Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge ReviewBasically, though neither of the husband-and-wife team of authors uses the phrase, this book is a backgrounder evolutionary psychology done right, with a full course of social psychology, on why people usally act back ... in one of three ways ... when attacked either physically or verbally/emotionally.
The "ev psych done right"? Briefly, the authors note that many animals either retaliate against aggression or else redirect it lower down the food chain while we (and chimpanzees) are the only ones so far known to also use revenge. From there, they look at how this affects/relieves stress, in both humans and other animals.
Then it's on to the human social psychology. They ask how this affects ideas of "justice" and more. The chapter on justice, with its looks at retributive and rehabilitative aspects of justice in light of humans' built-in payback propensities, could become a book by itself were the authors of a mind to do so.
Both in humans and animals, besides stress issues, the authors note aggression, and the various ways of dealing with it, relate closely to social status issues. they suggest this is part of why simple apologies often don't satisfy victims. Rather, whether consciously or not, victims are looking for a restoration of lost status, and perhaps a diminution of the aggressor's status. That doesn't happen after a few words.
Finally, the authors look at various religious traditions, as well as modern psychology, to suggest some ideas for forgiveness, for development of better non-retaliation skills and more.
Finally, don't just take my word for it. Any book with good blurbs by Robert Sapolsky and Frans de Wall ... another "Recommend" right there. So dive in!Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge Overview

Want to learn more information about Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories ReviewRose's new book, The Art of Immersion, provides an interesting behind-the-scenes look into the conception, creation, and promotion of many products of popular media from Christopher Nolan's film The Dark Knight to Xbox's Halo; from George Lucas' Star Wars suite to the Nine Inch Nails' album Year Zero; from ABC's Lost to Evan Williams' sites Blogger and Twitter.
Yet for all of its contemporary pop culture references and social media anecdotes, The Art of Immersion feels quite dated. His thesis ("A new type of narrative is emerging--one that's sold through many media at once in a way that's non-linear, that's participatory and often gamelike, and that's designed above all to be immersive.") is obvious to even the most technologically un-savvy reader. Nearly everyone, from Topeka, Kansas to Tokyo, Japan has understood that intuitively (if not explicitly) for 10 years.
I enjoyed reading the first few chapters in which Rose discusses the transformation of media and the creation of increasingly immersive worlds through the advancement of the technology, content and delivery method of newer forms of media. Rose outlines a rough sketch from the invention of the printing press and moveable type to the advent of the motion picture to the seductive glow of the living room television to the immersive and participatory "deep media" of the Internet. Yet as I continued to read, I kept waiting for the book to "start".
Each new chapter felt like a slight regurgitation of the one before it; each felt like an introduction to the theme, yet the book never fully developed the theme. True to his subtile, Rose answered How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way we Tell Stories. But each chapter begs the questions: WHY? What effect does this have on our culture? Are there any positive or negative consequences? What can we expect for the future of media? Etc. Rose's point that media has changed to be more immersive is obvious and could have been articulated clearly in an introduction. I hoped he would go deeper.
The Art of Immersion is interesting at points and offers its readers great tidbits about their favorite television shows, films, music, and websites. But it left this reader wanting more.The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories Overview

