Download or read book The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars written by Lixing Sun and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-04-04 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A natural history of cheating from selfish genes to lying politicians Nature is rife with cheating. Possums play possum, feigning death to cheat predators. Crows cry wolf to scare off rivals. Amphibians and reptiles are inveterate impostors. Even genes and cells cheat. The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars explores the evolution of cheating in the natural world, revealing how dishonesty has given rise to wondrous diversity. Blending cutting-edge science with a wealth of illuminating examples—from microscopic organisms to highly intelligent birds and mammals—Lixing Sun shows how cheating in nature relies on two basic rules. One is lying, by which cheaters exploit honest messages in communication signals and use them to serve their own interests. The other is deceiving, by which cheaters exploit the biases and loopholes in the sensory systems of other creatures. Sun demonstrates that cheating serves as a potent catalyst in the evolutionary arms race between the cheating and the cheated, resulting in a biological world teeming with complexity and beauty. Brimming with insight and humor, The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars also looks at the prevalence of cheating in human society, identifying the kinds of cheating that spur innovation and cultural vitality and laying down a blueprint for combatting malicious cheating such as fake news and disinformation.
Download or read book The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars written by Lixing Sun and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cheats and Deceits written by Martin Stevens and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cuckoos lay eggs carefully matched to their host's own clutch.
Download or read book Born Liars written by Ian Leslie and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2011-05-21 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lying is an intrinsic part of our social fabric, but it is also a deeply problematic and misunderstood aspect of what makes us human. Ian Leslie takes us on a fascinating journey that makes us question not only our own relationship to the truth, but also virtually every daily encounter we have. On the way he dissects the history of the lie detector, how parents affect their children’s attitude to lying (and vice versa), Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the philosophical ambiguity of telling the truth, Bill Clinton’s presentational prowess, Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth, and why we should be wary of anyone with more than 150 Facebook friends. Born Liars is thought-provoking, anecdotally driven narrative nonfiction at its best. Ian Leslie’s intoxicating blend of anthropology, biology, cultural history, philosophy, and popular psychology belies a serious central message: that humans have evolved and thrived in large part because of their ability to deceive.
Download or read book The Fairness Instinct written by Lixing Sun and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining research from the social sciences, hard sciences, and the humanities, this accessible cross-disciplinary book offers fascinating insights into a key component of human nature and society. What do the Arab Spring, the Robin Hood legend, Occupy Wall Street, and the American taxpayer reaction to the $182 billion bailout of AIG have in common? All are rooted in a deeply ingrained sense of fairness. But where does this universal instinct come from? This is the driving question at the heart of L. Sun's The Fairness Instinct. Thinkers from Aristotle to Kant, from Augustine to John Rawls, and religions from Christianity to Confucianism, have offered great insight into the nature and origins of this basic human desire for fairness. Based on the most recent scientific discoveries in behavioral genetics, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, economics, and evolution, Sun argues that the origins of the fairness instinct cannot be found exclusively in the philosophical, social, and political perspectives to which we so often turn; rather, they can be traced to something much deeper in our biological makeup. Taking as his starting point Frans De Waal's seminal study showing that Capuchin monkeys revolt when they are shortchanged by receiving a less valuable reward than their peers receive for the same task, Sun synthesizes a wide range of research to explore the biological roots of the fairness instinct. He shows that fairness is much more than a moral value or ideological construct; fairness is in our DNA. Combining scientific rigor with accessible and reader-friendly language to relate fascinating stories of animal and human behavior, The Fairness Instinct lays out an evolutionary roadmap for how fairness emerges and thrives under natural selection and how two powerful engines--social living and social hierarchy--have fueled the evolution of this intricate and potent instinct in all of us. Probing into the motives that underlie such phenomena as envy, consumerism, anti-intellectualism, revenge, revolution, terrorism, marriage, democracy, and religion, Sun showcases the power of the fairness instinct to make our history, shape our society, and rule our social lives.
