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A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory
by Dr. Jagadish ShuklaThe amazing true story of the man behind modern weather predictionConsider a world without weather prediction. How would we know when to evacuate communities ahead of fires or floods, or figure out what to wear tomorrow? Until 40 years ago, we couldn’t forecast weather conditions beyond ten days. Renowned climate scientist Dr. Jagadish Shukla is largely to thank for modern weather forecasting. Born in rural India with no electricity, plumbing, or formal schools, he attended classes that were held in a cow shed. Shukla grew up amid turmoil: overwhelming monsoons, devastating droughts, and unpredictable crop yields. His drive brought him to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, despite little experience. He then followed an unlikely path to MIT and Princeton, and the highest echelons of climate science. His work, which has enabled us to predict weather farther into the future than previously thought possible, allows us to feed more people, save lives, and hold on to hope in a warming world.Paired with his philanthropic endeavors and extreme dedication to the field, Dr. Shukla has been lauded internationally for his achievements, including a shared Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for his governmental research on climate change. A Billion Butterflies is a wondrous insider’s account of climate science and an unbelievable memoir of his life. Understanding dynamical seasonal prediction will change the way you experience a thunderstorm or interpret a forecast; understanding its origins and the remarkable story of the man who discovered it will change the way you see our world.
A Billion Days Of Earth
by Doris PiserchiaThe Earth teemed with life of all kinds, and many besides man had intelligence and the gift of speech. But chaos ruled. And violence. And despair. Then, in the Valley of the Dead, Sheen first entered the world, and all of the life would bend to the might of the Supreme One before the final push to the stars.
A Billion Days Of Earth
by Doris PiserchiaThe Earth teemed with life of all kinds, and many besides man had intelligence and the gift of speech. But chaos ruled. And violence. And despair. Then, in the Valley of the Dead, Sheen first entered the world, and all of the life would bend to the might of the Supreme One before the final push to the stars.
A Billion Echoes: A Thousand Faces Volume 3 (A Thousand Faces #3)
by Janci PattersonIt’s said that no one escapes from the Carmines, but Jory is determined to find a way to take down the monsters who killed her father and destroyed her life. With her friend Damon and her boyfriend Kalif by her side, Jory’s painstaking plot unfolds piece by piece beneath the Carmines’ever watchful cameras and tracking devices.This task stretches Jory’s skills to the limit, and every aspect of her life begins to buckle under the strain. Jory thinks she’s found the key to taking down the Carmines and escaping from their influence once and for all—But following through may cost Jory everything she has left.
A Billion Little Pieces: RFID and Infrastructures of Identification (Infrastructures)
by Jordan FrithHow RFID, a ubiquitous but often invisible mobile technology, identifies tens of billions of objects as they move through the world.RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is ubiquitous but often invisible, a mobile technology used by more people more often than any flashy smartphone app. RFID systems use radio waves to communicate identifying information, transmitting data from a tag that carries data to a reader that accesses the data. RFID tags can be found in credit cards, passports, key fobs, car windshields, subway passes, consumer electronics, tunnel walls, and even human and animal bodies—identifying tens of billions of objects as they move through the world. In this book, Jordan Frith looks at RFID technology and its social impact, bringing into focus a technology that was designed not to be noticed.RFID, with its ability to collect unique information about almost any material object, has been hyped as the most important identification technology since the bar code, the linchpin of the Internet of Things—and also seen (by some evangelical Christians) as a harbinger of the end times. Frith views RFID as an infrastructure of identification that simultaneously functions as an infrastructure of communication. He uses RFID to examine such larger issues as big data, privacy, and surveillance, giving specificity to debates about societal trends. Frith describes how RFID can monitor hand washing in hospitals, change supply chain logistics, communicate wine vintages, and identify rescued pets. He offers an accessible explanation of the technology, looks at privacy concerns, and pushes back against alarmist accounts that exaggerate RFID's capabilities. The increasingly granular practices of identification enabled by RFID and other identification technologies, Frith argues, have become essential to the working of contemporary networks, reshaping the ways we use information.
