History on paapereira.xyz

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari (2024)

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 21:00:00 +0000

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari (2024)

Author: Yuval Noah Harari
First Published: September 10, 2024
Score: 8/10

Goodreads

For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite allour discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive?

Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America by Jeff Ryan (2011)

Sun, 19 May 2024 15:30:00 +0100

Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America by Jeff Ryan (2011)

Author: Jeff Ryan
First Published: August 1, 2011
Score: 6/10

Goodreads

The story of Nintendo’s rise and the beloved icon who made it possible

Nintendo has continually set the standard for video game innovation in America, starting in 1981 with a plucky hero who jumped over barrels to save a girl from an ape.

The saga of Mario, the portly plumber who became the most successful franchise in the history of gaming, has plot twists worthy of a video game. Jeff Ryan shares the story of how this quintessentially Japanese company found success in the American market. Lawsuits, Hollywood, die-hard fans, and face-offs with Sony and Microsoft are all part of the drama. Find out about: Mario’s eccentric yet brilliant creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, who was tapped for the job because he was considered expendable; Minoru Arakawa, the son-in-law of Nintendo’s imperious president, who bumbled his way to success; and the unexpected approach that allowed Nintendo to reinvent itself as the gaming system for the nongamer, especially now with the Wii.

Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan (2020)

Sat, 19 Jun 2021 21:00:00 +0100

Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan (2020)

Author: Michael Pollan
First Published: January 30th 2020
Score: 5/10

Goodreads

Pollan takes us on a journey through the history of the drug, which was first discovered in a small part of East Africa and within a century became an addiction affecting most of the human species. Caffeine, it turns out, has changed the course of human history - won and lost wars, changed politics, dominated economies. What’s more, the author shows that the Industrial Revolution would have been impossible without it. The science of how the drug has evolved to addict us is no less fascinating.

The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon by Todd Zwillich (2019)

Mon, 11 May 2020 22:52:00 +0100

The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon by Todd Zwillich (2019)

Author: Todd Zwillich
First Published: July 4th 2019
Score: 5/10

Goodreads

The story of John C. Houbolt, an unsung hero of Apollo 11 and the man who showed NASA how to put America on the moon.

Without John C. Houbolt, a junior engineer at NASA, Apollo 11 would never have made it to the moon.

Top NASA engineers on the project, including Werner Von Braun, strongly advocated for a single, huge spacecraft to travel to the moon, land, and return to Earth. It’s the scenario used in 1950s cartoons and horror movies about traveling to outer space.

Elizabeth II: Life of a Monarch by Ruth Cowen (2017)

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 23:35:00 +0000

Elizabeth II: Life of a Monarch by Ruth Cowen (2017)

Author: Ruth Cowen
First Published: October 25th 2017
Score: 4/10

Goodreads

Veteran royal broadcaster Jennie Bond explores the life of Britain’s longest reigning monarch.

Wife, mother and head of state, who is the real Elizabeth? What do the headlines hide? How close to reality are the television interpretations? Once a minor royal, she is now one of the most recognisable women in the world. Admired by many, she has reigned through a period of unprecedented change, steering the monarchy through the end of an empire, public scandals and private losses.

Victorian Secrets by John Woolf and Nick Baker (2018)

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 22:16:00 +0100

Victorian Secrets by John Woolf and Nick Baker (2018)

Author: John Woolf and Nick Baker
First Published: 2018
Score: 4/10

Goodreads

Step right up, step right up and don’t be shy—welcome to Victorian Secrets. Over 12 fascinating episodes, Stephen Fry explores the weird and worrying ways of Victorian Britain through true accounts delving deep into a period of time we think we know, to discover an altogether darker reality.

Origin Story by David Christian (2018)

Mon, 19 Aug 2019 21:50:00 +0100

Origin Story by David Christian (2018)

Author: David Christian
First Published: 2018
Score: 5/10

Goodreads

How did we get from the Big Bang to today’s staggering complexity, in which seven billion humans are connected into networks powerful enough to transform the planet? And why, in comparison, are our closest primate relatives reduced to near-extinction?

