Practical Business Math Procedures, Brief Editions-Mandatory Package: with DVD and Business Math Handbook

Book Description

Practical Business Math Procedures, Brief 7e continues to provide complete coverage of practical business applications of math, organized in a logical and teachable format, with unique and motivating pedagogy, and a market leading supplements package. This brief edition covers the first 12 chapters of the complete PBMP 7/e text, with some alternate coverage to Mark-Ups and Mark-downs. Carefully written and developed to provide both procedural details in a step-by-step format, and superb motivation via Wall Street Journal and Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine articles, colorful format, photos, and scrapbook projects, this text is a winner! This edition continues the “24-HOUR STUDENT HOTLINE” that has received over 50,000 student calls. Jeff Slater is a teacher and author of several leading titles in math and accounting, and his dedicated work on PBMP has made it the most reliable, trustworthy, and widely used text.

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"A fascinating and useful handbook to both the science and science fiction of extraterrestrial life. Cohen and Stewart are amusing, opinionated, and expert guides. I found it a terrific and informative piece of work-nothing else like it!"
-Greg Bear

"I loved it."
-Larry Niven

"Ever wonder about what aliens could be like? The world authority is Jack Cohen, a professional biologist who has thought long and hard about the vast realm of possibilities. This is an engaging, swiftly moving study of alien biology, a subject with bounds and constraints these authors plumb with verve and intelligence."
-Gregory Benford

"A celebration of life off Earth. A hearteningly optimistic book, giving a much-needed antidote to the pessimism of astrobiologists who maintain that we are alone in the universe-a stance based on a very narrow view of what could constitute life. A triumph of speculative nonfiction."
-Dougal Dixon, author of
After Man: A Zoology of the Future

Customer Reviews:

Enlightening but Lacking.......2007-08-10

I enjoyed this book thoroughly, but I can't say that it was quite what I expected to find.

Cohen and Stewart have clearly done their research on concepts such as DNA and evolution on earth. Be prepared for an exhaustive dissertation on these scientific subjects.

The book was very informative. I never considered some of the possibilities for alien life that were presented here. In fact, with the reasoning the authors have used and explained, I find this to be the most sensible view of potential alien life I have yet encountered. There are descriptions of characteristics some alien life (including intelligent alien life) might have and environments in which they might live that provide an optimistic view of the universe while simultaneously reining in the reader's excitement by clarifying the logistical problems (time, distance, great differences between species, etc.) that would prevent humanity from even recognizing these life forms, let alone contacting them. Still, I could think of few factors Cohen and Stewart may have overlooked, and they do not completely deny the possibility of contact, given the right circumstances. It all made sense, even if it was a little thick.

Though informative and entertaining, this seemed to me to be an exercise in self-aggrandizement. The authors have bones to pick, particularly with Media Sci-Fi, Creationists, and the authors of Rare Earth. Their arguments are strong, but at times seemed petty and could easily have been shortened. They repeatedly make reference to other books they have written (or plan to write), and, though this is not done to extremes, there is a sense that the authors believe all readers interested in this subject should read all of their work because theirs is the only credibly authoritative voice. And they seem to have a few "pet" explanations and comparisons, which they use repeatedly throughout the book to the point that, once, I wondered if I had read that page already.

My only disappointment with the book was it's lack of examples of what a martian (or other alien) might look like, which is what the title suggested. Some examples were given, but I found myself wanting more. For the SF writers out there, this may be a good option to generate ideas, but do not expect to just pluck an alien race out of this book and use it in your own. The authors make reference to many SF books they found enlightening (I have created a reading list for myself from this book) and offer their interpretations of the relative probabilities and improbabilities inherent in several of them. Be prepared to have some of your favorite books closely scrutinized.

The bottom line is that I enjoyed the book. I think it needed a few more examples and a couple more rounds with an editor to trim the excess. Otherwise, it was a good read, and it will be staying on my shelf for reference.

