Samantha Power 0060541644 During the three years (1993-1996) Samantha Power spent covering the grisly events in Bosnia and Srebrenica, she became increasingly frustrated with how little the United States was willing to do to counteract the genocide occurring there. After much research, she discovered a pattern: "The United States had never in its history intervened to stop genocide and had in fact rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred," she writes in this impressive book. Debunking the notion that U.S. leaders were unaware of the horrors as they were occurring against Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, Iraqi Kurds, Rwandan Tutsis, and Bosnians during the past century, Power discusses how much was known and when, and argues that much human suffering could have been alleviated through a greater effort by the U.S. She does not claim that the U.S. alone could have prevented such horrors, but does make a convincing case that even a modest effort would have had significant impact. Based on declassified information, private papers, and interviews with more than 300 American policymakers, Power makes it clear that a lack of political will was the most significant factor for this failure to intervene. Some courageous U.S. leaders did work to combat and call attention to ethnic cleansing as it occurred, but the vast majority of politicians and diplomats ignored the issue, as did the American public, leading Power to note that "no U.S. president has ever suffered politically for his indifference to its occurrence. It is thus no coincidence that genocide rages on." This powerful book is a call to make such indifference a thing of the past. —Shawn Carkonen

Lewis Lapham 1565849868 A leading political satirist skewers the pretensions and vanities of America's equestrian classes.

Widely celebrated for his political essays, Lewis Lapham is a satirist who belongs in the company of Ambrose Bierce, H.L. Mencken, and Mark Twain. Over the last twenty years he has experimented with satire in its several forms—as burlesque, pasquinade, invective, and deadpan jest.

This first assemblage of Lapham's satires presents thirty pieces that hold their currency and humor against the tide of social and political change that has engulfed American society in recent times. He reduces to absurdity many of the topics of the day that are often treated portentiously: Dickens's A Christmas Carol is retold to praise the virtues of remorseless greed; the hydrogen bomb is introduced as a solemn dinner guest who doesn't play tennis or speak English; gene banks take the form of well-trained pigs that accompany their wealthy owners in the first-class cabins of transatlantic jets.

Dave Crane, Eric Pascarello, Darren James 1932394613

Peter Morville 0596007655 How do you find your way in an age of information overload? How can you filter streams of complex information to pull out only what you want? Why does it matter how information is structured when Google seems to magically bring up the right answer to your questions? What does it mean to be "findable" in this day and age? This eye-opening new book examines the convergence of information and connectivity. Written by Peter Morville, author of the groundbreaking "Information Architecture for the World Wide Web," the book defines our current age as a state of unlimited findability. In other words, anyone can find anything at any time. Complete navigability.

Morville discusses the Internet, GIS, and other network technologies that are coming together to make unlimited findability possible. He explores how the melding of these innovations impacts society, since Web access is now a standard requirement for successful people and businesses. But before he does that, Morville looks back at the history of wayfinding and human evolution, suggesting that our fear of being lost has driven us to create maps, charts, and now, the mobile Internet.

The book's central thesis is that information literacy, information architecture, and usability are all critical components of this new world order. Hand in hand with that is the contention that only by planning and designing the best possible software, devices, and Internet, will we be able to maintain this connectivity in the future. Morville's book is highlighted with full color illustrations and rich examples that bring his prose to life.

"Ambient Findability" doesn't preach or pretend to know all the answers. Instead, it presentsresearch, stories, and examples in support of its novel ideas. Are we truly at a critical point in our evolution where the quality of our digital networks will dictate how we behave as a species? Is findability indeed the primary key to a successful global marketplace in the 21st century and beyond. Peter Morville takes you on a thought-provoking tour of these memes and more — ideas that will not only fascinate but will stir your creativity in practical ways that you can apply to your work immediately.

""A lively, enjoyable and informative tour of a topic that's only going to become more important.""

—David Weinberger, Author, "Small Pieces Loosely Joined" and "The Cluetrain Manifesto"

""I envy the young scholar who finds this inventive book, by whatever strange means are necessary. The future isn't just unwritten—it—it's unsearched.""

—Bruce Sterling, Writer, Futurist, and Co-Founder, The Electronic Frontier Foundation

""Search engine marketing is the hottest thing in Internet business, and deservedly so. Ambient Findability puts SEM into a broader context and provides deeper insights into human behavior. This book will help you grow your online business in a world where being found is not at all certain.""

—Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D., Author, "Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity"

""Information that's hard to find will remain information that's hardly found—from one of the fathers of the discipline of information architecture, and one of its most experienced practitioners, come penetrating observations on why findability is elusive and how the act of seeking changes us.""

—Steve Papa, Founder and Chairman, Endeca

""Whether it's a fact or a figure, a person or a place, Peter Morville knows how to make it findable. Morville explores the possibilities of a world where everything can always be found—and the challenges in getting there—in this wide-ranging, thought-provoking book.""

—Jesse James Garrett, Author, "The Elements of User Experience"

""It is easy to assume that current searching of the World Wide Web is the last word in finding and using information. Peter Morville shows us that search engines are just the beginning. Skillfully weaving together information science research with his own extensive experience, he develops for the reader a feeling for the near future when information is truly findable all around us. There are immense implications, and Morville's lively and humorous writing brings them home.""

—Marcia J. Bates, Ph.D., University of California Los Angeles

""I've always known that Peter Morville was smart. After reading Ambient Findability, I now know he's (as we say in Boston) wicked smart. This is a timely book that will have lasting effects on how we create our future."

—Jared Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering

""In Ambient Findability, Peter Morville has put his mind and keyboard on the pulse of the electronic noosphere. With tangible examples and lively writing, he lays out the challenges and wonders of finding our way in cyberspace, and explains the mutually dependent evolution of our changing world and selves. This is a must read for everyone and a practical guide for designers.""

—Gary Marchionini, Ph.D., University of North Carolina

""Find this book! Anyone interested in makinginformation easier to find, or understanding how finding and being found is changing, will find this thoroughly researched, engagingly written, literate, insightful and very, very cool book well worth their time. Myriad examples from rich and varied domains and a valuable idea on nearly every page. Fun to read, too!"

—Joseph Janes, Ph.D., Founder, Internet Public Library

Vincent Joseph Scully 0805001050

William Langewiesche 0865475822

Lyn (ed.) Macdonald B001KV6YHG

Vincent Scully 0312062923 A philosophical and chronological history of architecture examines natural and man-made structures from ancient Greece to present-day Manhattan.

Vincent Scully 0312062923 A philosophical and chronological history of architecture examines natural and man-made structures from ancient Greece to present-day Manhattan.

Eileen Boris 087722563X

M. F. K. Fisher, Joan Reardon 0764542613 A collection of essays by one of America's best known food writers, that are often more autobiographical or historical than anecdotal musings on food preparation and consumption. The book includes culinary advice to World War II housewives plagued by food shortages, portraits of family members and friends (with all their idiosyncrasies) and notes on her studies at the University of Dijon, in France. Through each story she weaves her love of food and passion for cooking, and illustrates that our three basic needs as human beings—love, food and security—are so intermingled that it is difficult to think of one without the others. The book won the 1989 James Beard Cookbook Award.

Diana Kennedy 0553057065 The Art of Mexican Cooking is the ultimate guide to creating sensational flavors of authentic Mexican food in your own kitchen. Her classic, The Cuisines of Mexico, established Diana Kennedy as the authority on Mexican cooking, and now she brings thirty-two years of living, traveling, and researching in Mexico to a dazzling masterpiece of culinary adventure. The Art of Mexican Cooking is a brilliant exploration of one of the world's truly great cuisine, including more than 200 extraordinary recipes, many for dishes previously unknown north of the border, as well as more than 50 evocative illustrations and 150 photographs.

These dishes, favorites throughout Mexico, range from sophisticated to pure and simple; all share an amazing depth of taste. Aficionados will go to great lengths to duplicate the authentic dishes (and Kennedy tells them exactly how), but here too there is a wealth of less complicated recipes for the casual cook who longs for the unmistakable flavors of soul-warming cuisine.

Kennedy shares the secrets of true Mexican flavor: balancing chile flavors with a little salt and acid, for instance, or charring them to round out their flavor; broiling tomatoes to bring out their character, or using cumin for a light accent. By using Kennedy's kitchen wisdom and advice and carefully selecting tropical produce that is now readily available in most American markets, American cooks can at last serve truly authentic Mexican food.

Sun-tzu, Ralph D. Sawyer 1566192978 An illuminating new look at the classic primer on warfare. Distinguishing itself from many previous versions, this contemporary translation of Sun-Tzu's landmark text acknowledges the work first and foremost as a masterpiece of military strategy. Translator Ralph Sawyer provides the most detailed introduction and commentary yet offered on the text, its author, and his age. Get inside the head of Sun-Tzu, and find out which significant historical battles influenced his thinking. Sawyer's exhaustive biographical research helps you separate the myth from the elusive man himself. Immerse yourself in the mindset of the Chinese military organization through an extensive overview of its history as well as its tactical use of chariots, horse and cavalry, armor and shields, and swords. Several supplementary sections illuminate relevant portions of the recently discovered tomb texts and "lost writings," reputed to be earlier variants of the standard version. A glossary identifies figures and terms for the convenience of readers unfamiliar with Chinese history and writings.

Dorie Greenspan 0688146570 Television cooking shows are occasionally moderately entertaining to watch, but as sources for usable recipes and good cooking ideas, they are hit or miss at best. Cookbooks based on cooking shows are even less likely to be useful in the kitchen. One shining exception is Julia Child's "Master Chef" series. One of the best cooking shows ever produced, it also yielded some wonderful cookbooks, including Cooking With Master Chefs. The latest is Baking With Julia, which features the creations of 26 top bakers. All are artists with flour, eggs, butter, and the other ingredients of their craft. Writer Dorie Greenspan is a master at her craft as well. The paste for eclairs, she writes, is transformed from "ordinary-looking batter" into "a puffed pastry that appears to be threatening flight." It's all definitely good enough to eat.

Robert D. Kaplan 0312424930

Susan L. Woodward 0815795130

Misha Glenny 0140233776

Edward R. Tufte 0961392177

David Golding 1430209771 CakePHP is a leading PHP–based web app development framework. When asking a question on forums or chat rooms, many CakePHP beginners get little help from the experts. Simple questions can get a response like, “Well, just read the online manual and API.” Unfortunately, the online manual is depreciated, and who wants to absorb a programming language or framework from an API? Beginning CakePHP will do the following: Leads you from a basic setup of CakePHP to building a couple applications that will highlight CakePHP’s functionality and capabilities without delving too deeply into the PHP language, but rather what the CakePHP framework can offer the developer.Teaches you to use CakePHP by incorporating advanced features into your web development projects.Targets beginners of CakePHP or web frameworks in general as well as experienced developers with limited exposure to CakePHP. A secondary audience may include developers undecided on adopting CakePHP or business managers trying to assess the value of incorporating CakePHP into their toolbox.
What you’ll learn Install and configure the CakePHP web framework.Create your first CakePHP web application: to–do lists.Progress by building a more complex blogging application.Incorporate Ajax and Web 2.0 principles and techniques into your blogging and other CakePHP applications.Apply these sample applications along with advanced techniques as a framework or template for building your own web applications with CakePHP going forward.
Who is this book for?

This book will speak to an audience of developers already familiar with PHP but who may not be PHP experts. This book is tailored for those new to CakePHP and who want a thorough tutorial. About the Apress Beginning Series

The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to know—but without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!

Richard York 0764576429

David Hunter, Andrew Watt, Jeff Rafter, Kurt Cagle, Jon Duckett, Bill Patterson 0764570773 Beginning XML provides a complete course in the Extensible Markup Language (XML) with an unusually gradual learning curve. In fact, the introduction states that the book is "for people who know that it would be a pretty good idea to learn the language, but aren't 100 percent sure why." Despite its recognition of the fuzziness of readers' understanding of the technology, the book delivers a rather comprehensive study of XML.

Very little space is wasted detailing the history of XML and its relation to SGML, as is the case in many other titles. The argument for the importance of XML is made quickly, and the basics of well-formed syntax are tackled right off. One notable distinction of this book is its excellent coverage of related technologies, such as cascading style sheets (CSS) and relational databases.

In addition to discussing the crucial companion standards to the core XML language (DTDs, XSL, and XSLT), the book adds a nice perspective to the broad range of applications in which XML can play a role. One section, "Other Uses for XML," illustrates how XML can be used to serialize object models, creating stateless objects and utilizing the Resource Description Framework (RDF). Case studies on—among other things—how XML can be used to build discussion groups, and provide B2B data transfer, round out the text. This book is perfect for Web programmers who are turning their attention to XML for the first time. It imparts a solid understanding of the XML forest and XML trees. —Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:Well-formed XMLCascading style sheets (CSS)XSLT and XpathDocument Object Model (DOM)Simple API for XML (SAX)XML/database integration schemasDocument Type Definitions (DTDs)NamespacesB2B data-transfer applicationsDiscussion group applications

Melvin Mcleod 1590302753

Elaine Pagels 0375501568 Shortly after Elaine Pagels’ two-and-half-year-old son was diagnosed with a rare lung disease, the religion professor found herself drawn to a Christian church again for the first time in many years. In Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas Pagels, best know for her National Book Award-winning The Gnostic Gospels, wrestles with her own faith as she struggles to understand when—and why—Christianity became associated almost exclusively with the ideas codified in the fourth-century Nicene Creed and in the canonical texts of the New Testament. In her exploration, she uncovers the richness and diversity of Christian philosophy that has only become available since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts.

At the center of Beyond Belief is what Pagels identifies as a textual battle between The Gospel of Thomas (rediscovered in Egypt in 1945) and The Gospel of John. While these gospels have many superficial similarities, Pagels demonstrates that John, unlike Thomas, declares that Jesus is equivalent to "God the Father" as identified in the Old Testament. Thomas, in contrast, shares with other supposed secret teachings a belief that Jesus is not God but, rather, is a teacher who seeks to uncover the divine light in all human beings. Pagels then shows how the Gospel of John was used by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon and others to define orthodoxy during the second and third centuries. The secret teachings were literally driven underground, disappearing until the Twentieth Century. As Pagels argues this process "not only impoverished the churches that remained but also impoverished those [Irenaeus] expelled."

Beyond Belief offers a profound framework with which to examine Christian history and contemporary Christian faith, and Pagels renders her scholarship in a highly readable narrative. The one deficiency in Pagels’ examination of Thomas, if there is one, is that she never fully returns in the end to her own struggles with religion that so poignantly open the book. How has the mysticism of the Gnostic Gospels affected her? While she hints that she and others have found new pathways to faith through Thomas, the impact of Pagels’ work on contemporary Christianity may not be understood for years to come. —Patrick O’Kelley

Steven Pinker 0142003344 In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits-a doctrine held by many intellectuals during the past century-denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts. Injecting calm and rationality into debates that are notorious for ax-grinding and mud-slinging, Pinker shows the importance of an honest acknowledgment of human nature based on science and common sense.

