Systems Science

Where life as we know it is impossible, the real adventure begins. Venus is a hostile planet, covered by active volcanoes, but NASA launches an expedition to search for life there anyway. Their specially developed airship cruises in the clouds of Venus to serve as a research platform for its four astronauts. When they discover dangerous activities on the glowing-hot surface, there can only be one explanation: A highly sophisticated life form must be at work.

When it comes to choosing, using, and maintaining a database, understanding its internals is essential. But with so many distributed databases and tools available today, it's often difficult to understand what each one offers. With this practical guide, Alex Petrov guides developers through the concepts behind modern database and storage engine internals.

Are you afraid of death? What is death? Is it the end, the beginning, or a transition? Why are we so afraid of death? After all, death is inevitable. Overcoming the Fear of Death: Through Each of the 4 Main Belief Systems helps us reduce and overcome our fears without having to change our beliefs about death.

Hal Mason's still going to find surviving the System Apocalypse challenging. While bringing in his latest fugitive, Hal's payday is interrupted by the translucent blue boxes that herald Earth's introduction to the System - a galaxy spanning wave of structured mystical energy that destroys all electronics and bestows game-like abilities upon mankind.

Our current democratic capitalist system is close to imploding. This book is the first to reveal the secret financial system dominating capitalism today and shows how we can create accountability to restore our democracy.

Blackout Wars is about the historically unprecedented threat to our electronic civilization from its dependence on the electric power grid. In a nationwide blackout lasting months or years, the entire population of the US could be at risk. There would be no food. No water. Communications, transportation, industry, business, and finance - all of the critical infrastructures that support modern civilization would be paralyzed. Threats to the electric power grid are posed by cyber-attack, sabotage, a geomagnetic super-storm, and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from the high-altitude detonation of a nuclear weapon.

His life a wasteland post-System integration, John Lee struggles to deal with the weight of a world irrevocably changed. Given great power by chance, his Levels a by-product of a rage that he finds unable to quench, John struggles to find the balance between a hatred for the System that destroyed his world and the benefits it gives him, allowing him to save even more. Yet, as he draws survivors across the Yukon to Whitehorse, dangers grow in the deep wilderness, out of sight. It’s a race between Leveling and safety, for John and his friends. One that they might be losing.

Thyroid disease patients can experience a number of different complications as a result of their hypothyroid (underactive thyroid) or hyperthyroid (overactive thyroid) conditions. Two of these complications are nerve pain and dysfunction, referred to as "peripheral neuropathy" and muscle weakness with possible atrophy (shrinkage of muscles), referred to as "thyroid myopathy".

Mr. Beat’s The Power of Our Supreme Court is the Supreme Court book of decisions that affect the everyday lives of Americans everywhere. The real democracy of America unveiled. What does the supreme court do? Sure, people care when the court makes a big ruling, but most don’t pay attention to the court’s day-to-day decisions. In this law book, Mr. Beat takes you on a journey through our Supreme Court system, what it is, who is in it and how they got to be there while foreshadowing how it shapes our very future.

The War on Cops exposes the truth about officer use of force and explodes the conceit of "mass incarceration". A rigorous analysis of data shows that crime, not race, drives police actions and prison rates. The growth of proactive policing in the 1990s, along with lengthened sentences for violent crime, saved thousands of minority lives. In fact, Mac Donald argues, no government agency is more dedicated to the proposition that "black lives matter" than today's data-driven, accountable police department.

In Tough Cases, judges from different kinds of courts in different parts of the country write about the case that proved most difficult for them to decide. Some of these cases received international attention: the Elián González case in which Judge Jennifer Bailey had to decide whether to return a seven-year-old boy to his father in Cuba after his mother drowned trying to bring the child to the United States, or the Terri Schiavo case in which Judge George Greer had to decide whether to withdraw life support from a woman in a vegetative state over the wishes of her parents.

This is perhaps Allen's most directly sociological and philosophical work. In it, he treats of the evolution of the systems man has created to help navigate and manipulate the world. Along the way, he unpacks the ways in which the new science of flight will lead to a different consciousness, just as the locomotive had done in his lifetime; the reason people so often misunderstand the meaning of 'survival of the fittest', and its appropriate application to human life, and more.

For the past 25 years, scientists have challenged conventional views of evolution and have developed revolutionary theories with profound implications. Fritjof Capra has been at the forefront of this revolution and now, in The Web of Life, he offers a brilliant synthesis of these exciting breakthroughs.

The Sun, as our nearest star, is of enormous importance for life on Earth, providing the warm radiation and light which allowed complex life to evolve. The Sun plays a key role in influencing our climate, while solar storms and high-energy events can threaten our communication infrastructure and satellites.

Medical treatment for ADHD fails much too often - not because of the drugs themselves, but how they are given. New ADHD Medication Rules - Brain Science & Common Sense shows that patients can react very differently to ADHD prescriptions, resulting in missed diagnoses, imbalanced treatment and over or under medication.

Continuing the mission he began in Unification, Starfleet Ambassador Spock endeavors to impart the logic of the Vulcans to a small band of Romulans. But Spock and his students are taken hostage, and the Enterprise and Jean-Luc Picard are sent to secure the hostages' release. Read by Jonathan Frakes!

Reveals the truth behind the controversial issue of vaccine-related injuries. Proponents declare that vaccines have saved millions of lives. Critics claim that the success is overstated and that vaccines may even be dangerous. Many consider mandatory vaccinations a violation of individual rights or religious principles. Many in public health argue that vaccine mandates are critical and justified and that antivaccination sentiment has resulted in outbreaks of preventable childhood illnesses.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and has a special feature, it tilts! Discover the mysteries of this ice giant that sits half in darkness for more than 40 years at a time!

Everything about Jupiter is big! Its size is big. Even its storms are big! Get the big and small facts about this gas giant that can be seen glowing in the night sky.

A powerful tale that explores an untold turning point in the ongoing saga of Spock and the world of Vulcan, Vulcan's Heart goes from Spock's bonding rite in 2329 to a covert mission at the heart of the Romulan Empire in 2344. Read by Tim Russ!