...was reserved for the parlor’s highest paying customers stepped forward from the darkness. The girl untied the satin belt cinching the robe shut, and slipped her arms around William waist, pulling her lingerie-clad body into his embrace. “So, good see you,” Ang Lei whispered. William exhaled a deep sigh of relief and let his hands begin exploring Ang Lei’s impossibly petite body. “Good to see you, too,” William said. He knew he could do anything he wanted to her. It was time to feed the addiction that had started months ago in Sage’s office; that night, William would feast. *** October, 2028 THE popcorn in the microwave oven filled the kitchen with the sound of kernels exploding in a rapid succession. The oven beeped. William removed the bag, carefully tore open the top, and poured the buttery popcorn into a bowl. He carried the bowl into the living room and sat next to Mary on a leather sofa. “Smells good,” Mary said, helping herself to a handful. “Remember when we were kids we used to make JiffyPop on the stovetop?” “Oh, yeah, of course. You had to shake it like hell while the tinfoil expanded and that little hole in the top steamed.” “Yup. Those were the days. That popcorn always tasted better than this nuked stuff.” “The popcorn may have been tastier, but I’m inclined to believe that these are the days,” Mary said, nestling into William’s embrace. “You won’t get an argument from me. OK, here we go,” William said, turning up the volume on a flat screen television...
Words: 1687 - Pages: 7
...Corporations can create shared value by using their core capabilities in ways that contribute to both social progress and economic success. Some developing countries have experienced phenomenal economic growth, but that growth has not been inclusive. In recent decades, developing countries have experienced a rapid rate of economic growth. Although this has led to higher incomes and better health for many Developing countries, we still have far to go to make this growth truly inclusive. Developing countries are expected to fall short on several Millennium Development Goals: by 2015, it is expected that 40 percent of Developing countrie’s children will remain undernourished, and Developing countries will have progressed only halfway toward its goals for decreasing infant mortality. Inequality, poor public health, and environmental degradation will increasingly constrain their economic growth. Corporations play a critical role in achieving inclusive growth. Government is often seen as the answer to society’s problems, but spending by the Government of Developing countries alone will likely be insufficient to address these critical issues. governments can encourage contributions from the private sector by passing legislation and using its purchasing power to create a supportive, enabling environment. Philanthropy can also help catalyze change, but charity has a limited ability to sustainably achieve scale. The private sector, however, possesses skills and technologies necessary...
Words: 7401 - Pages: 30
...12-Month Real Estate Millionaire Mark Rolton Part #1: My Million Dollar Profit Story Table of Contents Forward ........................................................................................4 About the Author .........................................................................9 About this Book ..........................................................................11 It All Starts in Your Mind ...........................................................15 You are what you think .......................................................................................15 What questions are you asking? ..........................................................................16 A new approach to wealth ..................................................................................17 What is Money? ..........................................................................20 A case for karma? ................................................................................................22 Cashflow from Control? .............................................................25 Developing short-term cashflow ..........................................................................26 Options give you time .........................................................................................26 12-Month Real Estate Millionaire - Part 1 2 Copyright © 2012 by Mark Rolton All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced...
Words: 7258 - Pages: 30
...AUGUST 2012 How Americans Would Slim Down Public Education By Steve Farkas and Ann Duffett Foreword by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Amber M. Winkler Contents 1 5 8 9 Foreword Executive Summary Introduction When Times Are Tough 11 Cost-Cutting Measures that the Public Approves 19 Close Up: Is Special Education Spending Sacred? 22 Rejected Proposals 24 Split Decisions 28 Conclusion 30 Appendix A: Methodology 32 Appendix B: Complete Survey Results 42 Endnotes The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is the nation’s leader in advancing educational excellence for every child through quality research, analysis, and commentary, as well as on-the-ground action and advocacy in Ohio. It is affiliated with the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and this publication is a joint project of the Foundation and the Institute. For further information, please visit our website at www.edexcellence.net or write to the Institute at 1016 16th St. NW, 8th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036. The Institute is neither connected with nor sponsored by Fordham University. HOW AMERICANS WOULD SLIM DOWN PUBLIC EDUCATION i Foreword By Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Amber M. Winkler In November 2010, Education Secretary Arne Duncan delivered a highly publicized address at the American Enterprise Institute. His message? Tough economic times lie ahead: “I am here,” he said, “to talk today about what has been called the New Normal. For the next several years, preschool, K–12, and postsecondary educators are likely...
