1,000 Places to See Before You Die


Patricia Schultz - 2003
    Sacred ruins, grand hotels, wildlife preserves, hilltop villages, snack shacks, castles, festivals, reefs, restaurants, cathedrals, hidden islands, opera houses, museums, and more. Each entry tells exactly why it's essential to visit. Then come the nuts and bolts: addresses, websites, phone and fax numbers, best times to visit. Stop dreaming and get going.This hefty volume reminds vacationers that hot tourist spots are small percentage of what's worth seeing out there. A quick sampling: Venice's Cipriani Hotel; California's Monterey Peninsula; the Lewis and Clark Trail in Oregon; the Great Wall of China; Robert Louis Stevenson's home in Western Samoa; and the Alhambra in Andalusia, Spain. Veteran travel guide writer Schultz divides the book geographically, presenting a little less than a page on each location. Each entry lists exactly where to find the spot (e.g. Moorea is located "12 miles/19 km northwest of Tahiti; 10 minutes by air, 1 hour by boat") and when to go (e.g., if you want to check out The Complete Fly Fisher hotel in Montana, "May and Sept.-Oct. offer productive angling in a solitary setting"). This is an excellent resource for the intrepid traveler.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

All New Square Foot Gardening


Mel Bartholomew - 1981
    Sure, it's even simpler than it was before. Of course, you don't have to worry about fertilizer or poor soil ever again because you'll be growing above the ground. However, the best feature is that anyone, anywhere can enjoy a square foot garden - children, adults with limited mobility, and even complete novices can achieve spectacular results. But, let's get back to the ten improvements. You're going to love them: 1. New Location - Move your garden closer to your house by eliminating single-row gardening. Square foot gardens need just 20% of the space of a traditional garden.2. New Direction - Locate your garden on top of existing soil. Forget about pH soil tests, double-digging (who enjoys that?), or those never-ending soil improvements.3. New Soil - The new "Mel's Mix" is the perfect growing mix. We give you the recipe, and best of all, you can even buy the different types of compost needed.4. New Depth - You only need to prepare a SFG box to a depth of 6 inches! It's true - the majority of plants develop just fine when grown at this depth.5. No Fertilizer - The all new SFG does not need any fertilizer - ever! If you start with the perfect soil mix, then you don't need to add fertilizer.6. New Boxes - The new method uses bottomless boxes placed above ground. We show you how to build your own (with step-by-step photos).7. New Aisles - The ideal gardening aisle width is about three to four feet. That makes it even easier to kneel, work, and harvest.8. New Grids - Prominent and permanent grids added to your SFG box help you visualize your planting squares and properly space them for maximum harvest.9. New Seed-Saving Idea - The old-fashioned way advocates planting many seeds and then thinning the extras (that means pulling them up). The new method means planting a pinch - literally two or three seeds - per planting hole.10. Tabletop Gardens - The new boxes are so much smaller and lighter (only 6 inches of soil, remember?), you can add a plywood bottom to make them portable. Of course, that's not all. We've also included simple, easy-to-follow instructions using lots of photos and illustrations. You're going to love it!

Guide to a Well-Behaved Parrot


Mattie Sue Athan - 1993
    Here too is expert information on feeding, bathing, communicating, proper equipment, plus safe interactions with children and other pets. Twenty-eight full-color photos and line drawings.

Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain


Bruce Tremper - 2001
    Written by the director of the Utah Avalanche Center, thisbook will teach you how to recognise dangerous snowconditions, and what to do if you are in avalanche terrain.

Photography Night Sky: A Field Guide for Shooting After Dark


Jennifer Wu - 2014
    You'll learn how to overcome the unique issues that confront nighttime photographers and capture images of which you'll be proud. Co-author Jennifer Wu, an elite Canon "Explorer of Light" professional photographer, has become renowned for her ability to capture nighttime phenomena, from quarter-phase moon rises to shooting stars to the ephemeral Milky Way. this new guide reveals her methods and concentrates on photographing four principal subjects: stars as points of light, star trails, the moon, and twilight. these subjects share common photo techniques and considerations, but each also requires a distinct approach. Once captured, your digital images must be fi nished on the computer; coauthor and author of the bestselling Photography: Outdoors, James Martin, delves into the settings and procedures that elevate an image from mundane to striking. This clear and practical guide will help photographers of all levels portray the stunning spectacle of the night sky, preserving those special memories and moments from a life outdoors.

