On 25 October 1946, Popper (then at the London School of Economics), was invited to present a paper entitled "Are There Philosophical Problems?" at a meeting of the Moral Sciences Club, which was chaired by Wittgenstein. The two started arguing vehemently over whether there existed substantial problems in philosophy, or merely linguistic puzzles—the position taken by Wittgenstein. In Popper''s, and the popular account, Wittgenstein used a fireplace poker to emphasize his points, gesturing with it as the argument grew more heated. When challenged by Wittgenstein to state an example of a moral rule, Popper (later) claimed to have replied "Not to threaten visiting lecturers with pokers", upon which (according to Popper) Wittgenstein threw down the poker and stormed out. Wittgenstein''s Poker collects and characterizes the accounts of the argument, as well as establishing the context of the careers of Popper, Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, also present at the meeting. The book follows three narrative threads, each pivoting off the 1946 confrontation at Cambridge; the first is a documentary investigation into what precisely took place and the controversy over the differing accounts from observers; the second, a comparative personal history of the philosophers, contrasting their origins in Vienna and their differing ascents to philosophical prominence; and thirdly an exploration of the philosophical significance of the disagreement between the two and its relevance for the great debates in the early 20th century concerning the philosophy of language.

Wittgenstein''s Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers

The novel is split between two points of view, a first-person narrative presenting the events as Chris recalls them in retrospect, interspersed with a series of letters from Helen to their unborn child (Nobody), telling her side of the story as she experiences it. The framing sequence is set in autumn as Chris is on the verge of leaving for Newcastle University. A parcel of letters is delivered for him, and he recognizes Helen''s handwriting. He begins to read the letters, all addressed to "Dear Nobody", and they remind him of the past nine months. The subsequent chapter headings are all the names of months, beginning with January. Helen and Chris make love for the first, and only, time. Chris is prompted to ask his father about his marriage breakdown, and decides to get in touch with his mother. Shortly afterwards Helen begins to fear she is pregnant. Chris is disturbed by her distant behaviour. In late February she finally tells him her suspicions, and writes her first letter to "Dear Nobody": "You''re only a shadow. You''re only a whisper... Leave me alone. Go away. Go away. Please, please, go away." Later when a pregnancy test proves positive, she tries to abort the pregnancy by going riding, risking her life in a wild gallop, to no avail. In April, Helen''s mother finds out, and arranges for her to go to an abortion clinic. However, Helen decides to keep the baby. Mrs Garton refuses to have Chris in the house, but he and Helen continue to see each other. They visit Chris''s mother in Carlisle. In June, Helen and Chris sit their A-levels. After they are over Helen tells Chris she has decided they should break up, believing it is best for both of them. Chris is bewildered, and feels bereft. To get away from all the memories in Sheffield, he goes to France with Tom. He meets a girl called Bryn, but cannot forget Helen. In September, Helen learns her mother''s greatest secret – that she is illegitimate, a great disgrace when she was growing up – and finally begins to understand her. When her contractions start, she has a sudden impulse to send her "Dear Nobody" letters to Chris. Chris finishes reading the letters, realizes the baby is coming and rushes to the hospital, where he meets his newborn daughter, Amy.

Dear Nobody

The central character David Eliot is a 12-year-old seventh son of a seventh son, cruelly mistreated by his parents. His father chooses a series of repressive boarding schools for him, where David does not perform well. After being expelled from his "last-chance" school, they receive at home the unexpected call from an unknown school, Groosham Grange, of which nobody has heard of before. This school, located on Skrull Island, an island off Norfolk, earnestly invites David to enter it. His father jumps at the chance to pack him off, especially since it appears that the place is suitably severe. He must take a train from Liverpool Street to King''s Lynn. On the train he meets two other new students, Jill Green and Jeffrey Joseph. A vicar sits with them and plays hymns on his guitar, but when they mention that they are going to Groosham Grange he suffers a heart attack. A hunchback called Gregor escorts them to the school. Along with Jill (seventh daughter of a seventh daughter) and Jeffrey, David anticipates more mistreatment, and makes a pact with them that they will escape at any cost. After they arrive, they start to learn strange things, are baffled by inexplicable disappearances, very peculiar teachers (including a werewolf and a ghost), assorted frights—and an absence of punishments. They are determined to solve the mystery of the school, but then Jeffrey begins acting suspiciously, seeming to side with the other students rather than with David and Jill. David manages to get a message to the outside world via a note in a bottle, but the school inspector sent to investigate is dealt with permanently courtesy of Mrs. Windergast''s black magic. Jill helps David run away, but she gets caught. It is then that he learns that he has been recruited to a school for wizards and witches because he is a wizard himself, and that the staff hopes to help him unleash his full potential as the other students do. This must all be kept secret from normal, non-magical people. David must decide if he will remain at Groosham Grange or not. His dilemma lies in his wish to avoid evil, but the Headmaster tempts him with the promises that he can learn "how to make gold out of lead, how to destroy your enemies just by snapping your fingers... [and] to see into the future and use it for yourself."

