The first in prolific author Lovelace's Samantha Spade mystery series draws on the author's former career as a U.S.A.F. colonel. Samantha, a smart-mouthed air force lieutenant, tests gadgets for the military at a Texas desert facility. On an early morning hike, Samantha finds two badly decomposed bodies, soon identified as a weapons dealer and a smuggler of illegal aliens. After an arsonist burns her test lab, Samantha ratchets up her involvement in the investigation, with handsome border patrol agent Jeff Mitch Mitchell keeping her heart racing as they search for the killer.
From the inability of wealth to make us happier, to our catastrophic blindness to the credit crunch, "Economyths" reveals ten ways in which economics has failed us all. Forecasters predicted a prosperous year in 2008 for financial markets - in one influential survey the average prediction was for an eleven per cent gain. But by the end of the year, the Standard and Poor's 500 index - a key economic barometer - was down 38 per cent, and major economies were plunging into recession. Even the Queen asked - Why did no one see it coming?
BBC Everyday Ethics: Assisted Suicide - Right or Wrong?
On this weeks' Everyday Ethics - David Cameron launches an attack on absent fathers, but is his raw language counter-productive? It was one of the most disturbing TV programmes most viewers will have seen for quite some time. This week, the BBC broadcast a documentary about assisted dying, presented by Sir Terry Pratchett, who has Alzheimers, in which we watched the suicide of Peter Smedley. Was it right to do so? And what are the implications from this film?
The Genius in All of Us - Why Everything You've Been Told about Genetics, Talent and IQ is Wrong
According to David Shenk, no one is born a genius. Nor are special talents the result of inspiration or to be attributed to "giftedness." His premise, backed by a plethora of impressive studies in disparate disciplines, is that outstanding performance in any field is mostly the result of practice. Think of the cute and amazing child violinists, graduates of the Suzuki Method. Perhaps that is too simplified. Outstanding achievement, he explains, is the result of a process, the interactions of genes and their environments: G x E, with the emphasis on the interactions. He says most all of us can display genius, thus firing up the Human Potential Movement once more.
Bomber is a novel written by Len Deighton and published in the UK in 1970. It is the fictionalised account of the events of 31 June [sic], 1943 in which an RAF bombing raid on the Ruhr area of western Germany goes wrong. In each chapter, the plot is advanced by seeing the progress of the day through the eyes of protagonists on both sides of the conflict.
