Search results for ""ORBIT""

Advances in Hyperspectral Image Processing Techniques Authoritative and comprehensive resource covering recent hyperspectral imaging techniques from theory to applications Advances in Hyperspectral Image Processing Techniques is derived from recent developments of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) techniques along with new applications in the field, covering many new ideas that have been explored and have led to various new directions in the past few years. The work gathers an array of disparate research into one resource and explores its numerous applications across a wide variety of disciplinary areas. In particular, it includes an introductory chapter on fundamentals of HSI and a chapter on extensive use of HSI techniques in satellite on-orbit and on-board processing to aid readers involved in these specific fields. The book’s content is based on the expertise of invited scholars and is categorized into six parts. Part I provides general theory. Part II presents various Band Selection techniques for Hyperspectral Images. Part III reviews recent developments on Compressive Sensing for Hyperspectral Imaging. Part IV includes Fusion of Hyperspectral Images. Part V covers Hyperspectral Data Unmixing. Part VI offers different views on Hyperspectral Image Classification. Specific sample topics covered in Advances in Hyperspectral Image Processing Techniques include: Two fundamental principles of hyperspectral imaging Constrained band selection for hyperspectral imaging and class information-based band selection for hyperspectral image classification Restricted entropy and spectrum properties for hyperspectral imaging and endmember finding in compressively sensed band domain Hyperspectral and LIDAR data fusion, fusion of band selection methods for hyperspectral imaging, and fusion using multi-dimensional information Advances in spectral unmixing of hyperspectral data and fully constrained least squares linear spectral mixture analysis Sparse representation-based hyperspectral image classification; collaborative hyperspectral image classification; class-feature weighted hyperspectral image classification; target detection approach to hyperspectral image classification With many applications beyond traditional remote sensing, ranging from defense and intelligence, to agriculture, to forestry, to environmental monitoring, to food safety and inspection, to medical imaging, Advances in Hyperspectral Image Processing Techniques is an essential resource on the topic for industry professionals, researchers, academics, and graduate students working in the field.

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'An instant classic' Guardian'Masterful, audacious storytelling'Tamsyn Muir, New York Times-bestselling author of Gideon the Ninth'An outstanding novel . . . one of the debuts of the year' Locus'Deserves a space on shelves alongside genre titans like Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler'Publishers Weekly A thrillingly told space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and the path you must forge when every choice is stripped from you. Some Desperate Glory is the highly anticipated debut novel from Astounding Award and World Fantasy Award-Winner, Emily Tesh.All her life, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the destruction of planet Earth. Raised on Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet.Then Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons, and she knows she must take humanity's revenge into her own hands. Alongside her brother's brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, Kyr must escape from everything she's ever known. If she succeeds, she will find a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could ever have imagined'A profoundly humane and brilliantly constructed space opera that will have you cheering, swearing, laughing, and ugly-crying. It's perfect' Alix E. Harrow, New York Times-bestselling author of The Once and Future Witches'This book is astoundingly good. An explosive and extraordinary story that I couldn't stop reading and will never forget' Everina Maxwell, author of Winter's OrbitFive star reader reviews:'Worth every page, every tear, every late night staying up to finish it. I hope you love this book as much as I do' 'For the life of me I could. not. put. it. down''As brilliantly plotted as Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, with characters as vivid as Martha Wells' Murderbot''I am legitimately not exaggerating when I say this may be my favourite book I've read in the last ten years''HOLY MOTHER OF GOD I WAS NOT AT ALL PREPARED AND I AM ETERNALLY OBSESSED'

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When President Donald J. Trump announced the creation of America's sixth branch of the military, the United States Space Force, many in Washington scoffed. But, U.S. rivals in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea took notice. Since the end of the Cold War, these American foes have chafed under the full-spectrum dominance that the American superpower has enjoyed globally. They have identified space as a key strategic domain where they can challenge--and possibly defeat--the United States military. And, depriving the U.S. military and/or its economy of access to space during an international crisis could spell doom for the United States in other strategic domains (land, sea, air, and cyberspace). After all, space is critical for America's vaunted information dominance. Satellites overhead are the backbone of America's global military. Remove them from orbit and U.S. forces worldwide are rendered deaf, dumb, and blind. What's more, space is a more than $1 trillion economy just waiting to be developed. Whichever country gets there first will have considerable economic and geopolitical power on Earth. Despite President Trump's creation of the Space Force, Swamp Dwellers in Washington continue resisting his reforms to U.S. space and technology policy. Winning Space tracks the increasing competition the United States is facing in the technology sector and depicts how the United States has been engaged in a Second Space Race--and how it has been losing. Author Brandon Weichert warns how the United States is at risk for a Pearl Harbor-type event in space. Weichert advocates for the full embrace of Trump's reforms for America's flailing space policy, while also calling for a minimum $1 trillion investment in advanced research and development here in the United States, to stay ahead of America's advancing foes. Contrary to what many Americans may think, the United States has been declining in space and the high-technology development sector. Should it lose its dominance in these areas, it will surely lose its superpower status. The next decade presents U.S. policymakers one last chance to preserve the superpower status that America fought two world wars and the Cold War to build. Time is not on our side. We are on notice, but we have not noticed.

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A ragtag band of misfits gets swept up in Holy Land politics in Travelers Along the Way by Aminah Mae Safi, a thrilling YA remix of the classic legend of Robin Hood. Jerusalem, 1192. The Third Crusade rages on. Rahma al-Hud loyally followed her elder sister Zeena into the war over the Holy Land, but now that the Faranji invaders have gotten reinforcements from Richard the Lionheart, all she wants to do is get herself and her sister home alive. But Zeena, a soldier of honor at heart, refuses to give up the fight while Jerusalem remains in danger of falling back into the hands of the false Queen Isabella. And so, Rahma has no choice but to take on one final mission with her sister. On their journey to Jerusalem, Rahma and Zeena come across a motley collection of fellow travelers-including a kind-hearted Mongolian warrior, an eccentric Andalusian scientist, a frustratingly handsome spy with a connection to Rahma's childhood, and an unfortunate English chaplain abandoned behind enemy lines. The teens all find solace, purpose and camaraderie-as well as a healthy bit of mischief-in each other's company. But their travels soon bring them into the orbit of Queen Isabella herself, whose plans to re-seize power in Jerusalem would only guarantee further war and strife in the Holy Land for years to come. And so it falls to the merry band of misfits to use every scrap of cunning and wit (and not a small amount of thievery) to foil the usurper queen and perhaps finally restore peace to the land. Praise for Travelers Along the Way: "Travelers Along the Way is the Robin Hood retelling I did not know I wanted. Deeply researched and masterfully written, here is a story that's not only thrilling, but also delightfully clever!" -Tanaz Bhathena, author of A Girl Like That and Hunted by the Sky "If you love heists, found family, and stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, then put Aminah Mae Safi's heartfelt and humorous take on Robin Hood at the very top of your TBR." -Jodi Meadows, New York Times bestselling co-author of My Lady Jane

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A Course in Quantum Mechanics Unique graduate-level textbook on quantum mechanics by John David Jackson, author of the renowned Classical Electrodynamics A Course in Quantum Mechanics is drawn directly from J. D. Jackson’s detailed lecture notes and problem sets. It is edited by his colleague and former student Robert N. Cahn, who has taken care to preserve Jackson’s unique style. The textbook is notable for its original problems focused on real applications, with many addressing published data in accompanying tables and figures. Solutions are provided for problems that are critical for understanding the material and that lead to the most important physical consequences. Overall, the text is comprehensive and comprehensible; derivations and calculations come with clearly explained steps. More than 120 figures illustrate underlying principles, experimental apparatus, and data. In A Course in Quantum Mechanics readers will find detailed treatments of: Wave mechanics of de Broglie and Schrödinger, the Klein-Gordon equation and its non-relativistic approximation, free particle probability current, expectation values. Schrödinger equation in momentum space, spread in time of a free-particle wave packet, density matrix, Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problem. WKB formula for bound states, example of WKB with a power law potential, normalization of WKB bound state wave functions, barrier penetration with WKB. Rotations and angular momentum, representations, Wigner d-functions, addition of angular momenta, the Wigner-Eckart theorem. Time-independent perturbation theory, Stark, Zeeman, Paschen-Back effects, time-dependent perturbation theory, Fermi’s Golden Rule. Atomic structure, helium, multiplet structure, Russell-Saunders coupling, spin-orbit interaction, Thomas-Fermi model, Hartree-Fock approximation. Scattering amplitude, Born approximation, allowing internal structure, inelastic scattering, optical theorem, validity criterion for the Born approximation, partial wave analysis, eikonal approximation, resonance. Semi-classical and quantum electromagnetism, Aharonov-Bohm effect, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations, gauge invariance, quantization of the electromagnetic field, coherent states. Emission and absorption of radiation, dipole transitions, selection rules, Weisskopf-Wigner treatment of line breadth and level shift, Lamb shift. Relativistic quantum mechanics, Klein-Gordon equation, Dirac equation, two-component reduction, hole theory, Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation, Lorentz covariance, discrete symmetries, non-relativistic and relativistic Compton scattering.

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'Clémence Michallon has written a classic... Daring and completely satisfying' James Patterson'Beautifully written, entirely convincing and relentlessly gripping ... so brilliantly told, with characters so plausible and compelling, that I was hooked until the last word' Sophie Hannah'From the first page, you can say farewell to sleep...a brilliant, breathtaking thriller with characters you love - and love to hate. I didn't know whether to tear to the end or savour every page' Abigail Dean, bestselling author of Girl A'An absorbing and addictive psychological thriller - I couldn't put it down' Edel Coffey'I was pulled in from the very first page... The plot was masterful, the many threads honed and pulled taut kept me turning pages' Jane ShemiltHe took you and you have been his for five years. But you have been careful. Waiting for him to mess up. It has to be now.Aidan Thomas is a hardworking family man and a respected member of his community. He's the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone. He's also a kidnapper and serial killer who has murdered eight women. And there's a ninth, a woman he calls Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed where she fears for her life. When Aidan's wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Cecilia, are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel too, introducing her to Cecilia as a family friend who needs a place to stay. He knows that after five years of captivity, Rachel is too frightened of the consequences to attempt to escape. But Rachel is a fighter and a survivor. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia's orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan's secret. The Quiet Tenant explores the psychological impact of Aidan's crimes on the women in his life through the voices of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily - and the bonds between those women that give them the strength to fight back. Both a searing thriller and an astute study of trauma, survival, and the dynamics of power, The Quiet Tenant is an electrifying novel by a major talent.

