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Kid Olympians: True Tales of Childhood from Champions and Game Changers (Kid Legends #9)
By Robin Stevenson. 2024
Triumphant, relatable, and totally true biographies tell the childhood stories of a diverse group of international athletes who have captured…
the world’s attention at the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, like Simone Biles, Jesse Owens, Naomi Osaka, Tatyana McFadden, and 12 other incredible olympians.Athletes throughout history have dreamed of competing in the Olympics—and some were kids themselves when those dreams and plans began! In Kid Olympians: Summer, discover the childhood stories of legends such as: Usain Bolt, who used to skip practices to go to the arcade and play video games.Serena Williams, who sometimes hit her tennis ball over the fence on purpose!Tatyana McFadden, who had to fight to be allowed on her school’s track teamFeaturing kid-friendly text and full-color illustrations, you’ll be inspired to dream bigger, faster, and higher than ever before! The diverse and inspiring group also includes Michael Phelps, Yusra Mardini, Dick Fosbury, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Gertrude Ederle, Nadia Comaneci, Ellie Simmonds, Tommie Smith, Wilma Rudolph, and Megan Rapinoe.Undisputed: A Champion's Life
By Donovan Bailey. 2023
A memoir of Olympic glory, the value of mentorship and the courage to champion your own excellence, from the long-reigning…
world's fastest man, Canadian sprinting legend Donovan Bailey.From the lush fields of his boyhood in Jamaica, to the basketball courts of Oakville, where he came of age in one of Canada’s most thriving cultural mosaics, to his sprint toward double Olympic gold for Canada in Atlanta in 1996, Donovan Bailey got a long way on natural talent. But he also learned that in the bureaucratic world of Canadian sports, an athlete who didn't come up in the system needed to take charge of his fate if he was going to become the world’s best. As he ascended from outsider to dominant athlete, others didn’t always understand the rigour at work behind Bailey’s confident demeanour. He’d learned from watching Muhammad Ali that a champion needed to act like a champion. But media grew fixated on the sprinter’s immodesty, the likes of which they never saw from Canadian athletes, especially track athletes in the wake of the Ben Johnson doping scandal at Seoul in 1988. Bailey was having none of it, and when he called out Canada's subtle racism and contradicted the prevailing idea most Canadians had of their country, he left in his wake a media uproar and cracked wide open the nation’s moral complacency. In addition to his unforgettable 100-metre and 4x100 relay gold-medal sprints in Atlanta, Bailey's track career was a litany of records and rare accomplishments, including his audacious 1997 race in Toronto's SkyDome against American 200-metre Olympic champion Michael Johnson to determine who was really the world’s fastest man. There was no disputing the result. Bailey had been coached in success before he was seriously coached in athletics. Following the lead of his father, a machinist-turned-real estate investor, Bailey became a millionaire by the age of 21, an experience he continues to draw on as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Frank about his dominance on the track and unapologetic for expecting as much of those around him as he expects of himself, Undisputed is an athlete's story that refuses to settle for second best.Introduction to NFL Analytics with R (Chapman & Hall/CRC Data Science Series)
By Bradley J. Congelio. 2024
It has become difficult to ignore the analytics movement within the NFL. An increasing number of coaches openly integrate advanced…
numbers into their game plans, and commentators, throughout broadcasts, regularly use terms such as air yards, CPOE, and EPA on a casual basis. This rapid growth, combined with an increasing accessibility to NFL data, has helped create a burgeoning amateur analytics movement, highlighted by the NFL’s annual Big Data Bowl. Because learning a coding language can be a difficult enough endeavor, Introduction to NFL Analytics with R is purposefully written in a more informal format than readers of similar books may be accustomed to, opting to provide step-by-step instructions in a structured, jargon-free manner.Key Coverage:• Installing R, RStudio, and necessary packages• Working and becoming fluent in the tidyverse• Finding meaning in NFL data with examples from all the functions in the nflverse family of packages• Using NFL data to create eye-catching data visualizations• Building statistical models starting with simple regressions and progressing to advanced machine learning models using tidymodels and eXtreme Gradient BoostingThe book is written for novices of R programming all the way to more experienced coders, as well as audiences with differing expected outcomes. Professors can use Introduction to NFL Analytics with R to provide data science lessons through the lens of the NFL, while students can use it as an educational tool to create robust visualizations and machine learning models for assignments. Journalists, bloggers, and arm-chair quarterbacks alike will find the book helpful to underpin their arguments by providing hard data and visualizations to back up their claims.Unconventional Shale Gas Exploration and Exploitation: Current Trends in Shale Gas Exploitation (Advances in Oil and Gas Exploration & Production)
