...Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game Michael Lewis For Billy Fitzgerald I can still hear him shouting at me Lately in a wreck of a Californian ship, one of the passengers fastened a belt about him with two hundred pounds of gold in it, with which he was found afterwards at the bottom. Now, as he was sinking-had he the gold? or the gold him? —John Ruskin, Unto This Last Preface I wrote this book because I fell in love with a story. The story concerned a small group of undervalued professional baseball players and executives, many of whom had been rejected as unfit for the big leagues, who had turned themselves into one of the most successful franchises in Major League Baseball. But the idea for the book came well before I had good reason to write it—before I had a story to fall in love with. It began, really, with an innocent question: how did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games? For more than a decade the people who run professional baseball have argued that the game was ceasing to be an athletic competition and becoming a financial one. The gap between rich and poor in baseball was far greater than in any other professional sport, and widening rapidly. At the opening of the 2002 season, the richest team, the New York Yankees, had a payroll of $126 million while the two poorest teams, the Oakland A's and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, had payrolls of less than a third of that, about $40 million. A decade before, the highest payroll...
Words: 101165 - Pages: 405
...Color-- -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- Text Size-- 10-- 11-- 12-- 13-- 14-- 15-- 16-- 17-- 18-- 19-- 20-- 21-- 22-- 23-- 24 Dark Lover A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood By J.R. Ward Contents Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-one Chapter Twenty-two Chapter Twenty-three Chapter Twenty-four Chapter Twenty-five Chapter Twenty-six Chapter Twenty-seven Chapter Twenty-eight Chapter Twenty-nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-one Chapter Thirty-two Chapter Thirty-three Chapter Thirty-four Chapter Thirty-five Chapter Thirty-six Chapter Thirty-seven Chapter Thirty-eight Chapter Thirty-nine Chapter Forty Chapter Forty-one Chapter Forty-two Chapter Forty-three Chapter Forty-four Chapter Forty-five Chapter Forty-six Chapter Forty-seven Chapter Forty-eight Chapter Forty-nine Chapter Fifty Chapter Fifty-one Chapter Fifty-two Chapter Fifty-three Chapter Fifty-four Chapter Fifty-five Epilogue A dangerous passion… Wrath walked into the hall, feeling particularly ferocious. Man, Beth had better be alive and well. Or God help whoever had hurt her. And if she'd decided to avoid him? That didn't matter. Her body was about to need something only he could provide her. So sooner or later she would come...
Words: 121508 - Pages: 487
...Owen Jorgensen 1 Acknowledgments: In a project of this magnitude, it is understandable that I should owe many people a debt of gratitude for their help. First of all I want to thank Pearry Green for his vision, his encouragement and his efforts in publishing and distributing these books. I also want to thank Saundra Miles, David Buckley, Jay Weber, and the other people who spent many hours editing and proof reading the six manuscripts in this series. Their suggestions helped to make this a better book and a more accurate account of William Branham‘s life. Also, I want to thank Steven and Kathy Strooh, who put these books into audio format for all those people who would rather listen than read. I must certainly thank those people who have translated these books into their native languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Norwegian, Hindi, and many other languages. Supernatural: the Life of William Branham took me 17 years to complete. I was 34 when I started and 51 when I finished. To put that into perspective, my four children were in grade school when I began writing this biography. By the time I finished, three of my children were married and I had nine grandchildren. During the 17 years I worked on this project, my life had its ups and downs. I want to thank everyone who prayed for me during those 17 years. Finally I want to thank my four children—Benaiah, Betsy, Shiloh and Hannah—for their patience, their understanding, their encouragement, and their never-failing...
Words: 101850 - Pages: 408
...confined to a vagabond, wandering, unsettled condition, is without any certain abode; for though he has, in consequence of his angelic nature, a kind of empire in the liquid waste or air, yet this is certainly part of his punishment, that he is . . . without any fixed place, or space, allowed him to rest the sole of his foot upon. Daniel Defoe, _The History of the Devil_ I The Angel Gibreel "To be born again," sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "first you have to die. Hoji! Hoji! To land upon the bosomy earth, first one needs to fly. Tat-taa! Taka-thun! How to ever smile again, if first you won't cry? How to win the darling's love, mister, without a sigh? Baba, if you want to get born again . . ." Just before dawn one winter's morning, New Year's Day or thereabouts, two real, full-grown, living men fell from a great height, twenty-nine thousand and two feet, towards the English Channel, without benefit of parachutes or wings, out of a clear sky. "I tell you, you must die, I tell you, I tell you," and thusly and so beneath a moon of alabaster until a loud cry crossed the night,...
