This book addresses the ongoing scientific debates regarding video games and their effects on players. The book features opposing perspectives and offers point and counterpoint exchanges in which researchers on both sides of a specific topic make their best case for their findings and analysis. Chapters cover both positive and negative effects of video games on players' behavior and cognition, from contributing to violence and alienation to promoting therapeutic outcomes for types of cognitive dysfunction. The contrasting viewpoints model presents respectful scientific debate, encourages open dialogue, and allows readers to come to informed conclusions. Key questions addressed include: * Do violent video games promote violence? * Does video game addiction exist? * Should parents limit children's use of interactive media? * Do action video games promote visual attention? * Does sexist content in video games promote misogyny in real life? * Can video games slow the progress of dementia? * Are video games socially isolating? Video Game Influences on Aggression, Cognition, and Attention is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians and professionals as well as graduate students in developmental psychology, social work, educational policy and politics, criminology/criminal justice, child and school psychology, sociology, media law, and other related disciplines.

The New York Times Easy Crossword Puzzles to Go the Distance features 200 easy crosswords with removable pages for solving on the go. Easy puzzles are the best! They offer the intellectual challenge, the vocabulary building, and the sheer fun of solving, but won't have you tearing your hair out. Plus, these puzzles are printed on removable pages so you can take them out or hand one to a friend. Enjoy the thrill of filling in that last little box! - 200 easy Times crosswords - Convenient, travel-size volume with perforated pages - Edited by the #1 name in crosswords, Will Shortz

Why is there a twelve on the cover of this blackjack book instead of the usual twenty-one? No blackjack author in their right mind would put a hand of twelve on the cover. Glen Wiggy did--he is full of surprises like that. Part how-to manual, part memoir, 1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors--Finding Profit and Humor in Card-Counting chronicles Wiggy's amusing experiences while playing blackjack during more than eight hundred casino visits from January 2001 until June 2008. It also introduces blackjack card-counting in a fun and easy-to-learn format.

In addition to the everyday casino patrons, starving puppies, angry pit bosses, French doughnuts, talking sea gulls, and 1536 bottled waters make unforgettable appearances in these entertaining stories tailored for casual blackjack gamblers. For players pursuing the game for serious profit, Wiggy also presents practical tips on

- Aspects of blackjack basic strategy- Fundamentals of card-counting- Techniques for managing money- Dangers of greedy gambling behavior

Unlike most blackjack strategy guides, 1536 Free Waters and Other Blackjack Endeavors won't teach you how to "kill" the dealer or make a living playing the game. Instead, you'll learn basic strategy and introductory card-counting skills that give you enough confidence to approach the table with a positive attitude and reasonable expectation of winning. Plus, you'll learn what to expect from the cards and the wonderfully strange people and places you may encounter. Enjoy the ride.

"Undoubtedly, the most enjoyable blackjack book I've read in my twenty years as the editor of a gambling publishing company. It had me laughing out loud."--Deke Castleman, editor for Huntington Press

Read more at www.blackjackstories.com.

The Years Gone Bye takes you back to a time when . . . a thong was something you wore on your feet a blackberry was something you ate and mini skirts raised eyebrows Elvis was drafted into the army Archie called Edith a "dingbat" and Forrest Gump became a household name America landed on the moon divers found the Titanic after 73 years and the police chased a white Bronco down the LA Freeway These snippets are just a few threads of the thousands of strands of pop culture and history that weave this book into a tapestry of the last half-century.

From the bestselling author of Alex's Adventures in Numberland and Can You Solve My Problems? comes a fascinating, hugely entertaining collection of puzzles for crossword addicts and language-lovers of all stripes.

Can you decipher the code of a long-lost civilization? Or solve riddles in runes? Or will you get lost in translation?

Crossing continents and borders, bestselling puzzle author Alex Bellos has gathered more than one hundred of the world’s best conundrums that celebrate the rich diversity of human language and culture, all while testing your deduction, intuition and street smarts.

