Two science fiction masters—Jack McDevitt and Mike Resnick—team up to deliver a classic thriller in which one man uncovers the hidden history of the United States space program… “Houston, we have a problem…” Formerly a cynical, ambitious PR man, Jerry Culpepper finally found a client he could believe in when he was hired as NASA’s public affairs director. Proud of the Agency’s history and sure of its destiny, he was thrilled to be a part of its future. But public disinterest and budget cuts changed that future. Now, a half century after the first Moon landing, Jerry feels like the only one with stars in his eyes. Then a fifty-year-old secret about the Apollo XI mission is revealed, and he finds himself embroiled in the biggest controversy of the twenty-first century, one that will test his ability—and his willingness—to spin the truth about a conspiracy of reality-altering proportions...
Imagine what you could do if scalability wasn't a problem. With this hands-on guide, you’ll learn how the Cassandra database management system handles hundreds of terabytes of data while remaining highly available across multiple data centers. This expanded second edition—updated for Cassandra 3.0—provides the technical details and practical examples you need to put this database to work in a production environment. Authors Jeff Carpenter and Eben Hewitt demonstrate the advantages of Cassandra’s non-relational design, with special attention to data modeling. If you’re a developer, DBA, or application architect looking to solve a database scaling issue or future-proof your application, this guide helps you harness Cassandra’s speed and flexibility. Understand Cassandra’s distributed and decentralized structure Use the Cassandra Query Language (CQL) and cqlsh—the CQL shell Create a working data model and compare it with an equivalent relational model Develop sample applications using client drivers for languages including Java, Python, and Node.js Explore cluster topology and learn how nodes exchange data Maintain a high level of performance in your cluster Deploy Cassandra on site, in the Cloud, or with Docker Integrate Cassandra with Spark, Hadoop, Elasticsearch, Solr, and Lucene
The Cassandra follows a woman who goes to work in a top secret research facility during WWII, only to be tormented by visions of what the mission will mean for humankind. Mildred Groves is an unusual young woman. Gifted and cursed with the ability to see the future, Mildred runs away from home to take a secretary position at the Hanford Research Center in the early 1940s. Hanford, a massive construction camp on the banks of the Columbia River in remote South Central Washington, exists to test and manufacture a mysterious product that will aid the war effort. Only the top generals and scientists know that this product is processed plutonium, for use in the first atomic bombs. Mildred is delighted, at first, to be part of something larger than herself after a lifetime spent as an outsider. But her new life takes a dark turn when she starts to have prophetic dreams about what will become of humankind if the project is successful. As the men she works for come closer to achieving their goals, her visions intensify to a nightmarish pitch, and she eventually risks everything to question those in power, putting her own physical and mental health in jeopardy. Inspired by the classic Greek myth, this 20th century reimagining of Cassandra's story is based on a real WWII compound that the author researched meticulously. A timely novel about patriarchy and militancy, The Cassandra uses both legend and history to look deep into man's capacity for destruction, and the resolve and compassion it takes to challenge the powerful.
What story would Eve have told about picking the apple? Why is Pandora blamed for opening the box? And what about the fate of Cassandra who was blessed with knowing the future but cursed so that no one believed her? What if women had been the storytellers? Elizabeth Lesser believes that if women’s voices had been equally heard and respected throughout history, humankind would have followed different hero myths and guiding stories—stories that value caretaking, champion compassion, and elevate communication over vengeance and violence. Cassandra Speaks is about the stories we tell and how those stories become the culture. It’s about the stories we still blindly cling to, and the ones that cling to us: the origin tales, the guiding myths, the religious parables, the literature and films and fairy tales passed down through the centuries about women and men, power and war, sex and love, and the values we live by. Stories written mostly by men with lessons and laws for all of humanity. We have outgrown so many of them, and still they endure. This book is about what happens when women are the storytellers too—when we speak from our authentic voices, when we flex our values, when we become protagonists in the tales we tell about what it means to be human. Lesser has walked two main paths in her life—the spiritual path and the feminist one—paths that sometimes cross but sometimes feel at cross-purposes. Cassandra Speaks is her extraordinary merging of the two. The bestselling author of Broken Open and Marrow, Lesser is a beloved spiritual writer, as well as a leading feminist thinker. In this book she gives equal voice to the cool water of her meditative self and the fire of her feminist self. With her trademark gifts of both humor and insight, she offers a vision that transcends the either/or ideologies on both sides of the gender debate. Brilliantly structured into three distinct parts, Part One explores how history is carried forward through the stories a culture tells and values, and what we can do to balance the scales. Part Two looks at women and power and expands what it means to be courageous, daring, and strong. And Part Three offers “A Toolbox for Inner Strength.” Lesser argues that change in the culture starts with inner change, and that no one—woman or man—is immune to the corrupting influence of power. She provides inner tools to help us be both strong-willed and kind-hearted. Cassandra Speaks is a beautifully balanced synthesis of storytelling, memoir, and cultural observation. Women, men and all people will find themselves in the pages of this book, and will come away strengthened, opened, and ready to work together to create a better world for all people.
