Confessions of a Street Addict, James J. Cramer

It's hard to think of anyone more intense or opinionated, or who wears as many hats as James Cramer. In Confessions of a Street Addict, the man who first made a name for himself on Wall Street successfully managing his hedge fund--and then became famous on Main Street with his manic appearances on CNBC--tells the improbable story of his career as journalist, Wall Street pundit, Internet entrepreneur, and television commentator. For the most part, Cramer manages to avoid the self-congratulatory hype that mars so many books of this ilk; in fact, what makes Confessions so compelling are the shots that Cramer takes at himself, be it his now infamous capitulation during the stock market panic of October 1998, when he wrote a piece for TheStreet.com advising readers of an impending crash just as the market began to rebound, or the callous way he treated so many around him in pursuit of the next trade. Here's an informative, honest, and rollicking read for fans of CNBC, TheStreet.com, or anyone who has ever lost sleep thinking about their portfolios.
Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

Download

Freakonomics

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime? These may not sound like typical questions for an econo-mist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life?from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing?and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives?how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of . . . well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Klu Klux Klan. What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and?if the right questions are asked?is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.

Download

Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer

A dramatic and compelling true-crime psychological thriller

This incredible story shows how John Douglas tracked and participated in the hunt for one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history. For 31 years a man who called himself BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) terrorized the city of Wichita, Kansas, sexually assaulting and strangling a series of women, taunting the police with frequent communications, and bragging about his crimes to local newspapers and TV stations. After disappearing for nine years, he suddenly reappeared, complaining that no one was paying enough attention to him and claiming that he had committed other crimes for which he had not been given credit. When he was ultimately captured, BTK was shockingly revealed to be Dennis Rader, a 61-year-old married man with two children.

Download

The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom

n sumptuous and illuminating detail, Simon Winchester, the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman ("Elegant and scrupulous"—New York Times Book Review) and Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing page-turner"—Time) brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country.

No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair.

He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire. He searched everywhere for evidence to bolster his conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of mankind's most familiar innovations—including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet paper—often centuries before the rest of the world. His thrilling and dangerous journeys, vividly recreated by Winchester, took him across war-torn China to far-flung outposts, consolidating his deep admiration for the Chinese people.

After the war, Needham was determined to tell the world what he had discovered, and began writing his majestic Science and Civilisation in China, describing the country's long and astonishing history of invention and technology. By the time he died, he had produced, essentially single-handedly, seventeen immense volumes, marking him as the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever.

Both epic and intimate, The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping story of China through Needham's remarkable life. Here is an unforgettable tale of what makes men, nations, and, indeed, mankind itself great—related by one of the world's inimitable storytellers.

Download

Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the most widely discussed and thoughtprovoking films of recent years. Bringing together the innovative visual creativity of director Michel Gondry and the trenchant intelligence of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, the film explores a future where it is possible to have memories erased, and raises many intriguing and important philosophical questions spanning ethics, the emotions, philosophy of mind, and the aesthetics of motion pictures.

This is the first book to explore and address the philosophical aspects of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Beginning with a helpful introduction that places each essay in context, specially commissioned chapters examine the following topics:

• Philosophical issues surrounding love, friendship, affirmation and repetition
• The role of memory (and the emotions) in personal identity and decisionmaking
• The morality of imagination and ethical importance of memory
• Philosophical questions about self-knowledge and knowing the minds of
others
• The aesthetics of the film considered in relation to Gondry’s other works
and issues in the philosophy of perception

Download

Food: The Key Concepts

This book offers an exciting, coherent and interdisciplinary introduction to the study of food studies for the beginning reader. Food choices, the author argues, are the result of a complex negotiation among three competing considerations: the consumers' identity; matters of convenience, including price; and an awareness of the consequences of what is consumed. The book concludes with an examination of two very different future scenarios for feeding the world's population; the technological fix, which looks to science to provide the solution to our future food needs, and the anthropological fix, which hopes to change our expectations and behaviors. As a whole this book provides an essential overview to this increasingly critical field of enquiry.

Download

Bold Science: Seven Scientists Who Are Changing Our World

Science is at a crossroads. Cold War-era easy money for grand-scale projects has become a thing of the past. And yet, in this new environment, science seems to be reinvigorating itself, moving away from an overly specialized, bureaucratic mindset to a more streamlined, multidisciplinary approach.

