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Showing 3101 - 3120 of 5854 items
By Jonathan Meiburg. 2021
&“A fascinating, entertaining, and totally engrossing story.&”—David Sibley, author of What It's Like to Be a Bird &“Utterly captivating and beautifully written,…
this book is a hugely entertaining and enlightening exploration of a bird so wickedly smart, curious, and social, it boggles the mind.&”—Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Bird Way &“As curious, wide-ranging, gregarious, and intelligent as its subject.&”—Charles C. Mann, author of 1491 An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.In 1833, Charles Darwin was astonished by an animal he met in the Falkland Islands: handsome, social, and oddly crow-like falcons that were "tame and inquisitive . . . quarrelsome and passionate," and so insatiably curious that they stole hats, compasses, and other valuables from the crew of the Beagle. Darwin wondered why these birds were confined to remote islands at the tip of South America, sensing a larger story, but he set this mystery aside and never returned to it. Almost two hundred years later, Jonathan Meiburg takes up this chase. He takes us through South America, from the fog-bound coasts of Tierra del Fuego to the tropical forests of Guyana, in search of these birds: striated caracaras, which still exist, though they're very rare. He reveals the wild, fascinating story of their history, origins, and possible futures. And along the way, he draws us into the life and work of William Henry Hudson, the Victorian writer and naturalist who championed caracaras as an unsung wonder of the natural world, and to falconry parks in the English countryside, where captive caracaras perform incredible feats of memory and problem-solving. A Most Remarkable Creature is a hybrid of science writing, travelogue, and biography, as generous and accessible as it is sophisticated, and absolutely riveting.By Sharon Stone. 2021
Sharon Stone tells her own story: a journey of healing, love, and purpose. Sharon Stone, one of the most renowned…
actresses in the world, suffered a massive stroke that cost her not only her health, but her career, family, fortune, and global fame. In The Beauty of Living Twice, Stone chronicles her efforts to rebuild her life and writes about her slow road back to wholeness and health. In a business that doesn’t accept failure, in a world where too many voices are silenced, Stone found the power to return, the courage to speak up, and the will to make a difference in the lives of men, women, and children around the globe. Over the course of these intimate pages, as candid as a personal conversation, Stone talks about her pivotal roles, her life-changing friendships, her worst disappointments, and her greatest accomplishments. She reveals how she went from a childhood of trauma and violence to a career in an industry that in many ways echoed those same assaults, under cover of money and glamour. She describes the strength and meaning she found in her children, and in her humanitarian efforts. And ultimately, she shares how she fought her way back to find not only her truth, but her family’s reconciliation and love. Stone made headlines not just for her beauty and her talent, but for her candor and her refusal to “play nice,” and it’s those same qualities that make this memoir so powerful. The Beauty of Living Twice is a book for the wounded and a book for the survivors; it’s a celebration of women’s strength and resilience, a reckoning, and a call to activism. It is proof that it’s never too late to raise your voice and speak out. A New York Times BestsellerBy Ahmet Suayb Gundogdu, Amadou Thierno Diallo. 2021
Most books on Islamic finance and development issues are written from an academic perspective. Although academic reflection is key for…
future direction, dissatisfaction with previous development efforts, as evidenced by their lack of sustainability, suggests the need for a different type of review. Development work is complex and requires a detailed and transparent approach in order to ensure a cogent resolution for potential long-term issues. Each intervention area requires specific elaboration for meaningful impact. The perfect solution for one sector might be detrimental for another. Islamic finance, with its strict Riba restrictions, rules, and other checks and balances, is a good fit for infrastructure development in pursuit of sustainable development. When it comes to sustainable development, this book argues, Islamic finance has the tools to intervene for maximum impact. However, the issue of sustainability is not only related to Islamic finance; more policy discourse is needed. This requires guidance from the principles of Islamic economics, as well. This book discusses infrastructure development vis-à-vis sustainable development, drawn from decades of real-life development banking experience, and proposes impactful intervention methods based on wisdom from Islamic economics and finance.By Michael Christopher Low. 2020
