Search results for ""Author City"

A sumptuous monograph presenting for the first time the extraordinarily imaginative and delightful work of visionary artist Renaldo Kuhler (American, 1931–2013). The Secret World of Renaldo Kuhler catapults a thrilling new discovery into the pantheon of the most accomplished visionary—or “outsider”—artists. Like Henry Darger, Howard Finster, George Widener, and Adolf Wölfli, Renaldo Kuhler was an exceptionally gifted artist and possessed an imagination all his own. By day Kuhler was a self-taught scientific illustrator under the employ of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, for which he created thousands of wonderfully precise illustrations of myriad natural history specimens—reptiles, fish, turtles, and the like. Renaldo Kuhler was an unusual individual, as was instantly clear from his appearance alone. Six-foot-four, with a white beard and ponytail, he wore a custom-tailored uniform consisting of a sleeveless Kelly green suit jacket with wide, black, notched lapels, epaulets, and brass buttons, a matching suit vest, yellow flannel dress shirt, a fleur-de-lis Boy Scout neckerchief, and tight-fitting knee-length shorts (“cotton-blend lederhosen”). However, unbeknownst even to family, friends, and coworkers, Kuhler was more than an eccentric, gifted scientific illustrator. He was a prolific visionary artist, who, as a teenager in the late 1940s, invented an imaginary country he named Rocaterrania—after Rockland County, New York, where he had lived as a child. For the next sixty years, in secret, he illustrated the nation’s entire history and the prominent characters of its populace. Rocaterrania is a fantastical world, a richly illustrated amalgam of Kuhler’s personal cultural and aesthetic fascinations. Situated just north of the Adirondacks in New York, at the Canada–United States border, Rocaterrania is a sovereign nation of immigrants, from Scandinavia to Eastern Europe. Kuhler invented a complete world populated by a royal family and a succession of leaders resembling historical Russian figures, Women reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich and Janet Leigh play important roles as do bearded men of a seeming Hasidic Jewish heritage, men bearing curious physical similarities to American presidents, and neutants—individuals neither male nor female. Amid forests, mountains, lakes, and rivers, Kuhler’s imaginary country is made up of provinces and cities filled with distinctive Rocaterranian architecture and well-planned railroad and metro systems. Its government is unique, and it has its own religion, Ojallism, and its own evolving language and alphabet. With an organized labor service, a prison system (modeled after a New Jersey state penitentiary), a university system, a Rocaterranian Olympics, and an independent movie industry, Rocaterrania is a nation bustling with dozens of characters and their intrigues. Initially meant to be an escape, Kuhler's Rocaterrania became a secret lifelong obsession, an intricately coded, metaphorical account through Rocaterrania’s tumultuous history, which dovetailed with Kuhler’s own struggles for independence and freedom. Renaldo was the son of the German-born industrial designer Otto Kuhler, renowned for his Art Deco–era streamlined trains; his Belgian mother had little patience for her son, who was ostracized and bullied throughout his life for being “different.” The Kuhler family moved in 1948 from Rockland County, New York, to a remote cattle ranch in the Colorado Rockies—an unbearably isolated environment for the teenaged Renaldo. Retreating to his sketchbooks, journals, and watercolors to invent his imaginary nation of Rocaterrania, young Kuhler wrote, “The ability to fantasize is the ability to survive.” The Secret World of Renaldo Kuhler is filled with more than 400 illustrations in pencil, ink, acrylic, oil, gouache, watercolor, colored pencils, and markers, demonstrating Kuhler’s phenomenal draftsmanship and wide range of style—from delicately shaded graphite works to comic-book ink drawings. Complementing Kuhler’s impressive artistry is his gift for analogical thinking, which flowered in his appropriation and reimagining of personalities, places, and events from world history to form a cohesive and fully imagined world. After decades of secrecy, Kuhler eventually first shared his work and the story of his imaginary country with filmmaker Brett Ingram, whom he met by chance in the mid-1990s. In 2009 Ingram released Rocaterrania, a feature-length documentary with prized footage of Kuhler at home and at work, and talking about his creation. With The Secret World of Renaldo Kuhler Ingram has written the complete story of Rocaterrania as relayed to him over time by Kuhler, resulting in a fascinating, highly entertaining first and major book about this rare, newly discovered, full-blown visionary outsider artist.

