Built on Sand

Author: Etienne Guyon
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026204370X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Book Description
Explaining the science contained in a simple assembly of grains—the most abundant form of matter present on Earth. Granular media—composed of vast amounts of grains, consolidated or not—constitute the most abundant form of solid matter on Earth. Granular materials assemble in disordered configurations scientists often liken to a bag of marbles. Made of macroscopic particles rather than molecules, they defy the standard scheme of classification in terms of solid, liquid, and gas. Granular materials provide a model relevant to various domains of research, including engineering, physics, and biology. William Blake famously wished “To See a World in a Grain of Sand”; in this book, pioneering researchers in granular matter explain the science hidden behind simple grains, shedding light on collective behavior in disordered settings in general. The authors begin by describing the single grain with its different origins, shapes, and sizes, then examine grains in piled or stacked form. They explain the packing fraction of granular media, a crucial issue that bears on the properties displayed in practical applications; explore small-scale deformations in piles of disordered grains, with particular attention to friction; and present theories of various modes of disorder. Along the way, they discuss such concepts as force chains, arching effects, wet grains, sticky contacts, and inertial effects. Drawing on recent numerical simulations as well as classical concepts developed in physics and mechanics, the book offers an accessible introduction to a rapidly developing field.

Tracks in the Sand

Author: H Turney McKnight
Publisher: High Tide Books
ISBN: 9781735921006
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Book Description
Tracks in the Sand is a collection of essays that maps the contours of a layered life. Outdoorsman and cattle farmer H. Turney McKnight writes about the natural world with the grace of a poet and the ease of a seasoned storyteller. From rivers in the Russian Arctic and Chesapeake Bay to the mountains of Idaho, McKnight leads readers across the varied landscape of his experiences. In language sometimes as rippled and salty as the mid-Atlantic coastal marshes he writes about, McKnight punctuates his prose with equal parts humor and wit, reverence and humility. He recounts adventures (and misadventures) on high mountain slopes and sea-level streams, fond memories of polo and pond hockey, the perennial delight of the calving season on his Harford County farm, and a culinary misstep with a snapping turtle. Whether toting rod, gun, or binoculars, McKnight's experiences have been shaped by ceaseless wonderment of the natural world, the study of which comes through in his writing. Written in the tradition of Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It, the resulting collection memorializes the author's bottomless gratitude for the people, animals, and places woven into its pages.

The City of Sand

Author: Tianxia Bachang
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0553524119
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
A multimillion-copy bestseller in China—now available in English! In this heart-pounding adventure, a group of individuals who have come together for an expedition, each with a specific interest, soon find themselves motivated by one common goal: the sheer will to survive. THE QUEST: To find the lost city of Jingjue, a once-glorious kingdom, along with the burial chamber of its mysterious queen. Both lie buried under the golden dunes of the desert, where fierce sandstorms and blazing heat show no mercy. THE TEAM: Teenagers Tianyi, who has the ability read the earth and sky through feng shui, and Kai, Tianyi’s best friend and confidant; Julie, a wealthy American whose father vanished on the same trek a year ago; Professor Chen, who wants to fulfill a lifelong dream; and Asat Amat, a local guide gifted in desert survival. THE OBSTACLES: Lethal creatures of the desert and an evil force that wants to entomb the explorers under the unforgiving sands of China’s Taklimakan Desert forever. Translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang, whose recent work includes NEVER GROW UP, the translation from Chinese of the autobiography from action movie superstar Jackie Chan.

The Sand Sea

Author: Michael McClellan
Publisher: Story Grid Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1645010228
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1027

Book Description
"An astounding epic novel of J.R.R. Tolkien proportions!" — Steven Pressfield, Bestselling author of Gates of Fire and The War of Art Raiders of the Lost Ark playing A Game of Thrones The Sand Sea takes place on an alternative Earth roiled by war and conquest that mirrors our own Gilded Age. The treasure that ignites greed and folly in this parallel world is not petroleum, but beserite—a mineral of immeasurable value. Captivated by an ancient prophecy and the call of adventure, inexperienced nobleman and scholar Peter Harmon (think of a young Winston Churchill-like naif) joins an expedition to stake his nation’s claim to a global empire. Harmon’s destination is a vast and inhospitable desert halfway around the world, dominated by the iron-fisted Grand Vizer Jemojeen Jongdar. A tyrant on a mission to secure the ancient and supernatural Staff of the Ram, the Lion, and the Serpent, Jongdar knows the truth that others can only imagine: The one who controls the staff will possess the power to rule the world. Before he can seize his destiny, Jongdar must find and destroy the one person capable of thwarting his ambition, the rightful heir to the Sand Sea realm, an innocent woman named Selena Savanar. Can the brave and indomitable Selena accept her true destiny and rally her people in the eye of a gathering storm? To do so will require her to outwit the man who burned her father alive and left her an orphan and beggar a lifetime ago. Or will Peter Harmon and the cadre of opportunists he rides with conquer the divided empire? With the mythic structure of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy in a world as rich and real as George R.R. Martin’s Westeros, The Sand Sea is an immersive experience made to order for epic fantasy fans and anyone who enjoys grand-scale historical fiction.