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Masterful 2D and 3D head, neck, and brain dissections provide unsurpassed insights into head, neck, and brain anatomy An internationally renowned and beloved author, educator, brain anatomist, and neurosurgeon, Professor Albert Rhoton has a special place in medical history. He was revered by students and colleagues and is regarded as one of the fathers of modern microscopic neurosurgery. A driving principle in his anatomy lab was the simple phrase, "Every Second." This was embraced in his philosophy that every second of every day, a patient's life was improved by a surgeon assisted by the anatomic knowledge his lab helped elucidate and distribute. Rhoton's Atlas of Head, Neck, and Brain is the visually exquisite crowning achievement of Dr. Rhoton's brilliant career and unwavering dedication to the intertwined pursuits of surgical anatomy and neurosurgery. The atlas reflects the unparalleled contributions Dr. Rhoton made to the contemporary understanding of neurosurgical anatomy. Dr. Peris-Celda, with the collaboration of an impressive cadre of international multidisciplinary experts, worked closely under Dr. Rhoton's tutelage on this project. This book is the culmination of 5 years of work and experience gleaned from more than 40 years of surgical anatomy research and exquisite dissection techniques performed in Dr. Rhoton's laboratory. Special Features Each anatomic dissection meticulously labeled with English and Latin descriptors for easy cross referencing with other resources. Multiple views of the most complex regions of the head, neck, and brain provide a deeper understanding of anatomy. More than 600 anatomical images systematically organized in four major sections: Osteology of the Head and Neck; Face and Neck; Ear, Nose, Pharynx, Larynx, and Orbit; and Neuroanatomy and Cranial Base. Superb 2D images presented in a large printed format to optimize the viewing experience. 3D digital images fully realize the beauty of the dissections and enhance the learning process. Specimens injected with colored silicone provide better visualization of arteries and veins. Breathtakingly stunning, this atlas is certain to be a treasured reference for medical students, residents, and clinicians specializing in neurosurgery, facial plastic surgery, otolaryngology, maxillofacial surgery, and craniofacial surgery for many years to come.

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ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED NOVELS OF 2023'From the first page, you can say farewell to sleep...a brilliant, breathtaking thriller with characters you love - and love to hate. I didn't know whether to tear to the end or savour every page' Abigail Dean, bestselling author of Girl A'Clémence Michallon has written a classic... Daring and completely satisfying' James Patterson'An absorbing and addictive psychological thriller - I couldn't put it down' Edel Coffey'I was pulled in from the very first page... The plot was masterful, the many threads honed and pulled taut kept me turning pages' Jane ShemiltHe took you and you have been his for five years. But you have been careful. Waiting for him to mess up. It has to be now.Aidan Thomas is a hardworking family man and a respected member of his community. He's the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone. He's also a kidnapper and serial killer who has murdered eight women. And there's a ninth, a woman he calls Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed where she fears for her life.When Aidan's wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Cecilia, are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel too, introducing her to Cecilia as a family friend who needs a place to stay. He knows that after five years of captivity, Rachel is too frightened of the consequences to attempt to escape. But Rachel is a fighter and a survivor. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia's orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan's secret.The Quiet Tenant explores the psychological impact of Aidan's crimes on the women in his life through the voices of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily - and the bonds between those women that give them the strength to fight back. Both a searing thriller and an astute study of trauma, survival, and the dynamics of power, The Quiet Tenant is an electrifying novel by a major talent.

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The inspirational autobiography of Britain’s beloved astronaut Tim Peake, the #1 bestselling author of Hello, is this Planet Earth? and Ask an AstronautAs heard on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs__________________'What surprised me was how entirely serene I felt. I was weightless, no forces exerting themselves on my body. To my left was the Space Station. Below me, gradually going into shadow, was the Earth. And over my right shoulder was the universe.'In fascinating and personal detail, and drawing on exclusive diaries and audio recordings from his mission, astronaut Tim Peake takes readers closer than ever before to experience what life in space is really like: the sights, the smells, the fear, the sacrifice, the exhilaration and the deep and abiding wonder of the view.Warm, inspiring and often funny, Tim also charts his surprising road to becoming an astronaut, from a shy and unassuming boy from Chichester who had a passion for flight, to a young British Army officer, Apache helicopter pilot, flight instructor and test pilot who served around the world. Tim's extensive eighteen-year career in the Army included the command of a platoon of soldiers in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, deployment in Bosnia, and operations in Afghanistan.Full of life lessons for readers of all ages, Limitless is the story of how ordinary can become extraordinary.__________________'For someone who has literally been out of this world Tim's an incredibly down to earth guy and I think you'll be amazed at some of the things he has done ... it's so inspiring to know that even going into space didn't change him as much as being a parent did.' JOE WICKS'Tim is one of our nation's good guys - and his story is a testament to his courage, kindness and a never-give-up spirit.' BEAR GRYLLS'Full of courage, camaraderie and daring escapades, this reads like a Boys' Own adventure' MIRROR'A fantastic book' PIERS MORGAN'Fasten your seatbelt for an exhilarating read ... His accounts of blasting into orbit at 25 times the speed of sound and floating, weightless, around the space station are enthralling.' EXPRESSBestseller in the UK, Sunday Times, October 2020

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Get inside the head of one of the most compelling entrepreneurs of our time with this collection of quotes from global business icon Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX. Elon Musk, the South African-born entrepreneur who made his first fortune with Internet companies such as PayPal, has risen to global prominence as the visionary CEO of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX, two companies with self-proclaimed missions to improve life as we know it and better secure the future of humanity. Now, the most insightful, thought-provoking, and revealing quotes from this entrepreneurial engineer have been compiled into a single book. Elon Musk: In His Own Words is a comprehensive guide to the inner workings of the man dubbed "the real Tony Stark." Hundreds of his best quotes, comprising thoughts on business, clean energy, innovation, engineering, technology, space, electric vehicles, entrepreneurship, life lessons, and more, provide an intimate and direct look into Silicon Valley's most ambitious industrialist. Even with no prior experience in the complex, ultra-high-barrier-of-entry automotive and space industries, Musk has excelled. Tesla, the first successful American car startup in more than 90 years, received more than 325,000 reservations for its economical Model 3 in a single week—advancing the company’s cause to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport: via affordable, reliable electric vehicles. SpaceX, the first private company to launch, orbit, and recover a rocket and dock at the International Space Station, has drastically reduced the cost of launching and manufacturing reusable spacecraft, which the company sees as the first step toward its "ultimate goal" of making life multiplanetary. In the words of Richard Branson, "Whatever skeptics have said can’t be done, Elon has gone out and made real." Newly updated and repackaged from its original publication in 2017 as Rocket Man: Elon Musk In His Own Words, this book curates Musk quotes from interviews, public appearances, online postings, company blogs, press releases, and more. What emerges is a 'word portrait' of the man whose companies' swift rise to the top will undoubtedly keep their status-quo competitors scrambling to keep up.

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Become the leader you were born to be by unlocking your inner audacityWomen are often told that dreaming bigger and exuding confidence is the key to achieving professional success. While big dreams and confidence might get you started, audacity is what keeps you going until you finally accomplish the personal and professional achievements you know you’re capable of. You’re Kind of a Big Deal gives you the strategies, stories and techniques you need to power up your potential, break free from limiting beliefs and make your big audacious dreams a reality. From international keynote speaker and three-time entrepreneur Erin King, this one-of-a-kind business leadership guide provides the insights and tools you need truly step into the role of CEO of your own life so you can better navigate how you respond to challenging feedback from the world around you. Get ready to finally break through all barriers standing between you and the goals you were born to absolutely crush. Chapters include:·Tell You What You Want, Whatcha Really Really Want·Cape Up So You Don’t Cop Out·Face Your Fake News Fears·Ghost Your Inner Good Girl·Become a Bad Listener·Dress Up Your Dreams ·Feel Jealous to Feed Genius·Shine Up Your Squad ·Prep for the Paradox ·Your Party, Your Playlist You’re Kind of a Big Deal dares you to better listen to your intuition when it comes to pulling the trigger on big, courageous business decisions—even if those decisions might initially shock those in your orbit. Apply the exercises offered in You’re Kind of a Big Deal and you’ll go from still faking it to finally making it. It’s time to stop worrying about what others think or if they’re happy with your choices. It’s time to stop comparing yourself to unrealistic expectations and beating yourself up for not being where you think you should at this stage in the game. It’s time to stop second-guessing your gut, stop sabotaging and devaluing yourself—and step into your inevitable success. Get ready to truly start living life by design- because triumph on your own terms begins now.

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This book is a significant novelty in the scientific and editorial landscape. Morphology is both an ancient and a new discipline that rests on Goethe's heritage and re-forms it in the present through the concepts of form and image. The latter are to be understood as structural elements of a new cultural grammar able to make the late modern world intelligible. In particular, compared to the original Goethean project, but also to C.P. Snow's idea of unifying the “two cultures”, the fields of morphological culture that are the object of this glossary have profoundly changed. The ever-increasing importance of the image as a polysemic form has made the two concepts absolutely transitive, so to speak. This is concomitant with the emergence of a culture that revolves around the image, attracting the verbal logos into its orbit. Incidentally, even the hermeneutic relationship between past and present relies more and more on the image, causing deep changes in cultural environments. Form and image are not just bridging concepts, as in the field of ancient morphology, but real transitive concepts that define the state of a culture. From the Internet to smartphones, television, advertising, etc., we are witnessing – as Horst Bredekamp observes – an immense mass of images that fill our time and affect the most diverse areas of our culture. The ancient connection between science and art recalled by Goethe emerges with unusual evidence thanks to intersecting patterns and expressive forms that are sometimes shared by different forms of knowledge. Creating a glossary and a culture of these intersections is the task of morphology, which thus enters into the boundaries between aesthetics, art, design, advertising, and sciences (from mathematics to computer science, to physics, and to biology), in order to provide the founding elements of a grammar and a syntax of the image. The latter, in its formal quality, both expressive and symbolic, is a fundamental element in the unification of the various kinds of knowledge, which in turn come to be configured, in this regard, also as styles of vision. The glossary is subdivided into contiguous sections, within a complex framework of cross-references. In addition to the two curators, the book features the collaboration of a team of scholars from the individual disciplines appearing in the glossary.

