From James Rollins, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sigma Force series, comes another electrifying combination of suspense, history, science, action, and ingenious speculation. Deep in the Rocky Mountains, a gruesome discovery—hundreds of mummified bodies—stir international attention and fervent controversy. Despite doubts about the bodies’ origins, the local Native American Heritage Commission lays claim to the prehistoric remains, along with the strange artifacts found in the same cavern: gold plates inscribed with an unfathomable script. During a riot at the dig site, an anthropologist dies horribly: burned to ash in a fiery explosion in plain view of television cameras. All evidence points to a radical group of Native Americans, including one agitator, a teenage firebrand who escapes with a vital clue to the murder and calls on the one person who might help: her uncle, Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force. To protect his niece and uncover the truth, Painter will ignite a war across the nation’s most powerful intelligence agencies. Yet, an even greater threat looms as events in the Rocky Mountains have set in motion a frightening chain reaction, a geological meltdown that threatens the entire western half of the U.S. From the volcanic peaks of Iceland to the blistering deserts of the American Southwest, from the gold vaults of Fort Knox to the bubbling geysers of Yellowstone, Painter Crowe joins forces with Commander Gray Pierce to penetrate the shadowy heart of a dark cabal, one that has been manipulating American history since the founding of the thirteen colonies. But can he discover the truth—one that could topple governments—before it destroys all he holds dear?
After global devastation, the last remnants of Earth sent a handful of colonists of a distant terraformed world to give humanity one last, desperate chance. Unable to provide the technology required for an advanced civilization, the founders instilled in the colonists a strict code of conduct and gave them a few precious imprinting devices: glass helmets that contain all of Earth's scientific knowledge. Once in a generation, the heir to the province of Laal begins the arduous training required to survive the imprinting of the Glass Helm and acquire the knowledge of the lost Earth. But Leland de Laal, the youngest son of one of Agatsu's greatest leaders, has climbed the forbidden rock spire where the Helm is kept and donned it, unaware that its knowledge has a terrible price. To an unprepared mind, it brings madness, agony, and even death.
A practical introduction to the core mathematics principles required at higher engineering level John Bird’s approach to mathematics, based on numerous worked examples and interactive problems, is ideal for vocational students that require an advanced textbook. Theory is kept to a minimum, with the emphasis firmly placed on problem-solving skills, making this a thoroughly practical introduction to the advanced mathematics engineering that students need to master. The extensive and thorough topic coverage makes this an ideal text for upper level vocational courses. Now in its seventh edition, Engineering Mathematics has helped thousands of students to succeed in their exams. The new edition includes a section at the start of each chapter to explain why the content is important and how it relates to real life. It is also supported by a fully updated companion website with resources for both students and lecturers. It has full solutions to all 1900 further questions contained in the 269 practice exercises.
If the melt-down, flood, plague, the third World War, new Ice Age, Rapture, alien invasion, clamp-down, meteor, or something else entirely hit today, what would tomorrow look like? Some of the biggest names in YA and adult literature answer that very question in this short story anthology, each story exploring the lives of teen protagonists raised in catastrophe's wake-whether set in the days after the change, or decades far in the future. New York Times bestselling authors Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Carrie Ryan, Beth Revis, and Jane Yolen are among the many popular and award-winning storytellers lending their talents to this original and spellbinding anthology.
The Quality Toolbox is a comprehensive reference to a variety of methods and techniques: those most commonly used for quality improvement, many less commonly used, and some created by the author and not available elsewhere. The reader will find the widely used seven basic quality control tools (for example, fishbone diagram, and Pareto chart) as well as the newer management and planning tools. Tools are included for generating and organizing ideas, evaluating ideas, analyzing processes, determining root causes, planning, and basic data-handling and statistics. The book is written and organized to be as simple as possible to use so that anyone can find and learn new tools without a teacher. Above all, this is an instruction book. The reader can learn new tools or, for familiar tools, discover new variations or applications. It also is a reference book, organized so that a half-remembered tool can be found and reviewed easily, and the right tool to solve a particular problem or achieve a specific goal can be quickly identified. With this book close at hand, a quality improvement team becomes capable of more efficient and effective work with less assistance from a trained quality consultant. Quality and training professionals also will find it a handy reference and quick way to expand their repertoire of tools, techniques, applications, and tricks. For this second edition, Tague added 34 tools and 18 variations. The "Quality Improvement Stories" chapter has been expanded to include detailed case studies from three Baldrige Award winners. An entirely new chapter, "Mega-Tools: Quality Management Systems," puts the tools into two contexts: the historical evolution of quality improvement and the quality management systems within which the tools are used. This edition liberally uses icons with each tool description to reinforce for the reader what kind of tool it is and where it is used within the improvement process.