La segunda entrega de Mundodisco, la más divertida saga fantástica jamás escrita. Un nuevo día, sereno y apacible, empieza en el Mundodisco. Como es habitual, la gran tortuga navega por el éter entregada a reflexiones inescrutables, sosteniendo en su caparazón a los cuatro elefantes sobre los que descansa el mundo. Sin embargo, se avecina una inexorable colisión con una malévola estrella roja, y solo una persona puede poner remedio al inminente desastre: Rincewind, el inepto y cobarde hechicero. Por desgracia, Rincewind fue visto por última vez cuando caía por el borde del mundo... Esta serie de novelas está considerada la más divertida y heterodoxa saga fantástica jamás escrita. Como ha señalado la crítica, «las novelas de Terry Pratchett deberían ser lectura obligada para aquellos que se toman la vida demasiado en serio».
Over and over, U.S. government officials and their mainstream media allies called Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine an “unprovoked attack.” The slogan became so overused that people began to ask the obvious question: Why do they protest so much? In Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine, Scott Horton explains how since the end of the last Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, successive U.S. administrations pressed their advantage against the new Russian Federation to the point that it finally blew up into a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine. From NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, to “shock therapy” economic policy, the Balkan and Chechen wars, color-coded revolutions, new missile defense systems, assassinations, Russiagate and ultimately the brutal conflict in Ukraine, Provoked shows what really happened and why it did not have to be this way.
2019 Reprint of 1963 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. This book is an analysis of the causes of the Great Depression of 1929. The author concludes that the Depression was caused not by laissez-faire capitalism, but by government intervention in the economy. The author argues that the Hoover administration violated the tradition of previous American depressions by intervening in an unprecedented way and that the result was a disastrous prolongation of unemployment and depression so that a typical business cycle became a lingering disease.
COMPTON CROOK AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL. NEBULA AWARD FINALIST. New Science Fiction Adventure Series! National Bestseller in trade paperback. An agent for a spy organization uncovers an alien alliance in nearby interstellar space—an alliance that will soon involve humanity in politics and war on a galactic scale. 2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth’s Moon—a history-changing clandestine project—and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan’s mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient—enough so to have built a lost civilization. However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he’s been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it's clear that someone doesn't want his mission to succeed. In the end, it takes the broad-based insights of an intelligence analyst and a matching instinct for intrigue to ferret out the truth: that humanity is neither alone in the cosmos nor safe. Earth is revealed to be the lynchpin planet in an impending struggle for interstellar dominance, a struggle into which it is being irresistibly dragged. Discovering new dangers at every turn, Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly—and to fight fire with fire. WINNER OF THE COMPTON CROOK AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL About Fire with Fire: “Chuck Gannon is one of those marvelous finds—someone as comfortable with characters as he is with technology, and equally adept at providing those characters with problems to solve. Imaginative, fun, and not afraid to step on the occasional toe or gore the occasional sacred cow, his stories do not disappoint.” —David Weber "If we meet strong aliens out there, will we suffer the fate of the Aztecs and Incas, or find the agility to survive? Gannon fizzes with ideas about the dangerous politics of first contact.” —David Brin "The plot is intriguing and then some. Well-developed and self-consistent; intelligent readers are going to like it." —Jerry Pournelle "[T]he intersecting plot threads, action and well-conceived science kept those pages turning." —SF Crowsnest About Starfire series hit, Extremis, coauthored by Charles E. Gannon: “Vivid. . . Battle sequences mingle with thought-provoking exegesis . . .” —Publishers Weekly "It’s a grand, fun series of battles and campaigns, worthy of anything Dale Brown or Larry Bond ever wrote." —Analog About Charles E. Gannon: "[A] strong [writer of]. . .military SF. . .[much] action going on in his work, with a lot of physics behind it. There is a real sense of the urgency of war and the sacrifices it demands." —Locus
A New York Times and USA Today bestseller From New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and You Shouldn't Have Come Here comes a chilling family thriller about the (sometimes literal) skeletons in the closet. After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm's length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn't been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before. While going through their parents' belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends. Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.
[ MP3 CD Format ] The New York Times bestselling author and entrepreneur investigates what would happen if a new financial world order took hold, one in which global elites own everything and you own nothing -- and yet you are somehow happy. When Carol Roth first heard that one of the World Economic Forum's predictions for 2030 was "You will own nothing, and be happy," she thought it was an outlandish fantasy. Then, she researched it. What she found was that a number of businesses, governments, and global elites share a vision of a future that sounds utopian: Everyone will have everything they need, and no one will own anything. From declines in home and vehicle ownership to global inflation and government spending, many of the trends of modern life reveal that a new world that is emerging -- one in which Western citizens, by choice or by circumstance, increasingly do not own possessions or accumulate wealth. It's the perfect economic environment for the rich and powerful to solidify their positions and prevent anyone else from getting ahead. In You Will Own Nothing¸ Roth reveals how the agendas of Wall Street, world governments, international organizations, socialist activists, and multinational corporations like Blackrock all work together to reduce the power of the dollar and prevent millions of Americans from taking control of their wealth. She shows why owning fewer assets makes you poorer and less free. This book is essential guide to protecting your hard-earned wealth for the coming generations.
