Systems Science

China's strategic capabilities and doctrine have historically differed from the United States' and Russia's. China has continued to modernize and expand its arsenal despite its policy of no first use, while the United States and Russia have decreased deployed weapons stocks. This volume brings together an international group of distinguished scholars to provide a fresh assessment of China's strategic military capabilities, doctrines, and political perceptions in light of rapidly advancing technologies.

With more than 10 stories from exciting new voices and a few veterans of the universe, the second anthology highlights the lives and struggles of humanity's best and worst years after system advent.

Jeb is settling into his role as the head of the biggest orphanage in the alien city of Solmnath, taking in hundreds of human children orphaned by the harsh trials of the Tutorial.

There is a huge, bold black streak in the sky. Branches appear out of nowhere over North America, Southern Europe, and Central Africa. People who live beneath The Rift can see it. But scientists worldwide are distressed - their equipment cannot pick up any type of signal from it. The rift appears to consist of nothing. Literally. Nothing. Nada. Niente. Most people are curious but not overly concerned. The phenomenon seems to pose no danger. It is just there. Then something jolts the most hardened naysayers, and surpasses the worst nightmares of the world's greatest scientists.

Estimating the cost of a project is critical to your business success. Done correctly, your company is profitable. Done wrong, you lose money. Michael Stone, a successful construction business consultant and trainer, shares his years of experience estimating residential projects in this manual. Estimating isn't difficult when you have a system. The purpose of this book is to help you create that system. It's an approach that helps you estimate without having to think about the process. An orderly approach makes estimating easier and more accurate.

After revealing the deception spread by the Galactic Council and the hidden aspects of the System, John Lee and his friends flee the council building on Irvina. Just escaping the capital planet will tax them to their utmost. Evading the full force of the Galactic Council and their minions might be more than they can handle. While old allies deal with the new truths, friends fracture under the increasing pressure, and all the while, the System Quest hangs over John's head, unfinished. Their only hope - their only clue - lies in the Forbidden Zone.

In no more than the blink of an eye, a naïve optimism about technology’s liberating potential has given way to a dystopian obsession with biased algorithms, surveillance capitalism, and job-displacing robots. System Error exposes the root of our current predicament - how big tech’s relentless focus on optimization is driving a future that reinforces discrimination, erodes privacy, displaces workers, and pollutes the information we get- and outlines steps we can take to change course, renew our democracy, and save ourselves.

Jay Luckrun was your typical dorky weirdo. A lover of street dancing, anime, action movies, and comedy. But everything changed when a divine creature chose him to be a dungeon crawler of the Multiverse. He fought monsters in another dimension and returned home to slay hundreds of assassins. He's still a jokester. He tries to look past the consequences of having a System that he bends and breaks. It's fun gaining new levels, stats, skills, loot, and magical powers while teaming up with the most interesting people ever. Why stress over the small details?

As a 10-year-old orphan, all Wick ever wanted was money, power, and well, what else was there? Enough is never enough. His father's death left him only with a glass amulet, his trusty spade, and two level one skills. Six months in the backwater city of Outlast, Wick has finally decided to make his move for a brighter future. It may cost him the beating of his life, but he lives by the Sprawler's Code: The strong live long, but the bold get the gold. Follow Wick on the beginning of his new life as he explores new powers and manipulates anyone foolish enough to get in his way.

Weaving together cutting-edge social science with riveting stories that take us from the front lines of the Volkswagen scandal to backstage at the Oscars, and from deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico to the top of Mount Everest, Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik explain how the increasing complexity of our systems creates conditions ripe for failure and why our brains and teams can't keep up. They highlight the paradox of progress: Though modern systems have given us new capabilities, they've become vulnerable to surprising meltdowns - and even to corruption and misconduct.

The Nazis did not really lose World War II. They made it appear that way in order to divert attention from the alliance between the Fourth Reich and the race of aliens known as the Reptilians - an ancient galactic civilization obsessed with conquest and domination. After the German surrender in 1945, the Nazi-Reptilian alliance infiltrated the US military-industrial complex.

In System Consolidation, Knox faces his greatest ordeal yet. The Titan System stands as a testament to order, drawing the gaze of friends and foes alike. To counter the looming threat of the Dark Titan, Knox and his allies are thrust into the Tower Challenge, seeking a mythical item crucial for victory. But their path is marred by treachery as nobles desperate to hold onto power scheme against them.

In Cured, Dr. Rediger digs down to the root causes of illness, showing how to create an environment that sets the stage for healing. He reveals the patterns behind healing and lays out the physical and mental principles associated with recovery: first, we need to physically heal our diet and our immune systems. Next, we need to mentally heal our stress response and our identities. Through rigorous research, Dr. Rediger shows that much of our physical reality is created in our minds. Our perception changes our experience, even to the point of changing our physical bodies.

Wrench is a Fixer. Someone born to maintain, fix, and correct any and every issue that could arise in the Habitat he lives in. To make sure he and his fellow humans can remain on display and entertain their owners as any good human pet would. At least, that's what he was born to be. Now, after getting a second chance along with a superpower that lets him alter anything and everything in regards to his own body, he's trying to fix his life.

Escaping the Housing Trap is the must-have resource for everyone with a stake in the future of housing in America-and that means everyone. Listeners will find discussions of housing as an investment and how the country's neighborhoods are being transformed by the introduction of large amounts of investment; explorations of housing as shelter, including discussions of zoning policy and NIMBYism; and a comprehensive overview of the Strong Towns approach to solving the American housing crisis.

Jebediah Trapper is a ticking time bomb. After sort of saving the day months ago, he's got a nuclear bomb attached to him in the Fate Dimension, where magic and potential collide. Jeb just wants to defuse himself before he collapses into a sickly pile of green goo or ignites in a city-destroying blast. There's just one problem: The world doesn't slow down because you've got a nuclear hangnail. Mab, Queen of the Fae wants him for unknown, yet most likely sinister reasons. A mysterious, abhorrent entity is making him an offer he can't refuse, and the undead are getting organized.

The U.S.S. Enterprise is the site for a wedding that will unite two powerful rival families of the Tizarin. But Captain Picard's happiness is soon cut short by the arrival of Lwaxana Troi, the nagging mother of ship's counsellor Deanna Troi, and the notorious, all-powerful Q, who has come to examine and challenge the human concept of love. Read by Majel Barrett and John de Lancie!

To gain his Master Class, John Lee made a deal with the Erethran Empire. Now, the empire has come to collect on the debt, forcing him to appear in their capital after his last fight. Thrown into Galactic politics of a militarized, system-based society, John will have to weigh consequences of the decisions he's been asked to make and confront the warped reality of a system-created empire. When politics, self-interest, and a human's stubbornness collide, the very stars are threatened.

Planet Earth burns in nuclear flame. But The System was kind and wise enough to transfer all its little humans into a new world. Everyone has been granted a new name, a starting bonus, and a rousing kick up the backside. Some got a sword, some a crown, and me . . . A potato?! How am I supposed to take over the world with this thing? System, are you sure you're so kind and wise after all?

From best-selling author Jon Krakauer, a stark, powerful, meticulously reported narrative about a series of sexual assaults at the University of Montana - stories that illuminate the human drama behind the national plague of campus rape.