Systems Science

Learn how to destroy the universe with the power of astrophysics Based on real questions from children, expert author Dr Matt Bothwell has created the Supervillain Academy to teach astrophysics to middle graders “Could you crash the Moon into the Earth?” “If the Sun explodes, would we all...

With more than 10 stories from exciting new voices and a few veterans of the universe, the second anthology highlights the lives and struggles of humanity's best and worst years after system advent.

His life a wasteland post-System integration, John Lee struggles to deal with the weight of a world irrevocably changed. Given great power by chance, his Levels a by-product of a rage that he finds unable to quench, John struggles to find the balance between a hatred for the System that destroyed his world and the benefits it gives him, allowing him to save even more. Yet, as he draws survivors across the Yukon to Whitehorse, dangers grow in the deep wilderness, out of sight. It’s a race between Leveling and safety, for John and his friends. One that they might be losing.

New beginnings... Everyone craves them, but few have the resolution to go through. And yet John decided to live as a mortal. For his wife, for his daughter. He was willing to give up everything to achieve peace and avoid what he had already suffered in the past. But peace is temporary. How long can it be maintained? Enjoy this seventh issue of The Idle System, just a step away from the last book in the series. If you are ever to live life in another world, you might want to learn what John has to offer.

Jeff Alt takes you along every step of his 2,160-mile Appalachian Trail adventure. This entertaining journey includes bears, bugs, blisters, captivating characters, skunk bedmates, and hilarious food cravings. Alt walked more than five million steps in tribute to his brother, who has cerebral palsy and lives in a home called Sunshine. This trail adventure has inspired an annual event that has raised more than $200,000 for Sunshine. It includes hiking tips for the whole family.

One of America's most historic political trials is undoubtedly that of Angela Davis. Opening with a letter from James Baldwin to Davis, and including contributions from numerous radicals such as Black Panthers George Jackson, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Erica Huggins, this book is not only an account of Davis's incarceration and the struggles surrounding it, but also perhaps the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the prison system of the United States.

Powell and Silverglate shine a light on the defects of the federal criminal-justice system: overzealous prosecutors, perjury traps, negligent judges, perverse limits on self-defense, vague and overabundant criminal statutes, insufficient requirements for criminal intent, and no accountability for prosecutors. Most important, they provide a much-needed blueprint for reforming the Department of Justice and the criminal-justice system, including actions an average citizen can take to help restore justice.

Courtroom 302 is the fascinating story of one year in Chicago's Cook County Criminal Courthouse, the busiest felony courthouse in the country. Here we see the system through the eyes of the men and women who experience it, not only in the courtroom but in the lockup, the jury room, the judge's chambers, the spectators' gallery. From the daily grind of the court to the highest-profile case of the year, Steve Bogira's masterful investigation raises fundamental issues of race, civil rights, and justice in America.

Glitches are appearing across the Minecraft server. Blocks are flickering unexpectedly and randomly disappearing. To make matters worse, villagers are claiming that their entire villages have mysteriously vanished, and they desperately need Gameknight999's help. What's causing the server to overload and glitch, and where have all the NPCs gone? The User-that-is-not-a-user suspects the two questions are related, and that somehow Herobrine's henchmen are responsible.

The mysterious Overlords destroyed all electronics on Earth, imposed a game-like System, and unleashed ravenous horrors upon the planet. Did you hear that Alex Dathers—yes, the Alex Dathers from Youtube with the channel about weapons and armor from the old days—killed a dragon? He actually killed a freakin’ dragon when he was only level 1. I heard it dropped him some epic loot and now he is going on a rampage through the System!

The world ended. Greg's real life finally began. For twenty-eight years, Greg survived the corporate trenches. Premium dark roast at 7 AM. Then, Rachel from HR policing the microwave. Brad stealing credit in projects. Then civilization collapsed. The dead rose. Society crumbled. Greg has never been happier.

Lochlan Brady and his daughters have faced some of those dangers and worked to build a place where they and other survivors can start to rebuild civilization. The new world is one where power rules and Loch has found himself to be the most powerful around. It's thrust him into a position of responsibility for not just his daughters but all the other survivors. It's not one he wants but feels he has to take. They have shelter but now Loch and the other survivors must find sources of food and other resources needed to not just survive but to thrive in the Connected System.

Databases are structured collections of data that enable efficient retrieval, insertion, updating, and deletion of information. They serve as the foundation for various applications, from simple contact lists to complex enterprise systems. Key concepts include tables, which organize data into rows and columns; relationships, which define connections between tables; and SQL (Structured Query Language), used to interact with databases by querying and manipulating data.

Generative AI has revolutionized how organizations tackle problems, accelerating the journey from concept to prototype to solution. As the models become increasingly capable, we have witnessed a new design pattern emerge: AI agents. By combining tools, knowledge, memory, and learning with advanced foundation models, we can now sequence multiple model inferences together to solve ambiguous and difficult problems. From coding agents to research agents to analyst agents and more, we've already seen agents accelerate teams and organizations.

The Aliens by Murray Leinster is a gripping, high-stakes first-contact science fiction adventure from the golden age of the genre. Set during humanity’s expansion across the stars, the story follows the crew of the starship Niccola as they confront the mysterious and technologically advanced Plumies—an alien species whose intentions are entirely unknown. When an unexpected encounter leads to a violent misunderstanding and the two ships become physically fused together in deep space, humans and Plumies are forced into an uneasy alliance for survival.

How can the moon or sun seem to disappear right before our eyes? When the moon, the Earth, and the sun align just right in their orbits, they can cause a solar or lunar eclipse! Find out how light and shadow work together to trigger these cool events.

We can encounter chaos in every system around us - even the smallest and simplest ones. Any system can fall into chaos, which prevents us to accurately predict its behavior. Even a small change in the initial conditions can lead to unexpectedly large-scale consequences. Therefore, we can often enter in panic, blame actors for events they are not responsible for, and our sense of security in the world can generally decrease.

Saturn is famous for its rings. This very windy planet has another claim to fame—it has the most moons of all eight planets! Discover more amazing facts about the sixth planet in the solar system!

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and has a special feature, it tilts! Discover the mysteries of this ice giant that sits half in darkness for more than 40 years at a time!

Everything about Jupiter is big! Its size is big. Even its storms are big! Get the big and small facts about this gas giant that can be seen glowing in the night sky.