Bøker utgitt av Combined Academic Publ.

An exploration of the explosive illegal trade in succulents and the passion that drives it Cacti and succulents are phenomenally popular worldwide among plant enthusiasts, despite being among the world’s most threatened species. The fervor driving the illegal trade in succulents might also be driving some species to extinction. Delving into the strange world of succulent collecting, The Cactus Hunters takes us to the heart of this conundrum: the mystery of how and why ardent lovers of these plants engage in their illicit trade. This is a world of alluring desires, where collectors and conservationists alike are animated by passions that at times exceed the limits of law.    What inspires the desire for a plant? What kind of satisfaction does it promise? The answer, Jared D. Margulies suspects, might be traced through the roots and workings of the illegal succulent trade—an exploration that traverses the fields of botany and criminology, political ecology and human geography, and psychoanalysis. His globe-spanning inquiry leads Margulies from a spectacular series of succulent heists on a small island off the coast of Mexico to California law enforcement agents infiltrating a smuggling ring in South Korea, from scientists racing to discover new and rare species before poachers find them to a notorious Czech “cacto-explorer” who helped turn a landlocked European country into the epicenter of the illegal succulent trade.    A heady blend of international intrigue, social theory, botanical lore, and ecological study, The Cactus Hunters offers complex insight into species extinction, conservation, and more-than-human care.     Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.

"Despite his enduring popularity, Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) has long been a marginal figure in American literature, even in the science fiction genre he helped revolutionize. Offering a major new perspective on the author, influential French philosopher David Lapoujade orients Dick within philosophy and draws connections to a wide variety of other thinkers and artists, revealing his oeuvre to comprise a profound reality defined by artifice, precarity, and control"--

"Bringing together ideas from philosophy and cognitive science, Distracted leverages a postphenomenological perspective to reveal how our smartphones make us such bad drivers. Robert Rosenberger shows that we have developed habits of perception regarding our compulsive technology use-habits that may wrest our attention away from the road-and contends that a better understanding of why this combination of technologies is so dangerous could effectively adjust both habits and laws"--

"Aligning discourses surrounding hegemonic colonial visions of the environment and disability, this volume illustrates the ways in which colonial understandings of disability were and continue to be defined by relationships with the environment, collectively creating a form of eco-ableism that continues to this day"--

Assesses the broad impact of China's influential leaderThe Xi Jinping Effect explores the relationship between the People's Republic of China's current "paramount leader"?arguably the most powerful figure since Mao Zedong (1893?1976)?and multiple areas of political and social transformation. It illuminates not just policy arenas in which his leadership of China has had an outsized impact but also areas where his initiatives have faltered due to unintended consequences, international pushback, or the divergence of local priorities from those of the central government. Collectively, the book's chapters document the ways in which Xi's neo-totalitarianism has dismantled Reform Era legacies, while reconfiguring governance and rewiring China's global connections. Contributions by anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists consider such issues as Xi's anticorruption campaign and obsession with ideological governance, state surveillance, the status of ethnic minorities and migrants, income inequality, and China's relations with Taiwan and Southeast Asia.Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295752822

A little-known story of mutiny and murder illustrating the centrality of smuggling and slavery in early American societyOn the night of June 1, 1743, terror struck the schooner Rising Sun. After completing a routine smuggling voyage where the crew sold enslaved Africans in exchange for chocolate, sugar, and coffee in the Dutch colony of Suriname, the ship traveled eastward along the South American coast. Believing there was an opportunity to steal the lucrative cargo and make a new life for themselves, three sailors snuck below deck, murdered four people, and seized control of the vessel.Mutiny on the Rising Sun recounts the origins, events, and eventual fate of the Rising Sun¿s final smuggling voyage in vivid detail. Starting from that horrible night in June 1743, it narrates a deeply human history of smuggling, providing an incredible story of those caught in the webs spun by illicit commerce. The case generated a rich documentary record that illuminates an international chocolate smuggling ring, the lives of the crew and mutineers, and the harrowing experience of the enslaved people trafficked by the Rising Sun. Smuggling stood at the center of the lives of everyone involved with the business of the schooner. Larger forces, such as imperial trade restrictions, created the conditions for smuggling, but individual actors, often driven by raw ambition and with little regard for the consequences of their actions, designed, refined, and perpetuated this illicit commerce. At once startling and captivating, Mutiny on the Rising Sun shows how illegal trade created demand for exotic products like chocolate, and how slavery and smuggling were integral to the development of American capitalism.

