Nature As Measure

Author : Wes Jackson
Publisher : Catapult
ISBN 13 : 1582438935
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Nature as Measure written by Wes Jackson and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential and timely collection of wise and compelling essays from one of the longtime leaders of the sustainable agriculture movement in America. Wes Jackson, “a well–known and admired advocate for sustainability especially as it relates to agriculture, has the rare ability to transform his convictions into captivating prose . . . Jackson’s thoughts are still as significant and profound as they were nearly 20 years ago” (Publishers Weekly) and can teach us many things about the land, soil, and conservation, but what most resonates is this: The ecosphere is self–regulating, and as often as we attempt to understand it, we are not its builders, and our manuals will often be faulty. The only responsible way to learn the nuances of the land is to study the soil and vegetation in their natural state and pass this knowledge on to future generations. “[A] small book rich in ideas” (The New York Times Book Review), Nature as Measure collects Jackson’s essays from Altars of Unhewn Stone and Becoming Native to This Place, presenting ideas of land conservation and education that are written from the point of view of a man who has practiced what he’s preached and proven that it is possible to partially restore much of the land that we’ve ravaged. Wes Jackson lays the foundation for a new farming economy, grounded in nature’s principles and located in dying small towns and rural communities. Exploding the tenets of industrial agriculture, Jackson seeks to integrate food production with nature in a way that sustains both. His longtime friend Wendell Berry provides an informative, contextual Introduction. “For those concerned about what will be left and how many billion will be starving in twenty years, this is a must read.” —Register of the Kentucky Historical Society “A good introduction to a thinker whose ideas on agriculture are radical both in their technical approach to food production as well as in terms of the economic, social, and cultural context within which it is practiced.” —Review of Radical Political Economics

Author : Wes Jackson
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 1582437009
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Nature as Measure written by Wes Jackson and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2011-10-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential and timely collection of wise and compelling essays from one of the longtime leaders of the sustainable agriculture movement in America. Wes Jackson, “a well–known and admired advocate for sustainability especially as it relates to agriculture, has the rare ability to transform his convictions into captivating prose . . . Jackson’s thoughts are still as significant and profound as they were nearly 20 years ago” (Publishers Weekly) and can teach us many things about the land, soil, and conservation, but what most resonates is this: The ecosphere is self–regulating, and as often as we attempt to understand it, we are not its builders, and our manuals will often be faulty. The only responsible way to learn the nuances of the land is to study the soil and vegetation in their natural state and pass this knowledge on to future generations. “[A] small book rich in ideas” (The New York Times Book Review), Nature as Measure collects Jackson’s essays from Altars of Unhewn Stone and Becoming Native to This Place, presenting ideas of land conservation and education that are written from the point of view of a man who has practiced what he’s preached and proven that it is possible to partially restore much of the land that we’ve ravaged. Wes Jackson lays the foundation for a new farming economy, grounded in nature’s principles and located in dying small towns and rural communities. Exploding the tenets of industrial agriculture, Jackson seeks to integrate food production with nature in a way that sustains both. His longtime friend Wendell Berry provides an informative, contextual Introduction. “For those concerned about what will be left and how many billion will be starving in twenty years, this is a must read.” —Register of the Kentucky Historical Society “A good introduction to a thinker whose ideas on agriculture are radical both in their technical approach to food production as well as in terms of the economic, social, and cultural context within which it is practiced.” —Review of Radical Political Economics

Author : Peter H. Raven
Publisher : National Academies
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 648 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Nature and Human Society written by Peter H. Raven and published by National Academies. This book was released on 2000-03-07 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From earliest times, human beings have noticed patterns in nature: night and day, tides and lunar cycles, the changing seasons, plant succession, and animal migration. While recognizing patterns conferred great survival advantage, we are now in danger from our own success in multiplying our numbers and altering those patterns for our own purposes. It is imperative that we engage again with the patterns of nature, but this time, with awareness of our impact as a species. How will burgeoning human populations affect the health of ecosystems? Is loss of species simply a regrettable byproduct of human expansion? Or is the planet passing into a new epoch in just a few human generations? Nature and Human Society presents a wide-ranging exploration of these and other fundamental questions about our relationship with the environment. This book features findings, insights, and informed speculations from key figures in the field: E.O. Wilson, Thomas Lovejoy, Peter H. Raven, Gretchen Daily, David Suzuki, Norman Myers, Paul Erlich, Michael Bean, and many others. This volume explores the accelerated extinction of species and what we stand to lose--medicines, energy sources, crop pollination and pest control, the ability of water and soil to renew itself through biological processes, aesthetic and recreational benefits--and how these losses may be felt locally and acutely. What are the specific threats to biodiversity? The book explores human population growth, the homogenization of biota as a result in tourism and trade, and other factors, including the social influences of law, religious belief, and public education. Do we have the tools to protect biodiversity? The book looks at molecular genetics, satellite data, tools borrowed from medicine, and other scientific techniques to firm up our grasp of important processes in biology and earth science, including the "new" science of conservation biology. Nature and Human Society helps us renew our understanding and appreciation for natural patterns, with surprising details about microorganisms, nematodes, and other overlooked forms of life: their numbers, pervasiveness, and importance to the health of the soil, water, and air and to a host of human endeavors. This book will be of value to anyone who believes that the world's gross natural product is as important as the world's gross national product.

