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The strategic value of competitive information to a corporation has received increased attention in management, business practice and information literature. This paper describes the role the staff of a special library can play in obtaining and processing competitive information. It is suggested that a library should make an effort to become the centre of a company's environmental scanning programme. The librarians in a special library are well‐positioned to become a valid part of the corporate information environment, but they must become more proactive in promoting and defending their library within their own company.

The planning and evaluation of new ventures in mining and mineral processing requires strategic information of the highest quality. However, specialised technical information on mining and related activities is poorly represented in the electronic media. Africa has been particularly neglected by the international information industry, even in comparison with other developing areas of the world, and African countries typically lack the resources to fund and develop their own information services. Increased cooperation between the mining and information industries, and between the developing countries, is needed to remedy the situation.

This paper aims to summarize the major theoretical elements in the definition of a global ruling class. It then examines how neoconservatives in the USA took power and used regime change to install US-friendly governments in other regions. A strategy of tension is used to press the American population into conformity. But the real revolution is to what extent factual politics escape any attempt to democratic control.

The research relies on case studies of material already published and provides a synthesis.

Three case studies show how far the Deep State already goes. Democracy is on the brink of survival.

This paper is an original hypothesis of the potential end of democracy as we know it, supported by empirical data.

This chapter presents two examples of misinterpretation of the philosophical term and historical concept of human dignity in contemporary legal theory and practice. Current legal theories (R. Alexy) still introduce Pico’s concept of dignity regarding the human personality and personal (volitional and rational) abilities. The term ‘dignity’ is marginal for Pico and shows the spiritual way to the status of the original Adam. Pico’s concept of dignity is located in the area of spirit (hyperphysics), not metaphysics (soul) or physics (materials). Günter Dürig in his commentary to Grundgesetz also used the Kantian concept of human dignity. Dürig exaggerated this value and used it also for the area of physics (to protect the human being as a personality). For Kant, the term ‘dignity’ was also marginal, and he used it in the area of metaphysics (soul – especially the moral and rational parts), regarding transcendence for homo noumenon, not for homo phaenomenon. In general, it seems to be problematic to use the ideal of the dignity for the law, which regulates the social relations between concrete phenomenal personalities. There are parallels to Pico. The Kantian starting point was different from Pico, because Kant stays in the area of metaphysics (especially the moral and rational parts). Both consider freedom as a condition of dignity. The concept of autonomy of will is significant for both, but each thinks of it in different ways. For both, human being can become master of oneself, but in a different context.

The remote sensing data have become the irreplaceable source of data for the regions with little or without rainfall data, but these data also require scientific analysis, correction and application. This paper uses FY-2 rainfall data and the case studies of the droughts occurred in the Weihe River Basin from 2006 to 2009 to monitor the spatial and temporal evolution of climatic droughts. The monitoring results indicate that: (1) Except for 2008 which was a dry year, the other years in the Weihe River Basin had normal dry/wet conditions; (2) From October 2008 to January 2009, the rainfall was significantly reduced across the Weihe River Basin, and the continual rainfall was even less than 1 mm for December and January with a precipitation anomaly percentage lower than -80%, a sign of severe climatic drought. But the rainfall has improved since February 2009, when the precipitation reached 17.8 mm and Pa exceeded 100%, which helped to relieve the stress from drought resistance. A heavy precipitation continued for four months from June to September 2008, with the Pa exceeding 50%; (3) Due to the better temporal and spatial continuity than the ground-based meteorological observation, FY-2 precipitation data have good application prospects in the meteorological drought monitoring at a national or regional macro-scale.