The Way Toys Work

The Way Toys Work
Author: Ed Sobey
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2008-05-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1613743092

If you've ever wondered how an Etch A Sketch writes on its gray screen, or why a boomerang comes back, or how an R/C car responds to a radio controller, now you'll have your answers. The Way Toys Work explains the technology, history, and trivia behind 50 popular toys, with patent blueprints and photos of the &“guts&” of devices including: * Kaleidoscope * Magna Doodle * Slinky * Nintendo * Super Soaker * Big Mouth Billy Bass * Rubik's Cube * Silly Putty * Video Game Light Gun * Furby * Dunking Bird * View-Master * Yo-Yo * Push 'n' Go Car * Wiffle Ball * Gyroscope * Operation * Hula Hoop You'll also find pointers on how to build your own versions using recycled materials and a little ingenuity, experiments that can be done with certain toys, and tips on reverse engineering old toys to get a better look at their interior mechanics. The only thing you won't learn is how the Magic 8 Ball is able to predict the future--some things are best left a mystery.

The Way Things Work Now

The Way Things Work Now
Author: David Macaulay
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2016-10-04
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 1328663108

A New York Times Bestseller Explainer-in-Chief David Macaulay updates the worldwide bestseller The New Way Things Work to capture the latest developments in the technology that most impacts our lives. Famously packed with information on the inner workings of everything from windmills to Wi-Fi, this extraordinary and humorous book both guides readers through the fundamental principles of machines, and shows how the developments of the past are building the world of tomorrow. This sweepingly revised edition embraces all of the latest developments, from touchscreens to 3D printer. Each scientific principle is brilliantly explained--with the help of a charming, if rather slow-witted, woolly mammoth. An illustrated survey of significant inventions closes the book, along with a glossary of technical terms, and an index. What possible link could there be between zippers and plows, dentist drills and windmills? Parking meters and meat grinders, jumbo jets and jackhammers, remote control and rockets, electric guitars and egg beaters? Macaulay explains them all.

The Way Science Works

The Way Science Works
Author: Robin Kerrod
Publisher: DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley)
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2008
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781405331937

From lightning bolts to robotics, bring science to life with incredible experiments. From the principles that explain the world to the theories behind today's fast changing technology, help your child discover science in action. Test the theories together with more than 60 hands-on projects and explore amazing images which take you to the cutting-edge of scientific developments. Packed with facts about famous scientists, new technology and more.

The Way We Work

The Way We Work
Author: David Macaulay
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2008-10-07
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0547346328

In this comprehensive and entertaining resource, David Macaulay reveals the inner workings of the human body as only he could. In order to present this complicated subject in an accurate and entertaining way, he put in years of research. He sat in on anatomy classes, dissections, and even reached inside the rib cages of two cadavers to compare their spleen sizes. He observed numerous surgeries, including a ten-hour procedure where a diseased pancreas was removed, as well as one where a worn-out old knee was replaced by a brand new one. This hands-on investigation gives Macaulay a unique perspective to lead his readers on a visual journey through the workings of the human body. The seven sections within the book take us from the cells that form our foundation to the individual systems they build. Each beautifully illustrated spread details different aspects of our complex structure, explaining the function of each and offering up-close glimpses, unique cross-sections and perspectives, and even a little humor along the way. This one-of-a-kind book can serve as a reference for children, families, teachers, and anyone who has questions about how his or her body works. When readers see how David Macaulay builds a body and explains the way it works, they will come away with a new appreciation of the amazing world inside them.

Creativity, Inc. (The Expanded Edition)

Creativity, Inc. (The Expanded Edition)
Author: Ed Catmull
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2014-04-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0679644504

The co-founder and longtime president of Pixar updates and expands his 2014 New York Times bestseller on creative leadership, reflecting on the management principles that built Pixar’s singularly successful culture, and on all he learned during the past nine years that allowed Pixar to retain its creative culture while continuing to evolve. “Might be the most thoughtful management book ever.”—Fast Company For nearly thirty years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as the Toy Story trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, and WALL-E, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner eighteen Academy Awards. The joyous storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Here, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable. As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream as a Ph.D. student, and then forged a partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his founding Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1986. Nine years later, Toy Story was released, changing animation forever. The essential ingredient in that movie’s success—and in the twenty-five movies that followed—was the unique environment that Catmull and his colleagues built at Pixar, based on philosophies that protect the creative process and defy convention, such as: • Give a good idea to a mediocre team and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team and they will either fix it or come up with something better. • It’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them. • The cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them. • A company’s communication structure should not mirror its organizational structure. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody. Creativity, Inc. has been significantly expanded to illuminate the continuing development of the unique culture at Pixar. It features a new introduction, two entirely new chapters, four new chapter postscripts, and changes and updates throughout. Pursuing excellence isn’t a one-off assignment but an ongoing, day-in, day-out, full-time job. And Creativity, Inc. explores how it is done.