By Annapurna Boruah, Sumit Verma, Shib Sankar Ganguli. 2024
From the geological mysteries of shale formations to cutting-edge techniques in gas extraction, this book unveils the essential knowledge to…
harness the potential of shale gas. The book integrates various data types such as outcrop, well logs, core data, etc.) for hydrofracturing—from basin-scale to nano-pore-scale. The book included a wealth of information on the latest advancements, industry practices, environmental considerations, policies, and more. In a world increasingly conscious of environmental concerns, "Cleaner Energy from the Earth" offers a fresh perspective on the utilization of shale gas as a cleaner fossil fuel alternative. This comprehensive book takes the reader on a captivating journey through the science, technology, and innovation driving shale gas exploration and exploitation towards a greener future. Whether you're a seasoned industry professional, a student, or a curious reader, this book provides a comprehensive and accessible resource for all levels of expertise.Roar: A Celebration of Great Sporting Women
By Sam Quek. 2023
Roar is a celebration of the bold and fearless - the women empowering future generations to follow in their footsteps…
- but it is also an inspiring look at how sport can change lives and challenge society. From the tennis court to the boxing ring, the visibility of women in sports has been gathering pace. Women's competitions are increasingly popular.In Roar Sam takes a deep dive into the experiences of some of sport's most high-profile female athletes - some have overcome heartbreaking adversity to reach the top of their game; others have succeeded in the face of prejudice. Like Sam, all have been propelled by sheer grit and determination to succeed. Many now campaign for women's equality and acceptance in sport, knowing the confidence it can bring young girls and the message that they can achieve anything. Featuring a series of candid interviews from some of sport's most successful women, Sam lifts the lid on what it takes to reach those heights: from coping with puberty to foregoing teenage fun to pursue a dream; from the punishing physical training schedule to the mental power needed to win or bounce back from defeat; from the pressure of the media spotlight to the challenge of competing as a new mother. And, what it feels like in that magical moment when you step up to the podium knowing every sacrifice has been worth it. Contributors include Gabby Logan, Paula Radcliffe MBE (long-distance runner), Amy Williams MBE (skeleton racer), Dame Katherine Grainger (rower and current chair of UK Sport), Dame Sarah Storey (Paralympian cyclist), Fatima Whitbread MBE (javelin thrower), Sky Brown (skateboarder), Shaunagh Brown (rugby union player), Sheila Parker MBE (footballer and first England captain), Kate Richardson-Walsh OBE (hockey player and former England women's captain), Rebecca Adlington OBE (middle-distance swimmer), Christine Ohuruogu MBE (400 metres sprinter), and Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE (wheelchair racer and cross-bench peer).Event Management in Sport, Recreation and Tourism: Theoretical and Practical Dimensions
By Rika Nakazawa. 2024
Now in a fully revised and updated fourth edition, Event Management in Sport, Recreation, and Tourism provides a comprehensive theoretical…
and practical framework for planning and managing events at all levels, from smaller local events to mega-events. Focusing on the role of event manager and their diverse facilitation responsibilities through each phase of the event planning process, the book is designed to encourage critical thinking, to help the reader to become an adaptable and capable manager ready to cope with the constantly evolving challenges of the contemporary events landscape. The book begins with an updated chapter on the types of knowledge in event management, posing questions that help readers to understand their current knowledge, to decide what they need to pursue, and to advance their knowledge strategies. Containing a rich array of international, real-world case studies, data, and practical examples, from traditional and niche sport, recreation, and tourism contexts, this fourth edition is enhanced by a completely new chapter on practical advances in environmental sustainability that provides an overview of research as well as strategies for moving forward. The book goes further than any other event management textbook in placing social, ethical, and environmental responsibilities at the centre of the event planning process. Event Management in Sport, Recreation, and Tourism is an essential reading for any student or practitioner working in event management, sport management, leisure management, outdoor recreation, or tourism.Multiple Systems: Complexity and Coherence in Ecosystems, Collective Behavior, and Social Systems (Contributions to Management Science)
