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Numbers Don't Lie
- 71 Things You Need to Know About the World
- Narrated by: Stephen Perring
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
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What makes the modern world work? The answer to this deceptively simple question lies in four "grand transitions" of civilization - in populations, agriculture, energy, and economics - that have transformed the way we live.
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The world is never finished catching up with Vaclav Smil. In his latest and perhaps most digestible book, Invention and Innovation, the prolific author—a favorite of Bill Gates—pens an insightful and fact-filled jaunt through the history of human invention. Impatient with the hype that so often accompanies innovation, Smil offers in this book a clear-eyed corrective to the overpromises that accompany everything from new cures for diseases to AI.
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Overall
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In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel-driven civilization and offers listeners a magisterial overview of humanity's energy eras.
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Not a good format for this book
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In this user-friendly and informative audiobook, prolific author and academic Vaclav Smil provides an introduction to this far-reaching term and gives the reader a greater understanding of energy's place in both past and present society. Starting with an explanation of the concept, he goes on to cover such exciting topics as the inner workings of the human body, and the race for more efficient and environmentally friendly fuels.
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- By See Reverse on 03-02-18
By: Vaclav Smil
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- By: J. Storrs Hall
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
The science fiction of the 1960s promised us a future remade by technological innovation: We’d vacation in geodesic domes on Mars, have meaningful conversations with computers, and drop our children off at school in flying cars. Fast-forward 60 years and we’re still stuck in traffic in gas-guzzling sedans and boarding the same types of planes we flew in over half a century ago. What happened to the future we were promised? In Where Is My Flying Car?, J. Storrs Hall sets out to answer this deceptively simple question.
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- By Daniel Fudge on 09-10-23
By: J. Storrs Hall
-
Growth
- From Microorganisms to Megacities
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 26 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations.
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PDF should come with this book...
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By: Vaclav Smil
Publisher's summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Is flying dangerous? How much do the world's cows weigh? And what makes people happy?
From earth's nations and inhabitants, through the fuels and foods that energise them, to the transportation and inventions of our modern world - and how all of this affects the planet itself - in Numbers Don't Lie, Professor Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge lazy thinking.
Packed with 'well-I-never-knew-that' information and with fascinating and unusual examples throughout, we find out how many people it took to build the Great Pyramid, that vaccination yields the best return on investment and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). There's a wonderful mix of science, history and wit, all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics.
Urgent and essential, Numbers Don't Lie inspires listeners to interrogate what they take to be true in these significant times. Smil is on a mission to make facts matter, because after all, numbers may not lie, but which truth do they convey?
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Critic reviews
"There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil." (Bill Gates)
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What listeners say about Numbers Don't Lie
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jorge
- 08-13-21
A collection of fun facts superficially researched
Surprised of the recommendation by Bill Gates about this book. Is a collection of interesting facts that seems to me like a book to read to make conversation in dinner parties. Nothing really special about it, returning it.
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- Telebiopic
- 10-29-20
Such an intense book is sadly not suited for audio listening!
This book is brilliant, do yourself a favour, go out and purchase a print or kindle edition as of yesterday and read it, annotate it and refer back it. It is a distillation of Dr Smil’s books and expertise. However as an audible product, the concept density per spoken line is very high and that you keep hitting rewind on audible, makes it frustrating. This book is not for casual reading, let alone listening on audible. Dr Smil is my absolute favourite thought leader. I love this book and ended up rereading, the kindle version this time.
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3 people found this helpful
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- HagayV
- 07-19-21
Bite size chapters with fascinating information
Smil links supposedly unrelated statistical information into an interesting narative. Each chapter is short, with just enough information on a specific subject to trigger your toughts and fill your understanding.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ales Marek
- 11-22-21
Great book, but recorded too quietly
Great book, but recorded too quietly, so it is hard to hear it when running outdooor near the road.
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- Dzevdet Dautbegovic
- 08-22-21
Great book
Great book, puts sometimes empty numbers that we are bombarded by into real life perspective.
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- Jasson
- 05-17-21
Interesting read, but poor audio quality
The book and the narrator were decent, but the audio quality was not very good. I had set the volume to 100% to hear it properly.
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- Markus
- 10-25-21
Must read for Greta Thunberg
This book, as we are used to Vaclav Smil, points out the reality of the world and the environmental protections and what is possible and what plausible. Absolutely eye opening and refreshingly objective. Yes, numbers do not lie and the reader is well advised to understand orders of magnitudes and ISO units.
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- Seven
- 10-13-22
Volume low
The volume and voiice was to low and deep, hard to hear.. Ok ok ok
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- Anonymous User
- 07-22-21
Awesome insight
Beautiful analysis of the facts that currently exist around us... As we are so easily duped into thinking we "know" everything and that everything is just magically going in the right direction... Vaclav finds a modern way to open your eyes to many misunderstandings that we currently have about our current world, especially the fact that we, as humans, don't entirely know what we're doing, but through constant efforts at obtaining deeper understanding, we do get somewhere eventually, and through this constant process we continually progress.
Important insight from a human that has vast amounts of knowledge.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-06-22
Easy listen, but all topics are only covered superficially.
Easy listen, but all topics are only covered superficially, which I guess is to be expected. However it leaves room for nuance, which is lost as consequence.
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