Download or read book Latitude Zero written by Gianni Guadalupi and published by Constable. This book was released on 2002 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Equator has no tangible existence beyond maps, but yet it lives, a hugely significant symbol in the minds and hearts of navigators, travellers, poets, madmen and dreamers of all eras. It is the world's girdle, its 24,000 miles or 38,640 kilometres passing through the Ecuadorian Andes and the mist-shrouded Ruwenzori Mountains, running along the courses of both the Amazon and the Congo rivers, and cutting through Africa's vast Lake Victoria, and the coral atolls and volcanic hulk of Krakatoa, in the Indian Ocean. The eminent Italian historian Gianni Guadalupi, and writer Antony Shugaar, have put together this inspirational collection of amazing equatorial adventures. Many have responded to the challenge of the Line, setting out to discover the mysterious source of the Nile, the perils of the Doldrums ('the living death in life' Coleridge called it') or the powerful force of El Niño, the quest for a lost Eden and for El Dorado. Others have sought a new life, like Elisa the 'nude Baroness' of the Galapagos, or Robert Louis Stevenson, for whom the fearsome King Tembinok built at Latitude Zero in the Gilbert Islands, an enclave named Equator City. So many grand expeditions and projects, so many great explorers and eccentrics, make this anthology a joyous voyage of discovery.
Download or read book Latitude Zero written by Diana Renn and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-07-03 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a bicycle racing champion dies suddenly, a teen sleuth travels to Ecuador to solve the mystery. “I have to run,” said Juan Carlos. “You will call? Please? It is very important.” “Yes. I will call. Definitely. At two.” That’s what Tessa promises. But by two o’clock, young Ecuadorian cycling superstar Juan Carlos is dead, and Tessa, one of the last people ever to speak to him, is left with nothing but questions. The media deems Juan Carlos’s death a tragic accident at a charity bike ride, but Tessa, an aspiring investigative journalist herself, knows that something more is going on. While she grapples with her own grief and guilt, she is being stalked by spies with an insidious connection to the dead cycling champion. Tessa’s pursuit of an explanation for Juan Carlos’s untimely death leads her from the quiet New England backwoods to bustling bike shops and ultimately to Ecuador itself, Juan Carlos’s homeland. As the ride grows bumpy, Tessa no longer knows who’s a suspect and who is an ally. The only thing she knows for sure is that she must uncover the truth of why Juan Carlos has died and race to find the real villain—before the trail goes cold.
Download or read book Conquering the Impossible written by Mike Horn and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In August 2002, Mike Horn set out on a mission that bordered on the impossible: to travel 12,000 miles around the globe at the Arctic Circle - alone, against all prevailing winds and currents, and without motorized transportation. Conquering the Impossible is the gripping account of Horn's grueling 27-month expedition by sail and by foot through extreme Arctic conditions that nearly cost him his life on numerous occasions. Enduring temperatures that ranged to as low as -95 degrees Fahrenheit, Horn battled hazards including shifting and unstable ice that gave way and plunged him into frigid waters, encounters with polar bears so close that he felt their breath on his face, severe frostbite in his fingers, and a fire that destroyed all of his equipment and nearly burned him alive. Complementing the sheer adrenaline of Horn's narrative are the isolated but touching human encounters the adventurer has with the hardy individuals who inhabit one of the remotest corners of the earth. From an Inuit who teaches him how to build an igloo to an elderly Russian left behind when the Soviets evacuated his remote Arctic town, Horn finds camaraderie, kindness, and assistance to help him survive the most unforgiving conditions. This awe-inspiring account is a page-turner and an Arctic survival tale in one. Most of all, it's a testament to one man's unrelenting desire to push the boundaries of human endurance.
Download or read book Longitude written by Dava Sobel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-07-05 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem." Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.
Download or read book Latitude Zero written by Monique Stauder and published by En Mets En Schilt Uitgevers. This book was released on 2010 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of Latitude Zerowas to be visually playful and uninhibited as possible, to simply be authentic and document life with a capital L.
Download or read book Latitude Zero written by Windsor Chorlton and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LATITUDE ZERO is a cross between Jurassic Park and Lord Of The Flies...A group of mismatched adults is accidently marooned on an offshore island in the tropics.Left to their own devices,with neither supplies nor a means of communication to the outside world,the veneer of civilisation is quick to rub off.The group splits into two with the ecowarriors on one side and those who would survive by any means-whether or not it impacts on the flora and fauna-on the other.Internecine war between the two groups and the predations of a rogue tiger whittle their number down until only two remain alive-one a male journalist ,the other a female biologist.Only noe will escape to tell the tale...Gripping,authentic and frighteningly credible,LATITUDE ZERO is a terrific adventure thriller that proves unputdownable.
