Construction Science

How did a simple design error cause one of the great disasters of the 1980s - the collapse of the walkways at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel? What made the graceful and innovative Tacoma Narrows Bridge twist apart in a mild wind in 1940? How did an oversized waterlily inspire the magnificent Crystal Palace, the crowning achievement of Victorian architecture and engineering? These are some of the failures and successes that Henry Petroski, author of the acclaimed The Pencil, examines in this engaging, wonderfully literate book.

Este libro es para constructores, para quienes hacen viviendas y otras edificaciones para la comunidad. Sean maestros de obras, albañiles, carpinteros, plomeros o algún otro artesano; autoridades de pequeños municipios, que deciden cómo se van a desarrollar las comunidades y sus alrededores; o personas que quieren proyectar o construir su propia casa o indicar al contratista o maestro albañil cómo quieren tener su casa.

On the cusp of a second lease on life, Harvey, Tabitha, Maywen, and Reacher have one goal: to level up before the World Boss regenerates. Lorith is alive again, but the remnants of centuries of toxic magic pollution linger. The world needs more healing than even someone with a Legendary class can administer, not at level 3 anyway.

At level five, Harvey has been rejuvenated. No longer hindered by his age, he and his adopted family will journey to Saito, to find their kidnapped allies. The Eldritch Artisan isn’t just any adventure; it's a thrilling mix of dungeon crawling, base-building, and intense tower defense that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Join Harvey and Reacher as they navigate through uncharted territories, confront armies, and craft magical items that defy imagination.

With all civilization now on the brink of collapse, humanity's only hope is to find and kill the World Boss in order to restart the monster's rebirth cycle and bring back magic. When the Plagued janitor Harvey stumbles into a mysterious wreckage and accidentally kills the missing World Boss, he gains a million experience points, making him the target of almost all the would-be adventurers of the world.

This monumental book tells the enthralling story of one of the greatest accomplishments in our nation's history, the building of what was then the longest suspension bridge in the world. The Brooklyn Bridge rose out of the expansive era following the Civil War, when Americans believed all things were possible.

With this updated edition of his earlier book, A Place of My Own, listeners can revisit the inspired, intelligent, and often hilarious story of Pollan’s realization of a room of his own—a small, wooden hut, his “shelter for daydreams” — built with his admittedly unhandy hands. Inspired by both Thoreau and Mr. Blandings, A Place of My Own not only works to convey the history and meaning of all human building, it also marks the connections between our bodies, our minds, and the natural world.

The thesis of Human Diversity is that advances in genetics and neuroscience are overthrowing an intellectual orthodoxy that has ruled the social sciences for decades. The core of the orthodoxy consists of three dogmas: Gender is a social construct. Race is a social construct. Class is a function of privilege. The problem is that all three dogmas are half-truths. They have stifled progress in understanding the rich texture that biology adds to our understanding of the social, political, and economic worlds we live in. It is not a story to be feared. But it is a story that needs telling.

As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood.

Called the "fifth-most important sociological book of the 20th century" by the International Sociological Association, this groundbreaking study of knowledge introduces the concept of "social construction" into the social sciences for the first time. In it, Berger and Luckmann reformulate the task of the sociological subdiscipline that, since Max Scheler, has been known as the sociology of knowledge.

In this, his magnum opus, the world’s best known skeptic and critical thinker Dr. Michael Shermer—founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and perennial monthly columnist (“Skeptic”) for Scientific American—presents his comprehensive theory on how beliefs are born, formed, nourished, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished.

Sabashton "Ash" Jackson is a hard working kid from the streets who's just trying to survive the grind while he works two jobs to pay for college. Or at least he was until some lunatic sets off the apocalypse and he wakes up in the Infinity Construct, a magic based virtual reality game that feels indistinguishable from the real world.

Coming back to their own dimension, Milton Frederick and his AI guide, ALANNA, discovered that things were not quite how they left it. After the Station Core and his crew of Proctans acquired a derelict space station, fixed it up to include a makeshift dungeon, and then stopped the Heliothropes from invading and conquering an entirely new dimension, they managed to survive and return to Milton’s home dimension victorious.

After advising hundreds of contractors for fifteen years, author Chad Prinkey knows it comes down to having the right systems and culture in place across your business. In his book Well Built, Prinkey lays out the roadmap for contractors to make meaningful upgrades in how they operate, strategize, manage teams, win new business, and deliver for customers. You'll learn the step-by-step process contractors can use to join the top 2% and gain durable competitive advantages that increase profits for the long haul.

Bridges are engineering marvels! It takes a civil engineer, chief engineer, structural engineer and environmental engineer to build a bridge. There are different kinds that each require a special construction process to build. Learn how different bridges such as beam, suspension and arch bridge types are designed and built, as well as the construction workers needed at specific stages.

Please read before you purchase: As stated in the title this book it is for beginners. If you have been away from TIG Welding and are rusty or are coming in from other methods like MIG, Stick, oxy acetylene this book could also be of benefit. The ideal reader has good aptitude, eye hand coordination, safety conscious, a positive outlook and a can do attitude. This book is written from the perspective of someone who knows the frustrations of learning to TIG weld and how to overcome it. If your mid to expert level at TIG welding then this book IS NOT FOR YOU. There are other books on advanced...

In the spring of 1931, in a rugged desert canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border, an army of workmen began one of the most difficult and daring building projects ever undertaken: the construction of Hoover Dam. Through the worst years of the Great Depression as many as five thousand laborers toiled twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to erect the huge structure that would harness the Colorado River and transform the American West.

Are we "noble in reason"? Perfect, in God's image? Far from it, says New York University psychologist Gary Marcus. In this lucid and revealing book, Marcus argues that the mind is not an elegantly designed organ but a "kluge", a clumsy, cobbled-together contraption. He unveils a fundamentally new way of looking at the human mind - think duct tape, not supercomputer - that sheds light on some of the most mysterious aspects of human nature.

Making sense of sound is one of the hardest jobs we ask our brains to do. In Of Sound Mind, Nina Kraus examines the partnership of sound and brain, showing for the first time that the processing of sound drives many of the brain's core functions. Our hearing is always on - we can't close our ears the way we close our eyes - and yet we can ignore sounds that are unimportant. We don't just hear; we engage with sounds. Kraus explores what goes on in our brains when we hear a word - or a chord, or a meow, or a screech.

Now updated with groundbreaking research, this award-winning classic examines the construction of sexual identity in biology, society, and history.