Floating Gold

Author : Christopher Kemp
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226821056
Total Pages : 211 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Floating Gold written by Christopher Kemp and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-05-12 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating natural history of an incredibly curious substance. “Preternaturally hardened whale dung” is not the first image that comes to mind when we think of perfume, otherwise a symbol of glamour and allure. But the key ingredient that makes the sophisticated scent linger on the skin is precisely this bizarre digestive by-product—ambergris. Despite being one of the world’s most expensive substances (its value is nearly that of gold and has at times in history been triple it), ambergris is also one of the world’s least known. But with this unusual and highly alluring book, Christopher Kemp promises to change that by uncovering the unique history of ambergris. A rare secretion produced only by sperm whales, which have a fondness for squid but an inability to digest their beaks, ambergris is expelled at sea and floats on ocean currents for years, slowly transforming, before it sometimes washes ashore looking like a nondescript waxy pebble. It can appear almost anywhere but is found so rarely, it might as well appear nowhere. Kemp’s journey begins with an encounter on a New Zealand beach with a giant lump of faux ambergris—determined after much excitement to nothing more exotic than lard—that inspires a comprehensive quest to seek out ambergris and its story. He takes us from the wild, rocky New Zealand coastline to Stewart Island, a remote, windswept island in the southern seas, to Boston and Cape Cod, and back again. Along the way, he tracks down the secretive collectors and traders who populate the clandestine modern-day ambergris trade. Floating Gold is an entertaining and lively history that covers not only these precious gray lumps and those who covet them, but presents a highly informative account of the natural history of whales, squid, ocean ecology, and even a history of the perfume industry. Kemp’s obsessive curiosity is infectious, and eager readers will feel as though they have stumbled upon a precious bounty of this intriguing substance.

Author : Christopher Kemp
Publisher : HarperCollins Australia
ISBN 13 : 0730497267
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Floating Gold written by Christopher Kemp and published by HarperCollins Australia. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating modern hunt for a treasure from a most surprising source -- a whale's stomach. Journalist and biologist Christopher Kemp discovers, after reading an odd news report, a hidden world of money, intrigue and amazing wealth. A lump of something turns up on a beach in NZ, the lump so strange it may well have come from out of space. But it's not a dead alien, it's ambergris. Ambergris is a by-product of sperm whales, used for centuries as a perfume, medicine and aphrodisiac. It appears on beaches all over the world and depending on what state it's in, can be mistaken for all manner of things. For those in the know, it's an amazing source of wealth - ambergris trades for US$20 a gram, which is nearly as much as gold but it's harder to find and it cannot be mined. Christopher Kemp travels from the shores of NZ, to the Smithsonian and New Nedford Whaling museum; he meets amateurs, professional hunters, scientists, elusive vendors who traffic ambergris, people who won't confess to have found any, and strangers denying what they are looking for. As he discovers more about ambergris' origins, its uses present day and historic, the outrageous lengths people have gone to find it and the intriguing efforts people go to in order to keep what they know about ambergris a secret, the more his infectious obsession grows.

Author : Johanna Basford
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143136062
Total Pages : 82 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Worlds of Wonder written by Johanna Basford and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the creator of the worldwide bestsellers World of Flowers and Lost Ocean, a beautiful new coloring book that takes you on a captivating journey through imagined and fantastical realms. This isn't just a book; rather, it is a magical portal to many wondrous worlds. Within these pages you'll find tree-top castles, floating islands, and fairytale villages, all waiting to be brought to life in your colors. Go on an adventure and let your imagination roam from world to world, discovering enchanted sea turtles, curious cats, and lost song birds along the way. In this new coloring book, Johanna Basford lends her signature style of inky illustration to a series of brand new inkscapes and themes, all with a sprinkling of her much-loved botanicals. Get ready to discover whole new worlds of colors!

