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A fun book that uses the premise of a time traveller stranded in the past and having to make the best of things by starting off humanity on the path of civilization. The means of doing this is by bypassing the trial and errors that humanity went through and going straight to the solutions needed to set up a working modern civilization.

The book starts off with tips for the stranded time traveller to find out where and when he might be. Assuming the traveller is lucky and ends up in a certain time period where modern man was around, but civilization hasn't been established yet, the book goes on with the basis of setting up a civilization, namely getting a spoken and written language, a 'rational' system of numbers and establishing the scientific method.

Farming is then introduced so that people's basis calorie needs are satisfied and can devote energy to other matters. Units of measurements (length, weights, etc.) are added, followed by more details on how to farm more productively (selective breeding and crop rotation). A list of plants and animals that are useful are also given.

Once people can be properly fed, industry is then added. Basic farming technology is added (the plough and harness), followed by ways to preserve food. Mining machinery is added, leading to more machines and the beginnings of the industrial age, all the way to electrical machines.

Other basic items of civilization are introduced like clocks, thermometers, sewing, birth control, housing materials (cement and concrete), paper and transport (bicycles, boats, aeroplanes) are added. The basics of medicine and first aid are added, and the book ends of 'luxuries' like music and the basics of computers.

With that, the stranded time traveller might be able to 'kick-start' humanity on the path of civilization and end up where he or she started, with the abilities to build a time machine to go back in time, again.

An okay issue, with interesting stories by Essa Hansen, Matthew Hughes, Alex Irvine, Albert E. Cowdrey and Auston Habershaw.

• "Save, Salve, Shelter" by Essa Hansen: in this future, environmental disaster has happened and what remains of humanity is leaving for Mars. Collectors are tasked with collecting DNA samples from animals that still survive to take with them. But one collector wants to do more and bring the animals to Mars. As ship after ship rejects her, she makes one last desperate move for her animals, not seemingly aware of the changes happening to her charges.

• "Air of the Overworld" by Matthew Hughes: a wizard subjects a henchman to strange experiments that may have to do with sending him to another plane of existence (the Overworld) to collect materials for him. Becoming aware of the dangers this endeavour might do to him, he plans to escape with the help of an inhabitant of the Overworld that he once helped.

• "Banshee" by Michael Cassutt: when an experimental spaceship keeps suffering problems, it is up to a well-connected problem solver to figure out a solution. But he finds himself 'out of the loop' when his initial proposed solution is not accepted. But he eventually figures out an alternative solution with the help of his daughter who, in this story, has undergone a radical change and become a dinosaur (radical body morphs being another part of the story).

• "Chisel and Chime" by Alex Irvine: a light fantasy story with a heavy theme around art and death. A sculptor is given the task of producing a statue of a local despot, a task that would end with her death. Watching over her is a soldier, whose origin story of living in a village and then running away and ending up as her guard would show that he does not know how his task will also end. And yet, with the help of a special bell from the guard that has the ability to contain the ghost of a departed person, she comes up with a desperate plan to save him from the designs of the despot after her death.

• "Elsinore Revolution" by Elaine Vilar Madruga: a short short story of a future where multiple Shakespeares write plays, only one particular Shakespeare character does not want to do its appointed role.

• "Falling Angel" by Albert E. Cowdrey: two psychics are called to rid a new development in Hollywood of the agonizing scream of a woman who fell to her death years ago. But as they research her background and the circumstances of her death, they discover the person who caused her death may not be an actual person at all.

• "The Key to Composing Human Skin" by Julianna Baggott: an unusual story set in a country (maybe the USA) under the rule of tyranny. In a firm tasked with the job of delivering messages from the government more effectively, one person comes up with the idea of messages the user can't escape from, like a rash on their skin. Without spoiling the story, the idea is implemented in an unusual way that expresses the users' actual thoughts that they can't escape from.

• "Interlude in Arcadia" by Corey Flintoff: a professor of Greek Literature finds himself stumbling into a world where Greek myths come to life, and they may not treat him too kindly.

