An insider's look at the internal turmoil at one of the world's premier high-tech companies This is the inside story of Hewlett-Packard Company's struggle to regain its former glory, and of the high-stakes battle between CEO Carly Fiorina and family scion Walter Hewlett over how best to achieve that goal. For decades, HP was admired not only for its innovative products and soaring stock price, but for its egalitarian corporate culture and father-knows-best integrity. Backfire explains how the company fell on hard times, recounts the historic decision that made Fiorina the world's top-ranking female executive, and brings to life the backlash that resulted when she tried to impose her charismatic salesmanship on the aging icon. Top BusinessWeek journalist Peter Burrows gives the dramatic blow-by-blow of Hewlett's effort to kill Fiorina's most controversial move of all, her $19 billion purchase of rival Compaq Computer. Fiorina won by a whisker, after the most expensive proxy fight in history and a dramatic lawsuit that accused the company of illegally fixing the vote. This gripping, ongoing story includes fascinating personalities and dramatic boardroom and courtroom drama. Peter Burrows (Alameda, CA) has been a technology reporter for BusinessWeek for nine years and has covered the HP saga from the start. The department editor for BusinessWeek's computer coverage, he has been the principal chronicler of Fiorina's tenure at HP, and has written three cover stories on the subject. He has also written numerous other cover stories, including looks at Steve Jobs's Apple Computer and Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy.

STANDALONE CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE No matter how unbreakable he may seem, every man has a weakness. A year ago, my home became a bloodstained crime scene. That night marked the beginning of my hell-the same night I was tortured by my enemies and tossed into an underground prison to die. They failed. I survived. Now that I'm free, only one motive burns in my soul: revenge. Lucky for me, they think Jase Hawkins is dead. Maybe I am. I've got nothing but a cold, merciless rage, and Black Betty, the sharp steel blade that never leaves my side. Then she drifts into my life. Lucia wants answers-so much so, she's willing to fall into the darkness where my enemies lie in wait, to kill her for what she knows. Or to take her for the depraved fantasies her body alone can rouse in a man's mind. Me? I want her for the fire in her touch that feeds my addiction, forces me to feel what has become numb, but my appetite for bloodshed runs deeper than flesh. For my own sanity, I've vowed to stay away from her. Because she's my only weakness, an obsession that leaves me craving more-one that could make even the most steadfast plan backfire. **Not recommended for readers under the age of 18. Trigger warning for violence, drug abuse and scenes of rape and torture. BACKFIRE is a spin-off of RICOCHET and can be read as a standalone.

Discusses what led us into Vietnam, how it has changed our culture today and how it may change our culture in the future.

David Chalmers, the leading historian of the Ku Klux Klan, brings the story of America's oldest terrorist society up to date. Chalmers skillfully shows how Klan violence actually aided the civil rights movement of the 1960s and revolutionized the role of the national government in the protection of civil rights. He follows the forty-year struggle to punish Klan murderers through the courts of Alabama, Georgia, and the U.S. Supreme Court, and how Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center finally found a way to bring the Klan down.

Attacks can backfire on attackers_sometimes spectacularly. In March 1991, an observer videotaped several Los Angeles police beating Rodney King with their batons. Shown on television, the beating caused enormous damage to the reputation of the police and led to the chief's resignation. This incident and others, such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 1965 surveillance of Ralph Nader, prove that all sorts of attacks can backfire, from torture and massacres to job dismissals and reprisals against whistle-blowers. Through numerous detailed case studies, Justice Ignited presents the first comprehensive treatment of the dynamics of backfire, as it reveals the most promising tactics for causing the backfire of unfair attacks. Understanding backfire_both promoting and inhibiting it_is vitally important for activists and everyone else who wants to be effective in the face of injustice.

The author of the bestselling You Are Not So Smart shares more discoveries about self-delusion and irrational thinking, and gives readers a fighting chance at outsmarting their not-so-smart brains David McRaney’s first book, You Are Not So Smart, evolved from his wildly popular blog of the same name. A mix of popular psychology and trivia, McRaney’s insights have struck a chord with thousands, and his blog--and now podcasts and videos--have become an Internet phenomenon. Like You Are Not So Smart, You Are Now Less Dumb is grounded in the idea that we all believe ourselves to be objective observers of reality--except we’re not. But that’s okay, because our delusions keep us sane. Expanding on this premise, McRaney provides eye-opening analyses of fifteen more ways we fool ourselves every day, including: The Misattribution of Arousal (Environmental factors have a greater affect on our emotional arousal than the person right in front of us) Sunk Cost Fallacy (We will engage in something we don’t enjoy just to make the time or money already invested “worth it”) Deindividuation (Despite our best intentions, we practically disappear when subsumed by a mob mentality) McRaney also reveals the true price of happiness, why Benjamin Franklin was such a badass, and how to avoid falling for our own lies. This smart and highly entertaining book will be wowing readers for years to come.