The Great Brain Suck

The Great Brain Suck
Author: Eugene Halton
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2008-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0226314677

More and more information is pumped into our media-saturated world every day, yet Americans seem to know less and less. In a society where who you are is defined by what you buy, and where we prefer to experience reality by watching it on TV, Eugene Halton argues something has clearly gone wrong. Luckily Halton, with scalpel-sharp wit in one hand and the balm of wisdom in the other, is here to operate on the declining body politic. His initial diagnosis is bleak: fast food and too much time spent sitting, whether in our cars or on our couches, are ruining our bodies, while our minds are weakened by the proliferation of electronic devices—TVs, computers, cell phones, iPods, video games—and their alienating effects. If we are losing the battle between autonomy and automation, he asks, how can our culture regain self-sufficiency? Halton finds the answer in the inspiring visions—deeply rooted in American culture—of an organic and more spontaneous life at the heart of the work of master craftsman Wharton Esherick, legendary blues singer Muddy Waters, urban critic Lewis Mumford, and artist Maya Lin, among others. A scathing and original jeremiad against modern materialism, The Great Brain Suck is also a series of epiphanies of a simpler but more profound life.

It's Great to Suck at Something

It's Great to Suck at Something
Author: Karen Rinaldi
Publisher: Atria Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-03-24
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 9781501195778

Discover how the freedom of sucking at something can help you build resilience, embrace imperfection, and find joy in the pursuit rather than the goal with this “wholly original work that is destined to become a classic” (Susannah Cahalan, #1 New York Times bestselling author). When was the last time you tried something new? Something that won’t make you more productive, make you more money, or check anything off your to-do list? Something you’re really, really bad at, but that brought you joy? Odds are, not recently. We live in a time of aspirational psychoses. We humblebrag about how hard we work and we prioritize productivity over happiness. Even kids don’t play for the sake of playing anymore: they’re building blocks to build the ideal college application. We’re told to be the best or nothing at all. We’re trapped in an epic and farcical quest for perfection and it’s all making us more anxious and depressed than ever. This book provides the antidote. (It’s Great to) Suck at Something “shows how joy and growth come from risking failure and letting go of perfectionism” (The Wall Street Journal). Drawing on her personal experience sucking at surfing (a sport Karen Rinaldi’s dedicated nearly two decades of her life to doing without ever coming close to getting good at it) along with philosophy, literature, and the latest science, Rinaldi explores sucking as a lost art we must reclaim for our health and our sanity and helps us find the way to our own riotous suck-ability. Sucking at something rewires our brain in positive ways, helps us cultivate grit, and inspires us to find joy in the process, without obsessing about the destination. Ultimately, it gives you freedom: the freedom to suck without caring is revelatory. Coupling honest, hilarious storytelling with unexpected insights, this “thought-provoking, engaging examination…explains how our lives are more satisfying and rich when we give ourselves the opportunity to experiment, struggle, and play” (Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project).

The Great Brain Robbery: A Train to Impossible Places Novel

The Great Brain Robbery: A Train to Impossible Places Novel
Author: P. G. Bell
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2019-10-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1250190061

The adventure continues in book two of the stunning The Train to Impossible Places middle-grade fantasy series! Suzy Smith and her friends have gathered again for the re-launch of The Impossible Postal Express. The celebrations don't last long though, before Trollville is rocked by a violent tremor—one of a series growing more powerful by the day. It's clear something sinister is underfoot. Nevertheless Suzy's got a long overdue package that the Express must deliver, and it may just lead her to some answers. In P. G. Bell's The Great Brain Robbery: A Train to Impossible Places Novel, Suzy and the Express will travel deep under Trollville through the Uncanny Valley, and sky-high to new impossible places like Cloud Forge. She and the gang will test out its kinks, er, new features, and meet new allies and enemies alike, from a sentient cloud-consciousness to an obnoxious magician.

The Great Brain Robbery

The Great Brain Robbery
Author: Thomas Scott
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2006-08
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1741146402

Everything you need to know about teenagers and drugs - completely updated.

