A man questions everything--his faith, his morality, his country--as he recounts his experience as an interrogator in Iraq; an unprecedented memoir and "an act of incredible bravery" (Phil Klay) "Remarkable... Both an agonized confession and a chilling expose of one of the darkest interludes of the War on Terror. Only this kind of courage and honesty can bring America back to the democratic values that we are so rightfully proud of." --Sebastian Junger Consequence is the story of Eric Fair, a kid who grew up in the shadows of crumbling Bethlehem Steel plants nurturing a strong faith and a belief that he was called to serve his country. It is a story of a man who chases his own demons from Egypt, where he served as an Army translator, to a detention center in Iraq, to seminary at Princeton, and eventually, to a heart transplant ward at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2004, after several months as an interrogator with a private contractor in Iraq, Eric Fair's nightmares take new forms: first, there had been the shrinking dreams; now the liquid dreams begin. By the time he leaves Iraq after that first deployment (he will return), Fair will have participated in or witnessed a variety of aggressive interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, stress positions, diet manipulation, exposure, and isolation. Years later, his health and marriage crumbling, haunted by the role he played in what we now know as "enhanced interrogation," it is Fair's desire to speak out that becomes a key to his survival. Spare and haunting, Eric Fair's memoir is both a brave, unrelenting confession and a book that questions the very depths of who he, and we as a country, have become.

Young Continental soldiers carried a heavy burden in the American Revolution. Their experiences of coming of age during the upheavals of war provide a novel perspective on the Revolutionary era, eliciting questions of gender, family life, economic goals, and politics. "Going for a soldier" forced young men to confront profound uncertainty, and even coercion, but also offered them novel opportunities. Although the war imposed obligations on youths, military service promised young men in their teens and early twenties alternate paths forward in life. Continental soldiers’ own youthful expectations about respectable manhood and their goals of economic competence and marriage not only ordered their experience of military service; they also shaped the fighting capacities of George Washington’s army and the course of the war. Becoming Men of Some Consequence examines how young soldiers and officers joined the army, their experiences in the ranks, their relationships with civilians, their choices about quitting long-term military service, and their attempts to rejoin the flow of civilian life after the war. The book recovers young soldiers’ perspectives and stories from military records, wartime letters and journals, and postwar memoirs and pension applications, revealing how revolutionary political ideology intertwined with rational calculations and youthful ambitions. Its focus on soldiers as young men offers a new understanding of the Revolutionary War, showing how these soldiers’ generational struggle for their own independence was a profound force within America’s struggle for its independence.

Humanity had been at war with Humanity for fifty years when a greater threat, in the form of the Shi-az-ee, came along. The Shi-az-ee blamed Humanity for an atrocity that they did not commit, and embarked on a holy war, vowing to destroy them all. Due to public pressure in both systems of humanity, the war between them came to an end, and the combined fleets turned their attention to the Shi-az-ee. But hidden in an unlikely place, lurked the true enemy, waiting and watching, and seeking its revenge.

A Consequence of Ordinary brings you deep into the mind of a generation without direction. Three best friends experience their own rites of passage as they struggle to interpret the very things that drive them after their friend Elliot commits suicide. The narrator fears the nine-to-five lifestyle. When he has no choice but to accept it, he finds that all it takes is one stranger, a man named Theodore Paz-a sometimes mad, sometimes wise ghostwriter, to help him blur the lines of ordinary. Tom Lasso is the successful son of New York City's future mayor, Stuart Lasso. Tom must choose between the life he's made for himself and the life Stuart envisioned for Tom as a device in his political campaign. Meter Stensen is about to take over his family's furniture business when he realizes that he doesn't want the safe life anymore-he wants to take chances and fall in love. A Consequence of Ordinary examines a society dangerously similar to our own. It blends a unique style of prose with distinct social commentary to tell the story of three men who find themselves lost in the new world order, carved from the very passive-aggressive nature that has taken over America's twenty-something crowd.

This love is dangerous… But my body and spirit desire him… Emily’s father is the owner of a high-class gentlemen’s club, but he disappears after losing both the club and two million pounds in a poker game. Emily has no choice but to face the problem herself. She seeks out handsome and wealthy Spanish tycoon Ramon de la Vega for help. But what Ramon really wants is to own her father’s company…and to make this beautiful Englishwoman his.

