August 15, 2007
"Whatever I feel like I wanna do. Gosh!":
happy birthday, fup!
technica q&a: alex wright (glut: mastering information through the ages)
technical q&a: rebecca tapley (designing your second life)
essay: michael j. sandel (the case against perfection)
event: stewart cowan (ecological design)
textbooks
music and audio technology sale
history of science
new arrivals
doug brown's factoid
bestsellers
It's time to go shopping for school supplies! Do you remember the excitement of a brand-new pack of Crayola crayons? They smelled so good, and the pristine, sharp, paraffin points lasted only minutes. The biggest box now holds 120 crayons, and yes, the sharpener is still on the back. Dang, I gotta buy some today just to get a whiff.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FUP!
Come as you are to Fup's birthday party at Powell's Technical Books, on Saturday, August 25, 2-4 p.m. She won't put up any fancy airs, and neither should you. Join us for delicious cupcakes, commemorative stickers, and, of course, the unveiling of Fup's newest birthday t-shirt.
The real Steve Jobs? A year after Steve Jobs returned to his old stomping grounds, Macintosh released the iMac G3 on August 15, 1998. Its most striking characteristic was the "bondi blue" monitor color (which, incidentally, is identical to the Crayola color blue-green). The "hockey puck" mouse was a source of mirth for many, but critics hailed the colorful iMac as a new era for Macintosh, in terms of design and style.
TECHNICA Q&A: ALEX WRIGHT
It's easy to think that this current era of the internet is the information
pinnacle of the ages, but it's not, according to Alex Wright, author of
Glut: Mastering Information through the Ages. Collecting, storing and
organizing information is nothing new: monks did it; the Greeks did it; even
educated primordial bacteria did it. Read Wright's Tech Q&A here and save 30% on Glut.
TECHNICA Q&A: REBECCA TAPLEY
Tired of this life? Try Second Life, a 3-D online virtual world that is entirely created by its residents. Think SimCity with humanity attached. Author Rebecca Tapley, an early resident of Second Life, has built a successful career in this virtual community as a real estate developer. Her new book, Designing Your Second Life, shows you how to create unique avatars, design clothes, and create planned communities. If you're curious on how to disappear into this virtual world with style, read Tapley's Tech Q&A and pocket a 30% discount on her how-to manual.
And for further inspiration, take a look at Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators. Part photography book, part sociological study, it's a fascinating peek into who we might be if we had a hand in our own creation.
ORIGINAL ESSAY: MICHAEL J. SANDEL
Genetic engineering is a complex issue. It fights disease and saves lives, yet the moral implications of this new technology are troubling. Author Michael J. Sandel discusses these quandaries in his new book, The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering. You won't have any moral quandaries reading Sandel's exclusive essay here and saving 30% on his intriguing book.
EVENT: STEWART COWAN
Stuart Cowan's Ecological Design is a landmark volume that helped usher in an exciting new era in green design and sustainability planning. This tenth-anniversary edition makes the work available to a new generation of practitioners and thinkers concerned with moving our society onto a more sustainable path. Come to Powell's Techical Books on Monday, August 20, at 7:00 p.m. to learn about integrating human development with living systems.
TEXTBOOKS
Remember when your teacher would just hand you a copy of your class textbook? With the name and locker number of the former owner written inside? Oh, for those easy days. Powell's makes it simple! Save on new and used textbooks! And take advantage of our new feature: search by university and class.
Muy caliente! Emilia Newcomb burst into flames while dancing at a party on August 7, 1958. Her boyfriend — and horrified dance partner — testified that no one around them was smoking, nor were there any burning candles nearby. He described her combustion as "seeming to come from within." The medical examiner ruled her death as being caused by misadventure, "caused by a fire of unknown origin."
MUSIC AND AUDIO SALE
Audiophiles, take note: For a limited time, save 30% on select titles from our dear music and audio technology section. The weather is going to get bad soon enough, so you might as well hunker down in the basement to pore over these great titles, digitize your music collection, and build your own loudspeakers.
Just sew it! Isaac Singer got a patent for his Singer sewing machine on August 12, 1851. The sewing machine itself was the world's first popular "home appliance," since every family had to have one. A Singer sewing machine won first prize at the 1855 World's Fair in Paris, and even Mahatma Gandhi was a fan. He said that the sewing machine was one of the "few useful things ever invented."
HISTORY OF SCIENCE
Thomas Edison patented the mimeograph on August 8, 1876, but didn't come
up with the word — he called it an "autographic press." The A. B. Dick Company
purchased the rights to the stencil-making process from Edison, and then sold mimeograph equipment under the trade name Edison's Mimeograph. One hundred years later, school teachers churned out thousands of purple-printed mimeographed sheets. It was simple to use and required no electricity. Dead technologies are so nostalgic — when we buy used books, it's always a treat to find old mimeographed exam papers and other ephemera tucked inside them. It's like finding a pearl in an oyster! Browse our stacks and learn more about scientific and technological advances here.
NEW ARRIVALS
Our new arrivals table is bursting with great new books. YouTube, iPod, MySpace, Facebook. Author Kathryn C. Montgomery's new book, Generation Digital, is an engrossing study on how today's children use digital technology and how it influences their development into young adulthood. In Ten Questions Science Can't Answer (Yet), Michael Hanlon, Science Editor at the Daily Mail in Britain, addresses questions that we all have asked ourselves — Why can't we live forever? Can animals think? Am I the same person I was a minute ago? — with great humor and aplomb. Not a Drop to Drink: America's Water Crisis and What You Can Do is Ken Midkiff's careful examination about what happens when bad engineering and global warming collide. For a more lighthearted read, check out David Standish's Hollow Earth, just out in paperback, a history of what people used to think was inside the earth, as reflected by religion, science, literature, and good old-fashioned crackpots.
DOUG BROWN'S FACTOID
We won't know which animal has the strongest bite until they are all measured, but so far the winner is the alligator. A Labrador retriever has a bite force of around 125 pounds; humans top out at 170 pounds; dusky sharks get over 300 pounds; and African lions bite with over 900 pounds of force. A large American alligator, on the other hand, bit with over 2,000 pounds of force in a recent study. It is thought alligators may have such powerful jaws because turtles form part of their diet. Alligators have been observed positioning turtles in the back of their mouth before biting down, to maximize the force applied.
TECH BESTSELLERS
1. Discovering the Essential Universe by Neil F. Comins (Astronomy)
2. Creating a Web Page in Dreamweaver 8 by Nolan Hester (Web Design)
3. The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda (History of Science)
4. Learning Web Design by Jennifer Niederst Robbins (Web Design)
5. Ruby Pocket Reference by Michael Fitzgerald (Programming)
6. The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson (Humor)
7. Excel 2007 Bible by John Walkenbach (Windows)
8. How to Open Locks with Improvised Tools by Hans Conkel (Home Security)
9. Intel Threading Building Blocks by James Reinders (Computer Languages)
10. Beginning Relational Data Modeling by Sharon Allen (Database Design)
"It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic."
Technica
By Carole R.
Don't Miss
