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Shards of earth / by Tchaikovsky, Adrian,1972-author.;
The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery ... Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade his mind in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers. Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed by an alien enemy. Many escaped, but millions more died. So mankind created enhanced humans - such as Idris - who could communicate mind-to-mind with our aggressors. Then these 'Architects' simply disappeared and Idris and his kind became obsolete. Now, Idris and his crew have something strange, abandoned in space. It's clearly the work of the Architects -- but are they really returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy hunting for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, that many would kill to obtain it.
Subjects: Science fiction.; Cloning; Cyborgs; Extraterrestrial beings; Interplanetary voyages;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Biomimicry : when nature inspires amazing inventions / by Menu, Séraphine.; Walker, Emmanuelle.; Waters, Alyson,1955-;
"Discover how bats led to the development of radar, whales inspired the pacemaker, and the lotus flower may help us produce indestructible clothing. "Biomimicry" comes from the Greek "bio" (life) and "mimesis" (imitation). Here are various and amazing ways that nature inspires us to create cool inventions in science and medicine, clothing design, and architecture. From the fireflies that showed inventors how LEDs could give off more light to the burdock plant that inspired velcro to the high speed trains of Japan that take the form of a kingfisher's sleek, aerodynamic head, there are innumerable ways that we can create smarter, better, safer inventions by observing the natural world. Author Seraphine Menu and illustrator Emmanuelle Walker also gently explain that our extraordinary, diverse, and awe-inspiring world is like a carefully calibrated machine and its fragile balance must be treated with extreme care and respect. "Go outside," they say, "observe, compare, and maybe some day you'll be the next person to be struck by a great idea.""--Provided by publisher.Grades 4-6LSC
Subjects: Biomimicry; Technological innovations;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Building : a carpenter's notes on life & the art of good work / by Ellison, Mark,author.;
"Over the past forty years Mark Ellison has designed and constructed some of the most stunning marvels of architecture that you've never seen. He built a staircase that the famed architect Santiago Calatrava called a masterpiece. He worked on the iconic Sky House, which Interior Design named the best apartment of the decade. He's even worked on the homes of David Bowie, Robin Williams, and others whose names he cannot reveal. He is regarded by many as the best carpenter in New York. In Building, Ellison writes of the mastery that comes from doing something well for a long time, by taking you on a tour through the lofts, penthouses, and townhomes of New York's elite that he has transformed over the years--before they're camera-ready--and in a singular voice offers a window onto what he's learned about living meaningfully along the way. From staircases that would be deadly if built as designed, to algae eating snails boiled to escargot in a penthouse pond, and the deceptive complextiy of "minimalist" interior design, Building exposes the messy wiring behind the pristine walls, features, and furnishings that grace the glossy pages of Architectural Digest, revealing the overrun budgets, scrapped blueprints, and last-minute demands that characterize life in the high-stakes world of luxury construction"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Ellison, Mark.; Carpenters; Workmanship.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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In love with Lewis Prescott / by Smith, Sarah,1985-author.;
"Fed up with the long hours at her prestigious San Francisco architecture firm, Harper Ellorza has traded the overcrowded city for the sleepy seaside town of Half Moon Bay. Her plan to renovate her late grandparents' house has hit some snags, though: it's in worse condition than expected, the costs are piling up and her savings are dwindling--fast. A chance encounter with TV hunk Lewis Prescott might be the solution to her problems. After a career-killing meltdown, he's desperate for a place to lie low for a while. He offers to help Harper remodel the house--for free--if she lets him stay there. He's famous, he's handsome and he's surprisingly good with his hands ... As their living arrangements become more intimate, so do their conversations. Turns out, there's more to Lewis than she ever would have guessed, but Harper knows she needs to keep her hands--and her heart--to herself. After all, her hard-earned quiet coastal life could never be enough for a TV star determined to return to the A-list. Could it?"--Back cover.
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Novels.; Dwellings; Man-woman relationships; Television actors and actresses; Women architects;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The meaning of beer : how our pursuit of the perfect pint built the world / by Garrett, Jonny,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (page 299) and index."What's the oldest and most consumed alcoholic beverage on earth? Beer, of course. And it might just be one of our more important inventions. Since its creation thirteen thousand years ago, our love of beer has shaped everything from religious ceremonies to advertising, and architecture to bioengineering. The people who built the pyramids were paid in ale; the first fridge was built for beer, not food; bacteria was discovered while investigating sour beer; Germany's beer halls hosted Hitler's rise to power; and brewer's yeast may yet be the answer to climate change. In The Meaning of Beer, award-winning beer writer Jonny Garrett tells the stories of these incredible human moments and inventions, taking readers to some of the best-known beer destinations in the world -- Munich and Oktoberfest, Carlsberg Brewery's historic laboratory, St. Louis and the home of Budweiser -- as well as those lesser known, from a five-thousand-year-old brewery in the Egyptian desert to Arctic Svalbard, home to the world's most northerly pub. Ultimately, this is not a book about how we made beer, but how beer made us"--
Subjects: Beer.; Beer; Beer;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Eyes of the void / by Tchaikovsky, Adrian,1972-author.;
After eighty years of fragile peace, the Architects are back, wreaking havoc as they consume entire planets. In the past, Originator artefacts - vestiges of a long-vanished civilization - could save a world from annihilation. Yet the Architects have discovered a way to circumvent these protective relics. Suddenly, no planet is safe. Facing impending extinction, the Human Colonies are in turmoil. While some believe a unified front is the only way to stop the Architects, others insist humanity should fight alone. And there are those who would seek to benefit from the fractured politics of war - even as the Architects loom ever closer. Idris, who has spent decades running from the horrors of his past, finds himself thrust back onto the battlefront. As an Intermediary, he could be one of the few to turn the tide of war. With a handful of allies, he searches for a weapon that could push back the Architects and save the galaxy. But to do so, he must return to the nightmarish unspace, where his mind was broken and remade. What Idris discovers there will change everything.