In the year 2049, a Venezuelan drug kingpin deliberately starts a conflict that threatens the soul of the United States by embroiling it in a civil race war, allowing him to gain more US territory and more clients. African American citizens are purposely pitted against whites in a tale of survival with only the kingpin coming out on top. As racially motivated violence escalates throughout the country, there are few choices for Calvin Tobias Jackson, the second African American president of the United States, who is desperately searching for a way to ensure the survival of the nation and of its people. Among those who may offer help are a group of Special Forces soldiers outfitted with technology allowing them to vanish in any terrain; Kareem Toussaint, a teenage genius with an IQ higher than Einsteins; Jessica Walters, a reporter being swept up into the moral dilemma of reporting the truth as she sees it; Xavier Greyson, a billionaire businessman looking to protect his DC neighborhoods; and Stacy Williams, a single mother recovering from domestic abuse. But help may also be coming from an unlikely sourcethe Democratic Republic of the Congo. Set in the near future, this novel depicts a nation in the throes of civil race war as a handful of African American heroes work to end the violence.

In presenting this issue entitled Evolving Enterprise Competences in Response to Changes in the Environment, we want to focus your attention on organizational competence in the context of its competitiveness in the market. The competitive advantage of a modern organization results from competences that enable the adaptation of market mechanisms, internal coordination of activities and resources, consistent building of human potential and development of business capabilities. Organizations' competences in creating innovation, using advanced information and communication technologies (ICT), and building human capital are particularly strongly articulated today. Organizations in the 20th century were oriented towards creating a sustainable competitive advantage based on key competences that ensured a stable growth in market share. Contemporary 21st-century organizations have understood that gaining a competitive advantage results from competences that allow them to succeed in new fields and quickly reconfigure business models. Every company should know the competences that will enable it to use opportunities, differentiate itself from other market players and implement its own development strategies. The diverse research issues in the collected articles allow you to build and assess a broad perspective of the opportunities that companies use in the market and the various competence gaps that deprive them of these opportunities. The first article by Mirna Leko Šimić, Antun Biloš, and Josipa Mijoč presents empirical evidence on the relationship between the use of e-business tools and the export efficiency of Croatian companies. The authors set themselves the goal of determining the level of implementation of e-business tools in Croatian exporting companies and examining their impact on export results. In the analysis of the level of implementation of e-business tools, the OECD e-commerce maturity model was used, which measures several aspects of ICT readiness and the intensity of websites and e-commerce in exporting companies. Researchers were able to determine that the implementation of e-business tools in Croatian companies requires improvement, especially in market research, communication, and online sales. An interesting observation is the indication of a higher level of e-business advancement in companies oriented on geographically and culturally distant markets (markets outside the EU) in relation to companies exporting mainly to the regional and EU markets. The authors are convinced that the research results can serve as a starting point for making comparative analyzes in comparison with similar economies in terms of market maturity and that this knowledge-building could significantly contribute to developing the competence of exporting enterprises in the field of e-business development. The article by Aleksander Jakimowicz and Daniel Rzeczkowski refers to the issues of innovation in industrial processing enterprises. The authors analyzed the propensity of enterprises to implement innovation in the years 2012 - 2014 following the negative shock of the global financial crisis in the years 2008-2010. As a result of the conducted research, a relatively low propensity for innovation, and caution in undertaking it, was found. At the same time, a growing tendency to take up activities in the field of eco-innovation and the feeling of a slow reduction in the impact of innovation barriers have been noticed. Appropriate stimulation of the environment and financial support in the field of eco-innovation are examples of overcoming the negative effects of an external shock in the form of psychological barriers and excessive caution in implementing innovation. The authors note that the main value of the article is its innovative and strictly empirical approach to the problems of innovation. The unique and comprehensive analysis of the relationships between sixty-three variables describing the innovation activity of enterprises can become a potential benchmark for similar analyses in the future. The article by Victoria Konovalenko Slettli addresses the problems of education in the field of transformational entrepreneurship, with a particular emphasis on adults. The author shares the view that transformational entrepreneurship is expressed in the capacity and intended action for change in the life of the entrepreneur and organization, which, in turn, contributes to social change and is characterized by the emergence of a new qualitative dimension of possibilities. The article is based on a pilot study of the implementation of the Transformative Learning Circles (TLC) model in Scandinavian countries, which was developed by the Nordic Network for Adult Learning. The study significantly fits into the development of knowledge about entrepreneurship learning. Key factors affecting entrepreneurship learning have been linked to specific learning processes. In addition, the way of combining these factors in one learning model is illustrated to increase the learning effect of transformational entrepreneurship, which today can be classified as key competences contributing to the development of an enterprise. The next two articles refer directly to the functioning of people in the organization and constitute an important voice in the discussion on the key competences of the organization in the field of building human capital and gaining a competitive advantage. The article by Ambreen Sarwar, Muhammad Ibrahim Abdullah, Muddassar Sarfraz, and Muhammad Kashif Imran presents research on employees working in both public and private sector banks in Pakistan. It proves the relationship between ostracism, stress, and the self-efficacy of employees. As a result of the conducted research, the authors conclude that the self-efficacy of employees, or belief in their own effectiveness, reduces the perception of stress and mitigates the negative effects of ostracism. The study shows that people with a higher sense of self-efficacy would be less affected by the negative effects of stress and ostracism. Although a certain level of stress is considered essential for efficient work, high-stress levels are harmful. Highly efficacious people are less prone to stress in the face of mistreatment; they focus more on their capabilities than on the behavior of others. Perhaps the development of employee's efficacy should be included in the key competences of the organization, especially since the authors recognized self-efficacy as one of the dimensions of psychological capital, along with hope, optimism, and resilience of employees. The authors postulate to examine the impact of these dimensions on the relationship between stress and ostracism or other forms of ill-treatment in the workplace. The latest article by Michał Ujm and Tomasz Ingram presents research in which the main attention was focused on the impact of human resource management practices on individual employee involvement. Task uncertainty was treated as a moderating variable in the research, which was conducted among members of international teams who are recruiting employees. The authors analyzed the collected material from the perspective of the theory of abilities, motivation, and opportunities (Ability-Motivation-Opportunity theory - AMO). As a result, they verified two research hypotheses and received support for the first hypothesis which proved that AMO practices affect the organizational commitment of employees. The second hypothesis was verified negatively. It has been proven that skills-only human resource management practices do not increase employee involvement. The loyalty of employees who are aware of their competences is not high unless they are properly motivated. The conducted research once again confirms the need to include employee motivation as one of the organization's key competences in its competition strategy. We hope that the collected articles, as well as the perspective created for their analysis, will allow you to develop an idea of the importance of an organization's competences. Acquiring a competitive advantage requires continuous development of the scope and structure of competences, as was presented in the first article on e-tools in businesses, or continuous stimulation to use them, as illustrated in the article on innovation. Continuous development of the organization's competences is necessary for developing business ventures. Initiatives in this area were presented in the third article highlighting the case of Nordic transformation wheels. Equally strongly emphasized are competences used to shape working conditions, stimulating employee attitudes and relationships, and developing the benefits of employee involvement in the company's development. The editors thank all the authors who wanted to share the results of their research work in the Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation (JEMI) and wish all readers the satisfaction of using time well spent reading the collected articles.

