Book picks similar to
Information, Mechanism and Meaning by Donald M. MacKay
information-theory
nature-science-health
re-read
science
Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes
Sue Hubbell - 2001
Focusing on four specific examples — corn, silkworms, domestic cats, and apples — she traces the histories of species that have been fundamentally altered over the centuries by the whims and needs of people.
It Will All Make Sense When You're Dead: Messages From Our Loved Ones in the Spirit World
Priscilla A. Keresey - 2011
After a brief tale of her own introduction to the paranormal, the author shares funny, poignant, and insightful words straight from the spirit people themselves. Together, the living and the dead seek forgiveness, solve family mysteries, find closure, settle scores, and come together for birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations. Quoting directly from her readings and séances, Priscilla reports the spirit perspective on mental illness, suicide, religion, and even the afterlife itself. For those readers interested in developing their own spirit communication skills, the last section of the book offers meditations and exercises used by the author herself, both personally and with her students. "It Will All Make Sense When You’re Dead" is chock-full of simple and entertaining wisdom, showing us how to live for today, with light hearts and kindness.
Kindle Fire For Dummies
Nancy C. Muir - 2011
It walks you through all the tablet's features, shows you how to set up the device, navigate the touchscreen interface, buy music, stream video, download apps, and read e-books from Amazon.com. The book demystifies this all-new tablet and provides a handy reference that can be conveniently downloaded and read right on your Kindle Fire device.Looks at the new Kindle Fire, which features revolutionary technology and access to cool new services; this e-book explains both in plain English Is only available in e-book format and downloads directly to the Kindle Fire and other Kindle devices, making it a handy reference you can take virtually anywhere Covers not only the basics, but also tips and tricks for taking full advantage of the Kindle Fire and the services of Amazon's online stores Kindle Fire For Dummies is packed with powerful tips designed to help you get more punch out of your Kindle Fire tablet.
History's Greatest Mysteries and the Secrets Behind Them
Bill Price - 2012
With the internet and 24 hour rolling news, scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations, DNA analysis and CCTV cameras we may fool ourselves into thinking that we know all there is to know. This is of course hubris. In reality, the world is full of grey areas and enigmas, of unsolved mysteries and unresolved stories, ones which can fascinate, intrigue and occasionally annoy us in equal measure.
Handbook of Model Rocketry
G. Harry Stine - 1970
This new edition of the model rocketeer's "bible" shows you how to safely build, launch, track, and recover model rockets--and have fun doing it. Whether you're a beginner or a veteran model rocketeer, the Handbook of Model Rocketry, the official manual of the National Association of Rocketry (NAR), will become your well-used reference book. G. Harry Stine has been a model rocketeer since 1957 when he founded the NAR and started the first model rocket company. Stine's Handbook, after satisfying rocket enthusiasts for nearly three decades, remains the definitive resource. Recent technological progress has had a major effect on the model rocket hobby and sport. This revised and updated edition covers such new technology as: revised computer programs that use improved versions of Basic composite propellant model rocket motors recently approved reloadable model rocket motors building and flying large model rockets radio-controlled boost gliders and rocket gliders solid-state, microchip, computer-readable modules used to measure temperature, pressure, acceleration, and airspeed
Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation
Joseph Weizenbaum - 1976
A classic text by the author who developed ELIZA, a natural-language processing system.
Two Scoops of Django: Best Practices for Django 1.6
Daniel Roy Greenfeld - 2014
"When the Sirens Were Silent" How the Warning System Failed a Community
Mike Smith - 2012
That acclaimed book, as one reviewer put it, "made meteorologists the most unlikely heroes of recent literature." But, what if the warning system failed to provide a clear, timely notice of a major storm? Tragically, that scenario played out in Joplin, Missouri, on May 22, 2011. As a wedding, a high school graduation, and shopping trips were in progress, an invisible monster storm was developing west of the city. When it arrived, many were caught unaware. One hundred sixty-one perished and one thousand were injured. "When the Sirens Were Silent" is the gripping story of the Joplin tornado. It recounts that horrible day with a goal of insuring this does not happen again. The book gives you the tools you need to keep yourself and your family safe. Included are clever lift-out copies of the latest tornado safety rules for homes, schools, and offices.
