Lord Kelvin, his influence on electrical measurements and units

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Palle Yourgrau

It is a widely known but little considered fact that Albert Einstein and Kurt Godel were best friends for the last decade and a half of Einstein's life. The two walked home together from Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study every day; they shared ideas about physics, philosophy, politics, and the lost world of German-Austrian science in which they had grown up. What is not widely known is the discovery that grew out of this friendship. By 1949 Godel had produced a remarkable proof: In any universe described by the Theory of Relativity, time cannot exist. Einstein endorsed this result reluctantly, since it decisively overthrew the classical world-view to which he was committed. But he could find no way to refute it, and in the half-century since then, neither has anyone else. Even more remarkable than this stunning discovery, however, was what happened afterward: nothing. Cosmologists and philosophers alike have proceeded with their work as if Godel's proof never existed -- one of the greatest scandals of modern intellectual history. A World without Time is a sweeping, ambitious book, and yet poignant and intimate. It tells the story of two magnificent minds put on the shelf by the scientific fashions of their day, and attempts to rescue from undeserved obscurity the brilliant work they did together.

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Jim DeRogatis

"Let It Blurt is the biography of Lester Bangs (1949-82) - the gonzo journalist, gutter poet, and romantic visionary of rock criticism. He lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, guzzling booze and Romilar like water, matching its energy in prose that erupted from the pages of Rolling Stone, Creem, and The Village Voice. Bangs agitated in the seventies for sounds that were harsher, louder, more electric, and more alive, in the course of which he charted and defined the aesthetics of heavy metal and punk. He was treated as a peer by such brash visionaries as Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Captain Beef-heart, The Clash, Debbie Harry, and other luminaries."--BOOK JACKET.

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Sara Berkeljon, Hans Wansink

Ayaan Hirsi Ali ontpopte zich van een Afrikaanse asielzoekster tot een politiek fenomeen van internationale allure. Ze was een compromisloze strijdster tegen onderdrukking van moslimvrouwen. Zo oogstte ze net zoveel afgunst als bewondering, net zoveel haat als instemming. Maar wat heeft haar strijd voor de verlichting van de islam nu eigenlijk opgeleverd? Die vraag hebben de auteurs voorgelegd aan mede- en tegenstanders, onder wie Jozias van Aartsen, Naima Azough, Frits Bolkestein, Aleid van den Brink, Job Cohen, Cisca Dresselhuys, Afshin Ellian, Femke Halsema, Theodor Holman, Nazmiye Oral, Naema Tahir, Ebru Umar en Gijs van de Westelaken. De auteurs voerden lange gesprekken met Hirsi Ali en hadden inzage in haar persoonlijke archief. Deze positie in het oog van de storm stelde hen in staat een unieke reconstructie te maken van de paspoortcrisis en het daaropvolgende einde van het tweede kabinet Balkenende. Journalistieke reconstructie van de politieke loopbaan van politica Ayaan Hirsi Ali, die na kamerlidmaatschappen voor de PvdA en later de VVD en na verschillende controverses rond haar persoon en optreden in 2006 vertrok naar de Verenigde Staten.

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Jean F. Blashfield

Each volume presents brief accounts of five women and their inventions, including Sybilla Masters, Madam C. J. Walker, Mary Anderson, and Nancy Perkins.