In April 2010 the world watched in alarm as BPs Macondo well suffered a fatal explosion & a catastrophic leak. Over the next three months amid tense scenes of corporate & political finger-pointing millions of barrels of crude oil dispersed across the Gulf of Mexico in what became one of the worst oil spills in history. But there is more to BPs story than this. Tom Bergin an oil broker turned Reuters reporter watched the two-pipeline company of the early 1980s grow into a dynamic oil giant & PR machine by the turn of the twenty-first century. His unique access to key figures before during & after the spill
- including former CEO Tony Hayward
- has enabled him to piece together this compelling account of a corporation in crisis & to examine how crucial decisions made during BPs remarkable turnaround paved the way for its darkest hour.

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Centenarian Eulalio Assumpcao has reached the end of his long life. From his modest bed in a Rio public hospital as his mind falters he grandly recounts his past to passing nurses his visiting daughter & the whitewashed ceiling. His eccentric stories are seemingly nothing more than the ramblings of a dying man yet as he overlaps each confused memory they begin to coalesce into a brilliant & bitter eulogy for himself & for Brazil. Charting his own fall from aristocracy Eulalios feverish monologue sprawls across the last century from his empire-building ancestors to his drug-dealing great-great grandson. He confronts his senator father who squandered the family fortune on women & cocaine & recalls the imperious mother who he always disappointed; but as he drifts through each shifting episode he never stops searching for Matilde the girl with cinnamon skin who danced her way into his heart & then broke it when she disappeared. ...

Stormy is an orphan & a kitchen skivvy. He tends the compost he scrubs the floors & watches feasts make their way up the mountain as he survives on bread & water. A skivvy is all that Stormy can hope to be. But Stormy has a secret. He wants to be a sky-rider to soar amongst the clouds on spitfyres: flying horses that spit fire & smoke & answer only to their riders. A chance meeting with an escaped convict turns Stormy's life upside down. Sent up to the Academy he uncovers a web of lies deceits & neglect at the centre of which lies the mysterious thirteenth horse. Can Stormy save Thirteen defeat the dark forces at work within the Academy & prove himself worthy as a sky-rider? ...

This unique board book which features two spinners inside is perfect for teaching simple concepts & first words from colours & counting to farm & jungle animals -- & even everyday household objects. Whos that animal? What colour is that flower? How many crayons are there? & whats that noise? Simply spin the wheel point & say! A brilliant interactive early learning book from the creator of DEAR ZOO. ...

True or false? In selling high-value products or services: closing" increases your chance of success; it is essential to describe the benefits of your product or service to the customer; objection handling is an important skill; & open questions are more effective than closed questions. All false says Neil Rackham. He & his team studied more than 35 000 sales calls made by 10 000 sales people in 23 countries over 12 years. Their findings revealed that many of the methods developed for selling low-value goods just don't work for major sales. Rackham went on to introduce his SPIN-selling method where SPIN describes the whole selling process
- Situation questions Problem questions Implication questions Need-payoff questions. SPIN-selling provides you with a set of simple & practical techniques which have been tried in many of today's leading companies with dramatic improvements to their sales performance."
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This is a new & completely revised book covering the latest UK & European Health & Safety directives. Spindle Moulder Handbook" deals with all aspects of this essential woodworking machine including spindle speeds cutting action theory operation safety cutter & cutter types & their preparation & performance development of cutters grinding profiling & development. A large section covers the practical aspects of operating the machine; the fences guards jigs & so on; the types of operation such as rebating grooving bevelling moulding trimming shaped work routing dovetailing finger jointing tenoning & much more. This title is well-illustrated & written by an acknowledged expert. It is essential reading for all spindle moulder users & students of machine woodworking." ...

When mill-owner Frederick Hallam dies in 1860 his widow Annie plans to build Spinners Lake a project that will keep her from destitution. But then artist Tian Gilchrist walks into her life awakening disturbing memories. Can Annie love another man the way she loved Frederick? ...

This book is longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013 & the winner of Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2012. My father still lives back the road past the weir in the cottage I was reared in. I go there every day to see is he dead & every day he lets me down. He hasn't yet missed a day of letting me down." In the aftermath of Ireland's financial collapse dangerous tensions surface in an Irish town. As violence flares the characters face a battle between public persona & inner desires. Through a chorus of unique voices each struggling to tell their own kind of truth a single authentic tale unfolds. The Spinning Heart speaks for contemporary Ireland like no other novel. Wry vulnerable all-too human it captures the language & spirit of rural Ireland & with uncanny perception articulates the words & thoughts of a generation. Technically daring & evocative of Patrick Mc Cabe & J.M. Synge this novel of small-town life is witty dark & sweetly poignant. Donal Ryan's brilliantly realized debut announces a stunning new voice in literary fiction." ...

Benedict de Spinoza (1632-77) was at once the father of the Enlightenment & the last sad guardian of the medieval world. In his brilliant synthesis of geometrical method religious sentiment & secular science he attempted to reconcile the conflicting moral & intellectual demands of his epoch & to present a vision of humanity as simultaneously bound by necessity & eternally free. In this book Roger Scruton presents a clear & systematic analysis of Spinozas thought & shows its relevance to todays intellectual preoccupations. ...

When sixteen-year-old Alfred Rosenberg is called into his headmasters office for anti-Semitic remarks he made during a school speech he is forced as punishment to memorize passages about Spinoza from the autobiography of the German poet Goethe. Rosenberg is stunned to discover that Goethe his idol was a great admirer of the Jewish seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Long after graduation Rosenberg remains haunted by this Spinoza problem" how could the German genius Goethe have been inspired by a member of a race Rosenberg considers so inferior to his own a race he was determined to destroyspinoza himself was no stranger to punishment during his lifetime. Because of his unorthodox religious views he was excommunicated from the Amsterdam Jewish community in 1656 at the age of twenty-four & banished from the only world he had ever known. Though his life was short & he lived without means in great isolation he nonetheless produced works that changed the course of history. Over the years Rosenberg rose through the ranks to become an outspoken Nazi ideologue a faithful servant of Hitler & the main author of racial policy for the Third Reich. Still his Spinoza obsession lingered. By imagining the unexpected intersection of Spinozas life with Rosenbergs internationally bestselling novelist Irvin D. Yalom explores the mindsets of two men separated by 300 years. Using his skills as a psychiatrist he explores the inner lives of Spinoza the saintly secular philosopher & of Rosenberg the godless mass murderer." ...