Download or read book On a Chinese Screen Jovian Press written by W. Somerset Maugham and published by . This book was released on 2017-06-16 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ON A CHINESE SCREEN is a sequence of remarkable vignettes of Europeans residents in China just after the First World War -Westerners culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation. Somerset Maugham, who travelled over a thousand miles up the Yangtse river, used his acerbic and insightful notes to write this fascinating book.

Download or read book On Their Own Terms written by Benjamin A. Elman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In On Their Own Terms, Benjamin A. Elman offers a much-needed synthesis of early Chinese science during the Jesuit period (1600-1800) and the modern sciences as they evolved in China under Protestant influence (1840s-1900). By 1600 Europe was ahead of Asia in producing basic machines, such as clocks, levers, and pulleys, that would be necessary for the mechanization of agriculture and industry. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Elman shows, Europeans still sought from the Chinese their secrets of producing silk, fine textiles, and porcelain, as well as large-scale tea cultivation. Chinese literati borrowed in turn new algebraic notations of Hindu-Arabic origin, Tychonic cosmology, Euclidian geometry, and various computational advances. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, imperial reformers, early Republicans, Guomindang party cadres, and Chinese Communists have all prioritized science and technology. In this book, Elman gives a nuanced account of the ways in which native Chinese science evolved over four centuries, under the influence of both Jesuit and Protestant missionaries. In the end, he argues, the Chinese produced modern science on their own terms.

Download or read book The Massacre of Mankind written by Stephen Baxter and published by Crown Publishing Group (NY). This book was released on 2017 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: London: Gollancz, 2017.

Download or read book Blindsight written by Peter Watts and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-10-03 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book China Revolutionized written by John Stuart Thomson and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-12-05 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "China Revolutionized" by John Stuart Thomson Though from the United States, John Stuart Thompson was fascinated with China, its history, and its culture. In this book, in fact, he looks at the nation during a time of great change. As China turned toward a more republican form of government, its international affairs, army, and day-to-day culture went through incredible shifts, all of which are studied here.

Download or read book Caliban s War written by James S. A. Corey and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2012-06-26 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second book in the NYT bestselling Expanse series, Caliban's War shows a solar system on the brink of war, and the only hope of peace rests on James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante's shoulders. Now a Prime Original series. HUGO AWARD WINNER FOR BEST SERIES We are not alone. On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system. In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . . The Expanse Leviathan Wakes Caliban's War Abaddon's Gate Cibola Burn Nemesis Games Babylon's Ashes Persepolis Rising Tiamat's Wrath ​Leviathan Falls Memory's Legion The Expanse Short Fiction Drive The Butcher of Anderson Station Gods of Risk The Churn The Vital Abyss Strange Dogs Auberon The Sins of Our Fathers

Download or read book Life in the Universe 5th Edition written by Jeffrey Bennett and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world’s leading textbook on astrobiology—ideal for an introductory one-semester course and now fully revised and updated Are we alone in the cosmos? How are scientists seeking signs of life beyond our home planet? Could we colonize other planets, moons, or even other star systems? This introductory textbook, written by a team of four renowned science communicators, educators, and researchers, tells the amazing story of how modern science is seeking the answers to these and other fascinating questions. They are the questions that are at the heart of the highly interdisciplinary field of astrobiology, the study of life in the universe. Written in an accessible, conversational style for anyone intrigued by the possibilities of life in the solar system and beyond, Life in the Universe is an ideal place to start learning about the latest discoveries and unsolved mysteries in the field. From the most recent missions to Saturn’s moons and our neighboring planet Mars to revolutionary discoveries of thousands of exoplanets, from the puzzle of life’s beginning on Earth to the latest efforts in the search for intelligent life elsewhere, this book captures the imagination and enriches the reader’s understanding of how astronomers, planetary scientists, biologists, and other scientists make progress at the cutting edge of this dynamic field. Enriched with a wealth of engaging features, this textbook brings any citizen of the cosmos up to speed with the scientific quest to discover whether we are alone or part of a universe full of life. An acclaimed text designed to inspire students of all backgrounds to explore foundational questions about life in the cosmos Completely revised and updated to include the latest developments in the field, including recent exploratory space missions to Mars, frontier exoplanet science, research on the origin of life on Earth, and more Enriched with helpful learning aids, including in-chapter Think about It questions, optional Do the Math and Special Topic boxes, Movie Madness boxes, end-of-chapter exercises and problems, quick quizzes, and much more Supported by instructor’s resources, including an illustration package and test bank, available upon request

Download or read book Out Of Control written by Kevin Kelly and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-30 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.

