Beyond The Valley

How to repair the disconnect between designers and users, producers and consumers, and tech elites and the rest of us: toward a more democratic internet. In this provocative book, Ramesh Srinivasan describes the internet as both an enabler of frictionless efficiency and a dirty tangle of politics, economics, and other inefficient, inharmonious human activities. We may love the immediacy of Google search results, the convenience of buying from Amazon, and the elegance and power of our Apple devices, but it's a one-way, top-down process. We're not asked for our input, or our opinions—only for our data. The internet is brought to us by wealthy technologists in Silicon Valley and China. It's time, Srinivasan argues, that we think in terms beyond the Valley. Srinivasan focuses on the disconnection he sees between designers and users, producers and consumers, and tech elites and the rest of us. The recent Cambridge Analytica and Russian misinformation scandals exemplify the imbalance of a digital world that puts profits before inclusivity and democracy. In search of a more democratic internet, Srinivasan takes us to the mountains of Oaxaca, East and West Africa, China, Scandinavia, North America, and elsewhere, visiting the “design labs” of rural, low-income, and indigenous people around the world. He talks to a range of high-profile public figures—including Elizabeth Warren, David Axelrod, Eric Holder, Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Lessig, and the founders of Reddit, as well as community organizers, labor leaders, and human rights activists.. To make a better internet, Srinivasan says, we need a new ethic of diversity, openness, and inclusivity, empowering those now excluded from decisions about how technologies are designed, who profits from them, and who are surveilled and exploited by them.

A new, unexpected threat forces Alexa to confront giants, bats, ravenous dogs, and a particularly ghoulish mastermind in order to restore peace.

In this seventh installment in the Hannah of Fort Bridger series, twin tragedies set the stage for God's glorious provision. A vicious mountain lion attack leaves beautiful, young rancher Carrie Wright a widow. An outlaw on his way to prison escapes the law long enough to shoot Doug McClain's wife, making him the lonely father of a young daughter. Then heroine Hannah Cooper, newly widowed herself, comforts Carrie with the knowledge that while God's servants will tread through the valley of weeping, they will also keep moving toward another mountaintop. When employment opportunities bring Doug and Carrie together, unexpected sparks fly and finally they can envision a future "beyond the valley."

Will running to a new life in a new world bring happiness--or more trouble?

HETHERINGTON BEYOND THE VALLEY Back Cover Material In the fall of 2003, I was left a widow. Married for forty years, and now alone, I began a journey ... a journey from the deepest grief to a pathway of hope. Out of the depths of my sorrow, I have written a book in which I have shared the cry of my innermost heart to God. God does give hope to the brokenhearted, but it hasn't been an easy journey. It takes time - for me, a long time to journey through grief, but I am learning that there is life again and also a purpose and plan as I place my trust in God. My desire is to bring comfort and hope to others who have lost a spouse, and to show that one is never alone in the journey back to living again. Carol Baker Hetherington is the widow of the Rev. James E. Hetherington, former pastor of Lighthouse Assembly of God in Cleveland, Ohio. She presently resides in Northeastern Ohio, and is an active member of Rock of Grace Family Ministries, involved in several ministries, one of which reaches out to the widow. A mother of three grown children and grandmother of four, Carol keeps busy with family, and also finds time to enjoy her interests in writing, quilting and decorating. Included also is a love of the outdoors as she enjoys walking and spending time in her gardens.

When Sarah Carr's husband Jamie drowns, her young life is shattered and takes a turn that she never expected. Pregnant and now widowed, she reaches out to Jamie's family for help but they are unwilling. Instead they devise a plan to have her kidnapped and taken to the Colonies to live a life of servitude. In the wilds of Maryland, Sarah endures the hardships of being indentured and the debasement of being a woman. In despair, she offers up faithful prayers that are answered. But Sarah's new life in the Colonies finds her surrounded by a family's whirlwind of secrets, while she hopes the young doctor she loves will bring her freedom.

This evocative work of nature writing traverses the world’s largest temperate rainforest to uncover the legend of the Sasquatch. Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest is home to trees as tall as skyscrapers and moss as thick as carpet. According to the people who live there, another giant may dwell in these woods. For centuries, locals have reported encounters with the Sasquatch—a species of hairy man-ape that could inhabit this pristine wilderness. Driven by his childhood obsession with the Sasquatch, yet trying to remain objective, journalist John Zada seeks out the people and stories surrounding this enigmatic creature. He speaks with local Indigenous peoples and a Sasquatch-studying scientist. He hikes with a former bear hunter. Soon, he finds himself on quest for something infinitely more complex, cutting across questions of human perception, scientific inquiry, Indigenous traditions, the environment, and the power of the human imagination to believe in—or to outright dismiss—one of nature’s last great mysteries.

Author Dave Branon knows how it feels to be plunged into the valley of grief. In 2002, his 17-year old daughter was killed in a car accident. In Beyond the Valley, heoffers honest, wrestling questions and insights to help you as you struggle through the death of a loved one. Now almost 20 years after his loss, he shares the truth about his own griefs and the assurance that God is still there. He has known the real doubts about God and His faithfulness that you may feel, and he wants you to know that there is hope.