Tourism, Security and Safety: From Theory to Practice (The Management of Hospitality and Tourism Enterprises)

Book Description

The topic of safety and security in the tourism industry is of vital importance globally. In recent years, and mainly after the 9/11 event, both academics and practitioners have started to look into crisis management issues seeking workable solutions in order to mitigate the negative impacts of safety and security incidences on the tourism industry and affected destinations.
Tourism, Safety and Security: a multi dimensional analysis brings together the writings of international leading academics and practitioners in this field to discuss prevention measures and crisis management options, in incidences of tourism safety and security. The layout and content of the book are aimed at analyzing different types of safety and security problems as well as finding managerial strategies and tactics to address them.

Divided into four sections this book looks at:
· Tourism and security issues: including the impact of terror in the hotel market in Israel
· Tourism and crime issues: including premises liability, drug trafficking, theft and street robbery
· Tourism and safety Issues: including the impact of SARS in Asia and Foot and Mouth Disease in the UK
· Tourism crisis management issues: including the 9/11 crisis, public relations, and the aftermath of the Bali bombings

Each chapter has a user friendly structure including study objectives, concept definitions and review questions.

· Global view on the relationship between tourism and safety& security issues
· The only book that addresses the subject matter from a multi dimensional perspective incorporating the disciplines of hospitality, tourism, geography, management, sociology, psychology, criminology, etc.
· Chapters that cover various aspects and methodologies, such as theoretical, empirical and case studies.

Customer Reviews:

More like a textbook. Meanders a lot. Worth collecting........2003-04-18

If you are looking for a good management book that will present a new paradigm or will change the way you think, this book IS NOT for you. If you love management books, and find historical information about great companies and anecdotes within these companies, this book will nicely add to your collection.

The book was written before 1998 and was aimed at giving a picture of how the best companies of the time were getting ready to face the 21st century. To give you an idea of how well the book succeeded in predicting the future - the word 'Internet' is mentioned on ONLY 9 pages in the entire 350 page book. Of course, the inability to accurately predict the future and especially a sudden change brought about by something like the Internet is forgivable. The authors combine the Internet with a general section on Information Technology and its impact on the future.

The book makes for an interesting read though. It is packed with quotations, little known but interesting facts about big businesses, deep insights into what the leaders at the time were thinking (at companies like Ford, GM etc.), and commonsense management advice. Evertime I picked up the book, I got the distinct feeling that the authors didn't have a real point to make, but at the same time, I couldn't put down the book as I was fascinated by everything they found in their research.

There are not only references but also discussion of famous books by other authors, like 'Reengineering the Corporation' by Michael Hammer & James Champy. The authors throw some cleverly disguised aspersions on the authors of these other books.

The book is split into four parts (taken directly from the introduction and a really good summary of the whole book) -

1. The first part describes the drivers of change - the obsolescence of the old corporation, the eruption of information technology, globalization, the new intensity of competition, society's expectations, and customers' expectations.

2. The second part describes how the new enterprise is reshaping the way business views people, including the customer, the leader, and the employee.

3. The third part analyzes how companies are using the new tools they have in information technology, innovation, speed, and quality.

4. The fourth part takes up the changes in the corporation itself, how companies are becoming global, how they network, how they learn, how they can best respond to society's demands, how they can redesign their architecture.

Bottom line, if you are interested in curious facts and little known information about famous companies, this book would serve quite well for that purpose. I am still enjoying my many sessions with this book learning about all these companies. This is one of those books that you won't feel like throwing away. It has that endearing quality to it. But don't expect to learn something revolutionary in this book that will change your future. It's just a fun management book to read.

Research-based book in blizzard organizational change pubs........1999-03-30

This book: describes the drivers of change; examines how the new enterprise views people; analyzes how companies are using new tools in information technology, innovation, speed and quality; and explores how organizations are changing. Chapters end with highlights that prove very helpful to serious readers with limited time.

