In Skyplane, some of architecture's leading thinkers and practitioners examine both the global phenomenon of the tall building and its adaptation to the Asian-Pacific context, addressing the following questions: What effect do towers have on our culture and urbanism, environmental sustainability, building economics, the workplace and historic city centres? Can such giants be humane and made more formally engaging? Can architectural influence go beyond the façade or cope with self-aggrandisement and rampant symbolism?

Pro OGRE 3D Programming offers a detailed guide to the cross-platform Object-Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine (OGRE) 3D engine. OGRE provides an object-oriented interface to render 3D scenes. Commonly used in game creation, it can be utilized to create a variety of 3D based applications, including architectural visualization and simulations. The authors begin with obtaining the source code, move on to using the rendering library, and conclude with the polishing of the final application. Beginning-level knowledge of game design practices, intermediate-level knowledge of the C++ language, and a familiarity with open-source project-management tools such as CVS and Subversion are all recommended.

A futuristic thriller that pits teens against teens. Jemma has spent her life scavenging tools and supplies in her tribe's small enclave outside what used to be a big city. Now she’s a teen, and old enough to become a Mama. Making babies is how her people survive—in Jemma’s world, life ends at age seventeen. Survival has eclipsed love ever since the Parents died of a mysterious plague. But Jemma’s connection to a boy named Apple is stronger than her duty as a Mama. Forced to leave, Jemma and Apple are joined in exile by a mysterious boy who claims to know what is causing them to die. The world is crumbling around them, and their time is running out. Life is short. Can they outlive it?

Mark Brown, a business executive, had a vivid dream he would live until the year 2038. Months later a horrific plane crash occurs. Just before the crash, Mark grabs the arm of the passenger next to him, Howard Bowman, and tells him to hold on because he is going to live until the year 2038. At the hospital, Mark and Howard are told they are the only ones to survive. Lauren Rifkin, a tabloid investigator, finds out about Mark's dream and what he said to Howard before the crash. She and her Chief Editor, Weaver, convince Mark they can make him a major personality if they promote his dream as a premonition. The plan works, but the price of fame and fortune turns out to be higher than Mark anticipated. There are some who will benefit if they can cause him to have another near-death experience and others who want to challenge his so-called premonition by killing him before the year 2038. The Year of My Death is a thriller, but what lies beneath is the opportunity for hope.

When a young researcher ventures through a mysterious planetary system, dangerous secrets come to light in this novel from a Hugo Award–winning author. Grad student Danae Panya’s dream assignment has been approved. She’ll study Triplet, the strange planetary system scarred by nuclear war and connected through portals. The most experienced Courier of Triplet, Ravagin, will lead her to its hidden worlds—Threshold, Shamsheer, and Karyx—and introduce her to their secrets, including their advanced technology, their dark magic, and the captivating demon culture of the innermost planet. But though they begin their journey with only scholarly research in mind, Danae and Ravagin quickly find themselves embroiled in the menacing dynamics roiling throughout Triplet. Will Ravagin be able to get them both out alive?

Two hundred years after the first asteroid was discovered, asteroids can no longer be considered mere points of light in the sky. Spacecraft missions, advanced Earth-based observation techniques, and state-of-the-art numerical models are continually revealing the detailed shapes, structures, geological properties, and orbital characteristics of these smaller denizens of our solar system. This volume brings together the latest information obtained by spacecraft combined with astronomical observations and theoretical modeling, to present our best current understanding of asteroids and the clues they reveal for the origin an,d evolution of the solar system. This collective knowledge, prepared by a team of more than one hundred international authorities on asteroids, includes new insights into asteroid-meteorite connections, possible relationships with comets, and the hazards posed by asteroids colliding with Earth. The book's contents include reports on surveys based on remote observation and summaries of physical properties; results of in situ exploration; studies of dynamical, collisional, cosmochemical, and weathering evolutionary processes; and discussions of asteroid families and the relationships between asteroids and other solar system bodies. Two previous Space Science Series volumes have established standards for research into asteroids. Asteroids III carries that tradition forward in a book that will stand as the definitive source on its subject for the next decade.

Mera, Matt, and David are sixth graders who won first place in a State Contest of the Arts. The prize is a week on Planet Zenia. What a surprise when they hear about strange things that happen when Earth kids come to Zenia: a talent, skill, or an unusual interest of a child suddenly becomes enhanced. The rangers have screens in the Control Center where they watch students for unexpected behaviors. On the swamp boat Mera screams at a hawk that grabs a baby croc by the tail. When she yells, "Drop the croc" three times, an unusual thing happens: the hawk drops the croc. She says she mind-connected to the hawk, but her friends won't believe it - unless it happens again with another creature in the jungle. Mera loves making and flying her skyplane, activated by a remote control, and the group use it to fly David's tree house and place it in a tree across the river from the dragon's cave. All three of the friends want to be the first to release the dragon from the cave in the mountains. Matt doesn't care about danger when he walks in the jungle alone. When a panther attacks, he jumps to a limb of a tree and finds himself sitting on the top branch. Later, when they visit the Weejees, the native people on the land, he rushes to save a child who climbs on Mera's skyplane and smashes it into a tree in the dragons' grazing field. The village people watch Matt save Leema, and they say, "Must be miracle. Who can jump that high?" When David visits the native people, they discover he has communication abilities that will change the people's lives forever.

Why is there no dust in elliptical galaxies? Firstly, the universe is rational and the rationality is proportion at large scale systems such as galaxies. Proportion means that the distribution of matters in the universe is orderly. For example, there are four giants standing in array. Their heights are respectively A, B, C, D, and A, B stand in the first row from left to right, C, D in the second row from left to right. Proportion requires that A divided by C be equal to B divided by D. Rational structures are either circularly symmetric with respect to the center point, or bilaterally symmetric. Secondly, spiral galaxy arms are neither circularly symmetric nor bilaterally symmetric. Therefore, arms are not rational structure. Arm patterns exist only in spiral galaxies and they are weak compared with the main disk structure of spiral galaxies. Therefore, the presence of arm structure is the disturbance to the rational structure. Because arm patterns exist only in spiral galaxies and only spiral galaxies present dust, Dr. He comes to the critical answer to the above question: any disturbance to rational structure produces cosmic dust! From now on we call the disturbance to rational structure the cosmic impulse. Therefore, the universe is originated not only rationally but also impulsively!

Proceedings of IAU Symposium 229 on minor bodies of the solar system, for researchers and graduate students of planetary sciences.