Book Description
This is the first full-length biography of the controversial poet Sylvia Plath whose suicide in made her a misinterpreted cause celebre and catapulted her into the ranks of the major confessional voices of her generation, such as Robert Lowell and
Customer Reviews:
Good info, but biased.......2007-08-23
I purchased this book as a reference for an Abnormal Psychology class where I wrote a paper on Sylvia Plath. The information and the facts are real, but the book isn't completely objective. Quite a few times I caught myself thinking that the author had some kind of 'hero worship' about Plath. He would explain some of her odd behaviors and rampages as excusable because she was gifted and intellectual. In one chapter he says that the girls Sylvia hung out with basically had no brains and couldn't think for themselves, and did whatever she wanted them to do. However, it served it's purpose for my paper.
Portrait of a Very Troubled Genius.......2006-07-02
I admit that Sylvia Plath is my favorite poet of the 20th Century.
This book adds richness and more perspective over a beautiful, neurotic woman too angry, yet fragile for this world.
Awesome.......2006-04-25
I am a Sylvia Plath lover and this book is truly meaningful. The author is so fluent and empathetic but deeply historical and also quite literary. It is all I could ask for in a bio of my heroic favorite poet and more.
An unflichingly analysis of Sylvia Plath , brilliant and beautifully written.......2005-12-28
This superbly written biography of Sylvia Plath completely threw me. Sylvia Plath has been a poetic heroine of mine for years. I thought that reading about her life would bring me closer to her and her poetry, but it actually pushed me away. I found myself having difficulty relating to her zealous ambition, Puritanical work ethic and neurotic need to impress others.
Sylvia Plath was extremely intelligent (her IQ was once measured at about 160!); but Sylvia was no lazy genius. She was a perfectly punctual, continuously straight-A student, from grade school through college. Plath was a classic perfectionist and an over-achiever. She worked tirelessly and with a single-mindedness that boggles me. Her biographer Edward Butscher argues that Plath's neurotic need for public approval was created by the loss of her father, Otto Plath, who died when she was only eight years old.
While the popular conception of suicidal people is often as emotionally unstable individuals who are "out of control," Sylvia Plath had an extraordinary amount of self-control. Much as she crafted her poems, with persistence and precision, Sylvia constructed a `surface self' in order to please and impress the public. She certainly succeeded in impressing people, and still does, decades after her death.
I was particularly disturbed by Butscher's description of the collegiate Sylvia writing her poems with "the same joyless persistence she gave to her studies." (49) He considers her early poems "socially acceptable artifacts, crafty, superficial vehicles of linguistic excellence created almost solely for the purpose of gaining recognition and attention." (49-50) From what I had read of Sylvia Plath's poetry, I had believed that she wrote from the same passionate necessity that drove my own writing. This cold, calculating Plath that Butscher presented was a stranger to me, so unlike the poet of my imagination. Later, as her poetry developed and became a sustaining force, buoying her through her depressions, I saw more of the Sylvia beneath the surface, the vulnerability that drove her to work so tirelessly.
In order to understand and appreciate the real Sylvia Plath, I had to let go of my romanticized version of her. Edward Butscher's insightful, meticulous biography forced me to do just that; and I thank him for it.
Works on Every Level.......2004-09-24
Fascinating and detailed, I read this substantial book everywhere: standing on the subway, seated on the bus, reclined on my couch, hidden under my desk, waiting at stoplights. It is beautifully written, informative in the extreme and enlightening about the ambition, drive, commitment and discipline that goes into the making of a star poet (or writer).
The author is a wordsmith who truly understands, and helps the reader to understand, the creative process and the poetic voice. I did not want the book to end but still found myself rushing toward the denouement of Plath's last days as if the book were a mystery novel and, hoping against hope, the culprit or victim might yet be someone else. Butscher brilliantly connects all the dots including Plath's state of mind and the significance of the timing of her poems.