Words: 14880 - Pages: 60
...The Marketplace of Perceptions Like all revolutions in thought, this one began with anomalies, strange facts, odd observations that the prevailing wisdom could not explain. Casino gamblers, for instance, are willing to keep betting even while expecting to lose. People say they want to save for retirement, eat better, start exercising, quit smoking—and they mean it—but they do no such things. Victims who feel they’ve been treated poorly exact their revenge, though doing so hurts their own interests. Such perverse facts are a direct a≠ront to the standard model of the human actor— Economic Man—that classical and neoclassical economics have used as a foundation for decades, if not centuries. Economic Man makes logical, rational, self-interested decisions that weigh costs against benefits and maximize value and profit to himself. Economic Man is an intelligent, analytic, selfish creature who has perfect self-regulation in pursuit of his future goals and is unswayed by bodily states and feelings. And Economic Man is a marvelously convenient pawn for building academic theories. But Economic Man has one fatal flaw: he does not exist. When we turn to actual human beings, we find, instead of robot-like logic, all manner of irrational, self-sabotaging, and even 50 March - Apr il 2006 Behavioral economics explains why we procrastinate, buy, borrow, and grab chocolate on the spur of the moment. by Craig Lambert Portraits by Stu Rosner altruistic behavior. This is such a routine observation...
Words: 8018 - Pages: 33
...Legal Methods Outline How a Dispute Becomes a Case (16-29) I. Cases A. Procedural Posture: The movement of the case and the legal issues they hinge on. II. Reversing v. Overruling A. A court reverses the decision of a lower court in the same controversy. 1. Lower court is bound by precedent of higher courts – no exception. B. A court overrules itself - it disavows in a later, different case what it itself had ruled in a prior, different, but factually similar case. 1. Higher courts can overrule themselves – not bound by precedent. III. Res Judicata v. Stare Decisis A. Res Judicata – X may not ever again sue Y over this particular issue. 1. Res judicata - important in federal system of both state and federal courts because stops state court losing and then going to federal courts for the same issue. B. Stare Decisis – Requires following “the law,”/rule laid down by another case. 1. Appellate courts create stare decisis through opinions. 2. Law of the case – requires same defendant in every case. If the plaintiff wins, then those who come after can use it as well. A Case Timeline I. First Step - Is there a case? A. Is there a reasonable claim or cause of action? Is there a legal right for a remedy? – is this a question of “law”? – If no cause of action, then can’t be a case, but can be settled or just be dropped B. Can the individual prove by a preponderance...
Words: 19745 - Pages: 79
...Principles by Ray Dalio What follows are three distinct parts that can be read either independently or as a connected whole. Part 1 is about the purpose and importance of having principles in general, having nothing to do with mine. Part 2 explains my most fundamental life principles that apply to everything I do. Part 3, explains my management principles as they are being lived out at Bridgewater. Since my management principles are simply my most fundamental life principles applied to management, reading Part 2 will help you to better understand Part 3, but it’s not required—you can go directly to Part 3 to see what my management principles are and how Bridgewater has been run. One day I’d like to write a Part 4 on my investment principles. If you are looking to get the most bang for your buck (i.e., understanding for the effort), I suggest that you read Parts 1 and 2, and the beginning of Part 3 (through the Summary and Table of Principles) which will give you nearly the whole picture. It’s only about 55 pages of a normal size book. Above all else, I want you to think for yourself—to decide 1) what you want, 2) what is true and 3) what to do about it. I want you to do that in a clear-headed thoughtful way, so that you get what you want. I wrote this book to help you do that. I am going to ask only two things of you—1) that you be open-minded and 2) that you honestly answer some questions about what you want, what is true and what you want to do about it. If...
Words: 63099 - Pages: 253
...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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOLLOW PENGUIN For my grandmother, Betty McKee chapter one The big man at the end of the bar is sweating. He holds his head low over his double Scotch, but every few minutes he glances up and out, behind him, towards the door. A fine sheen of perspiration glistens under the strip-lights. He lets out a long, shaky breath, disguised as a sigh, and turns back to his drink. ‘Hey. Excuse me?’ I look up from polishing glasses. ‘Can I get another one here?’ I want to tell him it’s really not a good idea, it won’t help, it might even put him over the limit. But he’s a big guy and it’s fifteen minutes till closing time and, according to company guidelines, I have no reason to tell him no, so I walk over, take his glass and hold it up to the optic. He nods at the bottle. ‘Double,’ he says, and slides a fat hand down his damp face. ‘That’ll be seven pounds twenty, please.’ It’s a quarter to eleven on a Tuesday night and the Shamrock and Clover, East City Airport’s Irishthemed pub, which is as Irish as Mahatma Gandhi, is winding down for the night. The bar closes ten minutes after the last plane takes off, and right now it’s just me, an intense young man with a laptop, the cackling women at table two and the man nursing a double Jameson’s waiting for either...