Download or read book The Liars of Mariposa Island written by Jennifer Mathieu and published by Roaring Brook Press. This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Moxie comes a stunning novel told in three voices about the lies families tell to survive. Every year, summer begins when the Callahans arrive on Mariposa Island. That’s when Elena Finney gets to escape her unstable, controlling mother by babysitting for their two children. And the summer of 1986 promises to be extra special when she meets J.C., the new boy in town, whose kisses make Elena feel like she’s been transported to a new world. Joaquin Finney can’t imagine why anyone would want to come to Mariposa Island. He just graduated from high school and dreams about going to California to find his father and escape his mother’s manipulation. The Liars of Mariposa Island follows siblings Elena and Joaquin, with flashbacks to their mother's experience as a teenage refugee fleeing the Cuban revolution. Jennifer Mathieu’s multilayered novel explores the nature of secrets, lies, and fierce, destructive love.
Download or read book Why We Lie written by David Livingstone Smith and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-08-07 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Readers of Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker will find much to intrigue them in this fascinating book, which declares that our extraordinary ability to deceive others - and even our selves - 'lies' at the heart of our humanity.
Download or read book The Liars Gospel written by Naomi Alderman and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning writer reimagines the life of Jesus, from the points of view of four people closest to him before his death. This is the story of Yehoshuah, who wandered Roman-occupied Judea giving sermons and healing the sick. Now, a year after his death, four people tell their stories. His mother grieves, his friend Iehuda loses his faith, the High Priest of the Temple tries to keep the peace, and a rebel named Bar-Avo strives to bring that peace tumbling down. It was a time of political power plays and brutal tyranny. Men and women took to the streets to protest. Dictators put them down with iron force. In the midst of it all, one inconsequential preacher died. And either something miraculous happened, or someone lied. Viscerally powerful in its depictions of the period -- massacres and riots, animal sacrifice and human betrayal -- The Liars' Gospel makes the oldest story entirely new.
Download or read book On Bullshit written by Harry G. Frankfurt and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 New York Times bestseller Featured on The Daily Show and 60 Minutes The acclaimed book that illuminates our world and its politics by revealing why bullshit is more dangerous than lying One of the most prominent features of our world is that there is so much bullshit. Yet we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, how it’s distinct from lying, what functions it serves, and what it means. In his acclaimed bestseller On Bullshit, Harry Frankfurt, who was one of the world’s most influential moral philosophers, explores this important subject, which has become a central problem of politics and our world. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the bullshitter’s capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that the truth matters. Because of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are. Remarkably prescient and insightful, On Bullshit is a small book that explains a great deal about our time.
Download or read book My Life with the Liars written by Caela Carter and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-03-08 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perfect for fans of Kathryn Erskine’s Mockingbird and Holly Goldberg Sloan’s Counting by 7s, this is a stunningly unique and poignant story of one girl’s strength and courage as she decides who she is and what she will believe in. Behind the white-washed walls of the Arizona compound, life was simple. Follow the rules, "live in the light," and all would be well. Zylynn was excited to turn thirteen and begin the work of bringing others into the light, to save them from the liars and the darkness of the outside world. But when she is taken away by a man who claims to be her father, Zylynn is confused, and desperate to return to her home. Zylynn resists her new life—until she finds small comforts, like shampoo, the color pink, and strawberries. But as her thirteenth birthday approaches, Zylynn must make a difficult decision—to stay here with the enemy, or find her way back to the light. And neither may be what they seem.
Download or read book Shifting the Monkey written by Todd Whitaker and published by Solution Tree Press. This book was released on 2014-03-17 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poor employees get a disproportionate amount of attention. Why? Because they complain the loudest, create the greatest disruptions, and rely on others to assume the responsibilities that they shirk. Learn how to focus on your good employees first, and help them shift these “monkeys” back to the underperformers. Through a simple but brilliant metaphor, the author helps you reinvigorate your staff and transform your organization.
