Search results for ""Planet!""

In the dust of the Gilded Age Bone Wars, two vastly different men emerge with a mission to fill the empty halls of New York’s struggling American Museum of Natural History: Henry Fairfield Osborn, a privileged socialite whose reputation rests on the museum’s success, and intrepid Kansas-born fossil hunter Barnum Brown. When Brown unearths the first Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils in the Montana wilderness, forever changing the world of paleontology, Osborn sees a path to save his museum from irrelevancy. With four-foot-long jaws capable of crushing the bones of its prey and hips that powered the animal to run at speeds of 25 miles per hour, the T. Rex suggests a prehistoric ecosystem more complex than anyone imagined. As the public turns out in droves to cower before this bone-chilling giant of the past and wonder at the mysteries of its disappearance, Brown and Osborn together turn dinosaurs from a biological oddity into a beloved part of culture. Vivid and engaging, The Monster’s Bones journeys from prehistory to present day, from remote Patagonia to the unforgiving badlands of the American West to the penthouses of Manhattan. With a wide-ranging cast of robber barons, eugenicists, and opportunistic cowboys, New York Times best-selling author David K. Randall reveals how a monster of a bygone era ignited a new understanding of our planet and our place within it.

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Are we as a species headed towards extinction? As our economic system renders our planet increasingly inhospitable to human life, powerful individuals fight over limited resources, and racist reaction to migration strains the social fabric of many countries. How can we retain our humanity in the midst of these life-and-death struggles? Humanity’s Last Stand dares to ask these big questions, exploring the interconnections between climate change, global capitalism, xenophobia, and white supremacy. As it unearths how capitalism was born from plantation slavery and the slaughter of Indigenous people, it also invites us to imagine life after capitalism. The book teaches its readers how to cultivate an anthropological imagination, a mindset that remains attentive to local differences even as it identifies global patterns of inequality and racism. Surveying the struggles of disenfranchised peoples around the globe from frontline communities affected by climate change, to #BlackLivesMatter activists, to Indigenous water protectors, to migrant communities facing increasing hostility, anthropologist Mark Schuller argues that we must develop radical empathy in order to move beyond simply identifying as “allies” and start acting as “accomplices.” Bringing together the insights of anthropologists and activists from many cultures, this timely study shows us how to stand together and work toward a more inclusive vision of humanity before it’s too late. More information and instructor resources (https://humanityslaststand.org)

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Are we as a species headed towards extinction? As our economic system renders our planet increasingly inhospitable to human life, powerful individuals fight over limited resources, and racist reaction to migration strains the social fabric of many countries. How can we retain our humanity in the midst of these life-and-death struggles? Humanity’s Last Stand dares to ask these big questions, exploring the interconnections between climate change, global capitalism, xenophobia, and white supremacy. As it unearths how capitalism was born from plantation slavery and the slaughter of Indigenous people, it also invites us to imagine life after capitalism. The book teaches its readers how to cultivate an anthropological imagination, a mindset that remains attentive to local differences even as it identifies global patterns of inequality and racism. Surveying the struggles of disenfranchised peoples around the globe from frontline communities affected by climate change, to #BlackLivesMatter activists, to Indigenous water protectors, to migrant communities facing increasing hostility, anthropologist Mark Schuller argues that we must develop radical empathy in order to move beyond simply identifying as “allies” and start acting as “accomplices.” Bringing together the insights of anthropologists and activists from many cultures, this timely study shows us how to stand together and work toward a more inclusive vision of humanity before it’s too late. More information and instructor resources (https://humanityslaststand.org)

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Omlet's easy-to-clean, safe and stylish Eglu chicken houses became an instant design icon when they were launched in 2004. Omlet quickly became most popular brand among chicken keepers, appealing to a new generation of people wanting to keep chickens as pets in their back gardens. This complete guide covers everything a novice chicken keeper needs to know, and reimagines the way you live with and look after your chickens. From helping you select the right variety of chicken to buy and setting up your coop, through to training them, rearing chicks and even showing them at events, this really is a one-stop guide to becoming a confident and expert owner. As well as background history on the chicken, there is a wealth of information on eggs and delicious recipes for cooking your eggs perfectly. Questions posed by Omlet's chicken-keeping customers are all answered here, with special emphasis on how to look after your chickens, dealing with common pests and diseases, and a year round planner to help you keep on top of the little maintenance jobs. With advice on practical matters such as runs and coops, to what and how to feed your chickens for maximum fowl fitness, this eggcellent guide from Omlet aims to ensure you have the happiest chickens on the planet.

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Essays exploring interrelated strands of material ecologies, past and present British politics, and the act of writing, through a rich variety of case studies. Much as the complexities of climate change and the Anthropocene have queried the limits and exclusions of literary representation, so, too, have the challenges recently presented by climate activism and intersectional environmentalism, animal rights, and even the power of material forms, such as oil, plastic, and heavy metals. Social and protest movements have revived the question of whether there can be such a thing as an activist ecocriticism: can such an approach only concern itself with consciousness, or might it politicise literary criticism in a new way? Attempting to respond, this volume coalesces around three interrelated strands: material ecologies, past and present British politics, and the act of writing itself. Contributors consider the ways in which literary form has foregrounded the complexities of both matter (in essays on water, sugar, and land) and political economics (from empire and nationalism to environmental justice movements and local and regional communities). The volume asks how life writing, nature writing, creative nonfiction, and autobiography - although genres entrenched in capitalist political realities - can also confront these by reinserting personal experience. Can we bring a more sustainable planet into being by focusing on those literary forms which have the ability to imagine the conditions and systems needed to do so?

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When breasts first start to grow, no one talks about it. There aren’t any greetings cards that say, ‘Woo Hoo! Your breasts are developing!’ but you get a birthday card when you are ten and that’s just about planet Earth going around the Sun ten times. Why don’t we say, “Woo Hoo!”? Because we live in a society where we often get uncomfortable and look at the floor when it comes to talking about breasts. They seem to be important in lots of ways but then there are these confusing rules that say when we’re allowed to notice them and talk about them, and when we’re not. This book tells you all about breasts and helps you to feel confident about their arrival. They are much more than just a pair of bumps that can fit into a bra. Breasts can do amazing things that scientists are only beginning to understand. This book says, “Woo Hoo!” and ‘Wow!’ and ‘Isn’t that amazing?’ It says, “Congratulations!” and also says, “I know this feels a bit weird too.” Your body has looked the same for a long time and now things are changing. That can take some getting used to. Let’s get to know more about our two lifelong buddies with the WHEN, HOW and WHY of breasts.

