Customer Reviews:
Buy it & Read it........2007-06-15
If you are interested in history and/or New Orleans (is there a difference?), read this book. A very entertaining look at the history of the city.
Great history book.......2006-02-22
I am reading this for a class, but after that, I'm giving it to my mom to read. If you are into history at all, this is very interesting and easy to read.
Indispensable, funny, and fascinating history.......1999-03-05
Although I am a New Orleans native, I had no idea there was so much fascinating history behind the names of the streets. Chase is legendary, and his stories have the same amusing light bite of his political cartoons. Great reading, and you don't have to be familiar with the city to enjoy it.
Must reading for those who love New Orleans!.......1998-01-10
There's no place like New Orleans! John Churchill Chase eloquently chronicles the origins and development of this most fascinating of American cities in his humorous masterpiece "Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children."
Learn why the "French Quarter" isn't French (p. 58).
Learn why "Craps Street" was renamed "Burgundy Street" to save the reputation of three New Orleans churches (p. 85).
Learn why "Bourbon Street" wasn't named after "bourbon" whiskey (p. 19).
Learn why New Orleans was the scene of the first "American Revolution" (p. 55).
Learn the origins of the word "Creole" (p. 73), and why the Creoles considered the first American settlers in Louisiana "barbarians." (chapter 6).
"Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children" is fun, fascinating, and illustrated. It's must reading for those who love New Orleans!
Read it before your next New Orleans visit. It will greatly enhance your enjoyment and understanding of the "Big Easy."
David (the Nac) Naccari,
New Orleans Historian and Professional Speaker
Must reading for those who love New Orleans!.......1998-01-10
There's no place like New Orleans! John Churchill Chase eloquently chronicles the origins and development of this most fascinating of American cities in his humorous masterpiece "Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children."
Learn why the "French Quarter" isn't French (p. 58).
Learn why "Craps Street" was renamed "Burgundy Street" to save the reputation of three New Orleans churches (p. 85).
Learn why "Bourbon Street" wasn't named after "bourbon" whiskey (p. 19).
Learn why New Orleans was the scene of the first "American Revolution" (p. 55).
Learn the origins of the word "Creole" (p. 73), and why the Creoles considered the first American settlers in Louisiana "barbarians." (chapter 6).
"Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children" is fun, fascinating, and illustrated. It's must reading for those who love New Orleans!
Read it before your next New Orleans visit. It will greatly enhance your enjoyment and understanding of the "Big Easy."
David (the Nac) Naccari,
New Orleans Historian and Professional Speaker
Average customer rating:
- An extremely pretentious book
- Courtesy of Teens Read Too
- Idealistic Teen
- Must Teach YA Novel
- Sickeningly Boring
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The Gospel According to Larry
Janet Tashjian
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Writer's Choice Grammar and Composition Grade 9, Student Edition
ASIN: 0440237920
Release Date: 2003-05-13 |
Book Description
Josh Swensen is not your average 17-year-old. At the age of two, he was figuring out algebraic equations with colored magnetic numbers. He is a prodigy who only wants to make the world a better place. Josh’s wish comes true when his virtual alter ego, Larry, becomes a huge media sensation. Larry has his own Web site where he posts sermons on anti-consumerism and has a large following of adults and teens. Meanwhile, Larry’s identity is a mystery to everyone. While it seems as if the whole world is trying to figure out Larry’s true identity, Josh feels trapped inside his own creation. What will happen to the world, and to Larry, if he is exposed?
Customer Reviews:
An extremely pretentious book.......2007-09-21
Does anyone remember the 1990 movie, Pump Up the Volume? Here's a brief synopsis: The main character in the story is a quiet loner by day and a controversial DJ by night. He doesn't talk to anyone in his high school, yet his alter-ego is adored by peers who have no idea who he is, including an attractive girl who would otherwise not be interested. He uses information he finds through his father to expose the corrupt school system in his community, and eventually he becomes exposed himself and must face his infamy. He calls himself, "Hard Harry." Hmm, that kind of sounds like "Larry."
In other words, this story is not original. The main difference between the two, other than Harry uses a radio station and Larry uses a website, is Pump Up the Volume is actually a powerful story.
