Download or read book Friended at the Front written by Lisa Ellen Silvestri and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most of us, clicking “like” on social media has become fairly routine. For a Marine, clicking “like” from the battlefield lets his social network know he’s alive. This is the first time in the history of modern warfare that US troops have direct, instantaneous connection to civilian life back home. Lisa Ellen Silvestri’s Friended at the Front documents the revolutionary change in the way we communicate across fronts. Social media, Silvestri contends, changes what it's like to be at war. Based on in-person interviews and online fieldwork with US Marines, Friended at the Front explores the new media habits, attitudes, and behaviors of troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some of the complications that emerge in their wake. The book pays particular attention to the way US troops use Facebook and YouTube to narrate their experiences to civilian network members, to each other, and, not least of all, to themselves. After she reviews evolving military guidelines for social media engagement, Silvestri explores specific practices amongst active duty Marines such as posting photos and producing memes. Her interviews, observations, and research reveal how social network sites present both an opportunity to connect with civilians back home, as well as an obligation to do so—one that can become controversial for troops in a war zone. Much like the war on terror itself, the boundaries, expectations, and dangers associated with social media are amorphous and under constant negotiation. Friended at the Front explains how our communication landscape changes what it is like to go to war for individual service members, their loved ones, and for the American public at large.

Download or read book On Spiritual Combat written by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and published by BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civilization is fighting to survive tragic times. On Spiritual Combat is a spiritual warfare guide for military members, law enforcement officers, first responders, and all sheepdogs. It prepares their hearts and minds for battle, teaching them to identify, understand, and fight evil forces. Each day includes: - powerful readings - encouraging Scripture - meaningful hymns - questions for reflection -recommended reading from On Combat, the seminal resource on physical combat by Dave Grossman. With God, we will rise as virtuous Christian warriors who defend and protect the innocent, helpless, and oppressed.

Download or read book On the Nature of War written by Carl von Clausewitz and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2005-08-25 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Download or read book The Art of You written by James McCrae and published by Sounds True. This book was released on 2024-02-06 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The Art of You offers great insights and steps on how to cultivate creativity. This is essential reading for anyone looking to share their unique experience, to foster deep connections, and to inspire others.” —Yung Pueblo, #1 New York Times bestselling author From conscious creativity leader James McCrae comes a guide to reclaim creativity as a sacred path to healing, awaken your sense of wonder, execute your craft, and reclaim the artist within. Creativity is not a rare skill to be accessed by a privileged few. It is your nature, a sacred practice that awakens your inner child and offers medicine to the soul. Sometimes we become disconnected from this inner magic, but The Art of You unlocks the secrets of the creative process. Whatever form your art takes—writing, painting, music, business, performance, marketing, technology, or social media content—this guide will help you actualize your unique higher purpose, turn your imagination into reality, and transform both yourself and the world around you. The Art of You is centered around “the yin and yang of creativity,” a signature framework for understanding and mastering the creative process. Inspired by the ancient practice of Taoism, yin and yang represent equal and opposite universal energies: stillness and action, the inner world and the outer world. Presented in an engaging visual style with word art, poems, memes, illustrations, and rituals, The Art of You is designed to help you find creative alignment, purpose, and flow. The first half is yin (creative BEING), which focuses on topics like cultivating intuition, the power of imagination, learning from creative guides, and transmuting emotion into inspiration. The second half is yang (creative DOING), which focuses on developing your craft, finding your unique style, launching projects, growing an audience, and practicing creativity for social impact. In a world of increasing uncertainty, creativity is more important than ever. “Art is alchemy,” James McCrae says. “It transmutes pain into beauty. When we create art, we open a tiny portal to the soul that brings light to a world of darkness. In doing so, we give others permission to do the same.” At its core, creativity isn’t only about making art. It’s about being an independent thinker. You don’t need tremendous talent; you just need the courage to question conventional wisdom and trust your creative nature. It’s time to share your vision with the world.

Download or read book The Sky So Big and Black written by John Barnes and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the twenty-first century, Earth is under the control of a single intelligence, the apparently benign One True. Mars, meanwhile, is slowly terraforming, and the human settlers there are still free of One True's control...but they need a pressure suits to survive outside, and it will be a century or more before the planet's fit for terrestrial life. Terpsichore Murray is growing up on Mars. She wants to quit school and become, like her father, an ecoprospector. He has other ideas: he wants her to stay in school. He does want her along on his next long trip but only to conduct a group of younger kids from the highlands at Mars's equator back to school in Wells City. What happens next will change Terpsichore, will change Mars, and will open the door to a new chapter in the history of intelligent beings in the solar system . . . all of them. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book The Mozart Myths written by William Stafford and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1993-10-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an ambitious attempt to separate what is actually known (and can be known) about Mozart from the many myths and legends that have grown up about his life and character, notably the circumstances of his death and his alleged immaturity, drinking, extravagance, womanizing, unreliability, and professional failure.

