Download or read book Where Witch Birds Fly written by Eugene Harkins and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2010-11-24 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This novel permits insight into the strange and horrific civil war that erupted in Sierra Leone in the 1990s in the twilight of the Cold War, leading ultimately to a UN War Crimes Tribunal for Crimes Against Humanity. It captures the toxic brew of forces that ultimately unleashed a conflagration in this small West African nation––Big Oil, Big Diamonds, competing external powers, foreign mercenaries, and the local dominant Lebanese trading community– –all pillaging and degrading the African population’s assets and destroying its chances for development until, not surprisingly, a brutal insurrection breaks out. The protagonist, Richard White, is an African-American international lawyer who first arrives in Sierra Leone during the Cold War on a mission to collect a forty million dollar oil debt owed by the local Freetown refinery. He returns a second time, post-Cold War, representing Lebanese interests in the largely illicit diamond trade, only to be kidnapped and held for ransom by Foday Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front. Where Witch Birds Fly is also––and not less so––an illuminated portrayal of White’s process of loss and redemption. An outwardly successful man,White is in actuality seeking to come to terms with the personal malaise brought about by his rejection of family and ethnic heritage. He travels through life with all the accoutrements that demonstrate his professional success––sharp clothes, fast cars, and flashy white women––but inside, he feels troubled and alone. Long-term psychoanalysis does little to alleviate his malaise. White’s road to peace lies through the maelstrom. Harkins projects the deadly social forces at play in Sierra Leone over a decade with the socio-political acumen and high moral vision of John Le Carre in The Constant Gardner.
Download or read book If Birds Fly Back written by Carlie Sorosiak and published by Macmillan Children's Books. This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sun-drenched and irresistible love story from a stunning new talent in YA, perfect for fans of Morgan Matson, John Green, and Rainbow Rowell. "A uniquely dazzling love story - sunshine flows through every electric page, and into your heart." Harriet Reuter Hapgood, author of The Square Root of Summer Linny has been living life in black and white since her sister Grace ran away, and she's scared that Grace might never come back. When Linny witnesses the return to Miami of a cult movie star long presumed dead, she is certain it's a sign. Surely Álvaro Herrera, of all people, can tell her why people come back - and how to bring her sister home? Sebastian has come to Miami seeking his father, a man whose name he's only just learned. An aspiring astrophysicist, he can tell Linny how many galaxies there are, how much plutonium weighs and how likely she is to be struck by a meteorite. But none of the theories he knows are enough to answer his own questions about why his father abandoned him, and why it left him in pieces. As Sebastian and Linny converge around the mystery of Álvaro's disappearance - and return - their planets start to collide. Linny's life is about to become technicolor, but finding the answers to her questions might mean losing everything that matters.
Download or read book Birds Can Fly Why Can t I written by Vicki Addesso Dodd and published by . This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flying with the birds is a dream this little Panda fears will never come true. Until one day, he realizes that it is in his dreams where anything is possible! Follow Griffin, the Panda, in this beautifully illustrated book as he searches for answers to his own question, "BIRDS CAN FLY, WHY CAN't I?
Download or read book Vesper Flights written by Helen Macdonald and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author of H is for Hawk explores the human relationship to the natural world in this “dazzling” essay collection (Wall Street Journal). In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds’ nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
Download or read book Birds in Flight written by Carrol L. Henderson and published by Voyageur Press. This book was released on 2008-10-22 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes adaptations for avian aerodynamics, and offers tips on spotting and identifying airborne birds.
Download or read book How and Why Do Birds Fly written by Baby Professor and published by Speedy Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2015-12-20 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn about the aerodynamics in birds that once led to the creation of our modern-day aircraft. This picture book will teach you the howÕs and whyÕs of flight. With complex information broken down into bits that are more easily understood, your child will surely ÒsoarÓ to the great heights of knowledge soon. Grab a copy today!
