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.

Once there was no text messaging. No email and no social network sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace. The way we live has apparently been transformed by new ways of communicating. But where did these trends start? And if they can change our behaviour, can they also change the way we think?In Cyburbia James Harkin describes how the architecture of our digital lives was built over seventy years. In a brilliant narrative that encompasses the work of crackpots, inventors and visionaries, it shows how a concept that began with the need to shoot down German bombers has evolved to govern almost everything - from our lives online to modern films like Memento and 21 Grams, from TV shows and plays to military strategy. Gripping, revelatory and fiercely intelligent, this extraordinary book will change forever the way you think about everything you do.

On 19 August 2014, a member of the jihadist rebel group known as ISIS uploaded a video to YouTube. Entitled Message to America, the clip depicted the final moments of the life of kidnapped American journalist James Foley - and the gruesome aftermath of his beheading at the hands of a masked executioner. Foleys murder - and the other choreographed killings that would follow - captured the worlds attention, and Islamic States campaign of kidnapping exploded into regional war.Based on three years of on-the-ground reporting from every side of the Syrian conflict, Hunting Season is James Harkins quest to uncover the truth about how and why Islamic State came to target Western hostages, who was behind it and why almost no one outside a small group of people knew anything about it until it was too late. He reveals how the campaign of kidnapping and the development of Islamic State were joined at the hip from the beginning. The book is an utterly absorbing account of the worlds newest and most powerful terror franchise and what it means for modern war.

As high street and main street businesses continue to suffer, theres a new rule in business: forget about the general audience and instead stake out an identifiable niche.Woolworths suffered from a lack of identity and found that low quality and low price wasnt enough; General Motors crashed as motorists failed to distinguish between cars in their range. Yet HBO, Moleskine and specialist media like The Economist have all succeeded by building their authority over narrow areas of expertise and cultivating a passionate following - and their profits have mushroomed. Fascinating and thought-provoking, Niche is a superb examination of how innovation and profitability are moving to a series of tightly defined but globally scattered niches, bound together by the reach of the net.

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.