The Power Of Babble

There can be few subjects of such widespread interest and fascination to anyone who reads as the strange ways of languages. In this wonderfully entertaining and fascinating book, John McWhorter introduces us to 'the natural history of language': from Russonorsk, a creole of Russian and Norwegian once spoken by trading fur trappers to an Australian Aboriginal language which only has three verbs. Witty, brilliant and authoritative, this book is a must for anyone who is interested in language, as sheerly enjoyable as non-fiction gets.

Just in time for the height of the 1992 presidential campaign, an essential dictionary for anyone seeking to understand the political doubletalk. Includes examples taken from actual speeches of politicians from Abe Lincoln to George Bush. Solomon co-authored Unreliable Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in News Media.

The CBC is a national obsession. Everyone has an opinion on it. It's too left-wing; it's too right-wing. It's too commercial; it's too boring. The CBC mirrors, reflects and magnifies all the tensions within Canada. The debate about its direction and focus is the debate about what matters to the country. In 2004, CBC television had sunk to its lowest audience share in its history and Radio 2's audiences were on life support. That same year, Richard Stursberg, an avowed popularizer with a reputation for radical action, was hired to run English services. With incisive wit and a flare for anecdote, Stursberg tells the story of the struggle that resulted, a struggle that lasted for six turbulent and controversial years. It's the fascinating story of the attempt to transform the CBC into a broadly popular, audience-focused organization. It is a story about shows, stars, flops, hits, arguments, deals, successes and failures. It is a story that was fought in labour disputes, the press, the board and the government. Shortly after Stursberg arrived, the corporation locked out the employees for two months. He was characterized as a thug and a spineless rat. Four years later, he signed the most harmonious labour contract in the history of the company. He lost the television rights for the 2010-12 Olympic Games, the Canadian Football League, curling and the Hockey Night in Canada song. He won the biggest NHL contract in history, secured the World Cup of Football and produced the biggest sports audiences in decades. He had unprecedented ratings successes - Little Mosque on the Prairie, Dragon's Den and Battle of the Blades. He had terrible flops. He rebuilt the news -- making Peter Mansbridge stand up -- and was roundly criticized for "Americanizing it." He cut 400 jobs and enjoyed the highest levels of trust and support from CBC staff. He antagonized Canada's cultural elites, the media and politicians. He enjoyed the best ratings for radio, television and online in CBC's history. He fought endless wars with the President and the Board about the direction of the Corporation and ultimately was dismissed. This is the story of what was done, why it was done, and why it mattered. It is a story about our most loved and reviled cultural institution during its most convulsive and far-reaching period of change. It is for those who think the CBC has lost its way, those who love where it is, and those who think it should not exist in the first place. It is for those who want argue about the Corporation's place in Canadian society, and for those who simply want to know the gossip about its greatest shows and greatest stars. It is for those who want to know what Don Cherry, Peter Mansbridge, Wendy Mesley and Rick Mercer are really like, as well as those who want to know how to negotiate a deal with Gary Bettman, develop a hit television show or face down enraged classical music enthusiasts and curling fans. It is the story of the best mirror we have to show us who we are.

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of The Poppy War “Absolutely phenomenal. One of the most brilliant, razor-sharp books I've had the pleasure of reading that isn't just an alternative fantastical history, but an interrogative one; one that grabs colonial history and the Industrial Revolution, turns it over, and shakes it out.” -- Shannon Chakraborty, bestselling author of The City of Brass From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire. Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization. For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide… Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

In 2008, as the price of oil surged above $140 a barrel, experts said it would soon hit $200; a few months later it plunged to $30. In 1967, they said the USSR would have one of the fastest-growing economies in the year 2000; in 2000, the USSR did not exist. In 1911, it was pronounced that there would be no more wars in Europe; we all know how that turned out. Face it, experts are about as accurate as dart-throwing monkeys. And yet every day we ask them to predict the future — everything from the weather to the likelihood of a catastrophic terrorist attack. Future Babble is the first book to examine this phenomenon, showing why our brains yearn for certainty about the future, why we are attracted to those who predict it confidently, and why it’s so easy for us to ignore the trail of outrageously wrong forecasts. In this fast-paced, example-packed, sometimes darkly hilarious book, journalist Dan Gardner shows how seminal research by UC Berkeley professor Philip Tetlock proved that pundits who are more famous are less accurate — and the average expert is no more accurate than a flipped coin. Gardner also draws on current research in cognitive psychology, political science, and behavioral economics to discover something quite reassuring: The future is always uncertain, but the end is not always near.

A United Nations insider exposes the ugly truth about the UN—including how UN organizations have been funding terrorist groups! In the New York Times bestseller Tower of Babble, former United Nations ambassador Dore Gold blows the lid off the UN’s shocking failures to keep international peace, its corruption, its rampant anti-Americanism, and its emboldening of terrorist organizations. Citing previously unpublished documents, a brand-new chapter exclusive to this paperback edition provides the untold story of the infamous oil-for-food scandal—including the real scandal, that the UN let oil-for-food money go to fund terrorist organizations.

Two nationally renowned congressional scholars review the evolution of Congress from the early days of the republic to 2006, arguing that extreme partisanship and a disregard for institutional procedures are responsible for the institution's current state

This innovative collection of essays shows how linguistic diversity has inspired people across time and cultures to embark on adventurous journeys through the translation of texts. It tells the story of how ideas have travelled via the medium of translation into different languages and cultures, focusing on illustrated examples ranging from Greek papyri through illuminated manuscripts and fine early books to fantasy languages (such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish), the search for a universal language and the challenges of translation in multicultural Britain.Starting with the concept of Babel itself, which illustrates the early cultural prominence of multilingualism, and with an illustration of a Mediterranean language of four millennia ago (Linear A) which still resists deciphering, it goes on to examine how languages have interacted with each other in different contexts.The book also explores the multilingual transmission of key texts in religion, science (the history of Euclid), animal fable (from Aesop in Greek to Beatrix Potter via La Fontaine, with some fascinating Southeast Asian books), fairy-tale, fantasy and translations of the great Greek epics of Homer.It is lavishly illustrated with a diverse range of material, from papyrus fragments found at Oxyrhynchus to Esperanto handbooks to Asterix cartoons, each offering its own particular adventure into translation.