Managing Your Energy At Work: The Key to Unlocking Hidden Potential in the Workplace

Book Description

"Wrong Way is a story of corporate intrigue, backroom dealings, shareholder activism - and the spectacular fall from grace of newspaper tycoon Conrad Black. Tautly written and fast-paced, Wrong Way is a corporate thriller that chronicles the excesses of a larger-than-life entrepreneur whose autocratic temperament and management style would prove to be his undoing."

Customer Reviews:

Great book, within its self-described limits.......2007-04-07

The authors promise a critical examination of Conrad Black and Hollinger International, and that is what they deliver. With the exception of Richard Breeden, and perhaps Christopher Browne, none of the major characters in the book go uncriticized at some point in it. The narrative is not only engrossing, but also is sufficiently fact-driven to allow a reader to draw his or her own conclusions about the causes of the implosion of Hollinger. (It is vaguely worded in spots, but that would only be a drawback for those who would use it as a textbook or monograph.)

It also has a new relevance thanks to the current trial of Conrad Black, Peter Atkinson, Jack Boultbee and Mark Kipnis. In fact, a recent prosecution witness, Fred Creasey, could have used this book to refresh his memory before his testimony in the trial. (Near-bottom of p. 53.) One other nice feature of this book is that it quotes the E-mails that Conrad Black wrote, recently excerpted in the media, in more copious detail than those excerpts reveal. This level of detail will satisfy the curiosity of anyone who's already read those quotes.

I have only one quibble with the book, which does not relate to its self-imposed limitation of time scope. In the Epilogue, the authors portray Conrad Black as a relic of a bygone age, but their sense of history is somewhat inaccurate. Rather than being a holdover from the nineteenth century, Conrad Black, to the extent to which he is a relic as a CEO, is a holdover from the management culture of the 1980s. When a proper history of that period is written, it will be found that the grandfather of that era was Frederic Donner, chairman and CEO of General Motors from 1958 to 1967. The ever-growing scandals of shareholder abuse are distorted mirrors of Mr. Donner's image; the distortion comes from the relaxation of Donner's well-known probity.

Book Description

Treaty Interpretation addresses two important constitutional questions, whether the United States should follow the normal international legal standard in treaty interpretation rooted in the intent of the treaty parties or a new "dual'" standard of interpretation rooted in the intent of the
Senate, and whether the Senate ever has constitutional authority to attach "domestic conditions" to treaties.

This book has emerged from the work of the author as a consultant to the Arms Control Agency in preparing a detailed study on the respective views of Judge Sofaer and Senator Nunn in the 1980s "broad-narrow" debate as to the correct interpretation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet
Union. This debate and the subsequent revisions to the Re-statement (Third International Conference) demonstrate the effect that one individual can have on the U.S. foreign policy.

A glimpse of constitutional issues on treaty interpretations

Professor Moore wrote from a personal perspective, giving your students a chance to feel the very human tension of one of the greatest debates of our time. With Treaty Interpretation, you will let your students see the people who are behind today's foreign policy, face-to-face.

This text illustrates a real world example of constitutional theory in practice. The separation of powers, as envisioned by our constitutional framers, is a constant struggle. A living example of the struggle to preserve a balance is demonstrated in this text as the distribution of power to
interpret and apply international agreements.

Describes the corpus of international agreements

The author carefully traces these impacts, differentiates them, and surfaces the nearly invisible, but profoundly important, constitutional issues in this "great debate."

A must-have for those interested in constitutional treaty laws

This book is a must for those concerned with treaty issues and constitutional law. This is an important reading for basic international law courses.

About the Author

John Norton Moore is one of the best-known international lawyers in the world. His writings on international law and constitutional dimensions of foreign policy have been read literally around the world. Among seven presidential appointments, most recently Professor Moore served for two terms as
the Senate-Confirmed Chairman of the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace. He has written and testified extensively on the constitutional issues and the conduct of United States foreign policy. He has also testified at Senate hearings on executive agreements and treaty
terminations.

