It is 1967. In separate wings of a Viennese hospital, two men lie bedridden. The narrator, named Thomas Bernhard, is stricken with a lung ailment; his friend Paul, nephew of the celebrated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, is suffering from one of his periodic bouts of madness. As their once-casual friendship quickens, these two eccentric men begin to discover in each other a possible antidote to their feelings of hopelessness and mortality—a spiritual symmetry forged by their shared passion for music, strange sense of humor, disgust for bourgeois Vienna, and great fear in the face of death. Part memoir, part fiction, Wittgenstein’s Nephew is both a meditation on the artist’s struggle to maintain a solid foothold in a world gone incomprehensibly askew, and a stunning—if not haunting—eulogy to a real-life friendship.
Nations and international organizations are increasingly using sanctions as a means to achieve their foreign policy aims. However, sanctions are ineffective if they are executed without a clear strategy responsive to the nature and changing behavior of the target. In The Art of Sanctions, Richard Nephew offers a much-needed practical framework for planning and applying sanctions that focuses not just on the initial sanctions strategy but also, crucially, on how to calibrate along the way and how to decide when sanctions have achieved maximum effectiveness. Nephew—a leader in the design and implementation of sanctions on Iran—develops guidelines for interpreting targets’ responses to sanctions based on two critical factors: pain and resolve. The efficacy of sanctions lies in the application of pain against a target, but targets may have significant resolve to resist, tolerate, or overcome this pain. Understanding the interplay of pain and resolve is central to using sanctions both successfully and humanely. With attention to these two key variables, and to how they change over the course of a sanctions regime, policy makers can pinpoint when diplomatic intervention is likely to succeed or when escalation is necessary. Focusing on lessons learned from sanctions on both Iran and Iraq, Nephew provides policymakers with practical guidance on how to measure and respond to pain and resolve in the service of strong and successful sanctions regimes.
It is the future. Twenty years have passed since Eager’s first adventures with the Bell family. Scientists are now banned from building robots that can think for themselves and feel emotion, like Eager. He and other robots have spent years in hiding. But Eager secretly visits the Bell family, and his headstrong nephew, a most unusual new robot named Jonquil, stows away on the visit. They arrive at the Bells just in time—for mysterious and dangerous things are happening to the family and their friends. Eager and Jonquil’s special abilities could save the day. The human world is totally new to Jonquil, who can’t always tell fact from fiction. Excitable Jonquil is in his element. When he isn’t in danger himself, he’s causing havoc for everyone else. . . .
When my nephew was diagnosed with Spina Bifida at birth in Nairobi, Kenya, his loving parents knew little to almost nothing about this mysterious ailment. This lack of the underlying condition made it difficult for them or other close family members to seek specialized care, rendering any early interventions out of question and dimmed his future treatments. Innocently, his parents assumed that the condition that he has would disappear or get treated with passing months or even years. Things did not improve and that led them to inform other family members, including myself, their beloved sister. Upon hearing that the boy’s health was not progressing as expected, I decided to visit Nairobi and made firsthand observations. I was convinced beyond doubt that moving Little Deng to the US would be best. The prospect that he could have face severe challenges, even death, was both tormenting and motivating. Thanks God that him and his father both flew into Salt Lake City, Utah, on December 22, 2014. His loving family, including grandmother, uncles and aunty were always ready to see his treatment through, with zeal and passion. Treatments meant conducting catheterization by inserting a small tube into his private area four times, every four hours per day, administrating medication twice per day for bladder control infection, watching for hydrocephalus - shunt malfunctions almost every day because it could lead to death if not properly caught on time, checking braces on his feet for any skin redness, adjusting walker and wheelchair, even carrying him around when he struggled, countless Emergency Room (RM) visits, long hours every six months visit to Spina Bifida Clinic, attending constant Physical and Occupation therapist twice per week, and performing bowl movement program every day, every evening. Little Deng is a blessing to me and our family. As a first-time caregiver, when Little Deng is out for school and other activities, I would be stressed and depressed throughout the day given his condition and how he may do outside there. He is a stronger boy, considering what he faces. While facing all the challenges, Little Deng is a fighter. He survived spina bifida without any support and hearing from his biological mother for the last six years following his treatments in Utah. This has led him to travel back to Nairobi, Kenya, for family visit and met with his family, especially his two siblings who were born after he has been relocated to Utah. He is also a determined boy and who dreams big against all odds. Although Little Deng knew he might not physically walk, he has a big dream of becoming an NBA star and be the next Donavan Mitchell. This passion brought him to the Utah Jazz Arena where he met face-to-face with Donavan. Received his shoes and got interviewed on NBA All Star. He was enrolled in a Utah Jazz Jr. Wheelchair basketball and summer adaptive program at the Recreation Adoptive Center located in Midvale, Utah. The journey has just begun but fears and worries remind the same. All the same, Little Deng was and remains blessing to our family here in Salt Lake City and in Africa where his biological parents reside.
When the author's uncle died 6 months after returning from Vietnam, his family did their best to deal with the grief and move on with their lives. Over 40 years later, the author embarks on a journey to learn more about his uncle. An expanded version of two chapters from two previous books, plus new material and photos that tell the story of a Vietnam veteran who is remembered by Army buddies and others who knew him from the War. Thanks to a Vietnam veterans group headed by a soldier dedicated to preserving history from that era, the author is put in touch with several people who served alongside his uncle. The multi year journey to learn more about his uncle takes him down many paths. See how losing a relative from the view of an 11 year old boy. The author tells how his family coped with the loss in the 60s and 70s. The story moves to the 1990s when a chance incident leads to a rediscovering of the man, his life, and his legacy. 2nd edition includes letters Bill wrote to his family while in Vietnam.
Though remembered largely by history as Andrew Jackson's nephew, Andrew Jackson Donelson was himself a significant figure in nineteenth-century America: a politician, planter, diplomat, newspaper editor, and vice-presidential candidate. His relationship with his uncle and mentor defined his life, as he struggled to find the political and personal success that he wanted and his uncle thought he deserved. In Old Hickory's Nephew, the first definitive biography of this enigmatic man, Mark R. Cheathem explores both Donelson's political contributions and his complex, tumultuous, and often-overlooked relationship with Andrew Jackson. Born in Sumner County, Tennessee, in 1799, Donelson lost his father only five years later. Andrew Jackson soon became a force in his nephew's life, seeing in his namesake his political protégé. Jackson went so far as to predict that Donelson would one day become president. After attending West Point, Donelson helped establish the Jacksonian wing of the Democratic party and edited a national Democratic newspaper. As a diplomat, he helped bring about the annexation of Texas and, following in his uncle's footsteps, he became the owner of several plantations. On the surface, Donelson was a political and personal success. But few lives are so straightforward. The strong relationship between the uncle and nephew -- defined by the concept of honor that suffused the southern society in which they lived -- quickly frayed when Donelson and his wife defied his uncle during the infamous Peggy Eaton sex scandal of Jackson's first presidential administration. This resulted, Cheathem shows, in a tense relationship, full of distrust and suspicion, between Donelson and Jackson that lasted until the "Hero of New Orleans" died in 1845. Donelson later left the Democratic party in a tiff and joined the American, or Know Nothing, party, which selected him as Millard Fillmore's running mate in 1856. Though Donelson tried to establish himself as his uncle's political successor and legator, his friends and foes alike accused him of trading on his uncle's name to gain political and financial success. The life of Andrew Jackson Donelson illuminates the expectations placed upon young southern men of prominent families as well as the complexities and contradictions in their lives. In this biography, Cheathem awakens interest in a nearly forgotten but nonetheless intriguing figure in American history.