Author : Bathsheba Demuth
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393635171
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait written by Bathsheba Demuth and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking exploration of the relationship between capitalism, communism, and Arctic ecology since the dawn of the industrial age. Whales and walruses, caribou and fox, gold and oil: through the stories of these animals and resources, Bathsheba Demuth reveals how people have turned ecological wealth in a remote region into economic growth and state power for more than 150 years. The first-ever comprehensive history of Beringia, the Arctic land and waters stretching from Russia to Canada, Floating Coast breaks away from familiar narratives to provide a fresh and fascinating perspective on an overlooked landscape. The unforgiving territory along the Bering Strait had long been home to humans—the Inupiat and Yupik in Alaska, and the Yupik and Chukchi in Russia—before Americans and Europeans arrived with revolutionary ideas for progress. Rapidly, these frigid lands and waters became the site of an ongoing experiment: How, under conditions of extreme scarcity, would the great modern ideologies of capitalism and communism control and manage the resources they craved? Drawing on her own experience living with and interviewing indigenous people in the region, as well as from archival sources, Demuth shows how the social, the political, and the environmental clashed in this liminal space. Through the lens of the natural world, she views human life and economics as fundamentally about cycles of energy, bringing a fresh and visionary spin to the writing of human history. Floating Coast is a profoundly resonant tale of the dynamic changes and unforeseen consequences that immense human needs and ambitions have brought, and will continue to bring, to a finite planet.

Author : Michelle Lovric
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 140884284X
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Floating Book written by Michelle Lovric and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-06-03 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Venice, 1468. Sosia Simeon, a free-spirited sensualist, is the lover of many men in the fabled city, though married to one she despises. On the edge of the Grand Canal, Wendelin von Speyer sets up the first printing press in Venice and looks for the book that will make his fortune. When he tempts fate by publishing Catullus, the poet whose desperate and unrequited love inspired the most tender and erotic poems of antiquity, a scandal is set in motion that will change all their lives forever.

Author : Robin Troy
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0671024493
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Floating written by Robin Troy and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1998-10 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A woman whose husband is in jail has an affair with his brother, but the two discover too many differences and part. The novel, a debut in fiction, is based on the winning manuscript in a contest of some five hundred entries.

Author : Margaret Muir
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781447670209
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Floating Gold written by Margaret Muir and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Richard J. Heggen
Publisher : Richard Heggen
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 1227 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book Floating Islands written by Richard J. Heggen and published by Richard Heggen. This book was released on 2021-01-01 with total page 1227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Floating Islands in science, history, the arts and any number of sightings elsewhere

Author : Ronald Malfi
Publisher : Medallion Media Group
ISBN 13 : 1605424609
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Floating Staircase written by Ronald Malfi and published by Medallion Media Group. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the success of his latest novel, Travis Glasgow and his wife Jodie buy their first house in the seemingly idyllic western Maryland town of Westlake. At first, everything is picture perfect—from the beautiful lake behind the house to the rebirth of the friendship between Travis and his brother, Adam, who lives nearby. Travis also begins to overcome the darkness of his childhood and the guilt he’s harbored since his younger brother’s death—a tragic drowning veiled in mystery that has plagued Travis since he was 13. Soon, though, the new house begins to lose its allure. Strange noises wake Travis at night, and his dreams are plagued by ghosts. Barely glimpsed shapes flit through the darkened hallways, but strangest of all is the bizarre set of wooden stairs that rises cryptically out of the lake behind the house. Travis becomes drawn to the structure, but the more he investigates, the more he uncovers the house’s violent and tragic past, and the more he learns that some secrets cannot be buried forever.

Author : Rachel Neumeier
Publisher : Bluefire
ISBN 13 : 0440240603
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Floating Islands written by Rachel Neumeier and published by Bluefire. This book was released on 2012 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The adventures of two teenaged cousins who live in a place called the Floating Islands, one of whom is studying to become a mage and the other one of the legendary island flyers.