Showing results by narrator "Jonathan Todd Ross" in All Categories

When you think of evolution, the picture that most likely comes to mind is a straight-forward progression, the iconic illustration of a primate morphing into a proud, upright human being. But in reality, random events have played huge roles in determining the evolutionary histories of everything from lions to lobsters to humans. However, random genetic novelties are most likely to become fixed in small populations. It is mathematically unlikely that this will happen in large ones.

One day in the spring of 2013, a box appeared outside a fourth-floor apartment door in Brooklyn. The recipient, who didn't know the sender, only knew she was supposed to bring this box to a friend, who would ferry it to another friend. Thus the biggest national security leak of the digital era was launched via the US Postal Service. This is just one of the odd, ironic details that emerges from the story of how Jessica Bruder and Dale Maharidge, two experienced journalists but security novices got drawn into the Edward Snowden story as behind-the-scenes players.

Gloria Garrison nee Goldberg isn't getting any younger. At 79, it's time for her to plan for the future of Glory, Inc., the Santa Fe-based beauty makeover business that Gloria has grown from zilch into an 11-million-a-year bonanza. But now Gloria has alienated her former business partner and chosen successor. Who will take over Glory? Gloria's never been big on family and wrote them all out of her will, but suddenly she must contemplate her three grandkids as possible candidates.

Status was once easy to identify—fast cars, fancy shoes, sprawling estates, elite brands. But in place of Louboutin’s and Lamborghinis, the relevance of the rich, famous, and gauche is waning and a riveting revolution is underfoot. Chuck Thompson—dubbed “savagely funny” by The New York Times and “wickedly entertaining” by the San Francisco Chronicle—sets out to determine what “status” means today and learns that what was once considered the low life has become the high life.

Despite George's best efforts to rid himself of the curse of the burps, those magical and pesky belches are still following him everywhere he goes - even on his class trip to the science museum. If circulating through a human heart or sliding down the nostril of a giant nose sound wild, just wait until the burps attack! The sixth book in the George Brown, Class Clown series promises young readers, boys and girls alike, a whole lot of laughs.

Humanity's only colony in the distant Archimedes system is in turmoil... Contact with Earth has been lost for generations and mysterious waves of disappearing colonists have been shaking the five moons for decades. When suddenly a wormhole appears in the middle of the system, the Union Navy faces an ancient danger from the darkness of deep space. A merciless war erupts, and Jeremy Brandt, Captain of the UNS Concordia, is sent through the wormhole to confront the mysterious enemy.

When the Lady is mad at Jack, she decides to send him and Rex on a one-way trip to outer space. While she enjoys some rare peace and quiet, Jack and Rex get into trouble, resulting in their exile to the dark side of the moon. After an alien chase and some snacks, Jack and Rex get blasted home to Earth. But will the Lady take naughty Jack back?

This is the first book to examine how and why the United States refused to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide until the early 2020s. Although the American government expressed sympathy towards the plight of the Armenians in the 1910s and 1920s, historian Julien Zarifian explores how, from the 1960s, a set of geopolitical and institutional factors soon led the United States to adopt a policy of genocide nonrecognition which it would cling to for over fifty years, through Republican and Democratic administrations alike.

Plagues, pandemics, and infectious diseases have shaped the history of the Jewish people. Of course, there were the ten biblical plagues that famously smote the Egyptians—from the rain of frogs to the deaths of the firstborn—but that is just the start of the story. In The Eleventh Plague, Brown investigates the relation between Judaism and infectious diseases throughout the ages, from premodern and early-modern plagues, to rabbinic responses to smallpox and cholera, and to the curious practice of "Black Weddings" in which two orphans are married in a cemetery.

The Golly Toy and Game Company is hosting the regional rounds for the next Gollywhopper Games, and this time it's brother against brother in the physical challenges and mental puzzles. The companion to the popular The Gollywhopper Games will appeal to fans of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Chasing Vermeer. Chock-full of puzzles, riddles, and challenges for the listener to solve along with the main characters, this fast-paced companion to The Gollywhopper Games is bigger, bolder, and braver!

Solus celebrates the Opening of the Mundus, a two-day holiday for the dead, but the city of the Soleri is hardly in need of diversion. A legion of traitors, led by a former captain of the Soleri military, rallies at the capital's ancient walls. And inside those fortifications, trapped by circumstance, a second army fights for its very existence. In a world inspired by ancient Egyptian history and King Lear, this follow-up to Michael Johnston's Soleri finds Solus besieged from within as well as without, and the Hark-Wadi family is stuck at the heart of the conflict.

ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response (a deeply relaxing sensation with delightful head tingles) feels so good that some refer to it as a “brain-gasm.” ASMR videos on YouTube have millions of subscribers and billions of views. ASMR is truly everywhere - from ad campaigns to celebrities to millions of regular people looking for a moment of “ahhhh.” With Brain Tingles, it’s now possible to stimulate - and even share - those feel-good tingles every day, and in real life! Craig Richard, PhD, explains what ASMR is, why it happens, and how to trigger it at home.

Technology is our new life partner. No longer confined to the sidelines, new interactive technologies like AI therapists, avatar friends, and robot assistants are ready to transform technology's role from basic tools of convenience to intimate elements of our social and emotional lives.

The expertise of Mayo Clinic available to you in this guide to integrative therapies can help you achieve personal wellness. Discover how techniques and therapies once seen as alternative are being used alongside conventional medicine and how you can integrate them into your life, too, whether you’re seeking to manage a chronic condition or boost your overall well-being.

The creator of the viral parenting concept the “X-Plan” illuminates the importance of awakening your child’s unique strength - while also taking an introspective look at your own life story to become a better parent.

How did species wind up where they are today? Scientists have long conjectured that plants and animals dispersed throughout the world by drifting on large landmasses as they broke up, but in The Monkey’s Voyage, biologist Alan de Queiroz offers a radical new theory that displaces this passive view.

Much of the health advice we receive tells us that in order to be healthy, we must consume a Spartan diet, exercise with the intensity of an Olympic athlete, and take a drug for every ailment. We constantly worry about the foods we should or shouldn't be eating and the medical tests we have neglected to take. And all that worry costs us dearly - financially, emotionally, and physically. In The Good Vices, naturopathic physician Dr. Harry Ofgang and health journalist Erik Ofgang tear down decades of myth to reveal how some of our guilty pleasures are actually good for our health.

We' ve always been told "winners never quit", but TV personality and motivational speaker Josh Shipp knows it isn't true. Smart people quit the right things at the right time. But how do you know if you' re in the wrong career? What is the right thing for you? And when' s the best time to jump ship? Jump Ship is a step-by-step guide through one of life' s most difficult - and most important - transitions. Leaving behind an unsatisfying job and embarking upon a new career can open up a world of fulfillment, but it isn' t easy.

When George Brown spends the day at a water park, he ends up making a huge splash, just not the kind he intended. That's because trouble follows him like a shadow. It's not his fault. Really! Poor George is at the mercy of magic burps - burps that make him do wild and crazy things.

Head lice have invaded Edith B. Sugarman Elementary School, and George wants nothing more than to remain scotch-free from the vermin. Well, that and he wants his dad's booth at Career Day to be infinitely more popular than his enemy Louis Farley's dad's booth. He even bet his skull ring for Louis' wheelie sneakers to prove his dad's job is cooler. But when it comes to the day of the event, George isn't so confident he will win the bet or stay lice free!