The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future, Updated Edition (Audiobook) English | ASIN: B08SZBD98T | 2021 | 6 hours and 33 minutes | M4B@64 kbps | 176 MB Author: Vivek Wadhwa, Alex Salkever Narrator: Pallavi Bharti Tech experts Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever describe dozens of astonishing technological advances in this fascinating and thought-provoking book, which asks what kind of future lies ahead - Star Trek or Mad Max. Breakthroughs such as personalized genomics, drones, self-driving vehicles, and artificial intelligence could make our lives healthier, safer, and easier. On the other hand, the same technologies raise the spectre of a frightening future - eugenics, a jobless economy, a complete loss of privacy, and ever-worsening economic inequality. Wadhwa says that we need to ask three questions about every emerging technology: Does it have the potential to benefit everyone equally? What are the risks and rewards? And does it promote autonomy or dependence? This edition is updated throughout and includes a new chapter on quantum computing, which promises exponentially reduced processing times - and vastly increased security risks. In the end, our future is up to us; our hands may not be on the wheel, but we will decide the driverless car's destination. The Crusades: A Very Short Introduction (Audiobook) English | ASIN: B0BN6NJ3ND | 2022 | 5 hours and 2 minutes | M4B@64 kbps | 146 MB Author: Christopher Tyerman Narrator: Stephen Bowlby Crusading fervor gripped Europe for over 200 years, creating one of the most extraordinary, vivid episodes in world history. Whether the Crusades are regarded as the most romantic of Christian expeditions, or the last of the barbarian invasions, they have fascinated generations ever since, and their legacy of ideas and imagery has resonated through the centuries, inspiring Hollywood movies and great works of literature. Even today, to invoke the Crusades is to stir deep cultural myths, assumptions and prejudices. Yet despite their powerful hold on our imaginations, our knowledge of them remains obscured an distorted by time. Were the Crusaders motivated by spiritual rewards, or by greed? Were the Crusades an experiment in European colonialism, or a manifestation of religious love? How were they organized and founded? With customary flair and originality, Christopher Tyerman picks his way through the many debates to present a clear and lively discussion of the Crusades; bringing together issues of colonialism, cultural exchange, economic exploitation, and the relationship between past and present. The Creative Lives of Animals (Audiobook) English | ASIN: B0BMDKRS8S | 2022 | 10 hours and 14 minutes | M4B@64 kbps | 292 MB Author: Carol Gigliotti Narrator: Sheri Saginor Most of us view animals through a very narrow lens, seeing only bits and pieces of beings that seem mostly peripheral to our lives. However, whether animals are building a shelter, seducing a mate, or inventing a new game, animals' creative choices affect their social, cultural, and environmental worlds. The Creative Lives of Animals offers listeners intimate glimpses of creativity in the lives of animals, from elephants to alligators to ants. Drawing on a growing body of scientific research, Carol Gigliotti unpacks examples of creativity demonstrated by animals through the lens of the creative process, an important component of creative behavior, and offers new thinking on animal intelligence, emotion, and self-awareness. The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World (Audiobook) English | ASIN: B08DT6J4BQ | 2020 | 16 hours and 35 minutes | MP3@128 kbps | 910 MB Author: John Dickie Narrator: Simon Slater Founded in London in 1717 as a way of binding men in fellowship, Freemasonry proved so addictive that within two decades it had spread across the globe. Masonic influence became pervasive. Under George Washington, the Craft became a creed for the new American nation. Masonic networks held the British empire together. Under Napoleon, the Craft became a tool of authoritarianism and then a cover for revolutionary conspiracy. Both the Mormon Church and the Sicilian mafia owe their origins to Freemasonry. Yet the Masons were as feared as they were influential. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Freemasonry has always been a den of devil-worshippers. For Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco, the Lodges spread the diseases of pacifism, socialism, and Jewish influence and so had to be crushed. Freemasonry's story yokes together Winston Churchill and Walt Disney; Wolfgang Mozart and Shaquille O'Neal; Benjamin Franklin and Buzz Aldrin; Rudyard Kipling and "Buffalo Bill" Cody; Duke Ellington and the duke of Wellington. The Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Book (Audiobook) English | ASIN: B09XS3N3RX | 2022 | 10 hours and 00 minutes | M4B@64 kbps | 284 MB Author: Jerry Seinfeld Narrator: Jerry Seinfeld A celebration of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, featuring some of comedy's most iconic voices in excerpts from their appearances on Jerry Seinfeld's groundbreaking streaming series! Over eleven seasons and eighty-four episodes, Jerry Seinfeld drove around in classic cars, grabbing coffee and chatting with the funniest people alive. The result was not only a hilarious collection of casual yet intimate conversations but arguably the most important historical archive about the art of comedy ever amassed.
