'Clever and entertaining.' Sunday Times 'Elegantly written and full of surprises.' Daily Telegraph 'Always entertaining and often eye-opening.' Financial Times Old ideas that were mocked or ignored for centuries are now storming back to the cutting edge of research and informing the way we lead our lives. In Rethink, Steven Poole explains why today's chess grandmasters, quantum physicists and psychologists are mining the last 2,000 years of history for answers to the problems of the present. He explores how long-neglected thinkers could transform our everyday lives: from improving the way boardrooms operate, to inspiring grand projects for social and political change. And above all, he shows that by rethinking discarded ideas we can each gain a better understanding of the world - and perhaps be better equipped to change it. 'A whirlwind of discovery ... Among the greatest compliments you can give a book is that it helps you to see things differently.' Guardian 'When it comes to describing a complex idea clearly, Poole is one of the best writers around.' Sunday Times 'Fascinating ... Poole confirms his standing as one of our liveliest and most thought-provoking writers on science and technology.' Spectator

What do the phrases "pro-life," "intelligent design," and "the war on terror" have in common? Each of them is a name for something that smuggles in a highly charged political opinion. "Climate change" is less threatening than "global warming"; we say "ethnic cleansing" when we mean "mass murder," A completely partisan argument can be packed into a sound bite. Words and phrases that function in this special way go by many names. Some writers call them "evaluative-descriptive terms." Others talk of "terministic screens" or discuss the way debates are "framed." Author Steven Poole calls them Unspeak. Unspeak represents an attempt by politicians, interest groups, and business corporations to say something without saying it, without getting into an argument and so having to justify itself. At the same time, it tries to unspeak--in the sense of erasing or silencing--any possible opposing point of view by laying a claim right at the start to only one way of looking at a problem. Recalling the vocabulary of George Orwell's 1984, as an Unspeak phrase becomes a widely used term of public debate, it saturates the mind with one viewpoint while simultaneously make an opposing view ever more difficult to enunciate. In this fascinating book, Poole traces modern Unspeak--from "extremist" to "weapons of mass destruction"--and reveals how the evolution of language changes the way we think. "Propaganda" becomes "public diplomacy," and "sound science" (a phrase actually coined by tobacco giant Philip Morris) becomes a tool with which to instill a fear and distrust of legitimate scientific research.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 8th OpenSHMEM Workshop, held in virtually in August 2021. The 11 full papers and 1 short paper presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in this volume from 18 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: Applications and Implementations, Tools and Benchmarks, and Applications and Implementations.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the First OpenSHMEM Workshop, held in Annapolis, MD, USA, in March 2014. The 12 technical papers and 2 short position papers presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 16 submissions. They are organized in topical sections named: OpenSHMEM implementations and evaluations; applications; tools; and OpenSHMEM extensions and future directions.

Stephen Poole joined British Rail in 1973, working for three of its Regions and then for three of its Business Sectors in the run-up to privatisation. He experienced stations, depots, freight, parcels, yards, signalling, catering, major projects and business development. Using his extensive knowledge of the workings of British Rail, he paints a vivid picture of its inner life, set against the backdrop of political, industrial and social change that dominated the last twenty years of the nationalised railway. Inside British Rail is both a celebration of the determination and camaraderie shown by staff working in an industry that was struggling to survive, and a nuanced assessment of the difficulties, both internal and external, that contributed to its demise.

Do you hate going forward? Do you shudder when a colleague wants to reach out? Are you disgusted by low-hanging fruit, sick of being on the team, and reluctant to open the kimono? Does the phrase blue-sky thinking make you see red? Do you really want to drill down or take a helicopter view? Are you past caring whether the key drivers are going to move the needle? Should anyone really punch a puppy? And can you bear to hear about a big hairy audacious goal? If modern office jargon makes you want to throw up, this book is for you. Taking a hilarious and scathing deep dive into the most hated and absurd examples of corporate-speak it is a come to Jesus moment for verbally downtrodden workers everywhere.