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“You might not expect unfettered passion on the topic of seaweed, but Shetterly is such a great storyteller that you find yourself following along eagerly.” —Mark Kurlansky “Seaweed is ancient and basic, a testament to the tenacious beginnings of life on earth,” writes Susan Hand Shetterly in this elegant, fascinating book. “Why wouldn’t seaweeds be a protean life source for the lives that have evolved since?” On a planet facing environmental change and diminishing natural resources, seaweed is increasingly important as a source of food and as a fundamental part of our global ecosystem. In Seaweed Chronicles, Shetterly takes readers deep into the world of this essential organism by providing an immersive, often poetic look at life on the rugged shores of her beloved Gulf of Maine, where the growth and harvesting of seaweed is becoming a major industry. While examining the life cycle of seaweed and its place in the environment, she tells the stories of the men and women who farm and harvest it—and who are fighting to protect this critical species against forces both natural and man-made. Ideal for readers of such books as The Hidden Life of Trees and How to Read Water, Seaweed Chronicles is a deeply informative look at a little understood and too often unappreciated part of our habitat.

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Seaweed is delicious, nutritious, and environmentally friendly – `gold from the sea,’ in the words of the authors of Ocean Greens. It’s `one of the world’s most sustainable and nutritious crops’ (The New Yorker) and one of `nature’s climate warriors’ (Atlantic). Now, this all-in-one guide to the incredible variety of seaweeds and sea vegetables is available to us to cook with, including kombu, wakame, sea parsley, sea lettuce, chlorella, dulse, marsh, sea lavender, spirulina, sea spaghetti, nori, hijki, arame, and agar! On the cutting edge of food and sustainability, seaweeds and sea vegetables are good for both you – as they’re positively overflowing with nutrients – and the planet, with the potential to drastically reduce our carbon footprint. Seaweed acts like a sponge, as it absorbs sunlight and nutrients directly from the sea to grow, producing the oxygen we need to breathe in return. It’s rich in protein, full of macro and micro nutrients such as amino acids, iron, and calcium, and a natural source of omega-3 and iodine. Ocean Greens introduces a variety of edible seaweed and sea vegetables – and explains what each is, its nutrient content, how to farm and harvest it, and its various taste sensations. Seaweed in many forms feature in the 50 delicious, nutritious (and all-vegan) recipes that will be irresistible to home cooks who are eager to embrace the next big cuisine.

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This lively peek into the amazing world of microbes from an expert entomologist is bursting with fascinating facts, laugh-out-loud humour and fun (and at times, gross!) illustrations, perfect for curious kids and fans of Kay's Anatomy.Microbes are everywhere: outside, indoors, on your body, in your body. In fact, microbial cells outnumber your human cells three to one. Whether helping people digest their food or using mind-control techniques to lure mice into the path of hungry cats (no, really), microbes form an unseen jungle all around us.Through zany facts, hilarious and sometimes disgusting illustrations, and interviews with experts in their fields, aspiring young scientists (or kids who just want to be grossed out) will discover a hidden world in which your health depends on a myriad of microbes, houseflies get zombified by fungi, and termites are saving the planet one fart at a time.With such extras as sidebars, limericks, and even a lesson on how to draw E. coli, this “eww”-worthy treasure trove for kids is an engrossing romp into the microbe drama unfolding where you might least expect it.“Bursting at the seams with facts that will fascinate, give you cause to laugh-out-loud and stop to explore the illustrations so you can absorb as much information and detail as possible.” Armadillo Magazine

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An unparalleled how-to guide to citizen-sensing practices that monitor air pollution Modern environments are awash with pollutants churning through the air, from toxic gases and intensifying carbon to carcinogenic particles and novel viruses. The effects on our bodies and our planet are perilous. Citizens of Worlds is the first thorough study of the increasingly widespread use of digital technologies to monitor and respond to air pollution. It presents practice-based research on working with communities and making sensor toolkits to detect pollution while examining the political subjects, relations, and worlds these technologies generate. Drawing on data from the Citizen Sense research group, which worked with communities in the United States and the United Kingdom to develop digital-sensor toolkits, Jennifer Gabrys argues that citizen-oriented technologies promise positive change but then collide with entrenched and inequitable power structures. She asks: Who or what constitutes a “citizen” in citizen sensing? How do digital sensing technologies enable or constrain environmental citizenship? Spanning three project areas, this study describes collaborations to monitor air pollution from fracking infrastructure, to document emissions in urban environments, and to create air-quality gardens. As these projects show, how people respond to, care for, and struggle to transform environmental conditions informs the political subjects and collectives they become as they strive for more breathable worlds.

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A philosophical and cultural distillation of the bleak joys in today’s ambivalent ecologies and patterns of lifeBleak Joys develops an understanding of complex entities and processes—from plant roots to forests to ecological damage and its calculation—as aesthetic. It is also a book about “bad” things, such as anguish and devastation, which relate to the ecological and technical but are also constitutive of politics, the ethical, and the formation of subjects.Avidly interdisciplinary, Bleak Joys draws on scientific work in plant sciences, computing, and cybernetics, as well as mathematics, literature, and art in ways that are not merely illustrative of but foundational to our understanding of ecological aesthetics and the condition in which the posthumanities are being forged. It places the sensory world of plants next to the generalized and nonlinear infrastructure of irresolvability—the economics of indifference up against the question of how to make a home on Planet Earth in a condition of damaged ecologies. Crosscutting chapters on devastation, anguish, irresolvability, luck, plant, and home create a vivid and multifaceted approach that is as remarkable for its humor as for its scholarly complexity.Engaging with Deleuze, Guattari, and Bakhtin, among others, Bleak Joys captures the modes of crises that constitute our present ecological and political condition, and reckons with the means by which they are not simply aesthetically known but aesthetically manifest.

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Winner of the 2023 New Mexico-Arizona Book AwardReading the West Longlist for Nonfiction No animal shakes the human consciousness quite like a bear, and few compare to the giant short-faced bears that stalked North America during the Pleistocene. Even among the mammoths and saber-toothed cats, they were a staggering sight: on all fours, the biggest would stare a six-foot person in the face and weigh close to a ton. On hind legs they towered more than ten feet, with jaws powerful enough to crush skulls and snap bones like twigs. The bears weren’t invincible, however. Despite their size, they were swept off the planet in a mysterious wave of Ice Age extinctions more than ten thousand years ago, then mostly forgotten. Chasing the Ghost Bear is Mike Stark’s journey into the bear’s enigmatic story—its life, disappearance, and rediscovery—and those trying to piece it together today. An engaging guide through his intrepid search, Stark’s story leads us from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles to a cornfield in Indiana, the far ends of the Arctic, the plains of Texas, and the swamps of Florida. Part natural history, part travelogue, and part meditation on extinction and loss, Chasing the Ghost Bear returns these magnificent beasts to their rightful place in our understanding of the world just an epoch past.

