Book Description
This book clears up the misconceptions and mysteries of outsourcing and guides the reader to desired outcomes.
Customer Reviews:
Straight-forward and Candid.......2002-08-05
Peter Bendor-Samuel has a gift for articulating the essence of a business process that all too often is misunderstood. When the process is misunderstood a potential extended enterprise instead becomes a tangled mess, lacking dicipline and focus. In his book, Bendor-Samuel reveals in laymen's terms the fundamental principles that will make for a successful relationship. Turning Lead into Gold is Bendor-Samuel at his best. The author never loses sight of the fundamentals (market-principles, well defined contracts and diciplined management) and provides effective metaphors for describing tactics that often undermine these principles. There are many practitioners in the industry who understand and demonstrate the keys to outsourcing excellence, but few who commmunicate them as elegantly. Whether you are considering outsourcing or are simply staying abreast of business trends, this book will serve as a worthwhile read.
Eye-opening, educational and entertaining.......2000-12-09
As the founder of probably the smallest corporation in America, (Meltdown International Inc.), I don't have the resources, time or knowledge to do everything well. The only way companies of any size can survive and thrive in today's changing business world is to outsource acitivities that don't pay the light bill or distinguish themselves in the global marketplace.
But how do you do this? Giving away important processes like finance and accounting to an outsourcing provider is scary. This book gave me the courage and the confidence to outsource. It told me what to do, what NOT to do, and what to watch out for. It gave me clear guidelines on pricing going into a relationship and how to police performance during the life of the contract. It also gave me a blueprint for handling disputes because they do come up.
I now outsource my finance and accounting to a provider 10 minutes from my office. (I want face to face chats about my money!)I also outsource my Web development and hosting to a company in the Philippines that does terrific work at a remarkably reasonable rate. I would never have even considered an offshore supplier if I hadn't read this book. It helped me understand the whole planet is now a source of suppliers.
The author's premise is that companies today have no option but to outsource. I have found in my own experience that is certainly true. I had no idea of how to go about it. If in doubt, read! This book was the perfect primer for a newcomer like me.
A Great Pre-marital Manual for Would-be Outsourcing Allies!.......2000-12-06
Turning Lead into Gold is a valuable piece of work for buyers as well as sellers of outsourcing. It clearly presents how this modern form of business alchemy turns operations that drain resources from companies into generators of value.
The hard statistics are accompanied by easy to understand case studies and explanations. I highly recommend it as a `must read" for both parties to an outsourcing relationship as "pre-marital" counseling manual that will promote more successful and profitable alliances.
Thank you Peter Bendor-Samuel.
Turning Lead Into Gold: The Demystification of Outsourcing.......2000-11-13
Throughout all business media, everyone is talking about usingoutsourcing to enable companies to be competitive in today'smarketplace. But this is the only book that really explains exactlyhow to do it successfully. Whether your company is large or smalllike ours, you will benefit greatly by reading this book by PeterBendor-Samuel. He makes something with underlying complexities becomesimple to understand. He includes case studies and charts toillustrate his points. I have heard Mr. Bendor-Samuel speak atconferences, and I regularly visit his .... web site for informationabout outsourcing. But this book is the ultimate guide. He starts withinformation about whether or not outsourcing is the right strategy fora company, then he explains how to structure the relationship, thecontractual documents, how to know whether the price is right. Fromreading this book, I now know the hazardous areas to avoid and alsohow to successfully maintain an ongoing relationship with asupplier. This book will help me make very important businessdecisions, and I probably would have made the wrong decisions if I hadnot read it. END
Book Description
Eighteen of the world's most exemplary rural development successes from Africa, Asia, and Latin America are presented in the words of their originators and managers. This is a true story of hope that shows what can be done. Cases may be read individually for guidance or together for their cumulative advice on how to promote the most desirable forms of rural development.
Book Description
Master General Chemistry with CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL REACTIVITY,VOLUME 1 and the accompanying CD-ROM and web-based learning system, General Chemistry NOW. Gain a clearer understanding through expanded sample questions, detailed information about chapter goals, and corresponding media.
