Gamification: the hottest marketing trend - learn how to win new audiences and engage existing customers. Are customers now less likely to engage fully in the life and activity of your company? The old myths about the power of pricing, wide product range, good selling location and frequent promotion aren't pulling in as much profit as before. Average customers are no longer responding to "total sale" or "new product launch" or "available everywhere". They are fed up with that. They become fussier. But what if you could make your clients draw some pleasure from the same old and introduce a mechanism that can subtly provoke them to shop more often? Before you know it, they will get to love your products and start bringing in steadfast long-term proceeds to your company. It's possible, and we know how to do it! The solution you need is gamification. It's become one of the hottest trends in marketing right now. But best of all, it's a trend that actually works. What is gamification, exactly? "Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics to engage users in solving problems." says Wikipedia. But we won't fill your head with boilerplates and definitions: let's look at this simple example. Imagine you own a pub. You're thinking about selling more beer, but can't get it right. You tried slashing prices and had the 'buy one, get one free' sales promotion, too. Sales didn't budge. How can you use gamification in a pub? You're going to need a waiter and a coin. Rather than entice customers by trying the 'buy one, get one' promotion, challenge your patrons: make them play to win the beer. Rules? Flip a coin. Heads or tails? If the customer wins, they get a beer at no cost. But if the customer loses, they pay full price. The results? They loved it. How can gamification improve your business? The costs of introducing and promoting this game were more or less the same as what you'd spend on promoting the 'buy one, get one free' promotion. The likelihood the customer wins is 50%. You can't cheat the law of large numbers. Statistically, half of the beers the pub poured were free, and the other half were at full price. It's as if you gave customers the second beer free. It was the customers' response that spoke volumes, though: people began to leave more money at the pub. There were more than twice as many new customers wanting to try their hand and play for the free beer. To tell you more, some folks were more interested in playing than the beer itself. Where the 'buy one, get one' approach didn't bring desired results, gamification surpassed all expectations. It did so because it's fun. Customers are having a great time playing. So consider gamification as a means for injecting fun into things and actions that aren't usually thought of as entertaining, and engage your customers. The above is just one example: the seminar is full of inspiring case studies. Follow the emotions... If you're thinking of introducing a loyalty program, building up a brand identity or engaging customers in things they were avoiding before, there are two elements to remember about: the narrative and fun. They both underpin the aspect that drives customers: emotions. The best loyalty programs can engage clients in fun on a cerebral level. Good gamification engages you into wanting to achieve a goal. That's the thing you focus on: doing something. Rewards only come later. When you know what motivates your customers, you can offer them absorbing gamification that will encourage them to fight for a better status and appreciation in your company. Priority customer service? A lifelong discount on company products and priority unlimited access? What about being personally greeted by the chef in a prestigious restaurant? Customers are willing to do a lot to gain these privileges, and that's why you ought to give them a chance to do it.
In the past two and a half decades, Walter Benjamin's early essay 'Towards the Critique of Violence' (1921) has taken a central place in politico-philosophic debates. The complexity and perhaps even the occasional obscurity of Benjamin's text have undoubtedly contributed to the diversity, conflict, and richness of contemporary readings. Interest has heightened following the attention that philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and Giorgio Agamben have devoted to it. Agamben's own interest started early in his career with his 1970 essay, 'On the Limits of Violence', and Benjamin's essay continues.
In the years of cultural and political ferment following World War II, a new generation of Jewish- American writers and thinkers arose to make an indelible mark on American culture. Commentary was their magazine; the place where they and other politically sympathetic intellectuals -- Hannah Arendt, Saul Bellow, Lionel Trilling, Alfred Kazin, James Baldwin, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick and many others -- shared new work, explored ideas, and argued with each other. Founded by the offspring of immigrants, Commentary began life as a voice for the marginalized and a feisty advocate for civil rights and economic justice. But just as American culture moved in its direction, it began -- inexplicably to some -- to veer right, becoming the voice of neoconservativism and defender of the powerful. This lively history, based on unprecedented access to the magazine's archives and dozens of original interviews, provocatively explains that shift while recreating the atmosphere of some of the most exciting decades in American intellectual life.
