Book Description
The standard way of thinking about decisions is backwards, says Ralph Keeney: people focus first on identifying alternatives rather than on articulating values. A problem arises and people react, placing the emphasis on mechanics and fixed choices instead of on the objectives that give decisionmaking its meaning. In this book, Keeney shows how recognizing and articulating fundamental values can lead to the identification of decision opportunities and the creation of better alternatives. The intent is to be proactive and to select more attractive decisions to ponder before attempting any solutions.
Keeney describes specific procedures for articulating values by identifying and structuring objectives qualitatively, and he shows how to apply these procedures in various cases. He then explains how to quantify objectives using simple models of values. Such value analysis, Keeney demonstrates, can yield a full range of alternatives, thus converting decision problems into opportunities. This approach can be used to uncover hidden objectives, to direct the collection of information, to improve communication, to facilitate collective decisionmaking, and to guide strategic thinking. To illustrate these uses, Keeney shows how value-focused thinking works in many business contexts, such as designing an integrated circuit tester and managing a multibillion-dollar utility company; in government contexts, such as planning future NASA space missions and deciding how to transport nuclear waste to storage sites; and in personal contexts, such as choosing career moves and making wise health and safety decisions.
An incisive, applicable contribution to the art and science of decisionmaking, Value-Focused Thinking will be extremely useful to anyone from consultants and managers to systems analysts and students.
Customer Reviews:
Enlightening and practical approach.......2006-11-08
I am finishing my Masters in Operations Research and Decisions, and I had several courses on Decision theory. This book taught me far more than most of the courses, and it surely helps me more than all together when it comes to real-life decision making.
I like Keeney's approach in that it is simple but strong. While he does give a strong mathematical foundation, he also explains the intuition behind his theory.
Every time someone asks about what I have learned in the MSc I like to give an example I thought about while reading his book (and using his approach). Let's suppose you are seating on the Sofa and you want to eat something, what do you do? 100% of my friends answered that they go to the kitchen and look for something eat. That's exactly what Keeney is against: to take decisions based on the alternatives (what he calls alternative focus thinking). What his approach would recommend in the described situation, is to stay on the Sofa and think hard about the food that you would mostly like to eat. Than, go to the kitchen and see if you have it. If you do, great! If not, does the pleasure of eating it pay for the pain of going out to buy it? The point is that usually you wouldn't ask yourself this question if you were already in front of the second-best option without knowing what you really want.
The book is well written and full of day-to-day and more complicated examples. All of them applied by the author in his own life or in huge corporations. Very good reading!
Recommended.......2004-06-15
According to Dave Reiter: This book is a bit more complex than Smart Choices. It suggests that you always start with your values/preferences for any decision that you want to make. (I think this is often, but not always, a good idea. I think sometimes you're better off starting with the framing of the decision.) This is also a bit dry.
Great background for those who liked Smart Choices.......1999-03-15
A very helpful book. Parts of it contain more details than I wanted to know about specific detailed applications of the decision-making techniques to government and industry. However, I did enjoy the parts where Keeney describes how he uses the techniques in his personal life. Particularly amusing and informative are the parts where he talks about how he and his wife decided what to name their baby, and how he decided not to get tested for colon cancer and spent the time playing squash instead.
Average customer rating:
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Migrant Women Professionals in the European Union
Monika Zulauf
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Workplace
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ASIN: 0333760395 |
Book Description
In the 1990s, growth in women's employment in the EU remained small. This book looks at the obstacles faced by women in the nursing and banking professions when they migrate between member states. Basing her analysis on the personal accounts of migrants, and discussions with colleagues and regulatory bodies in Britain, Germany and Spain, the author sheds light on one of the major challenges confronting the EU.
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- Excellent review of social externalities of pork
- Excellent review of social externalities of pork
- Excellent review of the social externalities of pork
|
Pigs, Profits, and Rural Communities (S U N Y Series in Anthropological Studies of Contemporary Issues)
Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
ASIN: 0791438872 |
Book Description
This book illuminates the processes and consequences of agricultural industrialization, particularly within the swine production industry, for the social, economic, human, environmental, and political health of the rural United States. Contributors come from widely divergent backgrounds including a former U.S. senator, farmers, a veterinarian, a medical psychologist, an agricultural economist, a biological ecologist, a farm organization president, and anthropologists. Set within the theoretical framework of Walter Goldschmidt's research on the community consequences of industrialized food production, these contributions show that the increasing divergence of ownership has real human costs that continue to be ignored by economic developers and policymakers.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent review of social externalities of pork.......1999-03-19
As a hog odor researcher, I found this book to be a very valuable resource. Excellent selection of discussions regarding the often neglected social aspects in the evolution of the hog industry from some of the "hidden" players in the pork industry, that is sociologists, anthropologists, community leaders, conscientious politicians, and some local farmers.
