The Beauty of a Spiral

The Beauty of a Spiral
Author: Beth Maddaleni
Publisher: Ponderlit Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2023-07-10
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN:

Sixteen-year-old figure skater Madz Monroe flees SuperEdge Rink and her demanding coach, leaving on the locker-room mirror a lipstick manifesto that questions the purpose of her intense training. Determined to heal her aching body and spread her wings beyond the rink, she’ll close this chapter of her life by taking her final skating test. Easy enough if her wealthy parents didn’t cancel her credit card. A deal with her cute landscaper solves the money problem, sparks a crush, and leads Madz to make promises beyond the deal. However, when a medical crisis forces her into hibernation, she faces a major dilemma: how does she keep promises while hiding her illness and herself? Whirling through medical and social abysses, Madz opens her eyes to a world of suffering and unsung heroes. If she fights hard enough, she’ll survive. But to heal, she must figure out who she is beyond the rink and find the answer to the question she posed on the locker-room mirror.

Spirals in Time

Spirals in Time
Author: Helen Scales
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2015-05-07
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1472911377

The beautifully written story of shells and their makers, and our relationships with them. Seashells are the sculpted homes of a remarkable group of animals: the molluscs. These are some of the most ancient and successful animals on the planet. But watch out. Some molluscs can kill you if you eat them. Some will kill you if you stand too close. That hasn't stopped people using shells in many ways over thousands of years. They became the first jewelry and oldest currencies; they've been used as potent symbols of sex and death, prestige and war, not to mention a nutritious (and tasty) source of food. Spirals in Time is an exuberant aquatic romp, revealing amazing tales of these undersea marvels. Helen Scales leads us on a journey into their realm, as she goes in search of everything from snails that 'fly' underwater on tiny wings to octopuses accused of stealing shells and giant mussels with golden beards that were supposedly the source of Jason's golden fleece, and learns how shells have been exchanged for human lives, tapped for mind-bending drugs and inspired advances in medical technology. Weaving through these stories are the remarkable animals that build them, creatures with fascinating tales to tell, a myriad of spiralling shells following just a few simple rules of mathematics and evolution. Shells are also bellwethers of our impact on the natural world. Some species have been overfished, others poisoned by polluted seas; perhaps most worryingly of all, molluscs are expected to fall victim to ocean acidification, a side-effect of climate change that may soon cause shells to simply melt away. But rather than dwelling on what we risk losing, Spirals in Time urges you to ponder how seashells can reconnect us with nature, and heal the rift between ourselves and the living world.

The Perfect Shape

The Perfect Shape
Author: Øyvind Hammer
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2016-11-30
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3319473735

This book uses the spiral shape as a key to a multitude of strange and seemingly disparate stories about art, nature, science, mathematics, and the human endeavour. In a way, the book is itself organized as a spiral, with almost disconnected chapters circling around and closing in on the common theme. A particular strength of the book is its extremely cross-disciplinary nature - everything is fun, and everything is connected! At the same time, the author puts great emphasis on mathematical and scientific correctness, in contrast, perhaps, with some earlier books on spirals. Subjects include the mathematical properties of spirals, sea shells, sun flowers, Greek architecture, air ships, the history of mathematics, spiral galaxies, the anatomy of the human hand, the art of prehistoric Europe, Alfred Hitchcock, and spider webs, to name a few.

Swirl by Swirl

Swirl by Swirl
Author: Joyce Sidman
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 45
Release: 2011
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 054731583X

Celebrates the shape of a spiral in nature, from rushing rivers to flower buds and even the shape of an ear. Additional factual information about spirals and the plants and animals pictured, follows the text.

Spiral

Spiral
Author: Paul Mceuen
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2011-03-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0755374657

The first bio-tech thriller from acclaimed Cornell professor, Paul McEuen, the new Michael Crichton.Pacific Ocean 1946: Liam Connor of the British Army, a global expert on germ warfare, is sent to help the US Navy foil an attempt by a Japanese submarine to unleash the world's first biological super-weapon. Code-name: Uzumaki. Translation: Spiral. The devastating decision is made to annihilate Spiral by releasing the world's fourth atomic bomb, obliterating the weapon before it can release its catastrophic payload.New York, present day: Connor, now a world-renowned Nobel prize-winner working on the cutting edge of nano-science technology, prayed that the spectre of Spiral would never return. But now it is back and the stakes are exponentially higher. Spiral would be virtually unstoppable with current technological advances and only Connor holds the key to its cure. Those who seek Spiral will stop at nothing to obtain Connor's knowledge, even if it means his death and that of everyone he holds dear. As the race begins for Spiral, will the world survive the Doomsday scenario about to unfold?