Want to learn more information about The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything ReviewAccording to David Sirota, the United States has been unable to solve its current problems due to narcissism, nostalgia for the fifties, militarism, paranoia about the government, and racial divisions which were created or became exacerbated in the eighties. Sirota believes that the eighties created an era of narcissism in which the individual counted more than the team or the nation. An example of this eighties style narcissism, that Sirota mentions, is Michael Jordan, who played for himself and not the team, and this autistic view of teamwork, was replicated in the film "Hoosiers," in which the hero of the movie goes against his coach and the team. So much attention to the self, Sirota contends, led to the cult of personality in the eighties in which people looked to celebrities or politicians on an individual basis to look for answers, and Americans gave up on the idea of collective effort in solving the problems of the nation. Due to this deification of the individual, Americans thought they could be just like the fictional Gordon Gekko or the real Micheal Milken by making millions of dollars by taking advantage of their fellow citizens. The only impediment to this Randian version of the hero from achieving his or her potential was the government in which pop culture took a dim view of in the eighties. Sirota describes how the movie "E.T." depicted government agents as being thugs out to terrorize suburbia. Sirota states that the government was seen as the problem and not the solution in television shows like the "A-Team," "Knight Rider," and movies such as "Die Hard," "Rambo," and "Lethal Weapon," in which it was okay to go rogue against the laws of the United States. While the "Ghostbusters," movies advocated the idea that private contractors and not the government could best handle the job of protecting the American people.
Sirota theorizes that the eighties were odd because although the government was distrusted the fifties and the military were worshipped. Americans wanted to go back to the fifties in movies like "Back to the Future," and ridicule and condemn the sixties and hippies in television shows such as "Family Ties," "thirtysomething," and in the movie "The Big Chill." The hippies were also blamed for the infamous "stabbed in the back," myth in which the military could have won the Vietnam War if it wasn't for the peace protesters. Based on his own childhood experience, Sirota tells how American children were militarized through video games and Pentagon approved movies like "Top Gun." The final section of the book is about how "The Cosby Show," distorted race relations in America by making whites believe that all blacks had to act like the Huxtables by transcending race and pulling themselves by their own bootstraps. I would highly recommend this book for understanding how the cultural climate of the eighties has paralyzed the American political system.
Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything Overview

Want to learn more information about Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live in Now--Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry) ReviewThe Googlization of Everything offers a crisp vision for what kind of information society we should be building. That one might not agree with it is a feature -- this is a book that doesn't state the obvious. Rather, it pushes us to rethink what we take for granted, noticing the medium in which we swim, instead of just moving right along.
The book is an impressive synthesis of the current thinking on and around Google -- much of it applicable to any contemporary dot-com with runaway success. One of Siva's objections to the "googlization" of the online knowledge space is that while institutions like libraries and universities typically plan to be around in a hundred years, companies like Google do not necessarily have, or plan for, such staying power. This is a nicely contestable sentiment -- that, as a corporate entity, Google is inherently shorter lived then, say, the University of Virginia, or at least its values are less consistent over time. It sets up a deeper question of what mix of institutions ought to contribute to the world and serve as gateways to our accumulated knowledge, and with what ethos (ethoi?).
In the last section, Siva proposes a Human Knowledge Project. The name is derived from the Human Genome Project. It is intended to be a "global information ecosystem," essentially a Google by and for the public sphere: "The Human Knowledge Project should [be] open, public, global, multilingual, and focused. It should be sensitive to the particular needs of communities of potential knowledge users around the world, yet it should be committed to building a global system that can erase the gaps in knowledge that current exist between a child growing up in a poor village in South Africa and another growing up in a wealthy city in Canada." The Human Knowledge Project also builds on the criticism that Google's rise to such extreme prominence is due in part to the failure of the public sector; thus Siva's proposal is a straight argument for a transfer of power back from private to public hands.
A major difference between this idealized project and the internet (or Google) as it exists now is its central focus on existing libraries as knowledge hubs. One of Siva's central concerns about Google, which emerges in the sections on Google Books and Google Scholar, is its pre-emption of librarians as organizers of knowledge. In his other work -- see The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control Is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System -- Siva has sought to articulate a central role for librarians that some in the information studies community have yet to grasp. The Googlization of Everything is in some ways a sequel: a welcome contribution to our debates over the future of access to knowledge, one blending intimate knowledge of what librarians (and their digital corporate counterparts) actually do with a strong sense of what differences between them matter -- why the library remains of crucial importance as a mediating institution in a society awash in information.The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry) Overview

