Book Description
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)—2000 Edition is now available in eight additional languages to help project managers around the world.
Each of PMI's official translations includes a bilingual glossary of newly translated and standardized project management terminology. This allows candidates to study the guide in the same language in which they plan to take the Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification exam.
PMI undertook a rigorous, year-long process to ensure the maximum effectiveness of each official translation. Each translation team included qualified bilingual PMPs as well as professional translators and editors.
Official translations: Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Korean, German and Italian.
Customer Reviews:
Most boring book you can read, Good for reference.......2007-10-06
You cannot really read this book. You can use it as a reference, very comprehensive. Must read other book for learning the basics, then use this as a reference for comprehensive guide.
Unfortunately badly written, but absolutely necessary.......2007-10-01
This book is absolutely mandatory to get a PMP certification, which is nearly a mandatory requirement for being a project manager. These days, it is difficult to get a PM job without this certification. And the only way to get it is by knowing this book from cover to cover no matter how dry and 'dictionary-like' it is.
That being said, it is not *that* bad. It is better than, for example, the CMMI 1.2 book. What is missing is why these practices are the "best practices" and why you would implement them - what the benefits would be. Also missing is any kind of comprehensible memorable writing style.
You're not going to pass the certification test by reading this book, but you can't pass without it either.
Good Book.......2007-09-28
A very good book for PMs, since it is from PMI, they have covered most aspects of PM, however, no that much in detail, so not that good for early career PMs.
Very good Book - - Un libro muy bueno, se los recomiendo........2007-09-24
This is a very good book, you should read it if you want to know more about project management.
Es un libro muy bueno, se los recomiendo si estan interesados en la administracion de proyectos.
Do NOT buy this book!!!.......2007-09-24
I really, really wish I would have read through the amazon reviews before buying this book. It looks like a good idea and that it will an informative read. It's a piece of summary junk that provides no real value whatsoever.
Instead of actually trying to teach concepts in detail, the objective of this book appears to be the mere identification of concepts. If you're content learning about the concepts that exist, maybe this book is for you. If you want to actually know how things work and be able to do them yourself, go elsewhere.
Amazon.com
Bestselling author Nassim Nicholas Taleb continues his exploration of randomness in his fascinating new book, The Black Swan, in which he examines the influence of highly improbable and unpredictable events that have massive impact. Engaging and enlightening, The Black Swan is a book that may change the way you think about the world, a book that Chris Anderson calls, "a delightful romp through history, economics, and the frailties of human nature." See Anderson's entire guest review below.
Guest Reviewer: Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson is editor-in-chief of Wired magazine and the author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More.
Four hundred years ago, Francis Bacon warned that our minds are wired to deceive us. "Beware the fallacies into which undisciplined thinkers most easily fall--they are the real distorting prisms of human nature." Chief among them: "Assuming more order than exists in chaotic nature." Now consider the typical stock market report: "Today investors bid shares down out of concern over Iranian oil production." Sigh. We're still doing it.
Our brains are wired for narrative, not statistical uncertainty. And so we tell ourselves simple stories to explain complex thing we don't--and, most importantly, can't--know. The truth is that we have no idea why stock markets go up or down on any given day, and whatever reason we give is sure to be grossly simplified, if not flat out wrong.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb first made this argument in Fooled by Randomness, an engaging look at the history and reasons for our predilection for self-deception when it comes to statistics. Now, in The Black Swan: the Impact of the Highly Improbable, he focuses on that most dismal of sciences, predicting the future. Forecasting is not just at the heart of Wall Street, but it's something each of us does every time we make an insurance payment or strap on a seat belt.
The problem, Nassim explains, is that we place too much weight on the odds that past events will repeat (diligently trying to follow the path of the "millionaire next door," when unrepeatable chance is a better explanation). Instead, the really important events are rare and unpredictable. He calls them Black Swans, which is a reference to a 17th century philosophical thought experiment. In Europe all anyone had ever seen were white swans; indeed, "all swans are white" had long been used as the standard example of a scientific truth. So what was the chance of seeing a black one? Impossible to calculate, or at least they were until 1697, when explorers found Cygnus atratus in Australia.
Nassim argues that most of the really big events in our world are rare and unpredictable, and thus trying to extract generalizable stories to explain them may be emotionally satisfying, but it's practically useless. September 11th is one such example, and stock market crashes are another. Or, as he puts it, "History does not crawl, it jumps." Our assumptions grow out of the bell-curve predictability of what he calls "Mediocristan," while our world is really shaped by the wild powerlaw swings of "Extremistan."
