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The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird
By Joshua Hammer. 2020
A rollicking true-crime adventure about a rogue who trades in rare birds and their eggs—and the wildlife detective determined to…
stop him.On May 3, 2010, an Irish national named Jeffrey Lendrum was apprehended at Britain&’s Birmingham International Airport with a suspicious parcel strapped to his stomach. Inside were fourteen rare peregrine falcon eggs snatched from a remote cliffside in Wales. So begins a tale almost too bizarre to believe, following the parallel lives of a globe-trotting smuggler who spent two decades capturing endangered raptors worth millions of dollars as race champions—and Detective Andy McWilliam of the United Kingdom&’s National Wildlife Crime Unit, who&’s hell bent on protecting the world&’s birds of prey. The Falcon Thief whisks readers from the volcanoes of Patagonia to Zimbabwe&’s Matobo National Park, and from the frigid tundra near the Arctic Circle to luxurious aviaries in the deserts of Dubai, all in pursuit of a man who is reckless, arrogant, and gripped by a destructive compulsion to make the most beautiful creatures in nature his own. It&’s a story that&’s part true-crime narrative, part epic adventure—and wholly unputdownable until the very last page.Wild London: Urban Escapes in and around the City
By Sam Hodges, Sophie Hodges. 2019
From the authors of London for Lovers, this is an inspiring and comprehensive guide to London’s wild side. From exploring…
secret gardens, parks, farmers markets and city farms, to discovering the best spots for urban bee-keeping, foraging, open-air swimming and mudlarking, Wild London is packed with ideas for how to make the most of London’s hidden natural wonder. Separated by season, and filled with stunning photographs, this is a must-have, practical and eye-opening guide to alternative London for city-dwellers and visitors alike.Riding Toward Everywhere
By William T. Vollmann. 2008
Vollmann is a relentlessly curious, endlessly sensitive, and unequivocally adventurous examiner of human existence. He has investigated the causes and…
symptoms of humanity's obsession with violence (Rising Up and Rising Down), taken a personal look into the hearts and minds of the world's poorest inhabitants (Poor People), and now turns his attentions to America itself, to our romanticizing of "freedom" and the ways in which we restrict the very freedoms we profess to admire.For Riding Toward Everywhere, Vollmann himself takes to the rails. His main accomplice is Steve, a captivating fellow trainhopper who expertly accompanies him through the secretive waters of this particular way of life. Vollmann describes the thrill and terror of lying in a trainyard in the dark, avoiding the flickering flashlights of the railroad bulls; the shockingly, gorgeously wild scenery of the American West as seen from a grainer platform; the complicated considerations involved in trying to hop on and off a moving train. It's a dangerous, thrilling, evocative examination of this underground lifestyle, and it is, without a doubt, one of Vollmann's most hauntingly beautiful narratives.Questioning anything and everything, subjecting both our national romance and our skepticism about hobo life to his finely tuned, analytical eye and the reality of what he actually sees, Vollmann carries on in the tradition of Huckleberry Finn, providing a moving portrait of this strikingly modern vision of the American dream.An ALA Top Ten Best Graphic Novel for ChildrenThe second book in this graphic nonfiction series about real FBI cases…
is a gripping account of an escape from Alcatraz, the infamous island prison.CASE NO. 002: THE ROCKJune 12, 1962SAN FRANCISCO BAY, CALIFORNIA7:18 A.M.A corrections officer at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary tries to awaken inmate AZ-1441, Frank Morris. But when he shakes the unresponsive man, his head rolls off the pillow and crashes to the floor! Soon the guards realize that Morris and two other inmates, brothers John and Clarence Anglin, had done the seemingly impossible: escaped from the notorious island prison.This is the incredible true story of the daring and inventive escape and a decades-long manhunt in a case that remains unsolved to this day. Comics panels, reproductions of documents from real FBI files, and photos from the investigation combine for a thrilling read for sleuths of all ages.This entry in the Unsolved Case Files series is just as compelling as the first book, Unsolved Case Files: Escape at 10,000 Feet, which Kirkus praised as "compulsively readable."A Taste of Adventure
By Exodus Travels Limited. 2017
If you're an adventurer with an appetite, then this cookbook is for you! This lovely cookbook is a collection of…
globetrotting gastronomy to help you recreate your travels at home.The recipes in this book are from all over the world, from Vietnamese Pho and Indian Mango Lassi, to traditional African flatbreads, Middle Eastern Lamb Tagine, and Spanish Paella.With these recipes you'll have the whole world at your fingertips!The Season: Inside Palm Beach and America's Richest Society
By Ronald Kessler. 1999
Palm Beach is known around the world as the most wealthy, glamorous, opulent, decadent, self-indulgent, sinful spot on earth. With…