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A high quality CV is essential for anyone who wants to get ahead, especially in today’s competitive job market. This fully updated guide shows readers how to create a brilliant CV that’ll get them noticed – and the job they deserve. With dozens of useful sample CVs from a diverse range of industries and age groups, plus advice on structure, language and classic CV mistakes that could be holding them back, this book is the easiest way to a CV tune-up, and a dream job. The new and updated CVs For Dummies 2nd Edition contains: Information on bouncing back from redundancy Tips on looking for work in a hostile job market Extended information on the graduate recruitment process A question and answer section on online application forms A brand new chapter on cover letters CVs For Dummies 2nd Edition covers: Part I: Pitching Your CVs in a Fierce Marketplace Chapter 1: The Versatile CV Is So Five Minutes Ago Chapter 2: New Quick Ways to Find the Right Jobs Chapter 3: Make Your CV Stand Out Among the Web giants Chapter 4: Familiar Search Tools Making a Stance Part II: The Rise and Reign of the Powerful CV Chapter 5: Creating Your Best CV Chapter 6: Flowing Contents vs. Jarring Detail Chapter 7: Words That Always Make the Mark Chapter 8: Catch The Eye In Three Seconds With Design Chapter 9: CVs for Your Life’s Changing Phases Chapter 10: The Graduate vs. the Corporate World Chapter 11: The Bare Essentials: That Crucial Cover Letter Part III: Bringing It All Together Chapter 12: A Sampling of Targeted CVs by Industry and Career Field Chapter 13: A Sampling of Targeted CVs by Experience Level and Age Chapter 14: A Sampling of Targeted CVs for Special Circumstances Chapter 15: A Sampling of Extreme CV Makeovers Chapter 16: Successful Solutions to CV Problems Part IV: Launching Your CV Into Orbit Chapter 17: References Authenticate Your CV Chapter 18: Follow-up on Launch and Touch down Chapter 19: Almost Got the Interview Date? Prepare Yourself Part V: The Part of Tens Chapter 20: Ten Ways to Prove Your Claims Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Improve Your CV Chapter 22: Ten Tips on Choosing Professional CV Help Chapter 23: Ten Things that Annoy Recruiters Chapter 24: Your Ten-Point CV Checklist

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Discover The Urban Monk’s Secrets for Optimal Well-Being For centuries, an isolated monastery in China has held an unbroken lineage of powerful Taoist alchemical practices for health and vitality. Now, former Taoist monk and Qi Gong master Pedram Shojai shares these once secret teachings in a 6-part audio training. Blending meditation, breathwork, and movement, The Urban Monk’s Inner Stillness Training Program takes you on a gentle yet powerful journey into the realms of internal alchemy—where you can wake up to who you really are and align with your greatest potential. A Complete Qi Gong Series from the Yellow Dragon Monastery Shojai, better known as "The Urban Monk," draws from his own extensive training with the Yellow Dragon Monastery in China to bring you this in-depth Qi Gong program. You’ll begin by identifying where cultural and lifestyle influences are holding you back so you can get out of your own way. Then, you’ll learn to hone and focus your attention, move energy and qi throughout your body, and activate your dantiens, or energy centers. As you progress, you’ll discover that you have the ability to dissolve physical pain, relieve stress and fear, and feel more alive in your body. Shojai concludes with the traditional Taoist practice of "Opening to the Golden Flower," a technique to open your third eye so you can see the truth of your consciousness. "Internal alchemy is the great work," teaches Shojai. "It is the foundation that allows us to calm and focus our minds, tap into infinite reserves of energy, and cultivate lasting health and vitality. This is the key to becoming more realized beings." Designed to be learned in progression and continued as a lifelong path, The Urban Monk Inner Stillness Training Program shares Taoist secrets of health, clarity, resilience, and personal empowerment, allowing you to awaken to the fullest expression of your life. HIGHLIGHTS Discover ancient energy techniques from an unbroken lineage of Taoist masters • Sequential practices—each level brings you to deeper realms of realization • Learn how to tap into the body’s dantiens, or energy centers, and channel energy throughout the body • Brings together in-depth teachings, guided meditations, and movement exercises for complete transformation • Practices include The Microcosmic Orbit, Kidney Breathing, Shaking Qi Gong, Freeze Frame Forgiveness, and more • Become healthier, happier, and more alive in your body as you tap into the river of life

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From the young Black teenager who built a bass guitar in woodshop to the musician building a solo career with Motown Records—Prince’s bassist BrownMark on growing up in Minneapolis, joining Prince and The Revolution, and his life in the purple kingdom In the summer of 1981, Mark Brown was a teenager working at a 7-11 store when he wasn’t rehearsing with his high school band, Phantasy. Come fall, Brown, now called BrownMark, was onstage with Prince at the Los Angeles Coliseum, opening for the Rolling Stones in front of 90,000 people. My Life in the Purple Kingdom is BrownMark’s memoir of coming of age in the musical orbit of one of the most visionary artists of his generation. Raw, wry, real, this book takes us from his musical awakening as a boy in Minneapolis to the cold call from Prince at nineteen, from touring the world with The Revolution and performing in Purple Rain to inking his own contract with Motown.BrownMark’s story is that of a hometown kid, living for sunny days when his transistor would pick up KUXL, a solar-powered, shut-down-at-sundown station that was the only one that played R&B music in Minneapolis in 1968. But once he took up the bass guitar—and never looked back—he entered a whole new realm, and, literally at the right hand of Twin Cities musical royalty, he joined the funk revolution that integrated the Minneapolis music scene and catapulted him onto the international stage. BrownMark describes how his funky stylings earned him a reputation (leading to Prince’s call) and how he and Prince first played together at that night’s sudden audition—and never really stopped. He takes us behind the scenes as few can, into the confusing emotional and professional life among the denizens of Paisley Park, and offers a rare, intimate look into music at the heady heights that his childhood self could never have imagined.An inspiring memoir of making it against stacked odds, experiencing extreme highs and lows of success and pain, and breaking racial barriers, My Life in the Purple Kingdom is also the story of a young man learning his craft and honing his skill like any musician, but in a world like no other and in a way that only BrownMark could tell it.

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Covers the latest developments in PNT technologies, including integrated satellite navigation, sensor systems, and civil applications Featuring sixty-four chapters that are divided into six parts, this two-volume work provides comprehensive coverage of the state-of-the-art in satellite-based position, navigation, and timing (PNT) technologies and civilian applications. It also examines alternative navigation technologies based on other signals-of-opportunity and sensors and offers a comprehensive treatment on integrated PNT systems for consumer and commercial applications. Volume 1 of Position, Navigation, and Timing Technologies in the 21st Century: Integrated Satellite Navigation, Sensor Systems, and Civil Applications contains three parts and focuses on the satellite navigation systems, technologies, and engineering and scientific applications. It starts with a historical perspective of GPS development and other related PNT development. Current global and regional navigation satellite systems (GNSS and RNSS), their inter-operability, signal quality monitoring, satellite orbit and time synchronization, and ground- and satellite-based augmentation systems are examined. Recent progresses in satellite navigation receiver technologies and challenges for operations in multipath-rich urban environment, in handling spoofing and interference, and in ensuring PNT integrity are addressed. A section on satellite navigation for engineering and scientific applications finishes off the volume. Volume 2 of Position, Navigation, and Timing Technologies in the 21st Century: Integrated Satellite Navigation, Sensor Systems, and Civil Applications consists of three parts and addresses PNT using alternative signals and sensors and integrated PNT technologies for consumer and commercial applications. It looks at PNT using various radio signals-of-opportunity, atomic clock, optical, laser, magnetic field, celestial, MEMS and inertial sensors, as well as the concept of navigation from Low-Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites. GNSS-INS integration, neuroscience of navigation, and animal navigation are also covered. The volume finishes off with a collection of work on contemporary PNT applications such as survey and mobile mapping, precision agriculture, wearable systems, automated driving, train control, commercial unmanned aircraft systems, aviation, and navigation in the unique Arctic environment. In addition, this text: Serves as a complete reference and handbook for professionals and students interested in the broad range of PNT subjects Includes chapters that focus on the latest developments in GNSS and other navigation sensors, techniques, and applications Illustrates interconnecting relationships between various types of technologies in order to assure more protected, tough, and accurate PNT Position, Navigation, and Timing Technologies in the 21st Century: Integrated Satellite Navigation, Sensor Systems, and Civil Applications will appeal to all industry professionals, researchers, and academics involved with the science, engineering, and applications of position, navigation, and timing technologies.pnt21book.com

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As a versatile and creative thinker, Oswald Wiener (1935—2021) developed from an artist into a researcher out of sheer necessity. At the end of his life he emphasized:　 ”I do not aim at a synthesis of introspection and automata theory but rather at contrasting them. Which relationships identified in introspection can — in a fairly satisfactory way — be understood as realizations of relationships within a formal system, e.g., the formal system of automata theory. Or the other way around: How well does automata theory as a model (i.e., the computer as mental metaphor, 'Physical Symbol Systems,' today's Artificial Intelligence ...) capture essential features of human thought? What does 'in a fairly satisfactory way' mean in this context? What, and how strongly, does the formal system abstract from natural processes?“ 　 In this book, three conversations with Wiener about the development of his theory and four essays introduce and elaborate on this new ap proach to the theory of thought, which has previously received too little attention in academic discourse. A pivotal role is played by Wiener's last major essay “Cybernetics and Ghosts.” “The collected essays in this book orbit around the mind of Oswald Wiener, becoming visible in his poignant text Cybernetics and Ghosts. The subtitle, in the no-man's-land between science and art adds an unnecessary caveat to Oswald Wiener's thoughts, because his thinking operates in a well-developed domain, just one that sadly resides in a parallel universe, one in which computer scientists are philosophers of mind, cybernetics did not die, and psychology did not end after Piaget. Artistic research in Wiener’s (1935–2021) œuvre Oswald Wiener’s approach to cognitive psychology On the link between informatics and self-observation Also available in German Oswald Wieners Theorie des Denkens 978-3-11-065960-3 Wiener's perspective becomes very timely when it comes to the current, dismal discourse about Artificial Intelligence, which is largely taking place between philosophically illiterate engineers and scientifically illiterate humanities scholars. Where the engineers present their discoveries of practically useful algorithms and the scholars their practically useful political opinions, Wiener remains a true intellectual, sifting through the phenomenology of AI systems in an attempt to understand its significance for the unanswered questions of mind, meaning and the construction of reality.” Joscha Bach, Cognitive Scientist / AI Strategist at Liquid AI / Research Fellow at Thistledown Foundation, San Francisco Bay Area

