内容简介 本书是关于我们如何从科学的视角重新认识这个世界的科普读物，阐述了宇宙、世界、生命科学视角下，对世界本源的认识，并结合生物学、数学、物理学和计算机科学知识，更加细致入微地解释我们观察到的世界中的各类现象。 在这本书中，作者希望表明我们的宇宙不仅仅是一座没有生命、毫无意义的数学机器。在我们真正了解意识和人类思想的奇迹之前，我们能真正了解宇宙吗？为了做到这一点，作者超越了物理世界去寻找答案。对于对生命、宇宙和一切事物的深层问题感到好奇的读者来说，《世界本身》是一本必不可少的读物。

Following up on The Power of Nice, agent-attorney Shapiro andfellow negotiator Jankowski reiterate that book's tenets:Neutralize your emotions and stay rational; Identify the type ofdifficult person; Control the encounter; and Explore options. Usingexamples from their own lives as well as pop culture, they offeranecdotes and tips for analysis. The "situationally difficult"person may be temporarily overreacting, so empathy can be a sureroad to cordial defusion. The "strategically difficult" arecalculating (passive-aggressive, take it or leave it, etc.), butcan be countered if you pleasantly, even humorously make them awareyou're onto their game. The "simply difficult," using power as animperative (irrational, bullying, duplicitous, etc.) are thetoughest, but those facing them must recognize their ownpower—including the option to just walk away, a decision that mustbe approached carefully. While the title may be the best thingabout the book, its tips on steering toward win-win situations aremore than p

From an award-winning New York Times investigative reportercomes an outrageous story of greed, corruption, andconspiracy—which left the FBI and Justice Department counting onthe cooperation of one man . . . It was one of the FBI's biggest secrets: a senior executive withAmerica's most politically powerful corporation, Archer DanielsMidland, had become a confidential government witness, secretlyrecording a vast criminal conspiracy spanning five continents. MarkWhitacre, the promising golden boy of ADM, had put his career andfamily at risk to wear a wire and deceive his friends andcolleagues. Using Whitacre and a small team of agents to tap intothe secrets at ADM, the FBI discovered the company's scheme tosteal millions of dollars from its own customers. But as the FBI and federal prosecutors closed in on ADM, usingstakeouts, wiretaps, and secret recordings of illegal meetingsaround the world, they suddenly found that everything was not allthat it appeared. At the same time Whitacre was coo

People decide about political parties by taking into accountthe preferences, values, expectations, and perceptions of theirfamily, friends, colleagues, and neighbours. As most people livewith others, members of their households influence each other'spolitical decisions. How and what they think about politics andwhat they do are the outcomes of social processes. Applying variedstatistical models to data from extensive German and Britishhousehold surveys, this book shows that wives and husbandsinfluence each other; young adults influence their parents,especially their mothers. Wives and mothers sit at the centre ofhouseholds: their partisanship influences the partisanship ofeveryone else, and the others affect them. Politics in householdsinteracts with competition among the political parties to sustainbounded partisanship. People ignore one of the major parties andvary their preference of its major rival over time. Electioncampaigns reinforce these choices.

“I like the surprise of the curtain going up, revealing what’sbehind it.” –John Schlesinger The British director John Schlesinger was one of the cinema’smost dynamic and influential artists. Now, in Conversations withJohn Schlesinger, acclaimed writer Ian Buruma, Schlesinger’snephew, reveals the director’s private world in a series ofin-depth interviews conducted in the later years of the director’slife. Here they discuss the impact of Schlesinger’s personal life on hisart. As his films so readily demonstrate, Schlesinger is awonderful storyteller, and he serves up fascinating and provocativerecollections of growing up in a Jewish family during World War II,his sexual coming-of-age as a gay man in conformist 1950s England,his emergence as an artist in the “Swinging 60s,” and theroller-coaster ride of his career as one of the most prominentHollywood directors of his time. Schlesinger also discusses his artistic philosophy and approach tofilmmaking, recounting stories from the sets of hi

A progressive program for those who want to learn to swim,as well as for swimmers at every level. Katz explains how to swimin detail and offers drills to improve stroke techniques, tops onimproving starts and turns, and a series of progressive workoutsdesigned to increase the athlete's strength and stamina. Linedrawings throughout.

Cheap booze. Flying ?eshpots. Lack of sleep. Endless spin.Lying pols. Just a few of the snares lying in wait for the reporters whocovered the 1972 presidential election. Traveling with the presspack from the June primaries to the big night in November, RollingStone reporter Timothy Crouse hopscotched the country with both theNixon and McGovern campaigns and witnessed the birth of moderncampaign journalism. The Boys on the Bus is the raucous story ofhow American news got to be what it is today. With its verve, wit,and psychological acumen, it is a classic of Americanreporting.

