Individuals and corporations increasingly own our world. New property rights now enable the private possession of life and ideas, driven by the profit motive. Genetically engineered crops, patented computer programmes, harvesting of human cells, and the exploitation of biodiversity, molecules and atoms for private profit are just some of the issues examined in this title, making it an essential read for anybody who has wondered, "What does this mean for me?" This collection of essays analyses this steady erosion of our human rights and destiny. Among the many examples illustrated in A patented world? are - An American company owns the patents on two breast cancer genes and for the next 20 years it can exclude any, but its own researchers, from testing or using the genes in search of a genetic cure for breast cancer. The company can set whatever price it chooses for the exclusive right to test for the presence of these genes. The present price of sending a tissue sample to its laboratory is US$2760. Another is the case of a Mr Moore in America who went to court to secure the property right to cells from his own spleen. He lost the case and doctors created a billion-dollar cell line from his "naturally occurring raw material".

When Nick Kangles, the wealthy host of a global warming TV show, and Kate Stanton, the top notch microbiologist, try to solve the mystery of seven obelisks that are sending out signals, they uncover the countdown of a threat to our civilization. Kate meets Nick in the square of the Pantheon in Rome, when they share a table to avoid the rain. He is travelling the world to convert people to fighting global warming by setting up greenhouse gas trading schemes, while she has been called in to help find out what is eating the carbon in the massive oil deposit in the Ghawar Field in Saudi Arabia. Nick and Kate detect signals from obelisks in Rome, Paris, London, New York and Egypt. They set out on an increasingly dangerous hunt to find the link between these seven obelisks and a new microbe that threatens the world's oil supply, and discover that someone is willing to kill to keep the link secret. Obelisk Seven came about because we had a wonderful tour guide who introduced us to marvels in several cities in Europe, and the time we had to spare in the Da Vinci airport in Rome. That's where Obelisk Seven was conceived. After much research and hard work and tons of sheer fun, our novel was finally born. We are hoping that many of our readers might join in two movements - one to right an old wrong by obtaining the return to Egypt of the ancient obelisks (and of the bust of Queen Nefertiti, now imprisoned in a Berlin museum), and the other to fight global warming. We dedicate this book to you, the reader, with the wish that you will find in its pages lots to interest you, and mysteries to intrigue you. This illustrated edition has over 90 pictures. Check the website for more details: www.obeliskseven.com

Modern Proverbs is dedicated to all who love proverbs, sayings and idioms tripping off their tongues, or off the tongues of others. If the old proverbs sometimes seem a little bit too old, then perhaps what you need is a modern proverb, designed for our age, the 21st century. This book contains over 500 new proverbs I decided to write during the down times of many a business trip. It's amazing how inspiring it can be to stare out the window of a jet at 30,000 feet and watch huge cloud banks drift across the landscape far below. I fell in love with proverbs and idioms around the age of ten, when I was gifted a book of proverbs by my grandmother. I dived into it, and finished it in a day or so. Those first proverbs gave me an essential weapon to fight adversity (not to mention the angst of a normal adolescence): a comeback ability second to none in my rather limited circle. So it was fun to start with a blank page, a pen, and my memories of days gone by. If you know someone who enjoys reading or proverbs, it could make a good gift, just as my grandmother's did to me when I was young. I hope that Modern Proverbs inspires others to create new proverbs We could do with a few thousand more. Glenn Ashton BA, LLB, MBA

New Yorkers race against time to save the city from a genetically engineered virus. What is this disease? Who made it? Can it be stopped? Inside the city, its sky blackened by the fires of its funeral pyres, men and women fight to find the answers, while selfless volunteers flood in from all over the world to join New Yorkers in their fight for survival. Once in, you cannot leave. With a quarantine of the city enforced by the Army, doctors in the ParkLab set up in Central Park try everything they can think of to cure people, and the U.S. President makes the most agonizing decision any president has ever made. This book is dedicated to all who have visited or lived in the wonderfully vibrant city of New York, the premier city of our world. During one of my visits to the city I was walking in Central Park when the thought struck me: What if something happened and this huge, bustling, energetic city was forced to shut its borders, to keep people inside and stop people entering? That thought stayed with me for several visits until one day I sat down, pen in hand, and sketched out the story of Silent Lips. It is the story of New York struck by a mysterious disease which forces the President to blockade the city. Nothing can leave; nothing can enter. I thought of men and women inside the quarantined city, fighting to find the answer to the mysterious sickness that rages in the city, while still more men and women from all over the world volunteer to come to the city on one-way tickets to help it fight for its survival. This is the story of a young man with a mission, a battered old VW Rabbit, and of scribblings in his tattered blue notebooks. It is the story of the Prime Minister of Israel, smuggled into the city to share its suffering. It is the story of President Charles Stanton, faced with the most anguishing decision a U.S. President has ever had to make. It is the story of a young reporter, Naomi Jacobs, who is asked by the Governor to tell the world of New York's desperate fight and who ends up having to fight for her life. Above all, this is the story of the people inside and outside the city who watch with anguish the mounting crisis. I hope you enjoy Silent Lips.

