Lotteries are widely used to decide places (seats) at schools, colleges and universities. Conall Boyle explores many examples to find out why. The emotional turmoil that the use of ballots can cause to students and parents alike is graphically described. But lottery selection teaches lessons too; now we can find proper answers to controversial questions like "e;Does choice work?"e;This book will be of interest to parents, pupils and teachers as well as educational administrators. Any student applying for admission to a university course should learn about the amazing weighted lottery for entry to medical schools in the Netherlands. There is a better way: it's a lottery!

What could be the point of teaching such works of bygone cultural and literary inheritance as Cervantes' Don Quixote and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in schools today? This book argues that the narratives and stories of such works are of neglected significance and value for contemporary understanding of human moral association and character. However, in addition to offering detailed analysis of the moral educational potential of these and other texts, the present work reports on a pioneering project, recently pursued by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, concerned precisely with the use of these and other stories for moral and character education in schools. The success of the 'Knightly Virtues' project is an inspiring story in its own right and should therefore be of enormous interest to all schools, teachers and parents rightly concerned with this all-important aspect of their children's educational development.

Julian Jaynes' 1976 book, The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, continues to arouse an unsettling ambivalence. Richard Dawkins called it "e;either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between"e;. The present book suggests that the bicameral mind is a phantasm; the dating of the origin of consciousness contradicts archeological and literary evidence; and the theory contributes nothing toward explaining why some physical states are conscious while others are not because the nonconscious bicameral brain is neurophysiologically equivalent to the conscious brain.However, the author pays tribute to Jaynes's work as a work of "e;consummate genius"e; because it compels us to re-evaluate the significance of humankind's earliest traditions and texts that might shine light on the "e;very suspicious totem of evolutionary mythology"e; that consciousness has evolved continuously and gradually from worms to man.The present book suggests that the evolution of the relationship between consciousnesses, mass, energy, and spacetime radically changed nearly 6,000 years ago during the epigenetic, evolutionary degeneration of a little-known, threadlike structure originating from the center of the central nervous system called Reissner's fiber. The earliest Egyptian, Hebrew, Indian and Chinese traditions, buried beneath the dust of fallen Babel and thousands of years of distortions and disguisings, describe this process during the origin of religion and mystical traditions.

Dugald Stewart was appointed assistant professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh in 1772, aged only 19. He became one of the most influential academics in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European 'Republic of Letters'. Both Stewart's contemporaries and modern scholars have recognised the impact his influential figure had over many young minds. He was one of the leading figures of the Scottish Common Sense school, a name by which we are used to identifying the philosophical tradition headed by Thomas Reid.The selection given here departs in some ways from Stewart's own division of the subject, and aims to reflect the logical priority of each discipline, a priority which Stewart himself seems to give in the internal development of his 'system'.

This book is based on the author's ten-year research into the politics of belief surrounding paranormal ideas. Through a detailed examination of the participants, issues, strategies and underlying factors that constitute the contemporary paranormal debate, the book explores the struggle surrounding the status of paranormal phenomena. It examines, on the one hand, how the principal arbiters of religious and scientific truths - the Church and the academic establishment - reject paranormal ideas as "e;occult"e; and "e;pseudo-scientific"e;, and how, on the other hand, paranormal enthusiasts attempt to resist such labels and instead establish paranormal ideas as legitimate knowledge.The author contends that the paranormal debate is the outcome of wider discursive processes that are concerned with the construction and negotiation of truth in Western society generally. More specifically, the debate is seen as an aspect of the "e;boundary work"e; that defines the contours of religious and scientific orthodoxy.The book paves new ground in understanding the nature of belief relating to a topic that has long held fascination to academics and lay people alike - paranormal ideas. It develops a discursive framework for understanding a contemporary social phenomenon, hence placing the study at the cutting edge of ethnographic development that seeks to integrate discursive perspectives with empirical accounts of sociological phenomena. Most importantly, the study is intended to contribute to the debate surrounding communicative action, by outlining a discursive perspective on the negotiation of ideational differences that goes beyond the incommensurability theories that have dominated the sociology of communication and knowledge.

Columbanus ("e;The Dove of the Church"e;), not to be confused with his near-contemporary Columba of Iona, was a towering figure in the religious and political life of Europe in the Dark Ages. In this lively biography of the saint, Carol Richards evokes the violent and unstable age that laid the foundations for the achievements of the Middle Ages.