Robert McBeth Hayden 0472087568

Kakuzo Okakura 1438512805 That a nation should construct one of its most resonant national ceremonies round a cup of tea will surely strike a chord of sympathy with at least some readers of this review. To many foreigners, nothing is so quintessentially Japanese as the tea ceremony—more properly, "the way of tea"—with its austerity, its extravagantly minimalist stylization, and its concentration of extreme subtleties of meaning into the simplest of actions. The Book of Tea is something of a curiosity: written in English by a Japanese scholar (and issued here in bilingual form), it was first published in 1906, in the wake of the naval victory over Russia with which Japan asserted its rapidly acquired status as a world-class military power. It was a peak moment of Westernization within Japan. Clearly, behind the publication was an agenda, or at least a mission to explain. Around its account of the ceremony, The Book of Tea folds an explication of the philosophy, first Taoist, later Zen Buddhist, that informs its oblique celebration of simplicity and directness—what Okakura calls, in a telling phrase, "moral geometry." And the ceremony itself? Its greatest practitioners have always been philosophers, but also artists, connoisseurs, collectors, gardeners, calligraphers, gourmets, flower arrangers. The greatest of them, Sen Rikyu, left a teasingly, maddeningly simple set of rules:Make a delicious bowl of tea; lay the charcoal so that it heats the water; arrange the flowers as they are in the field; in summer suggest coolness; in winter, warmth; do everything ahead of time; prepare for rain; and give those with whom you find yourself every consideration. A disciple remarked that this seemed elementary. Rikyu replied, "Then if you can host a tea gathering without deviating from any of the rules I have just stated, I will become your disciple." A Zen reply. Fascinating. —Robin Davidson, Amazon.co.uk

Noel Malcolm 0814755615

Daniel C Dennet B0007C4ND6

Eric Tamm 0306806495 Musician, composer, producer: Brian Eno is unique in contemporary music. Best known in recent years for producing U2's sensational albums, Eno began his career as a synthesizer player for Roxy Music. He has since released many solo albums, both rock and ambient, written music for film and television soundtracks, and collaborated with David Bowie, David Byrne, Robert Fripp, and classical and experimental composers. His pioneering ambient sound has been enormously influential, and without him today's rock would have a decidedly different sound. Drawing on Eno's own words to examine his influences and ideas, this book—featuring a new afterword and an updated discography and bibliography—will long remain provocative and definitive.

Giulliano Bugialli 1556709846 Master chef Giuliano Bugialli comes home to Stewart, Tabori & Chang with a completely revised and enlarged edition of his best-selling Bugialli on Pasta. A confirmed classic, the cookbook has sold more than 50,000 copies since its publication in 1988. Updated to cover all the changes the past decade has brought to our perception of pasta, the new Bugialli will demand its own place in the kitchens of cooks who appreciate authentic and inventive Italian cuisine.

In addition to its 190 classics, the new Bugialli on Pasta features 30 never-before-published recipes. From Sicily's Minestra di Pasta all'Aragosta (Lobster Soup with Pasta) to Bologna's Tagliatelle al Rag alla Bolognese (Tagliatelle with Bolognese Rag Meat Sauce), Bugialli offers traditional dishes that have been honed for centuries in all the regions of Italy. Penne Strascicate alla Lucchese tosses sausages, herbs, tomatoes, and cream with bite-sized tubes for a taste that typifies the hearty cuisine of its namesake city, Lucca. Pansoti o Pansooti alle Noci presents Genoa's triangular-shaped pockets, stuffed with ricotta, Parmesan, Swiss chard, and watercress, then garnished with walnuts.

For cooks intent on capturing the simple yet savory cuisine of Italy in their own saucepans, Bugialli on Pasta is essential. A chapter devoted to homemade ingredients will please the chef who wishes to make pasta dishes from scratch. A new design and 100 photographs taken specially for this edition on location in Italy further invigorate the revised edition. Infused with Bugialli's encouragement and extensive knowledge, this book just might inspire the reader to attempt all 220 recipes.

James Krenov 0941936597 Cabinetmaking at the highest level is an art, a discipline, a philosophy-even a way of life-in addition to being a useful craft. In this book one of the greatest living cabinetmakers reflects on the deeper meanings of his craft and explains for less accomplished workers how the right attitudes toward materials, tools, and time can increase the joys of this complex activity. Craftspeople in every medium will be inspired by this account of getting started and developing habits that lessen the difficulties of a complex craft.

Eduard Imhof 3110067110

Michael Ignatieff 080214182X

Paul Prudhomme 0688028470 There was once a time when words like étouffée, tasso, and jambalaya were hardly known outside of the Cajun and Creole communities of Louisiana. Then along came Chef Paul Prudhomme, and all of that changed. Big enough to be his own force of nature, Prudhomme all but single-handedly turned Cajun cooking into a national food trend, changing forever the way many a cook thinks about spicing food. And Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen was the book that made it happen. But guess what? It's still happening, and so is the book!

Anyone looking for a primer on Cajun cooking need look no farther. Chef Paul takes the reader by the hand and opens up a world that includes four kinds of roux, Jalapeno and Cheese Rolls, Shrimp Étouffée, and the to-die-for Cajun Meatloaf. Good old-fashioned Red Beans and Rice and Sweet Potato Pecan Pie are not forgotten either.

Chef Paul tested all of his recipes in a home kitchen using common culinary tools—no professional equipment needed here. These are recipes that are high in spice, so remember to have a large vat of water on hand! —Schuyler Ingle

Alice L. Waters 0679758186 This timeless addition to the Chez Panisse paperback cookbook library assembles 120 of the restaurant's best menus, including galas, festivals, and special occasion meals that have become such gustatory celebrations. A full range of menus is featured, from picnics to informal suppers. Line drawings.

Rowan Williams 080282496X The trial, conviction, and death of an innocent man 2,000 years ago have particular resonance today. Atrocities from around the world shake us nearly every day, and we all experience trials in our own lives too. In this book the new Archbishop of Canterbury looks in depth at the trial of Jesus, using it to teach readers how to face the challenges of life in today's trying times.

Bringing the biblical accounts of Jesus' trial vividly to life, Rowan Williams highlights what can be learned about Jesus from each of the four Gospel portraits. Mark shows a mysterious figure revealed as the Son of God. Matthew describes the Wisdom of God tried by foolish men. Luke presents a divine stranger. John speaks of the paradox of divinity submitting to judgement. These illuminating discussions are followed by a reflection on Christian martyrdom and a meditation on tyranny, freedom, and truth. A set of discussion questions and a thought-provoking prayer after each chapter make "Christ on Trial" an ideal book for study groups.

Throughout the book Williams draws not only from the Bible but also from fiction, drama, and current events, pointing up ways in which society today continues to put Christ on trial. Even more, he argues that all Christians stand with Jesus before a watching world. Though we may not be directly confronted with death, we are nevertheless called daily to respond to the falsehood of such lures as power, influence, and prestige.

Several words aptly describe this book by Rowan Williams: Profound. Incisive. Literary. Contemporary. Relevant. Prophetic. "Christ on Trial" will move and change those who read it.

Witold Rybczynski 0684825295 Tracing the development of American cities and city life from early colonial settlements to the familiar downtowns of today, a sweeping cultural history reveals how our urban spaces have been shaped by the land and the American lifestyle. Reprint. 25,000 first printing. NYT.

Guy Steele 1555580416 This is the Lisp programmers' bible. If you need to know the official specification, every function defined in Common Lisp can be found in here somewhere. Anyone vaguely serious about programming in Lisp for extended periods of time should keep a copy of this book for reference. However, note that while this book is clearly written, it is not an introduction to programming in Lisp—Common Lisp: The Language only offers the language specification.

0262571242 In science, business, and policymaking—anywhere data are used in prediction—two sorts of problems requiring very different methods of analysis often arise. The first, problems of recognition and classification, concerns learning how to use some features of a system to accurately predict other features of that system. The second, problems of causal discovery, concerns learning how to predict those changes to some features of a system that will result if an intervention changes other features. This book is about the second—much more difficult—type of problem.

Typical problems of causal discovery are: How will a change in commission rates affect the total sales of a company? How will a reduction in cigarette smoking among older smokers affect their life expectancy? How will a change in the formula a college uses to award scholarships affect its dropout rate? These sorts of changes are interventions that directly alter some features of the system and perhaps—and this is the question—indirectly alter others.

The contributors discuss recent research and applications using Bayes nets or directed graphic representations, including representations of feedback or "recursive" systems. The book contains a thorough discussion of foundational issues, algorithms, proof techniques, and applications to economics, physics, biology, educational research, and other areas.

Daniel C. Dennett 0316180661 Consciousness is notoriously difficult to explain. On one hand, there are facts about conscious experience—the way clarinets sound, the way lemonade tastes—that we know subjectively, from the inside. On the other hand, such facts are not readily accommodated in the objective world described by science. How, after all, could the reediness of clarinets or the tartness of lemonade be predicted in advance? Central to Daniel C. Dennett's attempt to resolve this dilemma is the "heterophenomenological" method, which treats reports of introspection nontraditionally—not as evidence to be used in explaining consciousness, but as data to be explained. Using this method, Dennett argues against the myth of the Cartesian theater—the idea that consciousness can be precisely located in space or in time. To replace the Cartesian theater, he introduces his own multiple drafts model of consciousness, in which the mind is a bubbling congeries of unsupervised parallel processing. Finally, Dennett tackles the conventional philosophical questions about consciousness, taking issue not only with the traditional answers but also with the traditional methodology by which they were reached.

Dennett's writing, while always serious, is never solemn; who would have thought that combining philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience could be such fun? Not every reader will be convinced that Dennett has succeeded in explaining consciousness; many will feel that his account fails to capture essential features of conscious experience. But none will want to deny that the attempt was well worth making. —Glenn Branch

Floyd G. Cullop 0451627245 Floyd G. Cullop's study of The Constitution Of The United States carefully explains and comments on its Preamble, main body and amendments so that readers may fully understand what it meant to our founding fathers and what it means to us today. This revised and updated edition covers all the changes that have been made in the structure of the federal government since the original publication of the book. This is the ideal introduction to a document that remains as relevant today as when it was first drafted over two hundred years ago.

DANIEL J. BOORSTIN 0679743758

Frank J. Berto, Contributors: Jan Heine & others 1892495597 Unlike other bicycle history books, which cover only the first 100 years, this book deals extensively with the second century of bicycle development. It traces the development of the modern derailleur bicycle from its crude beginnings right up to the most modern mountain bikes and road racing bicycles.

This thoroughly updated and expanded edition includes over 150 additional illustrations and hundreds of text corrections and updates, ranging from details of 19th century predecessors of the derailleur to brand new 2009 product introductions.

Alexis de Tocqueville, Harvey C. Mansfield, Delba Winthrop 0226805360 When it was first published last year, Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop's new translation of Democracy in America was lauded in all quarters as the finest and most definitive edition of Tocqueville's classic thus far—complete with the most faithful and readable translation to date, impeccable annotations of unfamiliar references, and a masterful introduction placing the work and its author in the broader contexts of political philosophy and statesmanship. Mansfield and Winthrop's astonishing efforts have not only captured the elegance, subtlety, and profundity of Tocqueville's original, but also give us some sense of how very essential this masterpiece continues to be.

Yaron Ezrahi 067419828X In this wide-ranging study of democratic culture, Yaron shows how science itself, like religion before it, had become a political resource: governments selectively adapt science and technology to the construction of political authority and the legitimation of political power.

Yaron Ezrahi 067419828X In this wide-ranging study of democratic culture, Yaron shows how science itself, like religion before it, had become a political resource: governments selectively adapt science and technology to the construction of political authority and the legitimation of political power.

Douglas K. van Duyne, James A. Landay, Jason I. Hong 0131345559 <>Praise for the second edition of The Design of Sites

"In my worldwide IBM marketing role, I have the benefit of working with some of the finest international interactive agencies and internal Web teams. As I read The Design of Sites, [I see] the insight from years of professional advice has been put to paper. Nowhere have I seen such a practical, effective, and easy-to-use book to solve and avoid Internet design issues. I keep a copy of the book handy to remind me of the things I forgot and to gain fresh perspectives. It never fails to deliver."
-John Cilio, marketing manager, IBM System x & z Storage Synergy

"The Design of Sites artfully brings forward the original intent of Christopher Alexander’s pattern language into the user experience design arena. It is a valuable and comprehensive reference."

-George Hackman, Jr., senior director of User Experience for User Interface Guidelines, Patterns and Standards, Oracle Corporation

"The Design of Sites is one of the best tools I have in my usability toolbox. [These] Web UI design patterns make it easy for me to show my clients how to get the most usability bang for their buck."

-Claudia Alden Case, usability consultant and interaction designer, Alden Case Enterprises, Inc.

"If only biology class had been like this. Lucid text, bulletproof content, and a comprehensive taxonomy that’s just as much a source of inspiration as it is a production tool. This is a really, really good book. If you build Web sites, read it."

-Marc Campbell, author of Web Design Garage

Praise for the first edition of The Design of Sites

"Stop reinventing the wheel every time you design a Web site! The Design of Sites helps you rethink your Web sites in terms of genres and patterns. Once you have identified the patterns and applied the best practices for those patterns as outlined in this book, you will reduce your design effort by 50 percent . . . at least!"

-Pawan R. Vora, vice president, Information Architecture, Seurat Company

"The content [in The Design of Sites] could make a novice into a seasoned professional over a weekend. Many companies pay a fortune for the information contained in the book’s primary chapters."

-John Cilio, marketing manager, IBM System x & z Storage Synergy

"This book has many handy checklists for what you should and should not do in creating a conventional Web site. Just following the authors’ suggestions would put your site in the top few percent for readability and usability."

-Jef Raskin, creator of the Macintosh computer and author of The Humane Interface

"Now that The Design of Sites has made its appearance, we won't have to put up with those poorly designed Web pages. These authors have captured patterns from successful Web designers, including their own experience in consulting and teaching, and have made this information accessible to all of us. The book is readable yet full of worthwhile information—a valuable addition to any Web designer’s bookshelf."

-Linda Rising, independent consultant and author of The Patterns Handbook, The Pattern Almanac 2000, and Design Patterns in Communications Software

"[The Design of Sites] bridges the gap from theory to practice and makes it possible for people in the Web-design space to use user-centered design principles in their work—without having to undertake extensive training."

-Maya Venkatraman, human interface engineer, Sun Microsystems

"The coverage [in The Design of Sites] is excellent—issues go beyond the traditional ‘design the best page’ focus and do a good job of showing the context. I haven’t seen any other book with the kind of breadth this has."

