Age of Context: mobile, sensors, data and the future of privacy by
In 2006, co-authors Robert Scoble and Shel Israel wrote Naked Conversations, a book that persuaded businesses to embrace what we now call social media. Six years later they have teamed up again to report that social media is but one of five converging forces that promise to change virtually every aspect of our lives. You know these other forces already: mobile, data, sensors and location-based technology. Combined with social media they form a new generation of personalized technology that knows us better than our closest friends. Armed with that knowledge our personal devices can anticipate what we'll need next and serve us better than a butler or an executive assistant.The resulting convergent superforce is so powerful that it is ushering in a era the authors call the Age of Context. In this new era, our devices know when to wake us up early because it snowed last night; they contact the people we are supposed to meet with to warn them we're running late. They even find content worth watching on television. They also promise to cure cancer and make it harder for terrorists to do their damage. Astoundingly, in the coming age you may only receive ads you want to see.Scoble and Israel have spent more than a year researching this book. They report what they have learned from interviewing more than a hundred pioneers of the new technology and by examining hundreds of contextual products. What does it all mean? How will it change society in the future? The authors are unabashed tech enthusiasts, but as they write, an elephant sits in the living room of our book and it is called privacy.We are entering a time when our technology serves us best because it watches us; collecting data on what we do, who we speak with, what we look at. There is no doubt about it: Big Data is watching you.The time to lament the loss of privacy is over. The authors argue that the time is right to demand options that enable people to reclaim some portions of that privacy.
Carjacked: the culture of the automobile and its effect on our lives by
Carjacked is an in-depth look at our obsession with cars. While the automobile's contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices is widely known, the problems we face every day because of our cars are much more widespread and yet much less known -- from the surprising $14,000 that the average family pays each year for the vehicles it owns, to the increase in rates of obesity and asthma to which cars contribute, to the 40,000 deaths and 2.5 million crash injuries each and every year.
Carjacked details the complex impact of the automobile on modern society and shows us how to develop a healthier, cheaper, and greener relationship with cars.
Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: technology and invention in the Middle Ages by
The authors shatter the popular myth that nothing of significance happened between 400 AD and 900 AD. Transportation was improved by the invention of harnesses, horse shoes, stirrups, the mariner's compass, round bottom ships, and systems of multiple masts. Water clocks and systems of weights and measures made their way to Europe from the Far East. Spinning wheels and printing presses were invented and became part of popular culture. The inventions, their inventors, and the impact on daily life are discussed. Illustrated with black and white photos. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Elon Musk : Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by
Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, sold one of his internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius's life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits. Vance uses Musk's story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk is an amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science-fiction fantasy.
The Future Is Faster Than You Think : how converging technologies are transforming business, industries, and our lives by
A blueprint for how our world will change in response to the next ten years of rapid technological disruption. The authors investigate how exponentially accelerating technologies will impact our daily lives and society as a whole. They probe the science of technological convergence and how it will reinvent every part of our lives, including transportation, retail, advertising, education, health, entertainment, food, and finance.
Grunt by
'Grunt' tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries -- panic, exhaustion, heat, noise -- and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you ll never see our nation s defenders in the same way again.
Guns, Germs, and Steel by
In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.
Historical First Patents: the first United States patent for many everyday things by
This book covers the A to Z's of America's first inventions. Each of the more than 80 stories of first inventions provide a historical evaluation of the steps leading up to the invention, a biographical sketch of the inventor, and a brief description of how the invention was made. Includes patent drawings.