Customer Reviews:
Worth it's weight in Au.......2007-09-19
I bought this text book for my son at Florida and all I can say is "man, it's heavy!" (as Pb) I bot it used before class started and paid a pretty fair price, especially compared to the cost of new. Parents/Students: Order your books from Amazon or affiliates before school starts and you'll save a fortune, plus you avoid the Student Bookstore hassel. The book was in very good shape, as described, and the seller delivered in just a couple days right to the dorm. As for the content, the author certainly seems to know A LOT more about chemistry than I do, so if you're into that sort of thing, you might find this interesting. If you're not a chemistry type, the book will hold most any door open, and is thick enough to boost a youngster at the table. Study hard!
Great college book!.......2007-07-06
Chemistry turned very easy to understand for me thanks to this book. Almost every chapter is well explained and has a whole bunch of solved examples and tons of exercises for the student. I was amazed by the great pictures the book offers for a better visual understanding. Unfortunately, I do not why another book will be used for next semester at my school, but hope next time, they use another great work by Kotz et al =)
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Granitoid Rocks (Topics in the Earth Sciences)
D.B. Clarke
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0412291703 |
Book Description
By stressing the various techniques used to determine the petrogenic history of granites, and by bridging the gap between undergraduate and research texts, this book provides a clear understanding of the current state of knowledge of the granite family.
Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Chemie der Erde - Geochemistry - Interdisciplinary Journal for Chemical, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Description:
Ikizdere Pluton consists of granite, granodiorite, tonalite, monzonite, quartz monzonite containing pinkish colored K-feldspar megacrysts (KFMs). The crystal sizes of the KFMs range from 1 to 4cm. The lath-shaped megacrysts are uniformly (i.e., randomly) distributed in the host plutonic rocks and have mafic and felsic inclusions whose crystal sizes are smaller than 1mm. The crystal inclusions are biotite, slightly annitic in composition with X"M"g[=Fe"t"o"t/(Fe"t"o"t+Mg)]=0.50-0.58, amphibole (magnesio-hornblende, X"M"g[=Mg/(Mg+Fe"t"o"t)]=0.70-0.79), iron-titanium oxide (low titanium magnetit and ilmenite), plagioclase (Ab"7"5"-"2"5An"6"5"-"3"5) and as minor quartz. The compositions of the KFMs range from Or"9"5Ab"5An"0 to Or"8"2Ab"1"7An"1. BaO contents of the megacrysts increase from core to rim. The mafic and felsic inclusions are compositionally similar those of the host rocks. The chemical and textural features of K-feldspar are typical for megacrysts that grew as phenocrysts in dynamic granitoidic magma systems. The overgrowth of KFMs and mafic magma injections (magma mixing) may be related to temperature, pressure and compositional fluctuations in the magma chamber. Remnant of earlier formed K-feldspar crystals remain in the felsic magma system, while the mafic injection can decompose some earlier precipitated KFMs. The remnant of K-feldspar remaining after mafic injection are overgrown by rapid diffusion of Ba, K and Na elements in liquid phase, during the later stages of crystallization of the host magma.
Average customer rating:
- strongly recommend this book
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Quantum Theory of Many-Body Systems: Techniques and Applications (Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics)
Alexandre M. Zagoskin
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 0387983848 |
Book Description
Intended for graduate students in physics and related fields, this text is a self contained treatment of the physics of many-body systems from the point of view of condensed matter. The approach, quite traditionally, uses the mathematical formalism of quasiparticles and Green's functions. In particular, it covers all the important diagram techniques for normal and superconducting systems, including the zero- temperature perturbation theory, and the Matsubara, Keldysh, and Nambu -Gor'kov formalisms. The aim is not to be exhaustive, but to present just enough detail to enable the student to follow the current research literature or to apply the techniques to new problems. Many of the examples are drawn from mesoscopic physics, which deals with systems small enough that quantum coherence is maintained throughout their volume, and which therefore provides an ideal testing ground for many-body theories. The book begins by introducing the Green's function for one-particle systems (using Feynman path integrals), general perturbation theory, and second quantization. It then turns to the usual zero-temperature formalism, discussing the properties and physical meaning of the Green's function for many-body systems and then developing the diagram techniques of perturbation theory. The theory is extended to finite temperatures, including a discussion of the Matsubara formalism as well as the Keldysh technique for essentially nonequilibrium systems. The final chapter is devoted to applications of the techniques to superconductivity, incuding discussions of the superconducting phase transition, elementary excitations, transport, Andreev reflections, and Josephson junctions. Problems at the end of each chapter help to guide learning an to
Customer Reviews:
strongly recommend this book.......2006-02-10
An extremely well-written book. Clear physics, simple but rigorous math, interesting figures.
