Professions Accounting: A Business Simula

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Embarrassed to be an Xer

good take on generation x

Baby Boomer Thinking Is Jolted

Dangerously Accurate

On the Mark

Managing Generation X: How to Bring Out the Best in Young Talent
Bruce Tulgan
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Managing Generation Y

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ASIN: 0393320758

Book Description

This bestseller stresses a practical approach to managing Gen Xers in the workplace, including giving them the freedom to succeed.

Customer Reviews:

Embarrassed to be an Xer.......2001-07-18

I am a "member" of Generation X. I was very optimistic about reading this book, but after reading the first half I am now extremely embarrassed to make that statement. What a frustrating book! I found myself rolling my eyes and groaning in disgust as I read how Generation X is picked on by the evil (and obviously clueless) Baby Boomers. A consistent underlying message in this book was "Xers will do a good job as long as we get what we want, when we want it, and how we want it, otherwise we just won't bother to make the effort because obviously we aren't appreciated. I'm sorry, Bruce, but the Xers needs for autonomy, credit for the results they produce, opportunities for creative expression, and the ability to learn and grow (to list only a few examples) is something all professionals need to flourish. I don't think it really matters what year we are born. Your constant whining that "Nobody understands us!" is insulting to Xers that are able to work and adapt within an environment that encompasses three almost four generations. If Xers are so adaptable and we are so great at solving problems on our own why the need for this book? If Xers are so creative and innovative won't we figure out a way to work within the current market and still be able to "think outside the box?" Bruce, this book is over 200 pages of you tooting your own horn and trying to convince us that you have stumbled upon a revolutionary method of management. I laughed out loud when I read your statement that "you were struck by the fact that more senior lawyers in your firm (your first job after law school and the bar exam) didn't have a clue about how to manage people your age." And you wonder where people get the idea that Generation X is arrogant. Maybe that's just what they told you.

good take on generation x.......2000-12-30

While I believe Tulgan spends too much time bashing baby boomers, his assessment of how to market to generation x is quite good. When he focuses on the needs of this market segment and what it wants, there are good insights into how to manage them in the workplace.

Baby Boomer Thinking Is Jolted.......2000-11-17

As a baby boomer, I found this book exceptionally insightful and grounded in real world research. Since I manage many GenXers, every page turning example jolted my thinking. I now have a better understanding of how to attract and retain the GenX employee. Thanks, Bruce Tulgan for the wake-up call!

Dangerously Accurate.......2000-11-04

I am about as much of a GenXer as can possibly be being born in 1970. For my entire life I saw a great deal of things as "off key", such as the broken homes, the druggies, and being mistreated by many of the Boomers in the workplace. This book proved to me that it was not just my little world, but an actual issue. Bruce disarms the sterotypes of GenXers extremely well. This is a must read for anyone, Xer or Boomer, to successfully manage the most driven and innovative generation in American history.

On the Mark.......2000-10-30

I have a habit of highlighting as I read, and this book has more yellow in it than any of my others! As an Xer (former military officer and now clergy), I saw myself on just about every page. Tulgan offers many excellent insights into the formation of our generation and how we are best approached. He also offers some truths that are true for GenX, but not necessarily unique to GenX. The first half of my book has more yellow in it than the last half, in which Tulgan begins to restate himself. Nevertheless, this book is worth the price of admission and is a must read for all managers.

