The climate of the Earth is always changing. In the past it has altered as a result of natural causes. Nowadays, however, the term climate change is generally used when referring to changes in our climate which have been identified since the early part of the 1900's. The changes we've seen over recent years and those which are predicted over the next 80 years are thought to be mainly as a result of human behaviour rather than due to natural changes in the atmosphere.
In this exhilarating and often hilarious book, David Crystal examines why we devote so much time and energy to language games, how professionals make a career of them, and how young children instinctively take to them. Crystal makes a simple argument-that since playing with language is so natural, a natural way to learn language is to play with it-while he discusses puns, crosswords, lipograms, comic alphabets, rhymes, funny voices taken from dialect and popular culture, limericks, anagrams, scat singing, and much more.
The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice (Audiobook, MP3)
Everything you never knew about sushi: its surprising origins, the colorful lives of its chefs, and the bizarre behavior of the creatures that compose it. Trevor Corson takes us behind the scenes at America's first sushi-chef training academy, as eager novices strive to master the elusive art of cooking without cooking. He delves into the biology and natural history of the edible creatures of the sea, and tells the fascinating story of an Indo-Chinese meal reinvented in 19th-century Tokyo as a cheap fast food.
The Natural Instability of Markets; Expectations, Increasing Returns, and the Collapse of Capitalism
As socialist states struggle to transform themselves into market economies and the United States privatizes everything from schooling to policing, the current crises in Russia and East Asia suggest that something might be amiss. In the rush to open societies to the benefits of competition, economists have overlooked the fundamental instability of competitive markets. What had seemed to be an invincible capitalist juggernaut may be reaching its apotheosis. A close look at market economies is more timely and crucial than ever. Michael Perelman argues that capitalism's victory is temporary, based as it is on an unrealistic understanding of the system's inherent risks.
Dellar Hugh, Darryl Hocking, Walkley Andrew. Innovations - A Course in Natural English - Advanced (MP3)
Innovations is a new five-level general English course for classes looking for new material with a fresh approach. Based on a language-rich, lexical/grammatical syllabus, it starts from the kinds of natural conversations that learners want to have.
