Systems Science

Commanders from six Star Trek crews are faced with the ultimate gamble, as they hurl themselves through a Gateway without any knowledge of what lay beyond. Each faces a personally unique challenge, struggling to find a way back to the ships and homes they left behind. Waiting behind at least one of the Gateways are the ageless Iconians, the primordial architects of the mysterious portals causing chaos throughout the Milky Way galaxy.

Dorothy A. Brown became a tax lawyer to get away from race. As a young black girl growing up in the South Bronx, she’d seen how racism limited the lives of her family and neighbors. Her law school classes offered a refreshing contrast: Tax law was about numbers, and the only color that mattered was green. But when Brown sat down to prepare tax returns for her parents, she found something strange: James and Dottie Brown, a plumber and a nurse, seemed to be paying an unusually high percentage of their income in taxes. When Brown became a law professor, she set out to understand why.

After saving the world and defeating his enemies, Sloan has gained an incredible title and unmatched power in the system. Enjoying a decade of peace, his calm life is suddenly disrupted, pushing him towards a new journey and a new mission. A new enemy, known only as the Architect has emerged, causing chaos and breaking the balance. As new rifts appear, Sloan must explore unknown realms, find strong allies, and learn ancient secrets to stop the Architect's plans.

At a time when many Americans may be seeking alternatives to current health care choices, Dr. Knope offers an option that allows patients to directly contract with healthcare providers for individualized care. Using first-hand accounts and plenty of examples of how concierge medicine works, Knope offers a plan for patients looking to make a change to a medical system that is negotiated between doctor and patient, rather than through insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

Pantheon Leader Jay Luckrun has experienced the loss of friends and enemies alike. But he continues marching forward to conquer new challenges and bring vengeance against the System Admins. His magic has grown stronger. His gravity has greater reach. And the dungeons of an invasive pantheon of goblins are up next on the chopping block. Follow Jay as he develops his own unique path and finally gets some revenge upon the evil System Admins. He might have to lose his humanity along the way. But that's a plus. He'll gain greater power that's more paradoxical than expected.

Will's mom and dad promise him a surprise for getting good grades in school. When his dad brings home a toy transformer robot named Planetron, Will is pleased, but not very excited. Until he discovers Planetron really transforms, from a toy into a huge, faster-than-light spaceship.

The sun's family of planets become a familiar place in this personal account of the lives of other worlds. Sobel explores the planets' origins and oddities through the lens of popular culture, from astrology, mythology, and science fiction to art, music, poetry, biography, and history. This intimate account is filled with fascination, beauty, and surprise.

In a world where deceit shaped its history, a new era of rifts dawns. Red rifts, harbingers of divine wrath, bring forth gods and monsters, challenging humanity's very existence. As anarchy rises, the remnants of humanity cling to survival, relying on the Hunters who brave these rifts to keep them at bay. Amidst the chaos, the so-called heroes maintain their rule over the fractured land, backed by the powerful Association that seeks to control the coming change. But change is inevitable, and Sloan will be at the heart of it.

Big Data teaches you to build big data systems using an architecture designed specifically to capture and analyze web-scale data. This book presents the Lambda Architecture, a scalable, easy-to-understand approach that can be built and run by a small team. You'll explore the theory of big data systems and how to implement them in practice. In addition to discovering a general framework for processing big data, you'll learn specific technologies like Hadoop, Storm, and NoSQL databases.

New beginnings... Everyone craves them, but few have the resolution to go through. And yet John decided to live as a mortal. For his wife, for his daughter. He was willing to give up everything to achieve peace and avoid what he had already suffered in the past. But peace is temporary. How long can it be maintained? Enjoy this seventh issue of The Idle System, just a step away from the last book in the series. If you are ever to live life in another world, you might want to learn what John has to offer.

Seventeen years old and facing nearly 30 years behind bars, Jarrett Adams sought to figure out the why behind his fate. Sustained by his mother and aunts who brought him back from the edge of despair through letters of prayer and encouragement, Adams became obsessed with our legal system in all its damaged glory. After studying how his constitutional rights to effective counsel had been violated, he solicited the help of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, an organization that exonerates the wrongfully convicted, and won his release after nearly 10 years in prison.

Defeat the monsters, become the champion, save the survivors. A sliver of humanity abandons Earth, forced into the skies because genetically enhanced monsters rule the world. Will they persevere - or perish?

The first stage is complete. Ivan Susanin has managed to survive and, together with the other leaders, unite the various players into the Alliance. Yet this is only the beginning. A huge goblin army is approaching from the city outskirts, while the undead roam inside the city. The people from Earth are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The only way to escape another massacre is to capture the goblin fortress and hold out until the end of the mission - or to abandon their wounded and scatter, hoping to avoid getting killed.

As James T. Kirk prepares to retire from a long and illustrious Starfleet career, events in a distant part of the Federation draw him back to a part of the galaxy he had last visited as a young man, a mysterious world called Faramond whose name takes Kirk on a journey back to his youth. At 16, Kirk is troubled, estranged from his father, and has a bleak future. However, a trip into space with Kirk's father, George, and Starfleet legend Captain Robert April changes James Kirk's life forever, when a simple voyage becomes a deadly trap.

A leading brain scientist's look at the neurobiology of pleasure-and how pleasures can become addictions. Whether eating, taking drugs, engaging in sex, or doing good deeds, the pursuit of pleasure is a central drive of the human animal. In The Compass of Pleasure Johns Hopkins neuroscientist David J. Linden explains how pleasure affects us at the most fundamental level: in our brain.

What if you died, only to wake up in a new body, in a world where magic is real and battles are fought like in a video game? That's what happens to James Thompson, who finds himself reincarnated as Talon Nightstrider, a young man with a destiny to become a powerful member of the Blackfang Guild. But Talon is not just any member; he is connected to the System, an advanced interface that displays his stats and powers, and allows him to level up like in an RPG.

In Sleepyhead, science writer Henry Nicholls uses his own experience with chronic narcolepsy as a gateway to better understanding the cryptic, curious, and relatively uncharted world of sleep disorders. Charming, eye-opening, and deeply humanizing, Sleepyhead will help us all uncover the secrets of a good night's sleep.

Long Fang is stranded in a foreign world where proper cultivation has been replaced by annoying blue screens. He is confused and alone...but not for long. Completely ignoring the System, he forms a wholesome sect of followers to spread cultivation across the wild world. Blue screens do not take kindly to rejection, however, and Long Fang’s stubbornness soon finds him pitted against increasingly dangerous foes. To overcome the System tribulations, he must quickly grow stronger and wiser.... But first, he needs to get past that one annoying town guard.

In the future: A united Earth, to deal with the problem of population control, divides its population into classes of citizen and non-gratis. To be born a non-gratis means a life of little freedoms and the constant possibility of being assigned to work on a colony. Lacking citizenship, every aspect of their life is controlled from where they live down to marriage and childbearing regulations. The only possible escape from life as a non-gratis is to qualify for one of the limited slots available for entrance into the military.

The Kobayashi Maru is the test given to cadets at the Starfleet Academy - a simulated no-win situation in space. Now, the Starfleet officers share with each other the painful, often fierce lessons of their Kobayashi Maru as each man struggles to tap his inner strength and to overcome the most desperate situation of their careers! Featuring a dramatic reading by James Doohan and enhanced with sound effects and an original score!