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"The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale--from QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar. Funny, complex, and rich with detail, the reviews chart the contradictions of contemporary humanity. John Green's...
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English
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Overview: The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is: Math isn't confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do-the whole world is shot through with it. Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of...
Author
Pub. Date
2019.
Language
English
Description
"For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally complex, excessive, and inadvisable that no one would ever try it. [This book] is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole." -- From book jacket flap.
For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally complex, excessive,...
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English
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"Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? In...
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English
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"A physicist explains daily phenomena from the mundane to the magisterial. Take a look up at the stars on a clear night and you get a sense that the universe is vast and untouchable, full of mysteries beyond comprehension. But did you know that the key to unveiling the secrets of the cosmos is as close as the nearest toaster? In Storm in a Teacup, Helen Czerski provides the tools to alter the way we see everything around us by linking ordinary objects...
Author
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
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Description
The creator of the popular webcomic "xkcd" uses line drawings and just ten hundred common words to provide simple explanations for how things work, including microwaves, bridges, tectonic plates, the solar system, the periodic table, helicopters, and other essential concepts.
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English
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"Dr. Stephen Hawking was the most renowned scientist since Einstein, known both for his groundbreaking work in physics and cosmology and for his mischievous sense of humor. He educated millions of readers about the origins of the universe and the nature of black holes, and inspired millions more by defying a terrifying early prognosis of ALS, which originally gave him only two years to live. In later life he could communicate only by using a few facial...
10) Actual size
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English
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Discusses and gives examples of the size and weight of various animals and parts of animals.
Author
Language
English
Description
Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and number-one best-selling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, David and Goliath, and What the Dog Saw, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers - and why they often go wrong. How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach...
Author
Publisher
Riverhead Books
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
"The #1 New York Times-bestselling author of What If? and How To provides his best answers yet to the weirdest questions you never thought to ask. The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. Planning to ride a fire pole from the moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool...
Author
Language
English
Description
"What is the "best" diet? Do calories matter? And when it comes to protein, fat, and carbs, which ones are good and which are bad? Food writer and cook Mark Bittman and health expert David Katz, MD, answer all these questions and more in a lively and easy-to-read Q&A format. Inspired by their viral hit article in Grub Street--one of New York magazine's most popular and most-shared articles--here Bittman and Katz share their clear, no-nonsense perspective...
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English
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This new version of the Caldecott-winning classic by illustrator David Small and author Judith St. George is updated with current facts and new illustrations to include our forty-fourth president, Barack H. Obama. Hilariously illustrated by Small, this celebration by St. George shows us the foibles, quirks and humanity of forty-four men who have risen to one of the most powerful positions in the world.
Author
Language
English
Description
"The real-life answers to Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Unruly Places explores the most extraordinary, off-grid, offbeat places on the planet. Alastair Bonnett's tour of the planet's most unlikely micro-nations, moving villages, secret cities, and no man's lands shows us the modern world from surprising new vantage points, bound to inspire urban explorers, off-the-beaten-trail wanderers, and armchair travelers. He connects what we see on maps...
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English
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Did you know that there is a fungus that can control the mind of an ant and make it do its bidding? Would you believe there is such a thing as a corpse flower -- a ten-foot-tall plant with a blossom that smells like a zombie? How about a species of octopus that doesn't live in water but rather lurks in trees in the Pacific Northwest? Every story in this book is strange and astounding. But not all of them are real. Just like the old game in this book's...
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