The discussion about organizational drivers of change is based on research findings, which makes this book not only interesting but credible in a blizzard of publications spewing forth about organizational change. Given all these books on this subject, many based on the thin ice of one person's experiences in a few enterprises, a research-based work is appreciated. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

The definitive book on business organisations of the future.......1998-10-22

The book is extremely well researched and thorough and is not blase enough to put forth a framework. Where it succeeds is by putting forth what the most successful companies are doing to prepare themselves for the next century in all aspects of their operations

Book Description

Examination of modern agriculture, describing the economics and interdependence of the many components of our food and fiber system. Emphasis on: The changing structure of production agriculture, selected input industries, and technological influences. - Domestic and international market opportunities. - The consumption/retailing/distribution sectors. Farm price and income policies, and the role of government.The impact on the environment through the use of natural resources.

Remaking the North American Food System: Strategies for Sustainability (Our Sustainable Future)

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Remaking the North American Food System: Strategies for Sustainability (Our Sustainable Future)

Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Sustainable Agriculture | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0803224389

Book Description

Food and agriculture are in the news daily. Stories in the media highlight issues of abundance, deprivation, pleasure, risk, health, community, and identity. Remaking the North American Food System examines the resurgence of interest in rebuilding the links between agricultural production and food consumption as a way to overcome some of the negative implications of industrial and globalizing trends in the food and agricultural system.

Written by a diverse group of scholars and practitioners, the chapters in this volume describe the many efforts throughout North America to craft and sustain alternative food systems that can improve social, economic, environmental, and health outcomes. With examples from Puerto Rico to Oregon to Quebec, this volume offers a broad North American perspective attuned to trends toward globalization at the level of markets and governance and shows how globalization affects the specific localities. The contributors make the case that food can no longer be taken for granted or viewed in isolation. Rather, food should be considered in its connection to community vitality, cultural survival, economic development, social justice, environmental quality, ecological integrity, and human health.

Book Description

Traditionally, the human soul is regarded as a nonphysical concept that can only be examined by psychiatrists and theologists. In his new book, The Astonishing Hypothesis, Nobel Laureate Francis Crick boldly straddles the line between science and spirituality by examining the soul from the standpoint of a modern scientist, basing the soul's existence and function on an in-depth examination of how the human brain "sees."

Customer Reviews:

Boring.......2007-09-15

This was a boring and tedious book and I was glad to be done with it. It was very disappointing, as it was basically a rehash of psychology experiments involving vision, with some basic neurobiology thrown in as background. While it is well written, it goes nowhere. There is very little mention of a "soul" until chapter 18, and there is, of course, no mention of a scientific search for it, or research on it. There cannot be. It pains me to think that Crick spent years on this endeavor. The answer he seeks will come only after a long and arduous study of all aspects of the brain, its anatomy and function, as well as that of the neurons that constitute it. While I agree with Crick in what he is trying to show---that the "I" that is each of us, is the activity of neurons. How to demonstrate this is the problem. Instead of working backwards from behavior to structure, it would be more fruitful to begin with DNA---the genes that determine brain structure, from the neurons to the brain's gross anatomy, and try to reach an explanation of behavior based on the molecular biology of the brain. However, the human brain may be too complex and the problem thus too intractable. Start with something simple, a flatworm perhaps, and work up from there.

Eloquent argument.......2007-04-28

I love the part at the very end where Dr. Crick serves some delicious food for thought, making one think, "Gee whiz, maybe these archaic superstitions known as 'The World's Religions' are not based on any logic."

Are the eyes really the window to the soul? .......2007-03-11

Crick claims to be investigating consciousness through the visual system because he believes that the visual system is more amenable to scientific investigation. Those who do not appreciate this tactic, he sniffily claims, do not understand how science operates. It should be clear why it is often necessary to study what can be experimented on first, but this in no way validates this particular strategy. Crick's approach is a lot like trying to understand the mechanics of a car's engine by studying its wheels. Yes, there is a connection, and yes, the wheels are a lot more accessible (especially if you haven't yet figured out how to open the hood). But you won't necessarily learn very much about how the engine actually works.

