Average customer rating:
- A winning strategy
- Excellent Read: Informative and Inspirational
- Great book
- Real Capitalism -- The Way It Should be
- A gentleman who is an inspiration
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Everybody Wins! A Life in Free Enterprise (CHF Series in Innovation and Entrepreneurship)
Gordon Cain
Manufacturer: Chemical Heritage Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Biographies & Memoirs
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Business
| Professionals & Academics
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General
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ASIN: 0941901289 |
Book Description
Everybody Wins! is the inspiring, unfamiliar picture of an individual launching a wholly new career not once, but twice when most are ready to retire. In his 70s Gordon Cain, a chemical engineer by trade, acquired and restructured several chemical companies, effecting a turnaround in the commodity chemicals industry. An unprecedented visionary, Cain made millions for himself and his employees through the strategies of innovative management, employee stock ownership, and leveraged buyouts. In his 80s he turned his interests to a new economy field—biotechnology. Within only six years he transformed one company, Lexicon Genetics, from a university-based start-up to a public company worth over one billion dollars, while masterminding two more biotech companies. The second edition talks about these recent ventures. As Cain recounts with modesty and humor how he made his way from chemical engineer to millionaire-entrepreneur, we are reminded of how America's free-market economy provides unparalleled opportunity and how good business deals can benefit everyone. In the process this book illustrates how entrepreneurs continually reinvent themselves.
Customer Reviews:
A winning strategy.......2007-04-14
Gordon Cain tells his impressive story in a modest and matter of fact way. This book paints the broad strokes of his life. He shows some detailed financial data for his transactions but doesn't delve too much into the story. I think the book is most useful when combined with some additional research, you need to spend the time looking up information about the individuals and companies he references.
Excellent Read: Informative and Inspirational.......2006-08-18
I had the pleasure and blessing financially to work for two all two short years for Gordon Cain, back in the 1980s. The man was both a gentleman and a genius. The title of the book sums up how he lived his fascinating life. As Gordon gracefully recounts his story, he leaves the business reader with wisdom of great value. His precepts are simple: Manage rationally with a human hand, make everyone an owner and a potential winner, engineer your product and processes to meet customer needs that are more important than your own, leave office politics behind. This stuff really worked, as deal after deal recounted in this book showed. It is a great mystery to this reviewer why american business rarely follows these precepts; since they always work. Post note to the book: Gordon shared the financial benefits with thousands of people and gave all his money away to build rural hospitals before he died.
Further the book is well written in Gordon's plain style of speaking. It shows how one man took the cards he was dealt with in life and played them not only well, but with dignity over the course of a long and interesting life.
Great book.......2006-01-16
Gordon Cain led a fascinating and exemplary life. This book is well written and comprehensive. Well worth reading.
Real Capitalism -- The Way It Should be.......2002-07-26
We need more business leaders and managers who embrace and practice Mr. Cain's brand of business and general living. very pragmatic, down-to-earth, no-frills, seeing things for what they are -- Very ZEN.
Mr. Cain is a hero, not so much for the wealth he created for himself and many others, but the way he lived his life when he did not have alot of money.
Involved in a number of his transactions from the banker's role, Mr. Cain has set an example for all of us who call ourselves capitalists. Unfortunately, the corporate scandals of the day get the headlines whereas the true successes that create value for everyone, including the employees get little or no attention.
Integrity, Accountibility and Maximizing Long-Term share-holder Value -- not going for the quick buck at the expense of others is what is all about -- it allows us to discover, explore, educate, entertain and enjoy the life before us -- society progresses as a result. Everyone Wins.
High recommend this read to everyone -- whether or not you have an interest in business becasue it is the true story of one man's journey who just happened to become a successful businessman through a series of "happy accidents.
A gentleman who is an inspiration.......1999-11-18
Indeed, this work is a thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating autobiography of a remarkable visionary.
