Download or read book The Last of Its Kind written by Gísli Pálsson and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-02-06 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How an iconic bird’s final days exposed the reality of human-caused extinction The great auk is one of the most tragic and documented examples of extinction. A flightless bird that bred primarily on the remote islands of the North Atlantic, the last of its kind were killed in Iceland in 1844. Gísli Pálsson draws on firsthand accounts from the Icelanders who hunted the last great auks to bring to life a bygone age of Victorian scientific exploration while offering vital insights into the extinction of species. Pálsson vividly recounts how British ornithologists John Wolley and Alfred Newton set out for Iceland to collect specimens only to discover that the great auks were already gone. At the time, the Victorian world viewed extinction as an impossibility or trivialized it as a natural phenomenon. Pálsson chronicles how Wolley and Newton documented the fate of the last birds through interviews with the men who killed them, and how the naturalists’ Icelandic journey opened their eyes to the disappearance of species as a subject of scientific concern—and as something that could be caused by humans. Blending a richly evocative narrative with rare, unpublished material as well as insights from ornithology, anthropology, and Pálsson’s own North Atlantic travels, The Last of Its Kind reveals how the saga of the great auk opens a window onto the human causes of mass extinction.
Download or read book Last of Its Kind First of This Kind written by Scott Crass and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2022-07-24 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was a tale of two cycles. The 1990 Senate election landscape rewarded popular incumbents and was largely devoid of national themes. There were colorful, headline grabbing moments and a near-shocker or two yet all but one Senator seeking another term was granted it. The 1992 landscape had no such clarity. A downward economy sparked the call for new ideas and backlash from the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill sexual harassment hearings started a furious movement that led to the “Year of the Woman.” Both themes converged to set the stage for “change.” The precursor was an unexpected race in Pennsylvania between those two cycles that, but for a plane crash would not have happened. This book profiles the most competitive races of those cycles. Readers will become acquainted with the issues, personalities and the men and women who personified the status quo, change and everything in between.
Download or read book National Geographic the Photo Ark Vanishing written by Joel Sartore and published by National Geographic Photo Ark. This book was released on 2019 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celebrated National Geographic photojournalist Sartore continues his Photo Ark quest, photographing species around the world that are escaping extinction thanks to human efforts. The animals featured in these pages are either destined for extinction or already extinct in the wild but still alive today, thanks to dedication of a heroic group committed to their continued survival.l.
Download or read book The Last of Her Kind written by Sigrid Nunez and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2006-12-12 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The paths of two women from different walks of life intersect amid counterculture of the 1960s in this haunting and provocative novel from the National Book Award-winning author of The Friend Named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Christian Science Monitor Sigrid Nunez's The Last of Her Kind introduces two women who meet as freshmen on the Columbia campus in 1968. Georgette George does not know what to make of her brilliant, idealistic roommate, Ann Drayton, and her obsessive disdain for the ruling class into which she was born. She is mortified by Ann's romanticization of the underprivileged class, which Georgette herself is hoping college will enable her to escape. After the violent fight that ends their friendship, Georgette wants only to forget Ann and to turn her attention to the troubled runaway kid sister who has reappeared after years on the road. Then, in 1976, Ann is convicted of murder. At first, Ann's fate appears to be the inevitable outcome of her belief in the moral imperative to "make justice" in a world where "there are no innocent white people." But, searching for answers to the riddle of this friend of her youth, Georgette finds more complicated and mysterious forces at work. The novel's narrator Georgette illuminates the terrifying life of this difficult, doomed woman, and in the process discovers how much their early encounter has determined her own path, and why, decades later, as she tells us, "I have never stopped thinking about her."
Download or read book Doug s Gym written by Norm Diamond and published by Kehrer Verlag. This book was released on 2020-01-30 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Norm Diamond photographed the last months of a dilapidated, yet beautiful old gym in Dallas, Texas. These stark images could have come from another era. They evoke themes of memory and loss. No modern gym looks like this. The owner, Doug Eidd, a grizzled 87-year-old, opened the gym in 1962. He could have emerged from a time capsule as well. In the spring of 2018 when he was forced to close the gym on short notice, Diamond stayed to photograph the removal of the equipment as Doug's Gym drifted into memory.
Download or read book The Last Kind Word written by David Housewright and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millionaire and unlicensed P.I. Rushmore McKenzie agrees to go undercover to help the ATF track a cache of stolen gunsNafter all, what could possibly go wrong?
Download or read book The Last Lecture written by Randy Pausch and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.
Download or read book The Last Kind Words Saloon A Novel written by Larry McMurtry and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-06-30 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Seattle Times The Last Kind Words Saloon marks the triumphant return of Larry McMurtry to the nineteenth-century West of his classic Lonesome Dove. In this "comically subversive work of fiction" (Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books), Larry McMurtry chronicles the closing of the American frontier through the travails of two of its most immortal figures, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Tracing their legendary friendship from the settlement of Long Grass, Texas, to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in Denver, and finally to Tombstone, Arizona, The Last Kind Words Saloon finds Wyatt and Doc living out the last days of a cowboy lifestyle that is already passing into history. In his stark and peerless prose McMurtry writes of the myths and men that live on even as the storied West that forged them disappears. Hailed by critics and embraced by readers, The Last Kind Words Saloon celebrates the genius of one of our most original American writers.