Closely connected to this difficulty is his refusal to countenance the very question of what consciousness actually is. Of course, not doing so makes his investigation of visual perception as a `mode' of consciousness much more plausible. If one explicitly refuses to define what is under investigation, then investigating almost any related phenomena will do. Unfortunately, this mindset will not actually serve to advance the enterprise very far. Crick uses the glib analogy of a battle: in war, he notes, one will not get far trying to define what a battle is when what is needed are troops and strategy. It should go without saying that this analogy is so deeply flawed as to be useless, except for its intended rhetorical purpose. There is no need to define the battle because that is clearly understood by all out the outset; the same can hardly be said of consciousness. If one does not know what the battle objective is, fighting it well becomes a lot harder. And that is the unfortunate plight of this book.

To be more specific, it seems relatively apparent that whatever else we can say about consciousness, it involves an essentially subjective dimension. Crick makes no mention of this, except to dismiss it as something to be perhaps considered much later. Conversely, it is far from apparent that consciousness must involve visual awareness inherently. Where does this leave blind persons, one might ask? Are they not fully conscious? And today we are close to developing sighted machines, which can process and navigate three-dimensional environments using lasers or stereoscopic video cameras (e.g., the DARPA challenge). Are these machines therefore approaching consciousness? This seems patently absurd.

The book as a whole reeks of a lack of erudition beyond narrow scientific training. We are treated to freshman physiology lessons on neurons, brain areas and basic visual processing, the details which are both not deep enough for real scientific comprehension and far more detailed than necessary for advancing the concepts being discussed. At times, it reads like an undergraduate report in which the student is eager to impress and not let a single fact they have uncovered go unreported - no matter if they actually enlighten the stated aims or not.

In sum, most of the problems with this book could be fixed with a single simple but profound change: change the title to "Primer on Vertebrate Visual Physiology", circa 1995. It probably would not have sold many copies that way, though.

Flawed, but still worth it.......2007-01-18

The astonishing hypothesis referred to in the title of Crick's book is that all of your phenomenological experience is ultimately reducible to "no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules." So, just how is consciousness neurally instantiated? What the reader should take away from the book is just how difficult of a question this is.

Francis Crick was a thorough going empiricist and he strongly believed that the experimental method was the only way of successfully tackling the problem of consciousness. Along with his close collaborator, Christof Koch, Crick chose visual awareness (rather than say, self-awareness) as the main point of attack. The reason for this is because the visual system is relatively well understood and much easier to study in the laboratory.

Visual processing is an extremely complex business. Essentially, the visual system has to create a fairly high-fidelity representation of the environment (a model) from an array of heterogeneous light patches falling onto the retina. A staggering number of computational processes need to be performed in order for you to become aware of the final output. These processes operate unconsciously, in massively parallel streams. So, what we finally become aware of (our model) is the end result of a great many hidden computations. Much has been learned about the details in which the various features of a visual scene are decomposed and processed, but what remains a mystery is how we ultimately see something (i.e., become visually aware of it). As Crick says, what is required is an account of our "explicit, multilevel, symbolic interpretation of a visual scene."

