Introduction -- Conscious intentions and decisions -- Neuroscience and causes of action -- Neuroscience and free will -- Intentional actions and the alleged illusion of conscious will -- Proximal intentions and awareness reports -- The power of conscious will -- Conclusion.

A blistering portrait of an ongoing international scandal--with a new afterword that provides a front-line report on the latest developments in the AIDS crisis. Nussbaum tells of vaulting ambition and greed, of vast sums of money filtered through government agencies and into the profit statements of the manufacturer of AZT, Burroughs Wellcome. 16 pages of photographs.

Each of the following claims has been defended in the scientific literature on free will and consciousness: your brain routinely decides what you will do before you become conscious of its decision; there is only a 100 millisecond window of opportunity for free will, and all it can do is veto conscious decisions, intentions, or urges; intentions never play a role in producing corresponding actions; and free will is an illusion. In Effective Intentions Alfred Mele shows that the evidence offered to support these claims is sorely deficient. He also shows that there is strong empirical support for the thesis that some conscious decisions and intentions have a genuine place in causal explanations of corresponding actions. In short, there is weighty evidence of the existence of effective conscious intentions or the power of conscious will. Mele examines the accuracy of subjects' reports about when they first became aware of decisions or intentions in laboratory settings and develops some implications of warranted skepticism about the accuracy of these reports. In addition, he explores such questions as whether we must be conscious of all of our intentions and why scientists disagree about this. Mele's final chapter closes with a discussion of imaginary scientific findings that would warrant bold claims about free will and consciousness of the sort he examines in this book.

He knew it was a dumb stunt from the start. A midnight run through a cemetery to impress a couple of girls is hardly the stuff of legend, but Alex Carlisle longs to escape the crushing mediocrity of life after high school.Then he stumbles upon the ritual, and the cultists, and two bound and bloodied women. Alex intervenes and the ritual blows up in his face, leaving him bound to them both: Rachel and Lorelei, an angel and a succubus. It's hardly the sort of challenge a guy can face with dignity when he still lives at home with his mom.Alex never imagined falling for an immortal demon seductress, or that he'd spend his nights dodging her co-workers, her old boss, and every other supernatural freak in Seattle. He never thought a woman like Lorelei could have a rival like Rachel, either. But then, nobody ever said adulthood would be easy. WARNING: "Good Intentions" contains explicit sexuality, violence, nudity, inappropriate use of church property, portrayals of beings divine and demonic bearing little or no resemblance to established religion or mythology, trespassing, bad language, sacrilege, blasphemy, attempted murder, arguable murder, divinely mandated murder, justifiable murder, filthy murder, sexual promiscuity, kidnapping, attempted rape, arson, dead animals, desecrated graves, gang activity, theft, assault and battery, panties, misuse of the 911 system, fantasy depictions of sorcery and witchcraft, multiple references to various matters of fandom, questionable interrogation tactics, cell phone abuse, reckless driving, consistent abuse of vampires (because they deserve it), even more explicit sexuality, illegal use of firearms within city limits, polyamory, abuse of authority, hit and run driving, destruction of private property, underage drinking, disturbances of the peace, disorderly conduct, internet harassment, bearers of false witness, mayhem, dismemberment, falsification of records, tax evasion, an uncomfortably sexy mother, bad study habits, and a very silly white guy inappropriately calling another white guy "nigga" (for which he will surely suffer).

For more than thirty-five years, Thomas W. Dichter has worked in the field of international development, managing and evaluating projects for nongovernmental organizations, directing a Peace Corps country program, and serving as a consultant for such agencies as USAID, UNDP, and the World Bank. On the basis of this extensive and varied experience, he has become an outspoken critic of what he terms the "international poverty alleviation industry." He believes that efforts to reduce world poverty have been well-intentioned but largely ineffective. On the whole, the development industry has failed to serve the needs of the people it has sought to help. To make his case, Dichter reviews the major trends in development assistance from the 1960s through the 1990s, illustrating his analysis with eighteen short stories based on his own experiences in the field. The analytic chapters are thus grounded in the daily life of development workers as described in the stories. Dichter shows how development organizations have often become caught up in their own self-perpetuation and in public relations efforts designed to create an illusion of effectiveness. Tracing the evolution of the role of money (as opposed to ideas) in development assistance, he suggests how financial imperatives have reinforced the tendency to sponsor time-bound projects, creating a dependency among aid recipients. He also examines the rise of careerism and increased bureaucratization in the industry, arguing that assistance efforts have become disconnected from important lessons learned on the ground. In the end, Dichter calls for a more light-handed and artful approach to development assistance, with fewer agencies andexperts involved. His stance is pragmatic, rather than ideological or political. What matters, he says, is what works, and the current practices of the development industry are simply not effective.

A revolutionary approach to poverty that takes human irrationality into account-and unlocks the mystery of making philanthropic spending really work. American individuals and institutions spent billions of dollars to ease global poverty and accomplished almost nothing. At last we have a realistic way forward. Presenting innovative and successful development interventions around the globe, Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel show how empirical analysis coupled with the latest thinking in behavioral economics can make a profound difference. From Kenya, where teenagers reduced their risk of contracting AIDS by having more unprotected sex with partners their own age, to Mexico, where giving kids a one-dollar deworming pill boosted school attendance better than paying their families to send them, More Than Good Intentions reveals how to invest those billions far more effectively and begin transforming the well-being of the world.

Graceful Intentions for Powerful Change serves to release us from unwanted habits by guiding our steps to a new destination. Our intent is always at work--there's no off switch, yet we are oblivious of our intentions most of the time. Consciously practicing intentions helps us manifest change with astonishing ease. Our intent is the seed we plant, and each intention becomes the harvest we reap. We don't try to make our intentions manifest--we affirm our intent effortlessly. Using the models provided in this book, you discover how to set intentions and how to allow your creativity to produce remarkable outcomes. In four collections: Let the Light Grow; Let Love Show; Let Life Be Fun; Always Be True to You;--you'll enjoy thirty-two intention essays that are summarized with affirmations. The graceful part of the process is to plant the seeds of intention then let them grow. You learn the art of setting intentions mindfully to ensure that you sidestep the suffering produced by holding expectations. The book offers carefully chosen uplifting quotes from inspiring sources and guided meditations to practice and share. Informative articles and blogs by the author add insight to select intention topics. Graceful intentions change lives by rewriting the autopilot program running behind the scenes of our daily activities. Powerful change happens as we apply purposeful, gently held intentions.