Play Politics

Humanoid Robots: Everyday AI Machines of Tomorrow envisions a world where robots seamlessly manage daily chores, support healthcare, and redefine workplaces, ushering in a new era where they are catalysts for societal transformation.

On October 15, 2020, three weeks before the election, the US Senate Judiciary Committee met for the fourth day of the hearing considering the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for associate justice of the US Supreme Court for the purpose of filling the seat left vacant by the recently deceased liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Republicans were exploiting their majority to push through the fast-tracked appointment before the November 3 election. Democrats were opposing the nomination that would flip the Supreme Court position on many issues, which the Republicans could not enact through the ...

Facing unrest and flagging approval ratings, US President Conrad Michaels searches for something to solidify his position as the incumbent in the looming election while also galvanizing the nation. His solution? Catch the biggest traitor and terrorist in one operation: Karif Fazil and Brady Hawk. Lured into a trap, Hawk must find a way out that saves his life during a mission that puts him as a strange bedfellow with Michaels. With forces behind the scenes setting Hawk up for failure, he must succeed before he gets on with his ultimate mission: expose and eliminate President Michaels.

What do we think about when we think about play? A pastime? Games? Childish activities? The opposite of work? Think again: If we are happy and well rested, we may approach even our daily tasks in a playful way, taking the attitude of play without the activity of play. So what, then, is play? In Play Matters, Miguel Sicart argues that to play is to be in the world; playing is a form of understanding what surrounds us and a way of engaging with others. Play goes beyond games; it is a mode of being human.

Learn everything you need to know to get into law school. This re-written and completely updated version of the bestselling law school admission guide, first published in 2009, provides detailed information on how to present yourself in the law school application process.

Growing up and living in Kibera, Kenya, Abdul Kassim was well aware of the disproportionate number of challenges faced by women due to the extreme gender inequalities that persist in the slums. After being raised by his aunts, his mother, and his grandmother, and having a daughter himself, he felt that he needed to make a difference. In 2002, Abdul started a soccer team for girls called Girls Soccer in Kibera (GSK), with the hope of fostering a supportive community and providing emotional and mental support for the young women in the town.

Dan Strange encourages Christians to engage with everything they watch, to read and play in a positive and discerning way. He also teaches Christians how to think and speak about culture in a way that plugs in to a bigger and better reality - the story of King Jesus, and his cosmic plan for the world. It's possible to watch TV and read novels and play video games in a way that actually feeds our faith, rather than withers it. It's even possible for you - yes, you - to be that person who starts off talking to a mate about last night's football and ends up talking about Jesus.

The timely story of how the forces of change converge on a small tribe of Niaruna Indians living in the heart of the Amazon rain forest. In addition to being a prophetic commentary on emerging threats to the environment, and the troublesome encroachment of the modern world on traditional cultures, the novel is a suspenseful adventure story about two men striving to find meaning in a world not their own.

Loving husband, doting father, respected politician. On the surface, California Governor Montavious "Monty" Fields appears to have it all - and he intends to keep it that way. But even a powerful man like Monty can't control everything or everyone.... First Lady Ellaina "Elle" Lockhart-Fields has a juicy secret. One that she's succeeded in keeping under wraps. Until her longtime lover shows up as her husband's top security officer and threatens to ruin everything. Desperate, Elle concocts a clever plan. But it's far more dangerous than she realizes.

The 1980s saw the peak of a moral panic over fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. A coalition of moral entrepreneurs that included representatives from the Christian Right, the field of psychology, and law enforcement claimed that these games were not only psychologically dangerous but an occult religion masquerading as a game. Dangerous Games explores both the history and the sociological significance of this panic.

Enter the fascinating world of nature spirits, as seen by a celebrated clairvoyant. Meet entrancingly beautiful water undines, delicate fairies, ancient and hardworking brownies, and comical gnomes. Geoffrey Hodson describes the vast variety of etheric forms in cooperation with nature, as they invigorate and enliven plants, trees, wind, and bodies of water. Often lighthearted and joyful, nature spirits also show a love for unrestrained frolic, dance, and play.

Play Money explores a remarkable new phenomenon that's just beginning to enter public consciousness: MMPORGs, or Massively MultiPlayer Online Role-Playing Games, in which hundreds of thousands of players operate fantasy characters in virtual environments the size of continents. With city-sized populations of nearly full-time players, these games generate their own cultures, governments, and social systems and, inevitably, their own economies, which spill over into the real world.

This book adopts some of the basic rules of golf as a metaphor for life and argues that life is a game that can be played successfully. The work then enumerates some basic rules of life (21 in total) and shows how others have followed and violated these rules to their ultimate victory or defeat. Many references are culled from popular culture both here in North America and abroad. There are autobiographical snippets along the way to add authenticity to the project.

This is a bitter, satiric comedy which concerns a wealthy, lecherous old man who pretends to be dying in order to profit from his greedy acquaintances.

Robbie Rogers knows better than most that keeping secrets can crush you. But for much of his life Robbie lived in paralyzing fear that sharing his big secret would cost him the love of his family and his career as a professional soccer player. So he never told anyone what was destroying his soul, both on and off the field.

When Pete Etchells was 13, his father died from motor neurone disease. In order to cope, he immersed himself in a virtual world - first as an escape, but later to try to understand what had happened. Etchells is now a researcher into the psychological effects of video games, and was co-author on a recent paper explaining why WHO plans to classify "game addiction" as a danger to public health are based on bad science and (he thinks) are a bad idea. In this, his first book, he journeys through the history and development of video games via scientific study....

Dr. Jake Ross, a university astronomer, wants nothing more than to teach a few classes each semester and continue his research. Instead, he finds himself aggressively recruited to be the science advisor to Frank Tomlinson, an ambitious politician with his eye on the US Senate. Tomlinson is in need of an edge that will allow him to defeat his opponent at the polls, and Dr. Ross can contribute just that: MHD. MHD, or magnetohydrodynamics, is a new innovation that will allow electricity to be generated efficiently and cheaply. But MHD is still in its infancy, and there are deadly risks.

As a kid in the 1970s and 80s, Carina Chocano was confused by the mixed messages all around her; messages that told her who she could be - and who she couldn’t. Dutifully absorbing all the conflicting information the culture has to offer on how to be a woman, Chocano grappled with sexed up sidekicks, princesses waiting to be saved, and morally infallible angels who seemed to have no opinions of their own. She learned that "the girl" is not a person, but a man's idea of what a woman should be - she’s whatever the hero needs her to be in order to become himself.

We're living through what is arguably one of the most exciting, confusing, and powerful social moments in the history of humanity, the shift from the Digital Age to the Virtual Age. This shift is being driven by technology, and the people who are leading it are the ones who know it best: the Virtual Natives. This book will introduce you to the Virtual Native cohort and mindset, decipher their socio-cultural and economic experiences, and unpack their expectations of companies looking to engage, market, or employ them.

At the height of the ideological antagonism of the Cold War, the US State Department unleashed an unexpected tool in its battle against Communism: jazz. From 1956 through the late 1970s, America dispatched its finest jazz musicians to the far corners of the earth, from Iraq to India, from the Congo to the Soviet Union, in order to win the hearts and minds of the Third World and to counter perceptions of American racism.