Gifts of the Crow

The Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
     by John Marzluff, Tony Angell (Illustrator)

 

 Suddenly a crow turns his head, caws softly, and glides away, landing on a lamppost directly above a blonde woman. The woman, Lijana Holmes, smiles and calls him "Bela" as she offers him a breakfast of eggs and meat, which she prepares daily. Five-and-a-half years ago we captured Bela and affixed light plastic rings to his legs for identification. So whenever he sees us, the old crow cocks his head, stares, takes flight and swoops low--right at us--screaming a harsh call that we immediately recognize as a bird scold. His family and neighbors hear the cry and join in, flying toward Bela to support his attack, and soon they, too, share his rage. The mobbing crows circle and scream above our heads just as they would do to a predator. Bela's discriminating actions give us remarkable and invaluable information, proving that crows can recognize and remember human faces. We wonder when, or if, he will ever forget (or forgive) us. The gifts of the crow are physical, metaphorical, and far-reaching.

 Although packed with the latest research this is far from a dry academic tome.  Instead the authors use plenty of anecdotes which will keep you fascinated.  You will be amazed at just how smart these social birds are. 

Tyson

 

Are We Alone?

The Life of Super-Earths: How the Hunt for Alien Worlds and Artificial Cells Will Revolutionize Life on Our Planet

     by Dimitar Sasselov 

Intended for general readers, this volume on the history and possibilities of astronomical and biochemical research examines the study of super-earths, distant planets similar to earth that allow scientists to study how earth may have been millennia ago. Sasselov (astronomy, Harvard U.) explores the implications of these discoveries for biological research in chapters which discuss both the study of extraterrestrial bodies and the search for the origins of life on earth.

Life of any kind has yet to be found anyplace except on the Earth.  However, within the last few years astronomers have found over 3000 exoplanet candidates.  In December the Kelper satalite teleoscope found two earth sized planets orbiting sun like stars.  The planets were not in the sun's habitable zone.  This book has the cutting edge information on the search for alien worlds.

Tyson

City of Fortune

City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas
     by Roger Crowley

The rise and fall of the Venetian empire stands unrivaled for drama, intrigue, and sheer opulent majesty. City of Fortune is framed around two of the great collisions of world history: the ill-fated Fourth Crusade, which culminated in the sacking of Constantinople and the carve-up of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, and the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499–1503.   Drawing on firsthand accounts of pitched sea battles, skillful negotiations, and diplomatic maneuvers, Crowley paints a vivid picture of this avaricious, enterprising people and the bountiful lands that came under their dominion.

Crowley's narrative is a quick page turner for history lovers. He does a great job explaining the how Venice controlled the spice trade between Europe and Asia.  A trade which put them at odds with the Mongols, Genoans, and Turks.

Tyson

This Mighty Scourge

This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War
     by James M. McPherson

 The Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson is America's preeminent Civil War historian. Now, in this collection of provocative and illuminating essays, McPherson offers fresh insight into many of the most enduring questions about the Civil War. Topics include the Lost Cause Mystique, Peace Negotiations, Myths of the confederacy and Jesse James.

McPherson's essays ask; Why did the war come?, What were each sides objectives? How did each side try to obtain those objectives? How good was the leadership of both sides? What was the impact of the war on those who lived through it? A very interesting and thought provoking read.

Tyson

First Great Triumph

First Great Triumph : How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power
by Warren Zimmermann


"We were sure that we would win, that we should score the first great triumph in a mighty world-movement."--Theodore Roosevelt, 1904






Americans like to think they have no imperial past. In fact, the United States became an imperial nation within five short years a century ago (1898-1903), exploding onto the international scene with the conquest of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, and (indirectly) Panama. How did the nation become a player in world politics so suddenly? What inspired the move toward imperialism in the first place? Read and find out.

The authors center the story on five men Theodore Roosevelt, Alfred T. Mahan, Henry Cabot Lodge, John Hay, and Elihu Root. These five friends pushed for the U.S. to be involved in international affairs at a time when their elders remembered or fought in the Civil War and knew how awful war could be.

