The Miracle

Simon Mannheim, world-renowned mentalist, is livid. His show has just ended, and in his hotel room he watches an exposé on cable news decrying his craft as a hoax— timed, no doubt, to follow his recent pay-per-view spectacular. He watches clips of himself explaining that all things are connected, his power a simple matter of harnessing the natural electrochemical energy of the brain and projecting it outward, touching the aura of objects, people, even the very air, and gently pushing until they conform to his will. The segment edits in the phrase “conform to my will” five different times, as if to make him look like a madman. Then, a lengthy narrative on a twenty-year-old University of Minnesota student who was killed attempting Mannheim’s “train trick” just after his St. Paul show

MS Excel based Software Support Tools for Decision Problems with Multiple Criteria

AbstractDecision making in real practice is usually connected with multiple criteria. Multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) and data envelopment analysis models, even they solve different problem classes, belong to the most often used modeling techniques in this field. Their wider using is often limited by availability of appropriate software tools. The paper presents two freeware software systems that are available for downloading on the author's web pages. The first system is DEA Excel Solver and the second one is Sanna – application for multi-criteria evaluation of alternatives. DEA Excel Solver covers basic DEA models and uses internal MS Excel optimization solver. The application includes standard envelopment models with constant and variable returns to scale including super-efficiency models. Sanna is a simple MS Excel based application for multi-criteria evaluation of alternatives using several important MCDM methods (WSA, ELECTRE I and III, ORESTE, PROMETHEE, TOPSIS, and MAPPAC)

From Influx to Integration: How Germany’s Grassroots Organizations are Supporting Refugees

With the global trend of massive population displacement only expected to rise in the years to come, it will be more important than ever to understand how to successfully integrate large populations. Using Germany as a case study in the aftermath of the refugee crisis, this paper looks at the unique and important ways in which German grassroots organizations supporting refugees are contributing to successful integration, within that country’s larger aid ecosystem. Participants in this project, which was conducted in Berlin, Germany, included ten refugees, six grassroots organizations, one German volunteer, one social enterprise, one international non-governmental organization (NGO), a PhD candidate studying refugee shelters, two professors at Freie University, and a researcher at the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration. Results suggest these German grassroots organizations supporting refugees bridge a gap left by the government and other support actors, especially in the realm of social interconnection. Embedded in the community and using an egalitarian approach, grassroots organizations supporting refugees act as social connectors, helping refugees integrate into the community, while activating civil society to participate in “the two-way process” of integration. Although the results suggest that grassroots organizations’ support of refugees is not a sufficient substitute for the services and support offered by other aid actors, like the German government and NGOs, they are essential to promoting successful, sustainable integration and are worthy of additional recognition, research, and funding