Coffeeshops are the most famous example of Dutch tolerance. But in fact, these cannabis distributors are highly regulated. Coffeeshops are permitted to break the law, but not the rules. On the premises, there cannot be minors, hard drugs or more than 500 grams. Nor can a coffeeshop advertise, cause nuisance or sell over five grams to a person in a day. These rules are enforced by surprise police checks, with violation punishable by closure. In Grey Area, Scott Jacques examines the regulations with a huge stash of data, which he collected during two years of fieldwork in Amsterdam. How do coffeeshop owners and staff obey the rules? How are the rules broken? Why so? To what effect? The stories and statistics show that order in the midst of smoke is key to Dutch drug policy, vaporising the idea that prohibition is better than regulation. Grey Area is a timely contribution in light of the blazing reform to cannabis policy worldwide. Praise for Grey Area ‘This book is original and highly topical. Logical and well structured, the discussion is firmly located in a large body of contemporary theory. The writing style is conversational, open and accessible. The quality, amount and depth of the empirical work that Jacques has undertaken made me feel that I was there, visiting the coffeeshops with him. Rarely have I seen something as careful and detailed as this work.’ Ronald V. Clarke, Rutgers University, USA 'This book examines the intricacies of operating between law and rules in Amsterdam coffeeshops. Based on an extensive fieldwork, it is arguably the most comprehensive criminological analysis of the issue to date. This is an important work, from an excellent writer, that I warmly recommend to both students and researchers.’ Kim Møller, Malmö University, Sweden

"DON'T read this book if you want to remain comfortable! Eric challenges us to consider what Biblical discipleship looks like based on what Jesus did. Eric writes this book with the integrity of a man who is not merely theorizing about the way things ought to be, rather he is describing what is actually happening as he builds Biblical disciples in the context of the inner city. This book is soundly Biblical, challenging and practical. This book is about building disciples not programs." Roger Hershey, Campus Crusade For Christ "It is a joy to highly commend to all Discipleship Defined, for it is exactly the prescription that is needed for the Church to regain much of our lost effectiveness. "Discipleship Defined" has carefully described, yet without programming it into a rigid system, how to go about this challenging task." Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., President Emeritus Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary "Eric Russ gives us some very straight forward thinking about discipleship, a topic widely misunderstood and undervalued. Moving away from piety-driven discipleship, Russ points us toward a holistic, Christ-centered way of following Jesus." Jonathan Dodson, Lead Pastor Austin City Life, Austin, TX. "Eric has a healthy obsession about strong discipleship, and it shows in a gracious way in this guidebook for muscular commitment. Can you be obsessed and still have a gracious spirit? Eric does, and so does this book!" Knute Larson, Senior Pastor The Chapel, Akron, OH (1983-2009) Eric Russ is lead pastor of Mack Avenue Community Church in Detroit, Michigan. He is married to Sara and has four children. For more information visit www.discipleshipdefined.com or www.mackave.com.

Life isn't always black and white. But even when you're living in the muddled middle, God wants to shine His light into the events of your life; the mundane, the spectacular-even the dark corners. God of the Gray Areas is a book full of true stories, a fascinating glimpse into one woman's life that will reveal how God is at work in your own life. Like a spiritual reality show, it is a grab bag of surprises that will encourage you to come alive to the reality of God's truth-in living color. Jennifer Lopes shares her triumphs, her embarrassments, and her observations of life events, uncovering the comedy, the tragedy and the divine. These simple stories will show you how to hear God speak, and how to see through His eyes, whether you're at Disney World, on the ball field, or just learning to love your neighbor.

"From renowned neuroscientist Adrian Owen comes a thrilling, heartbreaking tale of discovery in one of the least-understood scientific frontiers: the twilight region between full consciousness and brain death. People who inhabit this middle region called the 'gray zone' have sustained traumatic brain injuries or are the victims of stroke or degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Many are oblivious to the outside world, and their doctors and families often believe they're incapable of thought. But a sizable number of patients--as many as twenty percent--are experiencing something different: intact minds adrift within damaged brains and bodies. In 2006, Adrian Owen led a team that discovered this lost population and made medical history, provoking an ongoing debate among scientists, physicians, and philosophers about the meaning, value, and purpose of life. In Into the Gray Zone, we follow Owen as he pushes forward the boundaries of science, using a variety of sophisticated brain scans, auditory prompts, and even Alfred Hitchcock film clips to not only 'find' patients who are trapped inside their heads but to actually communicate with them and elicit answers to moving questions, such as 'Are you in pain?' and 'Do you want to go on living?' and 'Are you happy?' (Many gray zone patients do, in fact, claim to be satisfied with their quality of life.) Into the Gray Zone shines a fascinating light on how we think, remember, and pay attention. And it shows us how the field of brain-computer interfaces is about to explode, radically changing prognoses for people with impaired brain function and creating, for all of us, the tantalizing possibility of telepathy and augmented intelligence. Ultimately; this is not just a spellbinding story of scientific discovery but a deeply human, affirming book that causes us to wonder anew at the indomitable bonds of love."--Jacket.

