The Thaw

The period from Stalin's death in 1953 to the end of the 1960s marked a crucial epoch in Soviet history. Though not overtly revolutionary, this era produced significant shifts in policies, ideas, language, artistic practices, daily behaviours, and material life. It was also during this time that social, cultural, and intellectual processes in the USSR began to parallel those in the West (and particularly in Europe) as never before. This volume examines in fascinating detail the various facets of Soviet life during the 1950s and 1960s, a period termed the 'Thaw.' Featuring innovative research by historical, literary, and film scholars from across the world, this book helps to answer fundamental questions about the nature and ultimate fortune of the Soviet order – both in its internal dynamics and in its long-term and global perspectives.

Dane is a thousand miles south of his home in northern New York. It's not the warm winter that keeps him off his skis, though. Not even creepy Isaac, who wanders by in Mardi Gras beads and a top hat, could block Dane from a Nordic race. Guillain-Barre Syndrome is the culprit, a paralyzing disease that has committed the high-school senior to a hospital bed indefinitely. Days in bed pass and Dane recalls both his former prowess and his disdain for the people in his life. Physical recovery is painfullu slow, though, and it becomes clear that Dane may not fully regain the use of his body, that he may become one of the losers he abhors. As this threat grows more immediate, either Dane's icy mind will crack, or the young man will learn to thaw.

Explores the unprecedented and rapid climate changes occurring in the Arctic environment. Climate change, one of the drivers of global change, is controversial in political circles, but recognized in scientific ones as being of central importance today for the United States and the world. In The Big Thaw, the editors bring together experts, advocates, and academic professionals who address the serious issue of how climate change in the Circumpolar Arctic is affecting and will continue to affect environments, cultures, societies, and economies throughout the world. The contributors discuss a variety of topics, including anthropology, sociology, human geography, community economics, regional development and planning, and political science, as well as biogeophysical sciences such as ecology, human-environmental interactions, and climatology. At the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Ezra B. W. Zubrow is Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology. At the University of Buffalo’s School of Law, Errol Meidinger is Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor of Law. At the University of Buffalo’s School of Law, Kim Diana Connolly is Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Advocacy and Experiential Education.

Thaw delves into the issues at the core of a resilient family: kinship, poverty, violence, death, abuse, and grief. The poems follow the speaker, as both mother and daughter, as she travels through harsh and beautiful landscapes in Canada, Sweden, and the United States. Moving through these places, she examines how her surroundings affect her inner landscape; the natural world becomes both a place of refuge and a threat. As these themes unfold, the histories and cold truths of her family and country intertwine and impinge on her, even as she tries to outrun them. Unflinching and raw, Chelsea Dingman's poems meander between childhood and adulthood, the experiences of being a mother and a child paralleling one another. Her investigation becomes one of body, self, woman, mother, daughter, sister, and citizen, and of what those roles mean in the contexts of family and country.

Permafrost--dark, ice-flaked, permanently frozen ground that lies under tundra and boreal forests across our northern regions--covers more than 12 percent of the earth's land mass. It exists in places that seem otherworldly and unimaginably remote to most of us, but the changes taking place in the permafrost layer may ultimately affect the lives of every person on Earth. InThe Big Thaw, readers meet a diverse team of scientists and students who have been studying the permafrost and what lies beneath: a vast store of ancient carbon, more than four times the quantity found in all of today's forests, which is releasing carbon dioxide and methane as the permafrost melts. The release of all this carbon would alter Earth's climate forever. Braving endless hordes of mosquitoes, quicksand, and extreme temperatures, the researchers are racing against the clock to educate us all about the changes we must make in order to preserve Earth's carbon balance.

Ice in the Arctic is disappearing—and opportunity is calling. As climate change transforms the top of the world, warmer conditions are exposing a treasure trove of energy resources previously trapped in ice. The Arctic's oil, natural gas, minerals, and even wind and hydroelectric power are becoming more accessible than ever before. With untold riches hanging in the balance, the race is on to control the Arctic and its energy potential. Oil companies vie for drilling rights that go to the highest bidder. Nations around the globe—whether they're on the Arctic's doorstep or half a world away—hope to claim territory for themselves. And the indigenous peoples who have called this region home for thousands of years are determined to be on the ground floor of its development. But the Arctic's new possibilities come with grave risks. The pursuit of oil and natural gas threatens to further damage the Arctic's fragile ecosystems and accelerate global warming worldwide. International disputes over who owns which pieces of the Arctic could bring countries to the brink of war. The fate of the entire planet may hinge on how far people are willing to go to tap and control the Far North's energy resources. From oil rigs to military bases, the Arctic has never before hosted so many warring interests, and the stakes have never been so high. Join Stephanie Sammartino McPherson on a journey to the Far North to explore the energy controversies that will decide the future of the Arctic—and of the earth.

The lakes of the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska were classified, based on size, shape, orientation and distribution, into six lake units and three nonlake units. Regional slope and relief were demonstrated to control lake size, the largest lakes occurring on the flattest, northernmost segment of the Coastal Plain. Using ERTS-1 sequential imagery and existing photography and data, lakes were grouped according to three depth ranges, 1 m, 1-2 m and2 m. Deepest lakes have the longest period of summer ice cover. Ice on shallow lakes melts the earliest. Maximum depths of lakes were computed based on ice volume content of the perennially frozen ground (permafrost) and these agreed with observed values and ranges. The lake classification and regional ERTS-1 coverage also appear to provide additional information on the limits of late-Pleistocene transgressions on the Coastal Plain.

Lena Grey is found guilty of murdering her husband, who was found smothered in their bed. She offers no defense, and serves fourteen long years in prison. But within months of her release nearly two decades later, his body is found in a disused morgue, recently killed. Who was the man she killed before, and why did she lie about his identity? Detective Inspector Francis Sadler and his Derbyshire team try to discover how such a well-orchestrated deception could have occurred. DC Connie Childs is convinced that something greater than marital strife caused the murders, but before Lena can be questioned further, she vanishes. Back in Lena’s childhood home, her sister Kat, a therapist, is shocked by her sister’s duplicity. When she begins to receive mysterious packages from a young man claiming to know her sister’s location, Kat is drawn into her own investigation of her family’s well-hidden secrets. As her inquiries begin to collide with the murder investigation, a link to the sisters’ teenage lives emerges, and the line between victim and perpetrator becomes blurred in this tightly-plotted, compelling novel perfect for fans of Deborah Crombie and Sharon Bolton.