Island Futures

When the bloody Chinese Civil War concluded in 1949, two Chinas were born. Mao’s Communists won and took China’s mainland; Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to Taiwan island. Since then, China and Taiwan have drifted into being separate political and cultural entities. Taiwan is now a flourishing democracy and an economic success story: just one of its companies produces over 90 per cent of the semiconductors that power the world’s economy. It is a free and vibrant society.

In the middle of the North Pacific Gyre, the accelerated impacts of Global Climate Change have expanded the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to epic proportions. Brent Brodie was an oil and gas engineer until he suffered catastrophic mental and physical injuries during an oil rig explosion. After years of recovery, he focuses his unique skills to lead the development of a floating, plastic recycling plant which grows into a star-shaped, two-mile wide, rotating island. Utilizing the gyre’s powerful ocean currents, Plasticity Island generates massive amounts of hydroelectricity which powers the ...

With unparalleled access to Taiwan’s political leaders and a deep understanding of the island’s history and culture, Professor Kerry Brown provides an updated reading of Taiwan, its twenty-three million people, and how they navigate being caught in this frightening geopolitical standoff. This is the essential book delving into Taiwan’s unique story, buried beneath the headlines, told in an accessible, expert and urgent way.

In his best-selling memoir, On The Road Less Traveled, Ed Hajim told the story of how he went from being a 3 year-old-boy kidnapped by his father (and then abandoned to foster care), to becoming a successful Wall Street executive and family man. The Island of the Four Ps, is a story told in two parts. The first is a modern fable, inspired by that experience, and the second is the author's personal story, which draws upon his own hard-won life lessons.

For nearly a century, the Rikers Island jail complex has stood on a 413-acre manmade island in the East River of New York. Today it is the largest correctional facility in the city, housing eight active jails and thousands of incarcerated individuals who have not yet been tried. It is also one of the most controversial and notorious jails in America. Part on-the-ground reporting, part deep social and architectural history, These Walls is an eye-opening look at Rikers Island and the American justice system—and a challenge to our long-held beliefs about what constitutes power and justice.

Speaking to experts in fields as diverse as oil production and ecology, and visiting the places that have escaped recent human activity to discover how they have adapted to life without us, Alan Weisman paints an intriguing picture of the future of Earth. Exploring key concerns of our time, this absorbing thought experiment reveals a powerful - and surprising - picture of our planet's future.

Artificial Intelligent Entities scramble for control and survival in a world that is spinning towards an apocalypse. Can an Enhanced Human save the earth? In the very near future, at a time when most of the countries on earth have multiple supercomputers, there is an inevitable battle for supremacy! Gyreland’s Quantum-Photon-Matrix, known as Ravindra, is the most advanced Artificial Intelligent Entity in the world and Brent Brodie is the only one who can control her. When Supercomputers command the militaries, nuclear arsenals, power grids, water, and food supplies, everyone is at their ...

EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS THREATEN HUMANITY AS GLOBAL WARMING REACHES NEW LIMITS. CAN MANKIND CONTROL THEIR DESTINY? Following the Battle of Malacca, Plasticity Island expanded rapidly and seceded from the United States of America to become The Republic of Gyreland. Brent Brodie and his team take on the challenge of reducing Global Warming, surviving rising ocean levels, and controlling violent weather patterns. From the thermosphere to all the major oceans and continents of the world, the action never stops. No Country is immune from the struggle for fresh drinking water, food, and ...

He’d made mistakes...more than a few and probably didn’t deserve the second chance he’d been given. But he was going to do everything he could to prove himself worthy of it. And now with Jansen’s arrival to the canyon...one more person in addition to himself and his grandfather with ties to the island...the stakes were even higher. Ray didn’t have a single doubt that a number of individuals were wondering where he’d disappeared to. With luck it would stay that way...but if it didn’t he probably wouldn’t be around to worry about it. He’d arrived on the island with a ...

In The Futures, Emily Lambert, senior writer at Forbes magazine, tells us the rich and dramatic history of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade, which together comprised the original, most bustling futures market in the world. She details the emergence of the futures business as a kind of meeting place for gamblers and farmers and its subsequent transformation into a sophisticated electronic market where contracts are traded at lightning-fast speeds.

In this dazzling debut novel about love and betrayal, a young couple moves to New York City in search of success - only to learn that the lives they dream of may come with dangerous strings attached.

Dark secrets and twisted truths...hidden clues and unexpected danger...a lost island of dreams and mystery... It had never been a secret that she loved him with all her heart...then walked away...her dreams and hopes lost. Then everything changed. There was only time to grab her purse and the small keepsake box she couldn’t leave behind. She had no choice but to trust a family friend with his own share of secrets to keep them safe from a mysterious and threatening danger. But was her heart safe from him...was it ever? Addie might have been surprised by Tom’s unexpected arrival at her ...

Maral's story is a breathtaking adventure of survival as she travels with a refugee group by foot, climbing grueling mountains for hours without sleep and hanging onto dear life in a rubber raft in the middle of the Aegean Sea. Her story will inspire you and amaze you and leave you speechless! Maral's story puts a "face" on the dangerous life of an Iranian refugee!

SHORT STORY – Prequel to the new, Near-Future, Hard Science Fiction Series "Plasticity Island". The epic adventures of Brent Brodie began in the South Indian Ocean long before the construction of Plasticity Island. Before he became an Enhanced Human, before he fought the Mexican Drug Cartels and the Chinese Water Pirates; Brent Brodie saved the world! Even if you’ve already read the first book in the series; Plasticity Island – The Water Wars, this prequel will add to the mystery and suspense. Despite his desire to be a conscientious environmentalist, Brent and his friend Bijay, take ...

Grace and Jack are still trying to come to grips with their time-travelling experience as they eagerly await their next adventure.