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Tripping on utopia : Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the troubled birth of psychedelic science / by Breen, Benjamin,1985-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.""It was not the Baby Boomers who ushered in the first era of widespread drug experimentation. It was their parents." Far from the repressed traditionalists they are often painted as, the generation that survived the second World War emerged with a profoundly ambitious sense of social experimentation. In the '40s and '50s, transformative drugs rapidly entered mainstream culture, where they were not only legal, but openly celebrated. American physician John C. Lilly infamously dosed dolphins (and himself) with LSD in a NASA-funded effort to teach dolphins to talk. A tripping Cary Grant mumbled into a Dictaphone about Hegel as astronaut John Glenn returned to Earth. At the center of this revolution were the pioneering anthropologists-and star-crossed lovers-Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Convinced the world was headed toward certain disaster, Mead and Bateson made it their life's mission to reshape humanity through a new science of consciousness expansion, but soon found themselves at odds with the government bodies who funded their work, whose intentions were less than pure. Mead and Bateson's partnership unlocks an untold chapter in the history of the twentieth century, linking drug researchers with CIA agents, outsider sexologists, and the founders of the Information Age. As we follow Mead and Bateson's fractured love affair from the malarial jungles of New Guinea to the temples of Bali, from the espionage of WWII to the scientific revolutions of the Cold War, a new origin story for psychedelic science emerges"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Bateson, Gregory, 1904-1980.; Mead, Margaret, 1901-1978.; Anthropology; Cold War.; Hallucinogenic drugs;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A woman I know : female spies, double identities, and a new story of the Kennedy assassination / by Haverstick, Mary,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Independent filmmaker Mary Haverstick thought she'd stumbled onto the project of a lifetime--a biopic of aviation pioneer Jerrie Cobb, the key figure in a group of extraordinary women who in 1960 passed the same tests as the legendary male astronauts of the Mercury 7 but never went to space. Just as casting was set to begin, Haverstick received a mysterious warning from a government agent; soon she began to suspect that there was more to Jerrie's story than what met the eye. As she dug deeper, she discovered that Jerrie's life shadowed that of a mysterious CIA agent named June Cobb, whose espionage career traced an arc of intrigue from the jungles of South America to Fidel Castro's Cuba, to the communist literary circles in Mexico City--and ultimately into the dark heart of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas. Haverstick's attempt to learn the truth directly from Jerrie would plunge her into a cat-and-mouse game that stretched across a decade, deep into a thicket of coded CIA files. As she uncovered a remarkable set of mostly unknown women whose high-stakes intelligence work left its only traces in redacted files, she also found shocking new clues about what really happened at Dealey Plaza in 1963. Offering fresh insight into the Kennedy assassination and a vivid picture of women in midcentury intelligence, A Woman I Know brings to life the astonishing duplicities of the Cold War intelligence game, a world where code names and hidden identities were the lifeblood of spies bent on seeking advantage by any means necessary."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Cobb, Jerrie.; Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963; Espionage, American; Spies; Women air pilots;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Project Hail Mary A Novel [electronic resource] : by Weir, Andy.aut; CloudLibrary;
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING RYAN GOSLING AND DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER LORD AND PHIL MILLER From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Action & Adventure; Hard Science Fiction; Suspense;
© 2021., Random House Publishing Group,
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The woulda, coulda, shoulda guide to Canadian inventions / by Smith, Steve,1945-author.; Smith, David T.,1978-author.;
"One of Canada's greatest inventors takes on his peers, with mixed results. The author of How to do everything and Red Green's beginner's guide to women has never been reluctant to take on enormously difficult jobs that are doomed to failure. This latest project has turned out to be perhaps his nearest thing to a triumph yet. In Woulda, coulda, shoulda, Red surveys, analyzes, critiques and in some cases tells you how to replicate at home the best Canadian inventions, from the Wonderbra to the hard-cup jockstrap, by way of insulin, the walkie-talkie, synchronised swimming and more world-changing innovations than you can wave a Canadarm at. And speaking of the Canadarm, Red shows how by simply combining common household items such as a cordless drill, metal tape measure, broomstick, ice tongs, bungee cord, fishing reel and, of course, the handiman's secret weapon -- duct tape -- you will in no time at all be lifting oranges out of the