"Originally designed as an educational supplement for the renowned Stanford courses Computer Science 106A and 106B, Bit by Bit is a comic-style resource that uses fractal grids, custom-drawn characters, and fun graphics as a visually immersive introduction to the key concepts of beginner coding, learning pedagogy, education, and visual thinking. Bit by Bit takes readers on a journey that encompasses the full scope of both courses; beginning with the chief elements and fundamentals of programming such as functions, variables, and integers; carrying readers through the basics of Python and C++ into the conceptual world of efficiency and recursion; and walking them through collections of linked data structures. Throughout each section, course and Stanford alum Ecy Femi King is there to guide, cajole, and assist, simultaneously providing useful tips to encourage maximum knowledge absorption and engaging commentary for readers at every level. In short, this book is more than just a cohesive "study buddy" for introductory Stanford courses. Rather, it delivers a far-reaching guide of both pedagogical interest and practical use to students, educators, and researchers worldwide"--

Cargoes in Motion considers both the materiality and special trajectories of cargoes across the Indian Ocean world in order to better understand the processes of exchange and their economic, social, cultural, and political effects on the region.

I Make Envy on Your Disco is the story of a thirty-seven-year-old art advisor who, fed up with his life in New York, flies to Berlin for a gallery opening and finds a once-divided city brimming with excitement and possibility, yet facing an identity crisis of its own.

Using original archival analysis, Westerns: A Women’s History provides a revisionist account of the western genre, proving women writers of popular westerns were instrumental in the formation of the genre and used it to subtly critique patriarchy.

"Whether you have the urge to address clutter that's right in front of you, like your kitchen, or clutter that's more abstract, like the benefits program at your workplace, this book can help you figure out how all of it is related, and what steps you can take to work on them. Jenny Albertini has brought together her years of diplomatic government service, public health program design, and Master KonMarie training to share a mindful approach to shaping our time and space. Both a "how to" and a "why to" approach to minimizing the impact of life stressors on our wellbeing, this book will help you focus on the connections between your health and the environments where you spend your time-your home, your workplace, and your community. While organizing a home to make the living room look nice is great, this book will also help you explore why that makes you feel better-and what you can do with that improved sense of self. Decluttering is about so much more than just getting rid of things. When we make purposeful choices about what we want to live with, we also set intentions for how we want to live. This book is for people who are ready to live with less overwhelm in their relationships, their home, their workplace, and their society"--

Sandra E. Bonura tells the overlooked yet genuine rags-to-riches story of Claus Spreckels and his pioneering role in developing the sugar industry in the United States and the kingdom of Hawai‘i.

Ideal Beauty reveals the woman behind the Garbo mystique, a tough negotiator who used her newfound power in Hollywood to develop a distinctly new feminist screen persona. Examining how she was an icon who helped to define female beauty in the twentieth century, the book also considers Garbo’s spiritual and sexual exploration away from the camera’s glare.

"Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity's shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas. This book finally provides the first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again, revealing valuable insights into Kayama's vision for the Godzilla story"--

"Highly personal and idiosyncratically historical, this book is a memoirist's guide to more than fifty paper objects, including report cards, maps, menus, spreadsheets, broadsides, library cards, prescriptions, tickets, books, dictionaries, file folder, and legal tender-and an invitation to readers whose stories might be a single box or shelf away"--