A Billion Lives
by Jan EgelandCalled "the world's conscience" and one of the 100 most influential people of our time by Time magazine, Jan Egeland has been the public face of the United Nations. As Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, he was in charge of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for three and a half years. One of the bravest and most adventuresome figures on the international scene, Egeland takes us to the frontlines of war and chaos in Iraq, to scenes of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, to the ground zeroes of famine, earthquakes, and tsunamis. He challenges the first world to act. A Billion Lives is his on-the-ground account of his work in the most dangerous places in the world, where he has led relief efforts, negotiated truces with warlords, and intervened in what many had thought to be hopeless situations. As one of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's closest advisers, Jan Egeland was at the heart of crises during a difficult period in UN history, when the organization was plagued by the divisive aftermath of the Iraq war, the Oil-for-Food scandal, and terror attacks against UN workers. On the day Egeland came to New York to take up his job, the UN building in Baghdad was destroyed by a huge bomb, killing one of his predecessors, Sergio de Mello. Two months later Annan sent Egeland to Iraq to judge whether the UN could keep a presence there. Since that first mission to Baghdad, Egeland has been envoy to such places as Darfur, Eastern Congo, Lebanon, Gaza, Northern Israel, Northern Uganda, and Colombia. He coordinated the massive international relief efforts after the Indian Ocean tsunami and South Asian earthquake. As a negotiator and activist, Egeland is famous for direct language, whether he's addressing warlords, guerrilla leaders, generals, or heads of state. A Billion Lives is his passionate, adventure-filled eyewitness account of the catastrophes the world faces. And so Egeland writes that he has met the best and worst among us, has "confronted warlords, mass murderers, and tyrants, but [has] met many more peacemakers, relief workers, and human rights activists who risk their lives at humanity's first line of defense." In spite of the desperate need of so many, Egeland is convinced that, "For the vast majority of people, the world is getting better, that there is more peace, more people fed and educated, and fewer forced to become refugees than a generation ago. So there is reason for optimism," he concludes in this groundbreaking book that does not flinch but holds out reasons for hope.
A Billion Reasons Why
by Kristin BillerbeckThere are a billion reasons Kate should marry her current boyfriend.Will she trade them all to be madly in love?Katie McKenna leads a perfect life. She has a fulfilling job, a cute apartment, and a wedding to plan with her soon-to-be fiancé, Dexter. She can think of a billion reasons why she should marry Dexter. He's everything she wants in a husband.And then in walks Luc DeForges, her bold, breathtaking ex-boyfriend. Only now he's a millionaire. And he wants her to go home to New Orleans to sing for a friend's wedding. As his date.But Katie made up her mind about Luc eight years ago, when she fled their hometown after a very public breakup. Yet there's still a magnetism between them she can't deny.Katie thought her predictable relationship with Dexter would be the bedrock of a lasing, Christian marriage. But what if there's more? What if God's desire for her is a heart full of life? And what if that's what Luc has offered all along?"Katie and Luc dance off the pages of this book, making you fall in love with them and New Orleans. Full of surprises and romance." --Carolyne Aarsen, author of The Baby Promise
A Billion Wicked Thoughts
by Sai Gaddam Ogi OgasThe Book on Sex Want to know what really turns your partner on? A Billion Wicked Thoughts offers the clearest picture ever of the differences between male and female sexuality and the teeming diversity of human desire. What makes men attracted to images and so predictable in their appetites? What makes the set up to a romantic evening so important for a woman? Why are women’s desires so hard to predict? Neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam reveal the mechanics of sexual relationships based on their extensive research into the mountains of new data on human behavior available in online entertainment and traffic around the world. Not since Alfred Kinsey in the 1950s has there been such a revolution in our knowledge of what is really going on in the bedroom. What Ogas and Gaddam learned, and now share, will deepen and enrich the way you, and your partner, think and talk about sex. .