Excellent review of social externalities of pork.......1999-03-19
As a hog odor researcher, I found this book to be a very valuable resource. Excellent selection of discussions regarding the often neglected social aspects in the evolution of the hog industry from some of the "hidden" players in the pork industry, that is sociologists, anthropologists, community leaders, conscientious politicians, and some local farmers.
Excellent review of the social externalities of pork.......1999-03-19
As a hog odor researcher, I found this book to be a very valuable resource. Excellent selection of discussions regarding the often neglected social aspects of the evolution of the hog industry from some of the "hidden" players in the pork industry, that is sociologists, anthropologists, community leaders, conscientious politicians, and some local farmers.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from American Journal of Agricultural Economics, published by American Agricultural Economics Association on August 1, 1999. The length of the article is 896 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: Pigs, Profits and Rural Communities.(Review)
Author: Andrew Seidl
Publication:
American Journal of Agricultural Economics (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 1999
Publisher: American Agricultural Economics Association
Volume: 81
Issue: 3
Page: 758(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Introduction to Analytical Electron Microscopy
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 0306402807 |
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Analytical Electron Microscopy for Materials Science
D. Shindo ,
T. Oikawa ,
Daisuke Shindo , and
Tetsuo Oikawa
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 4431703365 |
Book Description
Analytical electron microscopy is one of the most powerful tools today for characterization of the advanced materials that support the nanotechnology of the twenty-first century. In this book the authors clearly explain both the basic principles and the latest developments in the field. In addition to a fundamental description of the inelastic scattering process, an explanation of the constituent hardware is provided. Standard quantitative analytical techniques employing electron energy-loss spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy are also explained, along with elemental mapping techniques. Included are sections on convergent beam electron diffraction and electron holography utilizing the field emission gun. With generous use of illustrations and experimental data, this book is a valuable resource for anyone concerned with materials characterization, electron microscopy, materials science, crystallography, and instrumentation.
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Principles and Practice of Electron Microscope Operation
Alan W. Agar ,
R. H. Alderson ,
Dawn Chescoe , and
Audrey M. Glauert
Manufacturer: Elsevier Science & Technology
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0720442559 |
Book Description
Paperback.
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Principles of Analytical Electron Microscopy
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 0306423871 |
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Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Microanalysis, and Analytical Electron Microscopy: A Laboratory Workbook
Charles E. Lyman ,
Dale E. Newbury ,
Joseph Goldstein ,
David B. Williams ,
Alton D. Romig Jr. ,
John Armstrong ,
Patrick Echlin ,
Charles Fiori ,
David C. Joy ,
Eric Lifshin , and
Klaus-Rüdiger Peters
Manufacturer: Springer
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Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray Microanalysis
ASIN: 0306435918 |
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Analytical electron microscopy wins 1994 Jacquet-Lucas Award.: An article from: Advanced Materials & Processes
J.W. Simmons ,
B.S., Jr. Covino ,
S.D. Cramer , and
J.S. Dunning
Manufacturer: ASM International
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ASIN: B00093HRHW
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Advanced Materials & Processes, published by ASM International on February 1, 1995. The length of the article is 827 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.
From the supplier: A group of researchers from the Bureau of Mines' Albany Research Center were given the 1994 Jacquet-Lucas Award for their work on chromium depletion. The study focused on the effects of thermal aging processes on concentration of chromium contained in stainless steel. Chromium concentration was correlated to intergranular corrosion and intergranular stress corrosion cracking which can be observed under the electron microscope.
Citation Details
Title: Analytical electron microscopy wins 1994 Jacquet-Lucas Award.
Author: J.W. Simmons
Publication:
Advanced Materials & Processes (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 1995
Publisher: ASM International
Volume: v147
Issue: n2
Page: p28(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
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SEM and EDS analyze materials. (scanning electron microscopy; energy dispersive spectroscopy): An article from: Advanced Materials & Processes
L.W. Sarver
Manufacturer: ASM International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
Nonfiction
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| Crime & Criminals
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ASIN: B00096LM70
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Advanced Materials & Processes, published by ASM International on July 1, 1996. The length of the article is 1225 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.
From the supplier: The use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in conjunction with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) techniques is very helpful in solving various materials characterization requirements in industry. The two instruments are very powerful micro-chemical analysis tools for determining surface quality, microstructure, inclusion content, cleanliness and impurity levels. Combined SEM/EDS analysis can be used for element distribution mapping, line-scan chemical analysis, quantitative image analysis and particle recognition.
