The invention of numerals is perhaps the greatest abstraction the human mind has ever created. Virtually everything in our lives is digital, numerical, or quantified. The story of how and where we got these numerals, which we so depend on, has for thousands of years been shrouded in mystery. Finding Zero is an adventure filled saga of Amir Aczel's lifelong obsession: to find the original sources of our numerals. Aczel has doggedly crisscrossed the ancient world, scouring dusty, moldy texts, cross examining so-called scholars who offered wildly differing sets of facts, and ultimately penetrating deep into a Cambodian jungle to find a definitive proof. Here, he takes the reader along for the ride. The history begins with the early Babylonian cuneiform numbers, followed by the later Greek and Roman letter numerals. Then Aczel asks the key question: where do the numbers we use today, the so-called Hindu-Arabic numerals, come from? It is this search that leads him to explore uncharted territory, to go on a grand quest into India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and ultimately into the wilds of Cambodia. There he is blown away to find the earliest zero—the keystone of our entire system of numbers—on a crumbling, vine-covered wall of a seventh-century temple adorned with eaten-away erotic sculptures. While on this odyssey, Aczel meets a host of fascinating characters: academics in search of truth, jungle trekkers looking for adventure, surprisingly honest politicians, shameless smugglers, and treacherous archaeological thieves—who finally reveal where our numbers come from.

At last - the essential origins and early adventures of Valiant's most powerful heroes and allies, collected between two covers for the first time anywhere! Celebrate 25 years of the largest independent superhero universe in comics with these all-star explorations of Valiant's indelible comics book icons, including X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Bloodshot, Archer & Armstrong, Shadowman, and many more! Who they are, how they came to be, and what they fear the most! This is your essential one-stop guide to the biggest heroes, villains, and super-teams that the Valiant Universe has to offer, just in time for Valiant's 25th Anniversary Celebration! Collecting Archer & Armstrong #0, Bloodshot #0, Harbinger #0, Punk Mambo #0, Quantum and Woody: The Goat #0, Shadowman #0, Unity #0, X-O Manowar #0, and material from Archer & Armstrong #25, Bloodshot #25, Harbinger #25, X-O Manowar #25, and FCBD 2014: Valiant Universe Handbook #1.

At last ? the essential origins and early adventures of Valiant?s most powerful heroes and allies, collected between two covers for the first time anywhere! Celebrate 25 years of the largest independent superhero universe in comics with these all-star explorations of Valiant?s indelible comics book icons, including X-O MANOWAR, HARBINGER, BLOODSHOT, ARCHER & ARMSTRONG, SHADOWMAN, and many more! Who they are, how they came to be, and what they fear the most? This is your essential one-stop guide to the biggest heroes, villains, and super-teams that the Valiant Universe has to offer, just in time for Valiant?s 25th anniversary celebration! Collecting ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #0, BLOODSHOT #0, HARBINGER #0, PUNK MAMBO #0, QUANTUM AND WOODY: THE GOAT #0, SHADOWMAN #0, UNITY #0, X-O MANOWAR #0, and material from ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #25, BLOODSHOT #25, HARBINGER #25, X-O MANOWAR #25, and FCBD 2014: VALIANT UNIVERSE HANDBOOK #1.

In the tradition of "Longitude, " a small and engagingly written book on the history and meaning of zero--a "tour de force" of science history that takes us through the hollow circle that leads to infinity. 32 illustrations.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshipped it, and the Christian Church used it to fend off heretics. Today it's a timebomb ticking in the heart of astrophysics. For zero, infinity's twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything. Within the concept of zero lies a philosophical and scientific history of humanity. Charles Seife's elegant and witty account takes us from Aristotle to superstring theory by way of Egyptian geometry, Kabbalism, Einstein, the Chandrasekhar limit and Stephen Hawking. Covering centuries of thought, it is a concise tour of a world of ideas, bound up in the simple notion of nothing.

Hollis Henry never intended to work for global marketing magnate Hubertus Bigend again. But now she’s broke, and Bigend has just the thing to get her back in the game... Milgrim can disappear in almost any setting, and his Russian is perfectly idiomatic—so much so that he spoke it with his therapist in the secret Swiss clinic where Bigend paid for him to be cured of his addiction... Garreth doesn't owe Bigend a thing. But he does have friends from whom he can call in the kinds of favors powerful people need when things go sideways... They all have something Bigend wants as he finds himself outmaneuvered and adrift, after a Department of Defense contract for combat-wear turns out to be the gateway drug for arms dealers so shadowy they can out-Bigend Bigend himself. “Zero History is [Gibson’s] best yet, a triumph of science fiction as social criticism and adventure.”—BoingBoing.net

This riveting work of investigative reporting and history exposes classified government projects to build gravity-defying aircraft--which have an uncanny resemblance to flying saucers. The atomic bomb was not the only project to occupy government scientists in the 1940s. Antigravity technology, originally spearheaded by scientists in Nazi Germany, was another high priority, one that still may be in effect today. Now for the first time, a reporter with an unprecedented access to key sources in the intelligence and military communities reveals suppressed evidence that tells the story of a quest for a discovery that could prove as powerful as the A-bomb. The Hunt for Zero Point explores the scientific speculation that a "zero point" of gravity exists in the universe and can be replicated here on Earth. The pressure to be the first nation to harness gravity is immense, as it means having the ability to build military planes of unlimited speed and range, along with the most deadly weaponry the world has ever seen. The ideal shape for a gravity-defying vehicle happens to be a perfect disk, making antigravity tests a possible explanation for the numerous UFO sightings of the past 50 years. Chronicling the origins of antigravity research in the world's most advanced research facility, which was operated by the Third Reich during World War II, The Hunt for Zero Point traces U.S. involvement in the project, beginning with the recruitment of former Nazi scientists after the war. Drawn from interviews with those involved with the research and who visited labs in Europe and the United States, The Hunt for Zero Point journeys to the heart of the twentieth century's most puzzling unexplained phenomena.