My caveats are: Ted Hughes remains a less well developed figure against the glowing Sylvia. I would have liked a more developed portrait of the much maligned Ted. I still don't know how tall Hughes was (nor Sylvia for that matter), what women found attractive about him, how he came to be a poet, etc. Butscher relies heavily on a Freudian analysis of Plath's motivations for almost every twist and turn of her brilliant but blighted existence. I find mother-blame just too done! Read the book though!
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Sylvia Plath: Methods and Madness
Edward Butscher
Manufacturer: Continuum Intl Pub Group
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Binding: Hardcover
 Plath, Sylvia
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ASIN: 0826401600 |
Amazon.com
Roberts describes the culture of the Anasazi--the name means "enemy ancestors" in Navajo--who once inhabited the Colorado Plateau and whose modern descendants are the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Archaeologists, Roberts writes, have been puzzling over the Anasazi for more than a century, trying to determine the environmental and cultural stresses that caused their society to collapse 700 years ago. He guides us through controversies in the historical record, among them the haunting question of whether the Anasazi committed acts of cannibalism. Roberts's book is full of up-to-date thinking on the culture of the ancient people who lived in the harsh desert country of the Southwest.
Customer Reviews:
Much to ponder while standing in the dusty gloom inside Perfect Kiva..........2007-09-22
David Roberts is my favorite outdoor adventure writer and this, in my opinion, is one of his best works.
Mystery will always surround the Anasazi. The land on which the remnants of their habitations remain is hauntingly beautiful and desolate. For me this book brought back many memories of trips I've made to these areas since childhood and also rekindled the desire to return for more. Natural Bridges, Grand Gulch, Mesa Verde have always been special places for me.
David does an excellent job providing a broad spectrum of thought and research into how the Anasazi lived and why they seemingly disappeared. He also provides a fascinating look at his own travel adventures in southern Utah and the other four-corner states.
I highly recommend this book to all David Roberts fans, southwest canyoneers, Anasazi enthusiasts, or armchair adventurers!
Come Along And See With Your Mind's Eyes.......2007-07-13
For anyone with a passing interest in the Anasazi and the southwest, this is a great read. It's not a scientific archeology book but instead an easy to read guide to some of the Anasazi ruins of the southwest and the description of the author's hikes and explorations. He touches upon various theories of the fate of the Anasazi and current issues relating to the remaining ruins and National Parks. It has a few B&W photos (could definitely had more). It is a very easy read and to be honest I'm writing this review after having read it for the 3rd time. I have visited many of the sites that he writes about and for anyone who has been to any of the Anasazi sites and National Parks you will truly enjoy this book and have a better understanding of the history and of the ruins of this vanished (or moved) people.
For those who love the Southwest...........2006-01-07
If you have ever wondered what it would be like to explore the far reaches of Anasazi territory, this book takes you there! If you enjoy armchair travel there isn't a book that puts you there better than this one. David Roberts describes in detail his adventures through many Anasazi sites in the Southwest. Even those ruins that many people will never see because of their remote location.
Excellent adventure without leaving your couch.......2005-06-27
Not being from the Southwest this book acted like a walking guide to the mysterious disappearance and the researched history of the ancient civilization inhabiting the canyons. It was a good, easy read, with lots of references for more research. I would read more of his work without hesitation. I just wish he'd put in some maps to give an overview of the canyons he was hiking.
Vicarious vacations.......2005-04-20
This book reads like a lengthy article in a men's outdoorsy magazine. The author goes on an endless series of camping trips(often with companions who range from greenhorns to backwoods experts) to find Anasazi ruins in the southwest that most of us will never see, nor according to the author should we ever see them, because too many people would destroy them, but this author gets his thrills going to see them anyway. Along the way he discusses this and other controversies surrounding the famed old ones of the Four Corners region, stories of other explorers who came before, and the occasional eerie thrill of discovery. A helpful appendix explains the different periods archaeologists use to discuss Anasazi history ("Basketmaker I", "Pueblo II," etc.) but there is precious little Anasazi history or achaeology per se in this book, which is a more personal take on the region. We are left with the same appreciation and fascination for the Anasazi which led us to pick up the book in the first place, and some understanding of the problems of this field of inquiry, but not much more understanding of the Anasazi themselves; who they were, where they came from, how they lived, what they believed, etc. Admittedly much of this information is murky and unknown, but, well, it still is after reading this.
