William Poundstone
William Poundstone is an American author, columnist, and skeptic. He has written a number of books including the ''Big Secrets'' series and a biography of Carl Sagan. Early life and education Poundstone attended MIT and studied physics. Personal life An enthusiast of Harry Stephen Keeler, he maintains the Keeler homepage and contributed to the anthology ''A to Izzard: A Harry Stephen Keeler Companion'' (2002). He is a cousin of comedian Paula Poundstone Paula Poundstone (born December 29, 1959) is an American stand-up comedian, author, actor, interviewer, and commentator. Beginning in the late 1980s, she performed a series of one-hour HBO comedy specials. She provided backstage commentary durin .... Bibliography * * * * * * * * * reprints ''Big Secrets'' and ''Biggest Secrets'' * * * * * * * * Released as ''How to Predict Everything'' in the UK [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Skeptic
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the person doubts that these claims are accurate. In such cases, skeptics normally recommend not disbelief but suspension of belief, i.e. maintaining a neutral attitude that neither affirms nor denies the claim. This attitude is often motivated by the impression that the available evidence is insufficient to support the claim. Formally, skepticism is a topic of interest in philosophy, particularly epistemology. More informally, skepticism as an expression of questioning or doubt can be applied to any topic, such as politics, religion, or pseudoscience. It is often applied within restricted domains, such as morality (moral skepticism), atheism (skepticism about the existence of God), or the supernatural. Some theorists distinguish "good" or modera ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Big Secrets
''Big Secrets'' is a series of books written by William Poundstone, and also the title of the series' first book. History In each book, Poundstone seeks to explore a number of mysteries, and reveal "the uncensored truth about all sorts of stuff you are never supposed to know" (the series' tagline and the first book's subtitle). Some of the mysteries Poundstone explores are urban legends (such as what happened to Walt Disney after his death), while others are day-to-day matters which many people may not think to contemplate, such as what barcodes mean, the Coca-Cola formula, secret air frequencies, or what makes up KFC's 11 herbs and spices recipe. Other mysteries explored in the series include Mount Weather, the number stations, backmasking on records, the secrets of Scientology, the true identities of The Residents, the initiation rites of the Freemasons and of college fraternities, anti-counterfeiting devices on money and documents, and the magic of David Copperfield ' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan argued the hypothesis, accepted since, that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to, and calculated using, the greenhouse effect.Extract of page 14 Initially an assistant professor at [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harry Stephen Keeler
Harry Stephen Keeler (November 3, 1890 – January 22, 1967) was a prolific but little-known American fiction writer, who developed a cult following for his eccentric mysteries. He also wrote science fiction. Biography Born in Chicago in 1890, Keeler spent his childhood exclusively in this city, which was so beloved by the author that a large number of his works took place in and around it. In many of his novels, Keeler refers to Chicago as "the London of the west". The expression is explained in the opening of ''Thieves' Nights'' (1929): Here ... were seemingly the same hawkers ... selling the same goods ... here too was the confusion, the babble of tongues of many lands, the restless, shoving throng containing faces and features of a thousand racial castes, and last but not least, here on Halsted and Maxwell streets, Chicago, were the same dirt, flying bits of torn paper, and confusion that graced the junction of Middlesex and Whitechapel High streets far across the globe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paula Poundstone
Paula Poundstone (born December 29, 1959) is an American stand-up comedian, author, actor, interviewer, and commentator. Beginning in the late 1980s, she performed a series of one-hour HBO comedy specials. She provided backstage commentary during the 1992 presidential election on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.'' She is the host of the Starburns Audio podcast (previously a member of the Maximum Fun network) ''Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone'', which is the successor to the National Public Radio program ''Live from the Poundstone Institute.'' She is a frequent panelist on NPR's weekly news quiz show '' Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me'', and was a recurring guest on the network's '' A Prairie Home Companion'' variety program during Garrison Keillor's years as host. Early life Poundstone was born in Huntsville, Alabama, the daughter of Vera, a housewife, and Jack Poundstone, an engineer. Her family moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts, about a month after her birth. Career Pounds ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time and was said to have been "the last representative of the great mathematicians who were equally at home in both pure and applied mathematics". He integrated pure and applied sciences. Von Neumann made major contributions to many fields, including mathematics (foundations of mathematics, measure theory, functional analysis, ergodic theory, group theory, lattice theory, representation theory, operator algebras, matrix theory, geometry, and numerical analysis), physics (quantum mechanics, hydrodynamics, ballistics, nuclear physics and quantum statistical mechanics), economics ( game theory and general equilibrium theory), computing ( Von Neumann architecture, linear programming, numerical meteo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hill & Wang