Download or read book A World on the Wing The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds written by Scott Weidensaul and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize A Library Journal Best Science and Technology Book of the Year An exhilarating exploration of the science and wonder of global bird migration. In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations—how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis—is nothing short of extraordinary. Bird migration entails almost unfathomable endurance, like a sparrow-sized sandpiper that will fly nonstop from Canada to Venezuela—the equivalent of running 126 consecutive marathons without food, water, or rest—avoiding dehydration by "drinking" moisture from its own muscles and organs, while orienting itself using the earth’s magnetic field through a form of quantum entanglement that made Einstein queasy. Crossing the Pacific Ocean in nine days of nonstop flight, as some birds do, leaves little time for sleep, but migrants can put half their brains to sleep for a few seconds at a time, alternating sides—and their reaction time actually improves. These and other revelations convey both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, from the mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China to the remote mountains of northeastern India to the dusty hills of southern Cyprus. This breathtaking work of nature writing from Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Weidensaul also introduces readers to those scientists, researchers, and bird lovers trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other environmental challenges. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork, in A World on the Wing Weidensaul unveils with dazzling prose the miracle of nature taking place over our heads.
Download or read book Animals in Flight written by Robin Page and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2005-05-30 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wings carry tiny insects, fluttering butterflies, and backyard birds, and they even once propelled some dinosaurs up and through the skies. Find out how, when, and why birds and beasts have taken to the air, and discover how wings work in this informative and brilliantly illustrated book about flight.
Download or read book Hearing Birds Fly written by Louisa Waugh and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2008-09-04 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HEARING BIRDS FLY is Louisa Waugh's passionately written account of her time in a remote Mongolian village. Frustrated by the increasingly bland character of the capital city of Ulan Bator, she yearned for the real Mongolia and got the chance when she was summoned by the village head to go to Tsengel far away in the west, near the Kazakh border. Her story completely transports the reader to feel the glacial cold and to see the wonders of the Seven Kings as they steadily emerge from the horizon. Through her we sense their trials as well as their joys, rivalries and even hostilities, many of which the author shared or knew about. Her time in the village was marked by coming to terms with the harshness of climate and also by how she faced up to new feelings towards the treatment of animals, death, solitude and real loneliness, and the constant struggle to censor her reactions as an outsider. Above all, Louisa Waugh involves us with the locals' lives in such a way that we come to know them and care for their fates.
Download or read book Fly with Me written by Jane Yolen and published by National Geographic Kids. This book was released on 2018 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Birds and their behavior through the seasons and relationship to man."--
Download or read book Living on the Wind written by Scott Weidensaul and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2000-04-15 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scott Weidensaul follows hawks over the Mexican coastal plains, Bar-tailed Godwits that hitchhike on gale winds 7,000 miles nonstop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, and the Myriad Songbirds whose numbers have dwindled so dramatically in recent years.
Download or read book Lecturing Birds on Flying written by Pablo Triana and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LECTURING BIRDS ON FLYING For the past few decades, the financial world has often displayed an unreasonable willingness to believe that "the model is right, the market is wrong," in spite of the fact that these theoretical machinations were largely responsible for the stock market crash of 1987, the LTCM crisis of 1998, the credit crisis of 2008, and many other blow-ups, large and small. Why have both financial insiders (traders, risk managers, executives) and outsiders (academics, journalists, regulators, the public) consistently demonstrated a willingness to treat quantifications as gospel? Nassim Taleb first addressed the conflicts between theoretical and real finance in his technical treatise on options, Dynamic Hedging. Now, in Lecturing Birds on Flying, Pablo Triana offers a powerful indictment on the trustworthiness of financial theory, explaining—in jargon-free plain English—how malfunctions in these quantitative machines have wreaked havoc in our real world. Triana first analyzes the fundamental question of whether financial markets can in principle really be solved mathematically. He shows that the markets indeed cannot be tamed with equations, presenting a long and powerful list of obstacles to prove his point: maverick unlawful human actions rule the markets, unexpected and unimaginable events shape the markets, and historical data is not necessarily a trustworthy guide to the future of the markets. The author then examines the sources of origin of many prevalent theories and mathematical dictums. He details how the field of financial economics evolved from a descriptive discipline to an abstract one dedicated to technically concocting professors' own versions of how such a world should work. He goes on to explain how Wall Street and other financial centers became eager employers of scientists, and how scientists became eager employees of financial firms. Triana concludes with an in-depth discussion of the most significant historical episodes of theory-caused real-life market malaise, with a strong emphasis on the current credit crisis. In the end, Lecturing Birds on Flying calls for the radical substitution of good old-fashioned common sense in place of mathematical decision-making and the restoration to financial power of those who are completely unchained to the iron ball of classroom-obtained qualifications.
