Ensuring Health and Income Security for an Aging Workforce

Book Description

The contributors to this volume highlight the implications of an aging workforce on social programs such as Social Security, Medicare and other forms of medical insurance, workers' compensation, and unemployment insurance

Ensuring Health and Income Security For An Aging Workforce. (Recent Books). (book review): An article from: International Labour Review

Average customer rating:

Ensuring Health and Income Security For An Aging Workforce. (Recent Books). (book review): An article from: International Labour Review
Christine L. Smith
Manufacturer: International Labour Office
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008IOYFQ
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from International Labour Review, published by International Labour Office on September 1, 2001. The length of the article is 513 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: Ensuring Health and Income Security For An Aging Workforce. (Recent Books). (book review)
Author: Christine L. Smith
Publication: International Labour Review (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2001
Publisher: International Labour Office
Volume: 140 Issue: 3 Page: 368(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Richard Musgrave is one of the most eminent public finance economists of our time. In this third volume of essays, Professor Musgrave once more takes a broad view of fiscal institutions, their nature and functions.

Traditions of fiscal theory and their impact on the author's work are discussed and their linkage to theories of the state and of distributive justice are examined. Selected topics include: the foundations of public finance, equity in taxation, tax reform, federalism and budget growth.

Public Finance in a Democratic Society will be of interest to scholars and students of public finance, political economy and public policy.

Average customer rating:
Macroeconomics + Code Card for DiscoverEcon Online + Solman DVD
Campbell R McConnell , and Campbell McConnell
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Macroeconomics | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy, Brief Edition (9th Edition)

Study Guide for use with Macroeconomics

World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery

Catholic Social Teaching - Student Text (Revised)

Interactive Calculus 3.0

ASIN: 0072881984

Book Description

McConnell-Brue’s Principles of Macroeconomics, 15 is the best-selling textbook and has been teaching students in a clear, unbiased way for 40 years. The 14th edition grew market share because of its clear and careful treatment of principles of macroeconomics concepts, its balanced coverage, and its patient explanations. More students have learned their principles of Macroeconomics from McConnell-Brue than any other text-12 million of them. The 15th edition is a substantial revision that delivers a tighter, modern, Internet-savvy book.

Customer Reviews:

Excellence in Craft Award.......1998-12-24

Note from the author: Since publication, this book has been selected for an Excellence in Craft Award from the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association.

great for all ages.......1998-07-14

Jim Mize's book, "The Winter of our Discount Tent" caught my eye because of the title. Anything with that title had to be funny and it is! I love the author's take on nature : i.e."carp spawn in the mud 'cause they're so ugly". There's so much more! I was impressed to find this book on my child's middle school reading list, also. Each chapter is a story in itself, so if you can't read for long periods of time, you will feel satisfied after a chapter or two, but you'll find you can't wait to get back!

funny, well-written, visually descriptive.......1998-07-01

"The Winter of our Discount Tent "is a delightfully funny book of stories that can be read over short periods of time, picked up later and never miss a beat. Based on the author's experiences, you'll find yourself laughing out loud. If you like Patrick McManus, you'll love Jim Mize!

Book Description

"I was never a child. I never was coddled, or liked, or understood by my family. I never felt I belonged." Thus begins this autobiography.

Customer Reviews:

His Eye Is On The Sparrow.......2007-07-08

Whew, what an upbringing, what a life. Waters goes into great detail about her rearing in the slums of Philadelphia, her life as vaudevillian Sweet Mama Stringbean and finally the Ethel Waters of stage, screen, and records. I didn't really know much about Miss Waters other than her role in the movie Pinky, so this book provided great insight into her life. Pretty good. The conversational tone makes it easy to read.

Wonderful.......2006-05-06

One need not be African-American to love this book. It is a deep insight into a tough time. She talks of things usual life
does not include, as the powerlessness of women doing full nude strip dancing when one or a few refused to have customers give them money in a particularly intrusive way--what awaited such women and what choices did they really have. Neitzsche called Evil, "All that which proceeds out of weakness." He could have had this book in mind. Yet Ethel Water's life has more than defeat.

If you are not moved by this book, you must have a large problem.

