This book explores how thermodynamics, together with its statistical rationalization in terms of constituent atoms, provides a coherent framework for understanding contemporary developments in our increasingly digital world.As traditional sources of meaning, family, community, nation, and religion have been reshaped by global digital communication, vast populations now experience macroscopic thermodynamic-like phenomena as part of daily life.The human mind has adapted by fram...

Mangogul, Sultan of the Congo (and an allegory for Louis XV), finds himself increasingly bored with court life, and his favorite consort, Mirzoza, has run short of gallant narratives of court and city life to amuse him. Her advice that he apply to the genie Cucufa for a way to hear new stories results in his possession of a magical ring that not only grants its wearer invisibility, but also compels any woman's body to disclose its amorous history regardless of the woman's wishes.Ov...

The History of the Russo - Polish Thirteen Years' War, 1654–1667In the summer of 1654, the armies of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich crossed the western frontier of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and set in motion one of the most consequential conflicts in European history. The Thirteen Years' War, fought across the devastated borderlands of Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania by Russian, Polish, and Cossack forces whose competing visions of the eastern European order wou...

Ever since my youth, I have dreamed of a world in which all people are brothers, and no one is made a servant to another. Only in such a world would humanity have remained human forever, and would not have become estranged from either itself or nature. In this way, our Earth would also have remained intact for all eternity. Albert Einstein is said to have once remarked, "Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited." So I have transferred my wishes and dreams to a...

The wedding that wasn't, and a frantic dog started it all.This was not how private investigator Sonoma (Sonny) Whittington planned to start her few days' break between cases. It all goes wrong when Sonny and her friend, Emily, go to the wrong beach to attend another friend's wedding. Although there is plenty of evidence of recent activity, the only soul they find there is a frantic, distressed dog among the rocks. Something about the scene doesn't sit right with the women. The dog ...

This volume traces the historical development of Lutheran churches in southern Africa from colonial establishment through apartheid to contemporary unity efforts. The study examines mission-to-church transitions, responses to apartheid, and multiple attempts at achieving unity including the formation of FELCSA, LUCSA, and includes:Comprehensive historical analysis of Lutheran churches in southern Africa from colonial establishment to contemporary unity effortsExamin...

Cold!Since you're already sweating so much, the cool air comes as a shock.Susan. Don't leave me, Susan. Susan.Susan!Did she get lost or something? Confused?A male, she said, had entered her room.Have you caught a chill?Yeah, go for it.Get on with it. Has everyone left Room 2?Sure, it makes sense.Apply some stress on he...

Not another Rags to Riches or Nobody to Somebody cocktail, shaken and served with crushed ice. That said, who among us would aspire to being a lifelong, card carrying member of the 99% and yet here we all are?For us, real life lies sandwiched somewhere between those Rags to Riches and Anonymous to the Greatest of All Time sagas. Our lives describe billions of untold stories starring real people who must also drag ourselves out of hopelessness and despair deep enough to forget what ...

Bestselling author Denis Waitley offers timeless and timely advice on how to apply his philosophy to the digital age and attain personal and professional excellence today.". . . a compelling game plan for winning at life . . ." - MEHMET OZ, M.D., Emmy-winning Host, The Dr. Oz Show"Denis Waitley has played a pivotal role in helping grow a small cellular nutrition products company into one of the largest, most respected direct sales companies...

American master Denis Johnson's nationally bestselling collection of blistering and indelible tales about America's outcasts and wanderers.Denis Johnson's now classic story collection Jesus' Son chronicles a wild netherworld of addicts and lost souls, a violent and disordered landscape that encompasses every extreme of American culture. These are stories of transcendence and spiraling grief, of hallucinations and glories, of getting lost and found and lost...

From the curious clauses in a miser's will, to a plea for help on a tiny scrap of paper, these six cases, from the early years of Holmes's career in the 1880s, present a singular collection of mysteries for the world's first consulting detective to resolve.What is the significance of the arrival in the post one morning of a cardboard packet of children's bricks? Who is the man found dying in a deserted warehouse in London's East End, and what is he doing there? Why have the names of a coup...

Building MAS-RAG (multi-agent AI systems for RAG) that reason over real-world data using hybrid retrieval and scalable architectures for production use. Free with your book: DRM-free PDF version + access to Packt's next-gen Reader\*Key FeaturesMaster DualRAG by combining vector search with SQL filtering over structured enterprise dataImplement GraphRAG, Spatial-RAG, and vector search natively in Oracle Database 23aiBuild multimodal video pipeli...