Thomas Schelling is a political economist “conspicuous for wandering”—an errant economist. In Choice and Consequence, he ventures into the area where rationality is ambiguous in order to look at the tricks people use to try to quit smoking or lose weight. He explores topics as awesome as nuclear terrorism, as sordid as blackmail, as ineffable as daydreaming, as intimidating as euthanasia. He examines ethical issues wrapped up in economics, unwrapping the economics to disclose ethical issues that are misplaced or misidentified. With an ingenious, often startling approach, Schelling brings new perspectives to problems ranging from drug abuse, abortion, and the value people put on their lives to organized crime, airplane hijacking, and automobile safety. One chapter is a clear and elegant exposition of game theory as a framework for analyzing social problems. Another plays with the hypothesis that our minds are not only our problem-solving equipment but also the organ in which much of our consumption takes place. What binds together the different subjects is the author’s belief in the possibility of simultaneously being humane and analytical, of dealing with both the momentous and the familiar. Choice and Consequence was written for the curious, the puzzled, the worried, and all those who appreciate intellectual adventure.

The aim of this book is to correct a common misunderstanding of a technique of mathematical logic.

One of the most influential teaching guides ever—updated! Teach Like a Champion 2.0 is a complete update to the international bestseller. This teaching guide is a must-have for new and experienced teachers alike. Over 1.3 million teachers around the world already know how the techniques in this book turn educators into classroom champions. With ideas for everything from boosting academic rigor, to improving classroom management, and inspiring student engagement, you will be able to strengthen your teaching practice right away. The first edition of Teach Like a Champion influenced thousands of educators because author Doug Lemov's teaching strategies are simple and powerful. Now, updated techniques and tools make it even easier to put students on the path to college readiness. Here are just a few of the brand new resources available in the 2.0 edition: Over 70 new video clips of real teachers modeling the techniques in the classroom (note: for online access of this content, please visit my.teachlikeachampion.com) A selection of never before seen techniques inspired by top teachers around the world Brand new structure emphasizing the most important techniques and step by step teaching guidelines Updated content reflecting the latest best practices from outstanding educators Organized by category and technique, the book’s structure enables you to read start to finish, or dip in anywhere for the specific challenge you’re seeking to address. With examples from outstanding teachers, videos, and additional, continuously updated resources at teachlikeachampion.com, you will soon be teaching like a champion. The classroom techniques you'll learn in this book can be adapted to suit any context. Find out why Teach Like a Champion is a "teaching Bible" for so many educators worldwide.