Author : Rachel Fletcher
Publisher : George F Thompson Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9781938086021
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Infinite Measure written by Rachel Fletcher and published by George F Thompson Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The desire for harmony is universal among all cultures. In Infinite Measure, we rediscover a fundamental starting point for designers of all ages: the simple act of drawing with a compass and a rule can sensitize the designer to the rich subtleties of spatial harmony, no matter how one ultimately chooses to express it.

Author : Ken Alder
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 074324902X
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Measure of All Things written by Ken Alder and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-07-29 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 1792, amidst the chaos of the French Revolution, two intrepid astronomers set out in opposite directions on an extraordinary journey. Starting in Paris, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre would make his way north to Dunkirk, while Pierre-François-André Méchain voyaged south to Barcelona. Their mission was to measure the world, and their findings would help define the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance between the pole and the equator—a standard that would be used “for all people, for all time.” The Measure of All Things is the astonishing tale of one of history’s greatest scientific adventures. Yet behind the public triumph of the metric system lies a secret error, one that is perpetuated in every subsequent definition of the meter. As acclaimed historian and novelist Ken Alder discovered through his research, there were only two people on the planet who knew the full extent of this error: Delambre and Méchain themselves. By turns a science history, detective tale, and human drama, The Measure of All Things describes a quest that succeeded as it failed—and continues to enlighten and inspire to this day.

Author : José Hernández-Orallo
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316943208
Total Pages : 739 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Measure of All Minds written by José Hernández-Orallo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-11 with total page 739 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are psychometric tests valid for a new reality of artificial intelligence systems, technology-enhanced humans, and hybrids yet to come? Are the Turing Test, the ubiquitous CAPTCHAs, and the various animal cognition tests the best alternatives? In this fascinating and provocative book, José Hernández-Orallo formulates major scientific questions, integrates the most significant research developments, and offers a vision of the universal evaluation of cognition. By replacing the dominant anthropocentric stance with a universal perspective where living organisms are considered as a special case, long-standing questions in the evaluation of behavior can be addressed in a wider landscape. Can we derive task difficulty intrinsically? Is a universal g factor - a common general component for all abilities - theoretically possible? Using algorithmic information theory as a foundation, the book elaborates on the evaluation of perceptual, developmental, social, verbal and collective features and critically analyzes what the future of intelligence might look like.

Author : Janine M. Benyus
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061958921
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Biomimicry written by Janine M. Benyus and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-08-11 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Repackaged with a new afterword, this "valuable and entertaining" (New York Times Book Review) book explores how scientists are adapting nature's best ideas to solve tough 21st century problems. Biomimicry is rapidly transforming life on earth. Biomimics study nature's most successful ideas over the past 3.5 million years, and adapt them for human use. The results are revolutionizing how materials are invented and how we compute, heal ourselves, repair the environment, and feed the world. Janine Benyus takes readers into the lab and in the field with maverick thinkers as they: discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they're sick; learn how to create by watching spiders weave fibers; harness energy by examining how a leaf converts sunlight into fuel in trillionths of a second; and many more examples. Composed of stories of vision and invention, personalities and pipe dreams, Biomimicry is must reading for anyone interested in the shape of our future.

Author : Jay Kappraff
Publisher : World Scientific
ISBN 13 : 9789810247027
Total Pages : 618 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Beyond Measure written by Jay Kappraff and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2002 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book consists of essays that stand on their own but are also loosely connected. Part I documents how numbers and geometry arise in several cultural contexts and in nature: scale, proportion in architecture, ancient geometry, megalithic stone circles, the hidden pavements of the Laurentian library, the shapes of the Hebrew letters, and the shapes of biological forms. Part II shows how many of the same numbers and number sequences are related to the modern mathematical study of numbers, dynamical systems, chaos, and fractals.

