Marc Abrahams collects the odd, the imaginative, and the brilliantly improbable from around the world. Here he investigates research on the ins and outs of the very improbable evolutionary innovation that is the human body (brain included). This Is Improbable Too explores the odd questions that researchers are asking, such as: What's the best way to get a monkey to floss regularly? How much dandruff do soldiers in Pakistan's army have? If you add an extra henchman to your bank-robbing gang, how much more money will you earn? Why is it so impossible to estimate the number of stupid people in circulation? How many dimples will be found on the cheeks of 28,282 Greek children? Who is the Einstein of pork carcasses? This Is Improbable Too also investigates unlikely medical cases, including a boy with an "Eiffel head injury" (involving a toy tower), and even more unlikely inventions, such as a patented system for attacking your enemy with a bio-waste bomb.
Oneworld Publications
|
9781780743615
|
Paperback
Humankind
By Harcourt, Alexander H.
An innovative and illuminating look at how the evolution of the human species has been shaped by the world around us, from anatomy and physiology, to cultural diversity and population density.Where did the human species originate? Why are tropical peoples much more diverse than those at polar latitudes? Why can only Japanese peoples digest seaweed? How are darker skin, sunlight, and fertility related? Did Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens ever interbreed? In Humankind, U. C. Davis professor Alexander Harcourt answers these questions and more, as he explains how the expansion of the human species around the globe and our interaction with our environment explains much about why humans differ from one region of the world to another, not only biologically, but culturally.
Pegasus Books
|
9781605987842
|
Hardcover
Bird Uncaged
By Peterson, Marlon
Marlon Peterson grew up in 1980s and 90s Crown Heights, raised by Trinidadian immigrants. Amid the routine violence and crack epidemic that would come to shape the perception of his neighborhood, Peterson spent his childhood preaching the good word alongside his father, a devout Jehovah's Witness. The specter of the American Dream loomed large, and with his achievement of 6th grade valedictorian, it seemed within reach. But in the aftermath of physical and sexual trauma, Peterson made a series of choices that led to his first arrest, getting shot, and his participation in a robbery that resulted in two murders. At 19, Peterson was charged and later convicted; he served ten years in prison. During his incarceration, Peterson immersed himself in anti-violence activism, education, and prison abolition.
Bold Type Books
|
9781645036517
|
Hardcover
Cool
By Quartz, Steven
If you have ever wondered why SUVs replaced minivans, how one rap song turned the cognac industry upside down, or what gives Levi's jeans their iconic allure, look no further-in Cool, Steven Quartz and Anette Asp finally explain the fascinating science behind unexpected trends and enduring successes.We live in a world of conspicuous consumption, where the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, and the food we eat lead double lives: they don't merely satisfy our needs; they also communicate our values, identities, and aspirations. In Beverly Hills, tourists flock to the famous Rodeo Drive-not to shop, but simply to take photographs of themselves in front of luxury stores. And for one week in August, hundreds of thousands of HarleyDavidson fans from all over the world descend on the remote town of Sturgis, South Dakota, and engulf the otherwise sleepy hamlet in the deafening roar of motorcycle engines.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
|
9780374129187
|
Hardcover
The Last Unicorn
By Debuys, William
An award-winning author's quest to find and understand a creature as rare and enigmatic as any on EarthIn 1992, in a remote mountain range, a team of scientists discovered the remains of an unusual animal with exquisite long horns. It turned out to be a living species new to Western science--a saola, the first large land mammal discovered in fifty years.Rare then and rarer now, a live saola had never been glimpsed by a Westerner in the wild when Pulitzer Prize finalist and nature writer William deBuys and conservation biologist William Robichaud set off to search for it in central Laos. Their team endured a punishing trek up and down white-water rivers and through mountainous terrain ribboned with the snare lines of armed poachers who roamed the forest, stripping it of wildlife.
Little, Brown and Company
|
9780316232869
|
Hardcover
Animals Make Us Human
By Grandin, Temple
The best-selling animal advocate Temple Grandin offers the most exciting exploration of how animals feel since The Hidden Life of Dogs.In her groundbreaking and best-selling book Animals in Translation, Temple Grandin drew on her own experience with autism as well as her distinguished career as an animal scientist to deliver extraordinary insights into how animals think, act, and feel. Now she builds on those insights to show us how to give our animals the best and happiest life - on their terms, not ours.It's usually easy to pinpoint the cause of physical pain in animals, but to know what is causing them emotional distress is much harder. rawing on the latest research and her own work,Grandin identifies the core emotional needs of animals. Then she explains how to fulfill them for dogs and cats, horses, farm animals, and zoo animals.Whether it's how to make the healthiest environment for the dog you must leave alone most of the day, how to keep pigs from being bored, or how to know if the lion pacing in the zoo is miserable or just exercising, Grandin teaches us to challenge our assumptions about animal contentment and honor our bond with our fellow creatures.Animals Make Us Human is the culmination of almost thirty years of research, experimentation, and experience.This is essential reading for anyone who's ever owned, cared for, or simply cared about an animal.
