Book:
Love Online: Emotions on the InternetAuthor:
Aaron Ben-Ze'evPages:
302Format:
pdfLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0521832969Ben Ze'ev reinforces the old adage that the mind is most sexual organ, while highlighting the ways the internet is conditioned to sustain romantic and sexual cerebral play. Once the communicators begin their online exchange, qualities that are most keenly activated among offline lovers emerge. However, the links between the two conversants remain tenuous and ephemeral. Out of this soup of verbal chat, IM, e-mail, web videos, and blogging, many of the real world circumstances that seem to contain offline relationship disappear. For instance, regarding marriage, the author describes in great detail how the internet may undermine a commitment by flooding it with illicit sexual and romantic communication without the knowledge or consent of both partners. Though emotional and sexual infidelity of this sort may be obvious to some, what is not so apparent are the mechanisms in the human psyche that make this so attractive and powerful in the first place. Further, the author also details how such verbal intimacy is introducing new norms in marriage, such as sexually open, internet-based relationships.In the end, Ben Ze'ev is making a strong case for the transformation of modern marriage into a relationship that accommodates internet influenced intimacies. For those who have fallen prey to internet romantic and sexual love, and the unfulfilled hopes and expectations that usually arise, this book will help to understand what happened. Anyone who thinks that legislating marriage between one man and one woman is useful hasn't spent much time lately using the internet. 
Book:
The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why it Had to Be RebornAuthor:
Lucio Russo, Silvio LevyPages:
487Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
3540203966The third and second centuries BC witnessed, in the Greek world, a scientific and technological explosion. Greek culture had reached great heights in art, literature and philosophy already in the earlier classical era, but it was in the age of Archimedes and Euclid that science as we know it was born, and gave rise to sophisticated technology that would not be seen again until the 18th century. This scientific revolution was also accompanied by great changes and a new kind of awareness in many other fields, including art and medicine.
What were the landmarks in the meteoric rise of science 2300 years ago? Why are they so little known today, even among scientists, classicists and historians? How do they relate to the post-1500 science that we are familiar with from school? What led to the end of ancient science? These are the questions that this book discusses, in the belief that the answers bear on choices we face today.
Book:
Ideal KnotsAuthor:
Andrzej Stasiak, Vsevolod Katritch, Louis H. KauffmanPages:
414Format:
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EnglishISBN10:
9810235305In this book, experts in different fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology present unique forms of knots which satisfy certain preassigned criteria relevant to a given field. They discuss the shapes of knotted magnetic flux lines, the forms of knotted arrangements of bistable chemical systems, the trajectories of knotted solitons, and the shapes of knots which can be tied using the shortest piece of elastic rope with a constant diameter.
Book:
Challenge Of AidsAuthor:
Khorshed M PavriPages:
147Format:
pdfLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
8123701756AIDS research has attracted some of the first brains among doctors and scientists of the world and yet an effective cure edules. This revised edition imparts knowledge about the disease and a realisation of the challenge that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV) poses to mankind.
Book:
Acting Alone: A Scientific Study of American Hegemony and Unilateral Use-of-Force Decision MakingAuthor:
Bradley F. PodliskaPages:
272Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0739142518Acting Alone offers an unprecedented scientifically-based answer to the question of why presidents, regardless of political party, make decisions to use unilateral military force. By using three methods to test U.S. crisis behavior since 1937, the author of Acting Alone makes the case that presidents are realists and make a unilateral decision based on a wide military gap with an opponent, an opponent located in the Western hemisphere, and a national security threat.
Book:
China's Elite Politics: Governance and DemocratizationAuthor:
Bo ZhiyuePages:
448Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
9812836721A sequel to the author's trailblazer (China's Elite Politics: Political Transition and Power Balancing, published by World Scientific in 2007), this book tackles the issue of governance in China. It pres up-to-date information on China's political elites and evaluates their ability to deal with crises through four case studies: Snowstorm in the South, the Tibet issue, the Sichuan Earthquake, and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.Along with China's Elite Politics: Political Transition and Power Balancing, this book pres rich empirical information on and insightful theoretical understanding of national-level politics in China and serves as a good reference source for students of Chinese politics.
Book:
The Dynamics of Interstate BoundariesAuthor:
George GavrilisPages:
1,3Format:
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EnglishISBN10:
0521156246The Dynamics of Interstate Boundaries explains why some borders deter insurgents, smugglers, bandits, and militants while most suffer from infiltration and crisis. Grappling with an issue at the core of the modern state and international security, George Gavrilis explores border control from the 19th century Ottoman Empire to 21st century Central Asia, China, and Afghanistan. Border control strategies emanate from core policies of state formation and the local design of border guard institutions. Secure and open borders depend on institutional design, not on military power.Based on research in numerous border regions, this book advances the study of the state, local security institutions, and conflict and cooperation over border control. It holds critical lessons for policymakers and international organizations working to enhance border security in dangerous regions.