Amazon.com
After decades of abuse and spittle, Major League umpire Durwood Merrill strikes back with some pretty incisive, funny, and no-holds-barred anecdotes. When his book stays in the game, it's a real hoot, light and folksy; how can you not laugh with a guy who can admit that "Folks around the American League say I've sent a few pitchers to the Hall of Fame before their time because my strike zone tends to swell like George Steinbrenner's ego"? It's his own ego, though, that has him swinging for the seats and coming up short; he's not much of a memoirist. Thankfully, like a good umpire, he keeps his personal interference to a minimum and mostly sticks to business, offering some tough prescriptions for what ails the game, and some solid dissection of the intricacies of his craft. His thoughts on Pete Rose might lead you to believe that Charlie Hustle is the book's title character. -- Jeff Silverman, Sports editor
Book Description
He calls it as he sees it...Big, loud, and beyond intimidation, Durwood Merrill is one of the most colorful characters in baseball. The man Reggie Jackson calls "The Reggie Jackson of umpires" has brought a new level of showmanship and excitement to the ballpark and has attracted his own legions of fans. In You're Out And You're Ugly Too!, Merrill gives fans an in-your-face dose of hilarious anecdotes, hard-hitting opinions, and gushing admiration for America's favorite pastime. Find out the real deal on:* The Managers: From Anderson to Piniella to Weaver, Durwood reveals his explosive relationships with baseballs's most notorious managers* The Players: No one knows Reggie, Junior, or Cal the way Durwood does-- read his dead-on observations of baseball's most talented players* The Big Picture: Get behind the diamond with Durwood to discover what goes on in the clubhouse, in the umpire's room, on the mound, at the plate, and beyondNo corner of modern baseball is "safe" from Durwood Merrill's razor-sharp wit, and no fan can afford to miss his fascinating and revealing play-by-play.
Customer Reviews:
A nice guy.......2007-09-10
I expected a little more humor from this book judging from the title.However it was still quite interesting. It was nice to read how he worked so hard for those less fortunate. Seemed like he was a guy I would have liked to have had as a friend.
You can't write and your publisher stinks too........2004-02-17
Somebody messed up badly. Being an amateur baseball umpire I am biased towards umpires in general and those in baseball in particular but Merrill does not do himself and his profession justice. The ghostwriter, assuming there was one, must have been drunk and illiterate and the publisher too lazy, or do we call that cost conscious, to proof read the manuscript. I ended up reading a book that should not have been published and does not do justice to a man who became an umpire in a different and much tougher era. The book does not do him justice, god rest his soul. Maybe the publisher could be so kind and honor him with and revised edition.
Some very funny stories, and some that are serious, too........2003-09-11
When I first bought this book, I wasn't quite sure what to think. I had heard a few negative things about it, and kind of had a prejudice against it. Boy, was that wrong! I found this to be a very funny, lighthearted read (for the most part). There's some really wonderful insights into what it takes to become a big league umpire - never quite realized all they went through in "Umpire boot camp" (my term). It's not all fun and games, there's a few stories about how an umpire friend of his was attacked and crippled on the streets of Dallas, and the latter part talks a lot about his charity works.
A great book - funny, light, and to be honest, something that surprised me in a very good way. What was personally annoying was that after I read this (during the last month of the 99 season), I wanted to watch Durwood, and then he up and retires during the playoffs (and then died a short time later). Damn. Really wanted to see him after reading his book. Oh well. Check it out, a good light read.
RIP Durwood.......2003-01-13
Durwood Merrill just passed away today, after suffering a heart attack last Sunday. Godspeed, Durwood.
You'll hesitate the next time you "boo" an umpire..............2002-08-15
It's a light read, but Durwood is very colorful and sincere in his writing. I felt as if he was my Grandpa sitting next to me telling me these wonderfull stories. You'll enjoy it even if you're not a baseball fan.
If you ARE a baseball fan. You'll hesitate the next time you "boo" an umpire at a game. (but only for a second or two)
:)
Average customer rating:
- Great Book!
- Disagree again
- Disagree!
