From Papantla in Mexico-"the city that perfumed the world"-to the Indian Ocean islands, Vanilla traces the story of the vanilla plant and its secretive trade. From the golden cups of Aztec emperors to the ice-cream dishes of U.S. presidents, Vanilla has mystified and tantalized man for centuries. The only orchid that produces an agriculturally valuable crop, vanilla can mask unpleasant tastes and smells, but also makes pleasant tastes stronger, smoother, and longer lasting. Because it has over four hundred separate flavor components, choosing premium vanilla beans is as complex as judging the aroma and taste of fine wine. Vanilla finds its way into over half of all dessert products sold worldwide, as well as the finest perfumes, well-known brands of rum and vodka, and even Coca-Cola and Pepsi.Americans consume more vanilla than anyone else on Earth-a fact that has forced growers and traders to mount armed guard over their plants in the tropical jungle. The traders who travel the world in search of America's favorite flavor are a small and secretive elite. Vanilla is a globetrotting adventure that follows buccaneers, aristocrats, and gourmets, all in search of the ice cream orchid.
Price : $14.00
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In the final decades of the nineteenth century, three brilliant and visionary titans of Americaâs Gilded AgeâThomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouseâbattled bitterly as each vied to create a vast and powerful electrical empire. In Empires of Light, historian Jill Jonnes portrays this extraordinary trio and their riveting and ruthless world of cutting-edge science, invention, intrigue, money, death, and hard-eyed Wall Street millionaires. At the heart of the story are Thomas Alva Edison, the nationâs most famous and folksy inventor, creator of the incandescent light bulb and mastermind of the worldâs first direct current electrical light networks; the Serbian wizard of invention Nikola Tesla, elegant, highly eccentric, a dreamer who revolutionized the generation and delivery of electricity; and the charismatic George Westinghouse, Pittsburgh inventor and tough corporate entrepreneur, an industrial idealist who in the era of gaslight imagined a world powered by cheap and plentiful electricity and worked heart and soul to create it. Edison struggled to introduce his radical new direct current (DC) technology into the hurly-burly of New York City as Tesla and Westinghouse challenged his dominance with their alternating current (AC), thus setting the stage for one of the eeriest feuds in American corporate history, the War of the Electric Currents. The battlegrounds: Wall Street, the 1893 Chicago Worldâs Fair, Niagara Falls, and, finally, the death chamberâJonnes takes us on the tense walk down a prison hallway and into the sunlit room where William Kemmler, convicted ax murderer, became the first man to die in the electric chair. Empires of Light is the gripping history of electricity, the âmysterious fluid,â and how the fateful collision of Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse left the world utterly transformed.
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This book explains how to harness the Great forces of capitalism to save the world from datastrophe.
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Price : $159.64
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A solid guide to get you up and running quickly and simply on your computer With step-by-step instructions, minimal jargon and detailed explanations of all the technical terms, Get Started with Computing, Windows 7 Edition gives you the confidence to move forward and expand your knowledge. Updated for Windows 7, the book covers all the basics, helping you to find ways of using your computer to suit you. Also included: Health and safety laws and guidelines affecting the use of IT. Creating and maintaining a safe workstation environment . MS Office interface--ribbon, tabs, groups, MSO button and menu, Quick Access toolbar. One and five-minute introductions to key principles to get you started. Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author?s many years of experience. Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress. Extra online articles at www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the basics of computing. Information on the latest Microsoft applications.
Price : $11.21
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Culled from contributions sent to the author by thousands of fans of the first two collections, the third installment offers encouragement and wisdom toward a happy, rewarding life. Original. 600,000 first printing. IP.
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Technology is a basic feature of all human societies. Virtually every aspect of our lives is affected by technology, while at the same time the development and use of particular technologies are strongly affected by cultural, social, political, and economic arrangements. Society and Technological Change provides a comprehensive introduction to the interactions of society and technology. The new fifth edition includes coverage of such timely topics as cloning, stem-cell research, genetically modified foods, terrorism, intellectual property, and the global impact of the internet. This up-to-date revision will be a useful resource for a variety of college and university courses.
Price : $49.34
$49.34
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If you toured Mammoth Cave in Kentucky around the year 1838, you would have been led by candlelight through miles of dark winding tunnels, to the edge of a terrifying bottomless pit, and curiously, a church built underground. Your tour guide would have been seventeen-year-old Stephen Bishop, an African American, and a slave. Bishop had a job he found truly thrilling--exploring and recording every inch of his exciting adventures at Mammoth Cave and escorting tourists to show them his discoveries. Luckily, by being so successful in this job, Bishop was able to avoid the grueling labor most slaves endured. Full of adventure and fascinating details about cave exploration Journey to the Bottomless Pit is the first book for young readers ever written about Stephen Bishop. Through Stephen Bishop's story, author Betsy Mitchell takes readers on a tour unlike anything they've experienced.
Price : $16.94
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This book will be essential reading for all those with an interest in the technical aspects of military, naval and aviation history. It is a comprehensive account of the development and use of heavy machine-guns, automatic cannon and their ammunition. The design of cartridges and the various types of projectiles used is explained, followed by descriptions and analyses of the different types of gun mechanism, their mountings, sights, ammunition feeds and other systems. There are no formulae and the technical descriptions are easily understood. The following chapters are concerned with the historical development and use of heavy automatic weapons for all three services throughout the world, from the 19th century to the present day. There is a particular concentration on aircraft guns from 1935 to 1955 (including the aircraft they were fitted to) as this period saw the most rapid and diverse development of this type of weapon. The final chapter looks to the future, including combustible case ammunition and recoilless automatic cannon.
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In this book, Professor Holsti approaches the study of the origins of war and the foundations of peace from a new perspective. He asks three interrelated questions. Which issues generate conflict? How have attitudes toward war changed? And, what attempts have been made historically to create international institutions and orders that can manage, control or prevent international conflicts? Starting with the peace treaties of Munster and Osnabruck of 1648, Kalevi Holsti examines 177 international wars. Through these, he identifies the variety of conflict-producing issues and how they, as well as the attitudes of policy makers to the use of force, have changed over the past 350 years. He demonstrates how the new orders established by the great peace-making efforts of 1648, 1713, 1815, 1919 and 1945 attempted to solve the issues of the past, yet few successfully anticipated those of the future. Indeed, some created the basis of new conflicts.
Price : $48.08
$48.08
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