Download or read book The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire written by Edward Luttwak and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2016-05-18 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A newly updated edition of this classic, hugely influential account of how the Romans defended their vast empire. At the height of its power, the Roman Empire encompassed the entire Mediterranean basin, extending much beyond it from Britain to Mesopotamia, from the Rhine to the Black Sea. Rome prospered for centuries while successfully resisting attack, fending off everything from overnight robbery raids to full-scale invasion attempts by entire nations on the move. How were troops able to defend the Empire’s vast territories from constant attacks? And how did they do so at such moderate cost that their treasury could pay for an immensity of highways, aqueducts, amphitheaters, city baths, and magnificent temples? In The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, seasoned defense analyst Edward N. Luttwak reveals how the Romans were able to combine military strength, diplomacy, and fortifications to effectively respond to changing threats. Rome’s secret was not ceaseless fighting, but comprehensive strategies that unified force, diplomacy, and an immense infrastructure of roads, forts, walls, and barriers. Initially relying on client states to buffer attacks, Rome moved to a permanent frontier defense around 117 CE. Finally, as barbarians began to penetrate the empire, Rome filed large armies in a strategy of “defense-in-depth,” allowing invaders to pierce Rome’s borders. This updated edition has been extensively revised to incorporate recent scholarship and archeological findings. A new preface explores Roman imperial statecraft. This illuminating book remains essential to both ancient historians and students of modern strategy.

Download or read book Human Design written by Chetan Parkyn and published by New World Library. This book was released on 2010 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Going beyond horoscopes, Human Design posits that everyone is born with an individuality as unique as a fingerprint. A foremost international practitioner of HD now offers readers the tools to do their own readings to map the life charts of family and friends.

Download or read book The Cronian Incident written by Dr Matthew Williams, (Ph and published by Castrum Press. This book was released on 2017-08-18 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disgraced investigator Jeremiah Ward is serving out his sentence in a mining colony on Mercury. When a member of a powerful faction on Titan vanishes, Ward is recruited to investigating this man's disappearance in exchange for a clean slate. Ward becomes embroiled in a conspiracy and soon realises his one shot at redemption may cost him his life.

Download or read book Fly by Wire written by William Langewiesche and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2009-11-10 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On January 15, 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport in New York when a flock of Canada geese collided with it, destroying both of its engines. Over the next three minutes, the plane's pilot, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, managed to glide it to a safe landing in the Hudson River. It was an instant media sensation, the "Miracle on the Hudson," and Captain Sully was the hero. But how much of the success of this dramatic landing can actually be credited to the genius of the pilot? To what extent is the "miracle" on the Hudson the result of extraordinary—but not widely known, and in some cases quite controversial—advances in aviation and computer technology over the past twenty years? In Fly by Wire, one of America's greatest journalists takes us on a strange and unexpected journey into the fascinating world of advanced aviation. From the testing laboratories where engineers struggle to build a jet engine that can systematically resist bird attacks, through the creation of the A320 in France, to the political and social forces that have sought to minimize the impact of the revolutionary fly-by-wire technology, William Langewiesche assembles the untold stories necessary to truly understand the "miracle" on the Hudson, and makes us question our assumptions about human beings in modern aviation.

Download or read book I Am a Strange Loop written by Douglas R. Hofstadter and published by Basic Books (AZ). This book was released on 2007-03-27 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that the key to understanding ourselves and consciousness is the "strange loop," a special kind of abstract feedback loop that inhabits the brain.

Download or read book Handbook for New Actors in Space written by Michael K Simpson and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-25 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Secure World Foundation developed the Handbook for New Actors in Space, which is intended to provide nations, established satellite operators, start-up companies, universities, and other space actors with a broad overview of the fundamental principles, laws, norms, and best practices for peaceful, safe, and responsible activities in space.

Download or read book Not This August written by C. M. Kornbluth and published by Rare Treasure Editions. This book was released on 2021-11-06T14:56:00Z with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Defeated in battle, will the United States be forced to surrender to the armies of China and Russia?

Download or read book The Lorraine Campaign written by Hugh Marshall Cole and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This account focuses on the tactical operations of the Third Army and its subordinate units between 1 September and 18 December 1944.

Download or read book 50 Years of Solar System Exploration written by Linda Billings and published by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Communications NASA History Division. This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first successful planetary mission, Mariner 2 sent to Venus in 1962, the NASA History Program Office, the Division of Space History at the National Air and Space Museum, NASA's Science Mission Directorate, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory organized a symposium. "Solar System Exploration @ 50" was held in Washington, D.C., on 25-26 October 2012. The purpose of this symposium was to consider, over the more than 50-year history of the Space Age, what we have learned about the other bodies of the solar system and the processes by which we have learned it. Symposium organizers asked authors to address broad topics relating to the history of solar system exploration such as various flight projects, the development of space science disciplines, the relationship between robotic exploration and human spaceflight, the development of instruments and methodologies for scientific exploration, as well as the development of theories about planetary science, solar system origins and implications for other worlds. The papers in this volume provide a richly textured picture of important developments - and some colorful characters - in a half century of solar system exploration. A comprehensive history of the first 50 years of solar system exploration would fill many volumes. What readers will find in this volume is a collection of interesting stories about money, politics, human resources, commitment, competition and cooperation, and the "faster, better, cheaper" era of solar system exploration"--