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The Urban Beekeeper: A Year of Bees in the City
By Steve Benbow. 2012
At a time when the UK bee population is in decline there's no better way to make a difference than…
to start up your own beehive. Steve Benbow's enormous success with urban beekeeping show's how easy it is to keep bees, whether you're in the city or in the countryside, a beginner or an experienced beekeeper, and you'll never look back once you've tasted your very own sticky, golden honey, or lit a candle made from the beeswax from your beehive.Steve Benbow is a visionary beekeeper who started his first beehive ten years ago on the roof of his tower block in Bermondsey and today runs 30 sites across the city. His bees live atop the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, Fortnum & Mason and the National Portrait Gallery, and he supplies honey to the Savoy tearooms, Harvey Nichols, Harrods and delis across London. His bees forage in parks, cemeteries, along railway lines and in window boxes, and because of the diversity of the plants and trees in the city, produce far richer honey and greater yields than they would in rural areas.The Urban Beekeeper is a fact-filled diary and practical guide to beekeeping that follows a year in the life of Steve and his bees and shows how keeping bees and making your own delicious honey is something anyone can do. It is a tempting glimpse into a sunlit lifestyle that starts with the first rays of the morning and ends with the warm glow of sunset, filled with oozing honeycomb, recipes for sensational honey-based dishes, and honey that tastes like sunshine. A hugely affectionate but practical diary of a beekeeper's year and the immense satisfaction of harvesting your own delicious honey. Read it and join the revolution.What the past did for us
By Adam Hart-Davis. 2004
Adam Hart-Davis, one of the nations favourite TV presenters, returns to our screens with a tour through the Top Ten…
developments of each of the great civilisations of the past. From the Egyptians to the Romans, Babylonians to the Arabs, Adam takes us on an epic history of the world, looking at some of the great legacies left to us by ancient cultures. What the Past Did For Us accompanies a major 9-part new format autumn show, in which Adam is the anchorman who leads us through the history of inventions while testing some of these in the studio. The accompanying book is an entertainingly written history of ancient cultures, capturing Adams enthusiasm for the subject. Adam tells the story of the Chinese inventors who came up with the mariners compass, paper money and gunpowder right through to the Ancient Indians who, according to Einstein taught us how to count as well as giving us the 12-month calendar year and 7-day week.What Could Possibly Go Wrong. . .
By Jeremy Clarkson. 2014
What Could Possibly Go Wrong... is the sixth book in Jeremy Clarkson's bestselling The World According to Clarkson series.No one…
writes about cars like Jeremy Clarkson. While most correspondents are too buys diving straight into BHP, MPG and MPH, Jeremy appreciates that there are more important things to life. Don't worry, we'll get to the cars. Eventually. But first we should consider: · The case for invading France · The overwhelming appeal of a nice sit-down · The inconvenience of gin and tonic · Why clothes are no better than ice cream · Spot-welding with the Duchess of Kent · And why Denmark is the best place in the world Armed only with conviction, curiosity, enthusiasm and a stout pair of trousers, Jeremy hurtles around the world - along motorway, autoroute, freeway and autobahn - in search of answers to life's puzzles and ponderings without forethought or fear for his own safety. What, you have to ask, could possibly go wrong...Praise for Clarkson:'Brilliant... laugh-out-loud' Daily Telegraph'Outrageously funny... will have you in stitches' Time Out'Very funny . . . I cracked up laughing on the tube' Evening StandardJeremy Clarkson began his career on the Rotherham Advertiser. Since then he has written for the Sun, theSunday Times, the Rochdale Observer, the Wolverhampton Express & Star, all of the Associated Kent Newspapers and Lincolnshire Life. Today he is the tallest person working in British television.We Belong to Gaia (Green Ideas)
By James Lovelock. 2006
In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.James Lovelock's We Belong to Gaia draws on…
decades of wisdom to lay out the history of our remarkable planet, to show that it is not ours to be exploited - and warns us that it is fighting back.Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.Water: Healer or Poison?