-Terry Winograd, professor of computer science, Stanford University, and editor of Bringing Design to Software

"With this book as a reference, you can benefit from what companies like Yahoo! have learned and apply it to your site, even if you don’t have a design and research team similarly sized and staffed."

From the foreword by Irene Au, director of User Experience, Google; former vice president of User Experience and Design, Yahoo!

The Design of Sites, Second Edition, is the definitive reference for the principles, patterns, methodologies, and best practices underlying exceptional Web design. If you are involved in the creation of dynamic Web sites, this book will give you all the necessary tools and techniques to create effortless end-user Web experiences, improve customer satisfaction, and achieve a balanced approach to Web design.

After a comprehensive tutorial covering the foundations of good Web site design, you will move on to discover the thirteen major Web design pattern groups. These patterns solve recurring design problems and help design teams avoid reinventing the wheel. Patterns range from creating a solid navigation framework and the all-important home page, to instilling trust and building credibility with your customers and improving site performance through better design.

The book features Coverage of AJAX, the Mobile Web, and online communitiesSeventeen new design patterns to add to the original ninety, including the new blog site typeMore than twenty significantly updated patterns450 four-color screen shots and diagrams, including more than 150 new imagesKey site elements, including site maps, style sheets, dynamic elements, and customer profilesClear, visual organization with color-coded sections for easy referenceA balanced approach to Web design that takes both customer and business needs into account

Jenifer Tidwell 0596008031 Designing a good interface isn't easy. Users demand software that is well-behaved, good-looking, and easy to use. Your clients or managers demand originality and a short time to market. Your UI technology — web applications, desktop software, even mobile devices — may give you the tools you need, but little guidance on how to use them well.

UI designers over the years have refined the art of interface design, evolving many best practices and reusable ideas. If you learn these, and understand why the best user interfaces work so well, you too can design engaging and usable interfaces with less guesswork and more confidence.

"Designing Interfaces" captures those best practices as design patterns — solutions to common design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each pattern contains practical advice that you can put to use immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full color. You'll get recommendations, design alternatives, and warnings on when not to use them.

Each chapter's introduction describes key design concepts that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color. These give you a deeper understanding of why the patterns work, and how to apply them with more insight.

A book can't design an interface for you — no foolproof design process is given here — but "Designing Interfaces" does give you concrete ideas that you can mix and recombine as you see fit. Experienced designers can use it as a sourcebook of ideas. Novice designers will find a roadmap to the world of interface and interaction design, with enough guidance to start using these patterns immediately.

Bill Scott, Theresa Neil 0596516258 Want to learn how to create great user experiences on today's Web? In this book, UI experts Bill Scott and Theresa Neil present more than 75 design patterns for building web interfaces that provide rich interaction. Distilled from the authors' years of experience at Sabre, Yahoo!, and Netflix, these best practices are grouped into six key principles to help you take advantage of the web technologies available today. With an entire section devoted to each design principle, Designing Web Interfaces helps you:Make It Direct-Edit content in context with design patterns for In Page Editing, Drag & Drop, and Direct SelectionKeep It Lightweight-Reduce the effort required to interact with a site by using In Context Tools to leave a "light footprint"Stay on the Page-Keep visitors on a page with overlays, inlays, dynamic content, and in-page flow patternsProvide an Invitation-Help visitors discover site features with invitations that cue them to the next level of interactionUse Transitions-Learn when, why, and how to use animations, cinematic effects, and other transitionsReact Immediately-Provide a rich experience by using lively responses such as Live Search, Live Suggest, Live Previews, and more

Designing Web Interfaces illustrates many patterns with examples from working websites. If you need to build or renovate a website to be truly interactive, this book gives you the principles for success.

Steve Talbott 0596526806 "Self-forgetfulness is the reigning temptation of the technological era. This is why we so readily give our assent to the absurd proposition that a computer can add two plus two, despite the obvious fact that it can do nothing of the sort—not if we have in mind anything remotely resembling what we do when we add numbers. In the computer's case, the mechanics of addition involve no motivation, no consciousness of the task, no mobilization of the will, no metabolic activity, no imagination. And its performance brings neither the satisfaction of accomplishment nor the strengthening of practical skills and cognitive capacities."

In this insightful book, author Steve Talbott, software programmer and technical writer turned researcher and editor for The Nature Institute, challenges us to step back and take an objective look at the technology driving our lives. At a time when 65 percent of American consumers spend more time with their PCs than they do with their significant others, according to a recent study, Talbott illustrates that we're forgetting one important thing—our Selves, the human spirit from which technology stems.

Whether we're surrendering intimate details to yet another database, eschewing our physical communities for online social networks, or calculating our net worth, we freely give our power over to technology until, he says, "we arrive at a computer's-eye view of the entire world of industry, commerce, and society at large...an ever more closely woven web of programmed logic."

Digital technology certainly makes us more efficient. But when efficiency is the only goal, we have no way to know whether we're going in the right or wrong direction. Businesses replace guiding vision with a spreadsheet's bottom line. Schoolteachers are replaced by the computer's dataflow. Indigenous peoples give up traditional skills for the dazzle and ease of new gadgets. Even the Pentagon's zeal to replace "boots on the ground" with technology has led to the mess in Iraq. And on it goes.

The ultimate danger is that, in our willingness to adapt ourselves to technology, "we will descend to the level of the computational devices we have engineered—not merely imagining ever new and more sophisticated automatons, but reducing ourselves to automatons."

To transform our situation, we need to see it in a new and unaccustomed light, and that's what Talbott provides by examining the deceiving virtues of technology—how we're killing education, socializing our machines, and mechanizing our society. Once you take this eye-opening journey, you will think more clearly about how you consume technology and how you allow it to consume you. 

"Nothing is as rare or sorely needed in our tech-enchanted culture right now as intelligent criticism of technology, and Steve Talbott is exactly the critic we've been waiting for: trenchant, sophisticated, and completely original. Devices of the Soul is an urgent and important book." 

—Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World

"Steve Talbott is a rare voice of clarity, humanity, and passion in a world enthralled by machines and calculation. His new book, Devices of the Soul, lays out a frightening and at the same time inspiring analysis of what computers and computer-like thinking are doing to us, our children, and the future of our planet. Talbott is no Luddite. He fully understands and appreciates the stunning power of technology for both good and evil. His cool and precise skewering of the fuzzy thinking and mindless enthusiasm of the technology true believers is tempered by his modesty, the elegance of his writing, and his abiding love for the world of nature and our capacity for communion with it. " 

—Edward Miller, Former editor, Harvard Education Letter 

"Those who care about the healthy and wholesome lives of children can gain much from Steve Talbott's wisdom. He examines the need to help children spend more time touching nature and real life and less touching keyboards. He eloquently questions the assumption that speeding up learning is a good thing. Is, after all, a sped-up life a well-lived life? Most importantly, he reminds all of us that technology is just one part of life and ought not to overshadow the life of self and soul." 

—Joan Almon, Coordinator, Alliance for Childhood 

"One of the most original and provocative writers of our time, Steve Talbott offers a rich assortment of insightful reflections on the nature of our humanity, challenging our own thinking and conventional wisdom about advances in technology." 

—Dorothy E. Denning, Department of Defense Analysis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA 

"Are you experiencing growing unease as computational metaphors have seized our discourse? Steve Talbott offers immediate relief. You are not losing your mind! Chapter after chapter, he shows how to draw on the powers of technology without losing your soul or breaking your heart." 

—Peter Denning, Past President of ACM, Monterey, California 

"Steve Talbott is a rare writer whose words can alter one's entire perception of the world. He is our most original and perceptive defender of the wholeness of life against the onslaught of mechanism. Devices of the Soul is written with Talbott's typical grace and clarity. It displays a quality hardly found anymore in our high tech culture—wisdom. " 

—Lowell Monke, Associate Professor of Education, Wittenberg University

David Remnick 0679777520 David Remnick's previous book, Lenin's Tomb, was a razor-sharp portrayal of both the rulers and the ruled in the closing days of the Soviet Union. The Devil Problem pulls together profiles of athletes and politicians at the end of their careers (Reggie Jackson, Gary Hart), writers thriving in exile (Joseph Brodsky) and struggling in their homeland (Ralph Ellison), and scholars searching for the very origin of the devil (Elaine Pagels). Especially devastating is a profile of radio talk show host Mario Cuomo, who clearly preferred life as Governor of New York. These pieces previously appeared in Esquire, the Washington Post, and the New Yorker.

Michel Foucault 0679752552 In this brilliant work, the most influential philosopher since Sartre suggests that such vaunted reforms as the abolition of torture and the emergence of the modern penitentiary have merely shifted the focus of punishment from the prisoner's body to his soul.

Harvey C. Mansfield, Nathan Tarcov, Niccolo Machiavelli 0226500357

DANIEL J. BOORSTIN 0394402294

Edward O. Wilson 0393319407 Humans, the Harvard University entomologist Edward O. Wilson has observed, have an innate—or at least extremely ancient—connection to the natural world, and our continued divorce from it has led to the loss of not only "a vast intellectual legacy born of intimacy" with nature, but also our very sanity. In The Diversity of Life, Wilson takes a sweeping view of our planet's natural richness, remarking on what on the surface seems a paradox: "almost all the species that ever lived are extinct, and yet more are alive today than at any time in the past." (Wilson's elegant explanation is a scientific education in itself.) This great variety of species is, of course, threatened by habitat destruction, global climate change, and a host of other forces, and Wilson revisits his oft-stated call for the protection of wilderness and undeveloped land, noting that "wilderness has virtue unto itself and needs no extraneous justification." We should, he continues, regard every species, "every scrap of biodiversity," as precious and irreplaceable, without attempting to quantify that regard with utilitarian measures such as "bio-economics." In short, Wilson offers with this book a simple, workable environmental ethic that extends the work of Aldo Leopold and other conservationists. A remarkably productive and influential scientist, Wilson is also a fine writer, and his survey of biodiversity makes for welcome and instructive reading. —Gregory McNamee

Radha Kumar 1859848524

Matthew A. Russell 0596516487 Of all the Ajax-specific frameworks that have popped up in recent years, one clearly stands out as the industrial strength solution. Dojo is not just another JavaScript toolkit — it's the JavaScript toolkit — and Dojo: The Definitive Guide demonstrates how to tame Dojo's extensive library of utilities so that you can build rich and responsive web applications like never before. Dojo founder Alex Russell gives a foreword that explains the "why" of Dojo and of this book. Dojo provides an end-to-end solution for development in the browser, including everything from the core JavaScript library and turnkey widgets to build tools and a testing framework. Its vibrant open source community keeps adding to Dojo's arsenal, and this book provides an ideal companion to Dojo's official documentation. Dojo: the Definitive Guide gives you the most thorough overview of this toolkit available, showing you everything from how to create complex layouts and form controls closely resembling those found in the most advanced desktop applications with stock widgets, to advanced JavaScript idioms to AJAX and advanced communication transports. With this definitive reference you get: A concise introduction to Dojo that covers everything through the version 1.1 release Well-explained examples, with scores of tested code samples, that let you see Dojo in action A comprehensive reference to Dojo's standard JavaScript library (including fundamental utilities in Base, Dojo's tiny but powerful kernel) that you'll wonder how you ever lived without An extensive look at additional Core features, such as animations, drag-and-drop, back-button handling, animations like wipe and slide, and more Exhaustive coverage ofout-of-the-box Dijits (Dojo widgets) as well as definitive coverage on how to create your own, either from scratch or building on existing ones An itemized inventory of DojoX subprojects, the build tools, and the DOH, Dojo's unit-testing framework that you can use with Dojo — or anywhere else If you're a DHTML-toting web developer, you need to read this book — whether you're a one-person operation or part of an organization employing scores of developers. Dojo packs the standard JavaScript library you've always wanted, and Dojo: The Definitive Guide helps you transform your ideas into working applications quickly by leveraging design concepts you already know.

Steve Krug 0321344758 Usability design is one of the most important—yet often least attractive—tasks for a Web developer. In Don't Make Me Think, author Steve Krug lightens up the subject with good humor and excellent, to-the-point examples.

The title of the book is its chief personal design premise. All of the tips, techniques, and examples presented revolve around users being able to surf merrily through a well-designed site with minimal cognitive strain. Readers will quickly come to agree with many of the book's assumptions, such as "We don't read pages—we scan them" and "We don't figure out how things work—we muddle through." Coming to grips with such hard facts sets the stage for Web design that then produces topnotch sites.

Using an attractive mix of full-color screen shots, cute cartoons and diagrams, and informative sidebars, the book keeps your attention and drives home some crucial points. Much of the content is devoted to proper use of conventions and content layout, and the "before and after" examples are superb. Topics such as the wise use of rollovers and usability testing are covered using a consistently practical approach.

This is the type of book you can blow through in a couple of evenings. But despite its conciseness, it will give you an expert's ability to judge Web design. You'll never form a first impression of a site in the same way again. —Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:User patternsDesigning for scanningWise use of copyNavigation designHome page layoutUsability testing

Lynn Townsend White B00072RP4A

Scott W. Ambler 0521616786 For all developers who create models using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) 2.x The Elements of UML(TM) 2.0 Style sets the rules for style that will improve your productivity - especially in teams, where understandability and consistency are critical. Coming from renowned UML expert Scott Ambler, the book furnishes a set of rules for modelling in the UML and describes a collection of standards and guidelines for creating effective UML diagrams that will be concise and easy to understand. It provides conventions for: Class diagrams; Timing Diagrams; Use case diagrams; Composite Structure Diagrams; Sequence diagrams; Interaction Overview Diagrams; Activity diagrams; Object diagrams; State machine diagrams; Package diagrams; Communication diagrams; Deployment diagrams and Component diagrams. The Elements of UML(TM) 2.0 Style sets the rules for style that will improve your productivity.

Jesse James Garrett 0735712026 Smart organizations recognize that Web design is more than just creating clean code and sharp graphics. A site that really works fulfills your strategic objectives while meeting the needs of your users. Even the best content and the most sophisticated technology won't help you balance those goals without a cohesive, consistent user experience to support it.

But creating the user experience can seem overwhelmingly complex. With so many issues involved-usability, brand identity, information architecture, interaction design-it can seem as if the only way to build a successful site is to spend a fortune on specialists who understand all the details.

The Elements of User Experience cuts through the complexity of user-centered design for the Web with clear explanations and vivid illustrations that focus on ideas rather than tools or techniques. Jesse James Garrett gives readers the big picture of Web user experience development, from strategy and requirements to information architecture and visual design. This accessible introduction helps any Web development team, large or small, to create a successful user experience.