By Gianfranco Minati, Maria Pietronilla Penna. 2024
This book presents the proceedings of the Eighth National Conference of the Italian Systems Society. The contributions underline the need…
for Systemics and Systems Science in order to address multiple, changing systems involving several coherent versions.The conference focused on identifying, discussing, and understanding possible interrelationships between fundamental theoretical advances in different disciplines. Given their scope, these proceedings represent a valuable asset for all researchers whose work involves multiple systems.Let lessons from an expert soccer coach inspire you to lead a richer, more successful life by expanding your vision to…
take in more of the world around you, and discover deeper purpose and meaning.TJ Kostecky&’s Vision Training, a program that has empowered superstar soccer players around the world—including Carli Lloyd, Julie Foudy, and Claudio Reyna—to make smarter decisions by expanding their field of vision, offers critical value to anyone who knows that so many life lessons are learned on the playing field. Kostecky, Head Men's Soccer Coach at Bard College, lays the groundwork for you to shift your lens by focusing on the 5 Ps: Perceive, Process, Plan, Perform, and Persist. With that expanded perspective, you&’ll learn 7 key principles to transform your life and the lives of others through your leadership:See the whole fieldLook, listen, learnDiscover the joy of the gamePlay the game the right wayMake everyone around you betterBelieve in yourself, believe in the teamSee beyond the gameBy bringing Kostecky&’s Vision Training to bear on life beyond the field, this book coaches you through making small shifts in your perspective that have major impact, helping you recognize new and unique opportunities in all aspects of life leading to more career, family, and spiritual fulfillment.In this explosive tell-all memoir, an Olympic figure skater reveals her battle to survive mental illness, eating disorders, and the…
self-destructive voice inside that she calls &“outofshapeworthlessloser.&”When Gracie Gold stepped onto center stage (or ice, rather) as America&’s sweetheart at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, she instantly became the face of America&’s most beloved winter sport. Beautiful, blonde, Midwestern, and media-trained, she was suddenly being written up everywhere from The New Yorker to Teen Vogue to People and baking cookies with Taylor Swift.But little did the public know what Gold was facing when the cameras were off. In 2017, she entered treatment for what was publicly announced as an eating disorder and anxiety treatment but was, in reality, suicidal ideation. While Gold&’s public star was rising, her private life was falling apart: Cracks within her family were widening, her bulimia was getting worse, and she became a survivor of sexual assault. The pressure of training for years with demanding coaches and growing up in a household that accepted nothing less than gold had finally taken its toll.Now Gold reveals the exclusive and harrowing story of her struggles in and out of the pressure-packed world of elite figure skating: the battles with her family, her coaches, the powers-that-be at her federation, and her deteriorating mental health.Told with unflinching honesty and stirring defiance, Outofshapeworthlessloser is not only a forceful reckoning from a world-class athlete but also an intimate account of surviving as a young woman in a society that rewards appearances more than anything and demands perfection at all costs.The psychological dependence of humanity on playing is huge. Its nature and functional utility are unclear. These linked yet contradictory…
issues have created the intrigue that has fed philosophical thought for more than two hundred years. During this period, philosophy transferred many of the subjects of its analysis to the aegis of the humanities that it spawned. Each of them pays close attention to human play and studies it with its own methods of theoretical and experimental research. Thus, what was once a general philosophical comprehension of human play has branched out into different directions, definitions, and theories. This new book represents a renewed general view of human play. The unique quality of the volume lies in its fairly rare interdisciplinary methodology, encompassing a broad spectrum of the humanities: philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and the history of play, and behavioral analysis of playing, which have been done by the author. As a result, the volume ends with the proposition of a new general approach to human play that is named by the author “play field theory”. Such an approach makes reflections on play, sport, and culture a source for all scholars studying play, by widening their knowledge through both a new general view and their familiarization with notions from neighboring fields and disciplines.This book examines how states in the post-socialist Western Balkans region have used sport as a policy tool, and how…
