The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time by Will Durant
This engaging, accessible book of essays from Pulitzer Prize-winning philosopher and historian Durant, author of the authoritative 11-volume Story of Civilization, should be essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of thought. Little, the founder and director of The Will Durant Foundation, includes in his slim compendium such works as "The One Hundred 'Best' Books For an Education" and "Twelve Vital Dates in World History." Durant's "The Ten 'Greatest' Thinkers" details minds as enlightening as Confucius and as influential as Darwin, whom Durant says "reduced man to an animal fighting for his transient mastery of the globe." "The Ten 'Greatest' Poets," charts a course from Homer's brilliance to Dante's haunted heart to Whitman's "frank and lusty" originality, in prose peppered with biographical bon mots and excerpts of the world's loveliest poems. Lay folks especially will find this a delightful introduction to Durant's irrepressible style. What else would one expect from Durant, an intellect who, when asked, "Whom in all of history would you most like to have known?" drolly replied, "Madame de Pompadour."
Bear and Roly-Poly (a picture book by Elizabeth Winthrop)
Bear, the diminutive stuffed-animal hero who adjusted to having a
baby-sitter in Bear and Mrs. Duck, welcomes a cuddly cub sibling into
the family in the latest Winthrop/Brewster collaboration. When Nora,
Bear's owner, goes off to Grandma's house to get a baby sister for
Bear, he imagines he'll be a helpful big brother. But he never expected
that "baby" Roly-Poly would be larger than himself, or that she would
not look at all like him (she is a panda), or that she would cry so
much.
A very cute rhyme for kids about a little bear that doesn't want to eat anything but honey. Vocabulary focus: some foodstuff Grammar focus: Would you? I will not; pronoun 'some'; plurals of nouns.
Scientific American DigitalSpecial Edition (June 2006)
SYNOPSIS:
A savvy handicapper would never have put money on the continued existence of this evolutionary dark horse. Nearly hairless, weak--no sharp claws or slicing teeth here--and slow, with a bumpy bipedal gait, humans might initially appear to be one of the unlikeliest survivors on earth. Except for the oversize brains.
So much of the rise of our ancestors from humble beginnings to today's world-dominant swell of humanity tracked the stunning growth of all that furrowed cortex. From roughly two million years to 250,000 years ago, the brain's total volume expanded by a tablespoonful every 100,000 years, estimates Harvard University biologist E. O. Wilson. If we could stretch a modern person's cortex flat, it would occupy an area the size of four sheets of standard letter-size paper. In contrast, a chimp's would cover one sheet; a monkey's, a postcard; and a rat's, a stamp.
But size alone does not explain our matchless reasoning skills. One of the mysteries of human evolution is that other species with large brains (such as Neandertals) seemingly did not achieve comparable levels of cognition. Could a cultural innovation, perhaps driven by rapid environmental changes, have contributed to the rise of symbolic thought, language and cooperative group society?
As our primate ancestors' intellects deepened, their bodies continued to morph. Their need to stoke the energy-consuming organ in their skulls with nutritious, calorie-rich fuel created selection pressure favoring features now characteristic of primates, such as grasping hands with opposable thumbs. "To a great extent," concludes Katharine Milton, "we are truly what we eat."
Even as recent discoveries answer some questions about our fascinating and complex history, they raise others. Alone among creatures alive today, we enjoy the ability to contemplate our species' odyssey through time. Food for thought.
In the latter part of the 16th century, Spain was the major international power and her leader, King Phillip II, pledged to conquer the Protestant heretics in England. He envisioned a two pronged attack. He would send his ‘Invincible Armada’ of 125 ships into the English Channel where it would link up with the Duke of Parma. The Armada would ferry the Duke's soldiers across the straight of Dover and these troops would march on London, seize the Queen, and proceed to conquer the entire country. Over 400 years have passed since this momentous expedition 'sailed and failed', but its fascination and significance remain undiminished.
The Armada Campaign 1588 (Elite)
