Before the breakthrough of postcolonial studies, British science-fiction authors already saw the opportunity to discuss political and ethical issues of imperialism by projecting human history and behavior onto the alien 'Other.' In this thesis, the case studies of 15 novels of alien-encounter science fiction illuminate the treatment of colonial and postcolonial concepts - such as colonialism, neo-colonialism, Empire, paternalism, hybridity, mimicry and science and technology - as a means of conquest and resistance. The analysis also shows that the Empire is still a vital background for British science fiction. Thesis. (Series: Anglistik / Amerikanistik; English / American Studies - Vol. 35)

We've all heard the stories of what happens to those who go to lovers' lane and of the folly of flashing your lights at another car at night. We all know someone who knows someone that survived a meeting with Bloody Mary and another who picked up a hitchhiker that then disappeared. And we all know these stories aren't true. They're just urban legends. Right? Wrong. Sometimes the stories we hear are true. Often they're more than they seem. These are the urban legends with alien explanations and the alien encounters mistaken for urban legends. The line between one and the other is so blurred in this anthology of stories about Close Encounters of the Urban Kind that you will never look another urban legend the same way again. Featuring stories by Alma Alexander, Nathan Crowder, Carole Johnstone, Pete Kempshall, Jennifer Pelland, Erik Scott de Bie, Bev Vincent, and many others.

Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: cases in which personal contact between an individual or individuals is initiated by the “occupants” of the spacecraft. Such contact may involve the transportation of the individual from his or her terrestrial surroundings into the spacecraft, where the individual is communicated with and/or subjected to an examination before being returned. One might expect that a “scientific conference” devoted to people who have reported being kidnapped by “little green men” would be dismissed out of hand. But C.D.B. Bryan, the greatly admired journalist and author of Friendly Fire, did not dismiss it: the conference was to be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and would have as its chairmen a Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard psychiatry professor and a professor of physics from M.I.T. Bryan attended the conference throughout its five days. He approached the subject with no prior stand, no agenda, and an open (if slightly skeptical) mind. As the conference progressed, he was astonished by the quality of the stories told by the hundreds of men and women who came forward hesitantly and reluctantly with their utterly amazing—and utterly convincing—accounts of having been abducted and then examined aboard extraterrestrial spacecraft by spindly limbed, telepathic gray creatures with outsized foreheads dominated by huge, compelling, tear-shaped black eyes. What most astonished Bryan were the similarities found again and again in these accounts and the consistency of their details. It is here that the heart of the mystery lies: as the Harvard professor John E. Mack asked at the conference, “If what the abductees are saying isn’t happening to them, then what is?” This question—and the possible answers—are at the center of this richly explicit, serious, and riveting book. Bryan recreates the conference. He interviews ufology’s most prominent psychiatrists, psychologists, hypnotherapists, researchers, physicists, physicians, and folklorists. He interweaves throughout the testimony of the abductees themselves, who tell us their stories in chilling detail. He presents, in depth, the Close Encounter experiences of two women whose stories he tells on the basis of both their spontaneous recollections of the events and their memories that were retrieved through sessions of hypnosis of which Bryan himself was a witness. Finally, Bryan examines the current theories—psychological, psychiatric, medical, parapsychological—that have been put forward by the unconvinced to explain the abduction phenomenon. Are the abductees suffering from some sort of false memory syndrome? . . . a multiple or dissociative personality disorder? . . . Are they fantasy-prone? Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind is a detailed, objective exploration—the most concrete to date—of one of the enduring and amazing mysteries of our time. It is a book that will equally fascinate believers and nonbelievers.

Microbes – can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Increasingly, we’re finding out that our microbiota (the microbes that live on us) are essential for our wellbeing – they provide us with nutrients and vitamins and play a key role in developing our immune system. On the other hand, they are responsible for a great deal of misery, as they are major causes of death and debility around the world. As well as our own microbiota turning against us, there are lots of other microbes out in the wider world that can seriously damage, or even kill, those they infect. The current pandemic of COVID-19 shows the devastating effect that an infectious disease can have – our lives have been turned upside down. If you live in a developed country, you’re not likely to get killer diseases such as ebola and cholera, but you do have a high chance of catching other infections that can have a significant impact on your wellbeing. This book focuses on those infections you’re most likely to go down with, and supplies the answers to the following questions about them: Which infectious diseases are we likely to come across? How common are they? What microbes cause them? What happens to our bodies during an infection? How are the resulting illnesses treated? How can we avoid getting them? This book covers nearly 60 infectious diseases that people living in developed countries are likely to experience at some point during their life. It also has an introductory chapter that describes, in everyday language, the basic principles of microbiology and infectious diseases. Each chapter is lavishly illustrated, has interesting, relevant inserts, and provides a list of web-accessible suggestions for further reading.