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Half a century ago I left a country, the red color of which dominated a large portion of the world map. One way or another, the fate of almost every single person described in this book is forever linked with that now none-existent empire. Many of them ended up beyond its borders too. Cultures and traditions, and certainly not least of all a Soviet mentality, couldn’t have just left them without a trace. Having been transplanted into a different environment, they had to play the role of themselves apart from certain corrections with regard to the tastes and customs of a new society. Nevertheless, every one of them, both those who left the Soviet Union, and those who stayed behind, were forever linked by one common united phenomenon: they all belonged to the Soviet school of chess. This school of chess was born in the 20’s, but only began to count its true years starting in 1945, when the representatives of the Soviet Union dominated an American squad in a team match. Led by Mikhail Botvinnik, Soviet Grandmasters conquered and ruled the world, save for a short Fischer period, over the course of that same half century. In chess as well as ballet, or music, the word “Soviet” was actually a synonym for the highest quality interpretation of the discipline. The Soviet Union provided unheard of conditions for their players, which were the sort of which their colleagues in the West dare not even dream. Grandmasters and even Masters received a regular salary just for their professional qualifications, thereby raising the prestige of a chess player to what were unbelievable heights. It was a time when any finish in an international tournament, aside from first, was almost considered a failure when it came to Soviet players, and upon their return to Moscow they had to write an official explanation to the Chess Federation or the Sports Committee. The isolation of the country, separated from the rest of the world by an Iron Curtain, was another reason why, talent and energy often manifested themselves in relatively neutral fields. Still if with music, cinematography, philosophy, or history, the Soviet people were raised on a strict diet, that contained multiple restrictions, this did not apply to chess. Grandmasters, and Masters, all varied in terms of their upbringing, education, and mentality and were judged solely on their talent and mastery at the end of the day. Maybe that’s why the Soviet school of chess was full of such improbable variety not only in terms of the style of play of its representatives, but also their different personality types. Built was a gigantic chess pyramid, at the base of which were school championships, which were closely followed by district ones. Later city championships, regions, republics, and finally-the ultimate cherry on top-the national event itself. The Championships of the Soviet Union were in no way inferior to the strongest international tournaments, and collections of the games played there came out as separate publications in the West. That huge brotherhood of chess contained its very own hierarchy within. Among the millions, and multitudes of parishioners-fans of the game-there were the priests-candidate masters. Highly respected were the cardinals-masters. As for Grandmasters though well…they were true Gods. Every person in the USSR knew their names, and those names sounded with just as much adoration, and admiration as those of the nation’s other darlings-the country’s best hockey players. In those days the coming of the American genius only served to strengthen the interest and attention of society towards chess, never mind the fact that by that point it had already been fully saturated by it. The presence of tons of spectators at a chess tournament in Moscow as shown in the series “The Queen’s Gambit” is in no way an exaggeration. That there truly was the golden age of chess. Under the constant eye, and control of the government, chess in the USSR was closely interwoven with politics, much like everything else in that vanished country. Concurrently, the closed, and isolated society in which it was born only served to enable its development, creating its very own type of culture-the giant world of Soviet chess. I was never indifferent to the past. Today, when there is that much more of it then the future, this feeling has become all the sharper. The faster the twentieth century sprints away from us, and the thicker the grass of forgetting grows, soon enough, and under the verified power of the most powerful engines that world of chess will be gone as well. It was an intriguing, and colorful world, and I saw it as my duty to not let it disappear into that empty abyss. Genna Sosonko - May 2021

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Praise for MANAGING THE NEW CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP “Gordon delivers an impressive synthesis of the newest methods for engaging customers in relationships that last. No organization today can succeed without the mastery of customer relationship management strategy fundamentals. But to win in the decades ahead, you must also understand and capitalize on the rapidly evolving social computing, mobility and customer analytics technologies described in this book. Checklists, self-assessments and graphical frameworks deliver pragmatic value for the practicing manager.” — William Band, Vice-President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research Inc., Cambridge, MA “A very comprehensive and practical book on managing relationships with existing customers in the age of social media! I particularly enjoyed reading chapters on teaching customers new behaviors, which were illustrated by excellent case studies.” — Jagdish N. Sheth, Ph.D. , Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA “The strategic breadth and depth of this book is impressive as Gordon explores the new customer and how to plan and manage the new customer relationship. I found his review of strategies, techniques and technologies for social, mobile, mass customization and customer analytics to be particularly insightful. Gordon urges marketers to live and breathe one-through-one marketing and to master social engagement techniques. The checklists, cases and examples make the content grounded and actionable. This is an important, current and detailed book to which every organization should pay close attention to improve customer relationships and create shareholder value.” — Marcus Ruebsam, Vice-President, Line-of-Business Marketing Solutions, SAP AG, Walldorf, Germany “There are many books on CRM, but I recommend this one because Gordon’s book does what others do not. He considers CRM strategy and evolves it to recognize a new customer, one who is always connected, socially available and influential. The book doesn’t just discuss many point solutions for specific marketing challenges; it integrates technology with strategy, people, process and customer analytics to develop relationships continuously. This book is a broad and deep exploration of CRM, providing practical, fact-based perspectives that every company can use to validate and rethink their customer and stakeholder relationships.” — Helmuth Cepeda, Small, Medium and Distribution Director, Microsoft Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico Marketing has changed fundamentally in the last few years and has become an entirely new discipline, one that focuses on a new customer and a new relationship, framed by new principles, strategies, processes, roles and tactics. Individual customers are economically targeted and served, and treated as segments of one rather than members of a target market. Word of mouth and recommendations are vital as customers influence one another more than a company can do within its own advertising or customer dialogs. Today’s customer is always online, accessible and connected. Now marketing is not only direct and customer-specific but a continuous process by which companies seek to engage customers and be progressively more relevant, attractive and valuable. This is the era of a new customer relationship—an individual relationship that is social, mobile and local, influenced by peers and shaped by cognitive, behavioural and social psychological principles. New techniques, processes and technologies transform what it means to implement marketing strategy and achieve improved business results. The new customer relationship requires that even those companies that have embraced customer relationship management ought to reassess their customer management. Now every marketing decision, whether online or in the physical world, whether of a technological nature, whether it affects customer experience, communications, dialogs, teaching or organizational memory, every decision should be seen through a single lens focused on the individual customers who matter most. Managing the New Customer Relationship provides a strategic and practical guide to help companies attract, develop, sustain and build more valuable relationships by: Expanding upon existing customer relationship management theories, concepts and methods to make these considerations more useful, strategic and contemporary Recognizing the profound importance of social media and how to plan customer engagement in the social context of each customer Exploring new technologies that offer new opportunities for engaging customers, including mobile, local, the cloud and customer analytics Demonstrating how to develop customer-specific understanding, predict what customers will want next, and how to manage each individual customer, and Offering perspectives to help the organization endure by focusing a chain of relationships on the end customer and creating meaning for stakeholders that can make relationships more intense and robust. Managing the New Customer Relationship is for organizations of all sizes in all industries, for private- and public-sector organizations and not-for-profits. In short, every organization can apply the new principles, strategies, techniques and technologies discussed here to recognize important marketplace changes, plan to improve relationship and financial results and capture new shareholder value from new customer relationships.

