Santa Claus is coming to town...at least, that was the plan, but now his elves have started going missing, kidnapped by some insidious figure in a black cloak, and despite the magic swirling about the place, the toys aren't going to put themselves together. So begins a terrifying game of cat and mouse as Kris Kringle searches The Land of Christmas for his abducted minions, unaware that he is to play an integral part in his foe's plans. Krampus is pissed at Santa after lending him his snowblower and never getting it back. His punishment? To build a Human Santapede long enough to stretch around The Land of Christmas, and at its helm, the jolly fat man himself. Can Santa - aided by his best foreman, Finklefoot - get his elves back, defeat Krampus, and save Christmas before it is too late, or will Krampus succeed in creating the ghastliest single-file organism the North Pole has ever seen? Ho-Ho-Holy Shit, things are about to get messy..
With text by Pierce Brosnan, Sir Alan Bates and Kevin Bacon. Degrees is loosely based on the 'six degrees of separation' theory and the world-famous cinema game, The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Andy Gotts has had extraordinary access to the world's most famous faces. Over 100 A-list actors feature in this fascinating collection of images and anecdotes. Each actor suggests a friend or colleague as the next person and, therefore, starts a wonderful chain of 'who knows who' and provides a glimpse into the human side of film.
Survive and thrive in a world being taken over by robots and other advanced technology. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, algorithms, blockchains, the Internet of Things, big data analytics, 5G networks, self-driving cars, robotics, 3D printing. In the coming years, these technologies, and others to follow, will have a profound and dramatically disruptive impact on how we work and live. Whether we like it or not, we need to develop a good working relationship with these technologies. We need to know how to “dance” with robots. In Dancing with Robots, futurist, entrepreneur, and innovation coach Bill Bishop describes 29 strategies for success in the New Economy. These new strategies represent a bold, exciting, unexpected, and radically different road map for future success. Bishop also explains how our Five Human Superpowers — embodied pattern recognition, unbridled curiosity, purpose-driven ideation, ethical framing, and metaphoric communication — give us a competitive edge over robots and other advanced technology in a world being taken over by automation and AI.
In the depths of the cosmos there is madness to be found and there are stories to be told... The Elder Gods, Cthulhu, Nyarlethotep, and the like have a taste for fear, for madness, for flesh... But over the years they have grown bored with the taste of the standard straight, white male so often portrayed in the tales of the Mythos. Like a human being with a hankering for Thai after a steady diet of steak and potatoes, the Gods of the Mythos are craving something different... An African Igbo head man defends his tribe against eldritch incursion with the help of his own Gods... A deeply scarred man gathers strength from Sobek, the Egyptian God who claimed him young, as he stands against the horrors shoulder to shoulder with a Priestess of Bast... A Jewish lesbian rides into town to save it from the Unspeakable, with a little help from her girlfriend and her rich heritage... All this and more await you in these pages. Welcome to equal opportunity madness...
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Can’t get enough of Joe Goldberg? Don’t miss the latest thriller in Caroline Kepnes’s compulsively readable You series, with an all-new plot not seen in the blockbuster Netflix show. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MARIE CLAIRE • “Fiendish, fast-paced, and very funny.”—Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train Joe Goldberg is done with the cities. He’s done with the muck and the posers, done with Love. Now he’s saying hello to nature, to simple pleasures on a cozy island in the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in a long time, he can just breathe. He gets a job at the local library—he does know a thing or two about books—and that’s where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian. Joe won’t meddle, he will not obsess. He’ll win her the old-fashioned way . . . by providing a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand. Over time, they’ll both heal their wounds and begin their happily ever after in this sleepy town. The trouble is . . . Mary Kay already has a life. She’s a mother. She’s a friend. She’s . . . busy. True love can only triumph if both people are willing to make room for the real thing. Joe cleared his decks. He’s ready. And hopefully, with his encouragement and undying support, Mary Kay will do the right thing and make room for him.
Harry is a curious, mischievous young centipede who gets himself in all kinds of trouble when he disobeys his mother and makes the forbidden trip up into the dangerous world of "hoo-mins".