This book shows that constitutional courts exercise direct and indirect power on political branches through decision-making. The first face of judicial power is characterized by courts directing political actors to implement judicial decisions in specific ways. The second face leads political actors to anticipate judicial review and draft policies accordingly. The judicial–political interaction originating from both faces is herein formally modeled. A cross-European comparison of pre-conditions of judicial power shows that the German Federal Constitutional Court is a well-suited representative case for a quantitative assessment of judicial power. Multinomial logistic regressions show that the court uses directives when evasion of decisions is costly while accounting for the government’s ability to implement decisions. Causal analyses of the second face of judicial power show that bills exposed to legal signals are drafted accounting for the court. These findings re-shape our understanding of judicialization and shed light on a silent form of judicialization.
This study explores one of the oldest and most central issues of the Hebrew Bible -- the compositional history of 1--2 Kings. Its approach does not proceed from the assumption prevalent since the time of de Wette, namely, that the origins of 1--2 Kings should be explained through a process of Deuteronomistic literary redaction rooted in the Josianic reform. Rather, this study reads 1--2 Kings through the lens of other texts with similar genres existing in its historical context. More precisely, the texts under question belong to the genre of "chronography": kinglists, chronicles, and royal inscriptions, possessing similar or, in some cases, identical structures and motifs to those found in 1--2 Kings. This study includes a literary-critical analysis of every main structural feature of the regnal framework: regnal year totals, synchronisms, geographic filiations, naming the queen mother, source citations, death and burial formulae, regnal evaluations, royal predecessor-formula, and cultic reports. It also seeks to determine the extent of the original framework by mapping its opening and conclusion. The results of the study indicate that the framework's opening was in Solomon's account and its original climax was in Hezekiah's account and represented the latter as a royal YHWHist par excellence excellence, the restorer of order who limited sacrificial space to Jerusalem. The genealogical structure of this Hezekian History emerges from the Davidic royal ideology rooted in Jerusalem. There is no decisive indication that calls for the original framework structure's classification as Deuteronomistic or Josianic. The author of the framework wrote during the early-to-mid seventh century B.C.E. and reported the major historical events surrounding Hezekiah's reign, including the survival of Jerusalem in 701 B.C.E. -- in the B1 narrative -- as well as his centralizing reform.
An in-depth assessment of innovations in military information technology informs hypothetical outcomes for artificial intelligence adaptations In the coming decades, artificial intelligence (AI) could revolutionize the way humans wage war. The military organizations that best innovate and adapt to this AI revolution will likely gain significant advantages over their rivals. To this end, great powers such as the United States, China, and Russia are already investing in novel sensing, reasoning, and learning technologies that will alter how militaries plan and fight. The resulting transformation could fundamentally change the character of war. In Information in War, Benjamin Jensen, Christopher Whyte, and Scott Cuomo provide a deeper understanding of the AI revolution by exploring the relationship between information, organizational dynamics, and military power. The authors analyze how militaries adjust to new information communication technology historically to identify opportunities, risks, and obstacles that will almost certainly confront modern defense organizations as they pursue AI pathways to the future. Information in War builds on these historical cases to frame four alternative future scenarios exploring what the AI revolution could look like in the US military by 2040.