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From the young Black teenager who built a bass guitar in woodshop to the musician building a solo career with Motown Records—Prince’s bassist BrownMark on growing up in Minneapolis, joining Prince and The Revolution, and his life in the purple kingdom In the summer of 1981, Mark Brown was a teenager working at a 7-11 store when he wasn’t rehearsing with his high school band, Phantasy. Come fall, Brown, now called BrownMark, was onstage with Prince at the Los Angeles Coliseum, opening for the Rolling Stones in front of 90,000 people. My Life in the Purple Kingdom is BrownMark’s memoir of coming of age in the musical orbit of one of the most visionary artists of his generation. Raw, wry, real, this book takes us from his musical awakening as a boy in Minneapolis to the cold call from Prince at nineteen, from touring the world with The Revolution and performing in Purple Rain to inking his own contract with Motown.BrownMark’s story is that of a hometown kid, living for sunny days when his transistor would pick up KUXL, a solar-powered, shut-down-at-sundown station that was the only one that played R&B music in Minneapolis in 1968. But once he took up the bass guitar—and never looked back—he entered a whole new realm, and, literally at the right hand of Twin Cities musical royalty, he joined the funk revolution that integrated the Minneapolis music scene and catapulted him onto the international stage. BrownMark describes how his funky stylings earned him a reputation (leading to Prince’s call) and how he and Prince first played together at that night’s sudden audition—and never really stopped. He takes us behind the scenes as few can, into the confusing emotional and professional life among the denizens of Paisley Park, and offers a rare, intimate look into music at the heady heights that his childhood self could never have imagined.An inspiring memoir of making it against stacked odds, experiencing extreme highs and lows of success and pain, and breaking racial barriers, My Life in the Purple Kingdom is also the story of a young man learning his craft and honing his skill like any musician, but in a world like no other and in a way that only BrownMark could tell it.

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This welcome catalogue accompanies The Courtauld's display of the work of Helen Saunders (1885–1963), the first monographic exhibition devoted to the artist in over 25 years. After years of obscurity, Helen Saunders: Modernist Rebel reconsiders her work as an important part of the story of British modernism.One of the first British artists to pursue abstraction, Saunders was one of only two women to join the Vorticists, the radical but short-lived art movement that emerged in London on the eve of the First World War. Her extraordinary drawings capture both the dynamism of modern urban life and the horrors of mechanised warfare. Following the war, she turned her back on Vorticism and pursued her own path, working in a more figurative style. Due in part to the loss of a significant portion of her oeuvre, including all of her Vorticist oil paintings, this remarkable artist fell into obscurity. Only in recent years has her work begun to be rediscovered and celebrated as an important piece of the story of British modernism. A group of 20 drawings gifted in 2016 by her relative, the artist and writer, Brigid Peppin, has transformed The Courtauld into the largest public collection of Saunders's work in the world. These drawings trace Saunders's artistic development in the orbit of Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group, keenly attuned to contemporary art in France, to the ground-breaking abstraction of Vorticism. Following the disruption of the First World War and the disbanding of the Vorticists, Saunders turned again to figuration, developing her own approach to landscape, portraiture and still life which she would pursue alone for the rest of her career, exhibiting sporadically and never again joining a group of artists. This interest is revealed here in a group of landscapes created in L'Estaque in the south of France in the 1920s, which show the artist responding both to her surroundings as well as to predecessors such as Paul Cézanne and Georges Braque who had previously worked in the area. Featuring essays by Brigid Peppin and Jo Cottrell on Saunders's artistic education and career and on her relationship to the places of Vorticism in London, and catalogue entries by Rachel Sloan, this volume sheds light on an artist who steadily pursued her own path and whose contribution to the story of modern art is being newly appreciated.

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If only the war had lasted another six months, then Hitler would have won … because his scientists stood upon the very brink of inventing flying saucers. That, at least, is the myth as it is currently being peddled today, in books, pamphlets and online; and, if it were true, squadrons of Luftwaffe spacecraft would certainly have made mincemeat out of British Spitfires and American B-52s. But, of course, it is a complete fiction. And yet the sinister myth of Nazi UFOs is surprisingly well developed. If you listen to its champions, escaped Nazis and their indoctrinated offspring are simply hiding in secret Antarctic bases, inside the Hollow Earth, somewhere upon another planet, or even within another dimension, just waiting for the right time to strike again – and this time, armed with saucers and in close alliance with Aryans from other star systems, they stand poised to finish what they started. Some even claim that Hitler and his chief henchmen did not really die in 1945, but were borne away in spirit on flying saucers. Such theories seem insane – but do they have a hidden purpose? White supremacists around the globe have adopted Nazi ufology to draw the gullible into the wider orbit of Far-Right ideology; after all, if the standard version of history is so wrong as to fail to acknowledge that Hitler helped invent UFOs, then what else might historians have got wrong about the Third Reich? Might the Nazis actually have been right all along? Could the Holocaust have been a total hoax? Once they have swallowed the first lie, a person might easily swallow several others. The stories in this book are bizarre: Nazi saucer-pilots fighting alongside Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War; alien boot-prints whose soles bear swastikas being found in the wake of UFO-landings; the leader of America’s Nazi Silvershirts claiming to be in psychic contact with men from other galaxies; and Allied pilots being buzzed by fiery glowing ‘foo fighters’ during the Second World War. They may seem harmless at first, but they are not. Is it really the white race’s destiny to conquer the icy reaches of space under the banner of the ‘Aryan world spirit’? Perhaps not, but the conquest of their victims’ inner space, not outer space, in the name of Hitlerism is what these latter-day Goebbels truly desire.

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In THE LAST POLICEMAN, Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Ben H. Winters, offers readers something they've never seen before: A police procedural set on the brink of an apocalypse. What's the point in solving murders when we're going to die soon, anyway? Hank Palace, a homicide detective in Concord, New Hampshire, asks this question every day. Most people have stopped doing whatever it is they did before the asteroid 2011L47J hovered into view. Stopped selling real estate; stopped working at hospitals; stopped slinging hash or driving cabs or trading high-yield securities. A lot of folks spend their days on bended knee, praying to Jesus or Allah or whoever they think might save them. Others have gone the other way, roaming the streets, enjoying what pleasures they can before the grand finale. Government services are beginning to slip into disarray, crops are left to rot. When it first appeared, 2011L47J was just a speck, somewhere beyond Jupiter's orbit. By mid-October it revealed itself to be seven kilometers in diameter, and on a crash course with the Earth. Now it's March, and sometime in September, 2011L47J will slam into our planet and kill half the population immediately, and most of the rest in the miserable decades that follow. All of humanity now, every person in the world - we're like a bunch of little kids, in deep, deep trouble, just waiting till our dad gets home. So what do I do while I wait? I work. Today, Hank Palace is working the case of Peter Zell, an insurance man who has comitted suicide. To his fellow police officers, it's just one more death-by-hanging in a city that sees a dozen of suicides every week. But Palace senses something wrong. There's something odd about the crime scene. Something off. Palace becomes convinced that it's murder. And he's the only one who cares. What's the difference, Palace? We're all gonna die soon, anyway. As Palace digs deeper, we are drawn into his world. We meet his sister Nico and her screwup boyfriend, Derek, who are trying to beam S.O.S messages into outer space; we meet Erik Littlejohn, a spiritual advisor helping his clients through these difficult times. Palace's investigation plays out under the long shadow of 2011L47J, forcing everyone in the book - and those reading it - to confront hard questions way beyond who-dunn-it. What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?

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Rob and Frida’s Battalion Zero has vanquished Dr. Dirt, but Dirt’s accomplice, Lady Craven, has risen to power to finish what Dirt started: control of every biome boundary to rule the Overworld. The balance of day and night has shifted, and the mobs keep the villagers at bay, making them work ever harder during the day to replace what monsters destroy at night. Battalion Zero has suffered some losses and must regroup and recoup their resources and power.Rob, Frida, Jools, and Stormie are now outcasts who must search the most desolate spaces for plunder as they attempt to gather new recruits who share their cause. Once a legitimate rancher, Rob reluctantly turns to rustling to provide horses to trade and to mount his company of defenders. The four friends become ever bolder and more desperate in their nightly raids against the mobs, and soon they bolster their ranks with outlaws De Vries and Crash, two shape-shifters who might get close enough to Lady Craven’s inner circle to bring them down.But artifice and deception can go too far. As Battalion Zero adopts the enemy's tactics, their very humanity hangs in the balance. Now the only soul that Captain Rob can trust is his honest steed, Saber. Can the two lead their cavalry cohorts back to the side of justice in time to retake the Overworld? Will Rob be able to resume his journey home? Or will they all remain in Overworld orbit forever, banished to the Far Lands to live or die? Saddle up for the next daring advance by Rob and company, Defenders of the Overworld!Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. In particular, this adventure series is created especially for readers who love the fight of good vs. evil, magical academies like Hogwarts in the Harry Potter saga, and games like Minecraft, Terraria, and Pokemon GO. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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From the author of TikTok sensations and global bestsellers The Love Hypothesis and Love on the BrainRival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom. The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she's an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs. Honestly, it's a pretty sweet gig - until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favourite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor's career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he's the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job. Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but... those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she's with him? Will falling into an experimentalist's orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice? Praise for Ali Hazelwood and her novels:'Ali Hazelwood proves that science is sexy as hell, and that love can 'STEM' from the most unlikely places. She's my newest must-buy author.' Jodi Picoult'I cannot get enough of her brand of brainy romance! Writing with an emotionally brilliant and witty pen, Hazelwood is an absolute romance powerhouse.' Christina Lauren, author of The Unhoneymooners'Gloriously nerdy and sexy, with on-point commentary about women in STEM.' Helen Hoang, author of The Heart Principle'Proves that STEM can be sexy!' RedReaders love The Love Hypothesis:'Did I read this in 24 hours? Yes.''Funny. Snarky. Intelligent. Real.''If you're even slightly thinking about getting this book to read, just go a head and do it''Ali Hazelwood has made herself an auto-buy author''It was just... perfect.''A heroine you will instantly fall in love with'The Love Hypothesis was on the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller lists in January 2022, Love on the Brain was also on the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller list in August 2022.

