Download Free The Life Adventures Of John Nicol Mariner Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online The Life Adventures Of John Nicol Mariner and write the review.

The international bestselling true story of an eighteenth-century sailor’s extraordinary voyages, compiled by the celebrated scientist and historian. In his many voyages, the Scottish-born sailor John Nicol twice circumnavigated the globe, visiting every inhabited continent while witnessing and participating in many of the greatest events of exploration and adventure in the eighteenth century. He traded with Native Americans on the St. Lawrence River and hunted whales in the Arctic Ocean. He fought for the British navy against American privateers in the Atlantic Ocean and Napoléon’s navy in the Mediterranean Sea. En route to Australia he met the love of his life, Sarah Whitlam, a convict bound for the Botany Bay prison colony, who bore his son before duty forced them apart forever. At the end of his journeys, John Nicol returned to his homeland and a life of obscurity and poverty, until the publisher John Howell met him one day while he was wandering the streets of Edinburgh, searching for dregs of coal to fuel his hearth. After hearing the fascinating stories of Nicol’s seafaring experiences, Howell convinced him to write his memoirs—the publication of which eventually earned Nicol enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his days. Tim Flannery has edited Nicol’s original text, providing accompanying footnotes and an introduction (updated for this North American edition) that give historical context to the sailor’s exploits. “Lively . . . Exciting . . . Nicol has made a lasting place for himself in the literature of the sea and the ships he loved so deeply.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
This work renders the story of a man whom history has nearly forgotten. In his many voyages the Scottish-born sailor John Nicol twice circumnavigated the globe, visiting every inhabited continent and participating in many of the greatest events of exploration and adventure in the 18th century.
The author of the #1 international bestseller, The Weather Makers, provides a stunning portrait of Australia’s cultural capital. Sydney, Australia, is one of the world’s most beautiful and fascinating cities, home to over five million people and a popular tourist destination. In The Birth of Sydney, scientist and historian Tim Flannery blends the writings of Australian explorers, settlers, leaders, journalists, and visitors to construct a compelling narrative history of the great metropolis—from its founding as a remote penal colony of the British Empire in 1788 to its emergence as a vital trading power in the nineteenth century. Together, their voices and experiences create an unforgettable panoramic portrait of the early life of the majestic harbor city.
A comprehensive history of the continent, “full of engaging and attention-catching information about North America’s geology, climate, and paleontology” (The Washington Post Book World). Here, “the rock star of modern science” tells the unforgettable story of the geological and biological evolution of the North American continent, from the time of the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago to the present day (Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel). Flannery describes the development of North America’s deciduous forests and other flora, and tracks the migrations of various animals to and from Europe, Asia, and South America, showing how plant and animal species have either adapted or become extinct. The story spans the massive changes wrought by the ice ages and the coming of the Native Americans. It continues right up to the present, covering the deforestation of the Northeast, the decimation of the buffalo, and other consequences of frontier settlement and the industrial development of the United States. This is science writing at its very best—both an engrossing narrative and a scholarly trove of information that “will forever change your perspective on the North American continent” (The New York Review of Books).
How did outsiders first become aware of the Hawaiian language? How were they and Hawaiians able to understand each other? How was Hawaiian recorded and analyzed in the early decades after European contact Albert J. Schutz provides illuminating answers to these and other questions about Hawaii's postcontact linguistic past. The result is a highly readable and accessible account of Hawaiian history from a language-centered point of view. The author also provides readers with an exhaustive analysis and critique of nearly every work ever written about Hawaiian.
“Full of fascinating insights drawn from an impressive range of disciplines, The Ascent of Information casts the familiar and the foreign in a dramatic new light.” —Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe Your information has a life of its own, and it’s using you to get what it wants. One of the most peculiar and possibly unique features of humans is the vast amount of information we carry outside our biological selves. But in our rush to build the infrastructure for the 20 quintillion bits we create every day, we’ve failed to ask exactly why we’re expending ever-increasing amounts of energy, resources, and human effort to maintain all this data. Drawing on deep ideas and frontier thinking in evolutionary biology, computer science, information theory, and astrobiology, Caleb Scharf argues that information is, in a very real sense, alive. All the data we create—all of our emails, tweets, selfies, A.I.-generated text and funny cat videos—amounts to an aggregate lifeform. It has goals and needs. It can control our behavior and influence our well-being. And it’s an organism that has evolved right alongside us. This symbiotic relationship with information offers a startling new lens for looking at the world. Data isn’t just something we produce; it’s the reason we exist. This powerful idea has the potential to upend the way we think about our technology, our role as humans, and the fundamental nature of life. The Ascent of Information offers a humbling vision of a universe built of and for information. Scharf explores how our relationship with data will affect our ongoing evolution as a species. Understanding this relationship will be crucial to preventing our data from becoming more of a burden than an asset, and to preserving the possibility of a human future.
The #1 international bestseller on climate change that’s been endorsed by policy makers, scientists, writers, and energy executives around the world. Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers contributed in bringing the topic of global warming to worldwide prominence. For the first time, a scientist provided an accessible and comprehensive account of the history, current status, and future impact of climate change, writing what has been acclaimed by reviewers everywhere as the definitive book on global warming. With one out of every five living things on this planet committed to extinction by the levels of greenhouse gases that will accumulate in the next few decades, we are reaching a global climatic tipping point. The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Originally somewhat of a global warming skeptic, Tim Flannery spent several years researching the topic and offers a connect-the-dots approach for a reading public who has received patchy or misleading information on the subject. Pulling on his expertise as a scientist to discuss climate change from a historical perspective, Flannery also explains how climate change is interconnected across the planet. This edition includes a new afterword by the author. “An authoritative, scientifically accurate book on global warming that sparkles with life, clarity, and intelligence.” —The Washington Post