Customer Reviews:
My daughter and my students love it!.......2007-04-02
My 5 years old daughter loves to listen to the Cd and look at the book. I also use this books and Cd with my students. I teach English as a second language to little kids (4 to 9 years of age)and they love to learn English this way. I highly recommend this item.
Book Description
Product Description: Share the magic of Disney while making storytelling more fun than ever. The Disney's The Lion King Read-Along Collection Box contains three beautifully illustrated 24-page books and a Read-Along CD with word-for-word narration of each story that encourages independent reading and helps develop vocabulary. Enjoy the classic Disney adventures of Simba and his pals in the Pride Lands. Perfect for quiet times, car and plane trips. The Disney Read-Along Collection Series is an ideal gift for family, friends, birthday parties and holidays. Character voices right from the movies, coupled with vivid sound effects, will keep children coming back to ?Read-Along? time after time.
Customer Reviews:
Just love them!.......2007-08-17
A real bargin, you get a greate product for a greate price, deffinaly worth the money!
My girl 5,5 years old just love these stories aboute the Lion king, she lissens to them in the car and on her cd-player in her room. We have put the Cd in a hard cd case and bought a plastic box for the books, the box they come in were not that sturdy, and the books could have been ruined if we did not put them somewere else, especially when she wants them in the car, and then out of the car in her room and so on...
We will definatly buy more books from this serie! highly recomend them, you will not get dissapointed.
the kids love it!.......2007-03-14
I am taking care of a three and a five year old boy. They both love to listen to the stories and the five year old enjoys "reading" along in the books and being able to turn the pages all by himself.
The kid's room turns amazingly quiet as soon as I put the CD in.
I'm very happy with this product!
Lion King Thrill.......2007-01-21
This is a good product. Perfect for short and long travel. Provokes reading interest in children.
Book Description
Scientists have developed a featherless chicken designed to make industrial chicken production more efficient, while specially trained Pacific bottlenose dolphins are being deployed in the Persian Gulf to disarm mines and protect our Navy. Everyone knows Darwin's theory of natural selection, but what about his idea of artificial selection--how humans, not nature, rework natural organisms to meet our needs? Industrializing Organisms brings us to the threshold of the new field of evolutionary history--from the mobilization of war horses in the 19th century to today's engineered plants and manipulated animals.
Book Description
Anthropologist Steve Striffler begins this book in a poultry processing plant, drawing on his own experiences there as a worker. He also reports on the way chickens are raised today and how they are consumed. What he discovers about America’s favorite meat is not just unpleasant but a powerful indictment of our industrial food system. The process of bringing chicken to our dinner tables is unhealthy for all concerned—from farmer to factory worker to consumer.
The book traces the development of the poultry industry since the Second World War, analyzing the impact of such changes as the destruction of the family farm, the processing of chicken into nuggets and patties, and the changing makeup of the industrial labor force. The author describes the lives of immigrant workers and their reception in the small towns where they live. The conclusion is clear: there has to be a better way. Striffler proposes radical but practical change, a plan that promises more humane treatment of chickens, better food for the consumer, and fair payment for food workers and farmers.
Customer Reviews:
4 stars for Chicken.......2006-11-10
This book is a must read for anyone who eats Chickens. You should know what you are supporting and the dangers of the product.
A readable informative look at a little-analyzed subject.......2006-09-06
A harsh indictment of the aggressive tactics of the poultry giants, Striffler's work gives a grim view of the consequences for farmer, worker, and consumer. This book can be enjoy equally by activist, academician, and voracious reader all equally. Imminently readable, Striffler's work not only conveys a sense of the author's ideology but more importantly, backs up his concerns with hard and fast statistics.
Even for those who don't wish to endure a frontal assault on Tyson Foods and other major agribusiness corporations, the discussion on how American consumerism around chicken has changed over the last 20 years. For those who are old enough to remember a world without McNuggets, its an interesting cultural retrospective.
the best available book on workers and the meat processing industry.......2006-04-03
I bought and read Striffler's book to gain a better understanding of the largely immigrant-filled workforce in the meat processing industry. This book more than satisfied me. It serves not only to introduce you to the growth of the chicken industry, but also to describe insightfully immigrant workers' experiences, in any industry.
