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He’s expendable, vulnerable and flat-broke; the ideal candidate for his employer of last resort, the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. But his part-time employment opportunity at McDonald’s is a pretty close runner-up. That’s because retired special agent Avery Dick takes on the dangerous, difficult assignments for his Uncle Sam that others shun because they’re just too damn life threatening and not career enhancing in the slightest. Avery doesn’t have a career anymore and his dissolute lifestyle doesn’t count for much anyway. That’s often the case for those who served and protected their country for many years. Otherwise, his career prospects and personal circumstances are just hunky-dory. But despite his unorthodox investigative style and bumbling mannerisms, Avery’s often called to active duty to solve the tough cases---and maintain plausible denial for the big suits in the State Department....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. In the autumn month of September, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, wherein these presents bear date, two idle apprentices, exhausted by the long, hot summer, and the long, hot work it had brought with it, ran away from their employer. They were bound to a highly meritorious lady (named Literature), of fair credit and repute, though, it must be acknowledged, not quite so highly esteemed in the City as she might be. This is the more remarkable, as there is nothing against the respectable lady in that quarter, but quite the contrary; her family having rendered eminent service to many famous citizens of London. It may be sufficient to name Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor under King Richard II., at the time of Wat Tyler?s insurrection, and Sir Richard Whittington: which latter distinguished man and magistrate was doubtless indebted to the lady?s family for the gift of his celebrated cat. There is also strong reason to suppose that they rang the Highgate bells for him with their own hands....

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The story is set in 13th century England and concerns the fictitious outlaw Norman of Torn, who purportedly harried the country during the power struggle between King Henry III and Simon de Montfort. Norman is the supposed son of the Frenchman de Vac, once the king's fencing master, who has a grudge against his former employer and raises the boy to be a simple, brutal killing machine with a hatred of all things English. His intentions are partially subverted by a priest who befriends Norman and teaches him his letters and chivalry towards women. Otherwise, all goes according to plan. By 17, Norman is the best swordsman in all of England; by the age of 18, he has a large bounty on his head, and by the age of 19, he leads the largest band of thieves in all of England. None can catch or best him. In his hatred for the king he even becomes involved in the civil war, which turns the tide in favor of de Montfort. In another guise, that of Roger de Conde, he becomes involved with de Montfort's daughter Bertrade, defending her against her and her father's enemies. She notes in him a curious resemblance to the king's son and heir Prince Edwa...

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Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction

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Excerpt: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

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Contents INTRODUCTION AND PLAN OF THE WORK .......................................................................... 8 BOOK I OF THE CAUSES OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE PRODUCTIVE POWERS OF LABOUR, AND OF THE ORDER ACCORDING TO WHICH ITS PRODUCE IS NATURALLY DISTRIBUTED AMONG THE DIFFERENT RANKS OF THE PEOPLE........... 10 CHAPTER I OF THE DIVISION OF LABOUR ......................................................................... 10 CHAPTER II OF THE PRINCIPLE WHICH GIVES OCCASION TO THE DIVISION OF LABOUR .................................................................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER III THAT THE DIVISION OF LABOUR IS LIMITED BY THE EXTENT OF THE MARKET.......................................................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER IV OF THE ORIGIN AND USE OF MONEY.......................................................... 25 CHAPTER V OF THE REAL AND NOMINAL PRICE OF COMMODITIES, OR OF THEIR PRICE IN LABOUR, AND THEIR PRICE IN MONEY....................................................... 31 CHAPTER VI OF THE COMPONENT PART...

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In 1959, in the state of New Essex, a witch was on trial. Or so she seemed to many of the jurors who would ultimately decide her fate, and to the people who thronged the crowded courtroom, many of them friends of the murdered woman. On trial for poisoning her former lover's wife, she would--if found guilty--be executed. Callista Blake is nineteen years old at the time of her trial. She has a very slight physical deformity, and the much greater mental ones of apparent aloofness, fierce independence of mind, a laconic and sometimes sarcastic wit, marked but unconventional artistic talent, avowed atheism, and a complete inability to compromise. Added to all this, although she is not beautiful by any of the usual criteria, men find her overwhelmingly attractive. No wonder the good people of Winchester and Shanesville dislike her, fear her, and, subconsciously, at least, think she is a witch. No wonder they do not believe Callista's story that she had mixed the deadly potion of Monkshood and brandy for herself at a moment of suicidal depression, and had been prevented by a miscarriage from saving Nancy Doherty, who had drunk the stuff ac...

