Author: Peter Pesic
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
Children ask, "Why is the sky blue?" but the question also puzzled Plato, Leonardo,and even Newton, who unlocked so many other secrets. The search for an answer continued forcenturies; in 1862 Sir John Herschel listed the color and polarization of sky light as "the twogreat standing enigmas of meteorology." In Sky in a Bottle, Peter Pesic takes us on a quest to theheart of this mystery, tracing the various attempts of science, history, and art to solve it. Hebegins with the scholars of the ancient world and continues through the natural philosophers of theEnlightenment, the empiricists of the scientific revolution, and beyond. The cast of charactersincludes Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Kepler, Descartes, Euler, Saussure, Goethe, Rayleigh, andEinstein; but the protagonist is the question itself, and the story tells how we have tried toanswer it.Pesic's odyssey introduces us to central ideas of chemistry, optics, and atomic physics.He describes the polarization of light, Rayleigh scattering, and connections between the appearanceof the sky and Avogadro's number. He discusses changing representations of the sky in art, from newstyles of painting to new pigments that created new colors for paint. He considers what the sky'snighttime brightness might tell us about the size and density of the universe. And Pesic asksanother, daring, question: Can we put the sky in a bottle? Can we recreate and understand itsblueness here on earth? This puzzle, he says, opens larger perspectives; questions of the color andbrightness of the sky touch on secrets of matter and light, the scope of the universe in space andtime, the destiny of the earth, and deep human feelings.
Sky in a Bottle
Author: Peter Pesic
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
Children ask, "Why is the sky blue?" but the question also puzzled Plato, Leonardo,and even Newton, who unlocked so many other secrets. The search for an answer continued forcenturies; in 1862 Sir John Herschel listed the color and polarization of sky light as "the twogreat standing enigmas of meteorology." In Sky in a Bottle, Peter Pesic takes us on a quest to theheart of this mystery, tracing the various attempts of science, history, and art to solve it. Hebegins with the scholars of the ancient world and continues through the natural philosophers of theEnlightenment, the empiricists of the scientific revolution, and beyond. The cast of charactersincludes Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Kepler, Descartes, Euler, Saussure, Goethe, Rayleigh, andEinstein; but the protagonist is the question itself, and the story tells how we have tried toanswer it.Pesic's odyssey introduces us to central ideas of chemistry, optics, and atomic physics.He describes the polarization of light, Rayleigh scattering, and connections between the appearanceof the sky and Avogadro's number. He discusses changing representations of the sky in art, from newstyles of painting to new pigments that created new colors for paint. He considers what the sky'snighttime brightness might tell us about the size and density of the universe. And Pesic asksanother, daring, question: Can we put the sky in a bottle? Can we recreate and understand itsblueness here on earth? This puzzle, he says, opens larger perspectives; questions of the color andbrightness of the sky touch on secrets of matter and light, the scope of the universe in space andtime, the destiny of the earth, and deep human feelings.
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
Children ask, "Why is the sky blue?" but the question also puzzled Plato, Leonardo,and even Newton, who unlocked so many other secrets. The search for an answer continued forcenturies; in 1862 Sir John Herschel listed the color and polarization of sky light as "the twogreat standing enigmas of meteorology." In Sky in a Bottle, Peter Pesic takes us on a quest to theheart of this mystery, tracing the various attempts of science, history, and art to solve it. Hebegins with the scholars of the ancient world and continues through the natural philosophers of theEnlightenment, the empiricists of the scientific revolution, and beyond. The cast of charactersincludes Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Kepler, Descartes, Euler, Saussure, Goethe, Rayleigh, andEinstein; but the protagonist is the question itself, and the story tells how we have tried toanswer it.Pesic's odyssey introduces us to central ideas of chemistry, optics, and atomic physics.He describes the polarization of light, Rayleigh scattering, and connections between the appearanceof the sky and Avogadro's number. He discusses changing representations of the sky in art, from newstyles of painting to new pigments that created new colors for paint. He considers what the sky'snighttime brightness might tell us about the size and density of the universe. And Pesic asksanother, daring, question: Can we put the sky in a bottle? Can we recreate and understand itsblueness here on earth? This puzzle, he says, opens larger perspectives; questions of the color andbrightness of the sky touch on secrets of matter and light, the scope of the universe in space andtime, the destiny of the earth, and deep human feelings.
