Things Precious & Wild: A Book of Nature Quotations

Book Description

Although i Seibutsu no Sekai (The World of Living Things) /i , the seminal 1941 work of Kinji Imanishi, had an enormous impact in Japan, both on scholars and on the general public, very little is known about it in the English-speaking world. This book makes the complete text available in English for the first time and provides an extensive introduction and notes to set the work in context. Imanishi's work, based on a very wide knowledge of science and the natural world, puts forward a distinctive view of nature and how it should be studied. Imanishi's work is particularly important as a background to ecology, primatology and human social evolution theory in Japan.

Discover Nature Around the House: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature)

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Discover Nature Around the House: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature)
Elizabeth P. Lawlor
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0811730093

Discover Nature in Winter: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature , No 6)

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Neat book!!!

Discover Nature in Winter: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature , No 6)
Elizabeth P. Lawlor
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Biology | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 081172719X

Book Description

& 150 drawings & 6 x 9 . For beginning naturalists of any age Winter is no time to limit nature activity. In Discover Nature in Winter, informative background on melt-freeze cycles, winter stargazing, deciduous and coniferous trees, wildlife behavior, and much more are paired with hands-on explorations that bring the winter season to life: determining windchill, observing winter constellations, identifying tree branch patterns, studying life in frozen ponds. In this book, snow is not the defining characteristic of winter, but a drop in temperature, making the activities appropriate for readers in any region. With little more than a notebook, a hand lens, and curiosity, readers will be equipped for limitless winter discovery. Elizabeth Lawlor and Pat Archer have also teamed up on Discover Nature at the Seashore, Discover Nature Close to Home, and Discover Nature at Sundown

Customer Reviews:

Neat book!!!.......2003-09-07

I always wondered what happened during winter - how does so much spring forth in springtime when its so quiet over the winter. This book gives us a terrific foundation for understanding all that. There are chapters on trees and what's going on inside them, "winter weeds," insects and how they overwinter in their different forms, and mammals and what they're doing to survive. Its just so absolutely amazing. There are activities throughout the book as well so it doesn't need to be just a nice winter read but a nice chance to get outside and explore too!

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Excellent and simply stated message on our ecological future

Simple Things Won't Save the Earth
J. Robert Hunter
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Rain Forests | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Ecology | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0292731132

Book Description

We drive cars with "Save the Whales" bumper stickers, buy aerosol sprays that advertise "no chlorofluorocarbons," and wear T-shirts made from organically grown cotton. All of these "earth friendly" choices and products convince us that we are "thinking globally, acting locally" and saving the planet. But are we really? In this provocative book, J. Robert Hunter asserts that using catchy slogans and symbols to sell the public on environmental conservation is ineffective, misleading, and even dangerous. Debunking the Fifty Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth approach, Hunter shows that there are no simple solutions to major environmental problems such as species extinction, ozone depletion, global warming, pollution, and non-renewable resource consumption. The use of slogans and symbols, Hunter argues, simply gives the public a false sense that "someone" is solving the environmental crisis--while it remains as serious now as when the environmental movement began. Writing in plain yet passionate prose for general readers, he here opens a national debate on what is really required to preserve the earth as a habitat for the human species.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent and simply stated message on our ecological future.......1998-04-11

For the ecologically interested but untrained and uninitiated lay people, Hunter offers a real connection between the Homo sapiens (humans) and mother nature through his symbolic use of the Hevea rubber tree as well as his exploration of petroleum as an alternative to natural rubber. From the most developed to the new developing countries, a majority of people can relate to the rubber tree either as consumers of its final products or as providers of the raw materials in plantations. The rubber tree offers an example of the discovery, exploitation, and abuse of earth's resources.

In simple language and unsophisticated, clear analogies, Hunter exposes basic assumptions of technological development. Most of us are blinded by the Cartesian mentality where the scientific method is always expected to yield answers in all matters of mother nature; the only impediment is time. Hunter offers sufficient but not overwhelming statistics on humans' need for rubber and the realities of growing such a single-tree crop.

