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Hope for cynics : the surprising science of human goodness / by Zaki, Jamil,1980-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Runaway cynicism is turning our world into a meaner, sicker place; director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, Dr. Jamil Zaki, is about to disrupt this narrative. For thousands of years, people have argued about whether humanity is selfish or generous, cruel or kind. In 1972, half of Americans agreed that most people can be trusted; by 2018, that figure had fallen to 30%. Different generations, genders, religions, and political parties can't seem to agree on anything, except, perhaps, on one idea: that human virtue is evaporating. Cynicism is a perfectly understandable response to a world full of injustice, harm, and inequality. But in many cases, cynicism has become the first -- or only -- tool that people reach for these days. It is the psychological hammer of our age, and we are treating others more and more like nails. Knee-jerk cynicism worsens social problems because our beliefs don't just reflect the world -- they change it. When we expect people to be awful, we coax awfulness out of them. Cynicism is a disease, with a history, symptoms, and a cure"--
Subjects: Cynicism; Hope.; Social justice;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Life and times of Augustine Tataneuck : an Inuk hero in Rupert's Land, 1800-1834 / by Fossett, Renee,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.One of the few biographies of an Inuk man from the 19th Century-- separated from his family, community, and language-- finding his place in history. Augustine Tataneuck was an Inuk man born near the beginning of the 19th century on the northwestern coast of Hudson Bay. Between 1812 and 1834, his family sent him to Churchill, Manitoba, to live and work among strangers, where he could escape the harsh Arctic climate and earn a living in the burgeoning fur trade. He was perhaps the first Inuk man employed by the Hudson's Bay Company as a labourer, and he also worked as an interpreter on John Franklin's two overland expeditions in search of the northwest passage. Tataneuck's life was shaped by the inescapable, harsh environments he lived within, and he was an important, but not widely recognized, player in the struggle for the possession of northwest North America waged by Britain, Russia, and the United States. He left no diaries or letters. Using the Hudson's Bay Company's journals and historical archives, historian Renee Fossett has pieced together a compelling biography of Augustine and the historical times he lived through: climate disasters, lethal disease episodes, and political upheavals on an international scale. While The Life and Times of Augustine Tataneuck is a captivating portrait of an Inuk man who lived an extraordinary life, it also is an arresting, unique glimpse into the North as it was in the 19th century and into the lives of trappers, translators, and labourers who are seldom written about and often absent in the historical record.
Subjects: Biographies.; Tataneuck, Augustine.; Fur traders; Fur traders; Inuit;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Everything Is Tuberculosis [electronic resource] : The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection / by Green, Johnaut; CloudLibrary;
Instant #1 New York Times bestseller! • #1 Washington Post bestseller! • #1 Indie Bestseller! • USA Today Bestseller! John Green, award-winning author and passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease. “The real magic of Green’s writing is the deeply considerate, human touch that goes into every word.” –The Associated Press “This highly readable call to action could not be more timely.” –Kirkus, starred review “Earnest and empathetic.” –The New York Times Tuberculosis has been entwined with hu­manity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it. In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John be­came fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequi­ties that allow this curable, preventable infec­tious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year. In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world—and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.General adult.Electronic reproduction.Online resource; title from digital title page (CloudLibrary, viewed April 12, 2025).
