Opposable Thumbs

Opposable Thumbs

Author: Matt Singer

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2023-10-24

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0593540158

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Once upon a time, if you wanted to know if a movie was worth seeing, you didn’t check out Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB. You asked whether Siskel & Ebert had given it “two thumbs up.” On a cold Saturday afternoon in 1975, two men (who had known each other for eight years before they’d ever exchanged a word) met for lunch in a Chicago pub. Gene Siskel was the film critic for the Chicago Tribune. Roger Ebert had recently won the Pulitzer Prize—the first ever awarded to a film critic—for his work at the Chicago Sun-Times. To say they despised each other was an understatement. When they reluctantly agreed to collaborate on a new movie review show with PBS, there was at least as much sparring off-camera as on. No decision—from which films to cover to who would read the lead review to how to pronounce foreign titles—was made without conflict, but their often-antagonistic partnership (which later transformed into genuine friendship) made for great television. In the years that followed, their signature “Two thumbs up!” would become the most trusted critical brand in Hollywood. In Opposable Thumbs, award-winning editor and film critic Matt Singer eavesdrops on their iconic balcony set, detailing their rise from making a few hundred dollars a week on local Chicago PBS to securing multimillion-dollar contracts for a syndicated series (a move that convinced a young local host named Oprah Winfrey to do the same). Their partnership was cut short when Gene Siskel passed away in February of 1999 after a battle with brain cancer that he’d kept secret from everyone outside his immediate family—including Roger Ebert, who never got to say goodbye to his longtime partner. But their influence on in the way we talk about (and think about) movies continues to this day.


Thumbs, Toes, and Tears

Thumbs, Toes, and Tears

Author: Chip Walter

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2009-05-26

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0802718841

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The fascinating evolutionary links between six seemingly unremarkable traits that make us the very remarkable creatures we are. Countless behaviors separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom, but all of them can be traced one way or another to six traits that are unique to the human race-our big toe, our opposable thumb, our oddly shaped pharynx, and our ability to laugh, kiss, and cry. At first glance these may not seem to be connected but they are. Each marks a fork in the evolutionary road where we went one way and the rest of the animal kingdom went another. Each opens small passageways on the peculiar geography of the human heart and mind. Walter weaves together fascinating insights from complexity theory, the latest brain scanning techniques, anthropology, artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, and robotics to explore how the smallest of changes over the past six million years - all shaped by the forces of evolution -- have enabled a primate once on the brink of extinction to evolve into a creature that would one day create all of the grand and exuberant edifices of human culture. As the story of each trait unfolds, Walter explains why our brains grew so large and complex, why we find one another sexually attractive, how toolmaking laid the mental groundwork for language, why we care about what others think, and how we became the creature that laughs and cries and falls in love. Thumbs, Toes and Tears is original, informative, and delightfully thought-provoking.


The Opposable Mind

The Opposable Mind

Author: Roger L. Martin

Publisher: Harvard Business Press

Published: 2009-07-07

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1422148106

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If you want to be as successful as Jack Welch, Larry Bossidy, or Michael Dell, read their autobiographical advice books, right? Wrong, says Roger Martin in The Opposable Mind. Though following best practice can help in some ways, it also poses a danger. By emulating what a great leader did in a particular situation, you'll likely be terribly disappointed with your own results. Why? Your situation is different. Instead of focusing on what exceptional leaders do, we need to understand and emulate how they think. Successful businesspeople engage in what Martin calls integrative thinking, creatively resolving the tension in opposing models by forming entirely new and superior ones. Drawing on stories of leaders as diverse as AG Lafley of Procter & Gamble, Meg Whitman of eBay, Victoria Hale of the Institute for One World Health, and Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, Martin shows how integrative thinkers are relentlessly diagnosing and synthesizing by asking probing questions including: What are the causal relationships at work here? and What are the implied trade-offs? Martin also presents a model for strengthening your integrative thinking skills by drawing on different kinds of knowledge including conceptual and experiential knowledge. Integrative thinking can be learned, and The Opposable Mind helps you master this vital skill.


Summary of Matt Singer's Opposable Thumbs

Summary of Matt Singer's Opposable Thumbs

Author: Milkyway Media

Publisher: Milkyway Media

Published: 2024-01-15

Total Pages: 18

ISBN-13:

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Get the Summary of Matt Singer's Opposable Thumbs in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "Opposable Thumbs" by Matt Singer chronicles the careers of film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. Ebert, who began as a reporter, unexpectedly became a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times at 24, winning a Pulitzer Prize and developing a conversational critique style. Siskel, who lost his parents early, found solace in movies and became a critic for the Chicago Tribune, known for his rigorous standards...


