Knowledge = Power

The real Hugh Hefner-the extraordinary inside story of an American icon ""Riveting... Watts packs in plenty of gasp-inducing passages.""-Newark Star Ledger ""Like it or not, Hugh Hefner has affected all of us, so I treasured learning about how and why in the sober biography.""-Chicago Sun Times ""This  is a fun book. How could it not be? Watts aims to give a full account  of the man, his magazine and their place in social history. Playboy is no longer the cultural force it used to be, but it made a stamp on society.""-Associated Press

At the age of twenty-four, in 1913, Adolf Hitler was eking out a living as a painter of pictures for tourists in Munich. Nothing marked him in any way as exceptional, but he did possess certain distinguishing characteristics: a capacity to hate, an inability to accept criticism, and a massive overconfidence in his own abilities. He was a socially and emotionally inadequate individual without direction, from whence came a sense of personal mission that would transform these weaknesses and liabilities into strengths—certainties that would provide him not only with a sense of identity, but of purpose in a communal enterprise. This is the focus of Laurence Rees’s social, psychological, and historical investigation into a personality that would end up articulating the hopes and dreams of millions of Germans.

Revolution 1989 is the first in-depth, authoritative account of a few months that changed the world. At  the start of 1989, six European nations were Soviet vassal states. By  year's end, they had all declared national independence and embarked on  the road to democracy. How did it happen so quickly? Victor Sebestyen,  who was on the scene as a reporter, draws on his firsthand knowledge of  the events, on scores of interviews with witnesses and participants, and  on newly uncovered archival material. He tells the story through the  eyes of ordinary men and women as well as through the strategic moves of  world leaders. He shows how the KGB helped bring down former allies;  how the United States tried to slow the process; and why the collapse of  the Iron Curtain was the catalyst for the fall of the entire Soviet  empire.

Poker champion turned business  consultant Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with  uncertainty and make better decisions as a result. In Super  Bowl XLIX, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made one of the most  controversial calls in football history: With 26 seconds remaining, and  trailing by four at the Patriots' one-yard line, he called for a pass  instead of a handing off to his star running back. The pass was  intercepted, and the Seahawks lost. Critics called it the dumbest play  in history. But was the call really that bad? Or did Carroll actually  make a great move that was ruined by bad luck? Even the best  decision doesn't yield the best outcome every time. There's always an  element of luck that you can't control, and there is always information  that is hidden from view. So the key to long-term success (and avoiding  worrying yourself to death) is to think in bets: How sure am I? What are  the possible ways things could turn out? What decision has the highest  odds of success? Did I land in the unlucky 10% on the strategy that  works 90% of the time? Or is my success attributable to dumb luck rather  than great decision making? Annie Duke, a former World Series  of Poker champion turned business consultant, draws on examples from  business, sports, politics, and (of course) poker to share tools anyone  can use to embrace uncertainty and make better decisions. For most  people, it's difficult to say "I'm not sure" in a world that values, and  even rewards, the appearance of certainty. But professional poker  players are comfortable with the fact that great decisions don't always  lead to great outcomes and bad decisions don't always lead to bad  outcomes. By shifting your thinking from a need for certainty to  a goal of accurately assessing what you know and what you don't, you'll  be less vulnerable to reactive emotions, knee-jerk biases, and  destructive habits in your decision making. You'll become more  confident, calm, compassionate, and successful in the long run. Includes a bonus PDF of charts and graphs. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

”This book takes an impossibly broad area of computer science and  communicates what working developers need to understand in a clear and  thorough way.” - David Jacobs, Product Advance Local Key Features Master the core algorithms of deep learning and AI Build an intuitive understanding of AI problems and solutions Written in simple language, with lots of illustrations and hands-on examples Creative coding exercises, including building a maze puzzle game and exploring drone optimization About The Book “Artificial  intelligence” requires teaching a computer how to approach different  types of problems in a systematic way. The core of AI is the algorithms  that the system uses to do things like identifying objects in an image,  interpreting the meaning of text, or looking for patterns in data to  spot fraud and other anomalies.  Mastering the core algorithms for  search, image recognition, and other common tasks is essential to  building good AI applications Grokking Artificial Intelligence  Algorithms uses illustrations, exercises, and jargon-free explanations  to teach fundamental AI concepts.You’ll explore coding challenges like  detect­ing bank fraud, creating artistic masterpieces, and setting a  self-driving car in motion. All you need is the algebra you remember  from high school math class and beginning programming skills.  What You Will Learn Use cases for different AI algorithms Intelligent search for decision making Biologically inspired algorithms Machine learning and neural networks Reinforcement learning to build a better robot This Book Is Written For For software developers with high school–level math skills. About the Author Rishal Hurbans is a technologist, startup and AI group founder, and international speaker. Table of Contents 1 Intuition of artificial intelligence 2 Search fundamentals 3 Intelligent search 4 Evolutionary algorithms 5 Advanced evolutionary approaches 6 Swarm intelligence: Ants 7 Swarm intelligence: Particles 8 Machine learning 9 Artificial neural networks 10 Reinforcement learning with Q-learning

