[PDF] Life And Lightning eBook

Author : Katherine E. Standefer
Publisher : Hachette UK
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 44,14 MB
Release : 2020-11-10
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0316450359

GET BOOK

This "utterly spectacular" book weighs the impact modern medical technology has had on the author's life against the social and environmental costs inevitably incurred by the mining that makes such innovation possible (Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises). What if a lifesaving medical device causes loss of life along its supply chain? That's the question Katherine E. Standefer finds herself asking one night after being suddenly shocked by her implanted cardiac defibrillator. In this gripping, intimate memoir about health, illness, and the invisible reverberating effects of our medical system, Standefer recounts the astonishing true story of the rare diagnosis that upended her rugged life in the mountains of Wyoming and sent her tumbling into a fraught maze of cardiology units, dramatic surgeries, and slow, painful recoveries. As her life increasingly comes to revolve around the internal defibrillator freshly wired into her heart, she becomes consumed with questions about the supply chain that allows such an ostensibly miraculous device to exist. So she sets out to trace its materials back to their roots. From the sterile labs of a medical device manufacturer in southern California to the tantalum and tin mines seized by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a nickel and cobalt mine carved out of endemic Madagascar jungle, Lightning Flowers takes us on a global reckoning with the social and environmental costs of a technology that promises to be lifesaving but is, in fact, much more complicated. Deeply personal and sharply reported, Lightning Flowers takes a hard look at technological mythos, healthcare, and our cultural relationship to medical technology, raising important questions about our obligations to one another, and the cost of saving one life.

Author : Beth Peterson
Publisher :
Page : 184 pages
File Size : 32,29 MB
Release : 2013-11-06
Category : Conduct of life
ISBN : 9780986055102

GET BOOK

In this series of motivational essays and poignant poetry Peterson offers advice and insight on topics such as family and what it means to be a mother, daughter, and sister; the trials of personal loss and joys of spiritual recovery; and lessons on discovering true meaning and direction in life. Readers will find useful ideas on how to overcome internal turmoil and adversity and ultimately identify their own 'meant to be path', as well as how to cope with various setbacks along their way. Life after Lightning is not a how-to manual for surviving a freak natural accident, but rather an instructional tool on living life to its fullest, overcoming odds, and emerging wiser and better prepared to embark on a meaningful life journey.

Author : David Maraniss
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 672 pages
File Size : 20,98 MB
Release : 2022-08-09
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1476748438

GET BOOK

A biography of America’s greatest all-around athlete that “goes beyond the myth and into the guts of Thorpe’s life, using extensive research, historical nuance, and bittersweet honesty” (Los Angeles Times), by the bestselling author of the classic biography When Pride Still Mattered. Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. Most famously, he won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw’s New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind. But despite his awesome talent, Thorpe’s life was a struggle against the odds. At Carlisle, he faced the racist assimilationist philosophy “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball, and his supposed allies turned away from him when their own reputations were at risk. His later life was troubled by alcohol, broken marriages, and financial distress. He roamed from state to state and took bit parts in Hollywood, but even the film of his own life failed to improve his fortunes. But for all his travails, Thorpe survived, determined to shape his own destiny, his perseverance becoming another mark of his mythic stature. Path Lit by Lightning “[reveals] Thorpe as a man in full, whose life was characterized by both soaring triumph and grievous loss” (The Wall Street Journal).

Author : Anthony Almojera
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 43,2 MB
Release : 2022-06-07
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0358652871

GET BOOK

“An intense look at the high-stakes world of a NYC paramedic in the months before and after COVID-19 altered our landscape.”—Damon Tweedy, MD, author of Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine The education of a New York City paramedic, whose tales of tragedy and transcendence over a single year culminate in the greatest challenge the city’s emergency medical system has ever faced: COVID-19. As a seasoned paramedic and union leader, Anthony Almojera thought he could handle anything his job threw at him. Like many medical first responders, he came from a troubled background and carried the traumas of the city as well as its triumphs. He had grown up in the rough-and-tumble Park Slope of the 1980s, been homeless for a time, and had watched murder, addiction, and hopelessness consume those closest to him. But he had dedicated his life to helping people in need, and while every day was filled with tragedy—stabbings, shootings, accidents, suicides—it also brought moments of uplift: births, resuscitations, and rescues that reminded Anthony and his coworkers why EMS was the most thrilling job on earth, even if the pay was lousy and the hours were long. So when a strange new virus began spreading in New York, Anthony and his fellow medics were ready. They had done the biohazard drills; they knew the procedures, and how to handle the sick and the bereaved. They believed that their lives and training had prepared them for this new challenge. But the months ahead would prove them wrong, and would push New York’s EMS workers, and Anthony himself, to the breaking point—and beyond. Following one paramedic into hell and back, Riding the Lightning tells the story of New York City’s darkest days through the eyes of its frontline medical workers and the community they serve: ordinary people who will continue to make New York an extraordinary place long after it has been reborn from the ashes of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Author : Vernon L. Mangold
Publisher : Universal-Publishers
Page : 112 pages
File Size : 30,23 MB
Release : 1999-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781581127966

GET BOOK

This book is written to address those features of lightning that are beneficial to mankind. The technical level of the subject matter covered in this book is designed to be readily understandable by the general public. The general emphasis is on the positive aspects of lightning. Man can neither control nor regulate this natural force of nature but must resign himself to the task of learning to live with and understand this phenomena. Lightning was part of the earth's environmental makeup before life appeared on earth. Lightning played an important role in creating life on earth. This same force has assisted in sustaining a livable earth and continues to balance those forces of nature to assure that life continues on this earth. It is the purpose of this book to attempt to help one understand the importance of this great force as it was in the beginning of life, its role in neutering life, and its ability to help sustain life on the earth.