This book is not a teenage cult classic, but it tries to be. One thing that immediately bothered me about the book is the complete self-absorption of Josh/Larry. Usually main characters are supposed to be likeable, but he came across as someone I would prefer to avoid in real life. On one hand, he complains about being a loner, yet no one excludes him or is mean to him; he simply excludes himself and is mean to others. He hates the "jocks" and cheerleaders, yet he doesn't have any interactions with them throughout the story, so it is hard to buy that he is this righteous outsider. This isn't Heathers, to name another Christian Slater movie, where the top of the social food chain is presented as malicious; the "bad guys" in this book don't do anything bad, so I don't know why I'm supposed to hate them. The truth is Josh wants to be a loner, it is his identity. Making snap judgments about people he's never met and wouldn't bother getting to know compensates for the deep hollowness he feels.
Josh/Larry loves to remind you how intelligent he is (napiform means turnip-shaped, but you know that.) Yet his self-proclaimed brilliance is absent in his "sermons." Larry is angry about the wealth disparity in the world, but only knows how to present simple solutions to complex problems. We as consumers can make responsible decisions; we don't have to buy sneakers from a company who paid workers in Asia two cents an hour. But rolling all "materialism" into a category of evil and claiming we should stop buying so much "stuff" isn't going to change the world. It is very simple for a teenager who has been taken care of by his step-father for three years and has a place for him waiting at Princeton to take his comforts for granted and berate his culture. He may own only seventy-five possessions, but do the rest of his surroundings reflect this same meagerness? Although his house and neighborhood are never described, the fact that his step-father is a head honcho in the advertising agency and there is no mention of difficulty in funding Josh's future Ivy League education, I imagine his everyday living is a far cry from Walden's Pond.
The ending of this story shows just how self-righteous and egotistical Larry really is. His actions show complete disregard for the people who should be important in his life. His friend Beth, who uses a black-and-white morality as a smokescreen for her own feelings of superiority, seems to be the only person he likes, yet this doesn't stop him from hurting her.
I'm glad Larry isn't a real person. He takes himself far too seriously, leading the grandiosity of his "message" and self-congratulatory "contributions" to overwhelm the story.
Courtesy of Teens Read Too.......2007-07-04
Josh is a bored seventeen-year-old genius. That is just a recipe for disaster!
Just for something to do, he creates a website where he posts all of his rants about our celebrity-obsessed culture, anti-communism, and any other random thing that he thinks of. Josh names his site "The Gospel According To Larry" because that is the most unreligious name he could possibly think of. He's getting two or three hits a day, until some kids from his school find the page and he's soon getting a few hundred visitors a day to his website.
Then Bono, the lead singer of U2, finds Josh's site. And he mentions the site on national television.
Josh instantly begins getting millions of hits a day and everyone wants to know who Larry is.
Then betagold, a fan of Larry's, begins leaving comments on Josh's site about how he should just come out and tell everyone who Larry really is.
As things begin to spin out of control, Josh goes crazy! What will he do to save himself? Will he ever reveal that he's "Larry"?
This is a really funny book, because I can totally imagine something like this actually happening! Sometimes the middle is a little slow, but overall the book is a really great read!
Reviewed by: Taylor Rector
Idealistic Teen.......2007-04-23
Josh is an incredibly bright teenager who will do anything to keep himself busy. He was always into something as a child to keep his mind occupied. His mother was really good at helping him do that, but she died years ago, leaving Josh living with his stepfather, an advertising executive. Josh has an entirely different philosophy of life from his stepfather. Josh likes Thoreau and Emerson; he is into nature and wants the world to become less materialistic and more balanced.
In an attempt to make himself heard, Josh makes up an alter ego named Larry and begins posting sermons on the internet about consumerism and advertising. He rants about starving children in foreign coutries and about being overwhelmed by the media. At first only a few people are reading his sermons. But then all of a sudden Larry is a sensation, an anonymous prophet with millions of followers hanging on every word. For a young man who has always felt he wanted to make a positive impression on the world, the difference he is making is exhilirating in a way. But it is also a little scary. Josh treasures his privacy, but there are some people who don't think Larry should be anonymous anymore. They pressure him to reveal himself. If he doesn't, they threaten to revel him themselves, against his will.
