True, much of the material reshuffled here is already familiar from books on animal babies, individual animals, etc., and this is essentially a compilation of many examples of a few different methods of defending the young: hiding them (by establishing safe nurseries), emitting danger signals (pheromones, calls or cries, whatever), helping them escape (like some mammal mothers, the father stickleback fish will carry his young in his mouth), attacking (a last resort), etc. But Freedman enlivens the survey with particular, telling instances. an eight-year-old chimp died of grief after losing his mother, and other chimpanzees' adoption of younger, orphaned group members has been observed; and in Tanzania a mother rhinoceros was seen killing a lion to save her calf. And instead of mindlessly ticking off examples Freedman relates them to considerations of whys and wherefores. Pointing out that the mother bird's protective behavior is "instinctive and automatic," he notes that "a robin will instinctively spread her wings to shade an empty nest from the sun while chicks outside the nest are dying of heat and starvation"; and in the chapter on bluffs and tricks he asks "Is it possible for a bird to pretend?" and notes that the behavior once known as injury feigning or the broken wing ruse is now called distraction display to "emphasize the effect of the behavior rather than speculating on the intent of the bird." And he ends with the timely reminder that human destructiveness makes all such defense inadequate. Animal protection now "lies in our hands.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1978
ISBN: 0525323821
Page Count: 87
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1979
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A straightforward, carefully detailed presentation of how ``fruit comes from flowers,'' from winter's snow-covered buds through pollination and growth to ripening and harvest. Like the text, the illustrations are admirably clear and attractive, including the larger-than-life depiction of the parts of the flower at different stages. An excellent contribution to the solidly useful ``Let's-Read-and-Find-Out-Science'' series. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4-9)
Pub Date: Jan. 30, 1992
ISBN: 0-06-020055-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1991
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
