Spinning The Law

A behind-the-scenes analysis of media strategies not taught in law school or journalism classes, this collection of entertaining examples and explanations make for ideal reading for everyone fascinated by celebrity legal problems.

We're all familiar with the warning, "Don't believe everything you see or hear." Bill Press, the popular co-host of CNN's Crossfire, will have you wondering whether you should believe anything at all. Spin -- intentional manipulation of the truth -- is everywhere. It's in the White House, in the courtrooms, in headlines and advertising slogans. Even couples on dates -- not to mention book jackets -- are guilty of spin. Now, analyst Bill Press freeze-frames the culture of spin to investigate what exactly spin is, who does it and why, and its impact on American society as a whole. Depending upon who is doing it, spinning can mean anything from portraying a difficult situation in the best possible light to completely disregarding the facts with the intent of averting embarrassment or scandal. Using examples drawn from recent history -- the Clinton presidency, the Florida recount, and the Bush White House -- Press first probes spin's favorite haunt: politics. In addition to surveying the incarnations of spin in the fields of journalism, law, and advertising, Press also chews on the spin of sex and "dating," a word that has become the very embodiment of spin. Perhaps surprisingly, however, Press argues that spin isn't all bad, and that without it the harsh truths of our times might be too tough to swallow. With the same keen sense of humor that helped make CNN's Crossfire television's premier debate show and the limited run of The Spin Room so popular, Press turns the tables on the prime purveyors of spin -- called spin doctors -- noting some of their biggest guffaws and blunders. As Press notes, it has become abundantly clear that the twenty-first century, beginning as it has with a president who was "spun into office," will be a fertile stomping ground for spin.

Miriam Peskowitz offers a dramatic revision to our understanding of early rabbinic Judaism. Using a wide range of sources—archaeology, legal texts, grave goods, technology, art, and writings in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin—she challenges traditional assumptions regarding Judaism's historical development. Following the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by Roman armies in 70 C.E., new incarnations of Judaism emerged. Of these, rabbinic Judaism was the most successful, becoming the classical form of the religion. Through ancient stories involving Jewish spinners and weavers, Peskowitz re-examines this critical moment in Jewish history and presents a feminist interpretation in which gender takes center stage. She shows how notions of female and male were developed by the rabbis of Roman Palestine and why the distinctions were so important in the formation of their religious and legal tradition. Rabbinic attention to women, men, sexuality, and gender took place within the "ordinary tedium of everyday life, in acts that were both familiar and mundane." While spinners and weavers performed what seemed like ordinary tasks, their craft was in fact symbolic of larger gender and sexual issues, which Peskowitz deftly explicates. Her study of ancient spinning and her abundant source material will set new standards in the fields of gender studies, Jewish studies, and cultural studies.

Since time immemorial Indian textiles, especially textiles from Bengal, were in great demand and exported to different parts of the world. Textiles from Bengal were appreciated by the Romans as early as first century ad. Numerous foreign travellers including Chinese, Portuguese, Arab and Persian, have mentioned the delicacy and beauty of Bengal textiles. From the mid-seventeenth century, there was a massive spurt in demand of cloth manufactured in Bengal, but after the British conquest of Bengal in 1757 this industry started to decline. This monograph traces the journey of Bengal textiles till its decline. Among the topics covered include accounts of the admiration for Bengal textiles from far and wide, the different types of textiles that were manufactured in Bengal, the major exporters, the major centres of production, the production system, the Dhaka muslin and the silk industry in Bengal, the procuring system that was adopted by the European / Asian merchants, the condition of the artisans who were the chief pillars of the textile industry and lastly the reasons behind the decline of the Bengal textile industry. This is the first comprehensive volume on Bengal textile industry. It is the outcome of the author’s four and a half decades of work on various aspects of Indian Ocean trade, the activities of the European companies and their impact on Indian / Bengal’s economy. Please note: This title is co-published with Manohar Publishers, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

This book covers recent developments in the understanding, quantification, and exploitation of entanglement in spin chain models from both condensed matter and quantum information perspectives. Spin chain models are at the foundation of condensed matter physics and quantum information technologies and elucidate many fundamental phenomena such as information scrambling, quantum phase transitions, and many-body localization. Moreover, many quantum materials and emerging quantum devices are well described by spin chains. Comprising accessible, self-contained chapters written by leading researchers, this book is essential reading for graduate students and researchers in quantum materials and quantum information. The coverage is comprehensive, from the fundamental entanglement aspects of quantum criticality, non-equilibrium dynamics, classical and quantum simulation of spin chains through to their experimental realizations, and beyond into machine learning applications.

Morrissey’s acclaimed, bestselling debut. “A Dickensian brawl of a novel . . . never a dull moment! The reader is willingly swept along in the tide.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch In this powerful novel from one of the most gifted storytellers to emerge from Canada since Carol Shields, we find “all the old-fashioned virtues: a vivid sense of place, an intricate and suspenseful plot, and a feisty heroine whom we can’t help rooting for on every page” (Margot Livesey). Kit Pitman is fourteen and lives in a ramshackle cottage on the outer banks of Newfoundland, where isolation is all she knows. The only visitors are fogbound fishermen and an occasional young man brought ashore to keep the bloodlines clean. But Kit’s isolation is compounded by the mystery that surrounds her family and her illegitimate birth. Her mother, Josie, is mentally disabled and often runs wild among the clapboard houses that dot the shore. Meanwhile, her grandmother Lizzie staunchly guards them both from the disapproving glances pious townsfolk cast their way. But when Lizzie dies suddenly, Kit and her childlike mother are left vulnerable to life’s harsh realities and to unexpected dangers that repeatedly threaten to break them apart. A wrenching story ensues, as Morrissey depicts with exceptional grace the way the lines between mother and daughter in this unlikely relationship, although blurred, are deeply felt. Kit’s Law is a novel of extraordinary, almost mythical power and marks the debut of an enormous new talent. “An extraordinary trinity of women.” —Thomas Keneally, #1 bestselling author of Schindler’s List “A stunning debut.” —The Telegraph “Impossible to put down.” —The Sunday Business Post “Speaks directly to the heart.” —The Globe and Mail

Corporate Spin-Off processes are very interesting phenomena formanagement theory and practice. In theory, Corporate Spin-Offs areboth a driver and a result of organisational change, offering thepossibility to investigate an area where companies are genuinelysharing experience and best practice. Although Corporate Spin-Offs canbe clearly distinguished from other types of start-ups and divestmentsand despite combining key-characteristics in a unique way, existinginvestigation is sparse and heterogeneous. In practice, CorporateSpin-Off processes are frequent and highly successful, but not aswell-regarded as Merger & Acquisition strategies and less understoodby the decision-makers.The present work was designed to meet these demands by analysing thesuccess factors of Corporate Spin-Offs, their relative contribution tothe process and the role of the different actors involved. Based on anextensive literature review and a new Spin-Off typology, a broad rangeof success factors and success dimensions is proposed. Using acombination of multivariate models, the responses from 211 Europeancompanies to a questionnaire are analysed and typologies derived.Among the single factors, customer participation, the transfer ofmanagerial and market-related experience and the main motivation arethe most important ones for the Spin-Off process and its success. Thetypologies reveal characteristic factors sets, showing for examplethat high-growth Spin-Offs benefited over-proportionally from sectorgrowth or the access to relations with customers or suppliers. Thisproduces a new and comprehensive perspective on the relativecontribution of each success factor, their interaction, and thebehaviour of both the parentand the Spin-Off companies in theprocess. These results are highly valuable for managers, scientists inthe field and policy-makers.