Clinical psychologist Richard Ryder approaches three iconic celebrities - Horatio Nelson, Adolph Hitler, and Diana Princess of Wales - as though they were his patients and presents a short psycho-biography of each. Beneath their obvious differences he finds striking similarities in their backgrounds and early experience, especially being deprived of their mothers' love. In a short Epilogue the author asks what lessons might be learned for the future from these three famous figures of the past.

Are our 'democracies' truly democratic? In the Name of the People examines the myth of modern democracy and finds it wanting. The various oligarchies of the world blame the madness of modern life on the greed and stupidity of ordinary people: this book argues that, on the contrary, elites indulge a limitless greed for power and wealth under cover of 'giving the people what they want'. As a coda to his short book, Ivo Mosley examines what true democracy has meant over the last two and a half millennia, and examines how it could be incorporated into current political structures to give them meaning, life and accountability.

This volume reflects the up-and-coming academic interest in sortition. It is based on contributions to the first international conference dedicated to the subject held at the University of Political Science (Sciences-Po) in Paris in November 2008.The papers explore important theoretical questions such as how we should recognise and define differing lottery forms; the relationship between sortition and different aspects and forms of democracy; and its potential benefits to current political and commercial practice.Contributors include: Hubertus Buchstein, Gil Delannoi, Oliver Dowlen, Gerhard Goehler, Barbara Goodwin, Michael Hein, Yves Sintomer, Peter Stone and Antoine Vergne.

In 1976, Julian Jaynes proposed that the language of poetry and prophecy originated in the right, "e;god-side"e; of the brain. Current neuroscientific evidence confirms the role of the right hemisphere in poetry, a sensed presence, and paranormal claims as well as in mental imbalance. Left-hemispheric dominance for language is the norm. An atypically enhanced right hemisphere, whether attained through genetic predisposition, left-hemispheric damage, epilepsy, childhood or later traumas, can create hypersensitivities along with special skills. Dissociative "e;Others"e; may arise unbidden or be coaxed out through occult practices. Based on nearly twenty years of scientific and literary research, this book enters the atypical minds of poetic geniuses - Blake, Keats, Hugo, Rilke, Yeats, Merrill, Plath and Hughes - by way of the visible signs in their lives, beliefs, and shared practices.

Throughout his life, Thomas Jefferson constructed a seemingly impenetrable wall between his public legacy and his private life, a division maintained by his family and the several traditional biographies written about this founding father. Now Virginia Scharff breaks down the barrier between Jefferson's public and private histories to offer an intriguing new portrait of this complicated and influential figure, as seen through the lives of a remarkable group of women.Scharff brings together for the first time in one volume the stories of these diverse women, separated by race but related by blood, including Jefferson's mother, Jane Randolph; his wife, Martha; her half sister, Sally Hemings, his slave mistress; his daughters; and his granddaughters. "Their lives, their Revolutions, their vulnerabilities, shaped the choices Jefferson made, from the selection of words and ideas in his Declaration, to the endless building of his mountaintop mansion, to the vision of a great agrarian nation that powered his Louisiana Purchase," Scharff writes. Based on a wealth of sources, including family letters, and written with empathy and great insight, The Women Jefferson Loved is a welcome new look at this legendary American and one that offers a fresh twist on American history itself.

Americans have experienced a love-hate relationship with Wall Street for two hundred years. Long an object of suspicion, fear, and even revulsion, the Street eventually came to be seen as an alluring pathway to wealth and freedom. Steve Fraser tells the story of this remarkable transformation in a brilliant, masterfully written narrative filled with colorful tales of confidence men and aristocrats, Napoleonic financiers and reckless adventurers, master builders and roguish destroyers. Penetrating and engrossing, this is an extraordinary work of history that illuminates the values and the character of our nation.