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As featured in THE EDGE OF ALL WE KNOW - the new Netflix documentary about Black HolesFor readers of Stephen Hawking, a fascinating account of the universe from the perspective of world-leading astrophysicist Heino Falcke, who took the first ever picture of a black hole.10th April 2019: a global sensation. Heino Falcke, a man "working at the boundaries of his discipline and therefore at the limits of the universe" had used a network of telescopes spanning the entire planet to take the first picture of a black hole.Light in the Darkness examines how mankind has always looked to the skies, mapping the journey from millennia ago when we turned our gaze to the heavens, to modern astrophysics. Heino Falcke and Jorg Romer entertainingly and compellingly chart the breakthrough research of Falcke's team, an unprecedented global community of international colleagues developing a telescope complex enough to look directly into a black hole - a hole where light vanishes, and time stops.What does this development mean? Is this the beginning of a new physics? What can we learn from this about God, the world, and ourselves? For Falcke, astrophysics and metaphysics, science and faith, do not exclude one another. Black Hole is both a plea for curiosity and humility; it's interested in both what we know, and the mysteries that remain unsolved.

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Me and the World is a colorful, eye-popping universe of infographics about global communities. This content-rich book teaches about other kids and cultures around the world, all while stepping back and really seeing the big picture.Me and the World is the perfect introduction for a generation entering an increasingly digitized, data-driven world. • Packed with dynamic illustrated spreads about customs of other countries • Invites readers to see themselves in its pages through a data lens • Guided by a relatable, school-aged narratorMe and the World pairs visual literacy with data literacy, using colorful illustrations and infographics to present information in a way young readers will not only understand, but enjoy.Equal parts educational and entertaining, this makes a great pick for parents and grandparents, as well as librarians, science teachers, and educators. • Perfect for reluctant readers, especially those who would otherwise gravitate toward numbers-based pursuits like math and science, rather than than reading • The graphs, infographics, and maps are the perfect resource for educators looking for engaging content for children to understand data. • Ideal for children ages 8 to 12 years old • Add it to the shelf with books like The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth: Understanding Our World and Its Ecosystems by Rachel Ignotofsky, The History Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by DK, and The Science Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by DK.

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Rocks and fossils are brilliant things to study scientifically. They can tell us a huge amount of interesting information about our rocky planet - Earth. In Rocks and Fossils you'll delve into the science behind these marvels of the natural world by conducting ten investigations and experiments using the ATOM method - Ask, Test, Observe and Measure - to ensure you're working just like a professional scientist. Find out about the three main types of rock and what happens to rocks during a volcanic eruption and in processes like weathering and erosion. Discover how and why fossils form and how hard or soft some rocks can be! At the end of the book, scientific guidelines explain why scientists do things a certain way and the things they look out for or try to avoid. Science Skills Sorted are six topic books for children aged 8+ studying KS2 science. The ATOM method is designed to help readers work scientifically as they are taught to in the classroom, and each of the investigations is accompanied by explanatory text to uncover facts about the topic. A range of experiments in each book means that while some may need a little more equipment than others, there are plenty experiments that are cheap and accessible, using objects easily found in the classroom or at home.

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From the acclaimed author of Darktown comes the most visionary crime novel since Minority Report.'It's rare to find a thriller with such a fantastic and original concept. I was gripped' --- Anthony HorowitzIn a world where a global event has blinded every person on the planet, one detective seeks a murderer who should not, cannot, exist.Seven years ago, everyone in the world went blind in a matter of months. Technology helped people adjust to the new normal, creating a device that approximates vision, downloading visual data directly to people's brains. But what happens when someone finds a way to manipulate it and change what people see?Homicide detective Mark Owens has been on the force since before The Blinding. When a scientist is murdered, and the only witness insists the killer was blacked out of her vision, Owens doesn't believe her - until a similar murder happens in front of him. With suspects ranging from tech billionaires to anti-modernity cultists, Owens must conduct an investigation in which he can't even trust his own eyes...PRAISE FOR THOMAS MULLEN'Terrific entertainment' - Stephen King'Superb' - Ken Follett'Magnificent and shocking' - Sunday Times'Written with a ferocious passion that'll knock the wind out of you' - New York Times'Fascinating, grim and unsettling' - Guardian'A terrific story' - The Times'From the very first page of Darktown, I was stunned, mesmerized' - Attica Locke

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From the author of The Sound of Stars and The Kindred comes a YA space opera about a reincarnated god and a grumpy pilot on a mission to save a beloved space DJ and stop an intergalactic war. Zaira Citlali is supposed to die. After all, she’s the god Indigo reborn. Indigo, whose song created the universe and unified people across galaxies to banish Ozvios, the god of destruction. Although Zaira has never been able to harness Indigo’s powers, the Ilori Emperor wants to sacrifice her in Ozvios’s honor. Unless she escapes and finds Wesley, the boy prophesized to help her defeat Ozvios and the Ilori, once and for all. Wesley Daniels didn’t ask for this. He just wants to work as a smuggler so he can save enough money to explore the stars. Once he completes his biggest job yet—bringing wanted celebrity Rubin Rima to a strange planet called Earth—he’ll be set for life. But when his path crosses with Zaira, he soon finds himself in the middle of an intergalactic war with more responsibility than he bargained for. Together, Zaira, Wesley, and Rubin must find their way to Earth and unlock Zaira’s powers if they’re going to have any hope of saving the universe from total destruction. Don’t miss these reads from Alechia Dow:The Sound of StarsThe Kindred

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A decade ago, farmed Atlantic salmon replaced tuna as the most popular fish on North America’s dinner tables. We are told salmon is healthy and environmentally friendly. The reality is disturbingly different. In Salmon Wars, investigative journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins bring readers to massive ocean feedlots where millions of salmon are crammed into parasite-plagued cages and fed a chemical-laced diet. The authors reveal the conditions inside hatcheries, where young salmon are treated like garbage, and at the farms that threaten our fragile coasts. They draw colorful portraits of characters, such as the big salmon farmer who poisoned his own backyard, the fly-fishing activist who risked everything to ban salmon farms in Puget Sound, and the American researcher driven out of Norway for raising the alarm about dangerous contaminants in the fish. Frantz and Collins document how the industrialization of Atlantic salmon threatens this keystone species, endangers our health and environment, and lines the pockets of our generation's version of Big Tobacco. And they show how it doesn't need to be this way. Just as Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation forced a reckoning with the Big Mac, the vivid stories, scientific research, and high-stakes finance at the heart of Salmon Wars will inspire readers to make choices that protect our health and our planet.

