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With The Battle of the Crater, New York Times bestselling a ... Read more

With The Battle of the Crater, New York Times bestselling authors Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen take readers to the center of a nearly forgotten Civil War confrontation, a battle that was filled with controversy and misinterpretation even before the attack began.   Drawing on years of research, the authors weave a complex narrative interweaving the high aspirations of African American troops eager to prove themselves in battle and the anxiety of a President who knows the nation cannot bear another major defeat.June 1864: the Civil War is now into its fourth year of bloody conflict with no end in sight.   The armies of the North are stalled in fetid trenches outside of Richmond and Atlanta, and the reelection of Abraham Lincoln to a second term seems doomed to defeat—a defeat that will set off the call for an end to the conflict, dismembering the Union and continuing slavery.Only one group of volunteers for the Union cause is still eager for battle.   Nearly two hundred thousand men of color have swarmed the recruiting stations and are being mobilized into regiments known as the USCTs, the United States Colored Troops.  General Ambrose Burnside, a hard luck commander out of favor with his superiors, is one of the few generals eager to bring a division of these new troops into his ranks. He has an ingenious plan to break Fort Pegram, the closest point on the Confederate line, defending Petersburg—the last defense of Richmond—by tunneling forward from the Union position beneath the fort to explode its defenses. Burnside needs the USCTs for one desperate rush that just might bring victory.  The risks are high. Will Burnside be allowed to proceed or will interference from on high doom his plan to failure?  The battleground drama unfolds through the eyes of James Reilly—famed artist, correspondent, and friend of Lincoln, who has been employed by the president to be his eyes and ears amongst the men, sending back an honest account of the front. In so doing, he befriends Sergeant Major Garland White of the 28th USCT regiment, an escaped slave and minister preparing his comrades for a frontal assault that will either win the war, or result in their annihilation.The Battle of the Crater is Gingrich and Forstchen’s most compelling fact-based work yet, presenting little known truths, long forgotten in the files of correspondence, and the actual court of inquiry held after the attack.    The novel draws a new and controversial conclusion while providing a sharp, rousing and harshly realistic view of politics and combat during the darkest year of the Civil War.   This must-read work rewrites our understanding of one of the great battles of the war, and the all but forgotten role played by one of the largest formations of African American troops in our nation’s history. Minimize

Presenting an aspect of American history that has never bee ... Read more

Presenting an aspect of American history that has never been fully told, Doris Kearns Goodwin describes how the isolationist and divided United States of 1940 was unified... Minimize

Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopu ... Read more

Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of Earth, the necessity of finding habitable worlds is growing ever more urgent. There's a problem though--because the spaceships are slower than light, any communication between the exploring ships and Earth would take years. Tom and Pat are identical twin teenagers. As twins they've always been close, so close that it seemed like they could read each other's minds. When they are recruited by the Long Range Foundation, the twins find out that they can, indeed, peer into each other's thoughts. Along with other telepathic duos, they are enlisted to be the human transmitters and receivers that will keep the ships in contact with Earth. But there's a catch: one of the twins has to stay behind--and that one will grow old--while the other explores the depths of space and returns as a young man still. Minimize

It's 1943. When Babs Scott loses her beloved parents i ... Read more

It's 1943. When Babs Scott loses her beloved parents in an air raid, she is left homeless and alone. The Land Army offers her a new life away from the bombed streets of Rotherhithe.... Minimize

