The author of the breakout hit Here Comes Everybody reveals how new technology is changing us from consumers to collaborators, unleashing a torrent of creative production that will transform our world. For decades, technology encouraged people to squander their time and intellect as passive consumers. Today, tech has finally caught up with human potential. In Cognitive Surplus, Internet guru Clay Shirky forecasts the thrilling changes we will all enjoy as new digital technology puts our untapped resources of talent and goodwill to use at last. Since we Americans were suburbanized and educated by the postwar boom, we've had a surfeit of intellect, energy, and time-what Shirky calls a cognitive surplus. But this abundance had little impact on the common good because television consumed the lion's share of it-and we consume TV passively, in isolation from one another. Now, for the first time, people are embracing new media that allow us to pool our efforts at vanishingly low cost. The results of this aggregated effort range from mind expanding-reference tools like Wikipedia-to lifesaving-such as Ushahidi.com, which has allowed Kenyans to sidestep government censorship and report on acts of violence in real time. Shirky argues persuasively that this cognitive surplus-rather than being some strange new departure from normal behavior-actually returns our society to forms of collaboration that were natural to us up through the early twentieth century. He also charts the vast effects that our cognitive surplus- aided by new technologies-will have on twenty-first-century society, and how we can best exploit those effects. Shirky envisions an era of lower creative quality on average but greater innovation, an increase in transparency in all areas of society, and a dramatic rise in productivity that will transform our civilization. The potential impact of cognitive surplus is enormous. As Shirky points out, Wikipedia was built out of roughly 1 percent of the man-hours that Americans spend watching TV every year. Wikipedia and other current products of cognitive surplus are only the iceberg's tip. Shirky shows how society and our daily lives will be improved dramatically as we learn to exploit our goodwill and free time like never before. Watch a Video
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Lots of people have gotten very excited about this book and its sequels. It succeeds at telling the amazing story of the universe and the creation of Earth with scientific accuracy but without diminishing the mystery and wonder. The three books together tell OUR STORY. As cosmologist and author Dr. Brian Swimme said: In the magic of this story . . . suddenly, we have the feeling that we BELONG. The second book is From Lava to Life: The Universe Tells Our Earth Story. The final book is Mammals Who Morph: The Universe Tells Our Evolution Story.
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From the ancient conquest of fire and the first turn of a wheel to the latest in scientific leaps toward the stars, this easy-access history offers a panoramic perspective on humankindâs restless quest for the laws, theories, and tools by which we can grasp and master our universe.This concise, concentrated, consistently organized look at our speciesâ key scientific and innovative achievements spans all human history, presenting ten distinct eras from the first glimmers of intelligence to the cutting-edge technologies of the modern world. Within these intuitive divisions, all human scientific endeavors and achievement are divided into four general fields of inquiry and arrayed into four basic geocultural regions for easy comparison in a logical, systematic grid format highlighted by 350 photographs, maps, illustrations, and diagrams that add graphic emphasis to key information. Special two-page feature spreads explore the most revolutionary developments in greater depth; compelling, expertly composed essays and memorable quotations add sparkle; and informative sidebars provide specifically focused items of information about particular inventions, ideas, or themes. Completing this comprehensive approach, an extensive glossary explains unfamiliar terms, and a detailed index makes it a simple matter to follow a particular field or process from its origin through its complete cross-cultural evolution. This is a reference as usefully accessible as it is inherently fascinating.
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Larson IS student success. INTERMEDIATE ALGEBRA owes its success to the hallmark features for which the Larson team is known: learning by example, a straightforward and accessible writing style, emphasis on visualization through the use of graphs to reinforce algebraic and numeric solutions and to interpret data, and comprehensive exercise sets. These pedagogical features are carefully coordinated to ensure that students are better able to make connections between mathematical concepts and understand the content. With a bright, appealing design, the new Fifth Edition builds on the Larson tradition of guided learning by incorporating a comprehensive range of student success materials to help develop students' proficiency and conceptual understanding of algebra. The text also continues coverage and integration of geometry in examples and exercises.