Find Your Why

Find Your Why

Author: Joanne Mallon

Publisher: Summersdale

Published: 2021-08-12

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 1800073593

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Knowing your purpose, or your “why”, has the power to transform your life – and this book will help you to discover yours. From reflecting on your past to visualizing your future, the tips and advice in these pages will guide you towards your true calling, and a deeper sense of contentment and happiness.


Primates

Primates

Author: Jim Ottaviani

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2013-06-11

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 1596438657

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A fun and immersive look into the lives of the three greatest primatologists of the twentieth century: Biruté Galdikas, Dian Fossey, and Jane Goodall, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Feynman.


Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

Author: Al Perkins

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Published: 2011-11-30

Total Pages: 28

ISBN-13: 0307976467

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Illus. in full color. A madcap band of dancing, prancing monkeys explain hands, fingers, and thumbs to beginning readers.


How to Find Joy in Five Minutes a Day

How to Find Joy in Five Minutes a Day

Author: Joanne Mallon

Publisher: Vie

Published: 2022-01-13

Total Pages: 121

ISBN-13: 1800075677

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Joy is all around us. It’s in the first sip of a cup of tea, the beauty of a sunrise, or the simple pleasure of a deep breath, and it’s easy to find when you know where to look. All you need is five minutes. This book includes over 60 prompts and ideas to help you to find joy every single day. Taking you through your morning, your afternoon and your evening, these tips will help you to elevate your mood and liven up your routine – and each one takes no longer than five minutes. Tips include: Setting an intention for your day Performing a small act of kindness Eating outdoors in the fresh air Trying a grounding ritual Even the smallest moment of positivity can transform your outlook, so whether you follow one tip or many, you’re sure to lift your spirits and find a small oasis of happiness every day.


Save the People!

Save the People!

Author: Stacy McAnulty

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Published: 2022-05-10

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 075955398X

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"Save the People is engaging, funny, affecting and delightful. You’ll never have more fun learning science." --Stuart Gibbs, bestselling author of the Spy School series "Serious science and great gags, with a bit of hope thrown in.” --Steven Sheinkin, bestselling author of Bomb and Fallout An action-packed look at past, present, and future threats to humanity’s survival—with an ultimately reassuring message that humans probably have a few more millennia in us. Scientists estimate that 99% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct. Whoa. So, it's not unreasonable to predict humans are doomed to become fossil records as well. But what could lead to our demise? Supervolcanos? Asteroids? The sun going dark? Climate change? All the above?! Humans—with our big brains, opposable thumbs, and speedy Wi-Fi—may be capable of avoiding most of these nightmares. (The T. rex would be super jealous of our satellites.) But we're also capable of triggering world-ending events. Learning from past catastrophes may be the best way to avoid future disasters. Packed with science, jokes, and black and white illustrations, Save the People! examines the worst-case scenarios that could (but hopefully won’t) cause the greatest mass extinction—our own!


Restless Creatures

Restless Creatures

Author: Matt Wilkinson

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2016-02-23

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 046509869X

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From flying pterodactyls to walking primates, the story of life as told through the evolution of locomotion. Most of us never think about how we get from one place to another. For most people, putting one foot in front of the other requires no thought at all. Yet the fact that we and other species are able to do so is one of the great triumphs of evolution. To truly understand how life evolved on Earth, it is crucial to understand movement. Restless Creatures makes the bold new argument that the true story of evolution is the story of locomotion, from the first stirrings of bacteria to the amazing feats of Olympic athletes. By retracing the four-billion-year history of locomotion, evolutionary biologist Matt Wilkinson shows how the physical challenges of moving from place to place-when coupled with the implacable logic of natural selection-offer a uniquely powerful means of illuminating the living world. Whales and dolphins look like fish because they have been molded by the constraints of underwater locomotion. The unbending physical needs of flight have brought bats, birds, and pterodactyls to strikingly similar anatomies. Movement explains why we have opposable thumbs, why moving can make us feel good, how fish fins became limbs, and even why-classic fiction notwithstanding-there are no flying monkeys nor animals with wheels. Even plants aren't immune from locomotion's long reach: their seeds, pollen, and very form are all determined by their aptitude to disperse. From sprinting cheetah to spinning maple fruit, soaring albatross to burrowing worm, crawling amoeba to running human-all are the way they are because of how they move. There is a famous saying: "nothing in biology makes sense unless in the light of evolution." As Wilkinson makes clear: little makes sense unless in the light of locomotion. A powerful yet accessible work of evolutionary biology, Restless Creatures is the essential guide for understanding how life on Earth was shaped by the simple need to move from point A to point B.