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Yes you can! Hands up who feels like a completely inadequate underachiever whenever you hear about someone’s great achievement. When someone in the office is off cycling around the world, or someone on TV has just launched a great new business which will save the planet? Most of us envy the drive and determination of these people. They’ve actually made this stuff happen rather than just day-dreamed about it. We all ask...Could I Do That? Well Simon Hartley is here to show us that we can! Taking on a challenge – big or small - in your career or personal life, can be intimidating but also totally transformational. Simon will show us how to work out what it is we want to do and then how to make that happen. He uses examples and advice from others who have achieved big things. The book examines how you should go about preparing for change, which problems you’ll face along the way, and demonstrates why and how your life will be better as a consequence. Practical and motivational, it’s about embracing change and defeating limiting beliefs It challenges readers to think big and take steps to achieving their goals It puts power in the hands of people who don’t yet realise that they can do extraordinary things too

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Elephants rarely breed in captivity and are not considered domesticated, yet they interact with people regularly and adapt to various environments. Too social and sagacious to be objects, too strange to be human, too captive to truly be wild, but too wild to be domesticated—where do elephants fall in our understanding of nature? In Wildlife in the Anthropocene, Jamie Lorimer argues that the idea of nature as a pure and timeless place characterized by the absence of humans has come to an end. But life goes on. Wildlife inhabits everywhere and is on the move; Lorimer proposes the concept of wildlife as a replacement for nature. Offering a thorough appraisal of the Anthropocene—an era in which human actions affect and influence all life and all systems on our planet— Lorimer unpacks its implications for changing definitions of nature and the politics of wildlife conservation. Wildlife in the Anthropocene examines rewilding, the impacts of wildlife films, human relationships with charismatic species, and urban wildlife. Analyzing scientific papers, policy documents, and popular media, as well as a decade of fieldwork, Lorimer explores the new interconnections between science, politics, and neoliberal capitalism that the Anthropocene demands of wildlife conservation. Imagining conservation in a world where humans are geological actors entangled within and responsible for powerful, unstable, and unpredictable planetary forces, this work nurtures a future environmentalism that is more hopeful and democratic.

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Did you know that a groundhog is really a type of squirrel? That squirrels control their body temperature with their tails? That most squirrels have yellow-tinted eye lenses that work like sunglasses to reduce glare? That tree squirrels can turn their hind feet completely around when climbing down a tree head-first? In Squirrels: The Animal Answer Guide, Richard W. Thorington Jr. and Katie Ferrell unveil the fascinating world of one of the "most watched" mammals on the planet. The diversity of squirrels is astounding. There are 278 species that inhabit all continents except Antarctica and Australia-varying in size from the lumbering 18-pound gray marmot to the graceful pygmy flying squirrel that is smaller than most mice. In many parts of the world they readily share human habitats, joining us for lunch in a city park, raiding our bird feeders, and sneaking into college dorm rooms through open windows. Reviled as pests or loved as an endearing amusement, squirrels have played important roles in trade, literature, and mythology. Thorington and Ferrell cover every aspect of this diverse animal family, from the first squirrels of 36 million years ago to the present day. With over one hundred photographs and an intuitive question-and-answer format, this authoritative and engaging guide sheds light on a common mammal that is anything but commonplace.

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As the second decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close, the cultural, social, and economic effects of artificial intelligence are becoming ever more apparent. Despite their long-intertwined histories, the fields of neuroscience and artificial intelligence research are notoriously divided. In Cognitive Code Johannes Bruder argues that seemingly incompatible scales of intelligence - the brain and the planet - are now intimately linked through neuroscience-inspired AI and computational cognitive neuroscience. Building on ethnographic fieldwork in brain imaging labs in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, alongside analyses of historical and contemporary literature, Cognitive Code examines how contemporary research on the brain makes routine use of engineering epistemologies and practices. Bruder elaborates on how the question of mimicking human cognition and thought on the scale of computer chips and circuits has gradually evolved into a comprehensive restructuring of the world through "smart" infrastructures. The brain, traditionally treated as a discrete object that thinks, is becoming part of the larger thinking network we now know as "the Cloud." The author traces a recent shift in the goals of brain imaging to show that the introduction of novel statistical and computational techniques has upset traditional paradigms and disentangled cognition from its biological substrate. Investigating understandings of intelligence from the micro to the macro, Cognitive Code explains how the future of human psychology is increasingly determined by engineering and design.

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In a world of dwindling natural resources and mounting environmental crisis, who is devising ways of living that will work for the long haul? And how can we, as individuals, make a difference? To answer these fundamental questions, Professor Karen Litfin embarked upon a journey to many of the world’s ecovillagesÑintentional communities at the cutting-edge of sustainable living. From rural to urban, high tech to low tech, spiritual to secular, she discovered an under-the-radar global movement making positive and radical changes from the ground up. In this inspiring and insightful book, Karen Litfin shares her unique experience of these experiments in sustainable living through four broad windows - ecology, economics, community, and consciousness - or E2C2. Whether we live in an ecovillage or a city, she contends, we must incorporate these four key elements if we wish to harmonize our lives with our home planet. Not only is another world possible, it is already being born in small pockets the world over. These micro-societies, however, are small and time is short. Fortunately - as Litfin persuasively argues - their successes can be applied to existing social structures, from the local to the global scale, providing sustainable ways of living for generations to come. You can learn more about Karen's experiences on the Ecovillages website: http://ecovillagebook.org/

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Globalization has changed the nature of many markets. Previously protected local industries have been forced to become more competitive, a situation that provides both opportunities and challenges. Key among these is the challenge of implementing responsible business practices. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is widely recognized as a worthy commitment to ensure sustainable benefit for both corporations and communities. CSR is also becoming an important base for businesses to build trust and confidence in their stakeholders, with the potential to provide a competitive edge. To ensure sustainable growth opportunities, companies should pursue the three key dimensional values of creation: Profit People Planet Well defined and strategic CSR activities will ensure an optimum balance between social, environmental, and economic factors for sustainable profits. Hence, CSR has to be embedded within the business strategy to provide a competitive edge in the areas of brand equity, corporate reputation, employee retention, and environmental conservation. Although the principles of CSR are essentially the same globally, each location still calls for different emphasis in the implementation process. Successful application of CSR principles is directly influenced by the business understanding of its business strategy in proportion to the needs of the local community. As someone who has implemented all the above activities successfully, author Sri Urip is well placed to discuss effective CSR strategies to 21st century companies.

