Download or read book The Mirror Test written by J. Kael Weston and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-05-24 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Editors' Choice A Military Times Best Book of the Year A powerfully written firsthand account of the human costs of conflict. J. Kael Weston spent seven years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan working for the U.S. State Department in some of the most dangerous frontline locations. Upon his return home, while traveling the country to pay respect to the dead and wounded, he asked himself: When will these wars end? How will they be remembered and memorialized? What lessons can we learn from them? These are questions with no quick answers, but perhaps ones that might lead to a shared reckoning worthy of the sacrifices of those—troops and civilians alike—whose lives have been changed by more than a decade and a half of war. Weston takes us from Twentynine Palms in California to Fallujah in Iraq, Khost and Helmand in Afghanistan, Maryland, Colorado, Wyoming, and New York City, as well as to out-of-the-way places in Iowa and Texas. We meet generals, corporals and captains, senators and ambassadors, NATO allies, Iraqi truck drivers, city councils, imams and mullahs, Afghan schoolteachers, madrassa and college students, former Taliban fighters and ex-Guantánamo prison detainees, a torture victim, SEAL and Delta Force teams, and many Marines. The overall frame for the book, from which the title is taken, centers on soldiers who have received a grievous wound to the face. There is a moment during their recovery when they must look upon their reconstructed appearance for the first time. This is known as “the mirror test.” From an intricate tapestry of voices and stories—Iraqi, Afghan, and American—Weston delivers a larger mirror test for our nation in its global role. An unflinching and deep examination of the interplay between warfare and diplomacy, this is an essential book—a crucial look at America now, how it is viewed in the world and how the nation views itself.

Download or read book The Terror Years written by Lawrence Wright and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-08-23 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. Here, in ten powerful pieces first published in The New Yorker, he recalls the path that terror in the Middle East has taken, from the rise of al-Qaeda in the 1990s to the recent beheadings of reporters and aid workers by ISIS. The Terror Years draws on several articles he wrote while researching The Looming Tower, as well as many that he’s written since, following where and how al-Qaeda and its core cultlike beliefs have morphed and spread. They include a portrait of the “man behind bin Laden,” Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the tumultuous Egypt he helped spawn; an indelible impression of Saudi Arabia, a kingdom of silence under the control of the religious police; the Syrian film industry, at the time compliant at the edges but already exuding a feeling of the barely masked fury that erupted into civil war; the 2006–11 Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, a study in the disparate value of human lives. Other chapters examine al-Qaeda as it forms a master plan for its future, experiences a rebellion from within the organization, and spins off a growing web of worldwide terror. The American response is covered in profiles of two FBI agents and the head of the intelligence community. The book ends with a devastating piece about the capture and slaying by ISIS of four American journalists and aid workers, and our government’s failed response. On the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11, The Terror Years is at once a unifying recollection of the roots of contemporary Middle Eastern terrorism, a study of how it has grown and metastasized, and, in the scary and moving epilogue, a cautionary tale of where terrorism might take us yet.

Download or read book The Cognitive Animal written by Marc Bekoff and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2002-06-21 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fifty-seven original essays in this book provide a comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary field of animal cognition. The contributors include cognitive ethologists, behavioral ecologists, experimental and developmental psychologists, behaviorists, philosophers, neuroscientists, computer scientists and modelers, field biologists, and others. The diversity of approaches is both philosophical and methodological, with contributors demonstrating various degrees of acceptance or disdain for such terms as "consciousness" and varying degrees of concern for laboratory experimentation versus naturalistic research. In addition to primates, particularly the nonhuman great apes, the animals discussed include antelopes, bees, dogs, dolphins, earthworms, fish, hyenas, parrots, prairie dogs, rats, ravens, sea lions, snakes, spiders, and squirrels. The topics include (but are not limited to) definitions of cognition, the role of anecdotes in the study of animal cognition, anthropomorphism, attention, perception, learning, memory, thinking, consciousness, intentionality, communication, planning, play, aggression, dominance, predation, recognition, assessment of self and others, social knowledge, empathy, conflict resolution, reproduction, parent-young interactions and caregiving, ecology, evolution, kin selection, and neuroethology.