TB

To Win a Nuclear War

To Win a Nuclear War: The Pentagon's Secret War Plans
by Michio Kaku and Daniel Axelrod, Introduction by Ramsey Clark

The authors show that the U.S. nuclear policy of nuclear deterrence has been nothing but political spin. The real policy has been one of threatening the use of nuclear weapons. The book uses unclassified documents to show the evolution of the pentagons nuclear strategy and efforts to integrate nuclear weapons into war fighting doctrine.

What this book shows is how President Eisenhower and the military chiefs debated the possibility of a first strike against the U.S.S.R. in 1952. Amazing that the decision was made all behind closed walls and that Eisenhower kept us out of a nuclear war.

TB

His Majesty's Dragon

His Majesty's Dragon
by Novik, Naomi

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Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain's defense by taking to the skies . . . not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons. When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future-and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France's own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte's boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.

As outlandish as the premise seems, Novik pulls it off by capturing the spirit of society during the Napoleonic age. This is a fun read for teens and adults with some romance and some violence. Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame has purchased the movie rights to the first 3 books.

TB

Physics of the Future

Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

By Michio Kaku




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Imagine, if you can, the world in the year 2100.

In "Physics of the Future," Michio Kaku--the "New York Times" bestselling author of "Physics of the Impossible"--gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilarating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over three hundred of the world's top scientists who are already inventing the future in their labs.

Cars will drive themselves using GPS, and if room-temperature superconductors are discovered, vehicles will effortlessly fly on a cushion of air, coasting on powerful magnetic fields and ushering in the age of magnetism.

Using molecular medicine, scientists will be able to grow almost every organ of the body and cure genetic diseases.

In space, radically new ships--needle-sized vessels using laser propulsion--could replace the expensive chemical rockets of today and perhaps visit nearby stars.

But these astonishing revelations are only the tip of the iceberg. Kaku also discusses emotional robots, antimatter rockets, X-ray vision, and the ability to create new life-forms, and he considers the development of the world economy.

TB

Fingerprints of the Gods

Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilizaton By Hancock, Graham Check our Catalog Could the story of mankind be older than we have previously believed? Hancock takes readers along on a quest for the proof of the existence of an as yet unidentified civilizarion of remote antiquity. Evidence has been misidentified or misinterpreted, and a picture of this great Ice Age civilization has eluded archaeologists according to Hancock. Authors like Erich Von Daniken and Zechara Sitchin try to use their interpretation of the ancient stone ruins of Egypt, Mexico, the Andes and Sumeria to suggest that earth was visited by extraterrestrials. Hancock uses the same type of methodology to suggest that an advanced civilization existed in the Antarctic. He argues that a shift in the earth's crust caused the continents to move resulting in the destruction of his hypothesized civilization. A fun read for those interested in archeology and lost civilizations. TB

Wise Man's Fear

The Wise Man's Fear
By Rothfuss, Patrick
2011-03 - Daw Books
9780756404734 Check Our Catalog

Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, forced to reclaim the honor of his family, and travels into the Fae realm. …More

The sequel to the epic The Name of the Wind. Kvothe is forced to leave the university and seek his destiny. Readers who like character building and the works of George R. R. Martin should read.

TB

Great Captains of Antiquity

Gabriel expands upon the groundbreaking work of B. H. Lidell-Hart's Great Captains by offering detailed portraits of six great captains of the ancient world who met the challenges of their age and shaped the future of their societies, and civilization itself, through their actions. While all were great military men, with the exception of Caesar Augustus, they were also great political leaders who, in this capacity more often than through their feats of arms, shaped their societies. All were educated men, and all possessed the quality of imaginative reasoning.

Gabriel analyzes the lives of Thutmose III of Egypt, Sargon II of Assyria, Philip II of Macedon, Hannibal of Carthage, Scipio Africanus of Republican Rome, and Caesar Augustus of Imperial Rome for the lessons contemporary leaders, particularly military leaders, can learn.

This is a short and interesting survey of the careers of some of the great captains of the ancient world. B. H. Lidell-Hart’s Great Captains Unveiled is an expansion of an earlier work Great Captains by Theodore A. Dodge. Dodge’s book examines the military leadership of Alexander, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, and Frederick. Lidell-Hart’s book adds Genghis Khan, Sabutai, Saxe, Wallenstein and James Wolfe. Gabriel’s is the more modern analysis in the form of short biographical sketches.