By Jan De Vries. 1990
Water is one of the basic necessities of life - no organism can survive in its absence. In recent years,…
however, it has become increasingly clear that our public water supply is not as pure as it should be and many are questioning its high chemical content. 'Water scares' are becoming all too frequent. Beaches, seas and oceans themselves are being increasingly contaminated. Plankton are beginning to die and the Earth is being deprived of one of its primary sources of oxygen. In this important addition to his Nature's Gift series, Jan de Vries discusses the implications of this self-inflicted damage and points out the health risks of the various forms of water contamination. Yet, in its pure form, water is one of nature's greatest healers and this volume draws on Jan de Vries' extensive experience of the various water-treatment methods. It provides his readers with guidance and sensible advice on the benefits to be gained from pure, unadulterated water, and it's safe use. Anyone who has been perturbed or confused by the conflicting reports and guidelines concerning this important issue will welcome such an informative book.War Dogs: British Mercenaries in Bosnia Tell Their Own Story
By Keith Cory-Jones. 1996
Equally courageous, equally deadly, the British mercenaries in Bosnia have a story to tell as amazing as 'The One That…
Got Away', but a story without official blessing. 'War Dogs' follows the fortunes of a gang of eight British mercenaries, a mixed bunch, old and cynical, young and naive, mean and psychotic, two idealists, and the rest just in it for the money. Each of these rogue warriors has his own special skills, strengths and weaknesses, and are all tested in an increasingly terrifying and desperate series of engagements with the enemy. Both sides fight dirty; this is an insider's account of the war in Bosnia that goes far beyond what we read in the newspapers. Not all of them make it back to Britain; one boy with no military experience has told his mother he is working in Eurodisney, and she only finds out the truth when he comes back in a box.Walking the Bones of Britain: A 3 Billion Year Journey from the Outer Hebrides to the Thames Estuary
By Christopher Somerville. 1952
'[Somerville's] infectious enthusiasm and wry humour infuse his journey from the Isle of Lewis to southern England, revealing our rich…
geological history with vibrant local and natural history.' Observer'An illuminating take on the British landscape ... a remarkable achievement. ' - Tom Chesshyre'A meticulous exploration of the ground beneath our feet. Glorious.' Katherine Norbury'Somerville is a walker's writer.' Nicholas Crane'His writing is utterly enticing.' Country Walking''The physical book is sumptuous, with helpful supplementary materials including colour photographs, a timeline, maps and walking route resources.' Times Literary Supplement...........................................................................................................................................................................................................Travelling a thousand miles and across three billion years, Christopher Somerville (walking correspondent of The Times and author of Coast, The January Man and Ships of Heaven) sets out to interrogate the land beneath our feet, and how it has affected every aspect of human history from farming to house construction, the Industrial Revolution to the current climate crisis.In his thousand-mile journey, Somerville follows the story of Britain's unique geology, travelling from the three billion year old rocks of the Isle of Lewis, formed when the world was still molten, down the map south eastwards across bogs, over peaks and past quarry pits to the furthest corner of Essex where new land is being formed by nature and man.Demystifying the sometimes daunting technicalities of geology with humour and a characteristic lightness of touch, Somerville's book tells a story of humanity's reckless exploitation and a lemming-like surge towards self-annihilation but also shows seeds of hope as we learn how we might work with geology to avert a climate catastrophe.It cannot fail to change the way you see the world beyond your door.Voyages and Discoveries: Northeastern Europe, And Adjacent Countries
By Richard Hakluyt. 1972
Renaissance diplomat and part-time spy, William Hakluyt was also England's first serious geographer, gathering together a wealth of accounts about…
the wide-ranging travels and discoveries of the sixteenth-century English. One of the epics of this great period of expansion, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation describes, in the words of the explorers themselves, an astonishing era in which the English grew rapidly aware of the sheer size and strangeness of their world. Mingling accounts of the journeys of renowned adventurers such as Drake and Frobisher with descriptions by other explorers and traders to reveal a nation beginning to dominate the seas, Hakluyt's great work was originally intended principally to assist navigation and trade. It also presents one of the first and greatest modern portraits of the globe.The Voyage of the Beagle
By Charles Darwin. 1989
When HMS Beagle sailed out of Devonport on 27 December 1831, Charles Darwin was twenty-two and setting off on the…
voyage of a lifetime. His journal, here reprinted in a shortened form, shows a naturalist making patient observations concerning geology, natural history, people, places and events. Volcanoes in the Galapagos, the Gossamer spider of Patagonia and the Australasian coral reefs – all are to be found in these extraordinary writings. The insights made here were to set in motion the intellectual currents that led to the most controversial book of the Victorian age: The Origin of Species.Voices Against War: A Century of Protest