A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships
by Sai Gaddam Ogi OgasTwo maverick neuroscientists use the world's largest psychology experiment-the Internet-to study the private activities of millions of men and women around the world, unveiling a revolutionary and shocking new vision of human desire that overturns conventional thinking. For his groundbreaking sexual research, Alfred Kinsey and his team interviewed 18,000 people, relying on them to honestly report their most intimate experiences. Using the Internet, the neuroscientists Ogas and Gaddam quietly observed the raw sexual behaviors of half a billion people. By combining their observations with neuroscience and animal research, these two young neuroscientists finally answer the long-disputed question: what do people really like? Ogas and Gaddam's findings are transforming the way scientists and therapists think about sexual desire. In their startling book, Ogas and Gaddam analyze a "billion wicked thoughts" on the Internet: a billion Web searches, a million individual search histories, a million erotic stories, a half-million erotic videos, a million Web sites, millions of online personal ads, and many other enormous sources of sexual data in order to understand the true differences between male and female desires, including: ?Men and women have hardwired sexual cues analogous to our hardwired tastes-there are sexual versions of sweet, sour, salty, savory, and bitter. But men and women are wired with different sets of cues. ?The male sexual brain resembles a reckless hunter, while the female sexual brain resembles a cautious detective agency. ?Men form their sexual interests during adolescence and rarely change. Women's sexual interests are plastic and change frequently. ?The male sexual brain is an "or gate": A single stimulus can arouse it. The female sexual brain is an "and gate": It requires many simultaneous stimuli to arouse it. ?When it comes to sexual arousal, men prefer overweight women to underweight women, and a significant number of men seek out erotic images of women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. ?Women enjoy writing and sharing erotic stories with other women. The fastest growing genre of erotic stories for women are stories about two heterosexual men having sex. ?Though the male sexual brain is much more different from the female sexual brain than is commonly believed, the sexual brain of gay men is virtually identical to that of straight men. Featuring cutting-edge, jaw-dropping science, this wildly entertaining and controversial book helps readers understand their partner's sexual desires with a depth of knowledge unavailable from any other source. Its fascinating and occasionally disturbing findings will rock our modern understanding of sexuality, just as Kinsey's reports did sixty years ago.
A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology
by Mike RinderOne of the highest-ranking defectors from Scientology exposes the secret inner workings of the powerful organization in this remarkable memoir.Mike Rinder&’s parents began taking him to their local Scientology center when he was five years old. After high school, he signed a billion-year contract and was admitted into Scientology&’s elite inner circle, the Sea Organization. Brought to founder L. Ron Hubbard&’s yacht and promised training in Hubbard&’s most advanced techniques, Mike was instead put to work swabbing the decks. Still, Rinder bought into the doctrine that his personal comfort was secondary to the higher purpose of Hubbard&’s world-saving mission, swiftly rising through the ranks. In the 1980s, Rinder became Scientology&’s international spokesperson and the head of its powerful Office of Special Affairs. He helped negotiate Scientology&’s pivotal tax exemption from the IRS and engaged with the organization&’s prominent celebrity members, including Tom Cruise, Lisa Marie Presley, and John Travolta. Yet Rinder couldn&’t shake a nagging feeling that something was amiss—Hubbard&’s promises remained unfulfilled at his death, and his successor, David Miscavige, was a ruthless and vindictive man who did not hesitate to confine many top Scientologists, Mike among them, to a makeshift prison known as the Hole. In 2007, at the age of fifty-two, Rinder finally escaped Scientology. Overnight, he became one of the organization&’s biggest public enemies. He was followed, hacked, spied on, and tracked. But he refused to be intimidated and today helps people break free of Scientology. In A Billion Years, the dark, dystopian truth about Scientology is revealed as never before. Rinder offers insights into the religion that only someone of his former high rank could provide and tells a harrowing but fulfilling story of personal resilience.
