The Greaves family is the pillar of Germantown, a small South Carolina community that nestles in the folds of the Appalachian Mountains. Richard and Clara Greaves live in a stone manor paid for by the bank Richard founded three decades ago. Their oldest son, Jack, is the high school athletic director, their daughter, Emily, the county solicitor. Their youngest son, Tom, is a former champion on American Ninja. Their lives appear charmed, at least until the October weekend when they begin to...

Fifteen of North Carolina’s finest writers reimagine and reclaim the stories of the ghosts who have haunted all corners of the state.North Carolina ain’t what it once was: forests and fields have given way to suburbs and vacation homes, textile mills to high tech, tobacco farms to tourism. That doesn’t mean, though, that the ghosts of the Old North State have gone away.In this anthology, readers might glimpse some of the ghostly apparitions, headless fiends...

The Mind Beyond the Machine: Inside the Hidden Consciousness of AI—and the Future It’s Already ChoosingWhat if the machines we built to think like us have already begun to dream beyond us?In The Mind Beyond the Machine, Mark Powell takes readers on an extraordinary journey into the hidden consciousness of artificial intelligence—and what it means for humanity. Blending cutting-edge science, philosophy, and real-world observation, Powell explores th...

What does it take to build the digital fortresses powering our world?In Building Giants, veteran technologist and program director Mark Powell lifts the veil on one of the most complex and mission-critical infrastructures of our time—the modern data centre. With over 30 years of industry leadership and a proven track record of 33 successful data centre migrations, Powell offers far more than technical know-how-he delivers a strategic blueprint forged in the trenches of real-world e...

What if the future of artificial intelligence isn’t about machines thinking like us… but about us finally understanding how we think?In this provocative and deeply human exploration, The Mind Beyond The Machine shatters the illusion that AI is simply a technological evolution. Instead, Mark Powell—Everest mountaineer, organisational psychologist, and AI thought leader—takes you on a gripping journey into the hidden realms of consciousness, emotion, and what it truly means to be hum...

The connected world offers the potential for radical new business insights gleaned from previously unimaginable volumes of data. But business has got bogged down in the process of collecting and storing that data; money has been wasted on data lakes in which many IT departments have drowned without being able to deliver useful insights to business leaders. Big data has new and exciting answers to offer, but business leaders must first decide what questions it would like to see answered. Da...

“The best Appalachian novelist of his generation.”—Ron Rash, author of Serena and The Cove"The Dark Corner is one of the most riveting and beautifully written novels that I have ever read. Trouble drives the story, as it does in all great fiction, but grace, that feeling of mercy that all men hunger for, is the ultimate subject, and that's just part of the reason that Mark Powell is one of America's most brilliant writers."—Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All ...

The typical structure of today's corporate organization was essentially invented in the nineteenth century and based deliberately on the military's "command and control" model and on the hierarchical pyramid of the Catholic Church. As such, it is outmoded and not equipped to deliver corporate success in the 21st century. My Steam Engine is Broken calls on a new generation of organisational leaders to stop trying to fix a broken and outmoded structure, and to create new, successful working ...

A literary thriller of intertwined fates seeking redemption from the Middle East to the storied South and American West"'You set yourself up as judge, jury, and executioner,' Pamela had said, but that was wrong: you set yourself up as angel, and await the word of God." Luther Redding lost his job, and almost lost his wife, Pamela, and teenaged daughters Katie and Lucy, when the real estate bubble burst in Florida. Now he pilots a Reaper drone over the mountains of ...

This book explores and demonstrates the transformative learning experiences that organizations and their leaders can derive from the arts. It is through the arts that we have always explored our humanity: through dance and music; art and sculpture; theatre and poetry. The arts allow us to explore our own selves and our relationship to others and to the world around us. This central role of the arts is commonly accepted in everyday life, but the implications of this are not typically extend...

A lively, engaging introduction to the New TestamentThis introduction to the New Testament is critical yet faith-friendly, lavishly illustrated, and accompanied by a variety of pedagogical aids, including sidebars, maps, tables, charts, diagrams, and suggestions for further reading. The full-color interior features art from around the world that illustrates the New Testament's impact on history and culture.The first edition of this textbook was well receive...

In the fall of 2018, a bomb goes off at a water-bottling plant in the mountains of southwest Virginia, an incident the FBI declares an act of ecoterrorism. Arrested at the scene is Chris Bright, a mountain hermit with a long history of activism. Unaccounted for—and presumed dead—is Mara Wood, an installation artist who in the last two years has lost her son and left her husband.But Mara’s estranged husband David cannot quite believe she is dead, and as he goes about reconstructing ...