Download or read book Memenomics written by Said Dawlabani and published by SelectBooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term “vMEME” (the superscript “v” is for “value”) refers to a core value system expressed through a culture’s memes, i.e., its ideas, habits, and cultural preferences and practices that spread from person to person. In MEMEnomics Said E. Dawlabani reframes our economic history and the future of capitalism through the unique prism of a culture’s value systems. Focusing on the long-term effects of economic policies on society, he expands psychologist Clare W. Graves’ concepts of the hierarchical nature of human development and the theories of value systems of Beck and Cowan’s Spiral Dynamics. He presents our economic history in terms of the hierarchy of five of the eight value-systems or vMEMEs of human existence that we can now identify. These new value preferences emerge as people interact with their environment to solve the problems of their “life conditions.”

Download or read book Peace War and Computers written by Chris Hables Gray and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Computers are at the heart of war as we know it and this visionary overview of cyber war in the twenty-first century studies how electronics have changed the way we fight. Using informatics and chaos theory, this is a disarming, yet enthralling read.

Download or read book Post Digital Cultures of the Far Right written by Maik Fielitz and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2018-12-31 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How have digital tools and networks transformed the far right's strategies and transnational prospects? This volume presents a unique critical survey of the online and offline tactics, symbols and platforms that are strategically remixed by contemporary far-right groups in Europe and the US. It features thirteen accessible essays by an international range of expert scholars, policy advisors and activists who offer informed answers to a number of urgent practical and theoretical questions: How and why has the internet emboldened extreme nationalisms? What counter-cultural approaches should civil societies develop in response?

Download or read book The Dark Arts of Immortality written by C. Hariison Kon and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2005-09-28 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you had the power within your reach to insure your own immortality, would you risk all to grasp it? Think about it. No longer would you plead for the mercy of others. No longer would you bow to invisible masters. No longer would you struggle for table scraps. You could become master of your own destiny. You could become as God. Drawing on the findings of science, religion, sociology, psychology, philosophy, mythology, history, ancient texts, and metaphysics, The Dark Arts of Immortality explains how to harness and augment the energy of our innate drives. Through personal combat, sexual fantasy, and mystic rituals the death drive (mortido), sex drive (libido), and growth drive (physis) can provide doorways to supra-consciousness. These core altered states of being (fury, ecstasy, and exaltation) grant preternatural physical, mental, and spiritual abilities. The synthesis of these attributes will elevate personal power in this world and allow one to manifest a divine Being in the afterlife.

Download or read book Memetic War written by Tine Munk and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-09-15 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Memetic War analyses memetic warfare included in cyber war and aims to develop a framework for understanding the parameters included in utilising this concept in Ukraine as a part of civic resistance. In the Ukrainian war, an informal defence tactic has developed to uphold the information flow about the war and to debunk Russia’s communications. The war has enhanced the visibility of governmental and civic activation by using the advantages of social media architecture, networks, and communication forms. The book investigates Ukraine’s public and private abilities to develop cyber capabilities to counter propaganda and dis-and-misinformation online as a defence mechanism. This book uses military ROC doctrine to understand government authorities, the armed forces, and civic engagement in the Ukrainian resistance. Memetic War will have relevance for scholars, researchers, and academics in the cybersecurity field, practitioners, governmental actors, and military and strategic personnel.

Download or read book The Ethics of Oneness written by Jeremy David Engels and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-04-05 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in an era defined by a sense of separation, even in the midst of networked connectivity. As cultural climates sour and divisive political structures spread, we are left wondering about our ties to each other. Consequently, there is no better time than now to reconsider ideas of unity. In The Ethics of Oneness, Jeremy David Engels reads the Bhagavad Gita alongside the works of American thinkers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. Drawing on this rich combination of traditions, Engels presents the notion that individuals are fundamentally interconnected in their shared divinity. In other words, everything is one. If the lessons of oneness are taken to heart, particularly as they were expressed and celebrated by Whitman, and the ethical challenges of oneness considered seriously, Engels thinks it is possible to counter the pervasive and problematic American ideals of hierarchy, exclusion, violence, and domination.

