“[A] gracefully narrated, arrestingly illustrated myth originating from the Karuk people” about a coyote who steals fire and shares it with the world (Publishers Weekly). There was a time when the animals had no way to keep warm in the winter, because the miserly Yellow Jackets kept fire for themselves at their mountaintop home. But wise old Coyote devised a plan to trick the Yellow Jackets and steal a burning ember. As the Yellow Jackets give chase, Coyote passes the ember to Eagle, who then passes it to Mountain Lion, and so on. The animals work together, using their individual strengths and abilities, to get the ember down from the mountain where it is kept inside a willow tree. This delightful retelling of the legend from the Karuk people of Northwestern California is enlivened by beautiful illustrations and includes an afterword by Julian Long, a member of the Karuk tribe.
Long ago the people of Dahomey told a tale of the days when the world was new, and the only Earth people were animals. They lived in cold and darkness because Mawu, the selfish Moon god, kept all the fire to herself. At last, little Chameleon and slow Tortoise, working together, found a way to outwit Mawu.
On Fire at Work flies in the face of other books on workplace culture by showing that employee engagement isn’t the ultimate goal—it is merely the starting point. Renowned leadership expert Eric Chester has gone straight to the source—top-tier leaders of the world’s best places to work to uncover their best practice strategies for getting employees to work harder, perform better, and stay longer. On Fire at Work features examples and original stories from exclusive personal interviews with over 25 founders/CEOs/presidents of companies like Marriott, Siemens, BB&T Bank, Wegmans, 7-Eleven, Hormel, Canadian WestJet, Ben & Jerry’s, and The Container Store, along with smaller companies like Firehouse Subs, the Nerdery, and Build-A-Bear. The guiding principle is that any organization in any industry—from Fortune 500 firms to mom-and-pop shops—can learn how to bring out the very best in their employees. The book’s content-rich research and conversational case study-based narrative make it a timely, actionable go-to reference on employee performance and productivity for C-level execs, corporate and government managers, HR professionals, and small business owners. On Fire at Work is a practical field guide that any organization can implement to build, not an engaged workforce, but a workforce that is on fire!
Years of drought and decades of aggressive fire exclusion have left North American forests at high risk for future catastrophic fires. Forest settings are a magnet for recreational opportunities and for rapidly growing residential developmentputting an increasing number of citizens and their property into the path of wildfires. Recordsetting wildfires initiated the twentyfirst century and motivated the rise to prominence of wildfire on the political agenda, prompting important and farreaching new public policy initiatives. To be effective, these policies must be informed by sciencebut that requires more than just improved knowledge about the physical and biological dynamics of fire and forest ecosystems. Social values, socioeconomic factors, demographic trends, institutional arrangements, and human behavior must also be taken into consideration by the agencies and individuals responsible for wildland fire decision making. The first book to integrate the social science literature on the human dimensions of wildfire, People, Fire, and Forests reviews current studies from this broad, interdisciplinary field and synthesizes them into a rich body of knowledge with practical management implications. Chapters in the book highlight principal findings and common threads in the existing research and identify strengths and gaps. They cover such topics as public perception of wildfire risk, acceptability of fire management policies, and community impacts of wildfire. Designed to make relevant social science information more available and useful to wildfire risk managers and policy makers, People, Fire, and Forests is also intended to encourage and guide further research into wildfire. By exploringthe theoretical and methodological issues surrounding human interactions with wildfire and describing the practical implications of this research, this volume provides an essential resource for students, scholars, and professionals.
National Bestseller CNBC and Strategy + Business Best Business Book of the Year It’s the biggest revolution you’ve never heard of, and it’s hiding in plain sight. Over the past decade, Silicon Valley executives like Eric Schmidt and Elon Musk, Special Operators like the Navy SEALs and the Green Berets, and maverick scientists like Sasha Shulgin and Amy Cuddy have turned everything we thought we knew about high performance upside down. Instead of grit, better habits, or 10,000 hours, these trailblazers have found a surprising short cut. They're harnessing rare and controversial states of consciousness to solve critical challenges and outperform the competition. New York Times bestselling author Steven Kotler and high performance expert Jamie Wheal spent four years investigating the leading edges of this revolution—from the home of SEAL Team Six to the Googleplex, the Burning Man festival, Richard Branson’s Necker Island, Red Bull’s training center, Nike’s innovation team, and the United Nations’ Headquarters. And what they learned was stunning: In their own ways, with differing languages, techniques, and applications, every one of these groups has been quietly seeking the same thing: the boost in information and inspiration that altered states provide. Today, this revolution is spreading to the mainstream, fueling a trillion dollar underground economy and forcing us to rethink how we can all lead richer, more productive, more satisfying lives. Driven by four accelerating forces—psychology, neurobiology, technology and pharmacology—we are gaining access to and insights about some of the most contested and misunderstood terrain in history. Stealing Fire is a provocative examination of what’s actually possible; a guidebook for anyone who wants to radically upgrade their life.
A novelist and historian team up to tell the story of the October 1871 fire in the lumber town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, vividly re-creating the personal and political battles leading to this monumental natural disaster, and delivering it from the lost annals of American history. 16-page insert. 3 maps.
Set in the ironmaking town of Merthyr Tydfil, The Fire People is the story of Dic Penderyn who in 1831 became the first Welsh Martyr of the working class. Hanged for a crime that he did not commit, his story is told in this powerful novel which describes the events which took place during the famous Merthyr Tydfil riots of 1831.
From a writer and expert who has been at the center of the fight for more than thirty years, a brilliant, big-picture reckoning with our shocking failure to address climate change. Fire and Flood focuses on the malign power of key business interests, arguing that those same interests could flip the story very quickly—if they can get ahead of a looming economic catastrophe. Eugene Linden wrote his first story on climate change, for Time magazine, in 1988; it was just the beginning of his investigative work, exploring all ramifications of this impending disaster. Fire and Flood represents his definitive case for the prosecution as to how and why we have arrived at our current dire pass, closing with his argument that the same forces that have confused the public’s mind and slowed the policy response are poised to pivot with astonishing speed, as long-term risks have become present-day realities and the cliff’s edge is now within view. Starting with the 1980s, Linden tells the story, decade by decade, by looking at four clocks that move at different speeds: the reality of climate change itself; the scientific consensus about it, which always lags reality; public opinion and political will, which lag further still; and, perhaps most important, business and finance. Reality marches on at its own pace, but the public will and even the science are downstream from the money, and Fire and Flood shows how devilishly effective moneyed climate-change deniers have been at slowing and even reversing the progress of our collective awakening. When a threat means certain but future disaster, but addressing it means losing present-tense profit, capitalism’s response has been sadly predictable. Now, however, the seasons of fire and flood have crossed the threshold into plain view. Linden focuses on the insurance industry as one loud canary in the coal mine: fire and flood zones in Florida and California, among other regions, are now seeing what many call “climate redlining.” The whole system is teetering on the brink, and the odds of another housing collapse, for starters, are much higher than most people understand. There is a path back from the cliff, but we must pick up the pace. Fire and Flood shows us why, and how.
An anthology of the actions of CAL FIRE firefighters and officers on the first day of the Camp Fire November 8, 2018. Based on interviews with fifty first responders the book chronicles the rescue efforts and firefighting that saved countless lives that day.
