A fascinating exploration of how computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? Exploring how insights from computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives, 'Algorithms To Live By' helps to solve common decision-making problems and illuminate the workings of the human mind. When should you switch between different tasks, and how many tasks should you take on in the first place? How much messiness should you accept? What balance of new activities and familiar favourites is the most fulfilling? When computers face constraints of time and space, they too must untangle very human questions: how to have better hunches, when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices and how best to connect with others. And the solutions they've found have much to teach us. Acclaimed author Brian Christian and cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths show how the algorithms developed for computers can be... Views: 27
A marital spat at a carwash turns deadly––and Mabel Wickles, Parson’s Cove’s top amateur sleuth, isn’t buying the local police’s claim that the victim’s wife smashed him over the head with a brick. But when the woman confesses to the murder, Mabel decides to investigate the crime herself––along with help from her best friend Flori, her cat Sammy, and a busload of senior citizens from the local retirement home. However, Mabel doesn't know that there’s more calamity in store for her than just a spritzing at the carwash. Views: 27
A graduate student stumbles across an insidious plot to unleash nuclear terror on America's greatest cities in a blood-chillingly prescient tale from one of thriller fiction's twentieth-century masters Personable, good-looking, and a whiz at physics, graduate student Allan Diffenduffer "Duff" Bogan has a bright future ahead of him. But while staying at the home of an invalid widow in Florida, Duff makes a discovery that freezes his blood: a cache of uranium hidden in the locked closet of a fellow guest. The FBI is initially skeptical, but Duff knows all too well what his findings portend. Suddenly, not only is his future in jeopardy, the fate of millions of Americans hangs in the balance as well. If he cannot expose the horrific plot his nation's enemies set in motion years before, entire cities will be reduced to piles of radioactive rubble in an unthinkable nuclear nightmare stretching from coast to coast. And time, it seems, is rapidly running out. Views: 27
“Family Tree” by novelist Andrea N. Carr with a family saga where an incarcerated woman gains a four-day release to attend the funeral after her sister’s suicide. Story uncovers dark secrets with suspense and pacing that is in comparison to Raymond Carver. I’ve conducted an interview with the author on the power of storytelling to create empathy and change. Cristina Deptula, Literary Publicist Views: 26
Fully illustrated history of witchcraft and the black arts; including witch trials, black masses, spells, voodoo, covens and rituals, psychic powers, possessions, earth spirits, and werewolves. Views: 26
Thirty-four years have gone by since an ingenious biochemist, named Louis Picard, invented the ultimate anti-aging drug in 1981, that is known as Telomerax. An apocalyptic novel based on political and scientific facts, “The Last Enemy” blends reality and fiction with a reflection on human nature and her possible future Views: 25
Lifting the Hem of the Universe Spirits unbroken by the failed promise of the U.S.S. Dauntless, Captain Kathryn Janeway's indefatigable crew continues their odyssey of discovery through an enigmatic region of the Delta Quadrant, encountering a system inhabited by a species that, according to known physical laws, shouldn't exist. These unusual beings, the Monorhans, hover near the edge of extinction; technology from the Starship Voyager™ promises life. Janeway, compelled by the aliens' plight, dispatches Seven of Nine and Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres to the Monorhan homeworld. But an unexpected shock wave crashes the shuttle carrying Torres and Seven, catapulting Voyager into a place beyond the fabric of space-time. As B'Elanna and Seven wage an interpersonal war, Voyager struggles to prevail on an extradimensional battleground against an indefinable enemy. But fate has determined that one is inexorably linked to the other: the insurmountable chasm separating... Views: 25
The third instalment in the Ouroboros Series.Have you ever thought “just my luck!” after dropping your communication device for the third time in a week?
Cadet Nida Harper, a recruit to the United Galactic Coalition Academy, has – and worse. So imagine her surprise when she is detailed for a mission to the dark and mysterious planet Remus 12. Strange things are afoot on Remus 12, a dust-bowl which according to legend bursts to life once every five thousand years – with deadly consequences for the galaxy.
So join Nida as she deals, using all her accustomed style and flair, with the presence of a strange and uninvited guest in her own head, a commander who is convinced she’s the Coalition’s worst recruit in one thousand years, and an uncomfortably handsome Lieutenant Carson Blake.
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Mischief, Magic, Love and War.It is the Year of Our Lord 1601. The Tuscan War rages across the world, and every lord from Navarre to Illyria is embroiled in the fray. Cannon roar, pikemen clash, and witches stalk the night; even the fairy courts stand on the verge of chaos.Five stories come together at the end of the war: that of bold Miranda and sly Puck; of wise Pomona and her prisoner Vertumnus; of gentle Lucia and the shade of Prospero; of noble Don Pedro and powerful Helena; and of Anne, a glovemaker's wife. On these lovers and heroes the world itself may depend.These are the stories Shakespeare never told. Five of the most exciting names in genre fiction today—Jonathan Barnes, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Emma Newman, Foz Meadows and Kate Heartfield—delve into the world the poet created to weave together a story of courage, transformation and magic.Including an afterword by Dr. John Lavagnino, The London Shakespeare Centre, King's College London. Views: 24
