Human Violence

Several years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment.

What Burns Hotter, Love or Hate? Cole Sage is caught in a firestorm of chaos when two deadly threats erupt in San Francisco. On one side, a mentally unstable, PTSD-stricken Vietnam veteran launches a series of violent arson attacks targeting the city’s Asian community, leaving destruction and terror in his wake. On the other side, Jesse Monday, a self-proclaimed messiah, amasses a dangerous cult following after his sudden death—as rumors swirl of his miraculous resurrection. As Cole once again works alongside FBI agent Carter Washington to uncover the arsonist’s motives and stop the ...

Would you kill someone to be with your family? When the unexpected deaths of a local minister and his wife send shockwaves through Orvin, Kelly Sage finds herself entangled in the middle of a troubled family's secrets. Meanwhile, Cole Sage is kept on the sidelines, unaware that an even darker web is being spun around him. Where is his traditional role as the crime solver? Meanwhile, government regulations and prejudice have left Native American veteran Michael Blackbear alone and desperate. His Iraqi wife and son have been torn from him by distance, bureaucracy, and the war he fought to win...

Police who engage in torture are condemned by human rights activists, the media, and people across the world who shudder at their brutality. Stark revelations about torture by American forces at places like Guantanamo Bay have stoked a fascination with torture and debates about human rights. Yet despite this interest, the public knows little about the officers who actually commit such violence. Just Violence reveals the moral perspective of perpetrators and how they respond to human rights efforts.

Five Bodies, Five Suspects, One Chance to get it Right! When a series of brutal hate crimes grip the small town of Orvin, Cole Sage is asked to return for one final story. What starts as a shocking, racially charged murder quickly spirals into a nightmare of violence and suspicion. The quiet Oklahoma town is now a battleground, with deep-rooted prejudices toward undocumented aliens surfacing and more bodies turning up. As Cole digs deeper, he discovers that everyone seems to have a motive—and no one can be trusted. Reunited with his old friend, FBI Agent Carter Washington, the two find ...

By turns exciting, provocative, and sincere, Hitching for Hope: A Journey into the Heart and Soul of Ireland is the tale of a pilgrimage both deeply personal and explicitly political. McKiernan embarks without an itinerary, not knowing with whom he may speak, what he may hear, or where he may sleep each night. As he reflects on his past, faces his fears, and listens to the struggles, hopes, and dreams of Ireland’s people, he excavates a human resilience often obscured by the media.

Torture doctors invent and oversee techniques to inflict pain and suffering without leaving scars. Their knowledge of the body and its breaking points and their credible authority over death certificates and medical records make them powerful and elusive perpetrators of the crime of torture. In The Torture Doctors, Steven H. Miles fearlessly explores who these physicians are, what they do, how they escape justice, and what can be done to hold them accountable.

The great forces of population change—the balance of births, deaths and migrations—have made the world what it is today. They have determined which countries are superpowers and which languish in relative obscurity. The same forces that have shaped our past and present are shaping our future. Illustrating this through 10 illuminating indicators, Paul Morland shows how demography is both a powerful and an under-appreciated lens through which to view the global transformations that are currently underway.

An Ice Pick Murderer Is Terrorizing San Francisco San Francisco is reeling from a series of brutal icepick murders, and Cole Sage is distracted when his secretary and sidekick, Hanna, takes in a troubled teenage girl. The girl is on the run, and as it turns out is hiding things Hanna should know. Cole works with Lt. Leonard Chin to find the perpetrator of the savage killings terrorizing the city. As Cole and Hanna try to protect the girl, they find themselves caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, where every answer leads to more danger. With the body count rising, Cole must navigate a ...

The Big Ratchet is the story of the ratchets: the technologies and innovations, big and small, that propelled our species from hunters and gatherers on the savannahs of Africa to shoppers in the aisles of the supermarket. Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as to verge on the miraculous. The Big Ratchet is the story of how it happened.