Citation Details
Title: SEM and EDS analyze materials. (scanning electron microscopy; energy dispersive spectroscopy)
Author: L.W. Sarver
Publication:
Advanced Materials & Processes (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 1996
Publisher: ASM International
Volume: v150
Issue: n1
Page: p19(3)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
- Really Beautiful Photos, Nice Design
- An Engaging Engagement Calendar
- gorgeous
- 'tis a pity that most appointment-book users shan't go there
- Great engagement calander
|
Sierra Club 2004 Engagement Calendar
Sierra Club
Manufacturer: Harmony
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Calendar
Nature & Wildlife
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Calendars
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ASIN: 1400046270
Release Date: 2003-07-29 |
Book Description
The most popular nature calendar ever published, this Sierra Club classic features 57 full-color images by some of America's leading nature photographers.
Customer Reviews:
Really Beautiful Photos, Nice Design.......2003-12-20
This engagement calendar contains REALLY beautiful photos for every week of the year. The photos range from rocks, to water, to wildlife, to mountains. There are a few closeups of small animals, leaves, and snowflakes. The calendar has photos covering all seasons, as well. The week starts with Monday at the top of the page, and finishes with Sunday at the bottom of the page. There is plenty of room to write in appointments. Dimensions are about 7" x 9", x 1/2". The quality of the paper is lovely. I bought it for myself, and I love it.
An Engaging Engagement Calendar.......2003-12-07
This is the 15th year I have given my mother the Sierra Club Engagement Calendar for Christmas. I must confess I made a big mistake one year and gave her a different kind. This was NOT okay! She loves this calendar and saves every one of them. She enjoys looking back through them; it is like a walk down memory lane, "Oh, I remember when...". I am grateful that you are able to give her such enjoyment. Last, but not least, the photographs in there are awesome! Keep up the good work.
gorgeous.......2003-12-03
I got this for my aunt for christmas one year, just on a whim, and every year since she's always made absolutely certain that I'm getting it for her again. She loves it. The thing I like most about it is that it's got a new photo every time you flip a page... I hate the kind that only have, like, 5 pictures total in the whole thing. I suppose my only caution would be that having so many great pics leaves less room for actual writing space... so if you're one of those people who need to plan out ever last little 15 minutes of time between 6 am and midnight... this might not be best for you. ;]
'tis a pity that most appointment-book users shan't go there.......2003-11-16
Sierra Club 2004 Engagement Calendar:
"The most popular nature calendar ever published".
Stunning images of flora and fauna.
Week-by-week format with 57 full-color photographs.
Gift-boxed.
In order to view 12 thumbnail images, go to this page:
sierraclub.org/books/calendars/
This exquisite appointment book rates 4 stars rather than 5
because the paper utilized in its production is neither
Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) (ie, produced w/o chlorine nor
with any chlorinated bleaching compound) (H2O2 is OK), nor
50% (or more) "Post-consumer reclaimed waste" (that is,
reclaimed paper-fiber that has served its end purpose).
Great engagement calander.......2003-11-12
I am a professional photographer so I truly enjoy the artwork inside this book. On top of that, there is tons of room for me to write in my appointments and client information. It's a great calander to have!
Book Description
Readers can use this book as a guide to learn whether their horses are being shod properly or use it to learn to shoe their own horses. The book stresses good horse handling techniques and proper trimming. Correct trimming of the feet is the basis of good shoeing, and neither can be accomplished if the horseshoer cannot get the horse to stand still long enough to work on him-thus the importance of handling. To get really proficient at horseshoeing, it takes a lot of practice trimming and shoeing a lot of different horses. This book covers all the basics in plain, simple language, lavishly illustrated, and diagrammed.
Customer Reviews:
Informative.......2007-06-29
I had some knowledge on how to trim my horses feet. The book gave me more detail and insights I wasn't aware of. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Great for DIY trimming.......2007-05-13
The best book I've seen on the subject. It is informative, easy to understand (for the layman) and without pretensions.
Expert advice from an expert practioner.
WELL-SHOD IS WELL WORTH IT.......2007-04-28
Recently I watched as a local farrier plied his trade with four horses belonging to a friend. Originally I had gone intending to help steady the horses but, as I watched, I became more and more intrigued with the processes that were unfolding before my eyes. Suddenly I found myself wishing that I had paid better attention.
The following day I began my search for a book that would review for me the things that I had witnessed the previous day. My first reaction was discouragement as I, at first, found very little available and then found some excellent books but priced so high that I would have had to hock the farm to buy them. Even my local library fell short.