Book Description

There are as many different kinds of stars as there are stars themselves. Each an individual, every one unique. In this arresting and lavishly illustrated volume, noted astronomy writer and teacher Jim Kaler choose 100 stars to illustrate the mind-boggling variety of the stars' shapes and sizes, their immense ages, and the vast range of configurations in which they exist.||From AG Draconis to Z Andromedae, this alphabetically arranged volume first lists each star's resident constellation, its class, its apparent brightness as viewed from Earth, its distance from our Sun, and its visual luminosity. Then the real story begins. In choosing his "top 100," Kaler has aimed not just at providing a representative sample of the Universe's extraordinarily diverse population, but at capturing their complexity, their dynamism, and the amazing view they provide into the extraordinary physical forces at play in the Universe.||James B. Kaler is Professor of Astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has held both Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, and has been awarded medals for his work from the University of Liege (Belgium) and the University of Mexico. He is the author of six books and dozens of articles on astronomy, including The Little Book of Stars (Copernicus Books, 2000) and lectures frequently. He also directs and maintains several educational websites, including the highly regarded and award-winning "Stars of the Week" site at the University of Illinois: http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/sow.html.||Reviews:||¿Most people know about Sirius, Canopus and Antares, but not everyone will be familiar with EG 129, HZ 21 and Polaris Australis, the dim star close to the south pole of the sky. Enter The Hundred Greatest Stars by James Kaler...Following a very clear general introduction to stellar astronomy, Kaler embarks on an informative tour through his hundred favourite stars, each given a page of text with an appropriate illustration on the facing page¿The really clever aspect of the book is that as well as describing the hundred stars, often bringing out aspects which are unfamiliar, Kaler succeeds in giving an excellent broad survey of recent developments in stellar astronomy. As is to be expected, the text is immensely authoritative¿The illustrations are beautiful...¿|¿New Scientist

Customer Reviews:

A Little Gem.......2005-10-21

Jim Kaler has written a real little gem in this book. It selects 100 of the most interesting stars and gives a "biography" of each. His style is engaging and readable. The author seems to have intended the audience to be amateur astronomers, but I have found it quite useful for students in both secondary school and the university. I have always told my students that "stars are like people, if you examine them closely, all of them are strange in some way", and this book highlights some of the more interesting ones. Along the way, a fair bit of astronomical information is also imparted, but in a way that flows naturally with the stories. The book has good production quality. This is a fairly short book, very approachable for students who might be science shy. I think this is the best one that Jim has done so far. My only quibble is that he left out RU Cam, which should have been given a place in this collection.

Star overload, but I'm not complaining.......2004-08-23

This well-written book is a bit of information overload. Kaler presents a good variety of stars in his top 100 picks, and writes enthusiastically about each one. In addition, many of the illustrations are excellent. Though it may be difficult to remember much of the information presented (over one month after reading it, I've retained practically nothing), the overall impression that will stay with you is that there are tremendous differences between stars. This impression is not entirely accurate; the vast majority of stars are out there are on the main sequence and exhibit very similar characteristics. But there are quite a few oddballs, or extremes, that have a completely different behavior. Kaler has chosen most of his hundred out of this group.

This book made good lunchtime reading for me, and my interest never really flagged. But reading details about a hundred stars is a lot of information to take in, and I think my patience would have worn thin with any more. Perhaps a better approach would have been to cover only thirty stars, but write more on each one. Kaler makes his selections based on some outstanding feature of that star: location in the sky, intrinsic brightness, size, peculiar spectral feature, etc.

Recommended for astronomy buffs and for the layman with a bent to science.

The Hundred Greatest Stars by Kaler.......2003-11-08

This book has spectacular views of major stars/ clusters.
The 3 brightest stars of the Southern Hemisphere are depicted.
These stars are Sirius, Canopus and Alpha Centauri.
Important scientific rule structures are explained. i.e.
The apparent magnitude of a star is a function of distance.
In addition, Absolute Magnitude and Color are proportional to
temperature. Important statistics are provided for stars: i.e.

Blue-White Stars have 32-50 illumination with Ionized Helium.

Infrared stars are 1000 degrees with prominent methane bands.

Stars with > 10 solar masses--are exploding stars

Ag Dra has powerful eruptions. Celestial Harp is approximately
880 Light Years with a 2600 times the sun luminosity.

This work is a virtual treasure-chest of scientific facts and
data about stars. It is perfect for a school science project.
The book is written for a large constituency of readers. i.e.
Astronomers, scientists, general audiences, teachers,
museum administrators and many others.

His Best Yet!.......2003-07-28

I was not a big fan of Kaler's until this book. I had read his "Extreme Stars" -- very difficult to follow with his writing style, but still a good book. I begged the library to order this one, which they did. Very impressive -- I was enthralled. He discusses each star with true passion and on a level the ordinary amateur astronomer can understand. If someone can get me excited looking at a boring 5th magnitude 51 Pegasii, then he's done a good job :) --- he has. Excellent illustrations to boot! Buy this book - you won't be disappointed.

