This book brings together a set of papers, many which grow out of presentations at a conference in Oxford in 2009 on addiction and self-control, by a set of thinkers who are united in believing that understanding agency and failures of agency requires engagement with the best science.
In this book, Randi explores and exposes what he believes to be the outrageous deception that has been promoted widely in the media. Unafraid to call researchers to account for their failures and impostures, Randi tells us that we have been badly served by scientists who have failed to follow the procedures required by their training and traditions. Here, he shows us how what he views as sloppy research has been followed by rationalizations of evident failures, and we see these errors and misrepresentations clearly pointed out. Mr. Randi provides us with a compelling and convincing document that will certainly startle and enlighten all who read it.
Despite its grand, hagiographic title, one of Hero’s greatest strengths is its ability to represent Lawrence—“a scholar and warrior, an imperialist and supporter of Arab independence, a politician and rebel, a publicity seeker and recluse” — as a complex, multilayered figure. Korda gives a painstaking account of Lawrence’s audacious exploits, extraordinary victories, and disheartening failures. He also dissects previous biographers’ disagreements, confronts some of the most entrenched misconceptions surrounding Lawrence, and ultimately contributes to a greater understanding of Lawrence.
Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last Twenty-five Years
Carroll (Big Blues) and Mui (Unleashing the Killer App) collaborate to perform an autopsy on some of the most spectacular business failures and corporate disasters in recent times, hunting down the fatal strategies responsible. The authors examine more than 750 inexcusable corporate collapses, neatly cataloguing them into eight common failure patterns: doomed practices, including the Illusion of Synergies, as illustrated by the ruinous merger attempts by Sears and Dean Witter; Faulty Financial Engineering, as conducted by Tyco and Revco; Staying the (Misguided) Course Too Long, a sin committed by Kodak, which missed the boat on digital photography; and Consolidation Blues
Crew (or Cockpit) Resource Management training originated from a NASA workshop in 1979 that focused on improving air safety. The NASA research at that time found the primary cause of the majority of aviation accidents to be human error, and further showed the main problems to be failures of interpersonal communication, leadership, and decision making in the cockpit.