How Attention Works

How Attention Works
Author: Stefan Van Der Stigchel
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2019-03-12
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0262039265

How we filter out what is irrelevant so we can focus on what we need to know. We are surrounded by a world rich with visual information, but we pay attention to very little of it, filtering out what is irrelevant so we can focus on what we think we need to know. Advertisers, web designers, and other “attention architects” try hard to get our attention, promoting products with videos on huge outdoor screens, adding flashing banners to websites, and developing computer programs with blinking icons that tempt us to click. Often they succeed in distracting us from what we are supposed to be doing. In How Attention Works, Stefan Van der Stigchel explains the process of attention and what the implications are for our everyday lives. The visual attention system is efficient, Van der Stigchel writes, because it doesn't waste energy processing every scrap of visual data it receives; it gathers only relevant information. We focus on one snippet of information and assume that everything else is stable and consistent with past experience; that's why most people miss even the most glaring continuity errors in films. If an object doesn't meet our expectations, chances are we won't see it. Van der Stigchel makes his case with examples from real life, explaining, among other things, the limitations of color perception (and why fire trucks shouldn't be red); the importance of location (security guards and radiologists, for example, have to know where to look); the attention-getting properties of faces and spiders; what we can learn from someone else's eye movements; why we see what we expect to see (magicians take advantage of this); and visual neglect and unattended information.

Show Your Work!

Show Your Work!
Author: Austin Kleon
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2014-03-06
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0761181369

In his New York Times bestseller Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon showed readers how to unlock their creativity by “stealing” from the community of other movers and shakers. Now, in an even more forward-thinking and necessary book, he shows how to take that critical next step on a creative journey—getting known. Show Your Work! is about why generosity trumps genius. It’s about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time “networking.” It’s not self-promotion, it’s self-discovery—let others into your process, then let them steal from you. Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples, Show Your Work! offers ten transformative rules for being open, generous, brave, productive. In chapters such as You Don’t Have to Be a Genius; Share Something Small Every Day; and Stick Around, Kleon creates a user’s manual for embracing the communal nature of creativity— what he calls the “ecology of talent.” From broader life lessons about work (you can’t find your voice if you don’t use it) to the etiquette of sharing—and the dangers of oversharing—to the practicalities of Internet life (build a good domain name; give credit when credit is due), it’s an inspiring manifesto for succeeding as any kind of artist or entrepreneur in the digital age.

Toys

Toys
Author: James Patterson
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2011-03-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316097373

Move over, James Bond and Jason Bourne-superhuman agent Hays Baker fights to save millions of lives in James Patterson's thrilling bestseller. Hays Baker and his wife Lizbeth possess superhuman strength, extraordinary intelligence, stunning looks, a sex life to die for, and two beautiful children. Of course they do-they're Elites, endowed at birth with the very best that the world can offer. But their lives are about to change forever. The top operative for the Agency of Change, Hays has just won the fiercest battle of his career. He has been praised by the President, and is a national hero. But before he can savor his triumph, he receives an unbelievable shock that overturns everything he thought was true. Suddenly Hays is on the other side of the gun, forced to leave his perfect family and fight for his life. Now a hunted fugitive, Hays is thrown into a life he never dreamed possible: fighting to save humans everywhere from extinction. He enlists all of his training to uncover the truth that will save millions of lives, maybe even his own. Compelling and addictive, Toys is an unforgettable spy thriller from the world's #1 writer.

A Better Idea

A Better Idea
Author: Donald E. Petersen
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1991
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Presents a plan of action for CEOs, managers, and employees at all levels, based on the lessons Petersen learned from his decade as president and then chairman of Ford.

Toy Stories

Toy Stories
Author: Gabriele Galimberti
Publisher: Abrams
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2014-03-25
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 1613129823

For over a year, the photographer and journal­ist Gabriele Galimberti visited more than 50 countries and created colorful images of boys and girls in their homes and neighborhoods with their most prized possessions: their toys. From Texas to India, Malawi to China, Iceland, Morocco, and Fiji, Galimberti recorded the spontaneous and natural joy that unites kids despite their diverse backgrounds. Whether the child owns a veritable fleet of miniature cars or a single stuffed monkey, the pride that Galimberti captures is moving, funny, and thought provoking.