I liked how the story was presented. I liked the first encounter with Josh and the overall style of the book, how it was typed and the asides that were included in the footnotes. I also liked the relationship Josh had with his stepfather, and the relationship he continued to have, and the conversations he had, with his dead mother. The ending of the story was also good, not an easy or happy wrap-up
Must Teach YA Novel.......2007-03-15
Operating on several levels - it can be both an enjoyable escapist read, a funny didactic rant, an allegory for pop culture icons, and a story with great characters dealing with friendship, morality, and parent-child relationships. Take your pick, because its all good. While making allusions to 1984 and Big Brother, it shows it is more relevant to our modern Western culture than 1984. The Gospel According to Larry confronts excessive consumerism and celebrity worship that are cultural realities that no American can escape. The story does not carry out consumerism or celebrity worship to the extreme by creating a dystopia so as to inspire fear of dangerous consequences or exaggerate the problems, but it does challenge the power of consumerism and celebrity worship through a series of online sermons by Larry. In a world of buy, buy, buy and glitz, glamour, glory, it's nice to have a counter-balancing philosophy of pragmatic conservation found in this book and its allusions to Henry David Thoreau.
The story even opens with a quotation from the Bible in a tongue-in-cheek admission of Larry's prophetic voice. Yes, the idea of sermons sounds boring or excessively didactic - but it works in this story because they are short, infrequent, often funny, and do make you go, hmm - you might have a point there. One such sermon ends, "Am I the only one who sees the irony of sitting in lit class reading 1984, having a discussion of Big Brother watching out for us like it's some time way in the future? Some science fiction nightmare that's never really going to happen? Hel-lo? Our lives couldn't be more dictated by the corporations if they gave our schools A/V equipment in exchange for making us watch commercials in class. Oh yeah, they do that already. Never mind."
But the sermons aren't the focus of the story; at heart, it is an allegory for pop culture icons and what happens to noble ideas in a media-oriented society. Through his online sermons, Larry becomes a pop culture icon - the very thing he detests. He conceals his identity to even his closest friends and family who do not know he is the author of this new, sweeping, cultural phenomenon. Bono, of U2 fame, espouses Larry's beliefs. Corporations protest against him. Larryfest, a Woodstock knockoff, occurs and Larry secretly attends. Larry even steals his father's advertising campaigns and uses their information against the companies. This presents a moral dilemma that is dealt with later. And all the while, Larry is struggling with telling his best friend, Beth, that he loves her. The allegory of pop culture icons is fully explored when Larry's identity is finally discovered. Media waits outside his house. Strangers claim to be his friend and get paid for exclusive interviews. People try to make a profit out of his anti-consumerism movement. And what happens to Larry, Beth, Larry's ideas, and his family? Well, that's worth reading the book for. There is a good twist at the end.
Topics include: shyness, moral choices such as whether the ends justifies the means, friendship, fame, consumerism, right to privacy, frugality, manipulation, celebrity worship, idealism, "experts" on television, the internet, suicide, and death of a parent. I am sure many boys will enjoy this story for the empowerment and fame an unknown boy develops. Girls might enjoy it because Beth is a very intelligent and well-rounded character that is easy to like. Sensitive and intelligent teenagers will latch onto this book like it is the gospel. Larry is a very sensitive and intelligent 17 year old. It is important not to hold him up as an example of righteous morality, because Larry is human and does make some very questionable decisions - especially at the end. But the author recognizes this in a series of discussion questions and a printed interview at the end of the book. I must also mention the novel uses pictures and footnotes for a powerful effect. This book is so rich that you can teach it based just on the relationship between Larry and Beth or upon Larry's sermons or upon allegory or importance of open communication or countless other aspects. You can also raise a good classroom debate over whether Larry is a static or dynamic character and whether, if he's a static character and this is an allegory, this means people never learn. For young readers wanting to experience more of Larry, the author is coming out with a second volume, "Larry for President."
But in the end, it's just a good read. Take what you want. The simple joy of its narrative. Or an in-depth look.
Enjoy.
Sickeningly Boring.......2006-07-12
This book is very overrated and should not be purchased by anyone wishing to call themselves smart book chosers. It is writen less as a novel but more as a book of rants. The author obviously has no clue what teenagers do these days. Josh nerd to the nth degree. In his free time he made a website called the gospel according to larry. He puts complaints about society and economy entitled "Sermon # __" His one and only friend adores the site and Josh adores her. Josh is Larry and uses the site to manipulate her into thinking about useless stuff his way. He then gets discovered by Bono and his site skyrockets. Then some old lady reveals Josh quite literally by magic. He then loses his friends, family and fame in less than one week. A "glitch" here is that the media loves him, and he has become what he despised through his own preaching about it. Ironic, isn't it? So aside from an uninteresting plot, told by a wannabe Thoreau on a top of nothing but complaints, it's not bad. Read this if you have run out of junkmail.
