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The world's dumbest criminals : outrageously true stories of criminals committing stupid crimes.
"Two men photographed each other stealing thousands of dollars from gambling machines. An armed man successfully robbed a pharmacy and was captured after he boasted about it on social media. A burglar spent time cleaning the house he was robbing and even restocked some groceries before he was discovered fast asleep in the homeowner's bed. Two drunken louts stole a penguin from an aquarium and tried to release it into a canal once they were sober (the creature was returned to the polar enclosure, unharmed). Another man attempted to hold up a bank using a cucumber as a weapon. Two fellows tried to rob a bar where the town's police department was holding a retirement party for one of its members. For every Moriarty, there are a thousand stupid criminals who get caught in the act, or who boast about their success on social media, or whose plans are so foolish that the police have little difficulty tracking them down. Throughout history, these criminals have been easily captured; some have even died during an ill-fated escape. New criminals are apprehended every day thanks to their own genius, their exploits captured on YouTube and Instagram. The World's Dumbest Criminals records more than one hundred of the most ridiculous, absurd and bizarre crimes that have landed on the police blotter in recent years. Hilarious and outrageous, this book will make you shake your head and perhaps second-guess your own plans to commit petty larceny."--- Subjects: Case studies.; Humor.; True crime stories.; Criminals; Crime; Criminals;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The hype machine : how social media disrupts our elections, our economy, and our health - and how we must adapt / by Aral, Sinan,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Social media connected the world--and gave rise to fake news and increasing polarization. Now a leading researcher at MIT draws on 20 years of research to show how these trends threaten our political, economic, and emotional health in this eye-opening exploration of the dark side of technological progress. Today we have the ability, unprecedented in human history, to amplify our interactions with each other through social media. It is paramount, MIT social media expert Sinan Aral says, that we recognize the outsized impact social media has on our culture, our democracy, and our lives in order to steer today's social technology toward good, while avoiding the ways it can pull us apart. Otherwise, we could fall victim to what Aral calls "The Hype Machine." As a senior researcher of the longest-running study of fake news ever conducted, Aral found that lies spread online farther and faster than the truth--a harrowing conclusion that was featured on the cover of Science magazine. Among the questions Aral explores following twenty years of field research: Did Russian interference change the 2016 election? And how is it affecting the vote in 2020? Why does fake news travel faster than the truth online? How do social ratings and automated sharing determine which products succeed and fail? How does social media affect our kids? First, Aral links alarming data and statistics to three accelerating social media shifts: hyper-socialization, personalized mass persuasion, and the tyranny of trends. Next, he grapples with the consequences of the Hype Machine for elections, businesses, dating, and health. Finally, he maps out strategies for navigating the Hype Machine, offering his singular guidance for managing social media to fulfill its promise going forward. Rarely has a book so directly wrestled with the secret forces that drive the news cycle every day"--- Subjects: Information society.; Common fallacies.; Propaganda.; Social interaction.; Social media;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The road to heaven / by Stefanovich-Thomson, Alexis,author.;
"A gripping noir mystery introducing artless young detective Patrick Bird, set in Toronto's Parkdale during the tumultuous '60s. "I didn't kill her. I had the thought, the idea. What's the saying? The road to heaven is paved with bad intentions?" Patrick Bird is a police academy cadet burnout turned PI who works divorce cases and catches people with his camera doing dirty deeds in dark rooms. But his easy routine is shattered when he starts the Linklater case. Sixteen-year-old Abbie Linklater has been missing from home for two days. Her stepmother believes Abbie's getting an abortion. Her twin brother thinks she's studying at the library. Her best friend could care less. Her father has no idea, but has an aversion to involving the police. Before the sun sets on the first day of his investigation, Bird has roamed the streets of Toronto looking for a runaway, caught a drifter prowling in the Linklater's backyard, been led to a creepy church with a cult-like following, sparred with the client, been hit by a car, and discovered some loose ends in a bank robbery gone wrong from a decade earlier."--- Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Novels.; Family secrets; Missing persons; Murder; Nineteen sixties; Private investigators; Secrecy;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Caste : the origins of our discontents / by Wilkerson, Isabel,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.""As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power--which groups have it and which do not." In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of America life today"--- Subjects: Caste; Social stratification; Ethnicity; Power (Social sciences);
- Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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- The book of two ways : a novel / by Picoult, Jodi,1966-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."After my son Kyle Ferriera van Leer declared his major in Egyptology at Yale in 2010, he mentioned the Book of Two Ways in passing. Without knowing a thing about it, I said, "That's a great title for a novel." It was only after he began to explain what it actually was that I realized what I needed to write about - the construct of time, and love, and life, and death"--Dawn Edelstein is on a plane when she is told to prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong. Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, their beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula. But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a career Dawn once studied for but was forced to abandon. The airline ensures that the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers offers transportation to wherever they want to go. The obvious destination is to fly home, but she could take another path: return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history. As the story unfolds, Dawn's two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried with them.--Adapted from publisher description.- Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Life change events; Archaeologists; Families; Man-woman relationships; Choice (Psychology);
- Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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- The deceptions : a novel / by Bialosky, Jill,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."A middle-aged poet finds herself adrift in her marriage and life now that her child has moved away to college. Her job teaching Greek myth to high school boys at a prestigious New York City academy has its small pleasures-her students offer surprising insights to stories she's studied for decades-but as her debut poetry collection approaches publication she starts to notice the seams of her life becoming unloosed. The chorus of voices in her life -- a mysterious neighbor in a potentially dangerous situation, a visiting poet at the academy struggling with writer's block, the word-starved dialogue with her distant husband --start to become overwhelming. She finds solace only at the Met, its history and sculptures beckon as a comfort and a warning for what happens to people who love wrongly, who love ambitions. The collapse of her life reaches a fever pitch just as betrayals are revealed all around her, and she must confront the realities of her life or be lost to its mythology forever. Suffused with the motifs of classic Greek mythology, especially the story of Leda and the Swan, The Deceptions is a seductively told, deeply moving exploration of female sexuality and ambition and a celebration of beauty and the invisible yet powerful ties that bind together a marriage, a life, work of art and its beholder"--- Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.); Empty nesters; High school teachers; Interpersonal relations; Man-woman relationships; Married people; Middle-aged women; Mythology, Greek; Poets; Women authors;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Caste [sound recording] : the origins of our discontents / by Wilkerson, Isabel,author.; Miles, Robin,narrator.; Random House Audio Publishing,publisher.;
Read by Robin Miles.""As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power--which groups have it and which do not." In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of America life today"--- Subjects: Audiobooks.; Caste; Ethnicity; Power (Social sciences); Social stratification;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The book of two ways [sound recording] : a novel / by Picoult, Jodi,1966-author.; Murin, Patti,narrator.; Random House Audio Publishing,publisher.;
Read by Patti Murin."After my son Kyle Ferriera van Leer declared his major in Egyptology at Yale in 2010, he mentioned the Book of Two Ways in passing. Without knowing a thing about it, I said, "That's a great title for a novel." It was only after he began to explain what it actually was that I realized what I needed to write about - the construct of time, and love, and life, and death"--Dawn Edelstein is on a plane when she is told to prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong. Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, their beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula. But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a career Dawn once studied for but was forced to abandon. The airline ensures that the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers offers transportation to wherever they want to go. The obvious destination is to fly home, but she could take another path: return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history. As the story unfolds, Dawn's two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried with them.--Adapted from publisher description.- Subjects: Audiobooks.; Psychological fiction.; Archaeologists; Choice (Psychology); Families; Life change events; Man-woman relationships;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- War and punishment : Putin, Zelinsky, and the path to Russia's invasion of Ukraine / by Zygar, Mikhail,1981-author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-405) and index."In his time as a journalist, prominent independent Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar has interviewed President Zelensky and had access to many of the major players--from politicians to oligarchs. As an expert on Putin's moods and behavior, he has spent years studying the Kremlin's plan regarding Ukraine, and here, in clear, chronological order he explains how we got here. In 1996 to 2004, Ukraine became an independent post-Soviet country where everyone was connected to the former empire at all levels, financially, culturally, psychologically. However, the elite anticipated that the empire would be back and punish them. From 2004 to 2018, there were many states inside one state, each with its own rulers/oligarchs and its own interests--some of them directly connected with Russia. In 2018, a new generation of Ukrainians arrive, and having grown in an independent country, they do not consider themselves to be part of Russia--and that was the moment when the war began, as Putin could not tolerate losing Ukraine forever. Authoritative, timely, and vitally important, this is an unprecedented overview of the war that affects us all and continues to threaten the future of the entire world as we know it"--- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The contact paradox : challenging our assumptions in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence / by Cooper, Keith(Journalist),author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 322-326) and index.What will happen if humanity makes contact with another civilization on a different planet? In The Contact Paradox, space journalist Keith Cooper tackles some of the myths and assumptions that underlie SETI-- the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. In 1974 a message was beamed towards the stars by the giant Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, a brief blast of radio waves designed to alert extraterrestrial civilizations to our existence. Of course, we don't know if such civilizations really exist. But for the past six decades a small cadre of researchers have been on a quest to find out, as part of SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The silence from the stars is prompting some researchers, inspired by the Arecibo transmission, to transmit more messages into space, in an effort to provoke a response from any civilizations out there that might otherwise be staying quiet. However, the act of transmitting raises troubling questions about the process of contact. We look for qualities such as altruism and intelligence in extraterrestrial life, but what do these mean to humankind? Can we learn something about our own history when we explore what happens when two civilizations come into contact? Finally, do the answers tell us that it is safe to transmit, even though we know nothing about extraterrestrial life, or as Stephen Hawking argued, are we placing humanity in jeopardy by doing so? In The Contact Paradox, author Keith Cooper looks at how far SETI has come since its modest beginnings, and where it is going, by speaking to the leading names in the field and beyond. SETI forces us to confront our nature in a way that we seldom have before-- where did we come from, where are we going, and who are we in the cosmic context of things? This book considers the assumptions that we make in our search for extraterrestrial life, and explores how those assumptions can teach us about ourselves.- Subjects: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Study group : U.S.); Life on other planets.;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 231 to 240 of 262 | « previous | next »