Are we alone in the universe? This is surely one of the biggest questions of human existence, yet it remains frustratingly unanswered. In this provocative book, one of the worlds leading scientists explains why the search for intelligent life beyond Earth should be expanded, and how it can be done.

Landscape photographer Bill Fortney joins Matt Kloskowski in the studio to give his recommendations on the best photography gear for the outdoor shooter. Bill gives his reasons for choosing camera bodies, lenses, filters, accessories and more. He explains why his experience has led him to choose the equipment he has in his bag and he explains to his viewers how to get the most out of their camera gear.

American philosopher Dennett explains why he called one of his books Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, and why many of Darwin’s contemporaries, in particular, considered Darwin’s theory of evolution to be dangerous. He goes on to deal with the question of consciousness (i.e., is the consciousness/soul distinct from the body), talking about Darwin’s rejection of the soul and the possible origins and psychological purposes of a belief in an immaterial soul.

Parental choice and parental responsibility in the education of children is the U.S. tradition and is consistent with a free society. Centralized government control has eroded freedom and adversely affected the quality of education. The poor help pay for education for the future rich. Friedman has long advocated using vouchers to solve the problem. He explains why. Friedman visits U.S. and Britain.

Robert Penn has saddled up nearly every day of his adult life. In his late twenties, he pedaled 25,000 miles around the world. Today he rides to get to work, sometimes for work, to bathe in air and sunshine, to travel, to go shopping, to stay sane, and to skip bath time with his kids. Hes no Sunday pedal pusher. So when the time came for a new bike, he decided to pull out all the stops. He would build his dream bike, the bike he would ride for the rest of his life; a customized machine that reflects the joy of cycling.Its All About the Bike follows Penns journey, but this book is more than the story of his hunt for two-wheel perfection. En route, Penn brilliantly explores the culture, science, and history of the bicycle. From artisanal frame shops in the United Kingdom to California, where he finds the perfect wheels, via Portland, Milan, and points in between, his trek follows the serpentine path of our love affair with cycling. It explains why we ride.Its All About the Bike is, like Penns dream bike, a tale greater than the sum of its parts. An enthusiastic and charming tour guide, Penn uses each component of the bike as a starting point for illuminating excursions into the rich history of cycling. Just like a long ride on a lovely day, Its All About the Bike is pure joy- enriching, exhilarating, and unforgettable.Robert Penn has worked as a lawyer, waiter, contractor, DJ, photographer, and journalist-and biked to every single job. He writes for the Financial Times, the Observer, and Conde Nast Traveler, as well as a host of cycling publications. Penn lives in Wales with his wife and three children.Praise from the UK for Its All About the Bike:"[A] gem of a book."

In a rare interview with Ali Soufan, the FBI agent who was at the center of the 9/11 investigations, FRONTLINE uncovers an insiders view on the "war on terror." Soufan explains why he believes the attacks on the World Trade Center could have been prevented. Also in an encore presentation of Are We Safer-- Dana Priest investigates the terrorism-industrial complex that grew up in the wake of 9/11.

In July 2007, the combination of a seemingly unstoppable rise in house prices and bullish banks swimming in liquidity meant that almost anyone could get a mortgage in the UK or US. Little more than a month later the supply of credit dried up practically overnight, leaving the world wondering how bank liquidity could suddenly vanish. In Financial Alchemy in Crisis, Anastasia Nesvetailova shows that this liquidity never actually existed. The rise of sophisticated financial instruments created what appeared to be an abundance of liquid funds but was in fact a credit pyramid. As soon as house prices stopped rising the reality was exposed. Nesvetailovas bold and radical analysis explains why the credit crisis was an inevitable consequence of entrusting the world economy to financiers who believe that they can create money and wealth.

In The New Language of Business, senior IBM executive Sandy Carter demonstrates how to leverage SOA, Web 2.0, and related technologies to drive new levels of operational excellence and business innovation. Writing for executives and business leaders inside and outside IT, Carter explains why flexibility and responsiveness are now even more crucial to success–and why services-based strategies offer the greatest promise for achieving them.

An engaging introduction to how people use IS to solve business problems. Using MIS explains why MIS is the most important course in the business school by showing readers how businesses use information systems and technology to accomplish their goals, objectives, and competitive strategy. With a new edition now publishing each year, Using MIS, 4e, contains fresh, new, and current material to help keep you up to date.

Is spelling still important in the age of spellcheckers? Ask Dan Quayle
Part guide to better spelling, part paean to an endangered art, Eyes Before Ease is filled with fascinating trivia, historical asides, astute personal observations, and good-natured humor about why spelling is still important--even with the advent of spellcheckers. Professor Larry Beason argues that spelling is more than just the correct arrangement of letters--it sheds light on the human experience itself. It lets us communicate with other people, it indicates (right or wrong) our intelligence, and also brings us together as a community.
Beason also explains why our particular spelling system is so difficult, how to become a better speller, and why you should never trust a cyborg for the correct spelling of a homophone.

