Book picks similar to
Our Future in Virtual Worlds by Peter Ludlow
non-fiction
40k
3-tech
games
Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation
Blake J. Harris - 2014
Sega, on the other hand, was just a faltering arcade company with big aspirations and even bigger personalities. But that would all change with the arrival of Tom Kalinske, a man who knew nothing about videogames and everything about fighting uphill battles. His unconventional tactics, combined with the blood, sweat and bold ideas of his renegade employees, transformed Sega and eventually led to a ruthless David-and-Goliath showdown with rival Nintendo.The battle was vicious, relentless, and highly profitable, eventually sparking a global corporate war that would be fought on several fronts: from living rooms and schoolyards to boardrooms and Congress. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, no-holds-barred conflict that pitted brother against brother, kid against adult, Sonic against Mario, and the US against Japan.Based on over two hundred interviews with former Sega and Nintendo employees, Console Wars is the underdog tale of how Kalinske miraculously turned an industry punchline into a market leader. It's the story of how a humble family man, with an extraordinary imagination and a gift for turning problems into competitive advantages, inspired a team of underdogs to slay a giant and, as a result, birth a $60 billion dollar industry.
Where's My F**king Unicorn?: A Guide to Life, Your Unicorn Everything
Michelle Gordon - 2018
Michelle Gordon explains why, in spite of all your best efforts, your life still doesn’t live up to your vision of what it should be, and tells you exactly what you can do about it. In refreshingly down-to-earth language, she shows you how to harness all the self-knowledge you have gained from all those self-help books you’ve read, and actually start putting it to practical use. Beautifully illustrated and delightfully different, Where’s My F**king Unicorn takes a light-hearted approach to a serious subject: YOU! It will help you to choose those routines and rituals that, while they might not work for everyone, might just work for you. Who knows, with some tough love and a full moon, it might inspire you to find your f**king unicorn for yourself.
The Disappearance of the USS Scorpion: The History of the Mysterious Sinking of the American Nuclear Submarine
Charles River Editors - 2016
Nothing in those investigations caused the Navy to change its conclusion that an unexplained catastrophic event occurred.” – Excerpt from a Navy report It takes a special type of person to serve in a nation’s navy, especially on long voyages that separate men and women from their loved ones, and no service is both loved and hated as that aboard submarines, for very few people ever serve on them on a whim. For one thing, the psychological impact of being trapped for long periods underwater in tight, cramped quarters is more than many people can stand. Also, submarine service is uncharacteristically hazardous; after all, if a surface vessel is sunk, the crew has a reasonable chance of escaping death in lifeboats or being rescued out of the water by another ship. Conversely, if a submarine is badly damaged while submerged, the crew’s chances of survival are at best remote. On the other hand, for those who choose to make the careers as submariners, there is no more beloved service. That is, one hopes, how it was for the 99 men who were serving on the USS Scorpion on May 22, 1968, the fateful day the submarine is believed to have sank. It appears that the crew members died quickly, but however it happened, the grief experienced by their family members dragged on for decades, exacerbated both by the Navy’s lack of information about the submarine’s final moments and the government’s unwillingness to share what little knowledge it had. It is easy in hindsight to criticize the military for its secrecy, but it must be remembered that the Scorpion disappeared at the height of the Cold War, and therefore, little could be said publicly about its fate. Coincidentally, 3 other nuclear submarines suffered mysterious sinkings the same year, and the Cold War adversaries were interested in locating them and gleaning any secrets or technology that they could from the other side’s bad luck. Indeed, it was only after the fall of the Soviet Union that the truth could be told, bringing closure to family members and a dark lesson in espionage to the American people. The Disappearance of the USS Scorpion: The History of the Mysterious Sinking of the American Nuclear Submarine looks at one of the Navy’s enduring mysteries. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the USS Scorpion like never before.
Exploitative Play in Live Poker: How to Manipulate your Opponents into Making Mistakes
Alexander Fitzgerald - 2018
Nevertheless, there are numerous situations where even very experienced players behave in predictable ways. These deeply-ingrained habits lead them to make mistakes. The problem is that these situations won’t often arise at the table by chance – you have to make them happen. Exploitative Play in Live Poker is a ground-breaking work that teaches you how to create the circumstances where your opponents will be likely to blunder and how to exploit them when they do. To achieve this you will need to put to one side starting hand charts, balance and GTO (Game Theory Optimal) play. Instead you will incorporate new concepts that may well place you outside your comfort zone. However, your style will now be forcing the other players at the table outside of their comfort zone and, unlike you, they won’t know how to adapt. Learn how to: * Counter the auto-continuation-bettor * Develop a powerful donk-betting strategy * Use the overbet, the check-raise and the three-barrel effectively * As well as being a highly successful player, Alex Fitzgerald runs a poker consultancy that serves more than 1,000 professional poker players in 60 countries. As part of this work, he has very likely trawled through more hand history databases than anyone else. This gives him a unique insight into how players really play, especially when placed under pressure and forced into unfamiliar situations.
All the Colours of Polynesia
Jasna Tuta - 2019
This book lets you hop aboard a little sailboat and join the author on a three-year-long voyage across French Polynesia, where you will discover some of the most interesting places, people and wildlife of the South Pacific. From the world-famous island of Bora Bora to the remotest atolls of the Tuamotus, experience the challenges and rewards of the seafaring life as you dive with dolphins and sharks, sail under the stars, drink from fresh coconuts in the company of heavily-tattooed men, brave heavy storms and violent currents, play with stingrays, drift down coral rivers and meet fellow sailors from across the world. Beautifully illustrated with dozens of stunning photos, this book is the perfect companion for anyone curious about a different kind of life. Readers have said: Reading the book, I was surrounded by unfamiliar colours and overwhelmed by the scent of flowers I had never touched. I could feel the soft sand beneath my feet and slipped beneath the water to swim in the deep silence of the ocean. Returning to the surface, I encountered the smiles of people who were content in the here and now, embodying the freedom and softness of their lives, their lively hips moving in its rhythm. We should all go there once to bathe in the endless sunshine, the grace of carelessness and faith in life, even if only by reading this book… Translated from Slovene by Kaja Šeruga Edited by Mitja Tretjak Design by Ivica Jandrijevic
The Art of Putting: The Revolutionary Feel-Based System for Improving Your Score
Stan Utley - 2006
Now, in The Art of Putting he outlines his unique approach to putting for golfers of all skill levels. In a welcome change from mechanistic and overly-complex putting "systems," Utley breaks down the putting stroke to a simple, natural motion, revealing a straightforward method for learning this sure, repeatable stroke. As he guides you through the fundamentals of the proper grip, posture, alignment, and swing, Utley will overhaul and improve your stroke by putting feel back into your game. This definitive book also provides: - A complete primer on club design, with tips for finding the putter most in tune with the nuances of your swing- A guide to the sensory aspects of a good putt, from grip pressure to impact response to the way a putt should sound- Simple steps for reading greens accurately, every time- Drills to commit your putting stroke to muscle memory and overcome the tics that can knock your putts off line- Cures for the mental hurdles you'll face on the short grass
Tortillas & Peanut Butter: True Confessions of an American Mom Turned Mexican Smuggler
Linda Sonna - 2016