"Eric and Russell were early adopters of Cassandra at SimpleReach. In Practical Cassandra, you benefit from their experience in the trenches administering Cassandra, developing against it, and building one of the first CQL drivers. If you are deploying Cassandra soon, or you inherited a Cassandra cluster to tend, spend some time with the deployment, performance tuning, and maintenance chapters... If you are new to Cassandra, I highly recommend the chapters on data modeling and CQL." -From the Foreword by Jonathon Ellis, Apache Cassandra Chair Build and Deploy Massively Scalable, Super-fast Data Management Applications with Apache Cassandra Practical Cassandra is the first hands-on developer's guide to building Cassandra systems and applications that deliver breakthrough speed, scalability, reliability, and performance. Fully up to date, it reflects the latest versions of Cassandra-including Cassandra Query Language (CQL), which dramatically lowers the learning curve for Cassandra developers. Pioneering Cassandra developers and Datastax MVPs Russell Bradberry and Eric Lubow walk you through every step of building a real production application that can store enormous amounts of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. Drawing on their exceptional expertise, Bradberry and Lubow share practical insights into issues ranging from querying to deployment, management, maintenance, monitoring, and troubleshooting. The authors cover key issues, from architecture to migration, and guide you through crucial decisions about configuration and data modeling. They provide tested sample code, detailed explanations of how Cassandra works "under the covers," and new case studies from three cutting-edge users: Ooyala, Hailo, and eBay. Coverage includes Understanding Cassandra's approach, architecture, key concepts, and primary use cases- and why it's so blazingly fast Getting Cassandra up and running on single nodes and large clusters Applying the new design patterns, philosophies, and features that make Cassandra such a powerful data store Leveraging CQL to simplify your transition from SQL-based RDBMSes Deploying and provisioning through the cloud or on bare-metal hardware Choosing the right configuration options for each type of workload Tweaking Cassandra to get maximum performance from your hardware, OS, and JVM Mastering Cassandra's essential tools for maintenance and monitoring Efficiently solving the most common problems with Cassandra deployment, operation, and application development
About Writing Right Writing Right is an illustrated children's book whose main character is Noah, a third grade boy with dysgraphia. Many people have never heard of dysgraphia and that is one of the primary reasons for this book. Dysgraphia affects writing skills and can make learning very difficult. In this book, Noah learns to work through his struggles with dysgraphia through perseverance, help from his mom, computer resources, and occupational therapy. Through Noah’s story, I hope to shed some light on this lesser-known disability and aid those affected. From the Author Hello! I’m Cassie, the author of this book, and a high school student from Virginia. For my Girl Scout Gold Award project, I wanted to write a children’s book that would help kids cope with the learning disability dysgraphia. I hope that kids can relate to Noah and learn along with him.
For over thirty years, Robert Ludlum has been acknowledged as the master of international suspense and intrigue. In 2000, Ludlum managed to raise the bar yet again with his widely acclaimed bestsellers The Prometheus Deception and The Hades Factor, the first novel in his exciting Covert-One series. Now Covert-One is back, in a novel that could only have come from the imagination of the world's greatest storyteller. "What they're going to do, I never would have believed it. It's insanity!" They were the final words spoken by Yuri Danko, an officer in the medical division of Russia's security service, before his body was ripped apart by a spray of assassins' bullets. In possession of Danko's classified papers, Covert-One operative Jon Smith and CIA undercover agent Randi Russell have unearthed a terrifying global conspiracy that threatens to unleash a plague of immeasurable proportions. A Serb terrorist has been dispatched from Russia to spirit hazardous vials of deadly bacteria into the United States. His mission: deliver it to an unknown American government agent-- a shadowy figure whose own motives for acquiring the bioweapon are made all the more unfathomable when both men are found murdered, and the strain is stolen. Now Smith and Russell must track it down, find the madman who possesses it, and stop him before he holds a defenseless world hostage with the power to render the human race extinct.
Make your dreams a reality with guided meditations for manifestation Meditation can help you turn inward, activate your heart's desires, and fulfill your life's vision. In Manifesting Through Meditation, you'll find 100 guided meditations that inspire you to open yourself up to the energy of the universe and create the change you want to see. Discover how to set intentions, foster appreciation and gratitude in your life, and cultivate greater abundance by harnessing the power of your mind. This standout among manifesting books helps you: Demystify manifestation—Learn more about manifestation and meditation, and discover how to combine them to make your dreams become reality. Transform every area of life—Manifest prosperity in your relationships, career and finances, health and wellness, your future, and more. Explore a variety of meditations—Find simple meditations that center around mindfulness, visualization, breathwork, light movement, and affirmations. Focus your energy and create the life you want with Manifesting Through Meditation.
A collection of works from the groundbreaking grantLOVE philanthropic art project What is love? In LOVE: A Visual History of the grantLOVE Project, artist Alexandra Grant’s exploration of that question is documented through a retrospective of her journey engaging in civic art. In 2008, Grant began making editions of her art based on the concept of love and her trademarked LOVE symbol to raise money for arts projects and nonprofit organizations, and this philanthropic art experiment became the grantLOVE project. Partnering with other artists, makers, customers, and to support art projects and nonprofits, Grant explores how philanthropy and art can effectively intersect. This comprehensive history of the grantLOVE project—complete with paintings, prints, sculptures, textiles, jewelry, and architecture—provides a visual meditation on what “love” is, as conceived by Grant and the numerous collaborators showcased here. Compiling more than fourteen years of grantLOVE works and partnerships, this book invites you to reflect on the confluence of philanthropy and the arts and celebrates building community around the roles of love and empathy in contemporary art and culture.
Divided into three sections - Eating & Sharing, Living and Resting -Home Sewn provides a range of practical soft furnishing projectsdedicated to activities around the home. Items are gorgeous, but alsouseful, with both style and functionality.