In full disclosure, I'm a long admirer of Taleb's work and a few of my comments on drafts found their way into the book. I, too, look at the world through the powerlaw lens, and I too find that it reveals how many of our assumptions are wrong. But Taleb takes this to a new level with a delightful romp through history, economics, and the frailties of human nature. --Chris Anderson
Book Description
A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives.
Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don’t know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the “impossible.”
For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. Now, in this revelatory book, Taleb explains everything we know about what we don’t know. He offers surprisingly simple tricks for dealing with black swans and benefiting from them.
Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications The Black Swan will change the way you look at the world. Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. The Black Swan is a landmark book–itself a black swan.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant.......2007-10-18
I got a great many headaches trying to keep focused on Taleb's book--yet enjoyed it immensely. It was, to be sure, challenging reading. It gives me hope (a forlorn hope, granted) that publishers might take heed and slow down the constant stream of "get rich quick by following my formula" and "C'mon, C'mon Get Happy" books. The white swan proclaims that if one poor boy can get rich, so can you--by buying his book. It also says that if the grinning guru on the cover with the dove on his shoulder has found nirvana, so will you. We so love that.
Sadly, people the world over want to believe there are only white swans. Budding young writers want to believe "quality" is their assurance of publication when in fact it is chance (or privileged status, of course). Politicians who merrily predicted the outcome of the Iraq War now have a big black swan staring in the window at them. The workings of a jury, the terrorist eluding `perfect' security and `controls' over world economies will never follow the sagest of predictions. We'll dance naievely on, however.
I'm not a great intellectual and yes, Taleb's style at times made my teeth ache, but this is a book that will stand the test of time.
by the author of THE SWAN: Tales of the Sacramento Valley
interesting.......2007-10-17
I like the fact that he presents things differently, even though he seems a little bit to "conscious" and proud of this... :)
Good book generally.
The Black Swan and What's Wrong with Nassim Taleb's Viewpoint.......2007-10-17
I'm 94 percent through reading Nassim Taleb's remarkable book about random events having higher than expected occurrence throughout history. I'm an unusual reader however in that many of the people he's met, read about and formed friendships with, I've also had the opportunity to meet, read about or write to. Being the "loner" that I am however, unlike Mr. Taleb, I didn't form friendships with these guys. Didier Sornette and Benoit Mandlebrot are two of his hero's if I can use poetic license, whose works I've followed throughout the years and as an applied scientist working first in the aerospace and auto industry, and now in finance, have had a chance to apply their work and ideas to real world problems. However, I've also been a student of Newton, Kelvin and Einstein all of whom would and did make room for the "Gaussian" curve that Mr. Taleb has disgust for. I would also fall into one of Mr. Taleb's cohorts with whom he has high disdain, since I also was educated in physics and mathematics in the usual academic curriculum. This being the case, I feel I have some credibility to offer a secondary review of his work having used the tools of "Extremistan" as he calls it.
To begin, there are many statements in his book that I agree with. The Nobel self-congratulatory awards, the assertion of many academics to request a mathematical proof of his "theory", the view that mathematics exists only in the mind for nature offers neither a true square, diamond, or triangle, the lack of an explanation for the observation of highly probable events and his continued persistence that an explanation isn't necessary are just an example of his high intellect that in the "real world" we all come to appreciate and assume some brotherhood with this smart-alec of a man. However, there is clearly a mischievousness in his demeanor that snickers at anybody who disagrees with him that is uncalled for. This appears as high arrogance that rightly his mother ascertained from his character when she said to him, "if you can get people to pay you what you think you're worth, instead of what you're really worth, then you've got something".
Let me make a thoughtful empirical criticism which underpins Mr. Taleb's ranting and raving in the book. Mr. Taleb says on page 281 of the Black Swan, "you need one simple deviation to reject the Gaussian, but millions of observations will not fully confirm the validity of its application. Why? Because the Gaussian bell curve disallows large deviations, but tools of Extremistan, the alternative, do not disallow long quiet stretches". His overall argument fails on this one simple account: there are more than one cause in effect for almost all known observations of any phenomena in the universe. What's typically done in physics is to attempt to understand the strongest influencers of an outcome, not ALL of the influencers of an outcome. He fails to understand that it's not one distribution or one cause in effect, but always multiple causes occuring. Extreme events have a different mechanism that triggers cascades while every-day events, those occurring that aren't extreme have a separate cause. One only enters into the conundrum of explanation when you try and link all observations, both from his world of Extremistan and Mediocracistan together into one cause. This is never the case in any phenomena I've ever dealt with or heard about, from weather forecasting, fluid dynamics, heat transfer, chemical kinetics, or the financial markets. There are competing effects going on, not just one. Some trigger daily and can be observed regularly, some trigger every 100 years or more.