Night Sky with Exit Wounds
Author: Ocean Vuong
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
ISBN: 1619321564
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 107
Book Description
Winner of the 2016 Whiting Award One of Publishers Weekly's "Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2016" One of Lit Hub's "10 must-read poetry collections for April" “Reading Vuong is like watching a fish move: he manages the varied currents of English with muscled intuition. His poems are by turns graceful and wonderstruck. His lines are both long and short, his pose narrative and lyric, his diction formal and insouciant. From the outside, Vuong has fashioned a poetry of inclusion.”—The New Yorker "Night Sky with Exit Wounds establishes Vuong as a fierce new talent to be reckoned with...This book is a masterpiece that captures, with elegance, the raw sorrows and joys of human existence."—Buzzfeed's "Most Exciting New Books of 2016" "This original, sprightly wordsmith of tumbling pulsing phrases pushes poetry to a new level...A stunning introduction to a young poet who writes with both assurance and vulnerability. Visceral, tender and lyrical, fleet and agile, these poems unflinchingly face the legacies of violence and cultural displacement but they also assume a position of wonder before the world.”—2016 Whiting Award citation "Night Sky with Exit Wounds is the kind of book that soon becomes worn with love. You will want to crease every page to come back to it, to underline every other line because each word resonates with power."—LitHub "Vuong’s powerful voice explores passion, violence, history, identity—all with a tremendous humanity."—Slate “In his impressive debut collection, Vuong, a 2014 Ruth Lilly fellow, writes beauty into—and culls from—individual, familial, and historical traumas. Vuong exists as both observer and observed throughout the book as he explores deeply personal themes such as poverty, depression, queer sexuality, domestic abuse, and the various forms of violence inflicted on his family during the Vietnam War. Poems float and strike in equal measure as the poet strives to transform pain into clarity. Managing this balance becomes the crux of the collection, as when he writes, ‘Your father is only your father/ until one of you forgets. Like how the spine/ won’t remember its wings/ no matter how many times our knees/ kiss the pavement.’”—Publishers Weekly "What a treasure [Ocean Vuong] is to us. What a perfume he's crushed and rendered of his heart and soul. What a gift this book is."—Li-Young Lee Torso of Air Suppose you do change your life. & the body is more than a portion of night—sealed with bruises. Suppose you woke & found your shadow replaced by a black wolf. The boy, beautiful & gone. So you take the knife to the wall instead. You carve & carve until a coin of light appears & you get to look in, at last, on happiness. The eye staring back from the other side— waiting. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, Ocean Vuong attended Brooklyn College. He is the author of two chapbooks as well as a full-length collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. A 2014 Ruth Lilly Fellow and winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, Ocean Vuong lives in New York City, New York.
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
ISBN: 1619321564
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 107
Book Description
Winner of the 2016 Whiting Award One of Publishers Weekly's "Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2016" One of Lit Hub's "10 must-read poetry collections for April" “Reading Vuong is like watching a fish move: he manages the varied currents of English with muscled intuition. His poems are by turns graceful and wonderstruck. His lines are both long and short, his pose narrative and lyric, his diction formal and insouciant. From the outside, Vuong has fashioned a poetry of inclusion.”—The New Yorker "Night Sky with Exit Wounds establishes Vuong as a fierce new talent to be reckoned with...This book is a masterpiece that captures, with elegance, the raw sorrows and joys of human existence."—Buzzfeed's "Most Exciting New Books of 2016" "This original, sprightly wordsmith of tumbling pulsing phrases pushes poetry to a new level...A stunning introduction to a young poet who writes with both assurance and vulnerability. Visceral, tender and lyrical, fleet and agile, these poems unflinchingly face the legacies of violence and cultural displacement but they also assume a position of wonder before the world.”—2016 Whiting Award citation "Night Sky with Exit Wounds is the kind of book that soon becomes worn with love. You will want to crease every page to come back to it, to underline every other line because each word resonates with power."—LitHub "Vuong’s powerful voice explores passion, violence, history, identity—all with a tremendous humanity."—Slate “In his impressive debut collection, Vuong, a 2014 Ruth Lilly fellow, writes beauty into—and culls from—individual, familial, and historical traumas. Vuong exists as both observer and observed throughout the book as he explores deeply personal themes such as poverty, depression, queer sexuality, domestic abuse, and the various forms of violence inflicted on his family during the Vietnam War. Poems float and strike in equal measure as the poet strives to transform pain into clarity. Managing this balance becomes the crux of the collection, as when he writes, ‘Your father is only your father/ until one of you forgets. Like how the spine/ won’t remember its wings/ no matter how many times our knees/ kiss the pavement.’”—Publishers Weekly "What a treasure [Ocean Vuong] is to us. What a perfume he's crushed and rendered of his heart and soul. What a gift this book is."—Li-Young Lee Torso of Air Suppose you do change your life. & the body is more than a portion of night—sealed with bruises. Suppose you woke & found your shadow replaced by a black wolf. The boy, beautiful & gone. So you take the knife to the wall instead. You carve & carve until a coin of light appears & you get to look in, at last, on happiness. The eye staring back from the other side— waiting. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, Ocean Vuong attended Brooklyn College. He is the author of two chapbooks as well as a full-length collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. A 2014 Ruth Lilly Fellow and winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, Ocean Vuong lives in New York City, New York.
