The script to the multimedia podcast novel. Gnathal, a virginal game-boy-human-cellphone, goes into debt to buy a custom automobile to seduce a gypsy fortune-teller belly-dancing professional escort who calls herself Vampire Elvirus. The State will not allow him to come of age, and when he expresses his frustration, he gets fired. He joins the DevaCops, gets kidnapped, and escapes to live as a hermit amongst Genetically Modified Organisms. When the equestrian daughter of a SuperUser rescues him, Daddy doesn't approve of their relationship until Ganthal becomes the murdered Godhead "Christopheles Rex," who promised to erase the inequities of iniquity, raise the late departed, and decease the ceased. Drugged into a confession, sentenced to Civil Death, Gnathal doesn't know he must enlist the aide of his lust object to rescue his fiance, who carries the seed of a new human race, or something worse... Our near future, as human cellphones that need a revolution.

A divorced man vacationing in Hawaii, during the off season, thinks he's losing his mind - all the women he meets seem like witches. He doesn't realize a conference of body-mind-spirit aficionado, witches, Wiccans, mediums, spiritualist and other Magic Thinkers, meet on the Big Island of Hawaii. A couple of chance encounters with one convinces both "it was meant to be" and so he joins two beautiful young nudists on a whirlwind tour of the Big Island's charms, and learns some frightening aspects of Godless Goddesses. "Women who read romances feel worthless. Sluts watch porn and feel perfect. The bigger a man's ego, the smaller his you-know-what. Men with tiny thingees overcompensate. They become muscle builders, or drive sports cars, and indulge in risky behavior. Women see that, they nod and lower the head, raise the eyebrows, roll the eyes, and say, "I knew it, no ding-a-ling." All the two-ton, gonad-dangling ball-and-socket hitched pickups in the world can't make up for a limp spaghetti or a puckered raisin. God made a mistake; Adam's rib wasn't a boner, it was a womb. God gave man a penis and a brain, and enough blood for one. Men get excited, the blood runs south, the tongue comes out, and a doglike brain takes over. That's why a man will stick his nose where it doesn't belong, and try to bury his bone by humping your leg while dancing. Men will do anything if they think it's foreplay. My last ex-boyfriend whined "I feel insecure. I can't stop thinking that you don't need me." He came the closest to being right. I appreciate a man who tells me what he wants or needs from me, so I can tell him to learn to get along without it. If you want to give me advice, ask, and I will tell you what to say. If a man can afford me, I might tolerate him. If you love me, I will take advantage of you. If you hurt me, I will destroy you. I think, therefore I am single. I don't want to be divorced. I want to be a widow." Sincerely, Your Next Girlfriend

Mr. Plimsoll joins a North-American 'Christian' philanthropic caravan that converges upon San Diego to deliver used computers to Cuba. The two hundred 'Caravanistas' from North America each donated computers, or paid around $1,000 to go to Cuba, to help end the trade embargo, sanctions, and accusations about Cuba's Human Rights violations. The leadership advertises their showdown with the Feds in the name of Civil Disobedience. Of course the Feds win, and take away all the computers. The 'Caravanistas' hear words of encouragement- to sit it out in a hunger strike until they get the computers back. This doesn't sit well with everyone, especially not with the outspoken Mark Plimsoll. In this first-person account of Mark Plimsoll's BILINGUAL participation on the tour, he adroitly describes the comedic confrontations with police, the FBI, professional protesters, star-crossed lovers, and U.S. Customs agents- and in Cuba, the sexual magnetism between people with money, and people without.

These twelve dazzling stories from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — the Orange Broadband Prize–winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun — are her most intimate works to date. In these stories Adichie turns her penetrating eye to the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Nigeria and the United States. In “A Private Experience,” a medical student hides from a violent riot with a poor Muslim woman, and the young mother at the centre of “Imitation” finds her comfortable life in Philadelphia threatened when she learns that her husband has moved his mistress into their Lagos home. Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow and longing, this collection is a resounding confirmation of Adichie’s prodigious literary powers.

Media and Society: A Critical Perspective offers an accessible introduction to the role that the mass media play in our lives, our society, and American culture. Berger explores the relationship between consumers and media with an emphasis on the shaping influence that both have on each other. This lively text, illustrated with original sketches by the author, equips students with the tools necessary to analyze the media that permeates their lives. The third edition features a discussion of the impact of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media on youth culture, an expanded discussion of media ethics, including the Murdoch phone-tapping scandal, an analysis of how media has affected our political landscape, and updated examples and material on media theories and ideology.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.