Without using the "doomsday" style characteristic of much of the popular ecological literature, Hunter present a sober picture of earth's future, should we continue our current rate of exploitation of natural resources justified by human's insatiable needs. Our behavior is compared to the insects or microorganisms that, finding a large supply of their preferred nourishment, abandon all logic and proceed to feed and multiply until the source of food is gone and the environment is depleted, hence causing their own demise.

Perhaps my only, but minor, critique is that, while Hunter states at various times that the major ecological problem is population growth, he fails to address the issue at a deeper level. The miserable working conditions of the Para rubber tree tappers are exposed, but further explorations of the social aspects of ecological calamities are lacking. Implications of technological innovations, such as waste and pollution, overlord-subservient relationships between individuals, a full and happy life only for a few, and a conversely dreary existence for the majority, are mentioned and taken as a perennial fact without further explanation. And finally, population control is hinted as a solution to the ecological dilemma in an earth with finite resources, but few ideas are offered on the implementation of such a strategy.

Hunter does convey the message across with his simple, clear, and uncluttered style. After starting his book I was compelled to continue reading until the end, and I sense that the ecological message will find a wider appeal when others replicate my experience.

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Book's effect could be 18,000 times more powerful, if it weren't for the exaggerations

Great for kids

A Handy Reference Book

50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
The Earth Works Group
Manufacturer: Earthworks Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Ecology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Ecology | Biological Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth

Save Our Planet: 750 Everyday Ways You Can Help Clean Up the Earth/25th Anniversary

50 Simple Things Your Business Can Do to Save the Earth

Earth Book for Kids: Activities to Help Heal the Environment

The Next Step: 50 More Things You Can Do to Save the Earth

ASIN: 1879682605

Customer Reviews:

Book's effect could be 18,000 times more powerful, if it weren't for the exaggerations.......2005-10-25

This book is great to instill a mindset that what we do as individuals really does effect the environment. And I do care about the environment. So much so that this book bugs me because some of the things it says are incorrect. The errors have kept me from lending it out. For eg. Page 27 lists 'titanium dioxide' as a harmful heavy metal. Then why is that chemical on the ingredients list of white powdered doughnuts? P46 Claims Elephants may be extinct by the year 2000. P48 States that your toilet takes 5-7 gallons per flush! My oldest is a 1953 commode that takes 3 gallons. It is an interesting fact that toilets can make up 40% of your water usage. But where do they get 5-7 gallons?! P66 "The smallest drip from a leaky faucet can waste over 50 gallons a day." I have had 'the smallest drips' that I put containers under until they could be repaired. I never needed a 55 gallon drum!! You get the idea. The book ruins its credibility with exaggeration and overstatement. Its a shame. It is a useful concept.

Great for kids.......2004-08-25

I read through this book as a child and it impacted me greatly. Ever since then, I've looked for simple ways to change my habits and routines so as to impact the environment less.

A Handy Reference Book.......1999-04-27

It's a great little reference book that you will refer back to again and again. In one or two pages, each topic gives background information, some interesting facts and figures, a list of the promised "Simple Things You Can Do" and, in some cases, a list of additional reference material. Many of the suggested simple things are not only easy to live with, but can save you money, too.

If everyone could do even 5 of the 50 things mentioned in this book, the world would be a lot better off for it.