Taking a relational approach to the study of interpersonal communication, this best-selling text helps students better understand their relationships with romantic partners, friends, and family members. The authors offer research-based insights and content illustrated with engaging scenarios to show how state-of-the-art research and theory can be applied to specific issues within relationships-with a focus on issues that are central to describing and understanding close relationships. While maintaining the spotlight on communication, the authors also emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of the study of personal relationships by including research from such disciplines as social psychology and family studies. The book covers issues relevant to developing, maintaining, repairing, and ending relationships. Both the "bright" and "dark" sides of interpersonal communication within relationships are explored.

Extraordinary new insights into the minds and lives of our fellow creatures from two of the world’s top animal authors, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and Sy Montgomery. A Mail on Sunday “Critic's Pick” Best Read of the Year "In their writing and in their lives and in their remarkable friendship, Liz and Sy break down false barriers and carry us closer to our fellow creatures.”—from the foreword by Vicki Constantine Croke, author of Elephant Company Tamed and Untamed―a collection of essays penned by two of the world's most celebrated animal writers, Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas―explores the minds, lives, and mysteries of animals as diverse as snails, house cats, hawks, sharks, dogs, lions, and even octopuses. Drawing on stories of animals both wild and domestic, the two authors, also best friends, created this book to put humans back into the animal world. The more we learn about what other animals think and do, they explain, the more we understand ourselves as animals, too. Writes Montgomery, “The list of attributes once thought to be unique to our species―from using tools to waging war―is not only rapidly shrinking, but starting to sound less and less impressive when we compare them with other animals’ powers.” With humor, empathy, and introspection, Montgomery and Thomas look into the lives of all kinds of creatures―from man’s best friend to the great white shark―and examine the ways we connect with our fellow species. Both authors have devoted their lives to sharing the animal kingdom’s magic with others, and their combined wisdom is an indispensable contribution to the field of animal literature. The book contains a foreword by Vicki Constantine Croke, author of the bestseller Elephant Company.

From Most Haunted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, from Underworld to Twilight, from Doom to Resident Evil, The Brief Guide to the Supernatural goes in search of the unearthly with unexpected results; combining history, science, psychology and myth he explores the allure of the paranormal - why so many people still believe in ghosts and angels - as well as the many ways people have tried to contact and record the impossible.

Based on more than a half dozen interviews with the director himself, this unauthorized biography recounts Spielberg's childhood, education, career, philanthropic and charitable endeavors, and his extremely private personal life. This updated edition explores Spielberg's latest filmmaking efforts, from Schindler's List to Men in Black 2.

This book takes a unique approach to the ethnographic and analytical explorations of ecologies in the making. The core theme of the work will be the emerging anthropocene contexts that simultaneously bring unprecedented human interactions with the non-human as well as the emergence of hybrid ecologies. There will be dependence on existing literature, own ethnographic work that has already went into this, the closer introspection of immediate geographies as well as the pertinent debates. There has been a reconfiguration of meaning and nature of spaces in the context of social relations produced by neo-liberal globalization. States as they have been are transforming and are influenced by policies made beyond borders. This work is marked out by careful enquiry on ecologies in the making with the backdrop of distinct regional developmentalist trajectories as well as specific ethnography from Kerala, South-West India.

'Encountering ETI' weaves together scientific knowledge and spiritual faith in a cosmic context. It explores consequences of Contact between terrestrial intelligent life (TI) and extraterrestrial intelligent life (ETI). Humans will face cosmic displacement if there are other complex, technologically advanced intelligent beings in the universe; our economic structures and religious beliefs might need substantial revision. On Earth or in space, humans could encounter benevolent ETI (solicitous ofour striving for maturity as a species) or malevolent ETI (seeking our land and goods to benefit themselves, claiming that their 'superior civilization' gives them the right) - or meet both types of species. Earth Encounters of the Third Kind described by witnesses (including Native American elders) suggest that both may have arrived already: some have been accused of shutting down US and USSR ICBM missiles to promote peace; others of mutilating cattle or abducting people, perhaps to acquire physiological data on biota for scientific study or for other, unknown purposes. Scifi movies such as Avatar and novels like The Martian Chronicles describe humans as malevolent ETI aliens: we do to others what we fear others will do to us. A shared and evolving spiritual materiality could enable humanity to overcome cosmic displacement, and guide TI and ETI in a common quest for meaning and wellbeing on cosmic common ground.