sport in the region has been shaped by politics, history, and culture. Looking closely at the intersection of sports policy and politics in the countries of Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, this book explores the roles of sport in nation-building and how sport has been used by regimes looking to establish political legitimacy in the transition from the post-socialist era. It offers a fascinating insight into the way that sport has been co-opted for political purposes, and into the complexities of formulating sports policy and wider public policy in societies in which governance structures may be weak and in which clientelism, corruption, and partisanship pose constant challenges. This book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the history and politics of sport, in public policy, or in the history, politics, and culture of the former Yugoslav countries.Data Science and Machine Learning Applications in Subsurface Engineering
By Daniel Asante Otchere. 2023
This book covers unsupervised learning, supervised learning, clustering approaches, feature engineering, explainable AI and multioutput regression models for subsurface engineering…
problems. Processing voluminous and complex data sets are the primary focus of the field of machine learning (ML). ML aims to develop data-driven methods and computational algorithms that can learn to identify complex and non-linear patterns to understand and predict the relationships between variables by analysing extensive data. Although ML models provide the final output for predictions, several steps need to be performed to achieve accurate predictions. These steps, data pre-processing, feature selection, feature engineering and outlier removal, are all contained in this book. New models are also developed using existing ML architecture and learning theories to improve the performance of traditional ML models and handle small and big data without manual adjustments. This research-oriented book will help subsurface engineers, geophysicists, and geoscientists become familiar with data science and ML advances relevant to subsurface engineering. Additionally, it demonstrates the use of data-driven approaches for salt identification, seismic interpretation, estimating enhanced oil recovery factor, predicting pore fluid types, petrophysical property prediction, estimating pressure drop in pipelines, bubble point pressure prediction, enhancing drilling mud loss, smart well completion and synthetic well log predictions.Unser Platz im Universum: Astronomie anhand alter Entdeckungen verstehen
By Sun Kwok. 2023
Wenn Sie schon immer die Grundprinzipien der Astronomie und der Himmelsbewegungen verstehen wollten, sollten Sie dieses Buch lesen. Anhand von…
Bildern des Himmels, die von verschiedenen Orten der Erde aus beobachtet wurden, sowie von Zeichnungen alter astronomischer Methoden und Werkzeuge erzählt Prof. Sun Kwok diese Geschichte auf unterhaltsame und faszinierende Weise.Seit den Anfängen der menschlichen Zivilisation haben sich die Menschen Gedanken über die Struktur des Kosmos und unseren Platz im Universum gemacht. Vor mehr als 2.000 Jahren wussten unsere Vorfahren bereits, dass die Jahreszeiten ungleichmäßig verlaufen, dass die Erde frei im Raum schwebt, und dass es Sterne gibt, die sie nicht sehen können. Aus ihren Himmelsbeobachtungen schlossen sie, dass die Erde rund ist. Mit einfachen Werkzeugen und mathematischen Methoden bestimmten die Astronomen der Antike die Größe der Erde und des Mondes, die Entfernung zum Mond und die Länge der Monate und des Jahres genau.Mit einem raffinierten Gerät, der Armillarsphäre, konnten die griechischen Astronomen die Zeiten des Sonnenaufgangs und des Sonnenuntergangs an jedem Tag des Jahres und an jedem Ort der Erde vorhersagen. Sie entwickelten ausgeklügelte mathematische Modelle, um die Bewegungen des Mars für Hunderte von Jahren in die Zukunft vorauszusagen.Finden Sie heraus, wie die antiken Beobachter diese bemerkenswerten Leistungen vollbrachten. Mit minimalem Einsatz von Mathematik zeichnet dieses Buch die Spuren unserer Vorfahren nach, erklärt ihre intellektuelle Reise in einfachen Worten und erforscht die philosophischen Bedeutungen dieser Entdeckungen.This book presents a comprehensive overview of the sum rule approach to spectral analysis of orthogonal polynomials, which derives from…
Gábor Szego's classic 1915 theorem and its 1920 extension. Barry Simon emphasizes necessary and sufficient conditions, and provides mathematical background that until now has been available only in journals. Topics include background from the theory of meromorphic functions on hyperelliptic surfaces and the study of covering maps of the Riemann sphere with a finite number of slits removed. This allows for the first book-length treatment of orthogonal polynomials for measures supported on a finite number of intervals on the real line. In addition to the Szego and Killip-Simon theorems for orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle (OPUC) and orthogonal polynomials on the real line (OPRL), Simon covers Toda lattices, the moment problem, and Jacobi operators on the Bethe lattice. Recent work on applications of universality of the CD kernel to obtain detailed asymptotics on the fine structure of the zeros is also included. The book places special emphasis on OPRL, which makes it the essential companion volume to the author's earlier books on OPUC.How Did the First Stars and Galaxies Form? (Princeton Frontiers in Physics #1)