"The Astonishing Hypothesis" does not provide anything like a Crick-Koch `theory' of consciousness. In fact, Crick goes to some length to eschew any precise definitions or theories. Any such purported theories, he believed, were pre-mature. (The closest that he comes to presenting some kind of a theory is his `Processing Postulate'). Instead what the book offers is a general strategy for submitting the problem to experimental study. Here the idea is to look for neural signatures of awareness or more technically the neural correlates of consciousness (abbreviated NCCs). In a nutshell (excuse the oversimplification), here is what NCCs are all about: submit to study some visual phenomenon which has an ambiguous interpretation (e.g., the Necker cube which can be perceived in two possible ways) and simultaneously obtain measures of neural activity. Some portion of the neural activity associated with the processing of an ambiguous figure will remain invariant (that portion which corresponds to the unchanging retinal input) while another, minimal portion of the neural activity will vary along with the percept. This variant, minimal portion is a good bet for representing a NCC, a neural signature of awareness. Finding a NCC can also tell us many other interesting things, such as whether or not there any special properties of the neurons in question, whether they are located in particular places or cortical layers and so on. And, a similar mechanism which underlies visual awareness is likely to underlie other forms of awareness. [Note that this addresses what David Chalmers has called the `easy' problem of consciousness and does not touch on the `hard' problem. There is a possibility however that Chalmers' hard problem is ill-posed and that there may in fact not be a hard problem to address].

Crick presents the results of many interesting research studies that bear on the problem of consciousness. He devotes some space to the issue of temporal binding and the 40-Hz oscillation hypothesis (or more precisely, the gamma-band oscillation hypothesis) as well as the potential importance of reverberatory thalamo-cortical circuits (see also the work of Gerald Edelman). Crick also speculates about the possibly important role played by the claustrum in the generation of consciousness (something he thought about a lot just prior to his death). Unfortunately for the general reader, this comes only near the end of the book, after a rather protracted discussion of the psychology and neurobiology of vision. For a reader who is unfamiliar with neuroscience, all the hard work done to get to the final portion of the book may produce a low pay-off. It seems that Crick could have got the main point of the book across just as strongly while omitting some of the technical details along the way. For those who have some familiarity with the subject matter the book will actually be an interesting and concise review but since the work was intended for a general readership one must judge it according to that criterion (and this is one of the book's flaws).

Francis Crick died in 2004. This marked a tremendous loss to the field as Crick was blessed with a brilliant mind and he undoubtedly had it in him to make many more important contributions. He brought his enthusiasm to the study of consciousness and made it a bona-fide scientific problem. For this, among other things, he should be celebrated.

A few final remarks about the book's title are in order. First, "The Scientific Search for the Soul" is a sensationalist title that was more likely than not the publisher's idea. Second: as most of the people working in the neurosciences adopt a materialist perspective (the most famous exception of course was Sir John Eccles), the purported astonishing aspect of the hypothesis has sometimes been questioned. And yet, this idea (that our consciousness, in all its richness, is in some mysterious way the result of biophysical processes) really should be astonishing. It is easy to be familiar with the workings of the brain and still slip into old habits of thought, implicitly believing that there really is some homunculus in the head who is doing all of the perceiving. As Crick says, "A man may, in religious terms, be an unbeliever but psychologically he may continue to think of himself in much the same way as a believer does, at least for everyday matters."

It is interesting to speculate about whether our experience of ourselves would change even in the hypothetical case that we did have a complete neurobiological theory of consciousness.

One of my top 10 favorite science books.......2006-10-19

This is one of the top 10 science books I have ever read. Not a light read, but anybody with a basic grasp of biology and computers should be able to follow along.

Francis Crick plays the quintessential scientist in this book. He puts forward a hypothesis about human consciousness that closely mirrors the philosophies of John Searle: there is no mind-body problem. There is only the body. You, your soul, is basically a complex pattern of neurons in your brain.

Naturally, gathering supporting evidence for such a hypothesis is quite a daunting task. This book does not provide ultimate proof, nor ultimate answers. Rather it presents a large body of promising and highly interesting anecdotal evidence. Since its a huge subject, Crick focuses mainly on how vision affects consciousness. He discusses a good part about the human visual cortex, and neural network theory in computer science.

The book is filled with fascinating stories about people with brain trauma, and how it affected their behavior, their personality... their SOUL.

Did you know that there is a form of blindness, where the people don't know they are blind? Did you know that human free will is probably located in the anterior cingulate sulcus?

