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The Patentability of Synthetic Biology Inventions: New Technology, Same Patentability Issues?
by Ilaria de LisaThis book addresses Synthetic Biology (SynBio), a new and promising biotechnology that has attracted much interest from both a scientific and a policy perspective. Yet, questions concerning the patentability of SynBio inventions have not been examined in detail so far; as a result, it remains unclear whether these inventions are patentable on the basis of current norms and case law. The book addresses this question, focusing especially on the subject matter’s eligibility and moral criteria. It provides an overview of the legislation and decisions applicable to SynBio patents and examines this new technology in view of the ongoing debate over the patentability of biotechnologies in general. The legal analysis is complemented by the practical examination of several patent applications submitted to the European and US patent offices (EPO and USPTO), and by an assessment of the patent issues that are likely to be raised by future SynBio developments.
The Path (The Tag Series #1)
by Peter RivaAll life on earth is about to be terminated by an entity as old as the galaxy itself. To make matters worse, Simon has broken everything already.In a future world that is run by computer systems and that is without want, how can a man find his role? Then, if the very computers he works on to try to make them more human suddenly try to kill him, revealing a secret so vast that it affects every living soul on the planet, can that man be a hero?These are the questions that face the stumbling, comic, and certainly flawed Simon Bank. His job is to work with the System’s artificial intelligence, making it fit more perfectly into human society so that it can keep the country running smoothly. But when the System threatens the peaceful world he knows, Simon suddenly must rush to save his own life, as well as the life of everyone on earth. Forced to reassess everything that he thought he knew, he is caught within circumstances way beyond his control.Simon’s only hope is to rely on intellect and instincts he didn’t know he had, and on new friends, not all of them human, to change himself and all humanity. And he doesn’t have much time.Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
The Path (The Tag Series)
by Peter RivaAI threatens to destroy humanity, and only one computer expert can stop it in this cyberpunk thriller by the author of Murder on Safari. Simon Bank lives in a future where just about everything in America is run by the System—the food supply, the weather, national security, and more. Everyone is free from want. Individuals can control where they live and where they go to school. They can have a relationship with whomever they like. They can set their own hours for work and work whatever job they like. Simon is a codifier who works with the System&’s artificial intelligence to humanize it and to help it run the country more smoothly. But when a tornado tears up Manhattan, Simon realizes the System has a terrifying secret and is a threat to humankind. Now, with only his intellect and instincts, plus a few new friends—human and artificial—Simon must race against the clock to save himself and the world. And he better be careful. There&’s no telling what the System might do if it feels threatened . . . &“Excellently mixes both empathic human behavior with high-tech sci-fi knowledge in a complex main character that holds up a mirror to all of us human beings.&” —Bavo Dhooge, Diamond Bullet Award–winning author of Styx
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (Ensayo Y Pensamiento Ser.)
by David McCulloughThe National Book Award–winning epic chronicle of the creation of the Panama Canal, a first-rate drama of the bold and brilliant engineering feat that was filled with both tragedy and triumph, told by master historian David McCullough.From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Truman, here is the national bestselling epic chronicle of the creation of the Panama Canal. In The Path Between the Seas, acclaimed historian David McCullough delivers a first-rate drama of the sweeping human undertaking that led to the creation of this grand enterprise. The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. Applying his remarkable gift for writing lucid, lively exposition, McCullough weaves the many strands of the momentous event into a comprehensive and captivating tale. Winner of the National Book Award for history, the Francis Parkman Prize, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, and the Cornelius Ryan Award (for the best book of the year on international affairs), The Path Between the Seas is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, the history of technology, international intrigue, and human drama.
The Path of Speech Technologies in Computer Assisted Language Learning: From Research Toward Practice (Routledge Studies in Computer Assisted Language Learning #Vol. 4)
by V. Melissa Holland F. Pete FisherThis collection examines the promise and limitations for computer-assisted language learning of emerging speech technologies: speech recognition, text-to-speech synthesis, and acoustic visualization. Using pioneering research from contributors based in the US and Europe, this volume illustrates the uses of each technology for learning languages, the problems entailed in their use, and the solutions evolving in both technology and instructional design. To illuminate where these technologies stand on the path from research toward practice, the book chapters are organized to reflect five stages in the maturation of learning technologies: basic research, analysis of learners’ needs, adaptation of technologies to meet needs, development of prototypes to incorporate adapted technologies, and evaluation of prototypes. The volume demonstrates the progress in employing each class of speech technology while pointing up the effort that remains for effective, reliable application to language learning.
