The Brain Snatcher


Book Description

A eureka-inspiring book that will change your view of the world as you know it. In this compilation of the biggest scientific discoveries of the last decades, Pere Estupinyà clearly and thoughtfully explains to his readers the most innovative ideas sprouting from the world's top scientists' brains... How does the brain act when we are hung-over? Can we trick our body into falling in love? What's the world going to be like in thirty years? All of this, and much more, is explained in this indispensable book for science lovers and the curious-minded. In The Brain Snatcher, the author accesses the world's most prestigious laboratories in order to steal the knowledge of this century's heroes -scientists- and share it with his readers. Through entertaining stories, the reader gets acquainted with the hottest debates in neuroscience, cosmology, genetics, human psychology, sociology of science, and climate change. Moreover, the brain snatcher follows the flu virus through the body; steps into a brain scanner to check if it's capable of detecting his own lies; delves into the frictions between religion and creationism; asks his own hormones why he falls in love; surrenders to the Chaos theory, and sees how disastrous the brain is when it comes to making a thorough decision. He also gets to understand why his pupils dilate when he is having an orgasm; finds the origins of superstitions, analyzes why magazines like Science or Nature make more mistakes than other so-called minor magazines, discovers the reasons that can lead an endearing scientist to keep on investigating until he is 96, and goes crazy trying to figure out what things like antimatter or quantum entanglement are. A buffet of knowledge for those without a science degree, but who are curious about the whys, whats and hows of science!




The Media Snatcher


Book Description

An in-depth exploration of a neglected video game platform of the 1990s and a reflection on the way we construct the cultural history of video games. In The Media Snatcher, Carl Therrien offers an in-depth exploration of NEC's PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, a little-studied video game platform released in the late 1980s. The PC Engine was designed to bring technological expandability to the world of game consoles; The Media Snatcher's subtitle evokes some of the expansions and the numerous rebranded versions of the system released by NEC, including the first CD-ROM add-on in video game history. The platform makers hoped that expandability would allow its console to remain at the cutting edge and even catch up with such perceptually rich media as cinema and anime. More than a simple shape-shifter, the PC Engine became a media snatcher. Therrien examines the multidirectional interactions of video game technologies, commercial structures, and cultural dynamics. He considers, among other things, hyperbolic marketing and its impact on how we construct video game history; glitches, technological obsolescence, and the difficulty of conducting media archaeology of the recent past; the emergence of male-centered power fantasies through audiovisual rewards; the rise of original genres such as visual novels; and the sustained efforts to integrate PC Engine software in the sprawling media landscape of Japan (where the PC Engine found much of its success). Avoiding the usual techno-industrial glorification, Therrien recounts the bold technological aspirations of the platform makers and the struggles to make the actual technology realize its potential.




Parenting in the Age of Attention Snatchers


Book Description

Are your kids glued to their screens? Here is a practical, step-by-step guide that gives parents the tools to teach children, from toddlers to teens, how to gain control of their technology use. As children spend more of their time on tablets and smartphones, using apps specially engineered to capture their attention, parents are becoming concerned about the effects of so much technology use—and they feel powerless to intervene. They want their kids to be competent and competitive in their use of technology, but they also want to prevent the attention and behavioral problems that can develop from overuse.In this guide, Lucy Jo Palladino doesn’t demonize technology; instead she gives parents the tools to help children understand and control their attention—and to recognize and resist when their attention is being "snatched." Palladino’s straightforward, evidence-based approach applies to kids of all ages. Parents will also learn the critical difference between voluntary and involuntary attention, new findings about brain development, and what puts children at risk for attention disorders.




Weekly World News


Book Description

Rooted in the creative success of over 30 years of supermarket tabloid publishing, the Weekly World News has been the world's only reliable news source since 1979. The online hub www.weeklyworldnews.com is a leading entertainment news site.