Book Description

This volume provides an exhaustive review of the most current knowledge of the composition, architecture and dynamics of the nuclear envelope. In contrast to other comprehensive works on cellular membranes in general, this book is the first to specifically address the nuclear envelope. Experts in the field relate the different domains of the nuclear envelope, their biogenesis, their composition, their mode of targeting to chromosomes and how they dissociate from chromosomes upon cell division. A wealth of information from several experimental systems is provided, such as dividing somatic cells, embryos and nuclear assembly assays in cell-free extracts, in a wide range of vertebrate and invertebrate organisms ranging from humans to yeast. The book also contains up-to-date reviews on the relationship between mutations in proteins of the nuclear envelope and Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy. The breadth of topics covered in what may seem to be a field as narrow as the nuclear envelope makes this volume a valuable reference.

Nuclear Envelope Dynamics in Embryos and Somatic Cells.

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Nuclear Envelope Dynamics in Embryos and Somatic Cells.
Philippe Collas
Manufacturer: Kluwer Academic/Plenum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N6BJGK

Book Description

Sophisticated interactive maps are increasingly used to explore information - guiding us through data landscapes to provide information and prompt insight and understanding. Geovisualization is an emerging domain that draws upon disciplines such as computer science, human-computer interaction
design, cognitive sciences, graphical statistics, data visualization, information visualization, geographic information science and cartography to discuss, develop and evaluate interactive cartography.

This review and exploration of the current and future status of geovisualization has been produced by key researchers and practitioners from around the world in various cognate fields of
study. The thirty-six chapters present summaries of work undertaken, case studies focused on new methods and their application, system descriptions, tests of their implementation, plans for collaboration and reflections on experiences of using and developing geovisualization techniques.

In total, over 50 pages of color are provided in the book along with more than 250 color images on an enclosed CD-ROM.

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Exploring Geovisualization

Manufacturer: BUTTERWORTH HEINEMAN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GYTGFK

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Exploring Geovisualization
Jason Dykes
Manufacturer: ELSEVIER ORDER ^ FULFILLMENT
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N6BQO0

Book Description

How can new knowledge be created from already existing knowledge? Insights of Genius shows how seeing is central to the greatest advances of the human intellect. Artists and scientists alike rely on visual representations of worlds both visible and invisible.

Insights of Genius, first published by Copernicus in 1996, explores the creative leaps that led some of the greatest scientists and artists to dramatically transform how we understand nature. The scope of figures runs from Galileo and da Vinci to Einstein and Picasso. Focusing on the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the age of modern art and modern physics, the book travels through the philosophy of mind and language, cognitive science, neurophysiology, and art history. Insights of Genius discusses intuition, aesthetics, realism, representation, metaphors, and visual imagery. Allied to these concepts are causality, relativity, energy conservation, entropy, the correspondence principle, scientific creativity, and Cubism. Running through the book is the idea that science extends our intuition from common sense to an understanding of a world beyond our perception.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing read.......2006-08-04

As a lay reader of the history of science, I expected this book to provide a cogent study of scientific creativity and its parallels in art. I was very disappointed to find the author jumping from one subject to the next, often repeating his language verbatim. His self-congratulatory tone put me off as well. While I appreciate the careful research that must have gone into a book of such ambition, its failure to achieve clarity and momentum left me frustrated.

insights not very insightful.......2004-07-14

if you have not yet read this book then please dont becasue it is a complete waste of time. is there no limit to how arrogant a writer can get, the flow is incoherent, consatntly skipping from one subject matter to another without ever clearly explaning any of them. Also related is Einstien and Picasso another Miler book not worth reading at all. This book he claims is the deinitive work on Einstien, but it is not much more than a uncomplete biography which would not even cover the facts needed for a GCSE project. Waste of time! he talks about creativity, no where is it seen in any of these two books

Fascinating mix of science history and philosophy........1997-02-01

Whereas the author's main thesis concerns imagery and intuition as they help (or hinder) scientific progress, I liked this book more simply for its historical detail. Also, it was fascinating for his summaries of philosophy of science (and history of philosophy of science). It is not a book for the science phobic but it is not overly technical. One nice feature is that the philosphical issues continue right up to the "science wars" of the 1990's. It is an excellent book for all students of science

Book Description

RomeÂ's famed historian illuminates the twilight of the old Roman Republic from 157 to 43 BC in succinct accounts of the greatest politicians and statesmen of the classical period.