In July 1845, Henry David Thoreau built a small cottage in thewoods near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. During the twoyears and two months he spent there, he began to write Walden, achronicle of his communion with nature that became one of the mostinfluential and compelling books in American literature. Since itsfirst publication on August 9, 1854, by Ticknor and Fields, thework has become a classic, beloved for its message of living simplyand in harmony with nature. This edition of Walden featuresexquisite wood engravings by Michel McCurdy, one of America'sleading engravers and woodblock artists. McCurdy's engravings bringthe text to life--and illuminate the spirit of Thoreau's prose.Also included is a foreword by noted author, environmentalist, andnaturalist Terry Tempest Williams who reflects upon Thoreau'smessage that as we explore our world and ourselves, we draw evercloser to the truth of our connectedness.

At the beginning of thetwentieth century, the South Pole was the most coveted prize in thefiercely nationalistic modern age of exploration. In this brilliantdual biography, the award-winning writer Roland Huntford reexaminesevery detail of the great race to the South Pole between Britain'sRobert Scott and Norway's Roald Amundsen. Scott, who died along theway with four of his men only eleven miles from his next cache ofsupplies, became Britain's beloved failure, while Amundsen, who notonly beat Scott to the Pole but returned alive, was largelyforgotten. This account of their race is a gripping, highlyreadable history that captures the driving ambitions of the era andthe complex, often deeply flawed men who were charged with carryingthem out. The Last Place on Earth is the first of Huntford's masterly trilogyof polar biographies. It is also the only work on the subject inthe English language based on the original Norwegian sources, towhich Huntford returned to revise and update this edition.

In this thought-provoking study, Ali Mirsepassi explores theconcept of modernity, exposing the Eurocentric prejudices andhostility to non-Western culture that have characterized itsdevelopment. Focusing on the Iranian experience of modernity, hecharts its political and intellectual history and develops a newinterpretation of Islamic Fundamentalism through the detailedanalysis of the ideas of key Islamic intellectuals. The authorargues that the Iranian Revolution was not a simple clash betweenmodernity and tradition but an attempt to accommodate modernitywithin a sense of authentic Islamic identity, culture andhistorical experience. He concludes by assessing the future ofsecularism and democracy in the Middle East in general, and in Iranin particular. A significant contribution to the literature onmodernity, social change and Islamic Studies, this book will beessential reading for scholars and students of social theory andchange, Middle Eastern Studies, Cultural Studies and many relatedareas.

Do angels make love? Will the souls of ordinary people feelsexual pleasure in the next world? Is the aspiration to spiritualsalvation helped or hindered by sexual experience? In Heaven andthe Flesh Clive Hart and Kay Stevenson explore the opinions ofpoets and painters on such questions, from the high Renaissance tothe birth of romanticism. Hart and Stevenson analyse the work notonly of canonical writers and artists, such as Milton andMichelangelo, but also of lesser-known figures such as John Goreand Richard Tompson, and the sometimes anguished speculations ofphilosophers and theologians. As the evidence of witty pornographicpoems and drawings demonstrates, the relationship between sexualdesire and spiritual ascension was not always treated with fullseriousness. This wide-ranging survey offers sometimes surprisinginsights into material both familiar and unfamiliar.

Mustang Designer tells the story of American wartime fighterdevelopment, including engines and armaments, as part of anationwide program of aircraft builders and fliers, focusing onEdgar Schmued, the designer of the Mustang. The P-51 Mustang iswidely regarded as the best propeller-driven fighter that everflew. What many might not realize is that the plane's developer wasa German migrant. This book tells of how Schmued created a weaponthat would ultimately prove lethal to the aspirations of those whohad seized control over his native land.

Every spring thousands of middle-class and lower-incomehigh-school seniors learn that they have been rejected by America’smost exclusive colleges. What they may never learn is how manycandidates like themselves have been passed over in favor ofwealthy white students with lesser credentials—children of alumni,big donors, or celebrities. In this explosive book, the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporterDaniel Golden argues that America, the so-called land ofopportunity, is rapidly becoming an aristocracy in which America’srichest families receive special access to elite highereducation—enabling them to give their children even more of a headstart. Based on two years of investigative reporting and hundredsof interviews with students, parents, school administrators, andadmissions personnel—some of whom risked their jobs to speak to theauthor—The Price of Admission exposes the corrupt admissionspractices that favor the wealthy, the powerful, and thefamous. In The Price of Admission, Golde

From the bestselling, National Book Award-nominated auhtor ofGenius and Chaos, a bracing new work about the accelerating pace ofchange in today's world. Most of us suffer some degree of "hurry sickness." a malady thathas launched us into the "epoch of the nanosecond," aneed-everything-yesterday sphere dominated by cell phones,computers, faxes, and remote controls. Yet for all the hours,minutes, and even seconds being saved, we're still filling our daysto the point that we have no time for such basic human activitiesas eating, sex, and relating to our families. Written with freshinsight and thorough research, Faster is a wise and witty look at aharried world not likely to slow down anytime soon.

