After 16-year-old Freesia learnsNand tells her friendsNthat their perfect life on a luxurious tropical island is not real, she is banished from her virtual world to the "mainland," where people are ugly, school is hard, and families are dysfunctional.

Riding in a Magic Bubble allows children to explore the world - geographically, culturally, and emotionally - inspiring children to see life through loving eyes, with more compassion, caring, and tolerance. The adventures with Bubble are exciting, yet on a soul level, thought-provoking. The stories capture the imagination of all children, because Bubble is their own imagination. When imagination is stimulated, children are naturally more creative, will believe in their dreams, and create their own realities. Bubble is the children's imagination personified. She is the nurturing, loving side within all of us. She is magic, and sees the wonder in all things. Bubble inspires children to dream of the impossible, change their perceptions, and bring their imaginations to life. Bubble opens the doors to a more compassionate and loving world.

How to design a world in which we rely less on stuff, and more on people. We're filling up the world with technology and devices, but we've lost sight of an important question: What is this stuff for? What value does it add to our lives? So asks author John Thackara in his new book, In the Bubble: Designing for a Complex World. These are tough questions for the pushers of technology to answer. Our economic system is centered on technology, so it would be no small matter if "tech" ceased to be an end-in-itself in our daily lives. Technology is not going to go away, but the time to discuss the end it will serve is before we deploy it, not after. We need to ask what purpose will be served by the broadband communications, smart materials, wearable computing, and connected appliances that we're unleashing upon the world. We need to ask what impact all this stuff will have on our daily lives. Who will look after it, and how? In the Bubble is about a world based less on stuff and more on people. Thackara describes a transformation that is taking place now—not in a remote science fiction future; it's not about, as he puts it, "the schlock of the new" but about radical innovation already emerging in daily life. We are regaining respect for what people can do that technology can't. In the Bubble describes services designed to help people carry out daily activities in new ways. Many of these services involve technology—ranging from body implants to wide-bodied jets. But objects and systems play a supporting role in a people-centered world. The design focus is on services, not things. And new principles—above all, lightness—inform the way these services are designed and used. At the heart of In the Bubble is a belief, informed by a wealth of real-world examples, that ethics and responsibility can inform design decisions without impeding social and technical innovation.

"Most of the matter in this book has appeared in the Saturday Evening Post during the last twelve months."--Author's note. June 1, 1932.

Brenner demonstrates that the new economy was always a fragile phenomenon.

Many Christians, especially those in Christian college "bubbles," worry that engaging in interfaith dialogue will require watering down their faith. In this timely book, Marion Larson and Sara Shady help evangelicals engage in interfaith dialogue, offering practical wisdom for turning our faith bubbles into bridges of interfaith engagement.

Cover title.