Sometimes, the heart knows before the mind. The moment Greek restaurateur Alejandro "AJ" Melonakos sees Samara Grossman in the market, he knows she's the one for him. The American is sweet, and her voluptuous form rivals the marble goddesses made eternal in his country. Luckily for AJ, the amber-hued beauty is warm to the touch and soft to hold. But Samara is only in Greece for five days, and there is no guarantee they will see each other again. Can AJ convince Samara the feelings they share will withstand the distance, or will he lose his serendipitous find? This is a rerelease from the original 2008 version. It has gone through a new edit and features new cover art, but nothing significant has changed from the previous version of the story. Thank you so much for your support and happy reading!
"Many of the findings in the book . . . are classics of ecology. . . . A rare and delightful insight into timely science."—Jane Lubchenco, Nature "Estes's refreshing narrative deftly weaves rigorous science with personal reflection to create an absorbing and introspective read that is equal parts memoir, ecological textbook, and motivational guidebook for young ecologists."—Science To newly minted biologist James Estes, the sea otters he was studying in the leafy kelp forests off the coast of Alaska appeared to have an unbalanced relationship with their greater environment. Gorging themselves on the sea urchins that grazed among the kelp, these small charismatic mammals seemed to give little back in return. But as Estes dug deeper, he unearthed a far more complex relationship between the otter and its underwater environment, discovering that otters play a critical role in driving positive ecosystem dynamics. While teasing out the connective threads, he began to question our assumptions about ecological relationships. These questions would ultimately inspire a lifelong quest to better understand the surprising complexity of our natural world and the unexpected ways we discover it. Serendipity tells the story of James Estes’s life as a naturalist and the concepts that have driven his interest in researching the ecological role of top-level predators. Using the relationships between sea otters, kelp, and sea urchins as a touchstone, Estes retraces his investigations of numerous other species, ecosystems, and ecological processes in an attempt to discover why ecologists can learn so many details about the systems in which they work and yet understand so little about the broader processes that influence these systems. Part memoir, part natural history, and deeply inquisitive, Serendipity will entertain and inform readers as it raises thoughtful questions about our relationship with the natural world.
Chance, luck, and good fortune are the usual go-to descriptors of serendipity, a phenomenon aptly often coupled with famous anecdotes of accidental discoveries in engineering and science in modern history such as penicillin, Teflon, and Post-it notes. Serendipity, however, is evident in many fields of research, in organizations, in everyday life—and there is more to it than luck implies. While the phenomenon is strongly associated with in person interactions with people, places, and things, most attention of late has focused on its preservation and facilitation within digital information environments. Serendipity's association with unexpected, positive user experiences and outcomes has spurred an interest in understanding both how current digital information environments support serendipity and how novel approaches may be developed to facilitate it. Research has sought to understand serendipity, how it is manifested in people's personality traits and behaviors, how it may be facilitated in digital information environments such as mobile applications, and its impacts on an individual, an organizational, and a wider level. Because serendipity is expressed and understood in different ways in different contexts, multiple methods have been used to study the phenomenon and evaluate digital information environments that may support it. This volume brings together different disciplinary perspectives and examines the motivations for studying serendipity, the various ways in which serendipity has been approached in the research, methodological approaches to build theory, and how it may be facilitated. Finally, a roadmap for serendipity research is drawn by integrating key points from this volume to produce a framework for the examination of serendipity in digital information environments.
Corporate culture and culture change have become the pressing issues of our time. The fast pace of change is attacking companies of all sizes. Leaders are facing the challenges of adapting their organizations to generational changes, the uncertainties of new technologies, shifting client behaviors, and the realization that supply is often stronger than demand. And now, there is the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic recession, and civil unrest. People are struggling to create their “new normal.” People just hate to change. They are willfully blind to what is happening all around them. They know that the future is, indeed, coming soon, if not today, and change they must. Andi Simon is a corporate anthropologist who has empowered thousands of business leaders to see their companies with fresh eyes, identify their next big ideas, and—most importantly—turn innovative solutions into executable change. In her groundbreaking book, On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights, Andi presents her unique methods for harnessing innovation and revitalizing business growth. Taking readers on a journey through seven case studies, Andi shares how she helped these businesses discover new and profitable growth opportunities by exploring the untapped resources that were right in front of them. Businesses, not-for-profits, and entrepreneurs are paying close attention. They frequently talk about the need to innovate and change as if these are the sweeping secret sauce to solve all their business problems. However, they often don't know where to start or how to expand beyond creative brainstorming to strategically identify and act upon new business opportunities. In this book, Andi will take the reader through the theory, methods, and tools of corporate anthropology to see how this new perspective can help a stalled company see possibilities with fresh eyes to re-ignite their growth. From a medical center facing multiple years in the red to a rural university battling decreasing enrollment to an equipment manufacturer whose award-winning product just wasn't selling—the stories of these seven companies struggling to innovate and grow provide invigorating testimony to the power of corporate anthropology. Whether searching for a way to revitalize a business or to expand a successful company into new and profitable directions, the strategies outlined in On the Brink will give readers the fresh approach they need to achieve meaningful business breakthroughs.
The ABA Journal serves the legal profession. Qualified recipients are lawyers and judges, law students, law librarians and associate members of the American Bar Association.
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible represents a comprehensive resource for researchers and practitioners interested in an emerging multidisciplinary area within psychology and the social sciences: the study of how we engage with and cultivate the possible within self, society and culture. Far from being opposed either to the actual or the real, the possible engages with concrete facts and experiences, with the result of transforming them. This encyclopedia examines the notion of the possible and the concepts associated with it from standpoints within psychology, philosophy, sociology, neuroscience and logic, as well as multidisciplinary fields of research including anticipation studies, future studies, complexity theory and creativity research. Presenting multiple perspectives on the possible, the authors consider the distinct social, cultural and psychological processes - e.g., imagination, counterfactual thinking, wonder, play, inspiration, and many others - that define our engagement with new possibilities in domains as diverse as the arts, design and business.
This book helps people find sensitive information on the Web.Google is one of the 5 most popular sites on the internet with more than 380 million unique users per month (Nielsen/NetRatings 8/05). But, Google's search capabilities are so powerful, they sometimes discover content that no one ever intended to be publicly available on the Web including: social security numbers, credit card numbers, trade secrets, and federally classified documents. Google Hacking for Penetration Testers Volume 2 shows the art of manipulating Google used by security professionals and system administrators to find this sensitive information and "self-police their own organizations.Readers will learn how Google Maps and Google Earth provide pinpoint military accuracy, see how bad guys can manipulate Google to create super worms, and see how they can "mash up" Google with MySpace, LinkedIn, and more for passive reconaissance.• Learn Google Searching BasicsExplore Google's Web-based Interface, build Google queries, and work with Google URLs.• Use Advanced Operators to Perform Advanced QueriesCombine advanced operators and learn about colliding operators and bad search-fu.• Learn the Ways of the Google HackerSee how to use caches for anonymity and review directory listings and traversal techniques.• Review Document Grinding and Database DiggingSee the ways to use Google to locate documents and then search within the documents to locate information. • Understand Google's Part in an Information Collection FrameworkLearn the principles of automating searches and the applications of data mining.• Locate Exploits and Finding TargetsLocate exploit code and then vulnerable targets.• See Ten Simple Security SearchesLearn a few searches that give good results just about every time and are good for a security assessment.• Track Down Web ServersLocate and profile web servers, login portals, network hardware and utilities.• See How Bad Guys Troll for DataFind ways to search for usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other juicy information.• Hack Google ServicesLearn more about the AJAX Search API, Calendar, Blogger, Blog Search, and more.