Want to learn more information about The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy ReviewEvery student in economics is familiar with Robert Mundell's triangle of impossibility. Based on the model that the Canadian economist developed with Marcus Flemming in 1962, this trilemma states that it is impossible to have a sovereign monetary policy, free capital flows, and a fixed exchange rate at the same time--that two, and only two, of these objectives could be met. This impossible trinity came to dominate policy debates in Europe in the run-up to the European monetary union in the 1990s--a rare example when the result of a theoretical model had a direct bearing on policy choices.
Although he doesn't develop a formal model, Dani Rodrik offers his own, more ambitious version of the impossibility triangle. The political trilemma of the world economy, as he names it, is that we cannot have deep economic integration ("hyperglobalization"), national sovereignty, and democratic politics at the same time. We have to sacrifice one of the corners of the triangle. And for Rodrik, the objective that has to be abandoned is clear and straightforward. We cannot compromise on democracy, and global governance is nothing but a distant dream. We therefore have to jettison hyperglobalization in favor of a more shallow form of global economic integration, a new version of the compromise that was embodied in the postwar system laid out at Bretton Woods. In particular, unrestricted capital mobility and indiscriminate trade openness will have to go. This will make the world a safer and better place for democracy.
Dani Rodrik, who teaches at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, is a first-class economist. In academic and policy circles, people talk about him with respect and sometimes even with awe--it is better to have him on the same side of an argument than sitting across the table. Some economists perfidly point out that he has a talent for bending numbers to support his claims-- that he is an expert in the art of political econometrics, or the use of statistical regressions to support one's political positions. But this is how the game of economics ought to be played. Although Rodrik is sometimes considered as a maverick and a lone wolf, he speaks from inside the tent. No one would put into question his qualification as an economist. Sure enough, his arguments are often controversial and even provocative, but they are receivable and debatable by the academic community. "He is one of us", most if not all economists would acknowledge.
This is why his criticism of globalization ought be read with great attention and interest. It comes at a time when the high hopes invested in globalization have receded, and the negative aspects brought about by open borders and financial liberalization now take center stage. At this juncture, as Rodrik underscores, we need a new narrative to shape the next stage of globalization. "Economists have been responsible for the narratives that interpret development success and failure, narratives which in turn have guided policy in many parts of the world." They now have a special responsibility for shaping the debate: because they have been the cheerleaders of the previous phase of global openness, and because they can help distinguish snake oil from real ointments, and separate "the legitimate wheat from the 'protectionist' chaff".
Many prominent economists are now starting to have second thoughts on globalization. True, their choir was never at unison: some had different pitches, and their endorsement of free and open markets often came with caveats and restrictions. Even a staunch free-trader like Jagdish Baghwati expressed warnings about unrestricted capital mobility. Now more voices are beginning to worry about the consequences of deindustrialization, the growth of inequality, and the race to bottom standards and regulations brought about the current wave of globalization in developed economies. As Keynes once famously remarked, "When the facts change, I change my mind--what do you do, sir?" Rodrik, for one, never changed his mind on trade liberalization. He was one of the first economists to bring the debate from the seminar room to the political arena, and to argue against the simplistic case for free trade that is often doled out to journalists to supports claims about the benefits of globalization. He comments the matter with considerable talent and great humor--never was a class discussion on comparative advantage and international trade theory so lively and refreshing.
Dani Rodrik doesn't limit his argument to modern textbook economics. He excavates from the dusty shelves of economics libraries some forgotten books and tracts that are singularly relevant for today. Henry Martyn's Consideration Upon the East-India Trade, written in 1701, anticipates many of the arguments that economists who favored free trade would marshal much later. In 1961, James E. Mead wrote The Economics and Social Structure of Mauritius, and proposed the same kind of diagnostic tools and policy approach that Rodrik and his coauthors would later develop and sell out to the World Bank. This approach, called the "Growth Diagnostics framework", now serves as reference in international policy debates and is quoted approvingly by senior officials from emerging countries who are now the darlings of international gatherings. Development economics has come full circle: as Rodrik notes, "that industrial policy, in whatever guise, is once again considered acceptable, and indeed necessary, speaks volumes about how far we have retreated from the trade fundamentalism of the 1990s."
Rodrik also have his weak points. He is candid about his limitations as a forecaster. He didn't see the Asian crisis coming in 1997, and he got it wrong again in 2007 when he missed the subprime crisis that was brewing in the U.S. More to the point, he picked up the wrong fight in the late 1990s, arguing against free trade when the real menace was coming from the excesses of financial globalization. One gets the feeling he still gives too much importance to the trade agenda as defined by the WTO in comparison to the new trade rules and conditions negotiated away from public scrutiny in the bilateral or regional trade agreements that now span the world in a complex web of policy arrangements. Rodrik is on less familiar ground when the discusses international finance, and his plea for an international transaction tax could have been more substantiated.
In making the case for their pet theory, economists often miss the broader picture. Not so with Dani Rodrik. His list of principles and recommendations that close the book offer an all-encompassing agenda for a better and safer globalization. It is altogether fitting that the quote which best sums up his policy stance was offered by a Chinese student, who recommended to keep the windows open, but without forgetting the mosquito screens. This utterance could have been offered by a future statesman and, considering the wide audience that Dani Rodrik's essay deserves, it could as well be picked up by one.The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy Overview

