The victory of IBM's Watson on the television quiz show Jeopardy! revealed how scientists and engineers at IBM and elsewhere are pushing the boundaries of science and technology to create machines that sense, learn, reason, and interact with people in new ways to provide insight and advice.In Smart Machines, John E. Kelly III, director of IBM Research, and Steve Hamm, a writer at IBM and a former business and technology journalist, introduce the fascinating world of "cognitive systems" to general audiences and provide a window into the future of computing. Cognitive systems promise to penetrate complexity and assist people and organizations in better decision making. They can help doctors evaluate and treat patients, augment the ways we see, anticipate major weather events, and contribute to smarter urban planning. Kelly and Hamm's comprehensive perspective describes this technology inside and out and explains how it will help us conquer the harnessing and understanding of "big data," one of the major computing challenges facing businesses and governments in the coming decades. Absorbing and impassioned, their book will inspire governments, academics, and the global tech industry to work together to power this exciting wave in innovation.

    Escape into an exotic untamed world in this sci-fi adventure that has been called a cross between Gladiator, Planet of the Apes and The Hunger Games. In Las Vegas, Shaw, billionaire casino magnate and self proclaimed world's greatest showman, nears completion on the massive Serengeti Resort & Casino. Its amphitheater is being transformed into an authentic slice of African savanna for the show Predators and Prey which will savagely pit animal against animal in the bloodiest gladiatorial spectacle ever created for human entertainment. The only thing missing is the main attraction - which Shaw soon finds in Shark, the world's only Great White Half Man Half Shark Hybrid to be exact. Shaw envisions the show's tagline as "Come One - Come All To See - The Only Great White Shark In Captivity" but soon learns that capturing the world's top predator and delivering him to Vegas is easier said than done. This daunting task will require the cruel tactics of the evil animal slave trading hyena, Old Jack. The heartbreaking plans they devise and innocent pawns they use to try to coerce Sharks allegiance will force all to rely on primitive instincts to survive.

    So when a secret agency operating outside the law recruits him for his special operations skills his team leader Tally, a tough, attractive computer genius, is ordered to keep him on a tight leash. But a tight leash is the last thing Mac wants. His intent is to use the agency’s massive resources to track down Sophia, a close friend’s daughter, who has been kidnapped in Mexico. From the beginning, sparks fly between Mac and Tally. Mac sees Tally as an office worker, not qualified for field operations. For her part, Tally views Mac as little more than a cold-blooded killer. The conflict escalates as the two are forced to play at husband and wife in order to get close to their next target.Ignoring orders to stay out of trouble, Mac enlists the help of Scotty, a British soldier, and Jog, a Lebanese fixer. They follow the kidnappers’ trail to Paris, where events lead them to suspect Sophia is a captive of Sheik Khalid, a billionaire Saudi exile who is suspected of supporting terrorist groups by shipping weapons, drugs and slaves on his luxury vessel, Princess Aliya.Mac and Tally discover they have feelings for each other, but events lead Mac to question whether Tally is working to another agenda. With time running out, the group dodges assassins, corrupt generals, evil medicos, Mossad agents, corrupt bureaucrats and sharks. But they cannot anticipate what is waiting for them on Khalid’s fortress island of Andaran, or that there’s much more at stake than Sophia…

    Coles. Two orphaned sisters, facing a future of want and loneliness, quarrel when the older sister, responsible for her dependent teenage sibling, repudiates her sister's affair with a political activist--older and unacceptable--she bonds with on the internet. Can adolescent love ever transcend innocently ignored incompatibility to evolve into a valued family relationship in rural southern America? Can a sister forced into a role of a surrogate parent convince her sister to denounce her attraction for a rouge male religiously, socially, and historically unsuited for marriage without a destructive severance of duty and caring?

    Abdulaziz al-Sherhi. In a nation rich in imagination, this name requires none at all. In the weeks that follow, the epidemic fears crescendo into a national roar. People panic about dying from this horrific terrorist incited disease and clamor for a vaccination. The federal government lurches along, hurriedly creating more vaccines to meet the demand.Maggie Ride, a weary road warrior for a high tech company, submits to the shot only to realize this is no ordinary immunization. Her husband, Eddy, posts his suspicions about this deeply sinister government requirement to his web site. NNow he’s a target.And Maggie is the bait.The technology is real. Washington is corrupt. It’s only a matter of time before this isn’t just an intriguing idea for a political thriller.

    Experience her anxiety; feel her fear. Watch her survive by her wits. Connie has recruited her friend, Paul Russo, to serve as cook and first mate. Paul can't join her on her maiden voyage, so Connie is forced to rely on pick-up crew for her first two weeks at sea. Trouble erupts aboard Diamantista as soon as she leaves shore. Anticipating that Paul will join her in the Virgin Islands before their first guests arrive, Connie stays in touch with him during her voyage. As they converse, neither one will acknowledge that their growing attraction is deeper than friendship. Love for Sail is the first book in the Connie Barrera Thrillers, a romantic thriller series from the author of the best-selling Bluewater Thrillers. The next Connie Barrera Thriller will be published in the fourth quarter of 2014. If you enjoyed the Bluewater Thrillers, you'll see a different side of some of your favorite characters when they appear in the Connie Barrera Thrillers. Connie Barrera first appeared in C.L.R. Dougherty's Deception in Savannah. She discovered her Love for Sail in Bluewater Ice and Bluewater Betrayal. Now she has her own stories to tell. Welcome aboard!

     Blood of Like Souls Julie Madigan's career with the New Mexico State Police ended in the puddle of blood on the floor when she survived having her throat cut. But a year of recovery left her desperate to hide the scars and to escape her past. She moved to Michigan, away from friends and coworkers who knew her secrets. Now a Medical Examiner Investigator, Julie Madigan plays by the rules, but the rules change when a killer sends her clues and evidence about two victims, taunting her with his unusual methods of murder, pulling her into his twisted game, targeting those she cares about. His goal - to prove Julie will kill like he does. While trying to identify him, Julie discovers the monster has been closer to her than she imagined, leaving her in a race to save the victims he's selected, forcing her to choose who lives and who dies. Tears of Like Souls Medical Examiner Investigator Julie Madigan might have survived her half-brother's brutal crime spree, but the emotional wounds left by Anthony Bock's evil run deep. She begins a walk down the path to healing with the one man who's always loved her - Zach Samualson, who works for the Drug Enforcement Agency. They begin to establish a new life together in Washington - until he reveals a secret of his own. Julie's torn between trusting him and running from her inner demons and the one question that's haunted her since she was sixteen -did Bock make her kill her father? Promises of Like Souls After a small wedding to Zach in Albuquerque, Julie Madigan, now Julie Samualson, goes back to Michigan to pack and say goodbye to her friends and coworkers before moving to the log cabin Zach had built for them prior to Julie's yes to marriage. But her arrival in paradise was without her groom, who had stayed behind in New Mexico to finish an assignment with his DEA unit while awaiting a transfer. Zach, however, faces a startling surprise that will change both their lives completely - that he is the father of a teenage daughter, whose mother was kidnapped by one of Zach's ex-partners who had turned against the agency and his partners. By a man with a single goal - to destroy Zach and all he holds precious. Secrets of Like Souls On her way down the stairs, Julie Samualson falls and injures her ankle, disrupting more than her family. She limps on to a Portland hospital to begin an investigation into the burns suffered by the sister of one of the sheriff's dispatchers - burns that don't appear to have been sustained in a fall. Then the wife of a fellow deputy goes missing, and the van found near the Columbia River. On crutches, Julie can only help process evidence. Meanwhile, Amber, her stepdaughter, asks if they can continue searching for clues about the bag they found on a trail ride - the contents include an old library card and piece of tattooed human skin made into leather. But when the three different cases begin to connect and threats get closer to her loved ones, Julie's world begins to unravel.