Words: 120665 - Pages: 483
...Clean Code Robert C. Martin Series The mission of this series is to improve the state of the art of software craftsmanship. The books in this series are technical, pragmatic, and substantial. The authors are highly experienced craftsmen and professionals dedicated to writing about what actually works in practice, as opposed to what might work in theory. You will read about what the author has done, not what he thinks you should do. If the book is about programming, there will be lots of code. If the book is about managing, there will be lots of case studies from real projects. These are the books that all serious practitioners will have on their bookshelves. These are the books that will be remembered for making a difference and for guiding professionals to become true craftsman. Managing Agile Projects Sanjiv Augustine Agile Estimating and Planning Mike Cohn Working Effectively with Legacy Code Michael C. Feathers Agile Java™: Crafting Code with Test-Driven Development Jeff Langr Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C# Robert C. Martin and Micah Martin Agile Software Development: Principles, Patterns, and Practices Robert C. Martin Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship Robert C. Martin UML For Java™ Programmers Robert C. Martin Fit for Developing Software: Framework for Integrated Tests Rick Mugridge and Ward Cunningham Agile Software Development with SCRUM Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle Extreme Software Engineering: A Hands on Approach Daniel H. Steinberg...
Words: 20864 - Pages: 84
...GAME CHANGE OBAMA AND THE CLINTONS, MCCAIN AND PALIN, AND THE RACE OF A LIFETIME JOHN HEILEMANN AND MARK HALPERIN FOR DIANA AND KAREN Contents Cover Title Page Prologue Part I Chapter One – Her Time Chapter Two – The Alternative Chapter Three – The Ground Beneath Her Feet Chapter Four – Getting to Yes Chapter Five – The Inevitables Chapter Six – Barack in a Box Chapter Seven – “They Looooove Me!” Chapter Eight – The Turning Point Chapter Nine – The Fun Part Chapter Ten – Two For the Price of One Chapter Eleven – Fear and Loathing in the Lizard’s Thicket Chapter Twelve – Pulling Away and Falling Apart Chapter Thirteen – Obama Agonistes Chapter Fourteen – The Bitter End Game Part II Chapter Fifteen – The Maverick and His Meltdown Chapter Sixteen – Running Unopposed Chapter Seventeen – Slipping Nooses, Slaying Demons Part III Chapter Eighteen – Paris and Berlin Chapter Nineteen – The Mile-High Club Chapter Twenty – Sarahcuda Chapter Twenty-One – September Surprise Chapter Twenty-Two – Seconds in Command Chapter Twenty-Three – The Finish Line Epilogue – Together at Last Index Author’s Notes About the Authors Copyright About the Publisher Prologue BARACK OBAMA JERKED BOLT upright in bed at three o’clock in the morning. Darkness enveloped his low-rent room at the Des Moines Hampton Inn; the airport across the street was quiet in the hours before dawn. It was very late December 2007, a few days ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Obama had been sprinting flat out...
Words: 160589 - Pages: 643
...Leadership Learnings From Bloggers 2008 Edition Leadership Learnings from Bloggers 2008 Edition Released February 2009 Aggregated and produced by Exponential Media, a Division of Exponential Network Leadership Learnings from Bloggers is a collection of blog posts on leadership from over 20 national leaders / bloggers. Disclaimer In selecting the 20+ bloggers for this resource, we choose leaders with experience on the front lines. However, Exponential Network makes no warranties or representations regarding the accuracy, validity or originality of each blogger’s content. Exponential Network is serving as an aggregator of leading bloggers and does not necessarily agree with the opinions and beliefs represented in individual posts. We’ve attempted to include their content verbatim from their web sites except for obvious typographical errors. Statement of Copyright The individual posts in this eBook are the copyright of each author. These authors have agreed to make the aggregation of these posts available free of charge via this eBook. The following conditions apply to the use of this free eBook resource: Share. Just as the authors are sharing this eBook with you, you may copy, distribute and transmit the work to others. Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by each blog post author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes for financial...
Words: 119475 - Pages: 478
...1. Point-Counterpoint State Medicaid Policy and Health Reform Harold A. Pollack University of Chicago Authors: Pollack, Harold A.1 Source: Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law; Feb2013, Vol. 38 Issue 1, p161-163, 3p The article discusses the positive and negative implications of the new ruling that the federal government could not require states that receive federal funds under the Medicaid program to participate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's (PPACA's) Medicaid expansion. Several shortcomings like limited provider payment and associated patient access barriers have been observed in Medicaid that make its adoption not a good idea. However, families below the poverty line can benefit. In July 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The Court thus ended one phase in the political and legal battle over health reform. Yet in doing so, it opened a new front. In a notable departure from post–New Deal commerce clause jurisprudence, the Court ruled that the federal government could not require states that receive federal funds under the Medicaid program to participate in the PPACA’s Medicaid expansion. In effect, the Court made states’ participation in the PPACA’s Medicaid expansion voluntary — a possibility that neither the act’s supporters nor its opponents seriously entertained during the long legislative battle of 2009 and 2010. The full implications of these...
