The Death Of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters


Thomas M. Nichols - 2017
    While this has had the positive effect of equalizing access to knowledge, it also has lowered the bar on what depth of knowledge is required to consider oneself an "expert." A cult of anti-expertise sentiment has coincided with anti-intellectualism, resulting in massively viral yet poorly informed debates ranging from the anti-vaccination movement to attacks on GMOs. This surge in intellectual egalitarianism has altered the landscape of debates-all voices are equal, and "fact" is a subjective term. Browsing WebMD puts one on equal footing with doctors, and Wikipedia allows all to be foreign policy experts, scientists, and more. As Tom Nichols shows in The Death of Expertise, there are a number of reasons why this has occurred-ranging from easy access to Internet search engines to a customer satisfaction model within higher education. The product of these interrelated trends, Nichols argues, is a pervasive distrust of expertise among the public coinciding with an unfounded belief among non-experts that their opinions should have equal standing with those of the experts. The experts are not always right, of course, and Nichols discusses expert failure. The crucial point is that bad decisions by experts can and have been effectively challenged by other well-informed experts. The issue now is that the democratization of information dissemination has created an army of ill-informed citizens who denounce expertise.When challenged, non-experts resort to the false argument that the experts are often wrong. Though it may be true, but the solution is not to jettison expertise as an ideal; it is to improve our expertise. Nichols is certainly not opposed to information democratization, but rather the enlightenment people believe they achieve after superficial internet research. He shows in vivid detail the ways in which this impulse is coursing through our culture and body politic, but the larger goal is to explain the benefits that expertise and rigorous learning regimes bestow upon all societies.

With Every Mistake


Gwynne Dyer - 2005
    With Every Mistake is not only a collection of the very best of Dyer’s recent work, but an examination of how, time and again, the media skews fact and opinion, wielding formidable influence on how we all shape our own thoughts. And why is so much of the information wrong? Is it herd instinct, official manipulation, robber-baron owners with ideological obsessions — or just the conflict between the inherently bitty, short-term nature of news reporting and analysis and the longer perspectives needed to understand what is actually going on? How much misinformation stems from simple ignorance and laziness?

Elizabeth I: Legendary Queen Of England


Michael W. Simmons - 2016
    Born the heir to the throne, she was declared a bastard when she was three years old, after her mother was executed for treason, witchcraft, and incest. During the reign of her sister, Mary I, she was a prisoner in the Tower of London, where she was expected to die. But when she became Queen, at the age of 25, she swiftly stunned the royal court by stepping into the seat of power with grace, intelligence, and an air of majesty that maddened and enchanted the men around her. For 44 years, Elizabeth I guided England through religious upheavals and plots to overthrow the government. Courted by all the most powerful princes in Europe, she baffled her advisors by refusing to marry any of them. And when England stood under threat of invasion by the most powerful nation in Europe, Elizabeth’s navy destroyed the Spanish Armada so decisively that it was seen as an act of God. In this book, you will discover why no English monarch has ever been more famous, more successful—or more deeply loved by her people.

Never surrender : lost voices of a generation at war


Robert Kershaw - 2009
    Beginning with first-hand accounts of the reaction to Chamberlain's declaration of war in 1939, Kershaw portrays the many aspects of war through the words of those who were there, from the sailors of the little ships of Dunkirk to German soldiers preparing for Operation 'Sea Lion'. He takes us from the nightly horrors of the Blitz to battles in the limitless desert of North Africa, and from jungle war in Burma to Lancaster bombers over Germany and the beaches of Normandy. Featuring new interviews with veterans and civilians from Britain, the Commonwealth and Germany as well as diaries, letters, and first-hand accounts, this is a testimony to the remarkable men and women who lived through the Second World War -- whose refusal to surrender changed them, and Britain, forever.

God Needs To Go: Why Christian Beliefs Fail


J.D. Brucker - 2012
    It brings comfort, purpose, and sense of pride. These feelings mean so much to the Christian. But are these feelings justified? Do Christians have good reason to trust the truth of their beliefs? Author J. D. Brucker brings forth a short collection of arguments against Christian beliefs, exposing the falsehoods of the faith so many all around the world cherish.

Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America


Christopher Wylie - 2019
    Bannon had long sensed that deep within America's soul lurked an explosive tension. Cambridge Analytica had the data to prove it, and in 2016 Bannon had a presidential campaign to use as his proving ground.Christopher Wylie might have seemed an unlikely figure to be at the center of such an operation. Canadian and liberal in his politics, he was only twenty-four when he got a job with a London firm that worked with the U.K. Ministry of Defense and was charged putatively with helping to build a team of data scientists to create new tools to identify and combat radical extremism online. In short order, those same military tools were turned to political purposes, and Cambridge Analytica was born. Wylie's decision to become a whistleblower prompted the largest data crime investigation in history. His story is both exposé and dire warning about a sudden problem born of very new and powerful capabilities. It has not only exposed the profound vulnerabilities and profound carelessness in the enormous companies that drive the attention economy, it has also exposed the profound vulnerabilities of democracy itself. What happened in 2016 was just a trial run. Ruthless actors are coming for your data, and they want to control what you think.

How To Start A Profitable Authority Blog In Under One Hour: Write About What You Love, Create A Website, And Make Money


Passive Marketing - 2015
    6 months later, his first blog was earning more than his retail job which he decided to quit and focus on blogging.These results are not typical, but this book will go over the complete steps to setting up a profitable authority site which you can use to creating your first website and earning supplemental income.*Who was this book written for?*This book is written for people who are looking to start blogging and those people looking to create a website. It will also be helpful to those who are already blogging but not making money from their efforts.*Who this book is not for:*If you are looking to start a website and get rich overnight, look elsewhere. You will need to be dedicated and work hard to achieve desirable results.While this book gives valuable information to those who are already making money blogging, if you making thousands of dollars a month, it was not written for you and might move a bit slow.*Topics covered in this book:*•Who Am I?•Step 1: Picking A Niche•Step 2: Keyword Research•Step 3: Setting Up Your First Website•Step 4: Writing Content For Your Website•Step 5: Collecting Emails•Step 6: Content Promotion]You will learn how these 6 steps to starting a blog can be done in under an hour while learning about the basics of blogging in WordPress. You will also get access to the exact tools that are used every day by websites across the world.Learn how to start your blog today, get started, and within the next 60 minutes, you should have a fully functioning website. This is the most comprehensive book about how you can start a blog which will hold your hand every step of the way.

Flying to the Limit: Testing World War II Single-Engined Fighter Aircraft


Peter Caygill - 2005
    During the lend-lease agreement with the USA, the RAF and Fleet Air Arm operated several American designs, each of which was tested to evaluate its potential.This book looks at the key area of fighter aircraft and includes the test results and pilot's own first-hand accounts of flying seventeen different models, designed in the UK, America and Germany. The reader will learn of the possibilities of air superiority offered by these types and also their weaknesses. Types included are The Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, Boulton Paul Defiant, Hawker Tempest and Typhoon, Bell Airacobra, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Brewster Buffalo, Curtiss Tomahawk, North American Mustang, Grumman Martlet, Republic Thunderbolt, and Vought Corsair. All aircraft that saw a great deal of action throughout the War and which are now part of legend.

The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Pola by Ronald Brownstein (2007) (1) Formats P


Ronald Brownstein - 2007
    Book by Ronald Brownstein

Over The Top: How The Internet Is (Slowly But Surely) Changing The Television Industry


Alan Wolk - 2015
    Given the intricacies of the industry, it's also going to be the most resistant to change. Alan Wolk, an industry veteran and longtime analyst and observer, lays out how the television industry is adapting to the digital era, explaining what's really happening in a tone that will appeal to laypeople and insiders alike. In the first section, Wolk takes us through how the industry works today, focusing on how the various players actually make money and who pays who for what. The next section deals with the changes that are taking place in the industry today–everything from time shifting to binge viewing to cord cutting–and how those changes are starting to create some seismic shifts. In the final section, Wolk reveals his predictions for the future and what the industry will look like in ten years time. Andrew Wallenstein, co-editor-in-chief of Variety says "Alan Wolk is one of the most insightful observers writing about the media business today. There's no better expert to help you navigate the confusing, complicated nexus of TV and the Internet." David Zaslav, President and CEO of Discovery Communications says "Alan Wolk has a deep understanding of the complex nature of television today… this is a fantastic primer of the business and one of the most educated perspectives on the future of our rapidly evolving industry."

The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg


Helen Rappaport - 2009
    The brutal murder of the Russian Imperial family on the night of July sixteenth to seventeenth, 1918 has long been a defining moment in world history. The Last Days of the Romanovs reveals in exceptional detail how the conspiracy to kill them unfolded. In the vivid style of a TV documentary, Helen Rappaport reveals both the atmosphere inside the family's claustrophobic prison and the political maneuverings of those who wished to save--or destroy--them. With the watching world and European monarchies proving incapable of saving the Romanovs, the narrative brings this tragic story to life in a compellingly new and dramatic way, culminating in a bloody night of horror in a cramped basement room.