He eviscerates the major arguments for religion, and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence.The God Delusion makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just wrong, but potentially deadly. It also offers exhilarating insight into the advantages of atheism to the individual and society, not the least of which is a clearer, truer appreciation of the universe's wonders than any faith could ever muster.

    Government titans use sports heroes known as Centauri for political influence. Meanwhile, warriors from another time known as Archides are backed into a corner. The man who brought down their galaxy-spanning empire, is taking advantage of the turmoil and threatens to conquer this world as he did their ancient home. Oryan Jeckstadt is born a slave. His father, a disgraced general raises him alone in the prison he doomed his son to. With the promise of securing his father’s freedom, he is ripped from the Quarter and forced into the Centauri Games. Eleysa Celeste has been orphaned. Loving grandparents do their best but her anger is only flamed by cruelty of the children around her. A local Centauri training facility owner takes her under his wing. She and Oryan are on a crash course that could decide the fate of billions. Desperate for victory, the Archides try to recruit Oryan to their cause yet his only desire is to protect the woman he loves and their young son.

    The people who perform these acts are called binders, the most elite of the elite.What if you were one of those binders? More so, what if you were the best of the best?

    But the down-timers have too. Cardinal Richelieu cannot decide whether he likes Charleton Heston or Tim Curry better as Cardinal Richelieu. So, when the King is murdered on the way to see his unborn son, and the Cardinal is gravely wounded, who else would the Cardinal’s friends call on but D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers! The dynamic foursome is charged with saving the Cardinal and getting him out of the reach of evil King Gaston. Even the Cardinal’s robe gets its share of adventures! Will D’Artagnan and his three friends win out and save the Cardinal?

    

    In college, I ran against Kenyans, and wondered whether endurance genes might have traveled with them from East Africa. At the same time, I began to notice that a training group on my team could consist of five men who run next to one another, stride for stride, day after day, and nonetheless turn out five entirely different runners. How could this be?We all knew a star athlete in high school. The one who made it look so easy. He was the starting quarterback and shortstop; she was the all-state point guard and high-jumper. Naturals. Or were they?The debate is as old as physical competition. Are stars like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, and Serena Williams genetic freaks put on Earth to dominate their respective sports? Or are they simply normal people who overcame their biological limits through sheer force of will and obsessive training?The truth is far messier than a simple dichotomy between nature and nurture. In the decade since the sequencing of the human genome, researchers have slowly begun to uncover how the relationship between biological endowments and a competitor’s training environment affects athleticism. Sports scientists have gradually entered the era of modern genetic research.In this controversial and engaging exploration of athletic success, Sports Illustrated senior writer David Epstein tackles the great nature vs. nurture debate and traces how far science has come in solving this great riddle. He investigates the so-called 10,000-hour rule to uncover whether rigorous and consistent practice from a young age is the only route to athletic excellence.Along the way, Epstein dispels many of our perceptions about why top athletes excel. He shows why some skills that we assume are innate, like the bullet-fast reactions of a baseball or cricket batter, are not, and why other characteristics that we assume are entirely voluntary, like an athlete’s will to train, might in fact have important genetic components.This subject necessarily involves digging deep into sensitive topics like race and gender. Epstein explores controversial questions such as:Are black athletes genetically predetermined to dominate both sprinting and distance running, and are their abilities influenced by Africa’s geography?Are there genetic reasons to separate male and female athletes in competition?Should we test the genes of young children to determine if they are destined for stardom?Can genetic testing determine who is at risk of injury, brain damage, or even death on the field?Through on-the-ground reporting from below the equator and above the Arctic Circle, revealing conversations with leading scientists and Olympic champions, and interviews with athletes who have rare genetic mutations or physical traits, Epstein forces us to rethink the very nature of athleticism.