Want to learn more information about The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Fifth Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Fifth Edition? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Fifth Edition. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Fifth Edition ReviewThere is no simple formula to prepare for the CISSP certification, and no single resource which can guarantee success on the certification exam since every applicant's background is unique. However, this book (fifth edition) was my only resource in preparing for the exam and I passed on my first attempt (April 24, 2010).
I spent 60+ hours in preparation for the exam... that's 60+ hours of DEDICATED individual study using this book and CD, not 60+ hours spent web surfing during lunch hours or commercial breaks. My recent background is in middle management, with 20 years experience in network architecture and data security, so I already had a firm technical foundation for the test areas dealing with protocols and encryption variations. I also have an MS in Computer Science. Nonetheless, the exam was so broad, with topics covering general principles and concepts, that I could have prepared twice as long and still left the exam with questions about the outcome.
My personal opinion is that formal classroom instruction, through one of the many organizations offering CISSP preparation courses, is a worthwhile companion to Shon Harris' book. A study group is also a good idea. You will not obtain CISSP certification if you take the exam without preparation. This book (fifth edition) was sufficient, but not 100% comprehensive, to prepare me for passing the CISSP test.
Note: Some reviewers do not appreciate Shon's frequent analogies and humor. Most of her analogies helped me internalize the complex topics, but that's my personal learning style. The efforts at humor were generally awful, but every once in a while she was subtle and brilliant enough to make me laugh out loud. Working through Shon's unique writing style was not a problem for me... I actually found it refreshing.CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Fifth Edition Overview

Want to learn more information about CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Fifth Edition?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives ReviewAs much as we rely on our brains to navigate the complex world before us, anyone who has ever forgotten someone's name, or misread a situation, or made a poor decision in the heat of the moment knows that the brain does not always work as we would want. In his new book `Brain Bugs', neurobiologist Dean Buonomano explores the brain's many pitfalls and mistakes (and how and why it makes them), and also offers up some advice on how we can best manage these so called `brain bugs' in our everyday lives.
Buonomano identifies 3 major sources whence brain bugs originate. The first has to do with the fact that our brains are the product of evolution, and have evolved as they have to answer the specific challenges that we faced in our evolutionary history; therefore, while our brains may be well adapted to perform functions that were particularly important in our survival and reproduction in the environment in which our species evolved, they may not do as well at functions which, though handy, did not figure as prominently in our evolutionary past (remembering names seems to fall under this category). The second source of our brain bugs may be attributed to the fact that while evolution has brought us a host of useful mental abilities that have allowed us to survive and thrive, it is still a rather clumsy process, and as such does not always offer up perfect, or even optimal solutions; thus the mental systems that we have are sometimes prone to error and quirky behaviour (hence optical illusions, the ever raging and somewhat awkward battle between our reason and our impulses, and a number of other interesting effects). Finally, the third source of our brain bugs stems from the fact that while many of the brain systems that we have inherited were well adapted to the environment in which our species evolved, this environment has changed considerably in the recent past, to the point where some of the adaptations themselves may be ineffective and even counter-productive today (our craving of sugary, fatty foods, for instance, would have been very useful in the environment in which we evolved--where starvation was much more of a threat than heart disease, but can be positively disastrous in the modern world, where the opposite is more often the case). For a more elaborate summary of the main argument of the book, as well as some of the juicier details to be found therein, visit my blog: it's called nonfictionforum at the wordpress site, and read the article entitled "On `Brain Bugs'".
Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives Overview

Want to learn more information about Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World. Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World.? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World.. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World. ReviewI first read about Bruce Schneier in an eye-opening article by Charles Mann in the September, 2002 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. It seems that you don't have to make the false choice everyone is agonizing over between security and liberty. You can have both.
Schneier's book expands on the ideas in the article. Although Schneier is a technology fan and it is his livelihood, he realizes that sometimes a live security guard can provide better security than cutting-edge (but still fallible) face-recognition scanners, for instance. He explains why national ID cards are not a good idea, and how iris-scanners can be fooled.
These are ideas for security on a large scale, for airports, nuclear and other power plants, and government websites. For security on an individual or small business scale, try Art of the Steal by Frank Abagnale. But even if you don't run a government, Beyond Fear is a fascinating read about how your government is making choices (and how they SHOULD be making choices about your security and about your rights.Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World. Overview

Want to learn more information about Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World.?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace ReviewA book such as How to Disappear : Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace, scores very high on the cool factor. Ultimately though, it's one of those books that details things you should not try at home.