Big History creator David Christian gives the answers in a mind-expanding cosmological detective story told on the grandest possible scale. He traces how, during eight key thresholds, the right conditions have allowed new forms of complexity to arise, from stars to galaxies, Earth to homo sapiens, agriculture to fossil fuels. This last mega-innovation gave us an energy bonanza that brought huge benefits to mankind, yet also threatens to shake apart everything we have created.

Twain's Feast by Nick Offerman (2018)

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 23:06:00 +0100

Twain’s Feast by Nick Offerman (2018)

Author: Nick Offerman
First Published: 2018
Score: 4/10

Goodreads

Mark Twain, beloved American writer, performer, and humorist, was a self-proclaimed glutton. With the help of a chef and some friends, Nick Offerman presents the story of Twain’s life through the lens of eight of Mark Twain’s favorite foods. As we explore these foods’ role in Samuel Clemens’ life, we also discover a surprising culinary and ecological history of America. The biggest celebrity of his time, Twain was a witness to a transforming country, and with historian and writer Andy Beahrs as a guide, Beahrs and Offerman take documentary excursions across America, illuminating each dish and bringing to life a broad sampling of Twain’s writing. Twain’s Feast is a rollicking information-packed journey into the rich culinary history of America, with the sharp eye and unmistakable wit of Mark Twain himself.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari (2018)

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 20:50:00 +0100

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari (2018)

Author: Yuval Noah Harari
First Published: August 30th 2018
Score: 7/10

Goodreads

From the author of the multimillion copy best seller Sapiens.

Sapiens showed us where we came from. Homo Deus looked to the future. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century explores the present.

How can we protect ourselves from nuclear war, ecological cataclysms and technological disruptions? What can we do about the epidemic of fake news or the threat of terrorism? What should we teach our children?

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (1959)

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 22:54:00 +0100

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (1959)

Author: Alfred Lansing
First Published: January 1st 1959
Score: 5/10

Goodreads

This is a new reading of the thrilling account of one of the most astonishing feats of exploration and human courage ever recorded.

In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (2016)

Fri, 30 Mar 2018 21:10:00 +0100

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (2016)

Author: Yuval Noah Harari
First Published: September 8th 2016
Score: 7/10

Goodreads

Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style—thorough, yet riveting—famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (2011)

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 23:17:00 +0000

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (2011)

Author: Yuval Noah Harari
First Published: January 1st 2011
Score: 9/10

Goodreads

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?

The Autobiography of Black Hawk by Black Hawk (1833)

Sat, 29 Apr 2017 00:51:00 +0100

The Autobiography of Black Hawk by Black Hawk (1833)

Author: Black Hawk
First Published: 1833
Score: 3/10

Goodreads

This story is told in the words of a tragic figure in American history: a hook-nosed, hollow-cheeked old Sauk warrior who lived under four flags while the Mississippi Valley was being wrested from his people.

The author is Black Hawk himself - once pursued by an army whose members included Captain Abraham Lincoln and Lieutenant Jefferson Davis. Perhaps no Indian ever saw so much of American expansion or fought harder to prevent that expansion from driving his people to exile and death. He knew Zebulon Pike, William Clark, Henry Schoolcraft, George Catlin, Winfield Scott, and such figures in American government as President Andrew Jackson and Secretary of State Lewis Cass. He knew Chicago when it was a cluster of log houses around a fort, and he was in St. Louis the day the American flag went up and the French flag came down. He saw crowds gather to cheer him in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York - and to stone the driver of his carriage in Albany - during a fantastic tour sponsored by the government. And at last he dies in 1838, bitter in the knowledge that he had led men, women, and children of his tribe to slaughter on the banks of the Mississippi.