Two men with a passion for vinyl create a society for the appreciation of records. Their aim is simple: to elevate the art of listening by doing so in forensic detail. The society enjoys moderate success in the back room of their local pub, The Half Moon, with other enthusiasts drawn to the initial promise of the weekly gathering. However, as the club gains popularity, its founder's uncompromising dogma results in a schism within the movement and soon a counter group forms. Then the arrival of a young woman called Alice further fractures the unity of the vulnerable society. As rifts are forged and gulfs widen, Magnus Mills examines the surreal nature of ordinary lives. The master of the comic deadpan returns for his ninth novel, a spectacularly disingenuous exploration of power, fanaticism and really, really good records.
Security Sector Reform (SSR) is increasingly becoming a cornerstone in international security and development cooperation. Indeed, the concept has often been seen as a panacea for many of the biggest threats to the world such as failed states, terrorism and poverty. In particular, this book focuses on the complexities of implementation of SSR across the globe and the actual and potential role for the European Union (EU) to play in SSR. As suggested in the title of the book, this involves not only opportunities, but challenges to be overcome as well. There are three core themes to this book: Policy, Policies and Practice. By presenting the themes in this particular order a greater appreciation of the influences on the process of SSR, from conception to implementation is relayed to the reader. This volume appeals to audiences interested in the EU as a global actor and the interrelationships between foreign, security, defence and development policies.
Python Algorithms explains the Python approach to algorithm analysis and design. Written by Magnus Lie Hetland, author of Beginning Python, this book is sharply focused on classical algorithms, but it also gives a solid understanding of fundamental algorithmic problem-solving techniques. The book deals with some of the most important and challenging areas of programming and computer science, but in a highly pedagogic and readable manner. The book covers both algorithmic theory and programming practice, demonstrating how theory is reflected in real Python programs. Well-known algorithms and data structures that are built into the Python language are explained, and the user is shown how to implement and evaluate others himself.
Most economic evaluations of health care programmes at the moment are cost effectiveness and cost-utility analyses. The problem with these methods is that their theoretical foundations are unclear. This has led to confusion about how to define the costs and health effects and how to interpret the results of these studies. In the environmental and traffic safety fields it is instead common to carry out traditional cost-bene:fit analyses of health improving programmes. This striking difference in how health programmes are assessed in different fields was the original motivation for writing this book. The aim of the book is to tty and provide a coherent framework within cost-bene:fit analysis and welfare economics for the different methods of economic evaluation in the health care field. The book is written in an easily accessible manner and several examples of applications of the different methods are provided. It is my hope that it will be useful both for teaching purposes and as a guide for practitioners in the field. Glenn C. Blomquist, John D. Graham, Rich O'Conor and four anonymous referees provided helpful comments on previous versions of the manuscript. I would also like to express my gratitude to the following persons for helping me to prepare the manuscript: Carl-Magnus Berglund, Carin Blanksvard, Ann Brown, and Ziad Obeid.
In our profoundly complex and interconnected world, there is a pressing need for systems thinking, to consider environmental, societal and organisational issues as interconnected wholes rather than separating them into parts and looking at each in isolation. This book presents a biographical history of systems thinking, by examining the life and work of thirty of its major thinkers. Systems Thinkers discusses each thinker’s key contributions, the way this contribution was expressed in practice and the relationship between their life and ideas. This discussion is supported by an extract from the thinker’s own writing, to give a flavour of their work and to give readers a sense of which thinkers are most relevant to their own interests. Systems thinking is highly interdisciplinary, so the thinkers selected come from a wide range of areas, including biology, management, physiology, anthropology, chemistry, public policy, sociology and environmental studies. Some are core innovators in systems ideas; some have been primarily practitioners who also advanced and popularised systems ideas; others are well-known figures who drew heavily upon systems thinking although it was not their primary discipline. The book provides an appetising ‘taster’ of the writings of each of the thirty thinkers, to encourage the reader to explore the published works of the thinkers themselves. This second edition has been updated to reflect continuing scholarship in the academic community about the thirty thinkers, and in some cases new writing by them, bringing fresh insights about these inspiring and deeply relevant figures who challenged accepted ways of thinking and seeing, and continue to do so..Magnus Ramage is a senior lecturer in Information Systems at The Open University, where he has worked since 2000, teaching systems thinking and sociotechnical IT systems. As well as researching the history of systems thinking, he conducts research on critical approaches to the concept of information and on the organisational and social impact of collaborative technologies. He holds a PhD in information systems from the University of Lancaster. Karen Shipp is an educator and facilitator who created interactive and transformative learning experiences at The Open University from 1987 to 2011, the last ten of these as a lecturer in the Systems Group.
Activation policies which promote and enforce labour market participation continue to proliferate in Europe and constitute the reform blueprint from centre-left to centre-right, as well as for most international organizations. Through an in-depth study of four major reforms in Denmark and France, this book maps how co-existing ideas are mobilised to justify, criticise and reach activation compromises and how their morality sediments into the instruments governing the unemployed. By rethinking the role of ideas and morality in policy changes, this book illustrates how the moral economy of activation leads to a permanent behaviourist testing of the unemployed in public debate as well as in local jobcentres.
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and visual artist early within the Romantic movement. Although both his textual and pictorial works have generally been regarded as complex and open to interpretation, the author argues that sexuality is perhaps the most notable component worthy of discussion when reading Blake. This book covers sex in Blake's works and Blake's personal views about sex, and offers a more general overview of sex in literature from the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. It includes a brief discussion of some of the more dated criticism of Blake and the matter of sex. The book then goes on to discuss, more specifically and in greater detail, the issue of sex in several of the longer and more complex of Blake's notable works, including The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem. A chapter is dedicated to each work, examining Blake's development of sexual issues. It concludes with notable examples of the omnipresent nature of sex in nearly all of Blake's art and poetry.
