Coronasphere

This book presents a broad overview of the challenges posed by COVID-19 in India and its neighboring countries. It studies the differing responses to COVID-19 infections across South Asia, the variegated impact of the pandemic on its societies, communities and economies, and emerging challenges which require an interdisciplinary understanding and analysis. With a range of case studies from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, this book, Analyses the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, including the structural challenges faced by farmers in the agricultural production and migrant workers in the informal sectors; Examines the shifting trends in migration and displacement during the pandemic; Explores the precarity faced by LGBTQ+, transgender, Dalit, tribal, senior citizens, and other marginalized communities during the pandemic; Discusses the gendered impact of the pandemic on women and girls, combining with multiple and intersecting inequalities like race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, age, geographical location, and sexual orientation; Sheds light on the position of health infrastructure and healthcare services across different countries, and the transitions experienced in their education sectors as well, in response to COVID-19. A holistic read on the pandemic, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of sociology, medical anthropology, sociology of health, pandemic and health studies, political studies, social anthropology, public policy, and South Asian studies.

Kasidy Vulkner has fallen through a celestial hole in space and time that has brought her into an alternate dimension where she has an unexpected reunion with an old friend, but also encounters an old enemy. The Venusian Galaxy’s favorite rogue—The Abominable Hotfire, currently an inmate in the Bokhun Planetary Asylum for the Criminally Insane—is not living his best life. He claims that the worst warlord in the galaxy, Diabolix, is very much alive when the everyone is convinced he’s quite dead. Meanwhile, Empress Yellowtail’s only heir, Jellina, has designs on conquering the galaxy. Key to this plan of universal domination is locating the ancient device the Sword of Aeschylean, which will enable Jellina to enslave the universe. And the only being that might be able to stop her is an Abomination.

A rigorous primer in movement studies for designers, engineers, and scientists that draws on the fields of dance and robotics. How should a gestural interface react to a “flick” versus a “dab”? Versus a “punch”? Should robots reach out to a human counterpart with a direct, telescoping action or through a circuitous arc in space? Just as different movements express the different internal states of human movers, so too can the engineered systems behind robots. In Making Meaning with Machines, Amy LaViers and Catherine Maguire offer a refreshingly embodied approach to machine design that supports the growing need to make meaning with machines by using the field of movement studies, including choreography, somatics, and notation, to engage in the process of designing expressive robots. Drawing upon the Laban/Bartenieff tradition, LaViers and Maguire sharpen the movement analysis methodology, expanding the material through their work with machines and putting forward new conventions, such as capitalization, naming, and notation schemes, that make the embodied work more legible for academic contexts. The book includes an overview of movement studies, exercises that define the presented taxonomy and principles of movement, case studies in movement analysis of both humans and robots, and state-of-the-art research at the intersection of robotics and dance. Making Meaning with Machines is a much-needed primer for observing, describing, and creating a wide array of movement patterns, which ultimately can help facilitate broader and better design choices for roboticists, technologists, and designers.

A humourous suggestion, leads to a gruesome discovery. In this tenth year's worth of entries from a diary stored on a futuristic recording device found after a house fire, Andrew Woodmaker investigates the patterns of a serial killer, and ponders a life-changing decision. In 2023, Middle Eastern tensions spread, as the Americans become involved in the conflict. On Mercury, the Russian mission makes a surprising discovery, while the British Skylon finally attempts its first mission into space. Andrew Woodmaker is persuaded to begin a new investigation, but at work his hopes are dashed as an important job goes to someone else. Nobody knows if this is a work of fiction or a true record of how things happened, and will happen. By reading the diary, some things may have already begun to change, and the future is not what it was. But it could be that this is how it would have been.

Presents the compelling argument for Tesla's most ambitious project, the wireless transmission of power. A possible solution to the world power crisis.

Explores the intrinsic relation of life to air, and breathing, through contemporary art In Out of Breath, Caterina Albano examines the cultural significance of breath and air to a wide array of forces in our midst, including economy, politics, infection, and ecological violence. Through a consideration of recent art practices and projects, including the dance project Breath Catalogue, which makes visible the breathing patterns of dancers, and Forensic Architecture’s Cloud Studies video, which investigates eight different kinds of clouds from airstrikes to herbicides to tear gas, Albano focuses on breath as both an intuitive process and a conveyer of meanings. Conceived in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and systemic inequalities that it has laid bare, Out of Breath shows the potential of artistic practices to mobilize affect as a form of cultural and political critique. Forerunners is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital works. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.