A sad story of lovely wild creatures held captive for our amusement.
Informative account of a bright and complex bird alarmingly mistreated by humans.
Parrots have long been popular, writes Tweti, who has profiled the species in media ranging from newspaper articles and documentary films to children’s books (Here, There and Everywhere: The Story of Sreeeeeeeet the Lorikeet, 2008). The Greeks ate them as a delicacy, the Egyptians used their images to decorate pharaohs’ tombs, wealthy Europeans and Americans have always treasured their companionship. With the affection of a parrot owner, the author describes the beguiling qualities of these little-studied birds, including their beauty, intelligence, ability to talk and the close bonds they can form with people. However, most of Tweti’s lively and discursive book focuses on the many ways in which humans neglect or abuse parrots. She notes that people purchasing the birds seldom realize that parrots are unusually demanding wild animals: They squawk, bite and much prefer to live with their kind in the wild. Advocacy groups advise against having them as pets. Many owners prove unable to tolerate the birds; finding no market for older parrots, they pass them on to friends (the average parrot has seven homes in its first ten years) or set them free to fend for themselves. The result has been “a crisis of unwanted parrots” in the United States, with growing numbers of birds winding up in the nation’s avian rescue centers. At the same time, some 10,000 breeders, with little training and virtually no regulation, continue to raise parrots (often in cramped factory farms) and sell more than one million of them annually. Interviewing owners, breeders, rescue operators and others, Tweti brings readers deep inside the worlds of illegal parrot trapping, harvesting and smuggling, including visits with federal agents along the San Diego-Mexico border, where parrots are smuggled into the United States in car taillights.
A sad story of lovely wild creatures held captive for our amusement.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-670-01969-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2008
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Johnstown Flood was one of the greatest natural disasters of all time (actually manmade, since it was precipitated by a wealthy country club dam which had long been the source of justified misgivings). This then is a routine rundown of the catastrophe of May 31st, 1889, the biggest news story since Lincoln's murder in which thousands died. The most interesting incidental: a baby floated unharmed in its cradle for eighty miles.... Perhaps of local interest-but it lacks the Lord-ly touch.
Pub Date: March 18, 1968
ISBN: 0671207148
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968
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