Striped Pears and Polka Dots: The Art of Being Happy


Kirsten Sevig - 2018
    She paints rainbow-colored rooftops, striped pears, birds in hats, teacups, cats, and more—all drawn to bring joy to anyone who views them. When the weather is rainy and gray, Sevig paints herself some sunshine. When she feels sad, she paints something colorful to cheer herself up; when anxious, something soothing and repetitive; when overwhelmed, she makes a series of small decisions about what to put on the page and begins to feel empowered.In Striped Pears and Polka Dots, Sevig invites readers into her cozy, sunny world of snail mail, patterned socks and knitted sweaters, ice cream and flaky croissants, and dachshunds in sweaters. This perfect gift book will inspire readers to look around and notice all the little happy-makers that surround them in their daily lives.

Brief History of the Philosophy of Time


Adrian Bardon - 2013
    Bardon employs helpful illustrations and keeps technical language to a minimum in bringing the resources of over 2500 years of philosophy and science to bear on some of humanity's most fundamental and enduring questions.

An Imaginary Tale: The Story of the Square Root of Minus One


Paul J. Nahin - 1998
    Addressing readers with both a general and scholarly interest in mathematics, Nahin weaves into this narrative entertaining historical facts, mathematical discussions, and the application of complex numbers and functions to important problems.

The Best Joke Book (Period): Hundreds of the Funniest, Silliest, Most Ridiculous Jokes Ever


William Donohue - 2014
    Inside, you'll find hundreds of jokes that are guaranteed to stir up a room full of smiles, including knock-knocks, witty puns, and one-liners. Complete with hilarious quotes from celebrities like Jon Stewart, Lewis Black, and Jerry Seinfeld, everyone will revel in each gut-busting moment.So whether you're looking to add a few jokes to your repertoire, impress your buds, or improve your banter, this sidesplitting book arms you with the perfect joke for any occasion!

The Knot Book: An Elementary Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Knots


Colin Conrad Adams - 1994
    The study of knots has led to important applications in DNA research and the synthesis of new molecules, and has had a significant impact on statistical mechanics and quantum field theory. Colin Adams’s The Knot Book is the first book to make cutting-edge research in knot theory accessible to a non-specialist audience. Starting with the simplest knots, Adams guides readers through increasingly more intricate twists and turns of knot theory, exploring problems and theorems mathematicians can now solve, as well as those that remain open. He also explores how knot theory is providing important insights in biology, chemistry, physics, and other fields. The new paperback edition has been updated to include the latest research results, and includes hundreds of illustrations of knots, as well as worked examples, exercises and problems. With a simple piece of string, an elementary mathematical background, and The Knot Book, anyone can start learning about some of the most advanced ideas in contemporary mathematics.

Deep Future


Stephen Baxter - 1985
    Along the way Stephen Baxter looks at our place in the universe, considers the possibility that we are in fact alone, and wonders whether that fact gives us the right to inherit everything. He also looks at how we might strive to overcome the limitations of the physical universe and win the deepest future. Stephen Baxter has brought his trademark narrative flair and imaginative brilliance to the latest ideas in physics and cosmology and produced a breathtaking guide to our possible futures.

Dance of the Photons: From Einstein to Quantum Teleportation


Anton Zeilinger - 2003
    Accordingly, he once derided as "spooky action at a distance" the notion that two elementary particles far removed from each other could nonetheless influence each other's properties—a hypothetical phenomenon his fellow theorist Erwin Schrödinger termed "quantum entanglement."In a series of ingenious experiments conducted in various locations—from a dank sewage tunnel under the Danube River to the balmy air between a pair of mountain peaks in the Canary Islands—the author and his colleagues have demonstrated the reality of such entanglement using photons, or light quanta, created by laser beams. In principle the lessons learned may be applicable in other areas, including the eventual development of quantum computers.

The Amateur Naturalist


Gerald Durrell - 1982
    First published in 1982.

Look at My Happy Rainbow: My Journey as a Male Kindergarten Teacher


Matthew Halpern - 2014
    Halpern is funny. He is handsome. He likes to laugh. I love Mr. Halpern. How can I top that? Who doesn't want to be funny, handsome, laugh all the time, and be loved by their students? What they don't know is I left a dreary cubicle job for the exciting, never boring life of a kindergarten teacher eight years ago and never looked back. I have seen and heard some crazy, hilarious, and even touching moments. Look at My Happy Rainbow is my account of the first few years working in a kindergarten classroom experiencing the day to day trials and tribulations and trying to see the world a little more through the eyes of a five-year-old. From the first time a child reached up to take my hand to learning the true value of zipping a coat, being a 'rooster in a world of hens' my unique perspective on teaching and children will (hopefully) warm your heart, make you laugh, and might even help you remember what it felt like to be in kindergarten. Warning: I have a very short attention span (this is why I'm so well suited to teach kindergarten). Some of the chapters are short. One is less than one page. I think this makes the book 'charming', but please know - this is not War and Peace.