Update: January 2004 - after 3 times checking it out from the library -- decided it was too good of a reference book to pass up and ordered from Amazon.com at discounted price! A true gem - I will observe outside, then use this to enrich my knowledge of some of the stars I've looked at afterwards. All the "biggies" are here - Arcturus, Sirius, Capella, Vega, Betelguese, and some other obscure ones -- but all so well chosen that it's hard to argue with his 100 picks! I wish he'd write another on his next top 100. I am also half through his "Little Book of Stars" and recommend that too! Will write a review on that when I am finished. Bottomline: Buy this book - you won't be disappointed if you are an astronomy buff.

Informative and colorful.......2003-07-13

No Katharine Hepburn or Al Pacino here. Instead we have Betelgeuse and Cygnus X-1, Deneb and MXB 1730-335 and 96 other illuminators of the night sky as selected by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Professor of Astronomy James B. Kaler. They are called "the greatest" mostly because they are significant in one way or another and partly because they are Kaler's favorites.

Of course included are Alpha Centauri, our closest interstellar neighbors, and Barnard's Star, the fastest moving star across our line of sight, and Polaris, the North Star, friend to navigators. The sun is included for comparison and reference.

Kaler begins the book with what he calls an "Introduction and Allegro" in which he explains what stars are and how they are classified and how they evolve. Then come mini essays on the each of the chosen stars, what's interesting and important about them, their history and vital statistics beginning with number zero, the sun. He identifies the "Residence" of each star according to astronomical constellation, alternative name, its class such as F2 giant (Beta Cassiopeiae), its visual magnitude, its distance from us, its absolute visual magnitude, and its "Significance" (e.g., ESO 439-26 is "The faintest known white dwarf.") Because of the range of different types of stars that Kaler has chosen (with wildly differing system configurations), double and triple stars, stars with known planets, pulsars, neutron stars, black holes, etc., reading through the various essays amounts to a modest astronomical education in itself.

There are color plates pertaining to each star, sometimes of the star and sometimes of the area of the sky in which the star can be found, and sometimes pertaining to something significant about the star such as a colorful drawing of the inflowing gas from the giant surrounding the black hole at Cygnus X-1.

There's a modest glossary and three appendices, one listing the stars by their various names for easy recognition, the second by their evolutionary status (Main Sequence stars, Neutron stars, etc.), and the third by position (by Declination and Right Association).

Book Description

An updated anthology with hundreds of pictures for lovers of opera everywhere.

Customer Reviews:

An Entertaining Tribute to the Greatest Opera Stars.......2000-08-31

This is definitely a must for all opera lovers. Enrico Stinchelli gives an entertaining and informative account of some of the greatest opera singers of the 20th century. After an insightful introduction, the author divides the book into categories: tenors, sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, baritones and basses. On each category, the author gives a description of the voice category, its categories and repertoire, and then gives insightful profiles of the greatest names on each category. All the profiles discuss the voice, repertoire and career of each singer. Therefore, in the same book you can have profiles and excellent photographs of such greats as Alfredo Kraus, Franco Corelli, Leontyne Price and Joan Sutherland, among many others. The photographs are both black and white and wonderful color. Of course, you will probably miss some of the younger stars today (Fleming, Alagna, Gheorghiu, Jo, Cura) probably because they are still young and beginning their careers. However, the selection of singers has almost all of the greatest singers. And the book ends with a real jewel: a singing lesson from the great Alfredo Kraus from a master class held in Rome in 1990. It is a great souvenir to understand the late tenor's singing technique and the reason of his miraculous vocal longevity. A great way to finish a book that pays tribute to great singing.

