Crashing Into Potential

At 23, Scott Harris had a dream job, great friends and a passion for the outdoors. Then one sunny day in November 2008, everything came to a crashing halt: his 450cc dirt bike slammed into his buddy's in a head-on collision that nearly killed them both. Fifteen days in an induced coma, a complete facial reconstruction and countless surgeries were followed by years of intensive rehabilitation. With exhausting mental and physical effort, Scott learned how to walk, talk and think again. He could have given up - with only one working arm and a severe brain injury, every day was a challenge. Instead, with the help of an amazing medical team, Scott pushed himself to the limit, setting goals and developing the will to achieve them. In time Scott set his ultimate goal: to travel solo around the world. By snowboarding in Canada, backpacking in Europe, sailing down the Nile, and island-hopping in Greece - where he met the love of his life, Jasmine - Scott regained his independence and built a new and fulfilling life. 'Crashing Into Potential' is the incredible story of coming to terms with acquired physical disabilities, living with an injured brain, and the unfailing determination to never give up.

Mike May spent his life crashing through. Blinded at age three, he defied expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family man. He had never yearned for vision. Then, in 1999, a chance encounter brought startling news: a revolutionary stem cell transplant surgery could restore May’s vision. It would allow him to drive, to read, to see his children’s faces. But the procedure was filled with gambles, some of them deadly, others beyond May’s wildest dreams. Beautifully written and thrillingly told, Crashing Through is a journey of suspense, daring, romance, and insight into the mysteries of vision and the brain. Robert Kurson gives us a fascinating account of one man’s choice to explore what it means to see–and to truly live. Praise for the National Bestseller Crashing Through: “An incredible human story [told] in gripping fashion . . . a great read.” –Chicago Sun-Times “Inspiring.” –USA Today “[An] astonishing story . . . memorably told . . . May is remarkable. . . . Don’t be surprised if your own vision mists over now and then.” –Chicago Tribune “[A] moving account [of] an extraordinary character.” –People “Terrific . . . [a] genuinely fascinating account of the nature of human vision.” –The Washington Post “Kurson is a man with natural curiosity and one who can feel the excitement life has to offer. One of his great gifts is he makes you feel it, too.” –The Kansas City Star “Propulsive . . . a gripping adventure story.” –Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Two ten-year-old Irish American girls take the reader on a journey beginning in 1955, when they are challenged by Salvie Baldwin to learn about the historic 1954 US Supreme Court decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional. After a tragic fall on a track field, sixteen-year-old Erin OHara is told that she must make a life-or-death decision to have surgery to save her left leg and her life. Desperately ill and weary from the fight to hang on, she thinks of what she and her best friend, Lily McCarey, have learned about the courage of the Negroes in fighting for fair independence and acceptance, as they are in the middle of Americas civil rights movement. They have both been clinging to that shifty rope bridge called faith. It is now 1963 and the worst is yet to come. Joy OHara, Erins mother, keeps her ambitious husband and three daughters within her sight, delivering unconditional love. In her wisdom, she hires Mayleen Watson, a good woman, to look after her children and her home. But her true intent is to help her racially prejudiced husband move to a place of honest acceptance, while keeping her children colorblind. Mayleen, who swore she would never work for a white family, takes them into her heart and, when necessary, delivers tough love through sass and laughter. While representing Colorado in the 1963 Americas Junior Miss Pageant, Erins beliefs are sorely tested but reinforced by divine miracles. As life spins ahead, it is discovered that deeply held faith in God is the bedrock of everyones salvation. Crashing into the Third Heaven is a testament to the power of faith, courage, and forgiveness. First-time novelist Janis Baker lays down a foundation of strong, believable characters who exemplify the capabilities of women while under fire.

The purpose of this environmental impact statement (EIS) is to provide information on potential environmental impacts that could result from a Proposed Action to construct, operate and monitor, and eventually close a geologic repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at the Yucca Mountain site in Nye County, Nevada. The EIS also provides information on potential environmental impacts from an alternative referred to as the No-Action Alternative, under which there would be no development of a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain.

LEDNORF'S DILEMMA is a science fiction novel provocatively based on actual events. Daniel Cruz is contacted by an extraterrestrial who gives him scientific data and theological information unknown to scientists and ill-considered by world theologians. Behind it all is the alien's purpose, a daunting one that must be accepted by Daniel's new friends in and about our nation's capital and its academic world. The reader will be stunned to find that our mathematicians and scientists are unaware of the math and science data, and that they now must give high priority to the alien's wise counsel. Daniel and his friends soon accept the alien and his motivation. But the question remains: How best to announce the critical warnings?

For the first time since the Apollo program, NASA and space agencies abroad have plans to bring samples to Earth from elsewhere in the solar system. There are missions in various stages of definition to gather material over the next decade from Mars, an asteroid, comets, the satellites of Jupiter, and the interplanetary dust. Some of these targets, most especially Jupiter's satellites Europa and Ganymede, now appear to have the potential for harboring living organisms. This book considers the possibility that life may have originated or existed on a body from which a sample might be taken and the possibility that life still exists on the body either in active form or in a form that could be reactiviated. It also addresses the potential hazard to terrestrial ecosystems from extraterrestrial life if it exists in a returned sample. Released at the time of the Internationl Committee on Space Research General Assembly, the book has already established the basis for plans for small body sample retruns in the international space research community.

This urgent and eye-opening book makes the case that protecting humanity's future is the central challenge of our time. If all goes well, human history is just beginning. Our species could survive for billions of years - enough time to end disease, poverty, and injustice, and to flourish in ways unimaginable today. But this vast future is at risk. With the advent of nuclear weapons, humanity entered a new age, where we face existential catastrophes - those from which we could never come back. Since then, these dangers have only multiplied, from climate change to engineered pathogens and artificial intelligence. If we do not act fast to reach a place of safety, it will soon be too late. Drawing on over a decade of research, The Precipice explores the cutting-edge science behind the risks we face. It puts them in the context of the greater story of humanity: showing how ending these risks is among the most pressing moral issues of our time. And it points the way forward, to the actions and strategies that can safeguard humanity. An Oxford philosopher committed to putting ideas into action, Toby Ord has advised the US National Intelligence Council, the UK Prime Minister's Office, and the World Bank on the biggest questions facing humanity. In The Precipice, he offers a startling reassessment of human history, the future we are failing to protect, and the steps we must take to ensure that our generation is not the last. "A book that seems made for the present moment." —New Yorker

"This training solution is designed to prepare firefighters to extricate victims from common passenger vehicle collisions"--