Customer Reviews:

Ambition is the most destructive of all powers (Euripides).......2007-05-09

Plutarch's 6 biographies of Roman politicians/generals give a fair picture of a decadent Rome in the 1st century B.C.: mighty unequal distribution of wealth and `legal safeguards inadequate to deter the forces of law and order from murder.' `Since the whole state was rotten within itself, it was in the power of any bold man to overthrow it.' Bold were men like the generals, `who had risen to the top by violence.'

Plutarch's portraits of `Gaius Marius' and `Crassus' are very superficial.
On the contrary, his picture of `Sulla', the first Roman dictator, is very clear-cut: `Sulla, a butcher. (He got) immunity for all his past acts, while for the future he was to have the power of life and death, the power to confiscate property, to found new cities or to demolish existing ones.'
A brave `Cicero' attacked Sulla's murky business transactions in court.
`Pompey' restored the powers of the tribunes, the representatives of the plebeians, and the rights of the classes outside the Senate to serve on juries in law courts. He worked together with `Caesar' to destroy the powers of the aristocracy. After they grabbed power, they fought one another: `armies of the same kin, ranks of brothers, here the whole manhood and might of a single state was involved in self-destruction.'
Why did they fight? Out of greed and personal rivalry.
Caesar won and asked to be given all powers. The Romans opted for the Hobbes/Machiavelli solution: `the rule of one man would give them respite from the miseries of the civil wars, and so they appointed Caesar dictator for life. This meant an undistinguished tyranny; his power was now not only absolute, but perpetual `... until the Ides of March.

Plutarch's dramatic talent produced a shocking tale, full of `putting to death', `cutting into pieces', burning to the ground, slaughtering, enslaving, looting and plundering.
A must read for all those interested in the history of mankind.

One extra, two missing.......2007-01-01

I must disagree with "Paper Man". Plutarch is sure to insert his opinion everywhere in this book. It is very obvious that he is one of Pompey's biggest fan's and althought he respects Caesar, he is no fan of him at all. He made sure to state that the fall of the republic and one of Pompey's biggest mistakes was to befriend Julius Caesar, and that their friendship, not their fighting, led to the fall of the republic.

We must take this book for what it is. This book contains the same information as in his "Lives". There are just a few essays in this book that are considered key players in the end of the republic era. If I were the authors (editors) of this book, I would have included Marc Antony and Augustus. They also play key roles in the formation of the empire from the republic. This book also lacks the comparisons of the Lives.

This book is a short collection for those whom may not have the patience to read all of the "Lives" and want to focus on a few main characters, Sulla, Marius, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar and Cicero. I have already stated that Antony and Augustus should have been in this book, and I can't figure out why Cicero was included, since he is a passionate republican and I cannot see how he had any motives to seek absolute power, as the other five did.

Take this for what it is worth.

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History.......2005-08-10

Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome. Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years. Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline. He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer. Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus". By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid. In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome. When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work. His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Excellent for the closet Romaphile.......2004-07-18

Plutarch is not a historian often seen in the diluted cirriculum of the modern American High School, but I would argue that his love of the dramatic, moving battle scenes,and relatively easy-to-comprehend style would do much do endear the modern student to ancient Rome.

There are (justifiable) arguments, of course, that Plutarch too often put personal bias and a love of "storytelling" above historical fact. While this may be true, is what comes to us of Rome by way of the Pop Culture filter any better? The context in which most people think of Rome is either that of Biblical or Russell Crowe. Can Plutarch's approximations be any worse?

Though this edition appears to have been hastily compiled at some points (very little reference/glossary material to speak of), I still reccomend this book to:

1) Casual readers who wish to know more about an exciting period of history that has affected everything from our calendar to our way of government, and

2) History/Humanities teachers tired of purely analytical views of Rome. Let your students know that Rome had IT'S editorialists, too.

WHY THE REPUBLIC FELL?.......2002-10-08

I feel a bit strange writting a review about any classic. Its a bit like writing a review of the Koran or the Bible. There is a reason why all these books are classics, and the reason is that they give some glimpse at the immutable nature of mankind.