With the advent of the steamship, repeated outbreaks of cholera marked oceanic pilgrimages to Mecca as a dangerous form of…
travel and a vehicle for the globalization of epidemic diseases. European, especially British Indian, officials also feared that lengthy sojourns in Arabia might expose their Muslim subjects to radicalizing influences from anticolonial dissidents and pan-Islamic activists. European colonial empires’ newfound ability to set the terms of hajj travel not only affected the lives of millions of pilgrims but also dramatically challenged the Ottoman Empire, the world’s only remaining Muslim imperial power.Michael Christopher Low analyzes the late Ottoman hajj and Hijaz region as transimperial spaces, reshaped by the competing forces of Istanbul’s project of frontier modernization and the extraterritorial reach of British India’s steamship empire in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. Imperial Mecca recasts Ottoman Arabia as a distant, unstable semiautonomous frontier that Istanbul struggled to modernize and defend against the onslaught of colonial steamship mobility. As it turned out, steamships carried not just pilgrims, passports, and microbes, but the specter of legal imperialism and colonial intervention. Over the course of roughly a half century from the 1850s through World War I, British India’s fear of the hajj as a vector of anticolonial subversion gradually gave way to an increasingly sophisticated administrative, legal, and medical protectorate over the steamship hajj, threatening to eclipse the Ottoman state and Caliphate’s prized legitimizing claim as protector of Islam’s most holy places. Drawing on a wide range of Ottoman and British archival sources, this book sheds new light on the transimperial and global histories traversed along the pilgrimage to Mecca.By Farhad Pour-Golafshan. 2020
Descripción del libro: El mundo, tal como lo conocíamos, se detuvo de la noche a la mañana, por el miedo…
a que un virus mortal se propague rápidamente y provoque una pandemia. Las personas fueron obligadas a permanecer encerradas en sus hogares durante un número imprevisto de semanas. Se cerraron negocios. Las consecuencias económicas aún no se sintieron del todo, pero sus perspectivas eran más mortales que las del virus. Todos comenzaron a aprender y a prestar atención a la higiene física. Esta reclusión forzada hizo que muchos volvieran a pensar sus vidas y lo que consideraban normal, y todo lo que habían dado por sentado. Para muchos, el significado de sus vidas fue cuestionado, y el enfoque comenzó a cambiar a cómo podríamos prepararnos para un evento como este o peor. Para muchos se hizo evidente que la debilidad crucial había sido la desnutrición espiritual y la negligencia; ¿Qué pasa con la higiene espiritual? Este trabajo se enfoca en cómo revivirnos espiritualmente para darnos cuenta y cumplir el verdadero significado de nuestras vidas.By Graham Spence, Grant Fowlds. 2019
'A terrific read . . . an outstanding book!'Gary Player and Vivienne Player'A truly heart-wrenching story, but a must-read for…
all who value our wild animals and their right to roam free. Grant Fowlds is a Zulu in a white skin and loves the people who hold the key to animal conservation. This is an intriguing true story that sends a clear message to the rest of the world.'Phil Liggett'Exceptionally readable - a fluid and captivating story . . . a swashbuckling tale.'Dr Dave Cooper, Rhinos Without Borders veterinarian, and Debbie Cooper of iSimangaliso Wetland Park'A rollicking true-life adventure that celebrates rhinos and people'Guy Rogers, Daily Herald'Truly awe-inspiring . . . Read this book. You will get a sense of Africa like never before, from a true African soul.'David S. Lee, Limbani in the blockbuster movie Black Panther'An excellent read . . . both sobering and uplifting'Moira Smith, General Manager Africa & Middle East, Goway TravelWhat would drive a man to 'smuggle' rhino horn back into Africa at great risk to himself? This is just one of the situations Grant Fowlds has put himself in as part of his ongoing fight against poaching, in order to prove a link between southern Africa and the illicit, lucrative trade in rhino horn in Vietnam.Shavings of rhino horn are sold as a snake-oil 'cure' for colds or impotence, but a rhino's horn has no magical, medicinal properties. It is for this that rhinoceroses are being killed at an escalating rate that puts the survival of the species in jeopardy. This corrupt, illegal war on wildlife has brought an iconic animal to the brink of extinction.Growing up on a farm in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, Grant developed a deep love of nature, turning his back on hunting to focus on saving wildlife of all kinds and the environment that sustains both them and us. He is a passionate conservationist who puts himself on the front line of protecting rhinos in the wild - right now, against armed poachers; but in the longer term, too, through his work with schoolchildren, communities and policymakers.We are most grateful to photographer Gerhard van der Westhuizen for the use of his stunning photograph on the cover of the book.By Gail Campbell Woolley. 2017