In his office in the City in London, banker Keith Lawton picks up the telephone. Listen to your son, banker. Another voice spoke into the phone, a young voice, trembling a bit. Hello, Daddy. This is me, Henry. Keith Lawton felt a surge of hope. They were still alive ... Daddy, you must do what they want. They say they will hurt me if you ... the voice ended in a gasp and then there was a long scream, rising up and up and the telephone clicked in his hand and he stood, his body rigid with shock, the screams of his little son echoing in his ears. He had spoken so clearly, without the trace of a lisp. When Lawton looks at the photograph of his two children, naked in a plywood box, with targets painted on their little bodies, a fierce determination takes root in him: he will do anything to get his children back safely, and then he will hunt down those who did this and kill them. Three separate kidnappings by a terrorist group plunge banker Keith Lawton and terrorist hunter Ankar Vanske into a whirlwind that takes them to London, Paris, Italy, Germany, Canada and the USA in a desperate race to free Lawton's children and bring the deadly terrorists to justice. When it is over, Ankar Vanske visits the grave of one of his fellow-hunters, and lays one red rose on it for every hunter killed.

Please note that the Author hereby grants to any and all persons the right to produce The Theft of Souls - The Trial of Lawrence of Arabia as a play, for any purpose whatsoever, without payment of any royalties or fees to the Author or consent of the Author, at any time prior to June 30, 2020. Every now and then a convulsive heave of History throws up a man or a woman who steps forward, grips History by the scruff of its neck, and makes it move in a direction he or she has chosen. Such a man was T.E. Lawrence, known to the world as Lawrence of Arabia. Driven by forces within him, Lawrence found himself able to play a major role in one of the vital theatres of the conflagration we now call World War I. From his station in Cairo, Lawrence plunged into the events taking place in Arabia, meeting and befriending and finally advising and leading the leaders of the Arab resistance against the rule of Turkey. His story is legendary; his exploits documented in his own writings and the writings of others. This play is set in Arabia. It places Lawrence in the dock of an imaginary court, charged with the theft of the souls of some of the men he lead. It uses his own words, from his writings, especially The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, to lay out the case against him, and in his defence. This play is dedicated to Lawrence, and to all those who have read about him and about the war in Arabia. Please consider gifting this book to friends & relatives

When Nick Kangles, the wealthy host of a global warming TV show, and Kate Stanton, the top notch microbiologist, try to solve the mystery of seven obelisks that are sending out signals, they uncover the countdown of a threat to our civilization. Kate meets Nick in the square of the Pantheon in Rome, when they share a table to avoid the rain. He is travelling the world to convert people to fighting global warming by setting up greenhouse gas trading schemes, while she has been called in to help find out what is eating the carbon in the massive oil deposit in the Ghawar Field in Saudi Arabia. Nick and Kate detect signals from obelisks in Rome, Paris, London, New York and Egypt. They set out on an increasingly dangerous hunt to find the link between these seven obelisks and a new microbe that threatens the world's oil supply, and discover that someone is willing to kill to keep the link secret. Obelisk Seven came about because we had a wonderful tour guide who introduced us to marvels in several cities in Europe, and the time we had to spare in the Da Vinci airport in Rome. That's where Obelisk Seven was conceived. After much research and hard work and tons of sheer fun, our novel was finally born. We are hoping that many of our readers might join in two movements - one to right an old wrong by obtaining the return to Egypt of the ancient obelisks (and of the bust of Queen Nefertiti, now imprisoned in a Berlin museum), and the other to fight global warming. We dedicate this book to you, the reader, with the wish that you will find in its pages lots to interest you, and mysteries to intrigue you. There is also an illustrated edition available, with over 90 pictures. Check the website for more details: www.obeliskseven.com