The History of the Ship: the comprehensive story of seafaring from the earliest times to the present day by
Dugout canoes, skin-covered curraghs, Nelson's ships-of-the-line, battleships, ocean liners, container ships, aircraft carriers, and supertankers are among the vessels described and illustrated in drawings, paintings, and photographs. Seafarer and nautical adventure writer Woodman follows the change in technology, and sets the design and use of ships into political and economic contexts. He includes a glossary with substantial articles, but no guide to pronunciations. Conway Maritime Press, London also published the volume in 1997. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
How the Internet Became Commercial: innovation, privatization, and the birth of a new network by
"In less than a decade, the Internet went from being a series of loosely connected networks used by universities and the military to the powerful commercial engine it is today. This book describes how many of the key innovations that made this possible came from entrepreneurs and iconoclasts who were outside the mainstream--and how the commercialization of the Internet was by no means a foregone conclusion at its outset. Shane Greenstein traces the evolution of the Internet from government ownership to privatization to the commercial Internet we know today. This is a story of innovation from the edges. Greenstein shows how mainstream service providers that had traditionally been leaders in the old-market economy became threatened by innovations from industry outsiders who saw economic opportunities where others didn't--and how these mainstream firms had no choice but to innovate themselves. New models were tried: some succeeded, some failed. Commercial markets turned innovations into valuable products and services as the Internet evolved in those markets. New business processes had to be created from scratch as a network originally intended for research and military defense had to deal with network interconnectivity, the needs of commercial users, and a host of challenges with implementing innovative new services. How the Internet Became Commercial demonstrates how, without any central authority, a unique and vibrant interplay between government and private industry transformed the Internet."
Impact of Genetically Engineered Crops on Farm Sustainability in the United States by
"Since genetically engineered (GE) crops were introduced in 1996, their use in the United States has grown rapidly, accounting for 80-90 percent of soybean, corn, and cotton acreage in 2009. To date, crops with traits that provide resistance to some herbicides and to specific insect pests have benefited adopting farmers by reducing crop losses to insect damage, by increasing flexibility in time management, and by facilitating the use of more environmentally friendly pesticides and tillage practices. However, excessive reliance on a single technology combined with a lack of diverse farming practices could undermine the economic and environmental gains from these GE crops. Other challenges could hinder the application of the technology to a broader spectrum of crops and uses. Several reports from the National Research Council have addressed the effects of GE crops on the environment and on human health. However, The Impact of Genetically Engineered Crops on Farm Sustainability in the United States is the first comprehensive assessment of the environmental, economic, and social impacts of the GE-crop revolution on U.S. farms. It addresses how GE crops have affected U.S. farmers, both adopters and nonadopters of the technology, their incomes, agronomic practices, production decisions, environmental resources, and personal well-being. The book offers several new findings and four recommendations that could be useful to farmers, industry, science organizations, policy makers, and others in government agencies."
The Inevitable : Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that will Shape Our Future by
An expert tech writer discusses the forces and trends that will revolutionize daily life through the upcoming technological advances of the next thirty years. -- Provided by publisher. From one of our leading technology thinkers and writers, a guide through the twelve technological imperatives that will shape the next thirty years and transform our lives. Much of what will happen in the next thirty years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture can be understood as the result of a few long-term, accelerating forces. Kelly both describes these deep trends interacting, cognifying, flowing, screening, accessing, sharing, filtering, remixing, tracking, and questioning and demonstrates how they overlap and are codependent on one another. These larger forces will completely revolutionize the way we buy, work, learn, and communicate with each other. By understanding and embracing them, says Kelly, it will be easier for us to remain on top of the coming wave of changes and to arrange our day-to-day relationships with technology in ways that bring forth maximum benefits. Kellys bright, hopeful book will be indispensable to anyone who seeks guidance on where their business, industry, or life is heading what to invent, where to work, in what to invest, how to better reach customers, and what to begin to put into place as this new world emerges. -- Provided by publisher.
