Luck of Losing the Toss
Luck of Losing the Toss

Author: Frank Henson

Publisher: eBook Partnership

Published: 2018-12-19

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1785453823

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Frank Henson grew up in poverty on the Whitehawk estate in Brighton. He didn't know his father and got into trouble at an early age. In the swinging sixties he became a paratrooper, then a hairdresser and a racing driver. Chance encounters led to work as a film extra, then as a stunt performer on some of the major films of the day. He had found his calling. Fifty years later he reflects on a life in the movies and on TV, as one of Britain's best-loved stunt performers. Here he describes his early life and his route into working on some of the most successful films of all time, including Return fo the Jedi and Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. He's also worked with some of cinema's biggest stars including John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and Pierce Brosnan. The Luck of Losing the Toss contains photos from Frank's private collection, published here for the first time. Today Frank lives on his farm in Sussex and still makes the odd cameo appearance as a stunt performer in films.

The Magic of Reality
The Magic of Reality

Author: Richard Dawkins

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-09-11

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1451690134

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An elegant, text-only edition of the New York Times bestseller that’s been hailed as the definitive authority on…everything. Richard Dawkins, bestselling author and the world’s most celebrated evolutionary biologist, has spent his career elucidating the many wonders of science. Here, he takes a broader approach and uses his unrivaled explanatory powers to illuminate the ways in which the world really works. Filled with clever thought experiments and jaw-dropping facts, The Magic of Reality explains a stunningly wide range of natural phenomena: How old is the universe? Why do the continents look like disconnected pieces of a jigsaw puzzle? What causes tsunamis? Why are there so many kinds of plants and animals? Who was the first man, or woman? Starting with the magical, mythical explanations for the wonders of nature, Dawkins reveals the exhilarating scientific truths behind these occurrences. This is a page-turning detective story that not only mines all the sciences for its clues but primes the reader to think like a scientist as well.

The Illustrated Magic of Reality
The Illustrated Magic of Reality

Author: Richard Dawkins

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-09-11

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1451690215

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Magic takes many forms. Supernatural magic is what our ancestors invoked in order to explain the world before they developed the scientific method. The ancient Egyptians explained the night by suggesting that a goddess swallowed the sun. The Vikings believed a rainbow was the gods' bridge to earth. Aside from these extraordinary tales, there is another kind of magic that lies in the exhilaration of discovering the real answers to these questions. It is the magic of reality--science. Packed with dazzling illustrations and jaw-dropping facts, The Magic of Reality explains a wide range of natural phenomena.

The Myth of Luck
The Myth of Luck

Author: Steven D. Hales

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-07-23

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1350149306

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Humanity has thrown everything we have at implacable luck-novel theologies, entire philosophical movements, fresh branches of mathematics-and yet we seem to have gained only the smallest edge on the power of fortune. The Myth of Luck tells us why we have been fighting an unconquerable foe. Taking us on a guided tour of one of our oldest concepts, we begin in ancient Greece and Rome, considering how Plato, Plutarch, and the Stoics understood luck, before entering the theoretical world of probability and exploring how luck relates to theology, sports, ethics, gambling, knowledge, and present-day psychology. As we travel across traditions, times and cultures, we come to realize that it's not that as soon as we solve one philosophical problem with luck that two more appear, like heads on a hydra, but rather that the monster is altogether mythological. We cannot master luck because there is nothing to defeat: luck is no more than a persistent and troubling illusion. By introducing us to compelling arguments and convincing reasons that explain why there is no such thing as luck, we finally see why in a very real sense we make our own luck, that luck is our own doing. The Myth of Luck helps us to regain our own agency in the world - telling the entertaining story of the philosophy and history of luck along the way.

Chance, Luck, and Statistics
Chance, Luck, and Statistics

Author: Horace C. Levinson

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780486419978

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In simple, non-technical language, this volume explores the fundamentals governing chance and applies them to sports, government, and business. Topics includenbsp;the theory of probability in relation to superstitions, betting odds, warfare,nbsp;social problems, stocks, and other areas. "Clear and lively ...nbsp;remarkably accurate." —Scientific Monthly.