By Abraham Loeb. 2010
A concise introduction to cosmology and how light first emerged in the universeThough astrophysicists have developed a theoretical framework for…
understanding how the first stars and galaxies formed, only now are we able to begin testing those theories with actual observations of the very distant, early universe. We are entering a new and exciting era of discovery that will advance the frontiers of knowledge, and this book couldn't be more timely. It covers all the basic concepts in cosmology, drawing on insights from an astronomer who has pioneered much of this research over the past two decades.Abraham Loeb starts from first principles, tracing the theoretical foundations of cosmology and carefully explaining the physics behind them. Topics include the gravitational growth of perturbations in an expanding universe, the abundance and properties of dark matter halos and galaxies, reionization, the observational methods used to detect the earliest galaxies and probe the diffuse gas between them—and much more.Cosmology seeks to solve the fundamental mystery of our cosmic origins. This book offers a succinct and accessible primer at a time when breathtaking technological advances promise a wealth of new observational data on the first stars and galaxies.Provides a concise introduction to cosmologyCovers all the basic conceptsGives an overview of the gravitational growth of perturbations in an expanding universeExplains the process of reionizationDescribes the observational methods used to detect the earliest galaxiesTracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe
By Lars-Henrik Olsen. 2013
An indispensable color-illustrated field guide to the tracks and signs of Europe's animals and birdsThis beautifully illustrated field guide enables…
you to easily identify the tracks and signs left by a wide variety of mammal and bird species found in Britain and Europe, covering behaviors ranging from hunting, foraging, and feeding to courtship, breeding, and nesting. Introductory chapters offer detailed drawings of footprints and tracks of large and small mammals, which are followed by sections on mammal scat, bird droppings, and the feeding signs of animals on food sources such as nuts, cones, and rose hips. The book then describes specific mammal species, providing information on size, distribution, behavior, habitat, and similar species, as well as more specific detail on tracks and scat. Distribution maps are also included.This indispensable field guide covers 175 species of mammals and birds, and features a wealth of stunning color photos and artwork throughout.Helps you easily identify the tracks and signs of a variety of mammals and birdsCovers 175 speciesIllustrated throughout with photos, drawings, and artworkIncludes informative descriptions of mammal species along with distribution mapsEinstein and Religion: Physics and Theology
By Max Jammer. 1999
The philosophy of religion and the quest for spiritual truth preoccupied Albert Einstein--so much that it has been said "one…
might suspect he was a disguised theologian." Nevertheless, the literature on the life and work of Einstein, extensive as it is, does not provide an adequate account of his religious conception and sentiments. Only fragmentarily known, Einstein's ideas about religion have been often distorted both by atheists and by religious groups eager to claim him as one of their own. But what exactly was Einstein's religious credo? In this fascinating book, the distinguished physicist and philosopher Max Jammer offers an unbiased and well-documented answer to this question. The book begins with a discussion of Einstein's childhood religious education and the religious atmosphere--or its absence--among his family and friends. It then reconstructs, step by step, the intellectual development that led Einstein to the conceptions of a cosmic religion and an impersonal God, akin to "the God of Spinoza." Jammer explores Einstein's writings and lectures on religion and its role in society, and how far they have been accepted by the general public and by professional theologians like Paul Tillich or Frederick Ferré. He also analyzes the precise meaning of Einstein's famous dictum "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind," and why this statement can serve as an epitome of Einstein's philosophy of religion. The last chapter deals with the controversial question of whether Einstein's scientific work, and in particular his theory of relativity, has theologically significant implications, a problem important for those who are interested in the relation between science and religion. Both thought-provoking and engaging, this book aims to introduce readers, without proselytizing, to Einstein's religion.The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values (The William G. Bowen Series #35)