New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard captur ... Read more

New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard captured the heart of a nation with The Deep End of the Ocean, her celebrated debut novel about mother Beth Cappadora, a child kidnapped, a family in crisis. Now, in No Time to Wave Goodbye, the unforgettable Cappadoras are in peril once again, forced to confront an unimaginable evil. It has been twenty-two years since Beth Cappadora’s three-year-old son Ben was abducted. By some miracle, he returned nine years later, and the family began to pick up the pieces of their lives. But their peace has always been fragile: Ben returned from the deep end as another child and has never felt entirely at ease with the family he was born into. Now the Cappadora children are grown: Ben is married with a baby girl, Kerry is studying to be an opera singer, and Vincent has emerged from his troubled adolescence as a fledgling filmmaker. The subject of Vincent’s new documentary, “No Time to Wave Goodbye,” shakes Vincent’s unsuspecting family to the core; it focuses on five families caught in the tortuous web of never knowing the fate of their abducted children. Though Beth tries to stave off the torrent of buried emotions, she is left wondering if she and her family are fated to relive the past forever.The film earns tremendous acclaim, but just as the Cappadoras are about to celebrate the culmination of Vincent’s artistic success, what Beth fears the most occurs, and the Cappadoras are cast back into the past, revisiting the worst moment of their lives–with only hours to find the truth that can save a life. High in a rugged California mountain range, their rescue becomes a desperate struggle for survival. No Time to Wave Goodbye is Jacquelyn Mitchard at her best, a spellbinding novel about family loyalty, and love pushed to the limits of endurance.From the Hardcover edition. Minimize

Eccentric and fiercely independent Inspector Vasiliev expos ... Read more

Eccentric and fiercely independent Inspector Vasiliev exposes a conspiracy by a high ranking nobleman and a top official in the secret police to assassinate the tsar in late imperial Russia. He finds unexpected help from Irina, a member of the revolutionary underground, with whom he falls in love. "To Kill a Tsar is unique among books about Russia written by western authors: being extremely rich in details it contains no factual errors at all." -Alexei Miller, Senior Researcher in the Institute of Scientific Information in Humanities of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow "In this masterful thriller, Al Rieber (alias, G.K. George) meets us at the crossroads of history and literature. He deftly portrays the tensions and dynamics of life in Imperial Russia on the eve of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, an event that set the stage for the Russian Revolution. In the process the author creates unforgettable characters such as Inspector Vasili Vasiliev, the Swan, and the Magician." -Ben Eklof, Professor of History, Indiana University "To Kill a Tsar is a true thriller, with all the delightful trimmings of a masterful historical narrative. Alfred Rieber (alias, G.K. George) lures you into the turbulent, terrorist times of Russia in the 1880s, from glittering balls in noble palaces to mystical forests in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. Erotic rituals of a religious sect called the Jumpers come frighteningly alive in this compelling narrative that is ethnographically and historically rich with plausible detail." -Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Research Professor at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Georgetown University "With his unsurpassed knowledge of Russian history, Alfred Rieber (alias, G.K. George) brings the terrorist crisis of the late 1870s and early 1880s to life in this exciting historical thriller. To Kill a Tsar traces the conspiracy that led to the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in a plot filled with surprising twists and dramatic encounters between ardent young radicals and their adversaries from the security police. Along with compelling portraits of such real-life historical figures as the ill-fated Tsar, Rieber has created a complex and appealing hero, Inspector Vasiliev. Guided by the inspector, a master of disguise, and his faithful peasant sergeant, readers meet aristocrats and beggars and travel from high society salons to the slum hideouts of thieves and revolutionaries. To Kill a Tsar offers fascinating speculation about historical "what-ifs" along with expert historical reconstruction. I recommend To Kill a Tsar to all readers who love action, intrigue, and vivid characters." -Adele Lindenmeyr, Professor of History, Villanova University Minimize

