Author: Leon Golub File Type: pdf Unlike the myriad points of light we gaze at in the night sky, our nearest star allows us to study the wonders of stellar workings at blindingly close range--from a mere 93 million miles away. And what do we see? In this book, two of the worlds leading solar scientists unfold all that history and science--from the first cursory observations to the measurements obtained by the latest state-of-the-art instruments on the ground and in space--have revealed about the Sun. Following the path of science from the very center of this 380,000,000,000,000,000,000-megawatt furnace to its explosive surface, Nearest Star invites readers into an open-ended narrative of discovery about what we know about the Sun and how we have learned it. How did the Sun evolve, and what will it become? What is the origin of its light and heat? How does solar activity affect the atmospheric conditions that make life on earth possible? These are the questions at the heart of solar physics, and at the center of this book. Having made optical solar observations with many solar telescopes and in the rockets and satellites, the authors bring their extensive personal experience to this story of how astronomers study the Sun, and what they have discovered about phenomena from eclipses to neutrinos, space weather, and global warming. Richly illustrated with an assortment of pictures from the latest solar missions and the newest telescopes, this book is a very readable, up-to-date account of sciences encounter with our nearest star. **

Author: Brian Attebery File Type: pdf Myth is oral, collective, sacred, and timeless. Fantasy is a modern literary mode and a popular entertainment. Yet the two have always been inextricably intertwined. Stories about Stories examines fantasy as an arena in which different ways of understanding myth compete and new relationships with myth are worked out. The book offers a comprehensive history of the modern fantastic as well as an argument about its nature and importance. Specific chapters cover the origins of fantasy in the Romantic search for localized myths, fantasy versions of the Modernist turn toward the primitive, the post-Tolkienian exploration of world mythologies, post-colonial reactions to the exploitation of indigenous sacred narratives by Western writers, fantasies based in Christian belief alongside fundamentalist attempts to stamp out the form, and the emergence of ever-more sophisticated structures such as metafiction through which to explore mythic constructions of reality. **

Author: Roger N. Lancaster File Type: pdf One evening, while watching the news, Roger N. Lancaster was startled by a report that a friend, a gay male school teacher, had been arrested for a sexually based crime. The resulting hysteria threatened to ruin the life of an innocent man. In this passionate and provocative book, Lancaster blends astute analysis, robust polemic, ethnography, and personal narrative to delve into the complicated relationship between sexuality and punishment in our society. Drawing on classical social science, critical legal studies, and queer theory, he tracks the rise of a modern suburban culture of fear and develops new insights into the punitive logic that has put down deep roots in everyday American life. **Review Casts a thought-provoking perspective. (Salon 2011-12-09) A convincing argument. (The Gay & Lesbian Review 2012-09-01) Smart, witty, and political. The critique of state responses to sex offense is desperately needed in a policy debate that celebrates ever harsher punishment. (Contexts 2012-08-30) This book provides a . . . window on the use of sex panics and fear-mongering by the state to increase its control over private behavior. (J.A. Myers Gay & Lesbian ReviewWorldwide 2011-09-01) From the Inside Flap Lancasters approach is fresh, critical and engaging. Many scholars have examined Americas carceral state, but few so successfully combine personal narrative and passion with sober assessment. This is a landmark booka dismaying, angry, but powerful analysis of Americas justice system.Michael Sherry, Northwestern University Sex Panic and the Punitive State is a passionate, wide-ranging analysis of a culture of American fear that takes shape as moral panic and a socially permeating knee-jerk vindictivenessnot just against the criminal but against anyone (therefore everyone) who could be cast as a potential perpetrator. Its focus on sex and crime is centrally on the male sexual predator, especially the pedophile figure but its richly archived and narrated examples reach from 19th century victimology to the present, from slavery to terrorism, and their legitimation of the preemptive moral strike. A manifesto against the contemporary paranoid style and its hold on the law, media and you, this book is an important contribution to LGBTQ studies and to American studies in general.Lauren Berlant, Department of English, University of Chicago Sex Panic is gripping and provocative. Lancaster effectively weaves historical and ethnographic accounts along with his own experiences to illuminate the dangerous tilt in Americas legal system toward a presumption of guilt. This is an important book for anyone interested in how crime and justice are perceived in society.Jonathan Simon, Berkeley Law, Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice A profound meditation on sex panics in the modern period, coupled with a biting polemic against the role of the punitive state in American culture. This is a must read for everyone concerned with the state of human rights, sexuality, and political economy. You may not agree with it all, but it will rattle your brain. Gilbert Herdt, founder, Department of Sexuality Studies, San Francisco State University From the moral panics about child abuse to the war on terror, Roger Lancaster brilliantly explores the fears and anxieties of the United States in recent decades, showing how they continuously participate in the shaping of the nation. His vivid depiction of the paranoid style and bellicose rhetoric in politics gives remarkable clues to comprehend contemporary punitive governance. Didier Fassin, James Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University Sex Panic & the Punitive State is a sensationally smart integration of the ever-expanding regime of sex-offender surveillance and punishment with all those vexing phenomena you knew were related but couldnt figure out how victim worship parental paranoia the racialization of crime neoliberalism the war on terrorand more. Lancaster spares neither right nor left, feminist nor religious conservative he privileges neither cultural nor economic theories. Meticulously historicized, complexly thought-out, and elegantly written, this exegesis of sexuality and the punitive state will long be vital to academics, policymakers, and activists alike.Judith Levine, author of Harmful to Minors The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex

Author: Michael Head File Type: pdf Why have the early years of the 21st century seen increasing use of emergency-type powers or claims of supra-legal executive authority, particularly by the Western countries regarded as the worlds leading democracies, notably the United States? This book examines the extraordinary range of executive and prerogative powers, emergency legislation, martial law provisos and indemnities in countries with English-derived legal systems, primarily the UK, the US and Australia. The author challenges attempts by legal and academic theorists to relativise, rationalise, legitimise or propose supposedly safe limits for the use of emergency powers, especially since the September 2001 terrorist attacks. This volume also considers why the reputation of Carl Schmitt, the best-known champion of exceptional dictatorial powers during the post-1919 Weimer Republic in Germany, and who later enthusiastically served and sanctified the Nazi dictatorship, is being rehabilitated, and examines why his totalitarian doctrines are thought to be of relevance to modern society. This diverse book will be of importance to politicians, the media, the legal profession, as well as academics and students of law, humanities and politics. **Review Michael Head has written a powerful and persuasive account of the permanent emergency laws to be found in liberal democracies. A perfect antidote to the naivete of the human rights lobby, this sobering and important book ought to be widely read. Keith Ewing, Kings College London, UK Crisis and emergency have become contemporary preoccupations. Since 911 especially, our polities have been increasingly securitised through dread of existential risks ranging from terrorism to climate change. This book expertly alerts us to challenge the growing banality of emergency laws and the past and present theories of exceptionality supporting them. Clive Walker, University of Leeds, UK Here finally is a critique of Carl Schmitt that does not separate the man from his ideas in the state of permanent emergency we find ourselves in today, all working in this field need to expose themselves to the robust rebuttal that Michael Head so eloquently provides. Conor Gearty, London School of Economics, UK When the Australian Government and Parliament in 1951 tried to ban the Communist Party the High Court of Australia, led by Justice Owen Dixon, held that the law was unconstitutional. Dixon specifically warned that history, and not just ancient history, taught of the excesses to which executive government and its officials were prone in their responses to suggested dangers. Drawing on the experience of Nazi Germanys excesses, Professor Head points to the erroneous theories of Carl Schmitt. This is a timely study which reminds us to remember Dixon, when advocates of exceptionalism capture the ears of government. And never to forget what happens when followers of Schmitts philosophy get the upper hand. The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG, Former Justice of the High Court of Australia and Chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on North Korea About the Author Michael Head is Professor of Law, University of Western Sydney, Australia. He has published a substantial range of books and refereed articles relating to public law, legal theory and civil liberties.