When electronic digital computers first appeared after World War II, they appeared as a revolutionary force. Business management, the world of work, administrative life, the nation state, and soon enough everyday life were expected to change dramatically with these machines’ use. Ever since, diverse prophecies of computing have continually emerged, through to the present day. As computing spread beyond the US and UK, such prophecies emerged from strikingly different economic, political, and cultural conditions. This volume explores how these expectations differed, assesses unexpected commonalities, and suggests ways to understand the divergences and convergences. This book examines thirteen countries, based on source material in ten different languages—the effort of an international team of scholars. In addition to analyses of debates, political changes, and popular speculations, we also show a wide range of pictorial representations of "the future with computers."

This book chronicles how Zimbabwe's boom educational and health systems unravelled after independence in 1980 and how exuberance gave way to pessimism. The uncomfortable truth about how socialism lost its way and the dramatic reversal of fortune is told. No jobs were created for the school leavers, inflation went up and poverty started to creep in. The 1980s actually laid the foundations for the economic problems Zimbabwe now faces. Trapped in an ideological commitment to socialist enterprises, policy makers permitted accountability to slip, carried co-operatives further than they should have, and pandered to socialist greed with its corrupt tendencies. Zimbabwe: Beyond a School Certificate examines the relations between governance and discursive practices in the modern labour market: the role of institutions of learning and skills development, and the brain drain as creative and retrogressive forces in the economy; labour laws and the job market in a critical methodology for organisational research; and the health system and the poverty datum line as a measurement of the dynamics in industrial development. This is a genuinely authentic analysis based on statistical data which support the unfolding events in the southern African country. This book is useful for students (and lecturers alike) and donor agencies wanting to know more about Zimbabwe. Organisations helping to fight the HIV pandemic will also find the book a source of information.

In the year 2012 the Earth awaits a super catastrophe: its magnetic field will turn over in one go. Phenomenal earthquakes and tidal waves will completely destroy our civilisation. Europe and North America will shift thousands of kilometres northwards into polar climate. Nearly the whole earth's population will perish in the apocalyptic happenings. These dire predictions stem from Mayans and Egyptians -- descendants of the legendary Atlantis. The Atlanteans had highly evolved astronomical knowledge and were able to exactly calculate the previous world-wide flood in 9792 BC. They built tens of thousands of mandjits and escaped to South America and Egypt. In the year 2012 Venus, Orion and several other stars will take the same 'code positions' as in 9792 BC, the year of the previous cataclysm! For thousands of years historical sources have told of a forgotten time capsule of ancient wisdom located in a mythical labyrinth of secret chambers filled with artefacts and documents from the previous flood -- this book gives one possible location.

The dream of capturing and organizing knowledge is as old as history. From the archives of ancient Sumeria and the Library of Alexandria to the Library of Congress and Wikipedia, humanity has wrestled with the problem of harnessing its intellectual output. The timeless quest for wisdom has been as much about information storage and retrieval as creative genius. In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright introduces us to a figure who stands out in the long line of thinkers and idealists who devoted themselves to the task. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Paul Otlet, a librarian by training, worked at expanding the potential of the catalog card, the world's first information chip. From there followed universal libraries and museums, connecting his native Belgium to the world by means of a vast intellectual enterprise that attempted to organize and code everything ever published. Forty years before the first personal computer and fifty years before the first browser, Otlet envisioned a network of "electric telescopes" that would allow people everywhere to search through books, newspapers, photographs, and recordings, all linked together in what he termed, in 1934, a r?seau mondial--essentially, a worldwide web. Otlet's life achievement was the construction of the Mundaneum--a mechanical collective brain that would house and disseminate everything ever committed to paper. Filled with analog machines such as telegraphs and sorters, the Mundaneum--what some have called a "Steampunk version of hypertext"--was the embodiment of Otlet's ambitions. It was also short-lived. By the time the Nazis, who were pilfering libraries across Europe to collect information they thought useful, carted away Otlet's collection in 1940, the dream had ended. Broken, Otlet died in 1944. Wright's engaging intellectual history gives Otlet his due, restoring him to his proper place in the long continuum of visionaries and pioneers who have struggled to classify knowledge, from H.G. Wells and Melvil Dewey to Vannevar Bush, Ted Nelson, Tim Berners-Lee, and Steve Jobs. Wright shows that in the years since Otlet's death the world has witnessed the emergence of a global network that has proved him right about the possibilities--and the perils--of networked information, and his legacy persists in our digital world today, captured for all time.

All you wanted to know about biblical prophecy from A to Z, the Dictionary of Biblical Prophecy is a comprehensive reference tool. It is targeted for those who truly desire to understand prophecy and the end-times. Starting with “Abomination of Desolation” and continuing through hundreds of articles until “Zionism,” this book provides helpful and interesting discussions of the entire range of biblical prophecy, all at your fingertips.This exhaustive work contains articles on a broad sweep of topics relevant to the study of biblical prophecy and eschatology. The articles are based on solid scholarship, yet are clear and accessible to the lay reader, illuminating even the most complicated issues. The dictionary also strives for a balanced presentation by laying out differing positions along with their strengths and weaknesses, while not pushing any specific theological or interpretive agenda other than a firm commitment to seeking to understand the Scriptures. This is a valuable tool you will refer to time and again.

A STOLEN MANUSCRIPT New York Author Sam Tynnan is violently assaulted and his new thriller wiped from his computer. Then world events begin to mirror those in his unpublished book... AN ANCIENT PREDICTION Provence Nostradamus devotee Jean-Pierre comes across an undiscovered prophecy which he suspects holds the key to catastrophic global events. A TERRIFYING RACE AGAINST TIME London MI5 spook, Adel Al-Shaffir, faces a new terrorist threat – one with a secret blueprint for their course of destruction. Could Sam’s book hold the key to the terrorism that has seized the world? Is the prophecy coming true? Adel needs to get Sam to trust him – but time is running out for them all.

Semi fiction Novel Explores St. Malachis Prediction of the Last Pope Author gives readers a dose of controversy, action, mystery and thrill in new book With many existing publications predicting the world disasters and other conspiracies about the end of days, here is at last an all encompassing thriller that will get your mind racing. According to prophecies of St. Malachi, the last pope would come and signal the second coming of Christ. Author Franois Lejeune explores this fascinating concept in The Last Prophecy: The Last Pope. This semi fiction looks at what many ancients have foretold the election of the last pope. This last pope will be against the New World Order as he will want to, according to prophecy, return the Catholic Church to its roots. Within the Vatican are some who oppose to this idea and therefore seek to eliminate the last pope before he can be elected for their personal gains. Meanwhile, the heroes in this story are brought together by someone who stands against the predicted Anti-Christ. Composed of men and women who have gifts in investigating strange occurrences, this group embarks on a quest to find and protect the true last pope. After surviving an assassination attempt, they escape and eventually make their way to Eastern Europe where groups of secret societies and members of The New World Order try and stop them. It will only be a matter of days before they will be able to save Christianity before it ultimately ends. With an in-depth look at all the predictions and end time scenarios as an Epilogue, The Last Prophecy: The Last Pope is a thrilling novel that appeals to everyone who has an interest in Conspiracy theories, end time Prophecies and who is at a point in their lives wondering where it is all going and what its all about.