• "Three Gowns for Clara" by Auston Habershaw: when a Prince makes a proclamation and invites (demands) all maidens to attend a ball, it falls on to an old seamstress to quickly make three gowns for a duke. This, she does, sacrificing her time and that of her helper and her grandniece, who now does not have the time to make her own dress for the ball. But perhaps with a change of heart, the grandniece may have her chance to shine at the ball.

• "The Nameless" by Melissa Marr: a story of a forest where women live and fight off 'wolves' that threaten them. Unfortunately, the premise of the story doesn't hold together very well, especially as more of the world beyond the forest the women live in is revealed in the story.

• "The Leader Principle" by Rahul Kanakia: a story of a man (maybe modelled on SpaceX's Elon Musk) who dreams of getting rockets to Mars at any cost, and of his assistant who would do anything to ensure that dream becomes true, even if it means taking money from investors who have no hope of getting their money back and maybe even thinking of ways of enslaving the rest of the world.

An interesting book that looks at the author's fascination with the colour blue. He travels the world, talking to scientists and others, and gives a look at various aspects of blue: from objects with the colour to how we look at and react to blue.

• "Stones" looks at how blue appears in stones and combinations of minerals. Lapis lazuli is known to be blue since ancient times and used for decorations. The Egyptians eventually figured out how to make Egyptian blue tiles. By grinding, heating and combining lapis lazuli with other substances, ultramarine blue was produced, a colour more valuable than its weight in gold. The act of alchemy would produce the next blue substance, Prussian blue. In modern days, a vivid blue would be accidentally created: YInMn Blue. And maybe one day, the mineral ringwoodlite that makes up much of the mantle is the earth could give another way to make blue.

• "Seeing" looks at how we see colour, especially blue. Starting with the electromagnetic spectrum of visible light, he goes into the fine cells in eyes that let us see colour and why we see colour better than other mammals, but worse than birds and insects. He then shows how other cells in the eye are affected by blue light (even blind people), which is why blue light may set our daily rhythms, hence the movement to reduce blue light at night. A look at colour illusions (like the infamous blue dress image) are given. A brief look at the philosophical question of why we 'see' blue is also given.

• "Plants" looks at how plants produce blue. From the mystery of why plants are green, the author then shows the challenges of producing blue flowers in plants. People in the past (and chemistry researchers today) have looked at pigments produced by plants to colour clothes and food. While red and yellow pigments are common, pigments for blue are rare and highly sought after. Producing a blue rose is also a target that is yet to succeed (although blue chrysanthemums have been produced). In the past, indigo was a popular blue dye, but now artificial dyes are common.

• "Speaking" looks at how language affects how we refer to blue. Gladstone once had a theory that ancient Greeks couldn't perceive blue to explain why the word for blue is not used. But further studies would show that it is an effect of how language develops words for colours instead. Other studies would show that in a small way, having words to refer to different shades of blue can have an effect on whether people can more easily see shapes and shades of blue in experiments.

• "Animals" looks at how animals use blue. Besides pigment, animals produce blue through the careful creation of structures that mainly reflect blue light. Harder to explain was why animals use blue, or colours in general. It was initially thought that colour was used just for camouflage. Later on, the idea that colours are used as a warning signal emerged. Then came the idea that colour is also used as a signal for fitness in mate selection. Unfortunately, humans preferences and desires for blue animals have driven some species to the edge of extinction.

An interesting book consisting of fascinating stories about calculus. This is definitely not a calculus textbook but if you ever want to know what calculus was, what it is used for and some interesting facts and stories involving calculus, then this would be a book to read.

There are too many chapters to give a chapter by chapter summary. But the book is divided into two sections based on the two main mathematical parts that make up calculus.

The first section covers "Differentiation" and the derivative, or the idea that a derivate is an 'instantaneous change' in an object, be it time, position, and so on. It builds on that by using the example of Newton considering the moon constantly falling towards the earth sideways. Based on how much it 'falls' as it moves to remain in orbit around the earth, its speed can be calculated. The derivative is also the rate of change of a quantity. For example, given your position over time, the 'First derivative' of it would be speed (change in position over time), the Second derivative would be acceleration (change in speed over time). Both Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz provided a notation for derivatives, but Leibnitz's notation proved to be more flexible than Newton's, showing that a proper notation can increase the flexibility for what derivatives can be used for.

