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The Last Centurion
''The Last Centurion'' is a 2008 stand-alone novel by John Ringo. It is written in "blog style" from the point of view of a U.S. Army officer known as "Bandit Six". The novel is set in a post apocalyptic world that has been ravaged by a brief ice age and disease. Plot "Bandit Six", the book's protagonist, discusses his adventures following a withdrawal from the Middle East by U.S. forces in a time of chaos and disease. He commands a Stryker company that is left behind in Iran to guard a U.S. military equipment depot after a worldwide outbreak of mutated bird flu. He and his company repeat the journey of the Ten Thousand to return home, where he assists in agricultural recovery efforts and leads a military operation to regain control of a major American city. Themes The novel touches on many different subjects. Although the military action is the focal point, health care, climate change, socialized medicine, disaster relief, and social responsibility are also examined in depth. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Ringo
John Ringo (born March 22, 1963) is an American science fiction and military fiction author. He has had several ''New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...'' best sellers. His books range from straightforward science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. He has over seven million copies of his books in print, and his works have been translated into seven different languages. Life and career Ringo's father "was a civil engineer with an international firm"; before Ringo graduated in 1981 from Winter Park High School in Winter Park, Florida, he had spent time in 23 foreign countries, attending classes at fourteen schools. Among the countries he spent the most time in were Greece, Iran and Switzerland before he settled with his parents and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ten Thousand (Greek)
The Ten Thousand (, ''hoi Myrioi'') were a force of mercenary units, mainly Ancient Greece, Greeks, employed by Cyrus the Younger to attempt to wrest the throne of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Their march to the Battle of Cunaxa and back to Greece (401–399 BC) was recorded by Xenophon, one of their leaders, in his work ''Anabasis (Xenophon), Anabasis''. Campaign Between 401 and 399 BC, the Ten Thousand marched across Anatolia, fought the Battle of Cunaxa, and then marched back to Greece. Xenophon stated in ''Anabasis (Xenophon), Anabasis'' that the Greek heavy troops routed their opposition twice at Cunaxa at the cost of only one Greek soldier wounded. Only after the battle did they hear that Cyrus had been killed, making their victory irrelevant and the expedition a failure. The Ten Thousand found themselves far from home with no food, no employer, and no reliable allies. They offered to make their Persian ally Ariaeus king, but h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2008 American Novels
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. Etymology English ''eight'', from Old English '', æhta'', Proto-Germanic ''*ahto'' is a direct continuation of Proto-Indo-European '' *oḱtṓ(w)-'', and as such cognate with Greek and Latin , both of which stems are reflected by the English prefix oct(o)-, as in the ordinal adjective ''octaval'' or ''octavary'', the distributive adjective is ''octonary''. The adjective ''octuple'' (Latin ) may also be used as a noun, meaning "a set of eight items"; the diminutive '' octuplet'' is mostly used to refer to eight siblings delivered in one birth. The Semitic numeral is based on a root ''*θmn-'', whence Akkadian ''smn-'', Arabic ''ṯmn-'', Hebrew ''šmn-'' etc. The Chinese numeral, written ( Mandarin: ''bā''; Cantonese: ''baat''), is from Old Chinese ''*priāt-'', ultimately from Sino-Tibetan ''b-r-gyat'' or ''b-g-ryat'' which also yielded Tibetan '' brgyat''. It has been argued that, as the cardinal n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xenophon
Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been part of Cyrus the Younger's attempt to seize control of the Achaemenid Empire. As the military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge wrote, "the centuries since have devised nothing to surpass the genius of this warrior". For at least two millennia, it has been debated whether or not Xenophon was first and foremost a general, historian, or philosopher. For the majority of time in the past two millennia, Xenophon was recognized as a philosopher. Quintilian in Institutio Oratoria, ''The Orator's Education'' discusses the most prominent historians, orators and philosophers as examples of eloquence and recognizes Xenophon's historical work, but ultimately places Xenophon next to Plato as a philosopher. Today, Xenophon is recognized as one of the gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anabasis (Xenophon)
''Anabasis'' ( ; ; ) is the most famous work of the Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek professional soldier and writer Xenophon. It gives an account of the expedition of the Ten Thousand (Greek), Ten Thousand, an army of Greek mercenaries hired by Cyrus the Younger to help him seize the throne of Achaemenid Empire, Persia from his brother, Artaxerxes II, in 401 BC. The seven books making up the ''Anabasis'' were composed . Although as an Ancient Greek vocabulary word () meaning 'embarkation', 'ascent' or 'mounting up', the title ''Anabasis'' has been rendered by some translators as ''The March Up Country'' or as ''The March of the Ten Thousand''. The story of the army's journey across Asia Minor and Mesopotamia is Xenophon's best known work and "one of the great adventures in human history". Authorship Xenophon, in his ''Hellenica#Xenophon's Hellenica, Hellenica'', did not cover the retreat of Cyrus but instead referred the reader to the ''Anabasis'' by "Themistogenes of Syracuse"� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Responsibility
