What does trust mean to you? How have you been impacted by relying on trust? Do you consider trust instinctive? Or is it something that must be earned by facts and actions? Is trust a whim or a researched reality? What has occurred when you trusted others? Can we ever—and forever—really trust someone? Does self-interest always take over and destroy the trust that we once considered sacrosanct? The breadth of trust is, in fact, the pillar of all the elements of our lives. We need to be much...

Neglect, abuse, and starvation all are part of Mannie Veneno’s family legacy of pain. Starting in Pakistan, where his grandmother was married to an abusive husband, the cycle would continue for three generations. His mother was forced to marry a Pakistani gangster at a young age. Even after moving to the United States for a better life, she, Mannie, and his siblings were victims of his nightmarish rage. With an abusive dad and a mom who couldn’t walk away, Mannie didn’t have role models to...

A chance meeting with an old classmate leads Ryan Laughlin, a dedicated young physician, to an ancient Roman spa in a medieval village of Italy where researchers are studying two remarkable events that could change the course of history & mdash; a new technology that claims to measure the essence of life itself, the human spirit, and the final Dead Sea Scroll which was recently discovered in the West Bank. The Last Scroll reveals universal truths about the nature of life through Seven Bles...

God, unhappy with mankind, has sent a blue comet to destroy the earth, but has offered one chance and set a nearly impossible task; to place a golden disc on the outstretched left hand of a tall, gilded statue of Mother Mary atop a cathedral in Avignon, France. The golden disc must be found in one month’s time. Once the disc is in place God will cause the comet to miss the planet.The story involves the search for the golden disc and includes the Inca of Peru, the Hopi people of Ari...

If your one of the many people who struggle to reach the rim and dunk over their opponents, don’t get disheartened – because what many don’t realize is that dunking a basketball requires more than on-court skill alone.And it is certainly not determined by either your height or your age.In fact, our ability to dunk is dictated by our muscle strength, muscle power, and our vertical jump performance.Which in itself is an extremely positive thing, because these factors ...

One of the hallmarks of world history is the ever-increasing ability of humans to cross cultural boundaries. Taking an encounters approach that opens up history to different perspectives and experiences, Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History examines cultural contact between people from across the globe between 1453 and the present.The book examines the historical record of these contacts, distilling from those processes patterns of interaction, different peopl...

Twelve-year-old Thomas doesn't have a dad and so hasn't done much of the "camping-fishing thing." But this year he gets to go on his first week-long summer camp, and it's turning out to be the exciting summer adventure he was dreaming of...that is until he accidentally releases a powerful demon imprisoned in a secret cave behind a waterfall and gets sucked into a dimensional rift...While lost in an alien world and desperate to return home, Thomas meets a mysterious creature named A...

In recent years, major social forces such as: ageing populations, social trends, migration patterns, and the globalization of economies, have reshaped social welfare policies and practices across the globe. Multinational corporations, NGOs, and other international organizations have begun to influence social policy at a national and local level. Among the many ramifications of these changes is that globalizing influences may hinder the ability of individual nation-states to effect policies...

Somalia was Tom Pecora's first deployment as a CIA Protective Operations Cadre (POC) officer, responsible for providing protective operations support in hostile areas of the world. He later headed up a series of the Agency's undisclosed protective operations teams. From 1989 until his retirement in 2013, he was assigned to multiple war zones across Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, doing the kind of work few are even aware exists.But it does, and P...

An understanding of psychology-specifically the psychology behind how users behave and interact with digital interfaces-is perhaps the single most valuable nondesign skill a designer can have. The most elegant design can fail if it forces users to conform to the design rather than working within the "blueprint" of how humans perceive and process the world around them.This practical guide explains how you can apply key principles in psychology to build products and experiences that ...

This investigation into the legal, political, and moral issues surrounding how the police and justice system use surveillance technology asks the question: what are citizens of a free country willing to tolerate in the name of public safety?The police now have unparalleled power at their fingertips: surveillance technology. Seamless, persistent, even permanent surveillance is available—sometimes already deployed, sometimes waiting for the right excuse. Automatic li...

This seventeenth issue of Tales from the Canyons of the Damned consists of five sharp, suspenseful, thought provoking short stories—each from a different featured master of speculative fiction.D.K. Cassidy counts down 103 DaysJason LaVelle invites us to Keep RollingJon Frater ponders the MoonPaul K. Swardstrom shares a comedic B-Movie NoveletteAnd Daniel Arthur Smith shares another clip from the Lost Tapes seriesTales from the Canyons of the Damn...