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- The Egyptian Connection
- Love it!
- Shook the very foundations of my beliefs. Top class!
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The Copper Scroll Decoded: One Man's Search for the Fabulous Treasures of Ancient Egypt
Robert Feather
Manufacturer: Thorsons Publishers
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ASIN: 0722538022 |
Book Description
This is the story of how a professional metallurgist, with a fascination for ancient Jewish and Middle Eastern history, managed to decipher a 2,000-year-old metal scroll whose true meaning has baffled the 'experts' for nearly 50 years - and identified where the fabulous treasures listed in it are hidden.
The Copper Scroll is unique amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, which record the activities of a secretive Jewish sect - the Qumran-Essenes - who lived by the shores of the Dead Sea at the time of Jesus.
By using his metallurgical knowledge, Robert Feather has identified the connection between the Essenes and the most advanced and rich civilization in the ancient world the Egyptians - a connection which will profoundly challenge our most fundamental beliefs in the origins of the major religions.
The treasure hunt unearths not only vast wealth, but powerful historical truths of immense significance, which will necessitate the re-evaluation of many conventional ideas.
Customer Reviews:
The Egyptian Connection.......2004-11-17
A scholarly page-turner I couldn't put down. Establishes the links between the monotheism of Akenaten and Judaism. Unique among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the copper scroll lists the locations of priceless temple treasures, which Feather shows are hidden not in Judea, but in Akenaten's city, modern Tel-el-Amarna, Egypt. Only Egypt used copper and had the technology to rivet the thin copper plates together. Informative, readable and well-documented research. Feather is both a metalurgist and a scholar.
Love it!.......2000-07-31
I love the way Robert Feather writes, no theological confusion of philosophies here. I love the way he has put the pieces of his jigsaw puzzle together. Although you might not agree with all his conclusions he certainly presents a convincing argument. For anyone interested in our links to ancient Egypt, specifically with the 18th dynasty, who has an interest in the origins of the Bible stories and a fascination with the Dead Sea Scrolls, this book will certainly tantalize your enquiring tastebuds. And, there is treasure and a treasure hunt involved along side deeply spiritual teachings that have been found and lost and now in the 21st century found again. Perhaps the treasure is more in the teachings than in the gold.
Shook the very foundations of my beliefs. Top class!.......1999-08-25
The most significant book on Biblical history this century. There are so many goodies in this riveting book as soon as I had finished reading it I started re-reading it! Not only does the author demonstrate where incredible treasure listed in the Copper Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is hidden he goes on to come to some truly remarkable conclusions about the Old Testament. Ever since the finding of the Copper Scroll in 1952,in what was then part of Jordan and is now part of modern Israel, historians and archaeologists like John Allegro, Al Wolters, Geza Vermes, and Emile Puech have, it appears, been searching in the wrong places for the gold, silver and jewellery described in the Copper Scroll. Not only does the author convincingly show us how he has cracked the Greek coding letters in this 2,000 year-old Scroll, which have defied international scholars for nearly 50 years, he goes on to find some of the listed treasures. Perhaps the author's background in metallurgy has given him an edge in a world of linguists, dry academics and myopic historians. The ramifications of his 'findings' have led to conclusions, often hinted at by others, that Moses was in fact a Prince of Egypt, and that the origins of Judaism and by extension, Christianity and Islam are much more closely linked to Egypt through Pharaoh Akhenaten than has previously been acknowledged. I am aware of previous authors like John Spencer, Sigmund Freud, and more recently Jan Assmann, Professor of Egyptology at the University of Heidelberg,who have made out a reasoned case for links between Moses and Akhenaten, but Feather seems to have come up with so many detailed 'hard' connections that it is difficult to dismiss them. If the author is correct, and I found his arguments powerfully compelling, he shows us the first ever image of the Biblical figure of Joseph and goes on to explain many puzzles in the Bible which seem to fall like clock-work into place in his new 'Egyptian' perspective. Written in an easily readable style of a detective story, the detailed referencing and Foreword by Professor George Brooke, of Manchester University - a world authority on Dead Sea Scroll research, underlines the apparent validity of this incredible work. If what the author says is essentially true, the book will necesitate a re-evaluation of the origins of the main Biblical stories, the history of the Qumran-Essenes - who wrote and possessed the Dead Sea Scrolls, and our present understanding of the ancient Hebrew Community at Elephantine Island in southern Egypt and the existence of the 'Falasha' Ethiopian Jews, - and become a standard work of reference.
