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  Mr Lincoln's T-Mails - The...

  Tom Wheeler

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  This “intriguing” look at the sixteenth president’s telegraph usage during the Civil War “revisits a familiar hero, but does so from an utterly new perspective” (Ken Burns). 
   
  The Civil War was the first “modern war.” Because of rapid changes in American society, Abraham Lincoln became president of a divided United States during a period of technological and social revolution. Among the many modern marvels that gave the North an advantage was the telegraph, which Lincoln used to stay connected to the forces in the field in almost real time. 
   
  No leader in history had ever possessed such a powerful tool to gain control over a fractious situation. An eager student of technology, Lincoln (the only president to hold a patent) had to learn to use the power of electronic messages. Without precedent to guide him, Lincoln began by reading the telegraph traffic among his generals. Then he used the telegraph to supplement his preferred form of communication—meetings and letters. He did not replace those face-to-face interactions. Through this experience, Lincoln crafted the best way to guide, reprimand, praise, reward, and encourage his commanders in the field. 
   
  Written by a former FCC chairman, Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails tells a big story within a small compass—both an elegant work of history and a timeless lesson in leadership. By paying close attention to Lincoln’s “lightning messages,” we see a great leader adapt to a new medium. No reader of this work of history will be able to miss the contemporary parallels. Watching Lincoln carefully word his messages—and follow up on those words with the right actions—offers a striking example for those who spend their days tapping out notes on their various devices. 
   
  “Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails shines. . . . an accessible jaunt through this formative American event.” —USA Today 
   
  “Wheeler shows a Lincoln groping for a best-use of new technology and learning the limitations of the ‘killer app.’”—Booklist 
   
  “Altogether captivating.” —Harold Holzer, author of Brought Forth on This Continent: Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration

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  Believe It or Snot - The...

  Nick Caruso, Dani Rabaiotti

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  From the scientist duo behind the New York Times bestselling sensation Does It Fart? and their excremental follow up True or Poo?, Believe It Or Snot explores the myriad variety of slime in the animal and plant kingdoms.Your little brother isn't the only nose-picking animal.What is hyena butter and would it be appropriate to spread on toast? Why is giraffe saliva such a good lubricant? How does some mollusk mucus work like a fishing pole? And what's the deal with pygmy sperm whales' "anal syrup?"In Believe It or Snot, scientists and bestselling authors Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti detail the slimy secrets of 80 organisms that ooze, drip, dribble, and splatter. Not quite a solid but firmer than a liquid, slime is used by plants and animals for defense, respiration, movement, feeding, communication, and even reproduction. Slime, you might say, is the glue that holds our world together.But that leaves an important question: which creature is earth's slimiest?In this audiobook, the authors dive into the goo and come up with a definitive ranking of earth's slimiest creatures-while offering up a plethora of facts about the natural world's ooze, gunge, sludge, gunk, and goop.

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  Restless Devices - Recovering...

  Felicia Wu Song

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  We're being formed by our devices. Today's digital technologies are designed to captivate our attention and encroach on our boundaries, shaping how we relate to time and space, to ourselves and others, even to God. Our natural longing for relationship makes us vulnerable to the "industrializing" effects of social media. While we enjoy the benefits of digital tech, many of us feel troubled with its power and exhausted by its demands for permanent connectivity. Yet even as we grow disenchanted, attempting to resist the digital "powers that be" might seem like a losing battle.
  Sociologist Felicia Wu Song has spent years considering the personal and collective dynamics of digital ecosystems. She combines psychological, neurological, and sociological insights with theological reflection to explore two major questions:
  
  - What kind of people are we becoming with personal technologies in hand?
  - And who do we really want to be?Song unpacks the soft tyranny of the digital age, including the values embedded in our apps and the economic systems that drive our habits. She then explores pathways of meaningful resistance that can be found in Christian tradition—especially counter-narratives about human worth, embodiment, relationality, and time—and offers practical experiments for individual and communal change.
  In our current digital ecologies, small behavioral shifts are not enough to give us freedom. We need a sober and motivating vision of our prospects to help us imagine what kind of life we hope to live—and how we can get there.

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  Cosmic Quackery - with special...

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

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  Mark Twain said, “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” Pseudoscience adherents to this adage, but are their distortions deliberate, the result of scientific ignorance, or due to a deep desire for extraordinary possibilities? In our quest to understand the universe, how can we be sure our conclusions are correct? Human beings have evolved to find meaningful patterns in nature, but sometimes the patterns we see are just figments of our imagination—or perhaps the result of wishful thinking. Join Neil and guest co-host Leighann Lord as they investigate the weird and wacky world of pseudoscience. Co-host: Leighann Lord: comedian who has appeared on “HBO’s Def Comedy All-Star Jam”, Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend”, and ABC’s “The View.” She writes a weekly humor column called “Comic Perspective”.  Guests: Michael Shermer: editor-in-Chief of Skeptic magazine and author of “Why People Believe Weird Things”. Shermer is also the producer and co-host of the 13-hour FoxFamily television series Exploring the Unknown. James “The Amazing” Randi: magician and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation. JREF sponsors the annual “Amazing Meeting” and also offers a prize of one million dollars to anyone who can demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties.

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  Called by the Wild - The Dogs...

  Conraad de Rosner, Graham...

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  The thrilling story of a pioneering conservationist working with dogs to protect wildlife from poachers 
  Conraad de Rosner is a pioneering game ranger, working with dogs to protect wildlife against poachers – both ‘bushmeat’ poachers, who use cruel snares to trap animals, and criminal syndicates killing for rhinoceros horn and capturing critically endangered pangolins, the most trafficked animal in the world. 
  Con’s life – constantly at risk from poachers, wildlife and even his own fellow rangers – has been saved on numerous occasions by his devoted canine companions. His first dog, Zingela, a Weimaraner, saved Con from near certain death at the hands of two fellow rangers; on another occasion, Zingela alerted Con to a concealed wounded buffalo, one of Africa’s most dangerous animals, about to charge. When Zingela was tragically killed, hit by a car while Con was away, the only meagre consolation was that Con had kept Landa, one of the nine puppies sired by Zingela. Landa followed in his father’s footsteps as the leader of the canine anti poaching team that is still operating today. 
  Con’s story is an epic of modern-day African wildlife conservation, filled with courage, adventure and romance. 
  Contains descriptions of violence

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  Ring of Downs - The North Downs'...

  Maryanne Traylen

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  ‘Ring of Downs’ is a feast of lyrically evocative writings and atmospheric images inspired by a landscape-loving woman’s walks with her beloved dog through an extraordinary part of Kent’s North Downs. 
  The places celebrated, from which these writings have drawn their inspiration, are on the North Downs Way path which forms an imperfect circle made up of two arcs. One meanders southeast through the Folkestone Downs along the coast to the White Cliffs of Dover. The other runs northeast through Canterbury. Yet this outer map corresponds to an inner one, a ‘mandala’, the perfect imaginative symbol of wholeness: as if tracks walked make patterns in our minds, words of wonder triggered by nature forging relationship between us and the land. 
  This black and white edition of ‘Ring of Downs’ is the author’s sequel to ‘A Dog on the Downs’, to be followed by ‘Flights of Nature’ and ‘Light of Land’.

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