David Rohde 0374253420

ROBERT D. KAPLAN 0679751238

Edward R. Tufte 0961392118 A remarkable range of examples for the idea of visual thinking, with beautifully printed pages. A real treat for all who reason and learn by means of images. — Rudolf Arnheim

Reinhold Niebuhr 0300040016 Theologian, ethicist, and political analyst, Reinhold Niebuhr was a towering figure of twentieth-century religious thought. In this important book, the best of Niebuhr's essays have been brought together for the first time. Selected, edited, and introduced by Robert McAfee Brown - a student and friend of Niebuhr's and himself a distinguished theologian - the works included here testify to the brilliant polemics, incisive analysis, and deep faith that characterized the whole of Niebuhr's life.

Adam Greenfield 0321384016 Ubiquitous computing—almost imperceptible, but everywhere around us—is rapidly becoming a reality. How will it change us? how can we shape its emergence?

Smart buildings, smart furniture, smart clothing... even smart bathtubs. networked street signs and self-describing soda cans. Gestural interfaces like those seen in Minority Report. The RFID tags now embedded in everything from credit cards to the family pet.

All of these are facets of the ubiquitous computing author Adam Greenfield calls "everyware." In a series of brief, thoughtful meditations, Greenfield explains how everyware is already reshaping our lives, transforming our understanding of the cities we live in, the communities we belong to—and the way we see ourselves.

What are people saying about the book?

"Adam Greenfield is intense, engaged, intelligent and caring. I pay attention to him. I counsel you to do the same." —HOWARD RHEINGOLD, AUTHOR, SMART MOBS: THE NEXT SOCIAL REVOLUTION

"A gracefully written, fascinating, and deeply wise book on one of the most powerful ideas of the digital age—and the obstacles we must overcome before we can make ubiquitous computing a reality."—STEVE SILBERMAN, EDITOR, WIRED MAGAZINE

"Adam is a visionary. he has true compassion and respect for ordinary users like me who are struggling to use and understand the new technology being thrust on us at overwhelming speed."—REBECCA MACKINNON, BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Everyware is an AIGA Design Press book, published under Peachpit's New Riders imprint in partnership with AIGA.

Susan Neiman 0691117926

Robert Axelrod 0465021212 The much-discussed book that explores how cooperation can emerge in a world of self-seeking egoists—whether superpowers, businesses, or individuals—when there is no central authority to police their actions.

ROBERT SCIGLIANO, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, JOHN JAY, JAMES MADISON 0375757864

James Krenov 1933502096 With continual themes of perfection of technique and building to the limits of one’s skill, this authoritative resource provides in-depth instruction for mastering the craft of cabinetmaking. A bevy of topics, including the proper way to sharpen and hone tools, hollow grinding methodology, and obtaining proper grinding angles, are detailed in this comprehensive cabinet-making sourcebook. Lessons devoted to using and understanding various woods, including common or exotic pieces, learning how to read grain, and the pros and cons in working with air-dried wood versus kiln-dried wood, will educate any level of woodworker. Chapters devoted to resawing as well as problems and concerns due to moisture content and wood movement are also included.

Cokie Roberts 006009026X

Howard E. Gardner 0465025102 More than 200,00 copies of earlier editions have been sold; this reissue includes a new introduction by the author to mark the twenty-first birthday of this remarkable book.

Mary Wollstonecraft, Illustrated by Moser, Barry Shelley B000LZBN0A

Bart Kosko 0131249916 Introduces a new framework for fuzzy systems and applies it to several engineering applications. Included is specific discussion on fuzzy function approximation, fuzzy chaos and control, fuzzy signal processing, fuzzy communication, fuzzy hardware, and computing in fuzzy cubes.

Lewis H. Lapham, Lewis Lapham 1594200173

Bosley Edward B001U955G4

David Allen 0142000280

Elaine Pagels 0679724532

Douglas R. Hofstadter 0465026567 Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is still something of a marvel. Besides being a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, this book looks at the surprising points of contact between the music of Bach, the artwork of Escher, and the mathematics of Gödel. It also looks at the prospects for computers and artificial intelligence (AI) for mimicking human thought. For the general reader and the computer techie alike, this book still sets a standard for thinking about the future of computers and their relation to the way we think.

Hofstadter's great achievement in Gödel, Escher, Bach was making abstruse mathematical topics (like undecidability, recursion, and 'strange loops') accessible and remarkably entertaining. Borrowing a page from Lewis Carroll (who might well have been a fan of this book), each chapter presents dialogue between the Tortoise and Achilles, as well as other characters who dramatize concepts discussed later in more detail. Allusions to Bach's music (centering on his Musical Offering) and Escher's continually paradoxical artwork are plentiful here. This more approachable material lets the author delve into serious number theory (concentrating on the ramifications of Gödel's Theorem of Incompleteness) while stopping along the way to ponder the work of a host of other mathematicians, artists, and thinkers.

The world has moved on since 1979, of course. The book predicted that computers probably won't ever beat humans in chess, though Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997. And the vinyl record, which serves for some of Hofstadter's best analogies, is now left to collectors. Sections on recursion and the graphs of certain functions from physics look tantalizing, like the fractals of recent chaos theory. And AI has moved on, of course, with mixed results. Yet Gödel, Escher, Bach remains a remarkable achievement. Its intellectual range and ability to let us visualize difficult mathematical concepts help make it one of this century's best for anyone who's interested in computers and their potential for real intelligence. —Richard Dragan

Topics Covered: J.S. Bach, M.C. Escher, Kurt Gödel: biographical information and work, artificial intelligence (AI) history and theories, strange loops and tangled hierarchies, formal and informal systems, number theory, form in mathematics, figure and ground, consistency, completeness, Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry, recursive structures, theories of meaning, propositional calculus, typographical number theory, Zen and mathematics, levels of description and computers; theory of mind: neurons, minds and thoughts; undecidability; self-reference and self-representation; Turing test for machine intelligence.

Graham Watson 193138214X This sumptuous collection of over 250 photographs captures the white-knuckle drama of sports cycling. Legends like Eddy Merckx, Miguel Indurain, Greg Lemond, and Lance Armstrong are caught at the height of their powers. Watson, an accomplished cyclist himself, explains how he achieved special shots and managed to work from inside the races.

B000FAFFAK

Deborah Madison, Edward Espe Brown 0553051954 Packed with recipes from the boldly original and highly successful Greens Restaurant in San Francisco that regularly please vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike, Greens is this cook's personal favorite cookbook. From New Potato and Grilled Pepper Pizza to Zuni Stew, these recipes are consistently innovative and delicious. —MTB

"I consider Greens to be the ultimate vegetarian restaurant. The cuisine is elegant, inspiring, and astonishingly creative. Many of us have long awaited this major event in cookbook publishing. Congratulations!" —Mollie Katzen, Moosewood Cookbook

Jared Diamond 0393317552 Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye—and his heart—belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years.

Michael A. Arbib 0262511029 PREFACE TABLE OF CONTENTS HOW TO USE THIS BOOK CONTRIBUTORS

In hundreds of articles by experts from around the world, and in overviews and "road maps" prepared by the editor, The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks charts the immense progress made in recent years in many specific areas related to great questions: How does the brain work? How can we build intelligent machines?

While many books discuss limited aspects of one subfield or another of brain theory and neural networks, the Handbook covers the entire sweep of topics—from detailed models of single neurons, analyses of a wide variety of biological neural networks, and connectionist studies of psychology and language, to mathematical analyses of a variety of abstract neural networks, and technological applications of adaptive, artificial neural networks.

Expository material makes the book accessible to readers with varied backgrounds while still offering a clear view of the recent, specialized research on specific topics.

Ernest Samuels 0674387368

Garry Wills 0618134301 Wills showcases Henry Adams's little-known but seminal study of the early United States and draws from it fresh insights on the paradoxes that roil America to this day. Adams drew on his own southern fixations, his extensive foreign travel, his political service in Lincoln's White House, and much more to invent the study of history as we know it. His nine-volume chronicle of America from 1800 to 1816 established new standards for employing archival sources, firsthand reportage, eyewitness accounts, and other techniques that have become the essence of modern history. Adams's innovations went beyond the technical; he posited an essentially ironic view of the legacy of Jefferson and Madison. As is well known, they strove to shield the young country from "foreign entanglements," a standing army, a central bank, and a federal bureaucracy, among other hallmarks of "big government." Yet by the end of their tenures they had permanently entrenched all of these things in American society. This is the "American paradox" that defines us today: the idealized desire for isolation and political simplicity battling against the inexorable growth and intermingling of political, economic, and military forces. As Wills compellingly shows, the ironies spawned two centuries ago still inhabit our foreign policy and the widening schisms over economic and social policy.

Herman Zapf 0941447006

Joseph Campbell 1577315936 Originally written by Campbell in the '40s— in his pre-Bill Moyers days — and famous as George Lucas' inspiration for "Star Wars," this book will likewise inspire any writer or reader in its well considered assertion that while all stories have already been told, this is *not* a bad thing, since the *retelling* is still necessary. And while our own life's journey must always be ended alone, the travel is undertaken in the company not only of immediate loved ones and primal passion, but of the heroes and heroines — and myth-cycles — that have preceded us.

Herodotus 0226327701

Barry Moser 0670887978 The Holy Bible, designed and illustrated by Barry Moser, is as thrilling an experience as you'll ever find inside a dust jacket. Moser, the foremost fine press illustrator of our time, spent four years crafting the 232 relief engravings that illustrate this Bible. Printed in a deluxe limited edition by the Pennyroyal Caxton Press, Moser's Bible is also available in a reasonably-priced Viking Studio edition on acid-free paper, with a satin ribbon marker, specially-sewn binding, and cloth case. These details give the book, as a physical object, a weight and presence that dignifies its reader. It is no overstatement to say that when you begin turning the pages revelation occurs. Even from the first illustration—Adam and Eve, with unapologetically adult bodies, breathtakingly chunky and imperfect, making their way along a stream in the Garden of Eden—it—it's clear that Moser has a vision of God and humanity whose humility will change the way you see the world.

There are so many surprises here: Abram is jaunty (a surprise at first, but one would have to be to say "Here I Am."); Balaam's Ass stretches his mouth wide, teeth bared, conveying the comic terror of the idea that God would speak through his creatures; "Jesus Rabonni," Moser's first illustration of the Savior, depicts Jesus as such a goofy, joyful, solid man that your heart will leap, wanting to be with him. And in some measure, Moser's Bible will bring everyone who touches it a little closer to that rabbi. —Michael Joseph Gross

Mark Twain 0520238958 o Includes the authoritative texts for eleven pieces written between 1868 and 1902

o Publishes, for the first time, the complete text of "Villagers of 1840-3," Mark Twain's astounding feat of memory

o Features a biographical directory and notes that reflect extensive new research on Mark Twain's early life in Missouri

Throughout his career, Mark Twain frequently turned for inspiration to memories of his youth in the Mississippi River town of Hannibal, Missouri. What has come to be known as the Matter of Hannibal inspired two of his most famous books, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and provided the basis for the eleven pieces reprinted here. Most of these selections (eight of them fiction and three of them autobiographical) were never completed, and all were left unpublished. Written between 1868 and 1902, they include a diverse assortment of adventures, satires, and reminiscences in which the characters of his own childhood and of his best-loved fiction, particularly Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, come alive again. The autobiographical recollections culminate in an astounding feat of memory titled "Villagers of 1840-3" in which the author, writing for himself alone at the age of sixty-one, recalls with humor and pathos the characters of some one hundred and fifty people from his childhood. Accompanied by notes that reflect extensive new research on Mark Twain's early life in Missouri, the selections in this volume offer a revealing view of Mark Twain's varied and repeated attempts to give literary expression to the Matter of Hannibal.

Jeanette A. Thomas 0964311917 The contagious energy and optimism of the new century spurred architects Charles and Henry Greene and their clients, David and Mary Gamble, to break with tradition in 1907 to create a home that was original and uniquely American. The Gamble House is a harmonious composition of related details that become the focus of this unusual book. After an introduction to the Greenes, the Gambles, and the house, the reader examines at close range the artistry and craftsmanship that makes this house one of the treasures of the century. Over 100 color photographs convey the dramatic interior of this Arts and Crafts masterpiece.

Benedict Anderson 0860915468

B. Russell 041510906X No online description is currently available. If you would like to receive information about this title, please email Routledge at info@routledge-ny.com

James Krenov 0941936511 James Krenov's delicate, lyrical cabinets have inspired a generation of wood craftsmen, as has his impassioned insistence that one do his very best work, no matter what. In this volume, first published in 1979, Krenov invites the reader into his workshop, where he shares his techniques and uncompromising approach to craftsmanship, along with thoughts about his work and its place in the world. Photo sequences show how Krenov composes a cabinet directly in the wood, without dimensioned drawings. He also discusses working with shop-sawn veneers, the technique of fitting curved doors, and the problems of accuracy and mistakes. The book concludes with a detailed exploration of three furniture projects: a curved showcase cabinet, a writing table with drawer, and a chess table.

Sara Midda 0894801937 Sara Midda's richly illustrated IN AND OUT OF THE GARDEN has delighted readers and critics: "This is the most gentle of books, a peaceful pastime. The delicacy of Sara Midda's art is enchanting. Anyone who is a gardener, or who has worked with plants in nature, will respond to what she has put forth so exquisitely," wrote Joan Lee Faust, Garden Editor of The New York Times. Diana Vreeland praised it as "delightful and delicious," and Laura Ashley called it "pure inspiration." Sara Midda's designs are found on a variety of gift and stationery products. 294,000 copies in print.

Sara Midda 0894801937 Sara Midda's richly illustrated IN AND OUT OF THE GARDEN has delighted readers and critics: "This is the most gentle of books, a peaceful pastime. The delicacy of Sara Midda's art is enchanting. Anyone who is a gardener, or who has worked with plants in nature, will respond to what she has put forth so exquisitely," wrote Joan Lee Faust, Garden Editor of The New York Times. Diana Vreeland praised it as "delightful and delicious," and Laura Ashley called it "pure inspiration." Sara Midda's designs are found on a variety of gift and stationery products. 294,000 copies in print.

Noble E. Jr Cunningham 0345353803 The life of Thomas Jefferson, demonstrably the most intellectual of America's presidents, has fascinated scholars for generations. A careful but elusive autobiographer, Jefferson left behind such a wealth of information about himself and his times that he has fueled hundreds of studies. Noble Cunningham's one-volume life is somewhat dispassionate, giving only a little sense of Jefferson's greatness, but it covers the essential episodes in the Founding Father's life with admirable balance and conciseness. Read this along with Joseph Ellis's American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, and you'll have a very good idea of why we continue to find the early statesman fascinating today. —Gregory MacNamee

John Thackara 0262201577 We're filling up the world with technology and devices, but we've lost sight of an important question: What is this stuff for? What value does it add to our lives? So asks author John Thackara in his new book, In the Bubble: Designing for a Complex World.

These are tough questions for the pushers of technology to answer. Our economic system is centered on technology, so it would be no small matter if "tech" ceased to be an end-in-itself in our daily lives.