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?


William Poundstone - 2012
    The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do? If you want to work at Google, or any of America's best companies, you need to have an answer to this and other puzzling questions. Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? guides readers through the surprising solutions to dozens of the most challenging interview questions. The book covers the importance of creative thinking, ways to get a leg up on the competition, what your Facebook page says about you, and much more. Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? is a must-read for anyone who wants to succeed in today's job market.

The De-Textbook: The Stuff You Didn't Know About the Stuff You Thought You Knew


Cracked.com - 2013
    For decades your teachers, authority figures and textbooks have been lying to you. You do not have five senses. Your tongue doesn't have neatly segregated taste-bud zones. You don't know what the pyramids really looked like. You're even pooping wrong - Jesus, you're a wreck!But it's going to be okay. Because we're here to help. Packed with more sexy facts than the Encyclopedia Pornographica, the Cracked De-Textbook will teach you about the true stars of history, why you picture everything from Velociraptors to Ancient Rome incorrectly, and finally, at long last - how to pop a proper squat. This book was built from the ground up to systematically seek out, dismantle and destroy the many untruths that years of misguided education have left festering inside of you, and leave you a smarter person...whether you like it or not. The De-Textbook is a merciless, brutal learning machine. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are informed.

Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916


Michael Capuzzo - 2001
    During the summer before the United States entered World War I, when ocean swimming was just becoming popular and luxurious Jersey Shore resorts were thriving as a chic playland for an opulent yet still innocent era's new leisure class, Americans were abruptly introduced to the terror of sharks. In July 1916 a lone Great White left its usual deep-ocean habitat and headed in the direction of the New Jersey shoreline. There, near the towns of Beach Haven and Spring Lake-and, incredibly, a farming community eleven miles inland-the most ferocious and unpredictable of predators began a deadly rampage: the first shark attacks on swimmers in U.S. history. For Americans celebrating an astoundingly prosperous epoch much like our own, fueled by the wizardry of revolutionary inventions, the arrival of this violent predator symbolized the limits of mankind's power against nature.Interweaving a vivid portrait of the era and meticulously drawn characters with chilling accounts of the shark's five attacks and the frenzied hunt that ensued, Michael Capuzzo has created a nonfiction historical thriller with the texture of Ragtime and the tension of Jaws. From the unnerving inevitability of the first attack on the esteemed son of a prosperous Philadelphia physician to the spine-tingling moment when a farm boy swimming in Matawan Creek feels the sandpaper-like skin of the passing shark, Close to Shore is an undeniably gripping saga.Heightening the drama are stories of the resulting panic in the citizenry, press and politicians, and of colorful personalities such as Herman Oelrichs, a flamboyant millionaire who made a bet that a shark was no match for a man (and set out to prove it); Museum of Natural History ichthyologist John Treadwell Nichols, faced with the challenge of stopping a mythic sea creature about which little was known; and, most memorable, the rogue Great White itself moving through a world that couldn't conceive of either its destructive power or its moral right to destroy.Scrupulously researched and superbly written, Close to Shore brings to life a breathtaking, pivotal moment in American history. Masterfully written and suffused with fascinating period detail and insights into the science and behavior of sharks, Close to Shore recounts a breathtaking, pivotal moment in American history with startling immediacy.

Carving Grand Canyon: Evidence, Theories, and Mystery


Wayne Ranney - 2005
    This story of a fascinating landscape is told in an engaging style that nonscientists will find inviting. The story’s end, however, remains a mystery yet to be solved.

Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks


Arthur T. Benjamin - 1993
    Get ready to amaze your friends—and yourself—with incredible calculations you never thought you could master, as renowned “mathemagician” Arthur Benjamin shares his techniques for lightning-quick calculations and amazing number tricks. This book will teach you to do math in your head faster than you ever thought possible, dramatically improve your memory for numbers, and—maybe for the first time—make mathematics fun.Yes, even you can learn to do seemingly complex equations in your head; all you need to learn are a few tricks. You’ll be able to quickly multiply and divide triple digits, compute with fractions, and determine squares, cubes, and roots without blinking an eye. No matter what your age or current math ability, Secrets of Mental Math will allow you to perform fantastic feats of the mind effortlessly. This is the math they never taught you in school.Also available as an eBook

