Cosmically inclined:
technica q&a: leonard susskind (the cosmic landscape)
technica q&a: chet raymo (walking zero)
technical q&a: paul nahin (dr. euler's fabulous formula)
30% off selected focal press titles
sustainable living picks
sudoku sale
louis bucciarelli
history of science
new arrivals
ebooks
doug brown's factoid
bestsellers
June means Rose Festival here in Portland. Every year, the Starlight Parade sets up in front of the Tech store, and the streets are full of high school band geeks, cheerleaders, white-gloved Royal Rosarians, and walking PGE lightbulbs. Our stalwart customers look up nervously from their programming and math books but stay put, knowing this too shall pass. But, then, our customers don't even like to evacuate the store when the fire alarm goes off.
TECHNICA
Q&A: LEONARD SUSSKIND
Leonard
Susskind, a theoretical physics professor at Stanford, is widely known as "the
father of string theory." Despite this highbrow moniker, Susskind is a humble
sort who struggles with chess, and dreams of inventing a machine that balances
wobbly restaurant tables. Want to know more? Read the Q&A and save 30% on The
Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design.
TECHNICA
Q&A: CHET RAYMO
Chet
Raymo's newest book, Walking
Zero, uses the prime meridian to tell the story of humankind's intellectual
journey from a cosmos not much larger than ourselves to the universe of the galaxies
and geologic eons. Publishers Weekly cheers, "[A]s meandering and invigorating
as a brisk country walk....One could hardly ask for a better travel companion
than Raymo." Read our Technica Q&A with Raymo to find out more and, for a
limited time, save 30% on Walking Zero.
TECHNICA
Q&A: PAUL NAHIN
Paul
Nahin, a prolific mathematics writer, does not subscribe to Dorothy Parker's "I
hate writing, I love having written" philosophy. No, Mr. Nahin loves all of it.
Writing first drafts by hand in bucolic university coffee shops, revising, and
admiring the final manuscript. "Is there anything more beautiful than typeset
mathematics?" he asks. Check out his Q&A to discover his other secrets, and
save 30% on Dr.
Euler's Fabulous Formula.
FOCAL
PRESS
Focal
Press consistently publishes bestselling books on Photoshop, graphic design,
animation, digital imaging, and more. Whether you're a student, a hobbyist, or
a professional graphic designer, Focal Press sets the bar for excellence. For
a limited time, save 30% on these
featured titles!
CORIE'S
SUSTAINABLE LIVING PICKS
Some
folks are finally getting it. In this age of peak oil and high energy costs,
publishers are coming out with a bevy of books on the Green movement. It almost
feels like it's 1979 all over again. Corie has picked out a few of her favorites;
browse her selections here.
June 12 is "Ghost in the Machine" day. No, this isn't
a reference to Sting's old
band or Arthur
Koestler's book. According to the Luddite calendar, this refers to "the day
that celebrates the potential for error that is innate in every machine." But
would they have invented this holiday if they had owned a Macintosh first?
SUDOKU
SALE
I
sudoku. You sudoku. We all sudoku! If the kids are driving you batty now that
summer vacation is here, worry not. These insanely addictive puzzle books are
such a bargain, you can't afford not to buy all of them. Hours of pencil scratching
and blessed quiet await you. Browse our selection
of sudoku books and take 30% off new copies, for a limited time.
LOUIS
BUCCIARELLI
Louis
Bucciarelli, Professor of Engineering and Technology Studies at MIT, may not
live up to the traditional stereotype of the dry scientific engineer locked away
doing proofs and building scale models. He believes that engineers are "society's
role model of rational, instrumental thinking," but at the same time, engineering
is very much a group project with consensus as an end result. Designing
Engineers and Engineering
Philosophy are a great introduction to Bucciarelli's inclusive worldview.
HISTORY
OF SCIENCE
"Time
is round and space is curved," Robyn Hitchcock once sang. We all know that he
was alluding to Victorian-era scientist Georg F. Bernhard Riemann,
who discovered on June 10, 1854, that space was curved. He proposed a new kind
of geometry, a space with enough extra structure to be able to measure things
like length. Riemann also developed non-Euclidean geometry, and influenced Einstein's
theory of relativity.
NEW
ARRIVALS
These
delicious morsels just came in: I
Lie for a Living by the International Spy Museum gives you the dirt on what
it's like to be James Bond; W. Hodding Carter's Flushed:
How the Plumber Saved Civilization gives props to the wonder of indoor plumbing;
and Sweetness and Light: The
Mysterious History of the Honeybee by Hattie Ellis will get you humming with
this new paperback edition. Find more fresh books in the new arrivals aisle.
eBOOKS
Are
you an English major in a Computer Science world? Do you ever wonder how you
ended up with your techie job when you studied Chaucer (not physics) in college?
Yes, it's painful to nod your head and try to look convincing at heady cocktail
parties with your coworkers. Swallow your pride and invest in this simple to
read, yet eloquently written eBook -- Physics
for Dummies by Steve Holzner. Download it, read it on your computer during
your lunch break, and we guarantee you will get up to speed on what everyone
else already knows about physics.
Fup wants to thank the Portland meteorologists for finally stopping all the rain. Her catnip patch out back was starting to get waterlogged. She can also check out the carnival rides at Waterfront Park without tracking mud back into the Tech store.
DOUG BROWN'S FACTOID
While
there are 92 naturally occurring elements, only hydrogen and helium formed at
the beginning of the universe. The others are manufactured in the nuclear fusion
furnaces of stars (as is most helium). Well, actually only the elements up to
number 26 (iron) are formed via fusion. All the elements heavier than iron are
created in supernovae, because only supernovae have the requisite energy to smash
that many protons together and make them stick. The fact that we have silver,
gold, and uranium here on earth shows that our solar system was formed from material
that has been through the stellar cycle already. A large star formed, created
all the elements up to iron in its core, and then exploded. Part of the ejecta
from that explosion formed the basis for our solar system. Thus, if you have
any silver or gold jewelry on right now, the atoms in that metal were formed
in a supernova over 4.6 billion years ago, before our sun even existed.
TECH
BESTSELLERS
1. 2005 Oregon Residential
Specialty Code by Internation Code Council (Construction)
2. Pentium Chronicles by
Robert P. Colwell (Computers Reference)
3. DHTML and CSS for the World
Wide Web by Jason Teague (Internet)
4. The Math Instinct by
Keith Devlin (Mathematics)
5. Make, Volume 1, by
Mark Frauenfelder (Electricity)
6. Classic Puzzles by
Henry Ernest Dudeney (Mathematics)
7. International Residential
Code by International Code Council (Construction)
8. International Fire Code
2006 by International Code Council (Construction)
9. Ajax Hacks by Bruce
Perry (Computer Languages)
10. An Introduction to General
Systems Thinking by Gerald M. Weinberg (Mathematics)
Technica
By Carole
Copyright 2006 Powells.com