Author : Ben Folds
Publisher : Ballantine Books
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 43,45 MB
Release : 2019-07-30
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1984817280

GET BOOK

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the genre-defying icon Ben Folds comes a memoir that is as nuanced, witty, and relatable as his cult-classic songs. “A Dream About Lightning Bugs reads like its author: intelligent, curious, unapologetically punk, and funny as hell.”—Sara Bareilles NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND PASTE Ben Folds is a celebrated American singer-songwriter, beloved for songs such as “Brick,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” and “The Luckiest,” and is the former frontman of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. But Folds will be the first to tell you he’s an unconventional icon, more normcore than hardcore. Now, in his first book, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller. In the title chapter, “A Dream About Lightning Bugs,” Folds recalls his earliest childhood dream—and realizes how much it influenced his understanding of what it means to be an artist. In “Measure Twice, Cut Once” he learns to resist the urge to skip steps during the creative process. In “Hall Pass” he recounts his 1970s North Carolina working-class childhood, and in “Cheap Lessons” he returns to the painful life lessons he learned the hard way—but that luckily didn’t kill him. In his inimitable voice, both relatable and thought-provoking, Folds digs deep into the life experiences that shaped him, imparting hard-earned wisdom about both art and life. Collectively, these stories embody the message Folds has been singing about for years: Smile like you’ve got nothing to prove, because it hurts to grow up, and life flies by in seconds. Praise for A Dream About Lightning Bugs “Besides being super talented, and an incredibly poignant and multifaceted musician, Ben Folds is a fantastic author. I couldn’t put this book down—and not just because I taped it to my hand. Ben takes us into his mind and into his process from the very beginnings of his childhood to where he is today—one of the greatest musicians and writers that has ever graced the art.”—Bob Saget

Author : Inez Hunt
Publisher : Pikes Peak Library District
Page : 283 pages
File Size : 27,8 MB
Release : 2010-01-01
Category : Colorado Springs (Colo.).
ISBN : 9781567352795

GET BOOK

In 1899, Nikola Tesla, a brilliant man who was instrumental in developing the electrical empire that shapes our world of today, lived and conducted research in Colorado Springs. Tesla came to the Pikes Peak region to conduct different experiments, primarily to fi nd a way to transmit electrical power without the use of wires. The high, dry climate was ideal for his work. The tale of this exceptional scientist and unusual man comes to life in Inez Hunt and Wanetta Draper¿s book Lightning In His Hand: The Life Story of Nikola Tesla. The story by Hunt and Draper will appeal not only to readers interested in the growth of electrical power in the 19th and early 20th century, but for the study of an eccentric, visionary scientist who found Colorado Springs a perfect lab for his experiments.- Richard MaroldColorado Springs public speaker, writer,and portrayer of Winfi eld Scott Stratton,Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Nikola Tesla

Author : Kenneth Silverman
Publisher : Knopf
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 34,64 MB
Release : 2010-04-07
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0307434370

GET BOOK

In this brilliantly conceived and written biography, Pulitzer Prize–winning Kenneth Silverman gives us the long and amazing life of the man eulogized by the New York Herald in 1872 as “perhaps the most illustrious American of his age.” Silverman presents Samuel Morse in all his complexity. There is the gifted and prolific painter (more than three hundred portraits and larger historical canvases) and pioneer photographer, who gave the first lectures on art in America, became the first Professor of Fine Arts at an American college (New York University), and founded the National Academy of Design. There is the republican idealist, prominent in antebellum politics, who ran for Congress and for mayor of New York. But most important, there is the inventor of the American electromagnetic telegraph, which earned Morse the name Lightning Man and brought him the fame he sought. In these pages, we witness the evolution of the great invention from its inception as an idea to its introduction to the world—an event that astonished Morse’s contemporaries and was considered the supreme expression of the country’s inventive genius. We see how it transformed commerce, journalism, transportation, military affairs, diplomacy, and the very shape of daily life, ushering in the modern era of communication. But we discover as well that Morse viewed his existence as accursed rather than illustrious, his every achievement seeming to end in loss and defeat: his most ambitious canvases went unsold; his beloved republic imploded into civil war, making it unlivable for him; and the commercial success of the telegraph engulfed him in lawsuits challenging the originality and ownership of his invention. Lightning Man is the first biography of Samuel F. B. Morse in sixty years. It is a revelation of the life of a fascinating and profoundly troubled American genius.

Author : Phil Parker
Publisher : Hay House, Inc
Page : 253 pages
File Size : 42,56 MB
Release : 2013-09-16
Category : Self-Help
ISBN : 1781802181

GET BOOK

This book combines new thinking, cutting edge neuroscience, humour and Phil Parker's upside-down perspective to life's problems and their solutions to help you become happy and fulfilled. Learn how to: • use the power of language to release 'stuckness' and create change • recognize and interrupt negative thought patterns to change the way your brain works • develop awareness of exactly what you need to do differently, so that you can become your own coach • choose a new future - and make sure that it happens! Based on two decades of research and Phil's world-changing Lightning Process®, Get the Life You Love, Now takes you step-by-step on an amazing journey of self-discovery unlike anything you've ever experienced before.