    'You could find yourself out of the frying pan and into the fire.' Her past denied and dance championship dreams discarded, Cassie Sleight leaves home. In the seemingly idyllic coastal town of Keimera, she starts a career on the English staff of the local high school. Exposure to Mark Talbut, a man struggling to be modern yet threatened by power shifts in the workplace and in society, causes Cassie to assess her reactions as a teacher and a woman. As she does so, the secrets of her past surface. Will that past continue to choreograph Cassie’s present steps? What sort of woman does she become? ‘In and Out of Step' looks at how the world a person lives in shapes that person for good and for bad. It is a story about friendship and family, belonging, alienation, sexual harassment, and change. The title alludes to the way Cassie Sleight uses dance as a way to interpret life and process her reactions to it.

    It was an unlikely friendship. She is a middle class, middle-aged white woman who writes for the right-wing press and a right of centre think tank. Gangs like Tuggy Tug's are responsible for the majority of crime in our inner cities. During the riots of August 2011, they were the young men setting our streets ablaze.Over the next three years she got more and more involved with the boys. All the issues she had read about - single mothers, absent fathers, lack of education and social mobility, the criminal justice system - suddenly took on new meaning as she encountered not just Tuggy Tug and his gang but their relatives and friends. She enters their world and sees institutions through their eyes. It is a revelation.She describes a dramatic three years. By the end of the book Tuggy Tug was found guilty of committing over a hundred street robberies. He and two other gang members are in prison, one is in mental hospital and one appears to be a successful criminal. In a remarkable, often funny and moving book, Harriet Sergeant describes how the friendship changed her and investigates the forces that turn potentially decent young men into misfits and criminals. As Britain faces the first anniversary of the riots, this book should be required reading for us all.

    This is my story of how a paedophile entered my life, home and family when I was six years old.I highlight how he attempted to break my mind, soul and spirit for his total control over me, and how I fought for my sanity, survival and freedom against his evil and constant onslaught of abuse.I was Marie; now I'm Jes.“Even when I die, I'll come back to haunt you.”It's time for Jes to bury Marie's ghosts forever.Six-year-old Marie finds her world has changed and become one of confusion, deceit and abuse.No longer called by her birth name, she is unaffectionately referred to as Scrag - a shortened version of Scraggy-knickered-nut-rag.Her will to survive manifests quite bizarre tactics, as she deviates off course into a childhood of insanity, paranoia, glue-sniffing, self-harming and messages from David Bowie ringing through her ears.Her mind contrives strategies to cope with the continued onslaught that it seems destined to endure.Adulthood is her escape route if she can survive the wait, but can demons be truly locked away in the past forever?This is the story of one child's mind at the mercy of a real life monster.

    What information have you used to base your opinion of life and right and wrong? Everything is not all black or white.

     Worn down by his string of affairs she has no self-confidence, no self-respect and the only thing that keeps her going is watching her son, Jude, turn into a talented artist. But the 60th anniversary of a D-Day exercise triggers chance meetings which prove unlikely catalysts for change. First there’s Corbin, the American soldier who she runs into as she’s walking on the cliffs. He is charming and has a quaintness about him, calling her an ‘English rose’. Then there’s George the war veteran, who comes to dine at the pub, and his son Mark. George fascinates Marie with his first-hand accounts of the war, whilst Mark proves helpful in making sense of the pub’s financial situation. And there’s Paxton. Another American soldier with an uncanny resemblance to Corbin. Young, fit and very attractive, Marie finds him hard to resist. But little does she know Paxton is also battling some inner demons. As the heat of the summer intensifies, so do the issues in Marie’s life. Why is Corbin so elusive? Why is the pub struggling to make ends meet? Why has Jude suddenly become so withdrawn and unhappy? Can she help Paxton open up and begin to deal with his pain? Or will she be shackled to the pub and her increasingly spiteful husband forever? But as events unfold, Marie finally realises that she is not trapped, but stuck, and that it is down to her to get her life moving again. Perfectly blending the complexities of twenty-first century life with the dramatic history of World War Two, Another You is a charming tale that will warm your heart. Praise for Jane Cable 'A fascinating exploration of how the past can affect the present. The language in this book is so fresh and vivid that it sweeps the reader up and away and deposits her on the beautiful Studland Bay where this story is set.' – bestselling author Rosanna Ley ‘Brilliantly interweaves the Second World War with the present day’ – bestselling author Holly Kinsella Jane Cable writes romance stories with a strong element of mystery and suspense. Her first novel, The Cheesemaker’s House, was a finalist in The Alan Titchmarsh Show’s People’s Novelist competition and won the Words for the Wounded Independent Book of the Year Award in 2015.