Average customer rating:
- Finding the yes in the Big No-where
- Hilarious and true to life!
|
Hooray for Holly-What?
Jonathan Widran
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0738842648 |
Book Description
I think of myself as the most successful failure in the history of Hollywood. Led to believe before my twentieth birthday that I'd be writing for my favorite TV show before I was old enough to drink legally, I swallowed the bait, blindly followed the elusive dream, came within inches of the goal line on numerous occasions...and crashed right on my keyster every time. This isn't like any other "Hollywood how-to" guide you've ever read. In its pages lay nothing but the blatant, tragicomic realities of the outsider trying to make his or her way into the "biz." Detailing all my own wacky misadventures, Hooray for Holly-what? teaches you how to struggle with grace, as dreams are dangled before you; make contacts and try to secure the ever-elusive agent; deal with endless rejections, apply for and then get low rung jobs. I entertain while encouaging the dreams and the harsh realities you must face as you pursue them.
Customer Reviews:
Finding the yes in the Big No-where.......2001-03-16
Aren't you sick of Hollywood success stories that white wash the harsh realities of the Entertainment jungle??? Where the author struggles for like-- 6 days and then is suddenly transported to a world of fantasy and endless riches. We all know life isn't quite so Olsen twins, not in Hollywood baby.
Jonathan Widran's "how to" guide to finding the "yes" in The Big No-where tells it like it is in a humorous and insightful way.
I recognized more of myself in this little tome than a hundred other Tinseltown self-help books.
Follow Jonathan from his first blush of success with his maiden effort as a t.v. sitcom scriptwriter to his endless series of appointments with T.V. barracudas and wanna-bes. It's very real and oh vey-- very funny....And a fast read. I read it in about the time it took three "must see" t.v. sitcoms to air!
Hilarious and true to life!.......2001-02-01
Truly -- if you read one humorous Hollywood how to experience book this year, make it this one! I have been struggling to succeed as a screenwriter for some time, and Widran's book made me realize I'm not alone -- and that laughter is the best medicine when the doors don't open as I'd like them to. His wit, wisdom and candor make this a dynamite read. So much fun!
Customer Reviews:
Incredible story.......2006-06-02
This book is a narrative. The author simply sat down and listened to US Navy MTB officers in 1942 and recorded their story of action in the Philippines in 1941 & 42. It is a page turner.
Two good points about this book. First it was first published during WWII (my copy is 1942). Many books about WWII were written post WWII and that means the books have 20/20 hindsight. Reading a book from the period perhaps gives a better perspective of how people saw the war while it was happening.
Second, one of the officers telling the story explains how the newspapers back home give a sort of glorified image of the war that was very different from the reality he experienced. If we better understand the reality, then we can better appreciate what our veterans sacrificed for us.
One of the best.......2005-09-26
early accounts of WWII in the Pacific. Interesting for what it says & how it says it. Written almost entirely in dialogue, as if it were a transcription, which it is not. Like Casey's "Torpedo Junction," attempts to tell the truth about how the war was going, despite wartime censorship. An easy read, with large type in the 1942 edition. Manifests the Navy's colonial-style racism prior to WWII & some officers' impatience with it. One of the best "first person" reports available.
God Bless the Naval Institute Press.......2005-09-10
If it weren't for the Naval Institute Press, this 1942 book wouldn't be available. It's not heavy reading; you could finish it in 2 days just reading it on the subway and before you go to bed, but it's a powerful reminder of the desparate state of affairs in the Pacific and in the U.S. in the days following the destruction of the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. See the film of the same name. The director, John Ford, had the good sense to incorporate the dialogue wholesale into his really terrific 1945 movie.