&“This is a book about life—about living it ravenously, fully, joyously, unendingly, even if you have a death sentence.&” —Donna…
Brazile, former chair, Democratic National Committee When Gail Campbell Woolley was seven, a pediatrician told her mother that Gail suffered from sickle cell anemia, a rare blood disease, and that she would be dead by age thirty-five. While others may have responded to this horrifying news by descending into a fog of self-pity, Gail went in the opposite direction. She decided to live an eventful, exciting life that ultimately included—despite a troubled home life and the systemic racism and sexism of the late twentieth century—academic success, an impressive career, a long and loving marriage, and the ability to leave her unmistakable stamp on every person she met. By the time she finally succumbed to her disease at age fifty-eight in 2015, she had ground that doctor&’s words into dust. Soar, written in the last two years of her life, is Woolley&’s powerfully inspiring story, and its publication checks the last item off her extraordinary bucket list, which also included traveling to every continent except Antarctica. Written in an engaging, no-nonsense voice with a directness that reflects her many years in journalism, Woolley&’s remarkable story not only will move readers to root for this irrepressible, quietly heroic woman but also will push readers to reassess their own approach to life. &“An inspiration for anyone confronting life&’s challenges. Gail has left a legacy of courage and compassion, and her memoir represents a voice that desperately needs to be heard in America right now.&” —Marc Morial, president and CEO, National Urban LeagueEvolutionary theory ranks as one of the most powerful concepts of modern civilization. Its effects on our view of life…
have been wide and deep. One of the most world-shaking books ever published, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, first appeared in print over 130 years ago, and it touched off a debate that rages to this day. Every modern evolutionist turns to Darwin’s work again and again. Current controversies in the life sciences very often have as their starting point some vagueness in Darwin’s writings or some question Darwin was unable to answer owing to the insufficient biological knowledge available during his time. Despite the intense study of Darwin’s life and work, however, many of us cannot explain his theories (he had several separate ones) and the evidence and reasoning behind them, nor do we appreciate the modifications of the Darwinian paradigm that have kept it viable throughout the twentieth century. Who could elucidate the subtleties of Darwin’s thought and that of his contemporaries and intellectual heirs―A. R. Wallace, T. H. Huxley, August Weismann, Asa Gray―better than Ernst Mayr, a man considered by many to be the greatest evolutionist of the century? In this gem of historical scholarship, Mayr has achieved a remarkable distillation of Charles Darwin’s scientific thought and his enormous legacy to twentieth-century biology. Here we have an accessible account of the revolutionary ideas that Darwin thrust upon the world. Describing his treatise as “one long argument,” Darwin definitively refuted the belief in the divine creation of each individual species, establishing in its place the concept that all of life descended from a common ancestor. He proposed the idea that humans were not the special products of creation but evolved according to principles that operate everywhere else in the living world; he upset current notions of a perfectly designed, benign natural world and substituted in their place the concept of a struggle for survival; and he introduced probability, chance, and uniqueness into scientific discourse. This is an important book for students, biologists, and general readers interested in the history of ideas―especially ideas that have radically altered our worldview. Here is a book by a grand master that spells out in simple terms the historical issues and presents the controversies in a manner that makes them understandable from a modern perspective.By Mike Smith. 2010
Experience the most devastating storms of the last fifty years through the eyes of the scientific visionaries who took them…
on and tamed them. Science and politics collide in this thrilling account of America's struggle for protection against the deadly threat of violent weather. Warnings tells the dramatic true stories of the unsung weather warriors who save innocent lives, often by risking their own.By Denise Lewis Patrick. 2021
Get ready to light up the world with Lewis Latimer in this exciting middle grade nonfiction biography. Perfect for fans…