Take for example his principal teacher of Black Swans, the financial markets. Okay, so thirsty bubbles, credit crunches, LTCM, October 1987, August 2007 occurred and weren't explained by the "Gaussian" model. Well, for ease of explanation, say there were two underlying distributions with two completely different mechanisms involved. One cause of market movements say, results in a distribution of returns modeled like a Gaussian and the other cause, is best explained by some distribution that has extreme tails, infinite variance and allows for discontinuous jumps. I have yet to meet a physicist or mathematician who wouldn't agree with this and it satisfies Mr. Taleb's points exactly. What he fails to comprehend I believe, is that multiple causes are in effect simultaneously in any problem I've ever encountered, each resulting in its own distribution of outcomes. What's not separable and creating havoc in explanation, are the multiple causes that create the underlying distributions and/or which cause has what distribution?
As a practicing computational and modeling scientist since 1987, I see Mr. Taleb's book as delightfully playful, but certainly amateurish. His understanding of science is quite ignorant really. I was amazed at the name dropping, though he continually disavows making a habit of it. And why Mr. Taleb can't see to find anybody but Herr Dr. Professor Mandlebrot to agree with him is beyond me? Perhaps the physicists he did find who agreed with him, weren't quite as famous as they needed to be, to be quoted in his book. Lastly, being a student of history that Mr. Taleb purports to be, I was amazed he didn't dig up these two quotations, one from the supreme empiricist Isacc Newton and the second from the best theorist I know, Albert Einstein:
Thus far I have explained the phenomena of the heavens and of our sea by the force of gravity, but I have not yet assigned a cause to gravity. I have not as yet been able to deduce from phenomena the reason for these properties of gravity. For whatever is not deduced from the phenomena must be called a hypothesis; and hypotheses whether metaphysical or physical, or based on occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy.
I. Newton
Newton forgive me; you found the only way which in your age was just about possible for a person with the highest powers of thought and creativity. The concepts which you created are guiding our thinking in physics even today, although we now know that they will have to be replaced by others farther removed from the sphere of immediate experience, for we know that science cannot grow out of empiricism alone.
A. Einstein
I would say that one can't predict extreme events so one doesn't model them generally. It's not a failure of "modelers" as Mr. Taleb suggests, but of tackling simpler problems first. We didn't throw Newton out when his laws failed to account for relativistic velocity; we shouldn't throw Markowitz, Merton, Sharpe, Black and Scholes out either for their early contributions. Sure, they'll be overtaken by Rachev and the Levy-Stable distribution function but in 1968, who could compute a numerical basis function on a piece of paper since computers were hardly around! The Gaussian was used simply because you could compute it; it had a closed form analytical equation.
Bell curve Intellectual fraud.......2007-10-16
Didier says, "A crash occurs when order wins. In stable markets buyers and sellers balance out each other, normal times are when disorder wins. When the imitation strength K gets close to a special critical value Kc, a very large group of investors share the same opinion, a may act in a coordinated way, an abrupt drop in price, infinite slope K/Kc, a crash occurs. "New demographic, technological, or economic developments prompt spontaneous innovation in financial markets and the first wave of investors and innovators become wealthy. Then imitators arrive and overdo the new techniques. In the ensuing crises, latecomers lose big before regulators and academics put out fires."
Taleb says that the human suffers from three ailments: 1. the illusion of understanding, orhow everyone thinks he know what is going on in a world that is more complicated or random than they realize. 2. the retrospective distortion, or how we can assess matters only after the fact, as if they were in a rearview mirror (history seems clearer and more organized in history books than in empirical reality). 3. the overvaluation of factual information and the handicap of authoritative and learned people, particularly when they create categories-when they platonify" Taleb hedges with puts in calls that are designed to make money when a black swan occurs and that is all that matters.
Properities of Extremistan: Scalable; Wild randomness; the member is either a giant or a dwarf - strong inequalities in the extreme; winner take almost all effects; vulnerable to the Black Swan; total will be determined by a small number of events; hard to predict from past information; history makes jumps; and the distribution is either Mandelbrotian gray Swans or totally intractable black Swans.
"Gaussian-bell curve variations face a headwind that makes probabilities drop at a faster and faster rate as you move away from the mean, while scalables or mandelbrotian variations, do not have such a restriction." Didier demonstrated using a log periodicity equation that sudden changes could occur and that stock market crashes followed a curve. I observed that Didier used fractuals and mandelbrots, in his book.
