Birds, Bees and Educated Fleas - An A-Z Guide to the Sexual Predilections of Animals from Aardvarks to Zebras

Birds, Bees and Educated Fleas - An A-Z Guide to the Sexual Predilections of Animals from Aardvarks to Zebras PDF

Author: Bruce Montague

Publisher: Metro Publishing

Published: 2015-02-05

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 178418229X

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'Birds do it, bees do it, Even educated fleas do it . . . 'So wrote Cole Porter in his famous song from 1928, 'Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love'. To which Bruce Montague, author of this enlightening and amusing collection, silently replied, 'Yes, but how do they do it?'Birds, Bees and Educated Fleas is an amusing A-Z of the courtship and mating habits of animals - including Homo sapiens sapiens. From well-hung South American drakes to shy camels arranging secret love trysts, female chameleons whose skin darkens when they're no longer in the mood to giraffes who swing their hips and swish their tails when they're feeling frisky, oysters that can change sex pretty much at will to stud rhinoceroses that can copulate three or four times a day for a week, this is a wide-ranging, light-hearted but well-researched look at the world of animal love and lust. Arranged alphabetically by species, here is the perfect handbook for any peeping Tom or Tomasina who wants to know what goes on in the animal world behind the - metaphorical - bedroom curtains.

Unexpected Expectations

Unexpected Expectations PDF

Author: Leonard M. Wapner

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2012-06-04

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1439867674

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Unexpected Expectations: The Curiosities of a Mathematical Crystal Ball explores how paradoxical challenges involving mathematical expectation often necessitate a reexamination of basic premises. The author takes you through mathematical paradoxes associated with seemingly straightforward applications of mathematical expectation and shows how these

For the Birds

For the Birds PDF

Author: Laura Erickson

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published:

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 9781452906201

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In 365 day-by-day sketches, Laura Erickson brings more than 250 birds right into your living room-from rare hawk owls to elusive sedge wrens to plastic lawn flamingos. Light-hearted, yet authoritative, For the Birds is brimming with fascinating birdlore. Did you know that you can mail three chickadees with a single stamp? That Black-billed Cuckoos flourish on a diet of army worms? That winter finches are especially attracted to feeders offering grit and eggshells? Enjoy Laura's entertaining observations and record your own in For the Birds-an uncommon guide.

Holy Cow!

Holy Cow! PDF

Author: Boze Hadleigh

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-05-12

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1632209527

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We love animals but insult humans by calling them everything from weasels or pigs to sheep, mice, chickens, sharks, snakes, and bird-brains. Animal epithets, words, and phrases are so widespread we often take them for granted or remain ignorant of the fascinating stories and facts behind them. Spanning the entire animal kingdom, Holy Cow! explains: Why hot dogs are named after canines. Why people talk turkey or go cold turkey. Why curiosity killed the cat, although dogs are more curious about us. Why letting the cat out of the bag originally referred to a duped shopper. What a horse of another color is, what horsefeathers politely alludes to, why a mule is a lady’s slipper, and what horseradish has to do with horses. Why the combination of humans and cows probably led to capitalism—its name from Latin for head, as in heads of cows. Why holy cow and sacred cow have almost opposite meanings. Whether people actually chewed the fat or ate crow (and why it’s a crowbar). How a hog became a motorcycle and a chick a young woman. What happens to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. What buck has to do with being naked. Why the birds and the bees. Why a piggy bank and why one feeds the kitty. What lame ducks have to do with U.S. presidents. How red herring came about via activists opposed to fox hunting. Where snake oil, popular in the 1800s and rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, came from. That the proverbial fly in the ointment goes back to the Bible’s Ecclesiastes (10:1). How Swiss watchmakers created teensy-weensy coaches for fleas to pull in flea circuses. And much—much!—more. Don't be a lame duck and get this book!

How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass

How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass PDF

Author: Christopher Dicarlo

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Published: 2011-08-23

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1616143983

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In this witty, incisive guide to critical thinking the author provides you with the tools to allow you to question beliefs and assumptions held by those who claim to know what they’re talking about. These days there are many people whom we need to question: politicians, lawyers, doctors, teachers, clergy members, bankers, car salesmen, and your boss. This book will empower you with the ability to spot faulty reasoning and, by asking the right sorts of questions, hold people accountable not only for what they believe but how they behave. By using this book you’ll learn to analyze your own thoughts, ideas, and beliefs, and why you act on them (or don’t). This, in turn, will help you to understand why others might hold opposing views. And the best way to change our own or others’ behavior or attitudes is to gain greater clarity about underlying motives and thought processes. In a media-driven world of talking heads, gurus, urban legends, and hype, learning to think more clearly and critically, and helping others to do the same, is one of the most important things you can do.

Biology: The Whole Story

Biology: The Whole Story PDF

Author: Lindsay Turnbull

Publisher: David Fickling Books

Published: 2023-09-07

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 1788453263

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Biology affects every aspect of our lives, but its marvels can often seem mysterious. Here, at last, is an enjoyable read that will help you make sense of it all.From the origins of life to the structure of modern ecosystems, follow the story of life on Earth, stopping along the way to understand key developments and how they have shaped our planet.Lindsay Turnbull teaches biology at the University of Oxford, and here she has written the perfect accompaniment to those hard-to-read textbooks. This book is indispensable both for students of biology and anyone curious about how life works.

The Book of Shakespearian Useless Information

The Book of Shakespearian Useless Information PDF

Author: Bruce Montague

Publisher: Metro Publishing

Published: 2016-03-03

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1786060817

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This book commemorates the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death on 23 April 1616. Four centuries later, sales of his works are second only to the Bible. Yet, in common with the authors of the Holy Book, little is known about the poet and playwright, and the few facts that have emerged over the course of several hundred years are largely speculative – when they aren't complete b*llocks. An entry from the diary written by the Revd John Ward, vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon from 1662 to 1681, is instructive, for he recorded tales passed on to him by people who had known Shakespeare. In one, he mentions that 'the Bard' held his fifty-second birthday party at New Place in Stratford and that 'Shakespeare, [the poet Michael] Drayton and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting, and it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a feavour there contracted.' But if the date of his death is known, the actual day of his birth remains conjecture. As does so much else . . . This amusing but instructive book assembles many of the legends, the lies, the imputations, and a host of uncommon facts from the late Tudor and early Jacobean period, loosely arranged in chronological order to establish William Shakespeare in his literary and historical setting. In doing so, it shows us the man and his time, thereby illuminating the greatest playwright who ever lived.