of the Who Was and Little Leaders series, the books in the VIP series tell the true—and amazing—stories of some of history's greatest trailblazers. Meet the VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE who changed the world! Lewis Latimer was one of the greatest inventors of his time. He was also an engineer who transformed the lightbulb at Thomas Edison’s company. And he was a gifted artist, too! Experience all the exciting moments in Lewis Latimer’s thrilling life in this exciting biography, packed with two-color illustrations and fun facts, like who invented the Super Soaker!Short and engaging chapters are interspersed with special lists and other information made to order to engage kids, whether they're already biography fans or "have to" write a report for school. Extras include a timeline, a bibliography, and a hall of fame of other successful African American inventors.The VIP series features inspiring adventures and fun facts about some of history's greatest trailblazers—smart, tough, persevering innovators who will inspire today's kids. Featuring underappreciated historical figures and groups, with a focus on leaders in science and technology, the nonfiction biographies in the VIP series are fun and engaging. Just looking at the cover will make kids want to learn more about these VIPs, and once they dive in they will zoom through stories that read like adventures.Each book in the VIP series allows your middle grader to experience all the exciting moments in some very important but lesser known lives. These biographies for kids age 9-12 include: VIP: Dr. Mae Jemison: Brave Rocketeer: Engineering Wizard; VIP: Mahalia Jackson: Freedom's Voice; and VIP: Lydia Darragh: Unexpected Spy.By Muḥammad Ṣadiq Kashghari. 2021
In the first half of the eighteenth century, rival dynasties of Naqshbandi Sufi shaykhs vied for influence in the Tarim…
Basin, part of present-day Xinjiang. In the 1750s, the collapse of the Junghar Mongol state gave one branch of this family an opportunity to assert their independence in the oasis cities of Kashgar and Yarkand. Others sided with the armies of the Qing dynasty, which were massing on the frontiers to invade. The ensuing conflict saw the region incorporated into the expanding Qing imperium.Three decades afterward, Muḥammad Ṣadiq Kashghari was commissioned to write an account of these Naqshbandi Sufis and their downfall. Blending the genres of collective biography and historical epic, mixing prose and verse, Kashghari’s text vividly depicts religious and political conflicts on the eve of the Qing conquest. It became the most popular and influential Chaghatay-language work to grapple with this divisive period. This volume presents the complete, long recension of In Remembrance of the Saints, translated for the first time into any Western language and extensively annotated with reference to both Islamic and Qing sources. The introduction situates the work in the Inner Asian tradition of Sufi biography and discusses the political factors shaping historical memory in Qianlong-era Xinjiang. Providing a rare local perspective on China’s expansion into Muslim borderlands, this translation sheds light on Xinjiang’s political and religious traditions and makes a foundational work of Inner Asian literature available to students and scholars.By Michael Kinch, Lori Weiman. 2021
From "pharma bros" to everday household budgets, just how did the pharmaceutical industry betray its own history—and how can it…
return to its tradition of care?It&’s an unfortunate and life-threatening fact: one in five Americans has skipped vital prescriptions simply because of the cost. These choices are being made even though we have reached a point in the conveyance of medical options where cancers can be cured and sight restored for those blinded by rare genetic disorders. How, in this time of such advancements, did we reach a point, where people cannot afford the very things that could save their lives? As the COVID-19 global pandemic has pointed out, we need the leadership of scientists, researchers, public health officials and lawmakers alike to guide us through not only in times of a global health crisis, but also during far more mundane times. For the first time in decades, people from all walks of life face the same need for medicine. It is time to discuss the tough questions about drug pricing in an open, honest and, hopefully, transparent manner. But first we must understand how we, as a society, got here. Medicines are arguably the most highly regulated—and cost-inflated—products in the United States. The discovery, development, manufacturing and distribution of medicines is carried out by an ever more complex and crowded set of industries, each playing a part in a larger &“pharmaceutical enterprise&” seeking to maximize profits. But this was not always the case. The Price of Health is the reveals the story of how the pharmaceutical enterprise took shape and led to the present crisis. The reputation of the pharmaceutical industry is suffering from self-inflicted wounds and its continued viability, indeed survival, is increasingly questioned. Yet the drug makers do not shoulder all the blame or responsibility for the current price crisis. Deeply researched, The Price of