Originally published in 1897. The author was a famous conjuror who many spent many years perfecting the hundreds of tricks and sleight of hand methods described here. Contents Include: SLEIGHTS: The Double Handed Pass - The Force - The Bridge - The Glide - The Color Change, etc. TRICKS WITH CARDS: Magic versus Mnemonics - The Hypnotised card - Cards Shot Against a Hat - The Demon Envelope - The Obedient Card, etc. PREPARED AND MECHANICAL CARDS: The Changing Card - The Torn Corner Card - The Flap Card - The Conjurer as Marksman - The Envelope Card - The Coin Card - A Mysterious Transformation, etc Contains many explanatory illustrations. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.Envelope Card - The Coin Card - A Mysterious Transformation, etc

Horse racing in America dates back to the colonial era when street races were a common occurrence. The commercialization of horse racing produced a sport that would briefly surpass all others in popularity, with annual races such as the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes growing to rank among America's most celebrated sporting events. From the very onset, horse racing and gambling were intertwined. As the popularity of racing and betting grew, so, too, did the controversies and corruption. Yet, despite the best efforts of social reformers, bookmakers stubbornly plied their trade, adapting and evolving as horse racing gave way to team sports as the backbone of their business. In Sports Betting and Bookmaking: An American History, Arne K. Lang provides a sweeping overview of legal and illegal sports and race betting in the United States, from the first thoroughbred meet at Saratoga in 1863 through the modern day. The cultural war between bookmakers and their adversaries is a recurring theme, as bookmakers were often forced into the shadows during times of social reform, only to bloom anew when the time was ripe. While much of bookmaking's history takes place in New York, other locales such as Chicago, Las Vegas, and Atlantic City-not to mention Cyberspace-are also discussed in this volume. A comprehensive exploration of the evolution of bookmaking-including the legal developments and technological advancements that have taken place over the years-Sports Betting and Bookmaking is a fascinating read. This informative and engaging book will be of interest to anyone wanting to learn more about America's long history with gambling on horse racing and team sports.

Faced with the prospect of machining a gear or gears for a project, many model engineers will be discouraged and will turn elsewhere for their next model. This need not be so, for the principles underlying gear cutting and many other aspects of engineering where an accurate division of circles is required are explained in depth in this book. Radial work on a metalworking lathe, such as the cutting of gearwheels or the drilling of holes on a set radius, calls for a method of precisely spacing the cuts. This skill is known as Dividing. The principles underlying this aspect of engineering are explained in depth in this book. It covers the subject of Dividing, dealing with the many methods that can be adopted: from simple applications without specialised equipment to the use of a semi-universal dividing head and a rotary table. The mathematical aspects of dividing are also covered but at a level that will be understood easily by a model engineer. Dividing equipment is relatively expensive, so two fully-detailed designs are included for dividing heads: a basic unit and the equivalent of a commercial semi-universal head.

Be it a sprawling dungeon, a sinister castle, a haunted forest, a bustling cityscape, or any other locale where adventure and danger might lurk, with Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Enormous Basic, you'll have more room than ever before to present your latest creation to your players! This sprawling map measures 30" x 46" unfolded and is the largest basic Flip-Mat yet! Designed for experienced GMs and novices alike, and usable with both dry-erase and wet-erase markers, Pathfinder Flip-Mats fit perfectly into any Game Master's arsenal. So grab your markers and get to creating your biggest dungeons yet, with Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Enormous Basic! A special coating on each Flip-Mat allows you to use wet erase, dry erase, AND permanent markers with ease! Removing permanent ink is easy-simply trace over any permanent mark with a dry erase marker, wait 10 seconds, then wipe off both marks with a dry cloth or paper towel. Each Enormous Flip-Mat measures 30" x 46" unfolded, and 8" x 10" folded. On tabletops across the world, the Flip-Mat Revolution is changing the way players run their fantasy roleplaying games! Why take the time to sketch out ugly scenery on a smudgy plastic mat when dynamic encounters and easy cleanup is just a Flip away?

