By the end of the day on February 11, 2001, forty-five-year-old James Lange Amundson was fighting for his life. While on a snowmobiling excursion in his home state of Wisconsin, Amundson's sled was broadsided by another snowmobile traveling almost 100 miles per hour.Married with three children, Amundson suffered a variety of life-threatening injuries, including a closed traumatic brain injury. His battle to survive would be long and arduous. In this memoir, Amundson describes traumatic brain injuries and recounts his journey to recovery. Weaving in stories from his childhood as a member of the drum corps and a speed skating team, as well as a practitioner of Tae Kwon Do, "Unplug Him" narrates how Amundson believes these competitive and demanding experiences contributed to his determination to heal. "Unplug Him" provides insight into one man's fight to overcome a brain injury and communicates the power of a positive attitude when confronted with seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

In essence, a Roth IRA conversion requires paying taxes on the portion of your IRA or 401(k) that you convert, but then that money can grow income tax-free for the rest of your, your spouse's, your children's and grandchildren's lives. The advantage of a tax-savvy long term Roth IRA conversion is often measured in the millions. The real eye-opener, however, is that Roth IRA conversions are great for older IRA owners, regardless of the benefits to future generations.
"The Roth Revolution" addresses the following topics clearly and objectively:
* Whether, how much, and when to convert
* Costs and benefits of a Roth IRA conversion
* Advice for taxpayers in each income tax bracket
* The impact of future tax increases
* Synergy of delaying (or returning) Social Security and Roth IRA conversions
* Combining charitable gifts and Roth IRA conversions
* Tax-free conversions of after-tax dollars in IRAs and retirement plans
* Converting and recharacterizing strategies
You may be asking, "Who in their right mind would pay taxes before they have to?" The answer is James Lange and thousands of his readers and clients, all the top IRA experts, and after reading "The Roth Revolution," hopefully you too.

How well do you really know your users? With properly conducted user research, you can discover what really makes your audience tick. This practical guide will show you, step-by-step, how to gain proper insight about your users so that you can base design decisions on solid evidence. You'll not only learn the different methodologies that you can employ in user research, but also gain insight into important set-up activities, such as recruiting users and equipping your lab, and acquire analysis skills so that you can make the most of the data you've gathered. And finally, you'll learn how to communicate findings and deploy evidence, to boost your design rationale and persuade skeptical colleagues. Design your research Cost justify user research Recruit and incentivise users Discover how to run your research sessions Analyze your results Reporting on results and acting in your findings

Three men conspire to make a false accusation that they had been assaulted as boys in a London Comprehensive twenty years earlier. They hope to get compensation. They name a teacher at random and, despite a total lack of evidence, the man is questioned by the police and later charged. To escape harassment by the Press while awaiting trial, Alec goes to stay with friends in a remote fishing-port in Scotland. While there, he meets a young Russian woman who is also a fugitive: she has been living for months on Russian ship to escape the agents of the KGB who are trying to kill her. Alec helps her to evade her pursuers. They fall in love, but Sophie has to sail away in a day or two and Alec has to return to London to face trial for a crime he did not commit. The future seems hopeless for both but, after many twists and turns, they manage to outwit their enemies and to make a happier life together.

"Retire Secure For Same-Sex Couples" makes a financial case, especially for older same-sex couples in a committed relationship, to get married and enjoy economic, tax, and retirement savings parity with well-informed traditional couples. It offers a comprehensive and easy-to-understand guide to the challenges and rewards of new laws affecting tax and retirement planning. The book offers a blueprint that is easy to understand, flexible and adjustable. Its visual aids such as charts and graphs make the concepts easy to understand. Reading and implementing some of the strategies in Chapters 2 and 3 covering IRAs and retirement plans and Social Security benefits could be life changing with good planning married same-sex couples could be better off by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Furthermore, the book covers topics ranging from health care to trusts to inheritance taxes. Lange's advice provides same-sex married couples with the essential tools they need to grow and secure a healthy financial future. All proceeds from the book will be donated to Freedom to Marry, a non-profit organization that promotes marriage equality, championed by civil rights activist Evan Wolfson. This definitive guide enjoys glowing endorsements from Ed Slott, Jane Bryant Quinn, Mel Lindauer, Daniel S. Kern, Sidney Kess, Bart Astor, Dan Poynter, Kaye A. Thomas, Jan Cullinane, Dan Keppel, Dan Solin, Bart Astor, Taylor Larimore, Ron Kelemen, Tim McCarthy, Michael F. Kay and many other financial authors and experts.