It is a very timely book given this year's focus on immigration reform. This industry will likely be more affected than any other if any major legislation is enacted.
grisly and hazardous work.......2006-01-25
Striffler gives an inquisitive peek at an industry that most people have little awareness of. Much of his book studies the workforce that mans the chicken abbatoirs. The prose shows a somewhat grisly job, that is also repetitive, mind-numbing and dangerous. The ever sharp knives and scalding liquids give rise to the inevitable workplace injuries.
Yet hope shines through in portions of the book. Many of the workers are Mexicans, who more or less legally migrate to these factories, which are often located in the American South. To the Mexicans, the work offers a good income that can support entire families back home.
A Must Read!.......2006-01-10
Wow! An academic who can write! This is a great book from beginning to end. Striffler actually worked in poultry processing plants and lived to tell about it -- and tell about it he does! He really provides an excellent, if critical, look at not only the industry, but how we raise, cook, eat....food in general. And he is a great writer. It really makes you think.
One other thing. I noticed one reviewer on Amazon was critical of Striffler for caring more about poultry workers than chickens. Uhh? I hope he cares more about people than birds! Is this a bad thing? I am an animal rights activist, and I wish there was more on this subject in the book, but that would be a very different book for a very different audience. This is just not a book about animal rights; it is much broader in perspective. But I found the book to be very informative, and even suggestive for those of us interested in animal rights....because Striffler provides the whole picture. The fact is that most people eat chicken, and will do so for some time -- so the question is how do we make the system better for everyone, including the birds. On this, Striffler is very critical of the industry; his analysis is superb and his ideas suggestive. Let's not lose perspective!
Book Description
The work of Douglas Harper has for two decades documented worlds in eclipse. A glimpse into the life of dairy farmers in upstate New York on the cusp of technological change, Changing Works is no exception. With photographs and interviews with farmers, Harper brings into view a social world altered by machines and stuns us with gorgeous visions of rural times past. As a member of this community, Harper relates compelling stories about families and their dairies that reveal how the advent of industrialized labor changed the way farmers structure their work and organize their lives. His new book charts the transformation of American farming from small dairies based on animal power and cooperative work to industrialized agriculture.
Changing Works combines Harper's pictures with classic images by photographers such as Gordon Parks, Sol Libsohn, and Charlotte Brooks-men and women whose work during the 1940s documented the mechanization and automation of agricultural practices. Part social history and part analysis of the drive to mass production, Changing Works examines how we farmed a half century ago versus how we do today through pictures new and old and through discussions with elderly farmers who witnessed the makeover. Ultimately, Harper challenges timely ecological and social questions about contemporary agriculture. He shows us how the dissolution of cooperative dairy farming has diminished the safety of the practice, degraded the way we relate to our natural environment, and splintered the once tight-knit communities of rural farmers. Mindful, then, of the advantages of preindustrial agriculture, and heeding the alarming spread of mad cow and foot-and-mouth disease, Changing Works harks back to the benefits of an older system.
Customer Reviews:
Review of Changing Works .......2005-11-05
I found "Changing Works" to be a very informative text in the area of technological advances in the dairy industry. Harper uses SONJ pictures to highlight wonderful interviews with various dairy farmers that farmed in the generations before World War II. These interviews bring the past back to life as the reader goes through the mechanization introductions such as replacement of horses and the reconstruction of the milking process. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the dairy industry and to future dairymen. As an agricultural student, I was enthralled throughout the entire book. Harper tends to be less descriptive when it comes to the actual workings of the machinery, but it does not take much away from the rich narrative he weaves with the farmers' interviews. The reader gets a feeling of loss for the traditional ways that Harper projects throughout the book and it only enhances the content.
