educated_at hannah holmes
Hannah Holmes ( born 1963 ) is an American writer , journalist , essayist , and science commentator for Science Live ( Discovery Channel ) and radio shows such as Maine Things Considered . She has published four books , most recently Quirk : Brain Science Makes Sense of Your Peculiar Personality ( Random House , 2011 ) . She has published articles online and in magazines including Sierra , ___MASK6___ Times Magazine , L . A . Times Magazine , Outside , Islands , and Escape . She earned a B . A . from ___MASK39___ in 1988 , and lives with her husband in Portland , Maine . The ___MASK86___ System ( UMS ) is a network of public universities in the U . S . state of Maine . Created in 1968 by the Maine State Legislature , the ___MASK86___ System consists of seven universities , each with a distinct mission and regional character . Combined , there are approximately 34 , 700 students enrolled at these institutions . Random House is the largest general - interest paperback publisher in the world . As of 2013 , it is part of Penguin Random House , which is jointly owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann and British global education and publishing company Pearson PLC . Pearson PLC is a British multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London . It was founded as a construction business in the 1840s . It shut down its construction activities in the 1920s and switched to publishing . It is the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world . Pearson has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . It has a secondary listing on the ___MASK6___ Stock Exchange in the form of American Depository Receipts . History . Construction business : 1844 to the 1920s . The company was founded by Samuel Pearson in 1844 as a building and engineering concern operating in Yorkshire under the name " S . Pearson & Son ". In 1880 , control passed to his grandson Weetman Dickinson Pearson , an ___MASK74___ , who in 1890 moved the business to London and turned it into one of the world ' s largest construction companies . Another of its prominent engineers was Ernest William Moir who , after working for Pearson on tunnels in ___MASK6___ City , became the contractor ' s agent on construction of the Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames in London between 1892 and 1897 . The company also built the Admiralty Harbour at Dover , the Halifax Dry Dock in Canada , the East River Railway Tunnels in ___MASK6___ City , the Mexican Grand Canal that drained Mexico City , the Tehuantepec Railway in Mexico , and railways and harbours around the world . In November 1915 , the firm began construction of HM Factory , Gretna , the largest cordite factory in the UK during World War I . The ___MASK39___ ( USM ) is a multi - campus public comprehensive university and part of the ___MASK86___ System . USM ' s three primary campuses are located in Portland , Gorham and Lewiston in the U . S . state of Maine . Many courses and degree programs are also offered online . It was founded as two separate state universities , Gorham Normal School , ___MASK86___ at Portland . The two universities were combined in 1970 to help streamline the public university system in Maine and eventually expanded by adding the Lewiston campus in 1988 .