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Development of anticipatory visual search in one-year-olds (RIEEC Research bulletin)
Shoko Shimada
Manufacturer: Research Institute for the Education of Exceptional Children, Tokyo Gakugei University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0006F08DI |
Book Description
More than one hundred of the world's leading thinkers write about things they believe in, despite the absence of concrete proof
Scientific theory, more often than not, is born of bold assumption, disparate bits of unconnected evidence, and educated leaps of faith. Some of the most potent beliefs among brilliant minds are based on supposition alone -- yet that is enough to push those minds toward making the theory viable.
Eminent cultural impresario, editor, and publisher of Edge (www.edge.org), John Brockman asked a group of leading scientists and thinkers to answer the question: What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove it? This book brings together the very best answers from the most distinguished contributors.
Thought-provoking and hugely compelling, this collection of bite-size thought-experiments is a fascinating insight into the instinctive beliefs of some of the most brilliant minds today.
Download Description
"
More than one hundred of the world's leading thinkers write about things they believe in, despite the absence of concrete proof
Scientific theory, more often than not, is born of bold assumption, disparate bits of unconnected evidence, and educated leaps of faith. Some of the most potent beliefs among brilliant minds are based on supposition alone -- yet that is enough to push those minds toward making the theory viable.
Eminent cultural impresario, editor, and publisher of Edge (www.edge.org), John Brockman asked a group of leading scientists and thinkers to answer the question: What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove it? This book brings together the very best answers from the most distinguished contributors.
Thought-provoking and hugely compelling, this collection of bite-size thought-experiments is a fascinating insight into the instinctive beliefs of some of the most brilliant minds today.
"
Customer Reviews:
Proof! Belief!.......2007-09-12
What we believe but cannot prove once again hits the nail on the head for the many issues that we think we know the answer to, but can't quite put it all together. Along with its companion piece, Dangerous Ideas, this makes for very stimulating reading. Nice to know what puzzles some of the top scientific minds in the world...
'Third world uncertainties- and their incompletenesses'.......2007-07-29
The one - hundred scientists, educators, psychologists, linguists, and other professionals of the life of the mind who provide answers to the 'title- question' do so apparently with little knowledge of what other respondents are saying. Thus for instance when Martin Rees raises the possibility that mankind may be the only advanced intelligence that has yet come into the universe, Craig Ventner who supports a form of Crick's panspermic view( i.e. We got here by being seeded by more advanced intelligences from elsewhere in the universe) there is no opportunity for give and take between them. My sense is that is that this whole enterprise might have been more productively conducted had it involved a dialogue around several major questions now confronting humanity i.e. the extraterrestial life question, the artificial intelligence in place of humanity, question, the ' understanding everything' question.
Another problem I had with the book is that while John Brockman has truly created an impressive enterprise with his 'Edge ' world and Third Culture, the Third Culture is largely devoid of religious thinkers, and of thinkers whose fundamental background is in the Humanities.
Consider for instance the one great Idea the great majority of Humanity believes in without having Proof of i.e. the idea of a Creator Who is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End,that Mankind has the purpose of in some way serving . Consider too some of the other beliefs most important to Mankind for which there is no proof i.e. the belief in an Afterlife, the belief that our loved ones have some kind of continuation beyond the life of earth.
These questions which burn in the heart of Humanity are by and large outside the consideration of those involved in 'The Third Culture'.
