Outros livros que poderiam interessá-lo

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  Made to Break - Technology and...

  Giles Slade

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  If you've replaced a computer lately--or a cell phone, a camera, a television--chances are, the old one still worked. And chances are even greater that the latest model won't last as long as the one it replaced. Welcome to the world of planned obsolescence--a business model, a way of life, and a uniquely American invention that this eye-opening book explores from its beginnings to its perilous implications for the very near future.Made to Break is a history of twentieth-century technology as seen through the prism of obsolescence. America invented everything that is now disposable, Giles Slade tells us, and he explains how disposability was in fact a necessary condition for America's rejection of tradition and our acceptance of change and impermanence. His book shows us the ideas behind obsolescence at work in such American milestones as the inventions of branding, packaging, and advertising; the contest for market dominance between GM and Ford; the struggle for a national communications network, the development of electronic technologies--and with it the avalanche of electronic consumer waste that will overwhelm America's landfills and poison its water within the coming decade.History reserves a privileged place for those societies that built things to last--forever, if possible. What place will it hold for a society addicted to consumption--a whole culture made to break? This book gives us a detailed and harrowing

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  Night Fire - Big Oil Poison Air...

  Ronnie Greene

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  The Diamond neighborhood was an all-black enclave in the mostly white town of Norco, Louisiana, aptly named for the New Orleans Refining Co., an industrial processing plant. Margie Eugene Richard was raised in the shadow of a giant chemical plant operated by Shell, and witnessed her neighbors fall ill amid the toxic waste the plant emitted year after year. Her own sister, Naomi, eventually succumbed to a rare lung disease linked to environmental hazards. Determined to see Shell take responsibility for its actions, Margie and her neighbors—largely poor and with few obvious resources—educated themselves not only on the consequences of environmental poison but also on how to fight back. The battle took them from Diamond's four streets all the way to The Hague and beyond. The unexpected results won Margie the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize and helped clean up a community. With riveting narrative drive, Night Fire illustrates how determination and grit can move even the most stubborn of corporate giants.

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  A Tour of the Senses - How Your...

  John M. Henshaw

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  “A blend of research findings and real-world anecdotes about people’s sensory experiences enlivens this historical view of the science behind perception.” —Science News 
   
  Ever wonder why some people have difficulty recognizing faces or why food found delicious in one culture is reviled in another? John M. Henshaw ponders these and other surprising facts in this fascinating and fast-paced tour of the senses. 
   
  From when stimuli first excite our senses to the near-miraculous sense organs themselves to the mystery of how our brain interprets senses, Henshaw explains the complex phenomena of how we see, feel, taste, touch, and smell. He takes us through the rich history of sensory perception, dating back to Aristotle’s classification of the five main senses, and helps us understand the science and technology behind sensory research today. 
   
  A Tour of the Senses travels beyond our human senses. Henshaw describes artificial sensing technologies and instruments, unusual sensory abilities of the animal kingdom, and techniques for improving, rehabilitating, and even replacing sense organs. 
   
  This entertaining introduction to sensory science is a clever mix of research findings and real-world stories that helps us understand the complex processes that turn sensory stimuli into sophisticated brain responses. 
   
  “A Tour of the Senses is a fun book, which may be of interest to anyone who’s ever wondered how the eye or ear works.” —American Journal of Human Biology

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  The Ethics of Invention -...

  Sheila Jasanoff

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  Technology rules us as much as laws do. It shapes the legal, social, and ethical environments in which we act. Every time we cross a street, drive a car, or go to the doctor, we submit to the silent power of technology. Yet, much of the time, the influence of technology on our lives goes unchallenged by citizens and our elected representatives.Our embrace of novel technological pathways, Sheila Jasanoff shows, leads to a complex interplay among technology, ethics, and human rights. Inventions like pesticides or GMOs can reduce hunger but can also cause unexpected harm to people and the environment. Advances in biotechnology have given us tools to tinker with life itself, leading some to worry that human dignity and even human nature are under threat. But despite many reasons for caution, we continue to march heedlessly into ethically troubled waters.As Jasanoff ranges across these and other themes, she challenges the common assumption that technology is an apolitical and amoral force. Technology, she masterfully demonstrates, can warp the meaning of democracy and citizenship unless we carefully consider how to direct its power rather than let ourselves be shaped by it.

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  Seeing Science - An Illustrated...

  Iris Gottlieb

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  From an illustrator for San Francisco’s Exploratorium, a visual journey that shows how beautiful science really is. 
   
  With original illustrations that deftly explain the strange-but-true world of science, Seeing Science offers a curated ride through the great mysteries of the universe. Artist and lay scientist Iris Gottlieb explains among other things: neap tides, naked mole rats, whale falls, the human heart, the Uncertainty Principle, the ten dimensions of string theory, and how glaciers are like Snickers bars.  
   
  With quirky visual metaphors and concise factual explanations, she offers just the right amount of information to stoke the curious mind with a desire to know more about the life forces that animate both the smallest cell and the biggest black hole. Seeing Science illustrates, explicates, and celebrates the marvels of science as only art can.

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  Bioneers Series 3-03: Light At...

  Wade Davis

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  Author/ethnobotanist/anthropologist Wade Davis has been from Borneo to Tibet to Haiti, from the high Arctic to the Andes and Amazon as an explorer of our planet’s wondrous cultural and biological diversity. He has found a fire burning over the Earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills and visionary wisdom.

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