Fatal Words


Book Description

On March 27, 1977, 583 people died when KLM and Pan Am 747s collided on a crowded, foggy runway in Tenerife, the Canary Islands. The cause, a miscommunication between the pilot and the air traffic controller. The pilot radioed, "We are now at takeoff," meaning that the plane was lifting off, but the tower controller misunderstood and thought the plane was waiting on the runway. In Fatal Words, Steven Cushing explains how miscommunication has led to dozens of aircraft disasters, and he proposes innovative solutions for preventing them. He examines ambiguities in language when aviation jargon and colloquial English are mixed, when a word is used that has different meanings, and when different words are used that sound alike. To remedy these problems, Cushing proposes a visual communication system and a computerized voice mechanism to help clear up confusing language. Fatal Words is an accessible explanation of some of the most notorious aircraft tragedies of our time, and it will appeal to scholars in communications, linguistics, and cognitive science, to aviation experts, and to general readers.




The Union, Number Five


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Dangerous Women, Deadly Words


Book Description

This is a materialist-feminist, psychoanalytic analysis of a modern Japanese literary trope—the dangerous woman, linked to archaisms and magical realms and found throughout the Japanese canon—in the works of three 20th-century writers: Izumi Kyoka (1873–1939), Enchi Fumiko (1905–86), and Nakagami Kenji (1946–92).




The Gifted


Book Description

A national bestseller in hardcover, the 14th Joanne Kilbourn novel is as rich in human drama as all the series: Jo and Zack's young daughter's precocious artistic talent draws the attention of people who may not be at all what they seem. A treat for readers of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series as well as Gail Bowen's devoted fans. Jo and Zack are both proud and a little concerned when their youngest daughter Taylor -- whose birth mother was a brilliant but notorious artist -- has two paintings chosen for a major fund-raising auction. One they've seen; Taylor has kept the other, a portrait of a young male artist's model, in her studio. Their concern grows when it becomes clear (and quite public) that the young man is the lover of the older socialite who organized the fund-raiser. Soon, an ugly web of infidelity, addiction, and manipulation seems to be weaving itself around the Kilbourn-Shreve family. Jo and Zack are doing their best to keep everyone safe, but when one of the principal players in the drama is found murdered, events begin to spiral, Taylor seems to be drifting further away, and their very darkest fears seem about to be realized. The Gifted reconfirms Gail Bowen's incomparable ability to weave the domestic with the dramatic, and to explore the dark side of human nature while keeping the life-affirming pillars of family and friendship standing.




Canvas


Book Description

In the distant future, the world as we know it has vanished. With no other options left, humanity is forced to retreat into the virtual reality utopia known as "Canvas". As the citizens live peacefully within the walls of the Cranium Citadel, this becomes threatened by the arrival of the mysterious Reverend Thaddeus who bears a disturbing warning which could plunge the world into eternal darkness. With nowhere to run, can mankind survive against the horrors that lurk beyond the walls?