TB

Memories of Ice

Memorie of Ice
By Erikson, Steven
2006-08 - Forge
9780765348807 Check Our Catalog

A terrifying new empire: the Pannion Domin has appeared on the continent of Genabackis. Like a tide of corrupted blood, it seethes across the land, devouring all in its path. For it would seem something altogether darker and more malign threatens this world. Rumors abound that the Crippled God is now unchained and intent on a terrible revenge.

This is the third book in Erikson's 10 volume Malazan book of the Fallen series. Each volume is mostly self-contained although many plot lines are going on at once. Epic fantasy full of gods, elder races, magic, and huge battles. Erikson's work is often compared to J. R. R. Matins, each has plots within plots.

TB

Last of the Amazons

Last of the Amazons
By Pressfield, Steven
2002-01 - Wheeler Publishing
9780754018391 Check Our Catalog

The author of the international bestsellers "Gates of Fire and "Tides of War delivers his most gripping and imaginative novel of the ancient world-a stunning epic of love and war that breathes life into the grand myth of the ferocious female warrior culture of the Amazons.
Steven Pressfield has gained a passionate worldwide following for his magnificent novels of ancient Greece, "Gates of Fire and "Tides of War. In "Last of the Amazons, Pressfield has surpassed himself, re-creating a vanished world in a brilliant novel that will delight his loyal readers and bring legions more to his singular and powerful restoration of the past.
In the time before Homer, the legendary Theseus, King of Athens (an actual historical figure), set sail on a journey that brought him into the land of "tal Kyrte, the "free people," a nation of proud female warriors whom the Greeks called "Amazons." The Amazons, bound to each other as lovers as well as fighters, distrusted the Greeks, with their boastful talk of "civilization." So when the great war queen Antiope fell in love with Theseus and fled with the Greeks, the mighty Amazon nation rose up in rage.

"From the Hardcover edition. …More

What If Science

What If the Earth Had Two Moons?: And Nine Other Thought-Provoking Speculations on the Solar System

by Neil F.Comins

In What If the Earth Had Two Moons, Neil Comins leads us on a fascinating ten-world journey as we explore what our planet would be like under different astronomical conditions. In each case, the Earth would be different, often in surprising ways. The title chapter, for example, gives us a second moon orbiting closer to Earth than the one we have now. The night sky is a lot brighter, but that won't last forever. Eventually the moons collide, with one extra-massive moon emerging after a period during which Earth sports a Saturn-like ring. This and nine and other speculative essays provide us with insights into the Earth as it exists today, while shedding new light on the burgeoning search for life on planets orbiting other stars.

Alternate history looks at "what if" scenarios focusing on important historical turning points and presents a different version based on science, fact and conjecture. Neil F. Comins has used this formula for Earth's astronomical conditions. Follows on the author's previous, "What If the Moon Didn't Exist?"

TB

Project Orion

Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship

by George B. Dyson

It was the late 1950s. The Cold War was raging. Sputnik had made its voyage and the space race was on. In America, it was the age of tail fins and "duck and cover," but it was also a time of big ideas and dreams. On his way to school one day, George Dyson learned of a truly fantastical idea: massive space vehicles that would be powered by explosions of multiple hydrogen bombs. Among the brilliant minds behind this project was George's father, the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson.

Project Orion brought together a cadre of brilliant physicists, the first such assemblage since the Manhattan Project of fifteen years earlier. In an idyllic seaside community in southern California-the very picture of 1950s suburban prosperity-a handful of scientists, tackled a massive project that required the ingenuity of an engineer and the vision of a great theoretician.

Their ambitious work, although ultimately futile, took place against the political and cultural backdrop of the Cold War, when nuclear technology spelled both promise and terror. Dyson's prodigious historical and scientific research, combined with his personal reminiscences and connections, make for a lively, richly detailed narrative.

The story of the first attempt to use nuclear power for manned star flight.

NASA has just released a new video of its next deep space rocket, to see it click Here.

TB

Remember Science?