The first novel in ten years from the author of the beloved New York Times bestseller The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake, a luminous, poignant tale of a mother, a daughter, mental illness, and the fluctuating barrier between the mind and the world On the night her single mother is taken to a mental hospital after a psychotic episode, eight year-old Francie is staying with her babysitter, waiting to take the train to Los Angeles to go live with her aunt and uncle. There is a lovely lamp next to the couch on which she's sleeping, the shade adorned with butterflies. When she wakes, Francie spies a dead butterfly, exactly matching the ones on the lamp, floating in a glass of water. She drinks it before the babysitter can see. Twenty years later, Francie is compelled to make sense of that moment, and two other incidents -- her discovery of a desiccated beetle from a school paper, and a bouquet of dried roses from some curtains. Her recall is exact -- she is sure these things happened. But despite her certainty, she wrestles with the hold these memories maintain over her, and what they say about her own place in the world. As Francie conjures her past and reduces her engagement with the world to a bare minimum, she begins to question her relationship to reality. The scenes set in Francie's past glow with the intensity of childhood perception, how physical objects can take on an otherworldly power. The question for Francie is, What do these events signify? And does this power survive childhood? Told in the lush, lilting prose that led the San Francisco Chronicle to say Aimee Bender is "a writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language," The Butterfly Lampshade is a heartfelt and heartbreaking examination of the sometimes overwhelming power of the material world, and a broken love between mother and child.

Fiftieth anniversary reissue of the founding media studies book that helped establish media art as a cultural category. First published in 1970, Gene Youngblood’s influential Expanded Cinema was the first serious treatment of video, computers, and holography as cinematic technologies. Long considered the bible for media artists, Youngblood’s insider account of 1960s counterculture and the birth of cybernetics remains a mainstay reference in today’s hypermediated digital world. This fiftieth anniversary edition includes a new Introduction by the author that offers conceptual tools for understanding the sociocultural and sociopolitical realities of our present world. A unique eyewitness account of burgeoning experimental film and the birth of video art in the late 1960s, this far- ranging study traces the evolution of cinematic language to the end of fiction, drama, and realism. Vast in scope, its prescient formulations include “the paleocybernetic age,” “intermedia,” the “artist as design scientist,” the “artist as ecologist,” “synaesthetics and kinesthetics,” and “the technosphere: man/machine symbiosis.” Outstanding works are analyzed in detail. Methods of production are meticulously described, including interviews with artists and technologists of the period, such as Nam June Paik, Jordan Belson, Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, Carolee Schneemann, Stan VanDerBeek, Les Levine, and Frank Gillette. An inspiring Introduction by the celebrated polymath and designer R. Buckminster Fuller—a perfectly cut gem of countercultural thinking in itself—places Youngblood’s radical observations in comprehensive perspective. Providing an unparalleled historical documentation, Expanded Cinema clarifies a chapter of countercultural history that is still not fully represented in the arthistorical record half a century later. The book will also inspire the current generation of artists working in ever-newer expansions of the cinematic environment and will prove invaluable to all who are concerned with the technologies that are reshaping the nature of human communication.

"Pseudoscience is not a real thing. The term is a negative category, always ascribed to somebody else's beliefs, not to characterize a doctrine one holds dear oneself. People who espouse fringe ideas never think of themselves as "pseudoscientists"; they think they are following the correct scientific doctrine, even if it is not mainstream. In that sense, there is no such thing as pseudoscience, just disagreements about what the right science is. This is a familiar phenomenon. No believer ever thinks she is a "heretic," for example, or an artist that he produces "bad art." Those are attacks presented by opponents. Yet pseudoscience is also real. The term of abuse is used quite frequently, sometimes even about ideas that are at the core of the scientific mainstream, and those labels have consequences. If the reputation of "pseudoscience" solidifies, then it is very hard for a doctrine to shed the bad reputation. The outcome is plenty of scorn and no legitimacy (or funding) to investigate one's theories. In this, "pseudoscience" is a lot like "heresy": if the label sticks, persecution follows"--