Book:
Reconfiguring Knowledge Production: Changing Authority Relationships in the Sciences and their Consequences for Intellectual InnovationAuthor:
Richard Whitley, Jochen Glaser, and Lars EngwallPages:
384Format:
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EnglishISBN10:
0199590192The governance of the public sciences has profoundly changed since the Second World War, especially with regard to funding structures, the autonomy, and accountability of public research organizations and universities, and the extent to which research is steered towards societal usefulness. Going beyond previous analyses of these changes in science studies, science policy, and higher education studies, this book presents and applies a novel approach that provides an integrated assessment of changes in public science systems and their impact on scientific innovation.
Its basic assumptions are (i) that all changes in public science systems (PSS) affect authority relations--the interests and action capabilities of authoritative agencies in science--and (ii) that the authority relations concerning the selection of goals and approaches in research as well as the integration of research results are the channel through which changes in PSS affect the production of scientific knowledge and particularly scientific innovation. This focus on authority relations as the key interface integrating changes in governance and translating them into changes in the production of scientific knowledge is an important innovation because the effects of governance at the performance level of the science system have been largely neglected by other approaches.By demonstrating that changes in authority relations are field-specific and have field-specific effects on knowledge production , and that these field-specific authority relations do indeed affect the conditions for intellectual innovation, the perspective explored in this book challenges science policy studies to 'bring work back in' to the study of the organisation and governance of the sciences.
Book:
Seven Wonders of MedicineAuthor:
Karen Gunnison BallenPages:
80Format:
pdfLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0761342397In every age, science and technology have advanced human civilization. From architecture to engineering, medicine to transportation, humans have invented extraordinary wonders. Over the centuries, new medicines and medical tools have cured and wiped out diseases. Medical technology has saved lives and has improved health for millions of people, increasing life expectancy for Americans from 49 years in 1900 to 77 years in 2000. In the twenty-first century, scientists continue developing new medical tools and techniques to treat cancer and other deadly diseases. In this book, we'll explore seven wonders of medicine. These wonders include microscopes, which let doctors see the germs that cause disease. Other wonders are antibiotics, lifesaving drugs made from mold. We'll learn how doctors are able to take a still-beating heart from one person and place it into another. And we'll find out about nanomedicine, including tiny "robot doctors" that might one day travel inside the body. From the basic to the cutting edge, we'll learn where medicine has been and where it's headed.
Book:
Rhetoric: An Historical IntroductionAuthor:
Wendy OlmstedPages:
184Format:
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EnglishISBN10:
1405117729This introduction to the art of rhetoric analyzes rhetorical concepts, problems, and methods and teaches practical inquiry through a series of classic rhetorical texts.An introduction to the art of rhetoric for those who are unacquainted with it and an argument about invention and tradition suitable for specialistsTexts range from Cicero's De oratore and Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine to Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Stephen Greenblatt’s Marvellous PossessionsTexts serve simultaneously as works of persuasion and considerations of how rhetoric worksEngages readers in using rhetoric to deliberate about challenging issues.
Summary: A straightforward introduction to the art, skill, and history of rhetoric
Rating: 5Rhetoric: An Historical Introduction is a straightforward introduction to the art, skill, and history of rhetoric. Author Wendy Olmsted (Associate Professor, University of Chicago) discusses classical traditions of rhetoric, classical rhetoric and literary interpretation, and the role rhetoric has to play in contemporary disciplines. The place rhetoric has in specific great works of literature, such as Machiavelli's "The Prince", Augustine's "On Christian Doctrine", and much more is discussed at especial length. A scholarly resource especially for college students seeking to acclimate themselves to principles of persuasiveness.
Book:
Image and Territory: Essays on Atom EgoyanAuthor:
Monique Tschofen, Jennifer BurwellPages:
426Format:
pdfLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
088920487XIn a culture that often understands formal experimentation or theoretical argument to be antithetical to pleasure, Atom Egoyan has nevertheless consistently appealed to wide audiences around the world. If films like The Adjuster, Calendar, Exotica, and The Sweet Hereafter have ensured him international cult status as one of the most revered of all contemporary directors, Egoyan’s forays into installation art and opera have provided evidence of his versatility and confirmed his talents.
Image and Territory: Essays on Atom Egoyan is both scholarly and accessible. Indispensable for the scholar, student, and fan, this collection of new essays and interviews from leading film and media scholars unpacks the central arguments, tensions, and paradoxes of his work and traces their evolution. It also locates his work within larger intellectual and artistic currents in order to consider how he takes up and answers critical debates in politics, philosophy, and aesthetics. Most importantly, it addresses how his work is both intellectually engaging and emotionally moving.