In a number of fields, innovative teams led by gifted researchers are combining imaginative methods with inexpensive tools to chip away at the previously impenetrable secrets of the body, the mind, the planet, and the universe. In the process, they are demonstrating the same kind of inspired drive toward discovery that led Galileo to invent the telescope.

Bold Science examines this "scientific new wave" by profiling the work of some remarkable researchers: gene hunter Craig Venter, neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, astronomer Geoffrey Marcy, immunologist Polly Matzinger, cosmologist Saul Perlmutter, ecologist Gretchen Daily, and evolutionist Carl Woese. Headstrong, iconoclastic, visionary, these scientists have risen to the pinnacles of their fields at a pivotal moment-and are producing amazing breakthroughs with bold, sometimes controversial methods.

In exploring their scientific lives and times, Bold Science shows readers why we are at the dawning of a new era of understanding ourselves and our universe.

Download

Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy: Corporate PR and the Assault on Democracy

Bringing together leading activists and writers from the US and beyond, this book unmasks the covert and undemocratic world of corporate spin.

Wherever big business is threatened, spin doctors, lobbyists, think tanks and front groups are on hand to push the corporate interest, often at the public's expense.

The public relations industry is not just about celebrity gossip. The authors show how PR techniques are in use across a wide range of political fields, driven by corporate interests. They reveal the secrets of the PR trade including deception, the use of fake "institutes", spying and dirty tricks. The impact can be devastating—when the public is denied access to the truth, the results are rising inequality and environmental catastrophe.

The book exposes the misdeeds of famous companies including BP, Coca Cola, British Aerospace, Exxon and Monsanto. It also reveals startling new information about the covert funding of various apparently independent think tanks and institutes.

What can we do about it? The authors offer a guide to concrete campaigns that will help to roll back corporate power and show us how to raise awareness about resisting deceptive PR.

Download

Insurgents, Terrorists, and Militias: The Warriors of Contemporary Combat

Since the end of the Cold War, conventional militaries and their political leaders have confronted a new, brutal type of warfare in which non-state armed groups use asymmetrical tactics to successfully fight larger, technologically superior forces. In order to prevent future bloodshed and political chaos, it is crucial to understand how these unconventional armed groups think and to adapt to their methods of combat.

Richard H. Shultz Jr. and Andrea J. Dew investigate the history and politics of modern asymmetrical warfare. By focusing on four specific hotbeds of instability-Somalia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, and Iraq-Shultz and Dew conduct a careful analysis of tribal culture and the value of clan associations. They examine why these "traditional" or "tribal" warriors fight, how they recruit, where they find sanctuary, and what is behind their strategy. Traveling across two centuries and several continents, Shultz and Dew examine the doctrinal, tactical, and strategic advantages and consider the historical, cultural, and anthropological factors behind the motivation and success of the warriors of contemporary combat.

In their provocative argument, Shultz and Dew propose that war in the post-Cold War era cannot be waged through traditional Western methods of combat, especially when friendly states and outside organizations like al-Qaeda serve as powerful allies to the enemy. Thoroughly researched and highly readable, Insurgents, Terrorists, and Militias examines how non-state armies fight, identifies the patterns and trends of their combat, and recommends how conventional militaries can defeat these irregular yet highly effective organizations.

Download

Representing Food and Meaning, Edible Ideologies

Contributors explore the relationship between food and the production of ideology.






Download

Scar Tissue, Anthony Kiedis

Scar Tissue is the autobiography of Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis. It was released in 2004 by Hyperion and authored by Kiedis with Larry Sloman, who compiled information and interviewed various parties associated with the plot line. The story follows Kiedis from his birth in 1962 to the (then) present day of early 2004. It follows Kiedis into the depth of his experiences with drug addiction. The title name was taken from the single "Scar Tissue" released five years earlier on the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Californication.
According to the book, Kiedis' first drug experience was with his father Blackie Dammett, a former drug dealer, at age twelve. By the time his band formed and became more popular in the 1980s, he and former bandmate Hillel Slovak had severe drug addictions. On Slovak's death from overdose in 1988, Kiedis writes that he was so shaken that he skipped town, missing the funeral. He attempted to get clean afterwards but relapsed in 1994 after being given medications while getting a tooth pulled. Later on, he reveals that he was not actually clean, as he claimed at the time, during the late-nineties Californication era of the band's existence. He claims his new clean date is December 24, 2000. The book reports very specific dates, such as when Kiedis was conceived. The book reached a high of #1 on The New York Times Best Seller List.
Kiedis is working to develop a television series for Home Box Office based on Scar Tissue.