Words: 195828 - Pages: 784
...Harley’s Stanley Marcus Retail Competition March 31, 2011 Harley’s Stanley Marcus Retail Competition March 31, 2011 Table of Contents Executive Summary 3-4 History/Background 5-7 Trends.............. 8-17 Target Market 18-21 Positioning…………… 22-34 Competitive Analysis 35-42 SWOT Analysis 43-48 Recommendations 49-61 Conclusion………….. 62-64 Appendices Appendix A Online Survey Results 66-75 Appendix B Mystery Shopping Results 76-99 Appendix C Manager Interview 100-105 Appendix D Focus Group Description and Results 106-113 Appendix E Timeline 114 Appendix F Works Cited 115 Executive Summary Executive Summary Executive Summary Executive Summary After being in the retail business since college, Harley Hooper’s passion for retail, especially specialty men’s clothing, grew. This passion led to him opening his first store, Harley’s, in Tyler, Texas, thirty years ago. In 2009, Mr. Hooper decided to expand his store by opening a second store in College Station, Texas, which is the focus of our project. Even though the store will only be celebrating its second anniversary this May, they already have a large customer following that is continuing to grow. Our audit will be providing assessments of Harley’s current marketing strategies to show them not only what they are doing well, but how they can make further improvements to the company. In order to do this, we will first define both...
Words: 18601 - Pages: 75
...original introduction, the opportunity to write the book came while I was in law school, the result of my election as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. In the wake of some modest publicity, I received an advance from a publisher and went to work with the belief that the story of my family, and my efforts to understand that story, might speak in some way to the fissures of race that have characterized the American experience, as well as the fluid state of identitythe leaps through time, the collision of cultures-that mark our modern life. Like most first-time authors, I was filled with hope and despair upon the book’s publication-hope that the book might succeed beyond my youthful dreams, despair that I had failed to say anything worth saying. The reality fell somewhere in between. The reviews were mildly favorable. People actually showed up at the readings my publisher arranged. The sales were underwhelming. And, after a few months, I went on with the business of my life, certain that my career as an author would be short-lived, but glad to have survived the process with my dignity more or less intact. I had little time for reflection over the next ten years. I ran a voter registration project in the 1992 election cycle, began a civil rights practice, and started teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago. My wife and I bought a house, were blessed with two gorgeous, healthy, and mischievous daughters, and struggled to pay the bills. When...
Words: 154210 - Pages: 617
...Quantitative Analysis TablesBibliographyMBA Abbreviation LexiconIndex AcknowledgmentsAbout the AuthorPraise for the Ten-Day MBACopyrightAbout the Publisher Introduction After I earned my MBA, I had a chance to reflect on the two most exhausting and fulfilling years of my life. As I reviewed my course notes, I realized that the basics of an MBA education were quite simple and could easily be understood by a wider audience. Thousands of Ten-Day MBA readers have proven it! Readers are applying their MBA knowledge every day to their own business situations. Not only useful in the United States, The Ten-Day MBA has been translated into many languages around the world. So many people are curious about business education, including doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, and aspiring MBAs. This book answers their questions. The Ten-Day MBA really delivers useful information quickly and easily. Current MBA students have written me that they even use the book to review for exams. Ten-Day MBAs are “walking the walk and talking the talk” of MBAs every business day. It’s proven that this book can work for you. Written for the impatient student, The Ten-Day MBA allows readers to really grasp the fundamentals of an MBA without losing two years’ wages and incurring an $80,000 debt for tuition and expenses. Prospective MBAs can use this book to see if a two-year investment is worth their while; those about to enter business school can get a big head start on the competition; and those of you who cannot...
Words: 97445 - Pages: 390
...Quantitative Analysis TablesBibliographyMBA Abbreviation LexiconIndex AcknowledgmentsAbout the AuthorPraise for the Ten-Day MBACopyrightAbout the Publisher Introduction After I earned my MBA, I had a chance to reflect on the two most exhausting and fulfilling years of my life. As I reviewed my course notes, I realized that the basics of an MBA education were quite simple and could easily be understood by a wider audience. Thousands of Ten-Day MBA readers have proven it! Readers are applying their MBA knowledge every day to their own business situations. Not only useful in the United States, The Ten-Day MBA has been translated into many languages around the world. So many people are curious about business education, including doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, and aspiring MBAs. This book answers their questions. The Ten-Day MBA really delivers useful information quickly and easily. Current MBA students have written me that they even use the book to review for exams. Ten-Day MBAs are “walking the walk and talking the talk” of MBAs every business day. It’s proven that this book can work for you. Written for the impatient student, The Ten-Day MBA allows readers to really grasp the fundamentals of an MBA without losing two years’ wages and incurring an $80,000 debt for tuition and expenses. Prospective MBAs can use this book to see if a two-year investment is worth their while; those about to enter business school can get a big head start on the competition; and those of you who cannot...
