Most Popular Books by Milan

Probabilistic Conditional Independence Structures provides the mathematical description of probabilistic conditional independence structures; the author uses non-graphical methods of their description, and takes an algebraic approach. The monograph presents the methods of structural imsets and supermodular functions, and deals with independence implication and equivalence of structural imsets. Motivation, mathematical foundations and areas of application are included, and a rough overview of graphical methods is also given. In particular, the author has been careful to use suitable terminology, and presents the work so that it will be understood by both statisticians, and by researchers in artificial intelligence. The necessary elementary mathematical notions are recalled in an appendix.

“I can’t imagine reading this book without being challenged and instructed, amused, amazed and aroused, and ultimately delighted.” —John Simon, New York Times Book Review Milan Kundera’s brilliant collection of essays is a passionate defense of art in an era that, he argues, no longer values art or beauty. With the same dazzling mix of emotion and ideas that characterizes his bestselling novels, the internationally acclaimed author revisits the artists whose works help us better understand what it means to be human. Elegant, startlingly original, and provocative, Encounter combines many of the author’s signature themes with personal reflections and stories.

The Enlightenment of the late 17th and 18th century is characterized by an emphasis on reason and empiricism . As a major shaping philosophy of Western culture, it had a historical impact on the religious, cultural, academic, and social institutions of 18th century Europe. In this compelling volume, the author explores the lasting impact of Enlightenment thinking on modern Western societies and other democracies. With an interdisciplinary, comparative-historical approach this volume explores the impact of Enlightenment ideals such as liberty, equality, and social justice on current social institutions. Combining sociological theory with concrete examples, the author provides a unique framework for understanding modern cultural development, including a picture of how it would look without this Enlightenment basis. This work provides a multi-faceted approach, including: an historical overview, analysis of the Enlightenment ''s influence on modern democratic societies, modern culture, political science, civil society and the economy, as well as exploring the counter-Enlightenment, Post-Enlightenment, and Neo-Enlightenment philosophies.

Severance pay, a program that provides compensation to workers on termination of employment, is the most widely used income protection program for the unemployed-yet it is often blamed for creating economic inefficiencies such as reducing employment and limiting access to jobs for disadvantaged groups. Reforming Severance Pay: An International Perspective fills the knowledge gap in evaluating the international experience by providing a collection of worldwide overviews and labor market impact assessments, theoretical analyses, and country case studies. The authors summarize the performance of existing severance pay arrangements around the world and discuss recent innovative severance pay reforms in Austria, Chile, and the Republic of Korea. Reforming Severance Pay proposes policy directions based on country characteristics such as folding severance pay of higher income countries into existing social insurance programs and making severance pay a contractual affair between market partners to live up to the efficiency-enhancing device in a knowledge-based economy. For lower income countries, the authors advise reforming severance pay toward realistic benefit levels, strengthening compliance of benefit payments by the employer, and safeguarding minimum benefits. This report will be of interest to policy makers and researchers working on labor market, unemployment benefit, and pension issues; economic policy reform; poverty reduction; and social analysis and policy.

This book, first published in 1990, considers the uneasy relationship between Russia and Soviet Central Asia. Chapters examine both the significance of Asia to the Russian mind and the place that Asia has occupied in Russian geopolitical thinking in the last hundred years, showing that outbreaks of violence are simply a manifestation of a long-standing tension. This is a remarkable and comprehensive study, which will be of great value to those concerned with the history and future of Central Asia and Siberia.

This book reconsiders the relationship of modern free society-in particular political democracy and a free-market economy-and conservatism as its formidable adversary. Milan Zafirovski identifies and documents the several ways conservatism functions as the nemesis of the democracy and the free market. He provides discussion on forms of conservative government and the rise of nationalism, imperialism, and militarism, with special attention to wars of aggression and the threat of mutually assured destruction (MAD). Combining economic and sociological theories gives the book a solid interdisciplinary approach, allowing for a thorough analysis of conservatism''s overt and covert threats to modern free society. Zafirovski focuses on anti-democratic phenomena and uses historical and empirical evidence to support his assertions that the liberal-democratic ideal of individual and political liberty that most Western societies hold so dear is put at risk by the rise in conservatism on a global scale.