An emotional saga of American military defeat.......2004-05-31
This is not a book to read as history, in the sense of seeking facts and figures about an event in the past. "They Were Expendable" is ostensibly an account of the exploits of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3, which gained glory amidst the disaster that was America's defense of the Philippine Islands in the opening months of the war with Japan (December 1941 - May 1942). But this is wartime journalism, and it is replete with inaccuracies and exaggerations, not to mention a few passages that were subjected to military censorship. This must be expected of a book that was written only a few weeks after Allied resistance of the Philippines formally ended in humiliating surrender; William L. White had no way to corroborate or fact-check the stories told to him by the four youthful naval officers he interviewed for this book. But as an emotional record of the early, sometimes despairing days of the war against Japan, "They Were Expendable" is a work of truth and power. This is not so much a slam-bang story of naval warfare as it is an account of the emotional trauma of defeat suffered by a nation accustomed to victory.
White originally wrote the book for "The Reader's Digest," which published a condensed version in its September, 1942, issue, not quite four months after the fall of Corregidor. The full-length book was released several days later and became a huge bestseller (one reason so many used copies are available today). "They Were Expendable" was one of the first pieces of World War II "hardcover journalism" to give firsthand accounts of the U.S. debacle in the Philippines, and it promised no-holds-barred revelations about how and why the United States could have been so badly beaten. Some of what was "revealed" was myth -- tales of spies and sabotage, and exaggerations of Allied numerical inferiority to the Japanese. Nor could White, even if he had wanted to, have gotten away with criticizing Douglas MacArthur or any Washington bigwigs who were in part responsible for the Philippines disaster. Indeed, MacArthur was still the hero of the hour for most Americans, and his association with the motor torpedo boats of Squadron 3 -- they spirited General, family and entourage away from Corregidor after President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to Australia in mid-March, 1942 -- helped hype the book immensely.
But what the book lacks in factual veracity, it makes up for in emotional sincerity. Although White actually wrote the "monologues" that make up the narrative, he based his words on those of four squadron officers who had been ordered to leave the Philippines, to relay their knowledge of torpedo-boat warfare to new PT crews back in the States. Their quiet professionalism comes through loud and clear. Lt. John D. Bulkeley, squadron commander and winner of the Medal of Honor for his leadership aboard the boats, is featured prominently because he had already received a great deal of publicity early in 1942, thanks to MacArthur's press agents on Corregidor
But the heart of the narrative (most of it, actually) is attributed to the squadron exec, Lt. Robert Kelly (later transformed in the movie version into John Wayne's overgrown adolescent, "Rusty Ryan," a portrayal that Kelly came to detest). Kelly not only relates his part in the squadron's combats against the Japanese and MacArthur's departure from the islands, but also tells of his relationship with an Army nurse, "Peggy," whom he met in a Corregidor hospital where he was being treated for a minor injury that turned major. White likely overstated the depth of this relationship - it was really more friendship than romance - but Kelly's grief over the loss of that friendship became a metaphor (okay, stick with me here) for America's loss of the Philippines, and perhaps the loss of an innocent vision of the United States as an invincible military power.
After the war (and after the release, in 1945, of the John Ford film based on the book -- a very personal expression of Ford's own views about the war and the Navy), U.S. intelligence officers and historians discovered that the achievements of Squadron 3 in Philippine waters had been somewhat exaggerated. Japanese ships that the torpedo boat crews claimed as "sunk" were, more often than not, undamaged. (Yes, U.S. torpedoes used early in the war were very unreliable.) As the Pacific war progressed, PT boats became extremely important as inshore gunboats (a role in which Squadron 3 excelled, too) but were employed only occasionally as torpedo platforms.
Despite the wartime inaccuracies, White's restrained writing captures the quiet pride as well as the sadness and frustration of his subjects, young men still grieving over losing their crews and their boats. (About half the squadron personnel, listed at the end of the book, became POWs, and several did not survive the harsh Japanese captivity.) I first read this book at age ten, and I have kept coming back to it for more than thirty years because it has an emotional impact unlike most wartime reportage I've read. Although he covered the war in a different way, "They Were Expendable" puts White on a level alongside Ernie Pyle, with whom he shared the ability to see beyond surface heroics to the melancholy that afflicts all human beings caught up in combat. (If you like "They Were Expendable," find a copy of White's other great book about the early days of defeat in the Pacific war, "Queens Die Proudly.")
This is a classic of World War Two journalism -- again, not for the facts, but for the truth. If you want a factual book on Squadron 3 at war, read the appropriate chapter in Robert J. Bulkley Jr.'s "At Close Quarters." For a book that plumbs the emotional experience of an American defeat, read "They Were Expendable."