Mariner Books; Reprint edition
|
9780547248233
|
Book
Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World
By Zakaria, Fareed
COVID-19 is speeding up history, but how? What is the shape of the world to come?Lenin once said, "There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen." This is one of those times when history has sped up. CNN host and best-selling author Fareed Zakaria helps readers to understand the nature of a post-pandemic world: the political, social, technological, and economic consequences that may take years to unfold. Written in the form of ten "lessons," covering topics from natural and biological risks to the rise of "digital life" to an emerging bipolar world order, Zakaria helps readers to begin thinking beyond the immediate effects of COVID-19. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World speaks to past, present, and future, and, while urgent and timely, is sure to become an enduring reflection on life in the early twenty-first century.
W. W. Norton & Company
|
9780393542134
|
Hardcover
Blood of the Tiger
By Mills, J. A.
Blood of the Tiger takes readers on a wild ride to save one of the world's rarest animals from a band of Chinese billionaires. Many people think wild tigers are on the road to recovery, but they are in greater danger than ever - from a menace few experts saw coming. There may be only three thousand wild tigers left in the entire world. More shocking is the fact that twice that many - some six thousand - have been bred on farms, not for traditional medicine but to supply a luxury-goods industry that secretly sells tiger-bone wine, tiger-skin dcor, and exotic cuisine enjoyed by China's elite. Two decades ago, international wildlife investigator J. A. Mills went undercover to expose bear farming in China and discovered the plot to turn tigers into nothing more than livestock.
Beacon Press (MA)
|
9780807074961
|
Hardcover
Hunt, Gather, Parent
By Doucleff, Michaeleen
When Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff became a mother, she examined the studies behind modern parenting guidance and found that the evidence was frustratingly limited and the conclusions often ineffective. If all the might of contemporary Western psychology couldn't supply the answers to her parenting questions, she began to wonder if an opposite approach was needed - one founded on traditional wisdom, like the knowledge and experience passed down over hundreds, even thousands, of years within ancient cultures. With her young daughter in tow, she traveled across the world to observe and practice parenting strategies alongside families in three of the world's most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania.
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
|
9781982149673
|
Hardcover
The Devil You Know
By Adshead, Gwen
What drives someone to commit an act of terrible violence? One of Britain's leading forensic psychiatrists explores this question and offers valuable and fresh insights by sharing details from her thirty years working with people who have committed violent crimes. Through a collaboration with coauthor Eileen Horne, Dr. Adshead brings her work to life in twelve fascinating, unflinching portraits of individuals we call "evil." Together with doctor and patient, we discover the meanings of violence and how minds can change when people are able to tell and own their life stories. With outcomes ranging from hope to despair, from denial to recovery, these men and women are revealed in all their complexities and their shared humanity. In this era of mass incarceration, deep cuts in mental health care and extreme social schisms, this book is a timely and persuasive argument for compassion over condemnation.
This is Improbable Too
By Abrahams, Marc
Marc Abrahams collects the odd, the imaginative, and the brilliantly improbable from around the world. Here he investigates research on the ins and outs of the very improbable evolutionary innovation that is the human body (brain included). This Is Improbable Too explores the odd questions that researchers are asking, such as: What's the best way to get a monkey to floss regularly? How much dandruff do soldiers in Pakistan's army have? If you add an extra henchman to your bank-robbing gang, how much more money will you earn? Why is it so impossible to estimate the number of stupid people in circulation? How many dimples will be found on the cheeks of 28,282 Greek children? Who is the Einstein of pork carcasses? This Is Improbable Too also investigates unlikely medical cases, including a boy with an "Eiffel head injury" (involving a toy tower), and even more unlikely inventions, such as a patented system for attacking your enemy with a bio-waste bomb.
Humankind
By Harcourt, Alexander H.
An innovative and illuminating look at how the evolution of the human species has been shaped by the world around us, from anatomy and physiology, to cultural diversity and population density.Where did the human species originate? Why are tropical peoples much more diverse than those at polar latitudes? Why can only Japanese peoples digest seaweed? How are darker skin, sunlight, and fertility related? Did Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens ever interbreed? In Humankind, U. C. Davis professor Alexander Harcourt answers these questions and more, as he explains how the expansion of the human species around the globe and our interaction with our environment explains much about why humans differ from one region of the world to another, not only biologically, but culturally.
Bird Uncaged
By Peterson, Marlon
Marlon Peterson grew up in 1980s and 90s Crown Heights, raised by Trinidadian immigrants. Amid the routine violence and crack epidemic that would come to shape the perception of his neighborhood, Peterson spent his childhood preaching the good word alongside his father, a devout Jehovah's Witness. The specter of the American Dream loomed large, and with his achievement of 6th grade valedictorian, it seemed within reach. But in the aftermath of physical and sexual trauma, Peterson made a series of choices that led to his first arrest, getting shot, and his participation in a robbery that resulted in two murders. At 19, Peterson was charged and later convicted; he served ten years in prison. During his incarceration, Peterson immersed himself in anti-violence activism, education, and prison abolition.