By Lyn Smith. 2009
Based on nearly 200 personal testimonies from the Imperial War Museum's Collections, this landmark book tells the stories of those…
of those who participated in anti-war protest from the First World War 1914-18 to the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.Voices Against War is a compelling, emotional and very moving human story, essential for understanding war in its entirety.Physical World (student)
By Debbie Lawrence, Richard Lawrence. 2018
Study introductory physics and the mechanisms of heat, machines, and technology with this accessible course. Machines & Motion: Learn about…
many fascinating inventions, such as the physical principles behind flight and the advances in communication as you study airplanes, rockets, telephones, computers, and more! Heat & Energy: Discover many kinds of energy that power our lives. From fossil fuels to nuclear power plants, see how God provides our energy needs and learn the wonders of electricity, magnetism, light, and sound. Inventions & Technology: Understand simple machines such as levers and inclined planes. Learn about the law of motion. You will enjoy experimenting with friction, racing rollerskate cars, and making pendulums.Literary Theory for Robots: How Computers Learned to Write (A Norton Short #0)
By Dennis Yi Tenen. 2024
In the industrial age, automation came for the shoemaker and the seamstress. Today, it has come for the writer, physician,…
programmer, and attorney. Literary Theory for Robots reveals the hidden history of modern machine intelligence, taking readers on a spellbinding journey from medieval Arabic philosophy to visions of a universal language, past Hollywood fiction factories and missile defense systems trained on Russian folktales. In this provocative reflection on the shared pasts of literature and computer science, former Microsoft engineer and professor of comparative literature Dennis Yi Tenen provides crucial context for recent developments in AI, which holds important lessons for the future of humans living with smart technology. Intelligence expressed through technology should not be mistaken for a magical genie, capable of self-directed thought or action. Rather, in highly original and effervescent prose with a generous dose of wit, Yi Tenen asks us to read past the artifice—to better perceive the mechanics of collaborative work. Something as simple as a spell-checker or a grammar-correction tool, embedded in every word-processor, represents the culmination of a shared human effort, spanning centuries. Smart tools, like dictionaries and grammar books, have always accompanied the act of writing, thinking, and communicating. That these paper machines are now automated does not bring them to life. Nor can we cede agency over the creative process. With its masterful blend of history, technology, and philosophy, Yi Tenen’s work ultimately urges us to view AI as a matter of labor history, celebrating the long-standing cooperation between authors and engineers.Unlawful Killings: Life, Love and Murder: Trials at the Old Bailey - The instant Sunday Times bestseller
By Her Honour Wendy Joseph. 2022
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION 2023'Wendy Joseph's gripping account of the law at…
work reads like a cliffhanger.' Sunday Times'Absolutely superb. 5 stars for sheer readability alone. Her Honour entertains as she educates us about murder, about the law and about how we human beings are shaped as we create the culture we live with.' PHILIPPA PERRY, author of THE BOOK YOU WISH YOUR PARENTS HAD READ___________________________________________________________________________________'Every day in the UK lives are suddenly, brutally, wickedly taken away. Victims are shot or stabbed. Less often they are strangled or suffocated or beaten to death. Rarely they are poisoned, pushed off high buildings, drowned or set alight. Then there are the many who are killed by dangerous drivers, or corporate gross negligence. There are a lot of ways you can kill someone. I know because I've seen most of them at close quarters.'High-profile murder cases all too often grab our attention in dramatic media headlines - for every unlawful death tells a story. But, unlike most of us, a judge doesn't get to turn the page and move on. Nor does the defendant, or the family of the victim, nor the many other people who populate the court room.And yet, each of us has a vested interest in what happens there. And while most people have only the sketchiest idea of what happens inside a Crown Court, any one of us could end up in the witness-box or even in the dock.With breath-taking skill and deep compassion, the author describes how cases unfold and illustrates exactly what it's like to be a murder trial judge and a witness to human good and bad. Sometimes very bad.The fracture lines that run through our society are becoming harder and harder to ignore. From a unique vantage point, the author warns that we do so at our peril._____________________________________________________________________________________________'The most exceptional book I have read in a long time.' CLARE MACKINTOSH'A very rare gem. written with authority, humility and compassion. Compellingly clever and sharply honest.' PROFESSOR DAME SUE BLACK, author of ALL THAT REMAINS'Riveting, thought-provoking, and very, very entertaining. I loved it.' RODDY DOYLE'Will make you question all the fundamentals that you've come to take for granted about offenders, the crimes that they commit - especially murder - and the punishment they deserve. A page turner that will leave you wanting to know more.' EMERITUS PROFESSOR DAVID WILSON, author of MY LIFE WITH MURDERERSThe instant Sunday Times bestseller, March 2023Tycho and Kepler: The Unlikely Partnership that Forever Changed our Understanding of the Heavens