- Cult Fiction
- Cult Fiction
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Cult Fiction: Popular Reading and Pulp Theory
Clive Bloom
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Popular Culture
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
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General
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Look Inside Entertainment Books
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ASIN: 0312213565 |
Book Description
Here is an exploration of pulp literature and pulp mentalities: an investigation into the nature and theory of the contemporary mind in art and in life. Here too, the violent, the sensational and the erotic signify different facets of the modern experience plays out in the gaudy pages of kitsch literature. Clive Bloom offers the reader a chance to investigate the underworld of literary production and from it find a new set of co-ordinates for questions regarding publishing and reading practices in America and Britain, ideas of genre, problems related to commercial production, concerns regarding high and low culture, the canon and censorship, as well as a discussion of the rhetoric of current critical debate. Concentrating on remembered authors as well as many long regarded or forgotten, Cult Fiction provides a theory of kitsch art that radically alters our perceptions of literature and literary values while providing a panorama of an almost forgotten history: the history of pulp.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book!.......2001-11-16
This book is great! Unfortunately my last roommate took my copy, so I have to buy it again.
Disagree again.......2000-08-08
I must disagree with the reader from NY and agree with the one from Boston! After reading and checking the background to this book all information is correct! for example: I found no other pictures on the net! I would strongly recommend this book as a good buy!
Disagree!.......2000-02-06
I strongly disagree with this arguement, the book is extremely accurate in what it says and very well executed if i may say so! I think a judgement can only be made by an individual and i recommend that it be bought and your opinions put forward!
Cult Fiction.......2000-02-06
I found this book thouroughly interesting and an extremely good read!
Cult Fiction.......1999-12-02
A scholarly, interesting and unusual book on a subject not usually covered - I enjoyed it.
Average customer rating:
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A Collector's Guide to Nevada Gaming Checks and Chips
Howard W. Herz , and
Kregg L. Herz
Manufacturer: Whitman Coin Products
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Gambling
| Puzzles & Games
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General
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Americana
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ASIN: 0307093646 |
Book Description
A "skillful and literate" (New York Times Book Review) biography of the persecuted genius who helped create the modern computer.
To solve one of the great mathematical problems of his day, Alan Turing proposed an imaginary computer. Then, attempting to break a Nazi code during World War II, he successfully designed and built one, thus ensuring the Allied victory. Turing became a champion of artificial intelligence, but his work was cut short. As an openly gay man at a time when homosexuality was illegal in England, he was convicted and forced to undergo a humiliating "treatment" that may have led to his suicide.
With a novelist's sensitivity, David Leavitt portrays Turing in all his humanity—his eccentricities, his brilliance, his fatal candor—and elegantly explains his work and its implications.
Customer Reviews:
Somewhere in Here is a Biography.......2007-07-13
Leavitt spent a lot of time teaching himself mathematics and learning the early science of how computers worked. The problem is that he spends half the book going over the theorems of Turning and some of his contemporaries. This is all fine and good, if math is your thing. Zeta probabilities and the function of (prime numbers at n-1 or something like that) have no interest for the average laymen; and especially for those of us who never got past algebra and think calculus is hard skin on the bottom of your foot.
This makes the title sort of a double entendre, leaving all of us at the short end of the stick because if he learned it, he told it to us. Some of the explanations run eight or ten pages. This of course makes reading this short book (under 300 pages) even shorter, though it's like hitting yourself in the head, it only feels great when it's over. If your a good skimmer and know where to look it's probably an enjoyable book. In my case I kept hoping that it would get more interesting but it never did.
More on Turing's life (or maybe there just wasn't any more) would have been preferable to more on his mathematical findings.
not a bad airplane read.......2007-07-12
Not bad over all, at times goes on a bit to much about his homosexuality. Main reason for 3 and not 4 stars is the title, nothing in the book deals how he "knew too much".