Book Description

Jabir ibn Hayyan, for a long time the reigning alchemical authority both in Islam and the Latin West, has exercised numerous generations of scholars. To be sure, it is not only the vexed question of the historical authorship and dating of the grand corpus Jabirianum which poses a serious scholarly challenge; equally challenging is the task of unraveling all those obscure and tantalizing discourses which it contains.
This book, which marks the first full-scale study of Jabir ever to be published in the English language, takes up both challenges. The author begins by critically reexamining the historical foundations of the prevalent view that the Jabirian corpus is the work not of an 8th-century individual, but that of several generations of Shi'i authors belonging to the following century and later. Tentatively concluding that this view is problematic, the author, therefore, infers that its methodological implications are also problematic. Thus, developing its own methodological matrix, the book takes up the second challenge, namely that of a substantive analysis and explication of a Jabirian discourse, the Book of Stones. Here explicating Jabir's notions of substance and qualities, analyzing his ontological theory of language and unraveling the metaphysics of his Science of Balance, the author reconstructs the doctrinal context of the Stones and expounds its central theme. He then presents an authoritative critical edition of a substantial selection of the text of the Stones, based on all available manuscripts.
This critical edition has been translated in its entirety and is provided with exhaustive commentaries and textual notes -- another pioneering feature of this book: for this is the first English translation of a Jabirian text to emerge in print after a whole century. An outstanding contribution is that it announces and presents an exciting textual discovery: the author has found in the Stones a hitherto unknown Arabic translation of part of Aristotle's Categories. Given that we have so far known of only one other, and possibly later, classical Arabic translation of the Greek text, Haq's discovery gives this book an historical importance.

Discover Nature at Sundown: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature Series)

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Excellent!
Night-time Nature Study

Discover Nature at Sundown: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature Series)
Elizabeth P. Lawlor
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Zoology | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0811725278

Customer Reviews:

Excellent!.......2003-09-07

Great book focused on nighttime and all that happens as we're generally asleep. There are chapters on plants, owls, frogs, fireflies, moths, bats, opossums, crickets/katydids etc, and raccoons. Book is written in a straightforward way with really interesting facts throughout and things to do to explore further. I kept on thinking "wow" throughout. Excellent book!

Night-time Nature Study.......2001-03-05

Here's a nifty book about the animals and plants that hunt and forage, mate and mingle, and attract pollinators at night. The author takes us to a realm of amazing smells and eerie sounds that one only finds after dark, and shows us who's "who-ing." Rather than limit the reader to brief discussions of nocturnal mammals and birds, this author begins with flowers then heads through some insects and the vertebrates. She lets us in on the secret lives of these species, with information on feeding habits, mating, rearing the young, and more. Animals covered in depth include: Owls, frogs, moths, fireflies, bats, opossums, crickets and grasshoppers, raccoons, and skunks. The relatives of these animals are also mentioned. With maps and clearly written charts, she makes it easy for the novice nocturnal hunter to find the species in different habitats. The author also includes a few demonstrations (like sugaring for moths) and suggestions for furthur observations. The text is accompanied by well labled line drawings of important anatomical features--skulls, antennae, ears--and the chapters include equipment lists, suggested "hunting" places, and helpful hints. Especially helpful were the charts on owl pellets and the tadpole development table. Great for family outings, homeschools (where learing never stops for night) and nature centers.

What's the Difference Between...Apes and Monkeys and Other Living Things?

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What's the Difference Between...Apes and Monkeys and Other Living Things?
Gary Soucie
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Biology | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0471086258

Book Description

Which would you rather smell, an anemone or a sea anemone?

Are conifers always evergreens?

Is a peanut a nut that looks like a pea, or a pea that tastes like a nut?

Do moose have horns or antlers?

Don't know the answers? Don't worry! If you can't tell a turtle from a tortoise, a stalk from a stem, or a wasp from a hornet, you're not alone. Lots of people confuse them, and even scientists sometimes have trouble telling certain pairs apart. Now, well-known science and nature writer Gary Soucie helps you understand the differences between many commonly confused parts of the natural world.

Learn how flowers are different from blossoms and why hair isn't the same as fur. Helpful illustrations and fun facts cover everything from five-foot-long salamanders to orchids that look like female bees. So, if you think strawberries are berries and watermelons aren't, or if you wonder how you'll ever learn to tell a frog from a toad, just read this book. You'll enjoy it!