their beautiful 3.75 square-island constantly in the media glare, Palm Beachers protect their impossibly rich society from outside scrutiny with vigilant police, ubiquitous personal security staffs, and screens of tall hedges encircling every mansion.To this bizarre suspicious, exclusive world, New York Times bestselling author Ronald Kessler brought his charm, insight, and award-winning investigative skills, and came to know Palm Beach, its celebrated and powerful residents, and its exotic social rituals as no outside writer ever has. In this colorful, entertaining, and compulsively readable book. Kessler reveals the inside story of Palm Beach society as it moves languidly through the summer months, quickens in the fall, and shifts into frenetic high speed as the season begins in December, peaks in January and February, and continues into April.When unimaginable wealth combines with unlimited leisure time oil an island barely three times the size of New York's Central Park, human foibles and desires, lust and greed, passion and avarice, become magnified and intensified. Like laboratory rats fed growth hormones, the 9,800 Palm Beach residents—87 percent of whom are millionaires—exhibit the most outlandish extremes of their breed.To tell the story, Kessler follows four Palm Beachers through the season. These four characters—the reigning queen of Palm Beach society, the night manager of Palm Beach's trendiest bar, a gay "walker" who escorts wealthy women to balls, and a thirty—six-year-old gorgeous blonde who says she "can't find a guy in Palm Beach"—know practically everyone on the island and tell what goes on behind the scenes.Interweaving the yarns of these unfor-gettable figures with the lifestyle, history, scandals, lore, and rituals of a unique island of excess, The Season creates a powerful, seamless, juicy narrative that no novelist could dream up.International Trade Finance and Forex Operations: Theory and Application
By Gargi Sanati. 2024
This book bridges the existing gap between the theory and practices related to international finance. It discusses banking theories and…
operational procedures relating to the methods of payment with special reference to Letters of credit (LCs), like revolving LCs, back-to-back LCs, transferable LCs, and standby LCs, with specific applications of documentary discrepancies. Moreover, this book discusses merchanting trade, buyers’ credit and supplier’s credit, and bank guarantees with many practical caselets, linked to the applications of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and other regulatory rules. It also examines the various roles of banks in financing international trade which are extensively discussed through several cases.This volume: Explains in-depth the intricacies and discrepancies relating to the documentation involved in international trade Presents in detail the various steps of executing an export or import deal, right from signing of the contract, managing pre-shipment credit, and booking a forward contract to hedge the exchange rate risk till the closing of the deal Gives a comprehensive account of all trade finance products with processes and procedures, rules, and regulations, and risks and mitigates Discusses the application of ICC rules through detailed case-lets, which helps an exporter take necessary actions when the payment is denied by a party overseas, or how an importer can simply deny the payment if there is documentary noncompliance Scrutinises different types of forex transactions, the regulatory framework within which they take place, and the associated risks and solutions Attempts to resolve the existing disparity in the understanding and interpretation of regulatory guidelines and the practices adopted by banks and corporate houses in implementing them. Accessibly written, this book will be useful to students, researchers, and teachers from the fields of management, business studies, international trade and treasury operations, finance, international banking, trade and commerce, and economics. This will also be an invaluable companion to the professionals working in export–import businesses, foreign exchange businesses, treasury front-office and back-office operations, bureaucrats, and public policymakers.The Road to Freedom: Economics And The Good Society
By Joseph E. Stiglitz. 2024
From one of the world’s leading economists, a compelling new vision of personal and economic freedom. We are a nation…
born from the conviction that people must be free. But since the middle of the last century, that idea has been co-opted. Forces on the political Right have justified exploitation by cloaking it in the rhetoric of freedom, leading to pharmaceutical companies freely overcharging for medication, a Big Tech free from oversight, politicians free to incite rebellion, corporations free to pollute, and more. How did we get here? Whose freedom are we—and should we—be thinking about? In The Road to Freedom, Nobel prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz dissects America’s current economic system and the political ideology that created it, laying bare their twinned failure. “Free” and unfettered markets have only succeeded in delivering a series of crises: the financial crisis, the opioid crisis, and the crisis of inequality. While a small portion of the population has amassed considerable wealth, wages for most people have stagnated. Free and unfettered markets have exploited consumers, workers, and the environment alike. Such failures have fed populist movements that believe being free means abandoning any obligations citizens have to one another. As they grow in strength, these movements now pose a real threat to true economic and political freedom. As an economic advisor to presidents and as chief economist at the World Bank, Stiglitz has witnessed these profound changes firsthand. As he argues, the failures follow from the elites’ unshakeable dedication to “the neoliberal experiment.” Explicitly taking on giants such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, Stiglitz exposes accepted ideas about our political and economic life for what they are: twisted visions that tear at the social fabric while they enrich the very few. The Road to Freedom breaks new ground, showing how economics—including recent advances in which Stiglitz has played such an important role—reframes how to think about freedom and the role of the state in a twenty-first century society. Drawing on the work of contemporary philosophers, Stiglitz explains a deeper, more humane way to assess freedoms—one that considers with care what to do when one person’s freedom conflicts with another’s. We must reimagine our existing economic and legal systems and embrace forms of collective action, including regulation and investment, if we are to create an innovative society in which everyone can flourish. The task could not be more urgent, and Stiglitz’s latest book is essential reading for those committed to the American ideal of an economic and political system that delivers well-being, opportunity, and meaningful freedoms for all.The Everything War: Amazon's Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power
By Dana Mattioli. 2024
Most Anticipated by Foreign Policy • Globe and Mail • Publishers Weekly • Next Big Idea Club Must Read April Books&“Will stand as a classic.&” –…
Christopher Leonard "Riveting, shocking, and full of revelations." - Bryan BurroughFrom veteran Amazon reporter for The Wall Street Journal, The Everything War is the first untold, devastating exposé of Amazon's endless strategic greed, from destroying Main Street to remaking corporate power, in pursuit of total domination, by any means necessary. In 2017, Lina Khan published a paper that accused Amazon of being a monopoly, having grown so large, and embedded in so many industries, it was akin to a modern-day Standard Oil. Unlike Rockefeller&’s empire, however, Bezos&’s company had grown voraciously without much scrutiny. In fact, for over twenty years, Amazon had emerged as a Wall Street darling and its &“customer obsession&” approach made it indelibly attractive to consumers across the globe. But the company was not benevolent; it operated in ways that ensured it stayed on top. Lina Khan&’s paper would light a fire in Washington, and in a matter of years, she would become the head of the FTC. In 2023, the FTC filed a monopoly lawsuit against Amazon in what may become one of the largest antitrust cases in the 21st century. With unparalleled access, and having interviewed hundreds of people – from Amazon executives to competitors to small businesses who rely on its marketplace to survive – Mattioli exposes how Amazon was driven by a competitive edge to dominate every industry it entered, bulldozed all who stood in its way, reshaped the retail landscape, transformed how Wall Street evaluates companies, and altered the very nature of the global economy. It has come to control most of online retail, and uses its own sellers&’ data to compete with them through Amazon&’s own private label brands. Millions of companies and governmental agencies use AWS, paying hefty fees for the service. And, the company has purposefully avoided collecting taxes for years, exploited partners, and even copied competitors—leveraging its power to extract whatever it can, at any cost. It has continued to gain market share in disparate areas, from media to logistics and beyond. Most companies dominate one or two industries; Amazon now leads in several. And all of this was by design.The Everything War is the definitive, inside story of how it grew into one of the most powerful and feared companies in the world – and why this lawsuit opens a window into the most consequential business story of our times.Never Leave the Dogs Behind: A Memoir
By Brianna Madia. 2024
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe author of Nowhere for Very Long continues her story with this deeply honest, moving account…
of a woman walking the line between independence and isolation when she moves to the Southwest desert with nothing and no one but her four dogs.In her debut memoir, Nowhere for Very Long, Brianna Madia reflected on her life as a nomad, free to roam some of the most beautiful land in America. Now, in Never Leave the Dogs Behind, the van life adherent faces the unfathomable darkness that comes from a life blown apart, her only solace the support of her dogs.In the wake of a painful, public divorce and the ensuing fallout, Brianna moves from a pared-down van into a pared-down trailer. She reckons with her decision to be alone in the desert, living on a nine-acre plot of undeveloped land on the dusty outskirts of a small town in Utah, accompanied only by her four precious dogs: Bucket, Dagwood, Birdie, and Banjo. As she grapples with the anger, despair, and delicious freedom that comes from being wholly on her own, Brianna wonders where, exactly, the road less traveled has led her.A powerful and poignant portrait of rebuilding and surviving, Never Leave the Dogs Behind is about finding the courage to start over when the dream life you thought you were living collapses around your feet.Werner Sombart and the 'Spirit' of Modern Capitalism: Rediscovering a Classic (Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism)
By Christopher Adair-Toteff. 2024
This book illuminates the work of Werner Sombart, a key contemporary of Max Weber, showing how his writing and thinking…
