The Fungal Community: Its Organization and Role in the Ecosystem, Third Edition (Mycology Series)

Book Description

The Fungal Community: Its Organization and Role in the Ecosystem, Third Edition addresses many of the questions related to the observations, characterizations, and functional attributes of fungal assemblages and their interaction with the environment and other organisms. This edition promotes awareness of the functional methods of classification over taxonomic methods, and approaches the concept of fungal communities from an ecological perspective, rather than from a fungicentric view. It has expanded to examine issues of global and local biodiversity, the problems associated with exotic species, and the debate concerning diversity and function. The third edition also focuses on current ecological discussions - diversity and function, scaling issues, disturbance, and invasive species - from a fungal perspective. In order to address these concepts, the book examines the appropriate techniques to identify fungi, calculate their abundance, determine their associations among themselves and other organisms, and measure their individual and community function. This book explains attempts to scale these measures from the microscopic cell level through local, landscape, and ecosystem levels. The totality of the ideas, methods, and results presented by the contributing authors points to the future direction of mycology.

Activation Analysis (Instrumental and Radiochemical Activation Analysis)
Average customer rating:
Activation Analysis (Instrumental and Radiochemical Activation Analysis)
J. Hoste , J. Op De Beeck , R. Gijbels , F. Adams , P. Van Den Winkel , and D. De Soete
Manufacturer: CRC Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WO1CHY

Flow Injection Separation and Preconcentration
Average customer rating:
Flow Injection Separation and Preconcentration
Zhaolun Fang
Manufacturer: Vch Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Analytic | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
General & Reference | Chemistry | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1560811471

Book Description

The flow-injection concept has triggered many important breakthroughs in instrumental analysis -- on-line separation and preconcentration being the most dramatic.

This book is the first to treat this subject -- undoubtedly one of the most active fields in automated chemical analysis and in flow-injection --exclusively, systematically and in great detail.

Special stress is put on the analysis of difficult samples in environmental, agricultural, and clinical chemistry.

The book also provides a systematic treatment of basic principles, practical guidelines and useful hints for all those who wish to upgrade their analytical methods by separation and preconcentration.

Instrumental and separation analysis (The Merrill chemistry series)

Average customer rating:

Instrumental and separation analysis (The Merrill chemistry series)
C. T Kenner
Manufacturer: Merrill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Analytic | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Decision making in land management involves preferential selection among competing alternatives. Often, such choices are difficult owing to the complexity of the decision context. Because the analytic hierarchy process (AHP, developed by Thomas Saaty in the 1970s) has been successfully applied to many complex planning, resource allocation, and priority setting problems in business, energy, health, marketing, natural resources, and transportation, more applications of the AHP in natural resources and environmental sciences are appearing regularly. This realization has prompted the authors to collect some of the important works in this area and present them as a single volume for managers and scholars. Because land management contains a somewhat unique set of features not found in other AHP application areas, such as site-specific decisions, group participation and collaboration, and incomplete scientific knowledge, this text fills a void in the literature on management science and decision analysis for forest resources.

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormons (Essays on Mormonism Series)

Average customer rating:

A Powerful set of Essays on the Origin of the Book of Mormon
Automaticity a "weak link"?
A decent critique of the Book of Mormon, however flawed
A new New approaches!
The Book of Mormon--Revisited

American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormons (Essays on Mormonism Series)

Manufacturer: Signature Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Studies of the Book of Mormon
Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith: Psychobiography and the Book of Mormon
Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (A Biography)
An Insider's View of Mormon Origins

ASIN: 1560851511

Book Description

A fine line divides scripture from non-scripture, writes Robert M. Price in American Apocrypha. Some books, not in the Bible, are as powerful as anything in the canon. At the same time, portions of the Bible were authored much later than the events they narrate by scribes who wrote under fictitious names. Clearly, the hallmark of scripture is not historical accuracy but its spiritual impact on individuals, and exclusion from the canon is not reason to dismiss a book as heretical.

Consider the Book of Mormon, first published in 1830. The nature of this volume--its claim to ancient history, in particular--is the theme of nine ground-breaking essays in American Apocrypha. Thomas W. Murphy discusses the Book of Mormon's view that American Indians are descendants of ancient Hebrews. In recent DNA tests, Native Americans have proven to be of Siberian ancestry; they show no signs of ancient Jewish or Middle Eastern descent. Nor is the Book of Mormon a traditional translation from an ancient document, writes David P. Wright, as indicated by the underlying Hebrew in the book's Isaiah passages. Other contributors to American Apocrypha explore the evolution of ideas in the Book of Mormon during the course of its dictation.

