Showing results by narrator "Adam Verner" in All Categories

Raphael is the holy grail of AI: a superintelligent robot that’s been programmed to be the perfect moral being. Or at least that’s what Andy, its creator, believes. But when an accident forces Andy to stay home, he learns that the robot has disappeared from its lab, mysteriously bypassing the sophisticated security system and cognitive “laws” meant to keep it in check. The robot has never been in the outside world. Will its programming hold or will it unravel? Confined to a wheelchair and under siege by a parent company hiding its own dark secrets, Andy is about to find out.

In this book psychologist Kelly Flannagan shows how each of us has within ourselves, exactly the way we are, the gifts that are needed to cultivate the life-long relationship we are longing for, whether it is within marriage or friendship. He shows us how self-knowledge leads the way to growing in love for both God and others.

As most of New York City sleeps, Athena Paradis, one of the most glamorous and desired women in the world, steps onto the red carpet at an exclusive nightclub. Suddenly a shot rings out, and Athena dies amidst hundreds of cameras and spotlights. When Henry Parker begins to investigate the famous starlet's death, another public murder shakes the city to its core. Both murders appear to be more like executions. And Henry discovers a shocking link between the two murders, and to a man who seems to be taking his cue from one of the most notorious killers in history.

Conventional wisdom holds that Western economies are on the threshold of fast-and-furious technological development. Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn Weigel refute this idea, bringing together a vast array of data and case studies to tell a very different story. With expertise spanning academia and the business world, Erixon and Weigel illustrate how innovation is being hampered by existing government regulations and corporate practices.

After his mother's death, 12-year-old Samuel Chambers would do anything to turn back time. Prompted by three strange carnival fortune-tellers and the surfacing of his mysterious and reclusive neighbor, Samuel begins his search for the Tree of Life - the only thing that could possibly bring his mother back. His quest to defeat death entangles him and his best friend Abra in an ancient conflict and forces Samuel to grapple with an unwelcome question....

After his unspectacular professional baseball career ends with a knee injury in Toledo, Ohio, Johnny Earl gets busted for selling cocaine. After serving seven years in prison, all he wants to do is return to his hometown of Steubenville, retrieve the drug money he stashed before he went to jail, and start a new life where no one has ever heard of Johnny Earl. However, before he can leave town with his money, Johnny is picked up for questioning in the murder of Rayce Daubner.

Fresh out of Bible college, James Buchman has found a good life for himself as the pastor of a small church in rural upstate New York. But beyond the joy of new friends and young love lurks a deadly secret. When inexplicable events leave innocent souls teetering on the edge of destruction, James can't help but wonder if the congregation's mysterious newcomer may somehow be responsible.

Crescent is a crowhopper - a genetically modified mercenary programmed for ruthless warfare. When she’s taken prisoner by Crater Trueblood instead of being killed in battle, she thinks it’s a disaster. Crater is weary of war. He’s a miner, not a soldier. He’d rather be mining Helium-3 than battling the infernal crowhoppers. But after he captures Crescent and brings her to Moontown, he’s surprised how much he enjoys her company. When she’s falsely accused of murder, he becomes an outlaw to help her escape.

One man must uncover the truth - even when others will stop at nothing to keep it buried. While covertly investigating a controversial neurological research program, exposé filmmaker Jevin Banks is drawn into a far-reaching conspiracy involving one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical firms. Jevin is seeking not only answers about the questionable mind-to-mind communication program but also answers to his own family tragedy.

Billed as "the most realistic game ever," Worlds at War was a video game unlike any other - one that promised a virtual reality experience that rivaled operating a giant mecha in combat. People flocked to the game in anticipation. For some, the game lived up to and far exceeded their expectations - the level of graphics was indeed, "just like being there." The game didn't provide the experience many others had hoped for, though; for a large number of players, the game was "too real to be fun." For video game design majors Ryan Johnson and Noah Bowden, the game play was incredible.

In 1973, when Wenguang Huang was eight, his grandmother became obsessed with her own death. Fearing cremation, she appealed to her family to promise to bury her after she'd died. This was in Xi'an, a city in central China, at a time when a national ban on all traditional Chinese practices, including burials, was strictly enforced. But his grandmother was persistent, and two years later, Huang's father built her a coffin. Over the next 15 years, the whole family was consumed with planning Grandma's burial.

Now on the race’s centennial, award-winning author David K. Randall tells the story of this riveting, long-forgotten race. Through larger-than-life characters, treacherous landings, disease, and ultimately triumph, Into Unknown Skies demonstrates how one race returned America to aviation greatness. A story of underdog teammates, bold exploration, and American ingenuity, Into Unknown Skies is an untold adventure tale showing the power of flight to bring the world together.

Man + Skill = Manskills! The formula is simple enough: take any man, fill him full of carefully chosen, very useful information and then let him loose onto the streets or into the wild. Armed with the proper set of skills, there is no beast he cannot tame, no problem he cannot solve, no wine he cannot appraise, no meat he cannot grill, and no woman he cannot amaze. All that lies between you (or your man) and becoming uber-evolved is mastering the wisdom contained in this humble book called Manskills. But you must learn these lessons well.

Some books on how to read the Bible are academically informative, but their rationality can make God seem distant. Other books are spiritually vibrant but provide few tools that truly help God's people read the Bible better. Readers need a guide that combines the academic with the spiritual—that integrates textual analysis with the illuminating and transformational work of the Holy Spirit.

When someone we love dies, it's difficult to look beyond our grief to understand that they are still with us. And yet we hear in the funeral liturgy that "life is changed not ended." In Our Faithful Departed, University of Notre Dame theologian Leonard J. DeLorenzo shows us what this means and how we are called to remain faithful in our relationships with the dead.

Smells are the colour that enrich our experience of life. Ask anyone to reflect on their sense of smell, and they immediately start talking. First there are discussions about food, but quickly they move on to personal topics: about the smells that evoke memories of childhood, dead relatives, pregnancy, love and sex. When people talk about their sense of smell, they also tell us something about themselves, their feelings, thoughts and relationships. Thus, the sense of smell not only reflects the chemical world outside us, but also bears witness to our inner world, our feelings and thoughts.

When you personally experience Jesus’s journey through His earthly life—sharing in His ministry, encounters, prayers, joys, sorrows, dangers, and miracles—that journey will shape and direct your own life in unforgettable ways.

When the Seventh Sun ambushed Sciyat—a glowing beacon of peace—the galactic military retaliated with a purge, calling for the elimination of all Neo-Andromedans across the galaxy. Fleet Commander Erica Anderson helped initiate the purge. She now fights to destroy the Seventh Sun, no matter the cost. Captain Jason Stone tried to stop the purge. He failed. Now, Jason is torn between his duties as a soldier and his beliefs as a man. When he swore to protect the galaxy, he never imagined genocide. The hunt is on, and only the strong will survive.

The Founders of the American nation would have had trouble recognizing the America that emerged after the Civil War. By century’s end, we had rapidly evolved into the world’s greatest industrial power. It was a nation of large new cities populated by immigrants from all over the world. And it was a nation that was taking an increasingly active role on the world stage, even to the point of acquiring an empire of its own. Many Americans began to wonder whether this modern nation had outgrown its original Constitution.

Humans often aren't rational. We are animals, and we evolved to mate and to survive, not to compute. Although our intuitive decision-making process served us well in prehistoric times, in modern times we need to think more deliberately in order to avoid our biases. In the first part of Rational Thinking and Investing, hedge fund manager Jaret Wilson examines the science of behavioral economics to show how and why we think irrationally, and how we can do better with a more scientific process.