Words: 96678 - Pages: 387
...COPYRIGHT 2005 Business Communications Company, Inc. If humans continue to use fossil fuels in a business as usual manner for the next few centuries, the polar ice caps will be depleted, ocean sea levels will rise by seven meters and median air temperatures will soar to 14.5 degrees warmer than current day. These are the stunning results of climate and carbon cycle model simulations conducted by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. By using a coupled climate and carbon cycle model to look at global climate and carbon cycle changes, the scientists found that the earth would warm by 8 degrees Celsius (14.5 degrees Fahrenheit) if humans use the entire planet's available fossil fuels by the year 2300. The jump in temperature would have alarming consequences for the polar ice caps and the ocean, said lead author Govindasamy Bala of the Laboratory's Energy and Environment Directorate. In the polar regions alone, the temperature would spike more than 20 degrees Celsius, forcing the land in the region to change from ice and tundra to boreal forests. "The temperature estimate is actually conservative because the model didn't take into consideration changing land use such as deforestation and build-out of cities into outlying wilderness areas," Bala said. Today's level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is 380 parts per million (ppm). By the year 2300, the model predicts that amount would nearly quadruple to 1,423 ppm. In the simulations, soil and living biomass are net carbon sinks...
Words: 18317 - Pages: 74
...Кухаренко В.А. Практикум з стилістики англійської мови: Підручник. – Вінниця. «Нова книга», 2000 - 160 с. CONTENTS FOREWORD...............................................................................…………………………………………... 2 PRELIMINARY REMARKS.....................................................………………………………………….. 3 CHAPTER I. PHONO-GRAPHICAL LEVEL. MORPHOLOGICAL LEVEL…............................... 13 Sound Instrumenting. Craphon. Graphical Means…………………………………………………………...6 Morphemic Repetition. Extension of Morphemic Valency………………………………………………….11 CHAPTER II. LEXICAL LEVEL..............................................……………………………………….…14 Word and its Semantic Structure…………………………………………………………………………….14 Connotational Meanings of a Word………………………………………………………………………….14 The Role of the Context in the Actualization of Meaning…………………………………………………….14 Stylistic Differentiation of the Vocabulary…………………………………………………………………..16 Literary Stratum of Words. Colloquial Words…..…………………………………………………………..16 Lexical Stylistic Devices…………………………………………………………………………………….23 Metaphor. Metonymy. Synecdoche. Play on Words. Irony. Epithet…………………………………………23 Hyperbole. Understatement. Oxymoron. ……………………………………………………………………23 CHAPTER III. SYNTACTICAL LEVEL..................................…………………………………………38 Main Characteristics of the Sentence. Syntactical SDs. Sentence Length…………………………………..38 One-Word Sentences. Sentence Structure. Punctuation. Arrangement...
Words: 57354 - Pages: 230
...Кухаренко В. А. Практикум з стилістики англійської мови: Підручник. — Вінниця: Нова книга, 2000. — 160 с. Кухаренко Валерия Андреевна, д.ф.н., проф., кафедра лексикологии и стилистики английского языка факультетеа РГФ ОНУ им. И. И. Мечникова CONTENTS FOREWORD...............................................................................…………………………………………... 2 PRELIMINARY REMARKS.....................................................………………………………………….. 3 CHAPTER I. PHONO-GRAPHICAL LEVEL. MORPHOLOGICAL LEVEL…............................... 13 Sound Instrumenting. Graphon. Graphical Means…………………………………………………………...6 Morphemic Repetition. Extension of Morphemic Valency………………………………………………….11 CHAPTER II. LEXICAL LEVEL..............................................……………………………………….…14 Word and its Semantic Structure…………………………………………………………………………….14 Connotational Meanings of a Word………………………………………………………………………….14 The Role of the Context in the Actualization of Meaning…………………………………………………….14 Stylistic Differentiation of the Vocabulary…………………………………………………………………..16 Literary Stratum of Words. Colloquial Words…..…………………………………………………………..16 Lexical Stylistic Devices…………………………………………………………………………………….23 Metaphor. Metonymy. Synecdoche. Play on Words. Irony. Epithet…………………………………………23 Hyperbole. Understatement. Oxymoron. ……………………………………………………………………23 CHAPTER III. SYNTACTICAL LEVEL..................................…………………………………………38 Main Characteristics...
