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Of Parrots and People: The Sometimes Funny, Always Fascinating, and Often Catastrophic Collision of Two Intelligent Species
There are an estimated 50 million parrots kept as pets the U.S. alone, their numbers surpassed only by dogs and cats, yet these complex creatures are not your typical domesticated animal, and they remain a mystery to many. Most people don’t know that parrots score at the level of 3-to-5 year olds on human intelligence tests. Nor that they can live to 100 years or more. Nor that pound for pound parrots are worth more on the black market than cocaine. Their startling beauty, social sophistication, and uncanny ability to bond with humans have made parrots sought-after pets, but few people realize how fragile and endangered many parrot species have become. In Of Parrots and People, award-winning journalist and parrot expert, Mira Tweti, reveals the world of a family of birds that is far more complex and advanced than we’ve acknowledged. Tweti relates stunning scientific findings on the intelligence, personality, and rich lives of parrots that challenge our most widespread and flawed assumptions about non-primates. And she explores the intense and often humorous emotional connections these birds form not just with their flockmates, but with the “parronts” (as some “parrot parents” call themselves) who keep them as pets, often pampering them as they do children. Of Parrots and People also takes on the much larger, serious issues of animal welfare that are the unfortunate consequences of the “bird boom” of the last few decades. Despite the high demand for them, many parrot species are endangered in the wild from rampant trapping and habitat destruction, while those in captivity are quickly becoming the fastest growing category of unwanted pets, living lives of neglect or abuse. Avian rescuers can’t handle the number of birds that need help, and the Humane Society of the U.S. is advocating euthanasia rather than warehousing birds that will outlive their caretakers. Yet unregulated bird breeders continue to put over a million young birds on the market each year from parrot mills across the country. It’s an untenable situation of cruelty, especially for such an evolved and intelligent species, and it’s just one of the many newsworthy topics that make Of Parrots and People just as hard-hitting as it is soft-hearted. Tweti tirelessly follows the parrot trail around the globe, from the living rooms and pet stores of America, to hotbeds of illegal trade in Mexico. She examines threats of avian flu, and takes a first hand look at encouraging progress in eco-tourism that may be our only way to protect these stunning species from being hunted to extinction. Comprehensive in scope and passionately written, Of Parrots and People is a unique and vivid addition to popular works on animals and their behavior, and an important new voice in the burgeoning environmental and conservation movement..
Price: $11.44
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A Life Worth Living: A Doctor's Reflections on Illness in a High-Tech Era
Critical illness is a fact of life. Even those of us who enjoy decades of good health are touched by it eventually, either in our own lives or in those of our loved ones. And when this happens, we grapple with serious and often confusing choices about how best to live with our afflictions. A Life Worth Living is a book for people facing these difficult decisions. Robert Martensen, a physician, historian, and ethicist, draws on decades of experience with patients and friends to explore the life cycle of serious illness, from diagnosis to end of life. He connects personal stories with reflections upon mortality, human agency, and the value of “cutting-edge” technology in caring for the critically ill. Timely questions emerge: To what extent should efforts to extend human life be made? What is the value of nontraditional medical treatment? How has the American health-care system affected treatment of the critically ill? And finally, what are our doctors’ responsibilities to us as patients, and where do those responsibilities end? Using poignant case studies, Martensen demonstrates how we and our loved ones can maintain dignity and resilience in the face of life’s most daunting circumstances. .
Price: $11.50
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Lessons from The Miracle Doctors: A Step-by-Step Guide to Optimum Health and Relief from Catastrophic Illness
While modern medicine has made many remarkable advances, in terms of treating and preventing most chronic illnesses of the modern era_heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer_s disease_modern medicine stands as an object failure. Each year we spend more and more on health care with little good health to show for it. Well, there is an alternative.
Holistic healers, herbalists, and renegade medical doctors throughout the world are performing miracles on a daily basis. Thousands of people have come to these _miracle doctors_ certain that they were terminally ill and have left perfectly healthy. And now the secrets of these miracle doctors are revealed in this book: a step-by-step program that will allow you to take back control of your own health and well-being.
Finally, you will find these health secrets gathered in one place_a program that integrates all of your body_s biological systems into a cohesive whole. The Baseline of Health Program is designed to empower your own body to throw off illness and keep it from returning.
- Detoxification and cleansing strategies - Guidelines for healthy eating and nutrient supplementation - Balancing the body_s systems to optimize function and fight disease - Specific treatments for hart disease, cancer, diabetes, and many other illnesses
It has often been said that this is the only body you will every get, and it must last a lifetime_the only question is how long and healthy that lifetime will be. The Simple fact is that you absolutely can live well into your seventies, eighties, and beyond, in great health and vitality_but you need to make the right decisions now for that to happen. Lessons from the Miracle Doctors can show you how to do just that.
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Price: $15.58
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Global Catastrophic Risks
A global catastrophic risk is one with the potential to wreak death and destruction on a global scale. In human history, wars and plagues have done so on more than one occasion, and misguided ideologies and totalitarian regimes have darkened an entire era or a region. Advances in technology are adding dangers of a new kind. It could happen again. In Global Catastrophic Risks, 26 leading experts look at the gravest risks facing humanity in the 21st century, including natural catastrophes, nuclear war, terrorism, global warming, biological weapons, totalitarianism, advanced nanotechnology, general artificial intelligence, and social collapse. The book also addresses over-arching issues - policy responses and methods for predicting and managing catastrophes. This is invaluable reading for anyone interested in the big issues of our time; for students focusing on science, society, technology, and public policy; and for academics, policy-makers, and professionals working in these acutely important fields..