Download or read book Ishiro Honda written by Steve Ryfle and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-10 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An appreciation of Japanese fantasy-film history through the eyes of a filmmaker whose name is obscure but populism remains influential.” —Chicago Tribune Ishiro Honda, arguably the most internationally successful Japanese director of his generation, made an unmatched succession of science fiction films that were commercial hits worldwide. From the atomic allegory of Godzilla and the beguiling charms of Mothra to the tragic mystery of Matango and the disaster and spectacle of Rodan, The Mysterians, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Honda’s films reflected postwar Japan’s anxieties and incorporated fantastical special effects, a formula that created an enduring pop culture phenomenon. Now, in the first full account of this overlooked director’s life and career, Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski shed new light on Honda’s work and the experiences that shaped it—including his days as a reluctant Japanese soldier, witnessing the aftermath of Hiroshima, and his lifelong friendship with Akira Kurosawa. The book features close analysis of Honda’s films (including, for the first time, his rarely seen dramas, comedies, and war films) and draws on previously untapped documents and interviews to explore how creative, economic, and industrial factors impacted his career. Fans of Godzilla and tokusatsu (special effects) film, and of Japanese film in general, will welcome this in-depth study of a highly influential director who occupies a uniquely important position in science fiction and fantasy cinema, as well as world cinema. “Provides the reader with a lasting sense of the man—his temperament, values, philosophies, dreams, and disappointments?behind some of cinema’s most beloved characters.” —Film Comment
Download or read book Tokyo Heist written by Diana Renn and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-06-13 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The perfect mystery for fans of Ally Carter's Heist Society When sixteen-year-old Violet agrees to spend the summer with her father, an up-and-coming artist in Seattle, she has no idea what she's walking into. Her father's newest clients, the Yamada family, are the victims of a high-profile art robbery: van Gogh sketches have been stolen from their home, and, until they can produce the corresponding painting, everyone's lives are in danger--including Violet's and her father's. Violet's search for the missing van Gogh takes her from the Seattle Art Museum, to the yakuza-infested streets of Tokyo, to a secluded inn in Kyoto. As the mystery thickens, Violet's not sure whom she can trust. But she knows one thing: she has to solve the mystery--before it's too late.
Download or read book Beyond Zero and One written by Andrew Smart and published by OR Books. This book was released on 2015-12-03 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Andrew Smart deftly shows why it’s time for us to think deeply about thinking machines before they begin thinking deeply about us.” —Douglas Rushkoff, author, Escaping the Growth Trap,Present Shock, and Program or Be Programmed “Provocative and cool.” —Cory Doctorow “Forget the Turing test—will the supersmart AIs that we hear so much about these days pass the acid test? In this playful, informative, and prescient book, Andrew Smart brings psychedelics into dialogue with neuroscience in order to challenge the whiz-bang computational views of human and machine sentience that dominate the headlines. Giving robots LSD sounds like a joke, but Smart is dead serious in his critique of the hidden and sometimes dangerous biases that underlie both popular and scientific fantasies of digital minds.” —Erik Davis, host of “Expanding Mind” and author, Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information “Philosophy, psychedelics, robots, and the future; consciousness and intelligence, what else do you desire? Here you will see why those machines that reach singularity will be smarter than us and take over the world—and shall need to be conscious…and maybe they can only be conscious if they are human enough. The thesis of the book, and the path shown us by Smart, leads to a great trip, of imagination and philosophy, of maths and neuroscience.” —Dr. Tristan Bekinschtein, Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge Can we build a robot that trips on acid? This is not a frivolous question, according to neuroscientist Andrew Smart. If we can’t, he argues, we haven’t really created artificial intelligence. In an exposition reminiscent of crossover works such as Gödel, Escher, Bach and Fermat’s Last Theorem, Andrew Smart weaves together Mangarevan binary numbers, the discovery of LSD, Leibniz, computer programming, and much more to connect the vast but largely forgotten world of psychedelic research with the resurgent field of AI and the attempt to build conscious robots. A book that draws on the history of mathematics, philosophy, and digital technology, Beyond Zero and One challenges fundamental assumptions underlying artificial intelligence. Is the human brain based on computation? Can information alone explain human consciousness and intelligence? Smart convincingly makes the case that true intelligence, and artificial intelligence, requires an appreciation of what is beyond the computational.
Download or read book Code Zero written by Jonathan Maberry and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2014-03-25 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years the Department of Military Sciences has fought to stop terrorists from using radical bioweapons—designer plagues, weaponized pathogens, genetically modified viruses, and even the zombie plague that first brought Ledger into the DMS. These terrible weapons have been locked away in the world's most secure facility. Until now. Joe Ledger and Echo Team are scrambled when a highly elite team of killers breaks the unbreakable security and steals the world's most dangerous weapons. Within days there are outbreaks of mass slaughter and murderous insanity across the American heartland. Can Joe Ledger stop a brilliant and devious master criminal from turning the Land of the Free into a land of the dead? Code Zero, a Joe Ledger novel from Jonathan Maberry, is the exciting direct sequel to Patient Zero.
Download or read book Close Up at a Distance written by Laura Kurgan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past two decades have seen revolutionary shifts in our ability to navigate, inhabit, and define the spatial realm. The data flows that condition much of our lives now regularly include Global Positioning System (GPS) readings and satellite images of a quality once reserved for a few militaries and intelligence agencies, and powerful geographic information system (GIS) software is now commonplace. These new technologies have raised fundamental questions about the intersection between physical space and its representation, virtual space and its realization. In Close Up at a Distance, Laura Kurgan offers a theoretical account of these new digital technologies of location and a series of practical experiments in making maps and images with spatial data. Neither simply useful tools nor objects of wonder or anxiety, the technologies of GPS, GIS, and satellite imagery become, in this book, the subject and the medium of a critical exploration. Close Up at a Distance records situations of intense conflict and struggle, on the one hand, and fundamental transformations in our ways of seeing and of experiencing space, on the other. Kurgan maps and theorizes mass graves, incarceration patterns, disappearing forests, and currency flows in a series of cases that range from Kuwait (1991) to Kosovo (1999), New York (2001) to Indonesia (2010). Using digital spatial hardware and software designed for military and governmental use in reconnaissance, secrecy, monitoring, ballistics, the census, and national security, Kurgan engages and confronts the politics and complexities of these technologies and their uses. At the intersection of art, architecture, activism, and geography, she uncovers, in her essays and projects, the opacities inherent in the recording of information and data and reimagines the spaces they have opened up.
Download or read book Kendo written by Jinichi Tokeshi and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2003-07-31 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All students of kendo--the formal art and practice of Japanese swordsmanship--will welcome this manual by an advanced practitioner with a deep understanding of the martial art. The work begins with a history of kendo in Japan, followed by a study of basic equipment and its proper care and use and a detailed description of forms and rules--essential aspects of any martial art. Beginners will find this section particularly helpful because of the close attention paid to fundamental techniques of kendo, including the rare two-sword form (nitô ryû), largely unknown outside of Japan. Each technique is accompanied by clear, easy-to-follow illustrations. The Nihon Kendo Kata and Shiai and Shinpan rules and regulations are useful references for those learning the Kata and participating in matches. The author, who is also a practicing physician, is attentive throughout to injury prevention and safety--concerns often overlooked in martial arts manuals. The elements of kendo philosophy, which can mystify even experienced practitioners, are explained in simple terms to aid understanding. The manual concludes with biographies of Japan's most celebrated swordsmen, an extensive glossary of kendo terms, and a history of kendo in Hawaii, where it has been practiced for more than a century and where some of the world's top practitioners can be found.
Download or read book Proceedings written by and published by Margret Schneider. This book was released on 2004 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jack Studies the Stars written by Stephen James O'Meara and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stars are more than just little specs of light in our sky. They're truly amazing and readers of this engaging book will learn exactly why that is. Astronomy whiz Jack Horkheimer guides readers on an adventure through the sky that will answer many questions about the planets and stars. Cool facts and lessons, such as why the stars change with the seasons, are supplemented with colorful illustrations that are sure to hold readers' attention.
Download or read book Latitude written by William Eugene Carter and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Nineteenth-century European astronomers tried for decades to explain the variations in their careful astronomical observations. But where the best minds in Europe failed, an intellectual upstart from America succeeded. In 1891 Seth Carlo Chandler Jr., an actuary for a Boston insurance company with no formal education in astronomy, shocked the international scientific community by announcing that he had solved the problem and that an inexpensive instrument he had designed could detect the variation. Another American, Simon Newcomb, compounded the Europeans' embarrassment. Working at the U.S. Naval Observatory Newcomb validated Chandler's findings and reconciled the difference between his observations and accepted theory." "Chandler's discovery, dubbed "the Chandler Wobble," had profound significance to astronomers of the time and later played an important role in space exploration and the development of the revolutionary Global Positioning System (GPS). The authors, a father-daughter team of scientists, tell the story of Chandler's life and scientific works with the aid of private correspondence, documents, and family photographs. In recounting both the historical and dramatic human aspects of the story, they help readers appreciate how Chandler's achievements gave America credibility in the world of serious scientific research."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Download or read book From Radio to Television written by Vincent Terrace and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2022-10-14 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The early years of television relied in part on successful narratives of another medium, as studios adapted radio programs like Boston Blackie and Defense Attorney to the small screen. Many shows were adapted more than once, like the radio program Blondie, which inspired six television adaptations and 28 theatrical films. These are but a few of the 1,164 programs covered in this volume. Each program entry contains a detailed story line, years of broadcast, performer and character casts and principal production credits where possible. Two appendices ("Almost a Transition" and "Television to Radio") and a performer's index conclude the book. This first-of-its-kind encyclopedia covers many little-known programs that have rarely been discussed in print (e.g., Real George, based on Me and Janie; Volume One, based on Quiet, Please; and Galaxy, based on X Minus One). Covered programs include The Great Gildersleeve, Howdy Doody, My Friend Irma, My Little Margie, Space Patrol and Vic and Sade.
Download or read book A Brain for All Seasons written by William H. Calvin and published by William H. Calvin. This book was released on 2010-08-02 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