Download or read book Wild Encounters written by David Yarrow and published by Rizzoli Publications. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From big cats to elephants and indigenous communities, Wild Encounters is a must-have for nature lovers, conservationists, and anyone who is inspired by all that remains wild. David Yarrow travels from pole to pole and continent to continent to visit frozen Arctic tundras, vast African deserts, primordial rain forests, and remote villages, inviting us to truly connect with subjects we mistakenly think we have seen before. Yarrow takes the familiar—lions, elephants, tigers, polar bears—and makes it new again by creating iconic images that deliberately connect with us at a highly emotional level. For more than two decades, this legendary wildlife photographer has been putting himself in harm's way to capture the most unbelievable close-up animal photography, amassing an incomparable photographic portfolio, spanning six continents. Driven by a passion for sharing and preserving Earth's last great wild cultures and species, Yarrow is as much a conservationist as a photographer and artist. His work has transcended wildlife photography and is now collected and shown as fine art in some of the most famed galleries around the world. Featuring 160 of his most breathtaking photographs, Wild Encounters offers a truly intimate view of some of the world's most compelling—and threatened—species and captures the splendor and very soul of what remains wild and free in our world through portraits that feel close enough to touch.
Download or read book Into Africa written by Frans Lanting and published by Earth Aware Editions. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journey Into Africa through the lens of National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting, whose images have created an enduring vision of Africa’s diverse landscapes and wildlife. Experience the wonders of wild Africa as seen through the eyes of master photographer Frans Lanting, whose images have created an enduring vision of the continent’s primeval natural heritage—and what is at stake in the twenty-first century. Lanting’s images feature some of the most celebrated landscapes on Earth, from the sweeping vistas of the Serengeti Plains and the water wilderness of the Okavango Delta to the enchanting deserts of Namibia, the bewildering jungles of the Congo, and the otherworldly island of Madagascar. During many journeys over the past three decades, Lanting has documented Africa’s iconic animals—elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions, leopards, and cheetahs—as well as its endangered primates, including gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and lemurs. His personal stories express the deep understanding and sense of mission that make his work stand out as a unique tribute to the continent’s wildlife and wild places. This book is based on Frans Lanting’s landmark exhibition, Into Africa, which was produced as a partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the National Geographic Society, with support from the World Wildlife Fund.
Download or read book It s Kind of a Funny Story written by Ned Vizzini and published by Disney Electronic Content. This book was released on 2010-09-25 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job—Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy. At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away.
Download or read book Breakfast at the Exit Caf written by Wayne Grady and published by Greystone Books Ltd. This book was released on 2011 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wayne Grady, and his wife Merilyn Simonds embark on a road trip across the United States and discover a country different from the one they thought they knew.
Download or read book Historical Tours Washington DC written by Randi Minetor and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-04-15 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These history travel guides provide an introduction discussing the history and preservation of the present-day site and facilities and include a detailed, walking tour interspersed with first-hand accounts about the cemetery and events that have taken place there. A timeline runs through the walking tour giving descriptions of key personalities who conceived, planned and designed the area with brief and colorful biographies. Also included is information that visitors to the site need to know about planning a trip there, including where to stay, eat, and what to see nearby.
Download or read book The 3Rd Rise written by Frank E. Mabry and published by Author House. This book was released on 2012-10-19 with total page 702 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The demon Saul has broken the seal that had held his army trapped inside. The God of War has returned to lead the heroes of the past and the men of the future against the Army that threatens to sweep across the world. But before they can do anything else they must fight the dead.
Download or read book Why Nations Fail written by Daron Acemoglu and published by Crown Currency. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER • From two winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, “who have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity” “A wildly ambitious work that hopscotches through history and around the world to answer the very big question of why some countries get rich and others don’t.”—The New York Times FINALIST: Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Economist, BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor, The Plain Dealer Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, or geography that determines prosperity or poverty? As Why Nations Fail shows, none of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Drawing on fifteen years of original research, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is our man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or the lack of it). Korea, to take just one example, is a remarkably homogenous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created those two different institutional trajectories. Acemoglu and Robinson marshal extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, among them: • Will China’s economy continue to grow at such a high speed and ultimately overwhelm the West? • Are America’s best days behind it? Are we creating a vicious cycle that enriches and empowers a small minority? “This book will change the way people think about the wealth and poverty of nations . . . as ambitious as Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel.”—BusinessWeek
Download or read book Childhood s End written by Arthur C. Clarke and published by RosettaBooks. This book was released on 2012-11-30 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Retro Hugo Award–nominated novel that inspired the Syfy miniseries, alien invaders bring peace to Earth—at a grave price: “A first-rate tour de force” (The New York Times). In the near future, enormous silver spaceships appear without warning over mankind’s largest cities. They belong to the Overlords, an alien race far superior to humanity in technological development. Their purpose is to dominate Earth. Their demands, however, are surprisingly benevolent: end war, poverty, and cruelty. Their presence, rather than signaling the end of humanity, ushers in a golden age . . . or so it seems. Without conflict, human culture and progress stagnate. As the years pass, it becomes clear that the Overlords have a hidden agenda for the evolution of the human race that may not be as benevolent as it seems. “Frighteningly logical, believable, and grimly prophetic . . . Clarke is a master.” —Los Angeles Times
