Essential Knowledge

There slumber in every human being faculties by means of which he can acquire for himself a knowledge of higher worlds. Mystics, Gnostics, and Theosophists all speak of a world of soul and spirit which for them is just as real as the world we see with our physical eyes and touch with our physical hands.

In this accessible guide to the meanings of sustainability, Kent Portney describes the evolution of the idea and examines its application in a variety of contemporary contexts - from economic growth and consumption to government policy and urban planning.

When "metadata" became breaking news, appearing in stories about surveillance by the National Security Agency, many members of the public encountered this once-obscure term from information science for the first time. Should people be reassured that the NSA was "only" collecting metadata about phone calls - information about the caller, the recipient, the time, the duration, the location - and not recordings of the conversations themselves? Or does phone call metadata reveal more than it seems?

Most of the information available on cloud computing is either highly technical, with details that are irrelevant to nontechnologists, or pure marketing hype, in which the cloud is simply a selling point. This book, however, explains the cloud from the user's viewpoint - the business user's in particular. Nayan Ruparelia explains what the cloud is, when to use it (and when not to), how to select a cloud service, how to integrate it with other technologies, and what the best practices are for using cloud computing.

Three of the most important words in science are I don't know. Not knowing implies a universe of opportunities—the possibility of discovery and surprise. Our understanding of science has advanced immeasurably over the last 500 years, yet many fundamental mysteries of existence persist: How did our universe begin? How big is the universe? Is time travel possible? What’s at the center of a black hole? How did life on Earth arise? Are we alone? What is consciousness, and can we create it?

From saving, spending, and investing, to setting financial goals and creating a budget, Financial Literacy for Tweens covers everything your child needs to know to become financially literate and empowers them to make informed decisions about money. Don't let your child miss out on this essential life skill. Grab your copy today and start preparing your tween for a successful financial future.

Artificial intelligence surrounds us. More and more of the systems and services you interact with every day are based on AI technology. Most AI is narrowly specific; that is, it can only do a single thing, in a single context. Human intelligence is different. We can solve a variety of tasks, including those we have not seen before. In Artificial General Intelligence, Julian Togelius explores technical approaches to developing more general artificial intelligence and asks what general AI would mean for human civilization.

The world's best introduction to philosophy, Knowledge, Reality, and Value explains basic philosophical problems in epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, such as: How can we know about the world outside our minds? Is there a God? Do we have free will? Are there objective values? What distinguishes right actions from wrong actions? The text clearly explains the most important arguments about these things, and it does so a lot less boringly than most books written by professors.

The CISSP certification is the gold standard for security professionals, but ISC2‘s official study guide is anything but easy to read. Many books have tried to simplify this but fail to leave behind the $100 words and run-on sentences. An update to the original Simple CISSP book, Essential CISSP Exam Guide takes the entire official study guide and breaks it down into easy-to-absorb chapters with simple language. Tons of examples are included to drive the points home in a way that makes it effortless to remember.

Why do we vividly recall a traumatic childhood event but forget where we left our keys five minutes ago? How can a scent take us back fifty years while a colleague's name eludes us? In this compact introduction, two leading psychological researchers describe memory—how it works and why it sometimes doesn't; how it can be tricked, trained, or improved; and what changes with time. In a manner as engaging as it is informative, Fergus Craik and Larry Jacoby explain the strengths and weaknesses of memory.

How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies.

Irony and sarcasm are two of the most misused, misapplied, and misunderstood words in our conversational lexicon. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, psycholinguist Roger Kreuz offers an enlightening and concise overview of the life and times of these two terms, mapping their evolution from Greek philosophy and Roman rhetoric to modern literary criticism to emojis.

The growing movement for universal basic income (UBI) has been gaining attention from politics and the media with the audacious idea of a regular, unconditional cash grant for everyone as a right of citizenship. This volume in the Essential Knowledge series presents the first short, solid UBI introduction that is neither academic nor polemic. It takes a position in favor of UBI, but its primary goal remains the provision of essential knowledge by answering the fundamental questions about it: What is UBI? How does it work? What are the arguments for and against it? What is the evidence?

Causal Inference provides a brief and nontechnical introduction to randomized experiments, propensity scores, natural experiments, instrumental variables, sensitivity analysis, and quasi-experimental devices. Ideas are illustrated with examples from medicine, epidemiology, economics and business, the social sciences, and public policy.

Over the past 10 years, urban planners, technology companies, and governments have promoted smart cities with a somewhat utopian vision of urban life made knowable and manageable through data collection and analysis. Emerging smart cities have become both crucibles and showrooms for the practical application of the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and the integration of big data into everyday life. Are smart cities optimized, sustainable, digitally networked solutions to urban problems? Or are they neoliberal, corporate-controlled, undemocratic non-places?

Do you find yourself constantly having trouble with your finances? Have you been racking your brain thinking how you can budget more effectively? You will continue to have financial problems unless you change your thinking and your approach towards your finances. It takes a mindset makeover towards money in order for you to be financially free. This audiobook will show you the foundations of the manifestation process so you can have power over your mind. You will discover how to change your mindset in order to let the money work for you and not the other way around.

Drone Essential Knowledge and Skills (DEKS) is about helping students go from general awareness of drones to flying safely as part of a team, then earning the FAA Part 107 commercial license, and starting their own drone business. Drones are becoming more relevant and pervasive in our schools and society. DEKS are designed to scaffold students through knowledge of drones, safety and responsible usage, technical knowledge, and skills to become a commercial drone operator, intern with a drone business, then build their own drone business in their local community.

Robots are entering the mainstream. Technologies have advanced to the point of mass commercialization - Roomba, for example - and adoption by governments - most notably, their use of drones. Meanwhile, these devices are being received by a public whose main sources of information about robots are the fantasies of popular culture. We know a lot about C-3PO and Robocop, but not much about Atlas, Motoman, Kiva, or Beam - real-life robots that are reinventing warfare, the industrial workplace, and collaboration.

This introduction to cyborg theory provides a critical vantage point for analyzing the claims around emerging technologies like automation, robots, and AI. Cyborg analyzes and reframes popular and scholarly conversations about cyborgs from the perspective of feminist cyborg theory.

After solar flares wipe out electrical grids worldwide, a small community survives by selling data recovered from decrepit hard drives and rare books. Nostalgic for the days of big business, the commune’s founding members call themselves Corporate and micromanage everyone. Raised into the hustle, Iris Ecosia’s ADHD brain rebels at Corporate’s structure. She attracts the attention of Robert Lycos, the son of one of the Shareholders, but their relationship comes to a crashing end when she loses focus at a critical moment and a vital piece of equipment is destroyed.