His Eye Was on Ethel/Ethel's Eye on Him.......2005-01-16

I've had the hardback 1951 copy of this book for some time, just picked it up to read last week. It is an astounding story of faith, determination, and strength;It is also an excellent insight into Black History pre-Martin Luther King. I hope the paperback version of this is being read. (and I wish Nikki Giovanni would read it as well).
Highly recommended.

Best Book I Ever Read.......2004-01-08

When I was a kid, I knew Ethel Waters as that gray haired old lady that sang at the Billy Graham events on TV... In reading this autobiography I discovered the incredible legacy of her recordings and films.

"His Eye Is On the Sparrow" reads just like you're sitting in the room talking with this remarkable woman... The book not only shares the details of her fascinating career, but it is also an absorbing historical record of early 20th century show business and American society. Absolutely fascinating, warm, funny and poignant.

one of the best memoirs i've ever read.......2001-10-15

Read this book and you will see why the incomparable Miss Waters was a force to be reckoned with in her day. The writing is honest and takes the reader into a show biz world that mirrored the complexities of the segregated and racialized society at large during the first half of the 20th century. Rather than a rags to riches, this is more of a from poverty to success to survival story. I laughed out loud more than once at her candor and sharp observations. As a fan of Ethel Water's singing - before I found her memoir - I felt privileged to also read her own words on the life she lived.

His Eye is on the Sparrow, an Autobiography with Charles Samuels.

Average customer rating:

His Eye is on the Sparrow, an Autobiography with Charles Samuels.
Ethel WATERS
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GT3TJO

Average customer rating:

His Eye is on the Sparrow, an Autobiography.
Ethel & Samuels, Charles. Waters
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KITSFA

Average customer rating:

His Eye is on the Sparrow, an Autobiography.
Ethel & Samuels, Charles. Waters
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KIPUY8

Average customer rating:

HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
WATERS ETHEL WITH CHARLES SAMUELS
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PGNQRS

Average customer rating:

His Eye is on the Sparrow. An Autobiography.
Ethel with Samuels, Charles Waters
Manufacturer: Da Capo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSX5RS

His Eye is on the Sparrow: An Autobiography of Ethel Waters.

Average customer rating:

His Eye is on the Sparrow: An Autobiography of Ethel Waters.

Manufacturer: 0
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ICHEYK

Book Description

The most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Audition 2.0!

Classroom in a Book, the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, helps you learn the features of Adobe software quickly and easily. Classroom in a Book offers what no other book or training program does--an official training series from Adobe Systems Incorporated, developed with the support of Adobe product experts.

Adobe Audition 2.0 Classroom in a Book contains thirteen lessons and a bonus CD with lesson files. The book covers the basics of learning Adobe Audition, and countless tips and techniques to help you quickly become an Audition expert. You'll learn how to work and edit in a multitrack mixing environment, create audio effects and original soundtracks with loops, restore poor-quality audio, export to CD and MP3, and more. You'll also learn about Audition 2.0's new features, including low-latency mixing with unlimited tracks, ASIO support, audible scrubbing, analog-modeled Multiband Compressor, recordable parameter automation with external hardware support, and more. You can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you.

Customer Reviews:

Lots to learn in Auditon 2.......2007-03-09

A great book and cd of data. Because of not the greatest help files and no tutorials that came with Audition 2.0 this program while very powerful can be quite intimidatiing. Classroom in a book is very helpful in getting started and learning how to use the program.

. . . for the cautious.......2007-02-18

Could be considered a waste of time by many who are more experienced with applications of this sort. The difficult part is sticking to the tutorials and not wandering off on your own. Everything covered here can be accessed via the help files and user guide. Adobe might want to consider putting a little more effort into features such as a midi sequencer than reiterating itself.

EXASPERATING BUT INDISPENSIBLE.......2006-09-21

Above all, make sure the version of Audition 2.0 Classroom in a Book IS FOR YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM. Also understand that you must have the program to make sense of the manual.

Classroom in a Book is a good guide, but it has two omissions.

Anyone is in their rights to expect that a guide of this sort would have at least a few passages about live recording---but there is exactly one passing sentence in the entire manual about live recording. In Multitrack View the tracks have a panel wherein (among a great many other virtual dials and buttons and such) there is an "M" button, a "S" button, and an "R" button. "M" is for mute, which is explained more than once (even more than twice over the course of the book). "S" is for "Solo", which is also explained to its death over and over again. But as for the "R" button there is only one sentence regarding it.