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Green technology is not only good for the environment; it’s also good for your bottom line. If your organization is exploring ways to save energy and reduce environmental waste, Green IT For Dummies can help you get there. This guide is packed with cost-saving ways to make your company a leader in green technology. The book is also packed with case studies from organizations that have gone green, so you can benefit from their experience. You’ll discover how to: Perform an energy audit to determine your present consumption and identify where to start greening Develop and roll out a green technology project Build support from management and employees Use collaboration tools to limit the need for corporate travel Improve electronic document management Extend hardware life, reduce data center floor space, and improve efficiency Formalize best practices for green IT, understand your company’s requirements, and design an infrastructure to meet them Make older desktops and lighting fixtures more efficient with a few small upgrades Lower costs with virtual meetings, teleconferences, and telecommuting options Reduce your organization’s energy consumption You’ll also learn what to beware of when developing your green plan, and get familiar with all the terms relating to green IT. Green IT For Dummies starts you on the road to saving money while you help save the planet.

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Representations of climate action in the mainstream media have been white-washed, green-washed and diluted; this book tackles the reality of Climate change from a new perspective. What do we do that heavily contributes to the climate crisis and its environmental consequences? Tackling the climate crisis requires us to visit the roots of poverty, capitalist exploitation, police brutality and legal injustice. Climate justice offers the real possibility of huge leaps towards racial equality and collective liberation as it aims to dismantle the very foundations of these issues. This is an accessible, hopeful and galvanising book offering readers the tools to participate in the fight for climate justice.In this book, you will find:-Complex and challenging topics to provide context to the environment that we're living in and galvanise readers to take action.-Answers to important questions like What is Climate Justice? And are we being too Radical or Not Radical Enough?-A fresh perspective on climate change and the environment we live in.In this book, Mikaela Loach offers a perspective for real climate action that could drastically change the world as we know it to benefit us all. Written with truthfulness and hope, It's Not That Radical will galvanise readers to take action, offering an accessible and transformative appraisal of our circumstances to help prepare a majority for the future of our planet.

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Space has become increasingly crowded since the turn of the century, as a growing number of countries, companies, and even private citizens have begun operating satellites and become spacefarers. Crowded Orbits offers readers a valuable primer on space policy from an international perspective, examining technology, diplomacy, commerce, science, and military applications. This second edition is thoroughly updated to cover events of the decade following the book’s original publication in 2014, when the pace of the competition to exploit space has accelerated dramatically.James Clay Moltz examines the ongoing tension between competition and cooperation in space, tracing the geopolitical and policy consequences of key developments. Drawing on decades of experience, he considers possible avenues for collaboration among the growing number of actors as well as the forces driving potential space-related conflicts. Moltz examines the challenges to existing treaties and other governance mechanisms that have struggled to keep up with the spread of technology. He provides policy recommendations to enhance international collaboration, further scientific exploration, and restrain harmful military activities. This edition features analysis of a range of topics, including the ongoing commercialization of space by SpaceX, Planet, and other start-up companies; new capabilities to monitor Earth from space; renewed tensions between the United States and rivals China and Russia in military activities; and emerging multinational competition on the Moon.

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Silver Medal, 2023 Nautilus Book Awards in the category of Ecology and EnvironmentAmid environmental catastrophe, it is vital to recall what unites all forms of life. We share characteristics and genetic material extending back billions of years. More than that, we all—from humans to plants to bacteria—share a planet. We are all Earthlings.Adrian Parr calls on us to understand ourselves as existing with and among the many forms of Earthling life. She argues that human survival requires us to recognize our interdependent relationships with the other species and systems that make up life on Earth. In a series of meditations, Earthlings portrays the wonder and beauty of life with deep feeling, vivid detail, and an activist spirit. Parr invites readers to travel among the trees of the Amazonian rainforest; take flight with birds and butterflies migrating through the skies; and plunge into the oceans with whales and polar bears—as well as to encounter bodies infected with deadly viruses and maimed by the violence of global capitalism.Combining poetic observation with philosophical contemplation and scientific evidence, Parr offers a moving vision of a world in upheaval and a potent manifesto for survival. Earthlings is both a joyful celebration of the magnificence of the biosphere and an urgent call for action to save it.

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Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust. It is also ubiquitous in the modern world, from aircraft to soda cans. A dizzying number of consumer and industrial products employ aluminum, typically alloyed, because of its availability, versatility, and malleability. Today, how efficiently we use—and reuse—aluminum is vital to addressing key environmental challenges and understanding humanity’s fraught relationship with the earth.Soil to Foil tells the extraordinary story of aluminum. Saleem H. Ali reveals its pivotal role in the histories of scientific inquiry and technological innovation as well as its importance to sustainability. He offers compelling portraits of the scientists and innovators who discovered new uses for this remarkable element, ranging from chemistry and geoscience to engineering and industrial design. Ali argues that aluminum exemplifies broader lessons about stewardship of nonrenewable resources: its seeming abundance has given rise to wasteful and destructive practices. Soil to Foil follows aluminum’s path along the supply chain, from extraction to production, consumption to recycling. Ali explores the ecological damage at mine sites and visits affected communities seeking to restore the land. He foregrounds the possibilities for more sustainable industrial practices, emphasizing how product design can incorporate eventual reuse and recycling. Ultimately, Soil to Foil shows that the story of aluminum’s use and misuse helps us rethink how to sustainably manage the resources of our planet.

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Storms, floods, fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, and other disasters seem not only more frequent but also closer to home. As the world faces this onslaught, we have placed our faith in “sustainable development,” which promises that we can survive and even thrive in the face of climate change and other risks. Yet while claiming to “go green,” we have instead created new risks, continued to degrade nature, and failed to halt global warming.Unnatural Disasters offers a new perspective on our most pressing environmental and social challenges, revealing the gaps between abstract concepts like sustainability, resilience, and innovation and the real-world experiences of people living at risk. Gonzalo Lizarralde explains how the causes of disasters are not natural but all too human: inequality, segregation, marginalization, colonialism, neoliberalism, racism, and unrestrained capitalism. He tells the stories of Latin American migrants, Haitian earthquake survivors, Canadian climate activists, African slum dwellers, and other people resisting social and environmental injustices around the world. Lizarralde shows that most reconstruction and risk-reduction efforts exacerbate social inequalities. Some responses do produce meaningful changes, but they are rarely the ones powerful leaders have in mind.This book reveals how disasters have become both the causes and consequences of today’s most urgent challenges and proposes achievable solutions to save a planet at risk, emphasizing the power citizens hold to change the current state of affairs.

