Head Cases takes us into the dark side of the brain in an astonishing sequence of stories, at once true and strange, from the world of brain damage. Michael Paul Mason is one of an elite group of experts who coordinate care in the complicated aftermath of tragic injuries that can last a lifetime. On the road with Mason, we encounter survivors of brain injuries as they struggle to map and make sense of the new worlds they inhabit. Underlying each of these survivors' stories is an exploration of the brain and its mysteries. When injured, the brain must figure out how to heal itself, reorganizing its physiology in order to do the job. Mason gives us a series of vivid glimpses into brain science, the last frontier of medicine, and we come away in awe of the miracles of the brain's workings and astonished at the fragility of the brain and the sense of self, life, and order that resides there. Head Cases "[achieves] through sympathy and curiosity insight like that which pulses through genuine literature" (The New York Sun); it is at once illuminating and deeply affecting.
This is the first of three books on the Perfect Black Man. The series title is Escaping The Box. The material covers several important topics connected with the education and future of Perfect Black Men in African-American communities. This is a timely and relevant book, especially as we enter a new era of retrenchment in funding for social services, community development, education and charities. It is also a critical examination of a major and comparatively neglected topic in African-American life. Soul Rot represents a three dimensional space for looking into the future of America, specifically from inside-out and then outside-in. The reader will not find a much sought after "one answer solution fits all" problems, that meets perennial challenges in American society. Instead, the author takes a set of overlapping, socially embedded "soft and hard" community educational practices, and rips them apart. He also engages "attitudes, mores, and myths" within African-American communities, that have, in his opinion, helped perpetuate the development, stereotypes and current status of the Perfect Black Man in American media and society. In summary, he asks readers to look into his or her soul and search for why the Perfect Black Man is "needed" in our American society? The author places special emphasis in discerning what value the PBM brings to African-American communities? Why is he needed in Black America and what roles does he serve in his place?
The roots of the modern disease theory of addiction can be traced back to the archaic medical philosophies of the eighteenth century. This popular theory is based primarily on the assumption that so-called addicts are physically unable to resist the call of addictive chemicals. They are presumably stricken from birth with this unlucky condition and all but helpless in the fight against the unhealthy symptoms of the so-called disease. The problem is that contemporary addiction research shows that substance abusers are not genetically or biologically different from anyone else. In fact, a growing group of physicians and researchers contend that addicts are simply guilty of making self-destructive choices in response to the commonplace stresses of everyday life. When addicts begin to take responsibility for their calculated chemical choices, they ultimately come to view their abusive behaviors in terms of not sickness but sin. They can then learn how to achieve forgiveness of their sins and deliverance from their addictions by offering their hearts, minds, and bodies to Jesus Christ. This is a skillfully written and powerful book about addiction and recovery. Having seen the devastating effects of addiction first hand, Mr. Mason was able to use his own personal experiences to develop a one of a kind text that dispels the myths about addiction and beautifully outlines the connection between the Spirit and recovery. After 14 years of working in the field of chemical dependency, I have never found a more complete and insightful view of addiction, recovery, and spirituality. Cindy Tidwell, MS, LPC Professional Addiction Counselor
Miklos Friedman grows up learning to take risks and seize opportunities. In 1944, as Germany occupies Hungary, he must draw on his wits to survive. Torn from his family, forced first into labour, then into a ghetto, and ultimately sent to Auschwitz and Mühldorf, fifteen-year-old Miklos never stops fighting to change his fate. After the war, as he reclaims his dignity and tirelessly speaks out against antisemitism, a chance meeting in Toronto leads him to discover the power of his new name.
Through a wide range of case studies, Mason reveals just how sensitive we all must be to styles of power, vulnerability and resilience in any democratic transition to sustainability. This is a fine book.' Timothy O'Riordan, Professor of Environmental Science, University of East Anglia, and Associate Director, Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment. Civic self-determination and ecological sustainability are widely accepted as two of the most important public goals. This book explains how they can be combined. Using vivid and telling case studies from around the world, it shows how liberal rights can include both ecological and social conditions for collective decision-making - environmentalist goals and social justice can be achieved together. Integrating theory and original case studies, the book makes a very significant contribution to the fundamentals of how environmental democracy can be advanced at all levels. Cogently argued and engaged, Environmental Democracy provides a superb teaching text and a source of ideas and persuasive arguments for the politically and environmentally engaged. It will be essential reading for students, teachers and researchers in politics, policy studies, environmental studies, geography and social science.
