This is a highly practical guide for budding artists who want to create their own extreme sci-fi worlds. Core elements of sci-fi art are taught through ingenious exercises and eleven detailed step by step projects. Subjects covered include aliens, robots, space ships, weapons, space stations and strange planets.

To predict our future, we must look to the extremes. So argues the economist Richard Davies, who takes readers to the margins of the modern economy and beyond. These extreme economies illustrate the forces that test human resilience, drive societies to failure, and promise to shape our collective future. Reviving a foundational idea from the medical sciences, Extreme Economies turns the logic of modern economics on its head by arguing that these outlier societies can teach us more about our own than we might imagine. By adapting to circumstances unimaginable to most of us, the people in these societies are pioneering the economic infrastructure of the future.

This introduction to modality places the emphasis on the metaphysics of modality rather than on the formal semetics of quantified modal logic. The text begins by introducing students to the "de re/de dicto" distinction, conventionalist and conceptualist theories of modality and some of the key problems in modality, particularly Quine's criticisms. It then moves on to explain how possible worlds provide a solution to many of the problems in modality and how possible worlds themselves have been used to analyse notions outside modality such as properties and propositions. Possible worlds introduce problems of their own and the book argues that to make progress with these problems a theory of possible worlds is required. The pros and cons of various theories of possible worlds are then examined in turn, including those of Lewis, Kripke, Adams, Stalnaker and Plantinga.

Travel to Africa to meet the longest snake on the continent, the black mamba, which is also one of the fastest in the world. A dangerous cast of characters with comic-style illustrated spreads and dramatic photos will keep young readers turning the page to learn more about these deadly reptiles.

Global megatrends for the next 20 years and how they will affect the United States. This is the fifth installment in the National Intelligence Council’s series aimed at providing a framework for thinking about possible futures and their implications. The report is intended to stimulate strategic thinking about the rapid and vast geopolitical changes characterizing the world today and possible global trajectories during the next 15-20 years by identifying critical trends and potential discontinuities. The authors distinguish between megatrends, those factors that will likely occur under any scenario, and game-changers, critical variables whose trajectories are far less certain. NIC 2012-001. Appropriate for anyone, from business to banks, government to start-ups, technology to teachers and more, this publication hellps anticipate where the world will be socially, politically, technically and culturally over the next few decades. Several innovations are included in Global Trends 2030, including: a review of the four previous Global Trends reports, input from academic and other experts around the world, coverage of disruptive technologies, and a chapter on the potential trajectories for the US role in the international system and the possible the impact on future international relations.

This book is a pioneering investigation of the tourism practices in the world's other, cold water, islands. Located in extreme latitudes and subject to extreme weather conditions, these islands have been developing their tourism appeal in manners that appear sustainable. They present themselves in images that speak to the pristine, unique and superlative aspects of their natural environment, history and culture. Limited seasonality, difficulty of access, restricted infrastructure, harsh climates and water too cold to swim in, are integral features of the tourism industry, often welcomed as appropriate filters to the slide to the mass market. The collection contains 13 island case studies. A set of seven hail from Northern latitudes: Baffin (Nunavut, Canada), Banks (Northwest Territories, Canada), Greenland/ Kaalaalit Nunaat, Iceland, Luleå (Sweden), Nunivak (Alaska), Solovetsky (Russia) and Svalbard (Norway). A second set of four cover the Southerly islands of Chatham (New Zealand), Falklands, Macquarie (Australia) and Stewart (New Zealand). Two other chapters discuss islands from the particular vantage points of cruise ship tourism, one for the Arctic region and one for the Antarctic. Additionally, five conceptual chapters provide insights into key tourism management issues, as they apply to cold water island experiences: (a) human resources; (b) environment; (c) promotion; (d) seasonality; and (e) access.

Alexander-X is a deep self-conversation which echoes the author’s life experiences. The author’s reflections about the past and the possible future are quite intriguing. The idea for building a bridge to connect the past with the future is brilliant, yet it opens for questions. In fact, Alexander-X is presented in a conversation way which might confuse the reader at the beginning. Moreover, the person involve in the story show up in a spiritual way which is difficult to logically comprehend. However, along the chapters we might read while mirror our own life. Indeed, Alexander-X is a philosophy book that requires some effort to swallow. Nevertheless, it’s a worth book to try. The story presented in Alexander-X will train the reader to be a thinker. Thinking of our life, particularly what we want to be in the future. Undeniably, the ideas in this book fit for the present and the future. As not many people get a chance to live in such journey, the book will fill the holes in our life that we have missed.