Many appreciate Richard P. Feynman's contributions to twentieth-century physics, but few realize how engaged he was with the world around him — how deeply and thoughtfully he considered the religious, political, and social issues of his day. Now, a wonderful book — based on a previously unpublished, three-part public lecture he gave at the University of Washington in 1963 — shows us this other side of Feynman, as he expounds on the inherent...

"It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible. In California, wildfires now rage year-round, destroying thousands of homes. Across the US, '500-year' storms pummel communities month after month, and floods displace tens of millions annually. This is only a preview of the changes to come. And they are coming fast....

A New York Times–bestselling author looks at mathematics education in America-when it's worthwhile, and when it's not. Why do we inflict a full menu of mathematics-algebra, geometry, trigonometry, even calculus-on all young Americans, regardless of their interests or aptitudes? While Andrew Hacker has been a professor of mathematics himself, and extols the glories of the subject, he also questions some widely held assumptions in this thought-provoking...

An award-winning journalist takes us deep into the Appalachian Mountains where the last truly quiet town of America exists and where its residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity, challenging us to rethink the role of tech in our lives. Deep in the Appalachian Mountains, Green Bank, West Virginia, is a place at once futuristic and old-fashioned. It is home to the Green Bank Observatory, where astronomers search the depths of the...

Your Global Positioning System guides you across town; it also helps land planes, and anticipates earthquakes. Milner takes us on a fascinating tour of a hidden system that touches almost every aspect of our modern life, and shows how it has created new forms of human behavior. But the potential misuse of GPS data by government and corporations raise disturbing questions about ethics and privacy. GPS satisfies the scientific urge toward precision--...

Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development to health care to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this bias, in time, money, and often with their lives. The author...

"In his bestselling book Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford explored the ethical and practical importance of manual competence, as expressed through mastery of our physical environment. In his brilliant follow-up, The World Beyond Your Head, Crawford investigates the challenge of mastering one's own mind. We often complain about our fractured mental lives and feel beset by outside forces that destroy our focus and disrupt our peace of mind....

This “Bible of the Beatles" captures the iconic band's magical and mysterious journey from adorable teenagers to revered cultural emissaries. In this fully updated version, each of their 241 tracks is assessed chronologically from their first amateur recordings in 1957 to their final “reunion" recording in 1995. It also incorporates new information from the Anthology series and recent interviews with Paul McCartney. This comprehensive

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Moving and powerful. --Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author In 2012, an Oregon mother named Julie Keith opened up a package of Halloween decorations. The cheap foam headstones had been $5 at Kmart, too good a deal to pass up. But when she opened the box, something fell out that she wasn't expecting: an SOS letter, handwritten in broken English by the prisoner who'd made and packaged the items. In Made in China, investigative...

Provides general guidance on how to choose a dog, followed by a directory of breeds.