Reading Minds Moskowitz, Michael
2010, 20180326, 2018-03-26, 2010-03-31
eBook
Reading Minds is a practical guide to the cognitive science revolution. With fascinating descriptions of studies of the mind, from the brain scans of lovers and liars in London to the eye movements ...of babies in Budapest, this book takes the reader into the laboratories of the most innovative psychological researchers around the world. Using anecdotes from everyday life and his clinical practice, renowned psychotherapist and academic Michael Moskowitz shows how to use the insights of science to better understand and relate to others.
It seems that practically every day there is news about some new super-nutrient, super diet, or super food that promises to help us to be healthier, smarter, happier, fight disease, lose weight, or ...live longer. Some of this information propels temporary food or diet fads, some of it is subsequently discredited, and some becomes staid wisdom of healthy eating. Food and Nutrition: What Everyone Needs to Know® sorts through this information and looks at food systems globally and historically, providing an overview of the relationship between humans, the environment, and food.
An essential guide to recognizing bogus numbers and misleading data
Numbers are often intimidating, confusing, and even deliberately deceptive-especially when they are really big. The media loves to ...report on millions, billions, and trillions, but frequently makes basic mistakes or presents such numbers in misleading ways. And misunderstanding numbers can have serious consequences, since they can deceive us in many of our most important decisions, including how to vote, what to buy, and whether to make a financial investment. In this short, accessible, enlightening, and entertaining book, leading computer scientist Brian Kernighan teaches anyone-even diehard math-phobes-how to demystify the numbers that assault us every day.
With examples drawn from a rich variety of sources, including journalism, advertising, and politics, Kernighan demonstrates how numbers can mislead and misrepresent. In chapters covering big numbers, units, dimensions, and more, he lays bare everything from deceptive graphs to speciously precise numbers. And he shows how anyone-using a few basic ideas and lots of shortcuts-can easily learn to recognize common mistakes, determine whether numbers are credible, and make their own sensible estimates when needed.
Giving you the simple tools you need to avoid being fooled by dubious numbers,Millions, Billions, Zillionsis an essential survival guide for a world drowning in big-and often bad-data.
After You Hear It's Cancer offers a step-by-step guide for recently diagnosed patients and their families as they embark on this arduous journey. The authors integrate cutting-edge research with the ...perspectives of numerous cancer patients to provide an empathic, but pragmatic handbook that should be required reading for every cancer patient.
Written in a lively and entertaining style, Facts and Fictions in Mental Health examines common conceptions and misconceptions surrounding mental health and its treatment. Each chapter focuses on a ...misconception and is followed by a discussion of related findings from scientific research. • A compilation of the authors' "Facts and Fictions" columns written for Scientific American Mind, with the addition of six new columns exclusive to this book • Written in a lively and often entertaining style, accessible to both the undergraduate and the interested general reader • Each chapter covers a different "fiction" and allows readers to gain a more balanced and accurate view of important topics in mental health • The six new columns examine myths and misconceptions of considerable interest and relevance to undergraduates in abnormal psychology courses • Introductory material and references are included throughout the book
The conceptual changes brought by modern physics are important, radical and fascinating, yet they are only vaguely understood by people working outside the field. Exploring the four pillars of modern ...physics – relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles and cosmology – this clear and lively account will interest anyone who has wondered what Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger and Heisenberg were really talking about. The book discusses quarks and leptons, antiparticles and Feynman diagrams, curved space-time, the Big Bang and the expanding Universe. Suitable for undergraduate students in non-science as well as science subjects, it uses problems and worked examples to help readers develop an understanding of what recent advances in physics actually mean.
Prof Leong Wai Kum not only demystifies the provisions of the Women's Charter, she also situates the Charter in Singapore's political context at the time. The author gives a balanced view of the ...Charter by highlighting the progressive provisions as well as its shortcomings. Outstanding is her personal view that the Charter provides a moral view of marriage as being "an equal cooperative partnership of different efforts". She also holds the view that the Charter elevates the status of women as it gives equal importance to women's unpaid work and men's paid work. The Charter enshrines and elevates the institution of marriage. At the same time it also gives the reader an impression of the state's approach to familial relationships. This is a must read book for those who are interested in gender issues.
