Systems Science

The first wing of the Red Cathedral has been conquered, and the next phase of the Possibility King’s invasion is officially on. Strange towers have arrived all across EBO, bringing with them fragments of new and dangerous realities. Some will threaten the Onyx Delta, others will offer new opportunities, and one tower in particular will awaken something in Frank that really should have remained dormant.

Since 1980, the number of people in US prisons has increased more than 450 percent. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called "the biggest prison building project in the history of the world". Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces conjoined to produce the prison boom.

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.

With the gravitas of Joan Biskupic and the irreverence of Elie Mystal, Leah Litman brings her signature wit to the question of what’s gone wrong at One First Street. In Lawless, she argues that the Supreme Court is no longer practicing law; it’s running on vibes. By “vibes,” Litman means legal-ish claims that repackage the politics of conservative grievance and dress them up in robes. Major decisions adopt the language and posture of the law, while in fact displaying a commitment to protecting a single minority: the religious conservatives and Republican officials.

Someone born to maintain, fix, and correct any and every issue that could go wrong in the Habitat that he lives in to make sure he and his fellow humans can remain on display and entertain their owners as any good human pet would. Or at least, that's what he was born to be. Now, after getting a second chance along with a superpower that lets him alter anything and everything in regard to his own body, he's trying to fix his life. To live his life for himself with the goal of actually enjoying it, all while being thrust ever deeper into a situation he didn't expect.

A leading expert in epigenetics - how genes switch on and off - provides a revolutionary, holistic, and personalized approach to better health by improving how your genes behave to prevent and reverse common ailments, chronic illnesses, and life-threatening diseases, including cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, anxiety, depression, digestive issues, obesity, cancer, diabetes, and more.

Will Johnnie Veal—convicted of the murder of two police officers in 1970—be granted parole after 50 years in prison? How can he convince the parole board he’s reformed when he insists he’s innocent? What is prison time even supposed to accomplish? These are the questions that propel The Parole Room forward as it builds toward Johnnie’s 20th parole hearing—after 19 rejections.

The last wing of the red cathedral is finally live, and the possibility king awaits. To reach his throne, players will have to face foes capable of bringing about the end of the world. However, nothing can compare to their creator. The prize for defeating him is unprecedented: the ability to create a custom Ripple. A single change that will alter the very fabric of EBO forever. A power that Ned’s enemies would do anything to obtain.

The System Apocalypse has come to Australia, altering native organisms and importing even more menacing creatures to the most dangerous continent on Earth. For Kira Kent, plant biologist, the System arrives while she's pulling an all nighter at work with her pair of kids in tow. Now, instead of mundane parental concerns like childcare and paying the bills, she's got to figure out how to survive a world where already deadly flora and fauna have grown even more perilous.

It’s not easy being a System Traveler. Well, the traveling part is hard, at least. But once Derek got his feet under him, he hit the ground running, saving an entire area from a massive dungeon overflow in the process. He even found some companions to help ease the massive hole inside him formed from spending decades alone in the void.

Derek has saved villages and maybe even cities from overflowing dungeons. He later helped with the capture of one of the most despicable noblemen in the entire kingdom. After that, he, at the request of Prince Edgar, helped prevent upcoming danger by clearing a raid dungeon and keeping it from overflowing into the kingdom. Then, he and Silvi joined a war effort that began while he was clearing the dungeon.

You wake up and feel a tickle in your throat. Your head hurts. You’re mildly annoyed as you get the kids ready for school and dress for work yourself. Meanwhile, an epic war is being fought, just below your skin. Millions are fighting and dying for you to be able to complain as you head out the door. So what, exactly, is your immune system? In Immune, Philipp Dettmer, the brains behind the most popular science channel on YouTube, takes listeners on a journey through the fortress of the human body and its defenses.

No more cute koala bears, bouncy kangaroos, or fuzzy wallabies. Now, everything is mutated and aggressive? Who made the spiders so big? The world's most dangerous continent just got a lot more dangerous, and no one, not even the alien Galactics who arrive, are ready for it.

Donors, leaders of nonprofits, and public policy makers usually have the best of intentions to serve society and improve social conditions. But often their solutions fall far short of what they want to accomplish and what is truly needed. Moreover, the answers they propose and fund often produce the opposite of what they want over time. We end up with temporary shelters that increase homelessness, drug busts that increase drug-related crime, or food aid that increases starvation.

In Neil deGrasse Tyson’s delightful journey through the cosmos, his fictional character Merlin responds to popular questions asked by adults and children alike. Merlin, a timeless visitor from Planet Omniscia in the Andromeda Galaxy, has observed firsthand many of the major scientific events of Earth’s history.

In Killed by a Traffic Engineer, civil engineering professor Wes Marshall shines a spotlight on how little science there is behind the way that our streets are engineered, which leaves safety as an afterthought. While traffic engineers are not trying to cause deliberate harm to anyone, he explains, they are guilty of creating a transportation system whose designs remain largely based on plausible, but unproven, conjecture.

What do obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, fatty liver disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, neurological disorders, and premature death have in common? All can be stoked by high uric acid levels. Our most respected scientific literature is bursting with evidence that elevated uric acid levels lie at the root of many pervasive health conditions, but mainstream medicine for the most part remains unaware of this connection.

In a rare blend of scientific insight and writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of 11 dimensions where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter-from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas-is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy.

She wanted to be a Necromancer, but awakened as a Saint! Somehow her summoned heroes are all undead? How will the church react when their Saintess summons a skeleton in place of a mighty hero? Sofia isn’t too keen on finding out. In this world, Gods choose [Saints], and [Saints] summon [Heroes] from other worlds; everyone knows that. But Sofia had a thing for bones ever since she was a child; there’s only one [Class] she wants: [Necromancer]! When, by the whims of fate, she gets both classes at the same time, the system breaks.

A decade ago, developers built information-sharing software by writing a lot of custom code in a single code base, then adding layers of caching. Now we build information systems: interdependent software and services, data platforms, and event streams. Many of our software-to-systems initiatives fail, though, and when they do, we double down on traditional linear approaches. But linear thinking cannot resolve systems challenges. We need to shift to systems thinking.