Newly adapted for audiobook listeners. Today,  software engineers need to know not only how to program effectively but  also how to develop proper engineering practices to make their codebase  sustainable and healthy. This book emphasizes this difference between  programming and software engineering. How can software engineers  manage a living codebase that evolves and responds to changing  requirements and demands over the length of its life? Based on their  experience at Google, software engineers Titus Winters and Hyrum Wright,  along with technical writer Tom Manshreck, present a candid and  insightful look at how some of the world’s leading practitioners  construct and maintain software. This book covers Google’s unique  engineering culture, processes, and tools and how these aspects  contribute to the effectiveness of an engineering organization. You’ll  explore three fundamental principles that software organizations should  keep in mind when designing, architecting, writing, and maintaining  code: How time affects the sustainability of software and how to make your code resilient over time How scale affects the viability of software practices within an engineering organization What trade-offs a typical engineer needs to make when evaluating design and development decisions

Whatever has happened to you, it is not who you are. The  world may know Chris Duffin as the "mad scientist of strength", but you  wouldn't have ever guessed that if you saw the scrawny kid skinning  rattlesnakes and chasing dragonflies in the early '80s. The story of his  unconventional life will take you from gripping tales of murder,  trauma, heartbreak, and survival deep in the Pacific Northwest  wilderness all the way to an idealization of the self-made man - still  flawed, but never broken. In The Eagle and the Dragon,  you'll follow one man's journey into the darkness of his own heart and  witness the transformation of alcoholism, pain, and defeat into vision,  character, and victory. Through Chris's powerful self-realization,  you'll see how the human spirit can be either shackled by circumstance  or freed from it. Are you ready to walk through the fire and make your vision a reality?  This audiobook will show you how.

This fascinating history tells the story of the people of Japan, from  ancient teenage priest-queens to teeming hordes of salarymen, a nation  that once sought to conquer China, yet also shut itself away for two  centuries in self-imposed seclusion. First revealed to  Westerners in the chronicles of Marco Polo, Japan was a legendary  faraway land defended by a fearsome Kamikaze storm and ruled by a divine  sovereign. It was the terminus of the Silk Road, the furthest end of  the known world, a fertile source of inspiration for European artists,  and an enduring symbol of the mysterious East. In recent times, it has  become a powerhouse of global industry, a nexus of popular culture, and a  harbinger of post-industrial decline. With intelligence and  wit, author Jonathan Clements blends documentary and storytelling styles  to connect the past, present and future of Japan, and in broad yet  detailed strokes reveals a country of paradoxes: a modern nation steeped  in ancient traditions; a democracy with an emperor as head of state; a  famously safe society built on 108 volcanoes resting on the world's most  active earthquake zone; a fast-paced urban and technologically advanced  country whose land consists predominantly of mountains and forests.

From a leading expert in Japanese history, this is one of the first full  histories of the art and culture of the Samurai warrior. The Samurai  emerged as a warrior caste in Medieval Japan and would have a powerful  influence on the history and culture of the country from the next 500  years. Clements also looks at the Samurai wars that tore Japan apart in  the 17th and 18th centuries and how the caste was finally demolished in  the advent of the mechanized world.

The Romanovs were the most  successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world's  surface for three centuries. How did one family turn a war-ruined  principality into the world's greatest empire? And how did they lose it  all? This is the intimate story of 20 tsars and tsarinas,  some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy  autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore's gripping  chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless  empire building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries,  sexual decadence, and wild extravagance, with a global cast of  adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries, and poets, from Ivan the  Terrible to Tolstoy and Pushkin to Bismarck, Lincoln, Queen Victoria,  and Lenin. To rule Russia was both imperial-sacred mission and  poisoned chalice: Six of the last 12 tsars were murdered. Peter the  Great tortured his own son to death while making Russia an empire and  dominated his court with a dining club notable for compulsory  drunkenness, naked dwarfs, and fancy dress. Catherine the Great  overthrew her own husband (who was murdered soon afterward), enjoyed  affairs with a series of young male favorites, conquered Ukraine, and  fascinated Europe. Paul I was strangled by courtiers backed by his own  son, Alexander I, who in turn faced Napoleon's invasion and the burning  of Moscow, then went on to take Paris. Alexander II liberated the serfs,  survived five assassination attempts, and wrote perhaps the most  explicit love letters ever composed by a ruler. The Romanovs  climaxes with a fresh, unforgettable portrayal of Nicholas II and  Alexandra, the rise and murder of Rasputin, war, and revolution - and  the harrowing massacre of the entire family. Dazzlingly entertaining and beautifully written from start to finish, The Romanovs brings these monarchs - male and female, great and flawed, their  families and courts - blazingly to life. Drawing on new archival  research, Montefiore delivers an enthralling epic of triumph and  tragedy, love and murder, encompassing the seminal years 1812, 1914, and  1917, that is both a universal study of power and a portrait of an  empire that helps define Russia today.