What Makes us Human?

Note: This post has been cross-posted on The Walkabout.

Yesterday, I posted the following photo on Facebook.

It is the book I intend to read next, once I'm done with Cindy Trimm's Commanding Your Morning and Mbugua Mumbi's Becoming an 'A' Student in Life.
A comment on that Facebook post has made it necessary to explain what the book is all about. And please note this is not a book review at all, just a sneak peek.

Well, this book is inspired by talks that were presented at a symposium held in Oxford, in March 2006.

The book, put simply, is an attempt to answer the following questions:
Are we half ape or half angel? Is it our cognitive abilities, our use of tools, our story-telling, our beliefs, our curiosity, our ability to cook, our culture, that make us human?

These are the book chapters:

1. Imitation Makes us Human
2. Memory, Time and Language
3. Why are Humans not just Great Apes?
4. The Hominid that Talked
5. Half Ape, Half Angel?
6. Material facts from a non-materialist perspective
7. What Makes us Human? Our Ancestors and the Weather
8. Curiosity and Quest
9. Human Evolution and the Human Condition
10. The Place of "Deep Social Mind" in the Evolution of Human Nature
11. Causal Belief Maes us Human
12. The Cooking Enigma.

The book What Makes us Human? is available on Amazon and elsewhere across the web.

Short Story 7 - The Vigilante

This is the seventh short story in my Counting Down the Days book, currently a work in progress. We have so far taken a sneak peek into other short stories in this collection viz: The Right to Remain Silent, Networking or not working, The Dilemma, Power to the People, Counting Down the Days and Nothing.

The Vigilante

Julie has lost a husband she totally loved, thanks to the neglect, self interest and sloppiness of his friends. Njoroge, Wambua and Salim have deliberately opted to misinform her husband about the presence of law enforcement officials during a heist, and simply watch him unknowingly walk into a fatal trap.

With Kimunya now dead, she takes it upon herself to punish the remaining members of a terror gang she willfully belonged to and dutifully worked to protect. Her plan is to deal with them one by one, and successfully eliminates some of them, until something goes terribly wrong and exposes the enemy within.

How will she carry out her plan? Can she stop avenging Kimunya's death in view of the inherent risks?

My Current Reads

I have recently discovered eFiction Magazine on Issuu - my favorite online hangout where I get to read great stuff in an attractive, engaging and innovative presentation.
eFiction Magazine has been around for quite a while [how did I miss all this?], since April 2010. The August 2011 edition is the 17th issue!
Below are the very first and the current editions of eFiction Magazine. I'd urge you all to head to Issuu and subscribe to this online magazine that showcases the latest fiction across the web, for free. It is truly priceless for any writer worth his/her salt.

eFiction Magazine - then

eFiction Magazine - now

Do have a great day good people!
Cheers :)

Short Story 6 - Nothing

This is the sixth short story in my Counting Down the Days book, currently a work in progress. We have so far taken a sneak peek into other short stories in this collection viz:  The Right to Remain Silent, Networking or not working, The Dilemma, Power to the People and Counting Down the Days.

Nothing

My Current Reads

I have recently renewed my love for Issuu. This is partly because I'll very soon be publishing Connect eMagazine, with monthly editions available for online viewing and free download on our Issuu page.

The bigger reason, however, is that Issuu more than makes reading online an enduring pleasure. On Issuu, you get to read very useful documents as well. I have so far shared some of them both on The Walkabout and on this site.

Today, I'll share one about how to Innovate.
Hope you like it :)

As we eagerly await the Connect eMagazine launch later this year, I invite you to join Connect eMagazine on Issuu so that we can learn and share together, even as we count down the days...

Have a great weekend.
Cheers

Short Story 5 - Counting Down the Days

Counting Down the Days is both the title short story and the fifth in my upcoming collection Counting Down the Days.
We have so far highlighted The Right to Remain Silent, Networking or not working, The Dilemma and Power to the People.

Counting Down the Days

In this story, Edwin has been injured in what has been erroneously referred to as an accident. Interestingly, he had just watched Nokia's 4th Screen TV ad on YouTube minutes before this "accident". He was anticipating change, but is now forced to inevitably wait for that change for a very definite number of days.



With every passing day, Edwin gets to see a better version of the bigger picture that awaits him. He is able to better plan, and carefully review his choices.
In losing the ability to do something he really wants, he gains the latitude to ultimately attain what he actually needs.

My Current Reads

I am totally immersed in Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price. The book simply explains what has happened in our lives all along, where businesses make big money by offering free products and/or services.

Nothing is surprising or new in doing that, especially when you think about free-to-air radio and TV from commercial broadcasters.

Interestingly, Malcolm Gladwell [who authored The Tipping Point] doesn't agree with Chris Anderson. FYI, Chris also wrote The Long Tail. Malcolm had a lot to say about Free in The New Yorker.

As a strong advocate of online publishing and on-screen reading, I have recently started to read, and shall be actively sharing/embedding magazines in my reading list.
Most, if not all will be hosted at Issuu, which is my favorite hangout when it comes to reading online. Following is the June 2011 edition of CIO East Africa Magazine.

Please note that upon launch, Connect eMagazine will also be available for online reading and free download at Issuu.

Have a great week good people. Let's continue reading and writing together.Cheers!

:)

Short Story 1 - The Right to Remain Silent

Well, as earlier promised, today I give you a sneak peek into one of the short stories in my upcoming book Counting Down the Days.

All the stories in this book essentially focus on the human condition, exploring such issues as love, crime, friendship, governance, parenting, schooling, business and pretty much anything else that happens in our day to day lives.

The Right to Remain Silent
This story touches on crime and punishment.
Ideally, people should take responsibility for their actions. That is why every juris[friggin']diction has a justice system whose core mandate is to see that people respect other people's rights, as well as have theirs respected. In other words, fairness is maintained across the board with no bias whatsoever.

In real life however, such ideals are not attained. The rules keep on getting broken with reckless abandon, which confirms that they who commit crimes are rarely punished thanks to wanton impunity, frustrating red tape and corruption practised by officials across the ranks in the criminal justice system.

In The Right to Remain Silent, Edwin is able to apprehend one of the thugs who have raided his home. He decides to make it very clear to the thug what the right to remain silent should actually mean. It is a shocking revelation of what law abiding citizens can do when the systems that are supposed to ensure their safety and that of their possessions fail them.

My Current Reads
We all know that good writing should always go hand in hand with much more reading.
I am currently reading two books, both of which have something to do with business and self discovery.

One is Capitalist Nigger by Chika Onyeani. My sister lent me her copy on Wednesday, and I already like the book.
The author makes a brusque indictment of the black race, which despite natural endowment, is a non-productive race that mostly consumes, ultimately depending on other communities for its culture, its language, its feeding and its clothing.
He however asserts that only by becoming economic warriors who love making money as much as they love themselves, their wives and children can members of the black race escape from their victim mentality.

The other is Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher. It got a mention in a recent post on The Walkabout.
The book champions small appropriate technologies that empower people more. This in effect contrasts the widely held notion that "bigger is better." It discusses economics as if people mattered.

So much for the writing and reading, have yourself an awesome weekend.
Cheers!