Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology

You looking to find the "Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology" Good news! You can purchase Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology with secure price and compare to view update price on this product. And deals on this product is available only for limited time.

   

Product Description

Berta and Sumich have succeeded yet again in creating superior marine reading! This book is a succinct yet comprehensive text devoted to the systematics, evolution, morphology, ecology, physiology, and behavior of marine mammals. The first edition, considered the leading text in the field, is required reading for all marine biologists concerned with marine mammals. Revisions include updates of citations, expansion of nearly every chapter and full color photographs. This title continues the tradition by fully expanding and updating nearly all chapters.

* Comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of the biology of all marine mammals
* Provides a phylogenetic framework that integrates phylogeny with behavior and ecology
* Features chapter summaries, further readings, an appendix, glossary and an extensive bibliography
* Exciting new color photographs and additional distribution maps

Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology Review

This book is a really great find. It goes through the evolution of cetaceans and pinnapeds. It uses some wild termanology but they are all defined for you. It covers every aspect of marine mammal evolution. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in whales and dolhpins or seals and sea lions.

Most of the consumer Reviews tell that the "Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology" are high quality item. You can read each testimony from consumers to find out cons and pros from Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology ...

Time, Space, Stars and Man: The Story of the Big Bang

You looking to find the "Time, Space, Stars and Man: The Story of the Big Bang" Good news! You can purchase Time, Space, Stars and Man: The Story of the Big Bang with secure price and compare to view update price on this product. And deals on this product is available only for limited time.

   

Product Description

Most well-read, but non-scientific, people will have heard of the term � Big Bang as a description of the origin of the Universe. They will recognize that DNA identifies individuals and will know that the origin of life is one of the great unsolved scientific mysteries. This book brings together all of that material. Starting with the creation of space and time known as the Big Bang � the book traces causally related steps through the formation of matter, of stars and planets, the Earth itself, the evolution of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, and then through to the beginnings of life and the evolution of man. The material is presented in such a way that a non-scientist can comprehend it, without using formulae or equations but still preserving the integrity of the involved science. This book does not solve the mysteries of what initiated the Big Bang or how life evolved from inanimate matter, but it does make clear the nature of those problems. The reader will be left with a sense of wonderment that he or she actually exists!

Time, Space, Stars and Man: The Story of the Big Bang Review

This is an amazing book that covers science from the Big Bang to the evolution of man in some 400 pages. Professor Woolfson does a wonderful job of accomplishing this difficult task and does it in a most entertaining way. A lot of science is introduced here but the story is so coherent that it makes it hard to stop reading. He begins with the Universe and discusses some of the tools we have developed to learn so much about something that we cannot touch nor do experiments on like scientist can do on things on Earth. A very nice coverage of the life cycles of stars and the evolution of star clusters and galaxies is included followed by a description of Solar System objects and their evolution and then a description of the evolution of life on Earth. The science is explained in a detailed but non-mathematical way and a lot of history of the people involved is included - such things as Giordano Bruno, who was burnt at the stake by the Church in 1600 for suggesting that there might be other planets in the Universe that might contain intelligent life. This is a fascinating read either for someone who is unfamiliar with the details of science or as a great review of how so many varied concepts are tied together to tell the story of who we are and where we reside in the cosmos. I found the coverage of genetics and Mendel's experiments with peas to be a most enlightening explanation of inheritance through genes and was presented in a way I had never seen before. Anyone with an interest in science is bound to find a lot to like in this book.

Most of the consumer Reviews tell that the "Time, Space, Stars and Man: The Story of the Big Bang" are high quality item. You can read each testimony from consumers to find out cons and pros from Time, Space, Stars and Man: The Story of the Big Bang ...

The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century

You looking to find the "The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century" Good news! You can purchase The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century with secure price and compare to view update price on this product. And deals on this product is available only for limited time.

   

Product Description

One of the most common criticisms of current U.S. security policy is that it lacks an overarching strategy, leading to a tendency to address problems and crises individually and in isolation as they arise. This study provides a broad description of the contemporary global security environment and an examination of U.S. security policy since the end of the Cold War. Traditional threats, such as those associated with major theater war, now coexist with newer nontraditional threats. The authors maintain that a sound strategy must support the ability of a country to hedge and adapt to a highly volatile security landscape. That, in turn, is accomplished through an executive level organizational mechanism to authoritatively integrate and execute a cogent national policy.

Understanding the key concepts of strategy and strategy formation is essential in order to place specific challenges ��such as global instability and state failure—in an appropriate strategic context. The contributors outline the conceptual guidance for a relevant strategy to deal with the myriad political, economic, informational, and deterrence threats and challenges generated in today's unstable, chaotic, violent, and ambiguous global security environment. Their conclusions are unequivocal. The United States must come to grips with the fundamentally transformed nature of security challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. To do so requires a significant change in how the country develops its security strategy and how the country is organized to plan and implement that strategy.