Average customer rating:
- compare with the American and Canadian ranches
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Campanha Gaucha: A Brazilian Ranching System, 1850-1920
Stephen Bell
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
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ASIN: 0804731004 |
Book Description
The Campanha of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, situated on the northern periphery of the pampa grassland system, is one of Brazil’s most distinctive cultural regions. This book studies land use in the Campanha during a period of critical change, focusing on two issues: Why did the modernization of ranching in the region display sharply uneven patterns in time and space? What were the mechanisms that drove these changes?
The book first describes the world of the gaúcho, a highly extensive, open-range ranching economy. It then examines why technical innovations in ranching (such as new breeds of cattle, fencing, and refrigeration) came later to the Campanha than in Argentina and Uruguay. Ultimately, the Campanha was drawn increasingly into the North Atlantic economic system, and the concomitant ranching innovations engendered cultural conflict that marginalized the gaúcho way of life.
Though the regional economy was still based mainly on hides and salt-beef, the author shows how railways, tariffs, and the abolition of slavery laid the groundwork for a slow but sustained transformation of Campanha ranching. Important structural obstacles slowed development: national political support for reforming legal aspects of property rights in this peripheral region was weak; linkages between domestic elites and foreign merchants were insubstantial; and Rio Grande do Sul’s infrastructure and attraction of foreign capital remained limited. Although the pace of change in the Campanha quickened with the extraordinary food demands of World War I, the structural legacy of uneven development continued to hamper growth after 1920.
Customer Reviews:
compare with the American and Canadian ranches.......2006-05-31
Bell's book gives the reader an appreciation of the immensity of Brazil, and of its efforts to modernise in the 19th and 20th centuries, as exemplified by the ranches of the Campanha. A non-Brazilian reader might be more familiar with how the US or Canada developed their ranches. Indeed, there are clear parallels with what Bell describes for Brazil. Like the introduction of fencing, especially barbed wire, which led to the closing of much of the plains. So also with the vast efforts needed to bring the livestock to market; especially for the European market.
Generally, the book shows how the Brazilians had a harder time of it than the Americans or Canadians. Further from Europe. Plus, unlike the American ranchers, there was not as large or wealthy a domestic market. For the US, this proved invaluable in underwriting the railroads and stockyards.
Average customer rating:
- A bit slow going, but thought-provoking
- An outstanding book on biotechnology and it future
- A superficial book based on unfair generalizations.
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Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World
Walter Truett Anderson
Manufacturer: W.H. Freeman & Company
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The Future of the Self
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The Next Enlightenment: Integrating East and West in a New Vision of Human Evolution
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The Truth about the Truth (New Consciousness Reader)
ASIN: 0716731347 |
Amazon.com
From the author of Reality Isn't What it Used to Be, comes a new book questioning the burgeoning enterprise of genetic engineering. Anderson argues that technology, in replicating nature's chemistry, will actually transform the process of evolution, creating man-machine interdependency. While this could permit us to eradicate fatal illnesses or create a "global nervous system" to determine how to manage natural resources, Anderson warns there could be dire consequences. Some people, as they do now, may refuse to accept technology. For those who do accept, comes the responsibility of playing God or becoming a "worldmaker." Anderson believes a moral examination of technology is needed, and that ultimately, some form of governance must be in place.
Customer Reviews:
A bit slow going, but thought-provoking.......2003-02-23
The title is misleading for this book in that it is only peripherally concerned with Darwin's theory. The subtitle is only slightly better. The difficulty in naming this book is its interdisciplinary nature. Anderson covers biology, cybernetics, information technology, agriculture, environmentalism, and genetic research. Although all are specialized fields, Anderson shows how they interact with each other cud every one of us. It is an exciting time to be alive, Anderson says.
Like many popular books on science, Evolution starts off slowly. Because Anderson cannot be sure of the background that every reader brings to his book, he spends the first half of each section in a survey of one or two of his inter-connected subjects. Interspersed in the survey are some delectable bits of controversy and discovery, but he saves the items That have the most impact for the last sections. Since the book is organized into four different sections, this makes for a thrilling roller coaster ride through some of the most exiting terrain in science today.