At last I ran onto this book. WELL-SHOD provides everything I was looking for. There are no lengthy and complicated explorations of unnecessary horse anatomy or boring historical treatises on the evolution of the horseshoe or the process of fitting sets of shoes to horses. Instead you will find excellent explanations of the process including removing old, worn shoes, preparing and trimming hooves and finishing up. The book also provides an excellent look at the necessary tools and how to use them, along with photographic and graphic illustrations that clarify the process.
Don't get me wrong. If I were interested in becoming a veterinarian or in working in or teaching comprehensive levels of hot and cold farrier work I would likely invest in the text-like books that I encountered and shell out the exorbitant dollars required for their purchase. But, having a goal to become proficient in taking care of a horse's hooves--from getting rid of old shoes and applying new ones--I think I'll stick with this one and be happy that I did.
THE HORSEMAN
A MUST-HAVE for horse owners and/or farriers........2006-04-10
This was an outstanding book! Mr. Baskins relies on his MANY years of experience to guide you on properly caring for your horse's hooves and how to ensure that your farrier is properly shodding your horse. I was completely ignorant of what was required to properly shod a horse....that is, until I picked up this wonderful book. I would recommend it as a foundation book for any good horse "person's" library. Even an experienced farrier could pick up vital techniques to assist him/her in shodding the most difficult horse, WITHOUT threatening, bullying or harming this beautiful creature!
Great book for the novice horse owner........2004-10-23
I wanted to know more about how my horses feet are trimmed, and what I could do to keep them maintained and healthy inbetween farrier visits. I was VERY impressed with the quality of pictures, and the ease of explanations for the proceedures being talked about. I have since gone back and used it as a reference tool. It's a book you will use more than once!!
Amazon.com
Human languages are capable of expressing a literally endless number of different ideas. How do we manage it--so effortlessly that we scarcely ever stop to think about it? In Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language, a look at the simple concepts that we use to devise works as complex as love sonnets and tax laws, renowned neuroscientist and linguist Steven Pinker shows us how. The latest linguistic research suggests that each of us stores a limited (though large) number of words and word-parts in memory and manipulates them with a much smaller number of rules to produce every writing and utterance, and Pinker explains every step of the way with engaging good humor.
Pinker's enthusiasm for the subject infects the reader, particularly as he emphasizes the relation between how we communicate and how we think. What does it mean that a small child who has never heard the word wug can tell a researcher that when one wug meets another, there are two wugs? Some rule must be telling the child that English plurals end in -s, which also explains mistakes like mouses. Is our communication linked inextricably with our thinking? Pinker says yes, and it's hard to disagree. Words and Rules is an excellent introduction to and overview of current thinking about language, and will greatly reward the careful reader with new ways of thinking about how we think, talk, and write. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
From the author of the bestselling The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works comes an engaging, often hilarious, always insightful look at the philosophy of language.
Who other than MIT scientist Steven Pinker could explore a single linguistic phenomenon-the use of irregular verbs-from the vantage points of psychology, biology, history, philosophy, linguistics, and child development?
In Words and Rules, Pinker answers questions about the miraculous human ability called language and does it in the gripping, witty style of his other bestsellers. As the stories unfold, the reader is immersed in the evolution of the English language over the centuries, the theories of Noam Chomsky and his critics, the simulation of neural networks on computers, the illuminating errors of children as they begin to speak, the tragic loss of language from neurological disease, and more illustrations using humorous wordplay than anyone would have thought possible. Pinker makes sense of all these phenomena with the help of a single powerful idea: that the essence of language is a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules.
Pinker is well known for his skills of explaining the art and science of language. His bestselling book How the Mind Works was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and was the #1 bestselling book for amazon.com in 1997. His other bestseller The Language Instinct was named one of the Ten Best Books of 1994 by The New York Times Book Review and nominated for the William James Book Award by the American Psychological Association.
Customer Reviews:
Great book!.......2007-03-15
This book is definitely fascinating, and Pinker weaves his sense of humor throughout explanations of why verbs, regular and irregular, are the way they are.
My head still hurts.......2006-11-19
I have long been a Steven Pinker fan. It is great to have a neurologist appear who can explain the workings of the brain in a fairly easy to understand, often humorous and precise way. Words & Rules, though made my head hurt. I felt a little like the rat in Flowers for Algernon: a vague feeling that I might have understood this more easily at one time not too long ago, but boy is this difficult to wade through now. Which is to say I blame myself rather than Pinker. I think it's a very difficult subject and my tenuous grasp of grammar didn't help. Unlike his previous books, an actual understanding of the parts of speech helps here.