Author Frank Ahearn is a professional skip tracer; which is a person who locates other people. The term comes from the word skip being used to describe the person being searched for, and comes from the idiomatic expression to skip town, meaning to depart, perhaps in a rush, and leaving minimal clues behind for someone to trace the skip to a new location. Often these people are wanted by the government, family, spouses, or other authorities.

The book is touted as the "authoritative and comprehensive guide for people who seek to protect their privacy, as well as for anyone who's ever entertained the fantasy of disappearing - whether actually dropping out of sight or by eliminating the traceable evidence of their existence". Those are a number of very different goals.

For those who seek to protect their daily privacy in the physical world, the book provides a lot of good, high-level insights.

Since the author admits he isn't a technology expert, the book doesn't offer significant input on how to ensure online privacy, short of saying that one shouldn't use social media. Readers wanting to protect their online privacy can use effective resources such as CDT's Guide to Online Privacy for such topics.
Most people want to protect their privacy, and while many do entertain a fantasy of simply disappearing, the reality is that true disappearance is extraordinarily difficult and fraught with risk.
At 197 small pages, the book is a quick read and covers all of the key points. The book does have a lot of good details, but isn't the definitive text, as the devil is in the details, and many of those details are missing in the book. The person who truly wants to disappear would need an expert like Ahearn to work with them, rather than simply relying on the book alone.

The danger in a book like this is that it may lead someone to attempt to disappear on a whim. That is a great way to get themselves in a fine mess, often ending up in more trouble than before their aborted disappearance attempt.
The book focuses on 3 key areas: misinformation (destroying all the data known about you), disinformation (creating fake trails) and reformation (act of getting you from origination to destination without leaving any clues).
Some of the books ideas are similar to the federal witness protection program. In the federal program, witnesses are encouraged to keep their first names and choose last names with the same initial in order to make it easier to instinctively use the new identity.
Like the federal witness program, the books notes that in order to prevent the possibility of someone being followed, they should use a convoluted and indirect transportation path before finally reaching the location where they will live under the new identity. This path often involves a long chain of seemingly random routes which are intended to be difficult for a skip tracer to find or anticipate.

The book includes numerous stories of real-world scenarios in which Ahearn was involved with, and shows how to avoid their mistakes.
Many people envision disappearing as being on a beach with endless beers. Ahearn paints a reality involving endless use of disposable cell phones, cash cards, and remote mail boxes. But that is a lonely existence most people don't seem ready for.
Can someone really change themselves? Yes, but it's very expensive and difficult to hide without changing your identity and you certainly cannot hide from the government without changing your identity. The book is ultimately for someone who has a lot of money, as there is no way to create a new life on the cheap.
The book doesn't detail how to create a completely new identity in a new location, something that seemingly only a witness protection program can do, and mainly is about leaving false trails so that those looking for you can't find you.

For the person contemplating disappearing, they must ask themselves if they really want to live a life of endless prepaid phone cards and prepaid credit cards, using only free wireless and disposable USB memory cards as the book suggests. The book is about ensuring that one's old life and new life don't connect. After a few months of that, most people will likely be quite lonely.
The author notes that most people want to disappear for two main reasons: danger or money. Some people deal with stalkers, abusive ex-spouses or someone who came into money and doesn't want friends or family to locate them.
In a recent interview, Ahearn suggested New Zealand is one of the best places to disappear, as it's a long way off and has great beaches, is an English-speaking country and it's easy to acclimate to life there. But for a lifelong Red Sox fan do they really want to root for the New Zealand Warriors rugby team? Does the person understand the cold reality of vegemite?
Ultimately this is an interesting, but impractical book for the vast majority of people. Can one disappear? Perhaps, but it's getting harder, even with an expert like Ahearn. Perhaps the biggest deterrent should be Google StreetView. Even if one moves far away, StreetView is there, ready to announce your location to the world.