Here it is possible to point out that many of the respondents here give answers which come directly out of their own work. That is what interests them is beliefs they have related to their own special enterprise and skill. This makes sense, but it does not necessarily make for startling revelations.
Nonetheless, and here I come to what is truly praiseworthy in the enterprise this collection contains information on 'cutting edge' work now being done in various scientific areas. For instance on the whole question of ' extraterrestial intelligences' a number of respondents point to increasing evidence of a greater prevalence of earth- like planets, of conditions for life than was previously thought.
While many of the respondents give one or two - sentence brief answers a number like Martin Rees, Michael Shermer ,John Horgan, Rebecca Goldstein present positions which outline and justify their fundamental attitude to their own scientific enterprise.
Others like Ray Kurzweil who momentarily forgets about the 'Singularity' to seek out ways of abrograting the finite speed- of -laws, make speculative ventures . Stewart Kauffman for instance wonders if there will be a fourth- law of Thermodynamics, involving self- constructing non- equilibrium systems.
What emerges from reading through the whole discussion is a sense of how much Mankind has come to know and understand about the Universe, and yet how open the major questions relating to Mankind's near , and if it gets to this, distant future are. On so many levels it seems that the more answers we have the more questions we open up for ourselves. And this as if to suggest that the scientific enterprise, the whole enterprise of Man's knowing and learning about the world is a necessarily unfinishable one. There will be no unified- theory of 'everything' at any time in any foreseeable future.
What was encouraging was how , it seems to me, wise and humble many of the respondents were in acknowledging the limitations of understanding, while passionately engaging in their own efforts to know more.
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I believe..........2007-06-25
From 109 known and not so known thinkers emerges these speculations on reality...and what they speculate on speaks volumes about consciousness, alien life, reality and paradoxically the safety of cell phones.
This is one of those great bathroom readers you can pick up and any page and not worry about losing continuity.
And yet, it's so much more...
What do you believe in?
Interestingly enough, no matter how seemingly scientific your answer the truth is that your beliefs are just that: acts of faith. This is because in a world where all conclusions stem from observations all observations suffer from the same potential for observer bias.
That's part of why Rene Descartes said "Cognito ergo sum" (I think therefore I am). While Descartes' assertion was limited to the idea that we can only prove the reality within our heads, the damning truth, the liberating potential is that believing is seeing and that in believing we ordain our worlds.
Though this book failed to include an entry from Roger Penrose, the Oxford scholar who helped Stephen Hawking understand cosmology, it bears noting that in Penrose's Road to Reality he said that he believed that there was a recursive relationship between truth and the physical world and our mental conception of the physical world. In other words, for Penrose mathematical truth ordained physical reality which in turn ordained the possibility for the sentient understanding of the entire scheme.
Paired with the observation that physical events do not exist until observed Penrose's recursiveness amounts to nothing less than the most mind blowing of beliefs: that reality itself does not exist until we perceive it.
In this way, perhaps we can assert no greater power than to say "I believe..."
but I believe in swordfish.......2007-05-30
"What We Believe" is an intriguing concept for a book. And it's a worthy read since some of the mini-essays live up to the potential. The answers come in from scientists from a variety of backgrounds, and are no longer than a page or two each, so it has the flexibility of either being a sustained read or can also work as a bathroom reader.
The book is at its best when people give honest thoughtful answers, like several writers who take on the old questions of consciousness, free will, morality, and the Hard Problem of neuroscience, but give the topics a tweak I haven't heard before. There are also more playful takes on the question, such as when Groovy Primatologist Robert Sapolsky asserts that he would "continue to believe there is no God even if it were proved that there is." Verena Huber-Dyson, one of the many mathematicians represented who stay up late at night questioning the existence of Goedel's proof, gives another memorable response: "I believe in the creative power of boredom." Or Stuart A. Kauffman's proposed fourth law of thermodynamics "concerning self-constructing nonequilibrium systems" anywhere in the universe: "The diversity of things that can happen next increases, on average, as fast as it can."
Interesting in its own way, but less entertaining, are the several nervous responses in which contributors either wring their hands over whether or not it's okay to believe anything without proof or else just defensively deny that they do. This may be just an overreaction to the rise of fundamentalism and the ubiquity of religion in popular discourse (How many Newsweek cover stories have there been, just since the '04 election, with `God' or `Jesus' in the title?). But, of course, this is missing the point of the scientific method. It reflects the confusion people get into over science as an institution versus science as a process. There is nothing wrong with anyone believing anything they want. It's healthy to have beliefs. It shows a certain mental flexibility and richness of character. It's only a problem when you insist on other people being as convinced as you. And then, pretty soon the moralizing starts. And the lobbying and legislating. And the pamphlets. T-Shirts. Armbands.
There are a few people who take an almost militaristic approach to rationality, as if any kind of emotional response or gut instinct is a sign of weakness. These are often the same people who write, with eager anticipation, glorious visions of a future when human minds will merge seamlessly with artificial intelligence, when, as Sir Martin Rees breathlessly states, "Perhaps these beings could achieve the computational ability to stimulate a universe as complex as the one we perceive ourselves to be in." Easy, Professor.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of uninteresting essays to weed through to get to the good ones. These are mostly from people who can't think outside their narrow little disciplines. Such as astrophysicists who use the occasion to denounce string theory. Or Jared Diamond weighing in on the exact chronology of the human expansion into the new world. Borat's brother, Simon Baron-Cohen, believes that the cause of autism will turn out to be "assertive mating of two hyper-systemizers." He then supports this claim hyper-systematically. Climatologists write that they really believe in global warming. Freeman Dyson cannot prove, but cares enough to mention, that the number resulting from reversing the digits of any exact power of two is never a power a five. I'm devastated. Worse yet are those that write in to promote their own pet theories, theories that they are already known for, in effect saying that they believe their views will someday be vindicated. "I believe that I'm right and you're wrong." Anyone who has even briefly succumbed to the quagmire of academia will immediately recognize these cretins for what they are. Unless they're one of them too. Nothing more petty than the politics of the irrelevant.
So in some sense it is a lost opportunity. I'd rather there were submissions from a wider scope of people, and then they could select them based on the thoughtfulness of the answers as opposed to the minor B-list academic celebrity of the author. But still, there is enough that is worth reading to recommend this book, so thumbs up. But I have to dock a star for all the filler.
Captivating!.......2007-05-21
What a Great Book!
109 well-known scientist/journalist/educator types were persuaded by Brockman to answer the question: "What do you believe but cannot prove?" I have read books by 17 of them and have heard of another 30 or 40. The average answer takes about a page and a fourth - inadequate space to develop a scientific thesis, so layman's language prevails, making this book accessible to anyone. Like themes seem to be arranged together. God issues first, SETI themes next, consciousness has a big section - but you can open it and start anywhere you want and not suffer loss of continuity.
The topics covered were diverse: Prehistoric life was rife with cannibalism and slavery; passionate people (within reason) do better; we're in for climatic mayhem; radiation emitted by mobile phones is harmless; the laws of large numbers - probability theory - work and protect the individual; scientific results can't be proved. They can only be tested again and again until only a fool would refuse to believe them...
Much damage has been done by those who are certain that there is a life - a better, more important life - elsewhere; religious experience and practice is generated largely by a few emotions that evolved for other reasons; hostility toward religion is an obstacle to progress in psychology; and this from Robert Sapolsky: "Mind you, it would be perfectly fine with me if there were a proof that there is no God. Some might view this as a potential health problem, given the number of people who would then run damagingly amok. But there's no shortage of folks running amok already, thanks to their belief in God, so it wouldn't be much of a problem"...
Intelligent extraterrestrials exist and will be found to use the same math we know and love; five recent developments suggest the discovery of extraterrestrial life is not far off; life itself is a fundamental feature of our universe, along with dark matter, supernovae, and black holes; no known law of physics or chemistry favors the emergence of the living state over other states; Whether or not intelligent life has staying power, it is for sure that microbial life does; panspermia is how life was and is spread throughout the universe...