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Contents: 1) New perspectives on Minaean expiatory texts (Alessio Agostini); 2) Investigating an early Islamic landscape on Kuwait Bay: the archaeology of historical Kadhima (Andrew Blair, Derek Kennet & Sultan al-Duwīsh); 3) The early settlement of HD-5 at Ras al-Дadd, Sultanate of Oman (fourth–third millennium BCE) (Federico Borgi, Elena Maini, Maurizio Cattani & Maurizio Tosi); 4) Known and unknown archaeological monuments in the Dūmat al-Jandal oasis in Saudi Arabia: a review (Guillaume Charloux); 5) Prehistory and palaeo-geography of the coastal fringes of the Wahiba Sands and Bar al-Hikman, Sultanate of Oman (Vincent Charpentier, Jean-François Berger, Rémy Crassard, Marc Lacaze & Gourguen Davtian); 6) Unlocking the Early Bronze Age: attempting to extract Umm an-Nar tombs from a remotely sensed Hafit dataset (poster) (William Deadman); 7) Iron Age impact on a Bronze Age archaeological landscape: results from the Italian Mission to Oman excavations at Salūt, Sultanate of Oman (Michele Degli Esposti & Carl Phillips); 8) Late Palaeolithic core-reduction strategies in Dhofar, Oman (Yamandú Hilbert, Jeffrey Rose & Richard Roberts); 9) Réflexions sur les formes de l’écrit à l’aube de l’Islam (Frédéric Imbert); 10) Getting to the bottom of Zabid: the Canadian Archaeological Mission in Yemen, 1982–2011 (Edward J. Keall); 11) New perspectives on regional and interregional obsidian circulation in prehistoric and early historic Arabia (Lamya Khalidi, Krista Lewis & Bernard Gratuze); 12) The Saudi-Italian-French Archaeological Mission at Dūmat al-Jandal (ancient Adumatu). A first relative chronological sequence for Dūmat al-Jandal. Architecture and pottery (Romolo Loreto); 13) Excavation at the ‘Tree of Life’ site (Mohammed Redha Ebrahim Hasan Mearaj); 14) The origin of the third-millennium BC fine grey wares found in eastern Arabia (S. Méry, R. Besenval, M.J. Blackman & A. Didier); 15) Building H at Mleiha: new evidence of the late pre-Islamic period D phase (PIR.D) in the Oman peninsula (second to mid-third century AD) (M. Mouton, M. Tengberg, V. Bernard, S. Le Maguer, A. Reddy, D. Soulié, M. Le Grand & J. Goy); 16) An overview of archaeology and heritage in Qatar (Sultan Muhesen, Faisal al-Naimi & Ingolf Thuesen); 17) The construction of Medina’s earliest city walls: defence and symbol (Harry Munt); 18) Landscape signatures and seabed characterization in the marine environment of north-west Qatar (poster) (Faisal al-Naimi, Richard Cuttler, Ibrahim Ismail Alhaidous, Lucie Dingwall, Garry Momber, Sadd al-Naimi, Paul Breeze & Ahmed Ali al-Kawari); 19) Towards an annotated corpus of Soqotri oral literature: the 2010 fieldwork season (Vitaly Naumkin, Leonid Kogan & Dmitry Cherkashin (Moscow); AΉmad Īsā al-Darhī & Īsa Gumān al-Darhī (Soqotra, Yemen); 20) Palace, mosque, and tomb at al-RuwayΡah, Qatar (Andrew Petersen & Tony Grey); 21) The origin and development of the oasis landscape of al-ΚAin (UAE) (Timothy Power & Peter Sheehan); 22) Evidence from a new inscription regarding the goddess ΚΕ(t)rm and some remarks on the gender of deities in South Arabia (Alessia Prioletta); 23) Archaeological excavations at the settlement of al-FurayΉah (Freiha), north-west Qatar (Gareth Rees, Faysal al-Naimi, Tobias Richter, Agnieszka Bystron & Alan Walmsley); 24) The 2010–2011 excavation season at al-Zubārah, north-west Qatar (poster) (Tobias Richter, Faisal Abdulla al-Naimi, Lisa Yeomans, Michael House, Tom Collie, Pernille Bangsgaard Jensen, Sandra Rosendahl, Paul Wordsworth & Alan Walmsley); 25) The Great Mosque of Qalhāt rediscovered. Main results of the 2008–2010 excavations at Qalhāt, Oman (Axelle Rougeulle, Thomas Creissen & Vincent Bernard); 26) A new stone tool assemblage revisited: reconsidering the ‘Aterian’ in Arabia (Eleanor M.L. Scerri); 27) Egyptian cultural impact on north-west Arabia in the second and first millennia BC (Gunnar Sperveslage & Ricardo Eichmann); 28) The Neolithic site FAY-NE15 in the central region of the Emirate of Sharjah (UAE) (Margarethe Uerpmann, Roland de Beauclair, Marc Händel, Adelina Kutterer, Elisabeth Noack & Hans-Peter Uerpmann); 29) KāΞimah remembered: historical traditions of an early Islamic settlement by Kuwait Bay (Brian Ulrich); 30) Yemeni opposition to Ottoman rule: an overview (Abdol Rauh Yaccob).

