Upside Downside

From the author of the #1 bestselling and Governor General’s Literary Award-winning The Ingenuity Gap – an essential addition to the bookshelf of every thinking person with a stake in our world and our civilization. This is a groundbreaking, essential book for our times. Thomas Homer-Dixon brings to bear his formidable understanding of the urgent problems that confront our world to clarify their scope and deep causes. The Upside of Down provides a vivid picture of the immense stresses that are simultaneously converging on our societies and threatening a breakdown that would profoundly shake civilization. It shows, too, how we can choose a better route into the future. With the immediacy that characterized his award-winning international bestseller, The Ingenuity Gap, Homer-Dixon takes us on a remarkable journey – from the fall of the Roman empire to the devastation of the 9/11 attacks in New York, from Toronto in the 2003 blackout to the ancient temples of Lebanon and the wildfires of California. Incorporating the newest findings from an astonishing array of disciplines, he argues that the great stresses our world is experiencing – global warming, energy scarcity, population imbalances, and widening gaps between rich and poor – can’t be looked at independently. As these stresses combine and converge, the risk of breakdown rises. The first signs are appearing in the wastelands of the Arctic, the mud-clogged streets of Gonaïves, Haiti, and the volatile regions of the Middle East and Asia. But while the consequences of denial in our more perilous world are dire, Homer-Dixon makes clear that we can use our emerging understanding of the complex systems in which we live to avoid catastrophic collapse in a way the Roman empire could not. This vitally important new book shows how, in the face of breakdown, we can still provide for the renewal of our global civilization. We are creating the conditions for catastrophe, but by understanding the underlying principles that make human and natural systems resilient – and by working together to put those principles into effect – we can still limit the severity of collapse and foster regeneration, innovation, and renewal.

From Ron Dembo, advisor to leading banks and hedge funds, and Daniel Stoffman, co-author of the revolutionary bestseller Boom, Bust and Echo, Upside, Downside is an accessible guide to the biggest danger facing investors in an increasingly uncertain world: financial risk. As a generation of investors knows, financial markets are vulnerable to events – from terrorist attacks to epidemics – that are guaranteed to occur, yet impossible to predict. As markets become more complex and intertwined, investors feel increasingly unsure: how can you safeguard your financial prospects when you can’t know what the future will look like? Upside, Downside is a toolbox to protect yourself from financial risk. Co-authored by a leading financial journalist and a pioneer in the field of risk management who advises the world’s major banks, it gives investors access for the first time to the most advanced risk management strategies available, distilled into three simple rules for managing risk. These rules – Knowing What You Own, Using Multiple Scenarios, and Anticipating Regret – will allow you to take control of your financial future. You can’t banish all the dangers of the world, but Upside, Downside will give you the skills to manage them.

"If you devoured Stranger Things on Netflix and you're looking to fill the demogorgon-sized hole in your life, then look no further than Notes from the Upside Down. This fan-tastic guide has every fact you could ever wish for--from insights into the origins of the show, including the mysterious Montauk Project conspiracy theory; a useful eighties playlist (because, of course); and much more."--Amazon.

Kent Kloepping contracted paralytic poliomyelitis in 1945, at the age of seven. Though he would never walk again, he refused to let this event define the rest of his life. His family, friends, and community treated him like any able-bodied person, and this was the treatment he expected--and demanded--after he graduated from high school and left his hometown. "Being disabled isn't really funny, in and of itself," says Kloepping. "But precisely because of the disability, I have experienced, observed or been told of amusing--even hilarious--situations." He shares those stories here, helping us understand the challenges faced by those with physical limitations . . . and giving us insight into the upside of the downside.

From the winner of the first Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom, a bitingly funny, kaleidoscopic vision of the first world through the eyes of the third Eduardo Galeano, author of the incomparable Memory of Fire Trilogy, combines a novelist's intensity, a poet's lyricism, a journalist's fearlessness, and the strong judgments of an engaged historian. Now his talents are richly displayed in Upside Down, an eloquent, passionate, sometimes hilarious exposé of our first-world privileges and assumptions. In a series of lesson plans and a "program of study" about our beleaguered planet, Galeano takes the reader on a wild trip through the global looking glass. From a master class in "The Impunity of Power" to a seminar on "The Sacred Car"--with tips along the way on "How to Resist Useless Vices" and a declaration of "The Right to Rave"--he surveys a world unevenly divided between abundance and deprivation, carnival and torture, power and helplessness. We have accepted a reality we should reject, Galeano teaches us, one where machines are more precious than humans, people are hungry, poverty kills, and children toil from dark to dark. A work of fire and charm, Upside Down makes us see the world anew and even glimpse how it might be set right. "Galeano's outrage is tempered by intelligence, an ineradicable sense of humor, and hope." -Los Angeles Times, front page

A heartwarming, feel-good story of friendship and overcoming adversity in a time of COVID, this is a book about community, giving back, and understanding the world around us through the power of generosity from debut author K. Ibura. With one little announcement from their fourth-grade teacher, Shayla, Liam, Ben, and Ai's world turned upside down. Now, with school on hold due to a strange virus that they don't quite understand, the only semblance of safety they feel is knowing that they have one another in their apartment complex. But as each of them head home and experience their own version of confinement, it becomes very real. And as their individual struggles grow, they need each other now more than ever. Very soon, they discover that they're not the only ones who need a little help. Banded together, the friends find ways to help others struggling in their building. And one by one, they do their part in making their neighbors feel just a little bit safer. As the world becomes more complex, as protests take the streets, Shayla, Liam, Ben, and Ai do everything they can to better understand the world around them and the people around them in order to discover the power and comfort that understanding and generosity can bring.

The Upside-Down Magic kids are back in another topsy-turvy adventure in the next installment of this New York Times bestselling series, now a Disney Channel Original Movie! Marigold Ramos can magically make things small - sometimes very, very small. The only problem? She can't figure out how to make them big again. Maybe a new tutor can help Marigold manage her magic. And maybe her magic will come in handy as she and her friends in the Upside-Down Magic class band together to protest a new rule by their principal, a super unfair rule that bans them from bringing their amazing new toy dragons to school.But when Marigold starts shrinking her friends and the class bunny, it's a humongous problem! It's time to figure out how Marigold and her friends can make a big statement... without disappearing entirely!

Love, sex and faith. A subversive account for searching Christians, open agnostics and willing atheists that addresses current ethical issues.