Un mister de 5 000 de ani este, ?n sf?r?it, elucidat.Opt zile ?nainte de solsti?iul de var?, ?n str?vechiul sit Stonehenge, un b?rbat este ?njunghiat ?n cadrul unui ritual la care particip? un grup de oameni ?nve?m?nta?i ?n robe. C?teva ore mai t?rziu, unul dintre cei mai importan?i v?n?tori de comori din lume se sinucide ?n propria cas?, l?s?ndu-i fiului s?u, t?n?rul arheolog Gideon Chase, o scrisoare misterioas?… ?n ?ncercarea de descoperi ce se ascunde ?n spatele acestei sinucideri, Gideon intr? ?ntr-o lume dominat? de o ordine str?veche: ritualuri, procesiuni, sacrificii. ?ntr-un sanctuar labirintic din apropiere de Stonehenge au loc ritualurile de purificare ale unei societ??i secrete care ??i transmite ?nv???turile din genera?ie ?n genera?ie. Av?nd la c?rm? un lider nou, charismatic ?i nemilos, grupul s?v?r?e?te sacrificii umane rituale, ?n ?ncercarea terifiant? de a dezv?lui secretul pietrelor.Un thriller exploziv, care concureaz? chiar ?i cel mai bun roman al lui Dan Brown.?Christer combin? cu succes jurnale secrete, coduri ?i o serie de detalii istorice fascinante, despre unul dintre cele mai misterioase locuri din lume.“ – Publishers Weekly?Cu o eficacitate diabolic?, povestea descrie plauzibil legendele supranaturale care ?nv?luie acest sit de 5 000 de ani.“ – Le Parisien?Captivanta simbolistic? a lui Dan Brown se ?mbin? cu ac?iunea exploziv? a lui Indiana Jones ?i cu investiga?ia detectivistic? a Patriciei Cornwell.“ – Longridge NewsCel mai bine v?ndut thriller ?n Marea BritanieRoman publicat ?n 40 de ??ri

Practically Posh is the budget babe's guide to the good life. Filled with thrifty tips and delivered with style and humor, this do-it-yourself handbook is designed for glam girls on the go who want to live large on their little paychecks.Packed with brilliantly simple advice, Robyn Moreno teaches that it's about more than just finding deals—it's about finding pleasure in your present life. It is about being resourceful—working with what you have, then working what you have. Practically Posh is your bible for living as a bon vivant on a budget.From how to score a seat at the trendiest restaurant and tips for being arty without being affected, to easy cheats for staying beautiful and advice on how to book your dream vacation now, the book includes anecdotes, sidebars, quotes, quizzes, and gorgeous photos to punctuate the information from Moreno and her team of experts.So for anyone who refuses to be slowed down by life's practicalities, let ingenuity and attitude be your currency and Practically Posh be your guide.

Take your Haskell and functional programming skills to the next level by exploring new idioms and design patternsAbout This BookExplore Haskell on a higher level through idioms and patternsGet an in-depth look into the three strongholds of Haskell: higher-order functions, the Type system, and Lazy evaluationExpand your understanding of Haskell and functional programming, one line of executable code at a timeWho This Book Is ForIf you’re a Haskell programmer with a firm grasp of the basics and ready to move more deeply into modern idiomatic Haskell programming, then this book is for you.What You Will LearnUnderstand the relationship between the “Gang of Four” OOP Design Patterns and HaskellTry out three ways of Streaming I/O: imperative, Lazy, and Iteratee basedExplore the pervasive pattern of Composition: from function composition through to high-level composition with LensesSynthesize Functor, Applicative, Arrow and Monad in a single conceptual frameworkFollow the grand arc of Fold and Map on lists all the way to their culmination in Lenses and Generic ProgrammingGet a taste of Type-level programming in Haskell and how this relates to dependently-typed programmingRetrace the evolution, one key language extension at a time, of the Haskell Type and Kind systemsPlace the elements of modern Haskell in a historical frameworkIn DetailDesign patterns and idioms can widen our perspective by showing us where to look, what to look at, and ultimately how to see what we are looking at. At their best, patterns are a shorthand method of communicating better ways to code (writing less, more maintainable, and more efficient code).This book starts with Haskell 98 and through the lens of patterns and idioms investigates the key advances and programming styles that together make "modern Haskell". Your journey begins with the three pillars of Haskell. Then you'll experience the problem with Lazy I/O, together with a solution. You'll also trace the hierarchy formed by Functor, Applicative, Arrow, and Monad. Next you'll explore how Fold and Map are generalized by Foldable and Traversable, which in turn is unified in a broader context by functional Lenses. You'll delve more deeply into the Type system, which will prepare you for an overview of Generic programming. In conclusion you go to the edge of Haskell by investigating the Kind system and how this relates to Dependently-typed programming.Style and approachUsing short pieces of executable code, this guide gradually explores the broad pattern landscape of modern Haskell. Ideas are presented in their historical context and arrived at through intuitive derivations, always with a focus on the problems they solve.