Subjects: Electronic books.; Infectious Diseases; MEDICAL; History; SCIENCE; SOCIAL SCIENCE;
© 2025., Penguin Young Readers Group,
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Doom : the politics of catastrophe / by Ferguson, Niall,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Setting the great crisis of 2020 in broad historical perspective, Niall Ferguson challenges the conventional wisdom that our failure to cope better with disaster was solely a crisis of political leadership, as opposed to a more profound systemic problem. Disasters are by their very nature hard to predict. Pandemics, like earthquakes, wildfires, financial crises and wars, are not normally distributed; there is no cycle of history to help us anticipate the next catastrophe. But when disaster strikes, we ought to be better prepared than the Romans were when Vesuvius erupted, or medieval Italians when the Black Death struck. We have science on our side, after all. Yet the responses of a number of developed countries, including the United States, to a new pathogen from China were badly bungled. Why? The facile answer is to blame poor leadership. While populist leaders have certainly performed poorly in the face of the pandemic, more profound problems have been exposed by COVID-19. Only when we understand the central challenge posed by disaster in history can we see that this was also a failure of an administrative state and economic elites that had grown myopic over much longer than just a few years. Why were so many Cassandras for so long ignored? Why did only some countries learn the right lessons from SARS and MERS? Why do appeals to "the science" often turn out to be magical thinking? Drawing from multiple disciplines, including history, economics, public health, and network science, Doom is a global postmortem for a plague year. In books going back nearly twenty years, including Colossus, The Great Degeneration, and The Square and the Tower, Niall Ferguson has studied the pathologies that afflict modern America, from imperial hubris to bureaucratic sclerosis and online schism. Doom is the lesson of history that this country--indeed the West as a whole--urgently needs to learn--if we want to avoid the doom of irreversible decline"--
Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease); Epidemics; Political leadership.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Into the gray zone : a neuroscientist explores the border between life and death / by Owen, Adrian M.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.In this startling and thought-provoking book, which will remind readers of works by Oliver Sacks and Atul Gawande, a world-renowned neuroscientist reveals his controversial, groundbreaking work with patients whose brains were previously thought vegetative or non-responsive but turn out--in up to 20 percent of cases--to be vibrantly alive, existing in the "Gray Zone." Into the Gray Zone takes readers to the edge of a dazzling, humbling frontier in our understanding of the brain: the so-called "gray zone" between full consciousness and brain death. People in this middle place have sustained traumatic brain injuries or are the victims of stroke or degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Many are oblivious to the outside world, and their doctors believe they are incapable of thought. But a sizeable number are experiencing something different: intact minds adrift deep within damaged brains and bodies. An expert in the field, Adrian Owen led a team that, in 2006, discovered this lost population and made medical history. Scientists, physicians, and philosophers have only just begun to grapple with the implications. Following Owen's journey of exciting medical discovery, Into the Gray Zone asks some tough and terrifying questions, such as: What is life like for these patients? What can their families and friends do to help them? What are the ethical implications for religious organizations, politicians, the Right to Die movement, and even insurers? And perhaps most intriguing of all: in defining what a life worth living is, are we too concerned with the physical and not giving enough emphasis to the power of thought? What, truly, defines a satisfying life?
Subjects: Brain damage.; Persistent vegetative state.; Persistent vegetative state; Brain; Neurosciences.; Coma.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Itch! : everything you didn't want to know about what makes you scratch / by Sanchez, Anita,1956-author.; Ford, Gilbert,illustrator.; Critt, C. J.,narrator.; Container of (expression):Sanchez, Anita.Itch!Spoken word (Critt);
Includes bibliographical references and index.Read by CJ Critt.Everybody gets itchy, and every kid will love this title that scratches the itch to know more and about the history, anatomy, botany, biology behind it. Perfect for fans of Grossology books looking for something more substantive and dynamic. You can feel it coming on--that terrible, tortuous ITCH. As irritating as an itch is, it is also your body's way of sending you a message you can't miss, like you've brushed up against poison ivy or lice have taken up residence in your hair. None of which you'd know without that telltale itch! And there are so many things that make us itch--from fungus to fleas, mosquitoes to nettles, poison ivy to tarantulas! Combining history, anatomy, laugh-out-loud illustrations, and even tips to avoid--and soothe--the itch, Anita Sanchez and Gilbert Ford take readers on an intriguing (and sometimes disgusting) look into what makes you scratch.Ages 8-12.4-8.
Subjects: Instructional and educational works.; Children's audiobooks.; Book plus audio.; Dyslexia-friendly books.; Itching; Skin; Poisonous animals; Poisonous plants; VOX books.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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How medicine works and when it doesn't : learning who to trust to get and stay healthy / by Wilson, F. Perry,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."We live in an age of medical miracles. Never in the history of humankind has so much talent and energy been harnessed to cure disease. So why does it feel like it's getting harder to live our healthiest lives? Why does it seem like "experts" can't agree on anything, and why do our interactions with medical professionals feel less personal, less honest, and less impactful than ever? Through stories from his own practice and historical case studies, Dr. F. Perry Wilson, a physician and researcher from the Yale School of Medicine, explains how and why the doctor-patient relationship has eroded in recent years and illuminates how profit-driven companies-from big Pharma to healthcare corporations-have corrupted what should have been medicine's golden age. By clarifying the realities of the medical field today, Dr. Wilson gives readers the tools they need to make informed decisions, from evaluating the validity of medical information online to helping caregivers advocate for their loved ones, in the doctor's office and with the insurance company. Dr. Wilson wants readers to understand medicine and medical science the way he does: as an imperfect and often frustrating field, but still the best option for getting well. To rebuild trust between patients, doctors, medicine, and science, we need to be honest, we need to know how to spot misinformation, and we need to avoid letting skepticism ferment into cynicism. For it is only by redefining "good medicine"-science that is well-researched, rational, safe, effective, and delivered with compassion, empathy, and trust-that the doctor-patient relationship can be truly healed"--