Download or read book Animal Alterity written by Sherryl Vint and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animal Alterity uses readings of science fiction texts to explore how animals are central to our perception of humanity. Arguing that the academic field of animal studies and the popular genre of science fiction share a number a critical concerns, Sherryl Vint expresses an urgent need to reconsider the human-animal boundary in a world of genetic engineering, factory farming, species extinctions, and increasing evidence of animal intelligence, emotions, and tool use. Mapping the complex terrain of human relations with non-human animals, this book offers an important intervention into the contentious ongoing discussions of the post-human.

Download or read book What to Ask the Person in the Mirror written by Robert S. Kaplan and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harvard Business School professor and business leader Robert Kaplan presents a process for asking the big questions that will enable you to diagnose problems, change course if necessary, and advance your career.

Download or read book The Face in the Mirror written by Julian Keenan and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2004-07-06 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We've all witnessed this moment: a dog, a cat, or another animal reacting to its own reflection in the mirror, treating it as another animal to be played with or confronted. As human beings, we take self-recognition for granted, but this seemingly simple ability represents one of the most complex mysteries of neuroscience. The Face in the Mirror takes readers on a lively tour of the neurological, anthropological, and psychological roots of self-recognition -- from the intricate network in the brain that enables higher primates to recognize their image to complex, self-related emotions such as humor, embarrassment, and jealousy that play a crucial role in our evolution and survival. From animals who share our ability for self-recognition to case studies of patients who no longer recognize who they are, the authors examine some of the latest evidence on a subject that has puzzled philosophers and scientists for millennia -- how do we know who we are?

Download or read book Personhood written by Thalia Field and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A remarkable and moving cross-genre work about animal rights by one of America’s foremost experimental writers Whether investigating refugee parrots, indentured elephants, the pathetic fallacy, or the revolving absurdity of the human role in the "invasive species crisis," Personhood reveals how the unmistakable problem between humans and our nonhuman relatives is too often the derangement of our narratives and the resulting lack of situational awareness. Building on her previous collection, Bird Lovers, Backyard, Thalia Field's essayistic investigations invite us on a humorous, heartbroken journey into how people attempt to control the fragile complexities of a shared planet. The lived experiences of animals, and other historical actors, provide unique literary-ecological responses to the exigencies of injustice and to our delusions of special status.

Download or read book Mirror Meditation written by Tara Well and published by New Harbinger Publications. This book was released on 2022-06-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the power of mirror meditation to help you awaken self-compassion, increase self-awareness, and gain the confidence needed to thrive. Seeing ourselves clearly isn’t always easy—especially in the age of social media. Technology has eroded our capacity for authentic self-reflection. As a result, we feel more anxious and depressed, have shorter attention spans, and have become more estranged from ourselves and each other. We’ve also become more critical of our physical appearance, and this self-criticism can damage our confidence and stand in the way of our happiness. In order to heal, we must come face to face with our true selves—not the images of ourselves that we alter and post online. If you're ready for self-reflection that has nothing to do with selfies, this book will reveal the way. Based in cutting-edge neuroscience, Mirror Meditation offers mindful practices for increasing your self-awareness, managing stress and emotions, developing self-compassion, and increasing your confidence and personal presence. Using the three principles of mindfulness meditation—attention to the present moment, open awareness, and kind intention toward oneself—you’ll realize just how much your self-criticisms are affecting you. Then you’ll have a choice—and a practice—to treat yourself with more self-acceptance. Self-awareness can help you break free from both your inner critic and the external world that stokes the fears and anxieties that we are never good enough, never have enough, and are never safe enough. The simple self-mirroring technique in this unique guide isn’t grounded in technology—just a commitment to be present with yourself.

Download or read book The Dolphin in the Mirror written by Diana Reiss and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2011 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading authority on dolphin intelligence shares scientific information about dolphin creativity, emotions, and communication abilities while advocating for stronger dolphin protection laws.

Download or read book The Complete Stories written by Noah Warren and published by Copper Canyon Press. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Complete Stories announces its desire and its lie in the title; this is a book of shatter and loss. In his second collection, Noah Warren—previously selected by Carl Phillips for the Yale Series of Younger Poets—unravels histories both personal and public, picking apart their ugliness, beauty, and irreducible singularity. Clothed in broken forms, these poems of grieving and tentative joy ask finally how we can go forward with our own mottled pasts, into the futures we can’t predict but for which we must bear responsibility.

