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Almost every activity in the world now leaves numerous digital traces. What if a “wise king” or “benevolent dictator” had real-time access to all the data in the world? Could he take perfect decisions to benefit society? Could he predict the future? Could he control the world’s path? What would be the limits and side effects of such an approach? Or is the attempt to create a digital “crystal ball” to predict the future and a digital “magic wand” to control the world a dangerous dream?

Price decrease is often seen as the default action in a downturn. This was the case in the 2008/2009 financial crisis, and it is happening again right now in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic 2019/2020. But past experience shows that it is more often than not the best decision to make. Pricing is no magic wand. Price decrease will not necessarily create additional demand, but it will definitely leave a dent on the margin. Especially in the B2B sector, price is usually not the decisive criterion for a purchase decision. If clients are complaining about the price, there is oftentimes something else that they are not happy with, be it product- or service-related. Price cut is obviously not the remedy.

This chapter discusses Arnold Sommerfeld’s research on the intensity problem for multiplets and his application of the correspondence principle in the context of atomic spectroscopy, which he developed in collaboration with his students Werner Heisenberg and Helmut Honl. The analysis is based on published research papers as well as on unpublished materials from the period 1921 to 1926.

It is crystal clear that we can count several reasons to learn English language. People all over the world learn English as a second or foreign language. Authorities contain English language in their school syllabuses, and students begin learning it at a very young age. It is the language of science, technology, trade, diplomacy, and many other fields. Competency in using English enhances the possibility of having a good job in home country or abroad. It is simply the magic wand of several opportunities. However, how different groups like Cono tribe regard English is an intriguing issue that needs to be investigated. Considering all these dimensions, this study investigates the attitudes of a diverse group, in our case Cono tribe, towards the importance of English language education at early ages. Based upon a descriptive research design, an interview designed by the researchers was directed to the members of the mentioned group. The findings of the study bring diverse views of the studied group. Besides, the results obtained from this descriptive study may prove to be of some help for the researchers in the related research area.

Transforming the landscape as a launchpad for demographic growth—From the Neolithic Revolution to the Industrial Revolution—Passionaries, conflict and demographic change—Demographic stabilization in developed countries, demographic explosion in developing countries—Do we follow the r-strategy or K-strategy of population—Energy’s “magic wand” for extreme population growth—Is there enough time to complete the demographic transition?

The essay explores the origins of the divining rod and its various uses from the beginnings until the twenty-first century. The diving rod is a magical instrument which is – in contrast to an unspecific magic wand – supposed to be apt to locate objects. From the late fifteenth century onwards, mining professionals as well as lay persons engaging in treasure hunts used the divining rod. Water witching first appeared in the late sixteenth century. Even though some mostly Protestant hardliners condemned dowsing as magic, various authors suggested natural explanations for the alleged efficacy of dowsing. A closer examination of a variety of sources reveals that in the early modern period dowsers were supposed to find virtually anything from suitable building sites to criminals on the run from the law. The divining rod was the universal tool of divination. The key to the enduring success of the divining rod is its simplicity and its cheapness combined with its essentially unlimited applicability.

This paper presents tactics for reasoning about the assertions of separation logic. We formalise our proof methods in Isabelle/HOL based on Klein et al.’s separation algebra library. Our methods can also be used in other separation logic frameworks that are instances of the separation algebra of Calcagno et al. The first method, \( separata \), is based on an embedding of a labelled sequent calculus for abstract separation logic (ASL) by Hou et al. The second method, \( starforce \), is a refinement of separata with specialised proof search strategies to deal with separating conjunction and magic wand. We also extend our tactics to handle pointers in the heap model, giving a third method \( sepointer \). Our tactics can automatically prove many complex formulae. Finally, we give two case studies on the application of our tactics.