The international bestselling author returns with an exploration of one of the grandest obsessions of the twentieth century.

In the years before the Second World War, in a sleepy air force base in central Alabama, a small group of renegade pilots put forth a radical idea. What if we made bombing so accurate that wars could be fought entirely from the air? What if we could make the brutal clashes between armies on the ground a thing of the past? This book tells the story of what happened when that dream was put to the test.

The Bomber Mafia follows the stories of a reclusive Dutch genius and his homemade computer, Winston Churchill's forbidding best friend, a team of pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard, a brilliant pilot who sang vaudeville tunes to his crew, and the bomber commander, Curtis Emerson LeMay, who would order the bloodiest attack of the Second World War.

In this tale of innovation and obsession, Gladwell asks: what happens when technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war? And what is the price of progress?

From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of Elon Musk, the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.

When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist. His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.

At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said. It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.

For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?

A momentous look at the private companies driving the revolutionary new space race.

In 2008, Elon Musk's SpaceX became the first private company to build a low-cost rocket that could reach orbit. Suddenly Silicon Valley, not NASA, was the epicentre of the new Space Age.

Ashlee Vance follows four pioneering companies - Astra, Firefly, Planet Labs and Rocket Lab - as they race to control access to outer space. While the space tourism ambitions of billionaires such as Bezos and Branson make headlines, these under-the-radar companies are striving to monetise Earth's lower orbit; to connect, analyse and monitor everything on Earth.

With unprecedented access to private company headquarters, labs and top-secret launch locations - from the US to New Zealand, Ukraine to India - Vance presents a gripping account of private jets, communes, gun-toting bodyguards, drugs, espionage investigations and multimillionaires guzzling booze as their fortunes disappear.

This is the most pressing and controversial technology story of our time. Welcome to the new Wild West above the clouds.

On Listening is a unique collection of forty multi-disciplinary perspectives drawn from anthropology, bioacoustics, geography, literature, community activism, sociology, religion, philosophy, art history, conflict mediation and the sonic arts including music, ethnomusicology and field recording. These specially commissioned contributions explore the many ways in which skilled listening can mediate new relationships with our physical environment and the people and other species that we share it with. From the Introduction: Listening has become an increasingly popular subject of study. It features in conferences, in academic journals, in doctoral research projects. However, reflexive listening is an applied practice that exceeds the boundaries of academic institutions to take its place in a number of everyday settings. This book aims to connect the scholarly and the experiential and extend the contemporary discourse on listening.

Ultimate quick reference guide for any earthling's questions about our solar system, whether a student, lover of all things space, or stargazing and night sky enthusiasts. Beautifully designed with images from NASA and expertly written by science author, consultant and professor John Roch, PhD who includes more facts per page than any book or website. This 6 page laminated guide will last a lifetime so you will always know what the surface temperature of Mercury is, how many known satellites Neptune has, what the Kuiper Belt is, or what other dwarf planets there are besides Pluto? 6-page laminated guide includes: Solar System Breakdown Essential Terms Space Missions Listed for Each Object & Planet Below Sun Mercury Venus Earth Moon Mars Asteroid Belt Ceres Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Kuiper Belt Pluto Haumea Makemake Eris More Solar System Facts

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the opportunity to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. Space policy is now a top priority in international relations. This timely Research Agenda takes the definition of space policy itself as an object of analysis rather than as an unquestioned premise. It presents the multi-faceted spectrum of elements combined within space policy which are crucially relevant to security, welfare and modern society. Chapters demonstrate why space matters and how space policy research has reflected this during the past half-century. Expert international contributors set out a forward-looking research agenda for the 2020s, identifying key problems and conflicts related to the topic and exploring policy, regulatory approaches and diplomatic mechanisms to reach possible solutions. The types of actors and institutions playing a key role in space policy are also examined through an interdisciplinary lens. Scholars and students of political science, international relations and law will find this to be a sophisticated, cutting-edge resource for analysing and understanding the multi-dimensional impacts of space policy.

