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In the winter of 2008, Perigee published a quirky paperback original called The No S Diet, by Reinhard Engels and Ben Kallen. More manifesto than prescriptive guide, the book presents a strikingly simple way to lose weight -- one that's easy to remember and (just as important) easy to stick to: no snacks, sweets, no seconds -- except on days that start with S (Saturdays, Sundays and special days).

The book grew out of software engineer Reinhard Engels's popular blog, and is the result of his own long quest to simplify the complicated, often overly complex weight-loss methods dieters adopt and then typically drop shortly before or after seeing results. It's one of a series of quirky programs Engels has dubbed Everyday Systems -- simple, commonsense solutions to everyday problems. (Some of the other problems his systems tackle are litigiousness, problem drinking, and idleness.)

Each of his solutions hinges on one simple premise: find an irresistibly simple way to eliminate excess.

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Future Afghanistan school site - "Before"

Finished Afghanistan school - "After"

For the First Time Ever, Penguin Group (USA) Has Built a School, Grades One Through Six, Honoring American Booksellers, Librarians, and Educators Who Supported Khaled Hosseini's #1 New York Times-Bestselling and Internationally Acclaimed Novels, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

New York, New York, November 19, 2008 . . . Penguin Group (USA), a member of the Penguin Group, one of the world's largest English-language consumer trade book publishers, is proud to announce that it has built a primary school in Afghanistan, in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the United States Association for UNHCR. The school is located in Arababshirali, roughly 150 miles from Kabul, in Kunduz Province. The school, which recently opened its doors to 270 students, grades one through six, is a tribute to American booksellers, librarians, and educators who supported Khaled Hosseini's #1 New York Times-bestselling and internationally acclaimed novels, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, published by Riverhead Books, an award-winning and critically acclaimed imprint of Penguin Group (USA).

In 2001, while still a practicing internist, Khaled Hosseini began writing his first novel, The Kite Runner. Two years later, it was published in hardcover by Riverhead Books, and followed by a #1 New York Times-bestselling trade paperback edition a year later. It has since become a critically acclaimed international bestseller, published in forty-eight countries, with more than 6.75 million copies shipped to date in the U.S. market alone. It has also been credited with leading readers far and wide to a heightened consciousness about Afghanistan, its culture, and its people.

Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today by the Nobel Prize committee. "He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," said Ole Danbolt Mjos, chairman of the Nobel committee.

Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a
recognized problem worldwide was covered in the 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, which was also released in book form by Viking earlier this year.

In a statement, Gore said he was "deeply honored," adding that "the climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."

The former vice president has stated that he will donate his half of the $1.5 million prize to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a U.S. organization he founded that seeks to persuade people to cut emissions and reduce global warming.

The award ceremony will be held on December 10th, in Oslo, Norway.

Penguin Books

books

Assault on Reason

Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore

Nobel Peace Prize

global warming

climate change

environment

politics

current affairs

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Unless you've been hermetically sealed away in a bomb shelter or have been orbiting the planet in a space station, you're probably painfully aware of the earth's environmental predicament.

Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth shocked the world last year with its facts and images, and today, almost exactly a year later, The 11th Hour takes the stage to scrutinize the global crisis and galvanize us into action.

Called "an unnerving, surprisingly affecting documentary" and "essential viewing" by The New York Times, The 11th Hour is narrated by a "sincere and passionate" Leonardo DiCaprio and stars luminaries as varied as physicist Stephen Hawking, to former Soviet Union Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev. Dozens of conservationists, policy wonks, gurus and scientists are interviewed, and all of them agree: though the situation has become dire, it's not too late, and in fact there may even be cause for hope.

A key guest in the documentary is Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest, a proponent of grassroots environmental activism. After spending more than a decade researching groups as diverse as billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person causes, he concludes that there is a vital, thriving movement in the works, a global desire to re-imagine mankind's relationship with the environment.

“Life is the most fundamental human right,” Hawken writes, “and all of the movements within the movement are dedicated to creating the conditions for life, conditions that include livelihood, food, security, peace, a stable environment and freedom from external tyranny.”