The story of a neural impulse and what it reveals about how our brains work We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips “spikes.” Spikes enable us to do everything: talk, eat, run, see, plan, and decide. In The Spike, Mark Humphries takes readers on the epic journey of a spike through a single, brief reaction. In vivid language, Humphries tells the story of what happens in our brain, what we know about spikes, and what we still have left to understand about them. Drawing on decades of research in neuroscience, Humphries explores how spikes are born, how they are transmitted, and how they lead us to action. He dives into previously unanswered mysteries: Why are most neurons silent? What causes neurons to fire spikes spontaneously, without input from other neurons or the outside world? Why do most spikes fail to reach any destination? Humphries presents a new vision of the brain, one where fundamental computations are carried out by spontaneous spikes that predict what will happen in the world, helping us to perceive, decide, and react quickly enough for our survival. Traversing neuroscience’s expansive terrain, The Spike follows a single electrical response to illuminate how our extraordinary brains work.
This study examines how cities have become an area of significant historical debate about late antiquity, challenging accepted notions that it is a period of dynamic change and reasserting views of the era as one of decline and fall.
Examining sources and case studies, this book explores early Christianity, how it was studied, how it is studied now, and how Judaeo-Christian values came to form the ideological bedrock of modern western culture. Looking at the diverse source materials available, from the earliest New Testament texts and the complex treaties of third century authors such as Lactantius, to archaeology, epigraphy and papyrology, the book examines what is needed to study the subject, what materials are available, how useful they are, and how the study of the subject may be approached. Case study chapters focus on important problems in the study of early Christianity including: the book of Acts as a text revelatory of the social dynamics of cities and as a text about the inherent tensions in Hellenistic Judaism orthodoxy and organization in early Christianity early Christianity and the Roman empire. Also including a comprehensive guide for students that lists major collections of literary and non-literary sources, major journals and series, and major text books, it is an excellent aid to the study of Christianity in history.
Emperors and Usurpers' is a history of the Roman period from the accession of Valentinian in 364 to the death of Marcian in 457, a period of turbulence and radical change, by the end of which the empire had fragmented.
More than 16,000 Canadian soldiers suffered from shell shock during the Great War of 1914 to 1918. Despite significant interest from historians, we still know relatively little about how it was experienced, diagnosed, treated, and managed in the frontline trenches in the Canadian and British forces. How did soldiers relate to suffering comrades? Did large numbers of shell shock cases affect the outcome of important battles? Was frontline psychiatric treatment as effective as many experts claimed after the war? Were Canadians treated any differently than other Commonwealth soldiers? A Weary Road is the first comprehensive study to address these important questions. Author Mark Osborne Humphries uses research from Canadian, British, and Australian archives, including hundreds of newly available hospital records and patient medical files, to provide a history of war trauma as it was experienced, treated, and managed by ordinary soldiers.
The 'Spanish' influenza of 1918 was the deadliest pandemic in history, killing as many as 50 million people worldwide. Canadian federal public health officials tried to prevent the disease from entering the country by implementing a maritime quarantine, as had been their standard practice since the cholera epidemics of 1832. But the 1918 flu was a different type of disease. In spite of the best efforts of both federal and local officials, up to fifty thousand Canadians died. In The Last Plague, Mark Osborne Humphries examines how federal epidemic disease management strategies developed before the First World War, arguing that the deadliest epidemic in Canadian history ultimately challenged traditional ideas about disease and public health governance. Using federal, provincial, and municipal archival sources, newspapers, and newly discovered military records as well as original epidemiological studies Humphries' sweeping national study situates the flu within a larger social, political, and military context for the first time. His provocative conclusion is that the 1918 flu crisis had important long-term consequences at the national level, ushering in the 'modern' era of public health in Canada.
Emperors and Usurpers' is a history of the Roman period from the accession of Valentinian in 364 to the death of Marcian in 457, a period of turbulence and radical change, by the end of which the empire had fragmented.
The Trans-Cedar lynching is an infamous tale buried deep in the subconscious of rural Texas history—although it made front-page headlines in the Dallas Morning News and even in national newspapers from May through November of 1899. This horrifying event is at the center of a compelling novel by author Mark Busby. He has not only researched original documents but has used family oral histories to probe the mysteries that still shroud a lynching that is as horrifying and baffling now as it must have been over a hundred years ago. The "War of Northern Aggression" was still fresh in the memory of those who lived through it; hog-stealing, moonshine, secret meetings, and the lore of the Texas Rangers were part of the fabric of country life, and there were many who refused to believe the war was really over. Against this backdrop, a running feud between the Humphries and the Wilkinsons exploded into a triple murder. When young Jefferson Bowie Adams II is given an assignment for a college course in 1964, President Kennedy has just been assassinated, the movement for civil rights is beginning to stir, and developments in Vietnam barely make the back pages of the newspaper. Setting out to record a story from his family's history, Jeff discovers—sitting in his grandfather's hideout while Pampaw smokes a forbidden cigar--a story that is as mesmerizing as it is shocking: the tale of a triple lynching in Henderson County in the late spring of 1899, an event Pampaw himself witnessed. Even as the scene of the crime is slowly being submerged by the filling of the Cedar Creek Reservoir, Jeff struggles to uncover the truths of what really happened that fateful night in 1899. Through the various recollections of his aging kin, Adams begins to uncover a web of relationships and a love story that ultimately leads him to a missing girl, a country graveyard, and a realization that he and his family are part and parcel of the stained history of the South.
