Five to ten seconds.After that, the filter kicks in.In our day and age, five to ten seconds is usually all the time we’re given to persuade someone that what we have to say is worthy of his or her time. You and I live in a world suffering from a relentless bombardment of information. Television, social media, advertising, acquaintances, friends, and family all vie for time and an attentive ear. If we don’t adapt and learn to filter out what we believe does not apply to us, w...

Reinhold Niebuhr, the prominent American theologian, was one of the few religious figures who had a significant impact on the broader society outside the theological community in the United States during the twentieth century. Niebuhr's influence was most pronounced among those associated with historical studies and politics. This book presents Niebuhr in dialogue with seven individuals who each had a major influence on American life: the theologian Paul Tillich, philosopher/educator John ...

Four childhood friends in present-day New Orleans are torn apart by envy, passion, and a secret murder.Five years ago, Meredith, Brandon, Greg, and Stephen quickly discover the fragile boundaries between friendship and betrayal as they enter high school and form new allegiances. Meredith, Brandon, and Greg gain popularity, while Stephen is viciously treated as an outcast. Then two violent deaths destroy the already delicate bonds of their friendship.When the friends are dra...

*** W****ith a foreword from England superstar, Declan Rice.***Are you obsessed with football and want to know how to make it your future? Well, now you can!Football isn't just about becoming a pro. In fact, there are hundreds of people who help make magic on the pitch, whether it's the architect who designed the stadium, the coder who created your favourite game or the physio who got the star player fighting fit again....

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man who wants to receive his bride on their wedding day must overcome hellish obstacles designed by a sadistic gaggle of bridesmaids in a traditional activity popularly termed as 'gatecrashing'. Contrary to popular belief, gatecrashing is hardly a time-honoured Chinese wedding tradition. So how did this activity attain its hallowed position in Singapore Chinese culture today? A writer attempts to find out how gatecrashing in Singapore came abou...

A writer makes a trip back to his hometown for the yearly Chinese New Year festivities, but later regrets this decision with the Wuhan Virus (now known as COVID-19) lurking in the community and the city on the brink of lockdown. This is a recount of his harrowing experience. © 2020 by Rice Media. Published online in Singapore by Rice Media, recorded by Storyside 2020.

Extreme forms of dieting are not uncommon within the fitness community. There are people who bring their own food to buffets, or completely abstain from sustenance for hours if not days (read: intermittent fasting). So how do fitness enthusiasts who boast thousands of followers on Instagram manage to keep up with strict diets and gruelling 6-days-a-week training routines (AND documenting it on Instagram) without going crazy like a certain RICE Media writer? © 2020 by Rice Media. Published ...

As careers go, it doesn't get more exciting or glamorous than 'London-based advertising executive.' The money is excellent, the job scope is interesting, and come on, for chrissake, it's London. But for Bjorn Low, who held that enviable position of London Ad Man, success had become routine. After 7 years of hustling, he reached the senior echelons but he desperately wanted to do something else with his life. The turning point came when Bjorn and his wife left for the English countryside. H...

Samuel Johnson famously referred to his future biographer, the unsociable magistrate Sir John Hawkins, as “a most unclubbable man." Conversely, this celebratory volume gathers distinguished eighteenth-century studies scholars to honor the achievements, professional generosity, and sociability of Greg Clingham, taking as its theme textual and social group formations. Here, Philip Smallwood examines the “mirrored minds” of Johnson and Shakespeare, while David Hopkins parses intersec...

Calculus of Thought: Neuromorphic Logistic Regression in Cognitive Machines is a must-read for all scientists about a very simple computation method designed to simulate big-data neural processing. This book is inspired by the Calculus Ratiocinator idea of Gottfried Leibniz, which is that machine computation should be developed to simulate human cognitive processes, thus avoiding problematic subjective bias in analytic solutions to practical and scientific problems. The reduced error logis...

When former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels was named Purdue University’s twelfth president, he became one of a small handful of nationally renowned figures to lead an institution of higher education. In an era when university presidents had largely abandoned the role of public intellectual, Daniels immediately captured broad attention for his willingness to take a thoughtful stand on America’s most pressing challenges—in academia and far beyond.Boiler Up: A University President...

A shocking death exposes dangerous forces of seduction, obsession, and vengeance lurking beneath the idyllic surface of a prestigious New England university.It is more than just the late November weather that has cast a chill over the campus of Atherton University. When the wife of respected professor Eric Eberman is killed in a tragic accident, his secret student lover, Randall Stone, fears the professor tried to avert career suicide by committing homicide. Or do the dead woman’s ...