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Fiction, Mystery

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Toby Tyler tells the story of a ten year-old orphan who runs away from a foster home to join the traveling circus only to discover his new employer is a cruel taskmaster. The difference between the romance of the circus from the outside and the reality as seen from the inside is graphically depicted. Toby's friend, Mr. Stubbs the chimpanzee, reinforces the consequences of what happens when one follows one's natural instincts rather than one's intellect and conscience, a central theme of the novel. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Children, Adventure, Animals, Fiction

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Miriam Henderson is one of what novelist Dolf Wyllarde (in her great work, The Pathway of the Pioneer ) termed nous autres, i.e., young gentlewomen who must venture forth and earn their living after their fathers have been financially ruined. Also, she has read Villette; she thus applies for and is offered a job teaching conversational English at a girls' school, albeit in Germany rather than France. Pointed Roofs describes her year abroad, as she endeavors to make her way in the hotbed of seething female personalities that populate the school, overseen by her employer, the formidable Fraulein. Richardson is adroit at conveying nuances of human perception through acutely observed physical and emotional detail. She was unfortunately labeled the inventor of stream of consciousness, and her later novels suffered when she started believing her own press; but her early ones (the first half-dozen are pre-1923) are free from stylistic excess, and are poignant -- or in this case -- pointed explorations of the workings of the human mind. (Introduction by Grant Hurlock)...

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Fiction

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Pemberton, a young American with an Oxford education and out of money, takes a job tutoring Morgan Moreen, the 12-year old son of an American couple living in Europe in a style not quite matched by their income. Mr. and Mrs. Moreen's main purpose in life, it appears, is to win acceptance in the higher circles of French and Italian society, partly in the hope that Morgan's two elder sisters will be taken off their hands. Morgan, who is highly intelligent, is also precocious and perceptive enough to come to understand his parents' ambitious aimlessness. Something of a crisis develops when the Moreens fail to make good on the salary they've promised Pemberton, and he leaves, needing a steady income. By then, however, the tutor has become sufficiently interested in and attached to his charge to be unwilling to leave Morgan for long, and comes back to join the family when when Morgan's mother tells him the boy has fallen ill. There, however, he finds the family shipwreck that he has feared is now taking place, and he is in time to witness it.(Summary by Nicholas Clifford)...

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Fiction

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Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was of Spanish origin, being born about 35 A.D. at Calagurris. At Rome he met with great success as a teacher and was the first rhetorician to set up a genuine public school and to receive a salary from the State. He left behind him a treatise On the causes of the decadence of Roman oratory (De causis corruptae eloquentiae), some speeches and his magnum opus, the only one to survive to our days. His Institutio Oratoria, despite the fact that much of it is highly technical, has still much that is of interest to‑day, even for those who care little for the history of rhetoric. (Summary adapted from the translator's preface) This first volume covers books 1 to 3....

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Advice, Ancient Texts, Classics (antiquity), Instruction

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Randall Clayton was surrounded by enemies. His father’s business partner had looked after him in the years since his father’s death. But Hugh Worthington’s motives were not altruistic – he had a secret to hide and a scheme to bring to fruition that would make him millions at Clayton’s expense. Clayton’s roommate, Arthur Ferris, had his own schemes, including stealing the affections of Worthington’s daughter away from Clayton. Clayton worked for a pittance in New York, where he was watched day and night by Worthington’s spies, and by the ruthless Fritz Braun, who plotted to rob Clayton of the large deposit that he daily carried for his employer. It seemed that Jack Witherspoon was his only friend, the only one he could trust. But Jack was sailing for Europe and neither man fully comprehended the danger that was closing in on Randall. (Summary by MaryAnn)...

