The Toothpick Factory


Book Description

I decided to write "The Toothpick Factory" for younger people who are about to, or have just entered, the workforce. The proven lessons in this book will help assuage some angst and trepidation by providing clarity on how to approach the job market with a better mindset and more complete set of skills.




The Toothpick


Book Description

A celebration culture and technology, as seen through the history of the humble yet ubiquitous toothpick, from the best-selling author of The Pencil. From ancient Rome, where emperor Nero made his entrance into a banquet hall with a silver toothpick in his mouth, to nineteenth-century Boston, where Charles Forster, the father of the American wooden toothpick industry, ensured toothpicks appeared in every restaurant, the toothpick has been an omnipresent, yet often overlooked part of our daily lives. Here, with an engineer's eye for detail and a poet's flair for language, Henry Petroski takes us on an incredible tour of this most interesting invention. Along the way, he peers inside today's surprisingly secretive toothpick-manufacturing industry, and explores a treasure trove of the toothpick's unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond.




Wood


Book Description

A rich, authoritative look at a material that plays an essential role in human culture Wood has been a central part of human life throughout the world for thousands of years. In an intoxicating mix of science, history, and practical information, historian and woodworker Harvey Green considers this vital material's place on the planet. What makes one wood hard and one soft? How did we find it, tame it? Where does it fit into the histories of technology, architecture, and industrialization, of empire, exploration, and settlement? Spanning the surprising histories of the log cabin and Windsor chair, the deep truth about veneer, the role of wood in the American Revolution, the disappearance of the rain forests, the botany behind the baseball bat, and much more, Wood is a deep and satisfying look at one of our most treasured resources.







How Maine Changed the World


Book Description

As Down East Books celebrates 50 years of great book publishing, it seems appropriate to reflect upon the contributions Maine has made that have had significant cultural and historical impacts on both the United States and the World. Did you know that the caterpillar tread, common on bulldozers and tanks, originated from the design of Lombard’s steam log hauler; or that the dry plate photographic process was created by the Stanley brothers, who also invented a speed-record setting steam powered car and whose sister, Chansonetta, was a well-known photographer in her own right? Maxim’s machine gun forever changed the practice of warfare. The humble peavey is a simple tool well-known to any forester or lumberjack. The ubiquitous lobster boat, the microwave oven, earmuffs, and Monopoly—all came from the minds of Mainers. This book is a celebration of Maine’s creative ingenuity—from the very large, such as Portland Head Light and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge to the very small, such as the toothpick and the Bean boot.




The Cabinet


Book Description

Winner of the Munhakdongne Novel Award, South Korea's most prestigious literary prize. Cabinet 13 looks exactly like any normal filing cabinet…Except this cabinet is filled with files on the ‘symptomers’, humans whose strange abilities and bizarre experiences might just mark the emergence of a new species. But to Mr Kong, the harried office worker whose job it is to look after the cabinet, the symptomers are a headache; especially the one who won’t stop calling every day, asking to be turned into a cat. A richly funny and fantastical novel about the strangeness at the heart of even the most everyday lives, from one of South Korea's most acclaimed novelists. Translated by Sean Lin Halbert File Under: Fiction [ 12,000 Cans of Beer | Memory Mosaicers | Will Execution Inc. | Monkey of All Bombs ]




The American Exporter


Book Description







Weekly World News


Book Description

Rooted in the creative success of over 30 years of supermarket tabloid publishing, the Weekly World News has been the world's only reliable news source since 1979. The online hub www.weeklyworldnews.com is a leading entertainment news site.




World Outlook


Book Description