Every day, companies call upon their signal integrity engin ... Read more

Every day, companies call upon their signal integrity engineers to make difficult decisions about design constraints and timing margins. Can I move these wires closer together? How many holes can I drill in this net? How far apart can I place these chips? Each design is unique: there’s no single recipe that answers all the questions. Today’s designs require ever greater precision, but design guides for specific digital interfaces are by nature conservative. Now, for the first time, there’s a complete guide to timing analysis and simulation that will help you manage the tradeoffs between signal integrity, performance, and cost.   Writing from the perspective of a practicing SI engineer and team lead, Greg Edlund of IBM presents deep knowledge and quantitative techniques for making better decisions about digital interface design. Edlund shares his insights into how and why digital interfaces fail, revealing how fundamental sources of pathological effects can combine to create fault conditions. You won’t just learn Edlund’s expert techniques for avoiding failures: you’ll learn how to develop the right approach for your own projects and environment.   Coverage includes •  Systematically ensure that interfaces will operate with positive timing margin over the product’s lifetime–without incurring excess cost •  Understand essential chip-to-chip timing concepts in the context of signal integrity •  Collect the right information upfront, so you can analyze new designs more effectively •  Review the circuits that store information in CMOS state machines–and how they fail •  Learn how to time common-clock, source synchronous, and high-speed serial transfers •  Thoroughly understand how interconnect electrical characteristics affect timing: propagation delay, impedance profile, crosstalk, resonances, and frequency-dependent loss •  Model 3D discontinuities using electromagnetic field solvers •  Walk through four case studies: coupled differential vias, land grid array connector, DDR2 memory data transfer, and PCI Express channel •  Appendices present a refresher on SPICE modeling and a high-level conceptual framework for electromagnetic field behavior Objective, realistic, and practical, this is the signal integrity resource engineers have been searching for.   Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvi About the Author xix About the Cover xx   Chapter 1: Engineering Reliable Digital Interfaces 1 Chapter 2: Chip-to-Chip Timing 13 Chapter 3: Inside IO Circuits 39 Chapter 4: Modeling 3D Discontinuities 73 Chapter 5: Practical 3D Examples 101 Chapter 6: DDR2 Case Study 133 Chapter 7: PCI Express Case Study 175   Appendix A: A Short CMOS and SPICE Primer 209 Appendix B: A Stroll Through 3D Fields 219   Endnotes 233 Index 235   Minimize

The text that defined the liberal arts chemistry course, Ch ... Read more

The text that defined the liberal arts chemistry course, Chemistry for Changing Times remains the most visually appealing and readable introduction on the subject. Now available with MasteringChemistry®, the Thirteenth Edition increases its focus on student engagement - with revised "Have You Ever Wondered?" questions, new Learning Objectives in each chapter that are linked to end of chapter problems both in the text and within MasteringChemistry, and new Green Chemistry content, closely correlated with the text. Abundant applications and examples fill each chapter, and material is updated throughout to mirror the latest scientific developments in a fast-changing world. Compelling chapter opening photos, a focus on Green Chemistry, and the "It DOES Matter" features reflect current events and enable students to relate to the text more readily. Minimize

The central theme is Robert's war experiences as a platoon ... Read more

The central theme is Robert's war experiences as a platoon Sergeant of an all-Korean infantry assault unit within an American rifle company; and how a lifetime of absorbed film propaganda and an idealistic quest for honor and meaning plays out against the illusion-shattering reality experienced during 8 major campaigns. The author's twin brother served with him. Collectively they earned 1 Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars, 4 Purple Hearts and a Presidential Unit Citation for leading a bayonet charge. This is the only known recorded account by a frontline infantrymen who fought in the first hectic year of the Korean War. 106 photos, 7 maps, 18 documents. Minimize

Compelling images of cinnamon-robed monks confronting the g ... Read more

Compelling images of cinnamon-robed monks confronting the guns and clubs of Burma's military junta outraged the world in September 2007. Then communications links were cut, and curfews, interrogations, midnight raids, beatings, and arrests crushed the remnants of defiance. Tragically, it had all happened before. No Time for Dreams narrates a remarkable woman's search over four decades for independence and purpose as repression spreads throughout her country, once known as the Golden Land. Inspired by the legacy of her father, Ba Tin's struggle against British colonialism beginning in the 1930s, San San Tin infuses her journey from school girl to journalist and, briefly, to businesswoman with an unbroken spirit of resistance. Offering a compassionate insider's view of politics, culture, religion, and family during nearly half a century of unrelenting dictatorship, this riveting personal story traces an arc of decline to reveal the bitter fate of a once-prosperous and cosmopolitan society. Minimize

Breathtaking photos of Provincetown by Marc Jacobs visual c ... Read more

Breathtaking photos of Provincetown by Marc Jacobs visual coordinator Clayton Verdoorn. Exclusive. Minimize

Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopu ... Read more

Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of Earth, the necessity of finding habitable worlds is growing ever more urgent.... Minimize

History is melting down, courtesy of a multi-century plot t ... Read more

History is melting down, courtesy of a multi-century plot to bring the Transitive shape-shifters to power. Only Time Rover Jacynda Lassiter can set things back on course, but that will be difficult. She's been abandoned in a Victorian insane asylum with no memory of who she is.Her two Victorian friends are facing equal difficulties: Dr. Alastair Montrose is caught between his duty to uncover the truth and powerful foes who wish it buried. Once lauded as a hero, Detective-Sergeant Jonathon Keats is on the run, framed for a woman's heinous murder. Keats' arch enemy, Desmond Flaherty, can prove him innocent, but the Fenian isn't about to come forward, not with the life of his only daughter on the line.If the anarchist's cache of explosives ignites the biggest conflagration since the Great Fire of 1666, the future will change. There will be no sanctuary from the Madman's Dance. Minimize

An essential guide for putting workforce management systems ... Read more

An essential guide for putting workforce management systems to work for your businessShowing you how to take your business from reactive to proactive and improve performance, No Boundaries provides a vendor-neutral guide on how your company can use workforce management systems to improve productivity and profits. Drawing upon years of experience implementing these systems, author Lisa Disselkamp offers numerous case studies illustrating how organizations have used workforce management systems to solve their business problems and discusses:How the latest software uses data from time and attendance to create real time visibility into employee activity and costDevelopments in labor management technology that can mitigate the challenges faced by employers in every industry and public sectorUsing labor data to achieve financial goals and maximize profitsUsing workforce management technology to enhance operations, quality, compliance, and employee satisfaction and retentionAdding value to data through integration with other key business informationHow to build a business case and gain internal support for an investment in time and labor management technologyGuide to selecting and installing time and labor systemsThis book bridges the gap between what business leaders understand about their business and what they have yet to learn about this technology. The author introduces the concept of Mission Based Configuration, showing companies how to apply time and labor systems to their business needs to save time and money. The use of technology offers an effective tool to manage budgets, meet strategic targets, and channel decision-making toward best practices. No Boundaries reveals how your business can win the race for profits and productivity. Minimize

Sergeant Smack chronicles the story of North Carolina's Les ... Read more

Sergeant Smack chronicles the story of North Carolina's Leslie "Ike" Atkinson, an adventurer, gambler and one of U.S. history's most original gangsters. Under the cover of the Vietnam War and through the use of the U.S. military infrastructure, Atkinson masterminded an enterprising group of family members and former African American GIs that the DEA identified as one of history's ten top drug trafficking rings. Ike's organization moved heroin from Thailand to North Carolina and beyond. According to law enforcement sources, 1,000 pounds is a conservative estimate of the amount of heroin the ring transported annually from Bangkok, Thailand, through U.S. military bases, into the U.S. during its period of operation from 1968 to 1975. That amount translates to about $400 million worth of illegal drug sales during that period. Born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Ike Atkinson is a charismatic former U.S. Army Master Sergeant, career drug smuggler, scam artist, card shark and doting family man whom law enforcement nick-named Sergeant Smack. He was never known to carry a gun, and today many retired law enforcement officials who had put him in jail refer to him as a "gentleman." Sergeant Smack's criminal activities sparked the creation of a special DEA unit code named CENTAC 9, which conducted an intensive three-year investigation across three continents. Sergeant Smack was elusive, but the discovery of his palm print on a kilo of heroin finally took him down. In 1987, Ike tried to revive his drug ring from Otisville Federal Penitentiary, but the Feds discovered the plot and set up a sting. The events that follow seem like the narrative for a Robert Ludlum novel. Atkinson was convicted again and nine years added to his sentence. Ike was released from prison in 2006 after serving a 31-year jail sentence. Atkinson's story is controversial because his ring has been accused of smuggling heroin to the U.S. in the coffins and/or cadavers of dead American GIs. As this book shows, the accusation is completely false. The recent movie, "American Gangster," which depicted the criminal career of Frank Lucas, distorted Atkinson's historical role in the international drug trade. Sergeant Smack exposes the lies about the Ike Atkinson-Frank Lucas relationship and documents how Ike, not Lucas, pioneered the Asian heroin connection. "Drug kingpin Ike Atkinson, is the real deal, and not the stuff of Hollywood legend. The author delivers an eminently readable book about a genuine Mr Big who knows that no fictional makeover is required for his compelling story - the truth is more than enough." -Steve Morris, Publisher, New Criminologist "Sergeant Smack is meticulously researched and its prodding for the truth by author Ron Chepesiuk makes it an excellent non-fiction crime story. Along with a compelling history of Ike Atkinson's life and criminal career in drug smuggling, the author has managed to put the truth to numerous falsehoods contained in the major movie, American Gangster, about the life of Frank Lucas." -Jack Toal, retired DEA agent who worked the investigation of Frank Lucas "Finally, the real story. I've waited 40 years for this book." -Marc Levin, Director of the documentary, "Mr. Untouchable" "Ron Chepesiuk has gone from publishing the Black gangster classics, Gangsters of Harlem and Black Gangsters of Chicago, to crafting Sergeant Smack, an astonishing masterpiece." -David "Pop" Whetstone, Owner, Black Star Music and Video "Sergeant Smack forcefully debunks the urban legend of Black family groups smuggling heroin from Southeast Asia in the bodies of dead GI soldiers while recounting the colorful saga of the authentic American gangster. Highly recommended." -Gary Taylor, journalist and author of the award-winning true crime memoir, Luggage by Kroger. Minimize

