Roi and his best friends from slavery are taking a challenge journey on Falaron, a planet terraformed from Earth during the Ice Age. They look forward to a vacation of dog sledding, hang gliding, horseback trekking, sailing, whitewater rafting, and rock climbingbut the friction developing within the group is adding its own level of challenge to the trip. Their guide, Penny, finds the four a refreshing change from her usual spoiled clients. She is worried, however, by the unusual number of accidents the group is experiencing. Even though they are vacationing on a wilderness planet, this foursome seems particularly accident prone. But they arent all accidents. Rois half-brother Zhaim, a brilliant and malicious sociopath, has decided that the journey is an ideal opportunity to rid himself of his rival. He is capable of manipulating not only the weather but affairs on distant planets. His schemes distract the only two adults who would be able to protect the young people and draw them far enough away that they can be of no help. He has even managed to plant an unsuspecting agent in the party. As the group travels, their journey becomes a far more serious challenge than any of them could have imagined.

Sinister twins, Edgar and Ellen, descend into Nod's Limbs vast sewer system to uncover the mystery of a rival mischief-maker.

Eager to escape their families’ annual blended vacation, lifelong “frenemies” Maura and Liz take a ferry to an island deep in the Chesapeake Bay. While beautiful on the outside, the girls soon discover something sinister haunts the island residents. A centuries-long curse demands a yearly sacrifice to keep a vengeful evil at bay, and the islanders will risk everything to keep their secret. Kidnapped and trapped underground, Maura tests her mettle as she navigates through tunnels that are a maze of horrors at every turn. Maura knows she may not win the battle, but she won’t be taken out easily. She’s going to make certain that the person who abducted her will remember her as the one he misjudged. Meanwhile, Liz scours the island looking for her lost friend. With help from Jacy, one of the islanders, Liz soon learns that Maura has been chosen to be this year’s island sacrifice. Both girls must push past their physical and mental limitations and find the strength to escape Caethian Island and the evil that it was built upon. “...perfectly planned... “The Tourist Trap”...is a crime, mystery, thriller and horror book that will leave you questioning your guesses...an unpredictable web...” Online Book Club Review “...horrifying, thrilling and heart-stopping... A definite must read for horror lovers.” - Michael Bradley, Award Winning Author of Dead Air

As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows over the deserted highway, a group of five friends found themselves hopelessly lost in the middle of nowhere. The hot summer air had given way to an eerie chill, sending shivers down their spines. With their car's GPS system on the fritz and cell phone service nonexistent, they had been driving aimlessly for what felt like hours in search of civilization. "This is ridiculous, we're going in circles," groaned Tim, slumped in the backseat. "Are we even going the right way?" Sarah asked, her voice tinged with anxiety as she peered out the window at the darkening landscape, the twisted shapes of dead trees looming like gnarled hands reaching for them. "I don't know," replied Mike, the designated driver. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles white. "But we can't just sit here. We need to find a gas station or something before we run out of fuel." The gas gauge hovered perilously close to empty. Jenna leaned forward, fiddling with the radio dials, but the static crackled ominously-no stations came through in this desolate area. Just as they were about to resign themselves to another round of aimless driving, a flickering neon sign appeared on the horizon like a beacon. "Tourist Trap," it read in bold, flashing letters that buzzed and hummed. "Thank god, maybe we can get directions or at least use a phone," Jenna exclaimed, relief evident in her voice despite the unsettling name.

A brilliantly evocative, surprising, and page-turning exploration of how tourism has shaped the world, for better and for worse—essential reading for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the implications of their wanderlust. Through deep and perceptive dispatches from tourist spots around the globe—from Hawaii to Saudi Arabia, Amsterdam to Angkor Wat—The New Tourist lifts the veil on an industry that accounts for one in ten jobs worldwide and generates nearly ten percent of global GDP. How did a once-niche activity become the world’s most important means of contact across cultures? When does tourism destroy the soul of a city, and when does it offer a place a new lease on life? Is “last chance tourism” prompting a powerful change in perspective, or driving places we love further into the ground? Filled with revelations about an industry that shapes how we view the world, The New Tourist spotlights painful truths but also delivers a message of hope: that the right kind of tourism—and the right kind of tourist—can be a powerful force for good.

A top expert explains why a social and economic understanding of complex systems will help society to anticipate and confront our biggest challenges Imagine trying to understand a stained glass window by breaking it into pieces and examining it one shard at a time. While you could probably learn a lot about each piece, you would have no idea about what the entire picture looks like. This is reductionism -- the idea that to understand the world we only need to study its pieces -- and it is how most social scientists approach their work. In A Crude Look at the Whole, social scientist and economist John H. Miller shows why we need to start looking at whole pictures. For one thing, whether we are talking about stock markets, computer networks, or biological organisms, individual parts only make sense when we remember that they are part of larger wholes. And perhaps more importantly, those wholes can take on behaviors that are strikingly different from that of their pieces. Miller, a leading expert in the computational study of complex adaptive systems, reveals astounding global patterns linking the organization of otherwise radically different structures: It might seem crude, but a beehive's temperature control system can help predict market fluctuations and a mammal's heartbeat can help us understand the "heartbeat" of a city and adapt urban planning accordingly. From enduring racial segregation to sudden stock market disasters, once we start drawing links between complex systems, we can start solving what otherwise might be totally intractable problems. Thanks to this revolutionary perspective, we can finally transcend the limits of reductionism and discover crucial new ideas. Scientifically founded and beautifully written, A Crude Look at the Whole is a powerful exploration of the challenges that we face as a society. As it reveals, taking the crude look might be the only way to truly see.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

This concise paperback helps develop students' critical thinking skills through exercises keyed to the main topics in introductory psychology.

With its colossal glaciers, vast lava flows andthundering waterfalls, Iceland's primordial landscapeawards visitors with unforgettable vistas and incredibletrekking beneath the glowing northern lights. Whetheryou're an outdoor enthusiast, an independent traveller ona budget, or a comfort-seeking tourist, the author showsyou how to do ......

Elements of Architecture explores new ways of engaging architecture in archaeology. It conceives of architecture both as the physical evidence of past societies and as existing beyond the physical environment, considering how people in the past have not just dwelled in buildings but have existed within them. The book engages with the meeting point between these two perspectives. For although archaeologists must deal with the presence and absence of physicality as a discipline, which studies humans through things, to understand humans they must also address the performances, as well as temporal and affective impacts, of these material remains. The contributions in this volume investigate the way time, performance and movement, both physically and emotionally, are central aspects of understanding architectural assemblages. It is a book about the constellations of people, places and things that emerge and dissolve as affective, mobile, performative and temporal engagements. This volume juxtaposes archaeological research with perspectives from anthropology, architecture, cultural geography and philosophy in order to explore the kaleidoscopic intersections of elements coming together in architecture. Documenting the ephemeral, relational, and emotional meeting points with a category of material objects that have defined much research into what it means to be human, Elements of Architecture elucidates and expands upon a crucial body of evidence which allows us to explore the lives and interactions of past societies.