Monday, November 4, 2019

Blockchain : Transforming Your Business and Our World

Mark Van Rijmenam, Philippa Ryan
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The internet was envisaged as a decentralised global network, but in the past 25 years it has come to be controlled by a few, very powerful, centralised companies. Blockchain is a technological paradigm shift that allows secure, reliable, and direct information transfer between individuals, organisations, and things, so that we can manage, verify, and control the use of our own data.

Blockchain also offers a new opportunity for humanity to fix some major problems. It can authenticate data, manage its analysis, and automate its use. With better data comes better decision-making. In this way, Blockchain can contribute to solving climate change, reduce voting fraud, fix our identity systems, improve fair trade, and give the poor an opportunity to improve their lives by monetising their (digital) capital. A world built upon peer-to-peer transactions and smart contracts can empower individuals and communities.

This book offers a fresh perspective with which to consider this transformative technology. It describes how Blockchain can optimise the processes that run our society. It provides practical solutions to global problems and offers a roadmap to incorporate Blockchain in your business. It offers a blueprint for a better world. Filled with easy-to-understand examples, this book shows how Blockchain can take over where the internet has fallen short.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

做個‧真選民—選舉工程48講 (Behind Your Vote)

周偉航
online access from HyRead ebook
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經過多年的區議會、立法會選舉洗禮,不少港人愈來愈明白一票在手的價值。然而,選舉期間,各政黨都會出盡渾身解數展開選舉工程:網絡戰、傳媒戰、「蛇齋餅糉」、配票、運用地區椿腳等策略固然人前背後進行得如火如荼;候選人找來專業人士特訓口才、辯才,建立看似能幹、可靠、親切模樣等形象工程,更是層出不窮。誰在耍花招?誰是真材實料?

在台灣,選舉期間候選人同樣出盡花招。台灣熱門博客「人渣文本」版主周偉航,曾當過馬英九和國民黨議員的幕僚,也做過民進黨的競選總幹事和辦公室主任,選戰經驗極之豐富。本書由他以專業角度拆解選舉工程,從理論到實務,深入探討台灣選舉的眾生百態,藉由撥開眾多選戰花招迷霧,引領讀者建立公民意識、強化自身思考能力。

香港與台灣從來都是互相學習,本地政治人物便經常往台灣觀戰。書中拆解台灣選舉工程中的每一環都十分值得香港選民借鑑。作者深信,每次選舉的結束,都是下次選舉的開始;今次誤投錯的人,只要在下一次修正便好。讀完此書,明白選舉工程的箇中玄機後,冀讀者也能了解甚麼是選舉,更能真正運用手中的選票。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, October 28, 2019

New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World—and How to Make It Work for You

Jeremy Heimans, Henry Timms
online access from EBSCOhost Ebooks
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Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
“The best window I’ve seen into this new world.” —David Brooks, The New York Times

In this indispensable guide to navigating the twenty-first century, two visionary thinkers reveal the unexpected ways power is changing--and how 'new power' is reshaping politics, business, and life.

Why do some leap ahead while others fall behind in our chaotic, connected age? In New Power, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms confront the biggest stories of our time--the rise of mega-platforms like Facebook and Uber; the out-of-nowhere victories of Obama and Trump; the unexpected emergence of movements like #MeToo--and reveal what's really behind them: the rise of 'new power'.

For most of human history, the rules of power were clear: power was something to be seized and then jealously guarded. This 'old power' was out of reach for the vast majority of people. But our ubiquitous connectivity makes possible a different kind of power. 'New power' is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It works like a current, not a currency--and it is most forceful when it surges. The battle between old and new power is determining who governs us, how we work, and even how we think and feel.

New Power shines fresh light on the cultural phenomena of our day, from #BlackLivesMatter to the Ice Bucket Challenge to Airbnb, uncovering the new power forces that made them huge. Drawing on examples from business, activism, and pop culture, as well as the study of organizations like Lego, NASA, Reddit, and TED, Heimans and Timms explain how to build new power and channel it successfully. They also explore the dark side of these forces: the way ISIS has co-opted new power to monstrous ends, and the rise of the alt-right's 'intensity machine'.

In an era increasingly shaped by new power, this groundbreaking book offers us a new way to understand the world--and our role in it.

