Vintage books Black Hole Survival Guide Levin Janna

The full inside story of the detection of gravitational waves at LIGO, one of the most ambitious feats in scientific history • 'This is empirical poetry. A fascinating tale of human curiosity beautifully told, and with black holes and lasers too' Robin Ince • In 1916 Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves: miniscule ripples in the very fabric of spacetime generated by unfathomably powerful events. If such vibrations could somehow be recorded, we could observe our universe for the first time through sound: the hissing of the Big Bang, the low tones of merging galaxies, the drumbeat of two black holes collapsing into one… • In 2016 a team of hundreds of scientists at work on a billion-dollar experiment made history when they announced the first ever detection of a gravitational wave, confirming Einstein’s prediction a century ago

"You saved your mistress's life, Beauty! yes, you saved her life" • Black Beauty is the prettiest young horse in the meadows, and spends many happy days under the apple trees with his friends Ginger and Merrylegs. But this easy life comes to an end when Beauty is sold and goes from farm to inn to cabhorse in London, enduring rough treatment from foolish and careless masters. Beauty remains faithful, hardworking and full of spirit despite his trials, and through him we learn that all horses and humans alike deserve to be treated with kindness

Detective Sigurdur Oli is in trouble • After a school reunion exposes the chasm between his life and those of his much more successful contemporaries, leaving him bitter and resentful, one of his old friends asks him to pay an unofficial visit to a couple of blackmailers. He readily agrees, only to arrive to find one of the pair lying in a pool of blood. When the victim dies in hospital, Sigurdur Oli is faced with investigating a murder without revealing his own reasons for being present at the murder scene • Moving from the villas of Reykjavik's banking elite to a sordid basement flat, Black Skies is a superb story of greed, pride and murder from one of Europe's most successful crime writers

When Maxudov's bid to take his own life fails, he dramatises the novel whose failure provoked the suicide attempt. To the resentment of literary Moscow, his play is accepted by the legendary Independent Theatre and Maxudov plunges into a vortex of inflated egos. With each rehearsal more sparks fly and the chances of the play being ready to perform recede. Black Snow is the ultimate back-stage novel and a brilliant satire by the author of The Master and Margarita on his ten-year love-hate relationship with Stanislavsky, Method-acting and the Moscow Arts Theatre

Eight short works of fiction by one of Britain's greatest and most original writers • Extraordinary and diverse people inhabit this rich, ripe, occasionally raucous collection of short stories. Some are based on real people - Jeanne Duval, Baudelaire's handsome and reluctant muse who never asked to be called the Black Venus, trapped in the terminal ennui of the poet's passion, snatching at a little lifesaving respectability against all odds...Edgar Allen Poe, with his face of a actor, demonstrating in every thought and deed how right his friends were when they said 'No man is safe who drinks before breakfast.' • And some of these people are totally imaginary. Such as the seventeenth century whore, transported to Virginia for thieving, who turns into a good woman in spite of herself among the Indians, who have nothing worth stealing

Упадок религии и постоянно растущее влияние науки ставят перед всеми нами острые этические проблемы. Можем ли мы отвергнуть буквальную истину Евангелий, но при этом сохранить христианскую мораль? Можем ли мы защитить какие-либо "моральные ценности" от постоянного вторжения технологий? Действительно, не грозит ли нам опасность утратить большинство качеств, которые делают нас по-настоящему людьми? Здесь, опираясь на понимание романистами искусства, литературы и психологии, Айрис Мердок проводит постоянные дебаты с крупнейшими писателями, мыслителями и теологами - от Августина до Витгенштейна, от Шекспира до Сартра, от Платона до Дерриды - чтобы дать свежие и убедительные ответы на эти важнейшие вопросы • "Метафизика как руководство к морали" - книга английской писательницы и мыслительницы ирландского происхождения Айрис Мёрдок

One game. Six students. Five survivors • It was only ever meant to be a game • A game of consequences, of silly forfeits, childish dares. A game to be played by six best friends in their first year at Oxford University. But then the game changed: the stakes grew higher and the dares more personal, more humiliating, finally evolving into a vicious struggle with unpredictable and tragic results • Now, fourteen years later, the remaining players must meet again for the final round

‘Powerful… Poignant, bleak and haunting, this is a small masterpiece’ Sunday Mirror • Brother and sister, Ted and Rose Howker, grew up in Mount of Zeal, a mining village blackened by coal. They know nothing of the outside world, though both of them yearn for escape. For Rose this comes in the form of love, while Ted seizes the chance of a job away from the pit. But neither can truly break free and their decisions bring with them brutal consequences…

‘Wait, wait! Save us! What’ll we do?’ • Simon is determined to become a painter when he grows up so he sets off to London to make his fortune. But the city is plagued by wolves and mysterious disappearances. The Twite household, where Simon is lodging, seems particularly shifty. Before he even gets a chance to open his glistening new paints Simon stumbles right into the centre of a plot to kill the King. And worse than that Simon is kidnapped and sent to sea! Luckily there are two friendly stowaways aboard – the feisty Dido Twite and the spoiled young Justin. But when the ship catches fire things look pretty dire. Can they escape? Will they save the king in time?

‘Black satire of the highest polish’ Guardian • Whilst awaiting trial for war crimes in an Israeli prison, Howard W. Campbell Jr sets down his memoirs on an old German typewriter. He has used such a typewriter before, when he worked as a Nazi propagandist under Goebbels. Though that was before he agreed to become a spy for US military. Is Howard guilty? Can a black or white verdict ever be reached in a world that’s a gazillion shades of grey?

Hormones were something Amy Thomson, founder and CEO of leading women's health app and tech service Moody, never paid attention to, until one day her periods stopped • When she discovered that her hormonal burnout was driven by stress, she quit her job and focused on trying to understand how our hormones can work for twenty-first-century survival • In this eye-opening guide, Thomson draws upon leading research from nutritionists, gynaecologists, endocrinologists, personal trainers and others to explain how understanding our systems and cycles can help you avoid burnouts, build better and healthier routines and optimise your life

Nothing experienced in human history, before or since, eclipses the terror, tragedy and scale of the Black Death, the disease which killed millions of people in Medieval Europe • The Scourging Angel tells the story of Britain immediately before, during and after this catastrophe. Against a backdrop of empty homes, half-built cathedrals and pestilence-saturated cities, we see communities gripped by unimaginable fear, shock and paranoia. By the time it completed its pestilential journey through the British Isles in 1350, the Black Death had left half the population dead. Despite the startling toll of life, physical devastation and sheer human chaos it inflicted, Britain showed an impressive resilience. Amid disaster many found opportunity, and the story of the Black Death is ultimately one of survival