Plutarch describes a nation wracked by personal divisions during the Roman Civil War with chapters on some of the major participants in this conflict: a true fall from grace for both the people of Rome and the institution of republicanism. There is a lot here that is exciting, such as the war against the Parthians, Jugurthia and the personal rivalries between Ceasar and Pompey.

The writing moves from what I would classify as mildly interesting, usually at the beginning of each chapter as he relates the youth, familiar, and power influences on the personal development of each live, to ripping tales of combat, honour lost and found, and principled peoples meeting usually, bloody fates. Lives of particular note are Pompey and Cicero in this book, but my personal favourite was Crassus, his fight against the slave revolt of Spartacus and his eventual annihilation with his entire army against the Parthians. The other real character that keeps popping up in each chapter is Cato, a political idealist who commited suicide for his repulican ideals when there was every indication that Ceasar respected him and would have spared his life despite Cato's defection to Pompey.

There is lots here that is of course raw speculation: I think that it is unlikely that Ceasar really had dictatorship on his mind since his early youth, but Plutarch would have us believe that it was almost forordained that Ceasar wanted personal control of the State.

Plutarch is much more interesting to read than Ceasar or Livy. So if you are looking for a good place to enter the classics, this is one good read.

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Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives (Penguin Classics)

Manufacturer: Penguin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000H3OK10

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Fall of the Roman Republic : Six Lives By Plutarch
Plutarch
Manufacturer: Penguin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KXFQLU

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Fall of the Roman Republic - Six lives
Plutarch - translation by Rex Warner
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IOVUES

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Fall of the Roman Republic: Marius, Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, Cicero: six lives; (Penguin classics)
Plutarch
Manufacturer: Penguin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007AKLBG

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The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives
Plutarch
Manufacturer: Penguin Paperback
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VTTK2O

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The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives
PLUTARCH
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJHJ0G

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Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives Marius, Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, Cicero
R. Plutarchus
Manufacturer: Penguin USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000VTOERA

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Five Stars

Fantabulous!!

Fascinating but flawed...

Very nice...

An Incredible, Tragic Life

Little Mother of Russia: A Biography of Empress Marie Fedorovna (1847-1928)
Coryne Hall
Manufacturer: Holmes and Meier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Royalty | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Russia | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0841914222

Customer Reviews:

Five Stars.......2007-09-01

This was the hardest book to find it after five years of searching and two failed attempts I finally found it. It was certainly worth the wait. It was well researched and written. The Empress Marie certainly had anamazing life and one of the few to survive the Russian Revolution which most ofher family was killed including two of her children and five grandchildren. Even though she went to her grave still believing they were still alive some where. It must have been easier to accept then the fact they were killed. I enjoyed learning about her childhood in Denmark and her marriage which was pretty romantic. An excellent book.

Fantabulous!!.......2007-05-19

This book was incredible, It was all I hoped for and more. :-) Seriously, it was worth what it cost, because it seems the author left no stone unturned on what they ate, what they wore, everything. If you're a history lover such as myself, you'll love this book!

Fascinating but flawed..........2005-05-26

As a die-hard Romanov fan, I found the story of Empress Marie Feodorovna in Little Mother of Russia by Coryne Hall to be fascinating. Unfortunately, errors and oversights by Hall kept this from being a truly great biography.

Marie, the former Princess Dagmar of Denmark, is best known as the mother of the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas II. This is a rags to riches to almost rags story. Dagmar was born into one of the poorer branches of the Danish Royal Family. Although not heir to the throne, circumstances lead to her father being crowned King Christian IX. Her sister Alix eventually became Queen Alexandra of England (married to Edward VII), and her brother became King George I of Greece. Dagmar was not as beautiful as Alix, but she had velvety eyes, a caring heart, a petite figure and a sense of style. She was originally engaged to the Russian Tsarevitch Nicholas. When Nicholas died suddenly, his brother Alexander (Sasha) took Dagmar as his bride. This was a marriage of opposites, yet it was one of the happiest among any royal family at that time. When Sasha ascended the throne on the assassination of his father, Alexander II, Dagmar became the glittering and very popular Empress Marie Feodorovna.

