Ball of Fire


Book Description

As a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, “queen of the B-pluses.” But on the small screen she was a superstar–arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots of Lucy’s genius and places it in the context of her conflicted and sometimes bitter personal life. Ball of Fire gives us Lucy in all her contradictions. Here is the beauty who became a master of knock-down slapstick; the control freak whose comic alter ego thrived on chaos, the worshipful TV housewife whose real marriage ended in public disaster. Here, too, is an intimate view of the dawn of television and of the America that embraced it. Charming, informative, touching. and laugh-out-loud funny, this is the book Lucy’s fans have been waiting for.




Balls of Fire


Book Description

Spanning 5,000 years of history from ancient Egypt to our technoprogressive 21st century, the science reviewed in Balls of Fire builds on The Isis Thesis (2004) and 12 journal articles (2005-2013). The Isis Thesis is a semiotic study of ancient Egyptian literature, artwork, ritual, and architecture, showing that ancient Egyptian deities are signs for human and microbial genes and proteins evolving into a hybrid quantum species. The deities' activities describe the ancient glycolysis gene expression network in our cells and mirror the lifestyles of a complex bacterial virus that uses this ancient developmental pathway. Surprisingly, other historical religious deities mirror the activities of Egyptian deities, so religion has also preserved an evolutionary science for survival of human DNA in a quantum environment. Balls of Fire presents evidence that our semiotic system is based on underlying physical and chemical principles inherited from our microbial ancestors, so our microbial DNA is ordering our society space. Examining human history through the dual lens of contemporary science and human behavior, the study shows that human beings have the potential to evolve at death into a unique hybrid species. Elite historical rulers have consistently veiled this evolutionary knowledge from humanity. However, our behavior has stamped an evolutionary viral footprint on the last 12,000 years of human history. In line with the methodology of Imre Lakatos (1970) on progressive and degenerating research programs, Balls of Fire examines the core hypotheses of the Isis Thesis, its predictions and several other auxiliary hypotheses. Understanding transdisciplinary ancient Egyptian knowledge is not easy, so Balls of Fire uses the same mental model and ritual that the pharaonic priesthood imagined to describe the ancient viral gene expression network in our cells for morphogenesis. That model is their ball-throwing rite or the game of baseball, which originated in ancient Egypt to illustrate a viral protein binding battle over gene-bases. Although the game of baseball has drifted through the centuries as a popular sport in many cultures, it originally expressed microbiological warfare at the level of viral genes and proteins. Because ancient Egyptian science mirrors the knowledge of our contemporary sciences, the baseball model simplifies the information for readers, while explaining the science that the pharaonic priesthood concealed in pyramids and tombs for centuries. For the creation of the baseball model, a fantasy-draft selection of two teams frames the historical power/knowledge grid, as well as the scientific argument for and against the Isis Thesis, while explaining the necessary context for what the theory predicts and scientific experiments confirm. This is accomplished by the draft of dead and living scientists, philosophers, writers and other creative artists, whose ideas are presented in two fantasy teams in order to tackle the mind-body problem that has confounded humans for centuries. Using this adversarial system, the reader determines the truth of the case through a transdisciplinary quest that prioritizes scientific research. Also summarizing the author's 12 published scientific papers, Balls of Fire presents findings correlative with the history of human ideas, along with scientific evidence and mechanistic insights to establish the clear link between nature, our behavior and human evolutionary potential. The evidence shows that our behavior and the evolution of society in the last 12,000 years has carved a footprint into human history, profiling a viral developmental pathway for human evolution. Balls of Fire exposes this hidden survival agenda in baseball, ancient cultures, alchemy, literary texts, Christianity, world visions, our sciences, and history itself."




The Ball of Fire


Book Description

Allison helped her into his big, piratical looking runabout, and tucked her in as if she were some fragile hot-house plant which might freeze with the first cool draught. He looked, with keen appreciation, at her fresh cheeks and sparkling eyes and softly waving hair. He had never given himself much time for women, but this girl was a distinct individual. It was not her undeniable beauty which he found so attractive. He had met many beautiful women. Nor was it charm of manner, nor the thing called personal magnetism, nor the intelligence which gleamed from her eyes. It was something intangible and baffling which had chained his interest from the moment she had appeared in the vestry doorway, and since he was a man who had never admitted the existence of mysteries, his own perplexity puzzled him.




Great Balls of Fire


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Great Balls of Fire


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Ball of Fire


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A Ball of Fire


Book Description

John Montague, best known as a poet, is also a gifted prose writer.A Ball of Firecollects all of his short stories, together with the erotic novellaThe Lost Notebook(which he hoped to have banned, but which ended up winning a major literary prize).In the shorter stories, fromThe Road Ahead, which comments poignantly on the loss of established landmarks, to the title story, in which a series of chance encounters helps unlock a painter s creativity, he casts a cool yet sympathetic eye over his environment, both in Ireland and farther afield.The longer works -The Lost Notebooks(about the incendiary relationship between a troubled American girl and a young Irish man in Florence),Death of a Chieftain(a daringly ambitious story set in Mexico) andThe Three Last Things(a moving meditation on love and death) - stand as pillars within the book.Montague's clear prose is shot through with hard-won insights into his fellow human beings, and the various burdens, physical and emotional, under which they labour. And of course through it all runs the theme of the importance of love, in its many forms.




The Giant Ball of String


Book Description

Rumpus Ridge, Wisconsin, is proud to have the biggest ball of string in the world, so when they lose their treasure to a nearby town they devise a clever plan to get it back.




The Magic Ball of Wool


Book Description

Winner at the 2013 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards The Magic Ball of Wool is a charming tale of friendship, generosity and kindness that will bring out the best in young readers by encouraging them to help others Guided Reading Level: L, Lexile Level: 930L




The Art of Fire


Book Description

Fire can fascinate, inspire, capture the imagination and bring families and communities together. It has the ability to amaze, energise and touch something deep inside all of us. For thousands of years, at every corner of the globe, humans have been huddling around fires: from the basic and primitive essentials of light, heat, energy and cooking, through to modern living, fire plays a central role in all of our lives. The ability to accurately and quickly light a fire is one of the most important skills anyone setting off on a wilderness adventure could possess, yet very little has been written about it. Through his narrative Hume also meditates on the wider topics surrounding fire and how it shapes the world around us.