Download

The Black Swan

A B L A C K S W A N is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable;
it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to
events in our own personal lives. Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the "impossible." For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually
do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. Now, in this revelatory
book, Taleb explains everything we know about what we don't know. He offers surprisingly simple tricks for dealing with black swans and benefiting from them.
Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan will change the way you look at the world. Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects
ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. The Black Swan is a landmark book—itself a black swan.

Download

Lance Armstrong: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

In 1996, young cycling phenom Armstrong discovered he had testicular cancer. In 1999, he won the Tour de France. Now he's a grateful husband, a new father and a memoirist: with pluck, humility and verve, this volume covers his early life, his rise through the endurance sport world and his medical difficulties. Cancer "was like being run off the road by a truck, and I've got the scars to prove it," Armstrong declares. Earlier scars, he explains, came from a stepfather he casts as unworthy; early rewards, from his hardworking mother and from the triathlons and national bike races Armstrong won as a Texas teen. "The real racing action was over in Europe": after covering that, Armstrong and Jenkins (Men Will Be Boys, with Pat Summit, etc.) ascend to the scarier challenges of diagnoses and surgeries. As he gets worse, then better, Armstrong describes the affections of his racing friends and of the professionals who cared for him. Armstrong is honest and delightful on his relationship to wife Kristin (Kik), and goes into surprising detail about the technology that let them have a child. The memoir concludes with Armstrong's French victory and the birth of their son. The book features a disarming and spotless prose style, one far above par for sports memoirs. Bicycle-racing fans will enjoy the troves of inside information and the accounts of competitions, but Armstrong has set his sights on a wider meaning and readership: "When I was sick I saw more beauty and triumph and truth in a single day than I ever did in a bike race."

Download

Technological Turf Wars A Case Study of the Computer Antivirus Industry

Johnston presents the ways antivirus workers think in fascinating detail. She is very astute and effective in analyzing and explicating the underlying assumptions of their logic. Technological Turf Wars is insightful, interesting, and it unfolds in ways that are quite surprising. Johnston demonstrates that this industry is as much a social world as it is a technical world." John L. Caughey, Professor of American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park.




Download

Oprah Winfrey

The name and the face of Oprah Winfrey are instantly recognizable to just about every person in the United States. To millions of people around the world, Oprah is the embodiment of American spirit and entrepreneurial success; hers is a rags-to-riches story come to life. While there is a near continual barrage of information in the media about this larger-than-life woman, this biography takes readers past all the hype and hyperbole and presents a candid, balanced portrait of the flesh-and-blood woman herself. This well- researched personal profile presents a realistic yet intimate portrait of Oprah that neither canonizes nor demonizes her. The dramatic events in her life, both the struggles and the successes, are detailed with factual accounts that guide readers through the complex, and sometimes controversial, course of Oprah's life from her childhood in Mississippi, to her current position of extraordinary success. This penetrating book chronicles for readers the significant people and events that have had the greatest impact on Oprah personally and professionally.

Download

Arnold Schwarzenegger

From his role in The Terminator to his more recent work as "Governator" of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger has played a major role in American popular culture. This biography traces the fascinating trajectory of Arnold's career-sports figure turned movie star turned entrepreneur turned politician. Elected as governor of California in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger now dramatically and vividly represents the determination and, to a great extent, the relentlessness necessary for achieving great fame, political power, and iconic status. Arnold's life has been characterized by public notoriety. While many readers will have heard or read about his benchmark achievements, this biography will reveal the surprising complexities behind the public scenes and put them into a larger cultural context. Photos and a timeline of significant events round out this entertaining and insightful biography.

