This book examines comparatively the US and the UK governments' management of Y2K and considers the extent to which such management can be understood as responses to market pressures, public opinion and organized interests. It concludes by providing valuable lessons to those concerned about managing risk and critical infrastructure today.

This book examines comparatively the US and the UK governments' management of Y2K and considers the extent to which such management can be understood as responses to market pressures, public opinion and organized interests. It concludes by providing valuable lessons to those concerned about managing risk and critical infrastructure today.

The adventures of Michael Quigley take a turn towards fantasy in Predicament Pit. The now-grown Michael has a family of his own and has settled comfortably in a well-wooded lot that he has, over the years, transformed by his own hands and that he knows like the back of them. But those woods hold a secret - one that Michael has been aware of since childhood, but could not name. This secret propels him into another existence, separate from our own but yet very much a part of us, where Michael is called upon and tested in ways beyond that which his 65 years have asked so far. The Gentle Ones - the beings that inhabit this separate reality - have suffered a tremendous loss and need Michael's help to reclaim what is theirs. What, the doubting Michael wonders, does he offer them? And why him in the first place? What is his connection to the Gentle Ones? It turns out that those questions were answered long before Michael's birth, with the answers having consequences reaching far beyond all of our lifetimes. There are those of us, descendants of the Irish and non-Irish alike, who have felt the presence of the unseen, who have noticed a peripheral movement that vanishes before our full gaze, and who know that there is more to this world and beyond than meets our mere five senses. Predicament Pit offers a "magical mystery tour" of this fantastic reality, charming us at every turn.