"R" is "Armed for Record".

Now, maybe someone with a background in audio-editing software knows full well what "Armed for Record" means. Even for a rank beginner like me it wasn't that hard to figure out, I'll admit, but still for a book to go on and on about the other two buttons and to just mention the third term without any further comment seems to me a fundamental lapse. In my case it made for the beginning of a series of exasperating stumbles.

Going at it blind, I simply clicked on "R" and got a message informing me that the best recording was achieved by switching to ASIO. I knew that ASIO meant "Audio Stream In/Out" and had something to do with the new sound card that I had installed. The old sound card that had originally come with the computer was still in there, but apparently from what the message said I would only get mediocre results if I didn't switch by going to Edit and clicking on Audio Hardware Set-Up and following instructions from there on. Needless to say, this was easily done, and in seconds I had switched the program to my new audio card, which any intermediate or advanced user would have known to do from the get-go. Why install the card and not make sure the program was set to it? Ordinarily I would not even admit to anybody that I had to be told to do this; it's embarrassing; but still Audition is a very involved program; there's a lot to learn; and I was just very new to this whole business.

Anyway, I switched, and that should have been the end of it, but sadly the minute I switched my "R" buttons went gray and became inoperable! What's that? Maybe there's no problem on a Mac; I wouldn't know. All I know is that I'm a Windows XP Home Edition guy as I write this; and I lost my "R" buttons!

To say this upset me and got me mad is an understatement. The next morning I was in a better frame of mind and logically went over the steps and saw that there was a pattern to what was happening. For some reason switching to ASIO will gray out the "R" buttons, but if you close the program and go back to it you'll have your "R" buttons back and still be in ASIO.

It's that simple, but there's no mention of it in the book.

Of course, "Armed for Record" must be followed up by clicking on the circular red button on what is called the "Transport Panel" at the bottom of the screen. You're left to guess this, but anyone who has operated a ghetto blaster or a VCR knows what that red circle is; but still it would nice for Adobe to spell this out for us intimidated newbies.

The other big omission gets back to the same lapse as the other one. The book does not bother to point out that switching to ASIO in Multitrack View will not carry over to Edit View. It may not seem like a big deal, but I freaked out when my stuff sounded so weak in Edit View. I couldn't figure it out. The louder I got it in Edit View the more obnoxiously deafening it became in Multitrack View because the two "views" were coming at me through two entirely different sound cards!

Finally I realized what the problem was. Duh . . .

On the positive side in the last analysis it's actually very nice that the two windows can have different settings to let me know how the same file will sound on different computers. My thing with this will be podcasting, and podcasting is about posting on the Net, so one should be aiming at a happy medium that accommodates ordinary cards and quality cards alike. I'm getting better and better at it. The quality will never be a sound stage level thing, but I'm fast approaching the same smoothness of an FM radio commercial.

So go with this book, yes, but keep my comments in mind as you go.

Average customer rating:

Adobe Audition 2.0 Classroom in a Book
Adobe Creative Team
Manufacturer: Adobe Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K6JR9Y

Book Description

From the jungles of Vietnam to the unforgiving deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq, one breed of soldier has achieved legendary status in the arena of combat -- the sniper. Their only mission: wait, watch, and when the target is in sight, put the...

Crosshairs on the Kill Zone

From the authors of the classic sniper chronicle One Shot-One Kill comes a new generation of true tales from some of the most expert and deadly marksmen in the world. Meet Adelbert Waldron II, whose 109 confirmed kills in Vietnam made him the most successful sniper in American military history, and Tom "Moose" Ferran, who coined the term "Fetch!", whereupon the infantry would retrieve the sniper's dead quarry. Also included are stories from snipers in Beirut, the Bosnian conflict, and both wars with Iraq -- including the feat of Sergeants Joshua Hamblin and Owen Mulder, who took down thirty-two enemy soldiers in a single day outside Baghdad in 2003.

