McHenry County, Illinois, is a picture-perfect farming community in the Heartland of Midwestern America. For nearly two centuries, a portion of the nation's food supply has come from this fertile land near the Fox River, and it has played a key role in the history of Chicago and the United States. Through the medium of historic photographs, this book captures the evolution of the people of McHenry County, from the mid-1800s to the second half of the twentieth century.These pages bring to l...

Mermaids are like leprechauns: it�s very hard to sneak up and catch a glimpse of one. But in a hamlet on the Gulf Coast of Florida, people have been able to do just that since 1947, when Newton Perry opened a small roadside attraction with an underwater theater. For nearly 60 years, live mermaids have been the unique focal point of Weeki Wachee Springs. Mysterious and enchanting, these young performers have done everything from teaching a class to typing a letter underwater. They are caref...

Gary L. FriedmanWorried about all of the noise being made about Artificial Intelligence? Don't know whether to believe the hype or the apocalyptic predictions? Losing sleep over our all-too-certain dystopian future? In this collection of essays, 24 experts from a variety of different fields provide perspective and insight into what AI is and isn't, contrasting the crucial differences of AI vs. Human Intelligence (it's more nuanced than you think), and the surprising ways they can w...