Book Description
A bible study guide through the book of Mark
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Horn Book Magazine, published by Horn Book, Inc. on January 1, 2002. The length of the article is 307 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Gospel According to Larry. (Fiction).(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
Author: Jennifer M. Brabander
Publication:
The Horn Book Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2002
Publisher: Horn Book, Inc.
Volume: 78
Issue: 1
Page: 84(2)
Article Type: Book Review, Young Adult Review, Brief Article
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
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Gospel According to Larry
Janet Tashjian
Manufacturer: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
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Customer Reviews:
the best book.......2004-06-27
i loved this book, i could not put it down. larry i have to hand it to you. this book will never stop, till the end and you are all wys gessing till the end.
Amazon.com
For most laypersons, Darwin's theory of evolution equals survival of the fittest, with one species gaining ascendancy over another in nature's brutal war of attrition. For most biologists, however, evolution is far more complicated. Advanced studies in genetics have given rise to the theory of evolution on a genetic scale, with "selfish genes" battling for supremacy within organisms. Taken to its most extreme, species themselves become almost incidental to the genetic warfare that rages within them. Other biologists take a less narrow view of evolution, believing that many factors--both genetic and environmental--affect how an organism evolves; in Lifelines: Biology Beyond Determinism, author Steven Rose comes firmly down on this side of the argument.
Rose, a biochemist, specializes in how memory works, and his book includes some fascinating information about the influence of chemistry in the development of our bodies. So delicate is the balance of DNA chemistry and environment, in fact, that Rose finds the periodic announcements that scientists have "found" a gene responsible for sexual orientation or criminal behavior, for example, to be outrageous and downright dangerous. Simple answers to complicated processes worry him, which may be why he strenuously attacks the genetics-as-destiny stance championed by such well-known scientists as Richard Dawkins.
Book Description
Reductionism--understanding complex processes by breaking them into simpler elements--dominates scientific thinking around the world and has certainly proved a powerful tool, leading to major discoveries in every field of science. But reductionism can be taken too far, especially in the life sciences, where sociobiological thinking has bordered on biological determinism. Thus popular science writers such as Richard Dawkins, author of the highly influential The Selfish Gene, can write that human beings are just "robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes." Indeed, for many in science, genes have become the fundamental unit for understanding human existence: genes determine every aspect of our lives, from personal success to existential despair: genes for health and illness, genes for criminality, violence, and sexual orientation. Others would say that this is reductionism with a vengeance. In Lifelines, biologist Steven Rose offers a powerful alternative to the ultradarwinist claims of Dawkins, E.O. Wilson, Daniel Dennett and others. Rose argues against an extreme reductionist approach that would make the gene the key to understanding human nature, in favor of a more complex and richer vision of life. He urges instead that we focus on the organism and in particular on the organism's lifeline: the trajectory it takes through time and space. Our personal lifeline, Rose points out, is unique--even identical twins, with identical genes at birth, will differ over time. These differences are obviously not embedded in our genes, but come about through our developmental trajectory in which genes, as part of the biochemical orchestra of trillions of cells in each human body, have an important part--but only a part--to play. To illustrate this idea, Rose examines recent research in modern biology, and especially two disciplines--genetics (which looks at the impact of genes on form) and developmental biology (which examines the interaction between the organism and the environment)--and he explores new ideas on biological complexity proposed by scientists such as Stuart Kauffman. He shows how our lifelines are constructed through the interplay of physical forces--such as the intrinsic chemistry of lipids and proteins, and the self-organizing and stabilizing properties of complex metabolic webs--and he reaches a startling conclusion: that organisms are active players in their own fate, not simply the playthings of the gods, nature, or the inevitable workings out of gene-driven natural selection. The organism is both the weaver and the pattern it weaves. Lifelines will be a rallying point for all who seek an alternative to the currently fashionable, deeply determinist accounts which dominate popular science writing and, in fact, crowd the pages of some of the major scientific journals. Based on solid, state-of-the-art research, it not only makes important contributions to our understanding of Darwin and natural selection, but will swing the pendulum back to a richer, more complex view of human nature and of life.