The military sniper has evolved into one of the most dangerous and highly-skilled warrior professions. They suffer through weather, terrain, and enemy action, lay unmoving for days on end, and take out their targets with unerring accuracy -- proving that the deadliest weapon in any battle, anywhere in the world, is a single well-aimed shot.

Download Description

"From the jungles of Vietnam to the unforgiving deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq, one breed of soldier has achieved legendary status in the arena of combat -- the sniper. Their only mission: wait, watch, and when the target is in sight, put the... Crosshairs on the Kill Zone From the authors of the classic sniper chronicle One Shot-One Kill comes a new generation of true tales from some of the most expert and deadly marksmen in the world. Meet Adelbert Waldron II, whose 109 confirmed kills in Vietnam made him the most successful sniper in American military history, and Tom ""Moose"" Ferran, who coined the term ""Fetch!"", whereupon the infantry would retrieve the sniper's dead quarry. Also included are stories from snipers in Beirut, the Bosnian conflict, and both wars with Iraq -- including the feat of Sergeants Joshua Hamblin and Owen Mulder, who took down thirty-two enemy soldiers in a single day outside Baghdad in 2003. The military sniper has evolved into one of the most dangerous and highly-skilled warrior professions. They suffer through weather, terrain, and enemy action, lay unmoving for days on end, and take out their targets with unerring accuracy -- proving that the deadliest weapon in any battle, anywhere in the world, is a single well-aimed shot. "

Customer Reviews:

A Good Read.......2007-07-29

This book is composed of a number of really good stories and documentation of actual military snipers at work, and how they got to be snipers. It also shows how important these men are to modern day warfare, particularly when they have at hand a 50 caliber rifle that can be fired one shot at a time. Also,up to date military technology, such as laser distance finders and NVG's (Night Vision Goggles) make these snipers a key and overwhelming element in modern warfare.

A good addition to the library.......2006-07-28

This collection of real stories explains the thoughts, emotions, tactics, skills, and importance of a snipers role in modern warfare and importance it has on positive results. Explained in real simple context but yet detailed down to every intense and drop of sweet moment.

A good book.......2006-07-10

For people that have an interest in Snipers and all they do, you've probably heard or read these stories before. Still, Carlos Hathcock's story is a good read again and again.

Crosshairs on the Kill Zone.......2005-10-01

Excellent account of the history of sniping with detailed stories of many who have served in this capacity throughout this country's wars. Almost as good as Carlos Hathcock's own account of his days in Viet Nam. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this unique style of warfare or who has an eye and ear for history.

Eye opening combat book.......2005-08-28

This is an extremely enlightening collection of short accounts of snipers during wartime. It was extremely interesting to my wife as her cousin wrote one of the articles about his Vietnam experiences. Each chapter had its special moments,but none more poignant than his when he wrote of his best "shot". In this example it was a case of him not taking off his safety which kept him from mistaking one of his own marines for a N. Viet namese. The whole book is filled with examples of heroism and real dedication to their comrades.

Average customer rating:

A beautifully written history from a unique perspective.

Pueblo Nations: Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History
Joe S. Sando
Manufacturer: Clear Light Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Native American | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Pueblo Indians of North America

Pueblo Profiles: Cultural Identity Through Centuries of Change

Pueblo People: Ancient Traditions, Modern Lives

Po'pay: Leader of the First American Revolution

The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion that Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest

ASIN: 0940666073

Customer Reviews:

A beautifully written history from a unique perspective........2001-02-20

As a member of the Sun Clan of the Jemez people, Joe Sando was in a unique position to research and write this history. As a scholar trained at Eastern New Mexico State and at Vanderbilt, he developed his skills as an historian. As a person he retained his empathy and humanity while confronting the unjust policies that have been visited on the Pueblo peoples by the Spanish, Mexican and United States governments. If you are interested in a well-balanced, incisive history of the New Mexico Pueblo people (the Hopi are not covered here), this book is worth the money to buy, the effort to read and the time to understand.

Pueblo Nations. Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History

Average customer rating:

Pueblo Nations. Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History
Joe S. Sando. Forewar By Regis Pecos.
Manufacturer: Clear Light
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SVWBWG

Average customer rating:

Nicely researched

In the eye of the beholder

Good for pop psychology, but highly unscientific.