Subjects: Medical care; Physician and patient;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The decline and fall of the human empire : why our species is on the edge of extinction / by Gee, Henry,1962-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."By the award-winning author of A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: a history of humanity on the brink of decline. We are living through a period that is unique in human history. For the first time in more than ten thousand years, the rate of human population growth is slowing down. In the middle of this century population growth will stop, and the number of people on Earth will start to decline-fast. In this provocative book, award-winning science writer Henry Gee offers a concise, brilliantly-told history of our species--and argues that we are on a rapid, one-way trip to extinction. The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire narrates the dramatic rise of humanity, how a scattered range of small groups across several continents eventually inbred, interacted, fought, established stable communities and food supplies, and began the process of dominating the planet. The human story is relatively brief-the oldest fossils of H. Sapiens date to approximately 300,000 years ago-yet the spread of our species has been unstoppable ... until recently. As Gee demonstrates, our population has peaked, and is declining; our environment is becoming inimical to human life in many locations; our core resources of water, arable land, and air are diminishing; and new diseases, simmering conflicts, and ambiguous technologies threaten our collective health. Can we still change our course? Or is our own extinction inevitable? There could be a way out, but the launch window is narrow. Unless Homo sapiens establishes successful colonies in space within the next two centuries, our species is likely to stay earthbound and will have vanished entirely within another ten thousand years, bringing the seven-million-year story of the human lineage to an end. With assured narration, dramatic stories, and his signature sprightly humor, Henry Gee envisions new opportunities for the future of humanity--a future that will reward facing challenges with ingenuity, foresight, and cooperation"--
Subjects: Human beings; Human evolution.; Philosophical anthropology.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Ultra-processed people : why we can't stop eating food that isn't food / by Tulleken, Chris van,1978-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The Omnivore's Dilemma meets Fast Food Nation from a global perspective in this game-changing look at the science, economics, and history of ultra-processed food and the industry's effect on our health and planet. It's not you, it's the food. How much of our daily caloric intake comes from ingesting substances that, technically speaking, do not meet traditional definitions of "food"? Chances are, if you're eating something that came wrapped in plastic and contains a funky ingredient you don't have in your kitchen, it's most likely--almost definitely--ultra-processed food, or UPF. More than the principal obstacle to "eating right," UPF has been linked to metabolic disease, depression, inflammation, anxiety, and cancer, while the production, distribution, and disposal of UPF and related products globally is known to cause devastating environmental damage. At the same time, UPF represents the dominant, nigh-unavoidable food culture for millions upon millions of eaters. Medical doctor and broadcaster Chris van Tulleken has spent his career trying to reframe the conversation around eating right, balancing the hard (and sometimes shocking) facts about what we're putting into our bodies with empathy for the natural desire to keep eating what we like, have time for, and can afford. As he argues in this book, we are all participants in an experiment we didn't consent to, one to determine how to get us to buy as much ultra-processed food as possible. It's not as simple as stumbling across the right diet trend, finding time to meal plan, or avoiding over-indulging in sugar, fat, or carbs or any other culprit. Nor is it a matter of individual will. It's about learning to live in "the third age of eating"--defined by the overwhelming abundance of ultra-processed eating options--and arming yourself with the simple and not-so-simple facts that will help you make the choices that are right for you."--
Subjects: Diet.; Food additives.; Processed foods.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The plague year : America in the time of Covid / by Wright, Lawrence,1947-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, whose best-selling thriller The End of the October all but predicted our current pandemic, comes another momentous account, this time of COVID-19: its origins, its myriad repercussions, and the ongoing fight to contain it. Beginning with the absolutely critical first moments of the outbreak in China, and ending with an epilogue on the vaccine rollout and the unprecedented events between the election of Joseph Biden and his inauguration, Lawrence Wright's The Plague Year surges forward with essential information--and fascinating historical parallels--examining the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wright takes us inside the CDC, where the first round of faulty test kits cost America precious time; inside the halls of the White House, where Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger's early alarm about the virus was met with great skepticism; into a COVID ward in a Charlottesville hospital, with an idealistic young woman doctor from Little Africa, South Carolina; into the precincts of prediction specialists at Goldman Sachs; and even inside the human body, diving deep into the science of just how the virus and vaccines function, with an eye-opening detour into the history of vaccination and of the modern anti-vaxxer movement. In turns steely eyed, sympathetic, infuriated, comical, and always precise, Wright is a formidable guide, slicing through the dense fog of misinformation to give us a 360-degree portrait of the catastrophe we thought we knew. His full accounting does honor to the medical professionals around the country who've risked their lives to fight the virus, revealing America in all its vulnerability, courage, and potential"--
Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 61 to 70 of 96 | « previous |