Hacking darwin6/30/2023 ![]() His case, based on an extrapolation of current research, is firmly grounded on what is indeed possible within the next decade or so. Metzl writes with great clarity and a sense of urgency that we should all take to heart. The prospects border on what would, a few years back, be considered a mix of impossible and, to many, immoral. His focus, as the book title indicates, is the impact of genetic engineering in the very definition of what it means to be human. That being the case, how can we control where it is going? And who is the "we" in control? In Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity, the technology futurist, geopolitical expert, past White House fellow, and, like this author, dedicated endurance athlete Jamie Metzl paints a picture that is at once wondrous and terrifying. But do we know where it is going? Not exactly. ![]() Your purchase helps support NPR programming. ![]() ![]() Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Hacking Darwin Subtitle Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity Author Jamie Metzl ![]()
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Double Cross by Sam Giancana6/30/2023 ![]() The paperback "Primary Target: JFK" by Pamela J. I was drawn to this book because I have heard mention of Double Cross from other sources. Double Cross is an eye-opening account of the interworking of the government and the mob and how this relationship has impacted American history. Chuck Giancana, Sam's brother, contributes a unique perspective of the mob's relationship with the Bay of Pigs and many other pivotal events of the '60s and beyond. The book includes Giancana's testimony about the truth of his involvement in the deaths of Monroe and others. Written with suspense and conviction, we learn about how the CIA asked Giancana to assassinate Fidel Castro. But the Kennedy brothers double-crossed him, waging full-out war on organized crime throughout the United States. When politician Joe Kennedy gave Giancana the chance to use mob muscle to get his son John elected, Giancana jumped at the task. ![]() He partied with major stars such as Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe and did business with agents ranging from the CIA to the Vatican to the shah of Iran. ![]() ![]() He was known as one of the best vehicle escape artists, a tenacious business man, and a ruthless killer. One of the most feared Chicago mobsters, Sam Giancana, clawed his way to the top of the Mafia hierarchy by starting as a hit man for Al Capone. ![]() Tales of the batman marv wolfman6/30/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Batman assumes the villain has died, but a hand holding to a rock in the river indicates the opposite.ĭespite the growing rift between him and Batman due to his decision to drop out of college, Robin traces Ronald Watkins to Gregorian Falstaff's headquarters. In the first, killer Mike Caine dies in the second, Batman rescues Dane Whitney in the third, the Electrocutioner falls through a window, grips a metal railing, and shocks himself, so that he lets go and plunges off a cliff into the river below. On his quest to stop the executioner, Batman has three encounters with the Electrocutioner. ![]() A touch from one of his hands delivers a severe shock, but when both his hands touch a victim the circuit is completed and the victim dies. The Electrocutioner, a self-appointed executioner of criminals who slip through the hands of the law, begins a series of crook-killings in Gotham City with his electrically-charged suit. ![]() Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke6/30/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() He stood there motionless, arms crossed over his chest as if that might at least warm him a little. The rain was falling on him, but he ignored it. Only his face gleamed white as he looked up at Meggie. The rain cast a kind of pallor on the darkness, and the stranger was little more than a shadow. She blew out the match in alarm-oh, how well she remembered it, even many years later-and knelt to look out of the window, which was wet with rain. She had five candlesticks on the windowsill, and she was just holding the lighted match to one of the black wicks when she heard footsteps outside. “Fire devours books,” he always said, but she was twelve years old, she surely could be trusted to keep an eye on a couple of candle flames. Mo had forbidden her to light candles at night. ![]() She had a box of matches hidden in the drawer of her bedside table. Meggie thought this first whisper sounded a little different from one book to another, depending on whether or not she already knew the story it was going to tell her. Its pages rustled promisingly when she opened it. That night-when so much began and so many things changed forever-Meggie had one of her favorite books under her pillow, and since the rain wouldn’t let her sleep she sat up, rubbed the drowsiness from her eyes, and took it out. Meggie had never called her father anything else. ![]() “But it only works for children.” Which made Mo tweak her nose. “night.” “Sometimes, yes,” Meggie had said. ![]() Bestiary k ming chang summary6/30/2023 ![]() ![]() The Hidden Palace is a sweeping character-driven epic of a family forged in love, not blood ties, whose members fight and love and learn, falling apart and together organically. ![]() Once again, Wecker has crafted an immigrant chronicle for the ages that grapples with the dual problems of the diaspora: attempting to assimilate into a new culture while at the same time keeping close one’s native culture, all while trying to find a place in the world. Ahmad and Chava, the golem, now must weather the rapid changes at the turn of the twentieth century in New York City: the sinking of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, and the beginning of the Great War, as well as changes in their relationship to each other and their communities. The evil sorcerer who had imprisoned jinni Ahmad in a metal vial (spoilers!) was defeated at much personal cost in the first book. The Hidden Palacecomes out on June 8 and picks up shortly after the end of the first book (don’t worry – there are unobtrusive reminders in the text to get you up to speed with the preceding events). ![]() Fans of Helene Wecker’s award-winning historical fantasy novel, The Golem and the Jinni, rejoice – after eight years of waiting, we finally get a sequel! ![]() |