fruit bowl like a trained astronaut. Elsewhere, Red tells the little-known story of how the BlackBerry inspired a freelance piccolo player from the Possum Lake area to create a WhistleBerry communication device requiring no internet connection, wireless or electricity. He explains definitively the difference between the alkaline battery and Al Kaline, who played right field for the Detroit Tigers. And he reveals how Lodge Member Dennis Holmsworth's test-run of magnetic shoes along the underside of the Mercury Creek Railway Bridge literally came undone as a result of poor lace-tying skills. The illustrations are inimitably -- because really, who else would want to? -- the work of the author himself, relieved throughout with a large number of photographs in vivid black and white. An important contribution to the sesquicentennial celebrations, and an inspiration to the handiman and handiwoman to aim high, however badly they might miss, The woulda, coulda, shoulda guide to Canadian inventions is a book no shed should be without"--
Subjects: Inventions;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Letters / by Sacks, Oliver,1933-2015,author.; Edgar, Kate(Editor),editor.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The letters of one of the greatest observers of the human species, revealing his intimate thoughts on life and work, friendship and art, medicine and society, and the richness of his relationships with friends, family and scientists over the decades. A prolific correspondent, Dr. Oliver Sacks -- who describes himself variously in these pages as "a philosophical physician," "an astronomer of the inward," a "neuropathological Talmudist," and "a consummate observer" with "a pure love for phenomena" -- wrote letters throughout his life to his parents, his beloved Aunt Lennie, to friends and colleagues from London, Oxford, California, and around the world. The pages begin with his arrival in America as a young man, eager to establish himself away from the confines of postwar England, and carry us through his bumpy early career in medicine and the discovery of his writer's voice and métier; his weightlifting, motorcycle-riding years and his explosive seasons of discovery with the patients who populate his book Awakenings; his growing interest in matters of sight and the musical brain; his many friendships and exchanges with fellow writers, artists and scientists (to say nothing of astronauts, botanists, and mathematicians), and his deep gratitude for all these relationships at the end of his life. From Francis Crick and Jane Goodall to W. H. Auden and Susan Sontag, from lovers to patients, and ordinary folk who wrote to him with their odd symptoms and questions, all are treated equally to Sacks's lyrical, ferocious, penetrating and at times hilarious observations. His musings often contain the first detailed sketches of an essay forming in his mind. Sensitively introduced and edited by Kate Edgar, Sacks's longtime assistant (and one of his correspondents), the letters deliver a complete portrait of Sacks as he wrestles with the workings of the brain and mind. We see, through his eyes, the beginnings of modern neuroscience as it unlocks many secrets of how the human brain defines us. We experience the arc of a remarkable personal evolution, closely following the thought processes of one of the twentieth century's great intellectuals, whose life was long and productive and whose words, as evidenced in these pages, were unfailingly shaped with generosity and wonder toward other people"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal correspondence.; Personal narratives.; Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015; Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015; Neurologists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Atmosphere: A GMA Book Club Pick A Love Story [electronic resource] : by Reid, Taylor Jenkins.aut; DiMercurio, Kristen.nrt; Whelan, Julia.nrt; Reid, Taylor Jenkins.nrt; CloudLibrary;
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits. “Thrilling . . . heartbreaking . . . uplifting . . . the fast-paced, emotionally charged story of one ambitious young woman, finding both her voice and her passion.”—Kristin Hannah, author of The Women “NASA? Space missions? The ’80s? This is a collection of all the things I love.”—Andy Weir, author of Project Hail Mary and The Martian Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space. Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane. As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant. Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Literary; Sagas; Contemporary Women;
© 2025., Penguin Random House,
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Scarcity brain : fix your craving mindset and rewire your habits to thrive with enough / by Easter, Michael(Health and fitness writer),author.;