Good information with lots of filler........2005-04-13

This is a very thorough look at what true aliens may be like. It is critical the ridiculous SciFi movie and TV aliens, and even many of the aliens in literature. They discuss everything from alien genetics to alien environment and how it will affect alien biology and thinking, to alien societies. In short, aliens will be beyond anything we can comprehend, both in mind and body.

Cohen and Stewart have written a thoughtful book on the subject, perhaps one of the best out there. However, they tend to go off on tangents. They definitely have an axe to grind with a number of people, specifically creationists and the authors of Rare Earth. I'm not a creationist by any means, but arguing against them is rather pointless. If I wrote an atlas, I wouldn't devote any time debunking the flat-earthers. First, it's an atlas and there's no place for that sort of thing. Second, all of the evidence is against the flat-earthers, so why bother? Yet, Cohen and Stewart have devoted almost an entire chapter to debunking creationists, including a childish comment about how God is silly because of how he designed our throats. Such an argument is as inane as any a creationist might give debunking evolution.

In regards to the book Rare Earth, they definitely do a hatchet job, but they are generally fair. There are a number of other books, authors, and scientists they are very critical of, but, again, they are fair about it. They also spend time railing on UFO believers. They are harsh, but given the nature of the book (and the silliness of alien greys looking like us with only superficial differences), it is appropriate. Ditto that on Star Trek, Star Wars, and other media based SciFi. They blame sources such as these for creating a false idea of what alien contact may be like. And while they also rail against a few SF authors, they also praise a few for their vision.

This is a worthwhile book if you don't mind wading through the rhetoric and tangents (particularly in the beginning). Overall, it is highly informative, but it could have been much shorter.

This will sell many titles!.......2003-01-07

Apart from being mis-titled for North American readers, this is a mind-expanding view of "what's out there" - or might be. Released as "Evolving the Alien" in the UK, this book examines numerous and too often poorly considered suggestions about how life might evolve in other places.

Note "places," since Cohen and Stewart don't limit their conjectures to planets alone. Noting the impact of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" as a starting point for how we think about life elsewhere, Cohen and Stewart divide the book between evidence from hard science and the conjectures of "SF" [speculative fiction] authors. Including themselves. In their view, both exobiologists and novelists have been remiss in considering how alien life might evolve. They do a comprehensive job, presented with the kind of wit expected of collaborators of Terry Pratchett of Discworld fame.

Recognizing they are entering a relatively unexplored area, they abandon old terms like "astrobiology" or "extraterrestrial life" to suggest a new, all encompassing term - xenobiology. They condemn outright the narrow views expressed by some scientists, notably Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee in "Rare Earth." Cohen and Stewart argue that limiting life to DNA-based forms is far too restrictive. Different environments are capable of producing life in ways "we can't even imagine." Magnetic fields in suns or neutron stars, silicon-based chemistry, unusual energy uses are all part of the panorama nature has in its recipes in making life start. Our localized experience is too limited, they argue, and we should look further with more open minds.

Those who have attempted a more open view have traditionally been limited to writers of speculative fiction. Cohen and Stewart sprinkle the text with examples of this genre, accompanied by an analysis of what is right or wrong with the ET life presented. "Science fiction" might just as easily be labelled "fictional science" in the eyes of these authors. Too little attention has been given to environmental complexity by the legions of writers seeking to entertain readers with simple plots and much action. Among that phalanx, however, there are some writers who strive to bring reality to the fictional worlds they create. Jack Cohen has been called into the story-building process as a consultant by several authors. The result, once the dust had settled, was SF with a reality check. The authors give accounts of some of
these efforts and the resulting books should be sought out and compared to those less favoured by the authors of this book.

Jack&Ian [as they style themselves] have provided a rich trove of ideas for nearly everyone. Scientists can gain fresh areas of research to consider, while fiction readers may find a whole new list of interesting readings. The book isn't footnoted, but there is a divided bibliography of "Popular Xenoscience Reading" and "Technical Xenoscience Reading" at the end. If you fail to find new concepts to consider here, you haven't tried.