For most readers How to Disappear : Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace will be an entertaining book that does have valuable information.
Ultimately, for those considering disappearing, they need to understand the implications of loudly shutting the door on their way out of society. They should contemplate that before they take a course of action they are likely going to regret.
How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace Overview

Want to learn more information about How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us ReviewJames Pennebaker studies words. Originally interested in the beneficial effect of writing about personal trauma, he and his students developed software to analyze this writing. Their investigation soon expanded to include spoken conversations, emails, political speeches, and other language samples. They discovered that much can be learned from the short "stealth words" that we barely notice, but that make up more than half of our speech. "Pronouns (such as I, you, we, and they), articles (a, an, the), prepositions (e.g., to, for, over), and other stealth words broadcast the kind of people we are."
Pennebaker summarizes his trauma research, noting that "people who benefit from writing express more optimism, acknowledge negative events, are constructing a meaningful story of their experience, and have the ability to change perspective as they write." Searching for reliable linguistic indicators of these processes identified writing style rather than more substantive content words. The resulting LIWC software works well regardless of a text's content.
Using both research findings and representative everyday examples, Pennebaker reviews what he has learned. Topics addressed include gender, status and social class, personality, leadership style, deception, interpersonal attraction, and group solidarity. The author not only presents conclusions from his own research, but links to supporting findings using non-linguistic methods. Specific findings include:
-LIWC correctly identifies an author's gender 72% of the time using writing style. This increases to 76% when content words are included. (Human guesses range from 55 to 65%.)
-On detecting depression: "Sadness generally causes people to focus inwardly. Pronouns tend to track people's focus of attention, and when in great emotional or physical pain, they tend to use I-words at high rates. Sadness, unlike most other emotions, is associated with looking back into the past and into the future. In other words, people tend to use past- and future-tense verbs more when they are sad or depressed compared to other strong emotions."
- "No system has ever been shown to reliably catch liars at rates higher than 65 percent. And even those with hit rates in that neighborhood (including me) have done so in highly controlled and artificial circumstances."
- "Linguistic style matching" across nine categories of function words occurs within the first 15 to 30 seconds of an attentive conversation. It is generally beyond conscious awareness. LSM profiles can predict a number of things better than chance, including whether a "speed dating" couple will pursue a further relationship after their initial four-minute discussion.
Pennebaker clearly wants to share, not just his insights, but the methods used to achieve them. Much of his research was done collaboratively, not just with students and fellow researchers, but with public figures, professionals in other fields, and anyone else with interesting documents. Readers are pointed to web sites that let them experiment with Pennebaker's techniques and a version of his LIWC software is available for more in-depth investigations. An appendix includes "A Handy Guide for Spotting and Interpreting Function Words in the Wild."
This book is an accessible summary of James Pennebaker's work with helpful citations of similar research by others. It serves as a guide to more technical discussions of text analysis through an extensive Bibliography and References section--and pointers to downloadable research reports from the author's web site. Interested readers might also enjoy Roderick Hart's Campaign Talk or one of the other related books the author mentions.The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us Overview

Want to learn more information about The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created ReviewCharles Mann has a knack for making the details of history into fascinating reading, and this book did, indeed, keep me up reading past my bedtime. The book combines the results of his prodigious reading, his own travels and personal experiences, and his conversations with some of the leading scholars in the field.
On the heels of his earlier success (1491), Mann now turns to the post-Columbian world, and shows how Columbus's voyages brought about what Mann calls (rather inelegantly, perhaps) the "Homogenocene Age." We're all living in one world now, like it or not, and he explores how it got that way. The book doesn't attempt to be exhaustive, but goes into detail about some of the more interesting aspects of what scholars are now calling the "Columbian Exchange": a massive swap of plants, microorganisms, and animals (including humans). The period after Columbus brought about some of the most radical (and often surprising) changes in the nature of the world.
In some ways, the book recalls James Burkes' Connections television series. We see the unintended consequences and often unexpected results of seemingly minor events. The 1707 Union of Scotland and England turns out to be, quite possibly, partly the result of Panamanian mosquitoes, for example. And I learned a lot. We all know about the Puritans landing in New England, but I had no idea they also founded a colony off the coast of Nicaragua!1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created Overview

