition of the immune system-by suppressor T cells or macrophages? The evolution of the malignant state may only occur in individuals who develop this suppression. This book reviews the evidence that suppressor cells, poorly characterized and difficult to study, may be of fundamental im portance in cancer. In fact, our incapacity to understand the na ture of suppressor cells and their mode of action is one of the ma jor problems in immunology research today.
The chemical pollution that irrevocably damages today's environment is, although many would like us to believe otherwise, the legacy of conscious choices made long ago. During the years before and just after World War II, discoveries like leaded gasoline and DDT came to market, creating new hazards even as the expansion and mechanization of industry exacerbated old ones. Dangers still felt today--smog, pesticides, lead, chromium, chlorinated solvents, asbestos, even global warming--were already recognized by chemists, engineers, doctors, and business managers of that era. A few courageous individuals spoke out without compromise, but still more ignored scientific truth in pursuit of money and prestige. The Polluters reveals at last the crucial decisions that allowed environmental issues to be trumped by political agendas. It spotlights the leaders of the chemical industry and describes how they applied their economic and political power to prevent the creation of an effective system of environmental regulation. Research was slanted, unwelcome discoveries were suppressed, and friendly experts were placed in positions of influence, as science was subverted to serve the interests of business. The story of The Polluters is one that needs to be told, an unflinching depiction of the onslaught of chemical pollution and the chemical industry's unwillingness to face up to its devastating effects.
Built upon the foundation of Professor Alcamo's work, AIDS: The Biological Basis, Fourth Edition, continues to educate professors and students alike about the biology of HIV and AIDS. With completely updated content and extended commentary and discussion topics, this text continues to evolve to keep abreast of epidemiological patterns and research developments and sets the mark for compiling an extensive breadth of information with sufficient detail that permits the reader to learn the basics of AIDS immunopathology and epidemiology and how AIDS drugs and vaccines may and can work.
Die bisherige Forschung geht davon aus, dass das islamische Recht von unabhängigen Juristen entwickelt wurde. Dabei sind mitunter Einflüsse aus fremden Rechtssystemen eingeräumt worden, doch eine gezielte Rezeption galt stets als ausgeschlossen. In einer Vergleichsanalyse, die auf der Prämisse einer massiven Interaktion der Kulturen in jener Zeit basiert, lässt sich nun nachweisen, dass das erste monumentale Rechtswerk im Islam, die Zāhir ar-riwāya des Šaybānī, strukturell und inhaltlich auf dem Rhēton beruht – einer griechischen Version jenes Regelwerkes, das später in Europa als Corpus Iuris Civilis Verbreitung fand. Inspiriert durch die byzantinische Reichsrechtsidee kodifizierten muslimische Staatsjuristen in Bagdad das islamische „Reichsrecht“, das aber angesichts der Opposition frommer Überlieferer durch Traditionen legitimiert werden musste. Nachdem sich das Reichsrecht in weiten Teilen des Kalifats etabliert hatte, bewirkte der revolutionäre Triumph der Orthodoxie Mitte des 9. Jahrhunderts dessen Übergang in ein Juristenrecht, das nun in den Händen unabhängiger Gelehrter lag.
‘We must see to it that we put the best of ourselves in our letters; for there is nothing to suggest that we shall see each other again soon.’ So wrote Walter Benjamin to Gretel Adorno in spring 1940 from the south of France, shortly before he took his own life. The correspondence between Gretel Adorno and Walter Benjamin, published here in its complete form for the first time, is the document of a great friendship that existed independently of Benjamin’s relationship with Theodor W. Adorno. While Benjamin, alongside his everyday worries, writes especially about those projects on which he worked so intensively in the last years of his life, it was Gretel Karplus-Adorno who did everything in her power to keep Benjamin in the world. She urged him to emigrate to the USA and told him about Adorno’s plans and Bloch’s movements, thus maintaining the connection between the old Berlin friends and acquaintances. She helped him through the most difficult times with regular money transfers, and organized financial support from the Saar region, which was initially still independent from the Third Reich. Once in New York, she attempted to entice Benjamin to America with her descriptions of the city and the new arrivals from Europe – though ultimately to no avail.
More than we ever anticipated, alliances among firms are changing the way business is conducted, particularly in the global, high-technology sector. The reasons are clear: companies must increasingly pool their capabilities to succeed in ever more complex and rapidly changing businesses. But the consequences for managers and for the economy have so far been underestimated. In this new book, Benjamin Gomes-Casseres presents the first in-depth account of the new world of business alliances and shows how collaboration has become part of the very fabric of modern competition. Alliances, he argues, create new units of competition that do battle with one another and with traditional single firms. The flexible capabilities of these multi-firm constellations give them advantages over single firms in certain contexts, offsetting the advantage of a single firm's unified control. When managed effectively, alliances can strengthen a firm's competitive advantage and narrow the gap between leading firms and second-tier players. This often results in intensified rivalry, and the competition within an industry is transformed. Alliances often spread swiftly through an industry as firms jockey for advantage. Yet the very spread of alliances increases their costs and poses new limits on their use. Gomes-Casseres concludes that firms need to manage their constellations to enhance collaboration within their groups, while raising what he calls "barriers to collaboration" for rivals. These ideas are developed and illustrated through original case studies of alliances among U.S., Japanese, and European firms in electronics and computers, including Xerox, IBM, and Fujitsu as well as other small and large companies. The book should be of interest to business academics, managers, and general readers concerned with contemporary capitalism.
Molecular Biology is a rapidly advancing field with a constant flow of new information and cutting-edge developements that impact our lives. Lewin's GENES has long been the essential resource for providing the teaching community with the most modern presentation to this dynamic area of study. GENES XI continues this tradition by introducing the most current data from the field, covering gene structure, sequencing, organization, and expression. It has enlisted a wealth of subject-matter experts, from top institutions, to provide content updates and revisions in their individual areas of study. A reorganized chapter presentation provides a clear, more student-friendly introduction to course material than ever before. - Updated content throughout to keep pace with this fast-paced field.- Reorganized chapter presentation provides a clear, student-friendly introduction to course material.- Expanded coverage describing the connection between replication and the cell cycle is included, and presents eukaryotes as well as prokaryotes.- Available with new online Molecular Biology Animations.- Online access code for the companion website is included with every new book. The companion website offers numerous study aids and learning tools to help students get the most out of their course.- Instructor's supplements include: PowerPoint Image Bank, PowerPoint Lecture Slides, and Test Bank.
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