Author : Jerry Langton
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 14,43 MB
Release : 2007-06-26
Category : History
ISBN : 0312363842
Examines the characteristics, physiology, habits, behavior, evolution, history, myth, and psyche of one of the world's most successful animals, in a study that explores the reasons why the ever-adaptable rat has risen to the top of the animal kingdom.
Author : Rachel Toor
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
Page : 217 pages
File Size : 23,31 MB
Release : 2016-06-07
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN : 0374303096
As much a moving memoir as it is an amusing pet manual, Misunderstood is a unique nonfiction book for teens and tweens about domesticated rats in general and a wonderful rat named Iris in particular. Brimming with smarts and energy just like its furry subjects, Rachel Toor's text blends history and science with profiles of interesting people and autobiographical anecdotes as it joyfully sets the record straight about why this reviled creature is actually a most amazing species. Readers will come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of domestic rats—and may be convinced to adopt one themselves.
Author : Richard C. Francis
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 507 pages
File Size : 40,40 MB
Release : 2015-05-25
Category : Science
ISBN : 0393246515
Without domestication, civilization as we know it would not exist. Since that fateful day when the first wolf decided to stay close to human hunters, humans and their various animal companions have thrived far beyond nearly all wild species on earth. Tameness is the key trait in the domestication of cats, dogs, horses, cows, and other mammals, from rats to reindeer. Surprisingly, with selection for tameness comes a suite of seemingly unrelated alterations, including floppy ears, skeletal and coloration changes, and sex differences. It’s a package deal known as the domestication syndrome, elements of which are also found in humans. Our highly social nature—one of the keys to our evolutionary success—is due to our own tameness. In Domesticated, Richard C. Francis weaves history and anthropology with cutting-edge ideas in genomics and evo devo to tell the story of how we domesticated the world, and ourselves in the process.
Author : Ernest Small
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 1254 pages
File Size : 17,37 MB
Release : 2023-10-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 1000953211
Some animals and plants injure or kill millions of people annually, others cause trillions of dollars in property damage and loss. Such harmful species are understandably hated. However, the vast majority of the planet’s millions of species are disliked simply because of how they look and act. This bias is endangering numerous species that play important roles in maintaining both the natural ecosystems and the human economies of the world. In Defense of the World’s Most Despised Species examines the psychological motivations that lead people to make judgments about the attractiveness of species, noting the overwhelming importance of visual cues. It describes in considerable detail the physical and behavioral traits of species that lead us to love or hate them. Full color illustrations throughout present beautiful, charming animals and plants, species that seem loathsome, behavior of people in relation to such divergent species and their characteristics, and numerous explanatory diagrams of relevant biological and psychological phenomena. The aim of this book is to give readers insights into how we humans arrive at biased judgments and to promote the welfare of valuable, albeit sometimes unlovable animals and plants that consequently suffer from discrimination. Many of the ugliest, most disgusting, and feared species, such as vultures, toads, hyenas, sharks, spiders, and even the vast majority of cockroaches, in reality are some of our most valuable friends. Features Theme of the book – human preferences for and against species – is novel, scarcely examined to date. Multidisciplinary analysis, especially psychology, biological conservation science, and ecology, as well as philosophy, agriculture, urban planning, human health, and law. Text is accessible, user-friendly, concise, and well-organized, making numerous complex topics comprehensible, readable not only by specialists, but also by students and the educated layperson. Includes over 2,000 high-quality, entertaining, and informative color figures.
Author : Stephen Berry
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 13,39 MB
Release : 2011-10-01
Category : History
ISBN : 0820341851
"It is well that war is so terrible," Robert E. Lee reportedly said, "or we would grow too fond of it." The essays collected here make the case that we have grown too fond of it, and therefore we must make the war terrible again. Taking a "freakonomics" approach to Civil War studies, each contributor uses a seemingly unusual story, incident, or phenomenon to cast new light on the nature of the war itself. Collectively the essays remind us that war is always about damage, even at its most heroic and even when certain people and things deserve to be damaged. Here then is not only the grandness of the Civil War but its more than occasional littleness. Here are those who profited by the war and those who lost by it--and not just those who lost all save their honor, but those who lost their honor too. Here are the cowards, the coxcombs, the belles, the deserters, and the scavengers who hung back and so survived, even thrived. Here are dark topics like torture, hunger, and amputation. Here, in short, is war.