Heatlh gives us hope as to how we can still right the ship, even amidst the roiling storm of a global pandemic. How have medicines have been made and distributed to consumers throughout the years? What sea of changes that have contributed to rising costs? Some individuals, actions, and systems will be familiar, others may surprise. Yet the combined implications of these actions for will be surprising and at times shocking to both industry professionals and average Americans alike. Like so much else in human history, the history of the pharmaceutical enterprise is populated mostly by well-intended and even noble individuals and organizations. Each contributed to the formation or maintenance of structures meant to improve the quality and quantity of life through the development and distribution of medicines. And yet systems originally created to do good have often been subverted in ways contrary to the motivations of their creators. Only by understanding this disconnect can we better tackle the underlying problems of the industry head on, preventing foreseeable, and thus avoidable, medical calamities to come.By Jennifer Murphy. 2021
One woman's incredible story of life on the front lines as an emergency medical worker in New York City.On the…
streets of New York City, EMTs and paramedics do more than respond to emergencies; they eat and drink together, look out for each other&’s safety, mercilessly make fun of one another, date one other, and, most crucially, share terrifying experiences and grave injustices suffered under the city&’s long-broken EMS system. Their loyalty to one another is fierce and absolute. As Jennifer Murphy shows in the gripping and moving First Responder, they are a family. A dysfunctional family, perhaps, but what family isn't? Many in the field of pre-hospital emergency care have endured medical trauma and familial hardship themselves. Some are looking to give back. Some are desperate for family. Some were inspired by 9/11. Still others want to become doctors, nurses, firefighters, cops, and want to cut their teeth on the streets. As rescuers, they never want people to die or get hurt. But if they are going to die or get hurt, first responders want to be there. Despite the vital role they play New York City, EMTs are paid less than trash collectors, and far less than any other first responder makes, even though the burden of medical emergencies fall on the backs of EMTs and medics. Yet for Jennifer and her brothers and sisters, it's a calling more than a job. First responders are constantly exposed to infectious diseases, violence, and death. The coronavirus pandemic did not change that math; the public is just more aware of it. After 9/11, EMT training schools experienced a surge in applications from civilians wanting to become first responders, inspired by rescuers who responded to the terrorist attacks and rushed into the burning towers when everyone else ran out. The same will almost certainly be true post-coronavirus as people are moved by a desire to help in times of crisis in a more direct way. Funny and heartwarming, inspiring and poignant, First Responder follows Jennifer's journey to becoming an EMT and working during and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. She will bring readers inside an intense world filled with crisis, rescue, grief, uncertainty, and dark humor. First Responder will move readers to a greater understanding and appreciation of those fighting for them—wherever they live—in a world they hardly know or could imagine.By Charles Seife. 2021
Stephen Hawking was widely recognized as the world's best physicist and even the most brilliant man alive–but what if his…
true talent was self-promotion?When Stephen Hawking died, he was widely recognized as the world's best physicist, and even its smartest person. He was neither. In Hawking Hawking, science journalist Charles Seife explores how Stephen Hawking came to be thought of as humanity's greatest genius. Hawking spent his career grappling with deep questions in physics, but his renown didn't rest on his science. He was a master of self-promotion, hosting parties for time travelers, declaring victory over problems he had not solved, and wooing billionaires. In a wheelchair and physically dependent on a cadre of devotees, Hawking still managed to captivate the people around him—and use them for his own purposes. A brilliant exposé and powerful biography, Hawking Hawking uncovers the authentic Hawking buried underneath the fake. It is the story of a man whose brilliance in physics was matched by his genius for building his own myth.By Russell Freedman. 2013
In 1723 Ben Franklin arrived in Philadelphia as a poor and friendless seventeen-year-old who had run away from his family…
and an apprenticeship in Boston. Sixty-two years later he stepped ashore in nearly the same spot but was greeted by cannons, bells, and a cheering crowd, now a distinguished statesman, renowned author, and world-famous scientist. Freedman's riveting story of how a rebellious apprentice became an American icon comes in an elegantly designed book filled with art and includes a timeline, source notes, bibliography, and indexBy Doug Delaney. 2017