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Audience: Investors, entrepreneurs, companies considering going public, policy makers.Summary: Rigged financial markets and hopeless under-regulation on Wall Street are not new problems. In this book, Susanne Trimbath gives a sobering account of naked short selling, the failure to settle, and her efforts over decades, trying to get this fixed.Part I. Opening ActThis is a cautionary tale. What started as a regulatory failure has turned into a regulatory crisis. Shareholder democracy is in shambles. The institutions that were established to correct a problem of trade settlement failures (failures to deliver shares for settlement) have instead exacerbated the problem. They may not survive what comes next.Chapter 1: Primer. A non-technical explanation of the terminology and concepts used in the book, plus the economic implications of trading ""phantom"" stock and bonds.Chapter 2: Start at the Beginning. Twenty-five years ago, when I was working ""backstage at Wall Street"" a group of corporate trust specialists told me about a problem in shareholder voting rights. When I went to senior management at Depository Trust Company (DTC), then and still the largest securities depository in the world, brushed it off saying, ""You can't balance the world.""Part II. Back to Where I Left OffChapter 3: A Sidewalk Café in New York. At the request of a business colleague, I have coffee with a lawyer from Texas who tells me that a problem was about to blow up the financial markets: Wall Street brokers are using short sales and fails to deliver to grab the assets of American entrepreneurs. I feel a pang of guilt for not sticking it out to fix this before I left DTC in 1993. By 2003, it was a full-blown regulatory crisis!Chapter 4: Blind Men Describe an Elephant. When I start working on the issues after 2003, the lawyers, companies, investors and consultants I meet are like the blind men and a phantom share is the elephant. From a dentist in Michigan to a Republic operative in Washington DC, few of the self-described experts even knew what a naked short sale was before it either happened to them or someone hired them to pontificate on the subject.Part III. Committing to a CauseChapter 5: Real Experts Meet. The lawyers and several companies they represent are relying on poorly written reports provided by the Blind Men. Recognizing that the errors are piling up and having a negative impact on the outcomes in the court room, I bring in real experts, including the corporate trust specialists who first came to me in 1993. We coin the term ""phantom shares"" to describe the extra shares being created by short sales, stock lending and fails to deliver.Chapter 6: STA White Paper. The industry organization of corporate trust specialists, the Securities Transfer Association (STA) issues a report on over-voting after they are unable to get help from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Articles in their newsletter include a survey showing that over-voting – the direct result of investors voting phantom shares in corporate elections – impacts every public company. Almost immediately, the Securities Industry Association sends a letter to the NYSE describing how they can hide over-voting and the NYSE removes the last remaining rule that made it possible for a buyer to demand delivery of shares. A year later, over-voting is found in every corporate election surveyed by the STA. Even after the SIA implements processes to hide over-voting, the STA finds one-third of corporate elections are still receiving up to 25% more votes than there are shares outstanding.Chapter 7: Tax Consequences. My research shows that taxpayers and governments are losing out when interest and dividends are paid on phantom shares. The loss of tax revenue is not trivial: as much as $4.0 billion to the states and $1.5 billion to the federal government every year.Part IV. Success Seems PossibleChapter 8: Regulation SHO. I submit comment letters to the SEC that outline the financial and economic consequences of fails to deliver (FTD). When FTD reporting from NSCC to SEC begins, we are optimistic. Even though it is a list of victims (companies) but not the perpetrators (brokers), this is our first chance to see weekly and then daily data. We still don't know how old a fail is, but at least we have more frequent reports of the total value of fails and the number of shares failed per company. This chapter includes several of my comment letters explaining the implications for capital markets and the economy of the unfolding regulatory crisis, including the fact that Reg SHO had no enforcement teeth. It includes the attachments I submitted, like a copy of an NYSE audit proving that they knew that brokers were voting in corporate elections without regard to shareholder rights.Chapter 9: Criminal Cases Reveal Evidence. Although none of the lawsuits against the central clearing and settlement organizations (DTCC and its subsidiaries) is able to progress in the state courts, some organized crime cases result in settlement agreements and federal prosecutions. They move slowly but reveal evidence through discovery that supports the civil claims for several issuers against the brokers. This book does not detail financial crimes, but the cases against the primary perpetrators involved in manipulating Eagletech's stock are outlined to demonstrate the criminal strategies. We visit the more complete story of Eagletech Communications, Inc. in Chapter 10.Chapter 10: The Battle Goes Public. When a Dateline NBC segment on Eagletech is announced, the pajamahideen are emboldened, organizing protests and rallies including one on the sidewalk in front of DTCC's headquarters in Manhattan. The Dateline episode falls far short of the exposé everyone was hoping for. Later that year, the National Association of Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) holds a public forum in Washington, D.C. Publicity for the issue rises to the mainstream media, with a cover story in Bloomberg Markets magazine focused on the problems created by phantom votes. The CEO of a large public company is in the audience. I challenge him to buy shares of stock in his own company and find out if the seller fails to deliver. His broker debits his bank account for over $1 million dollars – then it takes two months for him to get delivery of the shares. In the face of this evidence and the harsh reality that it can happen to anyone, Patrick Byrne escalates his activities to warfare.Part V. Escalating CommitmentsChapter 11: Byrne's War. With the NASAA event as the backdrop, I push Patrick Byrne to stay focused on the real issue: corporate governance. He has me added to several email distribution lists with what he dubs the ""Pajamahideen"" – freedom fighters who work from home in their pajamas. Patrick hires a firm specializing in ""legislative strategies"" to arrange a media event in Washington DC. It is poorly attended and not widely reported with only one congressional aide at the event. Instead of explaining the important regulatory changes needed to protect corporate governance, Patrick has the team presentation focus on criminal activity. This chapter includes the text of my online interview with The Sanity Check.Chapter 12: Publicity Ramps Up with Meetings, Events and Interviews. I appear at the confirmation hearing when a former DTCC Board members is nominated as State Treasurer for New Jersey. I and some of the pajamahideen point to his Board role as making him complicit in hiding the fails to deliver. Afterward, DTCC will attempt to use one obscure new article about the hearing in an effort to disparage me (Chapter 15). Stories show up in every financial news outlet from print and online to radio and television. Bloomberg produces and airs a special report on ""Phantom Shares"" and I am the keynote speaker at the Securities Lending Conference in New York. I am contacted by an agent from the FBI-NY and he asks me to meet with the SDNY Attorney's office to brief them on fails and shorts. I present them with shocking evidence of system-wide problems in post-trade processing. I don't hear from them again.Chapter 13: Naked, Short and Greedy in LA. The CFA-LA initially agrees to put on an event about naked short selling. Bloomberg TV is prepared to broadcast the event. Then DTCC threatens action against CFA-LA if they have me as a speaker. CFA-LA caves and cancels the event. Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne steps up with a small sponsorship and STP Advisory Services funds the remainder for a new event in October. With just a shoe-string budget, we are able to fill a meeting room at the Park Hyatt in Century City (Los Angeles) with attendees from all over the US.Part VI. All Seems LostAfter a series of promising events, what happened next offered one setback after another. In a painful, emotionally charged series of events for me, the goal of resolving the regulatory crisis seemed to move further and further away. Things were happening too quickly to have feelings about them: by the time it was over, I was just starting to have feelings about the kind of feelings I had when it was happening. DTCC's efforts to banish me to the background left me raw as I constantly had to keep up my guard against it. Paradoxically, all of the negativity drew a sense of even deeper commitment from me.Chapter 14: Resistance from Wall Street. DTCC escalates their efforts against me. It has the opposite effect, making more companies and investors trust me to speak out on their behalf. They contact the producers and sponsors for events that invite me to be keynote speaker. They even threaten to cancel program participation for a transfer agent who hires me as a consultant. In the end, the people and organizations that I worked with in my years at DTC come to my support with more speaker invitations.Chapter 15: Corporate Governance Fails at Overstock. The real blow comes when Patrick has the chance to close it out with the proxy voting charade at his annual meeting. He does nothing because he got the chairman slot he was so afraid ""they"" would take away from him. The real experts I bring in are ignored completely. I feel Patrick and his lawyers push me aside in favor of a series of yes-men and consultants with worn-out low-level government titles. He will lose his appeal in a million-dollar lawsuit brought against him and one of his writers for libel and defamation.Chapter 16: Senate Inaction. Patrick is a big political donor who is able to get some statements about ""naked short selling"" read into the record by congressmen from Utah. I was able to include a couple of paragraphs about fails to deliver. Under pressure from DTCC, the SEC and Wall Street's own political donations, Congress refuses to hold hearings to air the investors' side of the story. In 2012, the Washington Post will report finding lawmakers in 2008 were investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in short-selling funds.Part VII. When the Music StopsThen came the Wall Street bailout, appointing Geithner to Treasury to replace Paulson (who pillaged the Treasury on his way out of town), Dodd-Frank which does nothing but order a bunch of studies. Soon, everyone is so wrapped up in trying to figure out what the rules are going to be that no one is able to move forward with any action.Chapter 17: Media Interest after the Financial Crisis. When the financial crisis hits the markets, I am doing radio interviews every month. In September, Matt Taibbi interviews me for the Rolling Stone magazine article that would be quoted extensively because he called Goldman Sachs a ""great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."" In 2013, Forbes was still referencing that article. The Daily Show produces a segment on short selling that gets attention as far up as the White House daily briefing.Chapter 18: CMKM and the UnShareholders. A diamond mining firm, CMKM, orders a ""cert pull"" to get all the company's shares out of the DTC. It reveals how many phantom shares are in circulation as a multitude of investors – dubbed the UnShareholders – are left holding the empty bag. Brokers begin deleting share positions as they stop returning calls to angry customers around the world, including several active-duty members of the military stationed overseas. But the evidence is there: brokers assigned phantom shares to their most vulnerable customers while getting real certificated-shares for themselves and favored clients. Before it shuts down, the UnShareholder project reveals the same circumstances applied to over 100 investors for 21 more companies across 15 brokerage firms. Launched June 9, 2008; closed in 2010. The investors were located throughout the US and in 5 other countries on three continents. In 2007, shareholders in British Columbia (Canada) sue their broker for refusal to provide certificates for shares shown in their account. The same day it was filed, it went directly before B.C. Supreme Court Justice H. Groberman, who ordered Canaccord to provide the share certificates ""without delay.""Chapter 19: Two Documentary Films. Sandra Mohr's Stock Shock is first out of the blocks among several films, including a few big Hollywood productions that would make the connection between failures in supervision, regulation and post-trade processing and the 2008 collapse of global capital markets. ""The bad guys won."" I am interviewed for the documentary Wall Street Conspiracy in July. When the stock market crashes in September, the producers invite me back to explain the connection with what I told them 2 months earlier. The transcript of that interview is included in this chapter.Part VIII. The Tragedy of a Downer EndingChapter 20: GAO Faults SEC and Other Revelations. In 2009, GAO would fault SEC for ignoring thousands of ""NSS"" complaints. My interview with the GAO is included in this chapter. The deeper tragedy is that so many companies lost access to the capital that is a keystone on US capital markets. Of the three companies highlighted in this book, Eagletech folded in 2006, CMKM held on until 2019 (as NHHI). Only Barker Minerals remains a functioning business despite the fact that the shares ceased trading after they could no longer afford to have financial statements produced by an external auditor.Chapter 21: Barker Minerals' Unique Approach. A Canadian mining firm, Barker Minerals Ltd. approached me in 2010 for help with a strategy they developed to ferret out which brokers were failing to deliver their stock for settlement. In contrast to denouncing short sellers, which was the basis for most complaints in the US, Barker called their analysis the ""Pro Long Strategy"" for its emphasis on protecting and supporting long-term shareholder investments. Barker Minerals continues in operations today, primarily using personal funding after the stock ceased trading on 5 April 2019.Part IX. Unresolved Regulatory CrisisFor decades, investors have settled for a small rate of return in their investment accounts, while the companies holding their money have earned trillions of dollars in income. If there is one lesson learned from my experiences over the last 15 years, it is that even a disorganized protest is still a protest. A small but vocal group of investors and entrepreneurs can shake up the system at least enough to get some transparency. The financial sector has lost its moral compass. Investors and entrepreneurs are on their own when they venture into US capital markets. They have to protect themselves and the wealth they hope to accumulate to ensure the future.