Irresistible by
"One of the most mesmerizing and important books I've read in quite some time. Alter brilliantly illuminates the new obsessions that are controlling our lives and offers the tools we need to rescue our businesses, our families, and our sanity." -- Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take Welcome to the age of behavioral addiction--an age in which half of the American population is addicted to at least one behavior. We obsess over our emails, Instagram likes, and Facebook feeds; we binge on TV episodes and YouTube videos; we work longer hours each year; and we spend an average of three hours each day using our smartphones. Half of us would rather suffer a broken bone than a broken phone, and Millennial kids spend so much time in front of screens that they struggle to interact with real, live humans. In this revolutionary book, Adam Alter, a professor of psychology and marketing at NYU, tracks the rise of behavioral addiction, and explains why so many of today's products are irresistible. Though these miraculous products melt the miles that separate people across the globe, their extraordinary and sometimes damaging magnetism is no accident. The companies that design these products tweak them over time until they become almost impossible to resist. By reverse engineering behavioral addiction, Alter explains how we can harness addictive products for the good--to improve how we communicate with each other, spend and save our money, and set boundaries between work and play--and how we can mitigate their most damaging effects on our well-being, and the health and happiness of our children. Adam Alter's previous book, Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave is available in paperback from Penguin.
Lifted: a cultural history of the elevator by
Introduction: The History of Technology : New York, 1854 -- The Breach through the Building : Organizing the Vertical -- From Attic to Penthouse : The Vertical Hierarchy of Buildings -- Controls -- Interiors.
Mobile Apps by
The average smartphone user in the U.S. spends 5 hours a day on their smartphone, and 85 percent of that time is spent using apps. This anthology provides your readers with a complete overview of the issues raised by the growing use of mobile apps. It contains a diverse collection of writings by foremost authorities in the field, which express contrasting viewpoints on the topics discussed in each chapter. Each chapter presents an important question, such as Should Controversial Mobile Apps Be Taken off the Market? and the opinions that follow are grouped into yes and no categories. By evaluating contrasting opinions, readers can attain an objective knowledge of the subject. Fact boxes are included to summarize important information for researchers.
The New Way Things Work by
The information age is upon us, baffling us with thousands of complicated state-of-the-art technologies. To help make sense of the computer age, David Macaulay brings us The New Way Things Work. This completely updated and expanded edition describes twelve new machines and includes more than seventy new pages detailing the latest innovations. With an entirely new section that guides us through the complicated world of digital machinery, where masses of electronic information can be squeezedonto a single tiny microchip, this revised edition embraces all of the newest developments, from cars to watches. Each scientific principle is brilliantly explained--with the help of a charming, if rather slow-witted, woolly mammoth.
Really Useful: the origins of everyday things by
You undoubtedly know what a paperclip is and how to use it, but did you know that during the Second World War the people of Norway adopted paperclips as a symbol of protest against the occupying Nazis? Really Useful tells these and other stories of how the things we use every day came into being.
As much a sociological history as a compendium of entertaining stories, Really Useful takes you on a tour from the kitchen to the bathroom to the office and beyond. Along the way it tells us about the technology, design, social conditions and even intrigue that contributed to these remarkable innovations, which include:
sliced bread, microwave oven, coffee, tea bags, corkscrew and Teflon razor blades, Band-Aids, the toothbrush, lipstick and tissues air conditioning, buttons, vacuum cleaners, stockings and neon lights Post-It notes, the floppy disk, smoke detectors, fireworks and the battery barcodes, traffic lights, parking meters, padlocks
We sometimes curse these things as just so much clutter but in fact they form the fabric of our daily lives and we'd be lost without them. The stories of their origins are as interesting and illuminating as these objects are truly useful.
Recycling of waste and industrial by products in concrete : production of green concrete and saving energy by
Cement manufacturing consumes high energy and emits an intensive amount of Carbon dioxide. Due to the extreme heat required to produce it. And also generates nearly a ton of Carbon dioxide. Environmental problems associated with the disposal of mineral by-products, energy and the high cost of Portland cement demand more efforts to find substitutes. These are called supplementary cementing materials to replace part of the cement in concrete. The artificial pozzolanas are materials obtained by thermal treatment such as silica fume, horma, metakaolin, rice husk ash and diatomite. The unique benefits of such additions need less energy for production, increase the chemical resistance to sulphate attack, impermeability, lowering heat of hydration and thermal expansion of the pozzolanic cement pastes. Concretes using composite cement can have properties that are desirable for particular purposes, such as slower and decreased total heat evolution in massive structures, improved durability or with microsilica, strengths above the normal range.