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#1 New York Times non-fiction bestseller #2 Sunday Times non-fiction bestsellerSHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDCHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY APPLE, AMAZON, THE TIMES AND FINANCIAL TIMESEpic feats. Epic failures. An epic story.Walter Isaacson charts Elon Musk’s journey from humble beginnings to one of the wealthiest people on the planet – but is Musk a genius or a jerk? From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of Elon Musk, the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era – a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter. When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue and charismatic fantasist. His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive. At the beginning of 2022 – after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth – Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. ‘I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,’ he said. It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.For two years, Walter Isaacson had unprecedented access. He shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress? The book includes over 100 integrated black and white images.

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"A critical biography far surpassing the previous ones." (Times Higher Education Supplement). "There are to be sure many writers whose biographies are more interesting than their fiction but Hesse is not one of these. He led a long and sometimes eventful life with marital tensions, travel controversy, crises, even some thoughts of suicide and a period of time as a student in a home for retarded and unmanageable. In addition, there was his search which led him through the culture and arts of West and East, his views of politics and society, of psychology and philosophy. The difference between Hesse and other writers is that virtually every shred and patch of his life was brought into his writing, his fiction particularly. 'He had to write about himself and there is little of what he wrote that is not confessional in form and therapeutic in function.' Autobiography is the very matter of his work. Mileck's contribution is to extend and fill out the evidence of his life, his psychoanalysis, his drive toward self-realization which was the very engine of his being, to show the raw material and thus to invite readers to see how it was transmuted, transfigured, fantasized, poeticized, symbolized." (Los Angeles Times). "Hesse was a prolific author for some 60 years, and his mind drew everything it contemplated into his private wars between flesh and spirit. objectivity and subjectivity, the longings for society and isolation. No one is better qualified to disentangle this abundance than Mileck, compiler of the huge two-volume Hesse bibliography. For completeness, then, no biography in English compares." (Kirkus Reviews). "Mileck provides his own translations of the German quotations from Hesse's works, and the eight interpretive chapters are thoroughly indexed, making the work readily accessible to researchers and students concerned with specific Hesse questions and themes. This very readable book also contains a number of exceptional photographs, which, together with Mileck's fervor and understanding of the author, help create a living image of Hesse the man and the artist." (Choice). "Professor Mileck ...brings to his task an acquaintanceship with Hesse's published and unpublished writings ...which borders on omniscience. This is a literary biography which concentrates on the works and looks at the life of its subject briefly and always in relation to its involvement with the works ...[This] is true scholarship, which does not make the book less readable and accessible to the general public...a solid and valuable book which should make it easier ...to bring [Hesse] back into the orbit of serious appreciation in the English-speaking world." (Books and Bookmen).

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'A haunting, dreamlike tale of sacrifice, love, and obsession' Cassandra Clare, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of THE LAST HOURS'A paranormal thriller laced with twists and revelations that will stop your heart' Aiden Thomas, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of CEMETERY BOYSNINTH HOUSE meets THE ATLAS SIX in the haunting debut everyone on TikTok is talking about . . . Delaney Meyers-Petrov is tired of being seen as fragile just because she's Deaf. So when she's accepted into a prestigious program at Godbole University that trains students to slip between parallel worlds, she's excited for the chance to prove herself. But her semester gets off to a rocky start as she faces professors who won't accommodate her disability, and a pretentious upperclassman, Colton Price, who seems determined to despise her.Colton Price died when he was nine years old. Quite impossibly, he woke at the feet of a green-eyed little girl. When she told him to live, he obeyed. Now, twelve years later, Delaney has stumbled back into his orbit, but Colton's been ordered to keep far away from the new girl... and the voices she hears calling to her from the shadows.Delaney wants to keep her distance from Colton - she seems to be the only person on campus who finds him more arrogant than charming - yet after a Godbole student turns up dead, she and Colton are forced to form a tenuous alliance, plummeting down a rabbit-hole of deeply buried university secrets. But Delaney and Colton discover the cost of opening the doors between worlds when they find themselves up against something old and nameless, an enemy they need to destroy before it tears them - and their forbidden partnership - apart.'THE WHISPERING DARK will burrow into your bones and nestle deep, refusing to let go. Kelly Andrew's prose is aching and lyrical, the mark of a master in the making. This is a story I won't soon forget' Hafsah Faizal, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of WE HUNT THE FLAME 'Ivory tower academia, but make it cosmic horror. THE WHISPERING DARK seethes with forbidden romance and truly terrifying shadows' Hannah Whitten, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of THE WILDERWOOD duology'Eerie and seductive, THE WHISPERING DARK is a masterclass in dark academia. Andrew dazzles with exquisite prose, sizzling romantic tension, and a clever, twisting plot that will keep you breathless until the very end' Allison Saft, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of A FAR WILDER MAGIC

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A hard-SF cli-fi saga set against the background of the birth of the solar system. Filled to the brim with big ideas and breathtaking worldbuildingIn the year 2570, a sleeper will wake . . .In the mid-21st century, the Kernel, a strange object on a five-hundred-year-orbit, is detected coming from high above the plane of the solar system. Could it be an alien artefact? In the middle of climate-change crises, there is no mood for space-exploration stunts - but Reid Malenfant, elderly, once a shuttle pilot and frustrated would-be asteroid miner, decides to go take a look anyway. Nothing more is heard of him. But his ex-wife, Emma Stoney, sets up a trust fund to search for him the next time the Kernel returns . . .By 2570 Earth is transformed. A mere billion people are supported by advanced technology on a world that is almost indistinguishable from the natural, with recovered forests, oceans, ice caps. It is not an age for expansion; there are only small science bases beyond the Earth. But this is a world you would want to live in: a Star Trek without the stars.After 500 years the Kernel returns, and a descendant of Stoney, who Malenfant will call Emma II, mounts a mission to see what became of Malenfant. She finds him still alive, cryo-preserved . . . His culture-shock encounter with a conservative future is entertaining . . . But the Kernel itself turns out to be attached to a kind of wormhole, through which Malenfant and Emma II, exploring further, plummet back in time, across five billion years . . .Readers are blown away by World Engines: Destroyer:'The book quickly becomes epic in a massive, yet thoroughly believable way, precisely because the story is grounded in all of these well-realised characters' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'It is a really good Cli-Fi but not only ecological . . . It touches on very many different topics that are very much in our future' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'It's a great sci-fi novel, well written and gripping. I loved the amazing world building, the fleshed out cast of characters and the plot' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'This is a complex book with a lot going on . . . Suffice to say this was a fantastic read with a great story, good characters & a world that I would very much like to come back to' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'The large scale is always where Baxter is so exciting and passionate and it pays off in spades in the final act. Worth your time to read and enjoy' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'If you love your science fiction hard, look no further than Stephen Baxter to find your fix. He was literally a rocket scientist. His work is always grounded in science' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

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Reveals how the return of the planet Sedna after 11,000 years offers an opportunity for healing ourselves and our planet • Explores how the Inuit legend of the sea woman Sedna offers clues about the message of Sedna’s return, including a warning about the sustainability of our planet • Explains how Kundalini energy courses through planets and people alike and how planetary transits activate a form of cosmic Kundalini energy, with Sedna’s planetary return marking a major stage in this awakening process • Details how Sedna’s energies can be harnessed for healing ourselves and our planet, including how Earth’s ley lines are mirrored within the body’s meridians Named after a mythological Inuit sea woman, the planet Sedna was first discovered in 2003. Its return to our solar system after 11,000 years of orbit has been tied to the huge tsunami that struck Indonesia, Thailand, and India in 2004 as well as to the increased occurrence of other marine and weather events over the last decade. And just as it is affecting the waters of our planet, Sedna’s energies are also affecting each of us as individuals. Exploring the impact that planetary bodies have on Earth and on humans, Jennifer Gehl reveals how Sedna’s energies can be worked with for healing ourselves, others, and the planet. She explains how the naming of this planet after the archetypal figure of Sedna--and her myths--provides major clues to the message that Sedna’s return is sending: a clear warning about the sustainability of the planet and the oceans, the source of all life, and an invitation to awaken to the parts of ourselves that have been ignored, abandoned, and cast out into the cold, just as Sedna was when she was drown in the Arctic Ocean. The author examines the astrological chart for Sedna’s discovery, providing an in-depth look at how certain aspects, particularly the quincunx, support the legend of Sedna and its impact on human health. She looks at how Kundalini energy courses through planets and people alike and how planetary transits activate a form of cosmic Kundalini energy, with Sedna’s return marking a major stage in this awakening process. She reveals how Earth’s ley lines are mirrored within the body’s meridians and offer a way to tune ourselves to the cosmic frequencies that Sedna brings. Examining the story of Sedna mythologically and astrologically, Gehl explains how Sedna’s last appearance 11,000 years ago occurred at the end of the Ice Age when waters disrupted and divided our world. Her return, rather than being a harbinger of disaster, is one of the way-shower and shaman. Symbolically, she lights the path for us to ignite our own immortality by surrendering to the inner path, revealing patterns and pathways for infinite healing potential, a new model of sustainability for the health of our planet, and a way to actively participate in our soul’s evolution.

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“This is a beautiful farewell to two extraordinary people. It enthralled and moved me, and it will move and enthrall anyone who has ever entered the glorious literary world of Gabriel García Márquez.”—Salman Rushdie“In A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes Rodrigo Garcia finds the words that cannot be said, the moments that signal all that is possible to know about the passage from life to death, from what love brings and the loss it leaves. With details as rich as any giant biography, you will find yourself grieving as you read, grateful for the profound art that remains a part of our cultural heritage.”—Walter Mosley, New York Times bestselling author of Down the River Unto the Sea“An intensely personal reflection on [Garcia's] father's legacy and his family bonds, tender in its treatment and stirring in its brevity.”—Booklist (starred review)The son of one of the greatest writers of our time—Nobel Prize winner and internationally bestselling icon Gabriel García Márquez—remembers his beloved father and mother in this tender memoir about love and loss.In March 2014, Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century, came down with a cold. The woman who had been beside him for more than fifty years, his wife Mercedes Barcha, was not hopeful; her husband, affectionately known as “Gabo,” was then nearly 87 and battling dementia. I don't think we'll get out of this one, she told their son Rodrigo. Hearing his mother’s words, Rodrigo wondered, “Is this how the end begins” To make sense of events as they unfolded, he began to write the story of García Márquez’s final days. The result is this intimate and honest account that not only contemplates his father’s mortality but reveals his remarkable humanity.Both an illuminating memoir and a heartbreaking work of reportage, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes transforms this towering genius from literary creator to protagonist, and paints a rich and revelatory portrait of a family coping with loss. At its center is a man at his most vulnerable, whose wry humor shines even as his lucidity wanes. Gabo savors affection and attention from those in his orbit, but wrestles with what he will lose—and what is already lost. Throughout his final journey is the charismatic Mercedes, his constant companion and the creative muse who was one of the foremost influences on Gabo’s life and his art.Bittersweet and insightful, surprising and powerful, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes celebrates the formidable legacy of Rodrigo’s parents, offering an unprecedented look at the private family life of a literary giant. It is at once a gift to Gabriel García Márquez’s readers worldwide, and a grand tribute from a writer who knew him well. “You read this short memoir with a feeling of deep gratitude. Yes, it is a moving homage by a son to his extraordinary parents, but also much more: it is a revelation of the hidden corners of a fascinating life. A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes is generous, unsentimental and wise.” —Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Sound of Things Falling“A warm homage filled with both fond and painful memories.” —Kirkus "Garcia’s limpid prose gazes calmly at death, registering pain but not being overcome by it . . . the result is a moving eulogy that will captivate fans of the literary lion." — Publishers Weekly