Sasha and Marie had a happy family life and reared five children. But their biggest failing was raising Tsarevitch Nicholas to be a weak man, totally unprepared for the crown. When Sasha died suddenly at the age of 49, Marie's life took a dramatic turn when she found herself on the outside looking in.

Nicholas was totally dominated by his wife, Alexandra. The situation became worse when after the birth of four daughters, the empress finally gave birth to a son and heir, Alexis. Soon after his birth, it was discovered that Alexis suffered from hemophilia. In desperation, Nicholas and Alexandra turned to a number of quacks and mystics before meeting up with the infamous Rasputin. Marie could only sit by helplessly as Russia headed toward revolution.

Little Mother Russia shows how Marie was a woman of contradictions. She was a loving and devoted mother to her oldest three children. But after she became empress, she became more remote and detached to the two youngest. She was an anti-Semite, yet treated Jews with kindness. She wasn't the most intelligent woman, but she was clever, witty and possessed a strong political acumen. Marie had a talent for toning down her often stubborn and autocratic husband. It wasn't until after Sasha's death that she became stubborn herself, as well as selfish and demanding.

After the revolution, Marie lost almost everything including two sons, five grandchildren, assorted in-laws, her palaces, her wealth and most of her possessions. She lived the rest of her life in her native Denmark, supported by her two nephews, King George V (England) and King Christian X (Denmark). Her meager allowances did not allow her to live as an empress, although she certainly tried.

Unfortunately, there are a number of problems that detract from this book. First, there are a number of typos and errors that are unacceptable. Little Mother of Russia is generously sprinkled with Russian terms without explanations. I had to go on Google to discover that a panikhida is a memorial service. The ending was rushed and not well documented. On page 357, she states that the remains of two bodies, believed to be Alexis and the missing grand duchess, were discovered near Ekaterinburg and were awaiting DNA testing. She does not document where she got this information, and I have not seen this mentioned anywhere else.

Even with these problems, Marie led a fascinating life and Little Mother of Russia is quite interesting. Just the photos are worth the price of the book-many never before seen. So while I thought this book was good, it could have been much better.

Very nice..........2004-03-16

From Dagmar of Demark to Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, this beautiful woman was nonetheless a remarkable person. One doesn't see many biographies as of late on the last living Empress of Russia. Coryne Hall does a good job in helping us remember a great icon in Russian history.

An Incredible, Tragic Life.......2003-06-04

I can't improve on the reviewers below, but I must say this is a very comprehensive, yet readable biography, one that is a "must have" for any Romanov fan. The life of Empress Marie is one of extremes. Born in a rather insignificant branch of royalty, she is catapulted to one of the most glittering kingdoms of its time. And yet, despite the tremendous wealth, her life is marked by tremendous tragedy. I had always wanted to learn more about Marie since reading Robert Massie's "Nicholas and Alexandra", and this book does not disappoint. My only two (minor) complaints are 1) rather sloppy editing (in one family tree a member is 130 years old when she dies) and 2) I find the book slightly overpriced at [item price]. Despite this, however, I do recommend this biography of an incredibly interesting woman. I think you will enjoy it.

Average customer rating:

Interesting; entertaining; necessarily disappointing

Still reading it... do not let the poilitical physics misguide you

Critical Mass

Almost great...

To be shunned...

Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another
Philip Ball
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

War & Peace | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Social Theory | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
General | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books
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The Wisdom of Crowds

ASIN: 0374530416
Release Date: 2006-05-16

Book Description

Are there “natural laws” that govern the ways in which humans behave and organize themselves, just as there are physical laws that govern the motions of atoms and planets? Unlikely as it may seem, such laws now seem to be emerging from attempts to bring the tools and concepts of physics into the social sciences. These new discoveries are part of an old tradition. In the seventeenth century the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, dismayed by the impending civil war in England, decided that he would work out what kind of government was needed for a stable society. His solution sparked a new way of thinking about human behavior in looking for the “scientific” rules of society.

Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Auguste Comte, and John Stuart Mill pursued this idea from different political perspectives. But these philosophers lacked the tools that modern physics can now bring to bear on the matter. Philip Ball shows how, by using these tools, we can understand many aspects of mass human behavior. Once we recognize that we do not make most of our decisions in isolation but are affected by what others decide, we can start to discern a surprising and perhaps even disturbing predictability in our laws, institutions, and customs.