This book offers a much-needed new political theory of an old phenomenon. The last decade alone has marked the highest number of migrations in recorded history. Constrained by environmental, economic, and political instability, scores of people are on the move. But other sorts of changes - from global tourism to undocumented labor - have led to the fact that to some extent, we are all becoming migrants. The migrant has become the political figure of our time.

Wer die Nachrichten von morgen heute schon verstehen möchte. Die großen internationalen Konflikte des 21. Jahrhunderts sind heute bereits angelegt. Mit bestechender Klarsicht identifiziert der Politikexperte Tim Marshall, welche zehn Regionen die größten Krisenherde der nächsten Zukunft darstellen. Er erklärt, welche Rolle geographische Faktoren spielen, wer in die Konflikte verwickelt ist und welche Lösungen es geben könnte.

The planet says we consume too much: in North America, we burn the Earth's resources at a rate five times faster than they can regenerate. And despite our efforts to "green" our consumption - by recycling, increasing energy efficiency, or using solar power - we have yet to see a decline in global carbon emissions.

Have you been looking for a way to work on memorizing the world's countries and their capitals? Have you ever wanted a study buddy to read you questions, but don't have anyone around? Look no further. In this revolutionary new audiobook, you have a partner for your memorization practice without having to find someone to quiz you. Like verbal flashcards, World Geography Quiz: Countries of the World and Their Capitals (Geography Trivia) is here to be the partner to your study session, reading off questions to help you memorize the capitals, or quiz yourself for trivia.

This new book by Spencer Wells, the internationally known geneticist, anthropologist, author, and director of the Genographic Project, focuses on the seminal event in human history: mankind's decision to become farmers rather than hunter-gatherers.

Research shows that people often wildly misunderstand the state of the world, regardless of age, sex, or education. And though the internet brings us unprecedented access to information, there's little evidence we're any better informed because of it. We may blame cognitive bias or fake news, but neither tells the complete story. Bobby Duffy draws on his research into public perception, offering a sweeping account of the stubborn problem of human delusion: how society breeds it, why it will never go away, and what our misperceptions say about what we really believe.

Deniers of climate change sometimes quip that claims about global warming are more about political science than climate science. They are wrong on the science, but may be right with respect to its political implications. A hotter world, writes Andrew Guzman, will bring unprecedented migrations, famine, war, and disease. It will be a social and political disaster of the first order.

Wheeler is Britain's foremost woman travel writer. Glowing Still is the story of her travelling life - what is 'important, revealing or funny' - in a notoriously testosterone-laden field. Growing up among blue-collar Conservatives in Bristol where 'we didn't know anyone who wasn't like us', Wheeler knew she needed to get away. In her twenties she began a dramatic escape: Pole to Pole, via Poland. Glowing Still recalls happy days on India's Puri Express; an Antarctic lavatory through which a seal popped up (hot fishy breath!); and the louche life of a Parisian shopgirl.

Migration ist kein Phänomen der Neuzeit: Seit der Mensch den aufrechten Gang beherrschte, trieb es ihn aus seiner Heimat Afrika in die ganze Welt, auch nach Europa. Dank der neuen Methoden der Genetik kann diese lange unbekannte Geschichte unserer Wurzeln aufgedeckt werden. Johannes Krause und Thomas Trappe spannen den Bogen zurück bis in die Urgeschichte und erzählen, wie wir zu den Europäern wurden, die wir sind: Gibt es "Urvölker"? Wann verloren die frühen Europäer ihre dunkle Haut? Welche Rolle spielte die Balkanroute in den vergangenen 40 000 Jahren?

Entrepreneurs, educators, humanitarians: an entire province's worth of Canadian citizens live outside Canada. Some will return, others won't. But what they all share is the ability, and often the desire, to export Canadian values to a world sorely in need of them. And to act as ambassadors for Canada in industries and societies where diplomatic efforts find little traction. Surely a country with people as diverse as Canada's ought to plug itself into every corner of the globe. We don't, and sometimes not even when our expats are eager to help.