Book Description

Mankind has a fascination with measurement. Down the centuries we have produced a plethora of incompatible and duplicatory systems for measuring everything from the width of an Egyptian pyramid to the concentration of radioactivity near a nuclear reactor and the value of the fine structure constant. With the introduction first of the metric system and of its successor the Système International d'Unités (SI), the scientific community has established a standard method of measurement based on only seven core units. The Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights and Measures converts the huge variety of units from all over the world in every period of recorded history into units of the SI. Featuring: - An A - Z of conversion tables for over 10,000 units of measurements. - Tables of the fundamental constants of nature with their units. - Listings of professional societies, and national standardization bodies for easy reference. - An extensive bibliography detailing further reading on the multifarious aspects of measurement and its units. This huge work is simply a "must have" for any reference library frequented by scientists of any discipline or by those with historical interests in units of measurement such as archaeologists.

Customer Reviews:

only conversion reference you will ever need.......2001-07-14

Tired of looking through books to find the correct conversion factor to another unit? Well, so was I. Since I deal with international engineering contracts, this book saves a great deal of time. It is extremely well formatted and easy to use. This book not only has the usual units, but also Japanese, and ancient systems as well. You won't need any other book - ever. The author challenges you to find a unit not listed, and send it to him for inclusion in the next edition. That alone should give you an idea of how thorough it is! This is a must for any technical field. Well organized, and well worth the price of the book. A real bargin. Also, fun to read. It gives the approved units for various systems, and states which ones are on the phase-out. Good to know if you are doing technical writing, and need to keep your units within the standards listed.

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Neither Gould Nor Sagan Will Be Replaced In Our Era

Elegant and erudite

Storytelling Dinosaurs

Filling the Gaps

Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History

Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History
Stephen Jay Gould
Manufacturer: Audio Literature
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0787109150

Book Description

Gould's seventh collection of essays covers a wide range of subjects in natural history, literature, and popular culture--from the wisdom of Charles Darwin to that of the Old Testament Psalms, from the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park to the dinosaurs of the latest scientific theories, from the thwarted humanity of the Frankenstein monster to the inhuman fallacies of eugenics and other pseudoscience. With black and white illustrations.

"Here is a new collection of Gould's unexpected connections between evolution and all manner of subjects, literature high among them. Gathered from his monthly column in Natural History magazine, these articles should delight, surprise, and inform his vast readership, as have his six prior volumes of essays. Somehow the light bulb pops on every month as his deadline approaches, some glowing fact pulled out of memory--often a line from Shakespeare or Tennyson--that illumines a generality Gould wishes to discuss. "Nature, red in tooth and claw" (Lord Alfred's line) induces dilations on the extent science can inform moral matters (not much, Gould believes); a remembrance of the infamous Wansee protocol prompts Gould's denunciation of the genocidal looting of evolutionary theory and, by extension, its vulnerability to ignoramuses in general. These two examples of the Gouldian essay method, fortunately, don't foreshadow a gloomy parade of topics: Gould can as easily alight at the fun house where mass culture absorbs ideas about evolution through movies of monsters run amok from Frankenstein to Jurassic Park. In other essays, he plunges directly into matters of evolutionary interpretation but customarily employs a literary twist: who else but Gould could link Edgar Allan Poe with his own area of professional eminence, the paleontology of snails? A discovery awaits in every essay--in every haystack--which solidifies Gould as one of the most eloquent science popularizers writing today."
--Booklist

Customer Reviews:

Neither Gould Nor Sagan Will Be Replaced In Our Era.......2005-08-28

Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History, by Stephen Jay Gould, is one of the twentieth-century's great, approachable thinkers presenting what turned out to be among his final projects. Consisting of a collection of his articles as well as additional thoughts written strictly for this book, Dr. Gould herein tackles topics that range from Poe to the environment, dinosaurs to nautical lore, modern museum architecture, to, yes, of course, his favorite subject, one he rightly or wrongly unfailingly championed to the too-soon end of his days, evolution. These easily-readable and quotable essays are invaluable in this time after this great and good man has left us, and I have re-read this book several times since I first got it as a birthday present in 1995. To be able to make people laugh, think and debate, even after your life has physically ended is not a bad legacy for anyone. Don't let Stephen Jay Gould rest in peace, read this book and stir things up a bit in his name.

Elegant and erudite.......2004-06-10

Gould's 1996 collection of essays for "Natural History" magazine ranges over the broad and varied terrain of his intellect and curiosity, educating and satisfying the reader with elegance, wit and powerful reasoning.

