The Second Mark

It was billed as the greatest event in the history of pair skating: three of the best teams of all time battling for Olympic gold on one night in Salt Lake City. Technical ability was approximately equal. It was the artistic merit score that would decide the gold medal -- the second mark. Representing Canada, China, and Russia, the three pairs illuminated their distinct cultures. On the second mark, whose culture would triumph? Would it be the beauty of the Russians' ballet on ice, the thrill of the Chinese pair's heart-stopping acrobatics, or the Canadians' passionate connection with the audience? In a down-to-the-wire nail-biter, the difference between gold and silver came down to the vote of a single judge. Hours later, a bombshell: the confession of a French judge unleashed a worldwide debate -- and ultimately produced an unprecedented duplicate gold medal. The Second Mark reveals what an athlete really goes through to become the best in the world, through the riveting stories of unforgettable people. We meet Yelena Berezhnaya of Russia, who survives emergency brain surgery after a near-fatal training accident and makes it back to the Olympics in less than two years. We meet Zhao Hongbo, a young boy skating in subzero weather in remotest China, who will fulfill his coach's twenty-year dream of catching up to the West. And we meet two Canadians, a barista and a concession stand worker, who had almost quit the sport before deciding to give it one last try -- and becoming world champions. Exhaustively researched by a skating insider, The Second Mark takes readers deep into the world of the Olympic athlete, illuminating the fascinating differences between East and West. From the frozen fields of China to the secret corridors of the old Soviet sports system, from a tiny farm village in remotest Quebec to the judges' backstage world, The Second Mark tells the compelling human stories behind one of the most controversial nights in Olympic history.

Now in paperback, Tune In is the New York Times bestseller by the world’s leading Beatles authority – the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy about the band that revolutionized music. The Beatles have been in our lives for half a century and surely always will be. Still, somehow, their music excites, their influence resonates, their fame sustains. New generations find and love them, and while many other great artists come and go, the Beatles are beyond eclipse. So . . . who really were these people, and just how did it all happen? 'The Beatles story' is everywhere. Told wrong from early on, rehashed in every possible way and routinely robbed of its context, this is a phenomenon in urgent need of a bright new approach. In his series All These Years, Mark Lewisohn – the world-recognized Beatles historian – presses the Refresh button to relate the entire story as it’s never been told or known before. Here is a full and accurate biography at last. It is certain to become the lasting word. Tune In is book one of three, exploring and explaining a period that is by very definition lesser-known: the formative pre-fame years, the teenage years, the Liverpool and Hamburg years – in many ways the most absorbing and incredible period of them all. The Beatles come together here in all their originality, attitude, style, speed, charisma, appeal, daring and honesty, the tools with which they’re about to reshape the world. It’s the Beatles in their own time, an amazing story of the ultimate rock band, a focused and colorful telling that builds and builds to leave four sharp lads from Liverpool on the very brink of a whole new kind of fame. Using impeccable research and resources, Tune In is a magisterial work, an independent biography that combines energy, clarity, objectivity, authority and insight. The text is anti-myth, tight and commanding – just like the Beatles themselves. Here is the Beatles story as it really was. Throw away what you think you know and start afresh.

The Victory According to Mark is a commentary on the second gospel of Mark.

The earliest of the four Gospels, the book portrays Jesus as an enigmatic figure, struggling with enemies, his inner and external demons, and with his devoted but disconcerted disciples. Unlike other gospels, his parables are obscure, to be explained secretly to his followers. With an introduction by Nick Cave

Mark Clifton (1906–1963) was an American science fiction writer, the co-winner of the first Hugo Award for best novel (for THEY'D RATHER BE RIGHT, written with Frank Riley). This volume assembles some of Clifton's very best work -- including THEY'D RATHER BE RIGHT: STAR BRIGHT (1952) THE KENZIE REPORT (1953) WE'RE CIVILIZED! SENSE FROM THOUGHT DIVIDE (1955) A WOMAN'S PLACE (1955) DO UNTO OTHERS (1958) THEY'D RATHER BE RIGHT (1958) WHAT NOW, LITTLE MAN? (1959) EIGHT KEYS TO EDEN (1960) And if you enjoy this volume, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more entries in this great series, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, mysteries, westerns, classics -- and much, much more!

Bestselling author Mark Frost makes a triumphant return to fiction with this riveting World War II thriller, based on a shocking real-life German operation run by "the most dangerous man in Europe." Fall 1944. Germany is losing, and the Americans are starting to hope they'll be home for Christmas. Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny, "Hitler's Commando," famed for his daring rescue of the imprisoned Mussolini, has just received orders for Operation Greif: He is to assemble a new brigade of 2,000 men, all of whom speak English, and send them behind Allied lines disguised as GIs, where they will wreak havoc in advance of a savage new offensive. And from those men, Skorzeny is to select a smaller group, made up of the twenty most highly skilled commandos fluent in American culture, to attempt an even more sinister mission--the second objective--which, if completed, not only would change the course of the war, but would change the course of history. Filled with real characters and details only recently released by the United States military, The Second Objective is historical fiction at its most pulse-pounding, its most unpredictable, and its most compulsively readable.

This book examines the implications of new communication technologies in the light of the most recent work in social and cultural theory and argues that new developments in electronic media, such as the Internet and Virtual Reality, justify the designation of a "second media age".