Download

Diana, Princess of Wales

Long before her tragic death, Diana, Princess of Wales was a beloved modern icon, relatable to the general public in a way that transcended the barrier between royal and commoner. As a member of the royal family in an age of mass media, her fairy-tale wedding to, and painful divorce from, Prince Charles was played out on the world stage. Later, her humanitarian work for the Red Cross, her campaigns against landmines, and her work with the sick, especially AIDS victims, added a compassionate element to the royal family in the eyes of the world--and the world, ten years later, still hasn't gotten enough of Lady DI. This objective, accessible volume explores Diana's fascinating life, including her aristocratic upbringing, her whirlwind engagement to Prince Charles, their rocky marriage, her role as mother and her sons' coming of age in her absence, her post-divorce status as global humanitarian icon, the media's frenzied treatment of her death, and her charitable legacy. A timeline of key events, vibrant images, and a bibliography of print and nonprint sources supplement the work.


Download

Michael Jackson - A Tribute to a Legend

From his humble working-class beginnings, Michael captured the hearts of the world. His life was one of twists and turns - and awe-inspiring music








Download

Secrets of the Da Vinci Code. Ed. Peter W. Bernstein, Annalyn Swan

Secrets of the Da Vinci Code Ed. Peter W. Bernstein, Annalyn Swan
U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT | 2004 | 1593150229 | 92 pages | PDF |

THE 7 KEYS TO THE CODE
The Da Vinci Code, Dan Browns bestselling novel, has captivated the imagination of millions of readers—and aroused heated controversies. Readers everywhere want to know what's feet and what's fiction.
Inside this Special Collector's Edition, you'll find the answers to all these key
question.

BEHIND THE CODE.
What explains the phenomenal success of The Da Vinci Code? How does it connect to the Holy Grail legend?
And who is Dan Brown, the enigmatic man behind the mystery?

ALL ABOUT MARY.
Was Jesus actually married to Mary Magdalene? Was she his favorite disciple—and possibly his heir apparent? Did they have a child together?

HISTORY'S GREATEST COVERUP?
Are the lose Gospels real? How different was early Christianity from the Christianity practiced today? Did the early church fathers brutally suppress some of Jesus's true teachings?

LEONARDO AND HIS SECRETS.
Did Leonardo da Vinci belong to a bizarre secret society? Are there hidden messages in some of his most famous paintings? And is that really a woman in The Last Supper?

THE NETHERWORLD OF CONSPIRACIES.
Who were the sinister Knights Templar? What goes on in the hidden world of Opus Dei? What's inside the famous Dossiers Secrets?

THE ORIGINS OF THE HOAX.
Who was Abbe Sauniere? Did he really discover a great treasure in his church in southwestern France? And what is his connection t? the Priory of Sion?
RESOURCES
Where is the real path of the Paris Meridian? What's buried in the church crypt beneath Saint'Sulpice? Are there 666 panes in the famous pyramid at the Louvre?

Download

The Art of Creative Thinking - How to Be Innovative and Develop Great Ideas

Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows Like harmony in music; there is a dark Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles Discordant elements, makes them cling together In one society.
William Wordsworth

The importance of creative thinking today needs no emphasis. In your profession or sphere of work you will have a competitive advantage if you develop your ability to come up with new ideas. In your personal life, too, creative thinking can lead you into new paths of creative activity. It can enrich your life – though not always in the way you expect.There have been many books on creativity and creative thinking. What is distinctive about this one? My new concept is that of the Depth Mind (see Chapter 13). Of course, the reality behind it – the creative activity of the unconscious mind – is not by any means new. My contribution, however, is to present that reality in a fresh way. I have also put it into context within a simple framework of mental activity: the analysing, synthesizing and valuing functions of the mind when it is thinking to some purpose. Oddly enough, no one has done that before. This is not simply a book about creative thinking. Its aim is to help you in practical ways to become a more
creative thinker. Being essentially a practical sort of book, it does not go into the philosophy or psychology of creativity in any depth, except as far as these disciplines have thrown up valuable insights or tips for practical creative thinkers. Nor have I explored here what might be called the organizational dimension of the subject. How do organizations foster or stifle creative thinking? Why are some organizations better than others at introducing changes and implementing them? My companion book to this one, Leadership for Innovation, addresses those questions. For how new ideas are brought to market in the shape of products or services is another subject. My focus here is upon you as an individual creative thinker, regardless of where you are employed. Each chapter has one simple core idea – something fairly tangible or well-attested. Depending on its nature, I then briefly develop and illustrate it. Then I summarize the discussion in some simple keypoints. These are not merely summaries, however, for sometimes new thoughts are introduced in them.

Download