</p>

The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century Review

This book is a gem, and it is worth every penny, but it is a pity that it has not been priced for mass market because every U.S. citizen would benefit from reading this superb collection of chapters focused on how to keep America both safe and prosperous in a volatile world of super-empowered angry men, ethnic criminal gangs, mass migrations, epidemic disease, and water scarcity.President David Boren of the University of Oklahoma, himself a former Senator and former Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, provides a non-partisan foreword that clearly indicts both Democrats and Republicans for what he calls a "zig-zag" foreign policy that is guided by TV images and weekly polls, rather than any coherent and calculated evaluation of ends, ways, and means.Divided into three parts, the book first addresses the Global Security Environment (2 chapters), then discusses elements of a grand or total strategy (5 chapters), and concludes with a prescription (2 chapters). Every chapter is good.Chapter 1 by Richard Millet does an outstanding job of discussing the global security environment in terms that make it crystal clear that the highest probability threats are non-traditional threats, generally involving non-state actors in a failed state environment. These are not threats that can be addressed by a heavy metal military that is not trained, equipped, nor organized for humanitarian or constabulary operations. Among his most trenchant observations: America can not succeed when the local elites (e.g. Colombia) are not willing to pay the price for internal justice and stability; sometimes the costs of success can exceed the costs of failure (Afghanistan?); what America lacks today is any criteria by which to determine when to attempt coalition building and when to go it alone; the real threat is not any single government or non-state organization, but the millions of daily decisions (e.g. to buy cocaine or smuggle medicine) that incentivise crime and endless conflict.Chapter 2 by Robert Dorff dissects existing U.S. national security "strategy" and shows clearly, in a non-partisan manner, that the U.S. does not have a coherent inter-agency capability for agreeing on ends, ways, or means. He calls what we have now--both from the past under Clinton and in the present under Bush, "adhocery" and he makes the compelling point that our failure to have a coherent forward-looking strategy is costing the U.S. taxpayer both money and results.Chapters 3-7 are each little gems. In Chapter 3 Max Manwaring suggests that our existing assumptions about geopolitics and military power are obsolete, and we are in great danger if Americans cannot change their way of thinking about national security issues. He suggests five remedies, the most important of which is the establishment of a coherent inter-agency planning and operational control process for leveraging all sources of national power--political, diplomatic, economic, military, and informational--simultaneously and in balance. In Chapter 4 Edwin Corr and Max Manwaring offer a fine discourse on why legitimate governance around the world must be "the" end that we seek as a means of assuring American security and prosperity in the face of globalization. Chapter 5 by Leif Rosenberger addresses the economic threats inherent in globalization, including free flows of capital, concluding that fixed exchange rates divorce countries from reality, and that the US must sponsor a global early warning system dedicated to the financial arena. Chapter 5 by Dennis Rempe is good but too short. He clearly identifies information power as being the equal of diplomacy, economics, and military power, going so far as to suggest an "International Information Agency" that could eventually become a public good as well as an objective arbiter of "ground truth." I like this idea, in part because it is consistent with the ideas I set forth in NEW CRAFT, to wit that we need to migrate from secret intelligence intended for Presidents (who then manipulate that intelligence and lie to their people) toward public intelligence that can be discussed and understood by the people--this makes for sounder decisions. Chapter 7, again by Edwin Corr and Max Manwaring, discusses deterrence in terms of culture, motive, and effect--they are especially good in pointing out that traditional deterrence is irrelevant with suicidal martyrs, and that the best deterrence consists of the education of domestic publics about the realities of the post-Cold War world.The book concludes with 2 chapters, the first by Edwin Corr and Max Manwaring, who discuss how values (education, income, civic virtue) must be the foundation of the American security strategy. They then translate this into some specific "objectives" for overseas investments and influences by the U.S., and they conclude that the ultimate investment must be in better educating both domestic and international audiences. They recommend the legitimacy of all governments as a global objective; End-State Planning (ESP) as the way to get there; and a new focus on holistic and long-term programs rather than "adhocery" as the best way to manage scarce means. One can only speculate how differently Afghanistan and Iraq (and Haiti, now discarded for a decade) might have turned out if the US had rolled in with a Marshall Plan or Berlin Airlift equivalent the minute organized hostilities ceased. Robert Dorff closes the book by pointing out that state failure is not the root cause, but rather the symptom, and that the U.S. must intervene before a state fails, not after.I recommend this book, together with Colin Gray's "Modern Strategy" as essential reading for any national security professional. The publishers should consider issuing a more affordable paperback (books cost a penny a page to produce, perhaps a penny a page to market, so anything over $5 on this book is pure profit). This is a book, like Harry Summers on strategy, that should be available for $15 in paperback--if it were, I would buy 200 for my next conference. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews� Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | PermalinkComment Comment

Most of the consumer Reviews tell that the "The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century" are high quality item. You can read each testimony from consumers to find out cons and pros from The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century ...

Residential Lighting: A Practical Guide

You looking to find the "Residential Lighting: A Practical Guide" Good news! You can purchase Residential Lighting: A Practical Guide with secure price and compare to view update price on this product. And deals on this product is available only for limited time.