Want to learn more information about 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations ReviewI was modestly disappointed to see so few references to pioneers I recognize, including Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly, Joe Trippi, and so on. Howard Rheingold and Yochai Benkler get single references. Seeing Stewart Brand's recommendation persuaded me I don't know the author well enough, and should err on the side of his being a genuine original.
Certainly the book reads well, and for someone like me who reads a great deal, I found myself recognizing thoughts explored by others, but also impressed by the synthesis and the clarity.
A few of my fly-leaf notes:
+ New technologies enable new kinds of groups to form.
+ "Message" is key, what Eric Raymond calls "plausible promise."
+ Can now harness "free and ready participation in a large distributed group with a variety of skills."
+ Cost-benefit of large "unsupervised" endeavors is off the charts.
+ From sharing to cooperation to collective action
+ Collective action requires shared vision
+ Literacy led to mass amatuerism, and I have note to myself, the cell phone can lead to mass on demand education "one cell call at a time"
+ Transactions costs dramatically lowered.
+ Revolution happens when it cannot be contained by status quo institutions
+ Good account of Wikipedia
+ Light discussion of social capital, Yochai Bnekler does it much better
+ Value of mass diversity
+ Implications of Linux for capitalism
+ Excellent account of how Perl beat out C++
Bottom line in this book: "Open Source teaches us that the communal can be at least as durable as the commercial.
Other books I recommend:
Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, & the Economic World
Tools for Thought: The History and Future of Mind-Expanding Technology
The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised : Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace
There is of course also a broad literature on complexity, collapse, resilience, diversity, integral consciousness and so on.Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations Overview

Want to learn more information about Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Latin American Social Movements: Globalization, Democratization, and Transnational Networks Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Latin American Social Movements: Globalization, Democratization, and Transnational Networks? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Latin American Social Movements: Globalization, Democratization, and Transnational Networks. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Latin American Social Movements: Globalization, Democratization, and Transnational Networks ReviewNeeded the book for grad school. It was in good shape and easy to navigate. This is a helpful book for anyone studying Latin American anthro.Latin American Social Movements: Globalization, Democratization, and Transnational Networks Overview

Want to learn more information about Latin American Social Movements: Globalization, Democratization, and Transnational Networks?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences) ReviewLin has devoted in area of the sociology. This book is another great work followed by other works in sociology. Strongly suggest to buy and own it as a scholar's guid of the theory of social capital.Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences) Overview

Want to learn more information about Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series) ReviewSteve Garfield has a national reputation as a videoblogging teacher. When I heard about his new book, I ordered two copies sight unseen. He is as effective a teacher in print as he is in person and online. This book is also very tightly written -- no excess words. That makes it easier to read and allows the author to pack in more content.
If this book comes out in an interactive version for the iPad, it may well be the gold standard for rich media books. Hats off to Steve Garfield for pulling this off. It's no easy feat to birth a book of this quality and usefulness.(And credit, too, to the folks at his publisher, John Wiley & Sons.)Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series) Overview

Want to learn more information about Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Understanding Terror Networks Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Understanding Terror Networks? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Understanding Terror Networks. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Understanding Terror Networks Review

