Why Time Flies

“[Why Time Flies] captures us. Because it opens up a well of fascinating queries and gives us a glimpse of what has become an ever more deepening mystery for humans: the nature of time.” —The New York Times Book Review “Erudite and informative, a joy with many small treasures.” —Science “Time” is the most commonly used noun in the English language; it’s always on our minds and it advances through every living moment. But what is time, exactly? Do children experience it the same way adults do? Why does it seem to slow down when we’re bored and speed by as we get older? How and why does time fly? In this witty and meditative exploration, award-winning author and New Yorker staff writer Alan Burdick takes readers on a personal quest to understand how time gets in us and why we perceive it the way we do. In the company of scientists, he visits the most accurate clock in the world (which exists only on paper); discovers that “now” actually happened a split-second ago; finds a twenty-fifth hour in the day; lives in the Arctic to lose all sense of time; and, for one fleeting moment in a neuroscientist’s lab, even makes time go backward. Why Time Flies is an instant classic, a vivid and intimate examination of the clocks that tick inside us all.

Time Flies , a wordless picture book, is inspired by the theory that birds are the modern relatives of dinosaurs. This story conveys the tale of a bird trapped in a dinosaur exhibit at a natural history museum. Through Eric's use of color, readers can actually see the bird enter into a mouth of a dinosaur, and then escape unscathed. Eric Rohmann's Caldecott Honor-winning debut is now available as a Dragonfly paperback. It is at once a wordless time-travel adventure and a meditation on the scientific theory that dinosaurs were the evolutionary ancestors of birds. The New York Times Book Review called Time Flies "a work of informed imagination and masterly storytelling unobtrusively underpinned by good science...an entirely absorbing narrative made all the more rich by its wordlessness." Kirkus Reviews hailed it as "a splendid debut."

The author's observations on aging and the way we view the world at different stages of life.

Time and beauty are two of our most visceral perceptions. Yet, their nature is seldom questioned. In this ground-breaking new work, Adrian Bejan — a true 'original' among physicists — explains, in a scholarly yet colorful style, the scientific basis for the perception of time and beauty.Organized into three main ideas, the book begins first with the perception of time. The author expounds on why we feel that time flies faster as we get older. Perceived time, also called 'mind time,' is different from clock time. In this context, time is another word for 'perceived change'. Next, readers will discover that beauty is appealing because beautifully-shaped images are scanned faster by two eyes. To observe our immediate surroundings and to understand them faster is highly advantageous to survival; hence, there is an underlying evolutionary advantage to our discernment for ideal ratios, shapes, and beauty at large. Finally, time and beauty are jointly understood to explain why the global pandemic had decelerated our mind time. This understanding arms us with techniques to slow down our mind time (which accelerates with age), and to create the conditions for living longer and more creatively.Scientists may have contemplated aspects of time and beauty separately. In contrast, the author submits an original and rewarding approach to understanding them together. In the process, key questions to our cognition are answered. Why does the mind 'try' to make sense of a new mental image? Why is there a natural tendency to organize a new input and mentally position it among past perceptions? Through physics, the book offers a general answer: to empower the individual with speed and clarity of thought, understanding, decision-making and movement. The same answer holds for the other disparate perceptions illustrated in this book, from time and beauty to ideas, message, shape, perspective, art, science, illusions, and dreams.

Having reluctantly moved to New England only to see her marriage end in infidelity, successful metal sculptor Melanie is compelled to attend her high-school reunion and fantasizes about reconnecting with an old flame.

“That was the beginning of the slow end for my mother. As the disease worsened, she forgot everything. She lost control of her body functions.” “I am afraid she is no more.” The doctor’s words still echo in my ears. “There was a standing ovation from the audience when I received the ultimate Champion of Champions Trophy from the MD and CEO of the Bank.” “Further, they also blamed that the lack of interim funding has forced JET to shut operations. This is a typical ‘heads–I-win-and-tails–you-lose’ criticism on the bankers.” “The new dictum of the enforcement agencies seems to replace the cardinal principle of the Criminal Law ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ with ‘Guilty unless proven innocent’. This book, divided into four parts, contains short stories based on emotion, humour, success and the latest issues affecting bankers. The stories reflect the challenges faced, the hilarious situations enjoyed and the success achieved by the author in his personal as well as professional front, in his career spanning nearly 40 years. The stories extend from 1978, from the date of his joining the bank, till his retirement in 2018. The episodes represent the memorable experiences of the author at various locations in the country like Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Bhopal and other rural places that the author served Syndicate Bank in, in various capacities. Overall, the book is a walk down a memory lane of over 40 years and a kaleidoscope of memoirs of the author.

Time Flies is an idiosyncratic memoir with a distinctive voice and a sense of the absurd: a wistful, reflective, sometimes comic view of a childhood in a remote mining village in Southern Spain, the dislocating shock of a Scottish boarding school education, and a remarkable introduction to working life in London at Time Out then at Virgin, both at the peak of their maverick self-confidence. A tireless spokesman for the company, and an improbable mouthpiece for the Sex Pistols at the time of their greatest fame and vilification, he later went on to produce numerous notable films, several classics among them. 'A significant Australian filmmaker, Al Clark is also a superb writer and humorist, as this first volume of memoirs attests. A joyful experience.' — Phillip Adams 'An extraordinary life, observed with humour and fascinating tales of celebrities in the music and movie worlds.' — Bruce Beresford