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Discover Nature at the Seashore: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature Series)
Elizabeth P. Lawlor
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Pets | Animals | Children's Books | Subjects | Books | Fiction | Nonfiction
Biology | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Marine Biology | Biology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Oceans & Seas | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
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Seaside Naturalist: A Guide to Study at the Seashore

Discover Nature in Water & Wetlands: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature Series)

Discover Nature Close to Home: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature Series)

Discover Nature in Winter: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature , No 6)

Discover Nature at Sundown: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature Series)

ASIN: 0811730794

Customer Reviews:

Gives an objective account of one Glomar Challenger voyage........1997-11-07

For those interested in science, earth sciences or plate tectonics, "The Mediterranean Was a Desert" delivers. The book gives an objective account of one of the most important Glomar Challenger voyages. It gives a nice build-up to the discovery, made over the course of that summer voyage, that the Mediterranean had once virtually dried up. The author is a scientist and focuses on aspects of the science and underplays human relationships although some conflicts and human interactions are mentioned. I most enjoyed the descriptions of the way the Mediterranean Sea had been some 4 or 5 million years earlier, the progression of changes, and the evidence which brought him to this viewpoint and why. I least enjoyed the book's style which sounded a bit too much like it had been written by an average scientist rather than a Carl Sagan scientist. Still, it is a worthy read.

Book Description

Research advances in III-nitride semiconductor materials and device have led to an exponential increase in activity directed towards electronic and optoelectronic applications. There is also great scientific interest in this class of materials because they appear to form the first semiconductor system in which extended defects do not severely affect the optical properties of devices. The volume consists of chapters written by a number of leading researchers in nitride materials and device technology with the emphasis on the dopants incorporations, impurities identifications, defects engineering, defects characterization, ion implantation, irradiation-induced defects, residual stress, structural defects and phonon confinement. This unique volume provides a comprehensive review and introduction of defects and structural properties of GaN and related compounds for newcomers to the field and stimulus to further advances for experienced researchers. Given the current level of interest and research activity directed towards nitride materials and devices, the publication of the volume is particularly timely. Early pioneering work by Pankove and co-workers in the 1970s yielded a metal-insulator-semiconductor GaN light-emitting diode (LED), but the difficulty of producing p-type GaN precluded much further effort. The current level of activity in nitride semiconductors was inspired largely by the results of Akasaki and co-workers and of Nakamura and co-workers in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the development of p-type doping in GaN and the demonstration of nitride-based LEDs at visible wavelengths. These advances were followed by the successful fabrication and commercialization of nitride blue laser diodes by Nakamura et al at Nichia. The chapters contained in this volume constitutes a mere sampling of the broad range of research on nitride semiconductor materials and defect issues currently being pursued in academic, government, and industrial laboratories worldwide.

Book Description

In Bedlam Burning, Geoff Nicholson turns his satirical gaze to the ivy covered walls of academia and the rubber rooms of an insane asylum. It all starts at Cambridge University, in the rooms of Dr. John Bentley, a don famous for his book burning parties-"a little, active symbolic literary criticism"-where guests are invited to incinerate books.

It is at one such party that Gregory Collins, brilliant but unprepossessing, meets Mike Smith, a handsome classmate. When Collins's first novel, The Wax Man, is accepted for publication, he convinces Smith to take his place on the book jacket. As a result, it is Smith rather than Collins who receives the offer to be writer-in-residence at the asylum run by Dr. James Kincaid, whose obscure therapeutic philosophy centers on the soothing powers of literature. When Smith compiles a book of the inmates' writings, and it becomes a literary success, this comedy of errors threatens to become a tragedy.

"Bedlam Burning is genuinely comic, and genuinely serious . . . Nicholson has managed to create an acidic and intelligent novel of ideas and idiots." (Scotland on Sunday)

"One of English literature's premier purveyors of black humor" (Time Out)

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining, funny, clever.......2003-08-26

This is a very, very funny book. The other reviews were pretty accurate, the one thing I will add is there is quite a bit of British humor...non-Brits might not get all the jokes! But don't let this put you off, the book is very amusing and has a couple of clever plot twists too.