Technology is not going to go away, but the time to discuss the end it will serve is before we deploy it, not after. We need to ask what purpose will be served by the broadband communications, smart materials, wearable computing, and connected appliances that we're unleashing upon the world. We need to ask what impact all this stuff will have on our daily lives. Who will look after it, and how?

In the Bubble is about a world based less on stuff and more on people. Thackara describes a transformation that is taking place now—not in a remote science fiction future; it's not about, as he puts it, "the schlock of the new" but about radical innovation already emerging in daily life. We are regaining respect for what people can do that technology can't. In the Bubble describes services designed to help people carry out daily activities in new ways. Many of these services involve technology—ranging from body implants to wide-bodied jets. But objects and systems play a supporting role in a people-centered world. The design focus is on services, not things. And new principles—above all, lightness—inform the way these services are designed and used. At the heart of In the Bubble is a belief, informed by a wealth of real-world examples, that ethics and responsibility can inform design decisions without impeding social and technical innovation.

Dante 0520027124 An invaluable source of pleasure to those English readers who wish to read this great medieval classic with true understanding, Sinclair's three-volume prose translation of Dante's Divine Comedy provides both the original Italian text and the Sinclair translation, arranged on facing pages, and commentaries, appearing after each canto, which serve as brilliant examples of genuine literary criticism.

Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville 0596527349 In Chapter 6 of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, the authors discuss the details of good search-engine design. In a bitingly humorous segment, they analyze a Web site's search-page results: "Let's say you're interested in knowing what the New Jersey sales tax is.... So you go to the State of New Jersey web site and search on sales tax. The 20 results are scored at either 84% or 82% relevant. Why does each document receive only one of two scores?... And what the heck makes a document 2% more relevant than another?"

With a swift and convincing stroke, the authors of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web tear down many entrenched ideas about Web design. Flashy animations are cool, they agree, as long as they don't aggravate the viewer. Nifty clickable icons are nice, but are their meanings universal? Is the search engine providing results that are useful and relevant? This book acts as a mirror and with careful questioning causes the reader to think through all the elements and decisions required for well-crafted Web design. —Jennifer Buckendorff

Sarah Susanka, Marc Vassallo 1561586811 In her latest book, best-selling author of The Not So Big House Sarah Susanka teams up with architectural design writer Marc Vassallo to expand upon the message that has resonated with over a million homeowners and builders across the country: opting for personalized, well-crafted, thoughtfully designed spaces over superfluous square footage results in a home that comforts and nourishes those who live there.
In Inside The Not So Big House, Susanka and Vassallo focus their lens on the tangible and sometimes intangible details that bring an otherwise ordinary home to life. Incorporating such details as dropped ceilings, built-in shelves, pocket doors, window seats, and well-placed alcoves infuses a home with the character of its owners and conveys a uniqueness that's mising in many homes built or remodeled today. From Rhode Island to San Diego, the 23 homes featured here illustrate exceptional attention to detail. Each offers inspiration for those building or remodeling to transform their home into an expression of all that is important to them. "Detail is everything in design. Sarah Susanka proves it again with this, her latest book."
—John Wheatman, author, Meditations on Design and A Good House Is Never Done

Norman Brosterman 0810935260 Adults over a certain age probably have similar memories of their first taste of school—the half-day kindergarten that featured singing, finger-painting, stories, and naptime. Whatever lessons we absorbed during those halcyon hours were not obvious ones, but we developed confidence, exercised our imaginations, and learned the basic schoolroom drill concerning school buses, milk money, and raising our hands before asking or answering a question. These days, kindergarten is a far departure from its earlier incarnation; instead of a loosely structured time to play and discover, modern kindergartens are more like First Grade 101, in which children are taught their numbers and letters and even assigned homework. Norman Brosterman, author of Inventing Kindergarten, doesn't approve.

Inventing Kindergarten is partly Brosterman's views about the importance of the traditional kindergarten in shaping the hearts and minds of children, partly a biography of an almost-forgotten educator, Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of kindergarten. In tracing Froebel's life and beliefs about education, Brosterman makes a strong case for returning to Froebel's original model in order to encourage the development of "a sensitive, inquisitive child with an uninhibited curiosity and a genuine respect for nature, family and society." Even if you don't agree with Brosterman's belief that kindergarten is responsible for many of modern art's geniuses, it's hard to argue with a philosophy that makes room for the importance of play in early education.

Tom Negrino, Dori Smith 032119439X

Jack Mclaughlin 0805014632 This book, a National Book Award nominee in 1988, is the life of Thomas Jefferson as seen through the prism of his love affair with Monticello. For over half a century, it was his consuming passion, his most serious amusement. With a sure command of sources and skilled intuitive understanding of Jefferson, McLaughlin crafts and uncommon portrait of builder and building alike. En route he tells us much about life in Virginia; about Monticello’s craftsmen and how they worked their materials; about slavery, class, and family; and, above all, about the multiplicity of domestic concerns that preoccupied this complex man. It is and engaging and incisive look at the eighteenth-century mind: systematic, rational, and curious, but also playful, comfort-loving, and amusing. Ultimately, it provides readers with great insight into daily life in Colonial and Federal America.

David McCullough 0684813637 Left to his own devices, John Adams might have lived out his days as a Massachusetts country lawyer, devoted to his family and friends. As it was, events swiftly overtook him, and Adams—who, David McCullough writes, was "not a man of the world" and not fond of politics—came to greatness as the second president of the United States, and one of the most distinguished of a generation of revolutionary leaders. He found reason to dislike sectarian wrangling even more in the aftermath of war, when Federalist and anti-Federalist factions vied bitterly for power, introducing scandal into an administration beset by other difficulties—including pirates on the high seas, conflict with France and England, and all the public controversy attendant in building a nation.

Overshadowed by the lustrous presidents Washington and Jefferson, who bracketed his tenure in office, Adams emerges from McCullough's brilliant biography as a truly heroic figure—not only for his significant role in the American Revolution but also for maintaining his personal integrity in its strife-filled aftermath. McCullough spends much of his narrative examining the troubled friendship between Adams and Jefferson, who had in common a love for books and ideas but differed on almost every other imaginable point. Reading his pages, it is easy to imagine the two as alter egos. (Strangely, both died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.) But McCullough also considers Adams in his own light, and the portrait that emerges is altogether fascinating. —Gregory McNamee

Adam Hochschild 0395759242

Noel Malcolm, University Pres New York 0060977752

Julie Mertus 0520218655

L. Frank Baum 0520058224 After a cyclone transports her to the land of Oz, Dorothy must seek out the great wizard in order to return to Kansas.

Russ Miles, Kim Hamilton 0596009828 Since its original introduction in 1997, the Unified Modeling Language has revolutionized software development. Every integrated software development environment in the world — open-source, standards-based and proprietary — now supports UML, and more importantly the model-driven approach to software development. This makes learning the newest UML standard UML 2.0, critical for all software developers — and there isn't a better choice than this clear, step-by-step guide to learning the language.

Richard Mark Soley, Chairman and CEO, OMG

If you're like most software developers you're building systems that are increasingly complex. Whether you're creating a desktop application or an enterprise system, complexity is the big hairy monster you must manage.

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) helps you manage this complexity. Whether you are looking to use UML as a blueprint language, a sketch tool or as a programming language, this book will give you the need to know information on how to apply UML to your project. While there are plenty of books available that describe UML, Learning UML 2.0 will show you how to use it. Topics covered include: Capturing your system's requirements in your model to help you ensure that your designs meet your users' needsModeling the parts of your system and their relationshipsModeling how the parts of your system work together to meet your system's requirementsModeling how your system moves into the real world, capturing how your system will be deployed

Engaging and accessible, this book shows you how to use UML to craft and communicate your project's design. Russ Miles and Kim Hamilton have written a pragmatic introduction to UML; based on hard earned practice, not theory. Regardless of the software process or methodology you use, this book is the one source you need to get up and running with UML 2.0. Additional information including exercises can be found at http://www.learninguml2.com

Russ Miles is a software engineer for General Dynamics UK where he works with Java and Distributed Systems, although his passion at the moment is Aspect Orientation and in particular AspectJ. Kim Hamilton is a senior software engineer at Northrop Grumman, where she's designed and implemented a variety of systems including web applications and distributed systems, with frequent detours into algorithms development.

Michael Ignatieff 0691117519

Steven Shapin, Simon Schaffer 0691024324

Edwin Curley, Thomas Hobbes, E. M. Curley 0872201775

Barry] Carroll, Lewis; Goodacre, Selwyn H. (editor) [Moser B001BSQDA6

Lewis Carroll B0006YIU3O

Ibn Ishaq B0000CM0SZ

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Richard Howard 0156012197

Krome Barratt 155821268X A thought-provoking classic examining key design principles.

Dava Sobel 0739323784 An exciting scientific adventure from the days of wooden ships and iron men, LONGITUDE is full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd. It is also a captivating brief history of astronomy, navigation and clockmaking.

During the great ages of exploration, "the longitude problem" was the gravest of all scientific challenges. Lacking the ability to determine their longitude, sailors were literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Ships ran aground on rocky shores; those traveling well-known routes were easy prey to pirates.

In 1714, England's Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone whose method of measuring longitude could be proven successful. The scientific establishment—from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton—had mapped the heavens in its certainty of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution—a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had been able to do on land. And the race was on....

Dava Sobel 0140258795 The thorniest scientific problem of the eighteenth century was how to determine longitude. Many thousands of lives had been lost at sea over the centuries due to the inability to determine an east-west position. This is the engrossing story of the clockmaker, John "Longitude" Harrison, who solved the problem that Newton and Galileo had failed to conquer, yet claimed only half the promised rich reward.

Jason Goodwin 0805040811

Chris Hedges 0743255135

Laura Waterman 1593760485

Gabriel Garcia Marquez 0307387143 In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs—yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.

Harvey C. Mansfield 0226503704 Machiavelli's New Modes and Orders is the only full-length interpretive study on Machiavelli's controversial and ambiguous work, Discourses on Livy. These discourses, considered by some to be Machiavelli's most important work, are thoroughly explained in a chapter-by-chapter commentary by Harvey C. Mansfield, one of the world's foremost interpreters of this remarkable philosopher.

Mansfield's aim is to discern Machiavelli's intention in writing the book: he argues that Machiavelli wanted to introduce new modes and orders in political philosophy in order to make himself the founder of modern politics. Mansfield maintains that Machiavelli deliberately concealed part of his intentions so that only the most perceptive reader could see beneath the surface of the text and understand the whole of his book. Previously out of print, Mansfield's penetrating study brings to light the hidden thoughts lurking in the details of the Discourses on Livy to inform and challenge its readers at every step along the way.

Thomas Mann B001221GJY

Richard Rhodes 0684813785 If the first 270 pages of this book had been published separately, they would have made up a lively, insightful, beautifully written history of theoretical physics and the men and women who plumbed the mysteries of the atom. Along with the following 600 pages, they become a sweeping epic, filled with terror and pity, of the ultimate scientific quest: the development of the ultimate weapon. Rhodes is a peerless explainer of difficult concepts; he is even better at chronicling the personalities who made the discoveries that led to the Bomb. Niels Bohr dominates the first half of the book as J. Robert Oppenheimer does the second; both men were gifted philosophers of science as well as brilliant physicists. The central irony of this book, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, is that the greatest minds of the century contributed to the greatest destructive force in history.

Oliver Sacks 0684853949 In his most extraordinary book, "one of the great clinical writers of the 20th century"(The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.

If inconceivably strange, these brilliant tales remain, in Dr. Sacks's splendid and sympathetic telling, deeply human. They are studies of life struggling against incredible adversity, and they enable us to enter the world of the neurologically impaired, to imagine with our hearts what it must be to live and feel as they do. A great healer, Sacks never loses sight of medicine's ultimate responsibility: "the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject."

Simon Winchester 0060931809 Once upon a time there lived a man who discovered the secrets of the earth. He traveled far and wide, learning about the world below the surface. After years of toil, he created a great map of the underworld and expected to live happily ever after. But did he? Simon Winchester (The Professor and the Madman) tells the fossil-friendly fairy tale life of William Smith in The Map That Changed the World.

Born to humble parents, Smith was also a child of the Industrial Revolution (the year of his birth, 1769, also saw Josiah Wedgwood open his great factory, Etruria, Richard Arkwright create his first water-powered cotton-spinning frame, and James Watt receive the patent for the first condensing steam engine). While working as surveyor in a coal mine, Smith noticed the abrupt changes in the layers of rock as he was lowered into the depths. He came to understand that the different layers—in part as revealed by the fossils they contained—always appeared in the same order, no matter where they were found. He also realized that geology required a three-dimensional approach. Smith spent the next 20 some years traveling throughout Britain, observing the land, gathering data, and chattering away about his theories to those he met along the way, thus acquiring the nickname "Strata Smith." In 1815 he published his masterpiece: an 8.5- by 6-foot, hand-tinted map revealing "A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales."

Despite this triumph, Smith's road remained more rocky than smooth. Snubbed by the gentlemanly Geological Society, Smith complained that "the theory of geology is in the possession of one class of men, the practice in another." Indeed, some members of the society went further than mere ostracism—they stole Smith's work. These cartographic plagiarists produced their own map, remarkably similar to Smith's, in 1819. Meanwhile the chronically cash-strapped Smith had been forced to sell his prized fossil collection and was eventually consigned to debtor's prison.

In the end, the villains are foiled, our hero restored, and science triumphs. Winchester clearly relishes his happy ending, and his honey-tinged prose ("that most attractively lovable losterlike Paleozoic arthropod known as the trilobite") injects a lot of life into what seems, on the surface, a rather dry tale. Like Smith, however, Winchester delves into the strata beneath the surface and reveals a remarkable world. —Sunny Delaney

John Noble Wilford 0375708502 The Greco-Egyptian emperor Ptolemy III made a shrewd hire when, in about 240 B.C., he appointed a bookworm and poet named Eratosthenes to be the librarian of the great Alexandrian Museum. Eratosthenes, derided by his envious colleagues as a second-stringer, nursed an insatiable curiosity about the natural world. Acting on hunches and sailors' reports, he decided to conduct an experiment to measure the earth's circumference, which he eventually reckoned to be 46,000 kilometers—a little far off the actual mark of 40,000 kilometers but close enough that both Eratosthenes and Ptolemy entered history as founding fathers of the modern science of cartography.