Meander, Spiral, Explode

Meander, Spiral, Explode
Author: Jane Alison
Publisher: Catapult
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1948226138

"How lovely to discover a book on the craft of writing that is also fun to read . . . Alison asserts that the best stories follow patterns in nature, and by defining these new styles she offers writers the freedom to explore but with enough guidance to thrive." ―Maris Kreizman, Vulture A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019 | A Poets & Writers Best Books for Writers As Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her insightful and appealing book about the craft of writing: “For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel― one we’re actually told to follow―and that’s the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides . . . But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculosexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?" W. G. Sebald’s Emigrants was the first novel to show Alison how forward momentum can be created by way of pattern, rather than the traditional arc--or, in nature, wave. Other writers of nonlinear prose considered in her “museum of specimens” include Nicholson Baker, Anne Carson, Marguerite Duras, Gabriel García Márquez, Jamaica Kincaid, Clarice Lispector, Susan Minot, David Mitchell, Caryl Phillips, and Mary Robison. Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions. It is a liberating manifesto that says, Let’s leave the outdated modes behind and, in thinking of new modes, bring feeling back to experimentation. It will appeal to serious readers and writers alike.

The Spiral Draw Book

The Spiral Draw Book
Author: Doug Stillinger
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2003
Genre: Drawing
ISBN: 9781570549601

Our specially-engineered drawing wheels make it easy to create perfect spiral designs right on the pages of the book. Colorchanging gel pens add depth to the patterns, giving them a nifty 3-D look. Spiral Draw spins a retro-cool classic into an imaginative new orbit.

The Death Spiral

The Death Spiral
Author: Sarah Giragosian
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN: 9781625578143

Poetry. "Death Spiral, which signifies the cartwheeling display of the American bald eagle as it plummets to the ground, is not only a poem in this excellent collection, but a metaphor for the current state of the country. These beautifully rendered poems ask when will we roll out of our 'death dance, / and fall upwards, in thrall of sky?' While there are other books that address topics found here such as climate change, racism, and our wrought political times, what sets this book apart is its lyrical precision, imaginative leaps, and arresting imagery. Sarah Giragosian is a truly gifted poet."--Charlotte Pence "THE DEATH SPIRAL grounds us in the Anthropocene (a time of mass extinction and climate change), yet refuses to adhere to that 'fact.' Instead, the poet finds a way not only to merge her consciousness, her being, her 'I,' with that of the absolute other(s)--the animal kingdom, and love--but also to chart a field guide of dazzling formal execution out of our times of terror and loss. Clear-eyed, resilient, and brave, Giragosian both acknowledges 'hope's atrophied muscles' while suggesting another path--one wherein 'irrepressible nature' (neither cruel nor moral) leads the way. Resplendent with the 'ecstasy of disaster,' origin stories, and the 'blood relation between mammal and stone,' the poet states her desire plainly: 'To rend.' And in this rending (reminiscent of a Dickinson gone wild), and praise, we are given a 'test of [our] freedom,' an unleashed mind, an otherwise-tragic narrative of death undercut by glorious song."--Virginia Konchan "Giragosian's fierce, gorgeous poems embody our role as one in body and mind with other peoples, plants and animals--living and extinct--arguing a familial connection integral to the survival of species including our own: 'he is a thrashing turtle / on a bone hook, speaking from otherwhere / of his apartness. I point to hearth, to kin...'. These poems hope we won't find ourselves with, 'Nothing left on Earth to love or fear,' as they invoke the beauty around us, and in us."--April Ossmann

The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model

The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model
Author: Barry W. Boehm
Publisher: Pearson Education
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2014
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0321808223

Many systems development practitioners find traditional "one-size-fits-all" processes inadequate for the growing complexity, diversity, dynamism, and assurance needs of their products and services. The Incremental Commitment Spiral Model (ICSM) responds with a principle- and risk-based framework for defining and evolving your project and corporate process assets. This book explains ICSM's framework of decision criteria and principles, and shows how to apply them through relevant examples.

Untouched

Untouched
Author: Jayme Bean
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2021-05-17
Genre:
ISBN: 9781736532928