More of the Pulitzer Prize–winning film critic’s most scathing reviews. A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length collects more than 200 of his reviews from 2006 to 2012 in which he gave movies two stars or fewer. Known for his fair-minded and well-written film reviews, Roger is at his razor-sharp humorous best when skewering bad movies. Consider this opener for the one-star Your Highness: “Your Highness is a juvenile excrescence that feels like the work of 11-year-old boys in love with dungeons, dragons, warrior women, pot, boobs, and four-letter words. That this is the work of David Gordon Green beggars the imagination. One of its heroes wears the penis of a minotaur on a string around his neck. I hate it when that happens.” And finally, the inspiration for the title of this book, the one-star Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a doglike robot humping the leg of the heroine. If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.” Roger Ebert’s I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie and Your Movie Sucks, which gathered some of his most scathing reviews, were bestsellers. This collection continues the tradition, reviewing not only movies that were at the bottom of the barrel, but also movies that he found underneath the barrel. Movie buffs and humor lovers alike will relish this treasury of movies so bad that you may just want to see them for a good laugh!
Through case studies of popular films, including Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises, Dawn of the Dead and The Human Centipede , this book re-emphasises the constructive potential of cinematic nihilism.
We are told from the time we are children that insects and spiders are pests, when the truth is that most have little or no effect on us--although the few that do are often essential to our existence. Arthur Evans suggests we take a closer look at our slapped-at, stepped-on, and otherwise ignored cohabitants, who vastly outnumber us and whose worlds often occupy spaces that we didn't even know existed. What's Bugging You? brings together fifty unforgettable stories from the celebrated nature writer and entomologist's popular Richmond Times-Dispatch column. Evans has scoured Virginia's wild places and returned with wondrous stories about the seventeen-year sleep of the periodical cicadas, moths that evade hungry bats by sensing echolocation signals, and the luminous language of light employed by fireflies. He also visits some not-so-wild places: the little mounds of upturned soil scattered along the margins of soccer fields are the dung beetle's calling card. What does the world look like to a bug? Evans explores insect vision, which is both better, and worse, than that of humans (they are capable of detecting ultraviolet light, but many cannot see the color red), pausing to observe that it is its wide-set forward-looking eyes that imbue the praying mantis with "personality." He is willing to defend such oft-maligned creatures as the earwig, the tent caterpillar, and the cockroach--revealed here as a valuable scavenger, food source for other animals, and even a pollinator, that spends more time grooming itself than it does invading human space. Evans's search for multilegged life takes him to an enchanting assortment of locations, ranging from gleaming sandy beaches preferred by a threatened tiger beetle to the shady, leaf-strewn forest floors where a centipede digs its brood chamber--to a busy country road where Evans must dodge constant foot and vehicular traffic to photograph a spider wasp as its claims its paralyzed prey. His forays also provide the reader with a unique window on the cycles of nature. What Evans refers to as the FBI--fungus, bacteria, insects--are the chief agents in decomposition and a vital part of regeneration. Evans also takes on many issues concerning humans' almost always destructive interaction with insect life, such as excessive mowing and clearing of wood that robs wildlife of its food and habitat, as well as harmful bug zappers that kill everything but mosquitoes. The reader emerges from this book realizing that even seemingly mundane forms of insect and spider life present us with unexpected beauty and fascinating lifestyles.
How to be a friend to bees, bugs & butterflies--an interactive guide to pollinators and their role in our gardens. This buzzing collection of exciting facts and activities will give you the inside knowledge on the power of pollination. Learn why pollination is so essential to the natural world through engaging projects and zany explanations--create characterful bug masks you can cut out and wear, play a game of Pollinator Pursuit (a fresh take on a traditional board game), and explore the menu at Predator Restaurant (who knew nematode nougat came in slug and vine weevil flavors?). By the end of Bees, Bugs & Butterflies you'll know how pollinators work and which creatures work with which flowers; you'll see how you can help pollinators by planting the right plants and creating safe homes for them; you'll learn about the amazing tricks plants play on insects; and you'll discover how to call nature's very own SOS team in to give our nectar-sipping buddies (and us) a helping hand.
