The Death Spiral


Book Description

Poetry. "Death Spiral, which signifies the cartwheeling display of the American bald eagle as it plummets to the ground, is not only a poem in this excellent collection, but a metaphor for the current state of the country. These beautifully rendered poems ask when will we roll out of our 'death dance, / and fall upwards, in thrall of sky?' While there are other books that address topics found here such as climate change, racism, and our wrought political times, what sets this book apart is its lyrical precision, imaginative leaps, and arresting imagery. Sarah Giragosian is a truly gifted poet."--Charlotte Pence "THE DEATH SPIRAL grounds us in the Anthropocene (a time of mass extinction and climate change), yet refuses to adhere to that 'fact.' Instead, the poet finds a way not only to merge her consciousness, her being, her 'I,' with that of the absolute other(s)--the animal kingdom, and love--but also to chart a field guide of dazzling formal execution out of our times of terror and loss. Clear-eyed, resilient, and brave, Giragosian both acknowledges 'hope's atrophied muscles' while suggesting another path--one wherein 'irrepressible nature' (neither cruel nor moral) leads the way. Resplendent with the 'ecstasy of disaster,' origin stories, and the 'blood relation between mammal and stone,' the poet states her desire plainly: 'To rend.' And in this rending (reminiscent of a Dickinson gone wild), and praise, we are given a 'test of [our] freedom,' an unleashed mind, an otherwise-tragic narrative of death undercut by glorious song."--Virginia Konchan "Giragosian's fierce, gorgeous poems embody our role as one in body and mind with other peoples, plants and animals--living and extinct--arguing a familial connection integral to the survival of species including our own: 'he is a thrashing turtle / on a bone hook, speaking from otherwhere / of his apartness. I point to hearth, to kin...'. These poems hope we won't find ourselves with, 'Nothing left on Earth to love or fear,' as they invoke the beauty around us, and in us."--April Ossmann




Death Spiral


Book Description

Nominated for the Arthur Ellis Best Novel Award and shortlisted for the 2011 Evergreen Award. This complex, multi-layered thriller opens with a hero's welcome for the wounded Wilf McLauchlin, a celebrated WWII Canadian Spitfire fighter pilot. Almost immediately after his homecoming, a series of bizarre murders erupt in his hometown. Wilf finds himself trying to solve them and wondering if he is somehow causing them. Wilf follows his own trail back to when he was shot down over Germany in the last days of the war and makes the shattering connection.




Avoiding the Corporate Death Spiral


Book Description

Nowhere is it written that a company, regardless of how large it is or how successful it might seem to be, will survive. There have been too many highly visible and painful reminders of this fact over the last several years. While many of these companies fall apart seemingly overnight, the reality is that the decline is a process that usually takes several years and results from a number of actions, decisions, and behaviors that contribute to the demise.The purpose of this book is to present the warning signs of organizational decline, and provide a method for leaders to identify and eliminate them before the organization enters a death spiral. It provides detailed explanations of each warning sign, including an explanation regarding how the sign contributes to the decline, and also an assessment tool to determine the existence and extent of the signs within an organization. The principles and concepts present are equally applicable to healthcare, manufacturing, or service organizations. "A compelling and revealing account of why businesses do and do not survive. I and many of my colleagues consider it mandatory reading." Jim Schroth President J.L. Schroth Company "It is hoped that corporate executives will take heed to the message of this book to avoid (or end) death spirals of their companies, but time is running out for many formerly great companies!" Gene PerkinsbrGroup Vice President – Retired Emerson Electric "Gregg Stocker’s excellent new book captures the fundamental lessons all organizations must learn...This is a remarkable, must-read book for leaders and students of organizations everywhere!" Jeff Lickson President The Consortium"Gregg Stocker is a well-versed, lifetime advocate of quality and performance improvement. His book points the way." David Phillips Former CEO Sherex Chemical, Inc.




Any God Will Do


Book Description

"There are no machine guns, or cameras, here." Any God Will Do is a collection that investigates the lines between worldliness and asceticism, belief and delusion, chance and design, desire and its transcendence. Internal and end rhyme structure these pithy and compact poems that are rife with classical, pop culture, and poetic allusions. They culminate in an argument that intimacy and creation through language are not only possible within a capitalist framework, but indeed may be the only ballasts we know.