If Crick is correct, this scientific journey to understand the soul is a long one: it might take a century. This book is the first step on a very, very long journey, and it might not even be correct. Readers and reviewers must keep this in mind.

To emphasize again, its a HYPOTHESIS. Not a THEORY. So don't expect a ton of supporting evidence. Just a bunch of good ideas, some compelling data, and a good direction for future research.

THE ASTONISHING HYPOTHESIS: THE SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR THE SOUL.

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THE ASTONISHING HYPOTHESIS: THE SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR THE SOUL.
Francis: Crick
Manufacturer: Touchstone Books /Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LY1U5Y

The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul.(Brief Article): An article from: The Antioch Review

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The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul.(Brief Article): An article from: The Antioch Review
Albert B. Stewart
Manufacturer: Antioch Review, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Antioch Review, published by Antioch Review, Inc. on June 22, 1994. The length of the article is 460 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: The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul.(Brief Article)
Author: Albert B. Stewart
Publication: The Antioch Review (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 1994
Publisher: Antioch Review, Inc.
Volume: v52 Issue: n3 Page: p533(2)

Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul.

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Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul.

Manufacturer: 0
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ICSF98

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Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul.
Francis Crick
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000V0DMFO

Book Description

Each volume contains all the winning and commended entries from the annual British Gas Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition--from the best international photographers.

Book Description

One of America's deepest gorges, Kings Canyon plunges more than 8000 feet and extends nearly eleven miles in length. Pristine alpine lakes reflect the surrounding silver-grey peaks, lupine and corn lilies flourish in meadows, and giant sequoias tower in world's largest stands of these ancient trees. This is the dramatic landscape of Kings Canyon National Park, southern neighbor to the more famous Yosemite.

Cool your feet in the turbulent clear waters of the South Fork Kings River, enjoy a picnic beside raucous Mist Falls, ramble on creekside trails through forests fragrant with cedar and pine, or regain your perspective from the park's highest points. Where the highway ends, the adventures begin…

Kings Canyon National Park: A Complete Hiker's Guide is the first comprehensive guide to the trails, campgrounds, outfitters, and facilities in the park and its environs. You'll find trips in neighboring Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sierra National Forest, and the Jennie Lakes and Monarch wilderness areas. Use this book to simplify your trip-planning--choose from 62 dayhikes, weekend overnights, or longer backpacks.

--Trail descriptions emphasize route difficulty, elevation gain and loss, good times to go, and unique features
--Routes match the needs of everyone, from strong hikers and adventurous backpackers to families on summer holiday, dayhikers and nature enthusiasts
--Topographic and overview maps help you anticipate the park's diverse geography, while numerous pictures let you sample the scenery
--Special sidebars inspire your curiosity about everything from beavers to woodpeckers and aspen to yarrow; learn about prehistoric Native sites and fire ecology; find out the difference between stalactites and stalagmites in nearby caves

Customer Reviews:

Most Comprehensive Kings Canyon Hiking Guide.......2006-01-16

This book accompanies the author's "Sequoia National Park: A Complete Hiker's Guide". The two books are the most comprehensive guide to the trails in these two parks. Moreover, the book also has some excellent and useful tables in the appendix that detail the length of the trip, whether it is a loop vs. out and back, elevations... For those serious about this region, these are necessary. Two things could improve these books for future editions:

1) The maps are not very clearly printed. It is good that they are topographic USGS-style maps, however the contrast is poor and smudgy. Anyone doing these hikes ought to have a high quality fold-out map from Trails Illustrated or Tom Harrison anyway. Future editions should consider a higher-contrast less detailed map, or two-tone illustration as in the Lonely Planet guides.

2)Together, the two books are over 600 pages long. Clearly at this size they are less than suitable as backpack material anyway. The author may consider expanding them to include more cross-country routes for class I/II hikes, as the Roper/Secor/Arnot books have little competition on this angle.

