Author: Chris Hackett
Publisher: Tall Tales Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
In this irreverent, nostalgic, and light-hearted take on the typical space opera, the down-on-his-luck alcoholic Nick Bridges is abducted by aliens to save the galaxy - whether he wants to or not. "...if you enjoyed [Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Men in Black], I believe you will enjoy this as well." -Laura, Netgalley ARC Review "Something they never tell you about being a hero - it's really just about being at the wrong place at the wrong time and living to tell the tale." Stuck in a dead-end job as an adjunct Professor of Psychology focused on paranormal sightings and claims of alien abduction, the alcoholic Nick Bridges is divorced, disinterested and defeated. Stumbling home from a late-night bender, Nick is himself abducted by aliens - a secret police force that keeps the galaxy from falling into chaos. They tell him that only he - out of everyone in the universe - is being called by a cybernetic armor that is key to their mission. A mission they now expect him to help complete. Now, to get home, he has to be the hero he never envisioned himself to be and save the galaxy, and maybe even himself - as long as his demons don't derail him along the way. Join Nick Bridges as he discovers that we aren't alone - and neither is he - in this first installment of the epic and hysterical PROFESSOR BRIDGES SAGA.
Author: Simon Marvin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317549325
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222
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Book Description
Smart Urbanism (SU) – the rebuilding of cities through the integration of digital technologies with buildings, neighbourhoods, networked infrastructures and people – is being represented as a unique emerging ‘solution’ to the majority of problems faced by cities today. SU discourses, enacted by technology companies, national governments and supranational agencies alike, claim a supremacy of urban digital technologies for managing and controlling infrastructures, achieving greater effectiveness in managing service demand and reducing carbon emissions, developing greater social interaction and community networks, providing new services around health and social care etc. Smart urbanism is being represented as the response to almost every facet of the contemporary urban question. This book explores this common conception of the problematic of smart urbanism and critically address what new capabilities are being created by whom and with what exclusions; how these are being developed - and contested; where is this happening both within and between cities; and, with what sorts of social and material consequences. The aim of the book is to identify and convene a currently fragmented and disconnected group of researchers, commentators, developers and users from both within and outside the mainstream SU discourse, including several of those that adopt a more critical perspective, to assess ‘what’ problems of the city smartness can address The volume provides the first internationally comparative assessment of SU in cities of the global north and south, critically evaluates whether current visions of SU are able to achieve their potential; and then identifies alternative trajectories for SU that hold radical promise for reshaping cities.
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062316109
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402
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Book Description
New York Times Bestseller A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas. Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become? Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.
Author: Jan Gehl
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1597269840
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 284
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Book Description
For more than forty years Jan Gehl has helped to transform urban environments around the world based on his research into the ways people actually use—or could use—the spaces where they live and work. In this revolutionary book, Gehl presents his latest work creating (or recreating) cityscapes on a human scale. He clearly explains the methods and tools he uses to reconfigure unworkable cityscapes into the landscapes he believes they should be: cities for people. Taking into account changing demographics and changing lifestyles, Gehl emphasizes four human issues that he sees as essential to successful city planning. He explains how to develop cities that are Lively, Safe, Sustainable, and Healthy. Focusing on these issues leads Gehl to think of even the largest city on a very small scale. For Gehl, the urban landscape must be considered through the five human senses and experienced at the speed of walking rather than at the speed of riding in a car or bus or train. This small-scale view, he argues, is too frequently neglected in contemporary projects. In a final chapter, Gehl makes a plea for city planning on a human scale in the fast- growing cities of developing countries. A “Toolbox,” presenting key principles, overviews of methods, and keyword lists, concludes the book. The book is extensively illustrated with over 700 photos and drawings of examples from Gehl’s work around the globe.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 140
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Book Description
Backpacker brings the outdoors straight to the reader's doorstep, inspiring and enabling them to go more places and enjoy nature more often. The authority on active adventure, Backpacker is the world's first GPS-enabled magazine, and the only magazine whose editors personally test the hiking trails, camping gear, and survival tips they publish. Backpacker's Editors' Choice Awards, an industry honor recognizing design, feature and product innovation, has become the gold standard against which all other outdoor-industry awards are measured.
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 1429959622
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
From Arthur C. Clarke, the brilliant mind that brought us 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Stephen Baxter, one of the most cogent SF writers of his generation, comes a novel of a day, not so far in the future, when the barriers of time and distance have suddenly turned to glass. When a brilliant, driven industrialist harnesses cutting-edge physics to enable people everywhere, at trivial cost, to see one another at all times—around every corner, through every wall—the result is the sudden and complete abolition of human privacy, forever. Then the same technology proves able to look backward in time as well. The Light of Other Days is a story that will change your view of what it is to be human. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Author: Neil Postman
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307797287
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
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Book Description
At a time when we are reexamining our values, reeling from the pace of change, witnessing the clash between good instincts and "pragmatism," dealing with the angst of a new millennium, Neil Postman, one of our most distinguished observers of contemporary society, provides for us a source of guidance and inspiration. In Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century he revisits the Enlightenment, that great flowering of ideas that provided a humane direction for the future -- ideas that formed our nation and that we would do well to embrace anew. He turns our attention to Goethe, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Kant, Edward Gibbon, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, Jefferson, and Franklin, and to their then-radical thinking about inductive science, religious and political freedom, popular education, rational commerce, the nation-state, progress, and happiness. Postman calls for a future connected to traditions that provide sane authority and meaningful purpose -- as opposed to an overreliance on technology and an increasing disregard for the lessons of history. And he argues passionately for specific new guidelines in the education of our children, with renewed emphasis on developing the intellect as successfully as we are developing a computer-driven world. Witty, provocative, and brilliantly reasoned, Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century is Neil Postman's most radical, and most commonsensical, book yet.
Author: Beatrice E. Hunt
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
ISBN: 0309098343
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 168
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Book Description
Author: Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Turtleback Books
ISBN: 9780613913812
Category : Evolution (Biology)
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Patiently and lucidly, this Los Angeles Times Book Award and Royal Society of Literature Heinemann Prize winner identifies the aspects of the theory of evolution that people find hard to believe and removes the barriers to credibility one by one. As readable and vigorous a defense of Darwinism as has been published since 1859.--The Economist.
Author: Klaus Idelberger
Publisher: Ernst & Sohn
ISBN: 9783433600849
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
Structural engineers are often more interested in spectacular road and rail bridges with enormous spans than in relatively narrow footbridges built for modest loads. Local authorities, on the other hand, see pedestrian and cycle bridges in inner-city or rural locations as vital connections and important features of the town or landscape. Designs are often selected on the basis of architectural competitions. As there are no official guidelines for the planning of footbridges, the building techniques and performance of existing bridges are an important source of information and inspiration for structural engineers, architects and city or rural planners. This book contains 85 examples of footbridges built worldwide over the past three decades and includes open pedestrian and cycle bridges, utility bridges and skywalks in many different environments. The collection is arranged according to load bearing system and span length. There is a brief description of the location and structural system of each bridge illustrated by photographs, plans, elevations and in some cases construction details. It is a treasure trove for bridge builders.
