A biography that spans almost a century, the book is the story of 97-year-old Johnny Pail Face, a Native American born on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. His life’s journey began in the Old West and led him to soldier in three wars and to not one but two brushes with genocide in a single lifetime. In the first, his Native American people were the victims. In the second, he fought with gun and bayonet alongside fellow G. I.s against Hitler’s war machine and came out the victor. The first genocide left him crazy with anger, the second crazy with despair. It took him two more wars to work things out. Through it all, he struggled against the demons of depression and alcoholism to ultimately find the best pieces of what it means to be a human being within himself and to make peace with a troubled world. Based on in-depth interviews and weaving in the oral tradition of Native American storytelling, Johnny Pail Face Becomes a Human Being was written over the span of several years. According to Jarvis, “This book records the life of a remarkable human being. It is a roadmap for how to persevere and to overcome that speaks to Native and non-Native American readers alike. It’s been more than a privilege…it has been an honor to capture Johnny’s story so that it will not become lost to a nation that often forgets some of the best lessons from its own past as it rushes toward the future.”
London in the spring of 2000: Chris Putnam, a young scientist working on the Human Genome Project, is grieving for the end of his first relationship and for the loss of his deeply religious and estranged father. Then Chris falls in love and his brother goes missing. Events take Chris on a journey from research labs via decadent art-scene parties and London's Theatreland to the stark loneliness of a psychiatric hospital and ultimately to a desperate decision. What Chris discovers forces him to address his beliefs, his nature and even reality itself. In The Human Script science, philosophy, literary theory and religion intertwine in a poignant and tragic love story that asks the question: what is it to be human?
What about those who'd drowned in the convoy since midnight? They were dead... their dreams quashed by a devastating event. Poof! Gone! One minute breathing... the next not. What about loved ones who were awaiting their arrival in America? Their dreams were quashed, too, weren't they? How were the dead ones chosen? And the survivors? Some would say it was their destiny, the work of an omniscient God. Surely, purpose and meaning mattered, though, or why would God even cause their existence to occur, if only to end for some in such a questionable and unfathomable fate? Those other ships were sunk by German U-boat torpedoes, but not Johnny's? No one was given a choice... yet, he survived to write this autobiography.
Trade Paperback Edition (7 x 10) Three years after the fire that took his home and his family, John Lazarus returns to the town of Midwich searching for answers to why he can do extraordinary things no one's ever seen outside of a comic book. Is he human? Alien? Something more? The answers lie within the Titan complex that overshadows Midwich. But someone else wants Titan's secrets too and will stop at nothing to make sure that she alone possesses them. One young man and his friends stands between Pandora and world domination in an action-packed, white-knuckled thrill ride that will leave you breathless!
Here's Johnny is like sitting with Ed and Johnny over lunch: The last time I saw Johnny, about a year before he died, we had chicken, a couple of glasses of red wine, and then we just sat there and reminisced, going back and forth the way we did on the show. We talked about our kids, and our careers and the state of America, just two lucky guys who loved each other and the good luck of our careers. Ed McMahon is the only person who was with Johnny Carson, even before The Tonight Show, when they both first appeared on Who Do You Trust. Now, with Johnny's blessing before he died, McMahon can finally share all the stories that only he knows. From the sofa at Johnny's right, to backstage, to their personal relationship - McMahon will provide a real view of the man who was so careful to only show one side of himself to the public. Brilliant in front of the camera, but shy in person, Carson seldom gave interviews. Only McMahon can tell the stories and provide the insights into the personality that made Johnny Carson more of a friend we invited into our home than a television star. This entertaining tribute will feature over 200 pictures, many never before published, from both McMahon's and Carson's private archives.
A tale of two ontologies : are humans designated or discovered?. - Ontology and embryos : on being an embryo. - Arguments from ontology : it can't be human because it contradicts, ontologically. - Arguments from potential : it can't be human because it contradicts, factually. - Arguments from observation : it could be human, but the facts suggest otherwise. - Developmental systems theory and fuzzy organisms : it's not human until we say it's human. - The postmodern connection : form, fiat, and intention. - Humans and organization : defining the hallmarks of human existence. - Some difficult cases : a practical guide for evaluation. - A contested case : altered nuclear transfer : how to evaluate entities produced by experimenters. - Metaphysics matters.
