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December 17, 2016 marked the sixth anniversary of the outbreak of the Arab uprisings. In the six years since Muhammad Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia, igniting the uprisings which continue today, the entire Middle East landscape has changed in ways that were unimaginable before. In spite of the early hype about the "Arab Spring" and the prominence observers gave to calls for the downfall of regimes and an end to their abuses, most of the protests...
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Should marijuana be legalized? The latest Gallup poll reports that exactly half of Americans say "yes"; opinion could not be more evenly divided. Marijuana is forbidden by international treaties and by national and local laws across the globe. But those laws are under challenge in several countries. In the U.S., there is no short-term prospect for changes in federal law, but sixteen states allow medical use and recent initiatives to legalize production...
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In this fully revised and updated third edition of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Maura Elizabeth Cunningham provide cogent answers to urgent questions regarding the world's newest superpower and offer a framework for understanding China's meteoric rise from developing country to superpower.
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This volume is an updated edition of Serhy Yekelchyk's 2015 publication, The Conflict in Ukraine. It addresses Ukraine's relations with the West from the perspective of Ukrainians. It looks at what we know about alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, the factors behind the stunning electoral victory of the political novice Volodymyr Zelensky, and the ways in which the events leading to the impeachment proceedings against...
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"This chapter grapples with the challenges of defining depression, including challenges that arise from our imprecise use of language. Depression is at its core a kind of mood state. Mood states organize our minds and our bodies and motivate us to pursue goals. It is possible to understand depression by focusing on the scientific principles that explain why humans and other organisms have mood. A key goal is to become a more educated consumer of one's...
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"Gender is all around us. Beliefs about gender impact our jobs, families, schools, religions, laws, politics, relationships, sports, clothes, and so much more. Gender permeates almost every aspect of our lives as humans. Although this book is part of a series called "What Everyone Needs to Know," it would be impossible to cover everything known about gender in one book, and, since gender is something we all have in common and at the same time all...
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Virtually everyone has taken antibiotics. They can be lifesavers -- and they can be useless. What are they? How are they used? And what happens as the effectiveness of antibiotics continues to decline? Antibiotics: What Everyone Needs to Knowa. examines the personal and societal implications of our planet's most important -- and frequently misused -- medications. In a question-and-answer format, it unpacks the most complicated aspects of this issue,...
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"This concise but comprehensive book engagingly lays out answers to myriad questions about free speech principles and current controversies, including those pertaining to hate speech, disinformation, and social media. Nadine Strossen, one of America's leading free speech scholars and advocates, focuses on modern First Amendment law, explaining the historic factors that propelled its evolution toward more speech protection -- in particular, the civil...
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Artificial Intelligence is likely to greatly increase our aggregate wealth, but it will also upend our labor markets, reshuffle our social order, and strain our private and public institutions. Eventually it may alter how we see our place in the universe, as machines pursue goals independent of their creators and outperform us in domains previously believed to be the sole dominion of humans. Whether we regard them as conscious or unwitting, revere...
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"In today's turbulent business climate, business ethics are more important than ever. Surveys of employees show that misconduct is on the rise. Cover stories reporting indictments, prosecutions, and penalties imposed for unethical business conduct appear almost daily. Legislatures pass requirements elevating the levels of punishment and their enforcement against corporations and individuals. Organizations face pressure to design and implement effective...
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"In the recent years, terrorism and radicalization have (unfortunately) become something of a regular topic in the news, in movies and TV shows, and even in dinnertime conversations. It seems like everyone knows something and has a theory or two to explain the growing number of terrorist attacks around the world. Some blame it on Muslims, some on the news media and the Internet, and some on the CIA and the U.S. government. It has become difficult...
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"Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a longstanding problem that has increasingly come to the forefront of international and national policy debates and news: from the US reauthorization of the Violence against Women Act and a United Nations declaration to end sexual violence in war, to coverage of gang rapes in India, cyberstalking and "revenge porn", honor killings, female genital mutilation, and international trafficking. Yet, while we frequently...
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"In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association determined that hoarding disorder (HD) is a diagnosable mental health condition. This disorder has been studied only in the past three decades, although information about this surprisingly common problem has been accumulating at a great rate in recent years. In fact, published papers about hoarding have increased from 3 during the first half of the 1990s to 319 in first half of the current decade (2010-2015)....
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"Even before the extensive sanctions imposed on Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, it was hard to browse the news without seeing reports of yet another set of sanctions. The United States has sanctions against over 30 countries as well as drug traffickers, terrorist organizations and specially designated individuals. China long has been a target of sanctions and in recent years increasingly a wielder against countries and companies even organizations...
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"The motivating idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is radically simple: give people cash and let them do whatever they want with it. But does this simple idea have the potential to radically transform our society? Is a UBI the ultimate solution to the problem of poverty? Is it the solution to automation-induced unemployment? Can it help solve gender and racial inequality? This book provides the average citizen with all the information they need...
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In this book, Todd Sandler educates and demystifies terrorism and its myriad aspects for educated readers, who want to gain an understanding of one of the main security problems confronting the world today. Based on a wealth of past research, current thinking about terrorism and the practice of counterterrorism are elucidated.
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"This book presents a balanced and broad introduction to robotics and the current state of the field, analyzing where it has come from and where it might go in the future. Beginning with the history of robotics and its complex relationship with popular culture, it then moves on to discuss the technology underlying robots, exploring the limits of what robots can actually do now and what they might be able to do in the future. Naturally, these machines,...
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"This book offers the most up-to-date examination of campaigns and elections, along with the threats to democracy coming from the 2020 presidential election, the Big Lie, and more recent attempts to stifle democratic involvement. Frequent and fair elections, open to all, are fundamental elements of a democracy. The United States, through its local, state, and national con-tests holds more elections, more often, than any other democracy in the world....
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"The book provides fundamental information about the origins, evolution, and current affairs of the Russian state and society. The story begins with Russia's geographic endowment, proceeds through its experiences as a kingdom and empire, and continues through the USSR's three-quarters of a century, and finally the shocking breakup of that regime a generation ago. Chapters on the failed attempt to reform Communism under Mikhail Gorbachev, the halting...
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"I'll begin with a challenging question: Why should anyone want to know about the origin of life? The answers will vary from one person to the next, but the simplest answer is curiosity. Anyone reading this introduction is curious because they wonder how life could have begun on the Earth, but there is more to it than that. My friend Stuart Kauffman wrote a book with the title At Home in the Universe. The title refers to a deep sense of satisfaction...