In 2139, a network of artificial wormholes has allowed humanity to reach nearby stars, where nations fiercely compete to settle new colony worlds. War is imminent between Earth's top powers, China and Japan, for reasons that no one entirely understands.Neil Mercer, a freshly commissioned officer in the United States Space Force, is assigned to shepherd a senior spy on a covert mission that risks drawing America into the conflict. In a story featuring high adventure, interstellar intrigue and some of the most scientifically realistic space combat depicted in fiction, Neil and his comrades must face difficult questions about duty, citizenship and national interest as they struggle to discover why the war threatens to engulf every nation on Earth.Recommended for fans of Tom Clancy, Patrick O'Brian, and Robert Heinlein. Also available as an e-book at www.thehumanreach.net."It's all great, good fun ... " -- Don Sakers, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May 2012"... a fine and fast-paced read, very much recommended." -- Paul T. Vogel, The Midwest Book Review, January 2012

In Within Our Reach, Rosalynn Carter and coauthors Susan K. Golant and Kathryn E. Cade render an insightful, unsparing assessment of the state of mental health. Mrs. Carter has been deeply invested in this issue since her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, campaigned for governor of Georgia, when she saw firsthand the horrific, dehumanizing treatment of people with mental illnesses. Using stories from her 35 years of advocacy to springboard into a discussion of the larger issues at hand, Carter crafts an intimate and powerful account of a subject previously shrouded in stigma and shadow, surveying the dimensions of an issue that has affected us all. She describes a system that continues to fail those in need, even though recent scientific breakthroughs with mental illness have potential to help most people lead more normal lives. Within Our Reach is a seminal, searing, and ultimately optimistic look at how far we've come since Jimmy Carter's days on the campaign trail and how far we have yet to go.

An argument that we have a moral duty to explore other planets and solar systems--because human life on Earth has an expiration date. Inevitably, life on Earth will come to an end, whether by climate disaster, cataclysmic war, or the death of the sun in a few billion years. To avoid extinction, we will have to find a new home planet, perhaps even a new solar system, to inhabit. In this provocative and fascinating book, Christopher Mason argues that we have a moral duty to do just that. As the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a responsibility to act as the shepherd of life-forms--not only for our species but for all species on which we depend and for those still to come (by accidental or designed evolution). Mason argues that the same capacity for ingenuity that has enabled us to build rockets and land on other planets can be applied to redesigning biology so that we can sustainably inhabit those planets. And he lays out a 500-year plan for undertaking the massively ambitious project of reengineering human genetics for life on other worlds. As they are today, our frail human bodies could never survive travel to another habitable planet. Mason describes the toll that long-term space travel took on astronaut Scott Kelly, who returned from a year on the International Space Station with changes to his blood, bones, and genes. Mason proposes a ten-phase, 500-year program that would engineer the genome so that humans can tolerate the extreme environments of outer space--with the ultimate goal of achieving human settlement of new solar systems. He lays out a roadmap of which solar systems to visit first, and merges biotechnology, philosophy, and genetics to offer an unparalleled vision of the universe to come.

In the globalizing world of today, the conduct of states often affects the human rights of persons situated outside of those states' territories. The problem of applying human rights to such state conduct has become increasingly topical as a result of phenomena such as the 'war on terror, ' foreign military interventions, and economic globalization. The controversies, as regards the applicability of human rights treaty law in such cases, stem mainly from the wording of the relevant treaty provisions. The principal treaties on civil and political rights require states to guarantee certain human rights to persons 'within their jurisdiction, ' while treaties on economic, social, and cultural rights specifically envisage international cooperation of states' parties for the purposes of achieving these rights. The meaning of 'jurisdiction, ' and the precise nature and content of the obligation of international cooperation, are subject to debate. This study explores the question of extraterritorial application of principal, universal, and regional human rights treaties. It covers treaties on civil and political rights, as well as those on economic, social, and cultural rights. The study determines to what extent and under which circumstances human rights treaties are applicable to state conduct which affects the human rights of persons situated outside the borders of the state party in question. The problem is analyzed by reference to the rules of treaty interpretation and in the conceptual framework of public international law. It contains a thorough analysis of preparatory works of the relevant treaties, the case law of the International Court of Justice and of human rights courts, as well as other output of human rights treaty bodies. State practice, including the case law of national courts, is also explored. The study argues for a flexible approach to extraterritorial application of human rights treaties which would make it possible for the human right systems to respond to the challenges posed by the evermore notorious extraterritorial state conduct. In 2010, Michal Gondek has won the first prize in the Max van der Stoel Human Rights award for this book. He also has won Manfred Lachs Prize for the Best Book Debut in International Law by a Polish Author 20

At the edge of the desert...In 2141, humanity has attained the stars, but some nations have found their dreams of interstellar empire thwarted, and they have gone to war to ensure their futures beyond the Solar System.In this thrilling sequel to Through Struggle, the Stars, U.S. Space Force Lieutenant Neil Mercer is sent to a strategic independent colony on the planet of Entente to curry favor with the repressive ruling government. On Earth, Neil's mentor, NSS operative Jim Donovan, seeks to bring in the powerful neutral states of India, Russia and Europa into the war on the allied side, first through diplomacy, and then through ... other means. Meanwhile, Neil's old friend, space defense artilleryman Rand Castillo, assumes a position of leadership among the guerrillas fighting in the occupied American continent on the planet Kuan Yin.Initially light-years apart, their three stories will ultimately intertwine in a confrontation that will determine the fate of a planet, and perhaps their own fates, as well.

This monograph discusses the Zohar, the most important book of the Kabbalah, as a late strata of the Midrashic literature. The author concentrates on the 'expanded' biblical stories in the Zohar and on its relationship to the ancient Talmudic Aggadah. The analytical and critical examination of these biblical themes reveals aspects of continuity and change in the history of the old Aggadic story and its way into the Zoharic corpus. The detailed description of this literary process also reveals the world of the authors of the Zohar, their spiritual distress, mystical orientations, and self-consciousness.

Born into slavery in rural Louisiana, Rose Herera was bought and sold several times before being purchased by the De Hart family of New Orleans. Still a slave, she married and had children, who also became the property of the De Harts. But after Union forces captured New Orleans in 1862 during the American Civil War, Herera’s owners fled to Havana, taking three of her small children with them. Beyond Freedom’s Reach is the true story of one woman’s quest to rescue her children from bondage. In a gripping, meticulously researched account, Adam Rothman lays bare the mayhem of emancipation during and after the Civil War. Just how far the rights of freed slaves extended was unclear to black and white people alike, and so when Mary De Hart returned to New Orleans in 1865 to visit friends, she was surprised to find herself taken into custody as a kidnapper. The case of Rose Herera’s abducted children made its way through New Orleans’ courts, igniting a custody battle that revealed the prospects and limits of justice during Reconstruction. Rose Herera’s perseverance brought her children’s plight to the attention of members of the U.S. Senate and State Department, who turned a domestic conflict into an international scandal. Beyond Freedom’s Reach is an unforgettable human drama and a poignant reflection on the tangled politics of slavery and the hazards faced by so many Americans on the hard road to freedom.