Get into the College of Your Dreams An original and creative essay is one of the keys to getting into the college you've always dreamed of, as well as to getting the financial aid you deserve. This book gives you everything you need to make your own unique talents shine in your college application essay. Even if writing is not your strong point, author Michael James Mason shows you: ·Exactly what admissions officers look for ·What works—and what doesn't, using actual student essays ·Proven techniques for writing your best essay ·Special tips for SAT and scholarship essays ·A last-minute checklist before you submit your essay ·And much more! "Well written, very useful, and highly recommended." —Hunter's Guide to the College Guides "Demystifies one of the most important and challenging parts of the college application process—the personal essay. . . . An invaluable resource!" —Gail Devine, director of college counseling, Louisville High School, Woodland Hills, California "This book taught me what colleges look for in an essay and showed me how to effectively communicate my thoughts in writing." —Ryan Miller, University of Virginia graduate
The growth of pollution that crosses national borders represents a significant threat to human health and ecological sustainability. Various international agreements exist between countries to reduce risks to their populations, however there is often a mismatch between national territories of state responsibility and transboundary hazards. All too often, state priorities do not correspond to the priorities of the people affected by pollution, who often have little recourse against major polluters, particularly transnational corporations operating across national boundaries. Drawing on case studies, The New Accountability provides a fresh understanding of democratic accountability for transboundary and global harm and argues that environmental responsibility should be established in open public discussions about harm and risk. Most critically it makes the case that, regardless of nationality, affected parties should be able to demand that polluters and harm producers be held accountable for their actions and if necessary provide reparations.
High dimensional probability, in the sense that encompasses the topics rep resented in this volume, began about thirty years ago with research in two related areas: limit theorems for sums of independent Banach space valued random vectors and general Gaussian processes. An important feature in these past research studies has been the fact that they highlighted the es sential probabilistic nature of the problems considered. In part, this was because, by working on a general Banach space, one had to discard the extra, and often extraneous, structure imposed by random variables taking values in a Euclidean space, or by processes being indexed by sets in R or Rd. Doing this led to striking advances, particularly in Gaussian process theory. It also led to the creation or introduction of powerful new tools, such as randomization, decoupling, moment and exponential inequalities, chaining, isoperimetry and concentration of measure, which apply to areas well beyond those for which they were created. The general theory of em pirical processes, with its vast applications in statistics, the study of local times of Markov processes, certain problems in harmonic analysis, and the general theory of stochastic processes are just several of the broad areas in which Gaussian process techniques and techniques from probability in Banach spaces have made a substantial impact. Parallel to this work on probability in Banach spaces, classical proba bility and empirical process theory were enriched by the development of powerful results in strong approximations.
The Driving Equality project started off as just another big idea. A 107-day, 22,000-mile trek through most of the lower 48 states to meet, interview, and share the stories of LGBT Americans and their allies. It was a daunting plan, but Chris Mason was determined to make it happen. This book follows his journey across the country as he meets LGBT Americans where they live, in small towns and big cities. With little more than a camera, a computer, a sleeping bag, and a sense of adventure, all packed into one van, Chris and his friend Potter hit the road for nearly four months. Chris chronicled the trip with daily posts and photos from the road. Follow along as Chris travels into the heart of LGBT America.