By Kitty Ferguson. 2002
The extraordinary, unlikely tale of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler and their enormous contribution to astronomy and understanding of the…
cosmos is one of the strangest stories in the history of science.Kepler was a poor, devoutly religious teacher with a genius for mathematics. Brahe was an arrogant, extravagant aristocrat who possessed the finest astronomical instruments and observations of the time, before the telescope. Both espoused theories that seem off-the-wall to modern minds, but their fateful meeting in Prague in 1600 was to change the future of science.Set in one of the most turbulent and colourful eras in European history, when medieval was giving way to modern, Tycho and Kepler is a double biography of these two remarkable men.Two Children Behind A Wall
By Catherine Laylle. 2011
In 1984, Catherine Laylle, a Frenchwomen living in London, met and married a German medical student, Dieter. The couple had…
two sons, Alexander and Constantin. When, however, at Dieter's insistence, they moved back to his home town in Germany, the marriage began to fall apart. Dieter refused to get a job, Catherine found living with his family oppressive and eventually, she returned to London with the children. The boys spent term time with their mother, holidays with their father - until the summer of 1994, when Dieter decided that his sons should be raised as Germans and, with the support of the local judge, defied the London court ruling that gave Catherine custody. Catherine went to the courts in London, Germany and the Hague - but it seemed that no court outside the jurisdiction of Lower Saxony would overrule the decision. Today, Alexander is eleven and Constantin is nine. Catherine has barely seen them in the two years since Dieter kidnapped them - and then only under the supervision of one of his friends. This is the harrowing story of a mother's attempts to regain her children, and of her desperate struggle against a tyrannical family and the blind injustice of the courts in Europe.Trinity: The Treachery and Pursuit of the Most Dangerous Spy in History
By Frank Close. 2019
'Everything about this story is astounding' Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times"Trinity" was the codename for the test explosion of the atomic…
bomb in New Mexico on 16 July 1945. Trinity is now also the extraordinary story of the bomb's metaphorical father, Rudolf Peierls; his intellectual son, the atomic spy, Klaus Fuchs, and the ghosts of the security services in Britain, the USA and USSR.Against the background of pre-war Nazi Germany, the Second World War and the following Cold War, the book traces how Peierls brought Fuchs into his family and his laboratory, only to be betrayed. It describes in unprecedented detail how Fuchs became a spy, his motivations and the information he passed to his Soviet contacts, both in the UK and after he went with Peierls to join the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos in 1944. Frank Close is himself a distinguished nuclear physicist: uniquely, the book explains the science as well as the spying.Fuchs returned to Britain in August 1946 still undetected and became central to the UK's independent effort to develop nuclear weapons. Close describes the febrile atmosphere at Harwell, the nuclear physics laboratory near Oxford, where many of the key players were quartered, and the charged relationships which developed there. He uncovers fresh evidence about the role of the crucial VENONA signals decryptions, and shows how, despite mistakes made by both MI5 and the FBI, the net gradually closed around Fuchs, building an intolerable pressure which finally cracked him.The Soviet Union exploded its first nuclear device in August 1949, far earlier than the US or UK expected. In 1951, the US Congressional Committee on Atomic Espionage concluded, 'Fuchs alone has influenced the safety of more people and accomplished greater damage than any other spy not only in the history of the United States, but in the history of nations'. This book is the most comprehensive account yet published of these events, and of the tragic figure at their centre.The Trees that Made Britain: Revised Edition
By Archie Miles. 2021
As the oldest living inhabitants on the planet, trees have played a major part in the way we live today,…
providing both the daily oxygen we breathe and the foundation of our nations heritage. Every native tree in Britain, whether its part of a grand avenue, a thriving hedgerow, an ancient wood or a colourful orchard, tells a different story. The Trees That Made Britain takes us on a journey of discovery to every corner of the nation. Through detailed portraits of individual tree species, author and photographer Archie Miles reveals the stories of the trees that have influenced the culture, myths and fabric of the nation. The book is full of surprising facts on how trees have been used by man over the centuries, from the oak used in the building of HMS Victory to ancient longbows made from yew, as well as practical advice on visiting some of Britains finest living examples. The combination of rich historical material and lyrical descriptions captures the essence of our native tree species.Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: Theory and Practice, Set
By Dennis J. Paustenbach. 2024
Understand the fundamentals of human risk assessment with this introduction and reference Human risk assessments are a precondition for virtually…
