David Baker

It is more than 50 years since a spacecraft first landed on the Moon and millions of people worldwide tuned in to their television screens to see astronauts take their first steps on the lunar surface. Since then, many missions have taken humans into space, each time accumulating knowledge and pushing the limits of what science will help us achieve. The permanently manned International Space Station is due to return to Earth within the next decade and the next mission to establish a permanent research station near the Moon's South Pole is underway. From here, there is a plan to map and travel into deep space. The vast costs associated with such a mission now require multiple partnerships between international space agencies, private companies and governments, bolstered by public support. Within the next decade, it is intended that humans will return to the Moon. This illustrated book defines the progress of the mission, the political landscape that has determined and delayed it in equal measure, and looks at the development of the spacecraft and the science behind the endeavour.

Inspiring science fiction writers for decades, it was no surprise when the space age began in the late 1950s that Mars was an early target for exploration. The earliest attempts were probes designed to fly past and take pictures of the planet. In the 1970s, the first orbiters touched down and showed the reality of the planet. By the turn of the century, small roving vehicles had started exploring the surface and, within the last decade, larger vehicles powered by radioactive isotopes have been moving out further and further from their landing sites. Mars continues to be a source of fascination and future exploration. With over 180 images, this book tracks the creation and implementation of the Mars rovers and the exploration that has occured on the planet so far.

A complete history of the universe, spanning 13.8 billion years in an ultra-accessible, uncommonly illuminating, exhilarating chronicle of key events "Baker introduces us not only to the history of our species and our planet, but the history of our vast universe."--from the foreword by John Green, author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and The Fault in Our Stars In this thrilling history, David Baker captures the longest-possible time span--from the Big Bang to the present day--in an astonishingly concise retelling. His impressive timeline includes the "rise of complexity" in the cosmos and the creation of the first atoms; the origin of all galaxies, stars, and our solar system; and the evolution of life on Earth, from tiny single-celled organisms to human beings. Weaving together insights across the sciences--including chemistry, physics, biology, archaeology, and anthropology--Baker answers the fundamental questions: How did time begin? Why does matter exist? What made life on Earth the way it is? He also argues that never before has life on Earth been forced to adjust to a changing climate so rapidly, nor has one species ever been responsible for such sudden change. Baker's grand view offers the clearest picture of what may come next--and the role we can still play in our planet's fate.

Police Related Deaths in the United States examines how police related deaths in the US occur; how investigations are conducted into these deaths; and why such deaths and the investigatory processes into them provoke such concern in the wider American society. The book considers such deaths as being the result of structural and systemic factors in policing, the criminal justice system, and broader socio-political and socio-legal landscapes in the U. S.. It argues that an increasingly aggressive police mindset allied with relatively toothless regulatory frameworks effectively lead to police being enabled by the criminal justice system to use lethal force with relative impunity. The book considers the disproportionate number of deaths in marginalized communities, for example: people of color, people who are mentally unwell, and LGBTQ people. Each chapter in the book begins with a case study of a specific police related death and places issues within that case in the wider context of policing in the US. David Baker argues that the effects of these deaths go beyond merely policing and criminal justice, and corrodes the core fabric of American society.

How did time begin? What conditions led to humans evolving on Earth? Will we survive the Anthropocene? And is it really true that we’re all made from stars? Combining knowledge from chemistry, biology, and physics, with insights from the social sciences and humanities, A Brief History of the Last 13.8 Billion Years follows the continuum of historical change in the cosmos — from the Big Bang, through the evolution of life, to human history. In this compelling and revealing book, David Baker traces the rise of complexity in the cosmos, from the first atoms to the first life and then to humans and the things we have made. He shows us how simple clumps of hydrogen gas transformed into complex human societies. This approach — Big History — allows us to see beyond the chaos of human affairs to the overall trajectory. Finally, Baker looks at the dramatic and sudden changes we’re making to our planet and its biosphere and how history hints at what might come next.

"It is horrible and should not exist." - Ben Granger, Spike Magazine "Indescribable, contender for the grossest book I have ever read." - Anita Dalton, Odd Things Considered "It's so weird it's undefinable but so charming it is universally relatable." - Christy Stewart, Goodreads review The Blurb: 19-year-old thug Craig Mawdsley has robbed your home, smashed up your car and mugged your grandmother. Now he attempts his greatest ever assault on the general public - by writing a book. Craig hates everyone so much that even his dislike of writing cannot stop his desire to offend all those that have labelled him a chav, weasel, scumbag - and, yes, c*nt. You know his type, you see him everyday, and you try to avoid him at all costs. But you can't anymore, because within these demented pages, Craig tells how he has inexplicably risen through the social ranks to a place where he can terrorise mankind with unlimited prejudice - before the true purpose of his unusual literary project is shockingly revealed. A word from the author: It's Mawdsley was originally published in 2007. This 2022 edition is editorially superior and the prequel to the up-coming second book in the Mawdsley series, World Maw 3. www.cockturkeypress.com

Acclaimed as an essential voice of the American Midwest, David Baker expands both his environment and his form in his eleventh collection. Whale Fall is about time, measured in the wingbeats of a hummingbird or the epochs of geological change, and about place, whether a backyard in Ohio or the slopes of a melting glacier. In the exquisite, musical title poem, a deft hybrid of eco-poetic alarm and intimate narrative, Baker transports us to the deep sea as a single gray whale carcass falls, decays, and is reinhabited by a cosmos of teeming lives. Among the strands of ocean health, microplastics, and related calamities of human disregard, the poet weaves in a personal story of chronic illness. The result is a stirring, confident work, astonishing in its emotional acuity and lyric range. Each poem in Whale Fall is an echolocation, emitting its music to situate itself among others in the vastness of the world. Amidst climate change and catastrophe, as amidst a blooming viburnum or a viral disease, these poems send their songs across empty spaces of a line, a page, or a continent, to see who is out there, moving in the depths of being.

