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  From Boom to Bust - Venezuela's...

  Anya Solace

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  Venezuela’s economic history is a tale of immense wealth and devastating collapse, shaped by its vast oil reserves and the policies that governed them. Once one of the richest countries in Latin America, Venezuela’s rise was fueled by oil, an abundant resource that transformed the nation’s fortunes. However, overreliance on this single commodity, combined with political instability and economic mismanagement, led to one of the most severe financial crises in modern history. Understanding Venezuela’s economic journey requires a closer look at how it soared to prosperity, the warning signs that were ignored, and the policies that ultimately triggered its downfall.  
  The discovery of oil in the early 20th century set Venezuela on a path of rapid economic growth. As global demand for oil skyrocketed, so did Venezuela’s revenues, allowing the country to modernize its infrastructure, expand public services, and improve living standards. By the mid-20th century, Venezuela was among the most prosperous nations in Latin America, boasting a strong middle class and a high standard of living. The government used oil wealth to fund social programs, subsidize goods, and invest in national development, creating an illusion of economic stability. Yet, beneath the surface, a dangerous dependence on oil was forming, leaving the economy vulnerable to external shocks.  
  Despite periods of prosperity, warning signs of economic instability were evident long before the country entered crisis. As oil prices fluctuated, so did Venezuela’s financial health. Instead of diversifying the economy, successive governments doubled down on oil dependency, making the country highly susceptible to global market shifts.

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  The Essential Baruch Spinoza -...

  Baruch Spinoza

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  Three philosophical works by the seventeenth-century Enlightenment thinker and author of Ethics.How to Improve Your MindIn this earlier work, Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza articulates his view that life is best lived with the supreme happiness of knowing God’s infinite love. By extension, all earthly pursuits—including money, fame, and sex—are mere distractions from the greater joy of the soul’s quietude.Translated by the philosopher and founder of the Philosophical Library, Dagobert D. Runes. Runes also provides exclusive commentary and biographical notes.The Road to Inner FreedomSpinoza views the ability to experience rational love of God as the key to mastering the contradictory and violent human emotions.The Book of GodThe Book of God, one of Spinzoa’s earliest works, came to light only a hundred years ago in two slightly varying Dutch manuscripts. Its youthful author lived in turbulent times, when the Western world was torn by civil and religious strife, and bullies, bigots and pseudo-prophets vied for the ear of a fearful people. While Europe was in an uproar over the right church, Spinoza was seeking the right God. This book is the first known report of his findings. Translated by Dr. A. Wolf from the Dutch [the author’s Tractatus de Deo et homine version] and edited and with an introduction by Dagobert D. Runes.

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  Chasing the Intact Mind - How...

  Amy S.F. Lutz

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  The concept of the intact mind, first described in a 2006 memoir, refers to the idea that inside every autistic child is an intelligent, typical child waiting to be liberated by the right diet, the right treatment intervention, the right combination of supports and accommodations. The sentiment itself is not new. Though the idea gives hope to parents devastated by a child's diagnosis, Amy Lutz argues that it has also contributed to widespread dismantling of services badly needed by severely disabled children and their families. 
   
   
   
  In Chasing the Intact Mind, Lutz traces the history of the intact mind concept, explaining how it influences current policy and practice affecting those with autism. Lutz provides a historical analysis of the intact mind narrative and describes how the concept—originally unique to autism—has come to inform current debates at the heart of intellectual and developmental disability practice and policy in the United States. Lutz argues that focusing on the intact mind and marginalizing those with severe disability reproduces historic patterns of discrimination that yoked human worth to intelligence, and that it is only by making space for the impaired mind that we will be able to resolve these ongoing clashes—as well as even larger questions of personhood, dependency, and care.

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  Axis Powers’ Nuclear Weapons...

  Editors Charles River

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  The Manhattan Project would ultimately yield the “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” bombs that released more than 100 Terajoules of energy at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but as it turned out, the Axis were not far behind with their own nuclear weapons program. When the Nazis’ quest for a nuclear weapon began in earnest in 1939, no one really had a handle on how important nuclear weapons would prove to war and geopolitics. The attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, along with the Cold War-era tests and their accompanying mushroom clouds, would demonstrate the true power and terror of nuclear weapons, but in the late 1930s these bombs were only vaguely being thought through, particularly after the successful first experiment to split the atom by a German scientist. The nuclear age itself was in its infancy, barely 35 years old, but within a few short years the advent of nuclear war loomed over the world and the prospect of the enemy winning the nuclear race kept Allied leaders awake at night. 
  In November 1921, roughly a year after the Treaty of Versailles came into effect, Japan, Britain, and the United States gathered to sign another treaty of disarmament at the Washington Naval Conference. However, Japan opted against renewing the pact in the mid-1930s, and around the same time, Germany openly breached the terms of the former treaty and began to restock their weapons. This gave rise to the birth of a new and unprecedented arms race, one that had catastrophically disastrous consequences about a decade later. 
  Although their project is typically overlooked given the American use of the bombs and then the Soviets following suit early on in the Cold War, the Japanese avidly pursued nuclear weapons as well.

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  The Fractal Mind - How Ancient...

  Ylia Callan

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  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.   
  The Fractal Mind – How Ancient Wisdom Predicted Modern Science is a journey across time, thought, and imagination - exploring how humanity’s oldest myths, sacred symbols, and intuitive insights foreshadowed the very discoveries of modern science. 
  From the spiralling patterns of galaxies to the branching of rivers, trees, and neural networks, the universe is woven with fractal geometry - and the ancients seemed to know it. This audiobook uncovers how ancient cultures mirrored these cosmic patterns in story, art, ritual, and language, offering a wisdom that modern physics, biology, and information theory are only beginning to confirm. 
  Blending mythology, science, and philosophy, each chapter reveals hidden connections: how sacred geometry underlies life’s design, how cycles of time shape memory and prophecy, how dreams and symbols reflect the recursive patterns of reality, and how consciousness itself may be a living fractal of the cosmos. 
  This is not only a book about science and spirit - it is a mirror of the timeless human quest to understand our place in the infinite. The Fractal Mind invites listeners into a space where myth and mathematics meet, where story and science entwine, and where the deepest truths of nature resound with wonder. 
  If you have ever felt that the wisdom of the past holds keys to the mysteries of the future, this audiobook is for you.

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  Columbia Disaster The: The...

  Editors Charles River

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  On February 1, the Columbia was due to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 09:16. Only a few members of the press were present to watch the landing - this was, after all, supposed to be a routine return from a routine mission, the 113th for the shuttle program and the 28th for Columbia, one of the oldest Space Shuttles. 
  Reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere is always the most dangerous part of any space mission. The intense heat generated as a spacecraft enters the thin upper atmosphere at immense speed can be potentially lethal, but the shuttle was designed to deal with this heat, and Columbia had successfully done it 27 times in the past. For the five men and two women on board and the members of the press present, everything seemed normal, but there was a measure of concern among those in the ground control team. The team was aware that Columbia had possibly suffered damage to the thermal tiles forming the heat shield on one wing soon after liftoff, but no one knew how extensive the damage was or even if it existed at all. There was also some disagreement about how serious it might be - some on the ground were concerned this might compromise the shuttle wing’s ability to resist the heat of reentry, while others were sure it was a minor issue that would have no serious impact on the mission. Videos of the launch had been exhaustively reviewed by engineers on the ground, but it was impossible to be certain of the precise level of damage to the heat shielding on the underside and leading edge of the wing.  
  There was no agreement on what should or could be done, so one thing was universally agreed upon: the crew would not be informed of the problem. There was nothing they could do to make repairs and no way to avoid reentry. 

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