Editors Dan Vogel (author of Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon) and Brent Metcalfe (editor of New Approaches to the Book of Mormon) have chosen authors who represent a wide range of disciplines and perspectives: Robert Price edits the Journal of Higher Criticism, Thomas Murphy chairs the anthropology department at Edmonds Community College, and David Wright teaches Hebrew Bible at Brandeis University. They are joined by Scott C. Dunn; Edwin Firmage, Jr.; George D. Smith; and Susan Staker, all of whom explore what can and cannot be reasonably asserted about the Book of Mormon as scripture.

Customer Reviews:

A Powerful set of Essays on the Origin of the Book of Mormon.......2007-07-23

To be brief, I'll just point to the essay by Professor Edwin Firmage, who tells a compelling story of how he came to abandon his belief that the Book of Mormon is an ancient document. The other essays in this book are also fascinating. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the Book of Mormon.

Professor Edwin Firmage, Jr. writes:

"Nearly twenty years ago, as a first year-graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, my ambition was to become another Hugh Nibley, whose writings I loved since I was twelve...."

"Still a neophyte, but armed with German and a little Arabic, Greek, and Hebrew, and intent on acquiring the requisite apologetic tools, I cameo Berkeley to study ancient Near Eastern languages, particularly Egyptian, the language of mysteries par excellence.

"Not long after my arrival, I was asked to teach the Book of Mormon in the Gospel Doctrine class in my Berkeley ward. I welcomed the opportunity, as it would give me a chance to delve deeper into the book. By any standard, my wife and I were faithful Mormons who attended church, visited the temple, and prayed together. I expected my study of the Book of Mormon to result in an increase of faith as it had done on my mission. But within six months, I no longer believed the Book of Mormon to be an ancient text.

"To this day, I am not sure how it happened, although I can isolate several issues that played a role in my change of mind....I have often thought that what happened to me in Berkeley was fundamentally a conversion, or, if you like, an anti-conversion. The process had all the inscrutable suddenness that characterized some of the conversions I had witnessed as missionary. Like a conversion to faith, the effect of my change of mind propagated with amazing speed. Almost overnight my whole outlook on life was different."

"The remaining pages of this essay will present a few of what, for me in 1984, were discoveries of some importance. These do not by any means constitute a comprehensive explanation of the Book of Mormon. Nor are they offered as proof of my thesis that the book is modern, but as examples of how the assumption that is modern resolves otherwise significant difficulties."

Automaticity a "weak link"?.......2006-06-16

Amazon's editorial review lists Scott Dunn's essay on "automaticity" as a "weak link" in this volume. I frankly thought it was the most compelling essay in the whole book; it reconciles some conflicting lines of evidence that competing theories of "inspiration" and "fraud" fail to adequately take into account. Overall, this volume is an excellent sampling of critical Book of Mormon scholarship. High marks from me.

A decent critique of the Book of Mormon, however flawed.......2005-07-20

This is the follow-up collection of essays to Metcalfe's 1993 book "New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Essays on critical methodology." This anthology, edited by Metcalfe and Dan Vogwl, is critical of the alleged ancient origins of the Book of Mormon and focuses on a number of topics. Dan Vogel's two essays were weak and errant. His discussion on 19th century anti-Masonic sentiment arising from the murder of Hook in 1826 and how this allegedly seeped its way into Joseph Smith's "Book of Mormon" added very little new information on the topic. His essay on the 3 and 8 witnesses to the Angel Moroni and the Book of Mormn plates relied too much on hearsay accounts to be credible, which was a disappointment, as Vogel is a historian who really should have done better with his sources.

Murphy's essay was a strawman from start to finish, relying on a popular but errant interpretation of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon ITSELF does not allow for a hemispheric geographical scope but a limited geography, a position many Latter-day Saints, including leaders such as Ivins, has taken for over a century. Such a position seems to have been Joseph Smith's take on the text by at least 1842. Thus, the fact that 99.6% of mDNA of Amerindians being Asiatic is consistent with the limited geographical model for Book of Mormon events. It was disappointing that HLA was no discussed, as recent HLA analyses supports diffusion from the Old World to the New World, consistent with the Book of Mormon.

David Wright's essay on Jopseph Smith's alleged reworking of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon was, by far, the most scholarly essay in the anthology, with Wright providing some interesting discussions of Isaiah variants in 2 Nephi 12-24, and other passages, such as the variant in 2 Nephi 12:16 and Isaiah 2:16 ("Ships of the Sea"). However, some of his claims are incorrect. For example, he dedictes a section of his essay to alleged KJV errors in Isaiah that appear in the Book of Mormon variants. However, some of this "errors" are not problematic, as he appears to judge the variant by using modern semantics. A glance at the 1611 and 1828 semantics of some of these words reveal that the KJV (and BOM) vatiants are correct.