A national map of legalized gambling from 1963 would show one state, Nevada, with casino gambling and no states with lotteries. Today's map shows eleven commercial casino states, most of them along the Mississippi River, forty-two states with state-owned lotteries, and racetrack betting, slot-machine parlors, charitable bingo, and Native American gambling halls flourishing throughout the nation. For the past twenty years, the South has wrestled with gambling issues. In How the South Joined the Gambling Nation, Michael Nelson and John Lyman Mason examine how modern southern state governments have decided whether to adopt or prohibit casinos and lotteries. Nelson and Mason point out that although the South participated fully in past gambling eras, it is the last region to join the modern movement embracing legalized gambling. Despite the prevalence of wistful, romantic images of gambling on southern riverboats, the politically and religiously conservative ideology of the modern South makes it difficult for states to toss their chips into the pot. The authors tell the story of the arrival or rejection of legalized gambling in seven southern states -- Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, and Alabama. The authors suggest that some states chose to legalize gambling based on the examples of other nearby states, as when Mississippi casinos spurred casino legalization in Louisiana and the Georgia lottery inspired lottery campaigns in neighboring South Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee. Also important was the influence of Democratic policy entrepreneurs, such as Zell Miller in Georgia, Don Siegelman in Alabama, and Edwin Edwards in Louisiana, who wanted to sell the idea of gambling in order to sell themselves to voters. At the same time, each state had its own idiosyncrasies, such as certain provisions of their state constitutions weighing heavily as a factor. Nelson and Mason show that the story of gambling's spread in the South exemplifies the process of state policy innovation. In exploring how southern states have weighed the moral and economic risk of legalizing gambling, especially the political controversies that surround these discussions, Nelson and Mason employ a suspenseful, fast-paced narrative that echoes the oftentimes hurried decisions made by state legislators. Although each of these seven states fought a unique battle over gambling, taken together, these case studies help tell the larger story of how the South -- sometimes reluctantly, sometimes enthusiastically -- decided to join the gambling nation.
From drinking sweet tea on a beloved grandmother's porch to playing army to witnessing prejudice and violence or receiving the lash, these stories illustrate growing up in the South during the 1950s and 1960s, what it felt, tasted, and looked like through the eyes of the boys who lived it.
Brings the paranormal beings and places of the Iroquois folklore tradition to life through historic and contemporary accounts of otherworldly encounters • Recounts stories of shapeshifting witches, giant flying heads, enchanted masks, ethereal lights, talking animals, Little People, spirit-choirs, potent curses, and haunted hills, roads, and battlefields • Includes accounts of miraculous healings by shamans and medicine people such as Mad Bear and Ted Williams • Shows how these traditions can help one see the richness of the world and help those who have lost the chants of their own ancestors With a rich history reaching back more than one thousand years, the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy--the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Seneca, and the Tuscarora--are considered to be the most avid storytellers on earth with a collection of tales so vast it would dwarf those of any other society. Covering nearly the whole of New York State from the Hudson and Mohawk River Valleys westward across the Finger Lakes region to Niagara Falls and Salamanca, this mystical culture’s supernatural tradition is the psychic bedrock of the Northeast, yet their treasury of tales and beliefs is largely unknown and their most powerful sacred sites unrecognized. Assembling the lore and beliefs of this guarded spiritual legacy, Michael Bastine and Mason Winfield share the stories they have collected of both historic and contemporary encounters with beings and places of Iroquois legend: shapeshifting witches, strange forest creatures, ethereal lights, vampire zombies, cursed areas, dark magicians, talking animals, enchanted masks, and haunted hills, roads, and battlefields as well as accounts of miraculous healings by medicine people such as Mad Bear and Ted Williams. Grounding their tales with a history of the Haundenosaunee, the People of the Long House, the authors show how the supernatural beings, places, and customs of the Iroquois live on in contemporary paranormal experience, still surfacing as startling and sometimes inspiring reports of otherworldly creatures, haunted sites, after-death messages, and mystical visions. Providing a link with America’s oldest spiritual roots, these stories help us more deeply know the nature and super-nature around us as well as offer spiritual insights for those who can no longer hear the chants of their own ancestors.
Aaron drove to Los Angeles International Airport to pick up his wife and two boys, who were returning from a two-month summer trip to Israel. In contrast to the balmy evening, his thoughts were a hurricane of turmoil. He felt guilty that he hadn't missed his sons as much as a father should. He wasn't looking forward to seeing his wife. He felt she was just a thorn in his life... Especially when he compared her with the woman he thought might be his soul mate—the woman he'd been having an affair with and with whom he was blindly in love. Katherine Mauer.Like many people in today's society, Aaron Moussaieff has 'the dream' of finding his ideal mate—some call it a soul mate. Aaron thinks he's found her in Katherine. But he's been married to Dorit for fourteen years and has two sons he loves dearly. Aaron desperately wants to do the right thing. Being 'crazy in love' causes Aaron to enter a nightmarish dilemma of indecision. He tries not to hurt anyone and, in the process, hurts everyone. Should he follow his narcissistic tendencies and sacrifice his family unit for his need to be with a more compatible woman? Or should he follow the altruistic path: sacrifice his personal needs for the sake of the family? Michael A. Mason'sThe Dream and the Awakeningis a story about relationships that you won't want to miss out on.
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