Showing results for "Kris Dyer" in Politics & Social Sciences

This audiobook introduces the key ideas, themes and working methods of each featured individual, setting their ideas within a wider historical and cultural context. Charting the development of ideas across the centuries in both the East and West, from ancient Chinese philosophy to the work of contemporary thinkers, Philosophers provides a compelling glimpse into the personal lives, loves and influences of the great philosophers as they probed into life's 'big ideas'.

This audiobook focuses on the countless theories that have been put forward with regard to the identity of the notorious Victorian serial killer and offers an extensive section presenting all the known facts in the case. It includes 30 essays by the most famous, often controversial Ripperologists putting forward their own theories. It remains one of the few audiobooks to offer a series of alternative solutions to Jack the Ripper's identity and the truth behind the Whitechapel murders.

To imagine - to see that which is not there - is the startling ability that has fuelled human development and innovation through the centuries. As a species we stand alone in our remarkable capacity to refashion the world after the pictures in our minds. Traversing the realms of science, politics, religion, culture, philosophy and history, Felipe Fernández-Armesto reveals the thrilling and disquieting tales of our imaginative leaps - from the first Homo sapiens to the present day.

Philosophy begins with questions about the nature of reality and how we should live. These were the concerns of Socrates, who spent his days in the ancient Athenian marketplace asking awkward questions, disconcerting the people he met by showing them how little they genuinely understood. This engaging book introduces the great thinkers in Western philosophy and explores their most compelling ideas about the world and how best to live in it.

Why does one smoker die of lung cancer but another live to 100? The answer is 'The Hidden Half' - those random, unknowable variables that mess up our attempts to comprehend the world. We humans are very clever creatures - but we're idiots about how clever we really are. In this entertaining and ingenious book, Blastland reveals how in our quest to make the world more understandable, we lose sight of how unexplainable it often is. The result - from GDP figures to medicine - is that experts know a lot less than they think.

From the pioneers of Los Alamos who got up close and personal with the cores of atomic bombs, to the hapless engineers in Soviet fuel-processing plants who unwittingly mixed up a disaster in a bucket, and from the terrifying impact of a tsunami at Fukushima to the mystery of the recent Russian incident, Meltdown explores the past and future of this extraordinary and potentially lethal source of infinite power 

The world's 'Big Four' accountancy firms - PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG - have become a gilded elite. Up in the high six figures, an average partner salary rivals that of a Premier League footballer. But how has the seemingly humdrum profession of accountancy got to this level? And what is the price we pay for their excesses? Leading investigative journalist Richard Brooks charts the profession's rise to global influence and offers a gripping exposé of the accountancy industry. 

Today's unprecedented pace of change leaves many people wondering what new technologies are doing to our lives. Has social media robbed us of our privacy and fed us with false information? Are the decisions about our health, security and finances made by computer programs inexplicable and biased? Will these algorithms become so complex that we can no longer control them? Are robots going to take our jobs? John Browne presents an impassioned defence of progress and innovation and argues that we need not and must not put the brakes on technological advance.

Your body needs maintaining to keep it healthy. So does your mind. Sounds simple, but tired and outdated ideas that tell men how they ought to be mean the message gets lost. And the results speak for themselves: suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50. There's no more room for debate - taking care of your head space should be as normal as eating your five-a-day or going to the gym. Many books make impossible promises about how they will fix all your problems and stresses with some miraculous 10-step programme. This one doesn't.

Nigel Farage is a maverick and an outsider. But perhaps more than anyone else, he is now shaping the British political agenda. Under his leadership the United Kingdom Independence Party has been turned from a fringe organisation into a new political force, winning seats in the European Parliament and on local councils across the country. Farage has been called a "rabble-rouser", as well as "a man of the people". But he is a far more complex character than most people appreciate.

The boring debate between fundamentalist believers and non-believers is finally moved on by Alain de Botton's inspiring new book, which boldly argues that the supernatural claims of religion are of course entirely false - and yet that religions still have important things to teach the secular world.

Who volunteers? Why? What are you willing to do? This title presents the hilarious, heartwarming adventures of a volunteering cynic. Do the feel-good rewards commensurate with the time and effort involved? When Seb Hunter accidentally picks up the phone to a charity Fundraiser one day, he faces a moment of reckoning. It isn't so much that he lacks a social conscience; but he can no longer assuage it by buying the odd copy of the Big Issue and eating Fairtrade chocolate.

In Defence of Serendipity is a lively and buccaneering work of investigative philosophy, treating the origins of 'serendipity, accident and sagacity' as both riddles and philosophical concepts that can be put to a future political use. Taking in Aristotle, LSD, Tony Blair and techno-mysticism, Olma challenges the prevailing faith in the benevolence of digital technology and the illegitimate equation of innovation and entrepreneurship.