Download or read book Liar Spy written by Rebecca Stead and published by Wendy Lamb Books. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The instant New York Times bestseller from the author of the Newbery Medal winner When You Reach Me: a story about spies, games, and friendship. The first day Georges (the S is silent) moves into a new Brooklyn apartment, he sees a sign taped to a door in the basement: SPY CLUB MEETING—TODAY! That’s how he meets his twelve-year-old neighbor Safer. He and Georges quickly become allies—and fellow spies. Their assignment? Tracking the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in the apartment upstairs. But as Safer’s requests become more and more demanding, Georges starts to wonder: how far is too far to go for your only friend? “Will touch the hearts of kids and adults alike.” —NPR Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children’s Fiction Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and more!
Download or read book All the Best Liars written by Amelia Kahaney and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amelia Kahaney's All the Best Liars is a dark, modern psychological thriller and coming-of-age story about obsession, manipulation, and the intensity of those first friendships that take hold of you and never let go Tic-tac-toe, three girls in a row. Nine years old and inseparable. Friends for life, or so they think . . . Best friends Syd, Rain, and Brie grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in the stifling California desert, desperately wishing for a way out. When a deadly fire is set two weeks before the end of high school, nothing will ever be the same. In the end, each of them will escape—but not in the way any of them expects. One will do it by dying, another by lying, a third by taking the fall. With gorgeous, taut prose and twists to the very last page, All the Best Liars alternates between the present and the past to unravel the truth behind the fire and the cost of the secrets at the heart of their friendship.
Download or read book How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls written by David Hu and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Insects walk on water, snakes slither, and fish swim. Animals move with astounding grace, speed, and versatility: how do they do it, and what can we learn from them? In How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls, David Hu takes readers on an accessible, wondrous journey into the world of animal motion. From basement labs at MIT to the rain forests of Panama, Hu shows how animals have adapted and evolved to traverse their environments, taking advantage of physical laws with results that are startling and ingenious. In turn, the latest discoveries about animal mechanics are inspiring scientists to invent robots and devices that move with similar elegance and efficiency. Hu follows scientists as they investigate a multitude of animal movements, from the undulations of sandfish and the way that dogs shake off water in fractions of a second to the seemingly crash-resistant characteristics of insect flight. Not limiting his exploration to individual organisms, Hu describes the ways animals enact swarm intelligence, such as when army ants cooperate and link their bodies to create bridges that span ravines. He also looks at what scientists learn from nature's unexpected feats--such as snakes that fly, mosquitoes that survive rainstorms, and dead fish that swim upstream. As researchers better understand such issues as energy, flexibility, and water repellency in animal movement, they are applying this knowledge to the development of cutting-edge technology. Integrating biology, engineering, physics, and robotics, [this book] demystifies the remarkable mechanics behind animal locomotion"--Page 4 of cover.
Download or read book Mothers and Other Liars written by Amy Bourret and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2010-08-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How far will a mother go to save her child? Ten years ago, Ruby Leander was a drifting nineteen-year-old who made a split-second decision at an Oklahoma rest stop. Fast forward nine years: Ruby and her daughter Lark live in New Mexico. Lark is a precocious, animal loving imp, and Ruby has built a family for them with a wonderful community of friends and her boyfriend of three years. Life is good. Until the day Ruby reads a magazine article about parents searching for an infant kidnapped by car-jackers. Then Ruby faces a choice no mother should have to make. A choice that will change both her and Lark's lives forever.
Download or read book The Kingdom of Liars written by Nick Martell and published by Gallery / Saga Press. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this brilliant debut fantasy, a story of secrets, rebellion, and murder are shattering the Hollows, where magic costs memory to use, and only the son of the kingdom’s despised traitor holds the truth. Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family. In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind. So when the opportunity arrives to get folded back into court, via the most politically dangerous member of the kingdom’s royal council, Michael takes it, desperate to find a way back to his past. He discovers a royal family that is spiraling into a self-serving dictatorship as gun-wielding rebels clash against magically trained militia. What the truth holds is a set of shocking revelations that will completely change the Hollows, if Michael and his friends and family can survive long enough to see it.
Download or read book Lions Liars written by Kate Beasley and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr). This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holes meets The Goonies in the highly anticipated second middle-grade novel from the author of Gertie's Leap to Greatness!
