You may not realize it, but many of today's most popular dog breeds were actually bred hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago to be expert hunters. Their size, coat, color, behavior, and unique abilities were all carefully selected and engineered to assist in the hunting of game big and small, including deer, foxes, waterfowl, and even rats. Some were also bred to assist on the farm, working as shepherds. Though more often found walking on leash and lounging in living rooms today, these ...

Born in Huntsville, Alabama, no one expected that Jimmy Wales would go on to create one of the most successful and widely-used Web sites in history: Wikipedia. Wikipedia is the product of a lot of hard work. It had its ups and downs and its failures and successes before becoming the Internet phenomenon it is today. This book details the journey, from the early life of Jimmy Wales through the height of Wikipedia's success.

Readers may be familiar with the astounding innovations and ideas developed by the Ancient Greeks. They may not know, however, how truly repulsive some of the practices of the Ancient Greeks were. Be prepared for stomach-churning descriptions of the plumbing and hygiene of Ancient Greece, not to mention culinary delights like goat lung and brain omelets. Medical practices that would not be approved by the FDA today, such as bloodletting and vivisection, are also detailed. This totally disg...

Isaac Newton was a revolutionary thinker who changed how we look at everything from gravity and optics to astronomy. He even invented a whole new type of math: calculus! This book follows Newton’s journey of discovery from his childhood on an English farm through his years learning and teaching at Oxford and working with the Royal Society. It provides in-depth biographical and science information and puts Newton’s immense discoveries in historical context. Enthralling and accessible text a...

Transgender people deal with a range of health issues. Some are specific to the community, others affect it disproportionately, and others impact transgender and cisgender people alike. Readers will learn about mental and emotional health, gender dysphoria, hormone replacement therapy (including puberty-blocking hormones), gender affirmation surgery, and more. They’ll be reminded that, while surgery and hormone treatments can be life saving, they are neither right for every transgender per...

With the rise of the Internet and the explosion of Web-based entertainment, digital piracy has become a startlingly common crime and a huge problem that robs companies, artists, and other content creators of their creative and financial due. The fundamentally unfair nature of the crime and the harsh consequences of this illegal behavior need to be brought home to teens in a very visceral, high-impact way. By framing the discussion as property theft pure and simple and putting a human face ...

Nelson Mandela is a courageous figure who fought against the unjust regime of apartheid in his homeland of South Africa. Despite being imprisoned for his beliefs for twenty-seven years, Mandela worked tirelessly as an activist, philanthropist, and eventually as president of South Africa. Through accessible text and historic photographs, this book chronicles Mandela's incredible life and work while providing important background information on apartheid, the African National Congress, and n...

There are many viable, secure, and rewarding careers available to those with little or no postsecondary education. Sanitation is one of those industries, and readers will be introduced to it in full here. Revealing the wide range of activities within the industry--going well beyond garbage pick-up and hauling to recycling, snow removal, storm cleanup, and even disaster relief efforts--readers will gain a new respect for and greater understanding of sanitation work. Essential information re...

Whether you're in business or just enjoying some free time on social media, creating an identity on the Web is more important than ever. Readers will learn how companies of all shapes and sizes use the Internet to form an image and increase sales. This instructive volume also provides examples of how one's personal brand online is more important than one might think. Myths and facts dispel some common misconceptions about online branding, and 10 Great Questions to Ask a Social Media Specia...

The world’s oceans have been slowly rising for many years because of factors related to global warming, this poses future threats of sea water surging into coastal cities, leading to devastating flooding and catastrophic water damage. Currently, there are 643 million people around the world living in low-lying coastal areas at risk from climate change-related flooding. Readers are provided with outlines of current research to adapt to these new challenges, including new flood-control infra...

Futures trading has a three-fold purpose—to enrich traders, to guarantee farmers and producers a sale of their goods and manufacturers, and to provide suppliers with a guaranteed supply of the commodities they need to make their finished products. Both a highly pragmatic, workmanlike tool to arrange the flow of goods from producer to market and a complex, high-flying, high-stakes, big money gamble, futures trading is a fascinating world we rarely see the inside of. This book draws readers ...

In the 18th century the explorer and mariner James Cook made his way to the American colonies to fight for the British in the French and Indian War. In the New World he would earn fame as a courageous sea captain, talented mapmaker, astronomer of Venus, and seeker of the Northwest Passage. This fascinating account details his voyage around Antarctica and his accomplishment as the first accurate mapmaker of the Pacific Ocean. This guide will introduce readers to the legacy of one of the mos...