First Problems

Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

Infiltrate. Survive. Stop the genocide. Rescue myself. That’s my agenda, and I’m sticking to it. With only my sentient hair and shapeshifting abilities, I must survive a small island’s dangers on an uncharted planet. My ultimate goal? Halt the sinister scientists' dark plans of genocide. My immediate goal? Somehow get back to the starship to complete my agenda. As I battle the elements along with my doubts, the fate of countless lives depends on my success. With the constant risk of my true Human identity being exposed, I must stop the genocide of a budding civilization before it's ...

Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to coexist peacefully as equals, without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent.

Unlock the Power of First Principles Thinking: Transform Your Problem-Solving and Innovate Like History's Greatest Minds Are you ready to revolutionize the way you approach challenges and unleash your innovative potential? Dive into the world of first principles thinking with this groundbreaking guide that will transform your problem-solving skills and ignite your creativity. From the Wright brothers' conquest of the skies to Elon Musk's disruption of multiple industries, first principles thinking has been the secret weapon of history's most brilliant innovators. Now, it's your turn to ...

1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind. Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang's investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredictable interaction of its three suns.

The authors realized that despite billions of dollars being spent annually on sales training, only the top 20% of sales teams around the world, were closing most of the revenue (80% or more) causing stress on management and owners. This is called the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule has persisted and, until now, has never been solved. How do we get the rest of the sales team closing like the top salespeople? One of the discoveries they made was that most of the sales training focuses almost exclusively on closing. Of course, closing is important— that’s where the money is made. But there’s ...

In the midst of an interstellar war, Yun Tianming found himself on the front lines. Riddled with cancer, he chose to end his life, only to find himself flash frozen and launched into space where the Trisolaran First Fleet awaited. Captured and tortured beyond endurance for decades, Yun eventually succumbed to helping the aliens subjugate humanity in order to save Earth from complete destruction.

As a manager, you are prepared to face any challenge when it comes to the work at hand, but you may not be ready to overcome a hostile work environment, a catastrophic disruption in workflow, or any other of a multitude to challenges that can arise, seemingly from nowhere.

River is gone and Athens abandoned … With nowhere else to go, the Tartans evacuate both their citizens and the Hawaiian refugees to Galveston, the capital city of New Texas. Surrounded by pre-wave technology, Felicity has never been more uncomfortable while Winter thrives in her position as Assistant Director of the New Anaphedarin project. The shift in Tartan dynamics has caused some friction between the years-long group of friends, but as uncomfortable as the Athenians are, the Hawaiians are having an even harder time adjusting; particularly Zac.

Psychic Nora Ashcroft is somewhere she never thought she'd see again: her old world. Desperate to bring Tanner and Eva back to Eastwind as soon as possible, she faces a major up-levee battle in New Orleans. Because without any money or a clear place to start, finding two witches in the city could require more magic than she alone possesses. When she catches wind of mysterious slayings among the local vampires and witches, her only shot at finding her friends could be to unmask a murderer. But time is running out, and a dangerous cloaked figure is running amok....

David Rakoff's best-selling collection of autobiographical essays, Fraud, established him as one of today's funniest and most insightful writers. Now, in Don't Get Too Comfortable, Rakoff moves from the personal to the public, journeying into the land of unchecked plenty that is contemporary America. Rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly and wittily skewered.

In this compact business management audiobook, Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein take the listener through every step of change - from realization that change is a good thing, to implementing that change in every department, across all channels. Change Is Good...You Go First will facilitate and champion change in any working environment and comes in an easily digestible format, including well-organized lists and objectives to help your team achieve its goals.

A secret backdoor meeting between Ambassador Ode Abumwe and the Conclave’s Hafte Sorvalh turns out to be less than secret, as both of their ships are attacked. It’s a surprise to both teams - but it’s the identity of the attacker that is the real surprise, and suggests a threat to both humanity and The Conclave. "A Problem of Proportion" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

Like the first edition, the second edition of this book is designed to be used by coaches wishing to help coachees deal with specific emotional problems when these problems interfere with coachees pursuing their coaching objectives. This book provides guidance to coaches concerning when to use Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy in coaching and the steps to follow when they do so. The book has been updated to reflect changes in the language and practice of REBT. Windy Dryden is a Fellow of the Albert Ellis Institute and one of its core trainers. He has trained REBT therapists for almost half...

September 11th, 2001 - It was a morning just like any other, but it would soon turn into a national tragedy; leaving many to ponder the question: “Where Was God?” Some have asked it in earnest, while others have asked it derisively, but regardless of the intent it is a question that I truly believe deserves to be answered. As an NYPD first responder, it was certainly one that I personally wrestled with in the aftermath of that horrific day. I mean, if God really loves us, than how could he have allowed something so horrific to have happened? I decided to use my experience, as a former ...

This volume includes: The Ghost in the First Row, The Box That Watch Found, and A Horse Named Dragon.

The story begins when a mysterious, system-wide event inserts a perfect, elegant proof for the complex mathematical problem. R(5,5)=43 into every human computer system. Commander Katarina Volkov, a military officer whose instincts were honed by a past tragedy, assembles a team of specialists on Ares Station to decipher the message from the unknown intelligence, dubbed "The Collective". The team includes Dmitri Petrov, a synesthetic mathematician who perceives logic as music; Yelena Kozlov, a brilliant but rigid logician driven by a fear of chaos ; and Anastasia Novak, an unnervingly quiet ...

From Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit First, Clockwork, and The Pumpkin Plan, comes the ultimate diagnostic tool for every entrepreneur.... The biggest problem entrepreneurs have is that they don't know what their biggest problem is. If you find yourself trapped between stagnating sales, staff turnover, and unhappy customers, what do you fix first? Every issue seems urgent—but there's no way to address all of them at once. The result? A business that continues to go in endless circles putting out urgent fires and prioritizing the wrong things.

My life was perfect. I did well in school. I had a great job. I met the perfect guy. We were going to live happily ever after, with the 2.5 kids and the house with the white picket fence. But then, the perfect guy turned out not to be so perfect after all. Now, I need to get away from that life I expected to live. When I get on the alien ship that will take me to a far away planet, it seems like a perfect solution. What I didn’t count on was meeting a sexy alien who is keeping a big secret from me. I should run far, far away from this alien, but it’s impossible to do that on a spaceship...