Doug Peters


Book Description

Doug Peters was one of the most prominent business economists in Canada between 1966 and 1992 in his role as chief economist of the Toronto Dominion Bank. He was an outspoken critic of the economic policies of the Progressive Conservative government during the last part of his career. Instead of retiring peacefully in 1992, he decided he wanted to help change economic policy in Canada, and ran for parliament in 1993. From 1993 to 1997, he was the parliament member for Scarborough East and secretary of state for international financial institutions in the Liberal government. Doug Peters: Bay Street Economist on Parliament Hill is the life story of Doug Peters, written by his son, David Peters, but largely based on Doug’s unpublished memoirs. Doug did not follow a conventional career path for a business economist. As a teenager, Doug flunked out of university twice. He then spent ten years working in retail banking. With a more serious, mature attitude in his thirties, Doug went back to university. He was the top student in his Commerce class when he graduated in 1963. He then went on to graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a PhD in 1969. This book tells many interesting stories from Doug’s life. Some of the stories are quite amusing, while other stories tell about important decisions that Doug was involved in.




Jump Start Your Business Brain


Book Description

Jump Start Your Business Brain details data-proven methods that can make your sales, marketing and business development measurably more effective. What makes this book unique is that the methods detailed are backed up with hard data. They're grounded in statistical analysis of the success and failures of more than 4,000 new products and services, and more than 6,000 innovation teams. The research quantifies the impact of a back-to-basic, customer-focused approach to sales, marketing and business development. The research also uncovers news regarding how you can measurably increase effectiveness in today's super-competitive, time-compressed and overstressed marketplace. It's the perfect book for today's up-and-coming executive.




LIFE


Book Description

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.




Critical Lapses in Federal Aviation Administration¿s Safety Oversight of Airlines: Abuses of Regulatory ¿Partnership¿ Programs¿


Book Description

Hearing to review the results of an oversight investigation. Two FAA Aviation Safety Inspectors have provided evidence raising serious questions of conduct violating the Fed. Aviation Reg¿s. (FARs) in the inspection and maint. program of Southwest Airlines (SWA). FAA employees have engaged in conduct, ¿which constitutes a violation of Fed. law, rule or reg¿n., gross mismgt., an abuse of authority and a substantial damage to public safety.¿ The Maint. Inspector for SWA knowingly allowed the airline to operate in March 2007 (and possibly beyond), and well after the inspection deadlines on a mandatory FAA Airworthiness Directive. There may be a pattern of regulatory abuse and that these regulatory lapses may be more widespread. Illustrations.







Crocodile Tears


Book Description

Detective Philip &‘Cato' Kwong is investigating the death of a retiree found hacked to pieces in his suburban home. The trail leads to Timor-Leste, with its recent blood-soaked history. There, he reunites with an old frenemy, the spook Rory Driscoll who, in Cato's experience, has always occupied a hazy moral terrain.Resourceful, multilingual, and hard as nails, Rory has been the government's go-to guy when things get sticky in the Asia-Pacific. Now Rory wants out. But first he's needed to chaperone a motley group of whistleblowers with a price on their heads. And there's one on his, too.




Paul Martin: CEO for Canada?


Book Description

Canadians have high hopes for Prime Minister Paul Martin, and widely welcome him as Liberal leader. But will he give Canada the government Canadians expect? In this book Murray Dobbin focuses on what Martin has done in business and in politics, and what he can be expected to do in office. What Dobbin reports is often surprising. Martin's actions reflect a man deeply committed to an agenda of less government, expansion of the private sector at the expense of public services, tax cuts favouring those already well off, and closer relations to the U.S. In many areas Martin's views seem closer to Brian Mulroney than those traditionally associated with the Liberal party. And he is often at odds with the values Canadians themselves express in opinion polls. A successful CEO himself, Martin thinks and acts as a CEO in his political role. For Canadians who want Ottawa to do more in health care, education, social services and culture, Martin's accession may mark a significant step backwards. Based on extensive research and interviews with key analysts, this book offers a different view of Paul Martin from the usual portrayals in the business-friendly news media, and from the other books on Martin being published in fall 2003. Rather than a play-by-play account of who did what to whom in Martin's political career, Murray Dobbin keeps his eye on what really matters to most people: what Paul Martin has done to date in business and politics, and what he is likely to do as prime minister.







Unfit


Book Description

UNFIT is a true story of corruption within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that depicts the various struggles within the organization, complete with a well-developed assassination plot, disregard for the lives of any citizen in the traveling public and apparent payoffs from those who seek approval. The FAA uses a standard game plan. First it attempts to buy-off anyone who might become a whistleblower. If this doesn’t work, it will stoop to murder – that’s what I said – murder. If its intended target survives and actively pursues an effort to expose the agency for what it is, the FAA will publicly discredit and financially break that person. Unfit will blow your mind. Clearly, the FAA is not just another Federal Agency run amuck, because it has responsibility for air travel safety. Believe me, I was as surprised and dismayed as you will be by the amount of criminality and mismanagement within the FAA. Fasten your seat belt! It’s going to be a bumpy ride.




Voice User Interface Design


Book Description

This book is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to voice user interface (VUI) design. The VUI is perhaps the most critical factor in the success of any automated speech recognition (ASR) system, determining whether the user experience will be satisfying or frustrating, or even whether the customer will remain one. This book describes a practical methodology for creating an effective VUI design. The methodology is scientifically based on principles in linguistics, psychology, and language technology, and is illustrated here by examples drawn from the authors' work at Nuance Communications, the market leader in ASR development and deployment. The book begins with an overview of VUI design issues and a description of the technology. The authors then introduce the major phases of their methodology. They first show how to specify requirements and make high-level design decisions during the definition phase. They next cover, in great detail, the design phase, with clear explanations and demonstrations of each design principle and its real-world applications. Finally, they examine problems unique to VUI design in system development, testing, and tuning. Key principles are illustrated with a running sample application. A companion Web site provides audio clips for each example: www.VUIDesign.org The cover photograph depicts the first ASR system, Radio Rex: a toy dog who sits in his house until the sound of his name calls him out. Produced in 1911, Rex was among the few commercial successes in earlier days of speech recognition. Voice User Interface Design reveals the design principles and practices that produce commercial success in an era when effective ASRs are not toys but competitive necessities.