Words: 56594 - Pages: 227
...hardest part. You may have noticed that when it is time to begin a writing assignment, you suddenly develop an enormous desire to straighten your books, water your plants, or sharpen your pencils for the fifth time. If this situation sounds familiar, you may find it reassuring to know that many professionals undergo these same strange compulsions before they begin writing. Jean Kerr, author of Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, admits that she often finds herself in the kitchen reading soup-can labels—or anything—in order to prolong the moments before taking pen in hand. John C. Calhoun, vice president under Andrew Jackson, insisted he had to plow his fields before he could write, and Joseph Conrad, author of Lord Jim and other novels, is said to have cried on occasion from the sheer dread of sitting down to compose his stories. To spare you as much hand-wringing as possible, this chapter presents some practical suggestions on how to begin writing your short essay. Although all writers must find the methods that work best for them, you may find some of the following ideas helpful. But no matter how you actually begin putting words on paper, it is absolutely essential to maintain two basic ideas concerning your writing task. Before you write a single sentence, you should always remind yourself that 1. You have some valuable ideas to tell your reader, and 2. More than anything, you want to communicate those ideas to your reader. These reminders may seem obvious to you, but without a...
Words: 234754 - Pages: 940
...mysteries of entrepreneurship and reveals that magic and genius are not the necessary ingredients for success but instead proposes a scienti c process that can be learned and replicated. Whether you are a startup entrepreneur or corporate entrepreneur, there are important lessons here for you on your quest toward the new and unknown.” —Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO “The road map for innovation for the twenty-first century. The ideas in The Lean Startup will help create the next industrial revolution.” —Steve Blank, lecturer, Stanford University, UC Berkeley Hass Business School “Every founding team should stop for forty-eight hours and read The Lean Startup. Seriously, stop and read this book now.” —Scott Case, CEO, Startup America Partnership “The key lesson of this book is that startups happen in the present —that messy place between the past and the future where nothing happens according to PowerPoint. Ries’s ‘read and react’ approach to this sport, his relentless focus on validated learning, the neverending anxiety of hovering between ‘persevere’ and ‘pivot,’ all bear witness to his appreciation for the dynamics of entrepreneurship.” —Geoffrey Moore, author, Crossing the Chasm “If you are an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are just curious about entrepreneurship,...
Words: 86508 - Pages: 347
...work. Why the conventional wisdom is so often wrong . . . How “experts”— from criminologists to real-estate agents to political scientists—bend the facts . . . Why knowing what to measure, and how to measure it, is the key to understanding modern life . . . What is “freakonomics,” anyway? 1. What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? 15 In which we explore the beauty of incentives, as well as their dark side—cheating. Contents Who cheats? Just about everyone . . . How cheaters cheat, and how to catch them . . . Stories from an Israeli day-care center . . . The sudden disappearance of seven million American children . . . Cheating schoolteachers in Chicago . . . Why cheating to lose is worse than cheating to win . . . Could sumo wrestling, the national sport of Japan, be corrupt? . . . What the Bagel Man saw: mankind may be more honest than we think. 2. How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents? 49 In which it is argued that nothing is more powerful than information, especially when its power is abused. Spilling the Ku Klux Klan’s secrets . . . Why experts of every kind are in the perfect position to exploit you . . . The antidote to information abuse: the Internet . . . Why a new car is suddenly worth so much less the moment it leaves the lot . . . Breaking the real-estate agent code: what “well maintained” really means . . . Is Trent Lott more racist...
Words: 105214 - Pages: 421
...mysteries of entrepreneurship and reveals that magic and genius are not the necessary ingredients for success but instead proposes a scientific process that can be learned and replicated. Whether you are a startup entrepreneur or corporate entrepreneur, there are important lessons here for you on your quest toward the new and unknown.” —Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO “The road map for innovation for the twenty-first century. The ideas in The Lean Startup will help create the next industrial revolution.” —Steve Blank, lecturer, Stanford University, UC Berkeley Hass Business School “Every founding team should stop for forty-eight hours and read The Lean Startup. Seriously, stop and read this book now.” —Scott Case, CEO, Startup America Partnership “The key lesson of this book is that startups happen in the present—that messy place between the past and the future where nothing happens according to PowerPoint. Ries’s ‘read and react’ approach to this sport, his relentless focus on validated learning, the never-ending anxiety of hovering between ‘persevere’ and ‘pivot,’ all bear witness to his appreciation for the dynamics of entrepreneurship.” —Geoffrey Moore, author, Crossing the Chasm “If you are an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, read this book. If you are just curious about entrepreneurship, read this book. Starting Lean is...
Words: 84997 - Pages: 340