Though interest in the use of metaphor in the Hebrew Bible has gained momentum in recent years, there is, to date, no investigation which concentrates exclusively on the animal metaphors in the book of Jeremiah. In this book, the author brings to light this neglected area of study by examining the language and imagery of the animal metaphors for the people of Israel in the book of Jeremiah. The contribution that these metaphors make to the theology of the book is given special attention, and since different interpretations have been given to many of the metaphors in question, the author resolves some of the questions regarding the meaning of these images in his in-depth study. Additionally, scholars have not tended to research metaphors for the nation of Israel and thus this volume draws attention to a particular subject which has largely been overlooked.In chapter one Foreman familiarizes the reader with the major theoretical approaches to metaphor and spells out the approach taken in his investigation. Eighteen metaphors are then thoroughly analyzed in chapters two, three, and four. These metaphors are grouped into three categories, each of which constitutes a chapter: pastoral metaphors, mammal metaphors, and bird metaphors. Chapter five draws the results of the inquiry together. This study reveals how animal metaphors make important theological claims about the nation of Israel and demonstrates that they are essential elements of the message of the book of Jeremiah. Foreman's elucidation of the language and imagery of the animal metaphors for the people of Israel leads to a richer understanding of these metaphors and ultimately contributes to a more precise interpretation of the message of the book of Jeremiah as a whole.
This exploration of the Judean priesthood’s role in agricultural cultivation demonstrates that the institutional reach of Second Temple Judaism (516 BCE–70 CE) went far beyond the confines of its houses of worship, while exposing an unfamiliar aspect of sacred place-making in the ancient Jewish experience. Temples of the ancient world regularly held assets in land, often naming a patron deity as landowner and affording the land sanctity protections. Such arrangements can provide essential background to the Hebrew Bible’s assertion that God is the owner of the land of Israel. They can also shed light on references in early Jewish literature to the sacred landholdings of the priesthood or the temple.
The book of Deuteronomy is not an orphan. It belongs to a diverse family of legal traditions and cultures in the world of the Bible. The Social World of Deuteronomy: A New Feminist Commentary brings these traditions and cultures to life and uses them to enrich our understanding and appreciation of Deuteronomy today. Don C. Benjamin uses social-scientific criticism to reconstruct the social institutions where Deuteronomy developed, as well as those that appear in its traditions. He uses feministcriticism to better understand and appreciate how powerful elite males in Deuteronomy view not only the women, daughters, mothers, wives and widows in their households but also their powerless children, liminal people, slaves, prisoners, outsiders, livestock and nature. Through the lens of feminist theory, Benjamin explores important aspects of the daily lives of these often overlooked peoples in ancient Israel.
Complex Communities explores how sedentary settlements developed and flourished in the Middle East during the Early Iron Age nearly four thousand years ago. Using archaeological evidence, Benjamin Porter reconstructs how residents maintained their communities despite environmental uncertainties. Living in a semi-arid area in the present-day country of Jordan, villagers faced a harsh and unpredictable ecosystem. Communities fostered resilience by creating flexible production routines and leadership strategies. Settlements developed what archaeologists call “communal complexity,” a condition through which small-scale societies shift between egalitarian and hierarchical arrangements. Complex Communities provides detailed, scientifically grounded reconstructions of how this communal complexity functioned in the region. These settlements emerged during a period of recovery following the political and economic collapse of Bronze Age Mediterranean societies. Scholars have characterized west-central Jordan’s political organization during this time as an incipient Moabite state. Complex Communities argues instead that the settlements were a collection of independent, self-organizing entities. Each community constructed substantial villages with fortifications, practiced both agriculture and pastoralism, and built and stocked storage facilities. From these efforts to produce and store resources, especially food, wealth was generated and wealthier households gained power over their neighbors. However, power was limited by the fact that residents could—and did—leave communities and establish new ones. Complex Communities reveals that these settlements moved through adaptive cycles as they adjusted to a changing socionatural system. These sustainability-seeking communities have lessons to offer not only the archaeologists studying similar struggles in other locales, but also to contemporary communities facing negative climate change. Readers interested in resilience studies, Near Eastern archaeology, historical ecology, and the archaeology of communities will welcome this volume.