all industrial action or environmental regulation, all the more essential in a world where chemical and environmental hazards are becoming more abundant. These documents catalog potential environmental, toxicological, ecological, or other harms resulting from a particular hazard, from chemical spills to construction projects to dangerous workplaces. They turn on a number of variables, of which the most significant is the degree of human exposure to the hazardous agent or process. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment combines the virtues of a textbook and reference work to introduce and analyze these vital documents. Beginning with the foundational theory of human health risk assessment, it then supplies case studies and detailed analysis illustrating the practice of producing risk assessment documents. Fully updated and authored by leading authorities in the field, the result is an indispensable work. Readers of the second edition of Human and Ecological Risk Assessment will also find: Over 40 entirely new case studies reflecting the latest in risk assessment practice Detailed discussion of hazards including air emissions, contaminated food and soil, hazardous waste sites, and many more Case studies from multiple countries to reflect diverse international standards Human and Ecological Risk Assessment is ideal for professionals and advanced graduate students in toxicology, industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, environmental science, and all related subjects.The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence
By Stephen Kurczy. 2021
In this riveting account of an area of Appalachia known as the Quiet Zone where cell phones and WiFi are…
banned, journalist Stephen Kurczy explores the pervasive role of technology in our lives and the innate human need for quiet.“Captures the complex beauty of a disconnected way of life.” —The NationWith a new afterword to the paperback editionDeep in the Appalachian Mountains lies the last truly quiet town in America. Green Bank, West Virginia, is a place at once futuristic and old-fashioned: It’s home to the Green Bank Observatory, where astronomers search the depths of the universe using the latest technology, while schoolchildren go without WiFi or iPads. With a ban on all devices emanating radio frequencies that might interfere with the observatory’s telescopes, Quiet Zone residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity. But a community that on the surface seems idyllic is a place of contradictions, where the provincial meets the seemingly supernatural and quiet can serve as a cover for something darker.Stephen Kurczy embedded in Green Bank, making the residents of this small Appalachian village his neighbors. He shopped at the town’s general store, attended church services, went target shooting with a seven-year-old, square-danced with the locals, sampled the local moonshine. In The Quiet Zone, he introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters. There is a tech buster patrolling the area for illegal radio waves; “electrosensitives” who claim that WiFi is deadly; a sheriff’s department with a string of unsolved murder cases dating back decades; a camp of neo-Nazis plotting their resurgence from a nearby mountain hollow. Amongst them all are the ordinary citizens seeking a simpler way of living. Kurczy asks: Is a less connected life desirable? Is it even possible?The Quiet Zone is a remarkable work of investigative journalism—at once a stirring ode to place, a tautly wound tale of mystery, and a clarion call to reexamine the role technology plays in our lives.Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens
By Muhammad H. Zaman. 2020
Award-winning Boston University educator and researcher Muhammad H. Zaman provides a chilling look at the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, explaining…
how we got here and what we must do to address this growing global health crisis.In September 2016, a woman in Nevada became the first known case in the U.S. of a person who died of an infection resistant to every antibiotic available. Her death is the worst nightmare of infectious disease doctors and public health professionals. While bacteria live within us and are essential for our health, some strains can kill us. As bacteria continue to mutate, becoming increasingly resistant to known antibiotics, we are likely to face a public health crisis of unimaginable proportions. “It will be like the great plague of the middle ages, the influenza pandemic of 1918, the AIDS crisis of the 1990s, and the Ebola epidemic of 2014 all combined into a single threat,” Muhammad H. Zaman warns.The Biography of Resistance is Zaman’s riveting and timely look at why and how microbes are becoming superbugs. It is a story of science and evolution that looks to history, culture, attitudes and our own individual choices and collective human behavior. Following the trail of resistant bacteria from previously uncontacted tribes in the Amazon to the isolated islands in the Arctic, from the urban slums of Karachi to the wilderness of the Australian outback, Zaman examines the myriad factors contributing to this unfolding health crisis—including war, greed, natural disasters, and germophobia—to the culprits driving it: pharmaceutical companies, farmers, industrialists, doctors, governments, and ordinary people, all whose choices are pushing us closer to catastrophe.Joining the ranks of acclaimed works like Microbe Hunters, The Emperor of All Maladies, and Spillover, A Biography of Resistance is a riveting and chilling tale from a natural storyteller on the front lines, and a clarion call to address the biggest public health threat of our time.