Defining The Wind

“Nature, rightly questioned, never lies.” —A Manual of Scientific Enquiry, Third Edition, 1859 Scott Huler was working as a copy editor for a small publisher when he stumbled across the Beaufort Wind Scale in his Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary. It was one of those moments of discovery that writers live for. Written centuries ago, its 110 words launched Huler on a remarkable journey over land and sea into a fascinating world of explorers, mariners, scientists, and writers. After falling in love with what he decided was “the best, clearest, and most vigorous piece of descriptive writing I had ever seen,” Huler went in search of Admiral Francis Beaufort himself: hydrographer to the British Admiralty, man of science, and author—Huler assumed—of the Beaufort Wind Scale. But what Huler discovered is that the scale that carries Beaufort’s name has a long and complex evolution, and to properly understand it he had to keep reaching farther back in history, into the lives and works of figures from Daniel Defoe and Charles Darwin to Captains Bligh, of the Bounty, and Cook, of the Endeavor. As hydrographer to the British Admiralty it was Beaufort’s job to track the information that ships relied on: where to lay anchor, descriptions of ports, information about fortification, religion, and trade. But what came to fascinate Huler most about Beaufort was his obsession for observing things and communicating to others what the world looked like. Huler’s research landed him in one of the most fascinating and rich periods of history, because all around the world in the mid-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in a grand, expansive period, modern science was being invented every day. These scientific advancements encompassed not only vast leaps in understanding but also how scientific innovation was expressed and even organized, including such enduring developments as the scale Anders Celsius created to simplify how Gabriel Fahrenheit measured temperature; the French-designed metric system; and the Gregorian calendar adopted by France and Great Britain. To Huler, Beaufort came to embody that passion for scientific observation and categorization; indeed Beaufort became the great scientific networker of his time. It was he, for example, who was tapped to lead the search for a naturalist in the 1830s to accompany the crew of the Beagle; he recommended a young naturalist named Charles Darwin. Defining the Wind is a wonderfully readable, often humorous, and always rich story that is ultimately about how we observe the forces of nature and the world around us.

Exploring Bentley STAAD.Pro V8i (SELECTseries 6) is a comprehensive book that has been written to cater to the needs of the students and professionals. The chapters in this book are structured in a pedagogical sequence, which makes the learning process very simple and effective for both the novice as well as the advanced users of STAAD.Pro. In this book, the author explains in detail the procedure of creating 2D and 3D models, assigning material constants, assigning cross-section properties, assigning supports, defining different loads, performing analysis, viewing results, and preparing report. The chapters in the book are punctuated with tips and notes, wherever necessary, to make the concepts clear, thereby enabling the user to create his own innovative projects. Salient Features: Detailed explanation of Bentley STAAD.Pro concepts Projects given as examples Step-by-step examples to guide the users through the learning process Tips and Notes throughout the book 282 pages of illustrated text Self-Evaluation Tests and Review Questions Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction to STAAD.Pro V8i Chapter 2: Structural Modeling in STAAD.Pro Chapter 3: Structural Modeling Using Tools Chapter 4: Defining Material Constants and Section Properties Chapter 5: Specifications and Supports Chapter 6: Loads Chapter 7: Performing Analysis, Viewing Results, and Preparing Report Chapter 8: Structural Modeling Using Building Planner Index

"The Bestselling Hardcover Novel of the Year."--Publishers Weekly From the number-one bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes a powerful American epic about love and heroism and hope, set during the Great Depression, a time when the country was in crisis and at war with itself, when millions were out of work and even the land seemed to have turned against them. “My land tells its story if you listen. The story of our family.” Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows. By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as crops fail and water dries up and the earth cracks open. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa’s tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive. In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family. The Four Winds is a rich, sweeping novel that stunningly brings to life the Great Depression and the people who lived through it—the harsh realities that divided us as a nation and the enduring battle between the haves and the have-nots. A testament to hope, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit to survive adversity, The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

This volume gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of wind engineering, as presented by leading international researchers and engineers at the XV Conference of the Italian Association for Wind Engineering (IN-VENTO 2018), held in Naples, Italy on September 9-12, 2018. It covers highly diverse topics, including aeroelasticity, bluff-body aerodynamics, boundary layer wind tunnel testing, computational wind engineering, structural dynamics and reliability, wind-structure interaction, flow-induced vibrations, wind modeling and forecast, wind disaster mitigation, and wind climate assessment. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists.