An authoritative, informative, and entertaining book that will change the thinking about what comes out of our bodies.
A remarkable study of how human feces could play a crucial role in a sustainable future.
Nelson, an award-winning science writer with a background in microbiology, believes that human excrement is a valuable resource, and he examines the subject from many different perspectives. The author displays an admirable willingness to investigate personally, and his travels include a reclamation plant in Kenya and a range of treatment facilities in the U.S. The idea of fertilizer derived from feces has been around for a long time, but new research has shown more effective methods for removing the pathogens and utilizing the treatment byproducts—e.g., heat and methane. The water in sewage can be extracted, purified, and returned to the environment. The Blue Plains plant that serves Washington, D.C., puts roughly 3,500 gallons of clean water into the Potomac River every second. Fecal matter, broken down by fly larvae, can also make fuel briquettes, and one ton of briquettes can replace more than 20 trees that would have been used for firewood. Nelson also investigates the medical uses of the bacteria in feces, citing numerous cases of people who have insufficient bacteria in their own gut who have had beneficial bacterial transplants. This is just scratching the surface of a field with a huge amount of potential. The biggest problem with treating feces as a resource is the yuck factor, which probably has roots in diseases like cholera. The attitude has been hard to shift, but with an increasing awareness of resource depletion, it might be changing. Nelson speculates that the future of feces reclamation should include household- or neighborhood-scale plants, and the chapter on new-generation composting toilets is particularly interesting. It all adds up to a fascinating book punctuated with humor and imbued with optimism about the future. “Sometimes,” writes the author, “hope arrives in surprising packages.”
An authoritative, informative, and entertaining book that will change the thinking about what comes out of our bodies.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5387-2002-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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BOOK TO SCREEN
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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