A Billion-Dollar Heir for Christmas
by Caitlin CrewsEscape this Christmas to Portugal with this sizzling one-night-with-consequences romance from USA TODAY bestselling author Caitlin Crews. One unforgettable night…An heir claimed by Christmas! When Tiago Villela discovers Lillie Merton is expecting, a wedding is nonnegotiable. To protect the Villela billions, his child must be legitimate. But his plan for a purely pragmatic arrangement is soon threatened by a dangerously insatiable desire… Whisked away to Tiago&’s Portuguese estate, Lillie agrees to his request for the sake of their child—or so she tells herself. Tiago might imagine he can marry her and ignore their incendiary chemistry, but Lillie can&’t. And as the holidays approach, she has every intention of breaking down her husband&’s iron control!From Harlequin Presents: Escape to exotic locations where passion knows no bounds.
A Billionaire Affair (Passion Grove Ser. #1)
by Niobia BryantLove is the ultimate power playAlessandra Dalmount has been groomed since birth to assume the joint reins of her father’s empire. Now that day has arrived, forcing her to not only abandon her own career goals, but work closely with co-CEO and childhood nemesis Alek Ansah. As they battle for control of the billion-dollar conglomerate, Alessandra fights her attraction to the international playboy that could sabotage her professional future.Although he pursued other dreams, Alek must honor his late father’s request or risk losing his shares of the Ansah Dalmount Group. But the shy girl he knew has matured into a sophisticated businesswoman he can’t resist. And at a private island resort, he and Alessandra end up making love, not war. Then a shocking revelation erodes her trust…and a breaking scandal could leave only one standing. Can they turn their intense rivalry into a blueprint for success that includes a permanent alliance of love?
A Billionaire After Dark (The Overnight Billionaires #2)
by Katie LaneWith endless wealth comes irresistible temptation . . .It's an undisputed fact that Nash Beaumont is the hottest of the Beaumont brothers. His slow, sensual smile charms every French Kiss employee-and tempts every woman to buy the company's lingerie. But beneath Nash's raw charisma is a dark, kinky side that he struggles to control . . . a side that may be exposed by one lovely-and unexpectedly adventurous woman.Reporter Eden Huckabee needs a story. And when she discovers Nash's dirty little secret, she thinks she's found it. But Eden doesn't count on Nash turning the tables on her-or that she will fall so deeply for this unbelievably sexy, one-in-a-billion Beaumont.
A Billionaire Between the Sheets (The Overnight Billionaires #1)
by Katie LaneOvernight billionaires, the Beaumont brothers are thrust into life in the fast lane with exotic cars, private jets . . . and sex and success on their minds.A commanding presence in the boardroom and the bedroom, Deacon Beaumont has come to save the failing company French Kiss. He was born to be boss in this glamorous new world of lacy lingerie and stunning supermodels. But one bold and beautiful woman dares to question his authority.Olivia Harrington has dedicated her life to the company's success. Just because Deacon is sexy as hell doesn't mean he'll make a better CEO. With a limitless supply of push-up bras and garter belts, Olivia turns her considerable feminine charms on Deacon to discover what makes him tick . . . and reveals instead the billion reasons why she wants him to stay.
A Billionaire Wolf for Christmas (Billionaire Wolf #2)
by Terry SpearWhen the wolves' own blood betrays them, they risk their lives to find a miracle.Wolf shifter Dr. Aidan Denali has been working day and night to find a cure for werewolves' alarmingly sudden decline in lifespan. The key to the problem eludes him. But when Aidan grudgingly leaves his work to do some holiday shopping, he meets a remarkable she-wolf whose mysterious pack could bring him one step closer to the answer.Dr. Holly Gray is thrilled to meet the wolf who's been working so hard to help others. Now, it's her turn to help him. But while their attraction is sizzling, the packs are at odds, and the danger is increasing. It's going to take a holiday miracle for Holly and Aidan to get themselves—and their loved ones—out of this alive...Billionaire Wolf series: Billionaire in Wolf's Clothing (Book 1)A Billionaire Wolf for Christmas (Book 2)What People Are Saying About Terry Spear's Wolf Shifters: "Packed with adventure... Magnificently entertaining."—RT Book Reviews TOP PICK for Billionaire in Wolf's Clothing, 4 ½ Stars "Spear has become a master storyteller."—RT Book Reviews for Alpha Wolf Need Not Apply, 4 Stars"Nobody does werewolf romances like Terry Spear. The romance sizzles, the mystery intrigues, and the characters shine."—The Royal Reviews
A Billionaire for Christmas: Baby For Keeps A Billionaire For Christmas The Nanny Bomshell Princess In The Making (Billionaires and Babies #67)
by Janice MaynardUSA TODAY bestselling author Janice Maynard takes readers to a holiday hideaway in her new Billionaires and Babies book. All business, all the time, is billionaire Leo Cavallo's motto. So two months of forced relaxation is certainly not the CEO's idea of a Christmas bonus. Then he meets his neighbor, the irresistible Phoebe Kemper, and a storm forces them to become roommates. Suddenly, the holidays are looking a whole lot brighter. But beautiful Phoebe isn't living alone. She's babysitting her infant nephew. Somehow, playing temporary family is surprisingly appealing. But what will Leo choose when it's time to go home?
