Birth Science

A bold and brilliant revisionist take on the history of psychedelics in the twentieth century, illuminating how a culture of experimental drugs shaped the Cold War and the birth of Silicon Valley....

Natural Hospital Birth, Updated Edition shows how to apply the guidelines and tactics of natural birth in a hospital setting, where 99 percent of births take place. Doula Cynthia Gabriel shows expectant mothers what they can do to avoid unnecessary medical interventions and how to take initiative and consciously prepare for the kind of birth they want to have. Also included are inspiring stories from other women who know firsthand that natural birth in the hospital is possible.

The Birth and Death of Meaning uses the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, sociology, and psychiatry to explain what makes people act the way they do.

Ursula K. Le Guin has enthralled fans with her imagination, clarity, and moral vision. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and five Hugo and five Nebula Awards, this renowned writer has created a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters reminiscent of our earthly selves. Now, in The Birthday of the World, this gifted artist returns to these worlds in eight brilliant short works, including a never-before-published novella, each of which probes the essence of humanity.

We are in a small room with the vampire, face to face, as he speaks--as he pours out the hypnotic, shocking, moving, and erotically charged confessions of his first two hundred years as one of the living dead. . . He speaks quietly, plainly, even gently . . . carrying us back to the night when he departed human existence as heir--young, romantic, cultivated--to a great Louisiana plantation, and was inducted by the radiant and sinister Lestat into the other, the "endless," life....

In The Poisoner's Handbook, Blum draws from highly original research to track the fascinating, perilous days when a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime.

At the age of 22, Jennifer Worth left her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in postwar London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she met while delivering babies all over London - from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lived to the woman with 24 children who couldn't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side - illuminate a fascinating time in history.

From cakes to stakes, a celebration of everyone's favorite bloodsucking subculture by a baker's dozen of favorite authors. Each of these 13 original stories offers a fresh and unique take on what birthdays mean to the undead. From Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse attending a birthday party for Dracula to Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden battling bloodsucking party crashers, these suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous stories will ensure paranormal fans will never think of vampires or birthdays quite the same again.

The four spies at the center of this story were part of a ragtag unit known as the Arab Section, conceived during World War II by British spies and Jewish militia leaders in Palestine. Intended to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage and assassinations, the unit consisted of Jews who were native to the Arab world and could thus easily assume Arab identities. In 1948, with Israel's existence in the balance during the War of Independence, our spies went undercover in Beirut, where they spent the next two years operating out of a kiosk....

A freak thunderstorm strikes just as Gameknight999 is activating his father’s digitizer to reenter Minecraft. Sparks flash across his vision as he is sucked into the game...and when the smoke clears, he’s arrived safely. But it doesn’t take long to realize that things in the Overworld are very different. Gameknight sees the same blocky terrain and square clouds as usual, but almost everything else has changed. His friends are nowhere to be found. His castle has disappeared, and the village he calls home is missing its defenses and fortified wall.

Trapped 100 years in Minecraft’s past, Gameknight999 struggles to keep his real identity a secret from the villagers of long ago, all while preparing them for battle. Herobrine’s forces are getting closer every day, advancing across the Overworld and leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Furious at Gameknight’s unexpected meddling, the evil virus takes revenge, creating the terrifying shadow-crafters.

This groundbreaking audiobook by Michel Foucault, the most influential philosopher since Sartre, compels us to reevaluate our assumptions about all the ensuing reforms in the penal institutions of the West. For as Foucault examines innovations that range from the abolition of torture to the institution of forced labor and the appearance of the modern penitentiary, he suggests that punishment has shifted its focus from the prisoner's body to his soul-and that our very concern with rehabilitation encourages and refines criminal activity.

Unleash your inner Einstein with the most exhiliarating, laugh-out-loud trivia book ever written! Be catapulted on a whirlwind adventure through the zany, weird, and utterly fascinating realms of knowledge, as we take trivia to a whole new level of fun! Packed with 1,522 mind-blowing facts spanning science, history, pop culture, and more, this rip-roaring, side-splitting tome is perfect for trivia buffs and inquisitive minds of all stripes, comprising everything from the astonishing to the absurd, the hilarious to the hair-raising, and everything in between. "Brain-Boosting Facts for ...

Long before the era of the news anchor, the pundit, and the mini-cam, one man blazed a trail that thousands would follow. Reporting live from the streets and rooftops of London as Nazi war planes rained terror from the skies during the Battle of Britain, Edward R. Murrow brought the stark horror of war and the shock of breaking news events directly into American living rooms for the first time, and that was just the beginning.

Here is the epic human drama behind the making of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1967 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Doctor Dolittle, and Bonnie and Clyde - and through them, the larger story of the cultural revolution that transformed Hollywood and America forever.

Fountain of Youth, or Valley of Death? While eating his supper of microwave popcorn, PhD student-genius Salinger Jacobs is grabbed from his apartment in California, stuck on a C-130 military plane, and sent to the Sahara Desert to witness the reality of the ZOO for himself. With the life expectancy of untrained scientists working inside the ZOO measured in hours, he has a lot to learn. Fast. First order of business? How do you shoot a gun, and just how much is that plant worth?

Josephson-Storm traces the history of the myth of disenchantment in the births of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, folklore, psychoanalysis, and religious studies. Ironically, the myth of mythless modernity formed at the very time that Britain, France, and Germany were in the midst of occult and spiritualist revivals. It was specifically in response to this burgeoning culture of spirits and magic that they produced notions of a disenchanted world.

Sal is hard at work trying to figure out if he can keep his crazy little company afloat, and now he wants to add more headcount? Kennedy isn't sure what is going on inside his young and not-all-that-wise head. Courtney is worried that the new hire Salinger wants might not be the best choice for the company - or her. When an unexpected call comes in, Salinger's team gets changed around drastically. He and Kennedy have to scramble to figure out how to balance it again. Can they produce the income they need or will they run out of time and end up food for the creatures in the ZOO?

Enrico Fermi is unquestionably among the greats of the world's physicists, the most famous Italian scientist since Galileo. Called "the Pope" by his peers, he was regarded as infallible in his instincts and research. His discoveries changed our world; they led to weapons of mass destruction and conversely to life-saving medical interventions. This unassuming man struggled with issues relevant today, such as the threat of nuclear annihilation and the relationship of science to politics.

It's been a decade since the first ultra-enhanced human beings were forced to abandon covert military operations. Advancing public technology and new government legislation made continuing to operate in secrecy untenable, and so they mainstreamed, becoming the world's first superhero group - the Order of Champions. They are the ten mightiest individuals on the planet - beloved by the masses and feared by their enemies. And their world is falling apart. The superheroes have become complacent - secure in their own sense of invincibility. They are arrogant and alone and increasingly rocked by ...