laid the groundwork for concepts of modern capitalism. Although the notion of the ‘spirit’ of modern capitalism is most associated with Weber, it was Sombart who first used this phrase, with Weber focusing mainly on socioeconomics while Sombart continued to develop his ideas around modern capitalism. This book critically analyses Sombart’s groundbreaking work, “Der moderne Kapitalismus” among his other writings to demonstrate how they may be read as a complementary alternative to Weber, providing a more detailed, sustained, and a comprehensive account of the genesis and nature of modern capitalism. This book will be of interest to a scholarly audience including students and researchers of the history of economic thought, as well as areas of sociology, politics, and political economy.A Quiet Word: Lobbying, Crony Capitalism and Broken Politics in Britain
By Tamasin Cave, Andy Rowell. 2014
Q. What’s worth £2,000,000,000, answers to no-one and operates out of public sight? A. Britain’s influence industry The corporate takeover…
of democracy is no conspiracy theory – it’s happening, and it affects every aspect of our lives: the food we eat, the places we live, the temperature of our planet, how we spend our money and how our money is spent for us. And much more. A Quiet Word shows just how effectively the voice of public interest is being drowned out by the word in the ear from the professional persuaders of the lobbying industry. And if you’ve never heard about them, that’s because the most effective lobbying goes unnoticed. A Quiet Word shines the brightest of lights into one of the darkest and least-understood corners of our political culture. It is essential, urgent, authoritative reading for anyone interested in our democracy and where this country is heading. And by showing how influence is constructed, it puts power back in your hands.Pirates, Plants And Plunder!
By Stewart Ross. 2005
Twelve fascinating tales about the adventurers who travelled all over the globe, finding new plants and the amazing things they…
produce. Join Joseph Banks as he gets stranded on the Australian Great Barrier Reef whilst searching for new botanical specimens. Battle with the Mexican Emperor Montezuma against the invading Hernando Cortes - and watch as Cortes introduces chocolate to the rest of the world! Struggle with other travellers as they fight starvation, bears, strange diseases and tropical storms.Exciting, witty and wacky, these true-life tales span centuries and the globe, feature famous historical figures such as Captain Bligh, Darwin and Columbus and put the origins of 'everyday' plants into perspective.Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis
By Charles L. Marohn Jr., Daniel Herriges. 2024
Housing is an investment. Investment prices must go up. Housing is shelter. When the price of shelter goes up, people…
experience distress.This is the housing trap. It’s time to escape. In Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Solution to the Housing Crisis, renowned urbanists Charles (Chuck) Marohn and Daniel Herriges introduce a first-of-its-kind discussion of the tension between housing as a financial product and housing as shelter. This is the key insight that’s been missing from the Housing Crisis Conversation; and the insight that can help cities fight back against the crisis from the bottom-up.This book offers a serious, yet accessible, history of housing policy in the United States and explains how it led us to this point in time: where we face a market that is rigged against people who, only a few decades ago, could have been homeowners or stable, long-term rentals. Only local change, on a neighborhood or city-wide scale, can begin to restore balance to the housing market. Escaping the Housing Trap is the must-read resource for everyone with a stake in the future of housing in America—and that means everyone. Readers will find: Discussions of housing as an investment and how the country's neighborhoods are being transformed by the introduction of large amounts of investment Explorations of housing as shelter, including discussions of zoning policy and NIMBYism A comprehensive overview of the Strong Towns approach to solving the American housing crisisG. Bruce Knecht, former reporter for TheWall Street Journaland author of The Proving Ground and Hooked, describes the creation of…
an outsized yacht in a sweeping narrative centered on the men and women who made it happen.Doug Von Allmen, a self-made man who grew up in a landlocked state dreaming of the ocean, was poised to build a 187-foot yacht that would cost $40 million. Lady Linda would not be among the very largest of the burgeoning fleet of oceangoing palaces, but Von Allmen vowed that it would be the best one ever made in the United States. Nothing would be ordinary. The interior walls would be made from rare species of burl wood, the floors paved with onyx and exotic types of marble, the furniture custom made, and the art specially commissioned. But the 2008 economic crisis changed everything. Von Allmen&’s lifestyle suddenly became unaffordable. Then it got worse: desperate to reverse his losses, he fell for an audacious Ponzi scheme. Would Von Allmen be able to complete Lady Linda? Would the shipyard and its one thousand employees survive the financial meltdown? The divide between the very rich and everyone else had never been greater, yet the livelihoods of the workers, some of them illegal immigrants, and the yacht owners were inextricably intertwined. In a sweeping, high-stakes narrative, the critically acclaimed author of The Proving Ground and Hooked weaves Von Allmen&’s story together with those of the men and women who are building his yacht. As the pursuit of opulence collides with the reality of economic decline, everyone involved in the massive project is forced to rethink the meaning of the American Dream.Surviving Australia: A Practical Guide to Staying Alive