That said, delving into the minutiae of how the brain works is ultimately rewarding, even if I only understood maybe 75% of this. Watching vicariously as Pinker et al close in how how we think and talk is truly awesome. I find myself paying close attention to how I speak; how I hesitate in choosing words; what associations I seem to need to find a word or person... . Very cool, though you can probably get sucked into some kind of fugue state if you overdo it.
Still highly recommended, but make sure you're snowed in somewhere and have a lot of coffee.
George
Great if you really want to learn.......2006-11-07
I am a linguist now, but I read this book before I started graduate school and I really enjoyed it! The other reviewers are correct in that it is more dense, but if you are really curious about how inflection and irregular verbs (not to mention coinages such as 'computer mouses/mice' or 'flew/flied out to right field') might work in the brain, I think you might really enjoy it! For those who say it's dull, well it's the fascinating topic that makes it good, not a storyline! It is, after all, an informational book. I recommend it for serious language hobbyists or people wanting to enter linguistics in the future.
Interesting and boring paradox.......2006-08-25
I have read both the Language Instinct and How the Mind Works, and I'd say this one ranks below both of those. While the book is filled with very interesting facts about verbs and language acquistion, I found it too long and tedious.. I felt like I was plowing through.
For those wanting to get most of the information from this book and not "plow" - I'd read chapters 1-3 (The Infinite Library, Dissection by Linguistics, Broken Telephone) and then 7 (Kids Say the Darndest Things), and then 10 (A Digital Mind in an Analog World). Readers taking this approach can skim the other chapters to see if they are of interest.
I found Chapter 7 to be the most interesting, as I have a young two year old acquiring language. Naturally, I'd like to have seen that section expanded. That chapter was (to me) the most revealing of the entire book.
Brilliant book inappropriately marketed.......2006-03-31
In Words and Rules, Pinker manages to condense and tie together an unbelievable amount of research. Reading this book carefully (i.e. really absorbing the densely packed information) and looking up some of its references is probably equivalent to a good undergraduate degree in linguistics.
Pinker has a knack for teasing apart all the different threads that make up a hugely complex subject, exploring each one with arguments and data from different academic currents, and then tying them up again so the reader can form a much better picture of the whole. And that's exactly what he does in this flawlessly well-written book.
The only problem with Words and Rules is its packaging: it's marketed as a popular science book for the general public, but unlike The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works, it can probably only be properly appreciated by either serious "language hobbyists" or linguists (I am both).
If you don't have a fairly good background, or at least a serious interest, in linguistics, you'll probably find this book too dense (at any rate, it's definitely not "light reading"). If you're a linguist (pure or applied), here's another real gem from Steven Pinker.
Book Description
How does language work? How do children learn their mother tongue? Why do languages change over time, making Shakespearean English difficult for us to follow and Chaucer's English almost incomprehensible? Why do languages have so many quirks and irregularities? Are they all fundamentally alike? How are new words created? Where in the brain does language reside?
In Words and Rules, Steven Pinker answers these and many other questions. His new book shares the wit and style of his classic, The Language Instinct, but explores language in a completely different way. In this book, Pinker explains the profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple single phenomenon and examining it from every angle. That phenomenon - the existence of regular and irregular verbs - connects an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities: the history of languages; the attempts to duplicate human language using computer simulations; the illuminating errors of children as they begin to speak; the peculiarities of the English language; the sources of the major themes in the history of Western philosophy; the latest techniques in identifying genes and imaging the living brain.
Pinker makes sense of all of this with the help of a single, powerful idea: that language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules. It is a distinction that extends beyond language and offers insight into the very nature of the human mind. Words and Rules is a sparkling, eye-opening, and utterly original book by one of the world's leading cognitive scientists.
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Rosa Guy
Manufacturer: Just Us Books, Inc.
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Harlem teen Imamu Jones begins his summer out on bail, helping his mother overcome her alcoholism and trying to stay out of trouble. But this period of calm doesn't last long, especially after he meets Olivette and Pierre, two new guys on the block.
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New Guys Around the Block
Manufacturer: Laure Leaf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 9991288163 |
Books:
- Winning the Merger Endgame: A Playbook for Profiting From Industry Consolidation
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- Worlds Apart: Measuring International and Global Inequality
- Zap the Gaps! Target Higher Performance and Achieve It!
- 202 Services You Can Sell For Big Profits (202 Services You Can Sell for Big Profits)
- A Course in Microeconomic Theory
- A First Course in Optimization Theory
- A Guide to Everyday Economic Statistics
- A Guide to Modern Econometrics
- Accursed Share, Vol. 1: Consumption
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