James Harkin

A witty and indispensable guide to modern-day buzzwords.Big Ideas explains where concepts like the long tail, urban tribes and soft power came from, what they mean, and what their critics say about them. It includes explanations of key terms such as: Maturialism: the name given to the new trend among middle-aged people of spending their money on expensive youth gadgets and services, and the new habit among advertisers of targeting the mid-life market, repositioning their brands as accessories to the distinctive joys of mid-life. The Tipping Point: the controversial idea that the best way to understand everything from changing fashions to the rise of teenage smoking is to imagine people as viruses and social phenomena as contagious epidemics. Social Jet Lag: an ailment suffered by up to half the population, social jet lag is said to arise when our body clocks falls out of synch with the demands of our environments, thus putting us at risk of chronic fatigue and an increased susceptibility to disease.

Este libro nos explica de dónde vienen, qué significan y qué dicen los críticos sobre conceptos como «La Larga Cola», «tribus urbanas», «poder suave» y «metrosexual». Incluye explicaciones de término

How our new world - of texting, social networking, instant messaging and email - was built and how it has changed the way we relate to everything in our livesCómo nuestro nuevo mundo de mensajes de texto, redes de comunicacion social, mensajes instantaneos y correos electronicos ha sido erigido y como ha cambiado la manera con la que nos relacionamos con todos los aspectos de nuestras vidas.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARDSTop Bins! A personal best, a lap record and a hole in one for when rain has stopped play. ALAN DAVIESThe trivia book of the season . . . magnificent.SPECTATORDid you know that Henry VIII owned the first pair of football boots? Or that David Attenborough is responsible for yellow tennis balls?A Load of Old Balls is the curious story of us and sport. Its about our mind-blowingly determined attempts to be the fastest, the strongest, the most skilful. In this endlessly entertaining tale of play and belonging, astonishing violence and jaw-dropping cheating, we learn what led ancient Egyptian athletes to have their spleens removed and discover why Michael Palin was disqualified from a conker tournament. Crossing millennia, continents and cultures, Harkin and Ptaszynski - the brainy researchers for BBCs QI and co-hosts of No Such Thing As A Fish -show us sport as weve never seen it before.**Published in hardback as Everything to Play For.**For more from the team behind QIs hit TV show, check out the QI FACTS series of books, @qikipedia, their weekly podcast at nosuchthingasafish.com or visit qi.com.

Este libro nos explica de dónde vienen, qué significan y qué dicen los críticos sobre conceptos como «La Larga Cola», «tribus urbanas», «poder suave» y «metrosexual». Incluye explicaciones de términos clave como «maturialismo»: nombre que se da a la nueva tendencia entre la gente de mediana edad de comprar todo tipo de costosos artículos y servicios «juveniles», y el nuevo hábito entre los publicistas de atacar el mercado de la población de alrededor de cuarenta años, reposicionando sus marcas y accesorios hacia las distintivas distracciones de esta edad; Jet Lag Social, una dolencia que sufre la mitad de la población, de la que se dice que surge cuando nuestro reloj corporal se desincroniza con las exigencias de nuestro entorno, lo que nos pone en riesgo de fatiga crónica y una mayor susceptibilidad a las enfermedades. James Harkin, comentarista cultural especializado en tendencias, es el guía perfecto para manejarse por el mundo de ideas y conceptos extrarrápidos que nos rodea. El catálogo de Harkin es entretenido, esclarecedor y altamente adictivo. Indispensable.