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- The plague year : America in the time of Covid / by Wright, Lawrence,1947-author.;
- Includes bibliographical references and index."From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, whose best-selling thriller The End of the October all but predicted our current pandemic, comes another momentous account, this time of COVID-19: its origins, its myriad repercussions, and the ongoing fight to contain it. Beginning with the absolutely critical first moments of the outbreak in China, and ending with an epilogue on the vaccine rollout and the unprecedented events between the election of Joseph Biden and his inauguration, Lawrence Wright's The Plague Year surges forward with essential information--and fascinating historical parallels--examining the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wright takes us inside the CDC, where the first round of faulty test kits cost America precious time; inside the halls of the White House, where Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger's early alarm about the virus was met with great skepticism; into a COVID ward in a Charlottesville hospital, with an idealistic young woman doctor from Little Africa, South Carolina; into the precincts of prediction specialists at Goldman Sachs; and even inside the human body, diving deep into the science of just how the virus and vaccines function, with an eye-opening detour into the history of vaccination and of the modern anti-vaxxer movement. In turns steely eyed, sympathetic, infuriated, comical, and always precise, Wright is a formidable guide, slicing through the dense fog of misinformation to give us a 360-degree portrait of the catastrophe we thought we knew. His full accounting does honor to the medical professionals around the country who've risked their lives to fight the virus, revealing America in all its vulnerability, courage, and potential"--
- Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease);
- UFO : the inside story of the US government's search for alien life here-and out there / by Graff, Garrett M.,1981-author.;
- Includes bibliographical references and index.'UFO' by Garrett M. Graff is the first comprehensive and eye-opening exploration of the American government's decades-long quest to solve one of humanity's greatest mysteries: are we alone in the universe? For as long as we have looked to the skies, the question of whether life on Earth is the only life to exist has been at the core of the human experience, driving scientific debate and discovery, shaping spiritual belief, and prompting existential thought across borders and generations. And yet, the idea of extraterrestrial intelligence has been largely seen as a joke, banished to the realm of fantasy and conspiracy. Now, for the first time, the full story of our national obsession with UFOs-and the covert, decades-long search by scientists, the United States military, and the CIA for proof of alien life-is told by bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff in a deeply reported and researched history. Drawing from original archival research, declassified documents, and interviews with senior intelligence and military officials, Graff brings every moment of this extraordinary quest to life, transporting readers from secret military meetings and congressional hearings, where the validity of the search is debated, to the cluttered offices of UFOlogists and hoaxers determined to see the truth revealed, remote observatories where astronomers monitor the stars, and even the halls of the White House, where staffers and presidents alike eagerly await answers. Filled with twists and turns, and populated by an unforgettable cast of characters, UFO is a thrilling story of science, national security, the secrets of space, and the enduring mysteries of the universe.
- Subjects: Extraterrestrial beings.; Government information; Human-alien encounters.; Unidentified flying objects.; Unidentified flying objects; Unidentified flying objects;
- Hunt the Leopard / by Mann, Don,1957-; Pezzullo, Ralph.;
- Thomas Crocker's SEAL Team Six crew deploys to the Nigerian jungle to combat arms and human trafficking by Boko Haram, in Don Mann and Ralph Pezzullo's latest fiercely authentic military thriller. The charismatic Boko Haram leader Ratty Festus, also known as the Leopard, has been terrorizing drought-ridden northeastern Nigeria: raiding villages, blowing up government buildings, and kidnapping schoolgirls. When Thomas Crocker and his Black Cell team, who are in the country on a special training mission, hear about a possible arms-for-schoolgirls exchange between Boko Haram and a Russian arms dealer on the Cameroon border, they convince a Nigerian Special Forces unit to join them in trying to stop it. The operation quickly goes south, with a deadly helicopter crash and an ambush. They can't manage to save all of the girls, even with assistance from a quick-thinking group of British private-security contractors. A week later, the Leopard seizes control of a $500-million dollar Gulf Oil natural gas plant, demanding a $50-million dollar ransom and safe passage out of the compound. Crocker has just 24 hours to plan and execute a high-risk, low-probability, mission to rescue all eighty innocent hostages--including two of his own who are trapped with the civilians.
- Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Spy fiction.; War fiction.; United States. Navy. SEALs; Terrorists; Hostages; Adventure stories;
- Chasing shadows : cyber espionage, subversion, and the global fight for democracy / by Deibert, Ronald,author.;
- Includes bibliographical references and index."In this real-life espionage thriller, cyber security expert Ronald Deibert uncovers the unseemly marketplace for high-tech surveillance, professional disinformation, and computerized malfeasance and reveals how his team of digital sleuths at the Citizen Lab have lifted the lid on dozens of spy cases targeting innocent citizens around the world. He recounts how the Lab exposed the world's pre-eminent cyber-mercenary firm, Israel-based NSO Group -- the creators of the phone-hacking marvel Pegasus -- in a series of human rights abuses, from domestic spying scandals in Spain, Poland, Hungary, and Greece to its implication in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Today, NSO Group, once valued at over a billion dollars, faces plummeting worth and an irretrievably tarnished reputation. Chasing Shadows provides a front-row seat to a dark underworld of digital espionage, sabotage, and subversion where autocrats and dictators peer into their targets' lives with the mere press of a button, spreading their tentacles of authoritarianism through a digital ecosystem that is insecure, invasive by design, poorly regulated, and prone to abuse. The brave activists, opposition figures, and journalists who dare to advocate for basic political rights and freedoms are hounded, arrested, tortured, and sometimes murdered. From the gritty streets of Guatemala City to the corridors of power in the White House, this compelling narrative traces the journey of the Citizen Lab, a pioneering digital watchdog, as it evolved into a globally renowned source of counter-intelligence for civil society and whose exploits are routinely covered in the world's media. But as this small team of sleuths disarmed cyber mercenaries and helped to improve the digital security of billions of people worldwide, their success came with a price. The Citizen Lab's dogged investigations ultimately brought them, too, into the same sinister crosshairs that plagued the victims they worked to protect. Like a John Le Carré novel brought to life and updated for the digital age, this book is a powerful tale of high-stakes espionage, transnational intrigue, and the inevitable toll exacted when one dares to defy oligarchs and dictators. You'll never look at your smartphone the same way again"--
- Subjects: Munk Centre for International Studies. Citizen Lab.; Computer crimes.; Computer security.; Disinformation.; Electronic surveillance.; Espionage.; Intelligence service.;
- The peace : a warrior's journey / by Dallaire, Roméo,author.; Humphreys, Jessica Dee,author.;
- Includes bibliographical references and index."In The Peace, Roméo Dallaire shows us the face of war through the prism of his own life in the military. His has been the journey of a man raised as a Cold Warrior, who became a New World Order warrior after the Berlin Wall fell. That man believed in the mandate of the UN to reinforce peace in Rwanda in 1994, only to see his mission collapse and the country descend into the hell of genocide. The battered, tortured person who emerged from that catastrophe grew determined to become a warrior who now fought against the new world disorder--to prevent genocide, to find ways to intervene in conflicts in defence of humanity. Dallaire helped craft doctrines called the "will to intervene" and "the right to protect," and then witnessed those initiatives fail to be deployed because of the same old power politics, national self-interest and general indifference that allowed the Rwandan genocide to unfold. Now in his final act, Dallaire has become a warrior working towards a better future in which those old paradigms are cracked. In The Peace he names all the things that undermine true peace and security because they reinforce the dangerous, self-interested belief that "balance" of power is the best we can do. Too often we settle for a definition of "at peace" that means we are content to stand by when the bombs are falling elsewhere because we ourselves are not under attack. Drawing on his own experience and witness, Dallaire shows us a path to what he calls "the peace," a state where, above all else, humanity values the ties that bind us and the planet together--and acts accordingly. The Peace is the cri de coeur of a warrior who has been to hell and back, and hopes to guide us to a better place."--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Dallaire, Roméo.; International relations.; Peace.; Security, International.;
- Commanding hope : the power we have to renew a world in peril / by Homer-Dixon, Thomas F.,author.;
- "Calling on history, cutting-edge research, complexity science and even Lord of the Rings, Homer-Dixon lays out the tools we can command to rescue a world on the brink. For three decades, the renowned author of The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, and The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future?, has examined the threats to our future security--predicting a deteriorating global environment, extreme economic stresses, mass migrations, social instability and wide political violence if humankind continued on its current course. He was called The Doom Meister, but we now see how prescient he was. Today just about everything we've known and relied on (our natural environment, economy, societies, cultures and institutions) is changing dramatically--too often for the worse. Without radical new approaches, our planet will become unrecognizable as well as poorer, more violent, more authoritarian. In his fascinating long-awaited new book (dedicated to his young children), he calls on his extraordinary knowledge of complexity science, of how societies work and can evolve, and of our capacity to handle threats, to show that we can shift human civilization onto a decisively new path if we mobilize our minds, spirits, imaginations and collective values. Commanding Hope marshals a fascinating, accessible argument for reinvigorating our cognitive strengths and belief systems to affect urgent systemic change, strengthen our economies and cultures, and renew our hope in a positive future for everyone on Earth."-- Provided by publisher.
