Large chests are said to encompass all manner of hopes and dreams. Men covet them. Women envy them. But one fact holds true - everyone wants to get their hands on some big ones. The same holds true for one intrepid adventurer - a strapping young lad by the name of Himmel. Armed with his grandfather’s trusty longsword and the dream of being the strongest, he sets out on the journey of a lifetime! It is sure to be a long and dangerous road, fraught with danger! And it all starts with a simple test - reach Level 5 in the dungeon called the ‘newbie zone’ and earn the right to become a full-fledged adventurer! However, such things get hopelessly derailed when his adolescent mind beholds an exposed chest for the first time. A fateful meeting that would inevitably lead his life in a direction he never even dreamed of! Content Profanity, Gore, Sexual Themes

Things are not well within the Lodrak Empire. An entire city goes up in smoke and ash, and an entire province is slowly being consumed by an ever-expanding cloud of death. But while the humans rally to contain the fallout of this disaster, they are much quicker to pin the blame for it on their elven neighbors to the north. With centuries’ worth of strife and bad blood between the two nations flaring up, all out war is rapidly becoming an inevitability. Powerful figures are already on the move. Some wish to unravel the mystery behind the dead city in order to bring the perpetrators to justice. Others are more than content enough to use this ‘act of terrorism’ as an excuse to further the Empire’s agenda. A select few are even planning on somehow turning this cataclysm into a weapon for the sake of their ambitions. The elves of the Ishigar Republic are hard at work undermining and sabotaging their old enemy while the international community watches the ongoing situation with a critical eye. Even the Gods themselves are closely monitoring the situation, ready to intervene should they deem it necessary. However, though all these entities have different reasons and methods, they all have the same objective - to find the mastermind responsible for setting all this in motion. The same ‘mastermind’ that is far too busy figuring out how wagons work to notice the world is stirring. CONTENT WARNING: Profanity, gore, violence, explicit adult content

In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher : the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.

We were told that the internet would dematerialize society and decrease energy use. Contrary to this projection, it has become a massive infrastructure and a rapidly growing energy consumer. In this series of articles, Low-tech Magazine examines the reasons behind the ever-expanding resource use of digital communication and what we can do about it. The internet isn't an autonomous being. Its growing energy use results from decisions made by software developers, web designers, marketeers, publishers, and internet users. By placing communications in a historical context and with the development of its lightweight, off-the-grid, and solar powered website, Low-tech Magazine challenges our high-tech approach to sustainability and highlights the possibilities of alternative solutions. https://www.lulu.com/shop/roel-roscam-abbing-and-marie-otsuka-and-kris-de-decker/how-to-build-a-low-tech-internet/paperback/product-9yq8v7.html

Digital technology is now so pervasive that it's very hard to escape its influence, and with that growth comes fear. But whatever the news has told you about data and technology, think again. Data expert and tech insider Sam Gilbert shows that, actually, this data revolution could be the best thing that ever happened to us. Good Data examines the incredible new ways this information explosion is already helping us - whether that's combating inequality, creating jobs, advancing the frontiers of knowledge or protecting us from coronavirus - and explains why the best is yet to come. Data touches everything, from our biggest hates (online advertising) to our greatest loves (our pets), and in this fascinating new book, Gilbert explores how, if we can embrace the revolution (even the ads), we could all live vastly improved lives. We are standing on the edge of greatness, we just need to know how to get there.

On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope—and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.

The epic tale of how one ancient language went global, and the scientific quest to trace it back to its roots, from the celebrated author of Pale Rider . As the planet emerged from the last ice age, a language was born between Europe and Asia, by the Black Sea. This ancient tongue, which we call Proto-Indo-European, soon exploded out of its cradle, changing and fragmenting as it went, until its offspring were spoken from Scotland to China. Today those descendants constitute the world's largest language family, the thread that connects disparate Dante's Inferno to the Rig Veda , The Lord of the Rings to the love poetry of Rumi. Indo-European languages are spoken by nearly half of humanity. How did this happen? Laura Spinney set out to answer that question, retracing the Indo-European odyssey across continents and millennia. With her we travel the length of the steppe, navigating the Caucasus, the silk roads and the Hindu Kush. We follow in the footsteps of nomads and monks, Amazon warriors and lion kings—the ancient peoples who spread these languages far and wide. In the present, Spinney meets the scientists on a thrilling mission to retrieve the lost languages and their speakers: the linguists, archaeologists and geneticists who have reconstructed this ancient diaspora. What they have learned has vital implications for our modern world, as people and their languages are on the move again. Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words.

