Author : Lawrence Maxwell Krauss
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 226 pages
File Size : 27,81 MB
Release : 2013
Category : Science
ISBN : 145162445X
This is a provocative account of the astounding new answers to the most basic philosophical question: Where did the universe come from and how will it end?
Author : Dr. Ahmed Sayeed
Publisher : Authors Tree Publishing
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 26,17 MB
Release : 2021-04-03
Category : Science
ISBN : 8195077595
THE ORIGIN OF THINGS has always been a central concern for humanity; the origin of the stones, the animals, the plants, the planets, the stars and we ourselves. Yet the most fundamental origin of them all would seem to be the origin of the universe as a whole – of everything that exists, without which there could be none of the creatures and things mentioned above, including ourselves. Perhaps that is why the existence of the universe, its origin and nature, has been a subject of explanation in almost all civilizations and cultures. In fact, every culture known to anthropology has had a cosmogony – a history of how the world began and continues, of how mankind was created and of what the gods expect of us. The understanding these civilizations had of the universe is very different to what science teaches us today. However, the absence of a cosmology in these societies, of some explanation for the world in which we live, would be just as unthinkable as the absence of language itself. These explanations, for want of other frameworks from which to approach the subject, always had religious, mythological or philosophical foundations. Only recently has science been able to give its version of the facts, chiefly because science is recent itself. In terms of experimental scientific method, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642, Italian astronomer, physicist and mathematician) is something of a milestone, though the Greeks had already developed sophisticated geometrical methods for measuring the orbits and sizes of celestial bodies and for predicting astronomical events. Nor can we forget that the Egyptians and Chinese, like the Incas, Mayas and Aztecs, also knew how to read the movements of the stars. It is surprising how we can understand the physical universe in a rational manner and that it can be researched through the methods of physics and astronomy developed in our laboratories and observatories. The perception of this scientific dimension and capacity was revealed to us most clearly in the first, second and third decades of the 20th Century.
Author : Jenny Odell
Publisher : Melville House
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 30,49 MB
Release : 2019-04-23
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 1612197507
** A New York Times Bestseller ** NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Time • The New Yorker • NPR • GQ • Elle • Vulture • Fortune • Boing Boing • The Irish Times • The New York Public Library • The Brooklyn Public Library "A complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto."—Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times Book Review One of President Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of 2019" Porchlight's Personal Development & Human Behavior Book of the Year In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives. Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important … but once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress. Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book will change how you see your place in our world.
Author : New Scientist
Publisher : John Murray
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 41,83 MB
Release : 2016-09-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1473642698
Zero, zip, nada, zilch. It's all too easy to ignore the fascinating possibilities of emptiness and non-existence, and we may well wonder what there is to say about nothing. But scientists have known for centuries that nothing is the key to understanding absolutely everything, from why particles have mass to the expansion of the universe; without nothing we'd be precisely nowhere. With chapters by 22 science writers, including top names such as Ian Stewart, Marcus Chown, Helen Pilcher, Nigel Henbest, Michael Brooks, Linda Geddes, Paul Davies, Jo Marchant and David Fisher, this fascinating and intriguing book revels in a subject that has tantalised the finest minds for centuries, and shows there's more to nothing than meets the eye.
Author : Celeste Headlee
Publisher : Harmony
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 25,16 MB
Release : 2020-03-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1984824740
“A welcome antidote to our toxic hustle culture of burnout.”—Arianna Huffington “This book is so important and could truly save lives.”—Elizabeth Gilbert “A clarion call to work smarter [and] accomplish more by doing less.”—Adam Grant We work feverishly to make ourselves happy. So why are we so miserable? Despite our constant search for new ways to optimize our bodies and minds for peak performance, human beings are working more instead of less, living harder not smarter, and becoming more lonely and anxious. We strive for the absolute best in every aspect of our lives, ignoring what we do well naturally and reaching for a bar that keeps rising higher and higher. Why do we measure our time in terms of efficiency instead of meaning? Why can’t we just take a break? In Do Nothing, award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee illuminates a new path ahead, seeking to institute a global shift in our thinking so we can stop sabotaging our well-being, put work aside, and start living instead of doing. As it turns out, we’re searching for external solutions to an internal problem. We won’t find what we’re searching for in punishing diets, productivity apps, or the latest self-improvement schemes. Yet all is not lost—we just need to learn how to take time for ourselves, without agenda or profit, and redefine what is truly worthwhile. Pulling together threads from history, neuroscience, social science, and even paleontology, Headlee examines long-held assumptions about time use, idleness, hard work, and even our ultimate goals. Her research reveals that the habits we cling to are doing us harm; they developed recently in human history, which means they are habits that can, and must, be broken. It’s time to reverse the trend that’s making us all sadder, sicker, and less productive, and return to a way of life that allows us to thrive.