The Essential Turing Reading.......2007-06-11
All students studying computer science are introduced to Alan Turing at one time or another. For most, this introduction takes the form of Turing as the inventor of the Turing Machine, a machine unbounded by time and memory that can solve any problem. Once the students perform some perfunctory exercises involving the use of a Turing machine to construct say, the solution to the dining philosophers problem, they promptly forget about Turing and his machine. Which is so sad. Turing can be rightly considered the father of the modern computer where data and memory are mapped to the same address space. This invention is typically attributed to John von Neumann, but the author of the book makes a point that behind von Neumann's contribution was Turing's hand. Turing went on, in his brief life spanning only 42 years, to work on cryptography (credited with decoding the German Enigma machines in World War II, albeit using the groundwork laid down by a Polish cryptographer, Martin Rejewski; see Simon Singh's Code Book reviewed in 2006), artificial intelligence (the Turing Test), and mathematics. The state saw to it that his genius would be, unfortunately, eclipsed by his sexuality. In 1952, Turing was convicted of "acts of gross indecency" after admitting sexual relations with a man. He was forced to undergo hormone therapy in the vain hope of "curing" him. Instead, what these pogroms did was to rob the scientific world of one of the greatest researchers of all times. Turing elected to end his life by biting into an apple laced with cyanide. It was apropos; his favorite fairy tale was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
A decent study of Turing.......2007-05-17
This is a decent study of Turing with an essay about how he created in computer form a floorplan perspective. The author was able to provice an analytical study of his machine and a social study of the man's life.
Indepth and concise.......2007-03-19
I think this a good book for anyone who is interested in Technology and how Computer-Tech took off.It gives you a brief understanding of the person behind such an incredible invention,proving how useful it was during the War.Due to Mr Turing's extraordinary story,this book goes into detail about his struggle of homosexuality,which was an obstacle in his strive for the answer to the 'decidability problem'.It's a must have for the Computer enthusiast!
Average customer rating:
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Pequot Plantation
Richard Radune
Manufacturer: Research in Time Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Reference
| Historical Study
| History
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General
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General
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Connecticut
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Similar Items:
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Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
ASIN: 0976434105 |
Book Description
Pequot Plantation tells the exciting story of southeastern Connecticut in early colonial days. The adventures of many early settlers are followed as they journeyed from England to Massachusetts and then to Pequot Plantation where they shaped the destiny of the new settlement. These families made an incredible effort to establish homesteads and create successful communities. At the same time, Indian fortunes declined in spite of the support they gave the new plantation and the valiant effort the Indians exerted to maintain thier place in a changing world. This is their story as well.
Customer Reviews:
Pequot Plantation.......2007-04-11
A excellent book. Done in a way to make reading the whole
book enjoyable. Alot of good research for the history
part of genealogy.
Amazon.com
Legendary scholar-activist W.E.B. Du Bois labored to complete an "Encyclopedia Africana" before his death in 1963. Just over 35 years later, two Harvard educators, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Ghanaian-born Kwame Anthony Appiah, have brought Du Bois' intellectual dream to life in Africana, the most complete and comprehensive record of the Pan-African diaspora compiled into one volume. With over two million words and 3,500 entries from more than 220 contributors, Appiah and Gates sought, as they put it, to "give a sense of the wide diversity of peoples, cultures, and traditions that we know about Africa in historical times, a feel for the environment in which that history was lived, and a broad outline of the contributions of people of African descent, especially in the Americas, but, more generally, around the world." To fulfill this aim, they consider biographical, political, artistic, economic, historical, and geographical data; a brief sampling of topics includes "Food in African-American Culture," "Creolized Musical Instruments of the Caribbean," and "Anthropology in Africa." The section on Africa fills about two thirds of the book, loaded with invaluable information--from the ethnic and colonial factors that contributed to violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Eritrea, and Sierra Leone to the educational, linguistic, and social advances in Tanzania, Gabon, and South Africa. The legacies of the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe are also presented in great detail. The encyclopedia also contains documented evidence of African-derived peoples in Asia, including the exploits of Malik Ambar, who arrived in India from Ethiopia as a result of the East Indian slave trade.
Turning to the Western Hemisphere, Africana skillfully and succinctly synopsizes the lives and achievements of a multitude of African Americans, from 18th-century inventor-astronomer Benjamin Banneker to late-20th-century heroes like Colin Powell, Tiger Woods, and astronaut Mae Jemison. You'll learn about the little-considered black presence in Canada; Africana also uncovers hidden pockets of black culture in surprising places like Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina (where the Negro population, we discover, was reduced by a process of miscegenation known as blanqueamiento, or whitening). The upper-crust veneer of the Argentine tango is peeled away, revealing the dance's roots in the rhythmic innovations of 19th-century Afro-Argentines. With all of the aforementioned headings and topics, however, it's the special essays that best detail the treasure chest of scholarship of Africana. Robin Kelley examines the volatile clash between "Malcolm X and the Black Bourgeoisie"; Thomas Skidmore deconstructs "Race and Class in Brazil" and the myth of "racial democracy"; Mahmood Mamdani, in "Ethnicity in Rwanda," brilliantly decodes the complex and maddening colonial manipulations that erupted in genocide and made the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups "more political than cultural identities ... one is power and the other is subject."
