September 29, 2005
technica q&a: simon winchester (a crack in the edge of the world)
technica q&a: mark svenvold (big weather)
a pair of discounted titles
geek corner, with ben hammersley
calendar of events
history of science
ebooks
fup foto fun
lightning factoid
bestsellers
"Do not expose your LaserWriter to fire or intense heat." —Apple
Corporation
Simon Winchester, who brought Krakatoa, the greatest explosion in recorded history, into living rooms across America, has now turned his formidable powers toward planetary rumblings in A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906, a vibrant work on the earth's natural tendency to shake things up from time to time. Check out our Technica Q&A with Winchester, in which he muses on Joseph Needham, chess, and mountain climbing in Scotland. Save 30% on your pre-order of A Crack in the Edge of the World, and read a Review-a-Day from Powells.com's own Doug Brown.
Mark Svenvold's latest work is a wry meditation on weather in America as a marketable celebrity. Big Weather: Chasing Tornadoes in the Heart of America is a virtuosic look at our primal fascination with storms. In our Technica Q&A, Svenvold discusses the sublime, the humiliating, and Ezra Pound. Read it here and, for a limited time, save 30% on Big Weather.
Take 30% off our selections this month: In the tradition of 123 Robotics Experiments for the Evil Genius, Myke Predco's 123 PIC Microcontroller Experiments for the Evil Genius provides more than just hours of fun. These exciting experiments provide a solid grounding in PIC microcontrollers and the skills needed to program them — from the ground up. And what's hotter than podcasting? Not much, these days. Bart Farkas's Secrets of Podcasting: Audio Blogging for the Masses teaches you how to turn common rants into auditory art.
Speaking of podcasts, have you checked out the Bookcast at Powells.com?
Geek extraordinaire, open source icon, and Guardian correspondent Ben
Hammersley will entertain Technica readers each
month with various musings from the world of science and technology. Ben
kicks off this month's Geek Corner from Florence, Italy, with some of the most important manuscripts in the world.
There's a writer speaking nearly every night at one of our Powell's bookstores during the month of October. Edward Burger, author of Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz visits Powell's Technical Books on October 14. Also at Powell's Technical Books (and online), get ready for the Springer Yellow Sale, beginning October 2. And at our other stores, from Brian Jacques and Neil Gaiman to Dava Sobel and Al Franken, there's a whole lot of entertainment going on.
"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human
history — with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila." —Mitch
Radcliffe
On September 23, 1846, Neptune was discovered using the mathematical predictions of John Couch Adams and Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier. The astronomers discovered Uranus in 1781 and noticed that its orbit was distorted by an unknown object. Because no other planet could be seen with the eye, mathematics were needed to figure out where the planet should be and how big it was. It took another astronomer, Johann Gottfried Galle, to find the new planet, which was later named for the mythical Roman god of the sea.
New in eBooks: Picking up where the FOX television series "Firefly" stopped, Serenity is the highly anticipated major motion picture debut by show creator Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), to be released by Universal Pictures on September 30. And from China Mieville, the award-winning author of Perdido Street Station, comes Looking for Jake, a collection of fifteen short stories, four of them new, including a groundbreaking work in graphic-novel form. After forty years of study with some of the greatest scientific minds as well as a lifetime of meditative, spiritual and philosophical study, the Dalai Lama presents a brilliant analysis of why both disciplines must be pursued in The Universe in a Single Atom. Check out these and other eBooks here.
Though she doesn't get around as well as she used to, Fup has been on a digital whirlwind of late. Here is one of our favorites from the Fup Foto Fun contest — and this month, submit Halloween photos of Fup! If your photo is featured in an upcoming edition of Technica, receive a ten-dollar gift card from Powells.com.
Lightning is caused when charged ions create electrically positive and negative regions inside clouds, or between the air and the ground. Electrons flow between these regions to equalize the charges; this sudden rush is what causes a spike of lightning. As they flash across the sky (most lightning occurs in clouds), or between the ground and sky, electrons travel where the difference between positive and negative charges is greatest. This changes from spot to spot in the atmosphere, so lightning bolts have hundreds of sub-elements each a few inches to a few feet long. These little course changes and side branches give lightning its jagged shape.
1. Make: Technology on Your Time, Vol. 3 by Mark Frauenfelder (Electricity)
2. Make: Technology on Your Time, Vol. 1 by Mark Frauenfelder (Electricity)
3. Programming Ruby by Dave Thomas (Computer Languages)
4. Emotional Design by Donald A. Norman (Design)
5. National Electrical Code 2005 by NFPA (Construction)
6. 2005 Oregon Residential Specialty Code by International Code Council (Construction)
7. C# Cookbook by Stephen Teilhet (Computer Languages)
8. 2003 International Building Code Turbo Tabs by ICC (Construction)
9. CCNA Exam Cram 2 by James Jones (Networking)
10. Knoppix Hacks by Kyle Rankin (Unix)
more tech bestsellers
By Steven and Amber
Copyright 2005 Powells.com
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