Tag Archives: animal

Wesley the Owl – Stacey O’Brien

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Wesley the Owl

The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl

Stacey O’Brien

Genre: Nature

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: August 19, 2008

Publisher: Atria Books

Seller: SIMON AND SCHUSTER DIGITAL SALES INC


On Valentine's Day 1985, biologist Stacey O'Brien first met a four-day-old baby barn owl — a fateful encounter that would turn into an astonishing 19-year saga. With nerve damage in one wing, the owlet's ability to fly was forever compromised, and he had no hope of surviving on his own in the wild. O'Brien, a young assistant in the owl laboratory at Caltech, was immediately smitten, promising to care for the helpless owlet and give him a permanent home. Wesley the Owl is the funny, poignant story of their dramatic two decades together. With both a tender heart and a scientist's eye, O'Brien studied Wesley's strange habits intensively and first-hand — and provided a mice-only diet that required her to buy the rodents in bulk (28,000 over the owl's lifetime). As Wesley grew, she snapped photos of him at every stage like any proud parent, recording his life from a helpless ball of fuzz to a playful, clumsy adolescent to a gorgeous, gold-and-white, macho adult owl with a heart-shaped face and an outsize personality that belied his 18-inch stature. Stacey and Wesley's bond deepened as she discovered Wesley's individual personality, subtle emotions, and playful nature that could also turn fiercely loyal and protective — though she could have done without Wesley's driving away her would-be human suitors! O'Brien also brings us inside the prestigious research community, a kind of scientific Hogwarts where resident owls sometimes flew freely from office to office and eccentric, brilliant scientists were extraordinarily committed to studying and helping animals; all of them were changed by the animal they loved. As O'Brien gets close to Wesley, she makes important discoveries about owl behavior, intelligence, and communication, coining the term "The Way of the Owl" to describe his inclinations: he did not tolerate lies, held her to her promises, and provided unconditional love, though he was not beyond an occasional sulk. When O'Brien develops her own life-threatening illness, the biologist who saved the life of a helpless baby bird is herself rescued from death by the insistent love and courage of this wild animal. Enhanced by wonderful photos, Wesley the Owl is a thoroughly engaging, heartwarming, often funny story of a complex, emotional, non-human being capable of reason, play, and, most important, love and loyalty. It is sure to be cherished by animal lovers everywhere.

Follow this link – 

Wesley the Owl – Stacey O’Brien

Posted in alo, Anchor, Casio, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, oven, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Wesley the Owl – Stacey O’Brien

Eels – James Prosek

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Eels

An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World’s Most Mysterious Fish

James Prosek

Genre: Nature

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: September 21, 2010

Publisher: HarperCollins e-books

Seller: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS


“This is a delightful work with the urgency of a good detective story.” —Thomas McGuane “I loved it! A beautiful adventure story of one of the most wide-spread and least-known but ecologically important fish.” —Bernd Heinrich, author of Summer World Famous for his deeply informed, compulsively readable books on trout, writer-painter James Prosek (whom the New York Times has called “the Audubon of the fishing world”) takes on nature’s quirkiest and most enigmatic fish: the eel. Fans of Mark Kurlansky’s Cod and The Big Oyster or Trevor Corson’s The Secret Life of Lobsters will love Prosek’s probing exploration of the hidden deep-water dwellers. With characteristically captivating prose and lavish illustrations, Prosek demystifies the eel’s unique biology and bizarre mating routines, and illuminates the animal’s varied roles in the folklore, cuisine, and commerce of a variety of cultures.

See original article here – 

Eels – James Prosek

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, HarperCollins e-books, LAI, LG, ONA, oven, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Eels – James Prosek

The Storytelling Animal – Jonathan Gottschall

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

The Storytelling Animal

How Stories Make Us Human

Jonathan Gottschall

Genre: Life Sciences

Price: $2.99

Publish Date: April 23, 2013

Publisher: HMH Books

Seller: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company


A NYTimes.com Editor's Choice   A Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Finalist  “A jaunty, insightful new book . . . [that] draws from disparate corners of history and science to celebrate our compulsion to storify everything around us.” — New York Times Humans live in landscapes of make-believe. We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even sporting events and criminal trials unfold as narratives. Yet the world of story has long remained an undiscovered and unmapped country. Now Jonathan Gottschall offers the first unified theory of storytelling. He argues that stories help us navigate life’s complex social problems—just as flight simulators prepare pilots for difficult situations. Storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure our survival. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, Gottschall tells us what it means to be a storytelling animal and explains how stories can change the world for the better. We know we are master shapers of story. The Storytelling Animal finally reveals how stories shape us. “This is a quite wonderful book. It grips the reader with both stories and stories about the telling of stories, then pulls it all together to explain why storytelling is a fundamental human instinct.” —Edward O. Wilson “Charms with anecdotes and examples . . . we have not left nor should we ever leave Neverland.”— Cleveland Plain Dealer