Seven Elements That Have Shaped the World: an adventure of ingenuity and discovery by
Combining true stories from the worlds of history, science, and politics, describes how the use of seven elements--iron, carbon, gold, silver, uranium, titanium, and silicon--has changed the world for both the better and worse.
Technobiophilia : Nature and Cyberspace by
Why are there so many nature metaphors - clouds, rivers, streams, viruses, and bugs - in the language of the internet? Why do we adorn our screens with exotic images of forests, waterfalls, animals and beaches? In Technobiophilia- Nature and Cyberspace, Sue Thomas interrogates the prevalence online of nature-derived metaphors and imagery and comes to a surprising conclusion. The root of this trend, she believes, lies in biophilia, defined by biologist E.O. Wilson as the innate attraction to life and lifelike processes . In this wide-ranging transdisciplinary study she explores the strong thread of biophilia which runs through our online lives, a phenomenon she calls technobiophilia , or, the innate attraction to life and lifelike processes as they appear in technology . The restorative qualities of biophilia can alleviate mental fatigue and enhance our capacity for directed attention, soothing our connected minds and easing our relationship with computers. Technobiophilia- Nature and Cyberspace offers new insights on what is commonly known as work-life balance . It explores ways to make our peace with technology-induced anxiety and achieve a tech-nature balance through practical experiments designed to enhance our digital lives indoors, outdoors, and online. The book draws on a long history of literature on nature and technology and breaks new ground as the first to link the two. Its accessible style will attract the general reader, whilst the clear definition of key terms and concepts throughout should appeal to undergraduates and postgraduates of new media and communication studies, internet studies, environmental psychology, and human-computer interaction. www.technobiophiia.com
The transplant imaginary : mechanical hearts, animal parts, and moral thinking in highly experimental science by
In The Transplant Imaginary, author Lesley Sharp explores the extraordinarily surgically successful realm of organ transplantation, which is plagued worldwide by the scarcity of donated human parts, a quandary that generates ongoing debates over the marketing of organs as patients die waiting for replacements. These widespread anxieties within and beyond medicine over organ scarcity inspire seemingly futuristic trajectories in other fields. Especially prominent, longstanding, and promising domains include xenotransplantation, or efforts to cull fleshy organs from animals for human use, and bioengineering, a field peopled with "tinkerers" intent on designing implantable mechanical devices, where the heart is of special interest. Scarcity, suffering, and sacrifice are pervasive and, seemingly, inescapable themes that frame the transplant imaginary. Xenotransplant experts and bioengineers at work in labs in five Anglophone countries share a marked determination to eliminate scarcity and human suffering, certain that their efforts might one day altogether eliminate any need for parts of human origin. A premise that drives Sharp's compelling ethnographic project is that high-stakes experimentation inspires moral thinking, informing scientists' determination to redirect the surgical trajectory of transplantation and, ultimately, alter the integrity of the human form.
Who Owns the Future? by
In this book the author, father of virtual reality, and one of the world's most brilliant thinkers evaluates the negative impact of digital network technologies on the economy and particularly the middle class, citing challenges to employment and personal wealth while exploring the potential of a new information economy. This is his visionary reckoning with the most urgent economic and social trend of our age: the poisonous concentration of money and power in our digital networks. He has predicted how technology will transform our humanity for decades. He shows how Siren Servers, which exploit big data and the free sharing of information, led our economy into recession, imperiled personal privacy, and hollowed out the middle class. The networks that define our world, including social media, financial institutions, and intelligence agencies, now threaten to destroy it. But there is an alternative. In this book he charts a path toward a brighter future: an information economy that rewards ordinary people for what they do and share on the web.
Why Buildings Fall Down by
Whatever goes up must come down does not, fortunately, apply to most of the structures in today's world. In fact, whenever a building, a bridge, a tunnel, or a dam collapses nowadays, it is front page news and often the beginning of a hunt for clues and culprits as fascinating as any detective story.
Why Buildings Stand Up: the strength of architecture by
Between a nomad's tent and the Sears Tower lies a revolution in technology, materials, and structures. Here is a clear and enthusiastic introduction to buildings methods from ancient times to the present day, including recent advances in science and technology that have had important effects on the planning and construction of buildings: improved materials (steel, concrete, plastics), progress in antiseismic designs, and the revolutionary changes in both architectural and structural design made possible by the computer.
Working Virtually by
Remote working is the new reality, and transactional work – provided by freelancers, contract employees or consultants – has increased exponentially. It is forecast that as much as half the labor force will be working independently and virtually by 2020.
Most organizations are still grappling with how to effectively manage their virtual staff and how to effectively support and motivate them – an increasingly urgent task as more Millennials join the workforce, bringing changed attitudes to work satisfaction. This book, the fruit of the author’s three decades of experience planning and implementing remote working environments, provides expert guidance for anyone planning a shift to remote working, managing teams of teleworkers, or themselves working in a virtual team.
Working Virtually is for the executive leading changes in an enterprise that is preparing for virtual work or seeking to improve current performance. It offers tools to assess readiness, advice on creating appropriate reward policies, and strategies to adapt performance management processes to be more team-driven and technology leveraged.
Working Virtually is written to and for the virtual leader who wants to establish high performing virtual teams. It provides an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of managing a virtual team, offering a wealth of advice on creating the conditions for collaboration, motivating team members, and identifying and defusing problems.
Working Virtually is for the professional who works remotely from home, on the road, or in an office with remote colleagues. It is for anyone who wants to succeed in this new work environment by developing skills and networks to create a sustained and satisfying career path.
With this new edition providing a 360° view of the roles and objectives of all stakeholders in the virtual workspace, this book uniquely provides readers with a rounded picture of the policies, processes, work habits, and commitments needed to achieve the shared goal of high performance remote teams.
Pinpoint by
Your Global Positioning System guides you across town; it also helps land planes, and anticipates earthquakes. Milner takes us on a fascinating tour of a hidden system that touches almost every aspect of our modern life, and shows how it has created new forms of human behavior. But the potential misuse of GPS data by government and corporations raise disturbing questions about ethics and privacy. GPS satisfies the scientific urge toward precision-- but may be altering the very nature of human cognition.
Palgrave Key Concepts: Key Concepts in Innovation by
A comprehensive glossary providing clear explanations of the major terms in the field of innovation, covering areas such as product development, design and creativity. By simplifying complex terminology and highlighting key debates, this book is an ideal companion for both students and practitioners in the field.
Encyclopedia of 20th Century Technology
Technical descriptions plus illustrations and further reading, arranged alphabetically, most on individual objects, artifacts, techniques, and products.
1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization by
Take a look at all of the discoveries that led to the great technological advances of our time; engineering, early medicinal practices, and the origins of cartography are just a few of the areas explored in this book.
Big Data: Understanding How Data Powers Big Business by
Leverage big data to add value to your business Social media analytics, web-tracking, and other technologies help companies acquire and handle massive amounts of data to better understand their customers, products, competition, and markets. Armed with the insights from big data, companies can improve customer experience and products, add value, and increase return on investment. The tricky part for busy IT professionals and executives is how to get this done, and that's where this practical book comes in. Big Data: Understanding How Data Powers Big Business is a complete how-to guide to leveraging big data to drive business value. Full of practical techniques, real-world examples, and hands-on exercises, this book explores the technologies involved, as well as how to find areas of the organization that can take full advantage of big data. Shows how to decompose current business strategies in order to link big data initiatives to the organization's value creation processes Explores different value creation processes and models Explains issues surrounding operationalizing big data, including organizational structures, education challenges, and new big data-related roles Provides methodology worksheets and exercises so readers can apply techniques Includes real-world examples from a variety of organizations leveraging big data Big Data: Understanding How Data Powers Big Business is written by one of Big Data's preeminent experts, William Schmarzo. Don't miss his invaluable insights and advice.
