A look at the AOL Time Warner merger and its aftermath examines the financial implications of the deal, the problems that continue to threaten the company, and the implications of the merger for business practice and the digital revolution.

Why Americans are paying much more for Internet access,and getting much less

A Library Journal Best Book of the Year Tech-guru Brian McCullough delivers a rollicking history of the internet, why it exploded, and how it changed everything. The internet was never intended for you, opines Brian McCullough in this lively narrative of an era that utterly transformed everything we thought we knew about technology. In How the Internet Happened, he chronicles the whole fascinating story for the first time, beginning in a dusty Illinois basement in 1993, when a group of college kids set off a once-in-an-epoch revolution with what would become the first “dotcom.” Depicting the lives of now-famous innovators like Netscape’s Marc Andreessen and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, McCullough also reveals surprising quirks and unknown tales as he tracks both the technology and the culture around the internet’s rise. Cinematic in detail and unprecedented in scope, the result both enlightens and informs as it draws back the curtain on the new rhythm of disruption and innovation the internet fostered, and helps to redefine an era that changed every part of our lives.

New competitive realities have ruptured industry boundaries, overthrown much of standard management practice, and rendered conventional models of strategy and growth obsolete. In their stead have come the powerful ideas and methodologies of Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad, whose much-revered thinking has already engendered a new language of strategy. In this book, they develop a coherent model for how today's executives can identify and accomplish no less than heroic goals in tomorrow's marketplace. Their masterful blueprint addresses how executives can ease the tension between competing today and clearing a path toward leadership in the future.

We live in an age of artificial intelligence. Machines think and act in ever more complex ways, making suggestions and decisions on our behalf. While AI might be seen as practical and profitable, issues of data surveillance, algorithmic control, and sexist and racist bias persist. In this rapidly changing landscape, social analysis of AI risks getting scaled down to issues of ‘ethics’, ‘responsibility’, and ‘fairness’. While these are important issues, they must be addressed not from an ‘AI first’ perspective, but more thoroughly in terms of power and contention. Approaching artificial intelligence from the often overlooked perspective of critical social theory, this book provides a much-needed intervention on how both old and new theories conceptualize the social consequences of AI. Questions are posed about the ideologies driving AI, the mythologies surrounding AI, and the complex relationship between AI and power. Simon Lindgren provides a way of defining AI as an object of social and political critique, and guides the reader through a set of contentious areas where AI and politics intersect. In relation to these topics, critical theories are drawn upon, both as an argument for and an illustration of how AI can be critiqued. Given the opportunities and challenges of AI, this book is a must-read for students and scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and STEM disciplines.

Praise for Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom "Steve Martin takes a much-needed look at how successful executives read verbal and nonverbal messages, which allows them to quickly understand the subtext of their customers' minds. The best part is that the author shares effective strategies that put more fun into selling and more money into salespeople's pockets." —Gerhard Gschwandtner Founder and Publisher, Selling Power magazine "Steve Martin's interesting examination of great leaders in history and the parallels he draws between waging a war and waging a sales campaign should be required reading for enterprise salespeople." —Jay Fulcher, Chief Executive Officer, Agile Software "This powerful book provides real-world strategies you can use to increase sales immediately!" —Brian Tracy, President, Brian Tracy International, author, Getting Rich Your Own Way "Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom goes beyond the traditional description of sales cycles to the heart of selling. It's about the emotional connection with the customer, but also the attack and destruction of the competition." —Olivier Helleboid, Vice President, Software Operations, Hewlett-Packard "Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom provides field sales generals and sales soldiers with tons of strategy, persuasion techniques, and common-sense approaches to winning the hearts and minds of prospects. This book will add new weapons to your arsenal." —Tim Kelliher, Senior Vice President, Sales, DHL Global Mail

In a crisis, the body’s burst of adrenaline can boost the average person’s physical abilities, so that a man is able to lift a car off a trapped bicyclist and a mother can fight off a polar bear threatening her son. Author Mark Chanski makes the case that encouragement is able to do emotionally and psychologically for the soul what adrenaline does for the body. While Christians are sometimes reluctant to offer encouragement, we must do so in order to love our neighbors as ourselves. Building on the foundation of the gospel as the ultimate encouragement from God, the author—using quotations, historical references, illustrations, and examples—sets forth the Christian’s obligation to offer encouragement and then shows us how we can be encouraging in our families, in our churches, and in the world. Table of Contents: 1. The Exhilaration of Encouragement 2. The Obligation of Encouragement 3. Some Direct Expressions of Encouragement 4. Some Subtle Expressions of Encouragement 5. The Gospel as the Ultimate Encouragement 6. The Personal Disinclinations to Encouragement 7. The Social Discinclinations to Encouragement 8. The Marriage Implications of Encouragement 9. The Parenting Implications of Encouragement 10. The Church and Therapeutic Encouragement 11. The Church and Strategic Encouragement 12. The Companion of Encouragement 13. The Disposition of Encouragement 14. The Expansion of Encouragement