By James L. Shulman, William G. Bowen. 2000
The President of Williams College faces a firestorm for not allowing the women's lacrosse team to postpone exams to attend…
the playoffs. The University of Michigan loses $2.8 million on athletics despite averaging 110,000 fans at each home football game. Schools across the country struggle with the tradeoffs involved with recruiting athletes and updating facilities for dozens of varsity sports. Does increasing intensification of college sports support or detract from higher education's core mission? James Shulman and William Bowen introduce facts into a terrain overrun by emotions and enduring myths. Using the same database that informed The Shape of the River, the authors analyze data on 90,000 students who attended thirty selective colleges and universities in the 1950s, 1970s, and 1990s. Drawing also on historical research and new information on giving and spending, the authors demonstrate how athletics influence the class composition and campus ethos of selective schools, as well as the messages that these institutions send to prospective students, their parents, and society at large. Shulman and Bowen show that athletic programs raise even more difficult questions of educational policy for small private colleges and highly selective universities than they do for big-time scholarship-granting schools. They discover that today's athletes, more so than their predecessors, enter college less academically well-prepared and with different goals and values than their classmates--differences that lead to different lives. They reveal that gender equity efforts have wrought large, sometimes unanticipated changes. And they show that the alumni appetite for winning teams is not--as schools often assume--insatiable. If a culprit emerges, it is the unquestioned spread of a changed athletic culture through the emulation of highly publicized teams by low-profile sports, of men's programs by women's, and of athletic powerhouses by small colleges. Shulman and Bowen celebrate the benefits of collegiate sports, while identifying the subtle ways in which athletic intensification can pull even prestigious institutions from their missions. By examining how athletes and other graduates view The Game of Life--and how colleges shape society's view of what its rules should be--Bowen and Shulman go far beyond sports. They tell us about higher education today: the ways in which colleges set policies, reinforce or neglect their core mission, and send signals about what matters.Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt: And Other Intriguing Stories of Mathematical Physics
By Paul J. Nahin. 2010
An incomparable collection of stimulating math puzzles from bestselling author Paul NahinWhat does quilting have to do with electric circuit…
theory? The answer is just one of the fascinating ways that best-selling popular math writer Paul Nahin illustrates the deep interplay of math and physics in the world around us in his latest book of challenging mathematical puzzles, Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt. With his trademark combination of intriguing mathematical problems and the historical anecdotes surrounding them, Nahin invites readers on an exciting and informative exploration of some of the many ways math and physics combine to create something vastly more powerful, useful, and interesting than either is by itself.In a series of brief and largely self-contained chapters, Nahin discusses a wide range of topics in which math and physics are mutually dependent and mutually illuminating, from Newtonian gravity and Newton's laws of mechanics to ballistics, air drag, and electricity. The mathematical subjects range from algebra, trigonometry, geometry, and calculus to differential equations, Fourier series, and theoretical and Monte Carlo probability. Each chapter includes problems—some three dozen in all—that challenge readers to try their hand at applying what they have learned. Just as in his other books of mathematical puzzles, Nahin discusses the historical background of each problem, gives many examples, includes MATLAB codes, and provides complete and detailed solutions at the end.Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt will appeal to students interested in new math and physics applications, teachers looking for unusual examples to use in class—and anyone who enjoys popular math books.Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives
By Albert Einstein. 2014
Modesty, humor, compassion, and wisdom are the traits most evident in this illuminating selection of personal papers from the Albert…
Einstein Archives. The illustrious physicist wrote as thoughtfully to an Ohio fifth-grader, distressed by her discovery that scientists classify humans as animals, as to a Colorado banker who asked whether Einstein believed in a personal God. Witty rhymes, an exchange with Queen Elizabeth of Belgium about fine music, and expressions of his devotion to Zionism are but some of the highlights found in this warm and enriching book.