Lively and compelling, Critical Mass is the first book to bring these new ideas together and to show how they fit within the broader historical context of a rational search for better ways to live.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting; entertaining; necessarily disappointing.......2007-05-15

CM is well-written, thoughtful throughout, and often quite interesting. PB does a very able job of describing a broad range of social science scholarship, some of it mainstream, some of it fringe, all of it having to do with the application of concepts and methods drawn mainly from the physical sciences to the study of various human phenomena. Throughout, the author presents his material with assurance. However, it seems to me that it is only when he discusses the behavior of the likes of pedestrians or car drivers that he writes from a position of certainty (or reasonable certainty at least). At the end of the day, it is one thing to model traffic flow and quite another to model just about any other type of large-scale social behavior. Applying hard scientific notions to the former seems reasonable enough, and often enough yields reasonable predictions of future 'behavior'. Applying them to the latter, however, seems vanishingly less reasonable, the more complex the behavior under consideration -- and the more players (subject to variable motivations) who contribute to it. Moreover, as the many (very interesting) cases PB discusses show, over and over, the more complex the phenomenon/behavior under consideration, the less rigorously have hard scientific concepts been applied to its analysis. One cannot escape the feeling that so much of the "science" that PB invokes (or, in fairness, that he quotes others as invoking), is only speciously applied to social science problems, serving merely to provide compelling metaphors (the behavior of persons resembling that of particles in thermodynamic systems, etc.). It is certainly interesting that Bell Curves, Power Laws, phase changes, and so forth recur (or at least seem to recur), often unexpectedly, in different contexts. Interesting facts piled on interesting facts, however, do not add up to science -- a science of description perhaps (if such be science), but hardly one of prediction.

There is much of interest in CM, and I very much enjoyed reading it. In the end, though, the book felt like so much sand through my fingers. Far from establishing the legitimacy or the utility of a 'physics' of society, CM left me wondering whether the social sciences have really progressed at all since the time of Hobbes and Locke, Hume and Smith, etc., etc. Having finished CM, I am far more interested in reading the great works of political philosophy than I am in further studying current trends in the science of society. I thank PB for giving me some insight into the latter, and for providing an incisive and compelling overview of the former.

Still reading it... do not let the poilitical physics misguide you.......2007-04-07

My Profile 43 yo Mechanical Engineer.. beginner enterpreneur

First I am only in chapter 6, so I will revisit this review and edit accordingly.

As an admirer of the style of Dr. Ball's way of making chemistry accesible to everyone (specially me).. I was just curious by the comments and the approach of this new book, so when I saw the price was right I bought my used copy..just started some days ago and wow!! talk about a tour d force! I went back to my collegue years to remeber the classical political theorist and Hobbes.. just when I thought it was going to be a lecture in political theory, we are taken ino the realms of thermodymamics and statistical physics as models to be used for political physics..but I have not reach that part already, what I think its that this book is a must as a way to teach thermodynamics!!!

So I must admitt I am kind of slow to learn, but if the principles and scopes of thermo were explained as in Critical Mass, then universities would at least be true to the root of word universal.. and that in those times men of science were holistics in their endevours and connected everything in their theories.. if that was good or not let us judge by history.. but at least we were not surrounded by specialist in their ivory towers.. getting back at the book, if thermodynamics is a dry subject be prepared to be enlighten, wow! I even dusted out my "Thermodynamics, Kinetic Theory , and Statistical Thermodynamics" by Sears-Salinger ad began to see the light on the chapters on phase transitions.. in a way, I felt like if the fear of having to hear the axioms and descriptions was shedded off by Dr. Balls's explanations.. do not believe me? see if it happens too.

Again, Im in chapter 6, so there is a lot to see, but only for the thermodymaics insight the book is worth its weight in gold

Critical Mass.......2007-03-08

The book starts a little slowly, but the introductory chapters are needed to set the foundation for the rest of the book. It is well written and provides much provocative food for thought.

A good read and well worth the effort.

