Equal parts speculative and satirical, the stories in Why Visit America form an exegesis of our current political predicament, while offering an eloquent plea for connection and hope. The citizens of Plainfield, Texas, have had it with the broke-down United States. So they vote to secede, rename themselves America in memory of their former country, and happily set themselves up to receive tourists from their closest neighbor: America. Couldn’t happen? Well, it might, and so it goes in the thirteen stories in Matthew Baker’s brilliantly illuminating, incisive, and heartbreaking collection Why Visit America. The book opens with a seemingly traditional story in which the speculative element is extremely minimal—the narrator has a job that doesn’t actually exist—a story that wouldn’t seem much out of place in a collection of literary realism. From there the stories get progressively stranger: a young man breaks the news to his family that he is going to transition—from an analog body to a digital existence. A young woman abducts a child—her own—from a government-run childcare facility. A man returns home after committing a great crime, his sentence being that his memory—his entire life—is wiped clean. As the book moves from universe to universe, the stories cross between different American genres: from bildungsroman to rom com, western to dystopian, including fantasy, horror, erotica, and a noir detective mystery. Read together, these parallel-universe stories create a composite portrait of the true nature of the United States and a Through the Looking-Glass reflection of who we are as a country.

Welcome, dear visitor, to a proud and storied nation. When you put down this guidebook, look around you. A nation isn't land. A nation is people.Equal parts speculative and satirical, the stories in Matthew Baker's collection portray a world within touching distance of our own. This is an America riven by dilemmas confronting so many of us, turned on its head by one of the most innovative voices of the moment. Read together, these parallel-universe stories create a composite portrait of our true nature and a dark reflection of the world we live in.

Eight Earth dimension's, seven brother elves, Four ,and his brother selves survive a Dragon attack while making a cinema film in a nearby dimension ,outside the known Eight. But four is more concerned with his young wife ,his new son and making a home in two dimensions . Its should be easy ,if you can shift from one dimension into another , but when is life ever that simple . Then the giants came , no big monsters with clubs, but a sophisticated form of Hominids , with advanced technology and their own ends. The story just got bigger.

Boys will be boys but these boys shift into big trouble , the old men are not best pleased. While coming under fire from unknown foes , they learn , their home may have to face an army, and its not the only army , never rains but it pours .What ever occurs time will tell in the end . I have tried in these tales to give the old Mythological monsters a new lease of life give them a genealogy , a genetic identity. And write a science fiction story that is fun , but also just a little scary , and maybe a little more respect for bad old men . Because I bloody say so . Yours faithfully MK Baker

Hybrid Creatures, Matthew Baker’s sharp and innovative collection, follows four very different protagonists as they search for, and struggle with, connection: an amateur hacker attempts to track down his vanished mentor; a math prodigy, the child of divorced parents, struggles with being torn between his two families; a composer takes a spontaneous trip to Nashville while mourning his husband’s death and gets trapped on a hotel rooftop with a hipster; and a wayward philosopher accepts a job working for an industrial farming corporation. Through-out, Baker explores the inner dialogue of failed, floundering, and successful bonds between strangers, among family and friends, and even within a person. Pairing the emotional pursuit of connection with multiple forms of communication, Baker weaves the languages of HTML, mathematics, mu-sical notations, and propositional logic into the storytelling in order to unveil nuances of experiences and emotions. This poignant formal invention articulates loneliness, grief, doubt, and comfort in ways that are inaccessible through traditional language alone. In both form and content, Baker captures the complexities of breaking and forming connections with other people, and the various lan-guages we use to navigate this inescapable human need—resulting in a moving exploration of interpersonal bonds.