In this vigorous history of maps and their creators, New York Times science writer John Noble Wilford recounts the accomplishments of dozens of cartographers from many cultures and times, among them Gerardus Mercator, Francis Beaufort, Charles Mason, and Jean Fernel. Ranging from ancient Chinese scrolls to the latest satellite images of distant planets, he renders a history full of "heroics and everyday routine, of personal and national rivalries, of influential mistakes and brilliant insights." He also reviews key scientific and technological advances that have accompanied the rise of modern maps, among them the development of fractal geometry, geosynchronous displays, remote sensing, and ever more accurate surveying instruments and techniques. —Gregory McNamee

John Noble Wilford 0375708502 The Greco-Egyptian emperor Ptolemy III made a shrewd hire when, in about 240 B.C., he appointed a bookworm and poet named Eratosthenes to be the librarian of the great Alexandrian Museum. Eratosthenes, derided by his envious colleagues as a second-stringer, nursed an insatiable curiosity about the natural world. Acting on hunches and sailors' reports, he decided to conduct an experiment to measure the earth's circumference, which he eventually reckoned to be 46,000 kilometers—a little far off the actual mark of 40,000 kilometers but close enough that both Eratosthenes and Ptolemy entered history as founding fathers of the modern science of cartography.

In this vigorous history of maps and their creators, New York Times science writer John Noble Wilford recounts the accomplishments of dozens of cartographers from many cultures and times, among them Gerardus Mercator, Francis Beaufort, Charles Mason, and Jean Fernel. Ranging from ancient Chinese scrolls to the latest satellite images of distant planets, he renders a history full of "heroics and everyday routine, of personal and national rivalries, of influential mistakes and brilliant insights." He also reviews key scientific and technological advances that have accompanied the rise of modern maps, among them the development of fractal geometry, geosynchronous displays, remote sensing, and ever more accurate surveying instruments and techniques. —Gregory McNamee

Stephen S. Hall 0394576357

American Guide Service

Simon Winchester B000C1ZXF4 From the best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa comes a truly wonderful celebration of the English language and of its unrivaled treasure house, the Oxford English Dictionary. 

Writing with marvelous brio, Winchester first serves up a lightning history of the English language——"so vast, so sprawling, so wonderfully unwieldy"—and pays homage to the great dictionary makers, from "the irredeemably famous" Samuel Johnson to the "short, pale, smug and boastful"

schoolmaster from New Hartford, Noah Webster. He then turns his unmatched talent for story-telling to the making of this most venerable of dictionaries. In this fast-paced narrative, the reader will discover lively portraits of such key figures as the brilliant but tubercular first editor Herbert

Coleridge (grandson of the poet), the colorful, boisterous Frederick Furnivall (who left the project in a shambles), and James Augustus Henry Murray, who spent a half-century bringing the project to fruition. Winchester lovingly describes the nuts-and-bolts of dictionary making—how unexpectedly

tricky the dictionary entry for marzipan was, or how fraternity turned out so much longer and monkey so much more ancient than anticipated—and how bondmaid was left out completely, its slips found lurking under a pile of books long after the B-volume had gone to press. We visit the ugly corrugated

iron structure that Murray grandly dubbed the Scriptorium—the Scrippy or the Shed, as locals called it—and meet some of the legion of volunteers, from Fitzedward Hall, a bitter hermit obsessively devoted to the OED, to W. C. Minor, whose story is one of dangerous madness, ineluctable sadness, and

ultimate redemption.

The Meaning of Everything is a scintillating account of the creation of the greatest monument ever erected to a living language. Simon Winchester's supple, vigorous prose illuminates this dauntingly ambitious project—a seventy-year odyssey to create the grandfather of all word-books, the

world's unrivalled uber-dictionary.

Indi Young 1933820063 There is no single methodology for creating the perfect product—buy you can increase your odds. One of the best ways is to understand users' reasons for doing things. Mental Models gives you the tools to help you grasp, and design for, those reasons. Adaptive Path co-founder Indi Young has written a roll-up-your-sleeves book for designers, managers, and anyone else interested in making design strategic, and successful.

Douglas R. Hofstadter 0465045669 A bestselling collection of brilliant and quirky essays, on subjects ranging from biology to grammar to artificial intelligence, that are unified by one primary concern: the way people perceive and think.

Louis Menand 0374528497 If past is prologue, then The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand may suggest an intellectual course for the United States in the 21st century. At least Menand, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, thinks so. This enthralling study of Oliver Wendell Holmes, William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey shows how these four men developed a philosophy of pragmatism following the Civil War, a period Menand likens to post-cold-war times. Together, "they were more responsible than any other group for moving American thought into the modern world."

Despite this potentially forbidding theme, The Metaphysical Club is not a dry tome for academics. Instead, it is a quadruple biography, a wonderfully told story of ideas that advances by turning these thinkers into characters and bringing them to life. Menand links them through the Metaphysical Club, a conversational club formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1872. It lasted but a few months, and references to it appear only in Peirce's writings (its real significance seems rather limited), though Holmes and James were both members. (Dewey was much younger than these three, and more an heir than a contemporary.) It is difficult to describe in a sentence or two what they accomplished, though Menand takes a stab at it: "They helped put an end to the idea that the universe is an idea, that beyond the mundane business of making our way as best we can in a world shot through with contingency, there exists some order, invisible to us, whose logic we transgress at our peril." Academic freedom and cultural pluralism are just two of their legacies, and they are linchpins of democracy in a nonideological age, says Menand.

A book like this is necessarily idiosyncratic, yet at the same time this one is sweeping. It presents an accessible survey of intellectual life from roughly the end of the Civil War to the start of the cold war. Dozens of figures receive fascinating thumbnail sketches, from Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Darwin to Jane Addams and Eugene Debs. The result is a grand portrait of an age that will appeal to anyone with even a modest interest in the history of philosophy and ideas. —John Miller

Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel C. Dennett 0553345842 Brilliant, shattering, mind-jolting, The  Mind's I is a searching, probing nook—a  cosmic journey of the mind—that goes deeply into  the problem of self and self-consciousness as  anything written in our time. From verbalizing  chimpanzees to scientific speculations involving  machines with souls, from the mesmerizing, maze-like  fiction of Borges to the tantalizing, dreamlike  fiction of Lem and Princess Ineffable, her circuits  glowing read and gold, The Mind's I   opens the mind to the Black Box of fantasy, to the  windfalls of reflection, to new dimensions of  exciting possibilities.

Herman Melville B00192QAKW It is hardcover and leatherbound.

Witold Rybczynski 0670819816

Amos Tutuola 0802131050

Thomas Merton 081120099X "It can become almost a magic word," Thomas Merton says of contemplation;"or if not magic, then inspirational, which is almost as bad." With these words, Merton takes us through the reality of contemplation, which is, the author says, "life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder." Above all, contemplation is "awareness of the reality" of the Source, "with a certitude that goes beyond reason and beyond simple faith." As these definitions should suggest, in this 20th-century classic on the contemplative life, as in the best of Merton's work, this Trappist monk wonderfully combines a disciplined and deeply learned intellect with the lyrical passion of the poet. It is this rare combination that makes this book not only informative but also moving. Covering a diverse range of subjects ("Faith,""The Night of the Senses,""Renunciation"), it moves the reader through certain traditional "phases" of contemplation, and gives an idea of what to expect in this spiritual process (including despair and darkness). The book describes, but it also enacts. In its own prose it invites the reader to "cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance."—Doug Thorpe

John Donne B0010JTH2M

Sarah Susanka 1561583766 When describing a favorite room in the house, do you find yourself using terms such as "expansive,""formal," and "spacious"—a marble foyer or a formal dining room perhaps? Or do the words "cozy,""intimate," and "warm" come to mind—a cheery little breakfast nook or a window seat complete with plenty of pillows and a breathtaking view? More than likely, you—like thousands of other homeowners—are drawn to the more personal spaces in your home, where comfort, beauty, and efficiency meet. In The Not So Big House, respected architect Sarah Susanka and coauthor Kira Obolensky address our affinity for the "smaller, more personal spaces" and propose "clear, workable guidelines for creating homes that serve both our spiritual needs and our material requirements." The heart of the not-so-big house—which is not "just a small house ... [but] a smaller house," that uses "less space to give greater quality of life," and is designed to not only "accommodate the lifestyles of its occupants" but also to express "our values and our personalities," is discussed in chapter 1, entitled "Bigger Isn't Better." Susanka's urging for homeowners to get creative with their space as well as loads of ideas to encourage that creativity are covered in "Rethinking the House" and "Making Not So Big Work." Discussions of specific needs, such as a home for one and designing for kids, can be found in "Lifestyles of the Not So Rich and Famous," while "Dreams, Details, and Dollars" gets down to the nuts and bolts of the operation, looking at quality versus quantity, budgeting, and what "low end,""middle ground," and "high end" really mean in home design and construction. Lastly, the authors look at the home of the future, which involves simplifying, recycling, reducing waste, and using energy-efficient construction. With more than 200 color photographs, as well as floor plans and Susanka and Obolensky's intelligent and lively dialogue, The Not So Big House is perfect for homeowners ready to rethink their space. —Stefanie Hargreaves

Sarah Susanka, Marc Vassallo 156158827X More Big Ideas from Sarah Susanka including hundreds of Not So Big ideas that can beautifully and affordably transform any home. Sometimes small changes can have a big impact. But many homeowners looking for more living space still insist on building expensive additions or completely rebuilding their home. In the latest groundbreaking step in the Not So Big revolution, Sarah Susanka and Marc Vassallo demonstrate how carefully chosen tweaks and simple additions can make a home seem much larger and more inviting. They avoid high-end architectural solutions, focusing instead on how Not So Big ideas can dramatically improve even the most modest home. The authors show readers how to think like an architect, so they can accurately assess their homes shortcomings, apply Not So Big principles to their remodeling plan, and phase in their project incrementally over time.

Forrest McDonald 0700603115 This is the first major interpretation of the framing of the Constitution to appear in more than two decades. Forrest McDonald, widely considered one of the foremost historians of the Constitution and of the early national period, reconstructs the intellectual world of the Founding Fathers—including their understanding of law, history political philosophy, and political economy, and their firsthand experience in public affairs—and then analyzes their behavior in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in light of that world. No one has attempted to do so on such a scale before. McDonald's principal conclusion is that, though the Framers brought a variety of ideological and philosophical positions to bear upon their task of building a "new order of the ages," they were guided primarily by theiy own experience, their wisdom, and their common sense.

William H. Press, Brian P. Flannery, Saul A. Teukolsky, William T. Vetterling 0521431085 The product of a unique collaboration among four leading scientists in academic research and industry, Numerical Recipes is a complete text and reference book on scientific computing. In a self-contained manner it proceeds from mathematical and theoretical considerations to actual practical computer routines. With over 100 new routines bringing the total to well over 300, plus upgraded versions of the original routines, the new edition remains the most practical, comprehensive handbook of scientific computing available today.

Harry G. Frankfurt 0691122946 "One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit," Harry G. Frankfurt writes, in what must surely be the most eyebrow-raising opener in modern philosophical prose. "Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted." This compact little book, as pungent as the phenomenon it explores, attempts to articulate a theory of this contemporary scourge—what it is, what it does, and why there's so much of it. The result is entertaining and enlightening in almost equal measure. It can't be denied; part of the book's charm is the puerile pleasure of reading classic academic discourse punctuated at regular intervals by the word "bullshit." More pertinent is Frankfurt's focus on intentions—the practice of bullshit, rather than its end result. Bullshitting, as he notes, is not exactly lying, and bullshit remains bullshit whether it's true or false. The difference lies in the bullshitter's complete disregard for whether what he's saying corresponds to facts in the physical world: he "does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."

This may sound all too familiar to those of use who still live in the "reality-based community" and must deal with a world convulsed by those who do not. But Frankfurt leaves such political implications to his readers. Instead, he points to one source of bullshit's unprecedented expansion in recent years, the postmodern skepticism of objective truth in favor of sincerity, or as he defines it, staying true to subjective experience. But what makes us think that anything in our nature is more stable or inherent than what lies outside it? Thus, Frankfurt concludes, with an observation as tiny and perfect as the rest of this exquisite book, "sincerity itself is bullshit."—Mary Park

David Sheppard 1556529422 From an idiosyncratic childhood in a sleepy British market town to the top of the international pop charts, this first critical examination of the life of Brian Eno charts a lengthy and colorful journey. Interviews with many key collaborators—such as David Byrne, Robert Wyatt, John Cale, Bryan Ferry, and Gavin Bryars—along with input from Brian and his wife, Anthea, illuminate the man and his ideas and how he retained an edge and maintained independence. This sonic alchemist to the stars has contributed to the most challenging and critically revered work of Roxy Music, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Devo, U2, and Coldplay, and few collections remain untouched by his distinctive aesthetic.

Michel Foucault 0679753354

Elaine Pagels 0679731180

Dante 0520045173 The classic epic poem portrays an allegorical journey through hell and purgatory to reach heaven.

Joseph S. Nye Jr. 0195150880

Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein 0195019199 The second of three books published by the Center for Environmental Structure to provide a "working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building, and planning," A Pattern Language offers a practical language for building and planning based on natural considerations. The reader is given an overview of some 250 patterns that are the units of this language, each consisting of a design problem, discussion, illustration, and solution. By understanding recurrent design problems in our environment, readers can identify extant patterns in their own design projects and use these patterns to create a language of their own. Extraordinarily thorough, coherent, and accessible, this book has become a bible for homebuilders, contractors, and developers who care about creating healthy, high-level design.

David Fromkin 0805068848

Elliott White, Jonathan D. Eisenhamer 0672328887 With the release of PHP 5 web developers need a guide to developing with PHP 5 to both learn its complex new features and more fully implement the long-standing features on which PHP's success is built. PHP 5 in Practice is a reference guide that provides developers with easy-to-use and easily extensible code to solve common PHP problems. It focuses on providing real code solutions to problems, allowing the reader to learn by seeing exactly what is happening behind the scenes to get your solution. Because a real-life situation will rarely match the book's example problems precisely, PHP 5 in Practice explains the solution well enough that you will understand it and can learn how to truly solve your own problem.

Larry Ullman 0321245652

Albert Camus B000P68H4A

Kai Chan, John Omokore, Richard Miller 143021578X If you’ve been using PHP for sometime now and would like to start using a web framework, you’ll want to try CakePHP, which is an open source rapid development web framework built on PHP.

PHP experts Kai Chan and John Omokore guide you through a variety of practical CakePHP applications. You will work on projects such as a video gallery, unit testing application, an e–commerce app, a blog site, and much more. Practical CakePHP Projects covers the key architectural concepts as well as including mini projects that you can use to enhance your own applications. A friendly introduction for any web programmer looking to choose a PHP frameworkReal–world projects based on current and future trendsPractical CakePHP techniques that you can use right away
What you’ll learn Painlessly create a secure and dynamic web site with CakePHP and MySQL.Discover how CakePHP can be used in high–level and demanding applications using CakePHP built–in components as well as methods such as Smarty, caching, and unit testing.See how CakePHP integrates with technologies such as Ajax and web services.Integrate your own components into CakePHP’s framework.Apply CakePHP to mainstream technologies such as Google Video, blogging, mashups, and e–commerce.Work through the few pitfalls of some of the CakePHP framework, for example, Access Control Lists.
Who is this book for?