Not scientifically robust, but maybe a good fit for a dinner talk

Is beauty an honest advertiser?

Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty
Nancy Etcoff
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Beauty & Fashion | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Biology | Biological Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating

The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls

Why We Love: The Nature And Chemistry Of Romantic Love

The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature

ASIN: 0385479425
Release Date: 2000-07-11

Amazon.com

In the latter part of the 20th century, the adage "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" has evolved far beyond its original intent as an admonition against false vanity to become a cultural manifesto used to explain phenomena as diverse as the art of Andy Warhol and the rise of a multi-billion-dollar cosmetics industry. But is there something more to human reaction to beauty than a conditioned response to social cues? Yes, says Harvard Medical School psychologist Nancy Etcoff. Survival of the Prettiest argues persuasively that looking good has survival value, and that sensitivity to beauty is a biological adaptation governed by brain circuits shaped by natural selection.

Etcoff synthesizes a fascinating array of scientific research and cultural analysis in support of her thesis. Psychologists find that babies stare significantly longer at the faces adults find appealing, while the mothers of "attractive" babies display more intense bonding behaviors. The symmetrical face of average proportions may have become the optimal design because of evolutionary pressures operating against population extremes. Gentlemen may prefer blondes not so much for their hair color as for the fairness of their skin--which makes it easier to detect the flush of sexual excitement. And high heels accentuate a woman's breasts and buttocks, signaling fertility. Is beauty programmed into our brain circuits as a proxy for health and youth? In marked contrast to other writers like Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth), Etcoff argues that it is, noting, "Rather than denigrate one source of women's power, it would seem far more useful for feminists to attempt to elevate all sources of women's power." --Patrizia DiLucchio

Book Description

In this provocative, witty, and thoroughly researched inquiry into what we find beautiful and why, Nancy Etcoff skewers one of our culture's most enduring myths, that the pursuit of beauty is a learned behavior. Etcoff, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and a practicing psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, skewers the enduring myth that the pursuit of beauty is a learned behavior.

Etcoff puts forth that beauty is neither a cultural construction, an invention of the fashion industry, nor a backlash against feminism, but instead is in our biology. It's an essential and ineradicable part of human nature that is revered and ferociously pursued in nearly every civilizatoin--and for good reason. Those features to which we are most attracted are often signals of fertility and fecundity. When seen in the context of a Darwinian struggle for survival, our sometimes extreme attempts to attain beauty--both to become beautiful ourselves and to acquire an attractive partner--become understandable. Moreover, if we come to understand how the desire for beauty is innate, then we can begin to work in our interests, and not soley for the interests of our genetic tendencies.

Customer Reviews:

Nicely researched.......2007-08-06

About: Guide to what humans find beautiful and attractive about each other

Pros: Interesting, very thorough, well researched.

Cons: Almost a bit too well researched, the multitude of facts and studies thrown about can bog the reader down. You're pretty much guaranteed to feel worse about at least one part of your appearance after reading this book.

Grade: B+

In the eye of the beholder.......2007-03-19

Many of the reviews here complains about this being not a book scientifically strong enough.
But even looking at the index you can see what the text is about from the chapters 'the nature of beauty', 'beauty as bait', 'cover me', 'feature presentation' and 'fashion runaway'... since the book is written by someone like Dr. Etcoff, everybody expects the scientific cold point of view evident in every page.

But for many other disciplines the text is perfectly able to open wide a huge perspective in the general problem of the perception of beauty, its uses, and the necessity of it.
For people into arts, the thing about beauty perception and mathematical relation deeply rooted, not in the software but instead in the hardware, is fundamental in a time were the discussion is always about art not being interested in the aestethic depiction, perception or even consideration.
Of course it can be sort of very well known facts what she is saying here about the golden proportion, simmetry and genetic health, the 7 to 10 hip proportion and fertility in women, and even the relation between the mother's perception of beauty in their offspring and neoteny -a concept that certainly you can trace back to Stephen Jay Gould or any other 'divulgative' text, even like the mentioned here 'the selfish gene', etc.

But the real problem is context.

What this book is really good at, is filling the gap between those kind of books -biology, life sciences, perception- and the kind of studies that really need to approach the subject not only as a problem, but instead as a matter.