For as long as I can remember, I have been entrenched in the spirit world. Then something I thought would not be possible happened: I stopped believing! Before we begin this journey on Earth, our souls, along with God the Creator and the elders of records, decide the lessons we need to learn or teach for the life we will be leading. Each of us has the ability to connect with our angels and the spirit world, but as our innocence fades and we adapt to the life we have chosen, we forget how to see those beautiful, celestial beings and receive messages from the other side. When this happens, we become, as I like to put it, completely human. There are individuals who remain on the fringe, still able to see angels and communicate with those on the other side of the veil and in different realms. These individuals remain partially human while on this Earth. Follow me down the road I traveled to becoming almost completely human and return through the maze that brought me to where I am today: living on the fringe of humanity and loving every minute.
Val Vega figured that in her junior year of high school, all she’d have to worry about was getting a decent score on the SATs, captaining the softball team, and figuring out her unrequited crush on her cute nonbinary bestie. Then Val discovers a family secret she never expected: her tío Umberto is Earth’s ambassador to an interstellar council of planets, and his unexpected death installs Val as his successor. Two Galactic empires are on the brink of war, and only Val can salvage interstellar peace. She has to hammer out treaties with giant jellyfish-shaped aliens that float like zeppelins, gets abducted by underground insurgents, and has to navigate the divisions of a colonized planet where telepathy puts every thought and every conflict out in the open. Her impossible task is even harder since Earth is known across the Galaxy as a violent, self-destructive backwater planet with intolerable humidity. Worse, she learns her uncle's death was no accident - he was assassinated, and the prime suspects are the three aliens Val trusted as her uncle’s allies. Our of her depth and with the weight of two worlds on her shoulders, Val must solve her uncle’s murder and bring peace to the Galaxy—all while helping her grieving family, managing the dramas of her friends, and getting a passing grade in trig. PRAISE FOR VAL VEGA: SECRET AMBASSADOR OF EARTH "Francisco presents a thrilling coming-of-age SF story that not only explores the precariousness of colonialism and sectarian conflict, but also the complexities of identity and relationships. Val is a smart, resourceful, and highly empathic protagonist, and her arc as an intergalactic diplomat is compelling. ... Readers will enjoy the author's sharp prose style and quippy dialogue, as well as their vast, imaginative worldbuilding. ... The cast of human characters is also realistically diverse: Val and her family are Puerto Rican and speak Spanish at home; she identifies as 'more sapiosexual than anything'; her crush, Will, is nonbinary; and Umberto is gay. A captivating, heartfelt tale about family, diplomacy, and finding one's place in the universe." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Ben Francisco's much-anticipated debut novel, VAL VEGA: SECRET AMBASSADOR OF EARTH, is overflowing with creativity. With a heroine you can't help but fall in love with, inventive alien cultures that feel as real as the family next door, and a mystery that will keep you breathlessly turning the pages, you've never read anything like it. Three cheers for Val Vega!" — Nicholas Kaufmann, bestselling author “If interstellar peace is your dream and you love a diverse cast of fabulously weird and brilliant aliens; if you believe in the power of one good human to survive personal hardship and save our planet, and if your dream is to discover that this human hero happens to be a humble, witty and smart-as-hell Latinx teenager, then this is the book for you! Everyone else should read this book for the absolutely fun ride through a universe that will become so real you’ll be quoting it.” — M. M. De Voe, award-winning author
Since the development of film as an artistic medium in the 1890s, there has been an inherent tension between still photographic images and moving cinematic images, from their form and function to the messages they convey and their impact on the beholder and on culture at large. This volume, one of the first book-length works to analyze, critique, and further the international debate about the meaning and use of motion and stillness in film and photography, takes these concepts out of the theoretical arena of cinematic studies and applies them to the wider and ever-changing landscape of images and media. With contributions from such acclaimed international scholars as Tom Gunning, Thomas Elsaesser, Mark B. N. Hansen, George Baker, Ina Blom, and Christa Blümlinger, these collected essays examine the strategic uses of stillness and motion in art from the mid-nineteenth century to the technologically driven present.