The Path to 5G in the Developing World: Planning Ahead for a Smooth Transition (Sustainable Infrastructure)
by World BankThe global race for implementing 5G mobile technologies has seen countries riding a new wave of wireless technologies. 5G—the next generation of mobile technologies—can enable a significantly higher level of performance over 4G mobile communications, providing a new layer of connectivity to support innovative, data-intensive applications. With the estimated impact of 5G on global gross domestic product to be in the trillions of US dollars, 5G’s deployment will drive innovation, job creation, worker productivity, and competitiveness across various sectors. Several use cases are already being tested, and deployment is under way in many countries. For some countries, 5G may seem a distant future prospect given the costs of infrastructure deployment and the need for expensive handsets; for other countries, 5G is an on-ramp to Industry 4.0 and has been folded into national strategy planning. 5G trials, pilots, and commercial deployments have been progressing around the world, but most deployments are in higher-income countries. Significant barriers remain for developing countries, many of which pertain to the challenges faced by the broader telecommunications sector and all of which threaten to further widen the digital divide and limit access to the economic opportunities that 5G connectivity enables. What does this reality mean for developing countries, and how can national governments prepare? The Path to 5G in the Developing World: Planning Ahead for a Smooth Transition surveys the technical capabilities of 5G and explores how countries can reach connectivity goals by using 5G as a layer of connectivity along with 4G and other technologies. This report also provides a guide for policy makers to better understand the opportunities, challenges, and risks posed by 5G so that they can plan for a policy and regulatory ecosystem that supports the path to advanced mobile network deployment, access, and adoption.
The Pathology of Communicative Capitalism
by David W. HillThis book diagnoses the social, mental and political consequences of working and economic organizations that generate value from communication. It is argued that cognitive labour is now a key productive force in the economy, bringing with it precarious working conditions in the form of impermanence, fragmentation and the immeasurability of work time; that the constant attentive stress of productive communication is pushing society over the brink of an urgent mental health crisis; and that in both our social and working lives we are being constrained into forms of communication that are less empathetic and communal. How can we resist these pathologies of communicative capitalism? In posing such a question it is necessary to rethink the role of communication technologies in order to imagine a healthier and altogether fairer society.
The Patient Factor: Applications of Patient Ergonomics
by Rupa S. Valdez Richard J. HoldenPatients are increasingly encouraged to take an active role in managing their health and health care. New technologies, cultural shifts, trends in healthcare delivery, and policies have brought to the forefront the "work" patients, families, and other non-professionals perform in the pursuit of health. This volume closely examines notable application areas for the emerging discipline of Patient Ergonomics – the science of patient work. The Patient Factor: Applications of Patient Ergonomics, Volume II reviews the definition of Patient Ergonomics and discusses the application of Patient Ergonomics across contexts. It analyzes patient work performed in emergency departments, transitions of care, home and community settings, retail pharmacies, and online communities. It also examines applications to groups including veterans, pediatric patients, older adults, the underserved, and people engaged in health promotion. The Patient Factor is ideal for academics working in health care and patient-centered research, their students, human factors practitioners working in healthcare organizations or at technology companies, frontline healthcare professionals, and leaders of healthcare delivery organizations.
The Patient Factor: Theories and Methods for Patient Ergonomics
by Rupa S. Valdez Richard J. HoldenPatients are increasingly encouraged to take an active role in managing their health and health care. New technologies, cultural shifts, trends in healthcare delivery, and policies have brought to the forefront the "work" patients, families, and other non-professionals perform in pursuit of health. Volume I provides a theoretical and methodological foundation for the emerging discipline of Patient Ergonomics – the science of patient work. The Patient Factor: Theories and Methods for Patient Ergonomics, Volume I defines Patient Ergonomics, explains its importance, and situates it in a broader historical and societal context. It reviews applicable theories and methods from human factors/ergonomics and related disciplines, across domains including consumer technology, patient-professional communication, self-care, and patient safety. The Patient Factor is ideal for academics working in health care and patient-centered research, their students, human factors practitioners working in healthcare organizations or at technology companies, frontline healthcare professionals, and leaders of healthcare delivery organizations.