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Mystery

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As a Captain, Lieutenant, Master Sergeant, Sergeant, or Petty Officer, YOU have more leadership ability than most managers. This book has three purposes: First, it teaches you how your military experience has prepared you to be a leader and successfully transfer those skills to an exciting career in the corporate world. Second, it summarizes the best leadership practices of both the military and corporations, and Third, it helps you find good employer prospects and wow them with your resume and interview skills. It also helps you understand the winning ways of true leaders. Each aspect of quality leadership has its own chapter, with appropriate subheadings....

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Chapter 1–About the Author Chapter 2–Introduction Chapter 3–Leading Trust and Honesty Taking Responsibility Taking the Long-Term View Statements of Mission, Values, Good Behaviors, and Permission Lead by Example Create a Personal Vision Humility and Humor Focus Reporting The quality and direction of information Reports Meetings Chapter 4–Building Teams Improve the Quality of Life Build Your Team Listen to Team Members Listen and analyze human resources Find out what’s really happening in your unit Hiring Chapter 5–Motivating, Training, and Coaching Motivating Recognition Punishment Training Help your people become their best: How to train Who trains team members? Finding Talent Coaching Ask instead of tell Encourage collaboration and cooperation. Offer honest help Give continual and honest feedback, performance evaluations, and support. Chapter 6–Seeking Results Chapter 7–Goals Chapter 8–Change Chapter 9–Intelligence Chapter 10–Strategy Chapter 11–Taking Calculated Risks Chapter 12–Dealing with Bad News Chapter 13–Decisions Chapter 14–Crises Chapter 15–Dealing with Failure Chapter 16–Sea...

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Old timer ‘root-cellars’ had water barrels that froze when it was too cold. Northern lights are similar, but in the sky. Flaring denotes both freezing and perhaps atmospheric friction. Northern lights combine uranium chalk (for green lights), water, and collapsed balloons of atmospheres in the far north. At minus 35 degrees Celsius (C) or so, gaseous lights turn to icebergs and float in the sky. Think of these terms: • Ice lenses • Tesla’s atmospheric friction electrical generation (7 atmospheres) • ‘Root- cellar’ water barrels • Rivers- in- the- sky ...and think of Galileo, the Toronto School Board of Education, Copernicus, and ...GURBIN!...

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From approximately Dec 1/2012 to mid- may year 2013, I was very fortunate to have the unique experience of being a winter caretaker for Ennedai Lake Lodge, Nunavut territory, Kivaliq region. For about five months I had a wood burning stove on the edge of Canada's northern tree line to keep from freezing to death. I was supplied with proper gear to live through temperatures ranging from +15 C to a low of - 55 C, very cold! I was provisioned both at the camp and also upon being flown in. I planned to ice fish but ten feet of ice is tough to get through when a back injury prevents ‘quick- pull’ actions needed to start a power auger and also a snowmobile. I called HQ in Resolute Bay, or in Iqaluit, twice a week sometimes only getting through once (the local term is being 'weathered out'). I saw foxes, singular wolverines (purposeful tanks that can take out a grizzly), lots of birds, northern lights, sundogs, moondogs, green snow, blue snow, and many northern experiences unfathomable to southern warmer eyes. It is often hard to recall those eyes upon returning south, such is the absolute wonder I have witnessed in the north. I melted ...

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CHAPTER ONE: A Maverick book … CHAPTER TWO: What if H2O is mixed with radioactivity? … CHAPTER THREE: Canada really is ‘Bloody Canada’ as was ‘little France’, aka ‘Bloody Scotland’. Or: So I think URANIUM is in the hydrology cycle. … CHAPTER FOUR: I’m baffled by this all… & older bro says “more iodized salt”. … CHAPTER FIVE: Snow White’s Palace for a Disney destination. … CHAPTER SIX: Lynn Andrews needs to move her people- not only because no one I’ve heard of has tried corralling Muskox (twice the iron content of bison). … CHAPTER SEVEN: ICE LIGHTS! and moondogs and skyquakes- OH MY! … CHAPTER EIGHT: Save the Queen, not the Wi-Fi. … CHAPTER NINER: The un-named 2000’ highpointed Stoney Mountains of Kug/ Coppermine to Churchill that hold the weather in, as in- ‘in’sanely cold (locally named). … CHAPTER X: Green mud forming around a small green chalky pebble- it’s a water-soluble-dissolving-pebble in a wet puddle. ...