Strange Brains and Genius


Book Description

Never has the term mad scientist been more fascinatingly explored than in internationally recognized popular science author Clifford Pickover's richly researched wild ride through the bizarre lives of eccentric geniuses. A few highlights: "The Pigeon Man from Manhattan" Legendary inventor Nikola Tesla had abnormally long thumbs, a peculiar love of pigeons, and a horror of women's pearls. "The Worm Man from Devonshire" Forefather of modern electric-circuit design Oliver Heaviside furnished his home with granite blocks and sometimes consumed only milk for days (as did Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison). "The Rabbit-Eater from Lichfield" Renowned scholar Samuel Johnson had so many tics and quirks that some mistook him for an idiot. In fact, his behavior matches modern definitions of obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette's syndrome. Pickover also addresses many provocative topics: the link between genius and madness, the role the brain plays in alien abduction and religious experiences, UFOs, cryonics -- even the whereabouts of Einstein's brain!




S=EX2


Book Description

You have in your hands the most rigorous, complete and readable book ever written about the fascinating science of human sexuality. This book goes beyond the well-worn sexual education advice and the usual evolutionist psychology. After The Brain Snatcher, Pere Estupinyà comes back with the first popular science book on sex aimed at a wide audience. While there are some tips for the more adventurous, there is also a wealth of new information to be discovered. Distancing himself from the many books on advice or techniques, Estupinyà brings sex to another dimension by combining popular beliefs and science. Do you want proof that our decision-making in the “heat of the moment” is less rational than we think? Did you know that mind and vagina each go their own way? Are you interested in learning about the effects of yoga on sexual pleasure? Did you know about the attempts in the 60s to “cure” homosexuals with electric shock therapy, the chemical analysis of female ejaculation, or the fundamental relationship between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system? The author has spoken directly with asexual and intersexual individuals, fetishists, multi-orgasmic women, women who never have orgasms through penetration, and men who have no refractory period. He has also participated in sadomasochistic events; learned tantric techniques with a couple of coaches, spoken with porn performers at Barcelona’s Bagdad, and attended workshops in which a woman teaches how to have orgasms with your mind and breathing. The result is an incredible miscellany of information that appeals to both the scientific community and the curious.




Hardcore 24


Book Description

The blockbuster Stephanie Plum series continues as this Jersey girl hits hard - twenty-four seven. Print run 1,000,000.




Hardcore Twenty-Four


Book Description

Janet Evanovich’s #1 New York Times bestselling sensation Stephanie Plum returns in her twenty-forth thriller as mutilated corpses litter the streets of New Jersey... Trouble comes in bunches for Stephanie Plum. First, professional grave robber and semi-professional loon, Simon Diggery, won’t let her take him in until she agrees to care for his boa constrictor, Ethel. Stephanie’s main qualification for babysitting an extremely large snake is that she owns a stun gun—whether that’s for use on the wandering serpent or the petrified neighbors remains to be seen. Events take a dark turn when headless bodies start appearing across town. At first, it’s just corpses from a funeral home and the morgue that have had the heads removed. But when a homeless man is murdered and dumped behind a church Stephanie knows that she’s the only one with a prayer of catching this killer. If all that’s not enough, Diesel’s back in town. The 6-foot-tall, blonde-haired hunk is a man who accepts no limits—that includes locked doors, closed windows and underwear. Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli isn’t pleased at this unexpected arrival nor is Ranger, the high-powered security consultant who has his own plans for Stephanie. As usual Jersey’s favorite bounty hunter is stuck in the middle with more questions than answers. What’s the deal with Grandma Mazur’s latest online paramour? Who is behind the startling epidemic of mutilated corpses? And is the enigmatic Diesel’s sudden appearance a coincidence or the cause of recent deadly events?




The Body-snatcher


Book Description




Chocky


Book Description

Matthew's parents are worried. At eleven, he's much too old to have an imaginary friend, yet they find him talking to and arguing with a presence that even he admits is not physically there. This presence - Chocky - causes Matthew to ask difficult questions and say startling things: he speaks of complex mathematics and mocks human progress. Then, when Matthew does something incredible, it seems there is more than the imaginary about Chocky. Which is when others become interested and ask questions of their own: who is Chocky? And what could it want with an eleven-year-old boy?