Gaussian bell curve did not provide an accurate prediction of reality for the German dutschmark when in the 1920, four trillion were exchanged for one dollar. "An outcome that tells you that the bell curve is meaningless as a description of the randomness in currency fluctuations. All you need to reject the bell curve is for such a movement to occur once - just consider the consequences." The bell curve is used as a risk-measurement tool by regulators and central bankers. The point of Gaussian bell curve is that most observations hover around the mediocre, the average. A gaussian bell curve of men reaching 9 feet 1 inch is one in one with 100 zeros behind it. So if you see a nine foot Chinese, according to the bell curve that is impossible and yet the possibility does exist. Suppose an increasing number of 8 foot Chinese emerge and suddenly a nine foot Chinese exist then pay attention to the black swan. The black swan is impossible according to the bell curve but its random existence should cause one to pay attention.
Outsourcing has not caused America to bankrupt. Wealth is scalable because workers have shifted into a post-industrial society were ideas are valuable. For example, software is scalable, costing almost nothing to produce but capable of generating massive amounts of wealth. "The inequality among the superrich is the same as the inequality among the simply rich-it does not slow down" "For any large total, the breakdown will be more and more asymmetric". Work is unfair. One programmer may be capable of producing more power designs and code than twenty of his peers. "The 80/20 rule is metaphorical; it is not a rule, even less a rigid law." In some situations you may have a concentration of the 80/20 type and you can identify beforehand where the 20 percent are. Why is the bell curve so popular? The Bell Curve allows for certainties to exist and confidence to increase; the bell curve disregards the possibility of sharp jumps or discontinuities and are inapplicable to extremistan; large unpredictable deviations are rare, but can not be dismissed; the Gaussian way is to focus on the ordinary; if there is gravity pulling numbers down that we have the gaussian approach, but if we have a singularity emerges than a rarity of enormous magnitude has occurred, a black swan, an anti-gravity field canceling out gravity, a inward spiral of energy, to a single point; the mediocristan type of randomness does not allow for some extremes; the consequence of variation (errors) around the average of gaussian are not truly worrisome. Fuzzy Logic is better than probability. Fuzzy logical explains the chance that a possibility will occur. Probability predicts whether something will exist and may exclude things that rarely exist. It gets worse, standard deviations outside the gaussian do not matter and gaussian are the only class of distributions that standard deviation describe.
What causes catastrophes? "Statistics is not a science, it is a fraud." Divergence form the mean was considered an error. Marx picked up on this and promoted the idea of average man. "The notion of the average man is steeped in the culture attending the birth o the European middle class, the nascent post-Napoleonic shopkeeper's culture, chary of excessive wealth and intellectual brilliance." The outcome is a society without any deviate outcomes. Nervousness caused from disbelief causes catastrophes.
The World of Unknown Unknowns.......2007-10-15
NNT's use of a "narrative" strategy based on a questionable premise (did the sighting of the first black swan in Australia really impact the world?) to attract readers has paid dividends and his book has attained Grey Swan status among Amazon's Business & Investing bestsellers. The author, as he admits, has clearly enjoyed the writing experience which, besides dealing with the Impact of the Highly Improbable, has enabled him to sideswipe individuals and groups he sees mired in a world of Gaussian illusion.
On reading the book for the second time I kept asking myself "is this new to me?" and, if it is, "what is its relevance to me?". On reviewing one's own life to date, as the author recommends, it is clear that much of it has indeed been determined by high-impact unforeseeable events. This does not come as a great surprise - but then Taleb says that it never does, in retrospect! This contrasts with the chilling realization that there are almost certainly more such occurrences ahead. It is interesting to read explanations for why humans "don't know they don't know" they live in an extreme world but many, without realizing it, will already be familiar with psychological phenomena such as "platonism", "tunnelling", "confirmation bias" and the "narrative fallacy".
Interestingly, Taleb seems to miss what could well be the main reason why individuals "don't know they don't know": they just don't want to know they don't know they don't know! It seems to be a natural human reaction to put one's head in the sand when faced with the possibility of unforeseeable, high impact, possibly negative, events - particularly when they believe they can do nothing about them.
What, perhaps, is newer and more relevant to many is the fact that the professionals apparently rely on defective tools for analysing their particular piece of reality. Having some knowledge of the financial world and its questionable mathematical models, I can readily believe that many professionals - and even Nobel Prize winners - are led astray by the humble Bell Curve, as Taleb suggests. In fact the reasonably experienced small investor already has little faith in market "experts". On the other hand this same investor does not automatically transfer his scepticism to experts in other important fields, such as the social sciences, economics, environmental studies and military planning, where predictive errors can be far deadlier.