Are we hardwired to crave more? From food and stuff to information and influence, why can't we ever get enough? The author of The Comfort Crisis shows us how to overcome our built-to-crave mindset and discover the tools to finally feel satisfied. Anything is fine in moderation. But why are we so bad at moderating? Michael Easter, one of the world's leading experts on behavior change, shows that the problem isn't you. The problem is your scarcity mindset, left over from our ancient ancestors. They had to constantly seek and consume to survive because vital survival tools like food, material goods, information, power, and more were scarce and hard to find. But with our modern ability to easily fulfill our ancient desire for more, our hardwired "scarcity brain" is now backfiring. And new technology and institutions -- from dating and entertainment apps to our food and economic systems -- are exploiting our scarcity brain. They're bombarding us with subversive "scarcity cues," subtle triggers that lead us into low-reward cravings that hurt us in the long run. Scarcity cues can be direct and all-encompassing, like a sagging economy. Or they can be subtle and slight, like our neighbor buying a shiny new car. Easter traveled the world to consult with remarkable innovators and leading scientists who are finding surprising solutions for our scarcity brain. He discovered simple tactics that can move us towards an abundance mindset, cement healthy habits, and allow us to live our lives to the fullest and appreciate what we have, including how to: Detect hidden scarcity cues to stop cravings before they start, from a brilliant slot machine designer in a Las Vegas casino laboratory ; Turn alone time into the ultimate happiness hack, from artisanal coffee-making Benedictine monks ; Reignite your exploration gene for a more exciting and fulfilling life, from an astronaut onboard the International Space Station ; Reframe how we think about and fix addiction and bad habits, from Iraq's chief psychiatrist ; Recognize when you have enough, from a woman who left a million-dollar career path to adventure the world. Our world is overloaded with everything we're built to crave. The fix for scarcity brain isn't to blindly aim for less. It's to understand why we crave more in the first place, shake our worst habits, and use what we already have better. Then we can experience life in a new way -- a more satisfying way.
Subjects: Self-help publications.; Desire.; Desire; Happiness; Quality of life.; Scarcity.; Scarcity; Self-actualization (Psychology);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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My remarkable journey : a memoir / by Johnson, Katherine,author.; Hylick, Joylette,author.; Moore, Katherine(Writer at National Geographic Kids),author.; Page, Lisa Frazier,author.;
"Katherine Johnson was 97 years old in 2015, when the world caught up to her. That year, President Barack Obama awarded her the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom-the nation's highest civilian honor-for her pioneering work decades earlier as a mathematician on NASA's first flights into space. The next year, a blockbuster movie, Hidden Figures, told the world the story of the West Area Computing unit, where Katherine worked as a human computer among an unheralded cadre of African American female mathematicians. In the days before IBM introduced its first electronic computers and at a time when African Americans were subjected to inferior treatment and status, these brilliant women were among those doing the computations that helped send the United States' first manned spaceflights to the moon. Even among such a talented group, Katherine stood out. Astronaut John Glenn was reluctant to trust her computations of NASA's first electronic computers for the trajectory of his 1962 flight to the moon, until Katherine did the math by hand. "Get the girl," Glenn said then, referring to Katherine. "If she says they're good, then I'm ready to go." Now, in her definitive new memoir, Katherine shares her personal journey from a child prodigy growing up in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia to the peaceful centenarian she was in her final days. In A Remarkable Journey: The Wisdom, Grit, and Grace of a Pioneering NASA Mathematician, Katherine wraps her story around some of the basic tenets of her life-the value of knowing that no one is better than you, education is paramount, timing is everything, and asking questions can break barriers. Readers will see this heroine in full dimension-curious "daddy's girl," standout college student, pioneering professional, doting mother, grieving widow, and sage elder. They will hear the wisdom of a woman who handled great fame with genuine humility and great tragedy with enduring hope. They will see the brilliance of a young college student who latched onto a dream, inspired by a college professor who told her she would make a good "research mathematician." She would carry the mantle of that professor, who in 1933 became one of the first African Americans in the country to receive a doctorate in math, only to find his own dreams of becoming a research mathematician crushed by racism. The book moves with Katherine through 100 years of racial history, pausing to show, for example, the influential role that educators at segregated schools and Historically Black Colleges and Universities played in nurturing the dreams of trailblazers. In this uplifting narrative, readers see a woman who navigated tough racial terrain with the soft-spoken grace expected of a woman of her era, and the unrelenting grit required to make history and inspire future generations"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Johnson, Katherine G.; United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration; African American women mathematicians; Women mathematicians; African American teachers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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