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  Last Trains - Dr Beeching and...

  Charles Loft

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  "The debate about Dr Richard Beeching will rage until the Second Coming – and probably beyond. But in Charles Loft's careful examination of the Beeching Report, we have as fine a study as we are going to possess in the meantime." – Peter Hennessy
  "Loft's great strength is his judiciousness. He understands the political processes and assesses them fair-mindedly. And his verdict will, I suspect, hold up better than any of Beeching's judgements." – Matthew Engel, Financial Times
  "Prepare to be impressed, shocked and saddened … This is undoubtedly one of the best books of the year – a riveting read." – Railways Illustrated
  "Lucid, to the point, thought-provoking at every turn, Last Trains is a volume that everyone should read before making judgements about the rail closures of the Sixties." – Heritage Railway
  "Thoughtful and well-researched analysis." – Edinburgh Evening News
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  During the course of the 1950s England lost confidence in its rulers and convinced itself it must modernise. The failing steam-powered local railways, run by Colonel Blimp, symbolised everything that was wrong with the country – surely the future lay in motorways and high-speed express trains? Along came Dr Beeching with his diagnosis, and suddenly branch-line Britain was gone for ever.
  The debate about the Beeching cuts has raged ever since. In this superbly researched examination, Charles Loft exposes the political failures that bankrupted the railways and lays bare the increasing alienation of bureaucrats from the public they were trying to serve. The result is a fascinating study of a nation grappling to come to terms with modernity.

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  Greatest Hackers in the History

  IntroBooks Team

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  In computing scenario, a hacker can be referred to as any highly skilled and talented computer expert who is responsible for breaking into computer networks or systems with the help of some kind of bugs or exploits. As per the field of computing, hacking can have different meanings. In various contexts, it has been referred in the controversial ethical and moral connotations. However, in the true sense, the hacking term can be referred to as any individual in any one of the hacker cultures and communities. In the hacker community, there are different types of hackers. Whatever might be the type of the hackers, they have been quite popular worldwide for causing significant damage and harm to the leading organizations and individuals of the world. They have been successful in breaching the confidential information of the organizations including their important documents. Here is an insight into the journey of the most famous and greatest hackers the world has ever observed in its history.

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  The Alchemy of Us - How Humans...

  Ainissa Ramirez

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  In The Alchemy of Us, scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez examines eight inventions - clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips - and reveals how they shaped the human experience. Ramirez tells the stories of the woman who sold time, the inventor who inspired Edison, and the hotheaded undertaker whose invention pointed the way to the computer. She describes, among other things, how our pursuit of precision in timepieces changed how we sleep; how the railroad helped commercialize Christmas; and how a young chemist exposed the use of Polaroid's cameras to create passbooks to track black citizens in apartheid South Africa. 
  Ramirez shows not only how materials were shaped by inventors but also how those materials shaped culture, chronicling each invention and its consequences - intended and unintended. Filling in the gaps left by other books about technology, Ramirez showcases little-known inventors who had a significant impact but whose accomplishments have been hidden by mythmaking, bias, and convention. Doing so, she shows us the power of telling inclusive stories about technology. She also shows that innovation is universal - whether it's splicing beats with two turntables and a microphone or splicing genes with two test tubes and CRISPR.

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  Moths of the Limberlost

  Gene Stratton-Porter

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  Gene Stratton-Porter (August 17, 1863 - December 6, 1924) was an American author, amateur naturalist, wildlife photographer, specializing in the birds and moths in one of the last of the vanishing wetlands of the lower Great Lakes Basin. The Limberlost and Wildflower Woods of northeastern Indiana were the laboratory and inspiration for her stories, novels, essays, photography, and movies.  She was an accomplished author, artist and photographer and is generally considered to be one of the first female authors to promulgate public positions; conserving the Limberlost Swamp in her case. Although Stratton-Porter wanted to focus on nature books, it was her romantic novels that made her famous and generated the finances that allowed her to pursue her nature studies.  In Moths of the Limberlost, she shares her lifelong love of the moths she describes through a series of charming anecdotes and wonderfully descriptive passages, providing vivid detail of each stage of their life cycles. (Summary adapted from wikipedia and expanded by J. M. Smallheer)

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  Lunch Lessons - Changing the Way...

  Ann Cooper, Lisa Holmes

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  Remember how simple school lunches used to be? You'd have something from every major food group, run around the playground for a while, and you looked and felt fine. But today it's not so simple. Schools are actually feeding the American crisis of childhood obesity and malnutrition. Most cafeterias serve a veritable buffet of processed, fried, and sugary foods, and although many schools have attempted to improve, they are still not measuring up: 78 percent of the school lunch programs in America do not meet the USDA's nutritional guidelines.Chef Ann Cooper has emerged as one of the nation's most influential and most respected advocates for changing how our kids eat. In fact, she is something of a renegade lunch lady, minus the hairnet and scooper of mashed potatoes. Ann has worked to transform cafeterias into culinary classrooms. In Lunch Lessons, she and Lisa Holmes spell out how parents and school employees can help instill healthy habits in children.They explain the basics of good childhood nutrition and suggest dozens of tasty, home-tested recipes for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. The pages are also packed with recommendations on how to eliminate potential hazards from the home, bring gardening and composting into daily life, and how to support businesses that provide local, organic food.Yet learning about nutrition and changing the way you run your home will not cure the plague of obesity and poor health for this generation of children. Only parental activism can spark widespread change. With inspirational examples and analysis, Lunch Lessons is more than just a recipe book&#8212it gives readers the tools to transform the way children everywhere interact with food.

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  New York's Original Penn Station...

  Paul M Kaplan

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  The story of the spectacular and much-lamented train terminal whose destruction inspired a new passion for historic preservation. Includes photos.   In early twentieth-century New York, few could have imagined a train terminal as grand as Pennsylvania Station. Yet, executives at the Pennsylvania Railroad secretly bought up land in Manhattan's infamous Tenderloin District to build one of the world's most spectacular monuments.    Sandhogs would battle the fiercest of nature to build tunnels linking Manhattan to New Jersey and Long Island. For decades, Penn Station was a center of elegance and pride. But the ensuing rise of the airplane and automobile began to diminish train travel. Consequently, in the mid-1960s, the station was tragically destroyed. The loss inspired the birth of preservation laws in the city and the nation that would save other landmarks—such as New York’s Grand Central, just blocks away.    Here, Paul Kaplan recounts the trials and triumphs of New York's Penn Station, with extensive photos and illustrations.

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