Cool
By Quartz, Steven
If you have ever wondered why SUVs replaced minivans, how one rap song turned the cognac industry upside down, or what gives Levi's jeans their iconic allure, look no further-in Cool, Steven Quartz and Anette Asp finally explain the fascinating science behind unexpected trends and enduring successes.We live in a world of conspicuous consumption, where the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, and the food we eat lead double lives: they don't merely satisfy our needs; they also communicate our values, identities, and aspirations. In Beverly Hills, tourists flock to the famous Rodeo Drive-not to shop, but simply to take photographs of themselves in front of luxury stores. And for one week in August, hundreds of thousands of HarleyDavidson fans from all over the world descend on the remote town of Sturgis, South Dakota, and engulf the otherwise sleepy hamlet in the deafening roar of motorcycle engines.
The Last Unicorn
By Debuys, William
An award-winning author's quest to find and understand a creature as rare and enigmatic as any on EarthIn 1992, in a remote mountain range, a team of scientists discovered the remains of an unusual animal with exquisite long horns. It turned out to be a living species new to Western science--a saola, the first large land mammal discovered in fifty years.Rare then and rarer now, a live saola had never been glimpsed by a Westerner in the wild when Pulitzer Prize finalist and nature writer William deBuys and conservation biologist William Robichaud set off to search for it in central Laos. Their team endured a punishing trek up and down white-water rivers and through mountainous terrain ribboned with the snare lines of armed poachers who roamed the forest, stripping it of wildlife.
Animals Make Us Human
By Grandin, Temple
The best-selling animal advocate Temple Grandin offers the most exciting exploration of how animals feel since The Hidden Life of Dogs.In her groundbreaking and best-selling book Animals in Translation, Temple Grandin drew on her own experience with autism as well as her distinguished career as an animal scientist to deliver extraordinary insights into how animals think, act, and feel. Now she builds on those insights to show us how to give our animals the best and happiest life - on their terms, not ours.It's usually easy to pinpoint the cause of physical pain in animals, but to know what is causing them emotional distress is much harder. rawing on the latest research and her own work,Grandin identifies the core emotional needs of animals. Then she explains how to fulfill them for dogs and cats, horses, farm animals, and zoo animals.Whether it's how to make the healthiest environment for the dog you must leave alone most of the day, how to keep pigs from being bored, or how to know if the lion pacing in the zoo is miserable or just exercising, Grandin teaches us to challenge our assumptions about animal contentment and honor our bond with our fellow creatures.Animals Make Us Human is the culmination of almost thirty years of research, experimentation, and experience.This is essential reading for anyone who's ever owned, cared for, or simply cared about an animal.
Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World
By Zakaria, Fareed
COVID-19 is speeding up history, but how? What is the shape of the world to come?Lenin once said, "There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen." This is one of those times when history has sped up. CNN host and best-selling author Fareed Zakaria helps readers to understand the nature of a post-pandemic world: the political, social, technological, and economic consequences that may take years to unfold. Written in the form of ten "lessons," covering topics from natural and biological risks to the rise of "digital life" to an emerging bipolar world order, Zakaria helps readers to begin thinking beyond the immediate effects of COVID-19. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World speaks to past, present, and future, and, while urgent and timely, is sure to become an enduring reflection on life in the early twenty-first century.
Blood of the Tiger
By Mills, J. A.
Blood of the Tiger takes readers on a wild ride to save one of the world's rarest animals from a band of Chinese billionaires. Many people think wild tigers are on the road to recovery, but they are in greater danger than ever - from a menace few experts saw coming. There may be only three thousand wild tigers left in the entire world. More shocking is the fact that twice that many - some six thousand - have been bred on farms, not for traditional medicine but to supply a luxury-goods industry that secretly sells tiger-bone wine, tiger-skin dcor, and exotic cuisine enjoyed by China's elite. Two decades ago, international wildlife investigator J. A. Mills went undercover to expose bear farming in China and discovered the plot to turn tigers into nothing more than livestock.
Hunt, Gather, Parent
By Doucleff, Michaeleen
When Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff became a mother, she examined the studies behind modern parenting guidance and found that the evidence was frustratingly limited and the conclusions often ineffective. If all the might of contemporary Western psychology couldn't supply the answers to her parenting questions, she began to wonder if an opposite approach was needed - one founded on traditional wisdom, like the knowledge and experience passed down over hundreds, even thousands, of years within ancient cultures. With her young daughter in tow, she traveled across the world to observe and practice parenting strategies alongside families in three of the world's most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania.
The Devil You Know
By Adshead, Gwen
What drives someone to commit an act of terrible violence? One of Britain's leading forensic psychiatrists explores this question and offers valuable and fresh insights by sharing details from her thirty years working with people who have committed violent crimes. Through a collaboration with coauthor Eileen Horne, Dr. Adshead brings her work to life in twelve fascinating, unflinching portraits of individuals we call "evil." Together with doctor and patient, we discover the meanings of violence and how minds can change when people are able to tell and own their life stories. With outcomes ranging from hope to despair, from denial to recovery, these men and women are revealed in all their complexities and their shared humanity. In this era of mass incarceration, deep cuts in mental health care and extreme social schisms, this book is a timely and persuasive argument for compassion over condemnation.