Not precisely aesthetics, but !fashion!.

Even at the very beginning is mentioned how nowadays an entire city can be stopped because Claudia Schiffer is at a starcaise making some photographs, giving us the clue to understand how this whole book can be seen; in a total different light and with such a different use.

The fact that every now and then Desmond Morris collides with Sandra Rhodes, Azzedine Alaia meets Darwin, opens the window and let you see the landscape is about the form, perception and construction of beauty as an adjective, as something we worn and sometimes have to endure.

So this book belongs in the shelf next to Anne Hollander, Valerie Steel or Alison Lurie. Comprehensive studies about the power of image, fashion and appeareance. And not precisely in the side of the 'scientific' bunch.
And it is an excellent entrance to think in the equation beauty, perception, process and representation that is so difficult to see, but so much necessary to really achieve: design with one eye into the biological process, art once again perceiving its duties, and science humanized through the contact with the arts, designs and fashion. Also I think everybody goes to the scientific side forgetting all the good concatenation of historical facts from corsets, wigs, make up, heels, making a very well define line between the subject -the beauty- and its uses.

As a companion I think also in the same shelf could it be 'Venus Envy' by Elizabeth Haiken, also a bridge between 'science and consumer culture'.

Good for pop psychology, but highly unscientific........2007-03-01

This is a fun read for the layman, but it is not very scientific, furthermore, it is does not stand up to even the most basic scrutiny-don't think too hard if you want to enjoy this one!

For example, the idea that women are Darwinistically selected for their beauty is a hard buy. In all species except humans, males compete for the right to mate with females, but females can ALWAYS reproduce and pass on their genes; females do not need to force males to mate with them. Can you imagine a human society where a female cannot have sex and pass on her genes because her cheekbones are not high enough? It is purely laughable, if anyone is selected, it is us males.

Also, recent scientific evidence (see human genome project) suggests that sperm competition resulted because of the high levels of promiscuity of human females. This throws into question one of the most popular theories of evolutionary psychology, which posits that men roam and spread their seed while women stay home and take care of the kids. On the surface, evolutionary psychology tries to make sense of us, but in reality, it is like thinking the earth is flat. Let's leave science to the scientists.

Not scientifically robust, but maybe a good fit for a dinner talk.......2006-08-12

"Survival of the prettiest" is a very provocative title indeed and it is also a very ambitious subject to say the least. I expected from this book an identification of a phenomenon called "survival of the prettiest" if there is indeed such a thing, and if there is, a robust account of how it can be explained scientifically, because the subtitle of this book is no less than "the science of beauty." But, as a whole, this book fails to give us any satisfactory identification or explanation of the so-called "survival of the prettiest." In fact, I find the book often drifts away to somewhat trivial episodes of some biological or sociological findings to sustain readers' interest. I don't see how such things can be put together to establish the author's ultimate claim that our biological and sociological existence is so designed that the prettiest have been assured a better chance to survive to form the current world. Chapters are not thematically connected with each other and are not well-organized to deliver what the author intends to get across. I expected somehow solid scientific backing for the author's claim, but generally said, this book is a very light read that may not be called the "science" of beauty. I have no objection, however, for the readers who just look for some interesting subjects for light talks with families and friends at the dinner table. This book may be a good fit for that purpose.

Is beauty an honest advertiser?.......2006-06-25

Etcoff does a great job showing how our response to beauty is innate and deeply connected with our urge to reproduce. But I would have wished for a bit more exploration of the way beauty also might fool us. For example, she talks about men preferring women with hourglass shapes and more feminine features, because it signals health and fertility. But then she doesn't give information about whether this is true. Are more feminine looking women more fertile in reality? Are they healthier? We don't know.

Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty

Average customer rating:

Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty
Nancy Etcoff
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUCRQQ

Book Description

This digital document is an article from New York Times Upfront, published by Scholastic, Inc. on January 10, 2003. The length of the article is 734 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: Should snowmobiling be allowed in national parks? The government has decided that, with new restrictions, snowmobiling can continue at national parks. Environmentalists say it's harmful. (opinion).(Column)
Publication: New York Times Upfront (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 10, 2003
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Volume: 135 Issue: 7 Page: 29(1)

Article Type: Column

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books