It Isn't Easy Bein' Green.......2002-12-15

Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart are interesting thinkers and writers in the guise of Jack&Ian, and What Does A Martian Look Like? is a very good, thought provoking read. This book takes an optomistic view of the possibilities of life and intelligence elsewhere in the universe and proposes a broad xenoscience as an antidote to what Jack&Ian see as the narrow view of astrobiology. Rare Earth by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee comes in for the most criticism [not for the writing, but for the opinions], being one of the most popular books on astrobiology in the last few years. Stewart and Cohen do their best when they discuss their ideas in the context of science fiction stories and hit bottom when their criticisms of mainstream astrobiology begin to sound petty. Fans of mainstream SF should be prepared for the dressing down of their favorite aliens. If it'll hurt your feelings to find out that aliens probably won't look humanoid, do not read this book. Although not a perfect book, What Does A Martin Look Like? [especially if paired with the book Rare Earth] will take the reader's thinking to the far corners of the universe.

Good, but not great; Schmidt's book is better.......2002-10-30

Setting aside that the authors take an unfair swipe at the Waldahudin from my Hugo Award-nominated STARPLEX as being too like Earthly fauna (getting their facts wrong while doing so, and not discussing the very alien Darmats [dark-matter aliens] and Ibs [gestalt organisms] from that novel), this is still a pretty good book, although the dogmatic tone gets tiresome awfully fast. In a way, Stewart and Cohen should be praised for using so many examples from science fiction, but, at the same time, they give very short shrift to the notion that some SF writers might be using aliens for literary/metaphoric purposes, rather than just as high-school-biology-class exercises in designing lifeforms. Stanley Schmidt's ALIENS AND ALIEN SOCIETIES is a better book (even if Stewart and Cohen's acknowledgement of its existence seems mostly limited to a petty critique of its cover art, incidentally -- although they don't mention this -- by Hugo Award-winner Bob Eggleton).

Book Description

The aim of this book is to provide the reader with a coherent and updated comprehensive treatise that covers the central subjects of the field. The style and content is suitable both for students and researchers. Highlights of the book include (among many others) the Ion-Sphere model, statistical models, Average-Atom model, emission spectrum, unresolved transition arrays, supertransition arrays, radiation transport, escape factors and x-ray lasers.

Atomic Physics In Hot Plasmas - International Series Of Monographs On Physics, 97

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Atomic Physics In Hot Plasmas - International Series Of Monographs On Physics, 97
David Salzmann
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IWB9K0

Interaction of Intense Laser Radiation with Matter: Excitation of Atomic Nuclei in Hot Laser Plasma Decay of Isomeric Nuclei in Intense External Field (Soviet Technology Reviews Series, Section B)

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Interaction of Intense Laser Radiation with Matter: Excitation of Atomic Nuclei in Hot Laser Plasma Decay of Isomeric Nuclei in Intense External Field (Soviet Technology Reviews Series, Section B)
R. Arutyunian
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

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Atomic Physics in Hot Plasmas
David Salzmann
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKMRES

Reference Data on Multicharged Ions (Springer Series on Atoms + Plasmas, Vol 16)

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Reference Data on Multicharged Ions (Springer Series on Atoms + Plasmas, Vol 16)
V. G. Pal'Chikov , and V. P. Shevelko
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

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Wind Energy Equipment in Argentina: A Strategic Entry Report, 1997 (Strategic Planning Series)
The Energy Research Group
Manufacturer: Icon Group International, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

General | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Earth Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0741803305
Release Date: 2005-09-30

Book Description

The primary audience for this report is managers involved with the highest levels of the strategic planning process, and consultants who help their clients with this task. The user will not only benefit from the hundreds of hours that went into the methodology and its application, but also from its alternative perspective on strategic planning in Argentina.

This report helps executives evaluate strategic investment and entry alternatives in Argentina. In order to evaluate Argentina, Icon Group International, Inc. draws on a methodology developed by Professor Philip Parker at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. The methodology decomposes a country's strategic potential along two key dimensions: (1) latent demand, and (2) accessibility. A country may have very high latent demand, yet have low accessibility, making it a less attractive market than many smaller potential countries having higher levels of accessibility.

This report provides a strategic profile of Argentina along these lines. Throughout the discussion, literally hundreds of statistics on Argentina are benchmarked against regional and global averages. The reader can thus quickly understand where Argentina fits into the regional and global perspective. The report first investigates the economic fundamentals affecting Argentina. These fundamentals are the source for Argentina's latent demand. Then, the subsequent chapters detail Argentina's accessibility. This evaluation covers a number of entry alternatives, including export strategies, and local direct investment strategies. If a firm decides to have a local presence in Argentina, this requires a strategic understanding of local business conditions. The conditions investigated in this report include local marketing (advertising, distribution, pricing issues) and entry strategies (opening an office, joint venturing, etc.), as well as human resources management (labor laws, costs, regulations). ...

Book Description

This volume consists of papers delivered at the International Mathematica Symposium 2003 — an interdisciplinary meeting bringing together users of Mathematica in research and education. It gathers research papers, reports on classroom practice, reports on the use of Mathematica in industry and commerce, and descriptions of fresh applications.

Book Description

365 DAYS OF LARA BRANSON. KIT TUNSTALL. BEWRITE BOOKS. The hilarious and thought-provoking diary of a thoroughly modern woman who doesn't believe in romance. She starts a baby by artificial insemination ?

Customer Reviews:

Timeless Tales review.......2002-12-05

By TT reviewer Teresa Bushek

When Lara Branson turned thirty, she gave up on finding "Mr. Right". Now, with thirty-five approaching at lightning speed, she settles for "Mr. Tonight".

Lara begins the New Year hung over and reminiscing about the previous night's activities by recording them in her new journal, a Christmas present from her best friend, Fiona.

Fiona's life reads like a soap opera: legally separated from her husband after she caught him having sex with her sister in a guest bathroom on Thanksgiving.

After contemplating her odds for marriage at her age, and listening as her biological clock tick-tocks like a time bomb, she decides to try artificial insemination. She sends away for a donor catalogue and begins to pick and chose through the options.

Only she keeps her decision to have a child on her own a secret.

Her parents would be shocked, and vocal with their disapproval. Especially her overbearing mother whose only goal in life seems to be to see Lara get married.

When the third attempt at insemination "takes" and Lara's pregnancy test comes back positive, she longs to confide in Fiona. But before she has a chance, Fiona drops her own personal bombshell: her sister is pregnant with her husband's child. To make matters worse, Fiona herself is unable to have children.

Lara struggles with the day-to-day routines of running her own business, dealing with her meddling mother and the never-ending comparisons to her "perfect" sister, and the secrecy of her unborn child which includes the not so glamorous first trimester.

The last thing she needs in a man in her life. Or is it?

When Lara meets the man of her dreams (well, fantasies), her world and her ideas about marriage turn upside down.

Reading "365 Days of Lara Branson" is like the forbidden pleasure of snooping in a friend's diary. Written in first-person narrative, the characters of Kit Tunstall entertain and evoke emotions. Set in the town of Boise, Idaho, the story has a realistic feel of being true to life that every reader can relate to. Each journal entry will make readers laugh, cry, hope, and anticipate along with the main character, Lara Branson.

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Best Book on this topic despite its short length

Poland 1939 scarce as hens teeth

Blitzkrieg: the September Campaign in Poland

Extremely Pleased with this Essential History.

Absorbing New Text On Polish Campaign!