Magnificent Sex


Book Description

Winner of the 2021 SSTAR Consumer Book Award! What makes sex magnificent? What are the qualities of extraordinary erotic intimacy and what are the elements that help to bring it about? Is great sex the stuff that people remember nostalgically from the "honeymoon" phase of their relationships, or can sex improve over time? Magnificent Sex is based on the largest, in-depth interview study ever conducted with people who are having extraordinary sex. It gathers the nuggets for remarkable sex from the "experts", distilling them into an attainable blueprint for ordinary lovers who want to make erotic intimacy grow over the course of a lifetime. Looking at factors including individual and relational qualities, empathic communication and the myths and realities of magnificent sex, this book offers accessible and evidence-based guidance for lovers and therapists alike. It is replete with frank and often humorous interviews with straight and LGBTQ individuals and couples, those who are "vanilla" and "kinky", monogamous and consensually non-monogamous and healthy and chronically ill. This illuminating book explores the implications of the findings to develop a model that effectively tackles the common problems of low desire and frequency. The "cure" for low desire is to create desirable sex!




Surviving Climate Chaos


Book Description

"Surviving climate chaos requires communities and ecosystems strong enough to cope with the near-random local impacts of climate change. Their strength depends upon resilience, resistance and flexibility, three consequences of system integrity. Preserving and restoring the integrity of communities and ecosystems is needed everywhere, and quickly since active Arctic, equatorial and oceanic tipping points threaten total climate breakdown. This might be postponed by extreme efforts to conserve carbon-dense ecosystems, decarbonise economic systems and recapture greenhouse gases, but climate chaos everywhere is now inevitable. Adaptation efforts by 158 Paris Agreement parties reported since 2015 are converging on community-based and ecosystem-based strategies. Case studies in Bolivia, Nepal and Tanzania confirm that these are the correct strategies for surviving climate chaos, where success depends upon local empowerment through forums, ecosystem tenure security and environmental education. This approach, when replicated, networked and shielded by governments, offers the best way to strengthen societies against climate chaos while achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Its usefulness is highlighted for national and local government officials and aid professionals with key roles in promoting adaptation, for students, researchers and teachers, and for all people who live under threat of climate chaos"--




Imperfect Spiral


Book Description

Danielle Snyder's summer of babysitting turns into one of overwhelming guilt and sadness when Humphrey, her five-year-old charge is killed suddenly. Danielle gets caught up in the machinery of tragedy: police investigations, neighborhood squabbling, and, when the driver of the car that struck Humphrey turns out to be an undocumented alien, a politically charged immigration debate. Wanting only to mourn the sweet little boy she grew to love, Danielle tries to avoid the world around her, until a new and unexpected friendship with Justin, a boy she meets at the park, helps her find a way to preserve Humphrey's memory, stand up for what she believes in, and find her own path to forgiveness. Readers will be swept away by this heart-wrenching, but uplifting story.




Spirals in Time


Book Description

The beautifully written story of shells and their makers, and our relationships with them. Seashells are the sculpted homes of a remarkable group of animals: the molluscs. These are some of the most ancient and successful animals on the planet. But watch out. Some molluscs can kill you if you eat them. Some will kill you if you stand too close. That hasn't stopped people using shells in many ways over thousands of years. They became the first jewelry and oldest currencies; they've been used as potent symbols of sex and death, prestige and war, not to mention a nutritious (and tasty) source of food. Spirals in Time is an exuberant aquatic romp, revealing amazing tales of these undersea marvels. Helen Scales leads us on a journey into their realm, as she goes in search of everything from snails that 'fly' underwater on tiny wings to octopuses accused of stealing shells and giant mussels with golden beards that were supposedly the source of Jason's golden fleece, and learns how shells have been exchanged for human lives, tapped for mind-bending drugs and inspired advances in medical technology. Weaving through these stories are the remarkable animals that build them, creatures with fascinating tales to tell, a myriad of spiralling shells following just a few simple rules of mathematics and evolution. Shells are also bellwethers of our impact on the natural world. Some species have been overfished, others poisoned by polluted seas; perhaps most worryingly of all, molluscs are expected to fall victim to ocean acidification, a side-effect of climate change that may soon cause shells to simply melt away. But rather than dwelling on what we risk losing, Spirals in Time urges you to ponder how seashells can reconnect us with nature, and heal the rift between ourselves and the living world.




Death Spiral


Book Description




Sleeper: Orphans of the Cold War


Book Description

Sleepers: Orphans of the Cold War is a Sci-fi action roleplaying game, with background by popular gaming author Ben Counter.




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