A Billionaire's Redemption (Vengeance in Texas #3)
by Cindy DeesA billionaire must protect a tortured teacher from a deranged killer in this exciting and suspenseful romance by a New York Times–bestselling author.Kindergarten teacher Willa Merris has never wanted her father’s lavish lifestyle. But when he’s murdered, she becomes the executor of his estate. To add insult to injury, Gabe Dawson—her father’s nemesis—informs her that she’s on the brink of financial collapse. Willa doesn’t trust him—or herself . . . not to run her hands over his chiseled physique.Billionaire Gabe Dawson still remembers the gawky teenager Willa was. But that awkward girl is now a sultry, beautiful woman. Gabe knows he should keep his distance, but he can’t, especially when peril is in hot pursuit. Now he’ll risk his own life to protect the woman he’s dangerously falling for. . . .
A Billy Coffey Collection: When Mockingbirds Sing, The Devil Walks in Mattingly, In the Heart of the Dark Woods
by Billy CoffeyBilly Coffey's novels are now available as an e-collection! When Mockingbirds Sing What marks the boundary between a miracle from God and the imagination of a child? The Devil Walks in Mattingly For the three people tortured by their secret complicity in a young man's untimely death, redemption is what they most long for . . . and the last thing they expect to receive. In the Heart of the Dark Wood A motherless girl hungry for hope . . . and the dream that could be leading her astray.
A Biltmore Christmas
by Jeri Odell Rhonda Gibson Diane Ashley Sylvia BarnesExplore the luxuries of America's largest home through the eyes of the fiction Bradford sisters. Having been orphaned, they each secure work and lodging at the Biltmore estate. Charity, a laundress; Peggy, an assistant cook, Selma, a chambermaid; and Melissa, a stable "boy" each experience adventures in employment and romance that culminate at Christmastime when the Vanderbilts' hospitality is at its grandest level.
A Bintel Brief: Love and Longing in Old New York
by Liana FinckAn evocative, elegiac love letter to New York City and the immigrant culture that continues to make it the most original and influential city in the world.As the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, a surge of Jewish immigrants to New York City reshaped indelibly not only the culture of the metropolis but of America itself. Struggling to assimilate to a new world while reconciling it to the old one they had left behind, these men and women shared their most private hopes and fears in a series of letters submitted to "A Bintel Brief"—Yiddish for "A Bundle of Letters"—the enormously popular, deeply affecting and often hilarious advice column of the newspaper The Forward.Conceived by Abraham Cahan, editor of The Forward, who answered every letter himself, A Bintel Brief transformed the fortunes of the paper, rapidly making it the most widely read Yiddish-language newspaper in the world. The letters that flooded into A Bintel Brief spoke with unparalleled immediacy to the daily heartbreaks and comedies of their bewildered writers' new lives, capturing the hope, isolation and confusion of assimilation, from intergenerational family politics and judgmental neighbors to crises of faith, unrequited love, runaway husbands, soul-crushing poverty and the difficulty of building an entirely new life from scratch.Drawn from these letters—selected and adapted by Liana Finck and brought to life in her singularly expressive illustrations that combine Art Spiegelman's deft emotionality and the magical spirit of Marc Chagall—A Bintel Brief is a wonderful panorama of a world and its people who, though long gone, are startlingly like ourselves. It is also a platonic love story of sorts between Abraham Cahan and Liana, as they engage in a bittersweet dialogue that explores the pleasures and perils of nostalgia, even as it affirms the necessary forward movement of life.