Characterized by new research, this much-needed investigation into the undeveloped field of the sociology of diplomacy offers important new conclusions and suggestions, as well as many new ideas gained from practical diplomatic experience. The book examines the establishment of diplomacies of the new small states that emerged in Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The sociological and organizational application is combined with concepts from the fields of international relations, diplomatic studies, security studies and international public law. A systematic, stringent approach to the subject matter makes this book a substantial contribution to the field, suited to scholars, diplomats, students, civil servants and journalists alike.

It’s tempting to think that we live in an unprecedentedly fertile age for conspiracy theories, with seemingly each churn of the news cycle bringing fresh manifestations of large-scale paranoia. But the sad fact is that these narratives of suspicion—and the delusional psychologies that fuel them—have been a constant presence in American life for nearly as long as there’s been an America. In this sweeping book, Thomas Milan Konda traces the country’s obsession with conspiratorial thought from the early days of the republic to our own anxious moment. Conspiracies of Conspiracies details centuries of sinister speculations—from antisemitism and anti-Catholicism to UFOs and reptilian humanoids—and their often incendiary outcomes. Rather than simply rehashing the surface eccentricities of such theories, Konda draws from his unprecedented assemblage of conspiratorial writing to crack open the mindsets that lead people toward these self-sealing worlds of denial. What is distinctively American about these theories, he argues, is not simply our country’s homegrown obsession with them but their ongoing prevalence and virulence. Konda proves that conspiracy theories are no harmless sideshow. They are instead the dark and secret heart of American political history—one that is poisoning the bloodstream of an increasingly sick body politic.

Researchers believe that the universe is vast and old enough that life has evolved and become intelligent and technological many times on different worlds - yet we have seen no trace of extraterrestrial intelligence. This conundrum, known as the Fermi pardox, is the deepest mystery in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This book aims to shed some light on that biggest of questions: where is everybody?

This volume contains examples of Milan''s highly original work in plant photography and still life. Some of the early work dates from 1972 to 1976 and was originally exhibited at London''s Photographers'' Gallery, in 1977, with the later work dating from 2007 to 2016. In particular, Milan has been interested to explore those botanical structures that are often characterized by what at first sight might appear to be a random arrangement of spines, leaves or flowers but which, upon closer scrutiny, are actually revealed to be highly structured patterns and mathematically correct symmetries - even in the repetition of asymmetry, there is a regularity and natural order. By observing the tiniest details and enlarging them substantially, Milan found that there was often an extraordinary, almost abstract, beauty to be enjoyed. In a number of his stunning still life images, Milan has captured what is perhaps the more obvious and conventional beauty of plants and flowers, his ''table top'' arrangements capturing for all time the innate stillness and richness of natural beauty. The Photographer, Milan Svanderlik, is a veteran observer of the extraordinary diversity and beauty of nature, people and life in general. Milan Svanderlik Photography: Plants & Still Life, comprising photographs taken from 1972 to 2016, is the first of three volumes illustrating his work. Over the years, Milan''s highly original and well-regarded photographs have been exhibited in a number of art galleries, both here in London and ''over the pond, in New York.

Cartography and geographic information (GI) are remarkably appropriate for the requirements of early warning (EW) and crisis management (CM). The use of geospatial technology has increased tremendously in the last years. ICT has changed from just using maps created in advance, to new approaches, allowing individuals (decision-makers) to use cartography interactively, on the basis of individual user''s requirements. The new generation of cartographic visualizations based on standardisation, formal modelling, use of sensors, semantics and ontology, allows for the better adaptation of information to the needs of the users. In order to design a new framework in pre-disaster and disaster management safety/security/privacy aspects of institutions and citizens need to be considered. All this can only be achieved by demonstrating new research achievements, sharing best practices (e.g. in the health area) and working towards the wider acceptance of geospatial technology in society, with the help of education and media. This book will outline research frontiers and applications of cartography and GI in EW and CM and document their roles and potentials in wider processes going on in information/knowledge-based societies.