Groosham Grange

Already known as a critic of affirmative action or race-based hiring and promotion, Sowell, himself African-American, analyzes the specific effects of such policies on India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria, four countries with longer multiethnic histories and then compares them with the recent history of the United States in this regard. He finds that "Such programs have at best a negligible impact on the groups they are intended to assist." A sample of his thinking about the danger of perpetual racial preferences is this passage from p. 7: "People differ - and have for centuries.... Any ''temporary'' policy whose duration is defined by the goal of achieving something that has never been achieved before, anywhere in the world, could more fittingly be characterized as eternal." According to Dutch Martin''s review of this book: :Among the common consequences of preference policies in the five-country sample are: *They encourage non-preferred groups to redesignate themselves as members of preferred groups (1) to take advantage of group preference policies; *They tend to benefit primarily the most fortunate among the preferred group (e.g. Black millionaires), often to the detriment of the least fortunate among the non-preferred groups (e.g., poor Whites); *They reduce the incentives of both the preferred and non-preferred to perform at their best &mdash; the former because doing so is unnecessary and the latter because it can prove futile &mdash; thereby resulting in net losses for society as a whole. Sowell concludes: "Despite sweeping claims made for affirmative action programs, an examination of their actual consequences makes it hard to support those claims, or even to say that these programs have been beneficial on net balance."

Affirmative Action Around the World

Since a young age, Nora has been secretly hiding her extraordinary intelligence from her parents and teachers, and still trying her best to do badly in school to prove to herself as "nothing more than average." She shows no concern over it and gets grounded by her parents. However, after researching things over the Internet in the school''s library, Nora accidentally exposes herself and is forced to tell the truth to the librarian, Mrs. Byrne, who is fascinated by her intelligence. Then, she meets Dr. Trindler, who gives her an I.Q. test, on which she receives a score of 188. After that, Nora unintentionally throws a tantrum before her classmates, her talents finally uncovered. She is forced to discuss and give good ideas during P.E. class, though she has trouble doing so. Things take a turn when her results get released. She has to face Ms. Hackney, the principal of Philbrook Elementary, to explain herself for scoring a zero on three tests. She explains that she dislikes the tests for being too knowledge-based, but her actions soon cause a great commotion in school when her best friend, Stephen, starts a campaign to call upon all students to follow her act and start a rebellion - to score zero in the next examination. In the end, after a school meeting, Stephen and Nora apologize on behalf of the involved students before the whole school. She rejects any offer from her parents and the school to promote her to middle school for higher education, as she prefers to stay normal. Nora Rose Rowley: The main character of the story and secretive genius. Her appearance is described as being short with reddish-blond hair. Researching is her favorite hobby. She was so intelligent by kindergarten, that she taught herself to understand Spanish by watching the Univision channel and to read National Geographic. Nora loves astronomy, Latin, archaeology, and soccer. Her mother describes Nora as thoughtful, kind and caring. She has two siblings: Ann and Todd. Her best friend is Stephen who has average intelligence but still gets better grades than Nora. Stephen: Nora''s best friend. He has been struggling with school for a long time. His self-confidence is poor due to low grades. His favorite subject is English. He has never said one mean or angry thing. Ms. Hackney: The principal at Nora''s school. She is one of the people in the meeting to explain her low grades. Mrs. Byrne: The librarian at Philbrook Elementary School. She was one of the first to find out about Nora''s unusually high intelligence and played a large role in carrying out her plan. Mrs. Lake: Her Teacher. Dr. Trindler: The guidance counselor. Ms. Noyes: Nora''s Social Studies and English teacher. Mrs. Zhang: Nora''s Science and Math teacher. Ms. Prill: Nora''s art teacher. Mrs. Card: Nora''s music teacher. Mr. McKay: Nora''s PE (gym) teacher. Mrs. Rowley: Mother Tyler: A very unusual kid. Todd: Nora''s older brother Ann: Nora''s older smart sister

The Report Card

Harold Barnaby is a brilliant Egyptologist who has discovered a hidden message while translating some hieroglyphics. The message tells of an unnamed Pharaoh whose tomb hasn''t been discovered yet. Barnaby is exhilarated by the discovery and the prospect of the fame and fortune that will come with it. There is only one problem. He doesn''t have the knowledge, influence or wherewithal to pull off such a job without alerting the Egyptian authorities who would surely encroach on his discovery. Luckily, Barnaby meets Robert Pierce, a transient freelance writer who is in between jobs and looking for some excitement. In a moment of drunken indiscretion, Barnaby shares his discovery with Pierce along with his small logistical problem. Pierce, who because of his job has many friends in high—and low—places, offers his services to plan and manage the "extraction". For a cut, of course. He brings on Lord Grover, the fifth Earl of Wheatston to bankroll the project; smuggler Alan Conway; and international thief, Nikos Karagannis. Together, this motley crew set up camp in the harsh conditions of the Egyptian desert and "dig in" for the long haul. Their task is made all-the-more challenging when an Egyptian official becomes suspicious of their activities. tr:Easy Go