In October 2007, twenty-three-year-old Stacy Peterson vanis ... Read more

In October 2007, twenty-three-year-old Stacy Peterson vanished from the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, leaving behind her husband and children. Retired Police Sergeant Drew Peterson, thirty years Stacy's senior, steadfastly asserted his innocence and maintained that his wife had simply fled their tumultuous marriage and run off with another man. Throngs of journalists and camera crews besieged Peterson's quiet suburban cul-de-sac, but the ex-cop seemed to relish this newfound limelight. As exhaustive searches for Stacy's body turned up nothing and suggestive clues led nowhere, questions were raised: about their unusual marriage, about Stacy's past vocal concerns for her safety, and about Drew Peterson's bizarre public behavior in the wake of Stacy's disappearance. Then, in February 2008, came a startling development. After a second autopsy, the unusual death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, was ruled a homicide. Three and a half years earlier, Savio had been found dead in the bathtub of their home, but in light of Stacy's curious disappearance, Kathleen's body was exhumed and the case was reopened. Two of Drew Peterson's four wives, it appeared, had met untimely fates tragic and unexpected but hardly coincidental.Drawing upon exclusive interviews with Stacy's friends and family and even Drew himself, Chicago-area reporter Joseph Hosey presents the most researched account of the Stacy Peterson case yet. Still, as the charges against Drew Peterson mount, one haunting question remains: Where on earth is Stacy? Minimize

Rogue nations with a nuclear punch might not be able to del ... Read more

Rogue nations with a nuclear punch might not be able to deliver their bombs here in the Homeland, but they will shop their wares to anyone who can! Terrorists will make their second great attack on the Homeland with nuclear weapons. The story tells who will do it, how it will be done, most likely where, and when. This is a war story about what happens when mommy and daddy take over defense of the Homeland, about a country run by people in such denial that only a second mass death of innocent Americans could jog them out of their ideological stupor. It's a story of courage and cowardice, the courage to stand head-up against power and the cowardice to sanction the murder of innocents for political gain. It's a love story about men who love God so much that they're willing to sacrifice anyone but themselves, including their own Believers - about Americans who love power so much that they're willing to sacrifice their countrymen as long as their policies remain unquestioned - and about real Americans who love their country so much that they offer to sacrifice themselves in her defense. It's a teaching story containing lessons about ideology trumping survival, political correctness trumping plain common sense, and agenda trumping truth, with a little character-building on the side. But above all else, it's a story of Duty holding apart then welding together some very, very good people in the defense of America. Some of the bad guys win; some of the good guys lose. Terrorists kill, bravery exalts, fuses ignite, and lovers find a way. And it's a story about simple, average Americans watching their country's descent into danger and wondering why in the world common sense doesn't prevail - Americans kind of like you and me. Minimize

