It’s one of the big questions of our time: Are there too many people in the world? Or too few? Whichever way, how would we decide? Here, economist Steven E. Landsburg, acclaimed author of The Armchair Economist and Can You Outsmart an Economist?, assesses the benefits – and the drawbacks – of having a bigger global population. The People Paradox is based on the transcript of his fascinating 2017 IEA Hayek Memorial Lecture, in which Landsburg details how the growth in the world population has brought immense improvements to our quality of life. He contends the planet still has plenty of room – and addresses continued calls for population control. Landsburg, professor of economics at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, draws on everything from modern history to everyday life (including the contents of his sock drawer!) to mount a thought-provoking, powerful – and often humorous – argument for continued population growth. With a commentary by Dr Stephen Davies, Head of Education at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London.
In this whip-smart, entertaining, and entirely unconventional economics primer, he brings together over one hundred puzzles and brainteasers that illustrate the subject’s key concepts and pitfalls. From warm-up exercises to get your brain working, to logic and probability problems, to puzzles covering more complex topics like inferences, strategy, and irrationality, Can You Outsmart an Economist? will retrain your brain and expand the way you think about human decision-making and problem solving. Before you know it, you’ll be thinking like an economics expert. And you’ll never read the news the same way again. Perfect for readers at all levels, from amateurs and students to professionals and professors, Can You Outsmart an Economist? is a delightful collection that will challenge, satisfy, and inform. Let the games begin!
The columnist for Slate magazine's popular "Everyday Economics" makes provocative suggestions for tackling difficult modern issues, from the role of sex avoidance in spreading disease and controlling population through its increase to charging juries for exonerating convicted felons and giving rescued property to firefighters. By the author of The Armchair Economist. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.
In the wake of his enormously popular books The Armchair Economist and More Sex Is Safer Sex, Slate columnist and economics professor Steven Landsburg employs concepts from mathematics, economics, and physics in this sprightly tour of the deepest problems in philosophy: What is real? What can we know? Why is there something instead of nothing? And how should we live? Beginning with the broadest philosophical issues--theories of existence, knowledge, and ethics--Landsburg then turns to a dazzling variety of specific applications. He gives us a mathematical analysis for arguments for the existence of God; explains the real meanings of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and G del's incompleteness theorem; and carefully dissects the meaning of social responsibility on the playground, in the marketplace, and in the voting booth. Stimulating, illuminating, and always surprising, The Big Questions reveals the relationship between the loftiest philosophical quests and our everyday lives.
The extensively revised and updated edition of Steven Landsburg's hugely popular book, The Armchair Economist--"a delightful compendium of quotidian examples illustrating important economic and financial theories" (The Journal of Finance). In this revised and updated edition of Steven Landsburg's hugely popular book, he applies economic theory to today's most pressing concerns, answering a diverse range of daring questions, such as: Why are seat belts deadly? Why do celebrity endorsements sell products? Why are failed executives paid so much? Who should bear the cost of oil spills? Do government deficits matter? How is workplace safety bad for workers? What's wrong with the local foods movement? Which rich people can't be taxed? Why is rising unemployment sometimes good? Why do women pay more at the dry cleaner? Why is life full of disappointments? Whether these are nagging questions you've always had, or ones you never even thought to ask, this new edition of The Armchair Economist turns the eternal ideas of economic theory into concrete answers that you can use to navigate the challenges of contemporary life.
Price Theory and Applications challenges students to master the economic way of understanding the world, with equal emphasis on intuition and precise logic, and special emphasis on the interplay between them. The writing is inviting, humorous, and sometimes folksy, without sacrificing the insistence that arguments need to be airtight. Important concepts are introduced via entertaining examples and fleshed out with rigor.The learning experience is supported by a vast number of intriguing and entertaining exhibits, examples, numerical exercises, and problem sets, some integrated within the text and others included at the end of chapters. The problems vary widely in their demands on students — some are straightforward applications of the theory, while others require a great deal of creativity and a willingness to think considerably outside the box.
