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Author: Philip K. Dick
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2012
Total Pages: 255
ISBN-13: 0547572549
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA wry look at how different people see the world, told in the caustically fun style of award-winning science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick.
Author: Arthur Holland Michel
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-06-18
Total Pages: 341
ISBN-13: 0544971663
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe fascinating history and unnerving future of high-tech aerial surveillance, from its secret military origins to its growing use on American citizens Eyes in the Sky is the authoritative account of how the Pentagon secretly developed a godlike surveillance system for monitoring America's enemies overseas, and how it is now being used to watch us in our own backyards. Whereas a regular aerial camera can only capture a small patch of ground at any given time, this system—and its most powerful iteration, Gorgon Stare—allow operators to track thousands of moving targets at once, both forwards and backwards in time, across whole city-sized areas. When fused with big-data analysis techniques, this network can be used to watch everything simultaneously, and perhaps even predict attacks before they happen. In battle, Gorgon Stare and other systems like it have saved countless lives, but when this technology is deployed over American cities—as it already has been, extensively and largely in secret—it has the potential to become the most nightmarishly powerful visual surveillance system ever built. While it may well solve serious crimes and even help ease the traffic along your morning commute, it could also enable far more sinister and dangerous intrusions into our lives. This is closed-circuit television on steroids. Facebook in the heavens. Drawing on extensive access within the Pentagon and in the companies and government labs that developed these devices, Eyes in the Sky reveals how a top-secret team of mad scientists brought Gorgon Stare into existence, how it has come to pose an unprecedented threat to our privacy and freedom, and how we might still capitalize on its great promise while avoiding its many perils.
Author: Theresa B Tabak
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2010-03-15
Total Pages: 517
ISBN-13: 1612510140
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDino A. Brugioni, author of the best-selling account of the Cuban Missile crisis, Eyeball to Eyeball, draws on his long CIA career as one of the world's premier experts on aerial reconnaissance to provide the inside story of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's efforts to use spy planes and satellites to gather intelligence. He reveals Eisenhower to be a hands-on president who, contrary to popular belief, took an active role in assuring that the latest technology was used to gather aerial intelligence. This previously untold story of the secret Cold War program makes full use of the author's firsthand knowledge of the program and of information he gained from interviews with important participants. As a founder and senior officer of the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center, Brugioni was a key player in keeping Eisenhower informed of developments, and he sheds new light on the president's contributions toward building an effective and technologically advanced intelligence organization. The book provides details of the president's backing of the U-2's development and its use to dispel the bomber gap and to provide data on Soviet missile and nuclear efforts and to deal with crises in the Suez, Lebanon, Chinese Off Shore Islands, Tibet, Indonesia, East Germany, and elsewhere. Brugioni offers new information about Eisenhower's order of U-2 flights over Malta, Cyprus, Toulon, and Israel and subsequent warnings to the British, French, and Israelis that the U.S. would not support an invasion of Egypt. He notes that the president also backed the development of the CORONA photographic satellite, which eventually proved the missile gap with the Soviet Union didn't exist, and a variety of other satellite systems that detected and monitored problems around the world. The unsung reconnaissance roles played by Jimmy Doolittle and Edwin Land are also highlighted in this revealing study of Cold War espionage.
Author: Dwayne Day
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Published: 2015-05-26
Total Pages: 321
ISBN-13: 1588345181
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPresenting the full story of the CORONA spy satellites' origins, Eye in the Sky explores the Cold War technology and far-reaching effects of the satellites on foreign policy and national security. Arguing that satellite reconnaissance was key to shaping the course of the Cold War, the book documents breakthroughs in intelligence gathering and achievements in space technology that rival the landing on the moon.
Author: Matthew Feeney
Publisher: Cato Institute
Published: 2021-08-24
Total Pages: 301
ISBN-13: 1952223091
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"This book is a vital addition to understanding the way forward for drones in our national airspace." —Jeramie D. Scott, senior counsel, Electronic Privacy Information Center Drones are among the most exciting and promising new technologies to emerge in the last few decades. Photographers, firefighters, filmmakers, engineers, and retailers have all used drones to improve public safety, innovate, and enhance creativity. Yet drones pose unique regulatory and privacy issues, and lawmakers at the federal and state levels are adopting policies that both ensure the safety of our national airspace and restrict the use of warrantless aerial surveillance. At a time when low-flying drones are affordable and ubiquitous, how useful are the airspace regulations and privacy laws designed for traditional airplanes and helicopters? Is there a way to build a regulatory and legal environment that ensures entrepreneurs and hobbyists can safely use drones while also protecting us from intrusive aerial surveillance? In Eyes to the Sky: Privacy and Commerce in the Age of the Drone, experts from legal, regulatory, public policy, and civil liberty communities tackle these pressing problems. The chapters in this volume highlight not only what we can learn from the history of drone regulation but also propose policies that will allow for an innovative and dynamic drone sector while protecting our privacy. As drone technologies rapidly advance, Eyes to the Sky offers readers the current state of drone capabilities and regulations and a glimpse at exciting and disturbing uses of drones in the near future.
