It's 2050. Somehow we haven't joined the dinosaurs in extinction, succumbed to the Secret Society of Super Villains, or been raptured up to the clouds. And the robots are friendly, not evil. Futurologist and environmentalist Sir Jonathan Porritt's The World We Made: Alex McKay's Story from 2050, published this week by Phaidon, imagines in full color what the future will look like if humanity gets with the eco program. Absent here is the dire forecasting of Orwell's 1984 or the mystical monolith of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Porritt presents a future that's rosy without being far–fetched, where every house is water–efficient and we're all BFFs with our robots. The book is framed as the parting gift of a retiring history professor, Alex McKay, telling his students "how we got the world back from the brink of collapse to where we are now in 2050." "It's definitely not science fiction," Porritt tells Co.Design. "Everything in this book is either already in existence or in development today, or has been flagged up by a designer as a possibility for the near future." Porritt would know––he founded Forum for the Future and acts as a sustainability adviser for the Prince of Wales and companies like Nike and PepsiCo. He spent years on this book working with teams of designers, from urban planners to architects to genetic engineers, and the results are astounding.Read Full Story Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2013-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An exploration of the landscape around a remote Cornish farmhouse, a study of the role of lemons in the Italian cultural landscape, and an account of life below deck on giant container ships are among the books shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year shortlist. Stanfords... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribd found romance readers gorging on books through the ebook subscription service are costly and now the company is cutting back on the genre. The post Scribd, Citing Profitability, Cuts Back on Love and Sex appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-07-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Netflix earned more than $5 billion in 2014. No wonder companies want to be “the Netflix of” other kinds of digital media — ebooks, magazines, music. That’s not easy to pull off when you don’t ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-07-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E L James’ Grey had its second straight 300,000-plus weekly print sale—pushing the book's combined UK ebook and physical sales over the 1 million unit mark—while the overall British print books market has experienced its first half-year rise in seven years. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E L James’ own company Fifty Shades Ltd had a “very successful” year to the end of September 2014, with a turnover of £18.1m and profits of £9.8m. However, this was down significantly on the previous year, when the company generated £43m with a profit of £25m. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Labour peer Baroness Tessa Blackstone called on civil servants and politicians to make proper use of the evidence-based work of social scientists in their policy decisions, in a speech last night (Thursday 25th June) at an event to celebrate SAGE's 50th anniversary. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Open Access monographs and textbooks will be in the spotlight at University College London’s newly relaunched UCL Press, now established as the UK’s first fully OA university press. UCL has made a three-year funding commitment to support the publishing unit, which enables UCL Press to offer OA... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury Children’s Books has revealed plans for a second Harry Potter Book Night in 2016. The event, which will take place on the 4th February, will again include events and activities based on the seven Harry Potter books penned by J K Rowling. More than 10,000 schools, libraries,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's UK website sales rose by 14% to £5.3bn last year, but the company also paid less in corporation tax and received more handouts in government grants. According to accounts filed in the US, net sales for the UK website were £5.3bn ($8.3bn) to the year ending December 2014, up from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While the future of bookshops remains uncertain, one of Wellington's leading independent stores has proven there is still life left in them yet. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2015-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twenty-five years after its birth as the publisher of a modest comics anthology, Montreal-based Drawn & Quarterly has become one of North America’s most acclaimed literary graphic novel publishers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Big is back. Boeing (NYSE: BA) has landed its largest order for the four-engine 747 jet in a quarter century, a 20-jet order from Volga-Dnepr Group, a Russian cargo carrier. The intent to order, announced at the Paris Air Show, is for 747-8F freighters, and probably is worth about $3.8 billion... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2015-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little, Brown imprint Abacus has acquired UK rights to Jonas Jonasson’s The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared. Independent Hesperus was ordered to stop selling or distributing the title in April after a High Court hearing brought by Hachette Book Group US, which... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With many in Congress determined to extend the moratorium on taxing Internet access, the retail trade association, RILA, would like to add legislation that would enable states to tax e-tailers the same as bricks-and-mortar stores. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The designer who pioneered the ‘big book look’ - creating covers for more than 6,500 books, ranging from Catch-22 to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - has died aged 91 in New York. Here are some of his best Continue reading... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Three debuts have made the shortlist for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2015. Antonia Hodgson’s debut The Devil in the Marshalsea (Hodder & Stoughton), a murder mystery set in the Marshalsea prison in 1727, is shortlisted alongside Hachette stablemate Sarah... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If Foyle's London Bookstore of the Future failed, it would signal the end, but one year on the store is thriving, with week on week sales hikes of 5-20% . The post Foyle’s “Bookstore of the Future” Celebrates First Birthday appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I was recently reading in Forbes Magazine that the U.S. has had the best first quarter for mergers since 2000 with $414.7 billion (£267 billion), and it was the best first quarter ever for Asian (non-Japan) M&A with $199.7 billion (£128 billion). In fact, the first quarter of 2015 will go... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2015-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Anne Roiphe, a major voice in feminist lit, reflects on her 50-year writing career as her 10th novel is published. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Small press And Other Stories will produce no books by men in 2018 in answer to Kamila Shamsie’s call for direct action to beat gender bias in publishingSmall press And Other Stories has answered author Kamila Shamsie’s provocative call for a year of publishing women to redress “gender bias” in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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