How do we live alongside machines that are sometimes smarter than us? We are entering a new era. AI systems can already outperform humans in some domains while failing spectacularly in others. They can act as tutors, collaborators, researchers, strategists and creators … yet they can also produce falsehoods, generate convincing nonsense and fail unpredictably. The challenge is no longer simply adopting new technology. It is learning how to think, work and live in a world where machines are sometimes smarter than us. In Co-Existence , Ethan Mollick – a Wharton professor and author of the widely read One Useful Thing newsletter – argues that the future of AI will not be defined by replacement, but by interaction. Drawing on years of research, experimentation and frontline experience with rapidly evolving AI systems, Mollick shows readers how work productively with AI while retaining judgment and autonomy;distinguish where human insight matters most;avoid becoming overly dependent on systems designed to persuade and imitate;adapt creatively as AI reshapes education, business and everyday life; andbuild a durable human advantage in a world of intelligent machines. Clear-eyed, practical and written with warmth and humor, Co-Existence is your guide to navigating the next phase of the AI revolution. ‘Ethan Mollick – who understands how to use AI better than anyone else on the planet – explains how it really works and why AI is qualitatively different from any technological advance before it.’ ANGELA DUCKWORTH ‘Co-Existence is an indispensable guide to navigating the jagged frontier where technology and humanity meet – and to harnessing the extraordinary possibilities that emerge when they work together.’ DOUG McMILLON

Ellen Cohen rêve de devenir chanteuse. Sa voix est incroyable, sa personnalité aussi excentrique qu'attachante, son besoin d'amour inextinguible. À l'aube des années 1960, elle quitte Baltimore pour échapper à son avenir de vendeuse de pastrami et tenter sa chance à New York.

This best-selling Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1847 first edition of the novel. For the Fourth Edition, the editor has collated the 1847 text with several modern editions and has corrected a number of variants, including accidentals. The text is accompanied by entirely new explanatory annotations. New to the fourth Edition are twelve of Emily Bronte's letters regarding the publication of the 1847 edition of Wuthering Heights as well as the evolution of the 1850 edition, prose and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and Edward Chitham's insightful and informative chronology of the creative process behind the beloved work. Five major critical interpretations of Wuthering Heights are included, three of them new to the Fourth Edition. A Stuart Daley considers the importance of chronology in the novel. J. Hillis Miller examines Wuthering Heights's problems of genre and critical reputation. Sandra M. Gilbert assesses the role of Victorian Christianity plays in the novel, while Martha Nussbaum traces the novel's romanticism. Finally, Lin Haire-Sargeant scrutinizes the role of Heathcliff in film adaptations of Wuthering Heights. A Chronology and updated Selected Bibliography are also included.

The narrator is a young governess, sent off to a country house to take charge of two orphaned children. She finds a pleasant house and a comfortable housekeeper, while the children are beautiful and charming. But she soon begins to feel the presence of intense evil.

One of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker in 1948. "Power and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical reader responses. Today it is considered a classic work of short fiction, a story remarkable for its combination of subtle suspense and pitch-perfect descriptions of both the chilling and the mundane. The Lottery and Other Stories, the only collection of stories to appear during Shirley Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery" with twenty-four equally unusual short stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson's remarkable range―from the hilarious to the horrible, the unsettling to the ominous―and her power as a storyteller.

“Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within. . . .” Four seekers have arrived at the rambling old pile known as Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Luke, the adventurous future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past. As they begin to cope with chilling, even horrifying occurrences beyond their control or understanding, they cannot possibly know what lies ahead. For Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.