Transmigrate with Profound Sky
Author: Yu ZhouLangZi
Publisher: Funstory
ISBN: 1647593654
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 872
Book Description
Do you want to know what would happen when the 'Nine Yang Divine Technique' in the novel appeared in the real world? Due to the accident, Li Xiaofeng obtained the ability to travel back and forth between the world of novels and reality. Furthermore, he realized that the martial arts of this dream-like world could be used in the real world, so the legend began ...
Publisher: Funstory
ISBN: 1647593654
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 872
Book Description
Do you want to know what would happen when the 'Nine Yang Divine Technique' in the novel appeared in the real world? Due to the accident, Li Xiaofeng obtained the ability to travel back and forth between the world of novels and reality. Furthermore, he realized that the martial arts of this dream-like world could be used in the real world, so the legend began ...
Ship in a Bottle
Author: Andrew Prahin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1984815822
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 19
Book Description
A valiant mouse sets sail in her ship in a bottle to seek a better life in this gentle allegory about refugees and immigration. All Mouse wants to do is eat gingersnaps, lie in the sun, and enjoy her ship in a bottle. All Cat wants to do is eat Mouse. This is a problem. So one day, Mouse sets off in her ship in a bottle in search of a new home. But the great big world is a scary place for one small mouse. As she sails downriver, she faces grabby seagulls, selfish rabbits, and stormy waters before finally finding refuge in a park on the shores of an enormous city, where she is welcomed by friends of all shapes and sizes. Readers will cheer Mouse's quiet perseverance on her epic journey as she seeks a tiny spot to call her own.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1984815822
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 19
Book Description
A valiant mouse sets sail in her ship in a bottle to seek a better life in this gentle allegory about refugees and immigration. All Mouse wants to do is eat gingersnaps, lie in the sun, and enjoy her ship in a bottle. All Cat wants to do is eat Mouse. This is a problem. So one day, Mouse sets off in her ship in a bottle in search of a new home. But the great big world is a scary place for one small mouse. As she sails downriver, she faces grabby seagulls, selfish rabbits, and stormy waters before finally finding refuge in a park on the shores of an enormous city, where she is welcomed by friends of all shapes and sizes. Readers will cheer Mouse's quiet perseverance on her epic journey as she seeks a tiny spot to call her own.
Rape of the Sky
Author: Justin Petrillo
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595393179
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
Attorney Skyler Grace has lived a life full of tragedy that cumulates in her law firm defending a serial rapist with Tourette's Syndrome named Gabriel Usher; a man she knows is guilty. Gabriel Usher is unrepentant and Skyler Grace brutalizes the rape victim Rachel Barcum at the trial to earn her guilty client an acquittal. Gabriel Usher is disgusted by Skyler Grace's supposed ethical dilemma and he vows to teach her a lesson: he rapes the very lawyer that had just freed him from a long prison term. Skyler Grace uses her rape to totally surrender her tragic life to Gabriel Usher and incredibly agrees to marry him. They begin to live together in a life of total denial and dysfunction. Skyler Grace slices her wrist in her bathtub in a suicide attempt after she finds her fiancee and former client is now an Internet predator who seduces young boys and girls for perverted photos and videos. As Skyler Grace slowly bleeds to death, she finds herself at a long, dark tunnel and feels a familiar Presence with her. This mysterious but familiar Presence takes her back to the most significant events that have shaped her life. This familiar entity tells her that she must look at all of her choices from her tragic life to fully understand and complete her suicide. At the final moment, Skyler Grace still has one more choice to make: she must choose either Life or Death.