A wildly fun and scientifically sound exploration of what alien life must be like Scientists are confident that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Yet rather than taking a realistic approach to what aliens might be like, we imagine that life on other planets is the stuff of science fiction. The time has come to abandon our fantasies of space invaders and movie monsters and place our expectations on solid scientific footing. Using his own expert understanding of life on Earth and Darwin's theory of evolution--which applies throughout the universe--Cambridge zoologist Dr. Arik Kershenbaum explains what alien life must be like: how these creatures will move, socialize, and communicate. Might there be an alien planet with supersonic animals? A moon where creatures have a language composed of smells? Will aliens scream with fear, act honestly, or have technology? The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy answers these questions using the latest science to tell the story of how life really works, on Earth and in space.

This third volume of the new ASME Press Book Series on Renewable Energy also edited by Dr. Rao and published by ASME Press is based on updated chapters from the classic 2011 Handbook of Energy and Power Generation in addition to a new chapter appropriate for the title of this book. The discussions in this book update Wind Energy since the publication of 2011 Handbook by Dr. Rao in Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4. Since the coverage in the 2011 Handbook is considered applicable even for the present it is retained in total with the contributions for original authors for Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 an update for Chapter 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the 2011 Handbook. Chapter 1 covers "NASA Developments and Potential"; Chapter 2 addresses "Scope of Wind Energy Generation Technologies since 2011"; and Chapter 3 "Scope of Wind Energy in the US since 2011; and Chapter 4 "Wind Energy in the Netherlands Since 2011". Chapter 5, an update of Chapter 10 of the 2011 Handbook is titled as before in the 2011 Handbook, "Role of Wind Energy Technology in India and Neighboring Countries" by original author M.P. Ramesh and finally the last Chapter 6 is a new Chapter "Artificial Intelligence in Wind Energy" by Dr. Weifei Hu. The book contains over 200 pages with 28 tables, 143 figures, 379 footnotes and over 102 additional references in this updated version. The book has an index as before in the original edition, to help users easily navigate through the text and graphics.

Commercial Uses of Space and Space Tourism combines the perspectives of academics, policy makers and major industry players around three central themes: the international legal challenges posed by the dramatic changes to the spacefaring landscape; the corresponding legal and regulatory responses to these challenges at the national level; and topical questions of global space governance. Chapters cover emerging activities in commercial spacefaring, including space tourism and space transportation, and identify the regulatory issues that may arise in the absence of a clear boundary between airspace and outer space. By taking a pragmatic, inductive approach, the book aims to breathe new life into the discussion of the air?space boundary, while informing readers about the many exciting recent developments in commercial spacefaring. This book will appeal to lecturers, academics and students in space law and air law, as well as policy makers and industry practitioners involved in the regulation of orbital and suborbital commercial spaceflight, both manned and unmanned. Contributors include: P. De Man, M. Gold, A. Harrington, C. Hearsey, T. Herman, A. Kerrest, J.-B. Marciacq, J.-F. Mayence, W. Munters, D.P. Murray, K. Nyman-Metcalf, L.J. Smith, A. Soucek, J. Stubbs, S. Wood, J. Wouters

There are all kinds of cool careers in space exploration! Astronauts are the superstars of space, but there are thousands of other women and men behind the scenes who make space exploration possible. This book is for girls, young women, and anyone else interested in learning about exciting careers in space exploration. Take a ride with Laura S Woodmansee and find out what it's like to be a woman of space. Would you like to know what it's like to be a space scientist searching for life beyond Earth? An engineer designing a spacecraft to send to Mars? Or an artist who creates beautiful space paintings and illustrations? Find out about these careers and more. You can be an accountant, a security officer, a pilot, a doctor, a biologist, a mission control worker, outreach educator, a teacher, a science writer, or anything else. They are all needed in space exploration. You don't have to be an astronaut to work in space. You can do anything you want! Read about how you can get involved in space exploration today. Join the club of cool space explorers who love what they are doing and wouldn't trade their career for a million pounds!;For the next generation of explorers, this book is more than just career advice. It is packed with interesting stories from women all over the planet who are doing what they love! The CD-ROM features: Exclusive video interviews with Mars Pathfinder Engineer Donna Shirley, Astro-Mom Lori Garver, and Aerospace Engineer Leslie Wickman; Listen to the music of the galaxies: an exclusive audio interview with Astrophysicist & Celestial Musician Fiorella Terenzi; "Women in Science: Mentors at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab" (NASA video); Brochures on various space careers (Adobe Acrobat format).