The Last of Its Kind PDF Download

Author: Gísli Pálsson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691230994
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
How an iconic bird’s final days exposed the reality of human-caused extinction The great auk is one of the most tragic and documented examples of extinction. A flightless bird that bred primarily on the remote islands of the North Atlantic, the last of its kind were killed in Iceland in 1844. Gísli Pálsson draws on firsthand accounts from the Icelanders who hunted the last great auks to bring to life a bygone age of Victorian scientific exploration while offering vital insights into the extinction of species. Pálsson vividly recounts how British ornithologists John Wolley and Alfred Newton set out for Iceland to collect specimens only to discover that the great auks were already gone. At the time, the Victorian world viewed extinction as an impossibility or trivialized it as a natural phenomenon. Pálsson chronicles how Wolley and Newton documented the fate of the last birds through interviews with the men who killed them, and how the naturalists’ Icelandic journey opened their eyes to the disappearance of species as a subject of scientific concern—and as something that could be caused by humans. Blending a richly evocative narrative with rare, unpublished material as well as insights from ornithology, anthropology, and Pálsson’s own North Atlantic travels, The Last of Its Kind reveals how the saga of the great auk opens a window onto the human causes of mass extinction.

Author: Sigrid Nunez
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429944978
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
The paths of two women from different walks of life intersect amid counterculture of the 1960s in this haunting and provocative novel from the National Book Award-winning author of The Friend Named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Christian Science Monitor Sigrid Nunez's The Last of Her Kind introduces two women who meet as freshmen on the Columbia campus in 1968. Georgette George does not know what to make of her brilliant, idealistic roommate, Ann Drayton, and her obsessive disdain for the ruling class into which she was born. She is mortified by Ann's romanticization of the underprivileged class, which Georgette herself is hoping college will enable her to escape. After the violent fight that ends their friendship, Georgette wants only to forget Ann and to turn her attention to the troubled runaway kid sister who has reappeared after years on the road. Then, in 1976, Ann is convicted of murder. At first, Ann's fate appears to be the inevitable outcome of her belief in the moral imperative to "make justice" in a world where "there are no innocent white people." But, searching for answers to the riddle of this friend of her youth, Georgette finds more complicated and mysterious forces at work. The novel's narrator Georgette illuminates the terrifying life of this difficult, doomed woman, and in the process discovers how much their early encounter has determined her own path, and why, decades later, as she tells us, "I have never stopped thinking about her."

Author: Scott Crass
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 166982795X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
It was a tale of two cycles. The 1990 Senate election landscape rewarded popular incumbents and was largely devoid of national themes. There were colorful, headline grabbing moments and a near-shocker or two yet all but one Senator seeking another term was granted it. The 1992 landscape had no such clarity. A downward economy sparked the call for new ideas and backlash from the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill sexual harassment hearings started a furious movement that led to the “Year of the Woman.” Both themes converged to set the stage for “change.” The precursor was an unexpected race in Pennsylvania between those two cycles that, but for a plane crash would not have happened. This book profiles the most competitive races of those cycles. Readers will become acquainted with the issues, personalities and the men and women who personified the status quo, change and everything in between.

Author: Joel Sartore
Publisher: National Geographic Photo Ark
ISBN: 1426220596
Category : Animals
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Celebrated National Geographic photojournalist Sartore continues his Photo Ark quest, photographing species around the world that are escaping extinction thanks to human efforts. The animals featured in these pages are either destined for extinction or already extinct in the wild but still alive today, thanks to dedication of a heroic group committed to their continued survival.l.

Author: Norm Diamond
Publisher: Kehrer Verlag
ISBN: 9783868289480
Category : Gymnasiums
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
Norm Diamond photographed the last months of a dilapidated, yet beautiful old gym in Dallas, Texas. These stark images could have come from another era. They evoke themes of memory and loss. No modern gym looks like this. The owner, Doug Eidd, a grizzled 87-year-old, opened the gym in 1962. He could have emerged from a time capsule as well. In the spring of 2018 when he was forced to close the gym on short notice, Diamond stayed to photograph the removal of the equipment as Doug's Gym drifted into memory.

Author: David Housewright
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 125000960X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Millionaire and unlicensed P.I. Rushmore McKenzie agrees to go undercover to help the ATF track a cache of stolen gunsNafter all, what could possibly go wrong?

Author: Randy Pausch
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780340978504
Category : Cancer
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

Author: David Yarrow
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
ISBN: 0847858324
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
From big cats to elephants and indigenous communities, Wild Encounters is a must-have for nature lovers, conservationists, and anyone who is inspired by all that remains wild. David Yarrow travels from pole to pole and continent to continent to visit frozen Arctic tundras, vast African deserts, primordial rain forests, and remote villages, inviting us to truly connect with subjects we mistakenly think we have seen before. Yarrow takes the familiar—lions, elephants, tigers, polar bears—and makes it new again by creating iconic images that deliberately connect with us at a highly emotional level. For more than two decades, this legendary wildlife photographer has been putting himself in harm's way to capture the most unbelievable close-up animal photography, amassing an incomparable photographic portfolio, spanning six continents. Driven by a passion for sharing and preserving Earth's last great wild cultures and species, Yarrow is as much a conservationist as a photographer and artist. His work has transcended wildlife photography and is now collected and shown as fine art in some of the most famed galleries around the world. Featuring 160 of his most breathtaking photographs, Wild Encounters offers a truly intimate view of some of the world's most compelling—and threatened—species and captures the splendor and very soul of what remains wild and free in our world through portraits that feel close enough to touch.

Author: Frans Lanting
Publisher: Earth Aware Editions
ISBN: 9781608878895
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Journey Into Africa through the lens of National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting, whose images have created an enduring vision of Africa’s diverse landscapes and wildlife. Experience the wonders of wild Africa as seen through the eyes of master photographer Frans Lanting, whose images have created an enduring vision of the continent’s primeval natural heritage—and what is at stake in the twenty-first century. Lanting’s images feature some of the most celebrated landscapes on Earth, from the sweeping vistas of the Serengeti Plains and the water wilderness of the Okavango Delta to the enchanting deserts of Namibia, the bewildering jungles of the Congo, and the otherworldly island of Madagascar. During many journeys over the past three decades, Lanting has documented Africa’s iconic animals—elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions, leopards, and cheetahs—as well as its endangered primates, including gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and lemurs. His personal stories express the deep understanding and sense of mission that make his work stand out as a unique tribute to the continent’s wildlife and wild places. This book is based on Frans Lanting’s landmark exhibition, Into Africa, which was produced as a partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the National Geographic Society, with support from the World Wildlife Fund.

Author: Ned Vizzini
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
ISBN: 1423141083
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job—Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy. At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away.