If you're a movie or television fan - how many of these questions can you answer? What was the last picture show in The Last Picture Show? Where was the stagecoach headed in Stagecoach? What was the name of the dinosaur bone in Bringing Up Baby? What did Gomer Pyle do before he entered the Marines? Who played Gentle Ben? Like The Book of Answers, this book answers hundreds of questions in one of the New York Public LIbrary Telephone Reference Service's most popular areas - film and television. It covers the biggest stars, breakthrough productions, famous on-and-off-screen incidents, and film and TV history and trivia. Movies and TV: The New York Public Library Book of Answers is both informative and entertaining - a treasure trove of fascinating movie and TV facts, a perfect companion to The Book of Answers, and a real treat for movie and TV fans.
Why are audiences drawn to horror films? Previous answers to that question have included everything from a need to experience fear to a hunger for psychotherapy. This critical text proposes that the horror film's primary purpose is to present monsters, best understood as deformed and destructive beings. These monsters satisfy the audience's desire to know these beings, in particular those beings too fantastic and dangerous to know in real life. The text illuminates many aspects of the horror film genre, including epistemology, ethics, evaluation, history, monster taxonomy, and filmmaking techniques.
To hold the interest of knowledgeable sci-fi readers, a writer the genre must stay within certain fuzzy boundaries of scientific belief. This volume provides some of the scientific detail that will make a writer's adventures compelling and consistent with current views of the universe. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Spectacular state-of-the-art imagery and the latest scientific knowledge highlight a breathtaking guide to nature’s most cataclysmic forces. Encyclopedic in scope and visually stunning, this is the most comprehensive work ever published on the earth’s climate--an awesome force that, at different points in time, has wiped out 95 percent of all living creatures, plunged the world into ice ages, and played a leading role in every stage of human evolution. Climate: • explains extreme weather-related events, from the destruction of coral reefs in Belize to eroding coastlines in the South Pacific • presents expert predictions about what is in store for the world’s climate in the short- and long-term future • demonstrates climate’s devastating force through 630 full-color illustrations, including digitally generated imagery, graphs, diagrams, geographical maps, and satellite photos Explaining how our modern lifestyles shift the earth’s climate, the authors sound a warning bell: We may be witnessing the beginnings of a mass extinction, caused not by an ice age, asteroids, or volcanoes, but by what might be an even more destructive force--ourselves. And they offer steps we can take before it’s too late to avoid a global disaster.
How many of these questions can you answer without calling the New York Public Library's Telephone Reference Service? Who really designed the American flag? How hot is the sun's surface? How does quicksand work? When was the Ark of the Covenant last seen? Who sat at the Algonquin Round Table? Where does the name "The Grateful Dead" come from? Why is Christmas abbreviated as Xmas? Can any creatures besides humans get a sunburn? How many muscles does it take to smile? To frown? Why are rabbits' feet considered good luck? You could, of course, do all the painstaking research yourself. Or you could pick up the phone and call the resourceful, erudite, quick-witted librarians of the New York Public Library's Telephone Reference Service, Tel Ref, for whom questions like these are all in a day's work. For the past twenty years, Tel Ref has met the information needs of a public as diverse as the subjects in the Library's catalog, and now they've compiled their most interesting, unusual, and most-often-asked queries into The Book of Answers -- a delight for browsers, a treasure trove of fascinating information, and the perfect companion to The New York Public Library Desk Reference.
Explores cultural, economic, and political events of the last decade of the twentieth century, including the Columbine High School shootings, Magic Johnson's retirement from sports, the first Million Man March, and the Y2K scare.
The Code of Hammurabi. Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses. The radical notions that launched the French Revolution. The beliefs that propelled the American Civil Rights movement. These are only a few of the thousands of concepts described in this remarkable chronicle of intellectual history. Presenting the ideas of philosophers, prophets, scholars, critics, educators, revolutionaries and reformers, the Fitzroy Dearborn Chronology of Ideas concentrates on the famous - as well as infamous - concepts that have changed the world. Here, too, are the historical turning points that resulted from the application of those ideas - the natural flow of the American Revolution from the concept of democratic liberalism, for example, or the Russian Revolution from Marxism.
Text and photographs describe how the parts of a bicycle are assembled, how accessories are added, how inspectors check for defects, and how the bikes are shipped to stores across the country.
The future is upon us. The trends that will shape our lives over the coming years have already begun to form-from the development of new technology and the way we do business, to changes in demographics and social behavior. The 100 Best Trends, 2006 is the first accessible reference guide that keeps pace with these lightning-fast developments, summarizing the most important trends in every industry: Arts and entertainment, Business and industry, Demographics, Health and medicine, Politics.
Danny is the story of a true event about a man with Down syndrome who was senselessly and viciously murdered. His life is recounted, and the criminal investigation, trial and its results are laid out for the reader's scrutiny. Only then are readers able to understand what happened to the criminals and to Danny’s family. Throughout Danny’s life there were many crises, which he overcame by the strength of his personality and family support. Danny had many clear-headed attributes, and he certainly utilized his intellectual abilities to their maximum. Out of determination and need, Danny created his own business enabling him to become self-supporting and financially independent. But rather than giving him the recognition he deserves, we are left pondering his fate. Danny was brave and didn’t submit to his aggressors. His bravery was no different than a soldier's on the field of battle. Danny's death, unfortunately, presents us with a dilemma: Did he fail to receive equal justice under the law, because he was handicapped? In many ways, our society and the people who govern it appear to be unable to properly cope with individuals like Danny. On the face of it, for whatever reason, our highly technical society is regrettably able to abstract itself from the needs of its less fortunate members. Heroes are not selected. If they were, they would all be glamorous, rich and, perhaps, celebrities. In reality, we must accept a hero from whence he comes. Danny was an authentic hero, even though he came to us from poverty and obscurity.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.