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What this Book is About? The 1990s decision of Thailand to transition some public universities towards autonomy retained overall accountability for government allocations while internal university matters were to be left to University Councils. An autonomous university in Thailand is defined as a government agency that receives a block grant, operates outside the government bureaucracy and is overseen by the Minister of Education. This includes freedom to determine salaries and staff benefits. The policy objective was to allow flexibility to increase fiscal and academic efficiencies. The process of moving from a finely detailed and inflexible government department budget to one managed according to a strategic plan requires skilled planning. This is the process described and analysed in this book. The book context considered the subjects of: universities as specific institutions; the origins and operations of Thai universities; specificities of the South of Thailand (where Thaksin University is located); modernization of the sector, and university budgeting and financial management. Upon being proclaimed autonomous in 2008 th...

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What this Book is About? 1 Chapter 1 Towards University Autonomy 5 Using Experience from Australia 6 Relative Funding Models 7 National Weighting 8 University Administration in Thailand 9 Chapter 2 How Universities are Different 15 A. Universities as Specific Institutions 15 Universities in Australia 18 Recent Reforms in Australia 20 Autonomy and Academic Freedom 22 B. Origins and Operations of Thai Universities 23 The Role of Universities in Thailand 26 Thai and Global Universities 28 C. Specificities of Southern Thailand 30 D. Modernizing Thai Universities 35 Meaning of Autonomy in Thai Universities 37 The Transitional Path 44 Relative Funding Models 46 National Weightings 49 E. Budget Management in Univerities 50 Governance and Centrality of Finances 50 Model for Budgetary Autonomy 52 Learning from the Corporate Sector 53 Performance-Based Budgeting 61 Budgeting Transitions for Autonomy 66 The Autonomous University 68 Chapter 3 Analyzing the Transition to Autonomy 73 Nar...

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The July-August-September, 2011 edition of Hinduism's flagship spiritual magazine, Hinduism Today, has been released in digital form and is now available for free on your desktop. This issue takes you on a wondrous adventure through time as well as culture showcasing nine historic sites of ancient India. Get ready for an awe inspiring and thought provoking journey! We start with true our feature article with a magnificence recognizable by all of humanity. These nine ancient Hindu related sites demonstrate craftsmanship and artwork so awe-inspiring that the United Nations’s body for education, science and culture, (UNESCO) has deemed them as worthy of protection and care for the benefit of all of humanity. Our writers and photographers explore these temples and caves, dating back as early as 200 bce, introducing us to a depth and breadth of the rich Hindu landscape. You will be charmed by the historical accounts from western explorers. On a heart warming note, the middle section of this issue introduces our newly published "Hindu Children's Modern Stories, Books One and Two." These books bring the wisdom of the traditional yama...

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The discovery found in looking over these proposals was this pattern of simply reviewing elements of each issue that both parties are familiar with, but have never taken the time to review more carefully. Ideology seems to be the reason for this and so made the stunning discovery that most of our problems are primarily due to the ideological death grip on our discourse and consideration. Simply moving beyond this political paradigm opens up to a vista of new options. Raghu-nomics is simply a demonstration of how much opportunity and potential solutions are there if we should simply get beyond the ideological framework confining our policy options....

