Systems Science

Most of us have heard of black holes and supernovas, galaxies and the big bang. But few of us understand more than the bare facts about the universe we call home. What is really out there? How did it all begin? Jo Dunkley begins in Earth's neighborhood, explaining the nature of the solar system, the stars in our night sky, and the Milky Way. She then moves out past nearby galaxies - and back in time - to the horizon of the observable universe, which contains over a hundred billion galaxies, each with billions of stars, many orbited by planets, some of which may host life.

For Marc and his party, their current quest seems to drag on and on. Clearing the Labyrinth, defeating Circe, destroying Medusa, and more have become a grind. The main factor that keeps them going is that Zeus is keeping his promise by helping their levels shoot up. Meanwhile, Marc's Safe Zone, Any Port, and the accompanying Safe Zone network continue expanding and growing. They keep him busy whenever he manages to get back home on breaks from the quest.

On a summer night in 1984, 19-year-old UC Berkeley sophomore Karen Thomas leaves her uniformed patrol job at the University of California Police Department and walks home alone in darkness. At the threshold of her apartment a man assaults her at knife point. After a soul chilling struggle she manages to escape and call 911. Police catch her assailant, she identifies him, and he is arrested. Fast forward 2014, 30 years after her assault. Why does the body remember what the mind tries so desperately to forget?

Nick Abrahams still holds the official world record for the number of space launches, but he’s bored stiff with his job hosting space tours. Only when his wife leaves him, however, does he try to change his life. He accepts a tempting offer from a Russian billionaire. In exchange for making a simple repair on Neptune’s moon Triton, he will return to Earth a multi-millionaire, enabling him to achieve his ‘impossible dream’ of buying his own California vineyard.

In this book, Katrina Hazzard-Donald explores African Americans' experience and practice of the herbal, healing folk belief tradition known as Hoodoo. Working against conventional scholarship, Hazzard-Donald argues that Hoodoo emerged first in three distinct regions she calls "regional Hoodoo clusters" and that after the turn of the 19th century, Hoodoo took on a national rather than regional profile.

Slengral is summoned back to the Aglatha shinara by none other than queen matriarch, Zathexa—who happens to be his mother? With his sister and heir to the shinara dead, Slengrala is commanded to return home not only to fulfill his duty to mate and breed a new queen but to answer to the charges made against him.

The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future. The first event takes place on Mercury, on the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death, but one that might have been foreseen....

"Understanding Systems Engineering: A Practical Guide to Today’s Technology" explores modern systems engineering with a focus on integrating disciplines to manage complex systems throughout their lifecycle. Informed by the author’s diverse experience, the book addresses challenges professionals face and offers insights into the evolving field.

The Incursion Event has been announced, and sapient races from across the multiverse are invading the newly integrated planet Earth. These beings have decades, centuries or even millennia of experience living within The System and wield powers far beyond the mutated Beasts and mana-spawned Monsters Drew and his friends have faced in the past.

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.

The Library's operations are expanding. Patrons come and go. Fines levied, books returned. But some dangerous books have been wiped from the system, and only surveillance helps reveal what they are. With some of these books integral to dimensional stability, they have to be retrieved no matter what. Quinn must enlist the help of her assistants and allies to perform rituals capable of locating these books. Some of the information comes too easily, hinting at deception behind every turn. They must navigate the trails before the traps snap shut!

Earth is not well. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away—no climate change, no war, no Twitter—beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it? Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea.

Last I remember I was saving my high school crush from the path of an oncoming truck. Now I'm a skin-and-bones weakling wearing nothing but my hospital gown. Oh yeah, the world is also full of monsters, and I'm the only human left. It turns out a godlike System evacuated humanity but decided to leave the vegetable in the bed. I could crawl into a corner and wait to get eaten by a kobold, but after years of being asleep, I have a new appreciation for feeling alive. I'll have to find the tenacity to survive, the courage to fight, and the strength to face some dark truths about myself.

When you go to sleep, the world doesn't rest with you. As John's closed-door cultivation continues, Sarah decides it's time to make a name for herself. Her goal of sharing her knowledge of medicine comes to fruition by offering to teach a few apprentices for the Sword sect. Unfortunately, knowledge is sometimes best kept secret. For one can teach an art, but not the ethics behind it.

Asher's impossible journey continues as he dives deeper into the ruthless world of the Nexus in Apocalypse Station—Nexus Unveiled. His once ordinary life is now a distant memory, and the trials and battles of the deadly train station have honed his strength and wit. As the threats intensify, so does Asher's power. Now a hardened warrior, he stands tall against ferocious beasts, deadly traps, and vindictive foes. But more than physical challenges await him. Haunted by lingering enemies and faced with an influx of new players, each with their own objectives, Asher must keep his wits about him.

Who controls American immigration policy? The biggest immigration controversies of the last decade have all involved policies produced by the President - policies such as President Obama protecting Dreamers from deportation and President Trump banning immigrants from several majority-Muslim nations. While critics of these policies have been separated by a vast ideological chasm, their broadsides have embodied the same widely shared belief: that Congress, not the President, ought to dictate who may come to the United States and who will be forced to leave. This belief is a myth.

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.

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?

Caleb Hanson assumed the most exciting part of his field trip scouting in Northern Minnesota would be a rare bird sighting. Instead, he was abducted by hive-minded hexapods and forced to be their children's teacher. Not the worst way to ride out the end of the world. Two years later, the apocalypse has finally come for Caleb. His savior-captors are murdered, leaving him as the last line of defense for the alien kids he's grown to know and love. Now, he'll have to bend his values or watch his students die.

Marc and his party have finished their zeppelin and taken it out to try to discover other Safe Zones. Their intent is to set up trade routes between all the different Safe Zones in order to give them a better chance to survive. The second Safe Zone they discover with the zeppelin is nearly as large as Any Port. It even has its own ring of outlier Safe Zones, or a partial ring at least. It appears that several of the smaller Safe Zones have been taken and converted into dungeons. With the safety of the larger Safe Zone at stake, they bring the zeppelin down to help the larger Safe Zone.