Cheng U Wen Lena Founder Member and 1st President of AWARE
The author affirms the primacy of the Women's Charter as a radically progressive legislation ahead of its time in the ideals that guided the drafters and in regulating family law in Singapore. It provides thoughtful, practical suggestions, invaluable insights, rationalises the provisions of the Charter, comments on its many strengths and some of its shortcomings. Perhaps the most valuable and appealing insight that the author highlights is that the Charter offers a moral message that calls on men and women to treat each other as equal partners, discharge their obligation jointly and generally behave with consideration towards one another. I would encourage all those planning to get married to study The Singapore Women's Charter: 50 Questions.
Constance Singam Writer, Social Activist, Past President of AWARE
The Women's Charter is arguably one of Singapore's most important pieces of legislation as it fundamentally altered the social fabric of the country. It also has a very real and direct impact on the lives of many Singaporeans today. This book is therefore to be warmly welcomed as it deals with 50 questions that are commonly asked about the Women's Charter. Written in a clear, succinct and yet scholarly manner by Singapore's leading family law academic, the book will be helpful to Singaporeans who either need to understand the Charter better or who have an interest in how the law seeks to regulate the institution of marriage in Singapore.
Prof Tan Cheng Han Dean of Law Faculty, National University of Singapore
This book is a clear and concise guide to how the Women's Charter protects women and families in Singapore. It looks behind and beyond the word of the law to consider the effect and effectiveness of the statute. Undoubtedly the book is a useful tool for understanding how this legislation helps strengthen and preserve the Singapore family.
Laura Hwang President, Singapore Council of Women's Organisations
Math bytes Chartier, Tim; Chartier, Tim
2014., 20140406, 2014, 2014-04-06
eBook
This book provides a fun, hands-on approach to learning how mathematics and computing relate to the world around us and help us to better understand it. How can reposting on Twitter kill a movie's ...opening weekend? How can you use mathematics to find your celebrity look-alike? What is Homer Simpson's method for disproving Fermat's Last Theorem? Each topic in this refreshingly inviting book illustrates a famous mathematical algorithm or result--such as Google's PageRank and the traveling salesman problem--and the applications grow more challenging as you progress through the chapters. But don't worry, helpful solutions are provided each step of the way.
Math Bytesshows you how to do calculus using a bag of chocolate chips, and how to prove the Euler characteristic simply by doodling. Generously illustrated in color throughout, this lively and entertaining book also explains how to create fractal landscapes with a roll of the dice, pick a competitive bracket for March Madness, decipher the math that makes it possible to resize a computer font or launch an Angry Bird--and much, much more. All of the applications are presented in an accessible and engaging way, enabling beginners and advanced readers alike to learn and explore at their own pace--a bit and a byte at a time.
Why does chocolate taste so good? Why do we seek the one? This book starts with the fundamentals and then works towards a deeper understanding of the chemistry of human nature. Essential reading for ...anyone with an interest in this science and written at a level accessible to experts and non-experts alike.
"It's impossible to grasp the whole planet or integrate all the descriptions of it. But because we live here, we have to try. This is not just an artistic compulsion or an existential yearning, still ...less an academic exercise. It's a survival issue. This is the only planet we have. We're stuck here, and we don't own the place-it would be the height of arrogance to assume that we do. We're tenants here, not owners, but we're tenants with hope for a long-term tenancy. We want to extend our lease just as far as we can."-fromEarth: A Tenant's Manual
InEarth: A Tenant's Manual, the distinguished geologist Frank H. T. Rhodes, President Emeritus of Cornell University, provides a sweeping, accessible, and deeply informed guide to the home we all share, showing us how we might best preserve the Earth's livability for ourselves and future generations.
Rhodes begins by setting the scene for our active planet and explaining how its location and composition determine how the Earth works and why it teems with life. He emphasizes the changes that are of concern to us today, from earthquakes to climate change and the clashes over the energy resources needed for the Earth's exploding population. He concludes with an extended exploration of humanity's prospects on a complex, protean, and ultimately finite world.
It is not a question of whether the planet is sustainable; the challenge facing life on Earth-and the life of the Earth-is whether an expanding and high-consumption species like ours is sustainable. Only new resources, new priorities, new policies and, most of all, new knowledge, can reverse the damage that humanity is doing to our home-and ourselves. A sustainable human future, Rhodes concludes in this eloquent, sobering, but ultimately optimistic book, will require a sense of responsible stewardship, for we are not owners of this planet; we are tenants.
Surveying the systems, large and small, that govern Earth's processes and influence its changes, Rhodes addresses the negative consequences of human activities for the health of its regulatory systems but offers practical suggestions as to how we might effect repairs, or at least limit further damage to our home.