An unfortunately common situation...quickly develops into a wonderfully uncommon and heartfelt adventure." - An Erma Bombeck "Hot Tamale" http://humorwriters.org/2016/02/19/ho... - “Spot-on, highly entertaining, and absolutely hilarious” - Lynne Willard, Editor & U.S. expat - - "Jaw droppingly hilarious" Carol Penn-Romaine, award-winning writer - - A wealth of cultural information tucked between the chuckles - - Includes discussion questions for book clubs & classrooms - - As the zany protagonist comes to understand Mexico & appreciate Hispanic culture, readers do the same - - 20% of profits go to the ACLU - - "Holy Cow! This book is hilarious!" - Cynthia Norman, Cosmic Philosopher - “Learning about a new culture can be hilarious – as seen through this book!” – Diane Gilliard, Counselor - An Amazon Top-10 Bestseller in Travel/Mexico (7/17-9/17); Biography/Memoir, Crimes & Criminals, Solo Travel, Single Parenting, Teen & Young Adult Biographies (various dates) - SYNOPSIS A suburban housewife liberates herself from her peanut-butter-and-jelly life and flees to Mexico. While battling the cultural quirks that send less adventurous souls hightailing it back to the U.S., she struggles to learn Spanish, cope with foreign customs, raise her kids, and run a school. To supplement her meager income she smuggles, using her gift for gab and wily wit to outfox the government officials. But not all of her smuggling tricks and tactics go as planned. EMBEDDED MULTICULTURAL ISSUES - The women’s movement - The 1960s cultural revolution - Culture shock - Immigrant adjustment & adaptation - Immigrant parenting issues - Identity development in children of immigrants - Intergenerational value clashes in immigrant families - Diverse customs & mores - Racism - Sexism - Prejudice - Classism - Ageism - Cultural evolution - Expatriate re-integration - Individualist/Independent (e.g., North American) vs. Interdependent/Collectivist (e.g., Hispanic) orientation to: ° Time (past/present/future) ° Activity (being/becoming/doing) ° Social relations (hierarchical/collateral/egalitarian) ° Self-efficacy (fate/destiny vs. personal control)
The LawDog Files: African Adventures
D. LawDog - 2017
But long before he put on the deputy's star, he grew up in Nigeria, where his experiences were equally unforgettable. In THE LAWDOG FILES: AFRICAN ADVENTURES, LawDog chronicles his encounters with everything from bush pilots, 15-foot pythons, pygmy mongooses, brigadier-captains, and Peace Corp hippies to the Nigerian space program. THE LAWDOG FILES: AFRICAN ADVENTURES are every bit as hilarious as the previous volume, as LawDog relates his unforgettable experiences in a laconic, self-deprecating manner that is funny in its own right. Africa wins again, and again, and again, but, so too does the reader in this sobering, but hilarious collection of true tales from the Dark Continent.
The Build: Designing My Life of Choppers, Family, and Faith
Paul Teutul Jr. - 2017
Author Paul Teutul, Jr., is arguably the most creative builder of custom "chopper" motorcycles in the world. His talents were revealed to millions of TV viewers worldwide on American Chopper, as well as later on a spinoff series, American Chopper Senior vs Junior. The Build gives the reader at Paul Jr.'s life behind the camera, which included volcanic conflict with his father and business mentor, Paul Sr. Using his own story of improbable success as an illustration, Paul Jr. offers insights on how anyone can find and activate often hidden talents. In a charming, often humorous way, The Build is a rallying cry to unleash God-designed creativity and live life to the fullest.
When We Are Called to Part: Hope and Heartbreak in the Vanishing World of the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement
Brooke Jarvis - 2013
Once it had been a forbidding place of exile, inhabited by thousands of the disease’s victims who had been removed from their families and confined against their will, far away from a society that feared and misunderstood their condition. When Brooke Jarvis came across a posting for a job in Kalaupapa, tending to the needs of the handful of remaining patients, it seemed like an impossibly exotic opportunity for a college student. But what she found there was both more remarkable and more familiar than what she had imagined. When We Are Called to Part is the absorbing, affecting, and often funny story of life in the last years of a rapidly vanishing community. “Even a prison,” she would learn, “eventually becomes a home, becomes something you mourn.”