A splendidly packaged reference work that will adorn libraries and homes for years to come, Africana defines the black experience in the same sweeping way that the Encyclopedia Britannica defined Euro-American civilization. More importantly for young readers, the magnificent collection shows that Africans and the continent's descendants are a truly global people who have made tremendous contributions to human civilization. --Eugene Holley Jr.
Book Description
Ninety years after W.E.B. Du Bois first articulated the need for "the equivalent of a black Encyclopedia Britannica," Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., realized his vision by publishing Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience in 1999. This new, greatly expanded edition of the original work broadens the foundation provided by Africana. Including more than one million new words, Africana has been completely updated and revised. New entries on African kingdoms have been added, bibliographies now accompany most articles, and the encyclopedia's coverage of the African diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean has been expanded, transforming the set into the most authoritative research and scholarly reference set on the African experience ever created. More than 4,000 articles cover prominent individuals, events, trends, places, political movements, art forms, business and trade, religion, ethnic groups, organizations and countries on both sides of the Atlantic. African American history and culture in the present-day United States receive a strong emphasis, but African American history and culture throughout the rest of the Americas and their origins in African itself have an equally strong presence. The articles that make up Africana cover subjects ranging from affirmative action to zydeco and span over four million years from the earlies-known hominids , to Sean "Diddy" Combs. With entries ranging from the African ethnic groups to members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Africana, Second Edition, conveys the history and scope of cultural expression of people of African descent with unprecedented depth.
Customer Reviews:
A Pan-African Dream Deferred Made Real.......2007-02-18
Scholars Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., paid homage to the great W.E.B. Du Bois' dream to produce an encyclopedia cataloguing the achievements and history of the African Diaspora with the publication in 1999 of the massive 2,095-page AFRICANA: THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AFRICAN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Appiah and Gates duly acknowledge Du Bois' many contributions to history, literature, and the struggle for human rights around the world with: their dedication of the book to him, a regular encyclopedia entry on his achievements, and an "interpretation" by Cornel West of his historical significance.
While AFRICANA is exactly what the title implies, it is also quite a bit more. The book itself represents a major achievement of publishing technology. What Du Bois was not able to accomplish by sheer brain power and intellectual camaraderie, Appiah and Gates achieved through developments in modern communication technology, the computer, and a global team of dedicated intellectuals. The scope of AFRICANA encompasses literature, religion, music, dance, sociology, politics, and, above all, history. In reading the book for pleasure or referencing it for specific topics, one realizes just how much of the African-American and African experience has shaped and defined the greater modern human experience.
Aberjhani
Author of THE WISDOM OF W.E.B. DU BOIS
And ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
No comprehensive Index again!.......2006-05-03
As a university professor in African American Studies, I looked forward to the first edition and bought it. But I was disappointed by the woefully lacking index which is also the case with the 2nd edition.
The five-volume 2nd edition is much easier to handle in terms of weight for each volume than the VERY heavy one volume 1st edition. However, one must wonder how Harvard professors (the editors) could allow a lack of a comprehensive index the second time around.
I bought the 1st edition, but I recommend not buying the 2nd edition. If a future edition has a comprehensive index, I will buy and would urge you to buy, as there is a wealth of information.
As for this (2nd) edition, save your money. Use the volumes at your school/university or community library for good general background information on the African and African American Experience.
Great Coffee Table Book..........2005-09-20
This encyclopedia has plenty of useful information and gives the reader easy access to black history that is not easily researched (especially considering this Eurocentric world we live in). Great to have on your coffee table, exposed, so that guests can have a quick and random look at some black facts and history. This encyclopedia has entries that I would suggest be used to wet your appetite for knowledge and spark your desire to learn more, but not to be used as the sole source of info on any given topic.