Creating Green Roadways: Integrating Cultural, Natural, and Visual Resources into Transportation by
Roads and parking lots in the United States cover more ground than the entire state of Georgia. And while proponents of sustainable transit often focus on getting people off the roads, they will remain at the heart of our transportation systems for the foreseeable future. In Creating Green Roadways, James and Matthew Sipes demonstrate that roads don't have to be the enemy of sustainability: they can be designed to minimally impact the environment while improving quality of life. The authors examine traditional, utilitarian methods of transportation planning that have resulted in a host of negative impacts: from urban sprawl and congestion to loss of community identity and excess air and water pollution. They offer a better approach--one that blends form and function. Creating Green Roadways covers topics including transportation policy, the basics of green road design, including an examination of complete streets, public involvement, road ecology, and the economics of sustainable roads. Case studies from metropolitan, suburban, and rural transportation projects around the country, along with numerous photographs, illustrate what makes a project successful. The need for this information has never been greater, as more than thirty percent of America's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, more than a quarter of the nation's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and congestion in communities of all sizes has never been worse. Creating Green Roadways offers a practical strategy for rethinking how we design, plan, and maintain our transportation infrastructure.
Cultural Life of the Automobile : Roads to Modernity by
Illuminating the question of what it means to be a mobile human anywhere in the modern world, this strikingly original work of cultural history examines how changes in consciousness, identity, and expression, both national and individual, resulted from the technological innovation and freedom of access represented by cars.
Digital Revolutions: Activism in the Internet Age by
From Occupy to Uncut, from the Arab Spring to the Slutwalk movement, few questions about recent activism raise as much controversy as the role of the internet. This book suggests that the internet is a tool, not a cause, of social change. It has profoundly affected the way people communicate, making it easier to find the truth, to learn from activists on the other side of the world, to co-ordinate campaigns without hierarchy and to expose governments and corporations to public ridicule. But it has also helped those same governments and corporations to spy on activists, to disrupt campaigns and to create illusions of popular support.
Focused on the real-life experiences of activists rather than theory or abstract statistics, Digital Revolutions asks how the internet has affected activism, how it has allowed movements to go global more quickly and what the future holds for corporations and social movements that are doing battle online.
Edison's Concrete Piano: flying tanks, six-nippled sheep, walk-on-water shoes, and 12 other flops from great inventors by
Edison’s Concrete Piano highlights the careers of famous inventors — revealing the lesser-known and most fascinating facts about their careers, their wackier hobbies, and especially their big flops and great successes. Take Thomas Edison for example, who revolutionized our world with the light bulb, the phonograph, and the forerunner to the movie camera. He also created a concrete piano, a non-operational helicopter made from box kites and piano wire, and a machine to speak to the dead. Edison was not the only one to engineer a complete flop now and again; in fact, failure amid greatness is the norm — not the exception.Did you know that Henry Ford followed his Model T success with a tractor that was famous for killing its customers? Ever heard of a flying tank? Can you imagine why physics genius Albert Einstein created a refrigerator that howled like a banshee? Or what Nikola Tesla was thinking when he tested his earthquake machine – in crowded Manhattan? And how did Alexander Graham Bell, after inventing the phone, pass the time on his sheep farm in Nova Scotia?From whole scale improvements, like the assembly line, to those toilet bowl caps, Edison’s Concrete Piano covers it all. Written snapshots of inventors through the ages to the current day are accompanied by photographs and illustrations of their lives and their inventions. Read about Edison, Tesla, DaVinci, Pupin, and Alexander Graham Bell, alongside the inventors you’ve never considered — the people who are dreaming up many of the products you’ll use every day.From Alexander Graham Bell’s multi-nippled sheep to Leonardo da Vinci’s walk-on-water shoes, these ludicrous ideas and faulty designs will leave you with a smile on your face, and the reminder that even the very best of us make mistakes.
