Vick S Vultures

In the far future, alien technology captured by the union earth privateers has fueled Earth's tenuous expansion from a single planet to a handful of systems across the Orion Spur.

First in a New England mystery series featuring a formidable pair of widow-sleuths and “a baffling mystery that will keep readers turning the pages” (Publishers Weekly). Something wicked has come to Grenville, Connecticut, where high-end antique dealers are being murdered in gruesome—yet fitting—ways. It’s shaking up the lives of Lil Campbell and Ada Strauss, widows who have become best friends in a gated community for seniors. Not only are they finally confronting long-held heart-felt feelings for each other, but Ada’s been named executrix of a late friend’s estate. And all her vintage valuables are drawing Ada and Lil into a dangerous circle of suspects and potential new victims. Lacing up their sensible gumshoes, they’re all too eager to help homicide detective Mattie Perez in the investigation. But as Lil and Ada dig deeper, the determined duo begin to expose festering small-town secrets, and unravel a mystery that proves all is not well in a town famed for its postcard-perfect charm.

Turkey vultures, the most widely distributed and abundant scavenging birds of prey on the planet, are found from central Canada to the southern tip of Argentina, and nearly everywhere in between. In the United States we sometimes call them buzzards; in parts of Mexico the name is aura cabecirroja, in Uruguay jote cabeza colorada, and in Ecuador gallinazo aura. A huge bird, the turkey vulture is a familiar sight from culture to culture, in both hemispheres. But despite being ubiquitous and recognizable, the turkey vulture has never had a book of literary nonfiction devoted to it - until Vulture. Floating on six-foot wings, turkey vultures use their keen senses of smell and sight to locate carrion. Unlike their cousin the black vulture, turkey vultures do not kill weak or dying animals; instead, they cleanse, purify, and renew the environment by clearing it of decaying carcasses, thus slowing the spread of such dangerous pathogens as anthrax, rabies, and botulism. The beauty, grace, and important role of these birds in the ecosystem notwithstanding, turkey vultures are maligned and underappreciated; they have been accused of spreading disease and killing livestock, neither of which has ever been substantiated. Although turkey vultures are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes harming them a federal offense, the birds still face persecution. They've been killed because of their looks, their odor, and their presence in proximity to humans. Even the federal government occasionally sanctions "roost dispersals," which involve the harassment and sometimes the murder of communally roosting vultures during the cold winter months. Vulture follows a year in the life of a typical North American turkey vulture. By incorporating information from scientific papers and articles, as well as interviews with world-renowned raptor and vulture experts, author Katie Fallon examines all aspects of the bird's natural history: breeding, incubating eggs, raising chicks, migrating, and roosting. After reading this book you will never look at a vulture in the same way again.

Vulture Culture presents a new and complex way of thinking about daytime television talk shows. Vulture culture is the process by which the media scavenge the personal narratives and popular discourses that make up everyday knowledge and commonsense and (re-)present them back to us as spectacle, entertainment, and information. This book explores these nuances through a probing analysis of the vast landscape of daytime television talk shows and their relation to important political, social, and economic problems. Using an approach that takes into account the multiple perspectives of political economy, cultural studies, and cultural pedagogy, Vulture Culture provides an in-depth and well-rounded examination of this mainstay of television and media culture.