By the end of the day on February 11, 2001, forty-five-year-old James Lange Amundson was fighting for his life. While on a snowmobiling excursion in his home state of Wisconsin, Amundson's sled was broadsided by another snowmobile traveling almost 100 miles per hour.Married with three children, Amundson suffered a variety of life-threatening injuries, including a closed traumatic brain injury. His battle to survive would be long and arduous. In this memoir, Amundson describes traumatic brain injuries and recounts his journey to recovery. Weaving in stories from his childhood as a member of the drum corps and a speed skating team, as well as a practitioner of Tae Kwon Do, "Unplug Him" narrates how Amundson believes these competitive and demanding experiences contributed to his determination to heal. "Unplug Him" provides insight into one man's fight to overcome a brain injury and communicates the power of a positive attitude when confronted with seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Rice is the food crop the world depends on most. In "Feeding a Hungry Planet," James Lang demonstrates how research has benefited rice growers and increased production. He describes the life cycle of a rice crop and explains how research is conducted and how the results end up growing in a farmer's field. Focusing on Asia and Latin America, Lang explores lowland and upland rice systems, genetics, sustainable agriculture, and efforts to narrow the gap between yields at research stations and those on working farms. Ultimately, says Lang, the ability to feed growing populations and protect fragile ecologies depends as much on the sustainable on-site farm technologies as on high-yielding crop varieties.
Lang views agriculture as a chain of events linking the farmer's field with the scientist's laboratory, and he argues that rice cultivation is shaped by different social systems, cultures, and environments. Describing research conducted by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia, he shows how national programs tailor research to their own production problems. According to Lang, the interaction of research programs, practical problem solving, and local extension efforts suggests a new model for international development.

This optimistic view of three Latin American countries describes community health programs and rural extension projects through the people who do the work. They explain how credit is organized, describe the routines at health posts, and discuss crops and cooperatives. Here is powerful evidence of what can be accomplished when community-based development focuses on people and their everyday problems. Lang argues that local development is affordable, realistic, and irreplaceable.
Originally published 1988.
A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

The potato has a larger story to tell than its humble status suggests. In this fascinating account of the potato and its role in human history--and the human future--James Lang tells that story. Combining biology and social science, he describes the origins of cultivated potatoes and how they spread as a staple throughout the world; the many ways to propagate, store, and harvest potatoes; and the crop's potential for feeding a hungry planet. Along the way, Lang also muses on art and agriculture, the stars and ancient peoples, and the cycles of time; he reflects on famine and demography, describes village-based, farmer field schools, and looks at the role the potato plays in feeding China.
Native to the New World, the potato was domesticated by Andean farmers, probably in the Lake Titicaca basin, almost as early as grain crops were cultivated in the Near East. Full of essential vitamins and energy-giving starch, the potato has proved a valuable world resource. Curious Spaniards took the potato back to Europe, from whence it spread worldwide. Today, the largest potato producer is China, with India not far behind. To tell the potato's story, Lang has done fieldwork in South America, Asia, and Africa.
From the many potato projects studied, Lang learned a simple, direct lesson: how to address basic problems with practical solutions. Whether the problem is seed production, pest management, genetic improvement, or storage, projects take the diversity imposed by place and by farming traditions as a starting point. In agriculture, one size does not fit all.
Lang's grasp of the social and technological issues involved is formidable; his revisionist thoughts on the origins of agriculture are convincing. "Notes of a Potato Watcher" explains how "think globally, act locally" can actually be applied. Here is a book that anyone interested in potatoes, development, and small farms will not want to miss, a book that explains why the potato was not the culprit in the Irish famine, a book that shows why solutions must begin at home.