Poland 1939: The Birth Of Blitzkrieg (Campaign)
Steven Zaloga
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Poland | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | World War II | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Polish Army 1939-1945 (Men at Arms Series, 117)

Campaign 129: Operation Barbarossa 1941 (1) Army Group South

Operation Barbarossa 1941 (2): Army Group North (Campaign)

Moscow 1941: Hitler's First Defeat (Campaign)

France 1940: Blitzkrieg in the West (Campaign)

ASIN: 1841764086
Release Date: 2002-08-19

Book Description

The German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 began World War II in Europe, pitting the newly modernized army of Europe’s great industrial power against the much smaller Polish army and introducing the world to a new style of warfare – Blitzkrieg. Panzer divisions spearheaded the German assault with Stuka dive-bombers prowling ahead spreading terror and mayhem. This book demonstrates how the Polish army was not as backward as it is often portrayed and fielded a tank force larger than that of the contemporary US Army. Its stubborn defence did give the Germans some surprises and German casualties were relatively heavy for such a short campaign.

Customer Reviews:

Best Book on this topic despite its short length.......2005-04-22

I have collected a number of books on the Polish Campaign, but I have to say that this is the best, despite its short length. It not only gives an excellent overview of the campaign, but disproves a number of widely held myths (Polish cavalry charging tanks, Polish air force being destroyed on the ground on the first day) and covers a number of small unit combats in detail. I particularly enjoyed the description of a polish cavalry brigade stopping a panzer division on the first day. Talk about standing that myth on its head!

The book also gives a good (if brief) description of the opposing forces. If there is a shortcoming, it is this last. I would have liked this section to be longer but, given the format, that would be unreasonable. There are plenty of sources on the German army; if you want to know more about the Polish forces, you can buy "The Polish Campaign 1939" by Zaloga and Madej (used) for 3 or 4 times as much. Otherwise, buy this book.

Poland 1939 scarce as hens teeth.......2003-10-31

There are few English histories on Poland 1939. The various explanations for this are unconvincing and irritating to those of us who want to study an important campaign. The collapse of the Soviet Union has seen a plethora of books on the Eastern Front descend on the market much to the delight of eager lay historians. There has been but a trickle on Poland. What is even more surprising is that there are few German source histories on this important campaign.

One has to view this book in the light of the above. I personally will read and welcome anything as long as it will give me more insight into the Polish 1939 campaign. The major fault of this book is its concise nature. I wish it were ten time longer. One only has to compare books on the fall of France where that campaign was over quicker than Poland. The book breaks new ground in suggesting that the Poles where not so unprepared and where not such a pushover as modern myth would have us believe. Its just too lightweight to be a heavyweight read. Having said this it is very readable and the illustrations are enjoyable. Buy it before it goes out of print due to the general lethargy surrounding this campaign.

Blitzkrieg: the September Campaign in Poland.......2003-09-09

"Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg" is written by Steven J. Zaloga and illustrated by Howard Gerrard. In this 96 page volume, the author concisely outlines the German invasion of Poland, which began WWII. This includes: opposing commanders, opposing plans, opposing armies, the campaign, and the battlefield today. Throughout the entire book, there are many black-and-white photographs and several color maps.

This is an excellent resource for those interested in the events and related issues of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939.

Extremely Pleased with this Essential History........2003-08-16

I was very pleased with Osprey's Essential History number 107, Poland 1939, Birth of the Blitzkrieg. Finally, an easy to read, concise, inexpensive book on the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, and the beginning of World War II.

I was impressed by the amount of detail that is crammed into this small book, and by the quality of the information as well.
The author puts to rest some of the "romantic myths" about the Blitzkrieg in Poland: namely the idea that the German Luftwaffe destroyed all of the Polish airforce while they were still on the ground, and that the Polish cavalry, armed with lances, would routinely take on German Panzer tanks! While many of the Polish planes were destroyed while on the ground, many survived and dogged the German planes throughout the month long conflict (even if they were outclassed by the more modern German planes). The Polish cavalry, an elite force, trained with lances, but the author rightly discusses the tactics used by them, that is that they fought dismounted as rifled infantry.

I was also impressed with the beautiful illusrations in the book as well, especially the one of the Polish artillery train blasting some Panzers!

The only information lacking in the book was that of the Polish brigade, who retreated on foot and escaped from the German and Russian armies, and retreated to Tehran and lived to fight again.