Examples of the powers of derivatives are also given, staring with a danger in extrapolating trends via derivatives from too little data. A fascinating example is then given, via a story of using it to determine the direction a bicycle is moving.

A mystery or puzzle at the heart of derivatives is the question of how to 'approach the limits' in derivatives. Initially based on ideas from geometry, the book then shows lines and movements that cannot be differentiated (like Brownian motion), showing that there are limits to finding derivatives by geometric methods

Next, the derivative is used to show how it can find the maximum or the minimum point of a curve and how it can fail when a curve has no maximum. The story of the infamous Laffer Curve is also provided, showing its influence on supply side economics and tax policies. An interesting story is then told of a dog that can apparently apply calculus to the problem of find the best position to jump into the water to fetch a ball. Finally, the books shows that derivatives are used as a standard calculating tool.

The next section covers the "Integral" and how it can be used to calculate the area of a circle by 'slicing' it up into tiny sections and summing them up. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is then used as a metaphor for integration: the sum of each tiny human experience making up the whole tapestry of history.

The integral is then introduction for calculating the area under a function. It is then shown that integration and derivation are 'fundamental theorems of calculus' and opposites of each other. But despite being opposites, differentiation has well defined methods but integration does not: integration depends on a bag of tools of various ways to perform integration. Some integration problems will only yield to certain tools.

One thing that integrals feature is the "Constant of Integration", an arbitrary number that usually appears and is unknown without knowing an initial condition. The book then looks at Einstein's regret in introducing such a constant into his equation for General Relativity to recreate a static universe, only to discover it was unnecessary in it original form but is now needed to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Archimedes and his geometrical approach to integration is then shown via calculations of the volume of a pyramid and a cone. It is contrasted with using the algebraic formulation of calculus as a way to 'mechanize' calculus.

The paradox of 'Gabriel's horn' is then shown, a geometric shape with finite volume but infinite surface area. Finally, unlike differentiation, some Integrals have not formal solution and is still a constant struggle for current day mathematicians.

A good and informative book about the evolution of mammals, from their beginnings to the present day. The author shows that mammals never evolved from reptiles, but instead evolved alongside them. While mammals were small and easily overlooked during the age of the dinosaurs, that did not mean they were restricted: in fact, she shows that mammals kept evolving and filling ecological niches at that time, before they began to take on bigger challenges after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs.

Her descriptions of the fieldwork done in the past and today to form the modern picture of the evolution of mammals is fascinating. She also points out the colonialism, racism and sexism that was rife in palaeontology, that she and others are now changing, getting more women and local people involved in palaeontological research.

In short, a book that should be read to get the modern picture of the origins and evolution of mammals.

What follows is a chapter by chapter summary of the book:

Chapter one introduces the author, her field work on fossils on the Scottish Isle of Skye, and on the beginnings of the group that would give rise to mammals.

Chapter two gives a summary of the history of mammal fossils. When first found in rocks dating back to the age is the dinosaurs, mammal fossils were considered primitive and identified as belonging to marsupials. This is a misconception due to the idea of animals changing to become more sophisticated (and human) over time. It is only in modern times that modern marsupials are shown to be just as sophisticated as placental mammals and evolved alongside, not from, the reptiles and dinosaurs.

Chapter three looks back in time to the Carboniferous period, where most groups of life were starting to emerge on land. After the plants, the insects were the most abundant landform. But following behind were the animal groups that would give rise to the mammals and reptiles. While early mammals forms are often described as 'reptile-like', this is wrong. As the author shows, mammals and reptiles developed from different groups of animals (as shown through examination of their fossil skull bones in this period) and only resemble each other at that stage of life, leading to the misunderstanding.