By Sorrel Wilby. 2001
Visiting the Australian outback can be a wonderful experience, but it isn't all about boomerangs and koalas, kangaroos and didgeridoos.…
It can be a wild and dangerous place if you're not prepared. Here is the essential travel companion for enduring the toughest stuff this rugged continent can offer -- a veritable survivor's guide to managing the unexpected when you're Down Under. Renowned Australian adventurer and bestselling author Sorrel Wilby provides you with the basic lessons on negotiating your way through the bush, across the outback, over the top end, and into the surf and sea. You'll get important lifesaving information on: where you should and shouldn't be driving your Range Rover dealing with natural hazards like river crossings, bush fires, storms, and rips warding off snakes, scorpions, crocs, and sharks encountering Aboriginal people, Bushies, Eccentrics, and Surfers finding food and water treating heatstroke, hypothermia, and tropical infections identifying proper emergency radio frequencies and much more!The Politics of Public Fund Investing: How to Modify Wall Street to Fit Main Street
By Ben Finkelstein. 2006
Until now, there has never been a book to help public fund managers direct fixed-income portfolios while simultaneously balancing politics,…
or the need to preserve principal, with economics, or the need to optimize income. The Politics of Public Fund Investing approaches public fund management from the lay perspective, providing much-needed guidance to modify Wall Street strategies to serve the needs of Main Street. If you manage a public fund, if you are an elected official, or if you oversee a portfolio for a foundation or an endowment, you know the traditional money management strategy used every day on Wall Street doesn't necessarily apply to your situation. For you, investing isn't simply about economics. Wall Street strategies do not take into account election cycles, political risk factors, or the unique performance assessments public funds must undergo. When Wall Street builds a portfolio, it doesn't need to consider the opinions and desires of a wide variety of constituents, and the management of the portfolio's performance doesn't carry the same level of career risk. This groundbreaking book is the first resource ever available to the stewards of public fund investing entrusted with the responsibility to make financial decisions in this unique environment. The Politics of Public Fund Investing shows readers how to evaluate and measure their funds' performance through specific techniques, standards, and procedures. It begins by addressing the key differences between Wall Street and Main Street, explaining which methods of Wall Street are unsuited to public fund management and why. The book provides a framework for moving from a static investment policy to a dynamic investment plan, making the important distinction between what is "legal" in terms of policy and what is "suitable" in terms of the objectives of the stakeholders. The book goes on to propose exceptional and beneficial insights into appraising a fund's performance along with providing a four-step process to build a politically correct portfolio. Finally, it shows how to be safe and optimize income within the constraints of acceptable risk. Based on years of experience and invaluable research, The Politics of Public Fund Investing is an innovative, compelling, and much-needed guide to navigating the complex territory where the political environment meets public investing.NEW YORK TIMES and WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLERThe former FDIC chairwoman, and one of the first people to acknowledge the…
full risk of subprime loans, offers a unique perspective on the financial crisis.Appointed by George W. Bush as the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2006, Sheila Bair witnessed the origins of the financial crisis and in 2008 became—along with Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner—one of the key public servants trying to repair the damage to the global economy. Bull by the Horns is her remarkable and refreshingly honest account of that contentious time and the struggle for reform that followed and continues to this day.This textbook provides an introduction to cultural policy in the US, enabling both students and practitioners to understand how government…
impacts the arts and culture.Starting with an historical overview of why and how the US developed a national cultural policy, the book goes on to trace the contemporary system of national, state, and local arts and cultural agencies through which that policy is put into practice. Readers are provided both in-depth frameworks for conceptualizing how government regulation and provision shape the arts and culture and carefully illustrated examples of cultural policy in action. Covering critical issues in US cultural policy such as the Culture Wars, culture-led development and gentrification, and field-wide data and research capacities, the book builds a bridge between theory, practice, and politics in the arts and culture. This new edition includes enhanced visualizations and policy maps, expanded policy labs, and a new section on cultural policy during COVID-19.The result is a text that is essential reading for students and reflective practitioners of arts and cultural management and administration.