Read more: 

The Storytelling Animal – Jonathan Gottschall

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, LAI, LG, ONA, oven, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Storytelling Animal – Jonathan Gottschall

Inside Animal Hearts and Minds – Belinda Recio & Jonathan Balcombe

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Inside Animal Hearts and Minds

Bears That Count, Goats That Surf, and Other True Stories of Animal Intelligence and Emotion

Belinda Recio & Jonathan Balcombe

Genre: Nature

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: August 1, 2017

Publisher: Skyhorse

Seller: SIMON AND SCHUSTER DIGITAL SALES INC


As Charles Darwin suggested more than a century ago, the differences between animals and humans are “of degree and not of kind.” Not long ago, ethologists denied that animals had emotions or true intelligence. Now, we know that rats laugh when tickled, magpies mourn as they cover the departed with greenery, female whales travel thousands of miles for annual reunions with their gal pals, seals navigate by the stars, bears hum when happy, and crows slide down snowy rooftops for fun. In engaging text, photographs, and infographics, Inside Animal Hearts and Minds showcases fascinating and heart-warming examples of animal emotion and cognition that will foster wonder and empathy. Learn about an orangutan who does “macramé,” monkeys that understand the concept of money, and rats that choose friendship over food. Even language, math, and logic are no longer exclusive to humans. Prairie dogs have their own complex vocabularies to describe human intruders, parrots name their chicks, sea lions appear capable of deductive thinking akin to a ten-year-old child’s, and bears, lemurs, parrots, and other animals demonstrate numerical cognition. In a world where a growing body of scientific research is closing the gap between the human and non-human, Inside Animal Hearts and Minds invites us to change the way we view animals, the world, and our place in it.

Source: 

Inside Animal Hearts and Minds – Belinda Recio & Jonathan Balcombe

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, ONA, Oster, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Inside Animal Hearts and Minds – Belinda Recio & Jonathan Balcombe

This Is Your Brain on Parasites – Kathleen McAuliffe

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

This Is Your Brain on Parasites

How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society

Kathleen McAuliffe

Genre: Life Sciences

Price: $2.99

Publish Date: May 16, 2017

Publisher: HMH Books

Seller: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company


“Engrossing … [An] expedition through the hidden and sometimes horrifying microbial domain.” — Wall Street Journal “Fascinating—and full of the kind of factoids you can't wait to share.” — Scientific American   Parasites can live only inside another animal and, as Kathleen McAuliffe reveals, these tiny organisms have many evolutionary motives for manipulating the behavior of their hosts. With astonishing precision, parasites can coax rats to approach cats, spiders to transform the patterns of their webs, and fish to draw the attention of birds that then swoop down to feast on them. We humans are hardly immune to their influence. Organisms we pick up from our own pets are strongly suspected of changing our personality traits and contributing to recklessness and impulsivity—even suicide. Germs that cause colds and the flu may alter our behavior even before symptoms become apparent.   Parasites influence our species on the cultural level, too. Drawing on a huge body of research, McAuliffe argues that our dread of contamination is an evolved defense against parasites. The horror and revulsion we are programmed to feel when we come in contact with people who appear diseased or dirty helped pave the way for civilization, but may also be the basis for major divisions in societies that persist to this day. This Is Your Brain on Parasites is both a journey into cutting-edge science and a revelatory examination of what it means to be human.   “If you’ve ever doubted the power of microbes to shape society and offer us a grander view of life, read on and find yourself duly impressed.” —Heather Havrilesky, Bookforum  

Read More:  

This Is Your Brain on Parasites – Kathleen McAuliffe

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ONA, OXO, PUR, The Atlantic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on This Is Your Brain on Parasites – Kathleen McAuliffe

Nonzero – Robert Wright

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Nonzero
The Logic of Human Destiny
Robert Wright

Genre: Life Sciences

Price: $2.99

Publish Date: January 4, 2000

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Seller: Penguin Random House LLC