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Use Cisco Intersight to streamline, unify, and secure IT operations across data centers, clouds, and the edge The Cisco Intersight cloud operations platform delivers intelligent visualization, optimization, and orchestration for applications and infrastructure across any hybrid cloud environment. Using it, you can operate and maintain traditional infrastructure with the agility of cloud-native infrastructure, as you enhance stability and governance in cloud-native environments. This unique guide shows how to use Intersight to transform heterogeneous IT environments and simplify operations throughout your organization. It has been authored by Cisco insiders with 150+ years of combined experience across every key role associated with enterprise datacenters and cloud technology. The authors cover all facets of Intersight architecture, planning, and administration--from foundational concepts and security to operating infrastructure, servers, networks, storage, virtualization, and workloads--with chapters on Kubernetes, orchestration, programmability, and Infrastructure as Code. Cisco Intersight: A Handbook for Intelligent Cloud Operations is for every IT operator, administrator, manager, and director responsible for operations, programming/automation, information gathering, or monitoring, as well as decision-makers evaluating Intersight or leading implementation. Whatever your role in operating disparate data centers, clouds, and edge environments, Intersight will radically simplify your work--and this guide will help you maximize its value. Understand the platform architecture underlying Intersight's capabilities Establish a cohesive approach to securing all your services Explore Intersight's infrastructure operations capabilities, and integrate with other ops platforms Deploy, configure, operate, and update Cisco UCS servers and network infrastructure Centralize storage management, from Cisco HyperFlex to traditional storage Control virtualized compute infrastructure, on-premises or in the cloud Simplify deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters and service meshes Use Workload Optimization to continually assure performance, minimize cost, and maximize utilization Operationalize repeatable activities across the enterprise Get started with Intersight programmability, learning from easy examples Learn how "code-ifying" infrastructure can improve compliance and reduce risk

Mixing mystery and adventure in the tradition of Louis Sachar, Avi, and E.L. Konigsburg, If You Find This is the story of unlikely friendships, unexpected bravery and eleven-year-old Nicholas Funes's quest to prove his grandfather's treasure is real. Nicholas is a math and music genius with no friends and a huge problem: His father has lost his job, and they'll have to sell their house, which holds the only memory Nicholas has of his younger brother. Just in time, Nicholas's senile grandfather arrives, filled with tales of priceless treasure he has hidden somewhere in town--but where?

"Where this book is exceptional is that the reader will not just learn how LTE works but why it works" Adrian Scrase, ETSI Vice-President, International Partnership Projects Following on the success of the first edition, this book is fully updated, covering the latest additions to LTE and the key features of LTE-Advanced. This book builds on the success of its predecessor, offering the same comprehensive system-level understanding built on explanations of the underlying theory, now expanded to include complete coverage of Release 9 and the developing specifications for LTE-Advanced. The book is a collaborative effort of more than 40 key experts representing over 20 companies actively participating in the development of LTE, as well as academia. The book highlights practical implications, illustrates the expected performance, and draws comparisons with the well-known WCDMA/HSPA standards. The authors not only pay special attention to the physical layer, giving an insight into the fundamental concepts of OFDMA-FDMA and MIMO, but also cover the higher protocol layers and system architecture to enable the reader to gain an overall understanding of the system. Key New Features: Comprehensively updated with the latest changes of the LTE Release 8 specifications, including improved coverage of Radio Resource Management RF aspects and performance requirements Provides detailed coverage of the new LTE Release 9 features, including: eMBMS, dual-layer beamforming, user equipment positioning, home eNodeBs / femtocells and pico cells and self-optimizing networks Evaluates the LTE system performance Introduces LTE-Advanced, explaining its context and motivation, as well as the key new features including: carrier aggregation, relaying, high-order MIMO, and Cooperative Multi-Point transmission (CoMP). Includes an accompanying website containing a complete list of acronyms related to LTE and LTE-Advanced, with a brief description of each (http://www.wiley.com/go/sesia_theumts) This book is an invaluable reference for all research and development engineers involved in implementation of LTE or LTE-Advanced, as well as graduate and PhD students in wireless communications. Network operators, service providers and R&D managers will also find this book insightful.

An elegant collection of over 100 recipes inspired by the Northeast. These signature drink recipes from New England hotspots pay homage to this wicked region. With over 100 recipes and dozens of bartender profiles, you can drink like a local whether you’re just visiting or entertaining at home. From Irish pubs to craft beer emporiums, locals and tourists alike will discover new watering holes that are sure to satisfy all tastes. With signature creations by prominent mixologists in the region, this book offers a detailed rundown of the best locations New England has to offer. Within the gorgeous, die-cut covers, you'll find: More than 100 essential and exciting cocktail recipes, including recipes for bespoke ingredients and other serving suggestions Interviews with the Northeast’s trendsetting bartenders and mixologists Bartending tips and techniques from the experts Food and drink hotspots across the region And much more! Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island—explore these beautiful states and their craft cocktail scenes without ever leaving your zip code with New England Cocktails.