Price Theory and Applications challenges students to master the economic way of understanding the world, with equal emphasis on intuition and precise logic, and special emphasis on the interplay between them. The writing is inviting, humorous, and sometimes folksy, without sacrificing the insistence that arguments need to be airtight. Important concepts are introduced via entertaining examples and fleshed out with rigor.The learning experience is supported by a vast number of intriguing and entertaining exhibits, examples, numerical exercises, and problem sets, some integrated within the text and others included at the end of chapters. The problems vary widely in their demands on students — some are straightforward applications of the theory, while others require a great deal of creativity and a willingness to think considerably outside the box.
Relativity can seem violently counterintuitive. It says that different observers can describe the world in very different ways and they can all be correct. It helps to be reminded that you've known this since childhood, when you learned that the direction you call left might be the same as the direction I call right, and we can both be correct. This book illuminates and demystifies the theory of relativity through repeated analogies to that kind of everyday experience. Dozens of drawings, analogous to the maps we all use to navigate through ordinary space, emphasize that relativity is a branch of geometry — the geometry of navigating through that more mysterious venue called spacetime.The reader is assisted by exercises sprinkled throughout, and by 'dangerous curve' sections that identify and combat the most common misunderstandings.Steven Landsburg is a professor at the University of Rochester. He has published widely in mathematics, economics, physics and philosophy. His hobby is answering questions about relativity on the internet, which has taught him a lot about how to be helpful.
Relativity can seem violently counterintuitive. It says that different observers can describe the world in very different ways and they can all be correct. It helps to be reminded that you've known this since childhood, when you learned that the direction you call left might be the same as the direction I call right, and we can both be correct. This book illuminates and demystifies the theory of relativity through repeated analogies to that kind of everyday experience. Dozens of drawings, analogous to the maps we all use to navigate through ordinary space, emphasize that relativity is a branch of geometry — the geometry of navigating through that more mysterious venue called spacetime.The reader is assisted by exercises sprinkled throughout, and by 'dangerous curve' sections that identify and combat the most common misunderstandings.Steven Landsburg is a professor at the University of Rochester. He has published widely in mathematics, economics, physics and philosophy. His hobby is answering questions about relativity on the internet, which has taught him a lot about how to be helpful.
Reading the Bible with Rene Girard When Ren Girard introduced the Bible back into conversation with anthropology in 1978, it was all a bit scandalous. Here, for the first time, Girard weaves his life story and that of the mimetic theory with his own faith reflections and interpretation of Scripture. These interviews are a great introduction for the person new to Girard's writings and will delight Girardian scholars and aficionados alike. "One of the many gifts of Ren Girard is his ability to unfold his theory in interviews...many of these dialogues open new perspectives on mimetic theory. Reading the Bible with Rene Girard is a wonderful example of this" Wolfgang Palaver, Universit t Innsbruck, Austria, past COV&R President "Reading the Bible with Ren Girard is an important contribution both to understanding the Bible as a "work in progress" that continues into our own lives and to introducing the ground-breaking insights of Ren Girard on the human condition and the love of God that breaks through to us in the historical process." James G. Williams, Syracuse University, past COV&R President "This is a wonderful introduction to Ren Girard's work. Through it one can follow the unfolding of his theory in the context of his life. We are lucky to have this " Jeremiah Alberg, International Christian University, Tokyo, COV&R President "Very often Ren Girard is at his best when he talks freely in a relaxed interview style. Reading the Bible With Rene Girard provides the master of mimetic theory with one more chance to show this strength. It is indeed hearing the master's voice." Niki Wandinger, University of Innsbruck "One comes away from Reading the Bible with Ren Girard unable to view the Bible-or the modern world that has been so decisively shaped by it-in quite the same way ever again." George A. Dunn, University of Indianapolis "Clear, conversational, and as always brilliantly insightful. There are few more accessible introductions as this little gem." Jarrod McKenna Australian peace award-winning pastor, cofounder of First Home Project "In this excellent book, you are invited to sit in on a series of conversations with one of the leading thinkers of our time, concerning matters of the utmost philosophical, theological, and practical significance. This is a very important volume indeed." Dr Chris Fleming, University of Western Sydney
Observera att förlaget som ger ut denna produkt baserar innehållet i sina produkter på fria källor som Wikipedia. Boken är med stor sannolikhet endast ett utdrag ur dessa informationskällor, alltså inte en vanlig bok i den bemärkelsen.