Easy Go

The theme can be summarized by a quote from the book: "If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless." (p.&nbsp;199) Edward Tulane is a china rabbit given to a ten-year-old girl named Abilene by her grandmother. He enjoys a pleasant but vain life with his young mistress, who treats him with the utmost love and respect, until an unfortunate incident finds him falling overboard while vacationing on an ocean liner. Edward spends 297 days in the ocean''s depths, until a passing fisherman and his buddy pulls him free. The man takes him home to his wife where he is renamed and forced to wear dresses. Edward is passed from hand to hand of a succession of life-altering characters, such as a hobo and his dog and a girl with pneumonia and her brother. Edward''s journeys not only take him far from home, but even farther from the selfish rabbit he once was. Edward is eventually cruelly broken against a counter top edge and then repaired and offered for sale in a doll store for several years, and is finally bought by the same mistress he once knew, but now older and more mature, with a daughter of her own.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Jim Pooley and John Omally live in the London borough of Brentford, spending much of their time drinking in the Flying Swan, backing horses, womanising, and being generally feckless. Their problems start when Archroy''s wife sells his beloved Morris Minor for five magic beans. Or perhaps they start when a hideous tramp appears in the neighbourhood, putting the wind up Neville the part-time barman something rotten. To cut a long story short, the tramp is none other than Pope Alexander VI, the last of the Borgias, and the beans grow into hideous homunculi, whose only purpose is to serve their dark master, the Antipope. Pope Alexander takes up residence in the local Seaman''s Mission, and eventually there is a final showdown between the forces of good and evil, with Alexander and his bean-men on one side, and the massed might of Brentford on the other, including Pooley and Omally, Professor Slocombe, Father Moity, and Archroy, now a master of Dim Mak, a deadly martial art. Before the denouement, though, there are numerous sub-plots such as Channel-wading, a cowboy night at the Flying Swan, a trip underground with Soap Distant, and meetings with several other interesting characters, like builders Hairy Dave and Jungle John, and the elusive Other Sam.

The Antipope

Myra Breckinridge is an attractive young woman with a mission. She is a film buff with a special interest in the Golden Age of Hollywood—in particular the 1940s—and the writings of real-life film critic Parker Tyler. She comes to the Academy for Aspiring Young Actors and Actresses, owned by her deceased husband Myron''s uncle, Buck Loner. Myra gets a job teaching, not just her regular classes (Posture and Empathy), but also, as part of the hidden curriculum, female dominance. Myra selects as her first victim one of the "studs" at the Academy, a straight young man called Rusty Godowsky, and sets out to alienate him from his beautiful girlfriend Mary-Ann Pringle. She lures Rusty to the school infirmary, where she verbally abuses him, ties him to an exam table and anally rapes him with a strap-on dildo. Later, after she is injured in a car crash, it is learned that Myra is Myron, still in the process of sexual reassignment surgery; unable to obtain hormones, Myra reverts to Myron, and, as a result of the injuries she has sustained, is forced to have her breast implants removed. Now a male eunuch, Myron decides to settle down with Mary-Ann. The subplot of Myra Breckinridge revolves around the character of Letitia Van Allen, an aging, sexually voracious talent scout whom Myra meets and befriends at the academy, whose office boasts a four-poster bed and whose kinky sexual practices ("Those small attentions a girl like me cherishes… a lighted cigarette stubbed out on my derrière, a complete beating with his great thick heavy leather belt…") landed her in hospital, "half paralyzed", at the same time Myra finds herself there towards the end of the novel. The spirit of the times is also well reflected in another, earlier chapter (Ch. 14) where Myra attends an orgy arranged by one of the students. She goes, intending only to be an observer, but suffers a "rude intrusion" by a member of the band The Four Skins, from which she derives a perverse, masochistic enjoyment. At an earlier regular party, after "mixing gin and marijuana", she eventually gets "stoned out of her head" and has a fit, then passes out in a bathroom.