For nearly thirty years, Geoffrey Oliver Tristram (GOT) was the celebrated Organist and Master of the Choristers at Christchurch Priory. He set a high standard for both organ performance and choral direction still widely revered and celebrated. This book charts GOT's life from his birth in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, in 1917 to his sudden death at the age of just 61. It looks at his career as student, teacher, choirmaster, accompanist and, especially, celebrated recitalist, at home and abroad. Drawing heavily on primary source material, including family archives and photographs, the book is complemented and underpinned by the memories and reminiscences of relations, friends, colleagues, peers, and others. It includes many contemporary reviews of his performances, right from his early days as a teenage Fellow of the Royal College of Organists until his last masterly recitals. Appendices give details about Tristram's recitals, broadcasts, and recordings, alongside specifications of the instruments at Christchurch Priory. The book also provides access to a selection of previously unreleased recordings made in the 1960s and early 1970s. Geoffrey Tristram: A Very British Organist, paints a rich picture of the man (husband, father, friend) and the musician, a player who had a significant influence on generations of organists and singers.

For nearly thirty years, Geoffrey Oliver Tristram (GOT) was the celebrated Organist and Master of the Choristers at Christchurch Priory. He set a high standard for both organ performance and choral direction still widely revered and celebrated. This book charts GOT's life from his birth in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, in 1917 to his sudden death at the age of just 61. It looks at his career as student, teacher, choirmaster, accompanist and, especially, celebrated recitalist, at home and abroad. Drawing heavily on primary source material, including family archives and photographs, the book is complemented and underpinned by the memories and reminiscences of relations, friends, colleagues, peers, and others. It includes many contemporary reviews of his performances, right from his early days as a teenage Fellow of the Royal College of Organists until his last masterly recitals. Appendices give details about Tristram's recitals, broadcasts, and recordings, alongside specifications of the instruments at Christchurch Priory. The book also provides access to a selection of previously unreleased recordings made in the 1960s and early 1970s. Geoffrey Tristram: A Very British Organist, paints a rich picture of the man (husband, father, friend) and the musician, a player who had a significant influence on generations of organists and singers.

The latest jet fighters deceive, evade, confuse, lock-on to their targets, and kill them without being seen, heard, or detected. There is no place to hide for older combat aircraft and by the time the fourth generation know they are under attack they are already dead. Fighter forces around the world are seeking out the best that technology can provide - pilots can increasingly put themselves outside their cockpit, peering far beyond visual range, leaving the aircraft to keep them out of harm's way while they manage the mission. In Fifth Generation Fighters, author David Baker explains how net-centric warfare and sensor fusion takes the fight into the very heart of the weapons systems computer, apportioning missiles to discriminated targets, tracking up to 100 hostiles and downing many beyond visual range. He also looks at how future fighters will connect to satellites in space for information about enemy air assets, control swarms of unmanned combat air vehicles and plan the endgame for an air battle that has yet to begin. And when the sixth generation arrives it will be like nothing yet seen - trans-atmospheric air vehicles moving down from the edge of space faster than a ballistic missile, engaging at hypersonic speeds and killing with impunity. The clock is ticking - a fifth generation fighter war is coming

Between 1981 and 2011, NASA's reusable transportation system, the Space Shuttle, completed 135 launches. Along with launching and servicing many satellites, space-based observatories and planetary missions, the Shuttle also lifted most of the components for the Space Station into orbit. It helped build a commercial space industry by launching non-governmental satellites for private companies. Following NASA's lead, European governments banded together to create the European Space Agency. With cooperation from Canada, Japan and Russia, the International Space Station was created. This book looks at the legacy of the Space Shuttle, its missions and roles, and appreciates that, as an engineering feat, it was a marvel.

It is 429 AD and the Roman Empire is falling apart. When Germanus of Gaul is summoned to Rome to have an audience with the Pontifex Maximus, the Pope pleads with him to travel to Britannia, become Archbishop, and overthrow the Vortigern, the evil mastermind who plans to conquer Rome and the Empire. When Germanus finally agrees, he has no idea what lies ahead. After he arrives home, he is horrified to find his wife murdered and his son, Patricius, missing. When a mysterious red-haired Celtic queen arrives at the funeral celebrations, she entices Germanus to take her with him back to the island, along with Lupus, his adopted son. While in Britannia, Germanus becomes torn between the different factions that are battling to impose their beliefs and dominate both island and Empire. As he fights with Britons and Celts and against Saxons and the Vortigern's crack troops, he finds a new love and a long-lost lover, comes face-to-face with his mortality, and encounters human sacrifice. Now he must decide what kind of man he is: pagan or Christian; Roman or British; general or bishop; emperor or pope. How he decides will not only seal his fate, but also that of an entire continent. In this exciting saga, a Roman general is led on an incredible journey through battles and human sacrifice to a personal choice with the power to transform history.