Programming TypeScript: Making Your JavaScript Applications Scale
Boris Cherny - 2019
That’s why Facebook, Google, and Microsoft invented gradual static type layers for their dynamically typed JavaScript and Python code. This practical book shows you how one such type layer, TypeScript, is unique among them: it makes programming fun with its powerful static type system.If you’re a programmer with intermediate JavaScript experience, author Boris Cherny will teach you how to master the TypeScript language. You’ll understand how TypeScript can help you eliminate bugs in your code and enable you to scale your code across more engineers than you could before.In this book, you’ll:
Start with the basics: Learn about TypeScript’s different types and type operators, including what they’re for and how they’re used
Explore advanced topics: Understand TypeScript’s sophisticated type system, including how to safely handle errors and build asynchronous programs
Dive in hands-on: Use TypeScript with your favorite frontend and backend frameworks, migrate your existing JavaScript project to TypeScript, and run your TypeScript application in production
The Flight
Caleb Cleek - 2015
Time is short as they fear he will settle his grudge by adding their families to the mounting number of bodies left in the wake of his destruction.Meanwhile, Connor’s brother, Zeke, faces his own obstacles as he attempts to escape Atlanta before the virus unleashed in the Chinese bio-attack infects the entire population, turning people into ravenous, infected monsters.The brothers face overwhelming odds as they fight to protect the people they care for and do the right thing in the face of crumbling humanity. Will Connor and Matt find their families and will Zeke make it across the country to reunite with his brother? Or will they be added to the mounting casualties piling up at the feet of ruthless outlaws and the infected?
Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See
Donald D. Hoffman - 1998
Hoffman aptly demonstrates the mysterious constructive powers of our eye-brain machines using lots of simple drawings and diagrams to illustrate basic rules of the visual road. Many of the examples are familiar optical illusions--perspective-confounding cubes, a few lines that add up to a more complex shape than seems right. Hoffman also takes a cue from Oliver Sacks, employing anecdotes about people with various specific visual malfunctions to both further his mechanical explanation of visual intelligence and drive home how important this little-understood aspect of cognition can be in our lives. An especially intriguing example involves a boy, blind from birth, who is surgically given the power to see. At first, he is completely unable to visually distinguish objects familiar by touch, such as the cat and the dog. Other poignant examples show clearly how image construction is normally linked to our emotional well-being and sense of place. Visual Intelligence is a fascinating, confounding look (as it were) at an aspect of human physiology and psychology that very few of us think about much at all. --Therese Littleton
The Barefoot Book: 50 Great Reasons to Kick Off Your Shoes
L. Daniel Howell - 2010
Ill-fitting and high-heeled shoes cause damage to the knees and spine, and continuous wearing of any kind of shoes builds up these problems. Daniel Howell describes the benefits of a simple alternative: going barefoot. The barefoot lifestyle corrects misalignments and increases foot strength and flexibility, and it is practiced in many other countries. In a reader-friendly, accessible style, this practical book explains the health advantages of going barefoot, provides tips for increasing barefoot time, and encourages everyone to experience the health benefits and the natural, vital pleasure of a barefoot connection with the earth.
The Little Book of Cosmology
Lyman Page - 2020
Written by one of the world's leading experimental cosmologists, this short but deeply insightful book describes what scientists are revealing through precise measurements of the faint thermal afterglow of the Big Bang--known as the cosmic microwave background, or CMB--and how their findings are transforming our view of the cosmos.Blending the latest findings in cosmology with essential concepts from physics, Lyman Page first helps readers to grasp the sheer enormity of the universe, explaining how to understand the history of its formation and evolution in space and time. Then he sheds light on how spatial variations in the CMB formed, how they reveal the age, size, and geometry of the universe, and how they offer a blueprint for the formation of cosmic structure.Not only does Page explain current observations and measurements, he describes how they can be woven together into a unified picture to form the Standard Model of Cosmology. Yet much remains unknown, and this incisive book also describes the search for ever deeper knowledge at the field's frontiers--from quests to understand the nature of neutrinos and dark energy to investigations into the physics of the very early universe.
Making Games with Python & Pygame
Al Sweigart - 2012
Each chapter gives you the complete source code for a new game and teaches the programming concepts from these examples. The book is available under a Creative Commons license and can be downloaded in full for free from http: //inventwithpython.com/pygame This book was written to be understandable by kids as young as 10 to 12 years old, although it is great for anyone of any age who has some familiarity with Python.
Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes
Charles Seife - 2006
In Decoding the Universe, Charles Seife draws on his gift for making cutting-edge science accessible to explain how this new tool is deciphering everything from the purpose of our DNA to the parallel universes of our Byzantine cosmos. The result is an exhilarating adventure that deftly combines cryptology, physics, biology, and mathematics to cast light on the new understanding of the laws that govern life and the universe.