Customer Reviews:
An Argument for Complexity.......2007-02-26
There has been a general argument going on for several years in biology over deterministic reductionism (as exemplified by sociobiology and evolutionary psychology) and its implications (actually the restarting of an argument that has flared up every so often over the last few hundred years at least!) Unfortunately almost all of the participants are given to overstatement and polemical diatribes when deriding their opponents (an unfortunate human habit, perhaps adaptive in providing the derider with more progeny?}
Steven Rose, a Professor of Biology at Britain's Open University, jumped into this debate in 1998 with his "Lifelines", which I have just gotten around to reading. The first part in indeed very engaging. In fact I pretty much agree with both Rose and Ernst Mayr ("Toward a New Philosophy of Biology") that reduction of an organism to the level of molecules only tells part of the story. Indeed, James Watson's view that "there is only one science, physics: everything else is social work" and his insistence that organismic biology was a waste of time stimulated E. O. Wilson to develop sociobiology in order to save some part of organismic biology at Harvard!
Rose goes on to expand on Theodosius Dobzhansky's thought that "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" by adding both the history of the earth and the history of biological thought as well, a grouping of which I heartily approve. If you do not understand how we got to this point in the scientific dialog, you really cannot understand the debate!
An example of one contentious argument developed in this book is that of the effects of sexual selection on human reproductive success. Rose's point (in chapter seven) that rich men are not automatically reproductively successful is not without foundation, but must also be compared to the success in this area by very rich men such as Kings and Sultans, who were successful enough to get large harems and thus produce large numbers of offspring. It simply may not work as well today because rich men are not as often allowed the luxury of obtaining a huge number of wives (but see the Sultan of Brunei!) Many modern rich men may have substituted money for sex as their main preoccupation! However, from a purely genetic point of view, at least some rich men may be unfit to produce viable progeny. Also social custom, such as the killing of siblings as possible rivals (as was notorious in the Ottoman Empire) and female infanticide (common in China and India) can mitigate that success. Finally wealth does not guarantee successful child rearing! It might also be noted that in most countries large families often were poor ones! Poor people needed more hands to do the work and might have 20 children by one or more wives! On top of everything else, we have no idea how humans behaved in the Pleistocene! Behavior is not fossilized! As usual things are more complicated then we might think, whatever the "apparent" tendency!
Unfortunately, Rose starts to use the term ultra-Darwinist in Chapter eight. While his points are well taken, I do wish that both sides of this essentially unprovable argument would cease and desist in their name-calling. Such tactics remind me of creationists' characterizing of all evolutionists as Satan-loving, God-hating, moral relativists who have no scruples and are trying to ruin our society! Because of the use of "ultra-Darwinist" I dropped Rose's book to four stars.
As a field biologist I have always been impressed with the complexity of ecosystems and organisms. I also like solid data for every claim in a theory, if at all possible. I sometimes think that these preferences are what separates those who believe in the complexity of nature and those who seem to require a simple system that can be easily understood! Rose has said essentially "It's not that simple," and I am inclined to agree, although I also understand the need to try and model nature to make it more understandable. Let's just not confuse the model or the hypothesis for the real thing!
An engaging book to read, along with those of Gould, Dennett, Mayr, Dawkins, and Wilson. However, I would take no one's word that the final definitive book has been writen on the subject!
Complexity replaces reductionism.......2006-11-14
First, I note that most of the other people who wrote a review of this book are unsympathetic. Several note that--unlike Dawkins--Rose does not fill his book with a myriad of examples drawn from biology as does Dawkins. However, Rose is not a biologist. Rather he is a biochemist whose specialty is the biochemistry of memory in the brain. And to give Rose credit he does introduce a number of notions from biochemistry. Second, if this book had been written in the latter half of the nineteenth century I would dare hazard that it would have been titled: A Treatise on Philosophical Biology. I don't know how many people have actually read his book, but I would wager that with such a formidable title fewer still would have been enticed to read it. If I had written this book, I might have called it The Complexity of Life Trajectories, but Lifelines is mercifully brief and non-threatening. It would be interesting if we knew what potential titles flitted through Rose's mind (brain) while he was composing the book.
