Fargo chases down a Celestial star. After going bust in a San Francisco Fargo poker game, Fargo is desperate for cash. So when a Chinese gentleman offers him a thousand dollars to find the man's missing daughter, Fargo reluctantly agrees. But his search quickly turns into something much more. Other Chinese have been disappearing—and a trail of tears and terror leads Fargo all the way to the wastelands of Death Valley, where the monstrous Tobias Cain has transformed the desert landscape into an oasis fed by a secret water source and an unlimited supply of Chinese slave labor. Now, Fargo is going to take Cain and his entire vile operation down, and turn the desert paradise into bloody perdition…

Things have started to return to normal in Brett’s life, and he’s happily participating in a practical joke competition with Poppy and Joe. But when Joe goes missing, Brett wonders if it’s just his next joke, or something more serious. And then they discover the crater. Another portal has opened, and Brett and Poppy have to jump in to find their friend. This time, they are taken to a desert, into a world that they believed only existed in stories, to a city that is doomed. But they find Joe, who is fearlessly helping them survive as an evil villain cuts off their supplies. Brett and Poppy join in, teaching the residents of the city the elements of crafting potions. But even armed with this new knowledge, they worry that it would be enough to save the city. Join Brett and his friends as they work to save the Desert City in the third installment of the Unofficial Minecrafters Time Travel Adventure series from bestselling author Winter Morgan!

Everything you want to know about the breakthroughs in AI technology, machine learning, and deep learning—as seen in self-driving cars, Netflix recommendations, and more. The future is here: Self-driving cars are on the streets, an algorithm gives you movie and TV recommendations, IBM’s Watson triumphed on Jeopardy over puny human brains, computer programs can be trained to play Atari games. But how do all these things work? In this book, Sean Gerrish offers an engaging and accessible overview of the breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and machine learning that have made today’s machines so smart. Gerrish outlines some of the key ideas that enable intelligent machines to perceive and interact with the world. He describes the software architecture that allows self-driving cars to stay on the road and to navigate crowded urban environments; the million-dollar Netflix competition for a better recommendation engine (which had an unexpected ending); and how programmers trained computers to perform certain behaviors by offering them treats, as if they were training a dog. He explains how artificial neural networks enable computers to perceive the world—and to play Atari video games better than humans. He explains Watson’s famous victory on Jeopardy, and he looks at how computers play games, describing AlphaGo and Deep Blue, which beat reigning world champions at the strategy games of Go and chess. Computers have not yet mastered everything, however; Gerrish outlines the difficulties in creating intelligent agents that can successfully play video games like StarCraft that have evaded solution—at least for now. Gerrish weaves the stories behind these breakthroughs into the narrative, introducing readers to many of the researchers involved, and keeping technical details to a minimum. Science and technology buffs will find this book an essential guide to a future in which machines can outsmart people.

Shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, author Martin Yant argued in a newspaper column that Saddam Hussein's military machine wasn't nearly the menace President Bush said it was. Rather than being a well-equipped and battle-hardened million-man Wehrmacht at the command of another Adolf Hitler, Yant suggested that the Iraqi army appeared to be a war weary, smaller, supply-short force at the command of another Manuel Noriega.When the Persian Gulf War ended in February of 1991 in the U.S. led coalition's rout of the Iraqi army, Yant set out to write Desert Mirage to show how the Bush administration had deliberately deceived Americans into supporting the pursuit of power disguised as the pursuit of principle - at the cost of an estimated 375,000 lives.In the process, Yant shows how the liberation of Kuwait, whose occupation the Bush administration helped cause - either by ineptness or design - was merely a pretense for assertion of American power in the Middle East.Yant pieces together his convincing case from thousands of reports from dozens of sources that sporadically seeped through the administration's veil of deceit to reveal that the thunderously triumphant 'Desert Storm' was actually a deviously devised 'Desert Mirage' with far more foreboding causes and consequences than what the public could ever imagine.In the best tradition of contrarian journalism and worth consideration. - Kirkus Reviews

A Hawk in the Sun brilliantly shows the passion of a true scientist. The research was of the nesting and other habits of the ferruginous hawk-an extremely shy and difficult-to-study bird that is the largest hawk in North America. The reader will be emotionally involved from the fight between a pair of hawks and a coyote through the author's description of Penelope, the stay-at-home mom, to the poignant death of a hawk chick. Book jacket.

Dive deep into the world of professional wrestling where dreams, rivalries, and legends intertwine. "Ringside Redemption: Legacy of a Champion" follows the journey of Alex 'The Meteor' Mendez, a third-generation wrestler struggling to step out of the colossal shadows of his family legacy. As Alex confronts past ghosts, mends broken bonds, and faces the fiercest opponents in the ring, he learns that the weight of the champion's belt is not just about the victories but the sacrifices, grit, and the heart that goes behind each move. From grueling training days to the stories untold behind legendary match-ups, the book offers a raw, unfiltered look at the world of wrestling beyond the spotlight. It's not just a tale of one man's journey to greatness but an anthem for every underdog who dreams of leaving an indelible mark in their chosen field. Join Alex as he navigates the highs and lows, the triumphs and heartbreaks, and learns what it truly means to be a champion. A tale of ambition, resilience, and redemption awaits you in the squared circle.

Robert Flynn has gathered twenty-three stories that have hope, faith, and love as their common denominator. They are funny, political, and more than a bit prophetic as well as being superbly crafted. Included in the collection are "The Rest of the Story," wherein the author retells select Biblical stories and parables supplying heretofore expurgated details with an exquisitely agonizing truth; "Ten Mistakes God Made," which treats with candor religious politics, elitism, and the unexplained nature of what makes us believe; "The Trouble with Eve" and "Redemption," which are at heart stories of how one grapples with, avoids, questions, and finally resigns to--love; and "Chicken Soup for the Damned," a fable cum corporate biography retelling of the Savior's story.