Birth Science

On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. The same morning, the first of a new Muslim century, hundreds of gunmen stunned the world by seizing Islam's holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Armed with rifles that they had smuggled inside coffins, these men came from more than a dozen countries, launching the first operation of global jihad in modern times.

This is the origin story of the airwaves - the foundational technology of the communications age - as told through the 40-year friendship of an entrepreneurial industrialist and a brilliant inventor. David Sarnoff, the head of RCA and equal parts Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, and William Randolph Hearst, was the greatest supporter of his friend, Edwin Armstrong, developer of the first amplifier, the modern radio transmitter, and FM radio.

In this audacious recasting of the American Revolution, distinguished historian Gary Nash offers a profound new way of thinking about the struggle to create this country, introducing listeners to a coalition of patriots from all classes and races of American society. From millennialist preachers to enslaved Africans and disgruntled women to aggrieved Indians, the people so vividly portrayed in this book laid down ideas that have become part of our inheritance and ideals toward which we still strive today.

Join Katie, Eva and Alex on their adventures, as they're whisked away to a magical woods alive with animals, where they're no longer girls but animals. This collection contains the first six books of the series: A Magical Beginning, To the Rescue, Lost and Found, The Birthday Party, Save the Day and An Enchanted Wedding.

Reddit hails itself as "the front page of the Internet". It's the third-most visited website in the US—and yet, millions of Americans have no idea what it is. We Are the Nerds is an engrossing look deep inside this captivating, maddening enterprise, whose army of obsessed users have been credited with everything from solving cold-case crimes and spurring tens of millions of dollars in charitable donations to seeding alt-right fury and landing Donald Trump in the White House.

The Forgotten Architect of the Information Age: The Life and Mind of Claude Shannon Long before smartphones, streaming, and artificial intelligence became everyday realities, a quiet genius laid the groundwork for the modern world—and few today know his name. Claude Shannon, the brilliant mind behind information theory, changed how humanity thinks, communicates, and invents. Without his ideas, the digital age would be unimaginable. Yet Shannon never sought fame. He lived a life defined not by ambition, but by curiosity, playfulness, and a relentless drive to understand the unseen patterns...

From the writer of the Hope’s Covenant trilogy comes the prequel story that started it all.... Before the dragon, before the curse, there was a girl named Kersey.... Living in the most holy city was a way of life for Kersey Avonwood and her family. But when a dark god threatens war, her life is destined to be changed forever. As she begins to discover an innate power, she is challenged with a daunting task: Join a group of dragon slayers and rid the world of the dark god’s most prized weapon.

In a story that is both of its time and timeless, Evan I. Schwartz tells a tale of genius versus greed, innocence versus deceit, and independent brilliance versus corporate arrogance. Many men have laid claim to the title "father of television," but Philo T. Farnsworth is the true genius behind what may be the most influential invention of our time. Driven by his obsession to demonstrate his idea, by the age of 20 Farnsworth was operating his own laboratory above a garage in San Francisco and filing for patents. The resulting publicity caught the attention of RCA tycoon David Sarnoff, who became determined to control television in the same way he monopolized radio.

Paula Lillard, director of a Montessori school ranging in age from 18 months to 15 years, provides a clear and cogent introduction to the Montessori program for the elementary and later years. In detailed accounts, Lillard shows how children acquire the skills to answer their own questions, learn to manage freedom with responsibility, and maintain a high level of intellectual stimulation by using the Montessori method. This is an essential handbook for parents and teachers who have chosen the Montessori alternative for the older child.

The second edition of this pathbreaking, widely taught book offers five new chapters, on breastfeeding and Black infant health; Black birthing during COVID; Black doulas rethinking birthing practices; the recent buildup of a US national movement; and expanding the global movement for sexual and reproductive wellbeing. Other chapters are updated throughout. Birthing Justice puts black women's voices at the center of the debate on what should be done to fix the broken maternal care system.

For the modern world, it seems as if sexuality and spirituality have always been at odds. But what if the two are actually deeply connected? And what if science could prove this connection? From neuroscientist Andrew Newberg, Sex, God, and the Brain argues that our religious and spiritual experiences derive directly from our sexual being. While others have speculated on a connection between religion and sex, Newberg is the first to demonstrate that the underlying biological mechanism of religious, spiritual, and sexual experiences are identical.

Birth of a Community: A Love Letter to Black America is a powerful tribute to the strength, beauty, and resilience of Black America. Blending personal stories, historical reflections, and cultural insight, the author paints a vivid portrait of Black American life while confronting systemic struggles and injustices. Yet, the book remains deeply rooted in hope, unity, and the richness of Black American heritage. The author challenges the misnomer of "The Black Community," offering concepts grounded in community development and racial identity research.

Araminta Spookie lives in a wonderful old haunted house, but her crabby Aunt Tabby wants to move. Aunt Tabby is determined to sell their house; Araminta has to stop her! With the help of a haunted suit of armor named Sir Horace, a ghost named Edmund, and a lot of imagination, Araminta hatches a plot for an Awful Ambush that is so ghoulish, it just might work!

Follow Dale as he meets new Keepers, unlocks greater secrets of the system, and learns more about both himself and his heavenly host. When the Keeper speaks, who will listen? In an age where war could lurk around any corner, who could afford not to?

Civilization has fallen in all but a few places as the Madness ravages Europe and Asia. America is the last holdout against the corruption causing nanocytes to malfunction. Bethany Anne is far away, fighting for the survival of the entire universe, unaware that her technology has turned on humanity. Earth needs a protector from Bethany Anne’s line, and the Kurtherian Lilith has found her champion.

In the opening months of 1949, US President Harry S. Truman found himself faced with a looming diplomatic catastrophe - "perhaps the greatest that this country has ever suffered", as the journalist Walter Lippmann put it. Throughout the spring and summer, Mao Zedong's Communist armies fanned out across mainland China, annihilating the rival troops of America's onetime ally Chiang Kai-shek and taking control of Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities.

As Bill Clinton's political and business mentor, Jim McDougal, with his knowledge of embarrassing real-estate and banking deals, bribes, and obstructions of justice, long haunted the White House. McDougal's vivid self-portrait, completed only days before his death and coauthored by veteran journalist Curtis Wilkie, reveals the hidden intersections of politics and special interests in Arkansas and the betrayals that followed.

This book - the first comprehensive transatlantic history of the rise of neoliberal politics - presents a surprising answer. Based on archival research and interviews with leading participants in the movement, Masters of the Universe traces the ascendancy of neoliberalism from the academy of interwar Europe to supremacy under Reagan and Thatcher and in the decades since. Daniel Stedman Jones argues that there was nothing inevitable about the victory of free-market politics.

Crystal Fire is a tale of the human factors in technology; the pride and jealousies coupled with scientific and economic aspiration that led to the creation of modern microelectronics and ignited the greatest technological explosion in history.

It's Danny's birthday! He is six years old today. What will Danny get for his birthday?