On balance this book is a very fine review of the actual background and motivations of over 150 members of four specific terrorist networks: the Central Staff around Osama bin Laden, the Core Arabs, the Maghred Arabs, and the Southeast Asians.
The author, who does have intelligence experience and is not just an ordinary foreign service officer, gets high marks for making excellent use of open sources of information, for emphasizing the role of Egypt as a source of terrorism and Israeli behavior against Palestine as the primary catalyst for terrorism now directed against Americans and other Western nations (and recently, Asian nations), and for documenting the distinction between the near enemy (corrupt Muslim regimes) and the far enemy (the West), a distinction all the more relevant because US actions against Iraq brought the far enemy near, and changed the dynamics of the global war on terrorism in favor of the terrorists.
Pages 65-68 offer a superb overview of the nuances of open sources of information, including a useful caveat on "experts" that are only as good as their discipline in seeking out and validating the sources they claim as their foundation. From my own role as a former spy and now global proponent for improved use of open sources of information to product open source intelligence, I regard the author's methodical review of sources and their dangers to be among the very best I have ever seen. His details on press misinformation and the laziness of journalists, and his understanding of how many "leads" about terrorists are actually more sinister and selfish efforts to settle personal scores by fabricating the leads to destroy others using American power, are clear signs that this author is a top-notch professional.
In general the book and the original research by the author confirm what earlier scholars of revolution (Chalmers Johnson, Ted Gurr, Eckstein, among others) have documented in the past, to wit that most top-notch terrorists are middle-class, smart, educated beyond the norm, and grow into their motivation. They are *not* crazy and suicide is a rational choice for them, not an aberrant behavior.
I found the author's observation that recruitment is a bottom-up self-selected process rather than a top-down "seek out and recruit" process, quite fascinating, especially when the author makes the point that these people are NOT brainwashed. This is about a conflict of ideas, of ideals, of perception, and of context, and America is clearly not able to field the "idea army" and is not able to be competitive with Bin Laden in the war for the hearts and minds of these hundreds of thousands of prospective terrorists.
Most importantly, the author documents that Bin Laden is not your typical terrorist, is not seeking a controlled network, and is perhaps most brilliant for letting thousands of cells blossom with a little financial nurturing and a lot of social liberty.
The author documents the return of kinship as a source of power--kinship and social networking as means of organizing, as means of providing security, as means of radicalizing supporters.
The book is disappointing in two respects--a cursory conclusion as to how to marshal global resources against their severe threat, and no reference to the Pakistani and Hamas variants of terrorism, nor to the overlapping networking of ethnic criminal, corrupt government, and motivated terrorist networks.
For those interested in understanding the terrorist threat at the individual level of detail, I recommend this book together with Yossef Bodansky's classic on "Bin Laden: the Man Who Declared War on America" and Steve Emerson's more recent "American Jihad." However, for a broader strategic understanding of the emerging threats and the reasons why billions are increasingly against America, I suggest the Amazon customer consider the several books in my Emerging Threats List and my Blowback List ("see more about me" should really say "see my other reviews and specific lists").
I believe this author has more to offer, and would be interested in a second book from him, one that answers the specific question: "How must America behave, what pathologies of American corporate and government action must be corrected, if we are to live in peace with billions of faithful Muslims?" The author has helped us understand the core of the terrorist networks that are capable of bringing down America. Now it might be helpful if he turns his medical eye on our own mind-sets, and tells us how to heal ourselves.Understanding Terror Networks Overview

Want to learn more information about Understanding Terror Networks?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

ROI of Social Media: How to Improve the Return on Your Social Marketing Investment Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy ROI of Social Media: How to Improve the Return on Your Social Marketing Investment? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on ROI of Social Media: How to Improve the Return on Your Social Marketing Investment. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

ROI of Social Media: How to Improve the Return on Your Social Marketing Investment ReviewI have been doing a lot of research on social media and how businesses can use it to sell more products and services. This book provides a reality check that is most helpful. Instead of dabbling with social media, this book provides the techniques to get serious about social media and where an organization is in its social media journey. There is so much out on the blogs and website articles about social media that it is overwhelming. I run into people constantly giving me their two cents about the trends and what is hot in social media and it is confusing. If you are at all confused or feel uncertain where to start with social media then I would start with this book.
The book provides techniques such as the media engagement framework. The MEF provides the context as to where to get your arms around using social media within your organization from the perspective of personas down to how to measure each persona (influencers, consumers, individuals) and the way to appropriately reach them with the best return instead of grabbing the coolest thing on the market.
The entire subject of ROI is often a half baked attempt to provide enough cause to do something. In other words, ROI is not real as it is based on possibilities or intangibles. Real ROI is based on hard dollars not soft dollars. I applaud the authors for taking the position of defining ROI specific to social media with how to approaches. As a marketer and not a finance person, I appreciate the business mechanics of generating the ROI rather than a lot of financial calculations that would leave me trying to figure out how to apply social media to the calculations. The book does a fantastic job of applying ROI as would be expected by the title and it lives up to that title.
Other aspects of the book are the web links to current articles and findings on the web. There are case studies, tools to use, and side bar definitions that make the book a very useful guide. I hope the authors keep the book up to date as tools and trends change, however, the frameworks and approaches will have a decent shelf-life that I would encourage anyone to read in 2011 and for the next several years.ROI of Social Media: How to Improve the Return on Your Social Marketing Investment Overview

Want to learn more information about ROI of Social Media: How to Improve the Return on Your Social Marketing Investment?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...