In his bestselling The Moral Animal , Robert Wright applied the principles of evolutionary biology to the study of the human mind. Now Wright attempts something even more ambitious: explaining the direction of evolution and human history–and discerning where history will lead us next. In Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny , Wright asserts that, ever since the primordial ooze, life has followed a basic pattern. Organisms and human societies alike have grown more complex by mastering the challenges of internal cooperation. Wright’s narrative ranges from fossilized bacteria to vampire bats, from stone-age villages to the World Trade Organization, uncovering such surprises as the benefits of barbarian hordes and the useful stability of feudalism. Here is history endowed with moral significance–a way of looking at our biological and cultural evolution that suggests, refreshingly, that human morality has improved over time, and that our instinct to discover meaning may itself serve a higher purpose. Insightful, witty, profound, Nonzero offers breathtaking implications for what we believe and how we adapt to technology’s ongoing transformation of the world. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Link – 

Nonzero – Robert Wright

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, Knopf, LAI, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Nonzero – Robert Wright

Tofurky is suing over Missouri’s definition of ‘meat’

On Tuesday, Missouri became the first state to ban “meat” from the product labels of plant-based and lab-grown alternatives. The new law, part of a larger agricultural bill, prohibits “misrepresenting a product as meat” if it doesn’t come directly from an animal. Violators are subject to a fine of $1,000 and — wait for it — a year in prison.

Harsh punishment for calling vegetarian sausage “sausage,” huh? Tofurky seems to think so. The vegan company filed a lawsuit against Missouri on Monday to block the law, joined by the Good Food Institute, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. The suit seeks to defend the right to market meatless products with meaty words on First Amendment grounds.

The Missouri Cattlemen’s Association lobbied to pass the law. The beef industry has been working to protect what it calls “beef nomenclature” with stricter labeling rules, which could potentially leave environmentally friendlier plant-based or lab-grown options with some unappetizing names (anyone want some textured vegetable protein for dinner?). In April, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president wrote to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to raise the alarm over the “flagrantly deceptive food product labels proliferating the marketplace.”

To counter the claim that “vegan bacon” and the like are confusing shoppers, Tofurky’s lawsuit includes a surprising etymology lesson. The text points out that “the very oldest usages of the term ‘meat,’ and its analogues in the predecessor languages to Modern English … are to describe nourishment or food generally.”

We’ve used the word “meat” in this broader sense since the 9th century, Kory Stamper, lexicographer and author of Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, told me last month during our conversation about similar tactics over the label “milk.”

Old English speakers used the word to refer specifically to animal flesh in the 1300s, Stamper said. But just a century later, people were also using it for the flesh of a fruit or a nut, like the meat of a walnut — another factoid cited by Tofurky’s lawsuit.

The suit notes that plant-based product labels have included words like “beef” and “sausage” for decades. It suggests that this practice has resulted in little confusion for shoppers: “[T]here have been no consumer protection lawsuits in Missouri — or any other state — challenging the accuracy of plant-based meat products’ marketing or packaging.”

If Missouri’s law stands, it could end up setting the standards for the whole country. As Quartz reports, it’s a big pain for food companies to tweak their packaging for just one state.

The U.S. has seen battles over vegan terminology before, like the vegan “mayo” controversy of 2015. And last month brought news that the FDA was officially reviewing the question of whether almond milk can be labeled as milk (after all, “an almond doesn’t lactate,” according to the FDA commissioner).

While Missouri is the first state to legislate a restricted definition of meat, there’s an international precedent: The language purists in charge of France approved a similar meat terminology ban in April.

View post:

Tofurky is suing over Missouri’s definition of ‘meat’

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Tofurky is suing over Missouri’s definition of ‘meat’

Inside Animal Hearts and Minds – Belinda Recio

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Inside Animal Hearts and Minds

Bears That Count, Goats That Surf, and Other True Stories of Animal Intelligence and Emotion

Belinda Recio

Genre: Nature

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: August 1, 2017

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

Seller: Perseus Books, LLC


As Charles Darwin suggested more than a century ago, the differences between animals and humans are “of degree and not of kind.” Not long ago, ethologists denied that animals had emotions or true intelligence. Now, we know that rats laugh when tickled, magpies mourn as they cover the departed with greenery, female whales travel thousands of miles for annual reunions with their gal pals, seals navigate by the stars, bears hum when happy, and crows slide down snowy rooftops for fun. In engaging text, photographs, and infographics, Inside Animal Hearts and Minds showcases fascinating and heart-warming examples of animal emotion and cognition that will foster wonder and empathy. Learn about an orangutan who does “macramé,” monkeys that understand the concept of money, and rats that choose friendship over food. Even language, math, and logic are no longer exclusive to humans. Prairie dogs have their own complex vocabularies to describe human intruders, parrots name their chicks, sea lions appear capable of deductive thinking akin to a ten-year-old child’s, and bears, lemurs, parrots, and other animals demonstrate numerical cognition. In a world where a growing body of scientific research is closing the gap between the human and non-human, Inside Animal Hearts and Minds invites us to change the way we view animals, the world, and our place in it.

