Biggest Secrets


William Poundstone - 1993
    Fields Cookies... What backward messages on records are really trying to tell you... Frank Sinatra's real age... Why you can't counterfeit a lottery ticket... Barbra Streisand's blue movie... The other Boy Scout rituals... Ingmar Bergman's soap commercials... The formula for Play-Doh... and more.

Universe


Roger A. Freedman - 1998
    It places the basics of astronomy and the process of science within the grasp of introductory students. Package Universe, Eighth Edition with FREE Starry Night CD!use Package ISBN 0-7167-9564-7 SPLIT VOLUMESIn addition to the complete 28-chapter version of Universe, two shorter versions are also available:Universe: The Solar System, Third Edition(Chapters 1-16 and 28)0-7167-9563-9; w/FREE Starry Night CD, 0-7167-9562-0Universe: Stars and Galaxies, Third Edition(Chapters 1-8 which includes a two-chapter overview of the solar system) and Chapters 16-28)0-7167-9561-2; w/FREE Starry Night CD, 0-7167-9565-5

Baseball Prospectus 2013


Baseball Prospectus - 2013
    Baseball Prospectus 2013 brings together an elite group of analysts to provide the definitive look at the upcoming season in critical essays and commentary on the thirty teams, their managers, and more than sixty players and prospects from each team.Contains critical essays on each of the thirty teams and player comments for some sixty players for each of those teamsProjects each player's stats for the coming season using the groundbreaking PECOTA projection system, which has been called "perhaps the game's most accurate projection model" (Sports Illustrated)From Baseball Prospectus, America's leading provider of statistical analysis for baseballNow in its eighteenth edition, this New York Times bestselling insider's guide remains hands down the most authoritative and entertaining book of its kind.

The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World


Sarah Stewart Johnson - 2020
    Coated in red dust, the terrain is bewilderingly empty. And yet multiple spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium, and Mare Sirenum—on the brink, perhaps, of a staggering find, one that would inspire humankind as much as any discovery in the history of modern science.In this beautifully observed, deeply personal book, Georgetown scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson tells the story of how she and other researchers have scoured Mars for signs of life, transforming the planet from a distant point of light into a world of its own.Johnson’s fascination with Mars began as a child in Kentucky, turning over rocks with her father and looking at planets in the night sky. She now conducts fieldwork in some of Earth’s most hostile environments, such as the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and the salt flats of Western Australia, developing methods for detecting life on other worlds. Here, with poetic precision, she interlaces her own personal journey—as a female scientist and a mother—with tales of other seekers, from Percival Lowell, who was convinced that a utopian society existed on Mars, to Audouin Dollfus, who tried to carry out astronomical observations from a stratospheric balloon. In the process, she shows how the story of Mars is also a story about Earth: This other world has been our mirror, our foil, a telltale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings.Empathetic and evocative, The Sirens of Mars offers an unlikely natural history of a place where no human has ever set foot, while providing a vivid portrait of our quest to defy our isolation in the cosmos.

The Legacy Letters: Messages of Life and Hope from 9/11 Family Members


Tuesday's Children - 2011
    They are first- generation Americans, citizens of other nations, and lifelong New Yorkers. But they all share one thing: They honor their loved ones by living their lives with purpose, and a promise to never forget.These courageous family members share their grief and loss-and hope- speaking in their own words, with love, courage, and strength enough to inspire us all.

Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her


Rowland White - 2015
    NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia was the most advanced flying machine ever built – the high watermark of post-war aviation development. A direct descendant of the record-breaking X-planes the likes of which Chuck Yeager had tested in the skies over the Mojave Desert, Columbia was a winged rocket plane, the size of an airliner, capable of flying to space and back before being made ready to fly again. She was the world’s first real spaceship.On board were men with the Right Stuff. The Shuttle’s Commander, moonwalker John Young, was already a veteran of five spaceflights. Alongside him, Pilot Bob Crippen was making his first, but Crip, taken in by the space agency after the cancellation of a top secret military space station programme in 1969, had worked on the Shuttle’s development for a decade. Never before had a crew been so well prepared for their mission.Yet less than an hour after Young and Crippen’s spectacular departure from the Cape it was clear that all was not well. Tiles designed to protect Columbia from the blowtorch burn of re-entry were missing from the heatshield. If the damage to their ship was too great the astronauts would be unable to return safely to earth. But neither they nor mission control possessed any way of knowing. Instead, NASA turned to the National Reconnaissance Office, a spy agency hidden deep inside the Pentagon whose very existence was classified. To help, the NRO would attempt something that had never been done before. Success would require skill, pinpoint timing and luck …Drawing on brand new interviews with astronauts and engineers, archive material and newly declassified documents, Rowland White, bestselling author of Vulcan 607, has pieced together the dramatic untold story of the mission for the first time. Into the Black is a thrilling race against time; a gripping high stakes cold-war story, and a celebration of a beyond the state-of-the-art machine that, hailed as one of the seven new wonders of the world, rekindled our passion for spaceflight.*With a foreword by Astronaut Richard Truly*‘Beautifully researched and written, Into the Black tells the true, complete story of the Space Shuttle better than it’s ever been told before.’ Colonel Chris Hadfield, former Astronaut and Space Station Commander‘Brilliantly revealed, Into the Black is the finely tuned true story of the first flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Rowland White has magnificently laid bare the unknown dangers and unseen hazards of that first mission … Once read, not forgotten.’Clive Cussler

The Rules Of The Game


Pierluigi Collina - 2003
    Collina describes how it feels to make a difficult decision, the pressures from the crowd and the players while taking us through the most significant matches he has refereed.

Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew


Michael D. Leinbach - 2018
    And it would be Mike Leinbach who would be a key leader in the search and recovery effort as NASA, FEMA, the FBI, the US Forest Service, and dozens more federal, state, and local agencies combed an area of rural east Texas the size of Rhode Island for every piece of the shuttle and her crew they could find. Assisted by hundreds of volunteers, it would become the largest ground search operation in US history. For the first time, here is the definitive inside story of the Columbia disaster and recovery and the inspiring message it ultimately holds. In the aftermath of tragedy, people and communities came together to help bring home the remains of the crew and nearly 40 percent of shuttle, an effort that was instrumental in piecing together what happened so the shuttle program could return to flight and complete the International Space Station. Bringing Columbia Home shares the deeply personal stories that emerged as NASA employees looked for lost colleagues and searchers overcame immense physical, logistical, and emotional challenges and worked together to accomplish the impossible. Featuring a foreword and epilogue by astronauts Robert Crippen and Eileen Collins, this is an incredible narrative about best of humanity in the darkest of times and about how a failure at the pinnacle of human achievement became a story of cooperation and hope.

American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World


David Baron - 2017
    One sought to discover a new planet. Another—an adventuresome female astronomer—fought to prove that science was not anathema to femininity. And a young, megalomaniacal inventor, with the tabloid press fast on his heels, sought to test his scientific bona fides and light the world through his revelations. David Baron brings to three-dimensional life these three competitors—James Craig Watson, Maria Mitchell, and Thomas Edison—and thrillingly re-creates the fierce jockeying of nineteenth-century American astronomy. With spellbinding accounts of train robberies and Indian skirmishes, the mythologized age of the last days of the Wild West comes alive as never before. A magnificent portrayal of America’s dawn as a scientific superpower, American Eclipse depicts a young nation that looked to the skies to reveal its towering ambition and expose its latent genius.

The Stardust Revolution: The New Story of Our Origin in the Stars


Jacob Berkowitz - 2012
    The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed the Copernican Revolution, which bodychecked the Earth as the pivot point of creation and joined us with the rest of the cosmos as one planet among many orbiting the Sun. Three centuries later came the second great scientific revolution: the Darwinian Revolution. It removed us from a distinct, divine biological status to place us wholly in the ebb and flow of all terrestrial life. This book describes how we’re in the midst of a third great scientific revolution, five centuries in the making: the Stardust Revolution. It is the merging of the once-disparate realms of astronomy and evolutionary biology, and of the Copernican and Darwinian Revolutions, placing life in a cosmic context. This book takes readers on a grand journey that begins on the summit of California’s Mount Wilson, where astronomers first realized that the universe is both expanding and evolving, to a radio telescope used to identify how organic molecules—the building blocks of life—are made by stars. It’s an epic story told through a scientific cast that includes some of the twentieth century’s greatest minds—including Nobel laureate Charles Townes, who discovered cosmic water—as well as the most ambitious scientific explorers of the twenty-first century, those racing to find another living planet. Today, an entirely new breed of scientists—astrobiologists and astrochemists—are taking the study of life into the space age. Astrobiologists study the origins, evolution, and distribution of life, not just on Earth, but in the universe. Stardust science is filling in the missing links in our evolutionary story, ones that extend our family tree back to the stars.

Straight Up and Personal: The World According to Grapes


Don Cherry - 2014
         Known for his opinions--and unabashed expression of them--Don Cherry has been causing debate for decades. Topics on "Coach's Corner" sometimes veer away from sports and on to other matters that are near and dear to Cherry's heart: the war in Afghanistan and politics, among many others.      In Straight Up and Personal, Cherry shares his thoughts on a broader range of issues than he ever has before. He shares some of his personal experiences on and off the ice, and offers the lessons he's learned along the way. This is Don Cherry: straight up and personal.