The Track of Sand

Author: Andrea Camilleri
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101466030
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
“You either love Andrea Camilleri or you haven’t read him yet. Each novel in this wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction, blasts the brain like a shot of pure oxygen. Aglow with local color, packed with flint-dry wit, as fresh and clean as Mediterranean seafood — altogether transporting. Long live Camilleri, and long live Montalbano.” A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window Inspector Salvatore Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men came to investigate, the carcass has disappeared, leaving only a trail in the sand. Then his home is ransacked and the inspector is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates both the glittering underworld of horseracing and the Mafia's connection to it, Montalbano is aided by his illiterate housekeeper, Adelina, and a Proustian memory of linguate fritte. Longtime fans and new readers alike will be charmed by Montalbano's blend of unorthodox methods, melancholy self-reflection, and love of good food.

The Hotel Under the Sand

Author: Kage Baker
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
ISBN: 1616960116
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Book Description
Nine-year-old Emma is lost at sea in a terrible storm. She awakens on a desolate island, frightened and lonely. Yet brave, quick-witted Emma will not be alone for long, as the ghost of a bellboy appears with the tragic tale of the Grand Wenlocke. More than a century ago, a brilliant inventor built a splendid Victorian resort, the Grand Wenlocke. The hotel was powered by a Difference Engine, a miraculous device that could slow down time (making your vacation just as long as you’d like). But just before it was scheduled to open, the Grand Wenlocke mysteriously sank under the sand. Now the storm that brought Emma to the island has awakened the hotel, perfectly preserved and as incredible as ever. While exploring the magical hotel, Emma encounters a kind-hearted cook and her faithful little dog, a seemingly fearsome pirate captain, and the imperious young heir to the Wenlocke fortune (should it ever be recovered). Adventure, friendship, peril, and perhaps even treasure—all these and more await Emma at the hotel under the sand.

Sandfuture

Author: Justin Beal
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262367181
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
An account of the life and work of the architect Minoru Yamasaki that leads the author to consider how (and for whom) architectural history is written. Sandfuture is a book about the life of the architect Minoru Yamasaki (1912–1986), who remains on the margins of history despite the enormous influence of his work on American architecture and society. That Yamasaki’s most famous projects—the Pruitt-Igoe apartments in St. Louis and the original World Trade Center in New York—were both destroyed on national television, thirty years apart, makes his relative obscurity all the more remarkable. Sandfuture is also a book about an artist interrogating art and architecture’s role in culture as New York changes drastically after a decade bracketed by terrorism and natural disaster. From the central thread of Yamasaki’s life, Sandfuture spirals outward to include reflections on a wide range of subjects, from the figure of the architect in literature and film and transformations in the contemporary art market to the perils of sick buildings and the broader social and political implications of how, and for whom, cities are built. The result is at once sophisticated in its understanding of material culture and novelistic in its telling of a good story.

The World in a Grain

Author: Vince Beiser
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399576444
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
A finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world--sand--and the crucial role it plays in our lives. After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other--even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world's tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres' stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It's the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives--and our future. And, incredibly, we're running out of it. The World in a Grain is the compelling true story of the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the people who mine it, sell it, build with it--and sometimes, even kill for it. It's also a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention. Not all sand is created equal: Some of the easiest sand to get to is the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this world, taking readers on a journey across the globe, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. Along the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous sand pirates. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening work, one that is both unexpected and involving, rippling with fascinating detail and filled with surprising characters.

Sand Talk

Author: Tyson Yunkaporta
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062975633
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability—and offers a new template for living. As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently? In this thoughtful, culturally rich, mind-expanding book, he provides answers. Yunkaporta’s writing process begins with images. Honoring indigenous traditions, he makes carvings of what he wants to say, channeling his thoughts through symbols and diagrams rather than words. He yarns with people, looking for ways to connect images and stories with place and relationship to create a coherent world view, and he uses sand talk, the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground to convey knowledge. In Sand Talk, he provides a new model for our everyday lives. Rich in ideas and inspiration, it explains how lines and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the world. It’s about how we learn and how we remember. It’s about talking to everyone and listening carefully. It’s about finding different ways to look at things. Most of all it’s about a very special way of thinking, of learning to see from a native perspective, one that is spiritually and physically tied to the earth around us, and how it can save our world. Sand Talk include 22 black-and-white illustrations that add depth to the text.

Epoca: The River of Sand

Author: Kobe Bryant
Publisher: Granity Studios
ISBN: 1949520226
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 445

Book Description
The next book in the #1 New York Times best-selling Epoca series from Kobe Bryant and Ivy Claire. As Pretia, the Princess of Epoca, prepares to return to Ecrof, the elite magical sports academy, she is focused on the most important part of her upcoming year: the Junior Epic Games. She knows that her destiny is to rule Epoca, but right now, all she wants is to be selected for the Junior Epic team so that she can compete against the best young athletes in Epoca and bring honor to her people. But as rumors begin to swirl about unrest surrounding the Games, Pretia realizes that winning might not be as simple as being the best athlete she can be. She might have to decide which is more important: being an athlete or being a leader. Pretia‘s best friend, Rovi, is ecstatic when he hears that the Junior Epic Games will be held in Phoenis, where he lived before attending Ecrof. True, his time in Phoenis wasn‘t ideal—he‘d lived on the streets as a Star Stealer, part of a gang of kids who stole what they needed to survive—but he‘d found a home there. He‘s excited to return as a Dreamer, an athlete at the top of his game. But all is not well with the Star Stealers. Rovi‘s old friends are being blamed for the unrest surrounding the Games, even though he‘s sure they have nothing to do with it. Now that he‘s back in Phoenis, Rovi is faced with a difficult question: Is he a Dreamer or a Star Stealer? Can he be both? As tensions mount, Pretia and Rovi, along with their friend Vera, find themselves in a race to save the Star Stealers. And they begin to understand that if anyone is going to make a new future for Epoca, it just might be them.