If you love iambic pentameter, then look away because this book about Australian politics is pure prose, baby! This book is quite possibly the most comprehensive book on Australian politics ever written. That's right, it covers BOTH houses of parliament. We'll take you inside the halls of power. And if we can't actually get inside because of security, we'll do some very fun speculating on what might be in there. One thing we know for sure is that this book is unputdownable. Something went wrong with the printing and it's all sticky.
Fields in Motion: Ethnography in the Worlds of Dance examines the deeper meanings and resonances of artistic dance in contemporary culture. The book comprises four sections: methods and methodologies, autoethnography, pedagogies and creative processes, and choreographies as cultural and spiritual representations. The contributors bring an insiders insight to their accounts of the nature and function of these artistic practices, giving voice to dancers, dance teachers, creators, programmers, spectators, students, and scholars. International and intergenerational, this collection of groundbreaking scholarly research points to a new direction for both dance studies and dance anthropology. Traditionally the exclusive domain of aesthetic philosophers, the art of dance is here reframed as cultural practice, and its significance is revealed through a chorus of voices from practitioners and insider ethnographers.
The holidays are just around the corner-and what better way to celebrate than with the heroes (and villains!) of the DC Universe! This new stocking stuffer collects DC’S NUCLEAR WINTER SPECIAL #1, HARLEY QUINN #55 and a story from SWAMP THING WINTER SPECIAL #1.
He was one of the most gifted artists and most influential storytellers of the 20th century. He pioneered entire genres and co-created whole universes with the stroke of a pencil. He is Jack Kirby, the King of Comics! Now DC celebrates his 100th birthday with this all-star collection of all-new stories from a cast of some of today’s greatest creators giving their takes on Jack Kirby’s most famous characters! ENTER the dangerous dreamworld of the Sandman, the Master of Nightmares! BATTLE for control of the mean streets of World War II–era New York City with the Newsboy Legion and the Boy Commandos! ESCAPE certain death with Shilo “Mister Miracle” Norman as he runs from the clutches of the Black Racer! FIGHT the crime wave of the century with the masked vigilante called Manhunter! BURN in the fiery netherworld of Etrigan the Demon! OVERTHROW cosmic tyranny with Orion and the New Gods! and TREMBLE before the awesome evil of the Lord of Apokolips himself…Darkseid! It’s all here in the Jack Kirby 100th Celebration Collection, an action-packed tribute to a titan of the field from an army of comics superstars—including Walt Simonson, Keith Giffen, Howard Chaykin, Paul Levitz, Reginald Hudlin, Bill Sienkiewicz, Denys Cowan, Scott Kolins, Shane Davis, Steve Rude, Mark Buckingham, Jon Bogdanove, Sam Humphries, Steve Orlando, Rick Leonardi, Dan Jurgens and Jack “King” Kirby himself! Collects DARKSEID SPECIAL #1, THE BLACK RACER AND SHILO NORMAN #1, THE NEW GODS #1, THE NEWSBOY LEGION AND THE BOY COMMANDOS SPECIAL #1, THE SANDMAN SPECIAL #1 and MANHUNTER SPECIAL #1
Year of the Villain" arrives in Harley Quinn, even if Harley is doing her best to avoid it! Lex Luthor has an "offer" for Harley, and he won't take no for an answer-so get ready for Harley-er Quinn! And Harley asks the inevitable question-who is DC's "Villain of the Year"? It's an award-show like no other, as DC's best of the worst celebrate themselves in the Hall of Doom, with the winners picked by the fans! Collects Harley Quinn #64-69 and Harley Quinn: Villain of the Year #1, including alternate pages.
This multi-volume series in six parts is the first English-language translation of Der Weltkrieg, the German official history of the First World War. Originally produced between 1925 and 1944 using classified archival records that were destroyed in the aftermath of the Second World War, Der Weltkrieg is the inside story of Germany’s experience on the Western front. Recorded in the words of its official historians, this account is vital to the study of the war and official memory in Weimar and Nazi Germany. Although exciting new sources have been uncovered in former Soviet archives, this work remains the basis of future scholarship. It is essential reading for any scholar, graduate student, or enthusiast of the Great War. This volume, the second to be published, covers the outbreak of war in July–August 1914, the German invasion of Belgium, the Battles of the Frontiers, and the pursuit to the Marne in early September 1914. The first month of war was a critical period for the German army and, as the official history makes clear, the German war plan was a gamble that seemed to present the only solution to the riddle of the two-front war. But as the Moltke-Schlieffen Plan was gradually jettisoned through a combination of intentional command decisions and confused communications, Germany’s hopes for a quick and victorious campaign evaporated.
This book provides a new appraisal of religious change in the Roman Empire, focusing on the rise of Christianity in Northern Italy. It challenges the conventional view that the church expanded by means of co-ordinated apostolic missions (a view which has its origins in medieval legends). By careful consideration of archaeological evidence, as well as traditional literary sources, Dr Humphries builds up a picture of Christian origins that is sensitive to the patchy and uneven nature of thephenomenon. In particular, he emphasizes how the competing interests of bishops, emperors, and laity were to have far-reaching implications for the political, institutional, cultural, and theological development of the church.
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