Chapter four looks at the Permian period. It is during this time that the Synapsids began to get big, with animals like the well known Dimetrodon and others. Various explanations are provided for that animal's sail on its back. But it was also during this period that herbivores (plant eating animals) first developed.

Chapter five looks at other groups of animals that were also present during the Permian that descended from the Synapsids. One group, the Therapsids, would give the world predators and herbivores that are distinguished from other groups of animals by possessing specialized teeth for cutting and chewing. Another group, the Cynodonts, who would become the ancestors of the mammals, also developed a more upright gait, that would let them move more efficiently. It was around this time that evidence for hot-blooded animals can be found in the fossils.

Chapter six looks at the Triassic period, which came after a major extinction event that marked the end of the Permian. It took millions of years for the major groups of animals to recover, but when it did, the world would look very different. Gone were the Therapsids that dominated the Permian. In their place were the reptile groups that would give rise to various forms of crocodiles and that most well known of ancient animals, the dinosaurs. Why this happened is still subject to research.

Chapter seven continues to look at the development of animals during the Triassic that would eventually lead to animals that can be recognized as mammals. During this period, these animals would become smaller and become nocturnal, a successful way of living. Their hearing and sense of touch and smell would also become well-developed. Their teeth would also develop into specialized forms for eating.

Chapter eight looks at some is the technology, like CT scans and Synchrotron machines, that are able to penetrate stones and fossils to reveal their inner structure. This technology would be critical for analysing mammal fossils, as there are often small and fragile. The scanning technology world help to illuminate how some of the basic features of mammals, like whiskers, hair and the ability to provide milk, would begin to appear in ancient mammals.

Chapter nine looks at the mammal-like forms developing in the Jurassic period. Many were small, which initially caused many people to overlook them, concentrating on the much larger dinosaurs in that period. But closer examination shows that the mammal-like forms were developing new ways of living, like burrowing or gliding. Their small size may also have helped them to develop more sensitive hearing by helping to free up jaw bones to be used as inner ear bones.

Chapter ten looks at the ancestors of mammals and mammal-like animals in the Cretaceous. With dinosaurs now dominating the landscape, it can be easy to overlook the much smaller mammals during this time, but fossils continue to show mammals diversifying and finding new ways of living in a landscape that was also undergoing change, with the development of flowering plants.

Chapter eleven looks at what happens after the asteroid impact that lead to the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Various forms of mammals (and other life forms) that survived flourished, leading to the world we now know. But the usual story that the dinosaurs were preventing mammals from developing, before the impact, may not be correct, if the author's research is correct, indicating that other kinds of mammals may also have had a hand.

A fun book to read that gives a humorous spin on the "end of the world" type of story. The story starts with two supernatural characters, the angel, Aziraphale, and the demon, Crowley, meeting after Adam and Eve are evicted from the Garden of Eden. As the years past, they find they like each other and come to a gentlemen's agreement that sees them doing enough to please their respective authorities (Heaven and Hell), while keeping the peace between themselves.

But it comes to an end when Crowley find he has to deliver the anti-Christ to a devilish nunnery, where the anti-Christ is to be swapped with another baby and then raised in the ways of evil (or good) until he is ready to end the world. But things go wrong when the wrong babies were swapped (without Crowley's knowledge). Years later, just days before the end of the world is due, the mistake is discovered and now both Aziraphale and Crowley desperately hunt for the real anti-Christ in the hope of stopping him, for both have grown rather fond of the world as it is and there is no telling what an anti-Christ that wasn't 'raised properly' might do.

While that is happening, other supernatural events being to take place. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse begin to gather (with one being humorously replaced by another due to an advancement by mankind). A strange book, "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch" is lost and found and shown, unlike other books filled with prophecies, to be actually able to predict the future: only as viewed by a witch from the past, so the descriptions of future events are rather unusual. It is also rather disorganized.

So things come to a climax when the anti-Christ gets revealed and all the characters converge on a nice little spot in England in order to ensure or prevent the end of the world from happening.

Written by two authors well known from their supernatural and humorous fiction, this is a fun book to read, filled with interesting characters and situations that should get quite a few chuckles out of the reader.