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Sun Ra (1914-93) was one of the most wildly prolific and unfailingly eccentric figures in the history of music. Renowned for extravagant performances in which his Arkestra appeared in neo-Egyptian garb, the keyboardist and bandleader also espoused an interstellar cosmology that claimed the planet Saturn as his true home. In Sun Ra's Chicago, William Sites brings this visionary musician back to earth--specifically to the city's South Side, where from 1946 to 1961 he lived and launched his career. The postwar South Side was a hotbed of unorthodox religious and cultural activism where Afrocentric philosophies flourished, storefront prophets sold "dream-book bibles," and Elijah Muhammad was building the Nation of Islam. It was also an unruly musical crossroads where styles circulated and mashed together in clubs and community dancehalls. Sun Ra drew from a vast array of locally available intellectual and musical sources--from radical nationalism, revisionist Christianity, and science fiction to jazz, rhythm and blues, Latin dance music and the latest pop exotica--to put together a philosophy and performance style that imagined a new identity and future for African Americans. Sun Ra's Chicago contends that late twentieth-century Afrofuturism emerged from a deep, utopian engagement with the city--and that by excavating postwar black experience from inside Sun Ra's South Side milieu we can come to see the possibilities of urban life in new ways.

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Concerns over urban blight, environmental degradation, climate change, inner-city unemployment, and a host of other socio-economic and environmental problems have forced policy makers, planners, and others interested in the future of our planet to take a closer look at ways to foster more sustainable urban development. Drawing on the author's extensive research, this book examines the role that brownfields redevelopment is playing and can play in our quest for sustainability, focusing primarily on efforts in the US and Canada to build better places for urban dwellers to live, work, and play. It commences by reviewing the nature and scope of the brownfields problem and puts it into a sustainability context, both theoretically and in terms of real costs and benefits. The book then looks at how brownfields are being used as spaces for developing an array of residential, recreational, and employment-oriented projects that have breathed new life into the urban environment. For a more sustainable future, however, the author argues that more still needs to be done to connect sustainability objectives and processes to redevelopment efforts. This is a study of the nature of urban brownfields redevelopment in North America over the last two decades. It outlines the reasons behind the emerging success of recent brownfields redevelopment. It critically examines how affected stakeholders have overcome the numerous challenges facing brownfields redevelopment.

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Collins Big Cat supports every primary child on their reading journey from phonics to fluency. Top authors and illustrators have created fiction and non-fiction books that children love to read. Book banded for guided and independent reading, there are reading notes in the back, comprehensive teaching and assessment support and ebooks available. What is it like to live in the hottest and coldest places on Earth? Discover how different communities survive in some of the world’s most extreme climates. White Plus/Band 10+ books provide challenging plots and vocabulary as well as opportunities to practise inference, prediction and reading stamina. Pages 46 and 47 allow children to re-visit the content of the book, supporting comprehension skills, vocabulary development and recall. Ideas for reading in the back of the book provide practical support and stimulating activities. Danny was first fascinated by how humans have adapted to life in extremes after visiting the stunning island of Iceland. The people there had learnt how to co-exist and respect the environment. It was easy to see why it was one of the happiest places in the world to live. Danny wrote this book to explore how humans have adapted, and thrived, to live in extremes. There are so many places to discover on this amazing planet. So, get out there and get exploring!

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Join Danny and Dino for a POOPTASTIC Christmas in this lift-the-flap adventure! With rip-roaring rhyme and laugh-out-loud silliness, the Dinosaur that Pooped series has sold over 1.5 million copies around the world!With one final CHUFF, the express train arrived."You made it!" cried Santa, and led them inside."The feast's almost ready, but there's time beforeto show you the workshop and give you a tour!"One Christmas Eve, Danny and Dino receive an exciting invitation to the North Pole. Soon, they're on a festive tour of Santa's workshop, meeting elves and reindeer along the way. There's just one problem - Dino is VERY hungry, and he's surrounded by treats! Will he hold off until Santa's special feast, or will his rumbly tummy ruin Christmas?This fun series is the perfect introduction to the world of Danny and Dino. The poop-filled adventure is written by bestselling author duo Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter!More POOPTASTIC adventures:The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas!The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet!The Dinosaur that Pooped the Past!The Dinosaur that Pooped the Bed!The Dinosaur that Pooped a Princess!The Dinosaur that Pooped a Pirate!The Dinosaur that Pooped Halloween!For younger readers:The Dinosaur that Pooped a Rainbow! (A Colours Book)The Dinosaur that Pooped Daddy! (A Numbers Book)

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In April 1966, thousands of artists, musicians, performers and writers from across Africa and its diaspora gathered in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to take part in the First World Festival of Negro Arts (Premier Festival Mondial des arts nègres). The international forum provided by the Dakar Festival showcased a wide array of arts and was attended by such celebrated luminaries as Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, Aimé Césaire, André Malraux and Wole Soyinka. Described by Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, as ‘the elaboration of a new humanism which this time will include all of humanity on the whole of our planet earth’, the festival constituted a highly symbolic moment in the era of decolonization and the push for civil rights for black people in the United States. In essence, the festival sought to perform an emerging Pan-African culture, that is, to give concrete cultural expression to the ties that would bind the newly liberated African ‘homeland’ to black people in the diaspora. This volume is the first sustained attempt to provide not only an overview of the festival itself but also of its multiple legacies, which will help us better to understand the ‘festivalization’ of Africa that has occurred in recent decades with most African countries now hosting a number of festivals as part of a national tourism and cultural development strategy.

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Earth does not exist Or so they want you to believe. Who are they? What do they want? And who do they think they are? They are the Voltarians of Voltaran empire 110 planets strong. They are already among us. And the invasion is about to begin in a hundred years or so. Or is it? The truth is far more sinister. Undercover, underground and out of sight, the invaders plan what may in fact be a massive diversion. In the darkest recesses of Voltars Coordinated Information Apparatus (otherwise known as the CIA), a tyrant of terror sets out to exploit the invasion in order to seize power. All that stands in his way is a planet that doesnt exist. Discover a world where corporations rule and political corruption is rife. Where governments are driven by oil and controlled by drugs. Where global warming is getting hotter by the minute and a scorching love affair could determine the fate of millions. Where a cosmic conspiracy is about to hit home and the intergalactic intrigue knows no bounds. They call it Blito-P3. We call it Earth. You cant afford to look the other way. Its the end of the world as you know it and the beginning of one of the most spectacular, thought-provoking, and wildly inventive works of science fiction and espionage of our time.