A Story of Genuine Heroes.......2003-04-16
Not everyone understands the fact that, if you are in military service, you are expendable. Your commander can order you to sacrifice your life to achieve an objective. You may be ordered to hold off the enemy so your fellow soldiers can escape, or you may be ordered to dive your bomber into an impossible hail of gunfire, but you are expendable. Such was the case for the six 70-foot speedboats of the US Navy's Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three. They were part of the Navy's tiny Far Eastern Fleet in the Philippines when the Japanese attacked with overwhelming force in 1941. It was soon clear that the Philippines would be lost, and the remains of the fleet went to Australia, leaving MTB Squadron Three to help the doomed soldiers on Bataan hold off the Japanese Army for as long as possible. After losing boat after boat in suicidal attacks on Japanese cruisers and destroyers, the remaining boats carried General MacArthur, his wife, his son, and assorted generals and admirals on a perilous trip to the southern Philippines for escape by air to Australia. MTB Squadron Three lost its remaining boats in further attacks on the Japanese and prepared to fight as infantry against the oncoming juggernaut. But four of the officers were ordered to get out on the last planes to leave the Philippines. William L. White, in a magnificent piece of writing, lets the survivors tell their story. It is certainly one of the best stories ever written of World War Two.
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They Were Expendable
Manufacturer: The World Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000I4VANO |
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They Were Expendable
W.L.White
Manufacturer: Harcourt, Brace, and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KMC0S8 |
Product Description
Here is the first great story of our war (World War II) as seen by men fighting in it! (1943)
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They Were Expendable
W. L. White
Manufacturer: Infantry Journal - Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000KOWPTA |
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They Were Expendable
White
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJJ8M8 |
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They Were Expendable
W L White
Manufacturer: Harcourt Brace & Co, NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O6G73Y |
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They Were Expendable
W.L. White
Manufacturer: Harcourt, Brace & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000X36VNO |
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They Were Expendable
W.L. White
Manufacturer: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GR4VYS |
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- EnterýInorganic Life
- An Excellent Introductory Text
- Annoying, boring
- Wonderful book for the rest of us.
- Not recommended
|
Virtual Organisms: The Startling World of Artificial Life
Mark Ward
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
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Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology
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Artificial Life: An Overview
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Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
ASIN: 031226691X |
Book Description
Harmless artificial life forms are on the loose on the Internet. Computer viruses and even robots are now able to evolve like their biological counterparts. Telecommunications companies are sending small packets of software to go forth and multiply to cope with ever-increasing telephone traffic. Protein-based computers are on the agenda, and a team in Japan is building an organic brain as clever as a kitten. Welcome to the startling world of Artificial Life.
Artificial Life scientists are taking inanimate materials such as computer software and robots and making them behave just like living organisms. In the process they are discovering much about what drives evolution and just what it means to say that something is alive. Virtual Organisms traces the origins of this field from the days when it was practiced by a few maverick scientists to the present and the current boom in Alife research.
Leading technology correspondent Mark Ward presents a fascinating survey of current ideas about the origins of life and the engines of evolution. Through interviews with leading developers of Artificial Life, and through his own compelling research, Ward shows how the convergence of technology with biology has enormous implications.
In an accessible, entertaining manner, Virtual Organisms reveals an unexplored avenue in predicting the future of Artificial Life , and whether new forms of Alife may be evolving beyond their designer's control.
Customer Reviews:
EnterýInorganic Life.......2002-10-15
This book is an interesting survey of progress in using intelligent computer programs like cellular automata to replace older, more rigid programs. Ward attempts to redefine life as the passing of information. He concludes that "the informational basis of life can be abstracted away from the bodies we find it in and lose nothing in the process."
He wants to attribute "life" to both organic and inorganic species, thus his title. He moves by steps to show that the quality of human life is no more special than the life of plants, birds, mammals, insects, algae and fish. Although man has advantages with manipulating symbols, other life forms are superior as receptors of smells (ants and dogs) and gravitational maps (salmon and migrating birds). Ward wants the reader to accept the idea that there is nothing any more special about human life than there is about ant life. In fact many of the Artificial Life programs were inspired by ant behavior. All life becomes a matter of processing information.