This original contribution to Indian history, focusing oncontemporary and largely indigenous documents, introduces a set ofconcepts for the analysis of late Mughal rule. More specifically itexamines the origins and development of the Maratha svardjya or'self-rule' within the context of declining Muslim power. It tracesthe expansion of Maratha dominion to a process of fitna, a policyof 'shifting alliances' which was recurrent in the wake of Muslimexpansion throughout its history. The book gives an interestingperspective on Hindu-Muslim relationships in the pre-British periodas well as on the nature of the Indo-Muslim state and its mostimportant successor polity, on its capacity for change anddevelopment in the intermediate sections of society, theland-tenurial system, the monetization of the economy, and on thefiscal system.

Meditate on the Spiritual Significance of Marriage In the 20th Anniversary Edition of this Gold Medallion Awardwinner, Mike Mason goes on a poetic search to understand thewondrous dynamics of committed love. In highly readable,first-person style, Mason’s writing stimulates readers’ thoughtsand prayers and propels couples to deeper intimacy. “A marriage isnot a joining of two worlds,” says the author, “but an abandoningof two worlds in order that one new one might be formed.” Richchapters on “Otherness,” “Vows,” “Intimacy,” “Sex,” “Submission,”and an all-new chapter on “Oneness” lift readers to view theeternal, spiritual nature of this faith-filled, “impossible,”wild—yet wonderful—frontier. “The two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery.” Ephesians 5:31–32 Beautifully written and filled with life-transforming insights,the 20th anniversary edition of Mike Mason’s unparalleled GoldMedallion winner explores the mystical a

An absolutely wonderful book. --Russell Baker "Rick Bragg writes like a man on fire. And All Over but theShoutin' is a work of art. While reading this book, I fell in lovewith Rick Bragg's mother, Margaret Bragg, a hundred times. I feltlike I was reading one of the prophets in the Old Testament whenreading parts of this book. I thought of Melville, I thought ofFaulkner. Because I love the English language, I knew I was readingone of the best books I've ever read. By explaining his life to theworld, Rick Bragg explained part of my life to me. You feel thingsin every line this man writes. His sentences bleed on you. I weptwhen the book ended. I never met Rick Bragg in my life, but Icalled him up and told him he'd written a masterpiece, and I sentflowers to his mother." --Pat Conroy "Searingly honest, beautifully written, All Over but the Shoutin'is perhaps the most courageous thing Pulitzer Prize-winningjournalist Rick Bragg has ever written. Making his reputation on

Esteemed historians of education David Tyack, Carl Kaestle,Diane Ravitch, James Anderson, and Larry Cuban journey throughhistory and across the nation to recapture the idealism of oureducation pioneers, Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann. We learn how,in the first quarter of the twentieth century, massive immigration,child labor laws, and the explosive growth of cities fueled schoolattendance and transformed public education, and how in the 1950spublic schools became a major battleground in the fight forequality for minorities and women. The debate rages on: Do today'sreforms challenge our forebears' notion of a common school for allAmericans? Or are they our only recourse today? This lavishly illustrated companion book to the acclaimed PBSdocumentary, School, is essential reading for anyone who caresabout public education.

A clear, simple guide for students of anatomy as well as anexcellent resource for athletes, massage therapists, and anyoneinterested in the workings of the human body, this user-friendlybook is organized around six muscle groups. They include muscles ofthe face head, and neck; the trunk; the shoulder and upper arm; theforearm and hand; the hip and thigh; and the leg and foot. Each ofthe groups is given a distinctive color to make it easy toidentify, and each muscle is shown in its relationship to theskeleton. Each gets a complete profile, including origin/insertion,action of the muscle, which nerve controls it, movements that useit, and exercises and stretches that strengthen it. The ConciseBook of Muscles shows students exactly how to locate andidentify specific muscles, highlighting those that are heavily usedand therefore subject to injury in a variety of sports andactivities. This expanded edition of a leading anatomy referencebook includes 20 muscles not previously covered, adding greaterdepth t