Todos deseamos disfrutar de un excelente sistema sanitario y educativo; todos aspiramos a que las pensiones y los salarios sean lo más elevados posible; todos queremos vivir en una comunidad innovadora, culturalmente vanguardista, respetuosa con el medio ambiente y solidaria con los más necesitados. La mayoría de ciudadanos cree que la manera de alcanzar todos estos loables objetivos pasa por aumentar el tamaño del Estado a pesar de que éste ya se halla en máximos históricos. El conocido economista Juan Ramón Rallo ofrece en este libro una propuesta radicalmente distinta a la habitual: el camino a la prosperidad colectiva no pasa por incrementar todavía más el intervencionismo estatal, sino por reducirlo a su mínima expresión; es decir, su propuesta pasa por que sea la propia sociedad, y no los políticos y los burócratas, la que se haga cargo de servicios tan esenciales como la educación, la sanidad, las pensiones o la protección del medio ambiente. Eso es justamente lo que encontrará en esta obra: una rigurosa y documentada explicación de por qué el bienestar de todos los ciudadanos mejoraría muy notablemente con menos impuestos, menos gasto público y menos regulaciones.
Principles of Economics is a university-level textbook offering a comprehensive, engaging, and easy-to-read overview of the field of economics that is valuable to the university student, the general reader, and the professional economist. Saifedean Ammous’ first book, The Bitcoin Standard, is an international best-seller that has been translated into 37 languages. The book garnered praise from respected scholars, successful entrepreneurs, professional athletes, and countless readers worldwide for its engaging and enlightening presentation of sophisticated economic and technical concepts, delivered in a style accessible to the general reader. With its sequel, The Fiat Standard, Ammous established himself as one of the world’s most effective communicators of economic ideas, whose writing resonates with a growing global readership. In Principles of Economics, his most ambitious and elaborate work to date, Ammous offers readers a potent antidote to the modern economics textbook. After two decades of learning and teaching economics at university level, Ammous became aware that most economic textbooks confuse more than they illuminate and most university students tasked with reading them learn very little that is useful and actionable. The culmination of four years' work, this book uses the underappreciated approach of the Austrian school of economics to introduce the principles, methods, and concepts of economics in a readable, engaging, and informative manner. Rather than relying on mathematical analysis of aggregates and arcane theoretical models, the book uses the clear written word to effectively illustrate key economic concepts. The book first presents the Austrian school method and the foundational concepts of value and time. With these foundations laid, the second part of the book explores how humans act individually to achieve their ends under scarcity—in other words, how humans economize. A chapter is dedicated to detailed overviews of labor, property, capital, technology, and energy, and each topic is accompanied by vivid examples explaining its relevance to the reader. The third part of the book examines economizing in the social context, with chapters examining trade, money, the market order, and capitalism—important concepts that are often shrouded by misconceptions in most modern treatments. The fourth part of the book presents the Austrian perspective on monetary economics, laying the groundwork through a detailed discussion of time preference, followed by a discussion of banking and credit, and the business cycle and its monetary origins. The final section of the book explains why respect for property rights in an extended market order is the basis for human civilization, how the market order protects against aggression, and the failures of monopoly provision of defense.