This comprehensive resource is edited by experts at the Mayo Clinic--a world-renowned center for echocardiography. In this revision, the editors plan to incorporate new imaging strategies in the diagnosis of congenital heart disease in both peds and adult populations. In particular, more detail on 3-D echo, information on the proper usage of TEE, and the increasing importance of followup MRI will be presented. Based on reviewer comments, the editors will include more MRI angiograms, more detailed information on prosthetic valve and posttransplant care, and more correlative anatomic examples in relevant chapters.
The book presents a problem-based, rational approach to the diagnosis of orthopaedic problems in children. It is divided into four sections based on the age at which specific problems may be encountered; the newborn and infant, the toddler and the pre-school child, the child in the school-going age and the adolescent. The authors outline a systematic approach to arrive at a tentative diagnosis by asking relevant questions related to the presenting symptom and then performing a thorough clinical examination. They then suggest the most appropriate investigations to confirm the diagnosis. Each chapter deals with the common conditions that may lead to the problem; the rarer causes of the problem are listed at the end. This feature would make the book a practical manual and a high quality reference source. An important feature of the book is the number and quality of illustrations and video clips in the electronic version.
Ancient Palestine served as a land bridge between the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and as a result, the ancient Israelites frequently interacted with speakers of non-Semitic languages, including Egyptian, Greek, Hittite and Luwian, Hurrian, Old Indic, and Old Iranian. This linguistic contact led the ancient Israelites to adopt non-Semitic words, many of which appear in the Hebrew Bible. Benjamin J. Noonan explores this process in Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible, which presents a comprehensive, up-to-date, and linguistically informed analysis of the Hebrew Bible’s non-Semitic terminology. In this volume, Noonan identifies all the Hebrew Bible’s foreign loanwords and presents them in the form of an annotated lexicon. An appendix to the book analyzes words commonly proposed to be non-Semitic that are, in fact, Semitic, along with the reason for considering them as such. Noonan’s study enriches our understanding of the lexical semantics of the Hebrew Bible’s non-Semitic terminology, which leads to better translation and exegesis of the biblical text. It also enhances our linguistic understanding of the ancient world, in that the linguistic features it discusses provide significant insight into the phonology, orthography, and morphology of the languages of the ancient Near East. Finally, by tying together linguistic evidence with textual and archaeological data, this work extends our picture of ancient Israel’s interactions with non-Semitic peoples. A valuable resource for biblical scholars, historians, archaeologists, and others interested in linguistic and cultural contact between the ancient Israelites and non-Semitic peoples, this book provides significant insight into foreign contact in ancient Israel.
In February 1933, Adolf Hitler had only a tenuous grasp on power. Chancellor of Germany for merely four weeks, he led a fragile coalition government. The Nazis had lost seats in the Reichstag in the recent election, and claimed only three of thirteen cabinet posts. Then on February 27th, arson sent the Reichstag, the home and symbol of German democracy, up in flames. Immediately blaming the Communists, Hitler's new government approved a decree that tore the heart out of the democratic constitution of the Weimar Republic and cancelled the rule of law. Five thousand people were immediately arrested. The Reichstag fire marked the true beginning of the Third Reich, which ruled for 12 more years. The controversy surrounding the fire's origins has endured for 80. In Burning the Reichstag, Benjamin Hett offers a gripping account of Hitler's rise to dictatorship-one that challenges orthodoxy and recovers the true significance of the part the fire played. At the scene the police arrested 23-year-old Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch Communist stonemason. Though he was initially dismissed abroad as a Nazi tool, post-war historians since the 1950s have largely judged him solely guilty-a lone arsonist exploited by Hitler. Hett's book reopens the case, providing vivid portraits of key figures, including Rudolf Diels, Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels, and the historian Fritz Tobias, whose account of the fire has, until now, been the standard. Making use of a number of new sources and archives, Hett sets the Reichstag fire in a wider context, revealing how and why it has remained one of the last mysteries of the Nazi period, and one of the most controversial and contested events in the 20th century.
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