Now is an important time in human history. Viral outbreaks threaten lives and make headlines. We see new diseases appear and spread across the planet. We map our genetic code. And we now share the planet with lifeforms of our own creation.
A global communication system keeps us informed. But a global system of trade agreements plays a very important role we do not hear so much about. These trade agreements govern, among other things, patent protection for intellectual property.
When a nation accepts a trade agreement treating medicines as intellectual property, it can find itself...

Consider two substances, each with a body of research confirming its toxicity to human beings. People consume one of the substances for pleasure, and the other for its supposed health benefits. The World Health Organization actively bands nations together to reduce the marketability and consumption of the former, yet promotes the latter as an effective health measure. The essays in this book examine the policies governing these two substances: tobacco and fluoride.
Tobacco control policies have gained significant traction as nations around the world evaluate the success of Australia's...

This affordable 70-page booklet makes a handy guide to the technological, legal, and political pressures which gave rise to the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order. It explains the challenges the Order faces, and some of the main arguments against it. This text takes a more scholarly approach than the latest headlines and soundbites, but remains accessible to the average reader.

The annotated bibliography makes a great starting point for those who wish to do more in-depth research into the history and details of the 2015 Order, identifying where to find the most relevant court...

Meet Meteor Mags. She's a space pirate, tobacco smuggler, pole dancer, and rock'n'roll rebel.

Meteor Mags blazes through the Solar System in a series of anarchist adventures with her foul-mouthed nephew, Tarzi, and her adorably indestructible cat, Patches. Join Meteor Mags, her best friend Celina, and her band The Psycho 78s on the asteroid mining frontier of the near future, where mayhem abounds and the heroes aren't always good

By 2027, gravity control has made asteroid mining a major industry. Meteor Mags and her crew rock the Belt, raging against the forces of...

From cyberspace to outer space, public policy shapes our lives, our planet, and our future. The ten essays collected in Laws That Shape Our Lives examine such controversial policy measures as net neutrality, tobacco packaging, water fluoridation, same-sex marriage, and the patenting of biological & genetic material.

Written in an academic style based on research and primary source documents, Laws That Shape Our Lives presents a comprehensive analysis of the history, major points of debate, and the current state of affairs of these topics and more. Laws That Shape...