Don’t consider yourself deviant? Well, that just may be a career breaker. Odds are the idea or product that will transform your business or industry tomorrow is out there right now, hiding in the shadows of the Fringe, raw, messy, untamed, and just waiting to be exploited. Trapping, taming, and marketing it is the key to burying your competition and staying ahead of your market. Deviance is nothing more than a marked separation from the norm and is the source of innovation, the kind of breakthrough thinking that creates new markets and tumbles traditional ones. Positive deviation is an inexhaustible font of new ideas, products, and services. It’s the source of all creative thinking and dynamic new market development and ultimately the basis of all incremental profit. The Deviant’s Advantage describes how deviance proceeds along a traceable trajectory from the Fringe, where it originates but has zero commercial potential; to the Edge, where word of mouth creates a limited audience; to the Realm of the Cool, where the buzz and market momentum really start to build; to the Next Big Thing, where demand is honed and intensifies; finally landing at Social Convention, the heart of the mass market. Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker, two of America’s most respected futurists, trace the “Path of the Devox” (the voice, spirit, or incarnation of deviant ideas, products, and individuals), using it as a way to explain how and why: * Christian fundamentalism morphed from college Bible studies to Republican party king-making * Reebok cares more about what’s on the feet of kids in Detroit and Philadelphia than what the so-hip-it-hurts set is wearing in New York or on Rodeo Drive * Napster exploded from an idea germinating inside a sixteen-year-old to a movement with 60 million subscribers that very nearly destroyed the music industry * Hugh Hefner went from America’s most public pornographer to a cultural icon with decidedly Puritan sensibilities Mathews and Wacker also look at what happens to formerly deviant products and ideas after they are replaced by the next wave from the Fringe—how they morph into Cliché (where their commercial potential may actually increase), become Icons or even Archetypes, or fade into Oblivion, and how you can profitably manage even a fading concept. Looking for the next big idea for your business? Then it’s past time to quit staring at the Social Convention for inspiration and start scouring the Fringes of society. Tomorrow’s breakthrough concept is lurking out there right now, in the mind of a deviant individual. Your choice is simple: find it and exploit it, or be buried by those who do. From the Hardcover edition.

The elimination of Osama Bin Laden was a remarkable success for American intelligence and Special Forces. To track down a rebel leader who had cut himself off from communications with the World and operated from an isolated compound in an affluent locality where none would really suspect his presence requires diligence, patience and perseverance of the highest order. The raid by US Special Operations Forces was also unique. Launched after careful preparation, using stealth helicopters, the deadly strike force known as the Seals swooped down on the target and in half an hour plus succeeded in achieving the mission and getting away, before local forces had even stirred. Will the World be a better place without Osama or will it sink to the doom that he had predicted continues to be a dilemma? There are many prognostications, some represent plain hope, others are borne out of historical experience while some spring from disparaging cynicism which see the ebb and flow of terrorism either receding or expanding as the years go on. This Book is an attempt to work through this maze of uncertainty by examining key vectors related to the rise and fall of Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda to envisage four possible scenarios ranging from the collapse of the state order [seen as unlikely] to containment of terror threat [equally challenged] in three dimensions globally, regionally and locally over the next decade or so.

These readings explore the implications of deviance for both the individual and society, examining the responses of society to deviant behaviour and the reasons why certain people violate the social norm. The text probes the deviant categories; the motivations behind deviant behaviour; and the efforts of those considered deviant to shake the label.

A compelling examination of the highly criticized use of long-term solitary confinement in Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary during the nineteenth century.

Even with the ability to stop time, you still can run out of it. Kathryn should be institutionalized or incarcerated. That’s what happens to deviants—people born with unusual abilities. And if the government knew she can teleport and stop time, she can say good bye to her freedom. Not that her life is all that great anyway. Her inability to control her gifts forces her to keep everyone at a distance. Few friends. No meaningful romantic relationships. Until Susan introduces her to Charge, that is. When the 6’4” guy with the caramel-colored skin and million-watt smile shows up at her door, she lets her guard down. What she discovers is that her best friend and her new lover have gifts of their own, and there’s an entire underground network of undetected deviants living freely in society. Kathryn’s brought into the fold with open arms, and she’s finally found something she’s never had—a family. But now, people are disappearing. Some come back weeks later with strange scars, sutured wounds, and missing limbs, with no memory of what happened. Some don’t come back at all. When Charge becomes the next victim, Kathryn is willing to teleport to the edge of the world to find him, but confronting the mastermind behind the kidnappings puts her life in jeopardy. And when the rescue attempt goes horribly wrong, she wonders if dying might have been a better idea. Warning: This book contains teleportation, mind control, and sparks that fly in sexy--and possibly deadly--ways.