Author : Tim Kreider
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 35,59 MB
Release : 2013-04-09
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1439198713
A "New York Times" political cartoonist and writer presents a collection of his most popular essays and drawings about life and government hypocrisy.
Author : Daniel Sinker
Publisher : Akashic Books
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 12,80 MB
Release : 2007-11-01
Category : Music
ISBN : 1936070553
“Collects some of [Punk Planet’s] best interviews from the past half-decade . . . serves as a reminder that punk is not just music but a movement.” —The A.V. Club Updated with six more interviews and a new introduction, the expanded edition of We Owe You Nothing is the definitive book of conversations with the underground’s greatest minds from the pages of Punk Planet. New interviews include talks with bands like The Gossip and Maritime, a conversation with punk legend Bob Mould, and more . . . in addition to the classic interviews from the original edition: Ian MacKaye, Jello Biafra, Thurston Moore, Noam Chomsky, Kathleen Hanna, Black Flag, Sleater-Kinney, Steve Albini, Frank Kozik, Art Chantry, and others. “We Owe You Nothing made me feel vital and alive.” —Seattle Weekly “The magazine Punk Planet has quietly been one of the most intelligent voices in the kingdom of punk and post-punk . . . [and] anyone with the vaguest interest in music would be well-served to learn from these captured moments [in We Owe You Nothing].” —Detroit Metro Times “No book has illustrated this relationship between punk and its believers more than We Owe You Nothing.” —Daily Herald “Straight talk with no bullshit, no spin. The result is an airblast of honesty, an antidote of attitude. Music fans will love this book, and so will fans of independent thinking.” —Flagpole “A wholly unique vision wrought not by consensus but by cultural cynicism and never-say-die musical populism.” —Magnet
Author : Jim Holt
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 40,46 MB
Release : 2012-07-17
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0871404095
In this astonishing and profound work, an irreverent sleuth traces the riddleof existence from the ancient world to modern times.
Author : Madeleine Thien
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 383 pages
File Size : 48,90 MB
Release : 2016-10-11
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0393609898
Winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award Finalist for the Booker Prize and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction "A powerfully expansive novel…Thien writes with the mastery of a conductor." —New York Times Book Review “In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. I was ten years old.” Master storyteller Madeleine Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations—those who lived through Mao’s Cultural Revolution and their children, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square. At the center of this epic story are two young women, Marie and Ai-Ming. Through their relationship Marie strives to piece together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking answers in the fragile layers of their collective story. Her quest will unveil how Kai, her enigmatic father, a talented pianist, and Ai-Ming’s father, the shy and brilliant composer, Sparrow, along with the violin prodigy Zhuli were forced to reimagine their artistic and private selves during China’s political campaigns and how their fates reverberate through the years with lasting consequences. With maturity and sophistication, humor and beauty, Thien has crafted a novel that is at once intimate and grandly political, rooted in the details of life inside China yet transcendent in its universality.
Author : Liesl Clark
Publisher : Atria Books
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 27,87 MB
Release : 2021-01-12
Category : House & Home
ISBN : 1982113804
In the spirit of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and The Joy of Less, experience the benefits of buying less and sharing more with this accessible 7-step guide to decluttering, saving money, and creating community from the creators of the Buy Nothing Project. In their island community, friends Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller discovered that the beaches of Puget Sound were spoiled by a daily influx of plastic items and trash washing on shore. From pens and toothbrushes to toys and straws, they wondered, where did it all come from? Of course, it comes from us—our homes, our backyards, our cars, and our workplaces. And so, a rallying cry against excess stuff was born. In 2013, they launched the first Facebook Buy Nothing Project group in their small town off the coast of Seattle, and they never expected it to become a viral sensation. Today there are thousands of Buy Nothing groups all over the world, boasting more than a million members, and 5,000 highly active volunteers. Inspired by the ancient practice of gift economies, where neighbors share and pool resources,The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan introduces an environmentally conscious 7-step guide that teaches us how to buy less, give more, and live generously. At once an actionable plan and a thought-provoking exploration of our addiction to stuff, this powerful program will help you declutter your home without filling landfills, shop more thoughtfully and discerningly, and let go of the need to buy new things. Filled with helpful lists and practical suggestions including 50 items you never need to buy (Ziploc bags and paper towels) and 50 things to make instead (gift cards and salad dressing), The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan encourages you to rethink why you shop and embrace a space-saving, money-saving, and earth-saving mindset of buying less and sharing more.