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BSL is the language used by the Deaf Community in the UK and is an officially recognised language in its own right. It has its own grammar and syntax, which are completely different from the grammatical rules of English.

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This elegant daily ziparound journal features a beautifully designed interior with thought-provoking prompts, encouraging Scriptures, and space for journaling. Stop and ponder, delight in God's love for you, and express your thoughts in the space provided.

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Find your happy place each day! When you choose to dwell on the joy that is abundant in God, you are better equipped to fight feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression. This beautifully designed guided journal features creative prompts, encouraging quotes and Scriptures, and thought-provoking questions that will make your journaling experience fun and fulfilling! Reflect on the blessings of God, delight in his goodness, and express your thoughts in the space provided.

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Morning and evening, God is worthy of all our praise! The circumstances of life may have you feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, discouraged, or even depressed. But God's love isn't dependent on your situation. Because his love for you is unchanging and his promises are true, you can choose to believe that today will be a good day from the minute you wake up to the moment you lay down to sleep. Find the hope, joy, and strength that is abundant in God as you spend time with him. Express your heart of praise and thanksgiving in the journaling space provided.

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Adopting a highly practical approach, Remedies is designed to help trainee barristers identify appropriate remedial relief for their clients, and calculate damages where necessary.Remedies fully prepares trainee barristers for practice with coverage of the specific remedies which are available in various areas of law, including judicial review, trusts, unlawful discrimination, and EU remedies. The manual also details when specific remedies are available and what must be established for the chosen remedy to be granted.

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Opinion Writing and Case Preparation equips trainee barristers with the tools and techniques they need to identify, analyse, and present convincing legal arguments, and gives a thorough grounding in the skill of writing opinions.With its systematic approach to legal research and fact management, the manual provides trainee barristers with an efficient and reliable method for preparing a client''s case. The fundamental qualities of effective writing are also clearly identified and explained, helping you develop this essential skill. Particular care is taken to guide you through the appropriate ways of writing opinions in a variety of contexts.

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This elegant daily ziparound journal features a beautifully designed interior with inspiring devotions, encouraging Scriptures, thought-provoking questions, and space for journaling. Stop and ponder, delight in God's love for you, and express your thoughts in the space provided.

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With all that life throws at you, it can be hard to avoid anxiety, stress, and depression. Make God your happy place each day. When you choose to dwell on the joy that is abundant in God, you reflect happiness to those around you through your smiles, words, and actions. And pretty soon, you'll start feeling pretty joyful yourself. This fun guided journal features high-quality paper with encouraging Scriptures and journaling prompts that will have you ready to write in no time! Reflect on your good Creator, delight in his joyful presence, and express your thoughts in the space provided.

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Cutting Room both describes and pushes against the anxious hum of the technologically saturated present. Sarah Pinder's poems navigate domestic and "natural" spaces as landscapes charged with possible violence and desire while they scan scenes as an outsider or camera eye to unsettle and fray familiar settings. Using hyper-focus and the long gaze, they draw the eye to the corners and seams of these spaces, slowing us down, shifting our focus to worn detail, asking us to seek pattern and possibility in a hyper-paced present tense. These are little ominous films, documenting the minutiae around us that can be our undoing. Let their ribs stretch out -- there is no figure which is not also a ground in its arctic plane. Cutting rooms as luck would have it have academic sincerity. Sarah Pinder was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and lives in Toronto, Ontario. This is her first collection.