String theory is a futile exercise in physics and will die on the vine; if there are subtle ways around the speed-of-light limit, we will discover and leverage them to great effect; electrons, neutrinos, and quarks are divisible; quantum mechanics is not a final theory; our history extends backwards before the Big Bang; time does not exist; the mechanism for the human perception of time will be discovered...
Future human evolution will proceed at a much faster pace than its predecessor (ordinary natural selection) because it will be intelligently designed by us; The DNA in your body varies from part to part; every special trait of humans is a derivative of language; not all the properties of nature are mathematically expressible - there are aspects of nature we will never conquer with science; evolution has direction, that is, life increases in its complexity; Homo Florensia had a simplified language that still exists today; Neanderthals were furry...
For every experience, thought, question, or solution there is an analog in the biophysical state of the brain; reality exists independent of its human and social constructions; consciousness and its contents are all that exists - spacetime, matter, fields all depend on consciousness for their very existence (the guy who wrote this teaches, you guessed it, philosophy); soon we will be able to construct robots that give every appearance of consciousness - systems that act like us in every way; advanced computers will never possess consciousness; human consciousness is a conjuring trick; acquiring a human language is a precondition for consciousness; cockroaches are conscious...
It is possible to life happily and morally without believing in free will; a common human nature will eventually be supported by evidence as strong and convincing as the evidence that the earth is round - with this evidence, we will overcome our misconceptions of human differences; Deceit and self-deception play a disproportionate role in human-generated disasters; We will soon grasp in a deep way how collective human behavior works, whether it's action by small groups or by nations; meaning and purpose of life may not be a precondition for humanity as much as a by-product of it; people are getting better...
From David Myers: "newborns are not so dumb, electroconvulsive therapy sometimes works for depression, America's economic growth has not improved our morale, the automatic unconscious mind dwarfs the conscious mind, traumatic experiences rarely get repressed, most folks don't suffer low self-esteem, sexual orientation is not a choice"...
It's possible to change adult stem cells from one phenotype to another; today's children are unintended victims of economic and technological progress; most of the ideas taught today in Economics 101 will be proved false; there is a severe overestimation of knowledge in the "soft" sciences. Mostly, they fit a narrative that satisfies our desire for a story.
There are a few duds, but overall it's fascinating to find out what these high achiever types are thinking about when they are not working. You will enjoy it.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Humanist, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1117 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: What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty.(Book review)
Author: Kenneth W. Krause
Publication:
The Humanist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 67
Issue: 1
Page: 43(2)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
- Nice book and good information
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Sampling and Monitoring of Environmental Contaminants
R. Barth , and
Andrew Topper
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill College
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0070051534 |
Customer Reviews:
Nice book and good information.......2001-02-02
The book provides lots of information in determination of pollutants. It summarizes these various methods and as a good guideline.
Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Environmental Pollution, published by Elsevier in . 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:
Over the past 15 years passive sampling devices have been developed that accumulate organic micropollutants and allow detection at ambient sub ng/l concentrations. Most passive accumulation devices (PADs) are designed for 1-4 weeks field deployment, where uptake is governed by linear first order kinetics providing a time weighted average of the exposure concentration. Semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) are the most comprehensively studied PADs, but other samplers may also be considered for aquatic monitoring purposes. The applicability of the PADs is reviewed with respect to commonly monitored aqueous matrices and compounds, the detection limits, and for use in quantitative monitoring related to requirements embedded in the EU Water Framework Directive, the US and EU Water Quality Criteria, and the Danish monitoring aquatic programme. The PADs may monitor >75% of the organic micropollutants of the programmes. Research is warranted regarding the uptake in PADs in low flow environments and for the development of samplers for polar organic compounds.
Average customer rating:
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Air Monitoring Methods for Industrial Contaminants
David Halliday
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0931890128 |
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![Review of passive accumulation devices for monitoring organic micropollutants in the aquatic environment [An article from: Environmental Pollution]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21QM5SJZNYL.jpg)