Iconicity of the Uto-Aztecans

Iconicity of the Uto-Aztecans
Author: Tirtha Prasad Mukhopadhyay
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2023-05-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1800739737

Uto-Aztecan iconic practices are primarily conditioned by the consciousness of the snake as a death-dealing power, and as such, an animal that displays the deepest fears and anxieties of the individual. The attempt to study a snake simulacrum thus constitutes the basic objective of this volume. A long, all-embracing iconicity of snakes and related snake motifs are evident in different cultural expressions ranging from rock art templates to other cultural artifacts like basketry, pottery, temple architecture and sculptural motifs. Uto-Aztecan iconography demonstrates a symbolic memorial order of emotional valences, as well as the negotiations with death and a belief in rebirth, just as the skin-shedding snake reptile manifests in its life cycle.

Lost in Transition

Lost in Transition
Author: Christian Smith
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2011-09
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0199828024

In Lost in Transition, Christian Smith and his collaborators draw on 230 in-depth interviews with a broad cross-section of emerging adults (ages 18-23) to investigate the difficulties young people face today, the underlying causes of those difficulties, and the consequences both for individuals and for American society as a whole. --From publisher description.

Handbook of Moral and Character Education

Handbook of Moral and Character Education
Author: Larry Nucci
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 805
Release: 2014-04-24
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136293116

There is widespread agreement that schools should contribute to the moral development and character formation of their students. In fact, 80% of US states currently have mandates regarding character education. However, the pervasiveness of the support for moral and character education masks a high degree of controversy surrounding its meaning and methods. The purpose of this handbook is to supplant the prevalent ideological rhetoric of the field with a comprehensive, research-oriented volume that both describes the extensive changes that have occurred over the last fifteen years and points forward to the future. Now in its second edition, this book includes the latest applications of developmental and cognitive psychology to moral and character education from preschool to college settings, and much more.

Explorations in Consumer Culture Theory

Explorations in Consumer Culture Theory
Author: John F. Sherry
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2008-11-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135971331

The literature of marketplace behaviour, long dominated by economic and psychological discourse, has matured in the last decade to reveal the vast expanse of consumption activity not adequately addressed – in either theoretical or empirical perspective - by the discipline's favoured approaches. The lived experience of consumption in cultural and historical context, rendered in a fashion that is both intellectually insightful and authentically evocative, and that recognizes the dynamics of accommodation and resistance that characterize the individual's relationship with the market, is the central interpretive thrust of an emerging interdisciplinary field inquiry broadly labelled "consumer culture theory." In this volume, some of the leading scholars of this field explore in great empirical detail and theoretical depth the relationships that the consumer has developed both with goods and services and with the stakeholders that animate markets. Beginning with an examination of the underpinnings of cultural inquiry, the focus then shifts to specific consumption venues. Analyses of advertising in personal, critical and historical perspective, examination of lifestyle trends from dwelling practices of transnational nomads and regimes of personal training to genetic testing and gambling, interpretations of the dynamics of brand loyalty and corporate image management, and investigation of family consumption rituals are among the topics explored in ethnographic and humanistic perspective.

Planet of the Apes and Philosophy

Planet of the Apes and Philosophy
Author: John Huss
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2013
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0812698223

Essays explore philosophical themes in The Planet of the Apes films including human-animal relationships, science and ethics.

Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution

Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution
Author: Darcia Narváez
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2014
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0199964254

The social contexts in which children develop have transformed over recent decades, but also over millennia. Modern parenting practices have diverged greatly from ancestral practices, which included natural childbirth, extensive and on-demand breastfeeding, constant touch, responsiveness to the needs of the child, free play in nature with multiple-aged playmates, and multiple adult caregivers. Only recently have scientists begun to document the outcomes for the presence or absence of such parenting practices, but early results indicate that psychological wellbeing is impacted by these factors. Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution addresses how a shift in the way we parent can influence child outcomes. It examines evolved contexts for mammalian development, optimal and suboptimal contexts for human evolved needs, and the effects on children's development and human wellbeing. Bringing together an interdisciplinary set of renowned contributors, this volume examines how different parenting styles and cultural personality influence one another. Chapters discuss the nature of childrearing, social relationships, the range of personalities people exhibit, the social and moral skills expected of adults, and what 'wellbeing' looks like. As a solid knowledge base regarding normal development is considered integral to understanding psychopathology, this volume also focuses on the effects of early childhood maltreatment. By increasing our understanding of basic mammalian emotional and motivational needs in contexts representative of our ancestral conditions, we may be in a better position to facilitate changes in social structures and systems that better support optimal human development. This book will be a unique resource for researchers and students in psychology, anthropology, and psychiatry, as well as professionals in public health, social work, clinical psychology, and early care and education.