Aimed primarily at CakePHP novices to professionals and PHP programmers seeking to build web applications easily using CakePHP and related web technologies, this book will also appeal to programmers using other frameworks in other languages, for example, Ruby on Rails and Java Spring. About the Apress Practical Series

The Practical series from Apress is your best choice for getting the job done, period. From professional to expert, this series lets you apply project–motivated templates (or frameworks) step by step in a very direct, practical, and efficient manner toward current real–world projects that may be sitting on your desk. So whatever your career goal, Apress can be your trusted guide to take you where you want to go on your IT career empowerment path.

LOUIS MENAND 0679775447

Paul Kennedy 0679747052 Kennedy's groundbreaking book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers helped to reorder the current priorities of the United States. Now, he synthesizes extensive research on fields ranging from demography to robotics to draw a detailed, persuasive, and often sobering map of the very near future—a bold work that bridges the gap between history, prophecy, and policy.

Scott Simon 1400063108

Niccolò Machiavelli, W.K. Marriott, Dominic Baker-Smith 0679410449

Nils J Nilsson 0935382011 A classic introduction to artificial intelligence intended to bridge the gap between theory and practice, Principles of Artificial Intelligence describes fundamental AI ideas that underlie applications such as natural language processing, automatic programming, robotics, machine vision, automatic theorem proving, and intelligent data retrieval. Rather than focusing on the subject matter of the applications, the book is organized around general computational concepts involving the kinds of data structures used, the types of operations performed on the data structures, and the properties of the control strategies used.

Principles of Artificial Intelligenceevolved from the author's courses and seminars at Stanford University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is suitable for text use in a senior or graduate AI course, or for individual study.

Simon Winchester 006099486X When the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary put out a call during the late 19th century pleading for "men of letters" to provide help with their mammoth undertaking, hundreds of responses came forth. Some helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided literally thousands of entries to the editors. But Minor, an American expatriate in England and a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic who turned in his dictionary entries from the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Simon Winchester has produced a mesmerizing coda to the deeply troubled Minor's life, a life that in one sense began with the senseless murder of an innocent British brewery worker that the deluded Minor believed was an assassin sent by one of his numerous "enemies."

Winchester also paints a rich portrait of the OED's leading light, Professor James Murray, who spent more than 40 years of his life on a project he would not see completed in his lifetime. Winchester traces the origins of the drive to create a "Big Dictionary" down through Murray and far back into the past; the result is a fascinating compact history of the English language (albeit admittedly more interesting to linguistics enthusiasts than historians or true crime buffs). That Murray and Minor, whose lives took such wildly disparate turns yet were united in their fierce love of language, were able to view one another as peers and foster a warm friendship is just one of the delicately turned subplots of this compelling book. —Tjames Madison

Dante 0520045165 The classic epic poem portrays an allegorical journey through hell and purgatory to reach heaven.

Marcel Proust B001THSOZ6

T.E. Lawrence B000EWFY4Q First published in 1926, this is a first-hand account of WWI in the Middle East, a thrilling epic of action that recounts the adventures that gave birth to the legend of Lawrence of Arabia.

Barry]. Welty, Eudora. [Moser B000NYL7BE

Bruce G. Buchanan, Edward H. Shortliffe 0201101726

Stacy Schiff 0306807408 The definitive biography of the most translated french writer of all time.

When he vanished in 1944-disappearing into thin air as the Little Prince does in his best-loved work-Antoine de Saint-Exupry was already a legend. His name is synonymous with the golden age of aviation, when pilots flew through desert sandstorms in open cockpits and without instruments, fired at by rebellious tribes. The author of many of the classics of aviation literature, he also wrote the children's classic The Little Prince, the most widely translated book in the French language. Stacy Schiff, with an infectious fascination for her subject, has brought Saint-Exupry to life in this definitive, humane, and hugely entertaining biography.

Sam Maloof 0870119109 What if Picasso had been a chair maker and Stravinsky a designer of tables? What would have been the impact of such intense creative talent on twentieth-century furniture? Today there is a man with this quality of profound artistic vision and talent who has devoted his life to making furniture. His name is Sam Maloof, and this book is his life and work told in his own words.

Sam Maloof started making furniture immediately after World War II, when there was very little demand for hand-made objects. His perseverance through 'years of difficulty is a testament to the depth of his love for wood and for working with it. Since childhood, Sam has also been in love with technique and has constantly developed his precise sense of form and design. These three loves—of wood, of making things, and of design—brought him to the world of furniture and eventually to an honored place among America's leading artist-craftsmen.

As with true great art, everything Sam Maloof makes seems simple. His furniture has a clear rhythm and flow, a bright vitality that eludes analysis. All his furniture is functional: chairs are comfortable; tables, while sculptural, are still tables to be used; desks are custom-designed to meet the needs of each user. Though Maloof furniture designs are all intensely his own, they remain unassuming and natural. His work has the calm, sure quality that comes from technical mastery combined with a creative joy in finding ways to let wood speak. A first encounter with a piece of Maloof furniture is like meeting a friend from the past—the warmth of relationship is immediate and delightful. This warmth never pales.

The qualities of his work are mirrored in the artist. Sam is open, direct, and gracious. He projects a feeling of affable dignity and goodwill, and he works with the ease and clarity seen in his furniture. Work for him is not drudgery. It is a renewal, an affirmation.

He and his wife, Alfreda, live in a meandering house that nestles in a lemon orchard at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, near San Bernardino, California. Sam has been building and expanding the house for thirty years. It unfolds as a series of surprises, from Sam's workshop at one end to the new guestroom at the other. Every room contains the ceramics, woodwork, textiles, baskets, pictures, and other beautiful things that nourish the Maloofs and give them pleasure.

Sam Maloof's technical mastery of woodworking is coupled with mature, strongly personal artistic expression. He has set a standard for his craft in North America and the world. Future generations of craftsmen will see him as one of the major artistic lights of this century.

Sara Midda 0894807633 From Sara Midda, the artist whose first book, In and Out of the Garden, evoked all the pleasures of the English garden and received international acclaim, comes a wondrous sketchbook from a year spent in the South of France—an artist's personal journal carried everywhere and crammed with drawings and notions and thoughts surprising and whimsical. 

Sara Midda captures the land, the people, the shimmering air—the whole feeling of Provence and the Cote d' Azur and the spell they cast over even those who haven't been. Describing her own work, Sara Midda says: "It is an evocation, an interpretation of the everyday. It is making discoveries about ordinary things. It is not merely landscapes and buildings, but the artifacts that are the bricks and mortar of a culture."

The entire volume is printed on uncoated stock to convey the feeling and texture of an artist's sketchbook.

Midda Sara B000UIL47K

B.F Skinner 0029290406

DANIEL J. BOORSTIN 0375704752

Richard Dawkins 0199291152 Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and maintain us in order to make more genes. That simple reversal seems to answer many puzzlers which had stumped scientists for years, and we haven't thought of evolution in the same way since.

Why are there miles and miles of "unused" DNA within each of our bodies? Why should a bee give up its own chance to reproduce to help raise her sisters and brothers? With a prophet's clarity, Dawkins told us the answers from the perspective of molecules competing for limited space and resources to produce more of their own kind. Drawing fascinating examples from every field of biology, he paved the way for a serious re-evaluation of evolution. He also introduced the concept of self-reproducing ideas, or memes, which (seemingly) use humans exclusively for their propagation. If we are puppets, he says, at least we can try to understand our strings. —Rob Lightner

J. Bronowski 0262520508

Elisabeth Sifton 0393326624

Thomas Erl 0131428985

Bruce Sterling 0262693267 "Shaping Things is about created objects and the environment, which is to say, it's about everything," writes Bruce Sterling in this addition to the Mediawork Pamphlet series. He adds, "Seen from sufficient distance, this is a small topic."

Sterling offers a brilliant, often hilarious history of shaped things. We have moved from an age of artifacts, made by hand, through complex machines, to the current era of "gizmos." New forms of design and manufacture are appearing that lack historical precedent, he writes; but the production methods, using archaic forms of energy and materials that are finite and toxic, are not sustainable. The future will see a new kind of object—we have the primitive forms of them now in our pockets and briefcases: user-alterable, baroquely multi-featured, and programmable—that will be sustainable, enhanceable, and uniquely identifiable. Sterling coins the term "spime" for them, these future manufactured objects with informational support so extensive and rich that they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system. Spimes are designed on screens, fabricated by digital means, and precisely tracked through space and time. They are made of substances that can be folded back into the production stream of future spimes, challenging all of us to become involved in their production. Spimes are coming, says Sterling. We will need these objects in order to live; we won't be able to surrender their advantages without awful consequences.

The vision of Shaping Things is given material form by the intricate design of Lorraine Wild. Shaping Things is for designers and thinkers, engineers and scientists, entrepreneurs and financiers—and anyone who wants to understand and be part of the process of technosocial transformation.

Robert Hughes 0679728767 A beautifully illustrated hundred-year history of modern art, from cubism to pop and avant-guard. More than 250 color photos.

Ian Hacking 0674004124

Marvin Minsky 0671657135 For some artificial intelligence researchers, Minsky's book is too far removed from hard science to be useful. For others, the high-level approach of The Society of Mind makes it a gold mine of ideas waiting to be implemented. The author, one of the undisputed fathers of the discipline of AI, sets out to provide an abstract model of how the human mind really works. His thesis is that our minds consist of a huge aggregation of tiny mini-minds or agents that have evolved to perform highly specific tasks. Most of these agents lack the attributes we think of as intelligence and are severely limited in their ability to intercommunicate. Yet rational thought, feeling, and purposeful action result from the interaction of these basic components. Minsky's theory does not suggest a specific implementation for building intelligent machines. Still, this book may prove to be one of the most influential for the future of AI.

Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham 0553371320 I Am Not Perfect is a simple  statement of profound truth, the first step toward  understanding the human condition, for to deny  your essential imperfection is to deny yourself and  your own humanity. The spirituality of  imperfection, steeped in the rich traditions of the Hebrew  prophets and Greek thinkers, Buddhist sages and  Christian disciples, is a message as timeless as it is  timely. This insightful work draws on the wisdom  stories of the ages to provide an extraordinary  wellspring of hope and inspiration to anyone  thirsting for spiritual growth and guidance in these  troubled times.

Who are we? Why so  we so often fall short of our goals for ourselves  and others? By seeking to understand our  limitations and accept the inevitably of failure and pain,  we being to ease the hurt and move toward a  greater sense of serenity and self-awareness.  The Spirituality Of Imperfection brings  together stories from many spiritual and  philosophical paths, weaving past traditions into a  spirituality and a new way of thinking and living that  works today. It speaks so anyone who yearns to find  meaning within suffering. Beyond theory and  technique, inside this remarkable book you will find a  new way of thinking, a way of living that enables  a truly human existence.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper 0688089631 Just when you thought you knew the best of Northern Italy, along comes Lynne RossettoKasper to introduce you to Emilia-Romagna, a fertile wedge between Milan, Venice, and Florence, as gastronomically important as any land in the world. The lush homeland of balsamic vinegar, Prosciutto di Parma, tortellini, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, this is a region venerated by Italy's food cognoscenti. "Ask an Italian where to take only one meal in Italy, and, after recommending his mother's house, he will more than likely send you to EmiliaRomagna,"writes Kasper.

A cuisine at once voluptuous and refined, the dishes of Emilia-Romagna's kitchen are literally irresistible. just listen to the names"Little" Spring Soup from the 17th Century, His Eminence's Baked Penne, Modena Crumbling Cake. Then imagine sitting down to a dish of Hot Caramelized Pears with Prosciutto, a Risotto of Red Wine with Fresh Rosemary or a Pie of Polenta and Country RagÚ

The first American book to present the food of this singular northern region, The Splendid Table is an Italian cookbook for the nineties. It will take you from Parma, Bologna, Modena, Ravenna, and Ferrara to tiny villages in the foothills of the Apennines, from Renaissance banquet halls to the simplest of farmhouses, offering history, folklore, and substantive cooking tips along the way.

Among the things you will find are:

A 56-recipe pasta chapter including many never before seen in America. From fast and easy dishes such as Linguine with Braised Garlic and Balsamic Vinegar to a lasagne of chicken, pine nuts, and currants.

A veal Parmigiano like no other-Pan-Fried Veal Chops with Tomato Marsala Sauce, the whole finished with curls of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

An array of meatless or almost meatless recipes. Grilled vegetables with maccheroni; a

country dish of braised lentils with ribbons of pappardelle and crisp nubbins of pancetta; Tortellini of Artichokes and Mascarpone; or Fresh Tuna Adriatic Style.

Straight out of the Renaissance but perfect for today, a sumptuous tortellini pie, ideal for important dinners and holidays.

A salad of tart greens, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and Prosciutto di Parma with a warm garlic and balsamic dressing and many other antipasto dishes.

Over thirty dessert recipes including Chestnut Ricotta Cheesecake and Torta Barozzi, a mysterious chocolate cake made at only one pastry shop in the entire region.

"A Guide to Ingredients" that shares the secrets of how to select, use, and store the very best balsamic vinegars, olive oils, porcini mushrooms, Prosciutto di Parma, mortadella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, coppa, fresh herbs, and much more.

Encounters with Lucrezia Borgia, Gioachino Rossini, Napoleon's Empress Marie Louise, Giuseppe Verdi, Arturo Toscanini, Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Tebaldi, and Luciano Pavarotti, all characters in the epic of Emilia-Romagna.

The Splendid Table is the Italian cookbook America has been waiting for a book firing our passion for Italian food while responding to our health concerns. It not only reveals Italy's best-kept culinary secret, the great cuisine of Emilia-Romagna, it is at the same time one of the most important teaching books of our era. Know it will become a good friend, well thumbed and lovingly stained over years of good cooking and good reading.

24 pages of finished dishes in full color. 200 recipes with wine and menu suggestions.

Jonathan Gennick 0596526881 SQL is the language of databases. It's used to create and maintain database objects, place data into those objects, query the data, modify the data, and, finally, delete data that is no longer needed. Databases lie at the heart of many, if not most business applications. Chances are very good that if you're involved with software development, you're using SQL to some degree. And if you're using SQL, you should own a good reference or two.