- Subjects: Creative ability.; Environmental responsibility.; Social change.;
- The Marriott cell : an epic journey from Cairo's Scorpion Prison to freedom / by Fahmy, Mohamed Fadel,author.; Shaben, Carol,author.;
- Includes bibliographical references."The revealing, widely anticipated story by the internationally award-winning journalist is as riveting as a political thriller: it opens an astonishing window onto the closed world of geo-political power brokering as he takes us behind his headline-generating seizure and 438-day imprisonment in Cairo's notorious Scorpion Prison with leading terrorists; through the love story that made front-page news; to the profoundly personal drama of one man's fight for freedom, supported by Canadians across the country and media world-wide. With a foreword by international human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney. On the night of December 29, 2013, the Egyptian government's anti-terror forces led a dramatic raid on the Marriott Hotel, seizing Fahmy, Canadian-Egyptian bureau chief for the independent English Al Jazeera, and two fellow journalists in what quickly became an international cause célèbre condemned as a travesty of justice. Inside the maximum-security Scorpion Prison, Fahmy found himself with some of the most hardened Al Qaeda and ISIS extremists and Muslim Brotherhood leaders: always intrepid, he never stopped being a journalist, courageously taking advantage of his unexpected proximity to "interview" them and gain insight into their goals, into the feuds between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE on the one hand, and Qatar and its allies, including Turkey, on the other, and surfacing shocking details of torture inside military camps. Thrown into the toxic mix is the complex geo-political power brokering of our Western governments also, which left three men, wrongly convicted of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood and "fabricating news," struggling in a terrifying web he describes as "Global McCarthyism" and a war on journalism. Threaded through it all is an inspiring love story, as Fahmy's fiancée, Marwa, used every means at her disposal to fight for his release and his health, even to risking her own freedom smuggling cell phones and messages in and out of prison."--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Fahmy, Mohamed Fadel; Fahmy, Mohamed Fadel.; False arrest; False imprisonment; Journalists; Journalists; Prisons;
- Sinking cities [videorecording] : a four-part series on the global threat of climate change / by Lang, Gary,screenwriter.; Pupp, Martin,television producer,television director.; Theodore, Lisa,narrator.; Travers, Ben,television producer.; PBS Distribution (Firm),distributor.; Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.),production company,broadcaster.;
- Narrator, Lisa Theodore.As the earth warms, sea levels rise, and super-storms become more frequent and intense; many major coastal cities will soon be under water. Sinking Cities shows New York, London, Tokyo and Miami preparing for the real-time impact of rising seas and devising colossal new construction projects, and groundbreaking solutions aimed at securing their future.E.DVD ; widescreen presentation ; stereo.
- Subjects: Nonfiction television programs.; Environmental television programs.; Documentary television programs.; Science television programs.; Television mini-series.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Climatic changes.; Global warming.; Nature; Sea level;
- For private home use only.
- Inspiring Canadians : forty brilliant Canadians & their visions for the nation / by Bulgutch, Mark,author.; Mansbridge, Peter,writer of foreword.;
- Forty influential and diverse Canadians with expertise in subjects such as Indigenous rights, climate change, social justice and race, gun control, higher education and poetry reflect on everything Canada is getting right--and what still needs to change to make the country even better. Acclaimed journalist Mark Bulgutch collects inspiring stories and ideas from multifaceted Canadians whose love for Canada compels them to make this country a better place for all--ultimately revealing that equal parts critique and celebration is the key to a thriving nation. These chapters spotlight visions of a more sustainable, equitable, welcoming--and fun!--country from Canadians who believe in the possibility of an even better future. Including: Perry Bellegarde on upholding the rights of Indigenous people; Adam Fenech on adapting to climate change; Najma Ahmed on ending the contagion of gun violence; Mack Rogers on how literacy solves problems; Laura Tamblyn Watts on securing the future for seniors; Katie Ward on the innovations of Canadian agriculture; Santa Ono on how higher education keeps Canada competitive; Michael Levitt on the value of an MP; Paulette Senior on equal opportunity for women; Kenneth Sherman on poetry and the human spirit; Michael Prince on ensuring dignity for people with disabilities; Donald MacPherson on how drug overdoses can be dramatically reduced; Kwame McKenzie on mental health and happiness; Duff Conacher on improving Canadian democracy; and many more. This dynamic collection is sure to spark debate and showcase how the fabric of a country is defined by its multiplicity of voices, cultures, stories and ideas. Weaving together these diverse viewpoints, Bulgutch leads us into the future--compelling us to do the most Canadian of things: change the world, and our nation, for the better.
- Subjects: Social prediction;
- The dragon wakes with thunder / by Song, K. X.,author.;
- "A young woman who wields the unimaginable power of the dragon spirit must decide who to support -- and who to love -- in this enthralling fantasy that reimagines the legend of Mulan. The explosive conclusion to The Night Ends with Fire! The war may be over, but Hai Meilin is still paying a heavy toll. In spite of securing victory for the kingdom of Anlai, she is imprisoned upon her return. Her crime? Wielding a sword as a woman. In the palace, Meilin is an outcast and a social pariah. But beyond the imperial walls, the legend of the woman warrior has taken on a life of its own. To the east, a new rebel leader needs Meilin to helm his people's revolution. In the south, a former enemy prince, now a prisoner of war, seeks Meilin's aid in restoring balance to the Three Kingdoms. And back home in Anlai, Liu Sky, Meilin's commander and first love, requires Meilin by his side in his bid for the throne. Pulled in all directions by those who seek to use her for their own ends, Meilin vows that this time, she will not be so quick to trust. Yet there is one she cannot help but listen to -- for he dwells within her. Beyond any human machinations, the sea dragon Qinglong has his own plans for the spirit realm. During the last war, Meilin wielded his power to cheat death and attain victory for Anlai; now the dragon has come to collect his dues. Meilin's mother warned her long ago: The spirits demand blood. And Qinglong is ravenous"--
- Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Novels.; Dragons; Imaginary wars and battles; Magic; Man-woman relationships; Sex role;
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