Price: $32.01
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The Medicaid Planning Handbook: A Guide to Protecting Your Family's Assets from Catastrophic Nursing Home Costs
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Catastrophic Consequences: Civil Wars and American Interests
Civil war and other types of radical domestic upheaval are replacing war as the preeminent threat to American security and economic well being, according to Steven R. David. Catastrophic Consequences argues that civil conflicts are of even greater importance than deliberate efforts to harm the United States or to undermine its interests precisely because they are unintended -- and therefore impossible to deter. David examines the prospects for and potential aftereffects of instability in four nations vital to U.S. national interests -- Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, and Mexico. It is not, he argues, a rising China that threatens America, but one that is falling apart. Likewise, it is not a hostile Pakistani regime over which the United States should worry, rather it is one that cannot keep the country together. Similarly, a conflict-torn Mexico or Saudi Arabia poses a far greater danger to America than does either of those states growing stronger. In assessing these threats, David contends that the United States's only viable option is to view other-state civil upheaval similarly to natural disasters and to develop a coherent, effective emergency response mechanism, which does not exist today in any systemic, nationwide form. .
Price: $14.81
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Unexpected Recoveries: Seven Steps to Healing Body, Mind, and Soul When Serious Illness Strikes
Unexpected Recoveries is a holistic wellness guide for those who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness or medical condition. While doctors may not able to offer a cure for these illnesses, patients are able to take steps towards healing their bodies and minds. Author Tom Monte combines modern medical know-how, ancient healing practices, and macrobiotic dietary guidelines in order to provide a comprehensive and inspiring guidebook for healing. Rather than concentrating on a specific disease, Monte's Seven Step program can help people suffering from: cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, chronic pain conditions, Crohns disease, degenerative bone conditions, and more. This is a powerful book that offers hope, purpose, and a proactive plan to those who are seriously ill. .
Price: $1.95
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Shelter from the Storm: Caring for a Child with a Life-Threatening Condition
critically ill and unlikely to survive. A recent Harvard University study on pediatric end-of-life care has shown that the medical community is failing such children and their families. Indeed, in their effort to be ever-hopeful and cure-oriented in the face of a child's terminal illness, they neglect to advise parents on the basics of emotional support for all family members, pediatric pain medication, and the need for making plans and worst-case preparations.Based on the National Advanced Illness Coordinated Care program and the stories and advice gleaned from co-author Joanne Hilden's years of work as a pediatric oncologist, Shelter from the Storm fills this advice-and-caregiving void. A compassionate road map to what the family may have to face, what they may be asked to decide, and how they might want to involve their child in the decision-making, Shelter from the Storm will help parents and caregivers make informed, loving, and protective choices on behalf of their children in the most trying of times. .
Price: $8.94
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Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy
Donald Rumsfeld, who as secretary of defense oversaw the army, navy, air force, and marines from 2001 to December 2006, is widely blamed for the catastrophic state of America's involvement in Iraq. In his groundbreaking book Rumsfeld, Washington insider Andrew Cockburn details Rumsfeld's decisions in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and also shows how his political legacy stretches back decades and will reach far into the future. Relying on sources that include high-ranking officials in the Pentagon and the White House, Rumsfeld goes far beyond previous accounts to reveal a man consumed with the urge to dominate each and every human encounter, and whose aggressive ambition has long been matched by his inability to display genuine leadership or accept responsibility for egregious error. Cockburn exposes Rumsfeld's early career as an Illinois congressman, his rise to prominence as an official in the Nixon White House, his careful maneuvering to avoid the fallout of the Watergate scandal, and his skillful infighting as secretary of defense under President Ford. Cockburn also chronicles for the very first time Rumsfeld's subsequent tenure as CEO of G. D. Searle (and his devoted efforts to get governmental approval for the controversial artificial sweetener aspartame) as well as his interesting behavior in secret high-level government nuclear war games in the years he was out of power. President George W. Bush's hasty elevation of Rumsfeld as his secretary of defense proved historic, for it was the triumvirate of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Rumsfeld who plunged America into the disastrous quagmire of the war in Iraq. Cockburn reveals how Rumsfeld's habits of intimidation, indecision, ignoring awkward realities, destructive micromanagement, and bureaucratic manipulation all helped doom America's military adventure. The book challenges the notion that Rumsfeld was an effective manager driven to transform the American military, examines the reasons that Rumsfeld was removed from office, and shows how his second appointment as secretary of defense reflects a deep conflict between President Bush and his father, former president George H. W. Bush. Brimming with powerful revelations, Rumsfeld is sure to emerge as the must-have piece of investigative journalism as America grapples with its difficult involvement in Iraq and the uncertain path the country faces today..
Price: $3.95
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Geology by Design: Interpreting Rocks and their Catastrophic Record
From the acclaimed Creation Research Society, this technical study of rock strata, and the fossils found therein gives a solidly scientific rationale for believing in a young earth. Froede defines a credible geological timeline and describes the creatures found in rock sediments around the world. Heavily illustrated, with an extensive glossary and reference section..
Price: $8.00
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