Gould delights in juxtaposing literature and science, the familiar and the unexpected. He chooses "Cordelia's dilemma" - her refusal to compete with her sisters in making loud protestations of love for their father, King Lear - as an analogy for "publication bias" - the reluctance of journals to publish boring negative results in favor of more interesting successful experiments. A positive result in a study of AIDS or cancer treatments wins headlines while later failures to duplicate those results are read by few. And most negative results never see publication at all. "Lear cannot conceptualize the proposition that Cordelia's silence might signify her greater love - that nothing can be the biggest something."

In this collection, Gould divides his essays into eight sections. "Heaven and Earth" includes his marvelous experience of the effect of a solar eclipse on the citizens of New York City, and in "Literature and Science," he ruminates on the moral lesson of Frankenstein and Hollywood's subversion of it.

"Origin, Stability, and Extinction" argues that the Cambrian explosion is even more the "key event" in the history of multicellular animals than previously believed, "Stability" includes "Cordelia's Dilemma," "Extinction" includes the title essay on Darwin's view that "all observation must be for or against some view."

"Writing About Snails" delves into women's Victorian writings (I'm reminded of the value of negative results), "The Glory of Museums" explores "Dinomania" and "The Disparate Faces of Eugenics" revisits the hilarious arguments of an eminent scientist who argued that cancer causes smoking.

"Evolutionary Theory, Evolutionary Stories," explores the arguments of Creationism and the origin of evolutionary science's best one liner (in answer to a question on the nature of the Creator) "an inordinate fondness for beetles," and "Linnaeus and Darwin's Grandfather" uses the whimsical observation of the "curious conjunction" of Linnaeus and Gustav III on a Swedish banknote to explore the scientist's classification theories (still used today) and his adherence to a religious Creationism.

Certain themes recur in these essays. Gould is a staunch evolutionist and defends Darwin's theories vigorously, even when pointing out mistakes and misconceptions. He takes Creationism seriously - as a threat to scientific reasoning. His interest in natural history extends to the history of human thinking about nature and science.

His essays are beautifully crafted, full of literary allusions, anecdotes and turns of wit but always to the point. He loves tracking down the precise source and context of oft-used quotes as much as he enjoys tracing the origin of flatworms, and manages to arouse his reader's interest in both. He is not a writer of wasted words. Best of all, Gould's essays are always as thought provoking as they are entertaining.

Storytelling Dinosaurs.......2003-04-16

Evolution is probably the most exciting natural
truth that science has ever discovered.
And Stephen Jay Goulds essays tells about it
with an infectious enthusiasm. On the way everything
from flat earth myths to ancient Greece and
men like Diogenes the Cynic gets their say.
Rigorous and numerous historical details makes it
a serious, but fun read.
All in all, it is all about the nature and essence
of humanity.
How sad that Stephen Jay Gould is no more.
But at least we have his books!

