Of Dice and Men

Of Dice and Men PDF

Author: David M. Ewalt

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013-08-20

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1451640501

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A definitive look at Dungeons & Dragons traces its origins on the battlefields of ancient Europe through the hysteria that linked it to satanic rituals and teen suicides and to its apotheosis as father of the modern video game industry.

Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think

Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think PDF

Author: Byron Reese

Publisher: BenBella Books

Published: 2022-08-23

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1637741340

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"Byron Reese gets to the heart of what makes humans different from all others." —Midwest Book Review What makes the human mind so unique? And how did we get this way? This fascinating tale explores the three leaps in our history that made us what we are—and will change how you think about our future. Look around. Clearly, we humans are radically different from the other creatures on this planet. But why? Where are the Bronze Age beavers? The Iron Age iguanas? In Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think, Byron Reese argues that we owe our special status to our ability to imagine the future and recall the past, escaping the perpetual present that all other living creatures are trapped in. Envisioning human history as the development of a societal superorganism he names Agora, Reese shows us how this escape enabled us to share knowledge on an unprecedented scale, and predict—and eventually master—the future. Thoughtful, witty, and compulsively readable, Reese unravels our history as an intelligent species in three acts: Act I: Ancient humans undergo “the awakening,” developing the cognitive ability to mentally time-travel using language Act II: In 17th century France, the mathematical framework known as 'probability theory' is born—a science for seeing into the future that we used to build the modern world Act III: Beginning with the invention of the computer chip, humanity creates machines to gaze into the future with even more precision, overcoming the limits of our brains A fresh new look at the history and destiny of humanity, readers will come away from Stories, Dice, and Rocks that Think with a new understanding of what they are—not just another animal, but a creature with a mastery of time itself.

The Dice Man

The Dice Man PDF

Author: Luke Rhinehart

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 1998-05-01

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 1590207041

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“One of the fifty most influential books of the last half of the twentieth century,” a comic novel about a therapist making life choices by rolling dice. (BBC) The cult classic that can still change your life . . . Let the dice decide! This is the philosophy that changes the life of bored psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart―and in some ways changes the world as well. Because once you hand over your life to the dice, anything can happen. Entertaining, humorous, scary, shocking, subversive, The Dice Man is one of the cult bestsellers of our time. “A fine piece of fiction . . . touching, ingenious and beautifully comic.” —Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange “Luke Rhinehart and THE DICE MAN have launched a psychiatric revolution.” —London Sunday Telegraph “A blackly comic amusement park of a book.” —TIME Magazine “Weird, hilarious . . . an outlandishly enjoyable book.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Witty reckless clever . . . . a caper at the edge of nihilism.” —LIFE Magazine “Brilliant . . . much like CATCH-22 . . . the sex extra-juicy.” —The Houston Post “Outrageously funny.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Hilarious and well-written . . . A brilliant summary of modern nihilism. Dice living will be popular, no doubt of that.” —Time Out (London)

Sunny Rolls the Dice: A Graphic Novel (Sunny #3)

Sunny Rolls the Dice: A Graphic Novel (Sunny #3) PDF

Author: Jennifer L. Holm

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Published: 2019-10-01

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1338233165

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From the award-winning duo of Jennifer and Matthew Holm comes the third book in the bestselling Sunny series, Sunny Rolls the Dice -- full of heart, laughs, and adventure! Too cool for school . . . or the least groovy girl in the grade?Sunny's just made it to middle school . . . and it's making her life very confusing. All her best friend Deb wants to talk about is fashion, boys, makeup, boys, and being cool. Sunny's not against any of these things, but she also doesn't understand why suddenly everything revolves around them. She's much more comfortable when she's in her basement, playing Dungeons & Dragons with a bunch of new friends. Because when you're swordfighting and spider-slaying, it's hard to worry about whether you look cool or not. Especially when it's your turn to roll the 20-sided die. Trying hard to be cool can make you feel really uncool . . . and it's much more fun to just have fun. Sunny's going to find her groove and her own kind of groovy, with plenty of laughs along the way.

