For nearly four decades, video games have captured the imaginations and drawn the ire of people around the world. Actors play them. Rappers promote them. Politicians want to control them. Even baseball legends make them. Video games are a cultural crossroads where business, entertainment, and technology converge.

Sales of...

In 1977, FBI Special Agent Robert Ressler first used the term ‘serial killer’ after a visit to Bramshill Police Academy, near London, where someone referred to a ‘serial burglar’. The inspired coinage was soon in general use to describe killers such as necrophile Ed Kemper (ten victims), schizophrenic Herb Mullin (14),...

Laser space communications is a hot topic among electrical engineers working for the government and in the defense industry, and this groundbreaking resource is the first to offer professionals a thorough, practical treatment of the subject. The book focuses on the feasibility of laser space communications between satellites, satellites and...

Already climbing the bestseller lists-and garnering rave reviews-this "little masterpiece"* sheds brilliant light on the equation that changed the world.

"This is not a physics book. It is a history of where the equation [E=mc2] came from and how it has changed the world. After a short chapter on the...

This book uses the 2001 anthrax attacks as its point of departure for an analysis of the past, present, and future of America's preparedness to deal with major challenges to public health, including bioterrorism and pandemic flu. The study identified the strength and weaknesses of the system while making recommendations for improvements....

This confidence-boosting book aims to help children overcome the damaging effects of teasing and bullying, and to develop practical skills and attitudes to improve their self-esteem and quality of life. This second edition of "Bully Blocking" (originally published under the title "Bully Busting") is based on Evelyn...

The word myth comes from the Greek word mythos, which means “story” or “speech.”1 Myth is often the word used to describe a story that explains events or objects that occur in nature, such as the creation of certain flowers or animals, the location of deserts or oceans, and even the origin and cycle of the seasons....

Across history, the condition has been called soldier's heart, shell shock, or combat fatigue. It is now increasingly common as our service men and women return from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other ongoing combat zones. Since 1990, Veterans' centers here have treated more than 1.6 million affected men and women, including an estimated...

Creating robust artificial intelligence is one of the greatest challenges for game developers, yet the commercial success of a game is often dependent upon the quality of the AI. In this book, Ian Millington brings extensive professional experience to the problem of improving the quality of AI in games. He describes numerous examples from...

When World War II ended in 1945, America emerged as the only superpower. It had defeated Germany and Japan, it was the only nation with the bomb, and much of the rest of the world lay in ruins as a result of the war. In addition, the wartime economy had dragged the nation out of the worst depression in modern history. The United States seemed...

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535), as befits a great magician, left behind him a number of mysteries for posterity. In two letters to his friends, in which he discussed the progress of his great treatise on magic De occulta philosophia libri tres1 [Three Books of Occult Philosophy, hereafter DOP ], Agrippa wrote of a...

Businesses, entrepreneurs, individuals, and government agencies alike are looking to social network analysis (SNA) tools for insight into trends, connections, and fluctuations in social media. Microsoft's NodeXL is a free, open-source SNA plug-in for use with Excel. It provides instant graphical representation of relationships of complex...