Beyond Weird


Philip Ball - 2018
    But when Feynman said he didn’t understand quantum mechanics, he didn’t mean that he couldn’t do it – he meant that’s all he could do. He didn’t understand what the maths was saying: what quantum mechanics tells us about reality.Over the past decade or so, the enigma of quantum mechanics has come into sharper focus. We now realise that quantum mechanics is less about particles and waves, uncertainty and fuzziness, than a theory about information: about what can be known and how.This is more disturbing than our bad habit of describing the quantum world as ‘things behaving weirdly’ suggests. It calls into question the meanings and limits of space and time, cause and effect, and knowledge itself.The quantum world isn’t a different world: it is our world, and if anything deserves to be called ‘weird’, it’s us. This exhilarating book is about what quantum maths really means – and what it doesn’t mean.

Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified


Richard Wolfson - 2002
    Drawing from years of teaching modern physics to nonscientists, Wolfson explains in a lively, conversational style the simple principles underlying Einstein's theory.Relativity, Wolfson shows, gave us a new view of space and time, opening the door to questions about their flexible nature: Is the universe finite or infinite? Will it expand forever or eventually collapse in a "big crunch"? Is time travel possible? What goes on inside a black hole? How does gravity really work? These questions at the forefront of twenty-first-century physics are all rooted in the profound and sweeping vision of Albert Einstein's early twentieth-century theory. Wolfson leads his readers on an intellectual journey that culminates in a universe made almost unimaginably rich by the principles that Einstein first discovered.

Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel


Stephen Budiansky - 2021
    Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel has long escaped all but the most casual scrutiny of his life.Stephen Budiansky’s Journey to the Edge of Reason is the first biography to fully draw upon Gödel’s voluminous letters and writings—including a never-before-transcribed shorthand diary of his most intimate thoughts—to explore Gödel’s profound intellectual friendships, his moving relationship with his mother, his troubled yet devoted marriage, and the debilitating bouts of paranoia that ultimately took his life. It also offers an intimate portrait of the scientific and intellectual circles in prewar Vienna, a haunting account of Gödel’s and Jewish intellectuals’ flight from Austria and Germany at the start of the Second World War, and a vivid re-creation of the early days of Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, where Gödel and Einstein both worked.Eloquent and insightful, Journey to the Edge of Reason is a fully realized portrait of the odd, brilliant, and tormented man who has been called the greatest logician since Aristotle, and illuminates the far-reaching implications of Gödel’s revolutionary ideas for philosophy, mathematics, artificial intelligence, and man’s place in the cosmos.

The Lighter Step-By-Step Instant Pot Cookbook: Easy Recipes for a Slimmer, Healthier You—With Photographs of Every Step


Jeffrey Eisner - 2021
    Now, in this new cookbook featuring 85 delicious dishes that have been lightened up for guilt-free everyday eating, Eisner shows how the Instant Pot can be a part of your plan to slim down and keep the weight off--without losing any of the flavor.Building on the wild success of Eisner's popular Pressure Luck Cooking website and YouTube channel, every recipe in this book is illustrated with clear photographs showing exactly what to do in each step. There are no hard-to-find ingredients or fussy techniques, and each dish takes advantage of the time-saving benefits of the Instant Pot.

The Secret of Parenting: How to Be in Charge of Today's Kids--from Toddlers to Preteens--Without Threats or Punishment


Anthony E. Wolf - 2000
    Wolf, and parents are often uncertain about how to cope.In his new book, Wolf presents a fresh perspective on this less pleasant behavior and a surprisingly simple method for dealing with it. He argues that punishments and rewards don't work and may even be counterproductive. Instead, parents must act swiftly and decisively following Wolf's easy but powerful technique. Using numerous examples of effective and ineffective parent-child interactions, he offers practical advice on a wide range of basic issues, from tantrums and back talk, to getting kids off to school in the morning and eliminating sibling fights.Humorous and easy to use, The Secret of Parenting is guaranteed to dramatically increase the joy parents get from raising their children.

The Big Questions of Philosophy


David Kyle Johnson - 2016
    There is no better way to study the big questions in philosophy than to compare how the world's greatest minds have analyzed these questions, defined the terms, and then reasoned out potential solutions. Once you've compared the arguments, the final step is always deciding for yourself whether you find an explanation convincing.This course gives you the tools to follow and create logical arguments while exploring famous philosophers' viewpoints on these important questions. Although progress has been made toward answers, brilliant thinkers have continued to wrestle with many big questions that inspire thoughtful people everywhere. These questions include: What is knowledge? Does God exist? Do humans have free will? What is right and wrong? How should society be organized?Given the complexity of these big questions, it should be no surprise that many controversies are far from settled. In fact, by the end of these 36 lectures, you may be even less sure of the right answers to some of the questions than you were at the beginning. But being a philosopher means constantly testing your views - giving a reasoned defense if you believe you are right and modifying your ideas when you realize you are wrong. You'll discover that great thinkers before you have offered convincing answers to hard questions, philosophers after them have made equally persuasive objections, and then still others have refined the debate even further - causing the issues to come into sharper and sharper focus.Join Plato, St. Anselm, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Mill, Smith, Marx, Rawls, and many others in an exploration of fundamental questions. Get ready to think big!