   

Product Description

Residential Lighting is the complete guide to illuminating single-family homes.

• Examines the "how" behind the art of residential lighting.
• Emphasizes use of "light layering"-using variety of lighting sources together.
• Features more illustrations, room-based design strategies, common lighting mistakes, and a larger color section.

Residential Lighting: A Practical Guide Review

I've read a few other lighting books over the years but found that Whitehead's approach is superior for creating moods in rooms. My wife and I prototype interiors in our home and the results from "A Practical Guide" have been outstanding. We move and change the lighting with temporary luminaires and various wattages to explore the various possibilities before using them in real designs for clients.

Beware - after buying into his concepts you will be frustrated by the lighting almost everywhere you go.

- jim

Most of the consumer Reviews tell that the "Residential Lighting: A Practical Guide" are high quality item. You can read each testimony from consumers to find out cons and pros from Residential Lighting: A Practical Guide ...

Making the Invisible Visible: How Companies Win with the Right Information, People and IT

You looking to find the "Making the Invisible Visible: How Companies Win with the Right Information, People and IT" Good news! You can purchase Making the Invisible Visible: How Companies Win with the Right Information, People and IT with secure price and compare to view update price on this product. And deals on this product is available only for limited time.

   

Product Description

This book presents a new way of seeing the business value of information, people and IT as well as a way of measuring and managing these capabilities in order to improve business performance. Packed with real-world examples, the book presents the best and worst practices companies have implemented to address these issues. Case studies from more than thirty international companies are strategically used throughout the book, including Banco Bilbao Vizcayo, Philips Business Electronics, Amazon, Dell Europe, Ernst Young, General Electric, IKEA, Ritz Carlton Hotels, and Wal Mart. This fascinating guide offers a diagnostic tool that senior managers can use to evaluate the three information capabilities of their company. Plus, the book provides hands-on management prescriptions on how to improve a company s information capabilities and how to use these capabilities in achieving business strategies and in the implementating change.
We are all experiencing an information overload, be it internal to the organization or due to external influences of our own information intensive society. Much has been written on how companies should "tame the beast of information" and make it work in the organization's favour. What has not yet been covered is how an organization can actually comprehensively measure whether or not they are using information effectively to achieve better business performance, or in other words, how senior managers within an organization can measure "Information Orientation".
Following a major 2 year global research project in conjunction with Andersen Consulting, the authors of this book have been able to demonstrate that when a company is high on IO it will be high on business performance. However, beyond just using IO as a diagnostic tool or a benchmark for the effective use of an organization's information, it can also predict the organization's business performance. Invariably, a company does not make the best use of available information. Having assessed why and where the failings are, this book will provide ways in which senior managers can actively manage the different elements of their Information Capabilities to improve the usage of information.
Information Capabilities are defined in three ways: 1. Information Behaviours/Values 2. Information Management Practices 3. Information Technology practices. It is the total interaction of these three elements and the effective management of them that permits superior business performance. IO Maturity can be gained, but the authors illustrate that it is an iterative process that grows and changes in line with a turbulent environment. Managers of a high IO company realize the need to continually refine and improve their information use and to keep learning more about their business. IO begins at the top. It takes more than authorizing an IT investment and training staff to use information. It calls for different behaviours, values and practices by senior managers. This book provides the means to move towards IO maturity. It is the step beyond Information Technology to actually managing information.
The aim of this book is to make a previously invisible dimension of business management visible. A manager, after reading this book, will be able to see, measure and manage the information resources, people and IT in the company and improve business performance.

Making the Invisible Visible: How Companies Win with the Right Information, People and IT Review

This is a book that I consider to be one of the most refreshing business texts that I've had the pleasure to read in a long time. It was something of an epiphany for me as concepts I had always instinctively known to exist and to be right were suddenly being detailed and consolidated in a way I have never had the vision to do, and in a way I have never read before.Time will tell, but the methodology presented here may just provide the hitherto missing link between what we pay for information and what we get from it. Remember that by the end of 2001, the US alone will have spent the lion's share of a trillion dollars on Information Technology, and though we may not like to admit it, much of that money will disappear down a black hole of failed projects and mis-used systems.If the case studies are anything to go by, the company that has the foresight to apply the principles of "Information Orientation" will not only offer itself the best chance of avoiding the IT gravity well, but will also be putting itself on track to derive the maximum possible value from its expenditure on information systems, in a way that will be measurable in the real business terms of growth, margin and bottom line. That's a claim I find pretty exciting and I'm looking forward to applying it in my own environment. The authors say it's no fad, and my gut feeling is to agree. I recommend you get a copy of this book before your competitors do! Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | PermalinkComment Comment

Most of the consumer Reviews tell that the "Making the Invisible Visible: How Companies Win with the Right Information, People and IT" are high quality item. You can read each testimony from consumers to find out cons and pros from Making the Invisible Visible: How Companies Win with the Right Information, People and IT ...