Agent Z and the Penguin (pod)


Book Description

Pools winner and total wazzock, Dennis Sidebottom has moved next door to Ben - bringing his squeaky-clean kids with him. The Crane Grove Crew - Ben, Barney and Jenks - soon find themselves on the Sidebottom blacklist. Accused of being troublemakers and a bad influence, they decide to shake up the Sidebottom universe with the help of Agent Z, a meteorite and a stolen penguin. It's Agent Z's finest hour! Mark Haddon has a sharp understanding of what makes children tick, and they will delight in the ever more daring, ever more hilarious missions of Agent Z and his three creators.




Agent Zigzag


Book Description

“Ben Macintyre’s rollicking, spellbinding Agent Zigzag blends the spy-versus-spy machinations of John le Carré with the high farce of Evelyn Waugh.”—William Grimes, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice) “Wildly improbable but entirely true . . . [a] compellingly cinematic spy thriller with verve.”—Entertainment Weekly ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Entertainment Weekly ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. In 1941, after training as German spy in occupied France, Chapman was parachuted into Britain with a revolver, a wireless, and a cyanide pill, with orders from the Abwehr to blow up an airplane factory. Instead, he contacted M15, the British Secret service, and for the next four years, Chapman worked as a double agent, a lone British spy at the heart of the German Secret Service. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began. Based on recently declassified files, Agent Zigzag tells Chapman’s full story for the first time. It’s a gripping tale of loyalty, love, treachery, espionage, and the thin and shifting line between fidelity and betrayal.




Agent Z and the Killer Bananas


Book Description

When Ben's repulsive cousin TJ comes to stay, he uncovers incriminating evidence of Agent Z activities and sarts blackmailing Ben. Meanwhile, Ben, Jenks and Barney have decided to make a film using Barney's new camcorder. But when TJ disappears, the film points towards the boys as suspects. In order to clear their names, they are forced to mastermind a plot requiring the timing and steely nerves that only Agent Z can deliver. Suggested level: intermediate, junior secondary.




Knowledge Representation for Agents and Multi-Agent Systems


Book Description

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the First International Workshop on Knowledge Representation for Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, KRAMAS 2008, held in Sydney, Australia, in September 2008 as a satellite event of KR 2008, the 11th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. The 10 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 14 submissions. The papers foster the cross-fertilization between the KR (knowledge representation and reasoning) and agent communities, by discussing knowledge representation theories and techniques for agent-based systems.




Agent Z Meets the Masked Crusader


Book Description

Ben's a born daydreamer. He's much rather be in the Sahara, or on a Viking ship than sitting in a boring maths lesson. Then Agent Z appears on the scene - and THAT means secret missions, cunning plans and careful strategies. And soon Ben and his friends, Barney and Jenks, realize that life on planet earth is RATHER exciting after all!




Eichmann in My Hands


Book Description

The true story behind “one of history’s great manhunts” and the film Operation Finale by the Mossad legend who caught the most wanted Nazi in the world (The New York Times). 1n 1960 Argentina, a covert team of Israeli agents hunted down the most elusive war criminal alive: Adolf Eichmann, chief architect of the Holocaust. The young spy who tackled Eichmann on a Buenos Aires street—and fought every compulsion to strangle the Obersturmführer then and there—was Peter Z. Malkin. For decades Malkin’s identity as Eichmann’s captor was kept secret. Here he reveals the entire breathtaking story—from the genesis of the top-secret surveillance operation to the dramatic public capture and smuggling of Eichmann to Israel to stand trial. The result is a portrait of two men. One, a freedom fighter, intellectually curious and driven to do right. The other, the dutiful Good German who, through his chillingly intimate conversations with Malkin, reveals himself as the embodiment of what Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil.” Singular, riveting, troubling, and gratifying, Eichmann in My Hands “remind[s] of what is at stake: not only justice but our own humanity” (New York Newsday). Now Malkin’s story comes to life on the screen with Oscar Isaac playing the heroic Mossad agent and Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley playing Eichmann in Operation Finale.