    Would you want to know? Taking a uniquely intimate and cheeky approach to the personal genomics revolution, internationally acclaimed science writer Lone Frank swabs up her genetic code to explore who any of us are in the days when a catalogue of your full six billion DNA building blocks is available for $10,000 and the local Walgreens offers genetic screening tests to anyone. She challenges the august Nobel Prize winners and the hyperactive business mavericks who are pushing to map and decipher every fetus’s genome within the next decade. She tests the potential to detect diseases early, as well as our capacity to develop chronic anxieties when our DNA is seen as a death sentence. She ponders whether personality, including her own above-average irritability and non-conformity, can really be reduced to biochemistry. And she prods the psychologists who hope to uncover just how much or how little our environment will matter in the new genetic century — a quest made all the more gripping as Frank considers her family’s and her own struggles with depression. At turns compellingly candid and irreverently insightful, Frank provides the first truly personal account of the new science of consumer-led genomics — and to what extent our genes determine our destiny. Lone Frank is the author of The Neurotourist: Postcards from the Edge of Brain Science (ISBN 9781851687961). She holds a PhD in neurobiology and was previously a research scientist working in the biotechnology industry in the United States. An award-winning science journalist and TV documentary presenter, she has written for such publicationsn as Scientific American, Science, and Nature Biotechnology and is a frequent speaker at venues including Harvard Medical School, the Library of Congress, the Royal Society, and TED. Praise for The Neurotourist: “A fascinating exploration of the most intriguing brain experiments so far.” New Scientist “Riveting.” Rita Carter, author of Mapping the Mind

     After my time in the army and then finding myself in the mountains of Tibet, I was ready to lay low, to relax. It was time to go home. Or so I thought. No sooner had I set about returning to the normal life then I found myself swept up in a mission to kill the gods in order to save the life of someone very dear to me. The only problem with killing gods aside from, well, having to kill gods? First I had to be able to reach them through a ritual of intimacy and death. Yeah, you can see where that might be problematic. What follows is a tale of godly proportions with harem elements and downright dirty deeds.

     Elliot is transported to Eden because he's their last hope: A man filled with a power not seen in centuries. He has the rare ability to learn talents from all talent trees, not just one. Only he's not the man everyone thinks he is. Downtrodden his entire life, he's been harboring dark desires deep inside him for years. And now he's finally been given the opportunity to live them. Instead of a hero's journey, Elliot is about to embark on the ultimate villain's journey. Dark Cultivation is a work of fiction exploring what happens when a dark character takes power, not endorsing it. There's sex, violence, gore and profanity. Don't read if you trigger easily.

    Whether it’s voyeurism, exhibitionism, or your run-of-the-mill foot fetish, we all possess a suite of sexual tastes as unique as our fingerprints—and as secret as the rest of the skeletons we’ve hidden in our closets.Combining cutting-edge studies and critiques of landmark research and conclusions drawn by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, and the DSM-5, Bering pulls the curtain back on paraphilias, arguing that sexual deviance is commonplace. Bering confronts hypocrisy, prejudice, and harm as they relate to sexuality on a global scale. Humanizing so-called deviants while at the same time asking serious questions about the differences between thought and action, he presents us with a challenge: to understand that our best hope of solving some of the most troubling problems of our age hinges entirely on the amoral study of sex.

    One day, they'll sell their cramped city-centre antiques shop and the overflowing upstairs flat and relocate to the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. When a smallholding in a remote Dales village comes on the market, it seems like the answer to their prayers.