Author: Thomas Hockey
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2011-09-12
Total Pages: 251
ISBN-13: 0226345785
DOWNLOAD EBOOKGazing up at the heavens from our backyards or a nearby field, most of us see an undifferentiated mess of stars—if, that is, we can see anything at all through the glow of light pollution. Today’s casual observer knows far less about the sky than did our ancestors, who depended on the sun and the moon to tell them the time and on the stars to guide them through the seas. Nowadays, we don’t need the sky, which is good, because we’ve made it far less accessible, hiding it behind the skyscrapers and the excessive artificial light of our cities. How We See the Sky gives us back our knowledge of the sky, offering a fascinating overview of what can be seen there without the aid of a telescope. Thomas Hockey begins by scanning the horizon, explaining how the visible universe rotates through this horizon as night turns to day and season to season. Subsequent chapters explore the sun’s and moon’s respective motions through the celestial globe, as well as the appearance of solstices, eclipses, and planets, and how these are accounted for in different kinds of calendars. In every chapter, Hockey introduces the common vocabulary of today’s astronomers, uses examples past and present to explain them, and provides conceptual tools to help newcomers understand the topics he discusses. Packed with illustrations and enlivened by historical anecdotes and literary references, How We See the Sky reacquaints us with the wonders to be found in our own backyards.
Author: James Streckfuss
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2016-05-19
Total Pages: 273
ISBN-13: 1612003680
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe impact of the unsung heroes of WWI—“a must for any aviation enthusiast to further complement work on aerial reconnaissance in modern warfare” (Roads to the Great War), Beyond the heroic deeds of the fighter pilots and bombers of World War I, the real value of military aviation lay elsewhere; aerial reconnaissance, observation, and photography impacted the fighting in many ways, but little has been written about it. Balloons and airplanes regulated artillery fire, infantry liaison aircraft followed attacking troops and the retreats of defenders, aerial photographers aided operational planners and provided the data for perpetually updated maps, and naval airplanes, airships, and balloons acted as aerial sentinels in a complex anti-submarine warfare organization. Reconnaissance crews at the Battles of the Marne and Tannenberg averted disaster. Eyes All Over the Sky fully explores all the aspects of aerial reconnaissance and its previously under-appreciated significance. Also included are the individual experiences of British, American, and German airmen—true pioneers of aviation warfare. “With an interesting selection of photos, the book is not only an excellent reference—it is historically important.” —Classic Wings “This well-researched history belongs on the shelf of anyone with a serious interest in the air war or the ground war of 1914-1918.” —Steve Suddaby, former president of the World War One Historical Association
Author: Donald E. Osterbrock
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 2010-04-12
Total Pages: 325
ISBN-13: 0520268695
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe world's first mountain-top observatory and America's first big-science research center, Lick Observatory exemplifies astronomy's dramatic development in the past century. A dedicated Confederate naval officer and his jack-of-all-trades foreman used the bequest of a miserly California eccentric to transform an isolated mountain peak into the world's premier research observatory. Its first staff included a director from West Point and three of the outstanding astronomers of their time. Since its dedication in 1888, Lick Observatory has been the site of many of the most important discoveries in astronomy. Eye on the Sky presents Lick Observatory from the point of view of the people who breathed life into its giant telescopes. Their community was both constant and constantly transformed, shaped by workers famous and unknown who made it their home. The authors also explain in terms anyone can understand the laboratory advances that were adapted to telescopes to make them more powerful, and the conceptual breakthroughs that discoveries at the telescope helped bring about. The men and women who went to the top of Mount Hamilton in search of greater knowledge of the skies helped to change our conception of the universe and our place in it . They were people with personal and political lives as well as scientific careers, and their story illuminates a time and a place where foundations were laid for the discoveries of the next century.
Author: Jonathan Lethem
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-04-08
Total Pages: 309
ISBN-13: 0544346211
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA dead man is brought back to life so he can support his family in "The Happy Man"; occasionally he slips into a zombielike state while his soul is tortured in Hell. In "Vanilla Dunk," future basketball players are given the skills of old-time stars like Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. And in "Forever, Said the Duck," stored computer personalities scheme to break free of their owners. In these and other stories in this striking collection, Jonathan Lethem, author of The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, draws the reader ever more deeply into his strange, unforgettable world—a trip from which there may be no easy return.
Author: Wilbur Smith
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction Ltd.
Published: 2018-01-01
Total Pages: 333
ISBN-13: 1785765779
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn action-packed story of love, duty and destiny, by global sensation Wilbur Smith. 'A master storyteller' - Sunday Times 'Wilbur Smith is one of those benchmarks against whom others are compared' - The Times 'No one does adventure quite like Smith' - Daily Mirror The higher you fly, the harder you fall . . . From a young age it's clear that David Morgan is a 'bird', a natural pilot, most at home in the air. His family want him to take over the family business, but David is determined to follow his destiny, and joins the South African Air Force, where he is commended for his skills. When he meets Debra, a beautiful young Israeli writer, David once again feels the pull of destiny. He joins the Israeli Defence Force and finds himself caught up in the country's struggles. But when the war separates him from Debra, David feels his two destinies pulling him apart. Can he become the man he always dreamed of being, without losing the woman he's fighting for?