In the first 50 pages, I was somewhat bored by Anderson's prose (he is no David Quammen) and slightly skeptical of his early opinions. At the halfway point I realized that I was reading much more smoothly and often nodding my head at the text. When I found myself quoting this book at a business meeting the next day, I knew I was learning from this book.
Anderson's basic thesis is that humans have taken control of their own evolution, and the mechanisms of this control are the convergence of biology and technology, and seen today in the growing field of biotech. I have long thought that information is the opposite of entropy (in a local sense) and Anderson closely dovetails into this idea with his concept of information being the control mechanism by which we modify our biological environment. In a sense we have done this in the past, through the use of corrective lenses and vaccines. But these are only baby steps compared to the strides we may be capable of shortly.
Anderson's personal background is rooted in the environmental movement (which, if you were unaware of it, you find out in the last section), and his moderate stance on certain issues is quite refreshing compared to the demagoguery we are subjected to daily. While you may disagree with his predictions, it is important to think about and discuss them.
An outstanding book on biotechnology and it future.......1998-12-23
I've read a lot of books on biotechnology, and I have to say that this is my absolute favorite. Dr. Anderson has tremendous insight, and does a nice job explaining this how this tremendously powerful technology is going to affect all of us, and in fact already does. An excellent book.
A superficial book based on unfair generalizations........1998-12-07
Anderson argues that evolution has accelerated tremendously as a result of the "augmentation" of humans through technology. Because Anderson is so enthralled with technological developments, he doesn't pay much attention to the downside. He breathlessly reports on one invention after another without acknowledging that they don't always work the way they're supposed to. For example, he talks about the wonders of penile implants without saying a word about all the problems people have experienced with them. Anderson talks in grant generalizations that are removed from concrete reality. He likes to think of himself as the practical guy in the middle of the extremists of the right and left, but he is basically setting up straw men; he exhibits little interest in trying to understand where they are really coming from. So, for example, he portrays what he calls "the Far Green" as follows: "By demonizing technology, it renders itself incapable of helping us to understand life in a high-technology, informatizing world." If he stopped to think about what he means by "demonizing technology," he would realize how nonsensical his charge is. There are legitimate criticisms to be made of some environmentalists, but Anderson makes no attempt to evaluate them fairly.
Average customer rating:
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Technology and Place: Sustainable Architecture and the Blueprint Farm
Steven A. Moore
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
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Architectural Research Methods
ASIN: 0292752458 |
Book Description
"I consider this book the most insightful discussion of place and technology I have encountered over the past twenty years of thinking about place and its role in modern society.... I think that it will create an intellectual stir and give a significant boost to scholarship bringing together social science and the design professions."
John Agnew, Professor and Chair of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles
Developing "sustainable" architectural and agricultural technologies was the intent behind Blueprint Farm, an experimental agricultural project designed to benefit farm workers displaced by the industrialization of agriculture in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Yet, despite its promise, the very institutions that created Blueprint Farm terminated the project after just four years (1987-1991).
In this book, Steven Moore demonstrates how the various stakeholders' competing definitions of "sustainability," "technology," and "place" ultimately doomed Blueprint Farm. He reconstructs the conflicting interests and goals of the founders, including Jim Hightower and the Texas Department of Agriculture, Laredo Junior College, and the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, and shows how, ironically, they unwittingly suppressed the self-determination of the very farm workers the project sought to benefit. From the instructive failure of Blueprint Farm, Moore extracts eight principles for a regenerative architecture, which he calls his "nonmodern manifesto."