Given this, what is Rose's chief aim in the book? I think he is anxious to distinguish several forms of reductionism, particularly methodological reductionism from philosophical reductionism. Has reductionism been successful as the dominant methodology for science in the past three-and-a-half centuries? Even Rose admits that it has been spectacularly successful. Breaking things down into their constituent parts and carefully isolating a variable and investigating its effect by changing it under carefully controlled conditions has enabled humans to achieve success after success in mastering and controlling the physical world. In addition, this methodology is very amenable to mathematical treatment. Reductionism does work and under the right conditions it works exceedingly well indeed.
Rose's concern, and it is a paramount concern, is when methodological reductionism (a very good practice for working scientists) ends up as philosophical reductionism. He points out that once you start down the slippery slope of philosophical reductionism, you will ultimately end in the belief that the entire universe, all the one hundred billion or so galaxies each having billions of stars, and all human beings who have ever lived, are living now, and who will ever live, who we are--are desires, drives, loves, hates, you name it--can ultimately be explainable by one master equation--the holy grail of reductionist physics--the so-called theory of everything, which Rose reduces to its ultimate risible acronym, TOE.
This proposition is so patently ridiculous as to be a howler of the first magnitude, but plenty of people exist who believe it. Stopping at biological reductionism, all human beings--and all life on Earth--are reduced to nothing but their genes, conceived of as atom-like entities. Then when the master equation of gene interactions is worked out, this will thus explain once and forever all human behavior. This idea is again so patently ridiculous as to be a howler of the first magnitude. However, lots of people believe this proposition also, and Rose mentions some of them explicitly by name: J. Watson, R. Dawkins, D. Dennett, E.O. Wilson, to name a few, and even L. Pauling, who ought to have known better.
The idea that a person can be wholly explicable by one's genes alone can easily lead to a type of genetic racism. One reason why biological reductionism is very appealing is that it gives an easy answer to human behavior. That is, it reduces the complexity to a simple solution, and oh do we humans love simple solutions. Remember Adolf Hitler? He was a master of the simple solution. His simple solutions resulted in the needless and brutal deaths of millions. If I recorded some of the more recent simple solutions I've heard bandied about, I wouldn't be able to post this review.
If biological reductionism is correct, then how a person behaves lies solely in her/his genes. Don't like the behavior? Well, just eliminate the person who has the "bad" genes or engineer the bad genes out, and presumably that solves the problem. A reviewer commented that we humans can now see past the bad old eugenics movement. Well, I'll say this. I would hazard a guess that no one in Germany in 1913 would have thought in their wildest dreams that within twenty years Germany would be completely taken over by a group of people who would push the eugenics movement to its ultimate extreme in the Holocaust, which incidentally killed off lots of people besides Jews. It can most certainly happen again, and if you think it can't, then you're very naïve.
Several people have also noted that Rose's book is very short on a methodological approach that goes beyond reductionism without falling into antiscientific, New Age mysticism or religious creationism and ID nonsense, all of which Rose explicitly repudiates. In short, is reductionism the only way to approach natural phenomena? Here is where complexity enters the picture. This approach is quite new, stemming from the late 1960s to the present. A period of merely fifty years. Even now it isn't clear how research will proceed with this concept. Complexity theory involves nonlinear mathematics, and anyone who has ever played around with math knows that nonlinear equations don't have exact solutions and make a set of linear equations look like child's play.
It seems highly likely that the only way to proceed mathematically with complexity theory will be with novel developments in computer science. Rose doesn't develop the methodology of complexity theory very well in his book since very little has been developed. However, it seems clear that the path to understanding complex systems such as living forms, the human brain, human society, living things in ecological communities and possibly some astronomical phenomena such as the organizations of galaxies will proceed through complexity theory. I haven't read Rose's revised edition (2006), so perhaps he addresses this serious flaw in this new edition. Nevertheless, I give this book five stars for its provocative ideas and a different way of thinking about biological phenomena and the complexity of life trajectories of all living things on this planet.