Now available in an updated second edition, our very popular SQL Pocket Guide is a major help to programmers, database administrators, and everyone who uses SQL in their day-to-day work. The SQL Pocket Guide is a concise reference to frequently used SQL statements and commonly used SQL functions. Not just an endless collection of syntax diagrams, this portable guide addresses the language's complexity head on and leads by example. The information in this edition has been updated to reflect the latest versions of the most commonly used SQL variants including: Oracle Database 10g, Release 2 (including the free Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (XE))Microsoft SQL Server 2005MySQL 5IBM DB2 8.2PostreSQL 8.1 database

Thomas S. Kuhn 0226458083 There's a "Frank & Ernest" comic strip showing a chick breaking out of its shell, looking around, and saying, "Oh, wow! Paradigm shift!" Blame the late Thomas Kuhn. Few indeed are the philosophers or historians influential enough to make it into the funny papers, but Kuhn is one.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is indeed a paradigmatic work in the history of science. Kuhn's use of terms such as "paradigm shift" and "normal science," his ideas of how scientists move from disdain through doubt to acceptance of a new theory, his stress on social and psychological factors in science—all have had profound effects on historians, scientists, philosophers, critics, writers, business gurus, and even the cartoonist in the street.

Some scientists (such as Steven Weinberg and Ernst Mayr) are profoundly irritated by Kuhn, especially by the doubts he casts—or the way his work has been used to cast doubt—on the idea of scientific progress. Yet it has been said that the acceptance of plate tectonics in the 1960s, for instance, was sped by geologists' reluctance to be on the downside of a paradigm shift. Even Weinberg has said that "Structure has had a wider influence than any other book on the history of science." As one of Kuhn's obituaries noted, "We all live in a post-Kuhnian age."—Mary Ellen Curtin

Jacques Ellul 0394703901

Jessica Stern 006050532X

Nathaniel; Moser, Barry [Illustrations]; Eliot, Alexander [Introducti Hawthorne B001KAK58G

Fawn McKay Brodie 0393317528 An ambitious, perceptive portrayal of a complex man, this best-selling biography broke new ground in its exploration of Jefferson's inner life. Here for the first time we meet Jefferson as a man of feeling and passion. With a novelist's skill and meticulous scholarship, Fawn M. Brodie shows Jefferson as he wrestled with issues of revolution, religion, power, race, and love—ambivalences that exerted a subtle but powerful influence on his political writing and his decision making. The portrait that results adds a whole new depth to those of the past.

Mark Epstein 0465020224

Jim Tolpin 1561582727 Winner of the 1996 Stanley Award for best how-to book. "Ideas and inspiration galore".——"Wooden Boat Review". 190 color photos. 100 drawings.

Martin Fowler 0321193687 The second edition of Martin Fowler's bestselling UML Distilled provides updates to the Unified Modeling Language (UML) without changing its basic formula for success. It is still arguably the best resource for quick, no-nonsense explanations of using UML.

The major strength of UML Distilled is its short, concise presentation of the essentials of UML and where it fits within today's software development process. The book describes all the major UML diagram types, what they're for, and the basic notation involved in creating and deciphering them. These diagrams include use cases; class and interaction diagrams; collaborations; and state, activity, and physical diagrams. The examples are always clear, and the explanations cut to the fundamental design logic.

For the second edition, the material has been reworked for use cases and activity diagrams, plus there are numerous small tweaks throughout, including the latest UML v. 1.3 standard. An appendix even traces the evolution of UML versions.

Working developers often don't have time to keep up with new innovations in software engineering. This new edition lets you get acquainted with some of the best thinking about efficient object-oriented software design using UML in a convenient format that will be essential to anyone who designs software professionally. —Richard Dragan

Topics covered: UML basics, analysis and design, outline development (software development process), inception, elaboration, managing risks, construction, transition, use case diagrams, class diagrams, interaction diagrams, collaborations, state diagrams, activity diagrams, physical diagrams, patterns, and refactoring basics.

William James 0674932250 "I am neither a theologian, nor a scholar learned in the history of religions, nor an anthropologist. Psychology is the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed. To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at least as interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his mental constitution. It would seem, therefore, as a psychologist, the natural thing for me would be to invite you to a descriptive survey of those religious propensities."

When William James went to the University of Edinburgh in 1901 to deliver a series of lectures on "natural religion," he defined religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine." Considering religion, then, not as it is defined by—or takes place in—the churches, but as it is felt in everyday life, he undertook a project that, upon completion, stands not only as one of the most important texts on psychology ever written, not only as a vitally serious contemplation of spirituality, but for many critics one of the best works of nonfiction written in the 20th century. Reading The Varieties of Religious Experience, it is easy to see why. Applying his analytic clarity to religious accounts from a variety of sources, James elaborates a pluralistic framework in which "the divine can mean no single quality, it must mean a group of qualities, by being champions of which in alternation, different men may all find worthy missions." It's an intellectual call for serious religious tolerance—indeed, respect—the vitality of which has not diminished through the subsequent decades.

William James 0679640118 "I am neither a theologian, nor a scholar learned in the history of religions, nor an anthropologist. Psychology is the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed. To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at least as interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his mental constitution. It would seem, therefore, as a psychologist, the natural thing for me would be to invite you to a descriptive survey of those religious propensities."

When William James went to the University of Edinburgh in 1901 to deliver a series of lectures on "natural religion," he defined religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine." Considering religion, then, not as it is defined by—or takes place in—the churches, but as it is felt in everyday life, he undertook a project that, upon completion, stands not only as one of the most important texts on psychology ever written, not only as a vitally serious contemplation of spirituality, but for many critics one of the best works of nonfiction written in the 20th century. Reading The Varieties of Religious Experience, it is easy to see why. Applying his analytic clarity to religious accounts from a variety of sources, James elaborates a pluralistic framework in which "the divine can mean no single quality, it must mean a group of qualities, by being champions of which in alternation, different men may all find worthy missions." It's an intellectual call for serious religious tolerance—indeed, respect—the vitality of which has not diminished through the subsequent decades.

Joe Ortiz 0898154898 The long and short of it is you could pick up a copy of The Village Baker by Joe Ortiz, start at the beginning, bake your way to the last page, and open your own village bakery. A California regional baker since 1978 (Joe Ortiz bakes breads, and his wife bakes pastries at Gayle's Bakery in Capitola, California), Ortiz brings his years of personal experience and his endless travels through Europe to the one subject he holds so dear: good bread. And by good bread, he means the best of what France, Germany, and Italy have to offer, as well as notable contributions from great American bakers working in the traditional, village-baker style: dense, crusty, flavorful loaves of bread that support life in and of themselves. Ortiz holds out the promise that this can actually be accomplished in the home kitchen—with the highest standards.

Ortiz's book starts in the style of a primer with sections on the basic ingredients, kinds of leavenings, and basic techniques and procedures. He wants the newcomer to bake the very basic French loaf (think baguette) several times to get one decent loaf under the belt buckle. Then it's open season on regional breads, rye breads, and specialty breads. In a final section, Ortiz gives the true enthusiast professional style recipes and ideas. —Schuyler Ingle

Michael Ignatieff B000C4T3WA

J. Bronowski 0262520680 Selected by Piero E. Ariotti in collaboration with Rita Bronowski.

Edward R. Tufte 0961392142 A timeless classic in how complex information should be presented graphically. The Strunk & White of visual design. Should occupy a place of honor—within arm's reach—of everyone attempting to understand or depict numerical data graphically. The design of the book is an exemplar of the principles it espouses: elegant typography and layout, and seamless integration of lucid text and perfectly chosen graphical examples. Very Highly Recommended.

Edward R. Tufte 0961392126 With Visual Explanations, Edward R. Tufte adds a third volume to his indispensable series on information display. The first, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, which focuses on charts and graphs that display numerical information, virtually defined the field. The second, Envisioning Information, explores similar territory but with an emphasis on maps and cartography. Visual Explanations centers on dynamic data—information that changes over time. (Tufte has described the three books as being about, respectively, "pictures of numbers, pictures of nouns, and pictures of verbs.")

Like its predecessors, Visual Explanations is both intellectually stimulating and beautiful to behold. Tufte, a self-publisher, takes extraordinary pains with design and production. The book ranges through a variety of topics, including the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger (which could have been prevented, Tufte argues, by better information display on the part of the rocket's engineers), magic tricks, a cholera epidemic in 19th-century London, and the principle of using "the smallest effective difference" to display distinctions in data. Throughout, Tufte presents ideas with crystalline clarity and illustrates them in exquisitely rendered samples.

Wesley K. Clark 1586481398 This memoir from the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, now revised and updated, offers a unique behind-the-scenes look at how war is fought today.

In Waging Modern War, General Wesley K. Clark recounts his experience leading NATO's forces to a hard-fought and ultimately successful victory in Kosovo in 1999. As the American military machine has swung into action in the months following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it has become clear that the lessons of Kosovo are directly applicable to the war against terrorism and the nations that sponsor it.

The problems posed, and overcome, in the war in Kosovo—how to fight an air war against unconventional forces in rough terrain and how to coordinate U.S. objectives with those of other nations—are the problems that America increasingly faces in the today's world. As the Los Angeles Times noted in late September of 2001, this book's "lessons are highly relevant now.... We need to think about exactly what steps will lessen, rather than increase, the terrorist threat. And we also need innovative commanders willing to improvise to meet a new kind of threat, more determined political leadership, a more flexible outlook in the Pentagon.... Gen. Clark has performed another service by highlighting these problems at a crucial moment in American history. "

Waging Modern War is history, memoir, guidebook, and forecast, essential reading for those who want to know how modern war is fought, and won.

Witold Rybczynski 0140126635

Chris Hedges 1400034639

Robert D. Kaplan 0375505636

Leon Shklar, Rich Rosen 047051860X This book provides and in-depth examination of the core concepts and general principles of web application development, using examples from specific technologies.  This conceptual knowledge is critical when designing and debugging complex systems, and makes it easier to learn the new application programming interfaces (APIs) that arise in the rapidly changing Internet environment

Split into three sections:

· HTTP protocol as a foundation for web applications

· Discussion of markup languages such as HTML, XML and CSS

· Survey of emerging technologies

Includes new coverage on technologies including:

· Rapid application approaches Ruby on Rails

· Application Primers

· Search technology, including Search Engine Optimization

·Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)

·XML Path Language (XPath)

· Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)

· User-generated content technology for community websites and online collaboration applications

· Security and encryption

Hugh E. Williams 0596005431

Luke Wroblewski 1933820241 Forms make or break the most crucial online interactions: checkout, registration, and any task requiring information entry. In Web Form Design, Luke Wroblewski draws on original research, his considerable experience at Yahoo! and eBay, and the perspectives of many of the field's leading designers to show you everything you need to know about designing effective and engaging web forms.

Langdon Winner 0226902110 "The questions he poses about the relationship between technical change and political power are pressing ones that can no longer be ignored, and identifying them is perhaps the most a nascent 'philosophy of technology' can expect to achieve at the present time."—David Dickson, New York Times Book Review

"The Whale and the Reactor is the philosopher's equivalent of superb public history. In its pages an analytically trained mind confronts some of the most pressing political issues of our day."—Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Isis

Jaroslav Pelikan 0143036777 Jaroslav Pelikan, widely regarded as one of the most distinguished historians of our day, now provides a clear and engaging account of the Bible’s journey from oral narrative to Hebrew and Greek text to today’s countless editions. Pelikan explores the evolution of the Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic versions and the development of the printing press and its effect on the Reformation, the translation into modern languages, and varying schools of critical scholarship. Whose Bible Is It? is a triumph of scholarship that is also a pleasure to read. 

“An engaging and highly readable survey of biblical scholarship that tells a fascinating and complex story.” —The Wall Street Journal

“A crisp, remarkably succinct history of the Bible as preserved, interpreted, translated and canonized by the various faiths that believe in it.” —Los Angeles Times

“Engaging . . . an excellent overview.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Outstanding . . . Pelikan takes the reader through the process of scripture building with a fluency and ease that is both accessible and understandable.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Masterly . . . Pelikan weaves a tapestry of the power of the Word to mold religious communities, nations, and culture. . . . Engaging, concise, and highly readable.” —The Christian Science Monitor

Jaroslav Pelikan 0670033855 No book has been more pored over, has been the subject of more commentary and controversy, or had more influence not only on our religious beliefs but also on our culture and language than the Bible. And certainly no book has been as widely read. But how did the Bible become the book we know it to be?

In this superbly written history, Jaroslav Pelikan takes the reader through the good book’s evolution from its earliest incarnation as oral tales to its modern existence in various iterations, translations, and languages. From the earliest Hebrew texts and the Bible’s appearance in Greek, then Latin, Pelikan explores the canonization of different Bibles and why certain books were adopted by certain religions and sects, as well as the development of the printing press, the translation into modern languages, and varying schools of critical scholarship.

Both an enduring work of scholarship and a fascinating read, Whose Bible Is It? will be eagerly welcomed by the many fans of Elaine Pagels’s books and Adam Nicolson’s God’s Secretaries.

William Jamsem

Wilfred Owen 0713001798

William James, Frederick Burkhardt, Fredson Bowers, Ignas K. Skrupskelis 0674952812 The Will to Believe addresses several of the most important and perplexing problems of philosophy. In ten lucid essays James deals with such subjects as causality and free will, the definition of the good life and the Good itself, the importance of the individual in society, and the intellectual claims of scientific method. Linking all these essays, most of which were delivered as lectures to popular audiences, is James's deep belief that philosophy does not operate in a vacuum but is influenced by our passional and volitional natures.

As Edward H. Madden points out in his substantial introduction, these essays, written over a span of seventeen years, represent not so much a fixed system of ideas as a patient searching, an organic development of James's thought in response to his own criticism and that of others.

This is the sixth volume to be published in The Works of William James, an authoritative edition sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies.

William James

James Williams 0873959353

Antoine De, Illustrated By Linda Kitson Saint-Expury B000JC07NY

George Lakoff 0226468046 "Its publication should be a major event for cognitive linguistics and should pose a major challenge for cognitive science. In addition, it should have repercussions in a variety of disciplines, ranging from anthropology and psychology to epistemology and the philosophy of science. . . . Lakoff asks: What do categories of language and thought reveal about the human mind? Offering both general theory and minute details, Lakoff shows that categories reveal a great deal."—David E. Leary, American Scientist

Rowan Williams 0802821197

Simon St. Laurent, Michael Fitzgerald 0596100507 XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is everywhere: the syntax of choice for newly designed document formats across almost all computer applications. Now used daily by developers, XML is living up to its reputation as one of the most important developments in document interchange in the history of computing.

A perennial bestseller, the handy XML Pocket Reference from O'Reilly has been revised once again to give you quick access to the latest goods. In addition to its comprehensive look at XML, this third edition has been updated with new material on Namespaces and XML Schema—considered among the most important elements in current XML use—along with RELAX NG and Schematron, additional powerful tools for describing XML document structures.

Like other titles in O'Reilly's Pocket Reference series, the XML Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition features a well-organized format that gets right to the point. As a result, it's already won over the allegiance of developers everywhere. If you need XML answers quick and on the fly, this compact book is most definitely the book for you.

Dave Shea, Molly E. Holzschlag 0321303474