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Contents RAGHU-NOMICS 7 1 Beyond Two Party Politics 1 2012 Campaign Policy Review 1 Section 1 3 Home Page of Raghu-nomics website 3 Section 1 11 Chapter 1 11 Home Page of Raghu-nomics website 11 Solving Real Estate & Banking Crisis in just weeks. See video above. 11 Raghu-nomics: What it can do? 11 Beyond 2 Party Politics 14 Section 2 19 Chapter 1 19 Raghu for Congress 19 Section 2 20 Chapter 2 20 About Raghu 20 Section 3 26 Kingdom of Hawaii 26 Section 3 27 Chapter 1: 27 10 Reasons Why US Wants to Re-instate the Kingdom of Hawaii 27 Section 4 33 Health Care Reform: 33 ROOPA 33 Section 4 34 Chapter 1: 34 ROOPA: Responsibility for One’s Own Products & Actions 34 Magic bullet to Health Care Reform 34 ROOPA: 34 3 Page Summary 36 Part I: 36 The Problme - it's a Crap Shot 36 Part II: 37 Solution: Pricing Social Cost 37 Demo 1: Obesity 37 Part III: 39 $4 Trillion in Savings 39 Demo 2: Tobacco 39 Add Summary Chapters & Intro from Book, Economics: Hand of God, ROOPA Theology and The Abyss of Activism and the Wisdom Learned. 41 (Editor’s Note: . the ROOPA book was last written 5 years ago. We need to ...

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In his programmatic and data-laden tome, "Capital in the Twenty-first Century" (2014), Thomas Piketty makes several assertions, two of which merit a closer look: (1) That r (the return on capital) is, in the long-run always greater than g (the growth of the real economy), thus enriching the rich; and (2) that inherited wealth tends to create a "patrimonial" form of capitalism, akin to the aristocracy in the French and British ancient regimes. Putting aside the somewhat artificial and dubious distinction between the "real" and the financial economy, r and g are apples and oranges and cannot be compared. Economic growth (g) is not the return on the real economy in the same way that r is the return on capital and its assets. R is intended to compensate for a panoply of risks and is comparable to the wave function in Quantum Mechanics: it incorporates all the publicly and privately available information about future uncertainties and provides a distribution function of all plausible scenarios. Put simply: subject to political and market vicissitudes, capital can vanish overnight. Not so the real economy: it is always there, regardle...

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Elusive Isabel is a novel by Jacques Futrelle (April 9, 1875 - April 15, 1912) first published in 1909. Set in Washington, D.C., it is a spy novel about an international conspiracy of the Latin countries against the English-speaking world with the aim to take over world control.Plot summary: The eponymous heroine, Isabel Thorne, is a young woman, half British, half Italian, who works for the Italian secret service and who has been commissioned to bring about the signing of the secret contract right in the capital of the enemy by representatives of all countries involved, both European and American. Her brother, an inventor, has devised a secret weapon by which missiles can be fired from submarines which will, it is hoped, secure military dominion over the rest of the world.Members of the U.S. Secret Service, who have been alerted, are assigned to prevent the signing of this Latin compact and bring to justice those involved who have no diplomatic immunity. One young representative by the name of Grimm, however, although absolutely loyal to his government, falls in love with the beautiful foreign agent.In the end Isabel Thorne, who re...

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Spy stories

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Orignally written as a series of newspaper articles in 1847, Wage-Labour and Capital was intended to give an overview of Marx’s central threories regarding the economic relationships between workers and capitalists. These theories outlined include the Marxian form of the Labour Theory of Value, which distinguishes “labour” from “labour-power”, and the Theory of Concentration of Capital, which states that capitalism tends towards the creation of monopolies and the disenfranchisement of the middle and working classes. These theories were later elaborated in Volume 1 of Capital, published in 1867. This edition of Wage-Labour and Capital, published in 1891, was edited and translated by Friedrich Engels, and remains one of the most widely read of Marx’s works. (Description by Carl Manchester)....

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Economics/Political Economy, Politics

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Señor Gould is a native Costaguanan of English descent who owns the silver-mining concession in Sulaco. He is tired of the political instability in Costaguana and its concomitant corruption, and puts his weight behind the Ribierist project, which he believes will finally bring stability to the country after years of misrule and tyranny by self-serving dictators. Instead, the silver mine and the wealth it has generated become a magnet for local warlords to fight over, plunging Costaguana into a new round of chaos. Among others, the revolutionary Montero invades Sulaco; Señor Gould, adamant that his silver should not become spoil for his enemies, entrusts it to Nostromo, the trusted capataz de los cargadores (head longshoreman). Nostromo is an Italian expatriate who has risen to that position through his daring exploits. (Nostromo is Italian for mate or boatswain, as well as a contraction of nostro uomo — our man.) He is so named by his employer, Captain Mitchell. Nostromo's real name is Giovanni Battista Fidanza — Fidanza meaning trust in archaic Italian. Nostromo is what would today be called a shameless self-publicist. He is believ...

