In the clique-filled world of secondary school there is a clear social hierarchy, and researchers at the University of Michigan believe they've found the formula that unlocks its secrets.
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At this point one of two things tends to happen: either the atheist remains in the clique that inflates their superiority complex and the atheist eventually loses interest in the movement, or the atheist learns a thing or two about how to properly address theist claims in more than just canned or general terms.
The author's insights into Mrs Thatcher's working methods and the strange clique of zealots who provided her with the intellectual confidence to change Britain are fascinating.
But even Mr Karadzic's arrest would not mean the downfall of the Pale clique.
The unassuming 54-year-old says his international success has given him more creative freedom outside the Broadway clique.
In government as it was in opposition, true control is vested in the same clique that ran Labour's election campaign.
They want Mrs Plavsic to defeat the Pale clique, so that their efforts to knit Bosnia together have some chance of success.
Other women mentioned the eerie feeling that they were back in high school and once again desperately trying to impress the popular clique, this time with flattering photos and exciting updates.
Perhaps the same calculation has been made by the relatively small clique of Shia militants behind the renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Holding the leadership role in each clique was the person who best personified the attributes at the heart of the group.
The "realist" view was given clear expression this week by one of the "realist" clique's most prominent members.
Howson became established in the 1980s as one of the "New Glasgow Boys", a clique of painters concerned with portraying social issues.
Tom Hayden, who challenged Mr Riordan in the latest mayoral election, argues that the city is in effect governed by a clique of rich white men.
And when it comes to scary, Marcia Gay Harden's born-again proselytizer is fearsome enough to convince Drayton and his clique to take their chances with the beasties.
As most of us have experienced, high school is all about forming a clique and segregating that group from the other cliques in the battle for the top of the high school pecking order.
In part, this counters the accusation made during "Climategate" that climate scientists formed a tight clique who peer-reviewed each other's papers and made sure their own global warming narrative was the only one making it into print.
Mr Assad rapidly filled their positions, but in a country governed by a clique held together by personal loyalty, the dead men will not easily be replaced.
In the past, the real question has always been who will be chosen by Algeria's kingmakers, also known as le pouvoir, a fractious clique of senior army officers who like to govern from the shadows.
In the 1950s, prime minister Jigmi Dorji, Benji's father, led a clique of young nobles bent on modernizing Bhutan.
As a teenager, he was taken up by the European surrealists who had congregated in Mexico city, very much as an expatriate clique that did not bother to learn Spanish.
Hiroshi Mikitani is holding a glass of red wine and chatting up a clique of Silicon Valley tech execs at a swanky party for Pinterest, one of the hottest startups in social media.
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Perhaps one of the most interesting critiques of Ireland's blogging experiment comes from one of its veteran technology and social Web researchers, who says the blogosphere came to reflect the very vices of the establishment it ought to have been eviscerating: "It's an incestuous little clique that doesn't like criticism from without, " he said, asking not to be named given the sensitivity of his position.
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