Author : Terri Schlichenmeyer
Publisher : Visible Ink Press
Page : 630 pages
File Size : 31,74 MB
Release : 2021-08-01
Category : Reference
ISBN : 1578597560
Strange science facts! Hilarious history facts! Informative and Fun! A treat of science and history stories and trivia that will inform and entertain anyone curious about the world! From astonishing, amazing and surprising science and history facts to the little-known stories hidden inside bigger events, The Big Book of Facts is a fascinating tour through our weird and interesting world. You’ll learn about the earth and its history through absorbing stories and interesting tidbits. Did you know ... Babies start laughing at just a few weeks old; there are ten discernible types of laughter; and laughter spurs our appetite for food? Like fingerprints, every tongue on Earth has a unique print? The history of the U.S. Postal Service, including the Pony Express, ... and the short-lived (but legal) practice of mailing children? Hand washing was not always common through history; toilet paper was invented in the 1400s, and Sir John Harington invented the flushable toilet for Queen Elizabeth I? Though they are all differently shaped by virtue of being an assembly of water droplets, there are ten basic kinds of clouds? A basic and quick history of cash in America, including Alexander Hamilton and the Bank of the United States, Benjamin Franklin’s efforts to thwart counterfeiting, $100,000 bills, and the fact that more than 85% of the world’s money is digital only? Though Shakespeare mentioned Valentine’s Day in “Hamlet,” sending paper cards to a beloved wasn’t a fad until the eighteenth century, and by the 1840s, insulting Valentine cards also became common? Government agencies in the U.S. and France both agree that the measure of a second is determined by how long it takes a cesium atom to vibrate just over nine billion times? The history of children’s games such as hide-and-seek, blindman's bluff, and jacks that date back to the ancient Greeks and Romans? And much, much more. Engrossing, engaging, and enlightening, The Big Book of Facts lets you discover the fun oddities that make up our world. Wide-ranging and fact-filled with nearly 160 illustrations, this information-rich tome also includes a helpful bibliography and an extensive index for those scrambling for more information.
Author : Robert Crocker
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 553 pages
File Size : 46,14 MB
Release : 2013-07-24
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 1135043841
Today’s most pressing challenges require behaviour change at many levels, from the city to the individual. This book focuses on the collective influences that can be seen to shape change. Exploring the underlying dimensions of behaviour change in terms of consumption, media, social innovation and urban systems, the essays in this book are from many disciplines, including architecture, urban design, industrial design and engineering, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, waste management and public policy. Aimed especially at designers and architects, Motivating Change explores the diversity of current approaches to change, and the multiple ways in which behaviour can be understood as an enactment of values and beliefs, standards and habitual practices in daily life, and more broadly in the urban environment.
Author : Jerry Langton
Publisher :
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 18,14 MB
Release : 2006
Category : History
ISBN :
If given the time, food, and freedom from predators, a rat can produce 128,000 offspring in one year.Plague carrier, city vermin and an out-and-out menace to modern man, the rat, like death and taxes, is a certain fixture on humankinds history. Rats are found in virtually every nook and cranny of the globe and their numbers are ever increasing. Popular movies such as Wilbur have only reinforced our terror of the rat and have given it a permanent place on our list of enemies. Rats are always adapting and they seem to outwit any attempts by humans to wipe them out. What makes the rat such a worthy adversary and how has it risen to the top of the animal kingdom? In Rat: How the Worlds Most Notorious Rodent Clawed its Way to the Top, Jerry Langton explores the history, myth, physiology, habits, and psyche of the rat and even speculates on the future of the rat and how they might evolve over the next few hundred years. From its origins in the swamps of Southeast Asia, to its role in the medieval Black Death to its unshakable niche in modern urban centres, the rat has incredible biological advantages that make it virtually indestructible. Rat: How the Worlds Most Notorious Rodent Clawed its Way to the Top transcends nature literature by combining biology with history, and social commentary with first-hand experience, to dispel the myths and expose the little-known facts about the ubiquitous rodent.
Author : Anthony Winson
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 25,21 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1479862797
- "Provides all the evidence anyone needs to understand the problems with our current food system." - Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University - "A hugely informative book, stocked full of careful analysis." - Amy Best, Associate Professor of Sociology, George Mason University
Author : Miro Roman
Publisher : Birkhäuser
Page : 528 pages
File Size : 46,96 MB
Release : 2021-12-06
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 3035624054
How does coding change the way we think about architecture? This question opens up an important research perspective. In this book, Miro Roman and his AI Alice_ch3n81 develop a playful scenario in which they propose coding as the new literacy of information. They convey knowledge in the form of a project model that links the fields of architecture and information through two interwoven narrative strands in an “infinite flow” of real books. Focusing on the intersection of information technology and architectural formulation, the authors create an evolving intellectual reflection on digital architecture and computer science.