Show Me a Story

Show Me a Story PDF

Author: Emily K. Neuburger

Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC

Published: 2012-08-29

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 1603428976

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Encouraging children to let their imagination run wild, Emily K. Neubinger offers 40 inventive projects and activities that will inspire kids ages 5 to 12 to express themselves through storytelling. Younger children will love making story stones and a storytelling jar, while older kids will open up and thrive as they embark on guided story walks and inspiring journaling exercises. Sparking creativity while developing a child’s love of language, Show Me a Story will kindle a lifelong passion for both writing and telling original stories.

Dice Men

Dice Men PDF

Author: Ian Livingstone

Publisher: Unbound Publishing

Published: 2022-11-10

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 1800180535

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It never seems like the right time to start a business. The idea to start our own company first cropped up during one of our many ‘beer and a board game’ sessions after work at our flat. And when Steve began writing reviews of board games for Games & Puzzles magazine, we all got even more interested in the idea. So, one day, we did. It was January 1975. Since then, Games Workshop has grown into a cornerstone of the UK gaming industry. From the launch of Dungeons and Dragons from the back of a van, to creating the Fighting Fantasy series, co-founders Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson tell their remarkable story for the first time. An initial order of only six copies was enough for Games Workshop to secure exclusive rights to sell Dungeons and Dragons in the whole of Europe. Hobbyists themselves, Steve and Ian’s passion for the game soon spread and in 1977 they opened the first Games Workshop store. They went on to become bestselling authors and created an entirely new genre of interactive stories. Dice Men is more than just the story of an iconic shop which has changed gaming for ever, it's an insight into the birth of an industry. Games Workshop has grown from its humble beginnings to become a global company listed on the London Stock Exchange, a FTSE 250 company with a market capitalisation of more than £3.5 billion. Dice Men is the story of the rollercoaster early years.

100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Computing

100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Computing PDF

Author: Steve Bunce

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-08-27

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1472915003

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No matter what you teach, there is a 100 Ideas title for you! The 100 Ideas series offers teachers practical, easy-to-implement strategies and activities for the classroom. Each author is an expert in their field and is passionate about sharing best practice with their peers. Each title includes at least ten additional extra-creative Bonus Ideas that won't fail to inspire and engage all learners. Are you looking for exciting ways to get your students interested in computing? Do you need a break down of the basics to get your confidence up before teaching it? Don't worry - help is at hand in this book written by computing whizz Steve Bunce. All areas of the curriculum are introduced, and easy to implement and engaging activities are provided to get you and your students started! Steve covers all the major elements: algorithms, programming, data management, e-safety and more. He answers questions like 'How do computers work?' and introduces ways for you to develop computational thinking and digital literacy in your students. Really accessible 'ways in' which may or may not use a computer make this book something that can be picked up and used in the classroom tomorrow, whatever your level and whatever resources you have to hand. 'Tablet tips' throughout the book provide extra ideas for how to use tablets in the classroom. This book is a must-read for all primary teachers who want to implement a full, engaging computing curriculum in their classroom. Get debugging and coding today!