The men of the Eighth Georgia Infantry Regiment answered the Confederate call to arms in the spring of 1861. They fought hard in most major battles of the war, including Bull Run and Gettysburg, enduring heartbreaking losses and finally, at Appomattox, witnessing their ultimate defeat. A Scythe of Fire tells the remarkable story of this regiment, which held together through long years of victory, defeat, and despair. The magnificent product of meticulous research, Warren Wilkinson and Steven E. Woodworth's stirring chronicle brings the conflict alive through the eyes of the courageous men who fought and died on the nation's battlefields. Based on personal accounts, diaries, letters, and other primary sources, A Scythe of Fire is the history of the Eighth Georgia as experienced by those who carried its standard into battle: doctors and farmers, landowners and simple folk -- each dedicated to victory, yet proud and unbroken in the face of defeat.
Brief, timely, and accessible, Race, Crime, and Justice: The Continuing American Dilemma examines many critical issues including why, over the past few decades, African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans were swept into jails and prisons at rates far beyond their share of the national population. Steven E. Barkan explores racial/ethnic disparities in criminal justice involvement; discrimination in policing, prosecution, and sentencing; the rise and collateral consequences of mass incarceration; racial bias in news media coverage of crime; racial/ethnic differences in rates of criminal behavior and victimization; and social and criminal justice policies that, if successfully implemented, would help correct many of the injustices in the criminal justice system. About the SeriesKeynotes in Criminology and Criminal Justice provides essential knowledge on important contemporary matters of crime, law, and justice to a broad audience of readers. Volumes are written by leading scholars in that area. Concise, accessible, and affordable, these texts are designed to serve either as primers around which courses can be built or as supplemental books for a variety of courses.
How does the scientific enterprise really work to illuminate the origins of life and the universe itself? The quest to understand our universe, how it may have originated and evolved, and especially the conditions that allow it to support the existence of life forms, has been a central theme in religion for millennia and in science for centuries. In the past half-century, in particular, enormous progress in particle and nuclear physics and cosmology has clarified the essential role of imperfections - deviations from perfect symmetry or homogeneity or predictability - in establishing conditions that allow for structure in the universe that can support the development of life. Many of these deviations are tiny and seem mysteriously fine-tuned to allow for life. The goal of this book is to review the recent and ongoing scientific research exploring these imperfections, in a broad-ranging, non-mathematical approach with an emphasis on the intricate tapestry of elegant experiments that bear on the conditions for habitability in our universe. This book makes clear what we know and how we know it, as distinct from what we speculate and how we might test it. At the same time, it attempts to convey a sense of wonderment at the tuning of these imperfections and of the rapid rate at which the boundary between knowledge and speculation is currently shifting.