Social responsibility is an ethical concept in which a person works and cooperates with other people and organizations for the benefit of the community. An organization can demonstrate social responsibility in several ways, for instance, by donating, encouraging volunteerism, using ethical hiring procedures, and making changes that benefit the environment. Social responsibility is an individual responsibility that involves a balance between the economy and the ecosystem one lives within, and possible trade-offs between economic development, and the welfare of society and the environment. Social responsibility pertains not only to business organizations but also to everyone whose actions impact the environment. History Writers in the classical Western philosophical tradition acknowledged the importance of social responsibility for human thriving. Aristotle Aristotle determined that "Man is by nature a political animal." He saw ethics and politics as mutually-reinforcing: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disaster Relief
Emergency management (also Disaster management) is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actually focus on the management of emergencies; emergencies can be understood as minor events with limited impacts and are managed through the day-to-day functions of a community. Instead, emergency management focuses on the management of disasters, which are events that produce more impacts than a community can handle on its own. The management of disasters tends to require some combination of activity from individuals and households, organizations, local, and/or higher levels of government. Although many different terminologies exist globally, the activities of emergency management can be generally categorized into preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery, although other terms such as disaster risk reduction and prevention are also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Socialized Medicine
Socialized medicine is a term used in the United States to describe and discuss systems of universal health care—medical and hospital care for all by means of government regulation of health care and subsidies derived from taxation. Because of historically negative associations with socialism in American culture, the term is usually used pejoratively in American political discourse. (cited as an example of a standard propaganda device) The term was first widely used in the United States by advocates of the American Medical Association in opposition to President Harry S. Truman's 1947 health care initiative. It was later used in opposition to Medicare. The Affordable Care Act has been described in terms of socialized medicine, but the act's objective is rather socialized insurance, not government ownership of hospitals and other facilities as is common in other nations. Background The original meaning was confined to systems in which the government operates health care faciliti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Health Care
Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health professionals and allied health professions, allied health fields. Medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, midwifery, nursing, optometry, audiology, psychology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, athletic training, and other health professions all constitute health care. The term includes work done in providing primary care, wikt:secondary care, secondary care, tertiary care, and public health. Access to health care may vary across countries, communities, and individuals, influenced by social and economic conditions and health policy, health policies. Providing health care services means "the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best possible health outcom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Action
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a distinct military uniform. They may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of a military is usually defined as defence of their state and its interests against external armed threats. In broad usage, the terms "armed forces" and "military" are often synonymous, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include other paramilitary forces such as armed police. Beyond warfare, the military may be employed in additional sanctioned and non-sanctioned functions within the state, including internal security threats, crowd control, promotion of political agendas, emergency services and reconstructi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Influenza A Virus
''Influenza A virus'' (''Alphainfluenzavirus influenzae'') or IAV is the only species of the genus ''Alphainfluenzavirus'' of the virus family '' Orthomyxoviridae''. It is a pathogen with strains that infect birds and some mammals, as well as causing seasonal flu in humans. Mammals in which different strains of IAV circulate with sustained transmission are bats, pigs, horses and dogs; other mammals can occasionally become infected. IAV is an enveloped negative-sense RNA virus, with a segmented genome. Through a combination of mutation and genetic reassortment the virus can evolve to acquire new characteristics, enabling it to evade host immunity and occasionally to jump from one species of host to another. Subtypes of IAV are defined by the combination of the antigenic H and N proteins in the viral envelope; for example, "H1N1" designates an IAV subtype that has a type-1 hemagglutinin (H) protein and a type-1 neuraminidase (N) protein. Almost all possible combinations of H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Science Fiction
Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction and military fiction that depicts the use of science fiction technology, including spaceships and science fiction weapons, weapons, for military purposes and usually principal characters who are members of a military organization, usually during a war; occurring sometimes in outer space or on a different planet or planets. It exists in a range of media, including literature, comics, film, television and video games. A detailed description of the conflict, belligerents (which may involve extraterrestrials), tactics and weapons used for it, and the role of a military service and the individual members of that military organization form the basis for a typical work of military science fiction. The stories often use features of actual past or current Earth conflicts, with countries being replaced by planets or galaxies with similar characteristics, battleships replaced by space battleships, small arms and artillery replaced b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