Book:
The Rhetoric of the Body from Ovid to ShakespeareAuthor:
Lynn EnterlinePages:
288Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0521034655This persuasive book describes the complex, often violent connections between body and voice in Ovid's Metamorphoses and narrative, lyric and dramatic works by Petrarch, Marston and Shakespeare. Lynn Enterline analyzes what happens when Renaissance authors revisit Ovid's stories of violence and desire, paying close attention to the ways in which his subversive representations of gender, sexuality and the body influence later conceptions of the self and erotic life. This vividly original book makes a profound contribution to the study of Ovid's presence in Renaissance literature.
Book:
Introduction to Emergency Management, Fourth EditionAuthor:
George D. HaddowPages:
424Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
1856179591Learn about the discipline of emergency management as it has developed over the past six decades, including the rapid evolution of the field since the turn of the century. Haddow, Bullock, and Coppola bring the ideal combination of practical and academic experience to their presentation of disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, recovery and communications. Extensive case studies cover the latest disasters, offering ample opportunity for current students and practitioners to build their critical thinking skills and grow into the next generation of leaders in this increasingly important profession.
Book:
Seven Wonders of TransportationAuthor:
Twenty-First Century BooksPages:
80Format:
pdfLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0761342389In every age, science and technology have advanced human civilization. From architecture to engineering, medicine to transportation, humans have invented extraordinary wonders. Transportation technology has seen significant changes over the centuries. Ancient people traveled on foot and on the backs of animals. People invented wheels and sailing ships, which helped them travel farther and carry larger loads. Fast forward to modern cars, subways, and airplanes and we'll find that even the sky's not the limit. In the twenty-first century, people are planning tourist flights into space. In this book, we'll explore seven wonders of transportation. These wonders include roads and mass transit systems, including the ancient Silk Road, the London Underground, and the U.S. Interstate Highway System. The wonders also include vehicles such as bicycles, airplanes, spaceships, and the glorious ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II. The newest vehicles are "supergreen" cars, which save energy and help the environment. From the basic to the cutting edge, we'll learn where transportation has been and where it's headed.
Book:
Into the Black: JPL and the American Space Program, 1976-2004Author:
Peter J. WestwickPages:
416Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0300110758In the decades since the mid-1970s, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has led the quest to explore the farthest reaches of the solar system. JPL spacecraft—Voyager, Magellan, Galileo, the Mars rovers, and others—have brought the planets into close view. JPL satellites and instruments also shed new light on the structure and dynamics of earth itself, while their orbiting observatories opened new vistas on the cosmos. This comprehensive book recounts the extraordinary story of the lab's accomplishments, failures, and evolution from 1976 to the present day.
This history of JPL encompasses far more than the story of the events and individuals that have shaped the institution. It also engages wider questions about relations between civilian and military space programs, the place of science and technology in American politics, and the impact of the work at JPL on the way we imagine the place of humankind in the universe.
Book:
Aliens: The Anthropology of Science FictionAuthor:
George E SlusserPages:
272Format:
PDFLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
0809313758Our title, the “anthropology of the alien,” sounds like a contradiction in terms. Anthropos is man, anthropology the study of man. The alien, however, is something else: alius, other than. But other than what? Obviously man. The alien is the creation of a need—man’s need to designate something that is genuinely outside himself, something that is truly nonman, that has no initial relation to man except for the fact that it has no relation. Why man needs the alien is the subject of these essays. For it is through learning to relate to the alien that man has learned to study himself.
Book:
Le president des riches : Enquete sur l'oligarchie dans la France de Nicolas SarkozyAuthor:
Monique Pincon-Charlot, Michel PinconPages:
222Format:
DjvuLanguage:
EnglishISBN10:
2355220182Petits cheques entre amis, diners mondains, legions d'honneur et comptes en Suisse... L'affaire Bettencourt a jete une lumiere crue sur les connivences souterraines qui unissent pouvoir politique et puissances de l'argent. Dans ce livre-enquete, les sociologues Michel Pincon et Monique Pincon-Charlot, specialistes de la bourgeoisie francaise, donnent a voir, au-dela des scandales, la logique d'un systeme. Pour faire vivre un monde ou l'entre-soi permet l'affirmation des reseaux, ils rapportent des histoires revelatrices, glanees dans les coulisses du regne de Nicolas Ier. En brossant la chronique des premieres mesures prises, ils devoilent les ressorts d'une politique systematique en faveur des nantis: bouclier fiscal, abattements et exonerations en tout genre, depenalisation du droit des affaires ne sont que les elements visibles d'une guerre des classes au service de l'aristocratie de l'argent. Aux discours du Sarkozy qui pretendait vouloir refonder le capitalisme s'oppose la realite des actes: paradis fiscaux, fonds speculatifs, bonus des traders, stock-options et cadeaux aux banques se portent bien et ont permis au capital financier de retrouver de sa superbe. Derriere la facade d'un pouvoir democratique se dessine ainsi le tableau inquietant d'un tout autre regime: une oligarchie, un gouvernement des riches pour les riches.