Bernadette Pruitt, Ph.D........2005-07-25
Thank you for your promptness. The recipient truly loved the gift. Thank you once again. Bernadette
Where are the black fraternities and sororities?.......2005-07-24
As the author of The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities, I was disappointed to not see any reference to the nine African American Fraternities and Sororities, particularly since W.E.B. DuBois was a member. It seemed like a strange omission for such a comprehensive book.
--
Lawrence C. Ross, Jr.
The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities (author)
The Ways of Black Folks: A Year in the Life of a People (author)
Sometimes Rhythm, Sometimes Blues (contributor)
Friends With Benefits (author: September 2005)
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Black Collegian, published by iMinorities, Inc. on February 1, 2000. The length of the article is 701 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: New Books by AFRICAN-AMERICAN AUTHORS.(Review) (book review)
Author: Corinne Nelson
Publication:
The Black Collegian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2000
Publisher: iMinorities, Inc.
Volume: 30
Issue: 2
Page: 16
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Long considered a classic in Bolivia, Juan de la Rosa tells the story of a young boy's coming of age during the violent and tumultuous years of Bolivia's struggle for independence. Indeed, in this remarkable novel, Juan's search for his personal identity functions as an allegory of Bolivia's search for its identity as a nation. Set in the early 1800s, this remarkable novel is narrated by one of the last surviving Bolivian rebels, octogenarian Juan de la Rosa. Juan recreates his childhood in the rebellious town of Cochabamba, and with it a large cast of full bodied, Dickensian characters both heroic and malevolent. The larger cultural dislocations brought about by Bolivia's political upheaval are echoed in those experienced by Juan, whose mother's untimely death sets off a chain of unpredictable events that propel him into the fiery crucible of the South American Independence Movement. Outraged by Juan's outspokenness against Spanish rule and his awakening political consciousness, his loyalist guardians banish him to the countryside, where he witnesses firsthand the Spaniards' violent repression and rebels' valiant resistance that crystallize both his personal destiny and that of his country. In Sergio Gabriel Waisman's fluid translation, English readers have access to Juan de la Rosa for the very first time.
Customer Reviews:
Great historical novel.......1999-04-05
Juan de la Rosa takes us to the 19th century in Latin America (Bolivia) and shows us how a people fought for its freedom. The novel mixes real facts with fiction; through its rich landscape and character descriptions, it transports us in time and space. We become sympathetic to little orphan Juan's suffering while growing up with unfriendly people, and his struggle to escape from opression. Through Juan's struggles we also see a whole people's fight for independence. There is a paralell maturing of Juan with the Bolivian independence movement. A high point in the novel is the battle between women and children on one side, armed with sticks and led by a blind woman, and the well-armed and cruel Spanish army on the other side. The novel is very effective in depicting the major players and crucial events in the independence movement. The development of Juan's particular story against the backdrop of the independence movement is really moving. While we become engaged in the historical developments we never lose sight of the personal struggles of the main character, including his search to find out his own identity. Higly recommended reading.
Book Description
A Practical, Up-To-Date Guide To Modern Methods In The Analysis Of Time To Event Data.
The rapid proliferation of powerful and affordable statistical software packages over the past decade has inspired the development of an array of valuable new methods for analyzing survival time data. Yet there continues to be a paucity of statistical modeling guides geared to the concerns of health-related researchers who study time to event data. This book helps bridge this important gap in the literature.
Applied Survival Analysis is a comprehensive introduction to regression modeling for time to event data used in epidemiological, biostatistical, and other health-related research. Unlike other texts on the subject, it focuses almost exclusively on practical applications rather than mathematical theory and offers clear, accessible presentations of modern modeling techniques supplemented with real-world examples and case studies. While the authors emphasize the proportional hazards model, descriptive methods and parametric models are also considered in some detail. Key topics covered in depth include:
* Variable selection.
* Identification of the scale of continuous covariates.
* The role of interactions in the model.
* Interpretation of a fitted model.
* Assessment of fit and model assumptions.
* Regression diagnostics.
* Recurrent event models, frailty models, and additive models.
