A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all. Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home. As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares. If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.

Three times the holiday magic. Three times the chaos.     As strangers and seatmates Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson fly to Toronto over the holidays—Maryam to her sister’s impromptu wedding, and Anna to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family for the first time—neither expect that severe turbulence will scare them into confessing their deepest hopes and fears to one another. At least they’ll never see each other again. And the love of Maryam’s life, Saif, wasn’t sitting two rows behind them hearing it all. Oops.     An emergency landing finds Anna, Saif, Maryam, and her sister’s entire bridal party snowbound at the quirky Snow Falls Inn in a picture-perfect town, where fate has Anna’s actor-crush filming a holiday romance. As Maryam finds the courage to open her heart to Saif, and Anna feels the magic of being snowbound with an unexpected new love—both women soon realize there’s no place they’d rather be for the holidays.

A tale of high adventure and lyrical celebration, tenderness and violence, generosity and ruthlessness, Memed, My Hawk is the defining achievement of one of the greatest and most beloved of living writers, Yashar Kemal. It is reissued here with a new introduction by the author on the fiftieth anniversary of its first publication. Memed, a high-spirited, kindhearted boy, grows up in a desperately poor mountain village whose inhabitants are kept in virtual slavery by the local landlord. Determined to escape from the life of toil and humiliation to which he has been born, he flees but is caught, tortured, and nearly killed. When at last he does get away, it is to set up as a roving brigand, celebrated in song, who could be a liberator to his people—unless, like the thistles that cover the mountain slopes of his native region, his character has taken an irremediably harsh and unforgiving form.

Royalty comes to Sidmouth, bringing unexpected danger and the sweet possibility of romance. . . . When the Duke and Duchess of Kent and their daughter—the future Queen Victoria—rent neighboring Woolbrook Cottage for the winter, the Summers sisters are called upon to host three of the royal couple's male staff in their seaside house. But they soon realize they've invited secrets and intrigue into their home. Meanwhile, Emily Summers longs to become an author. A local publisher offers to consider her novel if she will first write a Sidmouth guidebook for him. Emily agrees and begins researching the area with help from the Duke of Kent's handsome private secretary. But a surprise visitor from her past shows up at Sea View, leaving Emily torn between the desires she's long held dear and her budding dreams for the future. Return to the Devonshire coast with the Summers sisters, where loyalties are tested, secrets come to light, and new love emerges.

Wir tendieren dazu, künstliche Intelligenz als eine wundersame und körperlose Form maschineller Klugheit zu betrachten. Von der preisgekrönten Wissenschaftlerin Kate Crawford lernen wir hingegen, dass KI in Wahrheit weder künstlich noch intelligent ist, sondern in ihrer materiellen Wirklichkeit auf Ressourcenausbeutung und Machtkonzentration hinausläuft.Crawford nimmt uns mit auf eine faszinierende Reise zu Lithiumminen und Klickfabriken, zu automatisierten Arbeitsplätzen und riesigen Datenarchiven, zu KITrainingscamps und zum algorithmischen Kriegsführungsteam des Pentagon. Auf diese Weise zeichnet sie einen Atlas der künstlichen Intelligenz, der die verschiedenen Bereiche ihrer konkreten Realität kartiert, um unser kritisches Auge zu schulen. Gestützt auf ein Jahrzehnt originärer Forschung zeigt Crawford, dass KI in erster Linie eine Technologie der Extraktion ist – der Abschöpfung von Mineralien, billiger Arbeitskraft und einer unermesslichen Anzahl von Daten. Das planetare Netzwerk der KI schädigt unsere Umwelt massiv, vertieft soziale Ungleichheiten und bedroht demokratische Prinzipien. Crawfords Buch liefert uns eine dringliche Mahnung, was auf dem Spiel steht, wenn große Unternehmen und staatliche Institutionen KI nutzen, um die Welt umzugestalten.