Subjects: Science fiction.; Novels.; Extraterrestrial beings; Heroes; Human beings; Salvage vessels;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The age of surveillance capitalism : the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power / by Zuboff, Shoshana,1951-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Shoshana Zuboff, named "the true prophet of the information age" by the Financial Times, has always been ahead of her time. Her seminal book In the Age of the Smart Machine foresaw the consequences of a then-unfolding era of computer technology. Now, three decades later she asks why the once-celebrated miracle of digital is turning into a nightmare. Zuboff tackles the social, political, business, personal, and technological meaning of "surveillance capitalism" as an unprecedented new market form. It is not simply about tracking us and selling ads, it is the business model for an ominous new marketplace that aims at nothing less than predicting and modifying our everyday behavior--where we go, what we do, what we say, how we feel, who we're with. The consequences of surveillance capitalism for us as individuals and as a society vividly come to life in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism's pathbreaking analysis of power. The threat has shifted from a totalitarian "big brother" state to a universal global architecture of automatic sensors and smart capabilities: A "big other" that imposes a fundamentally new form of power and unprecedented concentrations of knowledge in private companies--free from democratic oversight and control"--
Subjects: Consumer behavior; Consumer profiling; Information technology;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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In love : a memoir of love and loss / by Bloom, Amy,1953-author.;
"Amy and Brian's world was changed forever with his diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's. Forced to confront the daily frustrations and realities of the disease and its impact on their lives and marriage, Brian resolved not to let it dictate his life and instead asked himself: What makes life meaningful, and how do I want to live the rest of mine? His decision led them to learn about Dignitas and to fly to Zürich for a peaceful ending of Brian's life. In Love is the illuminating story of a marriage, of the gradual awareness that something was deeply wrong, and of a disease's effect on a man, a woman, a family. What were the signs that Brian and Amy brushed aside, and how did they cope when they could no longer ignore the truth as confirmed by an MRI? Why, in retrospect, did Brian decide to retire from his architecture practice earlier than he had planned? Bloom goes on to recount their search for a dignified and kind solution to the pain of Brian's life, and their discovery of Dignitas in Zurich, where the choice for a dignified end of life can be realized. In this moving memoir, Bloom also writes of their life together before Alzheimer's, and of a love that runs so deep that they were willing to work to find a courageous way to part"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Ameche, Brian A.,; Alzheimer's disease; Alzheimer's disease;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The New Internationals [electronic resource] : by Faladé, David Wright.aut; cloudLibrary;
A stunning novel of post-war Paris that interweaves a coming-of-age story, a cross-cultural romance, and a portrait of the international youth at a definitive moment in contemporary history Paris, 1947. The city, recovering from the Nazi occupation, suffers from an economy in shambles and an unraveled social fabric. Alongside the wary and war-weary population, American GIs and young people from France’s colonies also pack the city. Cecile Rosenbaum, from a bourgeois Jewish family that has lost everything, meets Minette Traoré, a feisty, French-born girl of Senegalese descent, on the bus to a Communist Youth Conference. There, she also meets Sebastien Danxomè, an aspiring architecture student from West Africa, and romance blooms. Back in Paris, as these young internationals haunt the cafés and jazz clubs of the Latin Quarter, Cecile and Sebastien find their budding love muddied by confused loyalties and unyielding cultural traditions. When Mack Gray, a charming African-American GI, sets his sights on Cecile, her complicated relationship with Sebastien, as well as her fierce dedication to her newfound political ideologies, are pushed to the brink. Nuanced, powerful, and sharply realized, The New Internationals chronicles the post-war awakening and the young women and men who rose up – and came together – in the beginnings of a vibrant political moment, trying to imagine a better world.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Historical; Historical;
© 2025., Grove Atlantic,
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Outpost : a journey to the wild ends of the earth / by Richards, Dan(Artist),author.;
There are still wild places out there on our crowded planet. Through a series of personal journeys, Dan Richards explores the appeal of far-flung outposts in mountains, tundra, forests, oceans and deserts. These are landscapes that speak of deep time, whose scale can knock us down to size. Their untamed nature is part of their beauty and such places have long drawn the adventurous, the spiritual and the artistic. For those who go in search of the silence, isolation and adventure of wilderness it is perhaps ironically to man-made shelters that they often need to head; to bothies, bivouacs, camps and sheds. Part of the allure of such refuges is their simplicity: enough architecture to keep the weather at bay but not so much as to distract from the natural world. Following a route from the Cairngorms of Scotland to the fire-watch lookouts of Washington State, from Iceland's 'Houses of Joy' to the Utah desert; frozen ghost towns in Svalbard to shrines in Japan; Roald Dahl's Metro-land writing hut to a lighthouse in the North Atlantic, Richards explores landscapes which have inspired writers, artists and musicians, and asks: why are we drawn to wilderness? What can we do to protect them? And what does the future hold for outposts on the edge?
Subjects: Richards, Dan (Artist); Wilderness areas.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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