Download or read book Eyes in the Mirror written by Julia Mayer and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-08-01 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dee I always thought it would be cool to escape into another world. I never believed I'd find one in my reflection. But there I was, falling through the mirror into a parallel life—Samara's life. And she needed me. The cutting, the dead mom, no friends...She was hurting, and I knew it was up to me to fix it. She needed me to fix her. She'll thank me... Samara I never had a friend until I met Dee, at least not a real friend. But then she's my reflection, so maybe I'm just crazy. When she suggested we switch places, it seemed like the perfect answer. So I let her live in my world, and I lived in hers. With her mom, her boyfriend, her friends—her perfect life...I don't belong here. But how can I go back after what she's done? Two girls, one reflection, and a startling discovery about what really lies beyond the bathroom mirror...

Download or read book The Mirror Test written by Jeffrey W. Hayzlett and published by Business Plus. This book was released on 2010-05-05 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hayzlett's big booming approach is direct and to the point, but done so with a smile on his face as The Mirror Test is chock full of inspirational business stories and insights from his own career. Jeff Hayzlett is a big, boisterous guy who has the guts to get in your face and tell you exactly why your business isn't doing well. In short, he asks the questions that most business managers are afraid to ask. And as Jeff points out, if you aren't willing to look at what's working and what isn't - and then take the necessary steps to fix them -- well, you and your colleagues and employees are in for a tough ride. Known for his outspoken appearances on numerous TV reality shows, Hayzlett has built his career on having the ability to get his people to look up and pay attention to the problems at hand. The Mirror Test will teach readers -- through entertaining and timely anecdotes -- how to thoughtfully yet aggressively evaluate, deconstruct, and then reconstruct one's business.. In his unique, confrontational manner, Hayzlett will coach small business owners and managers on topics such as: Give your business the mirror test - is your company really breathing? Here's how you and your company must adapt...or die. The bottom line of your business really is... your bottom line. You have to focus on it.

Download or read book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are written by Frans de Waal and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-04-25 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller: "A passionate and convincing case for the sophistication of nonhuman minds." —Alison Gopnik, The Atlantic Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition—in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos—to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal’s landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal—and human—intelligence.

Download or read book Self Awareness in Animals and Humans written by Sue Taylor Parker and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994-05-27 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a collection of original articles on self-awareness in monkeys, apes, humans and other species. This book focuses on controversies about how to measure self-awareness, which species are capable of self-awareness and which are not, and why. The focus of the chapters is both comparative and developmental.

Download or read book The Self Across Psychology written by Joan Gay Snodgrass and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is organized around the theme of the self as viewed through the lens of various subspecialities within the field of psychology. It is a collection of papers presented at a series of lectures given during the 1994-96 meetings of the Psychology Section of the New York Academy of Sciences. Subjects vary from the field of comparative behaviour (in particular the issue of animal self-recognition as demonstrated by the mark test), narrative approaches to the self, and social and cultural influences on the development of the self-concept. The text demonstrates how different fields of psychology approach a common topic. Contributing psychologists include: Susan Andersen; Mahzarin R. Banaji; Jerome Bruner; Gordon Gallup; John Kihlstrom; Stanley Klein; Michael Lewis; Ulrich Neisser; Katherine Nelson; and Howard Rachlin.

Download or read book Fuckery written by Jonathan Sabol and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-06-09 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 30 million Americans quit their jobs in 2015. Many of them left because their jobs had become too toxic to tolerate. How does this happen? How can it be stopped? FUCKERY teaches career-driven employees how to break the bad habits that destroy people and undermine performance. By mapping negative habits, you'll reclaim lost productivity, repair disabled communication, and root out what threatens success. Transform "I can't wait to leave" into "I'm excited to be a part of this team."

Download or read book What It s Like to Be a Dog written by Gregory Berns and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Dog lovers and neuroscientists should both read this important book." -- Dr. Temple Grandin What is it like to be a dog? A bat? Or a dolphin? To find out, neuroscientist and bestselling author Gregory Berns and his team did something nobody had ever attempted: they trained dogs to go into an MRI scanner -- completely awake -- so they could figure out what they think and feel. And dogs were just the beginning. In What It's Like to Be a Dog, Berns takes us into the minds of wild animals: sea lions who can learn to dance, dolphins who can see with sound, and even the now extinct Tasmanian tiger. Berns's latest scientific breakthroughs prove definitively that animals have feelings very much like we do -- a revelation that forces us to reconsider how we think about and treat animals. Written with insight, empathy, and humor, What It's Like to Be a Dog is the new manifesto for animal liberation of the twenty-first century.