Most of the examples given were in the field of telecommunications, network switching. Parallels were drawn between the information passed in DNA replication and that passed by computer programs. The groups he discusses are endeavoring to breed software in an evolutionary manner analogous to breeding animal life. To his thinking a string of computer bits are agents analogous to a string of amino acids in the chromosome of living agents-interesting ideas.
An Excellent Introductory Text.......2001-12-05
I have to disagree with many of the other reviewers that have commented on this text as I feel that it provides an excellent introduction to the field of Artificial Life. Any reader who picks up a 'penguin' style softback book with a jazzy cover running to no more than a couple of hundred pages and expects entensive algorthmic listings has little or no experience of printed IT literature. Bearing in mind the limitations imposed upon the author by the parameters of this work, this text provides an excellent theoretical perpective of the field free from the restrictive and time consuming portrayal of endless lines of coding that some reviewers would prefer to see. This is not a technical manual and does not purport to be, it is an excellent introductory text designed for those who use computers and are not used by them.
Annoying, boring.......2001-05-18
The first entire chapter is just an annoying and unconvincing lecture on evolution that has, from what I can see, nothing to do with the book. The rest seems to be nothing but a history lecture on the people that researched and developed the concepts of digital DNA, cellular automa (Like Conway's game of life) etc... The history was mildly amusing, but without getting very technical, the author lost my intrest soon.
Wonderful book for the rest of us........2001-05-15
Another book from an English writer that covers the subject of information in living organisms. This follows on the subject covered in "The Bit and the Pendulum" about the DNA and RNA using digital code in the process of reproduction. Nerds are not invited to read the book. English writers seem to stay away from the Hype and let us in on Memes and Genes and present research on psychology in a methodical manner that references wide ranging thinking and writing such as this one does.
Not recommended.......2001-01-05
The book description states, "...Mark Ward presents a fascinating survey..." but the book does not even come close to remotely interesting. The cover art, title, and book description are the highlights of this book, anything beyond that is an extremely dry read.
I am surprised that such an interesting subject could be transformed into such a boring lecture. The first 60 pages is dedicated to a tedious review of basic evolution which has become common knowledge. Only later, after losing the readers' interest, does Ward begin to tie this in with the actual subject of the book, artificial life. Yet even when he gets to artificial life, programming codes are not included in the book, so don't even think about it. It's as if Ward were a humanities major writing an extremely tiresome thesis on artificial life.
The only saving grace is the actual subject--even Ward cannot completely dampen the fascinating experiments with his stilted prose. Someone interested in doing a book report on the history of organismal life to artificial life may want to give Ward a try--anyone else familiar with the subject of A life should avoid this book.
Average customer rating:
- Great encyclopedia, but why page-spliting graphics?
|
World Atlas of Biodiversity: Earth's Living Resources in the 21st Century
Brian Groombridge , and
Martin D. Jenkins
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The Assault on Reason
ASIN: 0520236688 |
Book Description
The World Atlas of Biodiversity is an updated edition of Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's Living Resources, originally published in 1992 and reissued in 2000 as Global Biodiversity: Earth's living resources in the 21st Century. This 2002 edition, totally redesigned and updated, includes new data and graphics, additional photos, and additional material on food issues and biodiversity, as well as an entirely new chapter on protected areas and other conservation issues.
World Atlas of Biodiversity addresses the remarkable growth in concern at all levels for living things and the environment, and increased appreciation of the links between the state of ecosystems and the state of humankind. Building on a wealth of research and analysis by the conservation community worldwide, this book provides a comprehensive and accessible view of key global issues in biodiversity. It outlines some of the broad ecological relationships between humans and the rest of the material world and summarizes information on the health of the planet. Opening with an outline of some fundamental aspects of material cycles and energy flow in the biosphere, the book goes on to discuss the expansion of this diversity through geological time and the pattern of its distribution over the surface of the Earth, and trends in the condition of the main ecosystem types and the species integral to them.
Customer Reviews:
Great encyclopedia, but why page-spliting graphics?.......2007-04-26
This is a great reference book that is richly illustrated with high-quality graphics. I'm not sure why the editors/authors decied to arrange many of these graphics so that they span the page split, a characteristic that obscures some detail and makes the examination of data-rich maps difficult.
Overlooking this limitation, there is relatively little to complain about. I like the standard layout of the map-based information and it appears to be relatively complete. I recommend this book for educators and for those wishing to have a geographically-oriented overview of the biosphere.
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