The Mars Curiosity Rover is the most sophisticated mobile laboratory ever deployed on a planet. For over seven years, scores of investigators have planned its daily route and activities, poring over the overwhelming images and data and revising our understanding of planetary surfaces, geology, and potential habitability. This book takes readers right down to the surface of Mars, chronicling Curiosity’s physical and scientific journey across the planet’s Earth-like, yet strikingly alien vistas. Through dozens of images and descriptive accounts of the surface, you will gain a deeper knowledge of the Martian landscape, from the floor of Gale Crater up to the cliffs of Mount Sharp. Presented at the end of each chapter are the results and revelations from the science team spearheading the mission. Like any cross-country road trip, the rover has hit some unexpected hitches along the way. The book describes the obstacles faced by the rover and its scientists over the years and the difficult decisions and careful experimentation it took to solve them.

First Published in 2002. A History of Curiosity examines the early methodology of anthropological and social research from a critical­historical perspective. The three principal methods of research, travel, the survey and the collection of significant objects, are studied in the context of the social conditions and intellectual trends of early modern times. The author's grasp of the vast, often obscure, but highly interesting body of literature which emerged in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries commands the attention of a wide readership outside purely academic boundaries. He weaves together a series of separate studies, emphasising links between the figures, the philosophies and the literatures of early modern times; links which have previously only been suspected. In focussing on the ars apodemica, or art of travelling'', a body of formal instructions on how to travel, observe and record the information gathered, the author demonstrates the origins of the characteristic inquisitive and systematizing spirit of the modern West.

In his debut picture book, Motum brings the story of NASA's beloved Mars rover Curiosity to life in vivid color. Full of eye-catching retro illustrations, this book is sure to fascinate budding space explorers and set inquisitive minds soaring. Full color.

A revolutionary philosophy for rookie and veteran travelers alike, Rediscovering Travel “gets to the heart of why we travel” (Matt Kepnes, “Nomadic Matt”). Having captivated millions during his tenure as the New York Times’s “Frugal Traveler,” Seth Kugel is one of our most internationally beloved travel writers. With the initial publication of Rediscovering Travel, he took the corporate modern travel industry to task, determined to reignite an age- old sense of adventure that has virtually been vanquished by the spontaneity- obliterating likes of Google Maps, TripAdvisor, and Starwood points. Now in travel- friendly paperback, this “funny, inspiring and well- crafted” companion (Associated Press) reveals how to make the most of new apps and other digital technologies without being shackled to them. Writing for the tight- belted tourists and the fi rst- class fl yer, the eager student and the comfort- seeking retiree, Kugel shows all readers “not only where to look, but how” (Samantha Brown), and promises that we too can rediscover the joy of discovery. “Travel is not about the destination but the experience. . . . That’s what makes [it] so appealing, so addictive, and that’s what makes Rediscovering Travel so necessary.” — Peter Greenberg

This is a book about the power of curiosity to improve the way we travel. Rooted in decades of research on curiosity and cultural intelligence, David Livermore explores the key research behind curiosity and exemplifies it through exploring the dilemmas faced when traveling abroad.

The decades between 1770 and 1840 are rich in exotic accounts of the ruin-strewn landscapes of Ethiopia, Egypt, India, and Mexico. Yet it is a field which has been neglected by scholars and which - unjustifiably - remains outside the literary canon. In this pioneering book, Nigel Leask studies the Romantic obsession with these 'antique lands', drawing generously on a wide range of eighteenth and nineteenth-century travel books, as well as on recent scholarship in literature, history, geography, and anthropology. Viewing the texts primarily as literary works rather than 'transparent' adventure stories or documentary sources, he sets out to challenge the tendency in modern academic work to overemphasize the authoritative character of colonial discourse. Instead, he addresses the relationship between narrative, aesthetics, and colonialism through the unstable discourse of antiquarianism, exploring the effects of problems of credit worthiness, and the nebulous epistemological claims of 'curiosity' (a leitmotif of the accounts studied here), on the contemporary status of travel writing. Attentive to the often divergent idioms of elite and popular exoticism, Curiosity and the Aesthetics of Travel Writing plots the transformation of the travelogue through the period, as the baroque particularism of curiosity was challenged by picturesque aesthetics, systematic 'geographical narrative', and the emergence of a 'transcendental self' axiomatic to Romantic culture. In so doing it offers an important reformulation of the relations between literature, aesthetics, and empire in the late Enlightenment and Romantic periods.

If you read this book, you will learn:Why some people reject Western-style toiletsWhy Muslims hold the only key to the tomb of JesusHow the United States Capitol honors Roman godsWhy Christopher Columbus is buried on two continentsWhat saint lived atop a pillar for 37 yearsWhich important ruler fathered 867 childrenHow Michelangelo ¿mooned¿ the PopeWhose ninth century flight is honored on the moonFor years, Don Knebel, an Indianapolis attorney, law professor, speaker and civic leader, has traveled with his wife Jen to interact with the world's people and learn about their customs and their religions. The idea for this book came when he discovered, to his embarrassment, that not all people find Western bathroom plumbing an improvement. From that revelation of his cultural bias, he began looking in the places he visits for stories reflecting our common humanity and the ideas that both divide and unite us. Some of the stories are humorous and some are unusual. Some are inspirational and a few contradict common assumptions. Only one is about toilets. The 101 stories, selected from those previously published in a weekly column Don writes for the Current newspapers, are arranged in roughly chronological order, providing a quick tour through the history of western and near eastern civilization and religious beliefs over the last 10,000 years. If you plan to travel, this book can suggest where to go. If you don't plan to travel, this book can tell you what you've missed.