Typography, when coupled with unbridled creativity, craftsmanship, and obsession, can take the mesmerizing form of an ambigram. Ambigrams are typographic designs that combine optical illusion, symmetry, and visual perception. The resulting word or phrase can be read in any number of orientations, viewpoints, or directions. Here is your master class in the art and craft of the ambigram! Curated by graphic and ambigram designer Nikita Prokhorov, this book offers a thorough introduction to the esoteric artistic movement made popular by Dan Brown’s novel Angels & Demons. You’ll find insightful introductions to the ambigram from an allstar panel of design judges, including Scott Kim, John Langdon, Maggie Macnab, Cheryl Savala, Jessica Hische, Stefan G. Bucher, and Scot Morris. Next comes a series of case studies that includes sketches and the thought process behind the creation of some fascinating ambigrams. Finally, the showcase section presents numerous curated artworks from ambigramists around the world. Equipped with the expert techniques and inspiring examples found in these pages, you’ll be ready to start creating your own ambigrams! Stunning showcase of ambigram artwork from around the world Insightful commentary from an all-star panel of ambigram luminaries In-depth case studies illustrating the creation of ambigrams from start to finish

The murder of a world-famous physicist raises fears that the Illuminati are operating again after centuries of silence, and religion professor Robert Langdon is called in to assist with the case.

A tenth anniversary edition of the iconic book about the wonderful world of maths Sunday Times bestseller | Shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize 'Original and highly entertaining' Sunday Times 'A page turner about humanity's strange, never easy and, above all, never dull relationship with numbers' New Scientist 'Will leave you hooked on numbers' Daily Telegraph In this richly entertaining and accessible book, Alex Bellos explodes the myth that maths is best left to the geeks, and demonstrates the remarkable ways it's linked to our everyday lives. Alex explains the surprising geometry of the 50p piece, and the strategy of how best to gamble it in a casino. He shines a light on the mathematical patterns in nature, and on the peculiar predictability of random behaviour. He eats a potato crisp whose revolutionary shape was unpalatable to the ancient Greeks, and he shows the deep connections between maths, religion and philosophy. From the world's fastest mental calculators in Germany to numerologists in the US desert, from a startlingly numerate chimpanzee in Japan to venerable Hindu sages in India, these dispatches from 'Numberland' are an unlikely but exhilarating cocktail of history, reportage and mathematical proofs. The world of maths is a much friendlier and more colourful place than you might have imagined. This anniversary edition is fully revised and updated.

It's easy to look at the Christmas season through rose colored glasses, but the scrappy radio show "The Other Side" makes it their mission to bring you a different point of view. Through a series of vignettes, host Thomas May guides his audience through moments that aren't exactly holiday card material: Camping out on line for a Black Friday sale, spending your first Christmas without a loved one, forced fun at the office holiday party...some funny, some poignant, all unexpected. The Other Side of Christmas is a heartfelt and humorous play about putting down the burdens of perfection and embracing what truly makes the holiday season special - each other.

#1 WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER • An intelligent, lightning-paced thriller set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., with surprises at every turn. “Impossible to put down.... Another mind-blowing Robert Langdon story.” —The New York Times Famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon answers an unexpected summons to appear at the U.S. Capitol Building. His plans are interrupted when a disturbing object—artfully encoded with five symbols—is discovered in the building. Langdon recognizes in the find an ancient invitation into a lost world of esoteric, potentially dangerous wisdom. When his mentor Peter Solomon—a long-standing Mason and beloved philanthropist—is kidnapped, Langdon realizes that the only way to save Solomon is to accept the mystical invitation and plunge headlong into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and one inconceivable truth ... all under the watchful eye of Dan Brown's most terrifying villain to date.

Argues that the key to understanding ourselves and consciousness is the "strange loop," a special kind of abstract feedback loop that inhabits the brain.