Ten-year-old Daisy Chadwick wins an essay contest, and the prize is her entire class gets to visit Clan Stonefire. Even if her best friend can’t come because her mom is afraid of dragon-shifters, Daisy is still excited. She’s determined to see a dragon up close and pet him. Freddie Atherton can’t wait to meet some humans his own age. At least, until he’s paired with a strange one. And not just any strange one, but a girl who may get into more trouble than even him, and that’s saying something. As the pair bond over a mini-adventure, Freddie learns that humans can be fun. He only hopes their sneaking away doesn’t keep the humans from ever coming back. ===== NOTE: This is a short story for all ages. So if you have a younger one you'd like to share some dragon-shifters with, this short story is perfect!

Relates the author's DNA-guided quest for his ancestry, which took him through time and across continents, learning lessons about evolution, genetics, and the amazing diversity of human culture along the way.

The author offers exploration of self and practical guidance dealing with the dark side of personality based on Jung's concept of "shadow," or the forbidden and unacceptable feelings and behaviors each of us experience.

Why are you attracted to a certain "type?" Why are you a morning person? Why do you vote the way you do? From a witty new voice in popular science comes a clever, life-changing look at what makes you you. "I can't believe I just said that." "What possessed me to do that?" "What's wrong with me?" We're constantly seeking answers to these fundamental human questions, and now, science has the answers. The foods we enjoy, the people we love, the emotions we feel, and the beliefs we hold can all be traced back to our DNA, germs, and environment. This witty, colloquial book is popular science at its best, describing in everyday language how genetics, epigenetics, microbiology, and psychology work together to influence our personality and actions. Mixing cutting-edge research and relatable humor, Pleased to Meet Me is filled with fascinating insights that shine a light on who we really are--and how we might become our best selves.

No organization made up of human beings is immune from the all-too-common meeting gripes: those that fail to engage, those that inadvertently encourage participants to tune out, and those that blatantly disregard participants' time. In The Surprising Science of Meetings, Steven G. Rogelberg draws from extensive research, analytics and data mining, and survey interviews to share the proven techniques that help managers and employees change the way they run meetings and upgrade the quality of their working hours.

Editors Amy Neustein and Judith A. Markowitz have recruited a talented group of contributors to introduce the next generation of natural language technologies to resolve some of the most vexing natural-language problems that compromise the performance of speech systems today. This fourteen-chapter anthology consists of contributions from industry scientists and from academicians working at major universities in North America and Europe. They include researchers who have played a central role in DARPA-funded programs and developers who craft real-world solutions for corporations. This anthology is aimed at speech engineers, system developers, computer scientists, AI researchers, and others interested in utilizing natural-language technology in both spoken and text-based applications.