Big Game Everyday Objects

Big-Game is a design studio based in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 2004 by Augustin Scott de Martinville, Grégoire Jeanmonod and Elric Petit. Based on a series of interviews with the founders, this book looks at 15 years of the group's industrial design work on everyday objects, by way of anecdotes about the inception of their most successful work. Illustrated with 200 diagrams and photographs made for this publication (which is published on the occasion of a retrospective at Lausanne's Mudac Museum), the book examines projects including wine bottles designed for supermarkets, a set of cutlery for an airline, a collaboration with Japanese potters and a piece of Ikea furniture. The design critic Anniina Koivu provides the main text, alongside an introduction by curator Susanne Hilpert Stuber situating the studio in the context of the Swiss art world.

Creating and Promoting Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries describes specific ways that public librarians and other professionals can promote lifelong learning by planning and implementing Information Literacy Instruction (ILI). This book includes chapters on planning for instruction, using teaching methods, teaching with and about technology, and combining elements of ILI with more traditional public library programs, services, and activities. It is the sequel to Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries: Principles, Programs, and People.

A prominent popular science writer presents simple instructions for 100 illustrated experiments. Memorable, easily understood experiments illuminate principles related to astronomy, chemistry, physiology, psychology, mathematics, topology, probability, acoustics, other areas.

A science writer and a photographer explore the complicated inner workings of seeming simple everyday objects. What exactly is inside a laptop, a golf ball, a vacuum cleaner, or a novelty singing fish toy? The insides of these and dozens of other objects are revealed in this photographic exploration of the stuff all around us, exposed and explained. With the help of a high-pressure waterjet cutter able to slice through four inches of steel plate, designer and fabricator Mike Warren (creator of the popular Cut in Half YouTube channel) cuts into everything from boom boxes to boxing gloves, oil filters to seashells, describing and demystifying the inner workings and materials of each. With gorgeously detailed photography, Cut in Half is a fascinating and accessible popular science look at the extraordinary in the everyday. Praise for Cut in Half “If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like inside a hair dryer, or a baseball, or a Magic 8-ball, this book is for you. Mike Warren cuts things in half with a high-pressure waterjet cutter and then has an explanation of what you’re looking at inside. . . . One fun feature: the cover of the book itself is “cut in half” along the center.” —GeekDad “A book of mesmerizing photographs of objects that have been perfectly cut in half. . . . Accompanying each photograph are explanations from Warren, who has been doing this for years on his YouTube channel, that walk us through the amazing complexity of the many apparently simple objects.” —Fast Company “Let your device addict explore the fascinating inner workings of common household items with this book from gadget You Tuber Mike Warren.” —Real Simple

The Elements of a Home reveals the fascinating stories behind more than 60 everyday household objects and furnishings. Brimming with amusing anecdotes and absorbing trivia, this captivating collection is a treasure trove of curiosities. With tales from the kitchen, the bedroom, and every room in between, these pages expose how napkins got their start as lumps of dough in ancient Greece, why forks were once seen as immoral tools of the devil, and how Plato devised one of the earliest alarm clocks using rocks and water—plus so much more. • A charming book for anyone who loves history, design, or décor • Readers discover tales from every nook and cranny of a home. • Entries feature historical details from locations all over the world, including Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa. As a design historian and former managing editor of Design*Sponge, author Amy Azzarito has crafted an engaging, whimsical history of the household objects you've never thought twice about. The result is a fascinating book filled with tidbits from a wide range of cultures and places about the history of domestic luxury. • Filled with lovely illustrations by Alice Pattullo • Perfect for anyone who adores interior design, trivia, history, and unique facts • Great for those who enjoyed The Greatest Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy by Rick Beyer, An Uncommon History of Common Things by Bethanne Patrick and John Thompson, Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins

Do you know your riffle shuffle from your French drop? Can you make a bottle disappear or read someone's mind? Learn the greatest magic tricks around and astound your friends and family, all without buying fancy props or equipment. From coins to muffins, make magic with anything you can get your hands on. Including over 50 step-by-step magic tricks of varying levels of difficulty, this book is a great insight into the popular world of 'street magic' - where magicians specialise in up-close, informal tricks to bamboozle their audiences. A mix of graphics and up-close photography, and with clear, easy-to-read text and fascinating facts, this book is guaranteed to keep you entertained for hours.

Hilarious, entertaining, and illustrated histories behind some of life's most common and underappreciated objects - from the paperclip and the toothbrush to the sports bra and roller skates In the tradition of A Cartoon History of the Universe and, most recent, Randall Munroe's What If? comes Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, a graphic tour through the unusual creation of some of the mundane items that surround us in our daily lives. Chapters are peppered with ballpoint pen riots, cowboy wars, and really bad Victorian practical jokes. Structured around the different locations in our home and daily life—the kitchen, the bathroom, the office, and the grocery store—award-nominated illustrator Andy Warner traces the often surprising and sometimes complex histories behind the items we often take for granted. Readers learn how Velcro was created after a Swiss engineer took his dog for a walk; how a naval engineer invented the Slinky; a German housewife, the coffee filter; and a radical feminist and anti-capitalist, the game Monopoly. This is both a book of histories and a book about histories. It explores how lies become legends, trade routes spring up, and empires rise and fall—all from the perspective of your toothbrush or toilet.

Praised by Entertainment Weekly as “the man who put the fizz into physics,” Dr. Len Fisher turns his attention to the science of cooperation in his lively and thought-provoking book. Fisher shows how the modern science of game theory has helped biologists to understand the evolution of cooperation in nature, and investigates how we might apply those lessons to our own society. In a series of experiments that take him from the polite confines of an English dinner party to crowded supermarkets, congested Indian roads, and the wilds of outback Australia, not to mention baseball strategies and the intricacies of quantum mechanics, Fisher sheds light on the problem of global cooperation. The outcomes are sometimes hilarious, sometimes alarming, but always revealing. A witty romp through a serious science, Rock, Paper, Scissors will both teach and delight anyone interested in what it what it takes to get people to work together.