Like me, you may at first have felt inclined to dismiss Kurzweil's prophecy as the raving of a fantasist who had probably watched too many sci-fi movies.īut when we learn that this man is a former hotshot engineer at Google, festooned with technology awards - a hotshot, moreover, whose many past predictions have had a remarkable tendency to prove correct - we must concede that there's at least a chance he may know what he's talking about. Speaking on the YouTube channel Adagio, Ray Kurzweil says that advances in genetics, nanotechnology and robotics will create a world in which microscopic, age-reversing 'nanobots' will roam around inside our bodies, repairing damaged tissue, curing all deadly diseases and so enabling human beings to live for ever.
#On beyond zebra crack
Says Dr McCarthy: 'Our results confirm prior work suggesting that if there's a maximum limit to the human lifespan, we are not yet approaching it.'Įven more remarkably, an American computer expert and self-described 'futurist' predicts this week that scientists will crack the secret of human immortality within as little as seven years. The researchers go further, and say that men born in Britain in 1970 may well live past the age of 140! I'm thinking of the finding by Dr David McCarthy and his team that at least some Britons of our generation - Mrs U and I were both born in the 1950s - are likely to live beyond the age of 122, which until now has been the greatest recorded age attained by any member of our species. If we're to believe this week's news from the University of Georgia in the U.S., however, it could be a very long time indeed before any of our sons gets so much as a sniff of a legacy from either of us. But with my affairs now more or less in order, at least I'm better prepared for the end than I've been before. Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.I won't say I'm now ready to meet my maker, because I don't feel like that at all. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons-the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example.
#On beyond zebra series
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country. Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes.
The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends.
Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
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