A Million Years in a Day

Author: Greg Jenner
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 125008945X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
Who invented beds? When did we start cleaning our teeth? How old are wine and beer? Which came first: the toilet seat or toilet paper? What was the first clock? Every day, from the moment our alarm clock wakes us in the morning until our head hits our pillow at night, we all take part in rituals that are millennia old. Structured around one ordinary day, A Million Years in a Day reveals the astonishing origins and development of the daily practices we take for granted. In this gloriously entertaining romp through human history, Greg Jenner explores the gradual—and often unexpected—evolution of our daily routines. This is not a story of wars, politics, or great events. Instead, Jenner has scoured Roman rubbish bins, Egyptian tombs, and Victorian sewers to bring us the most intriguing, surprising, and sometimes downright silly historical nuggets from our past. Drawn from across the world, spanning a million years of humanity, this book is a smorgasbord of historical delights. It is a history of all those things you always wondered about—and many you have never considered. It is the story of your life, one million years in the making.

A Hundred Million Years and a Day

Author: Jean-Baptiste Andrea
Publisher: Gallic Books
ISBN: 1910477915
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 119

Book Description
Described as 'unforgettable' by The Mail on Sunday, A Hundred Million Years and a Day is a pocket-sized epic adventure story of a professor's journey to an Alpine glacier. ‘Powerful’ Sunday Times When he hears a story about a huge dinosaur fossil locked deep inside an Alpine glacier, university professor Stan finds a childhood dream reignited. Whatever it takes, he is determined to find the buried treasure. But Stan is no mountaineer and must rely on the help of old friend Umberto, who brings his eccentric young assistant, Peter, and cautious mountain guide Gio. Time is short: they must complete their expedition before winter sets in. As bonds are forged and tested on the mountainside, and the lines between determination and folly are blurred, the hazardous quest for the Earth’s lost creatures becomes a journey into Stan’s own past. This breathless, heartbreaking epic-in-miniature speaks to the adventurer within us all.

Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years

Author: Stacy McAnulty
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company (BYR)
ISBN: 1250197910
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40

Book Description
A lighthearted nonfiction picture book about the formation and history of the Earth--told from the perspective of the Earth itself! "Hi, I’m Earth! But you can call me Planet Awesome." Prepare to learn all about Earth from the point-of-view of Earth herself! In this funny yet informative book, filled to the brim with kid-friendly facts, readers will discover key moments in Earth’s life, from her childhood more than four billion years ago all the way up to present day. Beloved children's book author Stacy McAnulty helps Earth tell her story, and award-winning illustrator David Litchfield brings the words to life. The book includes back matter with even more interesting tidbits. This title has Common Core connections.

The Boat of a Million Years

Author: Poul Anderson
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504053664
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book and Hugo and Nebula Award Finalist: This epic chronicle of ten immortals over the course of history “succeeds admirably” (The New York Times). The immortals are ten individuals born in antiquity from various cultures. Immune to disease, able to heal themselves from injuries, they will never die of old age—although they can fall victim to catastrophic wounds. They have walked among mortals for millennia, traveling across the world, trying to understand their special gifts while searching for one another in the hope of finding some meaning in a life that may go on forever. Following their individual stories over the course of human history and beyond into a richly imagined future, “one of science fiction’s most revered writers” (USA Today) weaves a broad tapestry that is “ambitious in scope, meticulous in detail, polished in style” (Library Journal).

Never In A Million Years

Author: Ivor Baddiel
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 1409140237
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
The authors of the bestselling NOT THE HIGHWAY CODE shine a light on the extensive back catalogue of dodgy predictions through the ages. The first end of the world prediction was recorded one second after the Big Bang and since then it has become the daddy of all predictions with, to date, no one getting it right. And human beings have been around for about 200,000 years, with very little evolutionary difference, and yet we still haven't developed X-Ray eyes or the ability to fly. In this book, Baddiel and Zucker examine the predictions that have been made since the dawn of time on a variety of subjects, from the end of the world and the human body, to global warming, robots in the workplace, teleportation and space exploration. With a witty and fresh tone, they examine how these predictions came about and why, and rate them for retrospective accuracy.

The Last Two Million Years

Author:
Publisher: Reader's Digest Association
ISBN: 9780895770189
Category : Civilization
Languages : en
Pages : 492

Book Description
A four-part survey of the human adventure.

The Great Mental Models, Volume 1

Author: Shane Parrish
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593719972
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.

A Million Years of Music

Author: Gary Tomlinson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 1935408658
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Book Description
What is the origin of music? In the last few decades this centuries-old puzzle has been reinvigorated by new archaeological evidence and developments in the fields of cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary theory. Starting at a period of human prehistory long before Homo sapiens or music existed, Tomlinson describes the incremental attainments that, by changing the communication and society of prehuman species, laid the foundation for musical behaviors in more recent times. He traces in Neandertals and early sapiens the accumulation and development of these capacities, and he details their coalescence into modern musical behavior across the last hundred millennia

The Day Before Yesterday

Author: Colin Tudge
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
ISBN:
Category : Evolution
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Book Description
The proper sense of time, the author argues, is one which allows us to appreciate the world in general and perceive what we are doing to it. Tudge (former Features Editor of New Scientist) keeps his eye firmly on the processes that formed humankind and that still affect our lives.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

Author: Donald Miller
Publisher: Harper Horizon
ISBN: 1418585874
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
After the publication of his wildly successful memoir, Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller's life began to stall. During what should have been the height of his success, he found himself avoiding responsibility and even questioning the meaning of life. But when two producers proposed turning his memoir into a movie, Miller found himself launched into a new story filled with risk, possibility, beauty, and meaning. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years chronicles Miller's rare opportunity to edit his life into a great story and to reinvent himself so nobody shrugs their shoulders when the credits roll. When his producers begin fictionalizing Don's life for the film--changing a meandering memoir into a structured narrative--the real-life Don starts a journey to make his actual life into a better story. In this book, we have a front-row seat to Miller's journey--from sleeping all day to riding his bike across America, from living in romantic daydreams to facing love head-on, from wasting his money to founding a life-changing nonprofit. Guided by a host of outlandish but very real characters, Miller teaches us: Why God hasn't fixed us yet The power of speaking something into nothing The redemptive beauty that can come from tragic circumstances How to get a second chance at life the first time around Through heart-wrenching honesty and hilarious self-inspection, Miller takes readers through the life that emerges when it turns from boring reality into a meaningful narrative.