Ian Scheffler, journalist and aspiring “speedcuber,” attempts to break into the international phenomenon of speedsolving the Rubik’s Cube—think chess played at the speed of Ping-Pong—while exploring the greater lessons that can be learned through solving it.When Hungarian professor Ernő Rubik invented the Rubik’s Cube (or, rather, his Cube) in 1974 out of wooden blocks, rubber bands, and paper clips, he didn’t even know if it could be solved, let alone tha...

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart....

On the 8th of January 2012 a man who discovered at 21 that he had motor neurone disease, which usually means a few years' degeneration then death, celebrated his 70th birthday. Stephen Hawking was born January 8, 1942 in Oxford, England. Even as a child, he exhibited a fascination for mathematics, science and the sky. At age 21, while studying cosmology at Cambridge, Stephen was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). In the two years after this live changing announcement; Step...

The New York Times bestseller: “You gotta read this. It is the most exciting book about Pluto you will ever read in your life.”—Jon StewartWhen the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History reclassified Pluto as an icy comet, the New York Times proclaimed on page one, “Pluto Not a Planet? Only in New York.” Immediately, the public, professionals, and press were choosing sides over Pluto’s planethood. Pluto is entrenched in our cultu...

Strange things are happening in deep space, and then closer to home, and then closer; someone has pulled the plug on the universe.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This book has been produced for entertainment and it's sole purpose is to bring fun and further your knowledge! The quiz questions have been compiled with the readers at home in mind. A whole host of subjects and topics have been covered; ranging in difficulty levels from easy, to intermediate and advanced.Navigation has been made very easy as links have been placed between quiz rounds and answers. There are also links back to the main index page after each questions and answers ro...

A boy wins $100,000 in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover that claiming the winnings may unravel his family. An acclaimed ambulance driver seeks the courage to follow his heart and throw it all away to be a singer-songwriter. A school principal unveils a bold plan to permanently abolish arithmetic. A new arrival in heaven, overwhelmed by infinite options, procrastinates over his long-ago promise to visit his grandmother. We meet a vengeance-minded hare. We learn why wearing a red T...

What is there to do, when you have the power to do anything? John can fly, he can see through solid objects, he can take over the world and give it back again, but what he's looking for is something else…At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The twenty-fourth edition in the bestselling bathroom-reading series is jam-packed with over 500 pages of absorbing trivia material.The information miners at the Bathroom Readers' Institute have unearthed a priceless collection of surprising, amazing, head-scratching, and hilarious articles. Divided by length for your sitting convenience, 24-Karat Gold is chock-full of little-known history, random origins, weird news, celebrity secrets, and urban legends. ...

Have fun quizzing your friends—or yourself—with this puzzling collection of over one thousand trivia facts.Did you know that cats can be left-handed? Trivia fans will be eager to dive into this book for an edifying and entertaining tour of all the things they didn't know that they didn't know. There is something here for everyone and every occasion, with topics including Space and Science, Being Human, Sports, Music, Food and Drink, and Famous Inventions. It's full ...

Hundreds of incredible origin stories, ranging from everyday items to social customs to history-altering inventions.Uncle John’s Where’d That Come From? delivers the true stories behind all sorts of things, even things you never thought of as having origins. Covering a wide range of topics--pop culture, science, sports, politics, customs, superstitions, language, and more--you’ll discover the most engrossing origin stories from the BRI’s deep arch...

You see it every night in the night sky, but how much do you really know about the moon? Here are some things you may not know.Do you know:What one thing is different about our moon from every other moon we have found?What kind of atmosphere is there on the moon?How many sides of the moon do we see?What happened to the footprints of the astronauts that stood on the moon?Find out in this book, and surprise and amaze your friends with these fun fact...