Hill & Wang is an American book publishing company focused on American history, world history, and politics. It is a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Hill & Wang was founded as an independent publishing house in 1956 by Arthur Wang (1917/18–2005) and Lawrence Hill, who were both working at A. A. Wyn. They bought backlist books from Wyn and started Dramabooks, publishing plays in trade paperback, then a new format. The series included Jean Cocteau, Arthur L. Kopit and Lanford Wilson. In 1959, Arthur Wang acquired Elie Wiesel's Holocaust memoir, ''Night'', which had been turned down by several English-language publishers, publishing it in 1960. They continued to build the Hill & Wang list to include such authors as Roland Barthes, Langston Hughes, and American historians Stanley Kutler and William Cronon. In 1971, the two sold Hill & Wang to Farrar, Straus and Giroux,Henry Raymont"Farrar, Straus Gets Hill & Wang" ''The New York Times'', 29 September 1971. Retrieved 8 Febr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Are You Smart Enough To Work At Google?
''Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?'' (subtitled ''Trick Questions, Zen-Like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques'') is a 2012 business book by Pulitzer Prize-nominated science writer, William Poundstone William Poundstone is an American author, columnist, and skeptic. He has written a number of books including the ''Big Secrets'' series and a biography of Carl Sagan. Early life and education Poundstone attended MIT and studied physics. Personal ..., describing details of the methods used and questions asked of job applicants to Google. See also * Microsoft interview References {{Reflist Business books Little, Brown and Company books 2012 non-fiction books ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Engineering & Technology
''Engineering & Technology'' (''E&T'') is a science, engineering and technology magazine published by IET Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), a registered charity in the United Kingdom. The magazine is issued 10 times per year in print and at least 10 times per year in an app. The ''E&T'' website is updated regularly with news stories. ''E&T'' is distributed to the 140,000 plus membership of the IET around the world. The magazine was launched in April 2008 as a result of the merger between the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Institution of Incorporated Engineers on 31 March 2006. Prior to the merger, both organisations had their own membership magazine, the IEE's monthly ''IEE Review'' and the IIE's ''Engineering Technology''. ''Engineering & Technology'' is an amalgamation of the two, and was initially published monthly. Alongside this, members also received one of seven other monthly magazines published by the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Institution Of Engineering And Technology
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is a multidisciplinary professional engineering institution. The IET was formed in 2006 from two separate institutions: the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), dating back to 1871, and the Institution of Incorporated Engineers (IIE) dating back to 1884. Its worldwide membership is currently in excess of 158,000 in 153 countries. The IET's main offices are in Savoy Place in London, England, and at Michael Faraday House in Stevenage, England. In the United Kingdom, the IET has the authority to establish professional registration for the titles of Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer, Engineering Technician, and ICT Technician, as a licensed member institution of the Engineering Council. The IET is registered as a charity in England and Wales, and in Scotland. Formation Discussions started in 2004 between the IEE and the IIE about merging to form a new institution. In September 2005, both institutions held votes of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Year Of Birth Missing (living People)
A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the planet, four seasons are generally recognized: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In tropical and subtropical regions, several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons; but in the seasonal tropics, the annual wet and dry seasons are recognized and tracked. A calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earth's orbital period, as counted in a given calendar. The Gregorian calendar, or modern calendar, presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a leap year of 366 days, as do the Julian calendars. For the Gregorian calendar, the average length of the calendar year (the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Living People
Related categories * :Year of birth missing (living people) / :Year of birth unknown * :Date of birth missing (living people) / :Date of birth unknown * :Place of birth missing (living people) / :Place of birth unknown * :Year of death missing / :Year of death unknown * :Date of death missing / :Date of death unknown * :Place of death missing / :Place of death unknown * :Missing middle or first names See also * :Dead people * :Template:L, which generates this category or death years, and birth year and sort keys. : {{DEFAULTSORT:Living people 21st-century people People by status ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |