What if, in the not-too-distant future, the world’s wealthiest and most powerful man learned that civilization was virtually certain to collapse within the next 20 years? And what if that man built a great new city called Olympus as part of a mighty effort to change the course of history? Yet what if the best efforts by the people of Olympus proved futile in the end? What if civilization indeed fell, leaving only the remnants of Olympus’s own society to carry the flickering torch of a once proud civilization? What then? Beyond Olympus imagines the answers to those questions in a cautionary tale that is thoughtful, exciting and epic in scale. It is a story that might have seemed farfetched just a few years ago, yet perhaps might seem uncomfortably plausible today...
The Everlasting Spring: Beyond Olympus is an epic trilogy of romance and heroic true love spanning two thousand years in the tumultuous advance of Western Civilization. The Storyteller is an old man who understands and appreciates the heroes and heroines, the saints and sinners, who made world changing history sharing transcendent love and self-sacrifice needed for Western Culture to survive, and create The United States of America. When he was young and foolish naive and swaggering with false bravado the old man frolicked in the good life and took it for granted, until a cold Christmas Eve when a lovely young woman broke his heart. His soul was frozen in the absence of hope, as the tragic death of romance brought darkness with agony and despair. But the trajectory of his life was altered; blessed by a light so bright he was inspired by the vision, and started to write. He walked with his characters, brave and bold, remembered by historians, some new and some old, and miraculously survived, with few regrets. His life was replete with trials and tribulations of a kind known only by those who dream, daring defeat, and find peace in their passion for truth everlasting. Once called a hero, the old man perished the thought. He knew better people, those who risked everything for true love and equal justice during the dark nights of their souls, and their time in the light. They were immortals, seeking knowledge, with facts, found from deadly experience. Their odyssey's touched all while they followed the sun, the moon and the stars, just as the old man was doing when he met Benjamin and Boudica and four others more, then chronicled their journeys in a corps of discovery to find spiritual treasure the most precious of all. Francis Audrain
There is a lot of information available on governance, risk and compliance as separate subjects but little on the interrelation between the three components known in the industry as enterprise-wide governance, risk and compliance (eGRC). This book brings eGRC to the reader in a way that starts with simple concepts and builds on them to provide insight and a practical guide for a holistic approach to eGRC. Companies have to manage risk in order to remain a sustainable force in the marketplace. Efforts to reduce risk can, unintentionally, be uncoordinated, disjointed or even neglected. Through not implementing a more cohesive and systematic approach to managing risk, opportunities to benefit the company can also be missed. Beyond Play offers a practical and simple approach. Compliance is a very specific form of risk: that of complying with the law, but the role of the compliance officer includes a lot more. Working with the law and regulators and applying a compliance methodology are explained to provide value to learners, compliance officers, managers, prescribed officers and directors. Many companies play at corporate governance, probably because it is perceived as being too big to grasp. This book will change your thinking and will help directors pave the way for implementing a framework that can be worked with on a practical level within an enterprise wide risk management context. The systemic nature of risk means it can spread to customers, shareholders, communities and economies as the credit bubble of 2008 has proved. Equally, a company that applies a robust an intelligent approach to eGRC has a positive influence on the marketplace, the community and a nation. Do you believe that your business, whether for profit or not for profit and on the basis on which it currently operates, is sustainable in an increasingly dynamic world? This book uses examples from the financial services industry; it also makes reference to South African legislation and governance codes. These references do, however, focus on international best practices so the methodologies can be universally applied. Governance, risk and compliance is an integrated concept to be incorporated within an enterprise risk framework which helps an organisation, either private or public, for profit or non profit, to direct its strategies and operations with integrity and within the law; the reason being to achieve its goals in such a way that its stakeholders and the economy as a whole are never compromised or put at risk beyond that which has been carefully defined and deemed acceptable.
An exhilarating, time-traveling journey to the solar system’s strangest and most awe-inspiring volcanoes. Volcanoes are capable of acts of pyrotechnical prowess verging on magic: they spout black magma more fluid than water, create shimmering cities of glass at the bottom of the ocean and frozen lakes of lava on the moon, and can even tip entire planets over. Between lava that melts and re-forms the landscape, and noxious volcanic gases that poison the atmosphere, volcanoes have threatened life on Earth countless times in our planet’s history. Yet despite their reputation for destruction, volcanoes are inseparable from the creation of our planet. A lively and utterly fascinating guide to these geologic wonders, Super Volcanoes revels in the incomparable power of volcanic eruptions past and present, Earthbound and otherwise—and recounts the daring and sometimes death-defying careers of the scientists who study them. Science journalist and volcanologist Robin George Andrews explores how these eruptions reveal secrets about the worlds to which they belong, describing the stunning ways in which volcanoes can sculpt the sea, land, and sky, and even influence the machinery that makes or breaks the existence of life. Walking us through the mechanics of some of the most infamous eruptions on Earth, Andrews outlines what we know about how volcanoes form, erupt, and evolve, as well as what scientists are still trying to puzzle out. How can we better predict when a deadly eruption will occur—and protect communities in the danger zone? Is Earth’s system of plate tectonics, unique in the solar system, the best way to forge a planet that supports life? And if life can survive and even thrive in Earth’s extreme volcanic environments—superhot, superacidic, and supersaline surroundings previously thought to be completely inhospitable—where else in the universe might we find it? Traveling from Hawai‘i, Yellowstone, Tanzania, and the ocean floor to the moon, Venus, and Mars, Andrews illuminates the cutting-edge discoveries and lingering scientific mysteries surrounding these phenomenal forces of nature.
Fate is breaking and you choose when and how. From the opening, the choice of one man breaks fate around a random infant, Hale. His choices break fate further upon those around him, until reality itself is at risk of breaking. Take the perspective of over 50 characters in an adventure to choose your fate. In a world of colliding magic and science, every choice brings a different perspective and a different adventure. May your choices bring you the greatest adventure.
Indispensable for all serious students of modern Greece and essential reading for anyone interested in Greek politics, economy, foreign relations and culture. The contributors, from four different countries, combine empathy and objectivity in their studies of modern Greek literature, the development of a genuine national language, the Greek ......