Dinosaur in a Haystack


Stephen Jay Gould - 1995
    With black and white illustrations. "Here is a new collection of Gould's unexpected connections between evolution and all manner of subjects, literature high among them. Gathered from his monthly column in "Natural History" magazine, these articles should delight, surprise, and inform his vast readership, as have his six prior volumes of essays. Somehow the light bulb pops on every month as his deadline approaches, some glowing fact pulled out of memory--often a line from Shakespeare or Tennyson--that illumines a generality Gould wishes to discuss. "Nature, red in tooth and claw" (Lord Alfred's line) induces dilations on the extent science can inform moral matters (not much, Gould believes); a remembrance of the infamous Wansee protocol prompts Gould's denunciation of the genocidal looting of evolutionary theory and, by extension, its vulnerability to ignoramuses in general. These two examples of the Gouldian essay method, fortunately, don't foreshadow a gloomy parade of topics: Gould can as easily alight at the fun house where mass culture absorbs ideas about evolution through movies of monsters run amok from Frankenstein to Jurassic Park. In other essays, he plunges directly into matters of evolutionary interpretation but customarily employs a literary twist: who else but Gould could link Edgar Allan Poe with his own area of professional eminence, the paleontology of snails? A discovery awaits in every essay--in every haystack--which solidifies Gould as one of the most eloquent science popularizers writing today."--"Booklist"

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Backpacking and Hiking


Jason Stevenson - 2010
    The Complete Idiot's Guide (r) to Backpacking and Hiking helps anyone prepare and plan for a rewarding adventure. Covers planning, training, shopping and packing for the trip. -How to live on the trail-First aid and other safety tips-Practical time- and money-saving hints-What gear is necessary and what isn't-Special considerations when travelling with groups or pets

The Ashley Book of Knots


Clifford W. Ashley - 1944
    Here are approximately 3900 different kinds, from simple hitches to "Marlingspike Seamanship." Mr. Ashley has included almost everything there is to know about them. Precisely named and classified (some new ones for the first time officially), they can be easily found in the big index. He tells when they appeared, something about their history, and what they are good for. Above all, Mr. Ashley gives explicit directions on how to tie them. He describes each step simply and clearly in the text and has penned right alongside some 7000 drawings to make it still more graphic. This book and a piece of cord will open a new and challenging world of practical adventure to readers of all ages. There are many distinctive features to this informal encyclopedia. Outstanding are the delightful sketches and illustrations by the author that enliven every page. Mr. Ashley, a prominent marine artist, is at his best here. Sailors have been the greatest experimenters with rope, but since they have no monopoly on the art, the author describes knots used in over ninety other occupations. These range alphabetically from Archer to Yachtsman, and aesthetically from Florist to Hangman. The forty-one chapters include knots classed under such general types as "Hooks, Beckets, and Toggles," "The Noose," and "Tricks and Puzzles." Mr. Ashley has devoted eleven years to writing this book, and it is based on forty years of looking for, trying out, and thinking up new knots. His drawings abound in humor and the text is full of colorful anecdotes. THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNOTS will make a unique and permanent addition to any library.

Cosmigraphics


Michael Benson - 2014
    Selecting artful and profound illustrations and maps, many hidden away in the world’s great science libraries and virtually unknown today, he chronicles more than 1,000 years of humanity’s ever-expanding understanding of the size and shape of space itself. He shows how the invention of the telescope inspired visions of unimaginably distant places and explains why today we turn to supercomputer simulations to reveal deeper truths about space-time.Cosmigraphics explores the visual side of our great­est imaginative achievement as a species: the unveiling of a vast universe that is largely invisible to our senses. It will be a revelation to space-struck Earthlings, art lovers, and readers interested in the history of science, the visualization of information, graphic design, and mapping.

How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space


Janna Levin - 2002
    For even as she sets out to determine how big “really big” may be, Levin gives us an intimate look at the day-to-day life of a globe-trotting physicist, complete with jet lag and romantic disturbances.Nimbly synthesizing geometry, topology, chaos and string theories, Levin shows how the pattern of hot and cold spots left over from the big bang may one day reveal the size and shape of the cosmos. She does so with such originality, lucidity—and even poetry—that How the Universe Got Its Spots becomes a thrilling and deeply personal communication between a scientist and the lay reader.