Shots In The Dark

In the years after World War II, Westerners and Japanese alike elevated Zen to the quintessence of spirituality in Japan. Pursuing the sources of Zen as a Japanese ideal, Shoji Yamada uncovers the surprising role of two cultural touchstones: Eugen Herrigel’s Zen in the Art of Archery and the Ryoanji dry-landscape rock garden. Yamada shows how both became facile conduits for exporting and importing Japanese culture. First published in German in 1948 and translated into Japanese in 1956, Herrigel’s book popularized ideas of Zen both in the West and in Japan. Yamada traces the prewar history of Japanese archery, reveals how Herrigel mistakenly came to understand it as a traditional practice, and explains why the Japanese themselves embraced his interpretation as spiritual discipline. Turning to Ryoanji, Yamada argues that this epitome of Zen in fact bears little relation to Buddhism and is best understood in relation to Chinese myth. For much of its modern history, Ryoanji was a weedy, neglected plot; only after its allegorical role in a 1949 Ozu film was it popularly linked to Zen. Westerners have had a part in redefining Ryoanji, but as in the case of archery, Yamada’s interest is primarily in how the Japanese themselves have invested this cultural site with new value through a spurious association with Zen.

Every week, tens of thousands of children across America are injected with the DPT (diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus) vaccine. The law requires it, and most children will get four DPT shots before they are two years old. But what if one of the components of the vaccine was not safe? What if it caused not only pain, swelling, screaming, and high fever, but also shock, convulsions, brain damage, and even death? And, to make matters worse, what if there were a safer alternative but parents didn't know about it? Wouldn't the government require the drug manufacturers to produce the safer vaccine to protect the lives of the children who might otherwise suffer the shot's crippling side effects? The answer is, unfortunately, no. A Shot in the Dark is a chilling account of just how dangerous the whole-cell pertussis vaccine (the "P" part of the DPT shot) has proven to be. It provides accurate research into the history of the vaccine's development and usage. It exposes the roles played by the FDA and drug companies. It tells the tragic stories of the young victims of the vaccine. This book is also a guide for rightfully concerned parents who are looking for answers to important questions. What are the warning signs to look for to tell if your child is likely to be sensitive to the vaccine? What should parents ask their doctors about the vaccine and their child's medical profile? What is being done, here and in other countries, to combat this frightening situation? What can parents do now to help? A Shot in the Dark is a responsible, eye-opening look at a potential problem that every parent of every young child living in this country must face. Armed with the facts in this important book, parents will be able to make informed decisions about their real medical options. Book jacket.

Starting with Columbine, school shootings have brought the issue of gun control to the forefront of the American consciousness. Why it won't rise to the top of the political agenda is an important part of the story that Will Vizzard tells. Drawing on Congressional hearings, interviews, thirty years of research, and personal experience as a special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the author takes a step back from both advocates and opponents of gun control to survey the U.S. gun landscape. What he finds there is a scene dominated by policy and public opinion extremism as well as a powerful combination of history and symbolism that impede the resolution of this conflict. Neither a call for gun prohibition nor a diatribe against gun control, this book is intended for those with a particular interest in firearms as well as serious students of public policy and criminal justice. In addition to covering a century of gun control policy, the author addresses such current issues as assault weapons, right-to-carry and concealed-carry laws, school shootings, and recent elections. Unlike its several counterparts, SHOTS IN THE DARK sheds light on a balanced and pragmatic approach to gun control legislation.

“A complicated mystery that will surprise even the most experienced of readers” by the author of In the Drink (Kings River Life Magazine). For Mack and her barfly allies, solving homicides calls for equal parts instinct and wit. To strain out a crafty criminal, the mixture has got to be absolutely perfect . . . It’s a week before Christmas, but Milwaukee bar owner Mackenzie “Mack” Dalton is hardly in good spirits. Chilled to the core by the murder of bouncer Gary Gunderson, Mack is determined to use her extra perceptive senses to identify the gunman responsible. Did Gary’s patchy past brew up some fatal trouble, or could his death be linked to a series of cryptic letters concocted by Mack’s anonymous adversary? With a second case to crack, innocent lives at stake, and a media frenzy in their midst, Mack and her barstool detectives have little time to mull over the grim details—especially when clues lead dangerously close to home . . . Includes drink recipes! Praise for the Mack’s Bar Mysteries “The first book in the Mack’s Bar Mystery series is a hit!” —RT Book Reviews “Murder with a Twist has a lot of sleuthing pleasure packed into its pages.” —Fresh Fiction “A good book that was hard to put down. The plot was quite interesting especially Mack’s unique talent which added intrigue to this finely turned drama.” —Dru’s Book Musings

“The fascinating story of the 1963 deaths of Boston mobster Rocco Balliro’s girlfriend and her son in a police shootout . . . a real page-turner.”—Dennis N. Griffin, bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of a “Casino” Mobster On a frigid winter night in early 1963, Rocco Anthony Balliro and a pair of associates stormed a darkened apartment on the outskirts of Boston and were immediately embroiled in a deadly shootout with several unseen assailants. Unbeknownst to Rocco at the time, the men who returned his fire were several Boston police officers, waiting in ambush for him. It was, as Rocco later described it, a hastily planned rescue mission that went downhill in a hurry. In the aftermath, his beloved girlfriend and her toddler son lay dead. “Author Daniel Zimmerman, the woman’s nephew, was granted exclusive access to Balliro in prison and met with him over the course of 2 years to hear his side of the story. This book, which chronicles the events of that night, Balliro’s trial, and his attempt to clear his name is a true crime story with a local twist.”—Patch

As an IT expert and hacker extraordinaire, Wren Nelson is no stranger to discovering all sorts of secrets online. He’s a warrior…when he’s behind his computer, that is. And awkward at best in social situations. His long hours with Blackbridge Security don’t really provide many opportunities to go out and meet people. So what is he supposed to do when a wrong delivery—a questionably large box of bedroom toys—ends up in his hands instead of its intended target? Online stalking has always been his go-to to accumulate information on people, but only seeing Whitney through digital displays isn’t enough. Approaching her doesn’t seem like the best plan either. What he doesn’t know is that this woman is possibly the only one in existence able to give him a run for his money.

In 1984 it was announced that an AIDS vaccine would be ready for testing in two years. More than 15 years later only one vaccine has made it to a field trial. This text explains the reasons for this slow progress.

The charming first novel in a new comic crime series from New York Times bestselling author Lynne Truss. It's 1957, and Inspector Steine rather enjoys his life as a policeman in the seaside British town of Brighton. As far as he's concerned, the town has no criminals, which means no crime, and no stress. But much to Steine's irritation, there's a new constable in town-the keen and clever Constable Twitten, who sees patterns in small, meaningless burglaries and insists on the strange notion that perhaps all the crime has not been cleared out quite as effectively as Steine thinks. Worse yet, some of Constable Twitten's ideas could be correct: when renowned theater critic A. S. Crystal arrives in Brighton to tell the detective the secret he knows about the still-unsolved Aldersgate Stick-Up Case of 1945, he's shot dead in his seat. With a new murder, a new constable, and a new lead on the decades-old mystery, the Brighton Police Force must scramble to solve this delightfully droll mystery in “the funniest crime novel of 2018” (Wall Street Journal).