The Obits The New York Times Annual 2012

The obits. It’s the first section many of us turn to when we open the paper, not to see who died, but rather to find out about who lived to discover the interesting lives of people who’ve made a mark. A new annual that collects nearly 300 of the best of The New York Times obituaries from the previous year, The Obits Annual 2012 is a compelling, addictive-as-salted-peanuts “who’s who” of some of the most fascinating people of the twentieth century. Written by top journalists each entry is a jewel, a miniature, nuanced biography filled with the facts we love to read, with the surprise and serendipity of life. There’s David L. Wolper, the producer of Roots—and the story of how he got his start purchasing film footage from Sputnik. The jazz singer, Abbey Lincoln, and her change from glamorous performer—she owned a dress of Marilyn Monroe’s—to civil rights activist (she burned the Monroe dress). Owsley Stanley, the quirky perfecter of LSD, who blamed a heart attack on the fact that his mother made him eat broccoli as a child. Patricia Neal—known by most as a movie star, but her real life, filled with tragedy, adversity, and incredible professional ups and downs, is almost a surreal play of triumph and tragedy. Arranged chronologically, like the obits themselves, it’s a deliciously random walk through the recent past, meeting the philosophers, newsmen, spies, publishers, moguls, soul singers, baseball managers, Nobel Prize winners, models, and others who’ve shaped the world.

Now that you have a new NOOK HD Tablet, all you need is the know-how to take full advantage of its features. With this book, technology expert Preston Gralla provides clear instructions, full-color illustrations, and savvy advice to help you get up to speed on the new video and family-friendly features, as well as manage WiFi access, web browsing, email, and apps. Make the most out of your sleek device with the best NOOK guide you’ll find anywhere. The important stuff you need to know: Relax with a book. Load your NOOK library with ebooks, comics, and interactive books for kids. Play with apps. Enjoy the games and apps everyone’s talking about. Go online. Browse the Web and check your email with built-in WiFi. Spread the word. Share books and recommendations with your NOOK Friends and Facebook and Twitter contacts. Take in a show. Watch movies and TV series, and listen to your favorite music anywhere. Read all about it. Subscribe to a variety of magazines and newspapers.

Modern Sports around the World focuses on the history, geography, sociology, economics, and technological advancements of 50 sports played from India to Ireland. Sports have become an international spectacle that influences nations' foreign policy, world economies, and regional morale. Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake as governments and multinational corporations rush to make sure they have a place at the table. And yet, sports come from humble beginnings. We are fascinated by who can run the fastest, lift the most weight, jump the highest, swim the farthest, and act with the most precision. The history of sports is the history of the world. Modern Sports around the World examines 50 of the world's most popular sports. Each chapter features one sport and details that sport's origins, global migration, economic forces, media influences, political environment, pop-culture inspirations, scandalous moments, and key individuals. Sports history is a tapestry of sociological variables; Modern Sports around the World weaves them together to create a unique history book that explains not only where humanity has been, but where it might be going.

Eat more steak, drink more whiskey, take more naps, lay off all the kale, and throw out your multivitamins and standing desk. In The Good News About What's Bad For You...The Bad News About What's Good for You author Jeff Wilser shares all the research that allows you to celebrate all your vices and stop feeling bad about not brushing your teeth after eating that extra slice of cake. This book has two sides to it: one sharing all the good news, then the flip side contains all the bad news, making this the perfect gift that people will want to share and commiserate over with friends. Told with wit, charm, and a large dose of humor, the author sprints through a broad range of topics-from coffee to green tea, tequila to Vitamin Water, to apologizing and swearing. Wilser sifts through each study to reveal everything from the merits of procrastination to the downsides of yoga. In an age where so many people bend over backwards in pursuit of the most healthy and "pure" lifestyle, The Good News/The Bad News reminds readers to stop denying yourself pleasure and brings back to the tried-and-true golden rule of "everything in moderation."

Much of the existing literature on happiness in Japan has been produced in the field of economics and psychology and is quantitative in nature. Here, for the first time, a group of anthropologists and sociologists jointly analyze the state of happiness and unhappiness in Japan among varying social groups in its physical, interpersonal, existential and structural dimensions, offering new insights into fundamental issues. This book investigates the connections between sociostructural aspects, individual agency and happiness in contemporary Japan from a life course perspective. The contributors examine quantitative and qualitative empirical data on the processes that impact how happiness and well-being are envisioned, crafted, and debated in Japan across the life-cycle. Therefore, the book discusses the shifting notions of happiness during people’s lives from birth to death, analyzing the age group-specific experiences while taking into consideration people’s life trajectories and historical changes. It points out recent developments in regards to demographic change, late marriage, and the changing labor market and focuses on their significant impact on the well-being of Japanese people. In particular it highlights the interdependencies of lives within the family and how families are collaborating for the purpose of maintaining or enhancing the happiness of its members. Broadening our understanding of the multidimensionality of happiness in Japan, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Japanese Studies, Anthropology, and Sociology.

It is difficult to find an area of public policy more plagued by misunderstanding than energy policy. Even worse, every time the subject is raised, we are obligated to get mired in pointless arguments about the weather. This book helps set the record straight. Not convinced? Consider some of these inconvenient truths: The cost of green energy climate remediation is anywhere from 10 to 1,000 times greater than the damage from the climate change it attempts to alleviate. Obama's carbon tax would cost Americans $1.2 trillion over just ten years, but would only reduce the midrange three-degree modeled twenty-second-century global temperature increase by 0.038 degrees Celsius. This is not another skeptical global warming polemic, but an economic evaluation of how and why green energy will fail. A thoroughly researched, heavily documented book by an expert in his field, it will demonstrate in meticulous detail how wasteful and economically inefficient Obama's green energy future will be compared to other worthy alternatives.