Video is the Internet these days and as the growing trend toward viewing video on mobile devices increases too, the attention is turning toward creating a good user experience for downloading and viewing that video. One of the keys to this is delivering video in the correct format with the proper compression for that delivery. Real World Video Compression is one of the first books on this topic to demystify the various approaches to compression. It begins by describing the basic concepts of video compression, explains why you might choose a particular compression tool over another, and covers important workflow practices.

Traditional management structures, systems,and tools, intended to make the first factories of the industrial ageefficient, are now obsolete. Applying them to knowledge-work has exactly the opposite effect, causing all kinds of breakdowns. This book explains why knowledge workers have to manage themselves and tells them how to do it.

Many times, when a top player blunders, it is routinely described by the esoteric term chess blindness. In this series What Grandmasters Don‘t See, chess trainer and worldclass commentator Maurice Ashley strips away the myth and for the first time explains why the root of these mistakes is more often based in the psychology of human learning. In this DVD, the third volume of the three part series, Ashley completes his idea of Protected Squares from Volume 1, showing that squares seemingly guarded by pieces are often the breeding ground of amazing tactical oversights. He also blends the themes from all three volumes to give a thorough picture of the key ways that the viewer can exploit the typical mistakes by players of all levels. In the first half of the DVD, Ashley uses brilliant games and positions to explain each lesson in his dynamic commentary style. The second half of the DVD is filled with examples to test the viewer, with a series of exercises of increasing difficulty. The material is drawn both from classic and from recent games.

Many times, when a top player blunders, it is routinely described by the esoteric term chess blindness. In this series What Grandmasters Don‘t See, chess trainer and worldclass commentator Maurice Ashley strips away the myth and for the first time explains why the root of these mistakes is more often based in the psychology of human learning. In this DVD, the third volume of the three part series, Ashley completes his idea of Protected Squares from Volume 1, showing that squares seemingly guarded by pieces are often the breeding ground of amazing tactical oversights. He also blends the themes from all three volumes to give a thorough picture of the key ways that the viewer can exploit the typical mistakes by players of all levels. In the first half of the DVD, Ashley uses brilliant games and positions to explain each lesson in his dynamic commentary style. The second half of the DVD is filled with examples to test the viewer, with a series of exercises of increasing difficulty. The material is drawn both from

A four-disc box set spanning Eric Claptons entire career -- running from the Yardbirds to his 80s solo recordings -- Crossroads not only revitalized Claptons commercial standing, but it established the rock & roll multi-disc box set retrospective as a commercially viable proposition. Bob Dylans Biograph was successful two years before the release of Crossroads, but Claptons set was a bona fide blockbuster. And its easy to see why. Crossroads manages to sum up Claptons career succinctly and thoroughly, touching upon all of his hits and adding a bevy of first-rate unreleased material (most notably selections from the scrapped second Derek and the Dominos album). Although not all of his greatest performances are included on the set -- none of his work as a session musician or guest artist is included, for instance -- every truly essential item he recorded is present on these four discs. No other Clapton album accurately explains why the guitarist was so influential, or demonstrates exactly what he accomplished.

Designed especially for “beginning” quitters, this introduction to the Piano for Life series is the first place to start if you’re looking into this program. In this 90-minute video, piano instructor Mark Almond explains why there are so many quitters, and how a more holistic approach, based on chords and harmony, is much more successful than simply and slowly learning notes. The video teaches aspiring pianists the simple rules of harmony without bogging them down in musical notation, and introduces them to the standard chord symbols used by professionals in non-technical language and with plenty of examples. Beginners and “quitters” of all ages can learn from and enjoy this introduction, which will give them a good foundation in most styles of piano music, including classical, pop, jazz, and more.

Loss of memory is not a natural part of aging-and this book explains why.
Celebrated neurologist David Perlmutter reveals how everyday memory-loss-misplacing car keys, forgetting a name, losing concentration in meetings-is actually a warning sign of a distressed brain. Here he offers a simple plan for repairing those problems, and regaining and maintaining clarity by offering the tools for:

“I am from the government and I am here to help you” is one of the three biggest lies, or so the old joke goes. Richard J. Gelles, dean of social policy at University of Pennsylvania, explains why government programs designed to cure social ills don’t work in sector after sector…and never could work. He demonstrates how each creates its own bureaucracy to monitor participation in the program, an entrenched administrative apparatus whose needs supersede those for whom the program was designed.

Deep Nutrition illustrates how our ancestors used nourishment to sculpt their anatomy, engineering bodies of extraordinary health and beauty. The length of our limbs, the shape of our eyes, and the proper function of our organs are all gifts of our ancestors collective culinary wisdom. Citing the foods of traditional cultures from the Ancient Egyptians and the Maasai to the Japanese and the French, the Shanahans identify four food categories all the worlds healthiest diets have in common, the Four Pillars of World Cuisine. Using the latest research in physiology and genetics, Dr. Shanahan explains why your familys health depends on eating these foods. In a world of competing nutritional ideologies, Deep Nutrition gives us the full picture, empowering us to take control of our destiny in ways we might never have imagined.