Almost great..........2006-11-11

Philip Ball has constructed a very interesting and entertaining survey of parallels between results in physics (like the hysteresis curve of magnetic materials) and results regarding human activity (like the relationship between crime and the severity of the criminal justice system). He finds many relationships that look like phase transitions with critical points, and several phenomena with implicit power law relationships, among other parallels.

What I could have done without are Dr. Ball's frequent qualifying statements regarding the moral and ethical implications of the theories, and his statements about the shortcomings of economics. (The latter appears to be a current focus of his, judging from a recent editorial he wrote for the Financial Times where he made a case for throwing out any theory based on the fully rational agent, "homo economicus" and/or market equilibria, and starting from scratch. Not surprisingly, his editorial spurred many letters to the editor.) In terms of the former, I think Dr. Ball is conflicted when the theory conflicts with his sense of fairness. Many times, he injects qualifying statements where he does not like the human implications of a theory. He even inserts an entire chapter at the end cautioning that government policy should not be based on the (to him) less palatable implications of the theories. He is obviously a believer in significant governmental interference in the free market.

In summary, I really enjoyed the book, but I think it would have been better without the distracting qualifying statements.

To be shunned..........2006-11-09

I am an academic economist who frequently collaborates with scientists and find that interdisciplinary collaboration is often fruitful and that there are clear synergies from letting scholars from different fields interact. I therefore purchased this book with the expectation of being exposed to useful ideas. I was sadly disappointed. The book starts with stating the need for behavioral physics. I smiled a little at this, since economists have been doing this for 150 years, but I guessed that you can't know everything. Then the author started writing about economics. Oh boy! Either the author is truly ignorant of economic research the last 50 years or this guy is to scientific writing what Ann Coulter is to punditry. I doubt that there is a single economic concept that the author has understood. A fundamental concept such as Pareto optimality is botched. Apparently there is evidence that prices fall when demand grows which would be news to most economists (including Adam Smith who is supposed to have expressed this interesting idea.) The author states that economists look for theories that enables prediction of market movements whereas real traders know that this is not possible. Any economist will tell you that the truth is the other way around. In fact, economists know that unless there is asymmetric information among traders it is not possible to consistently outperform the market. Real traders make a living trying to do so. And the statement that microeconomic models ignore interactions between agents is just laughable. In fact economics is a holistic science in the sense that it is explicitly acknowledged that actions are interconnected. This is what general equilibrium analysis is all about. (I don't recall the publication date of Cournot's market model but it was a long time ago.) I could come up with more examples of nonsense but if you want a laugh, just borrow the book at the library. I am concerned with the disingenousness of the writing style. There is no end to the number of statements like "Some economists believe," "mosts economists will" and "many think that." Since I don't recognize any of this I can only assume that he made these things up. The other approach is to cherry pick bad ideas from the past and present them as current practice. (Kontradieff cycles!!!)

In my interactions with scientists I have often despired about the calvalier attitude they have to economics. They seem to think that having a Ph.D. in e.g. physics means that they are super-smart (which they often are) so something as trivial as economics must be dead simple to them. This leads them to say the dumbest things like claiming that energy should be the unit of account when measuring value. It seems to me that having a brain that understands quantum mechanics and relativity makes you supremely unable to understand elemenetary aspect of behavioral science. (Although you may be able to predict behaviour in queues and other not very interesting patterns.) The contrast with biology is interesting. The flow of useful ideas between biologists and economists has been very beneficial to both sciences and promise to be more so in the future.

Critical Mass How One Thing Leads to Another

Average customer rating:

Critical Mass How One Thing Leads to Another
Philip Ball
Manufacturer: Arrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000P6PWUC

Average customer rating:

Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another
Philip Ball
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OX8N0W

Book Description

Recent years have witnessed a fundamental change in the way governments approach energy-related environmental issues. In recognition of this change and in preparation to the Fourth Conference of the Parties (COP-4) meeting under the U.N. Climate Convention in Buenos-Aires (November, 1998), the IEA has prepared the second edition of its published statistics on CO2 emissions from fuel combustion. The data in this book are designed to assist in understanding the evolution of these emissions from 1971 to 1996 for more than 140 countries and regions by sector and by fuel. Emissions were calculated using IEA energy databases and the default methods and emission factors from the Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.

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