Humanity is at a crossroads. Never have we had so much potential to do good in the world or literally transform our civilization into transnational gulags. Almost 175 Years have passed since the Communist Manifesto was written and circulated by Marx and Engels. Some statistics point to it being one of the most widely read and distributed works of political science and economics. However, the core ideology has led to hundreds of millions of murders worldwide at the hands of those who fervently 'believed' and 'reformed' society by its decrees. It's about time something was written to help challenge and potentially unwind some of the moral, intellectual, social, and economic damage done since. * Why is it that an idea with a consistent failure rate draws more young people to it than ever before? * What is it about the original book that's so infectious that it continues to influence people around the world almost two centuries later? * What elements of the original text are accurate observations, and what conclusions are drawn ignorant of human psychology and praxeology that lead to devastating consequences? We wrote The UnCommunist Manifesto to answer these questions and much more. We emulated the format and length of the Communist Manifesto, so it is a sharp, concise and lucid read, but the message contained is a reminder for people to reach upward and become better versions of themselves instead of renouncing individual responsibility by classifying themselves into static groups and intellectually validating their desire to bring others down to their level. One goal was to change the axis of the “struggle.” Marx and Engels outlined it as “a struggle between two classes’, whom an individual is arbitrarily assigned to based on their material wealth. We reject this and assert that the real struggle is between individual autonomy, sovereignty, and responsibility versus the collectivist tendency toward group identity politics, rights, entitlements, and co-dependencies. Between cooperation and coercion. It always has been. We hope to see it used as an inspirational text in the years ahead as Individuals seek to maintain autonomy and claim sovereignty, while the collective seeks to coerce. Our longer-term hope is that this text can be a beacon of hope, sanity, and sense in a world being swallowed up by the envy inherently justified by Marxist doctrine. Humanity is at a crossroads. Never have we had so much potential to do good in the world, or literally transform our civilisation into transnational gulags. The siren call of Marxist entropy is stronger than ever. The greatness and sanctity of the individual and the soul must counter it. May this book be not just an answer to the misguided, nihilistic, and often dangerous ideology that is Marxism, but a message of hope, responsibility, and liberty for all. This is the first edition, and we hope that you find deep meaning within it. Aleks Svetski & Mark Moss
For fans of Freakonomics and Thinking, Fast and Slow, here is a book by Hans Rosling, the scientist called "a true inspiration" by Bill Gates, that teaches us how to see the world as it truly is. Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts. When asked simple questions about global trends-what percentage of the world's population live in poverty; why the world's population is increasing; how many girls finish school-we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective-from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). Our problem is that we don't know what we don't know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn't mean there aren't real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to the crises and opportunities of the future.
A Comprehensive Overview of the Past, Present, and Future of Money Broken Money explores the history of money through the lens of technology. Politics can affect things temporarily and locally, but technology is what drives things forward globally and permanently. The book's goal is for the reader to walk away with a deep understanding of money and monetary history, both in terms of theoretical foundations and in terms of practical implications. From shells to gold, from papyrus bills of exchange to central banks, and from the invention of the telegraph to the creation of Bitcoin, Lyn Alden walks the reader through the emergence of new technologies that have shaped what we use as money over the ages. And beyond that, Alden explores the concept of what money is at its very foundation to give the reader a framework to analyze and compare different types of monetary technologies and monetary theories. The book also takes a distinctively human look at how money impacts the lives of real people, and how new monetary technologies shape the power structures within society. In the modern era, energy abundance and technological enhancements have broadly improved human well-being, but the global monetary system has been slow to keep up. There are over 160 active currencies in the world, each with a local monopoly over its own country, and with little or no acceptance elsewhere. Many of them are rapidly diluted, which continually devalues the savings and the wages of the billions of people who live and work within those jurisdictions. Being born in the "wrong" country makes saving money far harder than it needs to be. Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people and has averaged 13% annualized inflation over the past decade. Egypt cut its currency in half relative to the dollar twice over the past decade, which instantly devalued the savings and wages of its 100 million citizens. Dozens of countries have experienced at least triple-digit year-over-year inflation within the past four decades, including Brazil that outright hyperinflated in the 1990s while it was the fifth most populous country in the world. Europe and Japan had $18 trillion worth of negative-yielding bonds in 2019, right before a wave of inflation wiped their purchasing power away. In 2021, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve dismissed the idea that the sharp rise in the money supply from the pandemic stimulus would lead to price inflation. By 2022, as major inflation emerged, the chairman rapidly changed his outlook and tightened monetary policy so quickly that it led to the failure of some of the largest banks in the country. How did we get to this point? Why isn't our money better than this in the 21st century? Broken Money answers these questions by examining the current mix of technology that has led to these limitations, and then explores emerging technologies that may be able to provide us with a monetary system that is fit for the modern era.
Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. A Fully Updated, No Nonsense Guide to Electronics Advance your electronics knowledge and gain the skills necessary to develop and construct your own functioning gadgets. Written by a pair of experienced engineers and dedicated hobbyists, Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition, lays out the essentials and provides step by step instructions, schematics, and illustrations. Discover how to select the right components, design and build circuits, use microcontrollers and ICs, work with the latest software tools, and test and tweak your creations. This easy to follow book features new instruction on programmable logic, semiconductors, operational amplifiers, voltage regulators, power supplies, digital electronics, and more. Practical Electronics for Inventors, Fourth Edition, covers: * Resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transformers * Diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits * Optoelectronics, solar cells, and phototransistors * Sensors, GPS modules, and touch screens * Op amps, regulators, and power supplies * Digital electronics, LCD displays, and logic gates * Microcontrollers and prototyping platforms * Combinational and sequential programmable logic * DC motors, RC servos, and stepper motors * Microphones, audio amps, and speakers * Modular electronics and prototypes