He played in casinos around the world with a plan to make himself richer than anyone could possibly imagine -- but it would nearly cost him his life.

Semyon Dukach was known as the Darling of Las Vegas. A legend at age twenty-one, this cocky hotshot was the biggest high roller to appear in Sin City in decades, a mathematical genius with a system the casinos had never seen before and couldn't stop -- a system that has never been revealed until now; that has nothing to do with card counting, wasn't illegal, and was more powerful than anything that had been tried before.

Las Vegas. Atlantic City. Aruba. Barcelona. London. And the jewel of the gambling crown -- Monte Carlo.

Dukach and his fellow MIT students hit them all and made millions. They came in hard, with stacks of cash; big, seemingly insane bets; women hanging on their arms; and fake identities. Although they were taking classes and studying for exams during the week, over the weekends they stormed the blackjack tables only to be harassed, banned from casinos, threatened at gunpoint, and beaten in Vegas's notorious back rooms.

The stakes were high, the dangers very real, but the players were up to the challenges, consequences be damned. There was Semyon Dukach himself, bored with school and broke; Victor Cassius, the slick, brilliant MIT grad student who galvanized the team; Owen Keller, with stunning ability but a dark past that would catch up to him; and Allie Simpson, bright, clever, and a feast for the eyes.

In the classroom, they were geeks. On the casino floor, they were unstoppable.

Busting Vega$ is Dukach's unbelievably true story; a riveting account of monumental greed, excess, hubris, sex, love, violence, fear, and statistics that is high-stakes entertainment at its best.

After some years using published material to teach newcomers the rudiments of bridge bidding, the author became somewhat disillusioned with the approach advocated in the majority of beginning bridge texts. The matters that particularly concerned him were related to the view espoused by many bridge teachers that it is important to keep all bidding 'natural' so as not to confuse beginners. The author felt that if confusion exists, it is likely to be the teaching approach that causes the confusion, rather than the subject matter itself.The proponents of this 'natural' bidding approach, decline to teach beginning students Jacoby Transfer Bids, Weak Two Opening Bids and, in some cases, Stayman. The reason often given is that teaching 'natural' bidding is difficult enough for beginning bridge students, and we should not confuse them by teaching them conventions or treatments that say something different. These same teachers seem to see no inconsistency in their approach of saying, when the students are doing a second (or third) class with them - "oh, remember when I told you that when your partner makes an opening bid of 1NT and you have 7 points and a five card ♥ suit, that you should bid 2♥? Well, I want you to forget that, because I am going to teach you now that, with that same hand, you should bid 2♦." The author has two problems with that approach. Firstly, it seems to downplay the ability of students to understand these specific bids. The author contends that it is most likely that this is a 'teaching failure' rather than a 'learning failure' The author has found that once students fully understand that it is desirable to have the strong hand as Declarer, most of them have little problem understanding the rationale behind Jacoby Transfer Bids. Putting the bids in context seems to make the task of learning Transfer Bids much easier. Secondly, if teachers are hoping to encourage their students to become duplicate bridge players, it makes sense for them to be using a bidding system that other players are using. As almost all duplicate bridge players use Stayman, Jacoby Transfer Bids and Weak Two Opening Bids, the author's students are introduced to these bids in their first series of lessons. And it is important to note that an understanding of these 3 aspects of bridge bidding will not prove to be a disadvantage in social bridge. The theme throughout the book is one of providing clear, consistent guidelines for a relatively simple modern approach to bidding. The author repeatedly emphasizes that once newcomers have a reasonable understanding of basic bidding, they, and their partner, can 'tweak' the approach taught in this text. The author is an avid duplicate bridge player and encourages all of his students to try that form of the game. However, the reality is that many bridge players enjoy the game in its more social form, and have no real desire to go past that form of the game. This is perfectly understandable, and the bidding style taught in this text is consistent with either form of the game. This book is organized into nine Chapters.CHAPTER 1 - The Basics.This Chapter is really 'Ground Zero'. It recognizes that some people who wish to learn to play bridge have had little, if any, experience of playing card games. The text introduces students to the absolute basics: -the suits -the rank, or hierarchy, of suits-how to count points-what is a 'game' in bridge-dealing-arranging the cards in your hand-the process of bidding-the process of playing-scoring.In this first, very basic, Chapter, students have a hand of bridge to play. At the end of the Chapter there is a brief test to enable students to check their mastery of the material provided in the text. Clearly not all students "need" this Chapter. Nevertheless as the purpose of the book is to provide a text to enable ALL students to be introduced to the wo