This textbook provides an accessible and pedagogical explanation of the way microscopes magnify images and covers all techniques to date in transmitted and fluorescent light microscopy. The first section covers basic optics as it relates to microscopy. The second section describes all the major optical techniques of transmitted light microscopy, starting with brightfield, through darkfield, polarized light, phase contrast, differential interference contrast, and Hoffman modulation contrast microscopy. The final third of the book covers all the techniques of fluorescence microscopy. It begins with a simple explanation of fluorescence and is followed by Widefield epifluorescence, confocal, and 2-photon microscopy. This is followed by computational imaging including restoration ('deconvolution') microscopy, and all the present super-resolution techniques. The book concludes by discussing attainable resolution using transmitted light microscopy, including a thorough discussion of the Rayleigh, Sparrow, and other criteria of resolution, ending with a short discussion of the common pitfalls that result in decreased microscope resolution. The final chapter in the book is a short history of the microscope, beginning with the ancients, then discussing three seminal natural philosophers: Leeuwenhoek, Swammerdam, and Hooke. The remaining sections of the history chapter cover mechanical and optical advancements in the history of transmitted light microscopy. Finally, it includes a short history of fluorescence microscopy starting with Köhler and Rohr's first use of fluorescence microscopy in 1905, and ending with a description of the Sarastro Phoibos 1000, the first commercial confocal microscope.
Computational Physics is designed to provide direct experience in the computer modeling of physical systems. Its scope includes the essential numerical techniques needed to "do physics" on a computer. Each of these is developed heuristically in the text, with the aid of simple mathematical illustrations. However, the real value of the book is in the eight Examples and Projects, where the reader is guided in applying these techniques to substantial problems in classical, quantum, or statistical mechanics. These problems have been chosen to enrich the standard physics curriculum at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level. The book will also be useful to physicists, engineers, and chemists interested in computer modeling and numerical techniques. Although the user-friendly and fully documented programs are written in FORTRAN, a casual familiarity with any other high-level language, such as BASIC, PASCAL, or C, is sufficient. The codes in BASIC and FORTRAN are available on the web at http://www.computationalphysics.info (Please follow the link at the bottom of the page). They are available in zip format, which can be expanded on UNIX, Window, and Mac systems with the proper software. The codes are suitable for use (with minor changes) on any machine with a FORTRAN-77 compatible compiler or BASIC compiler. The FORTRAN graphics codes are available as well. However, as they were originally written to run on the VAX, major modifications must be made to make them run on other machines.
Sherman is not only one of the most important generals in the American Civil War, but also one of the most famous commanders in the military annals of the western world. He has become an almost mythical character in popular memory, the embodiment of grim-visaged, implacable war. Legend has him burning a sixty-mile-wide swath of desolation across the South, and southerners still confidently assert that their ancestors were burned out by Sherman and his vandal hordes. Sherman famously said, "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it," and yet, even at his most destructive, he maintained strict limits on the degree of damage his soldiers could inflict. Sherman's wartime career makes a fascinating study of the degree to which the severity of war can be channeled, directed, and limited - especially as it relates to the current war in Iraq.
Scholem, Arendt, Klemperer Intimate Chronicles in Turbulent Times Steven E. Aschheim The way three prominent German-Jewish intellectuals confronted Nazism, as revealed by their intimate writings. Through an examination of the remarkable diaries and letters of three extraordinary and distinctive German-Jewish thinkers—Gershom Scholem, Hannah Arendt, and Victor Klemperer—Steven E. Aschheim illuminates what these intimate writings reveal about their evolving identities and world views as they wrestled with the meaning of being both German and Jewish in Hitler's Third Reich. In recounting how their personal and private selves responded to the public experiences these writers faced, their letters and diaries provide a striking composite portrait. Scholem, a scholar of Jewish mysticism and the spiritual traditions of Judaism; Arendt, a political and social philosopher; and Klemperer, a professor of literature and philology, were all highly articulate German-Jewish intellectuals, shrewd observers, and acute analysts of the pathologies and special contours of their times. From their intimate writings Aschheim constructs a revealing "history from within" that sheds new light on the complexity and drama of the 20th-century European and Jewish experience. Steven E. Aschheim holds the Vigevani Chair of European Studies and teaches in the Department of History at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He is author of Brothers and Strangers: The East European Jew in German and German-Jewish Consciousness, 1800–1923; The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890–1990; and Culture and Catastrophe: German and Jewish Confrontations with National Socialism and Other Crises. Published in association with Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati May 2001 120 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, index cloth0-253-33891-3$19.95 s / £15.50
