outrageous inventions
The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Robertson, Douglas S., PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, The electronic computer, argues Douglas Robertson, is the most important invention in the history of technology, if not all history It has already set off an information explosion that has changed many facets of civilization beyond recognition. These changes have ushered in nothing less than the dawn of a new level of civilization. In The New Renaissance, Robertson offers an important historical perspective on the computer revolution, by comparing it to three earlier landmarks of human development--language, writing, and printing. We see how these three inventions changed how we capture, store, and distribute information, and how each thereby triggered an information explosion that transformed society, ushering in a new civilization utterly unlike anything before. But history has never seen a revolution on the scale of the one being sparked by computers today. What can we expect from the most important technological breakthrough in human history? Robertson lays out possible scenarios regarding transformations in science and mathematics, education, language, the arts, and everyday life. School children, for instance, will forsake pencil and paper for keyboard and calculator, much as their forebears forsook clay tablets and abaci for pencil and paper. In films, the computer simulations of Jurassic Park could be eclipsed by "synthespians," artificial actors indistinguishable from living ones. Whether one is a computer enthusiast, a popular science buff, or simply someone fascinated by the future, The New Renaissance provides a breathtaking peek at the magnitude of changes we can expect as the full power of computers is unleashed.
Hiking the Florida Trail: Miles, 78 Days, Two Pairs of
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Molloy, Johnny / O'Keefe, M. Timothy, PUBLISHER: University Press of Florida, The Florida Trail stretches the length and breadth of the Sunshine State, from Gulf Islands National Seashore in the panhandle to Big Cypress National Preserve less than an hour from suburban Miami. In , veteran hiker and outdoorsman Johnny Molloy hiked the length of the trail in one three-month stretch. This engaging story of his journey, the first narrative account of a Florida Trail thru-hike, is peppered with outrageous and charming characters. Molloy's peanut butter thermometer and his "Five Foot Radius Theory of Camping" for tired hikers will make experienced backpackers smile knowingly. Novice hikers will find his insider tips priceless. Beginning at the southern end of the trail, less than an hour from suburban Miami, he was challenged by some of the roughest terrain he would face before making his way around Lake Okeechobee, the second largest freshwater lake in the continental United States. Traveling north and west traversing sand pine scrub forests, he made his way up the Suwannee River, around the Big Bend into the cathedral of palms in St. Marks Refuge, through the Apalachicola National Forest, and along white sand beaches to the Alabama state line. Many may never hike the entire course of the Florida Trail, but its convenient trailheads make it easily accessible to any resident or tourist. So, start the adventure; plan your own short hike, thru-hike, or simply join Molloy without leaving the comfort of your armchair. ""
Cake or Death: The Excruciating Choices of Everyday Life
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Mallick, Heather, PUBLISHER: Vintage Books Canada, A brilliant new book from one of Canada's most popular columnists - a no-holds-barred riposte to the mess we've made of things. "Mrs. Tittlemouse is heaven in a sponge mop. I read Beatrix Potter's books as a child and love her paintings, her stories, her home-boiling of squirrels so her watercolours could be anatomically exact. But most of all, Beatrix Potter made domesticity desirable. All right, she didn't, but she domesticated me. Personal order has become my badge and it's the only thing that really works with melancholy." Heather Mallick is sorely disappointed. The world has not turned out quite the way she had hoped it would. But rather than retreat from it, she takes the world head on, fearlessly and formidably on her own terms. In a new work of entirely original writing, we have Heather unplugged (some might even say unhinged), and uncensored from the restrictions of her "Globe and Mail "column writing. As her many fans have come to expect from her, she is incisive and outrageous, whether she's cataloguing the many situations and items in our daily lives that we are told we should fear, teaching us how to cope with people we just can't stand (ruthless mockery is the key, really, says Heather) or writing about the valuable life lesson to be learned from one of her childhood heroes: Mrs. Tittlemouse, the original domestic goddess. A candid reflection on the complicated state of our lives and our world today, viewed through the lens of Heather's inimitable wit and outlook on life, Cake or Death: The Excruciating Choices of Everyday Life will provoke and delight readers. "From the Hardcover edition."
Net.Wars
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Grossman, Wendy M. / Jun, Helen, PUBLISHER: New York University Press, Full text online version at www.nyupress.org/netwars. Who will rule cyberspace? And why should people care? Recently stories have appeared in a variety of news media, from the sensational to the staid, that portray the Internet as full of pornography, pedophilia, recipes for making bombs, lewd and lawless behavior, and copyright violators. And, for politicians eager for votes, or to people who have never strolled the electronic byways, regulating the Net seems as logical and sensible as making your kids wear seat belts. Forget freedom of speech: children can read this stuff. From the point of view of those on the Net, mass-media's representation of pornography on the Internet grossly overestimates the amount that is actually available, and these stories are based on studies that are at best flawed and at worst fraudulent. To netizens, the panic over the electronic availability of bomb-making recipes and other potentially dangerous material is groundless: the same material is readily available in public libraries. Out on the Net, it seems outrageous that people who have never really experienced it are in a position to regulate it. How then, should the lines be drawn in the grey area between cyberspace and the physical world? In net.wars, Wendy Grossman, a journalist who has covered the Net since for major publications such as "Wired, The Guardian," and "The Telegraph," assesses the battles that will define the future of this new venue. From the Church of Scientology's raids on Net users to netizens attempts to overthrow both the Communications Decency Act and the restrictions on the export of strong encryption, net.wars explains the issues and the background behind the headlines. Among the issues covered are net scams, class divisions on the net, privacy issues, the Communications Decency Act, women online, pornography, hackers and the computer underground, net criminals and sociopaths, and more.