    Some of the situations are heartbreaking, others are head-scratching, and all of them are tales Disney would rather you not hear.Walt Disney, the company bearing his name, and their theme parks have been analyzed and chronicled almost ad nauseam. The word Disney conjures up different feelings for different people. For many, the Walt Disney Company stands for all things wholesome, family-centric, moral and entertaining, but every now and then scandalous and salacious behavior seeps into the utopian world of Disney. Disney Declassified isn’t about the analysis of the Disney Company at a deep or philosophical level—actually it’s quite the contrary; it is a collection of true stories with Disney being the setting or the catalyst in situations that are very un-Disney-like. In some of these instances, not every Disney story ends happily ever after;•The shocking time a baby was born and abandoned in a Magic Kingdom toilet. •When an eight-year-old girl was randomly shot in the back while riding aboard the Disneyland Railroad.•The controversial story of a handicapped woman having her Disneyland annual pass suspended for speeding and running into other guests with her motorized scooter.•What do a priest accused of molesting multiple children and the founder of a Ponzi scheme have in common? They both fled their situations and went to work at Walt Disney World.•The diabolical tale of a woman who sold her newborn baby for $15,000 to take her other children on a trip to Walt Disney World. •The role a former Nazi SS member played in the construction of Walt Disney World.•Two hostage situations at Walt Disney World, with one at EPCOT tragically ending in suicide.•How a peeping Tom set up an elaborate system to spy on female cast members as they changed for work inside Cinderella’s Castle.•Ever hear of something called “Sphinctering?” If you were one of the unlucky guys working for the fire company on Walt Disney World property, you may have been subjected to this form of male-on-male sexual harassment. •Find out how the public helped to identify and track down a despicable child pornographer based on the Disney resort in the background images the police released from his reprehensible videos. The Disney docket doesn’t end with cases of ride accidents, sex, crimes, death and violence. There are multiple stories of people faking cancer to score a free trip to Disney World, interesting copyright infringement and Americans with Disability Act lawsuits and a touching story of how a young boy with autism utilizes Disney characters to communicate with his family. However you feel about Disney, lover or hater, explore these stories and many more, when the real world collides with Disney and their world. Chances are you may never view Disney the same way again!

    His music could have made Damien Cantwell the star of his generation.But living fast has its consequences, and Damien soon finds himself spiraling into a dark world full of unfettered debauchery and brutal violence.The horrors of drug addiction are painted in sharp, biting prose in this novel about throwing away everything and finding that some things are too precious to lose

    Can it also cure?Tessa Price, PhD, knows what it’s like to lose a child to a genetic disease. To spare another mother this pain, she invents a radical new gene therapy that might save the life of seven-year-old Gunnar Sigrunsson. Unable to get regulatory approval to treat Gunnar in the US, she takes her clinical trial to the Palacio Centro Medico, a resort-like hospital on a Mexican peninsula where rich medical tourists get experimental treatments that aren’t available anywhere else.When the hospital is taken over by a brutal drug cartel, Tessa hides with a remarkable trio of Palacio clients—rich Texan Lyle Simmons, his much-younger Brazilian girlfriend, and his protection dog, a German shepherd named Dixie, only to learn that the gangsters aren’t the only deadly threat they face. A rabies-like infection that began in the Palacio’s research chimpanzees has spread to humans. Tessa investigates and finds a shocking connection to her gene therapy experiment. In the wake of this discovery, Tessa must weigh the value of one human life against another—including her own.