Life Sculpted

"There is much to love between this book’s covers. . . . There are many eureka moments in Life Sculpted—and some truly beautiful ones."—Eugenia Bone, Wall Street Journal Meet the menagerie of lifeforms that dig, crunch, bore, and otherwise reshape our planet. Did you know elephants dig ballroom-sized caves alongside volcanoes? Or that parrotfish chew coral reefs and poop sandy beaches? Or that our planet once hosted a five-ton dinosaur-crunching alligator cousin? In fact, almost since its fascinating start, life was boring. Billions of years ago bacteria, algae, and fungi began breaking down rocks in oceans, a role they still perform today. About a half-billion years ago, animal ancestors began drilling, scraping, gnawing, or breaking rocky seascapes. In turn, their descendants crunched through the materials of life itself—shells, wood, and bones. Today, such “bioeroders” continue to shape our planet—from the bacteria that devour our teeth to the mighty moon snail, always hunting for food, as evidenced by tiny snail-made boreholes in clams and other moon snails. There is no better guide to these lifeforms than Anthony J. Martin, a popular science author, paleontologist, and co-discoverer of the first known burrowing dinosaur. Following the crumbs of lichens, sponges, worms, clams, snails, octopi, barnacles, sea urchins, termites, beetles, fishes, dinosaurs, crocodilians, birds, elephants, and (of course) humans, Life Sculpted reveals how bioerosion expanded with the tree of life, becoming an essential part of how ecosystems function while reshaping the face of our planet. With vast knowledge and no small amount of whimsy, Martin uses paleontology, biology, and geology to reveal the awesome power of life’s chewing force. He provokes us to think deeply about the past and present of bioerosion, while also considering how knowledge of this history might aid us in mitigating and adapting to climate change in the future. Yes, Martin concedes, sometimes life can be hard—but life also makes everything less hard every day.

Cob, a structural composite of earth, water, straw, clay, and sand, has been used for centuries, in virtually all parts of the world, to create homes ranging from mud huts in Africa to lavish adobe haciendas in Latin America. This practical and inspiring hands-on guide teaches anyone to build a cob dwelling.

Enchanting, exquisitely detailed and full of personality, Katherine Dewey's animal sculptures delight all who see them. With the friendly medium of polymer clay and the step-by-step instructions in this book, you can achieve the same magical results! Inside, Katherine leads you through then utterly charming projects, such as a sweet little bluebird, a basset hound and a white-tailed fawn. And that's just the start! The "Making Changes" chapter will help you create your own original animal creations by changing poses, making realistic bases, and even modeling your animals to look like bronze, fade and other materials.

A translation of the modern Nepalese classic Winner of the Toshihide Numata Book Award in Buddhism and the Khyentse Foundation Prize for Outstanding Translation This award-winning book contains the English translation of Sugata Saurabha (“The Sweet Fragrance of the Buddha”), an epic poem on the life and teachings of the Buddha. Chittadhar Hṛdaya, a master poet from Nepal, wrote this tour de force while imprisoned for subversion in the 1940s and smuggled it out over time on scraps of paper. His consummate skill and poetic artistry are evident throughout as he tells the Buddha’s story in dramatic terms, drawing on images from the natural world to heighten the description of emotionally charged events. It is peopled with very human characters who experience a wide range of emotions, from erotic love to anger, jealousy, heroism, compassion, and goodwill. By showing how the central events of the Buddha’s life are experienced by Siddhartha, as well as by his family members and various disciples, the poem communicates a fuller sense of the humanity of everyone involved and the depth and power of the Buddha’s loving-kindness. For this new edition of the English translation, the translators improved the beauty and flow of most every line. The translation is also supplemented with a series of short essays by Todd Lewis, one of the translators, that articulates how Hṛdaya incorporated his own Newar cultural traditions in order to connect his readership with the immediacy and relevancy of the Buddha’s life and at the same time express his views on political issues, ethical principles, literary life, gender discrimination, economic policy, and social reform.

Artists around the world have lately been turning to their bookshelves for more than just a good read, opting to cut, paint, carve, stitch or otherwise transform the printed page into whole new beautiful, thought-provoking works of art. Art Made from Books is the definitive guide to this compelling art form, showcasing groundbreaking work by today's most showstopping practitioners. From Su Blackwell's whimsical pop-up landscapes to the stacked-book sculptures of Kylie Stillman, each portfolio celebrates the incredible creative diversity of the medium. A preface by pioneering artist Brian Dettmer and an introduction by design critic Alyson Kuhn round out the collection.

Your journey along the road to self-discovery does not have to be so long and torturous Cut decades off the process of finding your life purpose by following the six steps outlined in Life On Purpose. Infuse purpose, passion and play into every aspect of your life. This is a truly excellent book on how to discover your life purpose. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to gain clarity with respect to their core reason for being here. Steve Pavlina, personal development expert & author of Personal Development for Smart People. Decades ago, Dr. Brad Swift appeared successful from the outside, but inside, he was burned out, wracked with emotional pain, and ready to end it all--because he was living at odds with his true life purpose. But then he turned his life around to follow his true life calling--and in the process, invented this six-step method to determining one's life purpose. He has since made a difference in the lives of thousands through this proven, systematic, and practical process. “Brad has created a simple and easy way to become crystal clear about your reason for being on this planet. Life On Purpose is your road atlas to live a more purposeful, passionate and playful life.” -Mark Victor Hansen, Co-creator, #1 New York Times best-selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul® In Life On Purpose you will find a step-by-step process for clarifying your life purpose and then designing your life to be a true and authentic reflection of that purpose. A Proven Process that Works! Prepare for the Journey Along the Purposeful Path: As with any challenging journey, it’s best to thoroughly prepare yourself for your travels along the Purposeful Path. This includes accurately determining where you are starting from and where you intend to end up, as well as knowing some of the obstacles that could possibly get in the way of completing the journey. Start on the Purposeful Path with the Life on Purpose Perspective: It’s important to begin your journey on the path that will get you where you want to go most expediently starting with rethinking the whole notion of what a life purpose is that has kept most people looking for their purpose is all the wrong places. Uncover What Has Been Shaping Your Life: Another key passage is clearly identifying the powerful force based in fear, lack, and a need to struggle to survive that has been shaping your life and keeping you from living on purpose. Many who have already traveled along the Purposeful Path feel that this passage is one of the most powerful, transforming parts of the process. Clarify and Polish Your True, Divinely Inspired Purpose: After cleaning the slate by identifying and beginning to be responsible for your Inherited Purpose, the real fun begins as you go through a process called Priming Your Passion to clarify your true, Divinely Inspired life purpose. The process can be not only life affirming, but also life transforming. Learn the 16 Tools for Living on Purpose: Now it’s time to begin to live true to your life purpose with the 16 Power Tools for Living on Purpose. You will use these tools to begin to design your Life on Purpose. Master the Tools for Living on Purpose: In Passage 6 you will learn how to master the art and science of creating a life that is shaped by your true, Divinely Inspired Life Purpose.

Heroic Egoism explains the great moral art, the sculpting of moral character, showing you how to sculpt your soul into the form of greatness. The purpose of this book is to provide an ethical training system for creating ideal human beings. This book will provide you with a step-bystep guide on how to practice a rational code of morality in your everyday life. When you exercise in the steps of moral training outlined in these pages consistently and sincerely they will produce in you true strength of character.

This volume has its origins in 'Depth of Field: Relief in the Time of Donatello', a unique collaboration between the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, and the first exhibition to focus specifically on relief sculpture.