Download or read book Memes to Movements written by An Xiao Mina and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A global exploration of internet memes as agents of pop culture, politics, protest, and propaganda on- and offline, and how they will save or destroy us all. Memes are the street art of the social web. Using social media–driven movements as her guide, technologist and digital media scholar An Xiao Mina unpacks the mechanics of memes and how they operate to reinforce, amplify, and shape today’s politics. She finds that the “silly” stuff of meme culture—the photo remixes, the selfies, the YouTube songs, and the pun-tastic hashtags—are fundamentally intertwined with how we find and affirm one another, direct attention to human rights and social justice issues, build narratives, and make culture. Mina finds parallels, for example, between a photo of Black Lives Matter protestors in Ferguson, Missouri, raising their hands in a gesture of resistance and one from eight thousand miles away, in Hong Kong, of Umbrella Movement activists raising yellow umbrellas as they fight for voting rights. She shows how a viral video of then presidential nominee Donald Trump laid the groundwork for pink pussyhats, a meme come to life as the widely recognized symbol for the international Women’s March. Crucially, Mina reveals how, in parts of the world where public dissent is downright dangerous, memes can belie contentious political opinions that would incur drastic consequences if expressed outright. Activists in China evade censorship by critiquing their government with grass mud horse pictures online. Meanwhile, governments and hate groups are also beginning to utilize memes to spread propaganda, xenophobia, and misinformation. Botnets and state-sponsored agents spread them to confuse and distract internet communities. On the long, winding road from innocuous cat photos, internet memes have become a central practice for political contention and civic engagement. Memes to Movements unveils the transformative power of memes, for better and for worse. At a time when our movements are growing more complex and open-ended—when governments are learning to wield the internet as effectively as protestors—Mina brings a fresh and sharply innovative take to the media discourse.

Download or read book War No More The Case for Abolition written by David Swanson and published by eBookIt.com. This book was released on 2013-09-29 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents what numerous reviewers have called the best existing argument for the abolition of war, demonstrating that war can be ended, war should be ended, war is not ending on its own, and that we must end war.

Download or read book Online Virality written by Valérie Schafer and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-08-19 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book Online Virality, edited by Valérie Schafer and Fred Pailler (C2DH, University of Luxembourg), aims to provide a comprehensive examination of online virality. It explores the many ways we can think about this modern phenomenon and analyse the circulation, reception, and evolution of viral born-digital content. Virality and content sharing always intertwine material, infrastructural, visual and discursive elements. This involves various platforms, stakeholders, intermediaries, social groups and communities that are constantly (re)defining themselves. Regulation, curation and content moderation politics, as well as affects and emotions (fears, humour, empathy, hatred...), are also at the core of online virality. The publication offers an interdisciplinary overview on online virality by including different types of scientific inputs, such as precise case studies, various methodological approaches (including close and distant reading, visual studies, discourse analysis, etc.), as well as historical and socio-technical analyses. The book is organised around three main topics: Expressions and Genres; Mobilisations and Engagements; Circulation and Infrastructures. The first part explores the semiotics of virality, the diverse and creative forms of expression, specific genres, the relation to other media, and the affective side of virality, such as using humour or provocation. The second part focuses on the political dimension of memes and viral content and their use in the context of controversy or political and ideological opposition. Finally, the third part delves into the often understudied but essential side of virality, by examining the role of platforms and their curation, in short, the infrastructural dimension of virality. These three parts allow us to question such fundamental notions linked to virality as, among others, circulation, reception, economy of attention, instrumentalisation and affect. This volume brings together authors from various disciplines, including semiotics, history, information and communication sciences, computer science, digital humanities, media studies. In addition, the contributors approach the question via case studies that allow for a perspective that is not exclusively US and European-centred. Some chapters explore virality in Brazil, Chile, while the book also examines a wide variety of platforms (YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, video game platforms, etc.).

Download or read book The Ministry of Nostalgia written by Owen Hatherley and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this brilliant polemical rampage, Owen Hatherley shows how our past is being resold in order to defend the indefensible. From the marketing of a "make do and mend" aesthetic to the growing nostalgia for a utopian past that never existed, a cultural distraction scam prevents people grasping the truth of their condition. The Ministry of Nostalgia explodes the creation of a false history: a rewriting of the austerity of the 1940s and 1950s, which saw the development of a welfare state while the nation crawled out of the devastations of war. This period has been recast to explain and offer consolation for the violence of neoliberalism, an ideology dedicated to the privatisation of our common wealth. In coruscating prose-with subjects ranging from Ken Loach's documentaries, Turner Prize-shortlisted video art, London vernacular architecture, and Jamie Oliver's cooking-Hatherley issues a passionate challenge to the injunction to keep calm and carry on.

Download or read book The Indonesian Genocide of 1965 written by Katharine McGregor and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-03-09 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays by Indonesian and foreign contributors offers new and highly original analyses of the mass violence in Indonesia which began in 1965 and its aftermath. Fifty years on from one the largest genocides of the twentieth century, they probe the causes, dynamics and legacies of this violence through the use of a wide range of sources and different scholarly lenses. Chapter 12 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.