Witty and Clever.......2002-08-09

Geoff Nicholson's Bedlam Burning is a cleverly-told story about, Michael Smith, an attractive 23 year-old British man, who allows a less-better looking acquaintance of his from University (they met at a book burning party), Gregory Collins, use his photo on the book jacket of Gregory's first novel. Michael, masquerading as Gregory at a book reading, is offered a position in a psychiatric clinic as a writer-in-residence, part of the therapy for those being treated there. Bedlam Burning is also a witty examination of what it is to read, what it is to write, who, and how much, we can believe. Michael almost immediately begins getting submissions from everyone at the clinic. As he ruminates on these submissions, you may wonder, who is really writing these? Can you believe it at all? Gregory keeps coming back into Michael's life, complicating things, but allowing Nicholson to give us more ruminations on the nature of writing, authorship and reading. The novel is engaging, humorous and witty. The characters are just that--characters. The story moves along fairly quickly and it works. An enjoyable read.

Not A Book That I'd Want To Burn.......2002-03-16

Michael Smith is a man who is convinced that he is your pretty decent, average sort of guy with absolutely no outstanding talents either positive or negative. However, that is not enough to stop him from having an extraordinary adventure. In 1974, when he attends a "book-burning" party of an eccentric old college professor, Smith meets Gregory Collins, the epitome of a loser and a self-proclaimed writer-wannabe. However, when Collins actually succeeds in acquiring a publication deal for a bizarre novel, he calls on his old acquaintance, Smith, to help him out by posing for him on the author-jacket to improve sales by making the author seem attractive. Amusedly, Smith agrees. When events take a surprising turn and Gregory Collins is asked to do a reading for his book, he is left no option but to call on Smith again. And again, Smith comes to his aid. It is at this reading that Smith meets, Alicia, an attractive young female psychiatrist. She wants to hire him to work at the Kincaid Clinic (a lunatic asylum) as a writer-in-residence to inspire the patients to pour out their thoughts and feelings through the catharsis of penning them. Desperate to remove himself from his own trite job and London life, and eager to be in the vicinity of the attractive Alicia, Smith agrees, carrying his duplicity even further.

Under these circumstances, Michael Smith cannot possibly be expecting a typical sort of reception. However, when he finds himself wading through thousands of pages of anagrams, trivia, sex-and-violence stories, football matches, and spiritual enlightenment guides, even he finds himself overwhelmed. When his boss responds to his gesture of furnishing the patients' library by tearing the covers off of all the books, he begins to feel a certain amount of concern over his current situation. The inmates come in varying degrees of catatonia, hyperactivity, psychosis, and antisocial, yet how can he resist Alicia's fulfilling--even if strange--sexual encounters? And how can he escape from his scheme, when the entire clinic is counting on him to publish an anthology of their creative writing efforts?

The first one hundred pages of this book were absolutely hysterical. The plot was funny, engaging, and never dragged on with non-essential details. It was very fast-paced and did not take long to read. However, I found the parts detailing Alicia's sex with Michael, which described her coprophemia (arousal by spouting verbal and graphic obscenities) to be a bit over-the-top. At times, the plot seemed to get a little far-fetched and unbelievable beyond the point of satire. Some people might find the book irreverent in its treatment of the mentally ill (the concept of the so-called Kincaidian therapy being quite laughable itself). However, this novel was unlike anything I had read in quite a while. The characters were very well-developed, Michael Smith was very likeable, as the self-assured yet blundering narrator, and whenever Gregory Collins appeared on the scene you were rolling your eyes. A certain amount of wry amusement is warranted as you find that you ought to have guessed what was coming next in this corkscrew plot. In the end, Geoff Nicholson does manage to very cleverly reign in all of the chaos he produces and give us a conclusive--if not somewhat tidy--finale.

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