Off The Edge

Download or read book Off the Edge written by Kelly Weill and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A deep dive into the world of Flat Earth conspiracy theorists . . . that brilliantly reveals how people fall into illogical beliefs, reject reason, destroy relationships, and connect with a broad range of conspiracy theories in the social media age. Beautiful, probing, and often empathetic . . . An insightful, human look at what fuels conspiracy theories.” —Science Since 2015, there has been a spectacular boom in a centuries-old delusion: that the earth is flat. More and more people believe that we all live on a pancake-shaped planet, capped by a solid dome and ringed by an impossible wall of ice. How? Why? In Off the Edge, journalist Kelly Weill draws a direct line from today’s conspiratorial moment, brimming not just with Flat Earthers but also anti-vaxxers and QAnon followers, back to the early days of Flat Earth theory in the 1830s. We learn the natural impulses behind these beliefs: when faced with a complicated world out of our control, humans have always sought patterns to explain the inexplicable. This psychology doesn’t change. But with the dawn of the twenty-first century, something else has shifted. Powered by Facebook and YouTube algorithms, the Flat Earth movement is growing. At once a definitive history of the movement and an essential look at its unbelievable present, Off the Edge introduces us to a cast of larger-than-life characters. We meet historical figures like the nineteenth-century grifter who first popularized the theory, as well as the many modern-day Flat Earthers Weill herself gets to know, from moms on vacation to determined creationists to neo-Nazi rappers. We discover what, and who, converts people to Flat Earth belief, and what happens inside the rabbit hole. And we even meet a man determined to fly into space in a homemade rocket-powered balloon—whose tragic death is as senseless and absurd as the theory he sets out to prove. In this incisive and powerful story about belief, Kelly Weill explores how we arrived at this moment of polarized realities and explains what needs to happen so that we might all return to the same spinning globe.

Download or read book Postcards From the Edge written by Carrie Fisher and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-11-10 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ** THE NEW YORK TIMES-BESTSELLING CULT CLASSIC NOVEL ** ** In a new edition introduced by Stephen Fry ** ‘I don’t think you can even call this a drug. This is just a response to the conditions we live in.’ Suzanne Vale, formerly acclaimed actress, is in rehab, feeling like ‘something on the bottom of someone’s shoe, and not even someone interesting’. Immersed in the sometimes harrowing, often hilarious goings-on of the drug hospital and wondering how she’ll cope – and find work – back on the outside, she meets new patient Alex. Ambitious, good-looking in a Heathcliffish way and in the grip of a monumental addiction, he makes Suzanne realize that, however eccentric her life might seem, there’s always someone who’s even closer to the edge of reason. Carrie Fisher’s bestselling debut novel is an uproarious commentary on Hollywood – the home of success, sex and insecurity – and has become a beloved cult classic. ‘This novel, with its energy, bounce and generous delivery of a loud laugh on almost every page, stands as a declaration of war on two fronts: on normal and on unhappy’ STEPHEN FRY ‘A single woman’s answer to Nora Ephron’s Heartburn . . . the smart successor to Joan Didion’s Play It as It Lays’ Los Angeles Times ‘A cult classic . . . A wonderfully funny, brash and biting novel’ Washington Post 'A wickedly shrewd black-humor riff on the horrors of rehab and the hollows of Hollywood life' People 'Searingly funny' Vogue

Download or read book Diving Off the Edge written by Jake Maddox and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2009 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Riley and Blake have been best friends forever, even though Blake is a daredevil and teases Riley. That all ends when Blake finds a new group of friends. Riley joins the swim team, and soon finds he doesn't need Blake's friendship to get by. But when Blake tries a crazy stunt and dangerous at the lake one day, can Riley put the past aside and save his former friend?

Download or read book The Edge: 50 Tips from Brands that Lead written by Allen P. Adamson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains how top brands have maintained a competitive edge, how rapid Internet-based networks are challenging the control of brand reputation, and how companies can safeguard marketing messages for maximum clarity, focus, and profit.

