Preparing For Power

Why do private boarding schools produce such a disproportionate number of leaders in business, government, and the arts? In the most comprehensive study of its kind to date, two sociologists describe the complex ways in which elite schools prepare students for success and power, and they also provide a lively behind-the-scenes look at prep–school life and underlife.

Americans' safety, productivity, comfort, and convenience depend on the reliable supply of electric power. The electric power system is a complex "cyber-physical" system composed of a network of millions of components spread out across the continent. These components are owned, operated, and regulated by thousands of different entities. Power system operators work hard to assure safe and reliable service, but large outages occasionally happen. Given the nature of the system, there is simply no way that outages can be completely avoided, no matter how much time and money is devoted to such an effort. The system's reliability and resilience can be improved but never made perfect. Thus, system owners, operators, and regulators must prioritize their investments based on potential benefits. Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System focuses on identifying, developing, and implementing strategies to increase the power system's resilience in the face of events that can cause large-area, long-duration outages: blackouts that extend over multiple service areas and last several days or longer. Resilience is not just about lessening the likelihood that these outages will occur. It is also about limiting the scope and impact of outages when they do occur, restoring power rapidly afterwards, and learning from these experiences to better deal with events in the future.

Madness, Violence, and Power: A Critical Collection disengages from the common forms of discussion about violence related to mental health service users and survivors which position those users or survivors as more likely to enact violence or become victims of violence. Instead, this book seeks to broaden understandings of violence manifest in the lives of mental health service users/survivors, 'push' current considerations to explore the impacts of systems and institutions that manage 'abnormality', and to create and foster space to explore the role of our own communities in justice and accountability dialogues. This critical collection constitutes an integral contribution to critical scholarship on violence and mental illness by addressing a gap in the existing literature by broadening the "violence lens," and inviting an interdisciplinary conversation that is not narrowly biomedical and neuro-scientific.

The First World War had seen the mechanization of warfare. Battle fronts had become immobilized in the grip of machine-guns and heavy artillery, leading to slaughter on an unprecedented scale. The end of the war saw exhausted governments extricating themselves from the carnage, but some leaders were concerned that, sooner or later, another major war would follow. As France’s Marshal Foch put it, the Treaty of Versailles was only a ‘twenty-year truce’. The overriding concern was to find ways in future of avoiding the kind of static battle fronts that had consumed so many in such futile efforts. Military aviation was seen as the one great innovation that had the potential to do this by revolutionizing warfare. It would not only augment the effectiveness of ground forces in a tactical role, but it also had the means of reaching out strategically beyond the battlefronts to strike at the enemy’s trade, supplies, communications and industrial production. All through the war, military aviation had been firmly under the control of army commanders but there was soon a fierce debate over the way it should develop. The development of an ‘air doctrine’ within each of the major European powers was fraught with difficulty as the nascent air arms struggled, with varying degrees of success, to free themselves from army control to find a new, independent identity. This book examines the way in which these air arms competed for prominence within the military structures of six major European nations – Germany, Britain, France, Soviet Union, Poland and Italy – with different resources, ambitions and philosophies, in the years from the beginning of aviation right up to the start of the Second World War.

This conference proceedings explores issues surrounding the replacement of existing nuclear power plants when they reach the end of their useful life. Topics covered include: Nuclear competitiveness regarding politics and power plant evolution; social acceptance regarding communication, information, waste, and safety proliferation; and durability regarding resources and effects on the environment.

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour stands on the brink of power, promising a fundamental re-ordering of British politics. But what, in practice, will this entail? How can a radical government stand up to an establishment that is hostile to any significant redistribution of wealth and power? People Get Ready!dives into the nitty gritty of what’s needed to bring about transformative change. Unlike a decade ago, the left’s problem is no longer a shortage of big ideas. Inside and outside the Labour Party, an agenda for new forms of public and community ownership is taking shape. Today the biggest danger facing the left is lack of preparedness—the absence of strategies that can make these ideas a reality. People Get Ready! draws on previous attempts at radical change, from the election of Labour at the end of the Second World War and the progressive early days of Mitterrand’s presidency in France, to Tony Benn’s battles with Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher’s icy insistence that there was no alternative to free markets. These stories highlight the importance of knowing your allies and, even more, your enemies, of being ready to deal with sabotage and resistance from the highest levels, of being bold enough to transform the structures of government, and of having a mass movement that can both support the leadership and hold it to its radical programme when the going gets tough. Remarkably, democratic socialism in Britain is closer to government than in any other European country. The responsibilities this brings for those supporting the Corbyn project are as great as the opportunities it presents. But there isn’t much time to get ready …

"Rest is the basis of dynamic activity. . . . Want to be more creative, loving, and successful? Follow Dr. Maas's powerful practical advice for doing less but accomplishing more." --Harold H. Bloomfield, M.D., author of The Power of 5 and TM "As the world speeds up and shrinks, physical energy and mental activity increase in importance, particularly with the drag of jet travel and 55-plus-hour workweeks. . . . Here is a handbook for successful survival." --William E. Phillips, former chairman and CEO, Ogilvy & Mather Do your eyelids feel heavy during afternoon meetings? Do you use caffeine to stay alert? Need a glass of wine to fall asleep? An alarm to get out of bed? These are all symptoms of sleep deficiency--signals that you are operating below your peak performance and beneath your mental capacity. Despite popular perceptions, sleep is not a luxury--it is a necessity. Over 100 million Americans are sleep-deprived, and make crucial business and personal decisions in an impaired state. In Power Sleep, Dr. James B. Maas, pioneer of sleep research at Cornell University, provides an easy, drug-free way to improve your body and brain for an alert and productive tomorrow. With adequate sleep, your potential is renewed every morning. Dr. Maas has lectured to top corporations around the country and the world on the importance of sleep. He has collected all of his research and time-tested formulas to create a lucid and easy program geared specifically toward helping you achieve peak performance in every aspect of your life. In Power Sleep, you'll find: The golden rules of sleep Twenty great sleep strategies Do's and don'ts of sleeping pills and over-the-counter remedies How to combat travel fatigue, including jet lag and drowsy driving Tips for exhausted parents of newborns, infants, and toddlers How to overcome sleep disorders, including insomnia An important and practical book, Power Sleep will help you get the sleep you need to quickly and dramatically improve your mental and physical well-being.