Link to original – 

Inside Animal Hearts and Minds – Belinda Recio

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, ONA, Oster, PUR, Skyhorse Publishing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Inside Animal Hearts and Minds – Belinda Recio

The Birds of Pandemonium – Michele Raffin

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

The Birds of Pandemonium

Michele Raffin

Genre: Nature

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: October 7, 2014

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Seller: Workman Publishing Co., Inc.


“Michele Raffin has made an important contribution to saving endangered birds, and her book is a fascinating and rarely seen glimpse behind the scenes. The joy she gets from her close relationships with these amazing animals and her outsized commitment to them comes through loud and clear in this engaging and joyful book.” —Dominick Dorsa, Curator of Birds, San Francisco Zoo Each morning at first light, Michele Raffin awakens to the bewitching music that heralds another day at Pandemonium Aviaries—a symphony that swells from the most vocal of over 350 avian throats representing over 40 species. “It knocks me out, every day,” she admits.  Pandemonium Aviaries is a conservation organization dedicated to saving and breeding birds at the edge of extinction, including some of the largest populations of rare species in the world. And their behavior is even more fascinating than their glorious plumage or their songs. They fall in love, they mourn, they rejoice, they sacrifice, they have a sense of humor, they feel jealous, they invent, plot, cope, and sometimes they murder each other. As Raffin says, “They teach us volumes about the interrelationships of humans and animals.” Their stories make up the heart of this book. There’s Sweetie, a tiny quail with an outsize personality; the inspiring Oscar, a Lady Gouldian finch who can’t fly but finds a way to reach the highest perches of his aviary to roost. The ecstatic reunion of a disabled Victoria crowned pigeon, Wing, and her brother, Coffee, is as wondrous as the silent kinship that develops between Amadeus, a one-legged turaco, and an autistic young visitor. Ultimately, The Birds of Pandemonium is about one woman’s crusade to save precious lives, bird by bird, and offers insights into how following a passion can transform not only oneself but also the world. “Delightful . . . full of wonderful accounts of bird behavior, demonstrating caring, learning, sociability, adaptability, and a will to live. Its appeal is ageless, her descriptions riveting, and her devotion to the birds remarkable.” — Joanna Burger, author of  The Parrot Who Owns Me: The Story of a Relationship “A remarkable book. Reading about the birds of Pandemonium will make you laugh and cry; it will make you see more clearly the need to take care of our planet; and it will confirm that one person with a passion can make a difference.” —Jeff Corwin, nature conservationist and host, Animal Planet “ The Birds of Pandemonium touched me deeply . . . This book is about reconnecting with the nature of birds, and the nature of ourselves.”  —Jon Young, author of What the Robin Knows

Continued: 

The Birds of Pandemonium – Michele Raffin

Posted in alo, Anchor, Crown, FF, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Ultima, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Birds of Pandemonium – Michele Raffin

A week after 50 farmworkers were sickened by pesticides, the EPA punts on protecting them.

Animal agriculture is a complex tangle of issues, all pulling in different directions: culinary tradition, animal welfare, methane emissions, deliciousness, deforestation. As a senior scientist at the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to finding foods that will displace animal meat, Liz Specht looks for technological fixes to the beefy meat problem.

Specht spends her days researching ways to engineer plant-based foods that taste better, cost less, and consume fewer resources than animals. She then points startups toward the food technology that’s likely to work for them, and helps venture capitalists differentiate between companies proposing flashy BS and those who know their stuff. She’s an entrepreneurial matchmaker.

Specht lives in an RV, working remotely and roaming from state to state. Everywhere she goes, she steps into a store to see what plant-based products are available, where they are placed in the store, and how they are advertised. Making meat replacements might be a technical problem, but Specht is acutely aware that technology must move with culture. “I think of technology’s role as that of a dance partner to society, following its leads and anticipating its future moves,” she says. Time for the food industry to listen to the music.


Meet all the fixers on this year’s Grist 50.

Excerpt from:

A week after 50 farmworkers were sickened by pesticides, the EPA punts on protecting them.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, Northeastern, ONA, solar, solar panels, Thermos, Uncategorized, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A week after 50 farmworkers were sickened by pesticides, the EPA punts on protecting them.