The Patrick McLanahan
by Dale BrownFrom New York Times bestselling author Dale Brown comes four thrillers featuring the beloved US Air Force officer Patrick McLanahan in one e-book, including: Air Battle Force, Plan of Attack, Strike Force, and Shadow Command.Air Battle Force--A familiar cast of recurring Dale Brown characters battles Taliban guerrillas as they attempt to overtake Turkmenistan, along with American oil interest in that war torn country.Plan of Attack--The fight for the future must take place in the blazing skies, a battlefield off-limits to General Patrick McLanahan, the discredited former commander of Air Battle Force... unless McLanahan takes matters into his own hands.Strike Force--When a military coup in Iran leads to a crackdown on religious jihadists, it looks like a new era is born in the Middle East... but soon Iran unveils its hidden military might and invades northern Iraq, leaving the US completely off-guard. Only hero Patrick McLanahan and his high-tech team are prepared for the challenge.Shadow Command--What if the most high-tech unit in the U.S. military rebelled against Washington? The future becomes a terrifying reality in Shadow Command.
The Paul Richter Omnibus (An Agent Paul Richter Thriller)
by James BarringtonThe bestselling military thrillers, now in a special omnibus editionPaul Richter: listed as working with the Foreign Operations Executive. Special forces and pilot experience. Trouble? Guaranteed. From supersonic chases above the Russian tundra to terrorists in Dubai and covert battles in North Korea, these are the most explosive thrillers you’ll ever read. This omnibus edition contains all six thrilling books in the series, perfect for fans of Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth and Brad Thor.
The Pear Genome (Compendium of Plant Genomes)
by Schuyler S. KorbanAddressing the pear genome, this book covers the current state of knowledge regarding genetic and genomic resources, breeding approaches and strategies, as well as cutting-edge content on how these tools and resources are being / soon will be utilized to pursue genetic improvement efforts that will combine fruit quality, high productivity, precocious fruit bearing, and long postharvest storage life, along with elevated levels of resistance to various major diseases and insect pests. Throughout, the book also explores potential opportunities and challenges in genomic analysis, sequence assembly, structural features, as well as functional studies that will assist in future genetic improvement efforts for pears. The pear (Pyrus), an important tree fruit crop, is grown worldwide, and has several economically relevant cultivars. In recent years, modern genetic and genomic tools have resulted in the development of a wide variety of valuable resources for the pear. In the past few years, completion of whole genome assemblies of ‘Dangshansuli’, an Asian pear, and ‘Bartlett’, a European pear, have paved the way for new discoveries regarding for example, the pear’s genomic structure, chromosome evolution, and patterns of genetic variation. This wealth of new resources will have a major impact on our knowledge of the pear genome; in turn, these resources and knowledge will have significant impacts on future genetic improvement efforts.
The Pearl Millet Genome (Compendium of Plant Genomes)
by Rakesh K. Srivastava Rajeev K. Varshney C. Tara SatyavathiThis book entitled, The Pearl Millet Genome, is the first comprehensive compilation of deliberations on history, domestication, genetic and genomic resources, traditional breeding, genetic diversity, molecular maps and mapping of important biotic stress as well as nutritional quality traits, whole genome sequencing and comparative genomics, functional genomics, genetic transformation. The economic, nutritional, and health importance of the pearl millet is also discussed. It also presents the input use efficiency and wide adaptation of the crop. Altogether, the book will contain about 200 pages over 10 chapters authored by globally reputed experts on the relevant field in this crop. This book will be useful to the students, teachers, and scientists in the academia and relevant private companies interested in genetics, pathology, molecular genetics and breeding, genetic engineering, structural and functional genomics, and nutritional quality aspects of the crop. This book will also be also useful to seed and pharmaceutical industries.