Average customer rating:
- A great book on animal innovation
- Reviews of Animal Innovation
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Animal Innovation
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0198526229 |
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In 1953 a young female Japanese macaque called Imo began washing sweet potatoes before eating them, presumably to remove dirt and sand grains. Soon other monkeys had adopted this behaviour, and potato washing gradually spread throughout the troop. When, three years after her first invention, Imo devised a second novel foraging behaviour, that of separating wheat from sand by throwing mixed handfuls into water and scooping out the floating grains, she was almost instantly heralded around the world as a 'monkey genius'. Imo is probably the most celebrated of animal innovators. In fact, many animals will invent new behaviour patterns, adjust established behaviours to a novel context, or respond to stresses in an appropriate and novel manner. Innovation is an important component of behavioural flexibility, vital to the survival of individuals in species with generalist or opportunistic lifestyles, and potentially of critical importance to those endangered or threatened species forced to adjust to changed or impoverished environments. Innovation may also have played a central role in avian and primate brain evolution. Yet until recently animal innovation has been subject to almost complete neglect by behavioural biologists, psychologists, social learning researchers, and conservation-minded biologists. This collection of stimulating and readable articles by leading scientific authorities is the first ever book on 'animal innovation', designed to put the topic of animal innovation on the map and heighten awareness of this developing field.
Customer Reviews:
A great book on animal innovation.......2005-01-08
As far as I know this is the first book on animal innovation. As such, it sets a high standard. The editors have managed to bring together a stellar cast of international experts that write about the latest developments in their fields. Reader and Laland (pioneers in animal innovation research themselves) open with a wonderfully comprehensive chapter in which they review the field and put the chapters in the book in perspective. I didn't know much about animal innovation before, but this book shows that it is a fascinating topic with important implications for animal cognition, social learning theory, neuroscience and evolution. The book not only presents a wealth of interesting results on animal innovation but is also full of interesting ideas, particularly on the evolution of brain and cognition. This is not a textbook, but should be very useful for advanced courses on animal behavior and cognition. In addition, every self-respecting teacher and researcher in animal behavior or experimental psychology should have this book.
Reviews of Animal Innovation.......2004-04-20
From the publisher's website:
'The editors have succeeded in putting innovation well and truly on the map as a phenomenon to be reckoned with. They provide a series of outstanding questions that demand answers, and the book will stimulate further research efforts.' - Nature
'Innovation has likely been a significant causal force in the evolution of many species. This book provides a wide-ranging and up-to-date review of an important phenomenon.' - Henry Plotkin, Professor of Psychobiology, University College, London, UK.
'Over the past 20 years, as scientists have conducted increasingly detailed, long-term studies of animals, they have come to know their subjects' behaviour so well that they can state with confidence when a truly novel innovation has appeared. Animal Innovation offers the first attempt to analyse such discoveries in a careful, scientific manner. The volume is filled with wonderful examples - strikingly innovative behaviours by species ranging from guppies to chimpanzees... Observing an animal do something it has never done before is genuinely exciting. Animal Innovation offers the equally exciting prospect of studying such creative behaviour scientifically.' - Robert Seyfarth, Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
'Innovation - the Mother of All Culture - has been curiously neglected for decades, in part because no one really knew how to study it. Now, at last, we do, and this book shows how it should be done and documents the surprising advances that have been made in just a few years.' - Carel van Schaik, Professor/Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University, USA.
Average customer rating:
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Horses, Oxen and Technological Innovation: The Use of Draught Animals in English Farming from 10661500 (Past and Present Publications)
John Langdon
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 052152508X |
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The introduction of the horse brought many advantages to medieval English farming, particularly as an improvement to ploughing and hauling. But the replacement of oxen by horses was by no means inevitable, as the situation often depended upon a number of factors not immediately obvious to modern eyes. These factors, which included such environmental aspects as soil types and terrain, are evaluated to see how they affected the decision to use horses and oxen. The introduction of the horse is furthermore examined in relation to farm production, the improvement in marketing, and the development of regionalism; and various theories regarding technological innovation are assessed to see whether this or that innovation acted in a predictable way. Most importantly, the study affords a glimpse into the working of the minds of medieval farmers as they approached the problems of livelihood and survival.
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- Essentials of Fire Fighting
- Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State
- Europa The Ocean Moon: Search For An Alien Biosphere (Springer Praxis Books / Geophysical Sciences)
- Evolution
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