Well organized guide.......2005-06-28

I really like the way this book is organized. Trails are grouped by trailhead, trailheads by general area. Each trail discussion has a quick summary of the basic information such as trail length, difficulty, whether it's a loop or linear trail. Handy also are the icons in the margin of the text that point you to specific features of the trail, such as vistas, campsites, and Sequoia groves. In the back of the book the many trails are listed in a chart that makes side-by-side comparisons easy. The only thing I wish this book had are elevation profiles for each trail. Then this would be a complete guide, indeed.

Offers tips on hiking trips of all lengths.......2004-07-09

Hikers and backpacks seeking to enjoy one of California's remoter and lesser-used parks will relish Mike White's Kings Canyon National Park: it offers tips on hiking trips of all lengths, from a quarter-mile stroll to a 42-mile trek, it surveys the best vista points and campsites within the park, and includes insider's tips on swimming holes and wildflowers. The inclusion of recommended side trips and trailhead descriptions along with topographical small maps makes Kings Canyon National Park a highly recommended choice.

A tremendous resource for Sierra hikers.......2004-05-21

The title exaggerates, but only slightly; this is certainly the *most* complete hikers' guide yet published on Kings Canyon National Park. It's also a fine model for hiking guides in general: sensibly organized, with plenty of information in an easy-to-access format. After a succinct background section, the book is divided into sections by trailhead area (Giant Forest, Cedar Grove, etc.). For each trailhead area, it gives information on all the nearby campgrounds--an extremely useful feature. Each hike description gives mileage, elevation gain/loss, directions to the trailhead, a succinct route description (some of which could be a little more detailed); so far, all standard. Where routes overlap, the overlapping section is covered in each route description; this may add to the overall weight of the thing (which is substantial--better to copy trail descriptions than to carry the whole book on an extended trip), but anyone who has ever leafed back and forth through Sierra South to construct a single route description will appreciate the redundancy. Each description also has a topo map of the route (detailed enough to give context, not always adequate for hiking purposes); icons in the margin identifying features such as campsites, views, and wildflowers; and brief descriptions of alternate or supplemental routes. These features add significantly to the overall utility of the guide. The hikes are nearly all on-trail, but the supplemental descriptions do cover many of the more popular cross-country and peakbagging routes.

The guide is marred by significant omissions. The Middle Fork Trail is mentioned only in passing; Tehipite Valley (one of the most extraordinary features in the park) and Blue Canyon are not mentioned at all. This is unfortunate not just because the area omitted is uniquely spectacular, or because it offers more solitude than you'll find on most other trails, but because the Middle Fork Trail ties the westside (Sierra National Forest) trail system into the Monarch Divide area trails and the John Muir Trail. Taking these trails out of consideration limits the (apparent) possibilities for longer trips through the park. (I could also complain about the omission of key cross-country routes--Grouse Lake to Glacier Valley, for example--but recognize that the guide is trail-focused, and does not set out to render comprehensive coverage of off-trail routes. And besides, even Secor omits some obvious routes.)

My only other complaint is that the index is skimpy; it appears to track places only where they are *featured*, not every time they are mentioned. (For example, Simpson Meadow is not in the index. While it is not described, it is mentioned as an alternate destination from the Monarch Divide trail complex, and it would be useful to be able to look up that mention.)

These quibbles aside, Wilderness Press and Mike White have done a fine job with this book, and it is a must-have book for the serious Sierra explorer.

Book Description

This new and expanded 16th edition reveals exactly how to get thousands of fantastic free things of every type and description... free money for college, free gifts from the President, free recipes, free product samples, free things on the internet and LOTS more!

Customer Reviews:

Don't Get Your Hopes Up.......2006-09-06

Free things? Not really. Recipes, information and how to get information is about all you get. The best FREE THING was my ten bucks for nothing.

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Beneath it All: a century of French lingerie
Faris Chenoune
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OMQUQW

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Beneath it All: a Century of French Lingerie
Farid Chenoune
Manufacturer: Rizzolo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000R3F3QG

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