What drives politics in dictatorships? Milan W. Svolik argues that all authoritarian regimes must resolve two fundamental conflicts. First, dictators face threats from the masses over which they rule - this is the problem of authoritarian control. A second, separate challenge arises from the elites with whom dictators rule - this is the problem of authoritarian power-sharing. Crucially, whether and how dictators resolve these two problems is shaped by the dismal environment in which authoritarian politics takes place: in a dictatorship, no independent authority has the power to enforce agreements among key actors and violence is the ultimate arbiter of conflict. Using the tools of game theory, Svolik explains why some dictators, such as Saddam Hussein, establish personal autocracy and stay in power for decades; why leadership changes elsewhere are regular and institutionalized, as in contemporary China; why some dictatorships are ruled by soldiers, as Uganda was under Idi Amin; why many authoritarian regimes, such as PRI-era Mexico, maintain regime-sanctioned political parties; and why a country''s authoritarian past casts a long shadow over its prospects for democracy, as the unfolding events of the Arab Spring reveal. When assessing his arguments, Svolik complements these and other historical case studies with the statistical analysis of comprehensive, original data on institutions, leaders, and ruling coalitions across all dictatorships from 1946 to 2008.

This book explores the historical and contemporary relationships of Protestant Puritanism to political and social authoritarianism. It focuses on Puritanism’s original, subsequent and modern influences on and legacies in political democracy and civil society within historically Puritan Western societies. There is emphasis on Great Britain and particularly America, from the 17th to the 21st century.

Book of Artistic Nudes photographed with Kim Weston in August 2015 at his studio in Carmel, CA

Morphogeny of the nasal skull was investigated in 92 embryos of 13 species of Cetacea. Compared to the original nasal capsule of land mammals, the nasal structures of Cetacea show many weighty transformations. As a result, the nostrils are translocated from the tip of the snout to the vertex of the head. Several structures of the embryonic nasal skull remain preserved even in adult cetaceans. The translocation of the nostrils to the highest point of the surfacing body is among the most perfect adaptations of cetaceans to the aquatic life habits. The morphogeny of the nasal skull suggests that all cetaceans are of common origin and form a single monophyletic order. The hitherto usual division of this order into two suborders, Mysticeti and Odontoceti, appears to be unsubstantiated. Rather, at least three closely related superfamilies should be distinguished within the order Cetacea, viz., Balaenopteroidea, Physeteroidea, and Delphinoidea. The results are in a

Learning how to write C/C++ code is only the first step. To be a serious programmer, you need to understand the structure and purpose of the binary files produced by the compiler: object files, static libraries, shared libraries, and, of course, executables. Advanced C and C++ Compiling explains the build process in detail and shows how to integrate code from other developers in the form of deployed libraries as well as how to resolve issues and potential mismatches between your own and external code trees. With the proliferation of open source, understanding these issues is increasingly the responsibility of the individual programmer. Advanced C and C++ Compiling brings all of the information needed to move from intermediate to expert programmer together in one place -- an engineering guide on the topic of C/C++ binaries to help you get the most accurate and pertinent information in the quickest possible time.

Basic Czech III is a sequel to Basic Czech I and Basic Czech II. It consists of six units (approx. 2000 words and phrases) and it is based on communicative and comparative approach. The textbook can be used in intensive as well as two-semester and other types of classes. It is also suitable for self-study. It provides the key to all exercises. All words and phrases are included in the Czech-English word list at the end of each unit. The grammatical and lexical topics covered in this volume exceed the level we commonly call basic. Nevertheless to preserve the formal continuity of all three volumes, we have kept the title "Basic Czech." Grammar and vocabulary covered corresponds with level B1-B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Second edition.

A survey of Noam Chomsky''s political writing. This book is an introduction to the basic ideas underlying this intellectual''s critiques of the mass media and the new world order. It includes a summary of his visions of the future and his own brand of libertarian socialism.