The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton and Her Fight for Justice for Women (Audiobook) English | ASIN: B0BMDC99ZY | 2022 | 9 hours and 26 minutes | MP3@64 kbps | 259 MB Author: Antonia Fraser Narrator: Penelope Milton Caroline Norton dazzled nineteenth-century society with her vivacity, her intelligence, her poetry, and in her role as an artist's muse. After her marriage in 1828 to the MP George Norton, she continued to attract friends and admirers to her salon in Westminster. Most prominent among her admirers was the widowed Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. Racked with jealousy, George Norton took the Prime Minister to court, suing him for damages on account of his adultery with Caroline. A dramatic trial followed. The Burnout Challenge: Managing People's Relationships with Their Jobs (Audiobook) English | ASIN: B0BLXX1T1W | 2022 | 7 hours and 48 minutes | M4B@64 kbps | 225 MB Author: Christina Maslach, Michael P. Leiter Narrator: Chloe Cannon Two pioneering researchers identify key causes of workplace burnout and reveal what managers can do to promote increased productivity and health. Citing a wealth of research data and drawing on illustrative anecdotes, The Burnout Challenge shows how organizations can change to promote sustainable productivity. Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter provide useful tools for identifying the signs of employee burnout, most often exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness. They also advise managers on assembling and interpreting worker self-evaluation surveys, which can reveal workplace problems and potential solutions. The Book of Virtues: 30th Anniversary Edition (Audiobook) English | ASIN: B09V3HMR1N | 2022 | 22 hours and 8 minutes | M4B@64 kbps | 632 MB Author: William J. Bennett, Elayne Glover Bennett Narrator: William J. Bennett, Elayne Glover Bennett, Ed Asner, Jenn Bennett, Claire Bloom, Barbara Bush, Janina Edwards, Dorian Hairwood, Charlton Heston, Kirby Heyborne, Dana Ivey, David Mccallum, Andrea Martin, Joe Morton, Leon Nixon William J. Bennett has collected hundreds of stories in The Book of Virtues. From the Bible to American history, from Greek mythology to English poetry, from fairy tales to modern fiction, these stories are a rich mine of moral literacy, a reliable moral reference point that will help anchor our children and ourselves in our culture, our history, and our traditions-the sources of the ideals by which we wish to live our lives. Complete with instructive introductions and notes, The Book of Virtues is a book the whole family can listen to and enjoy-and learn from-together. The Big Bang of Numbers: How to Build the Universe Using Only Math (Audiobook) English | ASIN: B0BN6S8DZF | 2022 | 8 hours and 52 minutes | MP3@64 kbps | 243 MB Author: Manil Suri Narrator: Eric Jason Martin Our universe has multiple origin stories, from religious creation myths to the Big Bang of scientists. But if we leave those behind and start from nothing-no matter, no cosmos, not even empty space-could we create a universe using only math? Irreverent and boundlessly creative, The Big Bang of Numbers invites us to try. In this new mathematical origin story, mathematician and novelist Manil Suri creates a natural progression of ideas needed to design our world, starting with numbers and continuing through geometry, algebra, and beyond. He reveals the secret lives of real and imaginary numbers, teaches them to play abstract games with real-world applications, discovers unexpected patterns that connect humble lifeforms to enormous galaxies, and explores mathematical underpinnings for randomness and beauty. With evocative examples ranging from multidimensional crochet to the Mona Lisa's asymmetrical smile, as well as ingenious storytelling that helps illuminate complex concepts like infinity and relativity, The Big Bang of Numbers charts a playful, inventive course to existence. The Art of Shralpinism: Lessons from the Mountains (Audiobook) English | ASIN: B0BJYBFW3L | 2022 | 11 hours and 9 minutes | M4B@64 kbps | 314 MB Author: Jeremy Jones Narrator: Gary Tiedemann Not a technical guide on snowboarding but, rather, a very personal approach to how to think about mountains, snow, and adventure, The Art of Shralpinism reflects the remarkable journey of snowboarding superstar Jeremy Jones. Drawing on the hundreds of journals he has kept over the years, Jones offers intriguing snapshots of time and place that include his own on-the-slope stories and white-out moments. Shralpinism is a compendium of lessons hard won: quick tips, sound advice, and impactful stories. Learn which aspects of avalanche training are most crucial to absorb, ways to anticipate slope behavior or recognize clean lines, how to cut a cornice or develop safety protocols, how to build a fitness routine, the art of the turn, and keys to developing terrain and skills progression. Jones discusses the importance of mentors, the necessity and intensity of practice, the nature of risk, and the shape of failure. But at its heart, The Art of Shralpinism revels in the power of experience, the impact of stoke, and the beauty that underscores all outdoor adventure. |