by W. Jack Seay ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2013
An enlightening eleventh-hour call for creative people to push the world away from its impending ecological tipping point.
Industrial designer Seay argues that imagination and fortitude are the keys to achieving a sustainable future.
To save the planet from environmental catastrophe, we need creative ideas, writes Seay, founder of private research lab Seay Group International. We must also act on those ideas, even if they are expensive or challenge vested interests. Regrettably, our existing institutions are ill-equipped to produce the necessary “innovative adaptations” on a global scale. Instead, Seay recommends scientists, engineers and designers pool their brainpower in a forum where even unorthodox ideas can be explored. He begins by citing research on climate change, overpopulation and other vexing issues. If nothing else, the book’s Malthusian tone will awaken readers to the urgency of these problems. A grim chapter entitled “Scientists’ predictions for the next 100 years” provides a decade-by-decade timeline that foresees a hot, crowded and disaster-prone planet unless reforms are undertaken now. Such dire warnings have long been sounded in scientific literature and the popular press, so the author makes few new contributions here. What Seay offers, though, is extensive experience developing product prototypes, so he knows a few things about creative thinking. He proposes a framework for cultivating innovation that incorporates 20th-century models of idea generationbut adds 21st-century technological advances such as computer-aided brainstorming. Seay envisions a National Center for Creative Investigation, where eggheads could combine knowledge and imagination in their quest for breakthroughs. The goal isn’t to halt industrialization but rather to harness the same human ability that ushered in modernity to combat its unintended consequences. For all his doomsaying, Seay still finds hope in the “inventive ability of man.” Tinkerers in lab coats and safety goggles are viewed as heroes who must step forward to rescue a planet in peril. Seay writes with a fist-pounding fervency, skittering through an impressive number of topics in less than 100 pages. Yet the book’s skeletal chapters and haphazard editing leave it feeling more like an outline than a fully formed text.
An enlightening eleventh-hour call for creative people to push the world away from its impending ecological tipping point.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1480238381
Page Count: 106
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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