Jason Goodwin takes the reader on an adventurous journey th ... Read more

Jason Goodwin takes the reader on an adventurous journey through the serpentine paths of the tea trade-from China to India to London. Evoking both past and present in this lively and intriguing traveler's journal, he traces the development of the tea trade from its origins in Canton factories through the Opium Wars and the settlement of British India. His travels take him from the lost European cities of the China coast to inland China, to Calcutta, to India's high tea gardens in Bohea and Darjeeling. Full of historical and personal detail, A Time for Tea is highly informative, funny, and original. This is more than a travelogue, it is the soul of economic development. Minimize

Breathtaking photos of Provincetown by Marc Jacobs visual c ... Read more

Breathtaking photos of Provincetown by Marc Jacobs visual coordinator Clayton Verdoorn. Exclusive. Minimize

For the Time Being evokes no less than the terrifying grand ... Read more

For the Time Being evokes no less than the terrifying grandeur of all that remains tantalizingly and troublingly beyond our understanding..... Minimize

Twenty-five years after Cynthia Archer's entire family vani ... Read more

Twenty-five years after Cynthia Archer's entire family vanished, dark secrets unfold and the shocking truth slowly emerges, in this gripping, pulse-pounding thriller. Minimize

While the dependability requirements of distributed real-ti ... Read more

While the dependability requirements of distributed real-time systems are expanding, there is currently no framework for defining and mapping these requirements into the system design and operation. A method of controlling and achieving the dependability level is real-time monitoring, which measures the degree of requirements fulfilment, relates it to the pre-defined, measurable system-level expectations and dynamically adapts the system, based on quality metrics, risk analysis, cost evaluation, control theory, neural networks, data acquisition and system knowledge management. The book deduces a framework to reveal, define, quantify, measure, analyse, design, implement, test, monitor and enhance dependability (functional and non-functional) requirements of a distributed system with real-time constraints. It is presented how the framework can be applied throughout all life-cycle stages, under varying constraints and with maximised cost effectiveness. An overview of the tools and methodologies applicable has been given and an integrated and generalised architecture for ensuring continuous fulfilment of system requirements, proposed. The framework provides a multilevel specification mechanism to establish the preservation of system requirements. This ensures the correct functioning of system through adaptations at run time. Among the benefits are controlled access and coordinated resource sharing in accordance with service-level agreement policies, multi-stakeholder interest preservation, transparency with respect to location, naming, performance etc., achievement of quality of service on demand, decentralisation, seamless integration of resources and applications, as well as increased predictability. READERSHIP: The intended audience is broad: real time and distributed systems scientists and developers, software engineers, students, quality assurance managers, contractors, users, service providers and all those searching for an alternative approach to handling and ensuring automated control of fulfilment of system requirements. Moreover, those needing a handbook on contract negotiations and a method of tracing operational results back into system requirements of long lived projects with high dependability and integrity demands. Minimize

Based on extensive research, IT'S ABOUT TIME: AMERICA'S IMP ... Read more

Based on extensive research, IT'S ABOUT TIME: AMERICA'S IMPRISONMENT BINGE, 4e delivers a critical analysis of the U.S. prison system. Offering varying points of view of the corrections system, it illustrates how the U.S. attempts to lower crime by using the correctional system as the primary solution. Personal accounts from prisoners--including one of the authors, who served 10 years in prison before becoming a noted criminologist--spotlight the brutal aspects of prison life. Reflecting the latest developments from the field, the Fourth Edition includes the most current statistics available and coverage of such key issues as sex offenders, immigration, the impact of the war on terror, and more. Minimize

Maggie Winthrop doesn't believe in time travel any mor ... Read more

Maggie Winthrop doesn't believe in time travel any more than she believes in comic-book heroes or the tooth fairy.... Minimize