Author : Jay Kappraff
Publisher : World Scientific
ISBN 13 : 9814490512
Total Pages : 616 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Beyond Measure written by Jay Kappraff and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2002-12-16 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book consists of essays that stand on their own but are also loosely connected. Part I documents how numbers and geometry arise in several cultural contexts and in nature: the ancient musical scale, proportion in architecture, ancient geometry, megalithic stone circles, the hidden pavements of the Laurentian library, the shapes of the Hebrew letters, and the shapes of biological forms. The focus is on how certain numbers, such as the golden and silver means, present themselves within these systems. Part II shows how many of the same numbers and number sequences are related to the modern mathematical study of numbers, dynamical systems, chaos, and fractals. Contents: Essays in Geometry and Number as They Arise in Nature, Music, Architecture and Design:The Spiral in Nature and MythThe Vortex of LifeHarmonic LawThe Projective Nature of the Musical ScaleThe Music of the SpheresTangrams and Amish QuiltsLinking Proportions, Architecture, and MusicA Secret of Ancient GeometryThe Hyperbolic Brunes StarThe Hidden Pavements of the Laurentian LibraryMeasure in Megalithic BritainThe Flame-hand Letters of the Hebrew AlphabetConcepts Described in Part I Reappear in the Context of Fractals, Chaos, Plant Growth and Other Dynamical Systems:Self-Referential SystemsNature's Number SystemNumber: Gray Code and the Towers of HanoiGray Code, Sets, and LogicChaos Theory: A Challenge to PredictabilityFractalsChaos and FractalsThe Golden MeanGeneralizations of the Golden Mean — IGeneralizations of the Golden Mean — IlPolygons and ChaosGrowth of Plants: A Study in NumberDynamical Systems Readership: Polytechnic or college students, designers, mathematicians and general readers. Keywords:General Mathematics;GeometryReviews:“This unusual book contains many interesting observations about the real world and relates these observations to one another by means of the 'higher artithmetic' of real numbers. The book is thus a carefully crafted combination of philosophy, history, biology, geography, philology, geology, and chemistry engagingly woven together by the quadrivium of music, astronomy, geometry and number.” H S M Coxeter University of Toronto “Broad in scope, ‘Beyond Measure’ is filled with fascinating and valuable information — not only for curious students and lay people — but also for the seasoned researcher. From ancient myths, to music, to fractals and consiousness itself, Jay Kappraff ranges far and wide in an exhilarating, challenging, and innovative book sure to stimulate reader's sense of wonder at the incredible vastness of our mathematical universe.”Clifford A Pickover T J Watson Research Centre, IBM “Jay Kappraff has a rare ability to convey discoveries and ideas of fellow mathematicians and scientists to the interested general public. In his latest book, ‘Beyond Measure’, he presents the unity of numbers and culture and helps the reader make his and her own discoveries in the world around us.” Istvan Hargittai Budapest Technical University “Beyond Measure is bound to increase your appreciation of the role of matheamtics in our world.” Library of Science “… the topics are interesting … it is very well written and contains much of interest.” Mathematical Reviews “This pleasant book should be in the hands of many non-mathematicians and is of interest also for mathematicians.” Zentralblatt MATH

Author : Laura Da'
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 0816538964
Total Pages : 89 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Instruments of the True Measure written by Laura Da' and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Instruments of the True Measure charts the coordinates and intersections of land, history, and culture. Lyrical passages map the parallel lives of ancestral figures and connect dispossessions of the past to lived experiences of the present. Shawnee history informs the collection, and Da’s fascination with uncovering and recovering brings the reader deeper into the narrative of Shawnee homeland. Images of forced removal and frontier violence reveal the wrenching loss and reconfiguration of the Shawnee as a people. The body and history become lands that are measured and plotted with precise instruments. Surveying and geography underpin the collection, but even as Da’ investigates these signifiers of measurement, she pushes the reader to interrogate their function within the stark atrocities of American history. Da’ laments this harsh dichotomy, observing that America’s mathematical point of beginning is located in the heart of her tribe’s homeland: “I do not have the Shawnee words to describe this place; the notation that is available to me is 40°38 ́32.61 ́ ́ N 80°31 ́9.76 ́ ́ W.”