A Field Guide to Household Technology by
Illustrating how a fire alarm detects smoke and what the plasma” is in a plasma screen television, this fascinating handbook explains how everyday household devices function and operate. More than 180 different household technologies are covered, including gadgets unique to apartment buildings and houseboats. Devices are grouped according to their "habitats"the living room, family room, den, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and basementand feature a detailed description of what the device does and how it works, as well as a photograph for easy identification. With helpful sidebars describing related technical issues, such as why a cheap dimmer switch can interfere with radio reception, this handbook for curious readers provides carefully detailed descriptions and the history behind many of the older household technologies like toasters and faucets to newer technologies like motion detectors, TiVo, and satellite radio.
From Fear to Facebook: One School's Journey by
This title is a finalist in the ForeWord Reviews 2010 Book of the Year Award in the Education category.
In 2007 Matt Levinson moved from New Jersey to California to start a 1-to-1 laptop program at the Nueva School, confident that his knowledge of technology would help him accomplish this goal. He never imagined the challenges he and Nueva would face. So that other schools and educators can learn from Nueva's lessons, Levinson shares his experience integrating a laptop program and how teachers, students, and parents discovered, dealt with, and overcame challenges. Honesty and insightful anecdotes make this an indispensable guide for everyone looking for a path away from fear and into the future of education.
The Future Without a Past: The Humanities in a Technological Society by
In The Future without a Past, John Paul Russo goes beyond currently given reasons for the decline of the humanities and searches out its root causes in the technologization of everyday life. His main premise is that we are undergoing a transformation at the hands of technological imperatives such as rationalization, universalism, monism, and autonomy. The relation between ourselves and nature has altered to such a degree that we no longer live in a natural environment but in a technological one. According to Russo, technological values have actually eroded human values instead of being “humanized” by them.
What are the implications of this shift for the humanities, traditionally seen as safeguards of the human? Russo addresses this question by situating the decline of the humanities within the larger social and historical panorama. He explores how technological values have infiltrated the humanities to the point of weakening their instruction and undermining their force; at the same time, he shows how the humanities have confronted these trends and can continue to do so. Russo believes that if we understand how technology “works” and the nature of its powers, we will then know in which realms it must be accepted and where it should be resisted.
Russo outlines the components of the technological system and examines their impact on the educational system. He also discusses the loss of historical memory, including the so-called loss of the self and the transformation of the library. He studies the parallels between technological and literary values in criticism and theory, concluding with an analysis of the fiction of Don DeLillo, one of the most prominent contemporary novelists. DeLillo’s exploration of technology in American life, matched by a powerful critique of it from a broadly humanistic and religious perspective, serves to summarize the themes of the book as a whole.
The Future without a Past will appeal to scholars and students of literary studies, intellectual and cultural history, philosophy, ethics, media studies, and American studies, as well as to general readers who are seeking deeper insights into today’s cultural debates.
How Invention Begins: Echoes of Old Voices in the Rise of New Machines by
In How Invention Begins, Lienhard reconciles the ends of invention with the individual leaps upon which they are built, illuminating the vast web of individual inspirations that lie behind whole technologies. He traces, for instance, the way in which thousands of people applied their combined inventive genius to airplanes, railroad engines, and automobiles. As he does so, it becomes clear that a collective desire, an upwelling of fascination, a spirit of the times--a Zeitgeist--laid its hold upon inventors. The thing they all sought to create was speed itself. Likewise, Lienhard shows that when we trace the astonishingly complex technology of printing books, we come at last to that which we desire from books--the knowledge, the learning, that they provide. Can we speak of speed or education as inventions? To do so, he concludes, is certainly no greater a stretch than it is to call radio or the telephone an "invention."Throughout this marvelous volume, Lienhard illuminates these webs of insight or inspiration by weaving a fabric of anecdote, history, and technical detail--all of which come together to provide a full and satisfying portrait of the true nature of invention.
