Showing results by narrator "Elliot Fitzpatrick" in All Categories

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

The Middle East is in crisis. The shocking events of the war in Gaza have rocked the entire region. More than a decade ago, the Arab Spring had raised hopes of a new beginning but instead ushered in a series of civil wars, coups, and even harsher autocracies. Tensions were exacerbated by the meddling of outsiders. The United States, for so long the dominant actor, had stepped back, leaving a vacuum behind it to be fought over. Christopher Phillips explores geopolitical rivalries in the region, and the major external powers vying for influence.

Father Cade Frederic is a holy man. Brought up in the streets of Paris, he has dedicated his life to the church. But there's a monster that lingers just beneath the surface. A sickness. One that bleeds darkness and feeds on the damned. When he's tasked to become the priest in Festivale, Vermont, a town both beautiful in architecture and riddled with despair, his sickness sings, demanding he rid the place of evil.

Covering a broad range of fields within AI–from computing and mathematics to politics and philosophy–entries demystify what artificial intelligence is and how it works, how it has dramatically changed the way we live, and how it might evolve in the future. Explaining each individual aspect of AI more clearly than ever before, the book outlines the key building-blocks and technological milestones in its history, profiles its most important practical applications–both current and predicted–and explores the numerous ethical debates around AI, and its increasing influence on culture and society.

1995: In the wake of the Rwandan genocide, twenty-four-year-old spy Lachlan Kite and his girlfriend, Martha Raine, are sent to Senegal on the trail of a hunted war criminal. The mission threatens to spiral out of control, forcing Kite to make choices which will have devastating consequences not only for his career at top-secret intelligence agency BOX 88, but also for his relationship with Martha.

Barking Up the Right Tree offers proof that aversive punishment seldom works to eliminate undesirable behavior or to get the dog back on track. Dunbar presents numerous nonaversive yet highly effective solutions for misbehavior and noncompliance—simply by using the words you teach, and without even raising your voice.

For an atheist it’s a great deal, though it does suggest atheism may have a weak point. For those of faith it’s a matter of jam now and purgatory tomorrow. A bargain many artists feel is something they can live with. For agnostics it’s usually a question of can the afterlife really be that bad, would workplace regulations reach all parts of heaven and hell. However, in this volume the terms are agreed and the Devil pays his fees and the character his dues, each happy to wait a few decades for the eternal payback.

Have you ever observed a bee up close and wondered what was going on inside its head? Like ours, insects' brains take up most of the space in their heads, but their brains are smaller than a grain of rice, only 0.0002% as large as ours. But what purpose does the insect brain serve, and how does that drive their creativity, morality, and emotions?

Commander Mariucci and his hand-picked research team know they will have to muster all of their expertise, creativity and teamwork to survive the very harshest of conditions in orbit around the king of planets. But when they intercept a peculiar radio transmission, they have to investigate. Nothing should work in these impossible conditions, so what is sending the signal...and why? With a degrading ship and crew at breaking point, there's every chance they will tear themselves apart before they ever find the answer to the ultimate question.

Agents of Influence reveals the secret history of an intelligence agency gone out of control, accountable to no one but itself and intent on subverting Western politics on a near-inconceivable scale. In 1985, 1,300 KGB officers were stationed in the USA. The FBI only had 350 counter-intelligence officers. Since the early days of the Cold War, the KGB seduced parliamentarians and diplomats, infiltrated the highest echelons of the Civil Service, and planted fake news in papers across the world.

The gossips say his soul is as black as his cravats. Handsome, enigmatic Duncan Kirkwood is the prince of London’s most exclusive—and wicked—gaming club. He founded his empire upon one goal: gaining vengeance against the man who sired him and abandoned his mother. To society, Lady Frederica Isling is a quiet, proper duke’s daughter and wallflower. No one suspects she harbors a secret desire to become a renowned novelist. She’ll go to any lengths to conduct research for her manuscript, including infiltrating Kirkwood’s notorious club disguised as her brother.

An SBS Gurkha soldier's account of how his tough Nepali upbringing and the lessons learned in his army life enabled his record-breaking conquest of all 14 of the world's 8,000m peaks in under seven months. What happens when ambition meets limitless imagination? Enter Project Possible: a seemingly unreachable goal to climb all 14 'death zone' mountains in record time. The previous record was seven years, 10 months and six days. I did it in six months.

Many today may see the relationship between God and humanity as one of passive submission and thus unquestioning. Two outstanding Dominicans, Timothy Radcliffe and Lukasz Popko, suggest otherwise. Questioning God explores Biblical conversations with God and there is no genuine conversation without true questions.

Michel Foucault takes us into the first two centuries of our own era, into the Golden Age of Rome, to reveal a subtle but decisive break from the classical Greek vision of sexual pleasure. He skillfully explores the whole corpus of moral reflection among philosophers (Plutarch, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca) and physicians of the era, and uncovers an increasing mistrust of pleasure and growing anxiety over sexual activity and its consequences.

After a lifetime working with BOX 88, the transatlantic counterintelligence agency so covert that not even the CIA knows of its existence, master spy Lachlan Kite has made plenty of enemies. And now, as the director of the outfit's operations in the UK, one of those past enemies has him in their sights . . .

Starting with hands, abacus, and slide rule, humans have always reached for tools to simplify math. Pocket-sized calculators ushered in modern mathematics, helped build the atomic bomb, took us to the bottom of the ocean, and accompanied us to the moon. The pocket calculator changed our world, until it was supplanted by more modern devices that, in a cruel twist of irony, it helped to create. Keith Houston transports listeners from the nascent economies of the ancient world to World War II, and into the technological arms race that led to the first affordable electronic pocket calculators.

In many ways, we seem to be living in wintry times at present in the Western world. In this new book, Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and a noted scholar of Eastern Christianity, introduces us to some aspects and personalities of the Orthodox Christian world, from the desert contemplatives of the fourth century to philosophers, novelists and activists of the modern era, that suggest where we might look for fresh light and warmth.

When Earth is plagued by an epidemic of fear, ancient prophecy says only Thor can stop the monstrous threat of the Serpent, but without help from Loki, Thor is certain to fail. Aided by a handmaiden from Hel and a demon puppy, Loki must risk everything to find redemption—or doom himself for eternity. Either way, a Nightmare lies in wait hoping to rule the world, and Loki will have to risk everything on his craziest scheme of all!

Simon Waterson's client list reads like a who’s who of A-list actors. He has transformed Daniel Craig into the formidable James Bond for five blockbuster films, shaped Chris Evans into superhero Captain America, trained Chris Pratt for Guardians of the Galaxy, and prepared actors such as Thandiwe Newton and John Boyega for the recent Star Wars films.

Bear Grylls, adventurer, survivalist, and TV celebrity, shares some of his most exciting exploits and the spiritual insights he gained along the way in his first faith-focused audiobook, a unique 365-day devotional. Each section explores a theme Bear has lived, including purpose, courage, freedom, and risk.