Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God."

This new book from a well-regarded and established expert explores the changing relationship between the poetic intentions and technical means of environmental design in architecture. Working thematically and chronologically from the eighteenth century to the present day, these essays reach beyond the narrow conventional view of the purely technical to encompass the poetics of architecture, thus redefining the historiography of environmental design. Through an assessment of the works of several leading figures throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Hawkes deftly shows the growth of environmental awareness and adds a consideration of the qualitative dimension of the environment to the existing, primarily technological, narratives. Essays on earlier buildings highlight the response of pioneering architects to the new technologies of mechanical services and their influence on the form of buildings, while the late twentieth-century design is explored in particular depth to illustrate individual strands of the environmental diversity of modern practice.

Social Security, as currently constructed, will impose excessive tax burdens upon working Americans in the 21st Century. The National Commission on Retirement Policy plan and others would provide a better way, but as Blahous suggests, each requires political courage. He contends the public must better understand the stakes and assert its will over the insiders now dominating the debate.

The book begins by examining the most basic feature of economic life – production – and asks what it is about physical laws that allows production to take place. How is it that human labour is able to modify the world? It looks at the role that information has played in the process of mass production and the extent to which human labour still remains a key resource. The Ricardian labour theory of value is re-examined in the light of econophysics, presenting agent based models in which the Ricardian theory of value appears as an emergent property. The authors present models giving rise to the class distribution of income, and the long term evolution of profit rates in market economies. Money is analysed using tools drawn both from computer science and the recent Chartalist school of financial theory. Covering a combination of techniques drawn from three areas, classical political economy, theoretical computer science and econophysics, to produce models that deepen our understanding of economic reality, this new title will be of interest to higher level doctoral and research students, as well as scientists working in the field of econophysics.

Atomism is in essence an analytical doctrine. It regards observable forms in nature not as intrinsic wholes but as aggregates. In contrast to holistic theories, which explain the parts in terms of qualities displayed by the whole, atomism explains the observable properties of the whole by those of its components and of their configurations.

This book examines the mechanisms and channels through which American managerial know-how and US management models were transferred to Europe after 1945, as well as the actual influence on European industries and regions in the 1950s and 1960s.

In September 2003, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the
End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) International network and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) organized a meeting in Nadi, Fiji on combating poverty and commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), with a focus on helping countries to incorporate their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Stockholm Commitments from the first World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (1996) into national action
plans. A Pacific Statement of Commitment was also adopted at that workshop. Participating countries expressed their interest in receiving assistance in order to undertake situation analyses research so that they could know the true extent of the problem and its particular manifestations in the Pacific.

This near-future thriller is based on Johnston's screenplay adaptation of Card's 1977 story "Malpractice," an early example of biotech sf. The plot is a duel between virologists. One scientist is promulgating a virus that has already altered many human beings into, for instance, Healers (mutated young men, primarily), who are reminiscent of a death squad made up of movie Terminators. The other virologist, at the behest of a secret government agency, is trying to stop the first. The novel wins the reader over on the basis of execution rather than conceptual originality, with pace, characterization, and chilling suspense all polished to a high gloss. Green, Roland --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Middle Ages to the close of the 17th century, alchemy was fundamental to Western culture. Though its significance declined with the rise of chemistry, the lore of alchemy still colors imaginative works in the modern world. This study examines the literary representation of alchemical theory and the metaphor of alchemical regeneration in the works of Edward Taylor, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller. While Taylor used alchemical metaphors to illustrate the redeeming power of God's grace, Poe used them to represent the transforming power of imagination. Hawthorne, in turn, used alchemical imagery to show the restorative power of love, while Fuller employed alchemical figures to suggest the reconciliation of gender opposites.

Strabo's historical work is lost, but his most important Geography in seventeen books has survived. After two introductory books, numbers 3 and 4 deal with Spain and Gaul, 5 and 6 with Italy and Sicily, 7 with north and east Europe, 8–10 with Greek lands, 11–14 with the main regions of Asia and with Asia Minor, 15 with India and Iran, 16 with Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, and Arabia, 17 with Egypt and Africa. In outline he follows the great mathematical geographer Eratosthenes, but adds general descriptions of separate countries including physical, political, and historical details. A sequel to his historical memoirs, Geography is planned apparently for public servants rather than students—hence the accounts of physical features and of natural products. On the mathematical side it is an invaluable source of information about Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Posidonius.

Interconnecting a vast range of sources from Lucretius to more contemporary authors, Hitchens brings together a mix of naysayers and skeptics regarding religion and, in particular, God. While not all of his selections are by fervent atheists, Hitchens connects them in such a way as to explore how and why people have rejected religious beliefs throughout the ages. Additionally, he provides valuable introductions to many of the pieces, situating them for the listener in the context of his overall argument. While some provide great insight and questions for listeners, others are only tangentially relevant. Nicholas Ball has an agreeable voice, but when transitioning from introductions to the excerpt, he rarely pauses and listeners may not even realize the excerpt is being read. His timing and speed may work well with other material, but lacks the reflection and nuance needed for this diverse and complex work with many different writing styles.

Conventional wisdom holds that the Lochner Court illegitimately used the Constitution's due process clauses to strike down Progressive legislation designed to protect the poor and powerless against big business. This book systematically examines all of the U.S. Supreme Court's substantive due process cases from 1897 through 1937 and finds that they do not support long-held beliefs about the Lochner Court. The Court was more Progressive than commonly imagined, striking down far fewer laws on substantive due process grounds than is generally believed. The laws it overturned were not invariably social legislation, and relatively few due process cases involved freedom of contract. Moreover, Holmes, despite his reputation as a Great Dissenter, joined many of the cases striking down government action.

If a Wide Area Network (WAN) isn't set up properly, it won't be able to meet the needs of the applications being used in the Local Area Network (LAN). And with the emergence of new technologies such as VPNs, multi-service networks, and the mobility of corporate users, the costs involved with running a WAN have changed dramatically. Written by an expert on WAN design, this book provides a comprehensive strategy for choosing the best technologies available for your WAN. It includes analysis of business requirements for WANs, end-user and service provider requirements, and the capabilities and tradeoffs of the available technologies. The book also covers the realities and limitations of QoS, security, multi-service networks, virtual networks, VPNs, multi-homing, roaming, and mobility.

The fabric of the airline industry has continued to undergo remarkable changes since the 5th edition of this classic text was published in 1995. The industry has witnessed a series of mergers and a trend toward consolidation into fewer but larger airlines. Route patterns have been reconstructed around hub cities. In contrast to the early 1990s, which saw unprecedented operating deficits, the late 1990s have seen a swing to highly profitable operations, characterized by the forming of alliances among U.S. and foreign airlines. Revised substantially to cover these changes, this book is an excellent introduction to the economics of U.S. airline services, both domestic and international.

n less than two decades, large retail chains have become the most powerful corporations in America. In this deft and revealing book, Stacy Mitchell illustrates how mega-retailers are fueling many of our most pressing problems, from the shrinking middle class to rising pollution and diminished civic engagement—and she shows how a growing number of communities and independent businesses are effectively fighting back.