Excellent book.......2005-12-11
I found this book an enlightening book of biology and the current reductionistic philosophy now in vogue. Includes an interesting study of the history of science and its paradigms. Here's a quote:
Being and becoming
Living organisms exist in four dimensions, the three of space and one of time, and cannot be 'read off' from the single dimension that constitutes the strand of DNA. Organisms are not empty phenotypes, related one-to-one to particular patterns of genes. Our lives form a developmental trajectory, or lifeline, stabilized by the operation of homeodynamic principles. This trajectory is not determined by our genes, nor partitioned into neatly dichotomous categories called nature and nurture. Rather, it is an autopoietic process, shaped by the interplay of specificity and plasticity. In so far as any aspect of life can be said to be 'in the genes', our genes provide the capacity for both specificity -- a lifeline relatively impervious to developmental and environmental buffeting -- and plasticity -- the ability to respond appropriately to unpredictable environmental contingency, that is, to experience. This autopoletic interplay is in some senses captured by that old paradox of Xeno -- the arrow shot at a target, which at any instant of time must be both somewhere and in transit to somewhere else. Reductionism ignores the paradox and freezes life at a moment of time. In attempting to capture its being, it loses its becoming, turning processes into reified objects. This is why reductionism always ends by impaling itself on a mythical dichotomy of materialist determinism and non-material free-will. Autopoiesis, self-construction, resolves these paradoxes. (p. 306)
Nature v. Nuture in Genetic Research.......2005-05-10
The word that comes to mind in describing this book is `quandary'. As a non-scientist, with a background in nursing, I found the read both challenging and interesting. In fact, I wrote many marginal notes, generally reserved for books that capture my enthusiasm. I was fascinated by Rose's attention to the history of genetic research and appreciated his seemingly unique view on `nature vs. nurture'. I must admit that in this debate I am an ardent `nature' advocate myself. He, however, was able to convince me of suspending my judgment, at least temporarily, in appreciation of his line of reasoning. He supports his view of freedom of choice in relation to genetic predisposition with theories on the influence of the environment as well as genetics in determining behavior. He uses the analogy of life as a trajectory, or vector, from birth to death made up of inherent genetic predisposition in juxtaposition with the interplay of individuals and the events and circumstances that make up their day-to-day lives. People are able to alter the direction of their life vector, in his view, through the decisions that guide their actions as well as their overall developmental and genetic predisposition toward a particular course of action. He debates the scientific theories of reductionism and determinism in supporting his claim of free-will over destiny and artfully crosses the line between philosophy and objectivism in drawing the reader into his line of reasoning.
While Rose stimulated my thinking and educated me on scientific history, hegemony and recent developments in genetics, I found his theoretical basis weak, his ability to draw together his argument on the basis of research somewhat scattered and his argument confusing. I'm left wanting to know more of what this author thinks, however, due to his creative and at times witty approach to genetic research and to those scientists influencing efforts on its behalf. The book is worth reading and I look forward to its sequel.
A doctrinaire view of biology.......2005-01-07
Most books that set out to explain why organisms behave as they do describe observations of behaviour on almost every page. The books of Richard Dawkins, whom Rose selects as his special target, illustrate this well: readers can reject all of his interpretations while remaining fascinated by the purely factual information that they contain. How one can hope to convince anyone of the truth of a theory without supporting it with abundant facts? Yet hard biological information is extremely sparse in Rose's book. There is a great deal about what he thinks of other biologists' opinions, but almost no observations from behavioural biology. Nonetheless, in his preface he aligns himself with the practising biologists "who spend a significant part of every working day thinking about and designing experiments", dismissing Dawkins and Daniel Dennett as "people who either no longer do science or never did it." What a pity, therefore, that he chose to include so little of the experimental basis of his ideas in his book. There are a few vague remarks about how chicks behave, and that's about it.
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Modern Organic Elemental Analysis
T. S. Ma , and
R. C. Rittner
Manufacturer: Marcel Dekker Inc
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ASIN: 0824767861 |
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Modelling Methods for Energy in Buildings
C. P. Underwood , and
Francis Yik
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
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Binding: Hardcover
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All Titles
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ASIN: 0632059362 |
Book Description
Climate change mitigation and sustainable practices are now at the top of political and technical agendas. Environmental system modelling provides a way of appraising options and this book will make a significant contribution to the uptake of such systems. It provides knowledge of the principles involved in modelling systems, builds confidence amongst designers and offers a broad perspective of the potential of these new technologies.The aim of the book is to provide an understanding of the concepts and principles behind predictive modelling methods; review progress in the development of the modelling software available; and explore modelling in building design through international case studies based on real design problems.
Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Energy & Buildings, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Description:
In order to cool a room with a cold night air phase change material, PCM, is stored in an air heat exchanger. During night the PCM crystallises, energy is released. During daytime air is circulated in the unit, energy is absorbed and the indoor air is cooled. The characteristic of PCM is that there is an increase of the specific heat over a limited temperature span. This is the principle that is used in the design of the PCM air heat exchanger unit. The action of a PCM storage unit will act differently depending of the thermal properties of the material. In an ideal material the phase transition occurs at a given temperature. On the market, compounds containing PCM are available which, in order to create a suitable melting temperature, are mixtures of different products. In these materials, the transition from liquid to solid takes place over a temperature span, i.e. the specific heat varies with the temperature. This can be represented by a c"P(T) curve, specific heat as a function of the temperature. In this paper, the development of a mathematical model of the PCM air heat exchanger is presented. Considerations are taken to different shapes of the c"P(T) curve. The mathematical model is verified with measurement on a prototype heat exchanger. The development of the equipment is part of the CRAFT project Changeable Thermal Inertia Dry Enclosures (C-TIDE) the possibility of use of phase change materials integrated into a building is explored.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Architectural Science Review, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2007. The length of the article is 6956 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Removing unwanted heat in lightweight buildings using phase change materials in building components: simulation modelling for PCM plasterboard.(phase change materials)(Report)
Author: Christopher Kendrick
Publication:
Architectural Science Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 50
Issue: 3
Page: 265(9)
Article Type: Report
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Tarry Flynn
Patrick Kavanagh
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Canada, Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0140181164 |
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- Triumph in tone, style
- Home Grown Passions
- tarry flynn's satiric novel
|
Tarry Flynn: A novel
Patrick Kavanagh
Manufacturer: Martin Brian and O'Keeffe Ltd
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Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0856160806 |
Customer Reviews:
Triumph in tone, style.......2004-12-20
Not much really happens in the novel, and for a young American reader like myself a lot of work has to be done to recapture the moments in the story. That being said, I think the novel a resounding success for its humor and its style, and its capturing of the struggle of the poet to be born. It's sort of a poor man's Portrait of the Artist (Kavanagh himself was a big fan of Ulysses), but with more heart and less of a savage wit (contrast Tarry's mother with Dedalus' mother).
The poem at the end and the awkward interactions between Tarry and the women in the book are alone worth the price of admission.
Home Grown Passions.......2003-12-22
In this novel, Kavanagh manages to recreate Monaghan life superbly. And for me, now living away from Monaghan, it has often provided a welcome return. A fantastic insight into a lifestyle only recently gone by.
tarry flynn's satiric novel.......2002-05-15
Despite its disappointing ending and despite its flawed, episodic structure, Kavanagh's novel is enjoyable reading for someone who is looking for a prose equivalent of his poem "The Great Hunger." This comedy of country manners points its satiric barbs both inward at Tarry Flynn and outward at his family and his country neighbors. The novel makes of country life matter worth considering--as Kavanagh argues in his poem "Epic"--and matter worth ridiculing. This ambivalence may be a flaw for one seeking unity of tone, but for me the ambivalence became charming ambiguity.
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Tarry Flynn: A Play In 3 Acts Based On The Novel By Patrick Kav
Peter Fallon
Manufacturer: Gallery Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Irish
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ASIN: 1852353767 |
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Tarry Flynn: Play In 3 Acts Based On The Novel By Patrick Kavan
Peter Fallon
Manufacturer: Gallery Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Irish
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ASIN: 1852353775 |
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TARRY FLYNN
Kavanagh Patrick
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJG6W8 |
Average customer rating:
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Tarry Flynn
Patrick Kavanagh
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Canada, Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OIYY50 |
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- Regions at Risk: Comparisons of Threatened Environments (Unu Studies on Critical Environmental Regions)
- Route Maps In Gene Technolgy
- Sea Room: An Island Life in the Hebrides
- Seashore Life of Puget Sound, The Strait of Georgia and the San Juan Archipelago
- Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict (Second Edition)
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![Mathematical modelling of PCM air heat exchanger [An article from: Energy & Buildings]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/214342FD19L.jpg)
