As aging atheist and semi-retired geologist Frank Stone becomes depressed over the possibility that his exciting career of studying volcanoes is rapidly coming to an end, the opportunity to pursue one last project unexpectedly enters his university office. The bearer of this welcome news is Richard Stewart, the universitys seismologist. Stewart is a staunch Mormon, married and with several children. Stone is childless by choice, and is married to a lovely and widely published author of travel adventures. In spite of their fundamentally opposed views of the roles of science versus faith in lifes journey, the two professors join forces to correctly forecast and then monitor an eruption that feeds lava into the Grand Canyon, and thereby dams the Colorado River. Follow this fiery rocky tale as professional collaboration eventually leads to personal bonding. And learn the history of a score of real lava-flow dams that have clogged the Grand Canyon mere moments ago, in geologic time.
On the universal quest for personal independence and for fulfillment of growing-up dreams, a small-town Minnesota boy turns to raising runt piglets as a way to earn spending money of his own. Then a series of mysterious and unexpected postcards from a school called Phillips Exeter Academy begins to arrive, flooding his plans with uncertainty and confusing his inexperienced parents as to what is best for their son. From Piglets To Prep School: Crossing A Chasm describes the unanticipated and fundamentally unwanted struggle that this young boy faces as the postcards, eventually inviting him to attend the school on scholarship, continue to interrupt a comfortably familiar existence in his home town a life of growing up in a virtual clone of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon of Prairie Home Companion. Though satisfied at home, an inner voice seduces him to abandon his youthful dreams and join the cadre of elite preppies in New England. Overnight, names of his schoolmates change from Gary Gardner and Duane Labs to David Rockefeller and Peter Benchley. The social, economic, cultural, and academic shocks of such change are immediate and stunning yet mostly manageable. This entertainingly illustrated book is a poignant and humorous memoir that will resonate with anyone who remembers his or her growing-up years. Share the fun, sadness, discoveries, disappointments, and pranks of a young hayseed kid uprooted from bucolic rural life and transplanted into the rocky New England garden of stuffy and highly competitive preppies. You'll be challenged to read the book without alternately laughing and crying as memories of your own early years are rekindled!
Volcanologists and general readers alike will enjoy author Wendell Duffield's report from Kilauea---home of Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes. Duffield's narrative encompasses everthing from the scientific (his discovery that the movements of cooled
Follow scientists and technicians of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory as they scramble to take the pulse of Big Island volcanoes in attempts to forewarn the public of impending eruption; progress is made, but complete understanding of these powerful forces of nature remains frustratingly elusive. Watch bad guys and harmless hippies as they cultivate illegal gardens of marijuana on the slopes of Kilauea Volcano, directly in the path of searing lava flows; some growers pay the ultimate price for their addiction to pot and its ill-gotten financial rewards. But above all, listen to Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess, as she manipulates success and failure, even life and death, of human intruders on her volcano home. When Pele Stirs paints a realistic picture of life on the Big Island, and will help the reader understand why Christian missionaries have failed to eliminate the worship of Pele, in spite of their efforts to do so for nearly two centuries.
Welcome to the year 2025. Following a lengthy approval process seemingly driven more by politics than science, the nation's inventory of high-level radioactive waste is finally stored in underground passageways dug into the guts of Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Two years later, the unexpected and unthinkable happens a violent volcanic eruption blasts its way through the mountain. Because Yucca is saturated with the percolating abundant rainfall brought about by climate change, explosive steam bursts add to an already destructive eruption as two-thousand-degree magma mixes with water. Radioactive waste is erupted along with volcanic ash, creating the ultimate dirty bomb. The deadly mixture is blown downwind where it settles out over Las Vegas and Lake Mead. The city must be evacuated and the lake drained, displacing and disrupting the lives of millions of people for long into the future. Yucca Mountain Dirty Bomb invites the reader to live vicariously through a scenario that experts consider unlikely, as measured by carefully calculated probability (popularly called "the odds") the very mathematical construct that sustains the gambling mecca of Las Vegas. Nonetheless, unlikely events can and do occur, and in this novel "the house" loses!
Follow scientists and technicians of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory as they scramble to take the pulse of Big Island volcanoes in attempts to forewarn the public of impending eruption; progress is made, but complete understanding of these powerful forces of nature remains frustratingly elusive. Watch bad guys and harmless hippies as they cultivate illegal gardens of marijuana on the slopes of Kilauea Volcano, directly in the path of searing lava flows; some growers pay the ultimate price for their addiction to pot and its ill-gotten financial rewards. But above all, listen to Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess, as she manipulates success and failure, even life and death, of human intruders on her volcano home. When Pele Stirs paints a realistic picture of life on the Big Island, and will help the reader understand why Christian missionaries have failed to eliminate the worship of Pele, in spite of their efforts to do so for nearly two centuries.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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