-Simon

Filling the Gaps.......2002-12-08

This is a review by a non-paleontologist and non-biologist, just by someone interested in science since he was a child in the 60's. All my life I have followed the marvels of Space science, the moon shots and Aviation in general, since subscribing to the Eyring e-mail list, I have found I lack basic knowledge in the fields required to discuss Evolution. Now I have finally done something about it, although some of you may have given recommendations as to what to read, my local library limits me, so I am starting with Stephen Jay Gould, whose recent passing was noted on this very list.
Dinosaur in a Haystack, Reflections in Natural History, (Stephen Jay Gould: 1996 Random House and various issues of Nature magazine).
This is a review of a collection of Essays published in Nature Magazine before 1996 I should imagine. I would have liked the editors to include the original publication dates in Nature with each essay. The essays themselves revolve, sometimes loosely, on the topic of evolution; he always relates it back to that somewhere in the essay.
For someone like myself, a complete novice in the fields discussed by Gould, his style of writing is informative without the jargon that sometimes cloud the specialties us humans undertake from the mere mortals in the lower classes. Gould explains:
"I will, of course, clarify language, mainly to remove the jargon that does impede public access... I will not make concepts either more simple or more unambiguous than nature's own complexity dictates."
I am happy he has done just that, in his 7th in this series of essay collections, the first one published in 1977 (Ever Since Darwin).
All the essays revolve around that topic I am trying to understand, "Evolution." I decided to start with Gould, because of his readily available material at my local library and his prominence in his field. The continuing argument between theology and science on "the origin of man" and hence the oxymoronic term "creation science" was coined by the proponents, or at least, the more prominent proponents of the biblical literal view of the world. Being a Christian, I felt I should find out the truth!
Now, back to Gould, two essays gained my interest for clearly pointing out two points of discussion between Old School and New School on the one hand and between Evolution and Creationists (a better word, don't you think?).
The first is "Dinosaur in a Haystack," the second, "Hooking Leviathan by its Past".
Dinosaur in a Haystack
Observation follows theory or is it theory follows observation? Gould explains how at the time of Erasmus Darwin (Grandfather of Charles Darwin), the Geological Society banned theoretical discussion. It was felt that observation was essential, when sufficient data was collected, and then theories could be entertained. When Charles Darwin came to the discussion some 30 years later, he then indicated the necessity for theory before observation. After all, how we look at the world is based on a theory, what we go out in search of is based on theory, etc. The two are dependant on each other and cannot be separated without making each meaningless.
Thus we come to Gould's paleontology field and the theory of The Late Permian Debacle, and how an asteroid hitting the Earth caused it. The great extinction at this time was a matter of how extant it was amongst the fossil species and, of course, what contradicted it.
The evidence pointed to a gradual extinction of the animals over geologic times. The new theory required additional evidence. Gould tells us about the ammonites ( a name which sounded like a Biblical tribe) and how they had appeared, given the current evidence and how a more thorough look, in the field, at the fossil record (needle in the haystack) might bring up ammonites closer to the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (225 million years ago).
The problem is described as this, the rarer animals in the virtual slice of time take at a geological cut, cliff face, or whatever, may be distributed randomly and infrequently through it. Thus, it is conceivable that they did expire at the KT event, indicated by a layer of mud, literally dividing two epochs of time, rather than at the latest recorded disposition in the strata. If the above is true, then a more detailed look, excavation, needs to be made. The end result was the finding of the ammonites near the boundary, and thus dispelling the gradualism of the neo-Darwinists amongst the palaeontological world.
We know the fossil record is incomplete and sparse, so some logical; indeed, rational analysis is needed to flesh out theories. This means, sometimes, hard work, which makes the armchair theorists obsolete in a heartbeat.
Hooking Leviathan by its Past.
Or, another case of filling in the gaps!!!
He starts the essay with a serious error by Darwin himself, who speculated that the North American Black Bear, swimming with its mouth wide open catching insects, could easily, over a serious long time, evolve to something approaching a whale. The origin of the whale thus is introduced.
This is case where the creationists insisted that evolution was inadequate to explaining life; in this case it was the origins of the leviathan of the deep, the mammalian whales that confused these poor people.
"Still, our creationist incubi, who would never let facts spoil a favorite argument, refuse to yield, and continue to assert the absence of all transitional forms by ignoring those that have been found, and continuing to taunt us with admittedly frequent examples of absence."
Are you a "creationist incubi"?
Gould takes us through the discovery of the very intermediate fossils that prove the evolution of whales, where it had been inferred, now it is established beyond a doubt. With Gould's now famous explanatory skills we are taken for a journey of exploration in Pakistan (Science knows no national boundaries) where 1983 produced Pakicetus, a discovery by paleontologists Phil Gingerich (University of Michigan) and N. A. Wells, D. E. Russel, and S. M. Ibrahim Shah, found it buried in ancient river sediments, where one would expect to find it. The find was only the skull, but further field work produced the remaining body 10 years later. An excellent essay, and one that will remain embedded in my cranium for sometime.
I am currently furthering my reading in this field of paleontology with a taxonomic dalliance into Eugenics, lead by the 3 essays under the heading "Disparate Faces of Eugenics" in this same book to Gould's 1981 book "The Mismeasure of Man".
I highly recommend Dinosaur in a Haystack, and if that is any guide to the style of Gould's work, his other writing should be quite enlightening.
Clifford M Dubery

Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History.......2002-03-07

Stephen Jay Gould has a way of bringing out our minds and making us think... Dinosaur in a Haystack is just such a work. These thirty-four essays are what exemplifies Gould's infectiously brilliant and playful intelligence. This book is about evolution and other natural phenomena, but with Gould's trademark twist.