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How is wildlife adapting to climate change? In 2006, one of the hottest years on record, a 'pizzly' was discovered near the top of the world. Half polar bear, half grizzly, this never-before-seen animal might be dismissed as a fluke of nature. Anthony Barnosky instead sees it as a harbinger of things to come. In "Heatstroke", the renowned paleoecologist shows how global warming is fundamentally changing the natural world and its creatures. While melting ice may have helped produce the pizzly, climate change is more likely to wipe out species than to create them. Plants and animals that have followed the same rhythms for millennia are suddenly being confronted with a world they're unprepared for - and adaptation usually isn't an option. This is not the first time climate change has dramatically transformed Earth. Barnosky draws connections between the coming centuries and the end of the last ice age, when mass extinctions swept the planet. The differences now are that climate change is faster and hotter than past changes, and for the first time humanity is driving it. Which means this time we can work to stop it. No one knows exactly what nature will come to look like in this new age of global warming. But "Heatstroke" gives us a haunting portrait of what we stand to lose and the vitality of what can be saved.

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A fascinating reinterpretation of the radical and socialist origins of ecology Twenty years ago, John Bellamy Foster's Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature introduced a new understanding of Karl Marx's revolutionary ecological materialism. More than simply a study of Marx, it commenced an intellectual and social history, encompassing thinkers from Epicurus to Darwin, who developed materialist and ecological ideas. Now, with The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology, Foster continues this narrative. In so doing, he uncovers a long history of efforts to unite issues of social justice and environmental sustainability that will help us comprehend and counter today's unprecedented planetary emergencies. The Return of Nature begins with the deaths of Darwin (1882) and Marx (1883) and moves on until the rise of the ecological age in the 1960s and 1970s. Foster explores how socialist analysts and materialist scientists of various stamps, first in Britain, then the United States, from William Morris and Frederick Engels to Joseph Needham, Rachel Carson, and Stephen J. Gould, sought to develop a dialectical naturalism, rooted in a critique of capitalism. In the process, he delivers a far-reaching and fascinating reinterpretation of the radical and socialist origins of ecology. Ultimately, what this book asks for is nothing short of revolution: a long, ecological revolution, aimed at making peace with the planet while meeting collective human needs.

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This richly illustrated book introduces readers to “the golden one,” as Rebula has been lovingly described. Rebula grapes, an ancient varietal once prized by princes and popes, are indigenous to the region that now straddles the border between Italy and Slovenia. On the Italian side the area is called Collio, in Slovenia Goriška Brda. It has been rated by experts as among the top five wine terroirs on the planet, shoulder to shoulder with Bordeaux and Tuscany. Wine experts agree, calling Rebula “a dream wine of a new age.” Rebula was rated the World’s Best Wine in 2010 by sommelier Luca Gardini, and a Rebula has received an astounding 100 points on Wine Spectator’s 100-point scale. Beautifully designed with full-color photographs, the book recounts the fascinating story of Rebula and the history of wine in what was once Yugoslavia and is now Slovenia. The protagonist is a remarkable vintner, Zvonimir Simčič, one of the founders of what was Yugoslavia's most important winery before the country fragmented. Almost single-handedly responsible for the preservation of Rebula, he resurrected the forgotten varietal and transformed his home region, spectacular Goriška Brda, from a poverty-stricken area into one of the globe’s great wine destinations.Pulitzer finalist Noah Charney provides a personal, humorous, deeply engaged travelogue through the little-known world of Slovenian wine that will delight adventurous travelers and wine lovers everywhere.

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Set in a universe devastated by a deadly virus, The Space between the Stars by Anne Corlett is an enthralling novel of love, the choices we make, and what it means to be human. It's also a dramatic road-trip across the stars, as a woman journeys across a plague-ravaged universe to the place she once called home, and the man she once loved.How far would you travel to find your way home?Jamie Allenby wakes, alone, and realizes her fever has broken. But could everyone she knows be dead? Months earlier, Jamie had left her partner Daniel, mourning the miscarriage of their baby. She’d just had to get away, so took a job on a distant planet. Then the virus hit. Jamie survived as it swept through our far-flung colonies. Now she feels desperate and isolated, until she receives a garbled message from Earth. If someone from her past is still alive – perhaps Daniel – she knows she must find a way to return. She meets others seeking Earth, and their ill-matched group will travel across space to achieve their dream. But they’ll clash with survivors intent on repeating humanity’s past mistakes, threatening their precious fresh start. Jamie will also get a second chance at happiness. But can she escape her troubled past, to embrace a hopeful future?

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Explorers and travellers have always been attracted by the lure of the unknown. By traversing and mapping our planet, they have played a vital role in mankind's development. For almost two hundred years, the Royal Geographical Society has recognised their achievements by awarding its prestigious gold medals to those who have contributed most to our knowledge of the world.Taking us on a journey across mountains and deserts, oceans and seas, Exploring the World tells the stories of more than eighty of these extraordinary men and women. Some, such as David Livingstone, Scott of the Antarctic and Jacques-Yves Cousteau, are well known; whilst others, such as William Chandless and Ney Elias, are today less familiar. Some dreamed of being the first to sight a lake or a river; others sighted some of the world's greatest natural features by chance. Some were naturalists, anthropologists or mountaineers; others went in search of explorers who had vanished without trace, or had been shipwrecked or marooned.Filled with epic tales of endurance and perseverance, Exploring the World celebrates a group of exceptional individuals possessed of indomitable courage, boundless determination and adventurous spirit. It portrays a variety of fascinating lives driven by curiosity, wanderlust and the pursuit of knowledge - and, in doing so, provides a unique overview of two centuries of exploration.