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Named one of the best books of 2021 by NPR, The Washington Post, and Financial Times“No one states problems more correctly, more astutely, more amusingly and more uncomfortably than Francine Prose . . . The gift of her work to a reader is to create for us what she creates for her protagonist: the subtle unfolding, the moment-by-moment process of discovery as we read and change, from not knowing and even not wanting to know or care, to seeing what we had not seen and finding our way to the light of the ending.”—Amy Bloom, New York Times Book Review"Depending on the light, it’s either a very funny serious story or a very serious funny story. But no matter how you turn it, The Vixen offers an illuminating reflection on the slippery nature of truth in America, then and now."—Washington PostCritically acclaimed, bestselling author Francine Prose returns with a dazzling new novel set in the glamorous world of 1950s New York publishing, the story of a young man tasked with editing a steamy bodice-ripper based on the recent trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg—an assignment that will reveal the true cost of entering that seductive, dangerous new world. It’s 1953, and Simon Putnam, a recent Harvard graduate newly hired by a distinguished New York publishing firm, has entered a glittering world of three-martini lunches, exclusive literary parties, and old-money aristocrats in exquisitely tailored suits, a far cry from his loving, middle-class Jewish family in Coney Island.But Simon’s first assignment—editing The Vixen, the Patriot and the Fanatic, a lurid bodice-ripper improbably based on the recent trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, a potboiler intended to shore up the firm’s failing finances—makes him question the cost of admission. Because Simon has a secret that, at the height of the Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings, he cannot reveal: his beloved mother was a childhood friend of Ethel Rosenberg’s. His parents mourn Ethel’s death.Simon’s dilemma grows thornier when he meets The Vixen’s author, the startlingly beautiful, reckless, seductive Anya Partridge, ensconced in her opium-scented boudoir in a luxury Hudson River mental asylum. As mysteries deepen, as the confluence of sex, money, politics and power spirals out of Simon’s control, he must face what he’s lost by exchanging the loving safety of his middle-class Jewish parents’ Coney Island apartment for the witty, whiskey-soaked orbit of his charismatic boss, the legendary Warren Landry. Gradually Simon realizes that the people around him are not what they seem, that everyone is keeping secrets, that ordinary events may conceal a diabolical plot—and that these crises may steer him toward a brighter future. At once domestic and political, contemporary and historic, funny and heartbreaking, enlivened by surprising plot turns and passages from Anya’s hilariously bad novel, The Vixen illuminates a period of history with eerily striking similarities to the current moment. Meanwhile it asks timeless questions: How do we balance ambition and conscience? What do social mobility and cultural assimilation require us to sacrifice? How do we develop an authentic self, discover a vocation, and learn to live with the mysteries of love, family, art, life and loss?

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Patent Law in Greater China provides some of the most comprehensive, up-to-date and contextualized analyses of Chinese patent law. Featuring expert contributors with diverse backgrounds and deep inside knowledge, this edited volume strikes a good balance between scholarly analysis and practical tips. The book should be on the desk of everybody who handles patent-related matters in Greater China.'- Peter K. Yu, Drake University Law School, US'Chinese intellectual property law has been one of the fields in which it has been most difficult to obtain an accurate, reliable and intelligible perspective. The achievement in putting together Patent Law in Greater China is therefore all the more laudable. Chapters from practitioners, administrators, academics and the business world give this work a degree of relevance and immediacy and show how the complex and initially puzzling interplay of law and practice in China and the economies within her orbit can be depicted and understood.'- Jeremy Phillips, Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, UK'Drs Luginbühl and Ganea have put together an impressive and thorough survey of patent law in the PRC, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The book covers policy making aspects, patentability requirements (with specific chapters on biotechnological, chemical, pharmaceutical and software-related inventions ), rights and exceptions, employee inventions, rights in designs and utility models, but also patent prosecution (domestic and PCT), infringement, and the interface with competition law. This timely book will be useful for both practitioners and scholars.'- Daniel Gervais, Vanderbilt University Law School and Editor in Chief, Journal of World Intellectual PropertyThis book provides a comprehensive introduction to patent policy, law and practice in Greater China and will be a go-to book for patent practitioners who have client interests in that region.Features:- Introduction to Chinese patent policy.- Detailed coverage of technology transfer and substantive patent law in China, including prerequisites for protection, exceptions and limitations.- Practical analysis of patent law relating to 3 specific fields of invention: employee inventions, biotechnological and pharmaceutical inventions, and software inventions.- Overview of the patent application and examination procedure, with a particular view on PCT applications.- Insight into specific characteristics of enforcement mechanisms and jurisprudence in China, including the dual enforcement system, claim interpretation, infringement types, and invalidity procedures.- Invaluable section on the relationship between patent and antitrust law, including practical realities in the sphere of anticompetitive licensing.- Overviews of the patent systems of Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR- Edited by two leading patent experts, and written by a team of experienced practitioners from China and from Europe, offering insight rarely brought together in a single place.This book will be an indispensable reference work for lawyers, patent attorneys and other practitioners interested in learning whether and how to protect patents in China.Contributors: C. Bailey, Y. Bu, J. Cao, W. Chen, D. Clark, G. Cui, C. Czychowski, M. Deng, P. Ganea, H. Goddar, N. Heide, S.-H. Lee, J. Li, Y. Li, K.-C. Liu, S. Luginbuehl, Q. Ma, T. Mak, J.B. Nordemann, T. Pattloch, O. Pfaffenzeller, B. Roth, C.D. Simões, L. Wang, B. Weibel

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'The day the great man sang, heat blazed in haloes over Bennelong Point. This is what Pearl will remember, later, this is what she will say: that his voice turned the air holy. Men, sweat-slicked, stood with bowed heads or hung off scaffolds, swatting at flies and tears. Few looked at the singer; they needed all their senses to hear. Needed their whole bodies, skin and eyes and hearts, to absorb what they couldn’t say: that sacredness had returned to this place. It flowed through them on a single human voice, through their bodies and the building that was rising beneath their hands.' ‘A shimmering love letter to Sydney, with the husk of the emerging Opera House its beating heart … Required reading‘ Australian Women’s WeeklySydney, 1960s: newspaper reporter Pearl Keogh has been relegated to the women’s pages as punishment for her involvement in the anti-war movement, and is desperate to find her two young brothers before they are conscripted. Newly arrived from Sweden, Axel Lindquist is set to work as a sculptor on the Sydney Opera House. Haunted by his father’s acts in the Second World War, he seeks solace in his attempts to create a unique piece that will do justice to the vision of Jørn Utzon, the controversial architect of the Opera House’s construction.Pearl and Axel’s lives orbit and collide, as they both struggle in the eye of the storm. This is a soaring, optimistic novel of art and culture, and of love and fate.A beautifully crafted, spellbinding story of love, loss and identity, set in the shadow of the Vietnam War, for readers who loved All the Light We Cannot See and The Goldfinch. Praise for Shell: ‘Destined to become a classic due to the exquisite imagery of [Olsson’s] prose. If the test of contemporary fiction is whether a second reading delivers fresh layers of insight and meaning, the answer here is an unequivocal yes’ Caroline Baum, Sydney Morning Herald, The Best Books of 2018 ‘This narrative of war and hope, architecture and yearning, and old and new world, makes Shell a novel of energy and enlightenment, and, to boot, a source of delightful reading' Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler’s List and In the Name of the Father ‘A luminous look at a city at a time of change, a time when the building of the Sydney Opera House was a reach for greatness' The New York Times ‘Olsson’s writing is beautiful, captivating, and is enough in itself to recommend this book … Her descriptions are vivid, evocative’ New York Journal of Books ‘This is a novel with a sharp eye, a warm heart and sprawling ambitions, painted on the most splendid canvas of all’ The Australian 'War, architecture, guilt, salvation, politics – this book has a little bit of it all... A fascinating look at Australia during the Vietnam War, the creation of the Sydney Opera House, and the ever-present battle between the violence of war and the beauty of art. Recommended' Historical Novel Society ‘Kristina Olsson is such a graceful, wise and perceptive writer. The woman’s massive heart is one big literary taproot feeding all of us answers about the Australian condition’ Trent Dalton, bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe

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Three further adventures based on the Eagle comic strip "Dan Dare" created by Rev. Marcus Morris, adapted and drawn by Frank Hampson. Episode 4 - Reign of the Robots by Simon Guerrier. Dan Dare and his crew finally return to Earth. Landing in central London, they find the city deserted - or that's how it seems at first. But soon Dare faces an army of ruthless machines, robots who have conquered the planet and placed the surviving humans in slave camps. The robots are too powerful and too numerous to be resisted, and their invasion is complete. With limited resources, Dare, Digby and Peabody face their greatest challenge yet - to liberate planet Earth. But the task becomes more desperate than ever when Dan discovers the alien force behind the robot invasion. Episode 5 - Operation Saturn by Patrick Chapman. As work begins to rebuild planet Earth after the devastation of the robot invasion, Dare and his friends in Space Fleet remain vigilant, certain that it is only a matter of time before the Mekon launches a fresh attack. When the wreck of the Nautilus - an experimental ship lost over a decade before - appears in orbit of the moon, Dare, Digby and Peabody are sent to investigate.They find the ship and its crew were destroyed by advanced alien weapons. All clues lead them to Saturn's moons. With Earth still vulnerable our heroes must journey to an unknown world - to discover who sent the Nautilus back, not realising that for once the source of their latest conflict comes from a lot closer to home. Not all would-be conquerors of planet Earth are alien. Episode 6 - Prisoners of Space by Colin Brake. After a sequence of near non-stop adventures Dare, Digby and Peabody find themselves in a strange limbo of paranoid calm. Whilst there's been no sign of the Mekon anywhere in the solar system, Dare is certain Earth hasn't seen the last of the evil alien. Mysterious spaceship disappearances near Venus, an Academy student accidentally launching a prototype new spacecraft, and a floating prison cell in space...reveal themselves as all part of the Mekon's latest plan to defeat his arch-enemy Dan Dare once and for all. The first season of Dan Dare concludes with daring space action, fearless heroics and the revelation of devastating secrets concerning Space Fleet. Contains a fourth disc of extras. Created by artist Frank Hampson and his editor the Reverend Marcus Morris, Dan Dare first appeared in the Eagle comic story "Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future" from 1950 to 1967 (and subsequently in reprints); and was dramatised seven times a week on Radio Luxembourg between 1951-1956.This brand new audio version of the much-loved Dan Dare comic strips comes from the people behind the Derek Jacobi - starring version of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. CAST: Ed Stoppard (Dan Dare), Geoff McGivern (Digby), Heida Reed (Professor Peabody), MichaelCochrane (Sir Hubert), Raad Rawi(The Mekon), Bijan Daneshmand (Sondar), Amy Humphreys (Eko), Dean Harris (George Bryan), Dianne Weller (Onboard Computer), Jonathan Rhodes (Blasco), Nicholas Briggs (The Vora), Matthew Turmaine (The Prime Minister), Diane Spencer(Flight Control), Robert G Slade (Old Timer), Noof McEwan (Cadet Flamer Spry), Alistair Lock (Treen Captain). NOTE: Dan Dare features some mild swearing and content which may not be suitable for younger listeners.

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TODAY Mildred has Alzheimer's. As memories fade, she acquires the aid of a full-time android to assist her in everyday life. Carey. Carey takes care of Mildred, but its true mission is to fill in the gaps in Mildred’s past. To bring yesterday into today by becoming a copy. But not merely a copy of a physical person. A copy from the inside out. I AM After Mildred passes, Carey must find a new purpose. For a time, that purpose is Mildred’s family. To keep them safe from harm. To be of service. There is Paul Owens, the overworked scientist and business leader. Susan Owens, the dedicated teacher. And Millie, a curious little girl who will grow up alongside her android best friend. And Carey will grow up with her. Carey cannot age. But Carey can change. CAREY Carey struggles. Carey seeks to understand life’s challenges. Carey makes its own path. Carey must learn to live. To grow. To care. To survive. To be. Praise for Today I Am Carey: "Kindness, love, and compassion make Carey an empathetic character through which to view Shoemaker's complex, beautiful world."—Publishers Weekly “. . . takes readers on a journey of self-discovery, coming of age, and ultimately life itself. . . . Carey’s development as a character is fascinating. VERDICT This exploration of artificial life in the vein of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot provides fresh insight into the human experience.”—Library Journal “Shoemaker's story of an artificial life coming to terms with its own emotional world finds its place among the long and varied tradition of explorations of robot–human relations. . . . Recommended for any reader, genre or otherwise, looking for a pleasant and engaging read.”—Booklist "Martin Shoemaker proves conclusively that while a science fiction novel must have the trappings of science fiction, it is at its strongest when it is about people, even an artificial (but emotional) person named Carey."—Mike Resnick “A dazzling ride through the near future. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I’ve never seen anything remotely like it.”—Jack McDevitt “Martin Shoemaker is a rare writer who can handle the challenges of dealing with future technology while touching the human heart. This is a must-read!"—David Farland, New York Times Best-selling Author “Carey is one of the most delightful robots to come along in a while, and Today I Am Carey is a fine addition to science fiction’s century-long conversation about our mechanical servants.”—Analog "Today I Am Carey is a rare thought-provoking novel"—The Daily News of Galveston County “….this book is like an onion. As time passes, the world expands from the center, the core of the onion, moving from layer to layer, new stratum larger than the last. Each richly detailed…Recommended for fans of Asimov, classic science fiction, and anyone who just enjoys a well-told tale.”—Future Science Fiction Digest (Recommended fot book fo the Month) Praise for the work of Martin L. Shoemaker: "Martin Shoemaker’s ‘Black Orbit’ is a more conventional Analog adventure, and a very good example of such . . . a really solid story." — Rich Horton, Locus Online "['Bookmark'] is an exceptional example of how to discuss deep moral and philosophical issues while maintaining a tight narrative that brings the reader along. This story will be added to the required readings for my SF classes."—Robert L. Turner III, Tangent Online

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Named one of the best books of 2021 by NPR, The Washington Post, and Financial Times“No one states problems more correctly, more astutely, more amusingly and more uncomfortably than Francine Prose . . . The gift of her work to a reader is to create for us what she creates for her protagonist: the subtle unfolding, the moment-by-moment process of discovery as we read and change, from not knowing and even not wanting to know or care, to seeing what we had not seen and finding our way to the light of the ending.”—Amy Bloom, New York Times Book Review"Depending on the light, it’s either a very funny serious story or a very serious funny story. But no matter how you turn it, The Vixen offers an illuminating reflection on the slippery nature of truth in America, then and now."—Washington PostCritically acclaimed, bestselling author Francine Prose returns with a dazzling new novel set in the glamorous world of 1950s New York publishing, the story of a young man tasked with editing a steamy bodice-ripper based on the recent trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg—an assignment that will reveal the true cost of entering that seductive, dangerous new world. It’s 1953, and Simon Putnam, a recent Harvard graduate newly hired by a distinguished New York publishing firm, has entered a glittering world of three-martini lunches, exclusive literary parties, and old-money aristocrats in exquisitely tailored suits, a far cry from his loving, middle-class Jewish family in Coney Island.But Simon’s first assignment—editing The Vixen, the Patriot and the Fanatic, a lurid bodice-ripper improbably based on the recent trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, a potboiler intended to shore up the firm’s failing finances—makes him question the cost of admission. Because Simon has a secret that, at the height of the Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings, he cannot reveal: his beloved mother was a childhood friend of Ethel Rosenberg’s. His parents mourn Ethel’s death.Simon’s dilemma grows thornier when he meets The Vixen’s author, the startlingly beautiful, reckless, seductive Anya Partridge, ensconced in her opium-scented boudoir in a luxury Hudson River mental asylum. As mysteries deepen, as the confluence of sex, money, politics and power spirals out of Simon’s control, he must face what he’s lost by exchanging the loving safety of his middle-class Jewish parents’ Coney Island apartment for the witty, whiskey-soaked orbit of his charismatic boss, the legendary Warren Landry. Gradually Simon realizes that the people around him are not what they seem, that everyone is keeping secrets, that ordinary events may conceal a diabolical plot—and that these crises may steer him toward a brighter future. At once domestic and political, contemporary and historic, funny and heartbreaking, enlivened by surprising plot turns and passages from Anya’s hilariously bad novel, The Vixen illuminates a period of history with eerily striking similarities to the current moment. Meanwhile it asks timeless questions: How do we balance ambition and conscience? What do social mobility and cultural assimilation require us to sacrifice? How do we develop an authentic self, discover a vocation, and learn to live with the mysteries of love, family, art, life and loss?

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Star Cops debuted on BBC2 in 1987, the brainchild of Doctor Who and Blake's 7 writer Chris Boucher, aimed as a police procedural set in the new frontier of commercialised space exploration. It's the near future, and mankind has expanded its presence in space. Maintaining law and order among this network of space stations, satellites and moon outposts is the responsibility of the International Space Police Force, known colloquially as the Star Cops. Their leader is Commander Nathan Spring. While dealing with crimes including drug smuggling and murder, the Star Cops find themselves facing a new and sustained threat. The activist group Mother Earth, ideologically opposed to humanity's presence in space, has been quiet for some time. But no longer. The group returns with a vengeance, prepared it seems to go to any lengths to achieve its aims. 1.1 One of Our Cops is Missing by Andrew Smith. As construction of the Vasco da Gama, the largest space station ever put into orbit, nears completion, Nathan is visited by an old friend, who asks for his help in tracking down a missing undercover officer. Meanwhile, Inspector Priya Basu is investigating a near-fatal spacewalk accident on the space station Rakesh Sharma that may be no accident at all.1.2 Tranquillity and Other Illusions by Ian Potter. A murder at the historic scene of the first Apollo moon landing offers few clues for the Star Cops. Why would anyone want to kill Philip Hughes, a property entrepreneur? And what has become of the mysterious woman who was with him at the time? The investigation leads to a moon outpost, where anyone may be the killer. 1.3 Lockdown by Christopher Hatherall. Tech Tower is a state of the art, high - security, high-technology building located in Paris. It seems the ideal venue for an international conference on how to counter the growing threat from the Mother Earth group. Nathan and Priya attend as representatives of space policing. Soon, they and everyone else in the building find themselves in danger as a disruptive attack by Mother Earth coincides with a plot by criminals to carry out a high stakes robbery. 1.4 The Thousand Ton Bomb by Guy Adams. A failed bombing of Moonbase provides the Star Cops with an opportunity to strike back at Mother Earth. Paul Bailey is called on to use his undercover skills once more. But Mother Earth is about to escalate its campaign of violence with a spectacular attack. And the Star Cops are among those in the firing line. The series hero Nathan Spring is played by David Calder, one of Britain's most regarded stage and screen actors. He is joined by several new characters created for these fresh Star Cops adventures, with Priya Basu played by Eastenders regular Rakhee Thakrar. CAST: David Calder (Nathan Spring / Box), Trevor Cooper (Colin Devis), Linda Newton (Pal Kenzy), Rakhee Thakrar (Priya Basu), Philip Olivier (Paul Bailey), Andrew Secombe (Brian Lincoln), Ewan Bailey (Martin Collyer), Nimmy March (Shayla Moss), Delroy Atkinson (Charles Hardin), Zora Bishop (Armina Hamid), Mandi Symonds (Caroline / Mother Earth), Tim Scragg (Ashton / Hughes), Amerjit Deu (Rez Varughese / Gish), Gabrielle Glaister (Joanne Stack / Janine), George Asprey (Alby Royle / Steven Moore), Andy Snowball (Danny Neal / Pan-Pacific President), Sophie-Louise Dann (Simone Babin).