The Field Agent


Book Description

Recruited as babies by a mysterious organization known as the Orphanage, sixteen-year-old twin brothers Bennet and Collin mean the world to each other, even though they’re complete opposites. Collin is training to be a field agent while Bennet is an earpiece, in constant communication with his brother, monitoring his activities and providing computer support from a safe distance. When a mission goes horribly wrong, Bennet is left bereft, missing his other half. Already introverted, he retreats into himself. In his final statement, Collin urged him to leave the Orphanage, but it’s the only home he’s ever known. Instead, he makes a drastic decision: he’ll fill the Collin-sized hole in his heart by rejecting his computer-focused career path, trying instead to match Collin’s physical prowess so he can become a field agent like him. Training with Collin’s old girlfriend, Darcy, a skilled assassin, Bennet tries to prove he can be just as skillful with his fists and a gun as at the keyboard, in the face of skepticism from the Orphanage and all of his classmates. As he struggles to succeed, Bennet must question how much he has hurt those around him and how much more important it is to be himself than just a copy of his brother. When his class is given its final assignment, both his new skills as a field agent and his old skills as an earpiece are put to the ultimate test. Failure could prove fatal, not only to himself but to his fellow agents-in-training—the only family he has left. And as if that weren’t enough, the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance . . .




Harsh Reality


Book Description

Reality television: a loaded phrase if ever there was one. To some, it connotes trash: Snooki, Honey Boo-Boo, the Kardashians. People who are pathetic, immoral and disgusting. To others, it says irresistible entertainment: passion, hilarity, love and obsession. Whatever your feelings about it, there's no doubt that somewhere, somehow, you have come in contact with some form of reality TV. The very first reality television program premiered on MTV in 1992--The Real World. That one show spawned an entire industry, and created a new kind of celebrity-- what author Andy Binder calls "The Z-list Celebrity". In Andy's world, reality television and the Z-list celebrity is neither trash nor passion, but a way of life. Reality shows, despite their claims of unplanned spontaneity, are carefully crafted vehicles populated by various familiar "types." There's the cocky attention-getting male who has appeared on eight reality shows and calls himself "Mr. Beautiful." The sweet country girl with a boyfriend of five years back home. The Guido-loving girl, who tries to bring home a different guy every night. The Mormon from Utah who has never seen a naked girl in person. And the list goes on. These characters represent the full spectrum of American society, and they all play their parts with conviction and relish. But what happens when the cameras stop rolling? What are the real lives of these reality stars like? Does it mirror in any way what we see on their TV shows? Harsh Reality will take a look at the hidden world of reality TV fame, a world Andy Binder witnessed first-hand while running Tobinder Talent Booking.




Agent-Based Modelling of Socio-Technical Systems


Book Description

Decision makers in large scale interconnected network systems require simulation models for decision support. The behaviour of these systems is determined by many actors, situated in a dynamic, multi-actor, multi-objective and multi-level environment. How can such systems be modelled and how can the socio-technical complexity be captured? Agent-based modelling is a proven approach to handle this challenge. This book provides a practical introduction to agent-based modelling of socio-technical systems, based on a methodology that has been developed at TU Delft and which has been deployed in a large number of case studies. The book consists of two parts: the first presents the background, theory and methodology as well as practical guidelines and procedures for building models. In the second part this theory is applied to a number of case studies, where for each model the development steps are presented extensively, preparing the reader for creating own models.




Agent of Change


Book Description

"LEE AND MILLER STRIKE SPACE OPERA GOLD." ¾Robin Wayne Bailey Once a brilliant First-in Scout, Val Con yos'Phelium was "recruited" by the mysterious Liaden Department of Interior and brainwashed into an Agent of Change¾a ruthless covert operative who kills without remorse. Fleeing the scene of his latest murderous mission, he finds himself saving the life of ex-mercenary Miri Robertson, a tough Terran on the run from a team of interplanetary assassins. Thrown together by circumstances, Val Con and Miri struggle to elude their enemies and stay alive without slaying each other¾or surrendering to the unexpected passion that flares between them. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "I was mesmerized, auued, and totally entertained. I am hooked by the Liaden world. Brauo!" ¾Mary Balogh "Full of action, exotic characters, plenty of plot, and even a touch of romance. OUTSTANDING." ¾Booklist "You may never care about a cast of characters more or await their return with more anticipation." ¾SF Site