The Pellet Handbook: The Production and Thermal Utilization of Biomass Pellets
by Gerold Thek Ingwald ObernbergerBiomass pellets are a suitable fuel type for a wide range of applications, from stoves and central heating systems up to large-scale plants, and with practically complete automation in all these capacities. This handbook, written and edited by experienced professionals from IEA Bioenergy Task 32 in cooperation with Bios Bioenergiesysteme GmbH, Graz, Austria, other IEA Tasks and external experts, is the first comprehensive guide in English language covering all pellet related issues, as illustrated by the following list of topics covered by the book: international overview of standards for pellets evaluation of raw materials and raw material potentials quality and properties of pellets technical evaluation of the pellet production process and logistic aspects of pellet supply safety and health aspects for pellets during storage, handling and transportation technological evaluation of pellet furnace technologies and future developments economic and ecological evaluation of the pellet production process economic and ecological evaluation of pellet use in small-scale furnaces in the residential sector overview of international pellet markets and market developments international case studies for the use of pellets for energy generation latest trends concerning research and development in the pellet sector. Extensively illustrated and packed with practical knowledge, this is the ultimate reference for anyone involved in or affected by this burgeoning industry. It addresses all the players of the pellet market, ranging from raw material producers or suppliers, pellet producers and traders, manufacturers of pellet furnaces and pelletization systems, installers, engineering companies, energy consultants and end users.
The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance
by Henry PetroskiHenry Petroski traces the origins of the pencil back to ancient Greece and Rome, writes factually and charmingly about its development over the centuries and around the world, and shows what the pencil can teach us about engineering and technology today.
The Pendock Barry Porcelain Service: A Forensic Evaluation
by Howell G. Edwards Rachel L. Denyer Morgan C. DenyerHeraldic devices first appeared on ceramics in Western Europe from the sixteenth century onwards; however, it was not until the 1760s that British ceramic manufactories began executing commissions for services displaying heraldic devices for the gentry. This book explores the rise of the new gentry class and the market for armorial services through the case study of the Pendock Barry service. The case study is presented from three angles. It looks at Pendock Neale Barry (1757–1833) who commissioned the service, then considers the evidence for attributing the service to the Derby factory during the period 1805–1810, and finally looks at the evidence supporting an attribution of the decoration to Billingsley. The case study sets out a novel approach to understanding heraldic devices on ceramics by bringing together the disciplines of detailed genealogical research, cultural knowledge, and chemical analytical compositional data. This multidisciplinary approach enables the armorial services to be considered and understood through the lens of heritage, culture, and science.
The Penguin Book of Outer Space Exploration: NASA and the Incredible Story of Human Spaceflight
by Bill Nye John LogsdonThe fascinating story of how NASA sent humans to explore outer space, told through a treasure trove of historical documents--publishing in celebration of NASA's 60th anniversary and with a foreword by Bill NyeAmong all the technological accomplishments of the last century, none has captured our imagination more deeply than the movement of humans into outer space. From Sputnik to SpaceX, the story of that journey is told as never before in The Penguin Book of Outer Space Exploration. Renowned space historian John Logsdon traces the greatest moments in human spaceflight by weaving together essential, fascinating documents from NASA's history with his expert narrative guidance. Beginning with rocket genius Wernher von Braun's vision for voyaging to Mars, and closing with Elon Musk's contemporary plan to get there, this volume traces major events like the founding of NASA, the first American astronauts in space, the moon landings, the Challenger disaster, the daring Hubble Telescope repairs, and more. In these pages, we find such gems as Eisenhower's reactions to Sputnik, the original NASA astronaut application, John Glenn's reflections on zero gravity, Kennedy's directives to go to the moon, discussions on what Neil Armstrong's first famous first words should be, customs forms filled out by astronauts bringing back moon rocks, transcribed conversations with Nixon on ending Project Apollo and beginning the space shuttle program, and so much more.