    I have to know who, what, how and when. That’s the Sergeant code.I never knew the striking redhead, Chloe, from back in the day that well, but we were about to be reacquainted. Pity she was off limits.With a newly formed Albuquerque police task force tracking clubs and the Devils working to infiltrate our network we have our work cut out for us.Will good girl Chloe be able to hold her ground with Finn?Or will she get wrapped up in the mayhem of the Guardians?BOOK 2: HavocI’m the man with the iron fists on a bike, and I raise Havoc...She had that good girl image down pat, but I knew it was a lie. The Mayor’s daughter; a taste of forbidden fruit with links to dismantle or elevate our whole organization to the next level. I had problems of my own. A rival gang alliance that left me for dead on the side of the road.My fighting spirit wasn’t about to lay down without a fight. There’s always one more round.Do Havoc and the Mayor’s daughter have what it takes to finish the round?Or will outside forces break them apart for good?BOOK 3: AxleShoot first, ask questions later, that’s Axle’s motto...I’m the wild, the reckless, the untamable beast who knows my way around a car. We’re up against it with a rival gang allegiance threatening our chop shop operation and the cops are on our ass. When the Reaper’s badass daughter showed up leading the charge…Let's just say I wanted to taste and kill my prey at the same time. A sassy hellcat with a mane of ebony night and a heart as dark as mine stepped on my turf and the temptation was like bitter chocolate.Will this vixen break down all of Axle’s defenses and ruin the Guardians?Or will they find a way to break all the taboo’s to be together?BOOK 4: RushThey nicknamed me the blonde haired pretty boy of the Guardians…From the moment I saw her I wanted the long-legged dancer. Penn, with the champagne cascading locks and movie star looks. The one works the pole for her dollars.A hit on our crew, arrogant cops looking for a takedown, in-fighting, a loss of revenue and a call for me to get a little grimy.Can Rush trust the woman with the expensive taste?Or will she be the reason for the Guardian’s demise?BOOK 5: RedWhen the past catches up with you...you have to turn and face it...When the wild heart of a free-spirited gypsy casts a spell on me I can’t look away.Is Brody the calm before the storm or is she more trouble than she’s worth?Or can this perfect storm come together to be a one-two punch of passion?BOOK 6: ShadowSometimes even those in the shadows have to step into the light...When he met sweet Ava with her cute apron and pretty smile his whole life changed. She’s the only one who knows about Shadow’s secret hobbies and shares them with him.He found her knee deep in the midst of chaos in his life, she’s like an angel to him.Will the sultry Ava be able to withstand the heat that threatens to unravel a beautiful beginning for them both? BOOK 7: ShaggyDara made my world light up in the darkened chaos of the club’s woes. She had a rocky past of her own, with a known enemy on her heels.D-day for the Guardians was approaching and I had to prove myself. Will Shaggy and Dara be able to withstand the enemies from their past and present? Does Shaggy have what it takes to be part of the Guardians crew?

    Sapolsky's acclaimed and successful Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers features new chapters on how stress affects sleep and addiction, as well as new insights into anxiety and personality disorder and the impact of spirituality on managing stress.As Sapolsky explains, most of us do not lie awake at night worrying about whether we have leprosy or malaria. Instead, the diseases we fear--and the ones that plague us now--are illnesses brought on by the slow accumulation of damage, such as heart disease and cancer. When we worry or experience stress, our body turns on the same physiological responses that an animal's does, but we do not resolve conflict in the same way--through fighting or fleeing. Over time, this activation of a stress response makes us sick.

    

    Humans: from the beginning will appeal to anybody who reads about these discoveries, is intrigued by them, and would like to know more about prehistory. Now brought fully up to date for 2015, Humans: from the beginning is a single-volume guide to the human past. Drawing upon expert literature and the latest multi-disciplinary research, this rigorous but accessible book traces the whole of the human story from the first apes to the first cities. The end product of five years of research, it has also been planned from the ground up to take advantage of the eBook format and ease access to visual matter, references and glossary items. Humans: from the beginning is written for the non-specialist, but it is sufficiently comprehensive in scope, rigorous in content, and well-referenced to serve as an ideal ‘one-stop’ text not only for undergraduate students of relevant disciplines, but also to postgraduates, researchers and other academics seeking to broaden their knowledge. This 32-chapter work presents an even-handed coverage of topics including: • How climate change has long played a pivotal role in our affairs and those of our ancestors. • How humans evolved from apes at a time when the apes were facing extinction. • Why the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees (our closest living relatives) might have been more like a human than a chimpanzee. • A possible Asian rather than African origin for the earliest humans. • Why the Neanderthals were not the dimwits of popular imagination. • How language and modern human behaviour evolved: an examination of theories including those of Robin Dunbar, Steven Mithen and Derek Bickerton. • How the small group of modern humans that eventually colonised the whole of the non-African world might have started from Arabia rather than Africa. • David Lewis-Williams’ theory that the cave art of Ice Age Europe was linked to a shamanistic belief system that might be rooted in the very architecture of the human brain. • Why the Neolithic transition from hunter-gathering to agriculture was a lengthy process, with many down sides. • Colin Renfrew’s still-controversial theory that the spread of farming communities in Neolithic times was responsible for the languages now spoken in many parts of the world. • How an ‘Urban Revolution’ replaced egalitarian farming communities with socially-stratified kingdoms and city-states in just a few millennia. • How the complex, technological societies of today have much in common with not only the earliest states but much earlier primate societies.