To every explorer with his map upside down, to every air-traffic controller suddenly receiving Magic FM through his headphones, to every astronomer whose new planet turns out to be a bit of bran-flake on the eyepiece of his telescope, Sod's Law says: you are not alone. Sam Leith tells the hilarious—and painful—stories of the unsinkable boat that sunk, the unbeatable horse that lost, and the fireproof theater that burned to the ground. Sod's Law demonstrates that the entire universe is actually set up to ensure that your toast always lands butter side down and, what's more, that it lands precisely where the cat has shed hair all over the carpet. In this age of doubt, fewer and fewer of us are able to believe that a higher power takes an interest in our fate. This book reassures us that indeed it does—and that that higher power is hell bent on buggering things up. Only by laughing heartlessly at the misfortunes of others can we make ourselves feel better. Sod's Law enables us to do just that.

This dictionary deals with the little words which everyone uses every day without even noticing them and which are so liable to escape the grasp of a speaker of another language - clipped words, obtained by back-clipping or apocope (the dropping of one or more final syllables), by front-clipping or aphesis (the dropping of one or more final syllables), by the combination of these two processes and sometimes further transformed, especially in slang, by the addition of a new ending. The aim is not of course merely to list all these words and say from which longer words they were obtained; an attempt is made here to retrace the history of each of them, its stylistic, semantic and often morphological evolution, to illustrate this with authentic and often pungent or humorous quotations and also to show how each can be translated into the other language. Indeed this is an English-French bilingual dictionary, whose aim is to translate clipped words according to priciples of historical and register fidelity which bilingual dictionaries do not ordinarily set for this type of headword. Thus, clipped words will be shown to have meaning precisely because they are clipped; consequently, this meaning must be preserved and conveyed in translation. This dictionary thus aims at being different from traditional bilingual dictionaries, dictionaries of slang and colloquialisms included, in the structure and content of its articles, in which much space is devoted to the lexicological data, which inform the strictly lexicographical information. Special attention and care have been devoted to the system of cross-references, the recording and presentation of derived forms, variants and compounds and to the presentation of slang or colloquial synonyms of the headwords. The body of the dictionary is preceded by a preface in which the editing principles and methods are outlined and an attempt is made at analyzing the corpus : its historical, sociological and morphological aspects are reviewed, together with the motivations of those that coin or use clippings. These motivations appear essential to the proper appraisal of this body of slang and colloquial words; this dictionary's intention is to pay homage to all the unknown paople who have made the lexicon richer by playing with and on words, with joyful humour, zest and gusto. It is hoped that all lovers of words will have the same pleasure exploring this dictionary as its author had writing it. Professor Fabrice Antoine teaches English at the Universite Charles-de-Gaulle Lille III (France). His research fields are bilingual lexicography, lexicology and translation; he has been a consulting editor for a dozen bilingual dictionaries, general as well as slang ones. He is especially interested in French and English slang and colloquialisms and co-hairs ELEXTRA (Etudes sur le Lexique et la Traduction), a research centre at the University of Lille.

When people talk about self-defense, everyone immediately thinks of an eight-stone woman throwing a fifteen-stone man over her shoulder and stomping on his groin. In reality, many situations can be avoided by using commonsense tactics and talking your way out of a situation. Learning to be positive and assertive is a must. Self-defense also includes communication skills, streetwise tactics, and positive body posture. There are many techniques we can use before combat. Not all attackers are strangers; four out of ten men who attack women are already known to the victimeven friends and family members have been convicted of physical and sexual abuse. The following course is designed to teach even the most timid person to evade conflict and deal with physical confrontation should it arise. On this course, you will learn that everyone has vulnerable areas, especially men, and that all would-be victims have the weapons within their own bodies to use against these areas.

Read how Kenneth comes to his new home in North Oxfordshire England with his mother and stepfather, the new home being a small farm where Kenneth knows who will be expected to do all the work. Read how through all the hardships he manages to remain happy and bring excitement into his life by creating explosions, doing mind blowing experiments and building soapboxes. Read how accident prown Kenneth is and even on his first day at his new home he manages to collide with some escaping cattle and end up face down in a muddy stream. Read about the amazing illnesses he reads about in a Victorian home doctor book, that he manages to "get" and amazingly survive from, including an extremely dangerous strain of eboli. Read and laugh!

Funny and insightful, The Trouble with Paradise is a delightful yet highly informative romp through the latest breakthroughs in science, psychology, popular culture and the history of humans and life on earth, with the ultimate aim of helping the reader make sense of their own life within the context of the exciting yet also alarming developments of the 21st century. Grabbing the hardest questions ever posed by the biggest thinkers on earth by the throat, as well as the toughest challenges of our time, The Trouble with Paradise is both an intellectual tour de force as well as a gripping read that dares to challenge almost everything we take for granted about life, the universe and everything. At the same time, this book builds a series of powerful arguments as to how our species can break through the current logjam it find itself in, to come out the other side transformed into a 21st century version of heaven on earth. Inspirational yet pragmatic, The Trouble with Paradise takes you on a journey of discovery from the edges of the Universe to the innermost recesses of the human psyche, answering some of the most profound questions we have ever asked in highly entertaining way.

What do you do when you have discovered the best version of yourself? Discovering your best version of yourself is just the start. It is the starting seed of realising your best assets, knowing your worth, your needs and what makes you happy. Being your ‘Ultimate’ self, however, is a different ballgame. The seed has now blossomed and you understand there are good and bad days. Whichever way you understand, they are lessons and contributions to being your ‘Ultimate’ self. You know what resonates with you and what doesn’t. All the terrible experiences you have had in life have become your strengths. You are now ready to live at your ‘Ultimate’ level and welcome the happiness you deserve into your life. Honesty is the best policy! ‘F**k it, I am becoming the Ultimate me’, is exactly that. With a straightforward, no-nonsense approach, saying it as it is. A lot of self-working books beat around the bush. With ‘F**k it, I am becoming the Ultimate me’, which is the follow-up of ‘30 day practice to becoming the best version of you’. Only available on ‘Amazon’. This book acts as a reference for individuals who are serious about continuing their self-working to stay at their Ultimate authentic selves they were intended to be.