Mike Bailey

Royal Air Force Fighter Command's brief was to provide an effective aerial barrier to any attempt at domination of British skies. The aircraft and technical resources on hand between 1936 and WWII's initiation were thankfully improved to a level that was barely sufficient to withstand the hitherto unchallengeable Luftwaffe's advance across Western Europe. Between 1940 and 1942 the Command generally found itself on the back-foot in terms of overall success. The introduction of aircraft designs that would change the situation, however costly, in its ultimate favour, featured prominently from the mid-point of WWII. The Luftwaffe found itself being challenged and regularly bested 'round the clock'; by the advent of D-Day the Command's efforts had materially contributed to the Allied on-surge that had placed its adversary on a permanent downward spiral towards total extinction.

The B-24 Liberator–equipped organization that evolved from its original 2nd Bomb Wing status to a Divisional level commenced operations out of East Anglia in late 1942. Over the ensuing two-and-a-half years it prosecuted the Daylight Bombing Offensive in company with its 1st and 3rd AD contemporaries. Its crews moreover not only operated over central Europe, but in addition flew detachment operations out of North Africa that included the specific and costly assault on the Ploesti oil complex. The title of this book succinctly sums up the importance of the Division’s presence within the 8th Air Force structure and the part it played in hammering the life out of the industrial and military infrastructures sustaining Hitler’s Third Reich.

"The Mountains Genesis" is like no other time travel novel. While the trope has almost been worn out, this story stands apart, offering a powerful picture of a man and the woman he loves having their future ripped from them by random happenstance, as so many do. But this man, Angus Macneil, had an idea-a plausible method of time travel which, when verified by scientific rigor and planning, opens a Pandora's box nobody could close. Just grab the tiger by the toe and hang on.But this is not that story. This is the inception, the how and why, as seen through the eyes of Angus Macneil and the Mohammed's Mountain Project, as he tries to circumvent fate, both his own and that of millions.Get your popcorn out for the drama and surprisingly educational story that pays tribute to the scope and depth of the greats such as Space by James A. Michener, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.

Graphics Shaders: Theory and Practice is intended for a second course in computer graphics at the undergraduate or graduate level, introducing shader programming in general, but focusing on the GLSL shading language. While teaching how to write programmable shaders, the authors also teach and reinforce the fundamentals of computer graphics. The second edition has been updated to incorporate changes in the OpenGL API (OpenGL 4.x and GLSL 4.x0) and also has a chapter on the new tessellation shaders, including many practical examples. The book starts with a quick review of the graphics pipeline, emphasizing features that are rarely taught in introductory courses, but are immediately exposed in shader work. It then covers shader-specific theory for vertex, tessellation, geometry, and fragment shaders using the GLSL 4.x0 shading language. The text also introduces the freely available glman tool that enables you to develop, test, and tune shaders separately from the applications that will use them. The authors explore how shaders can be used to support a wide variety of applications and present examples of shaders in 3D geometry, scientific visualization, geometry morphing, algorithmic art, and more.Features of the Second Edition: Written using the most recent specification releases (OpenGL 4.x and GLSL 4.x0) including code examples brought up-to-date with the current standard of the GLSL language.More examples and more exercisesA chapter on tessellation shadersAn expanded Serious Fun chapter with examples that illustrate using shaders to produce fun effectsA discussion of how to handle the major changes occurring in the OpenGL standard, and some C++ classes to help you manage that transitionThe authors thoroughly explain the concepts, use sample code to describe details of the concepts, and then challenge you to extend the examples. They provide sample source code for many of the book’s examples at www.cgeducation.org