Myra Breckinridge

The story opens with the four child-mages and their teachers at the end of a caravan. Rosethorn, Briar''s teacher, stops to examine the tree-litter and while she does this, Daja catches a glimpse of a forest fire miles off. Tris, Briar, and Sandry all turn to look at the fire while Rosethorn asks their local guide when the last time was that they had a forest fire. However, their guide only laughs and says their mage, called Firetamer, takes care of all their fires, just like his father did. The caravan moves on, but Daja still has an uneasy feeling about the huge fire, noting how fire could be her friend and enemy. The caravan stops in a small town to study magic and assist the Duke of Emelan with the drought. As Daja is working in the smithy, a woman, a wirok, a scorned Trader who negotiates with lugsha, tradesmen, stops by to talk to the smith. As she notices the blank cap on Daja''s Trader staff which signifies her exile status, the Trader refuses to talk to her. Moments later, Daja loses control of her magic because of her anger, putting energy into a clump of melted iron. Soon, it turns into a branch and the Trader is stunned. Throughout the book, Daja and the Trader converse in a bargain for the ''living metal''. All of the student''s magic is so strongly combined that Sandry is forced to create a map of their magic, which she can use to separate their twined magic. Their teachers first noticed the mixed magic when Briar and Sandry used lightning by accident. While Daja is on her way to the privy, she releases a stream of hot water from within the earth, which spills out onto the stones before her. She and Briar investigate, finding that one of the hot springs leads to an area of ice/glaciers. Melting the water would refill the drying lake, saving one of the town''s problems. They also discover a vein of copper which could be used to replenish the town''s supply and stimulate trade. While all the teachers and students are at a watch tower, a huge fire erupts, utilizing all the mast that had built up in the years that Yarrun Firetamer had been suppressing all the fires. After the conceited fire tamer dies in an attempt to stop the fire, the rest of the people try to stop it. Daja is caught in the middle, though, and has to first convince the caravan she is riding with to listen to her, and then stop heading for the fire. She saves the caravan by thrusting all of the fire into a vein in the earth which leads to the glacier. Lastly, Daja creates a living metal leg with the copper which is now a part of her for the wirok, restoring the wirok''s ability to work with horses, her original job. Daja is a trangshi, a Trader word which literally means "doesn''t exist" or "bad luck." In the end, however, she becomes a Trader again because she had gained enough zokin, or honor, by saving the Tenth Caravan Idaram from the huge forest fire.

Daja''s Book

The novel deals with the confrontation between Nick Fury and the Ultimates, and the self-styled "Tomorrow Men", who claim to have travelled two centuries back in time to seek the help of the Ultimates in combating Tiber, a criminal organization which, in their future, has ruined the entire planet; the Tomorrow Men prove their claim using various future knowledge, such as revealing the presence of a small device in Steve Rogers'' brain that was planted in case the Super-Soldier Serum drove him insane. However, during a mission Iron Man is accidentally transferred into the Tomorrow Men''s future, where he learns that not only is it merely an alternate future—it actually diverged from their own reality at some point prior to the Tomorrow Men''s arrival in the Ultimates'' world—but that the Tomorrow Men are actually working for Tiber, seeking to expand into other worlds. Taking advantage of the differences between the technology developed by him and that developed by his counterpart at this point in his life, Iron Man is able to take the Tibers by surprise when they attempt to boil him out of his armour- diverting the heat into his armour''s power cells- and return home, warning the team about the Tomorrow Men and forcing them to retreat before Thor destroys the portal they used to gain access.

Tomorrow Men

Michael "Beau" Geste is the protagonist. The main narrator (among others), by contrast, is his younger brother John. The three Geste brothers of Brandon Abbas are used as a metaphor for the British upper class values of a time gone by, and "the decent thing to do" is, in fact, the leitmotif of the novel. The Geste brothers are orphans and have been brought up by their aunt. The rest of Beau''s band are mainly Isobel and Claudia (only daughter of Lady Patricia, and in a way, also reason enough for Michael to join the French Foreign Legion), and Lady Patricia''s relative Augustus. When a precious jewel known as the "Blue Water" goes missing, suspicion falls on the young people, and Beau leaves Britain to join the Foreign Legion (la Légion étrangère), followed by his brothers, Digby (his twin) and John. There, after some adventure and separation from Digby, the sadistic Sergeant Lejaune gets command of the little garrison at Fort Zinderneuf in French North Africa, and only an attack by Tuaregs prevents a mutiny and mass desertion (of course the Geste brothers and a few loyals are against the plot). Throughout the book and adventures, Beau''s behaviour is true to France and the Legion, and he dies at his post. At Brandon Abbas, the last survivor of the three brothers, John, is welcomed by their aunt and his fiancée Isobel, and the reason for the jewel theft is revealed to have been a matter of honour, and to have been the only "decent thing" possible.

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Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers

No Author Listed

Dear Nobody

By Doherty

Groosham Grange

By Anthony Horowitz

Affirmative Action Around the World

By Thomas Sowell

The Report Card

By Andrew Clements

Easy Go

By Michael Crichton

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

By Kate DiCamillo

The Antipope

By Robert Rankin

Myra Breckinridge

By Gore Vidal

Daja's Book

By Tamora Pierce

Tomorrow Men

No Author Listed

Beau Geste

By P. C. Wren