本書是關於一件幾乎為人遺忘的事件的研究，此事件發生在1899年，當時有些新界居民試圖以武力阻止香港政府接收，在因而引發的戰鬥中有大量村民戰死。後來，鄉村和香港政府都嘗試把整件事件忘卻，以便重新開始，但是，這段令人痛心的往事還是應當為後世所知。那些亡逝者應當受世人憶記。當時的港督卜力（Henry Blake）爵士採取人道和明智的政策，在戰事結束後成為港府治理新界的標準方式，這些以官民友好合作為基礎的政策，也不應湮沒。因此，我非常感激中華書局決定出版此書中譯本，因為這樣可以令這段故事有更多讀者知悉。我希望這些讀者包括許多年輕人。愈來愈多人有興趣認識香港歷史，教授香港史的學校也愈來愈多；此事件是新界歷史中的重要一頁，希望它能令更多人對香港歷史產生興趣。

本書聚焦戰後香港建築的形成、機制、事件、作品和人物。介紹了戰後重建的求存拮据和1980年代的起飛輝煌，既涉及公共建築、公共屋村建設也談到私人開發項目，同時記錄了1950年代在香港開拓的建築師以及戰後成長起來的本土代表人物的成長歷程和作品。建築環境孕育着生活，見證着城市發展之路。透過此書可了解香港現代歷史、探索香港建築設計的演進。

The sequel to the New York Times bestselling epic Dread Nation is an unforgettable journey of revenge and salvation across a divided America.After the fall of Summerland, Jane McKeene hoped her life would get simpler: Get out of town, stay alive, and head west to California to find her mother.But nothing is easy when you’re a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to a protected village called Nicodemus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880s America.What’s more, this safe haven is not what it appears—as Jane discovers when she sees familiar faces from Summerland amid this new society. Caught between mysteries and lies, the undead, and her own inner demons, Jane soon finds herself on a dark path of blood and violence that threatens to consume her.But she won’t be in it alone.Katherine Deveraux never expected to be allied with Jane McKeene. But after the hell she has endured, she knows friends are hard to come by—and that Jane needs her too, whether Jane wants to admit it or not.Watching Jane’s back, however, is more than she bargained for, and when they both reach a breaking point, it’s up to Katherine to keep hope alive—even as she begins to fear that there is no happily-ever-after for girls like her.

"This is not a book about charismatic visionary leaders. It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary products or visionary market insights. Nor is it about just having a corporate vision. This is a book about something far more important, enduring, and substantial. This is a book about visionary companies." So write Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in this groundbreaking book that shatters myths, provides new insights, and gives practical guidance to those who would like to build landmark companies that stand the test of time. Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Collins and Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies -- they have an average age of nearly one hundred years and have outperformed the general stock market by a factor of fifteen since 1926 -- and studied each company in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day -- as start-ups, as midsize companies, and as large corporations. Throughout, the authors asked: "What makes the truly exceptional companies different from other companies?" What separates General Electric, 3M, Merck, Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard, Walt Disney, and Philip Morris from their rivalsHow, for example, did Procter & Gamble, which began life substantially behind rival Colgate, eventually prevail as the premier institution in its industryHow was Motorola able to move from a humble battery repair business into integrated circuits and cellular communications, while Zenith never became dominant in anything other than TVsHow did Boeing unseat McDonnell Douglas as the world's best commercial aircraft company -- what did Boeing have that McDonnell Douglas lackedBy answering such questions, Collins and Porras go beyond the incessant barrage of management buzzwords and fads of the day to discover timeless qualities that have consistently distinguished out-standing companies. They also provide inspiration to all executives and entrepreneurs by destroying the false but widely accepted idea that only charismatic visionary leaders can build visionary companies. Filled with hundreds of specific examples and organized into a coherent framework of practical concepts that can be applied by managers and entrepreneurs at all levels, Built to Last provides a master blueprint for building organizations that will prosper long into the twenty-first century and beyond.

Whales begin sinking ships. Toxic, eyeless crabs poison Long Island's water supply. The North Sea shelf collapses, killing thousands in Europe. Around the world, countries are beginning to feel the effects of the ocean's revenge as the seas and their inhabitants begin a violent revolution against mankind. At stake is the survival of the Earth's fragile ecology—and ultimately, the survival of the human race itself.The apocalyptic catastrophes of The Day After Tomorrow meet the watery menace of The Abyss in this gripping, scientifically realistic, and utterly imaginative thriller.

Both experienced and novice cooks will love this A-to-Z guide packed with more than 6,000 tips, shortcuts and other culinary wisdom cookbooks never tell you. Find all the answers you'll ever need to a universe of cooking quandaries and questions on hundreds of subjects, including foods, beverages, kitchen equipment, cooking techniques, entertaining ideas and smart ways to use leftovers. Plus, there are loads of quick and easy reference charts, a handy system of cross-referencing and well over a hundred shorthand-style recipes.