We Americans love to have ourselves a big old time. It's not just our waistlines that have exploded outward since the post-WWII era. Our houses have grown larger, as have the appliances within them, the vehicles in their driveways, the income inequalities between ourselves and our neighbors, and the challenges we face on a rapidly warming planet. In his new book, Size: How It Explains the World, Dr. Vaclav Smil, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, takes readers on a multidiscipline tour of the social quirks, economic intricacies, and biological peculiarities that result from our function following our form.William MorrowFrom SIZE by Vaclav Smil. Copyright 2023 by Vaclav Smil. Reprinted courtesy of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.Modernity’s Infatuation With Larger SizesA single human lifetime will have witnessed many obvious examples of this trend in sizes. Motor vehicles are the planet’s most numerous heavy mobile objects. The world now has nearly 1.5 billion of them, and they have been getting larger: today’s bestselling pickup trucks and SUVs are easily twice or even three times heavier than Volkswagen’s Käfer, Fiat’s Topolino, or Citroën’s deux chevaux — family cars whose sales dominated the European market in the early 1950s.Sizes of homes, refrigerators, and TVs have followed the same trend, not only because of technical advances but because the post–Second World War sizes of national GDPs, so beloved by the... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2023-06-04 14:30:20 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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It’s time for a kinder, gentler C-suite, suggest consultants and coaches in these new books on applying the Golden Rule to the bottom line. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-11-26 05:00:00 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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Lots of good bookish things happened this week, including research that proves libraries lead to healthier, more equitable communities. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-10-29 10:42:00 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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“The Every,” a sequel to “The Circle,” suffers from the Web’s worst quality: unlimited space. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-10-19 12:00:00 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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Internet sensation Jackie Weaver’s first book You Do Have the Authority Here! has gone to Constable, promising "plain old common sense". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-07 23:20:50 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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