Sciences of the Earth: An Encyclopedia of Events, People,
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Good, Gregory A. / Rothenberg, Marc, PUBLISHER: Routledge, The planet as seen by its inhabitants In two millenia, our knowledge of the planet and its natural laws and forces has undergone remarkable changes--from the religious belief of earth as the center of the universe to the modern astronomers' view that it is a mere speck in the cosmos. Now a first-of-its-kind reference work charts this remarkable intellectual progression in our evolving perception of the earth by surveying the history of geology, geography, geophysics, oceanography, meteorology, space science, and many other fields. Covers human understanding of the Earth in various times and cultures The "Encyclopedia" traces our understanding of the earth and its functioning throughout history, summarizing historical explanations of earthly occurrences, including explanations with no scientific basis. It presents the latest facts and theories, explains how our understanding of the earth has evolved, and shows why many outrageous and fanciful earlier ideas were accepted in their time. The coverage explores the physical phenomena that inform our knowledge, starting at the earth's core and extending outward through the mantle, crust, oceans, and atmosphere to the magnetosphere and beyond. Charts the evolution of our perceptions The primary focus of the "Encyclopedia" is the history of the study of the earth. It also discusses the institutions that advanced and shaped science and probes the interplay between science, practical applications, and social and political forces. The result is a unified historical overview of the earth across a wide canvas of time and place, from antiquity to the space age. Its wide-ranging articles summarize subjects as diverse as geography and imperialism, environmentalism, computers and meteorology, ozone formation theories since , scientific rocketry, the Scopes trial, and much more. Special Features Shows how diverse disciplines, from geology to space science, fit together in a coherent view of the earth * Explains earlier ideas and theories in the context of the beliefs and scientific knowledge of their time * Spotlights important institutions that have shaped the history of science * Explores relationships between science, practical applications, and sociopolitical concerns * Provides a subject index and an index of scientists with birth/death dates
The Stranger's Child
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Hollinghurst, Alan, PUBLISHER: Vintage Canada, INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The Stranger's Child is Alan Hollinghurst's masterpiece, the book that cements his position as one of the finest novelists of our time. In its scope, intelligence and elegance, The Stranger's Child can be placed in the great tradition of the novel alongside epics by Marcel Proust and Anthony Powell. And yet, in its subtly political exploration of homosexuality in English society, it deals with an utterly contemporary subject in an utterly contemporary way. The Stranger's Child""begins with sixteen-year-old Daphne Sawle sitting in a hammock in the garden of Two Acres, the family home in suburban London. She is making a show of reading Tennyson before her brother George arrives to visit with his Cambridge friend Cecil Valance, a handsome, assured and sometimes outrageous young man with a burgeoning reputation as a poet. After a tantalizing and dramatic weekend Cecil writes a long poem in Daphne's autograph album as a parting gift. It is titled "Two Acres," and both Daphne and George (whose feelings for Cecil also go well beyond mere friendship) immediately see how important the poem is - but none of them can foresee the complex and lasting effects it will have on all their lives. When the next section of the novel begins, everything has changed: Daphne is married to Cecil's brother Dudley Valance; George to a historian named Madeleine; and Cecil is dead, killed by a sniper in World War One. A Cabinet officer and man of letters named Sebastian Stokes has come to Corley Court, the Valance family's country home, to put together an edition of Cecil's poemsand speak to each family member in turn about him. He is especially curious about Cecil's personal (and passionate) letters and unpublished poems, papers that seem to have gone missing, and whose absence will loom paradoxically through the rest of the novel. The book leaps forward and we are at another party, this one to celebrate Daphne's seventieth birthday. George is now the acclaimed historian G.F. Sawle; Daphne's son Wilfrid, a charming boy in the previous section, has grown into a nervous and somehow fractured adult. We meet Peter Rowe, a music teacher at the boarding school that now occupies Corley Court, and his boyfriend, Paul Bryant, a bank employee with a feeling for Cecil's poetry. Soon Paul is taking up an idea that Peter abandoned: to write a biography of Cecil Valance. It means making some startling discoveries about a past that the Valance family would prefer to keep in sepia and shadows. The Stranger's Child""is by turns a gripping literary mystery, an absorbing social study of some pivotal moments in history, and a sensuous and beautiful exploration of the secret passions that determine our lives. From Edwardian suburbs to the offices of the "Times Literary Supplement" in the s, from High Table wit to the realities of life working behind the counter at a provincial bank, it seems there is no corner