At eight years old in 1968 Magnus Duruji saw the evil of Communism and Islamic fundamentalism through the ravages of a civil war, his mother dragging him and his four little siblings into an underground bomb bunker behind his house, built by his father with the help of his brother and a male refugee. Then in 1970 at age eleven Magnus, his parents and his seven siblings survived the civil war after barrage of roaring and thundering brutal bombardment in my little farming country hometown from then Soviet Union, now Russia, and from the Arab Islamic fighter pilots in Russian MIGS and British Harrier Jets on behalf of then divided national Nigerian government, but, only to make it into the United States for freedom to be thrown into Prison on a disguised U.S. Department of Justice Immigration illegal imposition when applicable laws weren't retroactive in non criminal dynamic events relevant to Magnus Duruji. Unconstitutionally imprisoned by the U&.S. department Of Justice Immigration ICE, and consequently shuffled from one prison to another in his quest to become a United States citizen, Magnus fasted and cumulatively cried out to God for Divine intervention. Magnus exchanged a solemn oath of promise with God if He will intervene and make His presence practically clear that He God exists. Well, the rest of the fight for for freedom to become an American Citizen was Divinely written. This is the story about my childhood journey for Freedom from age eight to now 52, tipping in the United States of America. " In America you fight, you don't give up" Magnus Duruji, quoted in the Columbus Dispatch February 23, 2012; Associated Press February 24,2012 The Audacity of Courage challenges our conscience in relation to our belief in a free democratic system by taking us back to examine our relationship with the Purest form of Goodness: God. Through perseverance, a new level of humility was attained but not without audacious spiritually directed content of missteps and emergentic guidelines that may lead freedom. But, for this quest of freedom to be romantically fulfilled, the emergentic driving energy will challenge the very pristine document that currently holds the conscience of mankind to order: The Constitution of the United States. The issues that emerge in an effort to derail the mother of life known as "freedom" as enshrined in the U.S. constitution will also escalate through invisible rowdy noise of energy calling for the release of an innocent man through pious legal frame work. Interestingly, the journey of freedom for American citizen Magnus Duruji only serves as an instrument or tool if you will to showcase the the character of the American mind. "What is the mind mind"? The American mind is the in-dominate spirit of the American people to sacrifice their blood, their reputation, their wealth and their character for the good of all. This spirit of true will of character representative for all Americans in the people of the Great State Of Ohio ( my adopted home State) is what makes America " The Land and Home of the freest people in the world. Ohio fought for me and my family free of color and accent. They only had interest in the preservation of the Great Constitution of the United States of America. Well, the audacity of courage is a politically incorrect book of the 21st century. it calls out the blights of arrogance in the current politically correct world we live. The American mind endures the truth it hurts in the politically correct society we live in. Thus, the Audacity of Courage highlights the story of a man who by his fathers mythological bedtime stories aspired for the United States of America. Having obtained permissible work student Visa directly from then U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Thomas Pickering Jr. Magnus Duruji arrived in the United States in 1981. "Will Magnus Duruji be welcomed by ICE" To say the least, his welcome will only become unfolding unconstitutional events in profilin
Python Algorithms, Second Edition explains the Python approach to algorithm analysis and design. Written by Magnus Lie Hetland, author of Beginning Python, this book is sharply focused on classical algorithms, but it also gives a solid understanding of fundamental algorithmic problem-solving techniques. The book deals with some of the most important and challenging areas of programming and computer science in a highly readable manner. It covers both algorithmic theory and programming practice, demonstrating how theory is reflected in real Python programs. Well-known algorithms and data structures that are built into the Python language are explained, and the user is shown how to implement and evaluate others.
In 1904, Berlin did not exactly look like a haven of tolerance. Sex between consenting males and gender non-conformity were illegal, and other forms of sexual expression faced oppressive societal taboos. But despite fear, secrecy, and blackmail, Germany’s imperial capital nurtured a vibrant and diverse queer subculture.In Berlin’s Third Sex, German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld offers a sympathetic glimpse into this queer life, depicting spaces such as gyms, bars, cafés, aristocratic drawing rooms, and tenement apartments that drew the "third sex" – exiles from contemporary gender and sexual norms. Intimate, striking, and surprisingly sentimental, Hirschfeld’s account takes us from drag king cavaliers at all-night lesbian balls to "uranian" men darning socks for their soldier sweethearts, and from cigar-smoking trans men to sex workers in moonlit parks. Hirschfeld reveals vast networks of clandestine connections: coded vernacular, camp aliases inspired by pop culture, encrypted classified ads, and even a pre-Grindr telegraphic service for summoning temporary companions. Featuring extensive notes, an informative afterword, and an earlier pamphlet on same-sex attraction by Hirschfeld, this volume is of crucial importance for students, scholars, and readers interested in queer history.
"An excellent concise statement of the arguments for going vegan."- Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, author of Animal Liberation.Magnus Vinding provides a comprehensive review of the many reasons to stop supporting the animal industry, and to instead transition toward a system that is less harmful for both human and non-human beings.
A Book that celebrates the first footsteps of a passionate teenager into the fathomless forest of Poetry.Propelled by nothing but a Wild Wanderlust...Guided by nothing but an Audacity for Adventure...He roamed freely without maps or bounds. He gathered whatever Delighted him... Inspired him... And Refreshed him... And finally, when he returned, he was content with the Bounties of exceptional Beauty he was blessed with. He shares that bounty here with his Poetry loving Readers.
