Mark Silverman grew up in the Boston underworld, under the tutelage of the Winter Hill Gang in Somerville, and the inner circle of the Boston faction of the Patriarca Mafia family. Marked Card is a firsthand account of the violent Boston mob wars of the 1990s, when bodies were piling up across New England and Mark was walking a tightrope between Winter Hill and the Mafia.
The world of magic is shrouded in mystery...until now! Little Giant� Encyclopedia: Card & Magic Tricks reveals some of the basic secrets of conjuring and illusion. It begins with 30 pages of card handling methods that any beginner will find worthwhile. The magical card section features 83 mathematical tricks using special props and novelties, and you’ll also find 66 magical sleights of hand using coins, silks and handkerchiefs, string, rope, and paper. There’s even a section on how to get the truly "magical” effects that will have your audience shaking their heads in disbelief and calling for more.
Thoroughly illustrated and researched, and enlivened with historical sidebars, 52 Ways to Cheat at Poker is essential reading for anyone who plays cards for money—or anyone interested in the ingenious ways cheats steal your money while appearing to do nothing at all. It’s no news that cheating pervades American culture. Americans cheat on taxes, tests, sports and spouses. But the largest arena for cheating may be at the poker table! With an estimated 60-80 million Americans playing poker every week—for the highest stakes ever—you can be sure that not everyone is playing by the rules! In this fascinating look at the card sharper’s art—from its origins in Renaissance Italy to the high-tech methods of today—deception expert Allan Kronzek reveals 52 of the most diabolical scams ever invented. Topics include codes and signaling systems, hidden cameras and miniature ear pieces, false shuffles, cuts and deals, peeking and flashing, deck and card switches, culling, instant stacks, marked cards, location play, the cooler, and dozens of other devious devices. Each chapter zeroes in on a single cheating concept and provides expert advice on how to spot and foil the scam (when possible!). You’ll learn the secrets of shade, flash, and juice—the subtlest marking systems; why cutting the cards doesn’t guarantee an honest deal, how a crooked dealer can stack the flop in hold ’em, why casino card rooms are not 100% safe, and how cheating crews crush the opposition without marked cards or sleight of hand.
This set of exercises has been created expressly for students and teachers of conservation biology and wildlife management who want to have an impact beyond the classroom. The book presents a set of 32 exercises that are primarily new and greatly revised versions from the book's successful first edition. These exercises span a wide range of conservation issues: genetic analysis, population biology and management, taxonomy, ecosystem management, land use planning, the public policy process and more. All exercises discuss how to take what has been learned and apply it to practical, real-world issues. Accompanied by a detailed instructor’s manual and a student website with software and support materials, the book is ideal for use in the field, lab, or classroom. Also available: Fundamentals of Conservation Biology, 3rd edition (2007) by Malcolm L Hunter Jr and James Gibbs, ISBN 9781405135450 Saving the Earth as a Career: Advice on Becoming a Conservation Professional (2007) by Malcolm L Hunter Jr, David B Lindenmayer and Aram JK Calhoun, ISBN 9781405167611
We are surrounded by data, numerical, categorical and otherwise, which must to be analyzed and processed to convert it into information that instructs, answers or aids understanding and decision making. Data analysts in many disciplines such as business, education or medicine, are frequently asked to analyze new data sets which are often composed of numerous tables possessing different properties. They try to find completely new correlations between attributes and show new possibilities for users. Action rules mining discusses some of data mining and knowledge discovery principles and then describe representative concepts, methods and algorithms connected with action. The author introduces the formal definition of action rule, notion of a simple association action rule and a representative action rule, the cost of association action rule, and gives a strategy how to construct simple association action rules of a lowest cost. A new approach for generating action rules from datasets with numerical attributes by incorporating a tree classifier and a pruning step based on meta-actions is also presented. In this book we can find fundamental concepts necessary for designing, using and implementing action rules as well. Detailed algorithms are provided with necessary explanation and illustrative examples.
Indirect questioning is a crucial topic in surveys of human populations. When the issue is about a stigmatizing characteristic (for example about illegal drug use), standard survey methodologies are destined to fail because, as expected, people are not willing to reveal incriminating information or information violating their privacy. Indirect questioning techniques have been devised so that the privacy of participants in a sample survey is protected and at the same time good estimates of certain parameters (e.g. the percentage of people in a certain community who use illegal drugs) can be delivered. The topic is modern and still under development. Indirect Questioning in Sample Surveys represents a collection of the most important and recent techniques of indirect questioning, including various versions of randomized response, the item count technique, the nominative technique, the three-card method, non-randomized response models and negative surveys, while also exploring the key aspect of protecting privacy.
Outstanding collection of nearly 200 crowd-pleasing mental magic feats requiring no special equipment. Author offers insider's tips and expert advice on techniques, presentation, diversions, patter, staging and all else needed to make any trick a foolproof success. Lucidly written, thoroughly diagrammed book by one of magic's legendary figures