Out There: A Scientific Guide to Alien Life, Antimatter, and Human Space Travel (For the Cosmically Curious)


Michael Wall - 2018
    It's impossible to look up at the stars and NOT think about it: Are we alone in the universe? Books, movies and television shows proliferate that attempt to answer this question and explore it. In Out There Space.com senior writer Dr. Michael Wall treats that question as merely the beginning, touching off a wild ride of exploration into the final frontier. He considers, for instance, the myriad of questions that would arise once we do discover life beyond Earth (an eventuality which, top NASA officials told Wall, is only drawing closer). What would the first aliens we meet look like?Would they be little green men or mere microbes?Would they be found on a planet in our own solar system or orbiting a star far, far away?Would they intend to harm us, and if so, how might they do it?And might they already have visited?Out There is arranged in a simple question-and-answer format. The answers are delivered in Dr. Wall's informal but informative style, which mixes in a healthy dose of humor and pop culture to make big ideas easier to swallow. Dr. Wall covers questions far beyond alien life, venturing into astronomy, physics, and the practical realities of what long-term life might be like for we mere humans in outer space, such as the idea of lunar colonies, and even economic implications. Dr. Wall also shares the insights of some of the leading lights in space exploration today, and shows how the next space age might be brighter than ever.

You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes


Chris Hadfield - 2014
    . .In You Are Here, bestselling author and celebrated astronaut Chris Hadfield creates a virtual orbit of Earth, giving us the really big picture: this is our home, from space. The millions of us who followed Hadfield's news-making Twitter feed from the ISS thought we knew what we were looking at when we first saw his photos. But we may have caught the beauty and missed the full meaning. Now, through photographs - many of which have never been shared - Hadfield unveils a fresh and insightful look at our planet. He sees astonishing detail and importance in these images, not just because he's spent months in space but because his in-depth knowledge of geology, geography and meteorology allows him to reveal the photos' mysteries.Featuring Hadfield's favourite images, You Are Here is divided by continent and represents one (idealized) orbit of the ISS. This planetary photo tour - surprising, playful, thought-provoking and visually delightful - provides a breathtakingly beautiful perspective on the wonders of the world. You Are Here opens a singular window on our planet, using remarkable photographs to illuminate the history and consequences of human settlement, the magnificence of newly uncovered landscapes, and the power of the natural forces shaping our world and the future of our species.

Einstein: A Life of Genius (The True Story of Albert Einstein)


Alexander Kennedy - 2016
    He pioneered modern physics, created the Theory of Relativity, and became a world-renowned celebrity. Enjoy the surprising and entertaining true story of Albert Einstein and rediscover one of history's most prolific figures... Buy Now & Start Reading the Incredible Story of Albert Einstein Overview Chapter 1: A Rebel Gets an Education Discover the events that transformed an average boy into a man who would become synonymous with genius. Did you know Einstein failing math as a child is actually a myth? Chapter 2: 1905: The Miracle Year Learn how Einstein revolutionized the world of physics and our understanding of the universe. Did you know Einstein developed the Theory of Relativity while working part-time as a patent clerk? Chapter 3: Professor Einstein Join Einstein as he shares his fascinating ideas with an audience and strives to earn the recognition he deserves. Did you know the Theory of Relativity did not achieve widespread acclaim until years after it was published? Chapter 4: The International Celebrity See Einstein as a pop-culture icon who captured the hearts and minds of people all around the world. Did you know Einstein often pretended to be someone else when asked for an autograph? Chapter 5: The Search for the Grail Accompany Einstein on his journey for a theory that would unite the world of physics and explain the inner-workings of the universe. Did you know Einstein worked on the Unified Field Theory until the day he died? Chapter 6: The Scientific Search for God Find out how Einstein reconciled his scientific knowledge with his religious beliefs. Did you know Einstein believed in God? Chapter 7: The Pacifists Fight Review Einstein's unique perspective as a humanitarian who lived in a time of war. Did you know Einstein encouraged the United States to develop the atomic bomb? Introduction “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein His image is iconic. His face appears on posters and tee shirts, coffee mugs and calendars, album covers, web pages, and bobble heads. His appearance — the frazzled hair, rumpled trousers and old sweater, coupled with a heavy German accent — is the quintessential image of mad scientists and absent-minded professors. He was, wrote a journalist for Time magazine, a “cartoonists dream.” So famous was his appearance that, during his lifetime, total strangers would approach him on the street and ask him to explain his famous theory of relativity. “Oh no,” he would declaim in his heavily accented English, “Always I am mistaken for Professor Einstein,” no doubt leaving his questioner more mystified than before... Buy Now Read Now: Your book will be delivered to your Kindle device or free Kindle software automatically. Money Back Guarantee: If you start reading the book and are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, simply return it to Amazon within 7 days of purchase for a full refund.

Moondust: In Search Of The Men Who Fell To Earth


Andrew Smith - 2005
    Twelve astronauts made this greatest of all journeys and were indelibly marked by it, for better or for worse. Journalist Andrew Smith tracks down the nine surviving members of this elite group to find their answers to the question "Where do you go after you've been to the Moon?"A thrilling blend of history, reportage, and memoir, Moondust rekindles the hopeful excitement of an incandescent hour in America's past and captures the bittersweet heroism of those who risked everything to hurl themselves out of the known world -- and who were never again quite able to accept its familiar bounds.