In the summer of 1972, with a presidential crisis stirring in the United States and the cold war at a pivotal point, the Soviet world chess champion, Boris Spassky, and his American challenger, Bobby Fischer, met in Reykjavik, Iceland, for the most notorious chess match of all time. Their showdown, played against the backdrop of superpower politics, held the world spellbound for two months with reports of psychological warfare, ultimatums, political intrigue, cliffhangers, and farce to rival a Marx Brothers film. Thirty years later, David Edmonds and John Eidinow have set out to reexamine the story we recollect as the quintessential cold war clash between a lone American star and the Soviet chess machine. A mesmerizing narrative of brilliance and triumph, hubris and despair, Bobby Fischer Goes to War is a biting deconstruction of the Bobby Fischer myth, a nuanced study on the art of brinkmanship, and a revelatory cold war tragicomedy.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

What was it that got you through the Covid-19 pandemic? For some it was long walks; others turned to home baking. For millions it was video games, a booming industry which exploded in popularity over the pandemic years. Confined to our homes and with the lines of reality becoming blurred as everyday life shifted to screens, perhaps it was no wonder that so many of us were desperate to be transported to different worlds. In Playing with Reality: Gaming in a Pandemic, journalist and presenter Alex Humphreys, a passionate gamer herself, investigates this extraordinary boom in the gaming industry. Charting its rise, Alex interviews players and developers, sharing a glimpse of what was going on behind closed doors as studios closed and games were finished from home. Playing with Reality explores exactly what it was that made gaming a lifeline for so many, and what the future holds as we look to the metaverse.

In Orlandes City, nobles are being systematically murdered by a ruthless assassin no-one seems able to catch. Finding yourself thrust into the middle of a large conspiracy, you must make decisions that may put yourself and another most precious to you in great danger. Can you locate the Assassin in Orlandes before it is too late?

The newest addition to the popular series--122 all-new large-print crossword puzzles! Everything is bigger in The Everything(R) Easy Large-Print Crosswords Book, Volume 8--the clues, the numbers, the grids--even the answers! Enjoy all of the fun--without the eye-strain--with these mildly challenging puzzles. With clues ranging from beloved books and classic TV shows to favorite foods and popular vacation spots, these light and easy puzzles are perfect for taking a break--without having to use a dictionary! Perfect for beginners and experienced puzzlers alike.

This is a fictionalized account of the life and career of world chess champion Alexander Alekhine. Born into Russian nobility, Alekhine lost his family and nearly his life to the Bolsheviks before becoming the worlds most powerful chess player. The coming of World War II placed the chess master in a difficult position, forcing him to collaborate with the Nazis and to produce anti-Semitic materials. Desperate to win back his credibility after the war, Alekhine was preparing for the redemptive title match at the time of his sudden death. Alekhines life was marked by alcoholism, fits of depression, scandalous affairs, marriages of convenience, painful compromises, and his battle to become "the Greatest." The novel is told as fiction but is based on the actual people and events that were part of his triumphant career and troubled life.