A Bintel Brief: Sixty Years of Letters from the Lower East Side to the Jewish Daily Forward
by Isaac MetzkerFor more than eighty years the Jewish Daily Forward's legendary advice column, "A Bintel Brief" ("a bundle of letters") dispensed shrewd, practical, and fair-minded advice to its readers. Created in 1906 to help bewildered Eastern European immigrants learn about their new country, the column also gave them a forum for seeking advice and support in the face of problems ranging from wrenching spiritual dilemmas to petty family squabbles to the sometimes hilarious predicaments that result when Old World meets New Isaac Metzker's beloved selection of these letters and responses has become for today's readers a remarkable oral record not only of the varied problems of Jewish immigrant life in America but also of the catastrophic events of the first half of our century.From the Trade Paperback edition.
A Biocultural Approach to Literary Theory and Interpretation
by Nancy EasterlinCombining cognitive and evolutionary research with traditional humanist methods, Nancy Easterlin demonstrates how a biocultural perspective in theory and criticism opens up new possibilities for literary interpretation.Easterlin maintains that the practice of literary interpretation is still of central intellectual and social value. Taking an open yet judicious approach, she argues, however, that literary interpretation stands to gain dramatically from a fair-minded and creative application of cognitive and evolutionary research. This work does just that, expounding a biocultural method that charts a middle course between overly reductive approaches to literature and traditionalists who see the sciences as a threat to the humanities.Easterlin develops her biocultural method by comparing it to four major subfields within literary studies: new historicism, ecocriticism, cognitive approaches, and evolutionary approaches. After a thorough review of each subfield, she reconsiders them in light of relevant research in cognitive and evolutionary psychology and provides a textual analysis of literary works from the romantic era to the present, including William Wordsworth’s "Simon Lee" and the Lucy poems, Mary Robinson’s "Old Barnard," Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s "Dejection: An Ode," D. H. Lawrence’s The Fox, Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, and Raymond Carver’s "I Could See the Smallest Things."A Biocultural Approach to Literary Theory and Interpretation offers a fresh and reasoned approach to literary studies that at once preserves the central importance that interpretation plays in the humanities and embraces the exciting developments of the cognitive sciences.
A Biogeoscience Approach to Ecosystems
by Johnson Martin Edward A. Yvonne E.Biogeoscience is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field that aims to bring together biological and geophysical processes. This book builds an enhanced understanding of ecosystems by focusing on the integrative connections between ecological processes and the geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. Each chapter provides studies by researchers who have contributed to the biogeoscience synthesis, presenting the latest research on the relationships between ecological processes, such as conservation laws and heat and transport processes, and geophysical processes, such as hillslope, fluvial and aeolian geomorphology, and hydrology. Highlighting the value of biogeoscience as an approach to understand ecosystems, this is an ideal resource for researchers and students in both ecology and the physical sciences.
A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (Seaby Biographical Dictionaries Ser.)
by Anthony E. DavidImportant historical and cultural figures as well as some well-known individuals in Egypt's long history (c 3100 BC - c AD 600) are incorporated in this work of reference. Rulers and members of their families, significant figures and important foreigners with whom the Egyptians came into contact are all included. The entries are based on original source material and there are bibliographies for each entry.
A Biographical Dictionary of Early American Jews: Colonial Times Through 1800
by Joseph R. RosenbloomA remarkable reference for those interested in American Jewish history, comprising approximately four thousand names and supplemental data.Here is a near complete list of persons identifiable as Jews in America by 1800, the result of a thorough search of manuscript materials and published literature for the names of Jews who lived in America (including Canada up to 1783) during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.No other study provides comparable information for such an ethnic group in this country. The result of a years-long effort that began as a rabbinical thesis for the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion and was eventually expanded, it serves as an essential reference for historians and other researchers.