Just to recap, we are posting trivia questions drawn from the book Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience by veteran birder and former chief executive of Cambridge University Press Jeremy Mynott. We hope you will post your guesses and explanations below in the comments section. The official answer will follow by a day, so check back again soon!
Birdscapes Trivia, Question #2 -
What have Saddam Hussein, Hitler, Napoleon, Mexico, Albania and the Royal Air Force got in common?
Amar Bhidé, of Columbia University and author of The Venturesome Economy, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in a global economy. Listen in here.
by Jessica Pellien | Filed in: Economics | 12:29pm EST
“The trouble with living on two dollars a day is that you don’t actually get two dollars a day. One day you might get five, then nothing for the next three days. Income is unpredictable. Outgoings, too, are irregular. Emergencies crop up. Under the circumstances, the most basic financial product, such as an easy-access savings account, would be invaluable.
“We know about this thanks to a new study by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, detailed in their forthcoming book, Portfolios of the Poor.”
This from Tim Harford over at the FT. Read the rest of his column here.
If you use twitter, receive updates and notices of new posts and books by following us at PUPBlog or search for the email address blog@press.princeton.edu.
Indeed, Jeff Gordon is right. The answer is Isabelline wheatear. However, our other commenters, A. A. Shock and Rick Wright were correct that there are other “Isabelline” birds–including the shrike.
As Jeremy Mynott explains, “‘Isabelline,’ describing the sandy colour of the Isabelline wheatear and shrike has been explained by a bizarre reference to Isabella, the archduchess of Austria and daughter of Philip II of Spain. He laid siege to Ostend in 1601 and in a moment of filial loyalty she vowed not to change her underwear until the city was taken. Unfortunately the siege lasted until 1604, by which time the garments were the colour in question.”
Skip Gates dropped by TODAY this morning to chat with Meredith Vieira about his PBS Documentary, “Looking for Lincoln” which airs tonight on most PBS stations (9:00 pm EST).
by Jessica Pellien | Filed in: Economics | 12:01pm EST
Each week, our sales department sends around a list of the best-selling books. The usual suspects usually battle it out for the top spots on the list–Animal Spirits, Lincoln on Race and Slavery, and the perennial favorite On Bullshit. But for the last two weeks, there has been a dark horse giving them a run for the money–Mostly Harmless Econometrics by Joshua Angrist and Jörn-Steffen Pischke. So what is driving these sales? The book has been lauded as “The hitchhiker’s guide to econometrics,” and reviewed in depth by statistician Andrew Gelman (a review that is then reviewed here). That’s all well and good, but secretly, I think it’s the t-shirts.
January 25, 2009 was cause for celebration, and perhaps an occasion for delighting in the culinary delicacy known as haggis. Yes, the hugely popular poet (and Scottish national treasure) Robert Burns was born 250 years ago. Robert Crawford, a celebrated poet in his own right, has now published the first comprehensive and up-to-date biography of [...]
What do our interactions with birds reveal about ourselves? In Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience, veteran birder and former chief executive of Cambridge University Press Jeremy Mynott looks at the myriad ways we encounter and appreciate birds.
Of course, he looks at literature, art, music, science, conservation, and culture, among many things, but along the way, he also teases out some fantastic trivia about birds. I will post a series of trivia questions (one each Tuesday for the next few weeks) and hope you will post your answers and explanations in the comments section below. The answers will follow by a day, so check back frequently!
by Jessica Pellien | Filed in: Cooked Books | 12:43pm EST
The recipe of the month reminds you that if you have trouble remembering how to pronounce “Bollingen,” think of the Bollingen martini. The “o” is pronounced as in “olive,” but there is no “gin” in a Bollingen martini (“ng” is pronounced as in “sing”).
The book seems especially timely considering today’s news coming from Iran regarding their willingness to engage in a new dialogue with the United States.
Featuring commentary and interviews from Princeton University Press authors, the PUP Blog is a highly respected, timely and indispensable source for learning, understanding and reflection.
Just to recap, we are posting trivia questions drawn from the book Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience by veteran birder and former chief executive of Cambridge University Press Jeremy Mynott. We hope you will post your guesses and explanations below in the comments section. The official answer will follow by a day, so check back again soon!
Former CIA front man on Islamic relations Emile Nakhleh has been speaking about his new book 