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Fiction, Literature, Sea stories

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Terrorism could be the heading of the running chapter in human history though strife had always been its grand title. Assorted terrorist groups to espouse their parochial causes have come to target their ideological opponents with utter cynicism. At least they have an articulated grievance and identified opponents with defined terror zones that are amenable for containment and redressal and or both at some stage or the other. But what of the jihadi terrorism and how is it that the western-educated, non-conformist, Muslim youth all over, not to speak of the fresh converts from other faiths get attracted to fight for Islam and die for it? It matters little where we live in this wide world, and one being a Musalman is no guarantee either to escape being its victim. Its madness might reduce us to a statistic of the dead or injured in tomorrow's newspaper headline in today's fidayeen attack. If left unabated it might one day engulf all of us in the Third World War. And thus the significance of any exercise aimed at improving our understanding of the involved issues cannot be overemphasized. Possibly in a new non-fiction genre, this th...

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Pitfalls of Faith If the ecstasy of the Quran is the soul of Islam, the legend of Muhammad is the mind of the Musalman. The exalted sense of his pedigree could have made Muhammad fiercely honest, even in the state of deprivation. It is to be appreciated that neither his insignificance as an orphan affected his self-worth nor his poverty dented his self-esteem. While nature endowed him with a shrewd mind his destiny seems to have helped him cultivate a sense of purpose. Though unlettered, he obviously possessed native intelligence, and thus was alive to every opportunity that came his way. Above all, at some stage at least, he seems to have developed an unwavering faith in his own destiny. As can be seen, he was an uncanny man manager and mob manipulator extraordinary. His exemplary personal courage in battle enabled him lead by example, and this single character of his played no mean a part in the battles his faithful fought to raise the standard of Islam in the nations of the world. Though he grew up in an environment of sentimentality, he imbibed a balanced outlook that his stint as the Czar of Medina turned into statesmanship. ...

Table of Contents Details
1. Preface of Strife 2. Advent of Dharma 3. God’s quid pro Quo 4. Pyramids of Wisdom 5. Ascent to Descent 6. The Zero People 7. Coming of the Christ 8. Legacy of Prophecy 9. War of Words 10. Czar of Medina 11. Angels of War 12. Privates of ‘the God’ 13. Playing to the Gallery 14. Perils of History 15. Pitfalls of Faith 16. Blinkers of Belief 17. Shackles of Sharia 18. Anatomy of Islam 19. Fight for the Souls 20. India in Coma 21. Double Jeopardy 22. Paradise of Parasites 23. The Number Game 24. Winds of Change 25. Ant Grows Wings 26. Constitutional Amnesia 27. The Stymied State 28. The Wages of God 29. Delusions of Grandeur 30. Ways of the Bigots 31. The Rift Within 32. The Way Around 33. The Hindu Rebound 34. Wait for the Savant...

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Come and hear the strange tail of The Boss Hank Morgan, a modern day (at the time of publication) Connecticut Yankee who inexplicably finds himself transported to the court of the legendary King Arthur (as the title of the book implies). Hank, or simply, The Boss, as he comes to be most frequently known, quickly uses his modern day knowledge and education to pass himself off as a great magician, to get himself out of all sorts of surprising, (and frequently amusing) situations, as well as to advance the technological and cultural status of the nation in which he finds himself. In the rather un-subtle sub-text of the story, Twain uses The Boss to express a surprisingly pragmatic and frequently contradictory philosophy. The Boss explores the relative merits of Democracy, and Monarchy, he expresses his views on the “Nature v. Nurture” debate, he frequently speaks forcefully against an established Church, but just as strongly advocates for religion and a variety of churches (just not a compulsory one) and he devotes at least one afternoon to introducing his companions to the concept of inflation. In a far more subtle, yet no less forcef...

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Adventure, Fantasy, Satire