* Commercially available statistical software and getting the most out of it.
Applied Survival Analysis is an ideal introduction for graduate students in biostatistics and epidemiology, as well as researchers in health-related fields.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent and simply stated message on our ecological future
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Simple Things Won't Save the Earth
J. Robert Hunter
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
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ASIN: 0292731132 |
Book Description
We drive cars with "Save the Whales" bumper stickers, buy aerosol sprays that advertise "no chlorofluorocarbons," and wear T-shirts made from organically grown cotton. All of these "earth friendly" choices and products convince us that we are "thinking globally, acting locally" and saving the planet. But are we really? In this provocative book, J. Robert Hunter asserts that using catchy slogans and symbols to sell the public on environmental conservation is ineffective, misleading, and even dangerous. Debunking the Fifty Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth approach, Hunter shows that there are no simple solutions to major environmental problems such as species extinction, ozone depletion, global warming, pollution, and non-renewable resource consumption. The use of slogans and symbols, Hunter argues, simply gives the public a false sense that "someone" is solving the environmental crisis--while it remains as serious now as when the environmental movement began. Writing in plain yet passionate prose for general readers, he here opens a national debate on what is really required to preserve the earth as a habitat for the human species.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent and simply stated message on our ecological future.......1998-04-11
For the ecologically interested but untrained and uninitiated lay people, Hunter offers a real connection between the Homo sapiens (humans) and mother nature through his symbolic use of the Hevea rubber tree as well as his exploration of petroleum as an alternative to natural rubber. From the most developed to the new developing countries, a majority of people can relate to the rubber tree either as consumers of its final products or as providers of the raw materials in plantations. The rubber tree offers an example of the discovery, exploitation, and abuse of earth's resources.
In simple language and unsophisticated, clear analogies, Hunter exposes basic assumptions of technological development. Most of us are blinded by the Cartesian mentality where the scientific method is always expected to yield answers in all matters of mother nature; the only impediment is time. Hunter offers sufficient but not overwhelming statistics on humans' need for rubber and the realities of growing such a single-tree crop.
Without using the "doomsday" style characteristic of much of the popular ecological literature, Hunter present a sober picture of earth's future, should we continue our current rate of exploitation of natural resources justified by human's insatiable needs. Our behavior is compared to the insects or microorganisms that, finding a large supply of their preferred nourishment, abandon all logic and proceed to feed and multiply until the source of food is gone and the environment is depleted, hence causing their own demise.
Perhaps my only, but minor, critique is that, while Hunter states at various times that the major ecological problem is population growth, he fails to address the issue at a deeper level. The miserable working conditions of the Para rubber tree tappers are exposed, but further explorations of the social aspects of ecological calamities are lacking. Implications of technological innovations, such as waste and pollution, overlord-subservient relationships between individuals, a full and happy life only for a few, and a conversely dreary existence for the majority, are mentioned and taken as a perennial fact without further explanation. And finally, population control is hinted as a solution to the ecological dilemma in an earth with finite resources, but few ideas are offered on the implementation of such a strategy.
Hunter does convey the message across with his simple, clear, and uncluttered style. After starting his book I was compelled to continue reading until the end, and I sense that the ecological message will find a wider appeal when others replicate my experience.
Books:
- Exemplary Economists: Europe, Asia and Australasia (Elgar Monographs)
- Farmboy: Hard Work and Good Times on a Farm That Helped Change Northeast Agriculture
- Frederick Billings, A Life: From Gold Rush Lawyer to Railroad Builder to Conservationist
- From Rags to Riches: A Story of Abu Dhabi (London Centre for Arab Studies)
- From the Cotton Patch to the Country Club: A Lifetime of Investing
- From the Indian Kickapoo Reservation to the Bright City Lights
- Geoffrey Litwack 2002 Annual
- Good As Gold: An autobiography in three parts
- Green Colored Lenses
- Hardhat and Stetson: Robert O. Anderson, Oilman and Cattleman
Books Index
Books Home
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- The Earth Is My Mother
- Letters from A Self-Made Merchant to His Son
- SONNY BLOCH'S 171 WAYS TO MAKE MONEY IN
- Algal physiology and biochemistry