One Toss of the Dice: The Incredible Story of How a Poem Made Us Modern

One Toss of the Dice: The Incredible Story of How a Poem Made Us Modern PDF

Author: R. Howard Bloch

Publisher: Liveright Publishing

Published: 2016-11-08

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1631490869

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In the tradition of The Swerve comes this thrilling, detective-like work of literary history that reveals how a poem created the world we live in today. It was, improbably, the forerunner of our digital age: a French poem about a shipwreck published in 1897 that, with its mind-bending possibilities of being read up and down, backward and forward, even sideways, launched modernism. Stéphane Mallarmé’s "One Toss of the Dice," a daring, twenty-page epic of ruin and recovery, provided an epochal “tipping point,” defining the spirit of the age and anticipating radical thinkers of the twentieth century, from Albert Einstein to T. S. Eliot. Celebrating its intrinsic influence on our culture, renowned scholar R. Howard Bloch masterfully decodes the poem still considered among the most enigmatic ever written. In Bloch’s shimmering portrait of Belle Époque Paris, Mallarmé stands as the spiritual giant of the era, gathering around him every Tuesday a luminous cast of characters including Émile Zola, Victor Hugo, Claude Monet, André Gide, Claude Debussy, Oscar Wilde, and even the future French prime minister Georges Clemenceau. A simple schoolteacher whose salons and prodigious literary talent won him the adoration of Paris’s elite, Mallarmé achieved the reputation of France’s greatest living poet. He was so beloved that mourners crowded along the Seine for his funeral in 1898, many refusing to depart until late into the night, leaving Auguste Renoir to ponder, “How long will it take for nature to make another such a mind?” Over a century later, the allure of Mallarmé’s linguistic feat continues to ignite the imaginations of the world’s greatest thinkers. Featuring a new, authoritative translation of the French poem by J. D. McClatchy, One Toss of the Dice reveals how a literary masterpiece launched the modernist movement, contributed to the rise of pop art, influenced modern Web design, and shaped the perceptual world we now inhabit. And as Alex Ross remarks in The New Yorker, "If you can crack [Mallarmé’s] poems, it seems, you can crack the riddles of existence." In One Toss of the Dice, Bloch finally, and brilliantly, dissects one of literary history’s greatest mysteries to reveal how a poem made us modern.

How to Get to Great Ideas

How to Get to Great Ideas PDF

Author: Dave Birss

Publisher: Nicholas Brealey

Published: 2019-04-02

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1473692172

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Sliver award winner in Business Reference 2020 Axiom Business Book Awards What makes a great idea? Where do great ideas come from? The highly practical lessons in HOW TO GET TO GREAT IDEAS are based on neuroscience,psychology, and behavioral economics. Written by the former Creative Director of OgilvyOne, Dave Birss, this book offers a brilliant new system for conceiving original and valuable ideas. It looks at how to frame the problem, how to push your thinking, how to sell the idea and build support for it, and how to inspire others to have great ideas. It proves that any organization - and any department within an organization - can become a fertile environment for ideas. Combining a practical research-based system with fascinating insights and inspiring and humorous writing,the book is also accompanied by the problem-solving system RIGHT THINKING. This is a tool that shows organizations a more effective way to generate more effective ideas and is based on the thinking in the book. This is available online and in person from the author.

A Roll of the Dice

A Roll of the Dice PDF

Author: Georgette Graham

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-09-09

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9781977735423

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Welcome to the Roll of the Dice short story anthology by the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Writers of Spokane. Let me tell you a little bit about how this book came about. We all sat there, looking at a four dice; A footprint, a beetle, a lightning bolt, and a tower; chuckling about how we would make a story which included them. That's how this anthology began. Let me explain. I'm happy to say that our little writers' group has been together for about a year now. We've had a good time unintentionally irritating our fellow coffee shop patrons with our banter. We've been critiquing each other's writing and giving support, encouragement, and accountability, as well as having fun! It's been an amazing time and many friendships have been made. This spring, one of our members had the idea that we should publish an anthology of short stories. We decided it would be a great way to give us all some experience with self-publishing. Many writers' groups have done this, but we wanted ours to be different. That's where my dice came in. A few months ago, on a whim, I bought some story dice. Story dice are big clunky dice that come in a set of nine, and have simple pictures that illustrate things to include in a story. Instant inspiration! That fateful afternoon we rolled the dice and agreed to each write a story including these four things; a footprint, a beetle, a tower, and a lightning bolt. I encouraged the group to be as creative and free as they wanted to be when interpreting these symbols. The result is a diverse group of stories from our little group that I'm sure will entertain.