(Excerpt from goodreads.com)

蔡康永的情商課──為你自己活一次

蔡康永
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很多人說要做自己,只是說著玩的。
先弄清自己是怎麼回事,才可能開始做自己啊。──蔡康永


這些年間,他發現有件事跟會說話同樣重要,那就是擁有「高情商」。他凝聚30年來在演藝圈摸索出的門道,舉大量實例、動人的故事和對話,以及獨到的幽默感和奇思妙想,幫讀者掃除自卑、恐懼、自欺、空虛……等負面情緒,踏出高情商的第一步。

提高情商,改變的不只是人際關係,甚至能改變一個人的命運。

◆我不是為你活的,你也不是為別人活的。你知道到今天為止,你已經為了別人,放棄了多少自己嗎?
◆情緒,就是我們當下的自己。想要高情商,就要做到適合與平衡,而不是極端的壓抑情緒,或極端的放任情緒。
◆消化情緒需要採取有效的行動,而選擇有效行動的依據,是釐清自己的感受。
◆幸福指需要「人和」──與人和、與自己和。而且最奇妙的是,如果一個人能夠「與自己和」,就能「與別人和」。
◆你也許聽說過,世界有世界的規則,但那不是你的規則。世界上只有一種值得你遵行的規則,那就是~你的規則。
◆你以為情商是壓住你的情緒嗎?如果手腳都被壓住。你要怎麼奔跑與舞蹈?對於情緒,我們要珍惜,並且恰當的分配,而不是壓制或遮蓋。
◆我們的心力,那麼有限,那麼珍貴,你怎麼捨得每分每秒的揮霍你的心力,去評價各種與你無關的人?去反應各種與你無關的事?
◆別老是相信那些動不動就要死要活的戲劇與歌曲,那些東西本來就被設計成情緒的炸彈,誰會抱著炸彈過日子呢?如果想要寧靜,並且內心強大,就要多看書,多與自己相處。
◆所有好看的戲劇,其中的人物情商都很低。追劇時請順便拿出抬槓的精神,當作自己的情商訓練。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, October 21, 2019

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo
online access from ProQuest Ebook Central
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From the Winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics
Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo won the Nobel Prize in Economics 2019, along with economist Michael Kremer, for their "experimental approach to alleviating global poverty". READ MORE

Two practical visionaries upend the most common assumptions about how economics works in this gripping and disruptive portrait of how poor people actually live.

Why do the poor borrow to save? Why do they miss out on free life-saving immunizations, but pay for unnecessary drugs? In Poor Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two award-winning MIT professors, answer tby Abhijit Banerjee (Author), Esther Duflo (Author)hese questions based on years of field research from around the world. Called "marvelous, rewarding" by the Wall Street Journal, the book offers a radical rethinking of the economics of poverty and an intimate view of life on 99 cents a day. Poor Economics shows that creating a world without poverty begins with understanding the daily decisions facing the poor.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

香港六七暴動始末——解讀吳荻舟

程翔
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榮獲第十二屆香港書獎

本書共分三部分:探討有關六七暴動的幾個概觀問題,解讀吳荻舟《六七筆記》,並附有吳荻舟遺文。全書的重點是吳荻舟。

吳荻舟長期領導中共在香港的地下黨,掌握中共對香港的政策,他留下來的筆記,反映了當年中共在港的活動,具有重要的歷史價值。「香港六七暴動」的官方檔案尚未解密,吳荻舟筆記提供了暴動期間的內情和一手線索。讀者可以看到:暴動的左傾思想根源、發動暴動的動機和目的、暴動的組織指揮系統,以及總理周恩來在暴動中的角色等,還可以看到吳荻舟對整件事的反思等。

吳荻舟並沒有《六七筆記》這樣的一本書,這是他女兒吳輝發現父親的一本筆記本,裏面記載的都是香港六七年暴動期間中央的內部討論。《六七筆記》是一本工作筆記,不是完整的文章,需要詳加解讀。

本書在前人研究成果的基礎上,對六七暴動以下幾個方面有不少新的發現:在六七暴動的成因、中共同英國秘密協定不反對香港由英國接收、中共一直在香港保存着兩個地位平行的地下組織,一個是已經半公開的「香港工作委員會」,另一個是迄今仍然保密的「香港城市工作委員會」(這個「城工委」外界一無所知)。此外,還有很多所謂「二、三、四線」組織。第四,沙頭角槍擊事件是中央軍委直接部署、由解放軍正規部隊執行的。第五,英國解密檔案對六七暴動研究提供新角度。

(摘錄自 hkbookcity.com)