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595393179
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 416
Book Description
Attorney Skyler Grace has lived a life full of tragedy that cumulates in her law firm defending a serial rapist with Tourette's Syndrome named Gabriel Usher; a man she knows is guilty. Gabriel Usher is unrepentant and Skyler Grace brutalizes the rape victim Rachel Barcum at the trial to earn her guilty client an acquittal. Gabriel Usher is disgusted by Skyler Grace's supposed ethical dilemma and he vows to teach her a lesson: he rapes the very lawyer that had just freed him from a long prison term. Skyler Grace uses her rape to totally surrender her tragic life to Gabriel Usher and incredibly agrees to marry him. They begin to live together in a life of total denial and dysfunction. Skyler Grace slices her wrist in her bathtub in a suicide attempt after she finds her fiancee and former client is now an Internet predator who seduces young boys and girls for perverted photos and videos. As Skyler Grace slowly bleeds to death, she finds herself at a long, dark tunnel and feels a familiar Presence with her. This mysterious but familiar Presence takes her back to the most significant events that have shaped her life. This familiar entity tells her that she must look at all of her choices from her tragic life to fully understand and complete her suicide. At the final moment, Skyler Grace still has one more choice to make: she must choose either Life or Death.
The Sky Scraper. A Collection of Original and Popular Recitations by T. Ramsay
Author: Thomas Ramsay
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 110
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 110
Book Description
Into The Sky
Author: Yu Qing
Publisher: Funstory
ISBN: 1649356994
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 914
Book Description
Eighteen years ago, a first god body appeared in the Xu family. It had ten divine veins, but the news of it had been leaked out, and ten divine veins had been destroyed. From then on, even though he had the qualifications of a god body, he could no longer cultivate. He had never been known to shake the mountains and rivers; he had never been able to cover the sky with his hands, but he had guided the world; he had never possessed endless abilities, but he had been respected by the world as a teacher; he was destined to not live past twenty, even though he was young and extraordinary.
Publisher: Funstory
ISBN: 1649356994
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 914
Book Description
Eighteen years ago, a first god body appeared in the Xu family. It had ten divine veins, but the news of it had been leaked out, and ten divine veins had been destroyed. From then on, even though he had the qualifications of a god body, he could no longer cultivate. He had never been known to shake the mountains and rivers; he had never been able to cover the sky with his hands, but he had guided the world; he had never possessed endless abilities, but he had been respected by the world as a teacher; he was destined to not live past twenty, even though he was young and extraordinary.
A Sky So Close
Author: Betool Khedairi
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 9780385720786
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
This haunting coming-of-age story about a girl growing up in wartime Iraq was the subject of heated controversy when it was published in the Middle East; now in English, it offers American readers a rare chance to experience an Iraqi childhood. The frank, determined narrator is a schoolgirl living in a small town in the Iraqi countryside when the book opens. Torn between the cultures of her parents, she loves the simple pleasures of provincial life in her father’s native land but, at the urging of her English mother, she is thrown into the study of Western music and ballet and becomes a devoted dancer by the time the family relocates to Baghdad. Even as the city around her is transformed by the blackouts and deprivations of the war between Iran and Iraq, she propels herself passionately through the full range of teenage discovery. The death of her father, her first love affair, and her mother’s unexpected illness carry her into adulthood and ultimately to London, where she confronts, with surprising results, the other half of her East–West legacy. A Sky So Close is a captivating look at contemporary Iraq from the inside out—a stunning re-creation of the surreality of life during wartime, and the story of a young woman coming to terms with the seemingly unbridgeable cultures from which she is formed. From the Hardcover edition.
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 9780385720786
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
This haunting coming-of-age story about a girl growing up in wartime Iraq was the subject of heated controversy when it was published in the Middle East; now in English, it offers American readers a rare chance to experience an Iraqi childhood. The frank, determined narrator is a schoolgirl living in a small town in the Iraqi countryside when the book opens. Torn between the cultures of her parents, she loves the simple pleasures of provincial life in her father’s native land but, at the urging of her English mother, she is thrown into the study of Western music and ballet and becomes a devoted dancer by the time the family relocates to Baghdad. Even as the city around her is transformed by the blackouts and deprivations of the war between Iran and Iraq, she propels herself passionately through the full range of teenage discovery. The death of her father, her first love affair, and her mother’s unexpected illness carry her into adulthood and ultimately to London, where she confronts, with surprising results, the other half of her East–West legacy. A Sky So Close is a captivating look at contemporary Iraq from the inside out—a stunning re-creation of the surreality of life during wartime, and the story of a young woman coming to terms with the seemingly unbridgeable cultures from which she is formed. From the Hardcover edition.