Ship by
From oar-powered quinqueremes, to steam-powered freighters, to luxury ocean liners such as the Titanic,to aircraft carriers like the Abraham Lincoln,ships have played an integral role in trade, transportation, and war throughout history. Today, ships remain the largest and most expensive moving objects on the planet; engineers and designers constantly push the limits of design, creating vessels that continue to rival newer technologies such as airplanes and cars. But unlike other more common modes of transportation, the great ships of the world travel in the deep oceans, out of sight and out of mind--until, that is, something goes wrong. In Ship, Gregory Votolato explores the fiction and the reality of modern ships, the technology that creates them, and the events that can lead to disasters such as the Exxon Valdez or Amoco Cadiz. Here Votolato delves into the world of the ship, describing the unpredictable and often-hostile environment of weather at sea, the resurgent threats posed by pirates, and the responsibilities of captains and crews onboard. Ship'sbroad overview of technology and design also offers unique insights into this extraordinary result of human creativity. Votolato's book will appeal to readers interested in the general design history of ships as well as their social, political, and technological impact on our modern world.
Transforming Health Care: The Financial Impact of Technology, Electronic Tools and Data Mining by
The future of healthcare technologies, and what they mean for investors and entrepreneurs The healthcare technology revolution is just around the corner. And when it arrives, it will change and enrich our lives in ways we can only begin to imagine. Doctors will perform blood pressure readings via video chat and nutritionists will analyze diet based on photos taken with cellphone cameras. Transforming Health Care combines healthcare, technology, and finance in an innovative new way that explains the future of healthcare and its effects on patient care, exploring the emergence of electronic tools that will transform the medical industry. Explaining how technology, not politics, will lead the future of the healthcare revolution, author and healthcare technology expert Phil Fasano presents real-life examples that show how the next generation of medical breakthroughs will come from the instant exchange of information across the world Explores how new technologies will radically change the future of healthcare by making it easier to share information rapidly Explains what the future of the high tech medical industry means for investors and entrepreneurs Written by a respected healthcare and health technology expert Offering an unprecedented look at how technology is transforming the healthcare industry, and what it will mean for future investors and entrepreneurs, Transforming Health Care is a remarkable insight into the next generation of health technologies.
Who Owns You?: The Corporate Gold Rush to Patent Your Genes by
Who Owns You? is a comprehensive exploration of the numerous philosophical and legal problems of gene patenting. Provides the first comprehensive book-length treatment of this subject Develops arguments regarding moral realism, and provides a method of judgment that attempts to be ideologically neutral Calls for public attention and policy changes to end the practice of gene patenting
Why Don't Jumbo Jets Flap Their Wings?: Flying Animals, Flying Machines, and How They Are Different by
What do a bumble bee and a 747 jet have in common? It's not a trick question. The fact is they have quite a lot in common. They both have wings. They both fly. And they're both ideally suited to it. They just do it differently. Why Don't Jumbo Jets Flap Their Wings? offers a fascinating explanation of how nature and human engineers each arrived at powered flight. What emerges is a highly readable account of two very different approaches to solving the same fundamental problems of moving through the air, including lift, thrust, turning, and landing. The book traces the slow and deliberate evolutionary process of animal flight--in birds, bats, and insects--over millions of years and compares it to the directed efforts of human beings to create the aircraft over the course of a single century. Among the many questions the book answers: Why are wings necessary for flight? How do different wings fly differently? When did flight evolve in animals? What vision, knowledge, and technology was needed before humans could learn to fly? Why are animals and aircrafts perfectly suited to the kind of flying they do? David E. Alexander first describes the basic properties of wings before launching into the diverse challenges of flight and the concepts of flight aerodynamics and control to present an integrated view that shows both why birds have historically had little influence on aeronautical engineering and exciting new areas of technology where engineers are successfully borrowing ideas from animals.