As immigrants came from outside the United States and settled in pockets around Chicago, each neighborhood had its own bakery--and sometimes several. At one time, more than seven thousand bakeries dotted the city streets. Stalwarts like Dinkel's, Roeser's, Weber's, Pticek and Ferrara continue a legacy that shaped Chicago's food traditions: an atomic cake for family celebrations, bacon buns in the morning or a poppy seed bun for hot dogs and pączki and zeppole for holidays. Even the never-ending debate over seeded or unseeded rye. From pioneering bakers to today's cake makers, author Jennifer Billock puts the sweet and doughy history of Chicago on display.

Addressing a field that has been dominated by astronomers, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists, the contributors to this collection raise questions that may have been overlooked by physical scientists about the ease of establishing meaningful communication with an extraterrestrial intelligence. These scholars are grappling with some of the enormous challenges that will face humanity if an information-rich signal emanating from another world is detected. By drawing on issues at the core of contemporary archaeology and anthropology, we can be much better prepared for contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, should that day ever come.

"The General Radio Story" tells the remarkable tale of one of the true pioneers of electronics. Founded in 1915, "GR" gave the young electronics industry (then called "radio") the essential tools of the trade - wavemeters, signal generators, voltmeters, frequency standards, etc. - and was no less innovative in its employment policies, navigating the Great Depression without laying off a single employee and even making its workers whole when a local bank failed. As measuring instruments morphed into "ATE" (automatic test equipment), General Radio reinvented itself as GenRad and was the first to offer automatic circuit-board test systems. GR's 86-year run ended in 2001, when the Company was acquired by Teradyne, Inc.