All the Stars in the Sky
Author: Hubert E. Devine
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1039199313
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Book Description
It is 1950 in the seaport town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Celeste Alexander, the daughter of a poor lobster poacher, dreams of something more than the life she leads cleaning the houses of her wealthy neighbours. When opportunity comes knocking, she leaps at the chance to take a waitressing job in the nearby town of Kentville, forever changing the arc of her life. Soon after arriving in Kentville to work at Sadie’s Restaurant, she meets William Lockhart. An aspiring architect and admirer of Shakespeare, William sweeps her off her feet, and their romance blooms with first-love quickness and intensity. Though they have only been seeing each other for a few months, the lovers envision a future together. But Celeste’s bright dreams of a happy life with William are cast under an ominous cloud when he joins the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, a regiment of the Canadian army, hoping that a short stint in the military will help him further his career in the future. Celeste’s worst fears are realized when William is sent off to fight in the Korean War, and she learns that she is pregnant with his child. Set against the backdrop of small-town Canada and the Korean War, this sweeping family saga gives voice with compelling sensitivity and grace to the cascading effects of loss and hardship across generations—and how hope, love, and the enduring power of family bonds can lift people up in the lowest moments of their lives.
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1039199313
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Book Description
It is 1950 in the seaport town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Celeste Alexander, the daughter of a poor lobster poacher, dreams of something more than the life she leads cleaning the houses of her wealthy neighbours. When opportunity comes knocking, she leaps at the chance to take a waitressing job in the nearby town of Kentville, forever changing the arc of her life. Soon after arriving in Kentville to work at Sadie’s Restaurant, she meets William Lockhart. An aspiring architect and admirer of Shakespeare, William sweeps her off her feet, and their romance blooms with first-love quickness and intensity. Though they have only been seeing each other for a few months, the lovers envision a future together. But Celeste’s bright dreams of a happy life with William are cast under an ominous cloud when he joins the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, a regiment of the Canadian army, hoping that a short stint in the military will help him further his career in the future. Celeste’s worst fears are realized when William is sent off to fight in the Korean War, and she learns that she is pregnant with his child. Set against the backdrop of small-town Canada and the Korean War, this sweeping family saga gives voice with compelling sensitivity and grace to the cascading effects of loss and hardship across generations—and how hope, love, and the enduring power of family bonds can lift people up in the lowest moments of their lives.
This Moonless Sky
Author: Mark Rogerson
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1460221974
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1269
Book Description
My brief life on Earth had been a mess. The metallic aliens had rescued me when I was trying to kill myself. But after a 400,000-year, deep-frozen move across space, and two years of relaxed student life on the moonless planet Vweialer, I was doing well. I wasn’t expecting any more surprises. Haha. Then the aliens returned, bearing a young man who was unusually interested in getting to know me. This was the beginning of an astonishing, epic journey into love and danger in lands where I might be enslaved, jailed, starved – or worshipped as a god. And through it all, I found humour and revelation – and drove ever deeper into the heart of what it means to be alien. If you decide to read my true story, I give you fair warning. You may become alien too. Seriously. Our famous author here said, “This moonless sky is the mind of someone else.” When you understand that line, it will never leave you.
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1460221974
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1269
Book Description
My brief life on Earth had been a mess. The metallic aliens had rescued me when I was trying to kill myself. But after a 400,000-year, deep-frozen move across space, and two years of relaxed student life on the moonless planet Vweialer, I was doing well. I wasn’t expecting any more surprises. Haha. Then the aliens returned, bearing a young man who was unusually interested in getting to know me. This was the beginning of an astonishing, epic journey into love and danger in lands where I might be enslaved, jailed, starved – or worshipped as a god. And through it all, I found humour and revelation – and drove ever deeper into the heart of what it means to be alien. If you decide to read my true story, I give you fair warning. You may become alien too. Seriously. Our famous author here said, “This moonless sky is the mind of someone else.” When you understand that line, it will never leave you.