The Canon
by Natalie Angier

Natalie Angier draws on conversations with hundreds of the world's top scientists and on her own work as a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the New York Times to create a thoroughly entertaining guide to scientific literacy. The Canon is for every parent who has ever panicked when a child asked how the earth was formed or what electricity is. Angier's writing brings science to life, reigniting our own childhood delight in discovering how the world works. The Canon is a joyride through the major scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy. Along the way, we learn what is actually happening when our ice cream melts or our coffee gets cold, what our liver cells do when we eat a caramel, why the horse is an example of evolution at work, and how we're all really made of stardust.

Have you forgot all that science you had in school? This book will be a great choice for a quick and easy review. The Canon also covers the great science issues of the day - from stem cells and bird flu to evolution and global warming.
TB

A Fire Upon the Deep

A Fire Upon the Deep
by Vernor Vinge

A Fire Upon the Deep is a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, the farther from the galactic core the smarter you can become. At the galaxy's rim transcendent super-intelligent entities dwell. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when an ancient Transcendent artifact is used as a weapon, it unwittingly unleashes an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.

Winner of the Hugo award in 1993 this is an adventure story full of thought provoking scientific ideas. Aliens, interstellar war, ancient artifacts and evil gods maneuver for control of the galaxy. Dog lovers will enjoy the Tines; a pack-mind alien race. Vinge keeps you wanting to know what happens next alternating between events in space and events on the Tine world. A sequel called The Children of the Sky is due this October. Vinge published a prequel A Deepness in the Sky in 1999.
TB

Revelation Space

Revelation Space
by Alastair Reynolds

In the far future, a singular question haunts humanity: why are there so few intelligent civilizations in the universe? Revelation Space is a sprawling operatic novel that ranges across vast gulfs of time and space-to arrive at a terrifying answer.

Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just when it was on the verge of discovering space flight. For the human colonists now settling the Amarantin homeworld, what caused the species extinction is of little more than academic interest. Even after colonists discover an almost perfectly preserved city on the planet, only the archaeological community seems interested.

But one scientist, Dan Sylveste, is convinced that solving the Amarantin riddle is vital to the survival of humanity. Desperate to get at the truth-but with few resources, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. The ship's cyborg crew are walking weapons and could easily become a very real danger. They could also be Sylveste's only hope to find the answer he so zealously seeks.

Before becoming a full time writer, Reynolds was a scientist for the European Space Agency. Reynolds postulates a dark future of human machine cyborgs and artificial intelligences, which have mankinds emotions of revenge and murder. Mankind is colonizing the stars but finding little trace of extraterrestial civilizations. The question is: Where is everybody? The answer is shocking.

TB

Dread Empire's Fall

The Praxis : Dread Empire's Fall
by Walter J. Williams

All will must bend to the perfect truth of The Praxis.

For millennia, the Shaa have subjugated the universe, forcing the myriad sentient races to bow to their joyless tyranny. But the Shaa will soon be no more. The dread empire is in its rapidly fading twilight, and with its impending fall comes the promise of a new galactic order . . . and bloody chaos.

A young Terran naval officer marked by his lowly birth, Lt. Gareth Martinez is the first to recognize the insidious plot of the Naxid -- the powerful, warlike insectoid society that was enslaved before all others -- to replace the masters' despotic rule with their own. Barely escaping a swarming surprise attack, Martinez and Caroline Sula, a pilot whose beautiful face conceals a deadly secret, are now the last hope for freedom for every being who ever languished in Shaa chains -- as the interstellar battle begins against a merciless foe whose only perfect truth is annihilation.

A good fun space opera, "the Praxis" is not going to dazzle you with any new scientific ideas. It's just well done classic space opera without cookie cutter characters.
TB

Name of the Wind

The Name of the Wind
by Patrick Rothfuss


The riveting first-person narrative of a young man who grows to be the most notorious magician his world has ever seen. From his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime ridden city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that transports readers into the body and mind of a wizard. It is a high-action novel written with a poet's hand, a powerful coming-of-age story of a magically gifted young man, told through his eyes: to read this book is to be the hero.

Although the setting is the same this is not just another Harry Potter orphan attends a school for magic story. Kvothe is much more gypsy like as well as more accomplished than Harry, with fewer scruples.
TB