An insider's look at the rough and tumble workers throughout America who are risking their lives--and losing them at an…
alarmingly high rate--all in the name of connectivity.What is the price of staying connected, of that phone in your hand or that watch on your wrist?Recent TV shows would have you believe that the most dangerous job in America is a crab fisherman, or maybe even an ice road trucker. But what U.S. Department of Labor unequivocally recognizes as the most dangerous job in America belongs to the tower dog, the men and women who work on cell towers across the country, building the networks that keep us all connected.In Tower Dog: Life Inside the Deadliest Job in America, Douglas Scott Delaney, a tower dog for more than fifteen years, draws readers into this dark and high-stakes world that most don't even know exists, yet rely on every minute of every day. This risk-laden profession has been covered by NBC Dateline, Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, but none of these reports have provided the real, inside story of these men and women who have always lived on the edge of society; a fascinating mix of construction crews and thrill-seekers. Delaney is a brash and illuminating guide, and Tower Dog gives us the real experience of what it's like for the workers balanced precariously above the clouds.By Mark Sedgwick, Francesco Piraino. 2021
Similarities between esoteric and mystical currents in different religious traditions have long interested scholars. This book takes a new look…
at the relationship between such currents. It advances a discussion that started with the search for religious essences, archetypes, and universals, from William James to Eranos. The universal categories that resulted from that search were later criticized as essentialist constructions, and questioned by deconstructionists. An alternative explanation was advanced by diffusionists: that there were transfers between different traditions. This book presents empirical case studies of such constructions, and of transfers between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the premodern period, and Judaism, Christianity, and Western esotericism in the modern period. It shows that there were indeed transfers that can be clearly documented, and that there were also indeed constructions, often very imaginative. It also shows that there were many cases that were neither transfers nor constructions, but a mixture of the two.By Tez Ilyas. 2021
The hilarious and pubescent debut book from your favourite British Muslim comedian (that's Tez Ilyas, by the way) is coming…
to a shop near you. You may know and love Tez from his stand-up comedy, his role as Eight in Man Like Mobeen, his Radio 4 series TEZ Talks, or panel shows such as Mock the Week and The Last Leg. Where you won't know him from is 1997 when he was 13 ¾. (But now you will - because that's what the book is about.) In this suitably dramatic rollercoaster of a teenage memoir, Tez takes us back to where it all began: a working class, insular British Asian Muslim community in his hometown of post-Thatcher Blackburn. Meet Ammi (Mum), Baji Rosey (the older sister), Shibz (the fashionable cousin), Was (the cool cousin), Shiry (the cleverest cousin) and a community with the most creative nicknames this side of Top Gun.Running away from shotgun-wielding farmers, successfully dodging arranged marriages, getting mugged, having front row seats to race riots and achieving formative sexual experiences doing stomach crunches in a gym, you could say life was fairly run of the mill. But with a GCSE pass rate of 30% at his school, his own fair share of family tragedy around the corner and 9/11 on the horizon, Tez's experiences of growing up as a British Muslim wasn't the fun, Jihad-pursuing affair the media wants you to believe. Well ... not always.At times shalwar-wettingly hilarious and at others searingly sad, The Secret Diary of a British Muslim Aged 13¾ shows 90s Britain at its best, and its worst.By Robert W. Bly. 2018
Revered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a genius, but largely forgotten today, Steinmetz made the modern…
world possible through his revolutionary work on AC electricity transmission, the technology underlying todays power grid. More than just a great scientist and engineer, Steinmetz was also one of the most colorful characters in American life. Standing just four feet tall with a pronounced spine curvature, Steinmetz was as well known for his fiery political opinions, his fierce advocacy for social progress and education, his unusual home life, and his private menagerie as for his technical achievements.By Laura K. Murray. 2021
How much do you know about Benjamin Franklin? Find out the facts you need to know about this Founding Father,…
author, and inventor. You'll learn about the early life, challenges, and major accomplishments of this important American.