Download or read book Flightless Birds written by Clive Roots and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 2006-09-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We share the earth with a wide variety of animal species, each of which brings something special to the diversity of the planet. By knowing more about how animals behave and live, we gain a greater understanding of how life evolved and the importance of biodiversity. This volume provides a complete guide to those birds that have evolved a trait that would seem to harm their ability to survive - flightlessness. Flight has its advantages - why would some birds be flightless? Flightless Birds covers the loss of flight in birds, both permanently after years of evolution, and temporarily as a result of unusual molting behavior, and those species that are in various stages of losing their flight. The book provides a thorough guide, perfect for research papers in biology classes, for understanding the behavior and biodiversity of a fascinating and unusual group of animals. Flightless Birds includes sections on the major groups of flightless birds: Rarities whose ancient ancestors were on the continents when they broke away millions of years ago, and who survived despite competing with mammals; birds that were marooned on islands in the ocean, where food was plentiful and predators absent; penguins, which evolved alongside seas teeming with food and had no need to fly, and the special case of New Zealand's many flightless species which evolved in a predator-free paradise but could not cope with the settlers and their alien animals; and the many species which have become extinct within historic times. Beautifully illustrated, with numerous color photos, Flightless Birds provides copious material for understanding these unusual animals.
Download or read book Wild Blue Wonder written by Carlie Sorosiak and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-06-26 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It's the rarest author who can pull off laugh-out-loud hilarious, profound, and breathlessly romantic, all in the most sparkling prose. That shortlist includes Rainbow Rowell, Nicola Yoon, and now, Carlie Sorosiak."—Jeff Zentner, Morris Award-winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days Last June, the summer camp Quinn’s family owns in Winship, Maine, was still a magical place. A place where wild blueberries grew no matter the season, a legendary sea monster lurked in the waters, and Quinn fell in love with her best friend, Dylan. Then the accident happened. Now it’s winter, the magic has drained from Quinn’s life, and she knows it’s her fault. But the new boy in town, Alexander, doesn’t see her as the monster she believes herself to be. As Quinn lets herself open up again, she begins to understand the truth about love, loss, and monsters—real and imagined. Perfect for fans of Morgan Matson, Jenny Han, and Jandy Nelson, this wondrous novel was proclaimed “a striking examination of love—of friends, of family, of self—as well as of grief” by ALA Booklist in a starred review.
Download or read book The Flight of Birds written by Lobb, Joshua and published by Sydney University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Flight of Birds is a novel in twelve stories, each of them compelled by an encounter between the human and animal worlds. The birds in these stories inhabit the same space as humans, but they are also apart, gliding above us. The Flight of Birds: A Novel in Twelve Stories explores what happens when the two worlds meet. Joshua Lobb’s stories are at once intimate and expansive, grounded in an exquisite sense of place. The birds in these stories are variously free and wild, native and exotic, friendly and hostile. Humans see some of them as pets, some of them as pests, and some of them as food. Through a series of encounters between birds and humans, the book unfolds as a meditation on grief and loss, isolation and depression, and the momentary connections that sustain us through them. Underpinning these interactions is an awareness of climate change, of the violence we do to the living beings around us, and of the possibility of transformation. The Flight of Birds will change how you think about the planet and humanity’s place in it.
Download or read book Birds Without Wings written by Louis de Bernieres and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2010-06-18 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Birds Without Wings traces the fortunes of one small community in southwest Turkey (Anatolia) in the early part of the last century—a quirky community in which Christian and Muslim lives and traditions have co-existed peacefully over the centuries and where friendship, even love, has transcended religious differences. But with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the onset of the Great War, the sweep of history has a cataclysmic effect on this peaceful place: The great love of Philothei, a Christian girl of legendary beauty, and Ibrahim, a Muslim shepherd who courts her from near infancy, culminates in tragedy and madness; Two inseparable childhood friends who grow up playing in the hills above the town suddenly find themselves on opposite sides of the bloody struggle; and Rustem Bey, a wealthy landlord, who has an enchanting mistress who is not what she seems. Far away from these small lives, a man of destiny who will come to be known as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is emerging to create a country from the ruins of an empire. Victory at Gallipoli fails to save the Ottomans from ultimate defeat and, as a new conflict arises, Muslims and Christians struggle to survive, let alone understand, their part in the great tragedy that will reshape the whole region forever.
Download or read book Nature s Flyers written by David E. Alexander and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2004-11-17 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Nature's Flyers' is a detailed account of the current scientific understanding of the primary aspects of flight in nature. The author explains the physical basis of flight, drawing upon bats, birds, insects, pterosaurs and even winged seeds.