Words: 10128 - Pages: 41
...Idioms and Expressions by David Holmes A method for learning and remembering idioms and expressions I wrote this model as a teaching device during the time I was working in Bangkok, Thailand, as a legal editor and language consultant, with one of the Big Four Legal and Tax companies, KPMG (during my afternoon job) after teaching at the university. When I had no legal documents to edit and no individual advising to do (which was quite frequently) I would sit at my desk, (like some old character out of a Charles Dickens’ novel) and prepare language materials to be used for helping professionals who had learned English as a second language—for even up to fifteen years in school—but who were still unable to follow a movie in English, understand the World News on TV, or converse in a colloquial style, because they’d never had a chance to hear and learn common, everyday expressions such as, “It’s a done deal!” or “Drop whatever you’re doing.” Because misunderstandings of such idioms and expressions frequently caused miscommunication between our management teams and foreign clients, I was asked to try to assist. I am happy to be able to share the materials that follow, such as they are, in the hope that they may be of some use and benefit to others. The simple teaching device I used was three-fold: 1. Make a note of an idiom/expression 2. Define and explain it in understandable words (including synonyms.) 3. Give at least three sample sentences to illustrate how the expression is used...
Words: 237262 - Pages: 950
...Sybil 1 Sybil Project Gutenberg's Sybil, or the Two Nations, by Benjamin Disraeli Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! Please take a look at the important information in this header. We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an electronic path open for the next readers. Please do not remove this. This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they need about what they can legally do with the texts. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and further information is included below, including for donations. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 Title: Sybil, or the Two Nations Author: Benjamin Disraeli Release Date: February, 2003 [Etext #3760] [Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] [The actual date this file first posted = 08/24/01] Edition: 10 Language: English Project Gutenberg's Sybil, or the Two Nations, by Benjamin Disraeli ********This file should be named sybil10.txt or sybil10.zip******** Corrected EDITIONS of our...
Words: 162470 - Pages: 650
...JaNuaRy–FeBRuaRy 2014 23 consumer Behavior What Marketers Don’t Get About Online Reviews Itamar Simonson and emanuel rosen 78 competition The Big Lie of Strategic Planning roger l. Martin 103 risk Management The New Rules of Globalization Ian Bremmer : -( : -( ; -) : A greAt plAce to work What ideo, BlackRock, and Netflix know about building high-performance cultures Page 53 ©2013 Cartier calibre de cartier CHRONOGRAPH 1904-CH MC THE 1904-CH MC, THE NEW AUTOMATIC WINDING CHRONOGRAPH MOVEMENT, WAS CONCEIVED, DEVELOPED AND ASSEMBLED BY THE CARTIER MANUFACTURE IN THE GREATEST WATCHMAKING TRADITION. THIS MOVEMENT IS EQUIPPED WITH INGENIOUS SYSTEMS FOR UTMOST PRECISION: A COLUMN WHEEL TO COORDINATE ALL THE CHRONOGRAPH FUNCTIONS, A VERTICAL CLUTCH DESIGNED TO IMPROVE THE ACCURACY OF STARTING AND STOPPING THE TIMING FUNCTION, A LINEAR RESET FUNCTION, AND A DOUBLE BARREL TO ENSURE UNRIVALED TIMEKEEPING. 18K PINK GOLD 42 MM CASE, MECHANICAL MANUFACTURE CHRONOGRAPH MOVEMENT, SELF-WINDING, CALIBRE 1904-CH MC (35 JEWELS, 28,800 VIBRATIONS PER HOUR, APPROXIMATELY 48 HOUR POWER RESERVE), CALENDAR APERTURE AT 6 O’CLOCK, 18K PINK GOLD OCTAGONAL CROWN, SILVER OPALINE SNAILED DIAL, GOLD FINISHED CHAMFERS. ALLIGATOR STRAP. EXPLORE AND SHOP WWW.CARTIER.US - 1-800-CARTIER hbr.org January–February 2014 Contents 53 SpoTlIghT on TalENT aND PErformaNCE 54 IDEo’s Culture of helping Research at one office of the design firm ...
Words: 59824 - Pages: 240
