Magnificent Mavericks tells the story of the creative military/civilian team who worked at the Naval Ordnance Test Station and its Pasadena Annex from 1948 to 1958. Projects developed there include Sidewinder, the world's first successful heat-homing guided missile; Polaris, for which NOTS provided conceptual studies as well as major T&E programs; the 6.5-Inch Antitank Aircraft Rocket (Ram), developed and delivered in a month to meet urgent needs in Korea; the 2.75-Inch Folding-Fin Aircraft Rocket (Mighty Mouse) introduced in Korea and used in every conflict since then; and many other products developed at NOTS to meet the needs of the fleet. Also addressed are propellant technology and other significant innovations in applied research. Improvements to the station's unexcelled facilities R&D laboratories and T&E tracks and ranges are described, as is the community of China Lake, which played an important role in employee morale and productivity.

"The remnants of the Expeditionary Force stranded on the alien-controlled planet 'Paradise' get a chance to prove themselves, in a simple off-world training mission with a ship full of teenage alien cadets. When the mission goes horribly wrong and the survival of everyone on Paradise is at risk, the Merry Band of Pirates may have to come to the rescue. Unless they get killed first..." -- Page [4] of cover.

In Minuteman: A Technical History of the Missile That Defined American Nuclear Warfare, David K. Stumpf demystifies the intercontinental ballistic missile program that was conceived at the end of the Eisenhower administration as a key component of the US nuclear strategy of massive retaliation. Although its nuclear warhead may have lacked power relative to that of the Titan II, the Minuteman more than made up for this in terms of numbers and readiness to launch—making it the ultimate ICBM. Minuteman offers a fascinating look at the technological breakthroughs necessary to field this weapon system that has served as a powerful component of the strategic nuclear triad for more than half a century. With exacting detail, Stumpf examines the construction of launch and launch control facilities; innovations in solid propellant, lightweight inertial guidance systems, and lightweight reentry vehicle development; and key flight tests and operational flight programs—all while situating the Minuteman program in the context of world events. In doing so, the author reveals how the historic missile has adapted to changing defense strategies—from counterforce to mutually assured destruction to sufficiency.

A poignant, surreal, and fearlessly honest look at growing up on one of the most secretive weapons installations on earth, by a young woman who came of age with missiles The China Lake missile range is located in a huge stretch of the Mojave Desert, about the size of the state of Delaware. It was created during the Second World War, and has always been shrouded in secrecy. But people who make missiles and other weapons are regular working people, with domestic routines and everyday dilemmas, and four of them were Karen Piper's parents, her sister, and--when she needed summer jobs--herself. Her dad designed the Sidewinder, which was ultimately used catastrophically in Vietnam. When her mom got tired of being a stay-at-home mom, she went to work on the Tomahawk. Once, when a missile nose needed to be taken offsite for final testing, her mother loaded it into the trunk of the family car, and set off down a Los Angeles freeway. Traffic was heavy, and so she stopped off at the mall, leaving the missile in the parking lot. Piper sketches in the belief systems--from Amway's get-rich schemes to propaganda in The Rocketeer to evangelism, along with fears of a Lemurian takeover and Charles Manson--that governed their lives. Her memoir is also a search for the truth of the past and what really brought her parents to China Lake with two young daughters, a story that reaches back to her father's World War II flights with contraband across Europe. Finally, A Girl's Guide to Missiles recounts the crossroads moment in a young woman's life when she finally found a way out of a culture of secrets and fear, and out of the desert.

Growth, as we conceive it, is the study of change in an organism not yet mature. Differential growth creates form: external form through growth rates which vary from one part of the body to another and one tissue to another; and internal form through the series of time-entrained events which build up in each cell the special ized complexity of its particular function. We make no distinction, then, between growth and development, and if we have not included accounts of differentiation it is simply because we had to draw a quite arbitrary line somewhere. It is only rather recently that those involved in pediatrics and child health have come to realize that growth is the basic science peculiar to their art. It is a science which uses and incorporates the traditional disciplines of anatomy, physiology, biophysics, biochemistry, and biology. It is indeed a part of biology, and the study of human growth is a part of the curriculum of the rejuvenated science of Human Biology. What growth is not is a series of charts of height and weight. Growth standards are useful and necessary, and their construction is by no means void of intellectual challenge. They are a basic instrument in pediatric epidemiology. But they do not appear in this book, any more than clinical accounts of growth disorders. This appears to be the first large handbook-in three volumes-devoted to Human Growth.

Not everybody has a father who took part in creating the most destructive weapon known to humankind and also developed the prototypical lens system for making wide-screen movies. Quite a few people have mothers who pared down their youthful aspirations as they turned their attention to raising a family. Most people have parents who lived a fair portion of their early lives unfettered by preoccupation with children’s needs, unaware of the limitations imposed by exigency, and full of the intoxicating sense that their whole lives lay ahead of them. We usually don’t really know these people who became our parents, and often don’t care to know them until it’s too late. So many of us are too focused on creating our own lives, trying to ensure that they are something other than our parents’ lives. So we fail to pay attention to who our parents were before they became the parents with whom we are familiar. By the time we wonder who they were their stories are often inaccessible to us. Pomegranate Jelly, A Cold War Family Preserved, is the story of these parents and their involvement with each other and with their world. The narrative reveals individual and family evolution in a historical context, explores motivating factors that led a pacifist couple into careers supporting defense technology for the military-industrial complex, and ponders human attributes of idealism, incongruence, denial, resignation and resilience. This is a story of true love--love for each other, for children, and for humanity.