Much more could be said about this book, which, despite several failings, is a much better book on the market critical of the antiquity of the Book of Mormon than books such as those by Harveat House, such as Ron Rhodes' uneducated and inane comments on the Book of Mormon in "Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Mormons," and many similar books.

A new New approaches!.......2004-08-22

It is a great honour to have read "American Apocrypha" because it is what Book of Mormon really is, a holy book with unknown origins or authors, just as 1-4 Esdra, Enoch books etc.

Signature books has in a nuanced way given alternative approaches to origins of Book of Mormon. As always, the alternativ approach is a naturlistic and deistic approach on the origins, where Joseph Smith is seen as the primarily author of Book of Mormon. In this case it is not a decieving Joseph who wants to exploit but a god-seeking man who thru writing the Book of Mormon wanted a new basis or fundament for real Christianity (and who can blame him?).

The authors are not Bible literalists which give the book a sound and just evaluation of Book of Mormon. What has attracted me is about the priority of Mosiah which gives a notion about the development of Joseph Smith's calling to become prophet and the last chapter, which discusses what I believe is the eternal struggle for the Bible literalist: if god never took part in writing the Bible, can it still be true? Pseudepigraphia: those who write books in the namne of others, like the Gospels, the Torah and the three Isaiahs! How can we reconcile the fact that fallible humans have written fallible scriptures with the scriptures being divine? The chapter gives an important perspective to this view which I will not reveal here.

The chapters are of different character and of different style. The chapter about Isaiah is a bit of grammatical challenge especially when Hebrew is just un-understandable as Mel Gibson's Aramaic, but very well written. The BYU-unit of Book of Mormon studies', FARMS, review of this chapter is a bit weak. The chapter about freemansory feels like reading the old anti-LDS of 1830s Alexander Campell once again. Signature books should reassess the old ways of tackling Book of Mormon and write more about the evolutive perspective of LDS like those chapters mentioned above. Many times articles about Book of Mormon become a serial counter-argumentation to FARMS - counter-argument essays are the worst kind of reading, as a reader, you can never get the whole picture.

I look forward to the next serie from Signature and hopefully the mainstream LDS members will take the challenge to read this book. I am not into holy stuff, I am just an outsider, but reading American Apocrypha gave me in insight in my own spiritual development and made me remember how I coped with Bible criticism, form criticism and other theological tools.

Well, I should not tell you what I became - you can guess for yourself - but "American Apocrypha" tries to say that Joseph is not more different that DeutroIsaiah which wrote the post-exilic parts of book called "Isaiah". Both wrote apocrypha, DeutroIsaiah in Palestine and Joseph in Palmyra!

The Book of Mormon--Revisited.......2003-06-03

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days (Mormons) teaches its members that if they want to know whether the Book of Mormon is true or not they should pray about the matter. If they receive a "burning in their bosom" they will know that the book and the accounts depicted inside are accurate. For faithful members of the church this is the only way to discover the "truth" of the Book of Mormon.

Brent Metcalfe and Dan Vogel take a different approach. They present a number of articles from scholars who have attempted to get at "the truth" of the Book of Mormon in a totally different manner. They apply the tools of the scientific method, historical research, and logical analysis to formulate hypotheses and draw conclusions. As a result, people who use logic and science to resolve issues are likely to be impressed by this book. On the other hand, those who believe in a religion purely because of faith and answers they have received in prayer are not likely to be impressed by this work, or to want to read it for that matter.

The articles are quite interesting. My favorite three included the one on "automatic writing", Tom Murphy's article on DNA and the Lamanites (which he came close to being excommunicated for writing), and the article on former "Seventy" B.H. Roberts and what he really believed about the Book of Mormon.

What comes through to the educated person is that many things that have long been presented "as facts" by the church are not. The truth is far more complicated. One can read the Book of Mormon and conclude that Nephites and Lamanites were supposedly the only groups present in the Americas between 600 BC and 400 AD. However, DNA testing shows this is simply impossible. The vast, vast bulk of Native Americans are related to groups in Asia that crossed the Bering Straits into this continent 10,000 to 50,000 years ago. In fact, its virtually impossible to find any connection between Native Americans and either Jews or Egyptians as claimed in the Book of Mormon.

The article on automatic writing challenges the allegation that it would be impossible for one uneducated person to "invent" or "write" the Book of Mormon by himself. In fact, such things have been documented to have been done several times in the past and perhaps on a more impressive scale.

This is a good book for a scholarly person who has questions about Mormon doctrine and seeks an answer that is not "faith-based". Whether all the writers have arrived at the correct conclusions or not, it does stimulate alot of powerful thinking.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books