Monthly Digest of Statistics No. 706 October 2004


Book Description

This important reference work contains the latest business, economic and social data for the UK. Twenty chapters of tables, cover the following topics: National accounts, including Gross Domestic Product (GDP); Population and vital statistics; Labour market; Social services, Law enforcement; Agriculture, food, drinks and tobacco; Production, output and costs; Energy; Chemicals; Metals, engineering and vehicles; Textiles and other manufactures; Construction; Transport; Retailing; External trade in goods; UK balance of payments; Government finance; Prices and wages i.e. Retail Prices Index (RPI); Leisure; and Weather.




Computer Mediated Communication


Book Description

This is a uniquely friendly and easy-to-understand treatment of the complex theories and findings that surround CMC. Communication is often complicated, and computerization makes it stranger still, yet the authors have deftly demystified both the miraculous and the mundane of computer-mediated interaction.




Killing Hope


Book Description

Is the United States a force for democracy? From 1940s China to Guatemala today, Blum presents a study of American covert and overt interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Each chapter of the book covers a year in which the author takes one particular country case and tells the story.




Blindsight


Book Description

Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.







Globalization and Belonging


Book Description

′Globalization and Belonging′s headline message - that place matters, that locality remains vital to people, is arresting′ - Frank Webster, Professor of Sociology, City University, London Drawing on long-term empirical research into cultural practices, lifestyles and identities, Globalization and Belonging explores how far-reaching global changes are articulated locally. The authors address key sociological issues of stratification as analysis alongside ′cultural′ issues of identity, difference, choice and lifestyle. Their original argument: " Shows how globalisation theory conceives of the ′local′ " Reveals that people have a sense of elective belonging based on where they choose to put down roots " Suggests that the feel of a place is much more strongly influenced by the values and lifestyles of those migrating to it " reinvigorates debates in urban and community studies by recovering the ′local′ as an intrinsic aspect of globalisation Theoretically rigorous, the book is brought to life with direct quotations from the authors′ research, and appeals to students in urban sociology, urban geography, media studies and cultural studies.




Property Tax in Africa


Book Description

"Overview of property tax systems across Africa. Reviews of salient features for 29 countries and four regions (Anglophone, Francophone, Lusophone, North African countries). Chapters offer in-depth discussion of key policy issues (tax base, exemptions and other relief, and tax rate), administrative issues (valuation and assessment, billing, collection, enforcement), and the future of the property tax in Africa"--Provided by publisher.




The Russian Presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, 2008-2012


Book Description

The term "tandem" was used to describe the Putin-Medvedev combination which ruled Russia from 2008 to 2012, when Medvedev was president and Putin prime minister. Many people saw Putin as the real wielder of power, with Medvedev as his puppet. Others, however, saw Medvedev as a visionary, someone who envisioned large scale schemes - even though these schemes have not yet come to fruition. At the same time, many in the West regarded Medvedev favourably, and gave him credit for raising expectations among both the elite and the middle classes in Russia in such a way as to make it difficult for the Russian state to return to its old ways. This book presents a comprehensive survey of the Medvedev presidency, covering all areas including politics, the economy, international relations and social developments. The author concludes that it is still too early to assess Medvedev's achievements definitively.




Tax Notes International


Book Description




The CIA


Book Description

"The CIA: a forgotten history tells the remarkable story of the CIA interventions in more thatn fifty countries, from the earliest actions in China to the present day campaign against Nicaragua. Investigative writer William Blum describes the grim role played by the Agency in overthrowing governments, preventing elections, assassinating leaders, suppressing revolutions, manipulating trade unions and manufacturing 'news' -- in detail that's never before appeared in one book. Blum also shows how the mainstream media have frequently not bothered to probe, highlight or even report many of America's aggressive actions abroad. Effectively, this has helped the US Government camoflague its operations and intentions abroad ever since World War II. Washington's deception and the media's laxity combine to leave us functionally illiterate about the history of modern US foreign policy. And that, the author believes, is good neither for democracy, nor for development and world peace. This immensely readable account has been carefully pieced together from widely disparate sources and with a scrupulous eye to documentation." --