Download or read book Off the Edge written by Carolyn Crane and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHE MAY BE HIS WORST ENEMY... For deadly secret agent Peter Macmillan, language is a weapon-one he uses to hunt criminals, destroy plots, and charm enemies. Seducing information out of a beautiful singer in a Bangkok hotel should be easy...except this particular singer has the power to destroy his cool façade, and with it, his last defense against a dark past. HE MAY BE HER ONLY HOPE... He tricked her. He helped himself to her body and her secrets. He has enemies everywhere. Laney Lancaster should hate Peter, but when she discovers him shirtless, sweaty, and chained up in the hotel's dungeon, all she can think about is freeing him. Because she knows what it's like to be trapped and alone. And she could use a dangerous friend. They may be wrong for each other, but the instant they join forces, Laney and Peter are plunged into an odyssey of hot sex and dark danger. To survive, they must trust each other with their lives-and their hearts.

Download or read book Off the Cliff written by Becky Aikman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively and revealing behind-the-scenes look at the making of one of history's most controversial and influential movies, drawing on exclusive interviews with the cast and crew. “You’ve always been crazy,” says Louise to Thelma, shortly after she locks a police officer in the trunk of his car. “This is just the first chance you’ve had to express yourself.” In 1991, Thelma & Louise, the story of two outlaw women on the run from their disenchanted lives, was a revelation. Suddenly, a film in which women were, in every sense, behind the wheel. It turned the tables on Hollywood, instantly becoming a classic, and continues to electrify audiences as a cultural statement of defiance. But if the film’s place in history now seems certain, at the time its creation was a long shot. Only through sheer hard work and more than a little good luck did the script end up in the hands of the brilliant English filmmaker Ridley Scott, who saw its huge potential. With Scott on board, a team willing to challenge the odds came together—including the stars Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon and a fresh-faced up-and-coming actor named Brad Pitt, as well as legends like actor Harvey Keitel, composer Hans Zimmer, and old-school studio chief Alan Ladd Jr.—to create one of the most controversial movies of all time. But before icons like Davis and Sarandon got involved, Thelma & Louise was just an idea in the head of Callie Khouri, a thirty-year-old music video production manager, who was fed up with working behind the scenes on sleazy sets. At four a.m. one night, sitting in her car outside the ramshackle bungalow in Santa Monica that she shared with two friends, she had a vision: two women on a crime spree, fleeing their dull and tedious lives—lives like hers—in search of a freedom they had never before been able to realize. But in the late 1980s, Hollywood was dominated by men, both on the screen and behind the scenes. The likelihood of a script by an unheard-of screenwriter starring two women in lead roles actually getting made was remote. But Khouri had one thing going for her—she was so inexperienced she didn't really know she would be attempting the nigh impossible. In Off the Cliff, Becky Aikman tells the full extraordinary story behind this feminist sensation, which crashed through barricades and upended convention. Drawing on 130 exclusive interviews with the key players from this remarkable cast of actors, writers, and filmmakers, Aikman tells an inspiring and important underdog story about creativity, the magic of cinema, and the unjust obstacles that women in Hollywood continue to face to this day.

Download or read book Falling off the Edge written by Alex Perry and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-07-07 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If the world is flat, as Thomas Friedman says, then aren't some people going to be falling off the edge? Award-winning Time Magazine correspondent Alex Perry (China, India, and Africa) takes us on an unforgettable journey to some of the planet's most remote and dangerous places to explore the sharp end of globalization. Combining sharp analysis with breathtaking frontline reporting, Perry's quest takes readers from Maoist rebels in Nepal to Indian suicide bombers and Indonesian pirates. We meet Chinese organ harvesters, Bombay billionaires, killer cops and pygmy Africans living on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. And in a riveting introduction, Perry presents us with some of the finest war reporting ever to come out of the war on terror. The result of this extraordinary journey is as unexpected as it is dramatic. In his quest to uncover the edges of globalization, Perry ends up discovering its dark heart.