Some of the essays are short stories in their own right with a mystery central to the theme, others are alluring with detail only a professor might want to instill. Thought provoking, unpredictable trajectories, theoretical arguments all fit into the realm of Gould, who can be described as a cunning polemicist, self-indulgent or one of America's Living Legends, but never boring... maybe verbose, but I'll give him that for the detail he brings to his writing.

Dinosaur in a Haystack gives us a book written for the layperson, but a person with a proclivity toward a scientific bent would be of help. There are rigorous and numerous historical details, but Gould has a propensity to contextualize thoroughly, thus imparting the receptive reader, an intrinsic but intuitive knowledge.

If you want to be educated about natural history or phenomena, Gould's musing are right up your alley. Gould is one of todays leading evolutionary thinkers. This book is the product of one of the most fertile minds of our time.

I highly recommend reading this book... not that it is just accessible or stimulating... it is enlightening.

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DINOSAUR IN A HAYSTACK. REFLECTIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY.
S. Gould
Manufacturer: Harmony Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WQ5DW2

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Excellent popular science

Punctuated evolution

Dinosaur In A Haystack: Reflections in Natural History
Stephen Jay Gould
Manufacturer: Harmony Books/Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J63MVO

Customer Reviews:

Excellent popular science.......2007-08-22

Stephen Jay Gould wrote essays for the Natural History magazine, once a month, for 27 years. The essays have been published in book format: this is number seven in the series of ten books. It's also the only one in the series that has been translated to Finnish.

Gould is an excellent writer of popular science. He doesn't make things too simple, but instead writes like he would write to his peers, just replacing the professional language with something more understandable. Based on this book, it's a good approach. Any intellectually curious person should be able to read and enjoy this book and be challenged.

What's it about? Mostly evolution, Gould's specialty, but also history of science, natural history, statistics, creationists... Gould covers lots of ground and plenty of interesting topics around these central themes. He can draw quite surprising connections between things. I've rarely read popular science this charming. This is highly recommended! (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

Punctuated evolution.......2006-11-11

I had read some of the earlier works and was planning to read disassociated unique ideas. "Oranges" by John A. McPhee ISBN: 0374226881 is just that way (a little history, a little myth, and maybe some economics.) or a continuing string of thought like "The Ascent of Man" by Jacob Bronowski.
What I found was something surprisingly unique. I never realized how coherent reflections could be. Like the columnist, Dave Berry, Stephen Jay Gould would start out with the most innocent of statements and parlay that into an earth shattering reflection. And just as you think he is going way out in left field, he ties it all together. And each chapter is summed up and is tied to one whole reflection on natural history.
You will never look at snails with the same twist again.

Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History.

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Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History.

Manufacturer: 0
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ICHF5S

Average customer rating:

Dinosaur In A Haystack - Reflections In Natural History
Stephen Jay Gould
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KKBSS8

Average customer rating:

Dinosaur in a Haystack : Reflections in Natural History
Stephen Jay Gould
Manufacturer: Harmony Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8A7LU

Book Description

This is the second collection of scripts of the hugely popular Bickersons, a radio/TV series starring Don Ameche and Frances Langford. Includes never-before-published versions of their classic routines, plus original radio commercials, both radio pilots, Christmas episode for the unaired animation show, and more!

Customer Reviews:

OTR Must Have ! ! !.......2003-02-02

This is the best book of scripts I've ever read! Philip Rapp was a master of radio comedy and it's good to see that there's finally a book of this material out on the market. With
every line you read you can hear the shrew Frances Langford egging poor husband Don Ameche to get out of bed at 3 in the morning to do something foolish like make out a will or find the cat a husband. A must have for the ture diehard Bickersons/OTR buff !

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