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Now in its second edition, this bestselling textbook may be the single most influential study of the historical relationship between science and technology ever published. Tracing this relationship from the dawn of civilization through the twentieth century, James E. McClellan III and Harold Dorn argue that technology as "applied science" emerged relatively recently, as industry and governments began funding scientific research that would lead directly to new or improved technologies. McClellan and Dorn identify two great scientific traditions: the useful sciences, patronized by the state from the dawn of civilization, and scientific theorizing, initiated by the ancient Greeks. They find that scientific traditions took root in China, India, and Central and South America, as well as in a series of Near Eastern empires, during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. From this comparative perspective, the authors explore the emergence of Europe and the United States as a scientific and technological power. The new edition reorganizes its treatment of Greek science and significantly expands its coverage of industrial civilization and contemporary science and technology with new and revised chapters devoted to applied science, the sociology and economics of science, globalization, and the technological systems that underpin everyday life.
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The essential guide to blending safety and health with economical engineeringOver time, the role of the engineer has evolved into a complex combination of duties and responsibilities. Modern engineers are required not only to create products and environments, but to make them safe and economical as well. Safety and Health for Engineers, Second Edition is a comprehensive guide that helps engineers reconcile safety and economic concerns using the latest cost-effective methods of ensuring safety in all facets of their work. It addresses the fundamentals of safety, legal aspects, hazard recognition, the human element of safety, and techniques for managing safety in engineering decisions. Like its successful predecessor, this Second Edition contains a broad range of topics and examples, detailed references to information and standards, real-world application exercises, and a significant bibliography of books for each chapter.Inside this indispensable resource, you'll find:* The duties and legal responsibilities for which engineers are accountable* Updated safety laws and regulations and their enforcement agencies* An in-depth study of hazards and their control* A thorough discussion of human behavior, capabilities, and limitations* Key instruction on managing safety and health through risk management, safety analyses, and safety plans and programsAdditionally, Safety and Health for Engineers includes the latest legal considerations, new risk analysis methods, system safety and decision-making tools, and today's concepts and methods in ergonomic design. It also contains revised reference figures and tables, OSHA permissible exposure limits, and updated examples and exercises taken from real cases that challenged engineering designs. Written for engineers, plant managers, safety professionals, and students, Safety and Health for Engineers, Second Edition provides the information and tools you need to unite health and safety with economical engineering for safer technological solutions.
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In the sixteenth century, one of the world's most precious commodities was cochineal, a legendary red dye treasured by the ancient Mexicans and sold in the great Aztec marketplaces, where it attracted the attention of the Spanish conquistadors. Shipped to Europe, the dye created a sensation, producing the brightest, strongest red the world had ever seen. Soon Spain's cochineal monopoly was worth a fortune. As the English, French, Dutch, and other Europeans joined the chase for cochineal -- a chase that lasted for more than three centuries -- a tale of pirates, explorers, alchemists, scientists, and spies unfolds. A Perfect Red evokes with style and verve this history of a grand obsession, of intrigue, empire, and adventure in pursuit of the most desirable color on earth.
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An amazing dream convinces Amanda Bean of the powers of multiplication.Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream, a Brainy Day® book, is used in Teaching Arithmetic: Lessons for Introducing Multiplication, Grade 3.by Cindy Neuschwander
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From the author of the national bestseller Chaos comes an outstanding biography of one of the most dazzling and flamboyant scientists of the 20th century that "not only paints a highly attractive portrait of Feynman but also . . . makes for a stimulating adventure in the annals of science" (The New York Times). 16 pages of photos.
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Ms. Frizzle and her class visit the Hugh Mann Costume Company to learn all about skeletons: why we need them, what different bones are for, how doctors fix them when they're broken, and lots more. Ages 4-8 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.3
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