Escaping the Bonds of Earth: The Fifties and the Sixties
To commemorate the momentous 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering journey into space on 12th April 2011, a series of five books – to be published annually until 2011 – will explore this half century, decade by decade, to discover how humanity’s knowledge of flying, working and living in space has changed. Each volume will focus not only upon the individual missions within ‘its’ decade, but also upon the key challenges facing human space exploration at specific points within those 50 years
Published in the late 1970s, The Dwarf isn’t quite a novel in the conventional sense: it’s a series of 12 stories united by common characters—a lower middle-class midget and his family, his neighbors and a set of powerful chaebol leaders—that mixes vivid realism with occasional flights of fantasy.
Look. What do you see? Sidewalks, skyscrapers, pigeons? But there’s more. More that only twelve-year-old Rory Hennessey can see. More that only Rory can reveal to others. So, look again. What do you see? Layered on our own New York is a spirit city inhabited by warrior cockroaches, malevolent subway trains, kung fu rodents, hungry gargoyles, and children made entirely of papier-mache. Built by history and legend, it’s ruled by the Gods of Manhattan, lions of New York like Peter Stuyvesant and Babe Ruth.
“I KNOW THE FAMILY SECRET.” Amanda Griffin is on the run. Eight years ago she disappeared after witnessing a terrible crime. Now her family thinks she’s dead, but she’s back in town...desperate to find a way to protect the ones she loves.
“PAY ME TO GO AWAY.” Police Chief Luke Granger is determined to find out who is behind the threats against Amanda and her sisters. With danger pressing in, there isn’t much time, and Luke must put everything on the line.
This book provides a quantitative view of our civilization over the next 100,000 years, in comparison to the 40-60,000 years it took for modern humans to emerge from Africa, on the basis of contemporary scientific and technological knowledge. The first 5 chapters provide the general scientific background, starting with a brief history of our planet, from its formation 4.5 billion years ago until the present day.