The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumps Over Self-interest
by Yochai BenklerWhat do Wikipedia, Zip Car's business model, Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and a small group of lobster fishermen have in common? They all show the power and promise of human cooperation in transforming our businesses, our government, and our society at large. Because today, when the costs of collaborating are lower than ever before, there are no limits to what we can achieve by working together.For centuries, we as a society have operated according to a very unflattering view of human nature: that, humans are universally and inherently selfish creatures. As a result, our most deeply entrenched social structures - our top-down business models, our punitive legal systems, our market-based approaches to everything from education reform to environmental regulation - have been built on the premise that humans are driven only by self interest, programmed to respond only to the invisible hand of the free markets or the iron fist of a controlling government. In the last decade, however, this fallacy has finally begun to unravel, as hundreds of studies conducted across dozens of cultures have found that most people will act far more cooperatively than previously believed. Here, Harvard University Professor Yochai Benkler draws on cutting-edge findings from neuroscience, economics, sociology, evolutionary biology, political science, and a wealth of real world examples to debunk this long-held myth and reveal how we can harness the power of human cooperation to improve business processes, design smarter technology, reform our economic systems, maximize volunteer contributions to science, reduce crime, improve the efficacy of civic movements, and more. For example, he describes how: * By building on countless voluntary contributions, open-source software communities have developed some of the most important infrastructure on which the World Wide Web runs * Experiments with pay-as-you-wish pricing in the music industry reveal that fans will voluntarily pay far more for their favorite music than economic models would ever predic * Many self-regulating communities, from the lobster fishermen of Maine to farmers in Spain, live within self-regulating system for sharing and allocating communal resources * Despite recent setbacks, Toyota's collaborative shop-floor, supply chain, and management structure contributed to its meteoric rise above its American counterparts for over a quarter century. * Police precincts across the nation have managed to reduce crime in tough neighborhoods through collaborative, trust-based, community partnerships. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of cooperation in 21st century life, The Penguin and the Leviathan not only challenges so many of the ways in which we live and work, it forces us to rethink our entire view of human nature.From the Hardcover edition.
The People's Right To Know: Media, Democracy, and the Information Highway (LEA Telecommunications Series)
by John V. Pavlik Frederick WilliamsThis important volume presents the pros and cons of a national service that will meet the information needs and wants of all people. In the preface, Everette E. Dennis, Executive Director of The Freedom Forum Media Studies Center, asks, "What will a true information highway -- where most citizens enjoy a wide range of information services on demand -- do to local communities, government, and business entities, other units of society and democracy itself?" It is no longer a question of whether a vastly expanded "information highway" will be built in America. Telephone and cable companies have already inaugurated their plans, and government will most likely incorporate such plans into the economic development policy of the late 1990s. The key questions remaining are: Who will pay for it? and Whom exactly will it serve? The People's Right to Know suggests that serving the everyday citizen should be the main objective of any national initiatives in this area. It counsels that evolving electronic services are new communications media that should be deployed with a main focus on the public's needs, interests, and desires. If advances in the nation's public telephone network will make information services as easy to use as ordinary voice calls, or newspapers promise vast new electronic services awaiting their readers, more attention must also be devoted to the information needs and wants of everyday citizens. In our increasingly multicultural and technology-driven society, enormous inequities exist across America's socioeconomic classes regarding access to information critical to everyday life. If an information highway is to be effective, we need to ensure that all Americans have access to it; its design must start with the everyday citizen. This powerful new medium at our disposal must consider policy that includes attempts to close the information gap among our citizens. It must ensure equal access to data regarding job, education, and health information services; legal information on such topics as immigration; and transactional services that offer assistance on such routine but time-consuming tasks as renewing a driver's license or registering to vote. Media and telecommunications professionals, communication scholars, and policymakers, including two former chairmen of the Federal Communications Commission, provide insights and pointed commentary on the nature and shape of an information highway designed as a new public medium aimed at serving a wide range of public needs. Their work should improve our basis for deciding if there are means by which an enhanced public telecommunications network can benefit the everyday working American.
The Perceptual Structure of Sound (Current Research in Systematic Musicology #11)
by Dik J. HermesThis book presents a comprehensive review of how acoustic waves are processed by the auditory system into structured sounds such as musical melodies, speech utterances, or environmental sounds. After an introduction, an overview is given of how the ears distribute acoustic information over a large array of frequency channels that contain the auditory information used by the central nervous system to generate a mental image of what is happening around the listener. This process, called auditory scene analysis, consists of two stages. In the first stage, auditory units are formed such as musical tones and speech syllables. Each auditory unit is perceived at a well-defined moment in time, the beat location of that auditory unit. Moreover, from this process of auditory-unit formation, the auditory attributes of these auditory units emerge, such as their timbre, their pitch, their loudness, and their perceived location. Each of these attributes is discussed in the corresponding chapter. In the second stage of auditory scene analysis, auditory-stream formation, the successive auditory units are integrated into auditory streams, i.e., temporally structured sequences of auditory units that are perceived as emanating from one and the same sound source. Examples of such auditory streams are musical melodies and the utterances of one speaker. The temporal structure of an auditory stream, its rhythm, is determined by the beat locations of its auditory units. The role played by the auditory attributes of the consecutive auditory units is discussed. The melodies of musical streams and the intonation contours of spoken utterances emerge from this process. In music, the beats of parallel streams generally fit into a metric pattern, and, depending on harmony, simultaneous tones can be perceived as consonant or dissonant.Finally, the book contains many sound examples including the MATLAB scripts with which they are generated.