Absorbing New Text On Polish Campaign!.......2002-09-18

In the heart-breaking days and weeks that the world watched as the Wehrmacht smashed mercilessly into the belly of Poland in September of 1939, the Polish armed forces fought back with largely unrecognized ferocity and courage against overwhelming odds. As author Stephen Zaloga describes so forcefully in this wonderful new book, Polish forces had been chastised and prevented through continuing European pressure into delaying any meaningful army mobilization that might have been considered provocative to the Germans, so they were unable to answer the blitzkrieg tactics with sufficient forces early enough to really stem the tide. Moreover, while it had been widely recognized that based on topography and lack of badly needed fortifications the frontiers were virtually indefensible, the political reality dictated against abandoning the frontiers in favor husbanding their limited forces into a more meaningful defense of the realm closer to centers of population, thus, the Polish forces attempted to defend an area too large, too wide, and too flat to do so effectively.

This work continues the excellent exposition begun by the same author in "The Polish Campaign 1939", extending and completing his controversial account which effectively debunks many common misconceptions regarding the nature of the Polish actions against the Germans in the all-too brief campaign. The author once more contends that many of the commonplaces regarding Polish conduct during the war are inaccurate and slanderous, including the idea that Polish cavalry actually attacked German tanks with swords drawn, or that the entire Polish Air Force was demolished on the first day of the war. According to Zaloga, neither supposition is true. And, while cavalry was used during the campaign, its application was much more clever and much more ingenious than previously believed.

This is a quite comprehensive book, with extensive coverage of every element of the campaign as seen from both sides of the conflict. Several fascinating aspects of the war emerge for further consideration, such as the fact that in the Battle of Bzura , the Poles caught the Wehrmacht with its pants down, with the Germans badly over-extended. The capability of the Polish forces to hold their own against their foe was demonstrated with the initial attack, in which the Poles slammed two German divisions backwards into retreat, capturing over 1,500 prisoners in the process. I was also surprised to discover that the Poles had deployed the advanced techniques using tungsten-core anti-tank shells, which they then used on a limited basis in the conflict. The author also shows how the cowardice and malice of the French misled the Poles into believing their allies might intervene, when historians have clearly proven the French actually never had any such action in mind. This is an intriguing book, and a wonderful addition to the growing library covering the German-Polish exchange in the fall of 1939. Enjoy!

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Poland 1939 : The Birth of Blitzkrieg
Steven J. Zaloga
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORD5EC

Book Description

A historical atlas must depict complex issues in a manner immediately accessible to the reader. The Cold War has long needed such an atlas. With easily understood maps and text, this atlas meets this demand. Not only are the obvious issues addressed, such as Cuba and Berlin, but the author also presents themes such as cultural issues and dtente to the reader, presenting The Cold War in all its complexities in a form which is both useful and understandable.

Customer Reviews:

Too vague on most issues.......2004-07-15

This book is really not a good book to learn about the cold war. The book is poorly put together and it has no page number so that you can look up a topic from the index. Swift's book in my opinion tells about the Cold War vaguely and really don't go into details. Some topics are useful but many topics in this book are very vague. I'm also dissapointed in the maps that Swift has in this book all maps are just in two colors that can hardly be of any help because the colors are almost the same really can't tell the colors apart.

I also bought this book to learn more about Reagan's Star War's program, but Swift only talks about Reagan's early administration , the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the Iran Contra Affair and the infamous run in with Libya's president Qadhafi.

I still use the book and a reference but now i have to buy another book that details all the events of the cold war in more detail. I think this book is a good reference for people who want to start out leaning about the cold war. This book is more as a supplementary tool to the more comprehensive texts as the preface points out. Like I said good book for first timers.

Product Description

Biographical sketches of 12 pioneers, from Marcellin Berthollet and John Wesley Hyatt to Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta, accompany an introductory overview of the history of polymer science. Time charts before each chapter summarize significant events.

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