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Written by experienced practitioners, Professional Ethics equips the reader with a solid understanding of the key ethical and professional conduct issues which underpin all types of practice at the Bar. Including full discussion of the letter and spirit of the Code of Conduct issued by the Bar Standards Board, the manual provides full coverage of the professional conduct principles which govern the working relationships of the barrister with the client, prosecution or defence counsel, the courts and other members of the legal profession. The manual also features a dedicated chapter which identifies the key principles of professional conduct applicable to the core skills of the barrister ensuring that the reader is fully able to uphold the high professional standards of the Bar across all areas of practice. Potentially problematic areas of practice are identified throughout, and practical guidance is given on the correct approach to follow in such situations should they be encountered in practice. The manual also features a number of exercises designed to encourage the reader to consider how professional conduct principles apply to realistic scenarios. For ease of reference, relevant extracts from the Code of Conduct for barristers and a selection of some of most useful guidance from the Bar Council and the Bar Standards Board is provided at the end of the manual. Professional Ethics is essential reading for all trainee barristers, and is a useful source of reference for practitioners seeking to refresh their knowledge of the rules and principles of professional conduct which govern practice at the Bar. Digital formats This edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats. The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features, and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks

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Covering all aspects of the client interview, Conference Skills is designed to help trainee barristers develop the key written, interpersonal, and case-work skills required to conduct successful client conferences. Special attention is devoted to skills of questioning, listening, and advising, to ensure the trainee barrister is well equipped to maximize a client conference in terms of gathering information and giving advice. Featuring numerous how-to-do-it guides, worked examples, and realistic case documentation, the manual offers practical step-by-step guidance so that the trainee barrister can approach any client conference with confidence. Digital formats This edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats. The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features, and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks

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Covering all aspects of the client interview, Conference Skills is designed to help trainee barristers develop the key written, interpersonal, and case-work skills required to conduct successful client conferences. Special attention is devoted to skills of questioning, listening, and advising, to ensure the trainee barrister is well equipped to maximize a client conference in terms of gathering information and giving advice.Featuring numerous how-to-do-it guides, worked examples, and realistic case documentation, the manual offers practical step-by-step guidance so that the trainee barrister can approach any client conference with confidence.

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Written by experienced practitioners, Professional Ethics equips the reader with a solid understanding of the key ethical and professional conduct issues which underpin all types of practice at the Bar. Including full discussion of the letter and spirit of the Code of Conduct issued by the Bar Standards Board, the manual provides full coverage of the professional conduct principles which govern the working relationships of the barrister with the client, prosecution or defence counsel, the courts and other members of the legal profession. The manual also features a dedicated chapter which identifies the key principles of professional conduct applicable to the core skills of the barrister ensuring that the reader is fully able to uphold the high professional standards of the Bar across all areas of practice.Potentially problematic areas of practice are identified throughout, and practical guidance is given on the correct approach to follow in such situations should they be encountered in

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Adopting a highly practical approach, Remedies is designed to help trainee barristers identify appropriate remedial relief for their clients, and calculate damages where necessary. Remedies fully prepares trainee barristers for practice with coverage of the specific remedies which are available in various areas of law, including judicial review, trusts, unlawful discrimination, and EU remedies. The manual also details when specific remedies are available and what must be established for the chosen remedy to be granted. Digital formats This edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats. The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features, and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks

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Drafting is designed to equip trainee barristers with the requisite skills to draft high-quality legal documents across all areas of practice. The manual contains practical advice on the skill of drafting in a number of legal settings, including contract, tort, and criminal proceedings. Each chapter contains numerous examples accompanied by detailed commentary on the key features of the draft. Exercises are included throughout the manual, offering the opportunity to practice and perfect your own style of drafting. Digital formats This edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats. The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features, and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks

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Interdisciplinary and intercultural experience coupled with sophisticated knowledge and skills are required for devising appropriate, differentiated design solutions for the global context. Ruedi Baur and his research team investigate and analyse visual graphics from different cultures and identify their specific principles of depiction. The research was preceded by a comprehensive case study on the coexistence of Chinese and Latin as well as Arabic and Latin writing. The study culminates in an examination of the conditions under which the coexistence of diverse writing systems can enhance intercultural visual communication. This theme occupies designers in all cultures whose goal it is to promote global understanding while preserving the diversity of languages and writing systems.

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The 826NYC Review collects exceptional writing by students at McSweeney's 826NYC writing lab, as well as by students from across the five boroughs of New York. The works collected here range from poignant to laugh-out-loud funny, and showcase the dazzling talent of these young voices. Past issues included a story about miniature jumping dinosaurs, a choose-your-own adventure involving a cat named Excellent Phil, space-monkey fables, and pirate plays. Issue Three is an all-new collection of stories, poems, plays, and interviews covering similar (and not-so-similar) subject matter.

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Jack wants to leave home and see the world, so his father gives him money. But Jack makes many mistakes, and soon all the money is gone. Will his father take him back? Will he still love him?This My First I Can Read! book, with basic language, word repetition, and great illustrations, is perfect for shared reading with a child. It aligns with guided reading level J and will be of interest to children Pre-K to 3rd grade.

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Sonny Paine, named after a New York homeless man who gained notoriety (and a New York Times profile) begging on the F train, returns with a new issue of student-written stories and nonfiction. Based on their work in 826NYC's famous writing lab, the students take on a bracingly wide range of topics, cracking wise on everything from Coney Island to l

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The nature of art is—also—a dialectical one. This statement usually tends to apply to the conversation between the work and its viewer. Lipp & Leuthold, however, do not leave it at that but explode the boundaries between painting and sculpture with inexhaustible wit and elan. It begins with the authorship, which must always be considered in the plural, since it involves two artists. From the first to the last detail, they work closely together, blending and complementing each other in unique ways. The resulting openness of the creative process is reflected in the congenial diversity of form and color as well as in their choice of materials. Each piece is evidence of genuine autonomy and a dynamism that electrifies the process of observation. At the same time each work is the product of an accomplished sense of humor that reveals the aesthetic experience as an exciting process of thinking about art and the market, sense and nonsense.

