Some of us do our best thinking in the shower, others do it while on the toilet. Renee Descartes, he pondered most deeply while ensconced in a baker's oven. The man simply needed to be convinced of the oven's existence before climbing in. Such are the quirks of the most monumental minds humanity has to offer. In the hilarious and enthralling new book, Edison's Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History's Greatest Geniuses, Dr. Katie Spalding explores the illogical, unnerving, and sometimes downright strange behaviors of luminaries like Thomas "Spirit Phone" Edison, Isaac "Sun Blind" Newton, and Nicola "I fell in love with a pigeon" Tesla. Little Brown and CompanyExcerpted from Edison's Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History's Greatest Geniuses by Dr. Katie Spalding. Published by Little, Brown and Company. Copyright © 2023 by Katie Spalding. All rights reserved.When René Descartes Got BakedRené Descartes, like Pythagoras before him and Einstein after, occupies that special place in our collective consciousness where his work has become … well, essentially a short-hand for genius-level intellect. Think about it – in any cartoon or sitcom where one character is (or, through logically-spurious means, suddenly becomes) a brainiac, there are three things they’re narratively bound to say: ‘the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides’ – that’s Pythagoras; ‘E = mc2’ – thank you, Einstein; and finally, ‘cogito ergo sum’. And that is... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2023-05-28 14:30:30 UTC ]
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More than a million new titles are published annually in the US, far more than even the most bibliophilic secret agent could get through. Even with a weekly publishing schedule, we can only bring you 52 Hitting the Books each year. To help shine a spotlight on all the fantastic stories that... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-06-22 17:30:23 UTC ]
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A tough year for the stock market got worse in April, leading the Publishers Weekly Stock Index, now down to only six companies, to drop 8.8%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-05-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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After decades on the decline intro, America's labor movement is undergoing a massive renaissance with Starbucks, Amazon and Apple Store employees leading the way. Though the tech sector has only just begun basking in the newfound glow of collective bargaining rights, the automotive industry has... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-05-01 14:00:34 UTC ]
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From domestication and selective breeding to synthetic insulin and CRISPR, humanity has long sought understand, master and exploit the genetic coding of the natural world. In The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology authors Amy Webb, professor of strategic... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-02-19 16:30:24 UTC ]
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Feeding the planet's 8 billion people is challenge enough and our current industrialized commercial practices are causing such ecological damage that we may soon find ourselves hard-pressed to feed any more. For decades, scientists have sought out higher yields and faster growth at the expense... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-02-05 16:30:43 UTC ]
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The Silent Era of cinema was perhaps its most equitable with both hearing and hearing-impaired viewers able to enjoy productions alongside one another, but with the advent of "talkies," deaf and hard-of-hearing American's found themselves largely excluded from this new dominant entertainment... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-01-29 16:30:45 UTC ]
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With modern consoles offering gamers graphics so photorealistic that they blur the line between CGI and reality, it's easy forget just how cartoonishly blocky they were in the 8-bit era. In his new book, Creating Q*Bert and Other Classic Arcade Games, legendary game designer and programmer... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-12-25 16:30:11 UTC ]
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The Every by Dave Eggers (Hamish Hamilton) took the media by storm this week picking up mentions in The Guardian, Telegraph, Sunday Times, Times, iNews and Scotsman. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-22 14:18:03 UTC ]
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It may not contain our recommended daily allowance of Vitamin R but milk — or "cow juice" as it's known on the streets — is among the oldest known animal products repurposed for human consumption. Milk has been a staple of our diets since the 9th century BC but it wasn't until a fortuitous... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-10-23 15:30:38 UTC ]
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Amazon is the Standard Oil of the 21st century. Its business operations and global reach dwarf those of virtually every other company on the planet — and exceed the GDP of more than a few countries — illustrating the vital importance innovation has on the modern economy. In his latest book, The... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-10-16 15:30:33 UTC ]
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Amazon’s audiobook service Audible and phone apps for reading the holy books of Islam and Christianity have disappeared from the Apple store in mainland China Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2021-10-15 21:01:46 UTC ]
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During the Roaring '20s just about everybody was convinced that dirigibles were not just the future of luxury travel but that these lumbering airships could also serve as platforms for scientific exploration and adventure. Why slog through malaria-infested jungles, parched deserts and frozen... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-18 15:30:21 UTC ]
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Art may imitate life but it rarely does so with realistic fidelity. As Naomi Pequette, Space Science Programs Specialist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, argues in her essay "The Sounds of Contact" as part of The Science if Sci-Fi Cinema: Essays on the Art and Principles of Ten Films,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-04 15:30:43 UTC ]
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A newly launched professional bookseller certification program aims to boost indie bookselling skills. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-09-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Between CEO Elon Musk's often erratic antics, strident competition from existing industry titans, and a public that is still not fully sold on the idea of traveling via electrical charge, Tesla's road to prominence has not been a smooth one. But facing a federal investigation into its driver... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-08-21 15:00:52 UTC ]
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Deep in the heart of Appalachia, modern science and America's bucolic past meet at a unique crossroad of scientific discovery and luddite lifestyles. The Quiet Zone, by journalist Stephen Kurczy, is the story of a sleepy small town that hosts the Green Bank radio telescope. But the presence of... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-08-14 15:30:30 UTC ]
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Far fewer politically sensitive titles are on display in the first such event since Beijing imposed sweeping new regulations Booksellers at Hong Kong’s annual book fair are offering a reduced selection of books deemed politically sensitive, as they try to avoid violating a sweeping national... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-15 10:57:25 UTC ]
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An emergency fund has been opened to get quick aid to West London's Saqi Books, a publisher and bookstore reporting severe flood damage. The post Saqi Books in London Hit by Monday’s Flash Flooding appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-07-13 19:52:32 UTC ]
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Blockbuster projects share one common trait. Do you dream of opening that blockbuster restaurant, writing a New York Times best-selling book, or releasing a chart-topping album? A new study out of Northwestern University suggests a pivotal ingredient.Read Full Story Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2021-04-09 16:21:42 UTC ]
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The law firm that successfully sued Apple and five major publishers for colluding to fix e-book prices in 2011 has filed a class action against Amazon, accusing the company of colluding with the Big Five publishers to eliminate price competition from the e-book market. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-01-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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