The English Premier League (EPL) is the richest, and, arguably, the most competitive, soccer league in the world. It is dominated by a handful of wealthy teams that have used their financial clout to win most of the league's trophies. Yet an EPL club outside of this elite group has become known for its ability to beat the "money teams" and consistently achieve a ranking in the top half of the league. The team is Everton Football Club (EFC), in the city of Liverpool, England. On the other s...

Blockchain Meets Supply Chain: Rewiring Business Operations for the Digital Age is a primer for those who want to learn about blockchain applications in supply chain management, and how the technology could help to reshape the flow of goods and finance across the globe.   High-performing supply chains are critical to business success. It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, business logistics costs reached $1.48 trillion in 2015, a 2.6% increase over the previous year. &nb...

Chain Business Insights' new eBook by Co-founder and Research Principal, Ken Cottrill titled Blockchain in Smallholder Farming: Sowing the Seeds of Growth investigates how blockchain combined with agricultural technologies, such as precision farming could help improve productivity significantly, lift millions of smallholder farmers out of poverty and bolster the world’s food supply.Population growth, climate change and geopolitical unrest are putting pressure on food production – a...

Dramatic changes in the global demand for food, safety concerns and the rise of precision farming are among the challenges facing food supply chains. Can blockchain technology help the industry to meet these challenges at a time when it is also grappling with increasing supply chain complexity? Blockchain and the Future of Food: Driving Efficiency, Transparency and Trust in the Food Supply Chain examines these issues and the blockchain solutions that could help to transform food s...

Key themes and ideas presented in "The Theory of the Leisure Class" include:Conspicuous Consumption: Veblen introduces the concept of "conspicuous consumption," which refers to the public display of wealth through lavish spending on goods and services that serve primarily to demonstrate one's social status rather than fulfill practical needs.Leisure Class: Veblen discusses the emergence of a "leisure class" that engages in non-productive activities and conspicuous consumption as markers of...

The Inter City Firm…hard, terrifyingly vicious, brilliantly organised, tremendously feared and hihgly fashionable. They were the most notorious firm of the Seventies and Eighties football hooligans this country has ever seen. For the first time ever, all the aces of the West Ham firm reveal their memories and thoughts about the violence, the battles, the campaigns, the run-ins with the authorities, and all that came with it. Bestselling author Cass Pennant was one of the best-known figures...

“How can the NCAA blithely wreck careers without regard to due process or common fairness? How can it act so ruthlessly to enforce rules that are so petty? Why won’t anybody stand up to these outrageous violations of American values and American justice?”In the four years since Joe Nocera asked those questions in a controversial New York Times column, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has come under fire. Fans have begun to realize that the athl...

In virtually every sport in which they are given opportunity to compete, people of African descent dominate. East Africans own every distance running record. Professional sports in the Americas are dominated by men and women of West African descent. Why have blacks come to dominate sports? Are they somehow physically better? And why are we so uncomfortable when we discuss this? Drawing on the latest scientific research, journalist Jon Entine makes an irrefutable case for black athletic sup...

With all-new reporting, a completely revised and updated second edition of the bestseller that takes down the Great Satan of college sports: the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).Every college sport picks its champion by a postseason tournament, except for one: Divsiion I-A football. Instead of a tournament, fans are subjected to the Bowl Championship Series, an arcane mix of polling and mathematical rankings that results in just two teams playing for the championship...

A journalist and mother of two athletic kids exposes the physical and emotional dangers of our over-the-top youth sports culture—and offers practical solutions for positive change.A decade ago, Joan Ryan’s exposé, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, changed the way we look at elite sports, namely figure skating and gymnastics. Today, there is another crisis in youth sports. It may affect any child, from the kindergartner on the soccer field to the high school at...

Train Your Brain to Energize Your LifeIn The Sharp Solution, Heidi Hanna introduces readers to a brain-based approach to realistic, sustainable energy management that supports a healthier brain, and as a result a healthier, happier body. By engaging our brain, we can strategically re-wire how we operate, creating more energy and improving productivity while simultaneously reducing stress. As a result, we become more focused and productive, flexible and res...

The Victor's Crown brings to vivid life the signal role of sport in the classical world. Ranging over a dozen centuries--from Archaic Greece through to the late Roman and early Byzantine empires--David Potter's lively narrative shows how sport, to the ancients, was not just a dim reflection of religion and politics but a potent social force in its own right. The passion for sport among the participants and fans of antiquity has been matched in history only by our own time. Potter ...