Search results for ""author donough o'brien""

Throughout history, and all over the world, seemingly intelligent people have made foolish decisions based on delusions. This has affected love affairs, politics, finance, science, warfare, showbusiness and even sport. It has also wrecked marriages, bankrupted millionaires, lost battles, destroyed empires, brought down leaders and royalty, split religions, ruined reputations, changed climates, thwarted gangsters and even exposed sex pests. Donough O'Brien and Liz Cowley shine a spotlight on 150 intriguing, and often hidden, corners of such calamities... And in so doing they highlight over 650 characters who prove to be both fascinating and flawed. Dreams, Delusions & Disasters is an absorbing take on history.

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A night of little interest turns out to be the most momentous and threatening of peoples' lives, when they wake to a world without progeny. With no chance of ever conceiving women wonder about making themselves attractive or taking any interest in fashion or beauty. Would they still do all that just for themselves? And, if offspring are no longer a viable option, is there a need for men in the aging world that awaits? A mysterious meteor-like object hits the sea off Ireland, quickly followed globally by hundreds more, creating vast amounts of vapour, but little damage. The mists soon clear and people start to relax. But within weeks comes a shocking realisation. Men are suddenly and inexplicably impotent and infertile, with doctors as baffled as they are. No more babies? The devasting news dominates the media - and markets across the globe begin to collapse as the horrific economic implications of an ageing and terminally reducing world sink in. Scientific and military and space experts find evidence that now convinces sceptical world leaders that an alien force intends to take over a weakened world by the patient and devious means of destroying human reproduction. One brave woman puts forward a radical idea as the only possible and secret solution. But will it work?

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A completely new look at plants - not only in food, drink and commerce, and how they have created civilisation, trade and empires, but also in love, in war, in crime, in horror and delight, in music, poetry and prose, and on the screen. Not just another gardening or plant book, this is a complete picture of how plants affect people, for better or worse, now, in the past and in the future with illuminating and startling facts about their ubiquitous presence in human affairs - through life, death, illness, happiness, murder, despair, desperation, love, hate, loss, and far more. From Presidents to pop stars, from scientists to slavers, royals to religious leaders, chefs to charlatans, pioneers to politicians, artists to actors, Plants & Us is a unique overview of plants, wild and cultivated, their vital importance and the threats they face. Above all, how they affect all our lives in stories that will often surprise the reader.

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A completely new look at plants - not only in food, drink and commerce, and how they have created civilisation, trade and empires, but also in love, in war, in crime, in horror and delight, in music, poetry and prose, and on the screen. Not just another gardening or plant book, this is a complete picture of how plants affect people, for better or worse, now, in the past and in the future with illuminating and startling facts about their ubiquitous presence in human affairs - through life, death, illness, happiness, murder, despair, desperation, love, hate, loss, and far more. From Presidents to pop stars, from scientists to slavers, royals to religious leaders, chefs to charlatans, pioneers to politicians, artists to actors, Plants & Us is a unique overview of plants, wild and cultivated, their vital importance and the threats they face. Above all, how they affect all our lives in stories that will often surprise the reader.

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