Showing results by narrator "Rick Adamson" in All Categories

In AI and the Art of War, the Chief Intelligence Officer of Microsoft's National Security Group, Paul Rodrigues, explains the contemporary realities of artificial intelligence in the context of national security, defense, and warfare in stunning detail. Dr. Rodrigues draws on his extensive experience supporting the AI efforts of US federal customers and the defense industrial base to explain what modern AI is, how it works, the problems it solves, and the risks it creates.

Everything we know about how planets form and how life arises suggests that human civilization on Earth should not be unique. We ought to see abundant evidence of extraterrestrial activity - but we don't. Where is everybody? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, science and technology writer Wade Roush examines one of the great unsolved problems in science: Is there life, intelligent or otherwise, on other planets?

Heinrich is sparked one early spring day by a question: Why does a pair of swallows in a nest-box close to his Maine cabin show an unvarying preference for white feathers—not easily available nearby—as nest lining? He notices, too, the extreme aggressiveness of “his” swallows toward some other swallows of their own kind. And he wonders, given swallows’ reputation for feistiness, at the extraordinary tameness and close contact he experiences with his nesting birds.

An anything-but-dry history textbook, Washington's History is a fascinating walk through the sweeping story of a place and its people. For centuries, the natural beauty and riches of the Northwest have excited the human imagination, from its first peoples to seafaring explorers, to westward-thinking pioneers, to technological thinkers and giants. A Washington resident himself, author Harry Ritter offers fifty-five vignettes that comprise an entertaining and informative picture of life in the Far Northwest.

How to Do Discourse Analysis provides a comprehensive toolkit for conducting discourse analysis, offering twenty-six practical tools to examine how language is used to construct meaning, enact identities, and shape social realities. Written by renowned linguist James Paul Gee, it introduces key concepts like situated meanings, social languages, and discourses, showing how language both reflects and creates social contexts.

Eleven years ago, Los Angeles was terrorized by The Sandman, a serial killer who claimed at least twelve women's lives. Young FBI Agent Constantine 'Con' Striker stopped him, but not before enduring a devastating personal loss—his twin sister, Valerie, vanished. He believes that his sister was one of The Sandman's victims. Even after a decade on death row and confessing to twelve murders, The Sandman denies knowing Valerie Striker. Desperate for closure, Con demands the killer reveal where his sister's remains are buried. But The Sandman refuses to talk.

Unfurling a tapestry of surprising and historically overlooked figures spanning forty centuries and six continents, historian Matthew Lockwood narrates lives filled with imagination and wonder, curiosity, connection, and exchange. Adventurers from every corner of the globe search for the unknown and try to understand it, remaking the world and themselves in the process. Exploration is for everyone who sets off into the unknown. It is the inheritance of all.

Stories about demons are rising in pop culture, but accounts of their manifestations have been bubbling up throughout history. Paranormal investigator Richard Estep explores this societal fascination as he strives to identify exactly what demons are and where to find them. Consulting with experts ranging from an ordained Catholic exorcist to a medical doctor, Richard scrutinizes the history of demonology and infamous instances of possession, including the case that inspired The Exorcist. With all the facts at your fingertips, you can decide the truth for yourself.

Los Angeles is once again gripped by fear as a brutal predator stalks the streets. It's up to FBI Agents Constantine "Con" Striker and Alex Frost to stop them. But the case takes a darker turn when the crimes don't cease, even after an arrest is made. As Con battles his own demons and the unresolved fate of his sister Valerie, he must navigate a treacherous path filled with false leads and hidden dangers. The suspect's claims of innocence force Con and Alex to question everything they know about the case—and each other.

Fair Doses is a story of vaccines: how they came about, why they are important, and how they have been made globally available—although our quest for vaccine equity is still ongoing. In this fascinating deep dive into vaccines, Dr. Seth Berkley offers an inside view of the challenges of developing and disseminating vaccines for a broad swath of illnesses, from Ebola to AIDS to malaria and beyond.

FBI Agent Constantine Striker has lost everything—his job, his partner, his family—and he's no closer to solving the decade-long mystery of his sister's disappearance. Alex Frost's career is in free fall. Branded a pariah after teaming up with Con, she's one mistake away from being fired. The last thing they need is to work together again. But with Con closing in on his sister's fate and Alex searching for her missing friends after a trip to Mexico, they have no choice but to join forces.

Grant at 200: Reconsidering the Life and Legacy of Ulysses S. Grant celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of a man whose towering impact on American history has often been overshadowed and, in many cases, ignored. This collection of essays by some of today's leading Grant scholars offers fresh perspectives on Grant's military career and presidency, as well as underexplored personal topics such as his faith and family life.

On January 13, 1940, FBI agents burst into the homes and offices of seventeen members of the Christian Front, seizing guns, ammunition, and homemade bombs. J. Edgar Hoover's charges were incendiary: the group, he alleged, was planning to incite a revolution and install a "temporary dictatorship" in order to stamp out Jewish and Communist influence in the United States. In Nazis of Copley Square, Charles Gallagher provides a crucial missing chapter in the history of the American far right.

Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World tells the complete story of how a city once famed for protests so peaceful that toddlers joined grandparents became a place where police have fired tear gas, rubber bullets and even live ammunition at their neighbors, while pro-government hooligans attack demonstrators.

The climb that went wrong: fighting blinding snowstorms and horrific avalanches; days spent tentbound running low on food, water and oxygen; surviving broken bones and shattered spirits. With writing from Greg Child, David Roberts, Stephen Venables, Alfred Lansing and others, Epic is a collection of the most memorable accounts of legend-making expeditions to the world’s most famous peaks, often in the worst possible conditions!

The nineteenth century saw European empires build vast transport networks to maximize their profits from trade, and it saw Christian missionaries spread printing across Asia to bring Bibles to the colonized. The unintended consequence was an Asian communications revolution: the maritime public sphere expanded from Istanbul to Yokohama. From all corners of the continent, curious individuals confronted the challenges of studying each other's cultures by using the infrastructure of empire for their own exploratory ends.

The story has so often been told: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Habsburg Empire, was shot dead on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. Thirty days later, the Archduke's uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph, declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia, producing the chain reaction of European powers entering the First World War. Contrasting the vast disproportionality between a single deadly act and an act of war that would leave ten million dead, Misfire contends that the real causes for the world war lie in "civilized" Europe rather than the assassination.

A spiritual journey with extraordinary encounters. Yon Rou's memoir is a kaleidoscopic ride through the upper echelons of New York Society and the nature-worshipping, sword-wielding world of East Asian religious and martial arts. Monk of Park Avenue divulges a privileged childhood in Manhattan, followed by the bitter rigors of kung fu in China and meditations in Daoist temples. Join Yon Rou's adventure as he encounters kings, Nobel laureates, and the Mob.

The Creole Rebellion tells the suspenseful story of a successful mutiny on board the slave ship Creole. En route for a New Orleans slave-auction block in November 1841, nineteen captives mutinied, killing one man and injuring several others. After taking control of the vessel, mutineer Madison Washington forced the crewmen to sail to the Bahamas. Despite much local hysteria upon their arrival, all of the 135 slaves aboard the ship won their freedom there.

China GDP has grown from $300 per capita to more than $10,000 in the past thirty years and lifted more people into the middle class than in any other country at any other point in human history. It is important for investors, US companies and anyone interested in the global economy to understand China. Author Jonathan A. Krane provides an inside look at China's transformation into a global superpower and explains why the relationship between the US and China is the most critical economic relationship in the world today.