Books by Michael Pollan: The Omnivore's Dilemma, in Defense of Food, the Botany of Desire, Food Rules, a Place of My Own, Second Nature
Books LLC - 2010
Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: The Omnivore's Dilemma, in Defense of Food, the Botany of Desire, Food Rules, a Place of My Own, Second Nature. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a nonfiction book by Michael Pollan published in 2006, in which Pollan asks the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. As omnivores - the most unselective eaters - we humans are faced with a wide variety of food choices, resulting in a dilemma. To find out about those choices, Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain usindustrial food, organic food, and food we forage ourselves from the source to a final meal, and in the process writes an account of the American way of eating. Pollan begins with an exploration of the food-production system from which the vast majority of American meals are derived. This industrial food chain is largely based on corn, whether it is eaten directly, fed to livestock, or processed into chemicals such as glucose, often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, and ethanol. Pollan discusses how the corn plant came to dominate the American diet through a combination of biological, cultural, and political factors. He visits George Naylor's corn farm in Iowa to learn more about those factors. The role of petroleum in the cultivation and transportation of the American food supply is also discussed. A fast food meal is used to illustrate the end result of the industrial food chain. The following chapter delves into the principles of organic farming and their various implementations in modern America. Pollan shows that, while organic food has grown in popularity, its producers have adopted many of the methods of industrial agriculture, losing sight of th...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=931450
Jamestown
Marshall William Fishwick - 2017
They would establish a British colony, find gold, and discover a water route to Asia. But what awaited them was far different - fire, hunger, sickness, death, even cannibalism. Here, from the noted historian Marshall W. Fishwick, is the dramatic story of Jamestown and the struggle of its leader, Captain John Smith, who, with the help of Pocahontas, daughter of the Algonquian chief Powhatan, succeeded against all odds.
Warspite
Iain Ballantyne - 2001
While this book looks at the lives of all eight vessels to bear the name (between 1596 and the 1990s), it concentrates on the truly epic story of the seventh vessel, a super-dreadnought battleship, conceived as the ultimate answer to German naval power, during the arms race that helped cause WW1. Warspite fought off the entire German fleet at Jutland, survived a mutiny between the wars and then covered herself in glory in action from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean during WW2. She was the flagship of Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham when he mastered the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean, her guns inflicting devastating damage on the enemy at Calabria in 1940 and Matapan in 1941. She narrowly avoided destruction by the Japanese carrier force that had earlier devastated Pearl Harbor. She provided crucial fire support for Allied landings in Sicily, Italy, Normandy and Walcheren. A lucky ship in battle, she survived dive-bombers off Crete and glide bomb hits off Salerno. The Spite had a reputation for being obtuse at unexpected moments, running aground and losing her steering several times; she broke free from her towropes on the way to the breakers and ending up beached at St Michael's Mount where it took a decade to dismantle her. She had fought to the end.But this is not just the story of a warship. Wherever possible the voices of those men who fought aboard her speak directly to the reader about their experiences. Warspite is also the story of a great naval nation which constructed her as the ultimate symbol of its imperial power and then scrapped her when the sun set on that empire.About the AuthorIain Ballantyne is a much published naval author. His other books for Pen & Sword are HMS London, HMS Rodney and Victory as well as Strike From the Sea and Killing the Bismarck. He is editor of WARSHIPS IFR magazine. For more details on Iain Ballantyne and his books, visit: www.iainballantyne.com
Ferdinand and Isabella
Malveena McKendrick - 2015
But the historic landfall of October 1492 was only a secondary event of the year. The preceding January, they had accepted the surrender of Muslim Granada, ending centuries of Islamic rule in their peninsula. And later that year, they had ordered the expulsion or forced baptism of Spain's Jewish minority, a cruel crusade undertaken in an excess of zeal for their Catholic faith. Europe, in the century of Ferdinand and Isabella, was also awakening to the glories of a new age, the Renaissance, and the Spain of the "Catholic Kings" - as Ferdinand and Isabella came to be known - was not untouched by this brilliant revival of learning. Here, from the noted historian Malveena McKendrick, is their remarkable story.
Hidden Mickeys: A Field Guide to Walt Disney World's Best Kept Secrets
Steven Barrett
Author Barrett adds to the fun of finding them by turning the search into six scavenger hunts, complete with clues, hints, and points to be scored. You'll find more than 200 new Mickey sightings in this edition over 1,000 hidden Mickeys in all. Fun for all ages!