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Situated on the shore of the Lake Zurich, Le Corbusier's exhibition pavilion is his last realised design. Based on his Modulor proportional system and at the scale of a single-family home, it demonstrates the potential of prefabricated elements to form a perfect space for art and design. Commissioned in 1960 by Heidi Weber, Zurich-based gallery owner and patron of Le Corbusier the visual artist, this structure in steel and glass represents pivotal aspects of his architectural philosophy and also points to the future. Architects Silvio Schmed and Arthur Rüegg have carefully restored the Pavillon Le Corbusier to its original state, including the reconstruction of missing pieces of furniture and luminaires. This book documents their research and the restored building, featuring previously unpublished historic photographs and documents alongside newly commissioned images by Georg Aerni.

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In this endearing book, now in board book format, a rainy-day cityscape comes to life in vibrant, cut-paper-style artwork.

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There is no question that the Bauhaus was the most influential institution on architecture in the twentieth century. But does this aesthetic legacy live on in buildings? In what shape do we encounter it today, after about 100 years, in changing cityscapes? The photographer Jean Molitor has examined this question in depth all around the world. In his new illustrated volume bau2haus, he tracks the architecture that owes something to the Bauhaus and its special style across the globe. In strongly contrasted black-and-white photographs he draws attention to these fascinating structures. Selected with a meticulous eye, the photos play with perspective, perfectly balancing the openness and existing volume of each building. The result is a vivid history of architecture that readers will hardly be able to get enough of.

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Wayne Thiebaud's famous, literally candy-colored still lifes of pies, cakes, gumball machines, and lipsticks reflect the promise and abundance of the American way of life - a society of plenty, where supply exceeds demand. The tactile impression created by his pasty layers of paint brings the objects to life and creates an atmosphere in which irony and melancholy are carefully balanced. Testing the possibilities of painterly expression, Thiebaud’s brilliant painting technique explores the boundaries of the real and imagined world. This catalog presents all aspects of the legendary American artist’s oeuvre, including still lifes and portraits, as well as his deserted, multi-perspective cityscapes and river landscapes, in luminous pastels that exude a peculiar summertime sadness.

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Learn about different shark species and habitats in this fin-tastic addition to the bestselling Block book series In this follow-up to Alphablock, Countablock, Dinoblock, Cityblock, Buildablock, Farmblock, and Loveblock, readers will learn all about shark species, habitats, diets, and more. In keeping with the rest of the series, Sharkblock features die-cut pages, gatefolds, and the charming art of British design team Peskimo. Among the sharks featured are great whites, Greenland sharks, nurse sharks, reef sharks, sand tiger sharks, catsharks, mako sharks, whale sharks, and even the gigantic extinct megalodon!

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For nearly four decades, Ari Marcopoulos has broken conventions with his candid and raw style. His photo- graphs documenting subcultures such as skate- boarding, snowboarding, and hip-hop; his tendencies to photograph stark landscapes, portraits of artists, and celebrities; and his extremely quiet and intimate photos of his family and friends have all been hugely influential in helping to establish the visual rawness of youth culture, as well as the ephemeral aesthetic of contemporary photography. Ari Marcopoulos: Not Yet is an unprecedented journey through the artist's celebrated career, from skate- boarding and snowboarding to rural landscapes and cityscapes. This volume includes both iconic and never-before-published photographs from the 1980s to now. Each chapter is edited by a different cele- brated artist or family member-all close to Marcopoulos-and it is through these personal reflec- tions on the artist's work that this monograph takes on a deeper level of intimacy, drawing a more complete portrait of his oeuvre.

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"The current compendium traces the development of the office's architectural practice and thinking through a series of completed buildings, works in progress and projects that, as yet, remain unrealised. The book illuminates its strategies of sustainable design, its multiple interventions in the post-industrial cityscape and the unfolding of an architectural language full of sense and sensuality that reacts to its physical and social context, as well as to functional, technical, spatial and sculptural considerations. The book reveals Sauerbruch and Hutton's understanding of their profession as an ongoing process of research into presence and future, and is the only comprehensive documentation of their numerous works."

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Antoni Gaudí has a reputation as monastic, mad and hermetic. But the architect of many of the buildings that define Barcelona’s cityscape was no mad eccentric. He was a genius inspired by his faith in nature and the divine. Picking up the same strands of eclecticism and art nouveau current in fin de siècle European architecture, he transformed them into an idiom unique to himself and Barcelona to create a series of buildings as revolutionary in their engineering as they were astonishing for their spaces. For Gaudí his work was his life, and this book reveals the exuberant world and groundbreaking work of this unique figure in the history of modern architecture.

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Learn all about insects in this buzz-worthy addition to the bestselling Abrams Block Book seriesIn this follow-up to Alphablock, Countablock, Dinoblock, Cityblock, Buildablock, Farmblock, Loveblock, Sharkblock, and Spaceblock, readers will learn about all the things that make bugs incredible—from spider crickets that can jump 60 times their own length to Chinese stick insects that can grow to be over two feet long to caterpillars that transform into stunning butterflies. In keeping with the rest of the series, Bugblock features the charming art of British design team Peski Studio, pages with die-cuts readers can peek through, and special flaps that unfold to reveal hidden details.

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The amazing county of Yorkshire offers some of the most diverse and rich landscapes, seasides and cityscapes in the British Isles. Limestone interlaces with sweeping and rolling fells, and dramatic peaks rise from its plains. Photographer Dave Zdanowicz has captured its essence from the coast to the Dales in this collection of stunning images. From the majesty of Whitby Abbey and splendour of Bolton Abbey to the fascinating history of the peaks, this book has it covered. For the county’s proud inhabitants and many thousands of visitors this book is a must. This unique collection of photographs immediately shows why Yorkshire is one of Britain’s best-loved destinations.

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