The Perfect Meal
by Charles Spence Betina Piqueras-FiszmanThe authors of The Perfect Meal examine all of the elements that contribute to the diner's experience of a meal (primarily at a restaurant) and investigate how each of the diner's senses contributes to their overall multisensory experience. The principal focus of the book is not on flavor perception, but on all of the non-food and beverage factors that have been shown to influence the diner's overall experience.Examples are:the colour of the plate (visual)the shape of the glass (visual/tactile)the names used to describe the dishes (cognitive)the background music playing inside the restaurant (aural)Novel approaches to understanding the diner's experience in the restaurant setting are explored from the perspectives of decision neuroscience, marketing, design, and psychology.
The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug: A Memoir
by Teresa Barker Steffanie Strathdee Thomas PattersonA riveting memoir of one woman's extraordinary effort to save her husband's life-and the discovery of a forgotten cure that has the potential to save millions more.Epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee and her husband, psychologist Tom Patterson, were vacationing in Egypt when Tom came down with a stomach bug. What at first seemed like a case of food poisoning quickly turned critical, and by the time Tom had been transferred via emergency medevac to the world-class medical center at UC San Diego, where both he and Steffanie worked, blood work revealed why modern medicine was failing: Tom was fighting one of the most dangerous, antibiotic- resistant bacteria in the world.Frantic, Steffanie combed through research old and new and came across phage therapy: the idea that the right virus, aka "the perfect predator," can kill even the most lethal bacteria. Phage treatment had fallen out of favor almost 100 years ago, after antibiotic use went mainstream. Now, with time running out, Steffanie appealed to phage researchers all over the world for help. She found allies at the FDA, researchers from Texas A&M, and a clandestine Navy biomedical center-and together they resurrected a forgotten cure.A nail-biting medical mystery, The Perfect Predator is a story of love and survival against all odds, and the (re)discovery of a powerful new weapon in the global superbug crisis.
The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo
by Garrett HongoGarrett Hongo’s passion for audio dates back to the Empire 398 turntable his father paired with a Dynakit tube amplifier in their modest tract home in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. But his adult quest begins in the CD-changer era, as he seeks out speakers and amps both powerful and refined enough to honor the top notes of the greatest opera sopranos. In recounting this search, he describes a journey of identity where meaning, fulfillment, and even liberation were often most available to him through music and its astonishingly varied delivery systems. <p><p> Hongo writes about the sound of surf being his first music as a kid in Hawai‘i, about doo-wop and soul reaching out to him while growing up among Black and Asian classmates in L.A., about Rilke and Joni Mitchell as the twin poets of his adolescence, and about feeling the pulse of John Coltrane’s jazz and the rhythmic chords of Billy Joel’s piano from his car radio while driving the freeways as a young man trying to become a poet. <p><p> Journeying further, he visits devoted collectors of decades-old audio gear as well as designers of the latest tube equipment, listens to sublime arias performed at La Scala, hears a ghostly lute at the grave of English Romantic poet John Keats in Rome, drinks in wisdom from blues musicians and a diversity of poetic elders while turning his ear toward the memory-rich strains of the music that has shaped him: Hawaiian steel guitar and canefield songs; Bach and the Band; Mingus, Puccini, and Duke Ellington. And in the decades-long process of perfecting his stereo setup, Hongo also discovers his own now-celebrated poetic voice.
The Perfect Stranger
by Brian PinkertonMeet your new coworker. She&’s brilliant. She&’s beautiful. She&’s unreal.Everyone loves Alison, the new remote employee at a major energy company. She&’s a rising star in the virtual workspace, displaying incredible intelligence and efficiency with digital technology. But Linda, her manager, has growing suspicions that Alison is not the person she claims to be. As Linda probes Alison&’s background, Alison fights back through cyber-attacks, ravaging Linda&’s work, her family and her safety. Linda must uncover the truth to save herself and discovers Alison&’s past history is a lie – in fact, she has none. Is it possible Alison isn&’t human at all?FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to excellent original writing in horror, science fiction and fantasy. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress. Awarded independent publisher of 2024 by the British Fantasy Society.