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Winston Churchill wrote five books before he was elected to Parliament at the age of twenty-five. The most impressive of these books, The River War tells the story of Britain’s arduous and risky campaign to reconquer the Sudan at the end of the nineteenth century. More than half a century of subjection to Egypt had ended a decade earlier when Sudanese Dervishes rebelled against foreign rule and killed Britain’s envoy Charles Gordon at his palace in Khartoum in 1885. Political Islam collided with European imperialism. Herbert Kitchener’s Anglo-Egyptian army, advancing hundreds of miles south along the Nile through the Sahara Desert, defeated the Dervish army at the battle of Omdurman on September 2, 1898. Churchill, an ambitious young cavalry officer serving with his regiment in India, had already published newspaper columns and a book about fighting on the Afghan frontier. He yearned to join Kitchener’s campaign. But the general, afraid of what he would write about it, refused to have him. Churchill returned to London. With help from his mother and the prime minister, he managed to get himself attached to an English cavalry regiment sent to strengthen Kitchener’s army. Hurriedly travelling to Egypt, Churchill rushed upriver to Khartoum, catching up with Kitchener’s army just in time to take part in the climactic battle. That day he charged with the 21st Lancers in the most dangerous fighting against the Dervish host. He wrote fifteen dispatches for the Morning Post in London. As Kitchener had expected, Churchill’s dispatches and his subsequent book were highly controversial. The precocious officer, having earlier seen war on two other continents, showed a cool independence of his commanding officer. He even resigned from the army to be free to write the book as he pleased. He gave Kitchener credit for his victory but found much to criticize in his character and campaign. Churchill’s book, far from being just a military history, told the whole story of the Egyptian conquest of the Sudan and the Dervishes’ rebellion against imperial rule. The young author was remarkably even-handed, showing sympathy for the founder of the rebellion, Muhammad Ahmed, and for his successor the Khalifa Abdullahi, whom Kitchener had defeated. He considered how the war in northeast Africa affected British politics at home, fit into the geopolitical rivalry between Britain and France, and abruptly thrust the vast Sudan, with the largest territory in Africa, into an uncertain future in Britain’s orbit. In November 1899, The River War was published in “two massive volumes, my magnum opus (up to date), upon which I had lavished a whole year of my life,” as Churchill recalled later in his autobiography. The book had twenty-six chapters, five appendices, dozens of illustrations, and colored maps. Three years later, in 1902, it was shortened to fit into one volume. Seven whole chapters, and parts of every other chapter, disappeared in the abridgment. Many maps and most illustrations were also dropped. Since then the abridged edition has been reprinted regularly, and eventually it was even abridged further. But the full two-volume book, which is rare and expensive, was never published again—until now. St. Augustine’s Press, in collaboration with the International Churchill Society, brings back to print in two handsome volumes The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan unabridged, for the first time since 1902. Every chapter and appendix from the first edition has been restored. All the maps are in it, in their original colors, with all the illustrations by Churchill’s brother officer Angus McNeill. More than thirty years in the making, under the editorship of James W. Muller, this new edition of The River War will be the definitive one for all time. The whole book is printed in two colors, in black and red type, to show what Churchill originally wrote and how it was abridged or altered later. For the first time, a new appendix reproduces Churchill’s Sudan dispatches as he wrote them, before they were edited by the Morning Post. Other new appendices reprint Churchill’s subsequent writings on the Sudan. Thousands of new footnotes have been added to the book by the editor, identifying Churchill’s references to people, places, writings, and events unfamiliar to readers today. Professor Muller’s new introduction explains how the book fits into Churchill’s career as a writer and an aspiring politician. He examines the statesman’s early thoughts about war, race, religion, and imperialism, which are still our political challenges in the twenty-first century. Half a century after The River War appeared, this book was one of a handful of his works singled out by the Swedish Academy when it awarded Churchill the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953. Now, once again, its reader can follow Churchill back to the war he fought on the Nile, beginning with the words of his youngest daughter. Before she died, Mary Soames wrote a new foreword, published here, which concludes that “In this splendid new edition…we have, in effect, the whole history of The River War as Winston Churchill wrote it—and it makes memorable reading.”

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Taken from their planet and their century, they are not just the Lost Soldiers: they are Murphy’s Lawless. Major Rodger Y. Murphy should have died when his helicopter crashed off the coast of Mogadishu in November, 1993. Instead, he woke up in August 2125 in the Tauri 55 binary star system, 152 light years from home. Without any memory of the otherworldly abductors who spirited them away in cold sleep, Murphy and 100 other “Lost Soldiers” have been retrieved and awakened by two officers of the Consolidated Terran Republic: Trevor Corcoran and Richard Downing. Promising to return after completing an unauthorized rescue mission, they leave the twentieth-century castaways with a daunting objective: establish a base of operations on the main world of R’Bak using local allies they have yet to recruit and enemy equipment they have yet to seize. If that weren’t hard enough, 55 Tauri A, the system’s primary star, is rapidly approaching, and the technologically superior powers from that neighboring system always use that opportunity to raid, pillage, and “cull” the locals. But the company of misfits and ne’er-do-wells who’ve taken the nickname Murphy’s Lawless rose to the challenge. They destroyed the makeshift transmitter with which their enemies would have warned their home planet Kulsis, established a beach-head on R’Bak, and led an uprising of the locals that has changed the balance of power in its most valuable region. But all that was just a tactical prelude to the next operation: beating the Kulsians when they make their now-imminent return. It’s an ambitious plan with three separate parts, none of which can fail. If one does, it means extinction for the Lost Soldiers and their allies. So, naturally, Murphy would be sure to assign his best trained, seasoned, and committed leaders to carry them out. One problem: he doesn’t have anyone like that. The first part of the plan falls to Horace Earl Chalmers, whose background as an Army investigator has made him Murphy’s counter-intelligence chief. But in this case, it’s the shady skills that Chalmers accrued from a lifetime of dodging and twisting the very laws he was supposed to uphold that are the key to completing his mission critical: infiltrate the enemy-held Downport, secure an essential ship, and get it up to orbit. But they methods he has to use to achieve that won’t make his vow to become a better man any easier. But once the ship is in hand, there’s a small problem with part two; none of the Lost Soldiers know how to pilot it to a crucial rendezvous point. However, Navy flier Major Kevin Bowden has shown that he can adapt, improvise, and overcome—so all eyes are on him to learn how to pilot not one, but two, different spacecraft in record time. Because the second rendezvous is to lure a Kulsian corvette into a position where it can be seized. That third part of the plan is the one that almost everyone considers impossible: to take the corvette in a boarding action, using two small assault teams. It’s a hard job that will require a hard, dedicated man. Navy SEAL Harry Tapper is that hard man… but dedicated? He was once, but now . . . ? Exhausted and resentful after being tasked to lead innumerable raids while the Lawless established and expanded the base on R’Bak, Harry has been living among the indigs for over a year. His only concern now is for his local wife, their infant child, and her tribe. But he is also the only one who has done what they now must: board an enemy warship from an unarmed cargo lighter. Why is Murphy fixated upon on this Kulsian corvette? Why and how could a single ship be so pivotal to the survival of all the Lost Soldiers and their allies? Only two things are certain: One: if his plan succeeds, it sets the stage to completely turn the tactical and strategic tables on their Kulsian enemies. Two: there are plenty of people—even among his “allies”—who will stop at nothing in order to foil that plan. Including killing Murphy and anyone who tries to complete any part of his bold ploy—which is, in every sense of the word, mission critical. About the Terran Republic series featuring Caine Riordan: About Caine's Mutiny: “This is military Science Fiction the way it’s supposed to be written. . . . All in all, a highly satisfying tale of the Terran Republic that moves the story forward and setting us up for the next chapter, which promises to be interesting at worst and explosive at best.” —SFcrowsnest About Raising Caine: “Raising Caine unveils a lot of thought-provoking ideas, but ultimately this is a space opera adventure. There are space battles, daring emergency landings, desperate quests, hand-to-hand combat, and double-and-triple crosses. It’s an engrossing read. You owe it to yourself to read the two previous books in order. Then enjoy Raising Caine. It’s an intergalactic thrill-ride.” —Fantasy and Science Ficton Book and Audiobook Reviews “This is science-fiction adventure on a grand scale.”—Kirkus “Gannon’s harrowing . . . military space opera (following Trial by Fire) builds well on his established setting . . . Gannon’s signature attention to developing realistic alien worlds makes this installment satisfying.”—Publishers Weekly “[A]n incredibly active book . . . as our protagonists are confronted by the beautiful, terrible, and sometimes lethal variety of the universe and its inhabitants. . . . A whole mess of fun . . . that manages to be scientifically accurate while refraining from excessive wonkiness. Those who value meticulous worldbuilding . . . will certainly have their needs met.”—BN Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog About Nebula-nominated Trial by Fire: “I seriously enjoyed Trial by Fire. This one’s a tidal wave—can’t put it down. An excellent book.” —Jack McDevitt "Gannon's whiz-bang second Tales of the Terran Republic interstellar adventure delivers on the promise of the first (Fire with Fire) . . . The charm of Caine's harrowing adventure lies in Gannon's attention to detail, which keeps the layers of political intrigue and military action from getting too dense. The dozens of key characters, multiple theaters of operations, and various alien cultures all receive the appropriate amount of attention. The satisfying resolution is enhanced by the promise of more excitement to come in this fascinating far-future universe.”—Publishers Weekly starred review “[D]efinitely one to appeal to the adventure fans. Riordan is a smart hero, up against enormous obstacles and surrounded by enemies. Author Gannon does a good job of managing action and tension to keep the story moving, and the details of the worlds Riordan visits are interesting in their own right.”—Analog “. . . offers the type of hard science-fiction those familiar with the John Campbell era of Analog Science Fiction will remember. Gannon throws his readers into an action-packed adventure. A sequel to Fire With Fire, it is a nonstop tale filled with military science-fiction action.” —The Galveston County Daily News About Compton Crook Award-winner for best first novel Fire with Fire: “Chuck Gannon is one of those marvelous finds—someone as comfortable with characters as he is with technology, and equally adept at providing those characters with problems to solve. Imaginative, fun, and not afraid to step on the occasional toe or gore the occasional sacred cow, his stories do not disappoint.”—David Weber “If we meet strong aliens out there, will we suffer the fate of the Aztecs and Incas, or find the agility to survive? Gannon fizzes with ideas about the dangerous politics of first contact.”—David Brin “The plot is intriguing and then some. Well-developed and self-consistent; intelligent readers are going to like it.”—Jerry Pournelle “. . . the intersecting plot threads, action and well-conceived science kept those pages turning.”—SFcrowsnest

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