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The thrilling adventure based on the acclaimed Star Trek: Picard TV series! Starfleet was everything for Cristóbal Rios…until one horrible, inexplicable day when it all went wrong. Aimless and adrift, he grasps at a chance for a future as an independent freighter captain in an area betrayed by the Federation, the border region with the former Romulan Empire. His greatest desire: to be left alone. But solitude isn’t in the cards for the captain of La Sirena, who falls into debt to a roving gang of hoodlums from a planet whose society is based on Prohibition-era Earth. Teamed against his will with Ledger, his conniving overseer, Rios begins an odyssey that brings him into conflict with outlaws and fortune seekers, with power brokers and relic hunters across the stars. Exotic loves and locales await—as well as dangers galore—and Rios learns the hard way that good crewmembers are hard to find, even when you can create your own. And while his meeting with Jean-Luc Picard is years away, Rios finds himself drawing on the Starfleet legend’s experiences when he discovers a mystery that began on one of the galaxy’s most important days…. ​™, ®, & © 2021 CBS Studios, Inc. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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NOW A #1 BLOCKBUSTING FILM. The Sun is dying. Earth will perish too, consumed by the star in its final death throes. But rather than abandon their planet, humanity builds 12,000 mountainous fusion engines to propel the Earth out of orbit and onto a centuries-long voyage to Proxima Centaurai... Cixin Liu is one of the most important voices in world Science Fiction. A bestseller in China, his novel, The Three-Body Problem, was the first translated work of SF ever to win the Hugo Award. Here is the first collection of his short fiction: ten stories, including five Chinese Galaxy Award-winners. This collection's title story, The Wandering Earth, is the biggest SF movie ever to come out of China – taking the world's #1 box office ranking in February 2019. Liu's writing takes the reader to the edge of the universe and the end of time, to meet stranger fates than we could have ever imagined. With a melancholic and keen understanding of human nature, Liu's stories show humanity's attempts to reason, navigate and, above all, survive in a desolate cosmos. 'Cixin's trilogy is SF in the grand style, a galaxy-spanning, ideas-rich narrative of invasion and war' GUARDIAN. 'Wildly imaginative, really interesting... The scope of it was immense' BARACK OBAMA, 44th President of the United States.

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We all need to understand the story behind our food. This is the strongest and most articulate case for understanding the central importance of grazing livestock in sustainable food systems that I’ve read. Patrick Holden, founder and chief executive, Sustainable Food Trust With more public awareness of the connection between health and diet, food, climate and farming, Defending Beef – a modern classic on sustainable food culture – has never been more timely. As the meat industry – from small-scale ranchers and butchers to sprawling slaughterhouse operators – respond to climate threats, a pandemic and the rise of plant-based and lab-produced meats, environmental lawyer turned cattle farmer Nicolette Hahn Niman delivers a passionate argument for responsible grassfed, meat production and consumption in this updated and expanded new edition of her bestselling Defending Beef. Hahn Niman dispels popular myths about how eating beef is bad for our bodies and the planet. The impact of grazing can be either negative or positive, depending on how livestock are managed. In fact, with proper oversight, livestock can play an essential role in maintaining grassland ecosystems by performing the same functions as the natural herbivores that once roamed and grazed there.Grounded in empirical scientific data and citing examples of regenerative agriculture from around the world, she illustrates how cattle can help build carbon-sequestering soils to mitigate climate change, enhance biodiversity, prevent desertification and provide essential nutrition.

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From the pyramids in the north to the temples in the south, ancient artisans left their marks all over Egypt, unique marks that reveal craftsmanship we would be hard pressed to duplicate today. Drawing together the results of more than 30 years of research and nine field study journeys to Egypt, Christopher Dunn presents a stunning stone-by-stone analysis of key Egyptian monuments, including the statue of Ramses II at Luxor and the fallen crowns that lay at its feet. His modern-day engineering expertise provides a unique view into the sophisticated technology used to create these famous monuments in prehistoric times. Using modern digital photography, computer-aided design software and metrology instruments, Dunn exposes the extreme precision of these monuments and the type of advanced manufacturing expertise necessary to produce them. His computer analysis of the statues of Ramses II reveals that the left and right sides of the faces are precise mirror images of each other and his examination of the mysterious underground tunnels of the Serapeum illuminates the finest examples of precision engineering on the planet. Providing never-before-seen evidence in the form of more than 280 photographs, Dunn's research shows that while absent from the archaeological record, highly refined tools, techniques and even mega-machines must have been used in ancient Egypt.

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Barely two centuries ago, most of the world’s productive land still belonged either communally to traditional societies or to the higher powers of monarch or church. But that pattern, and the ways of life that went with it, were consigned to history as a result of the most creative – and, at the same time, destructive – cultural force in the modern era: the idea of individual, exclusive ownership of land. This notion laid waste to traditional communal civilisations, displacing entire peoples from their homelands, and brought into being a unique concept of individual freedom and a distinct form of representative government and democratic institutions. Other great civilizations, in Russia, China, and the Islamic world, evolved very different structures of land ownership, and thus very different forms of government and social responsibility. The seventeenth-century English surveyor William Petty was the first man to recognise the connection between private property and free-market capitalism; the American radical Wolf Ladejinsky redistributed land in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea after the Second World War to make possible the emergence of Asian tiger economies. Through the eyes of these remarkable individuals and many more, including Chinese emperors and German peasants, Andro Linklater here presents the evolution of land ownership to offer a radically new view of mankind’s place on the planet.

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Multiply your productivity with the world's most straightforward guide to the world's most popular office software Microsoft Office 365 contains straightforward tools for virtually every office task you could possibly think of. And learning how to use this powerful software is much easier than you might expect! With the latest edition of Office 365 All-in-One For Dummies, you'll get a grip on some of the most popular and effective office software on the planet, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher, and Teams. This expanded handbook walks you through the ins and outs of reviewing and composing documents with Word, hosting and joining meetings with Teams, crunching numbers with Excel, and answering emails with Outlook. And it's ideal for anyone who's brand new to Office and those who just need a quick refresher on the latest useful updates from Microsoft. In this one-stop reference, you'll find: Step-by-step instructions on the installation, maintenance, and navigation of all the critical components of Office 365 Guidance for using Office 365's built-in online and cloud functionality Complete explanations of what every part of Office 365 is used for and how to apply them to your life Office 365 All-in-One For Dummies is the last handbook you'll ever need to apply Microsoft's world-famous software suite to countless everyday tasks.

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Fractal Noise is the thrilling prequel to the masterful space opera To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by internationally bestselling author of Eragon, Christopher Paolini.On the planet Talos VII, twenty-three years before the events of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, an anomaly is detected: a vast circular pit, with dimensions so perfect that it could only have been the result of conscious design. So a small team is assembled to learn more – perhaps even who built the hole and why. Their mission will take them on a hazardous trek to the very edge of existence.For one explorer, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. For another, a risk not worth taking. And for xenobiologist Alex Crichton, it’s a desperate attempt to find meaning in an uncaring universe. But every step they take towards that mysterious abyss is more punishing than the last. Ultimately, no one is prepared for what they will encounter.Praise for To Sleep in a Sea of Stars:'Big and fun – the book Paolini fans have been waiting for' – John Scalzi'A fun, fast-paced epic that science fiction fans will gobble up' – Kirkus Reviews'An epic tale of first contact, travels to the edge of the galaxy, and just maybe the fate of all humankind' – Goodreads

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