Besides peppering his text with the names and contributions of important thinkers - apparently a deliberate technique to achieve greater credibility - Taleb gives us some fascinating theory in the shape of non-linear relationships, the limitations of the Gaussian distribution, and the ability of so-called "power laws" to turn some Black Swans into Grey Swans. However this review stops a long way from demonstrating that life is largely determined by full-blooded (i.e. totally unpredictable) Black Swans.
Although I don't think that Taleb will make us see our lives in a totally new light it is important that he reminds us - in case 24-hour world news ever allows us to forget - that day-to-day affairs can be subject to unforeseen, and potentially devastating, modification. He also offers us the flip side: some ideas on how we can take advantage of positive Black Swans. It may be due to a lack of imagination but, not being a venture capitalist or a "quant", I couldn't immediately see measures of easy application in this area. Defence against Black Swans seems easier, namely diversification across very disparate fields. Taleb himself suggests a portfolio composed of up to 90% of extremely safe financial instruments (like Treasury bills) and as little as 10% in leveraged speculative bets like options (ideally involving "venture-capital style portfolios"). His general advise is more homely: learn to recognise undertakings exposed to positive and negative Black Swans, don't be narrow minded, seize opportunities, be wary of government plans, etc.
Many interested in the impact of randomness will find the book a good, if fairly demanding, read. In the end, however, it is not entirely satisfactory. This has something to do with the fact that rather than be carried long by a limpid river of reasoning we are subjected to an avalanche of opinionative observations, some relevant, some less so. Some readers might also find many of the chapter and section headings irritating: "The Vagueness of Catherine's Lover Count", "How many Wittgenstein's can dance on the head of a pin?", etc. I suppose its all part of the relatively successful effort to make randomness fun. But although we'd enjoy seeing pompous academics and self-satisfied hedge-fund partners squirming with mice down their necks is it really necessary to rub the long-suffering French up the wrong way?
Book Description
Complete with a targeted review of all the material on the selected Praxis exam in addition to a full-length practice test, these test preparation guides are written by the makers of the real tests. Thorough explanations of the answers are provided and helpful test-taking strategies are found throughout the guide. The three categories of assessments covered correspond to the three milestones in teacher development-academic skills assessment, subject assessment, and classroom performance assessment. Reflecting the rigorous and carefully validated nature of the exams, these guides provide beginning teachers the information needed to succeed.
Customer Reviews:
DON'T BUY BOOKS FROM ETS!!! BUY FROM OTHER SELLERS!!.......2007-10-15
DO NOT buy any study materials directly from ETS, buy new/used from Amazon sellers. I purchased a study guide for one test code that was posted on the website, but they changed the test/test code and will not accept a refund or exchange. DO NOT BUY ANY STUDY MATERIALS FROM ETS, BUY FROM AMAZON SELLERS!! I am not a seller, but have obviously been burned from them switching test codes. Be very careful when order anything from ETS!!
Great Study Guide.......2007-09-14
This book was a great study guide. But if you're looking to be spoon fed the answers on the test - look elsewhere. This is a GUIDE of what COULD be on the test. So you'll really have to study the material, but it's all worth it in the end when you pass with flying colors!
Great study guide.......2007-08-14
This guide was very helpful in preparing for the praxis II content knowledge test. I took the practice test provided in the book and after reading the explanation of the answers to the questions I originally missed, I felt very confident upon entering the test. I have used study guides by other companies and feel that the ones by ETS (which is who administers the tests) are the most helpful.
Now worth the time.......2007-05-22
This study guide was not very helpful. There is only one test included, which provides no basis for comparison. Also, in the example section, there are no answers given to the questions. Not worth the time or money.
Excellent Handbook.......2007-05-18
Of all the Praxis guides, this is the one to have, as it has been prepared by the people who actually make up the test. Subject areas are broken down so studying can be made much easier. The questions are the closest to the ones found on the test. This book was certainly helpful.
Book Description
In Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement,
Robert J. Marzano shows how a carefully structured combination of two approaches--sustained silent reading and instruction in subject-specific vocabulary terms--can help overcome the deficiencies in background knowledge that hamper the achievement of many children.
Readers will learn
* The principles that underlie an effective sustained silent reading program
* A five-step process for using sustained silent reading to enhance background knowledge
* The defining characteristics of effective vocabulary instruction
* A six-step process for direct instruction in vocabulary in each discipline
* The vocabulary terms critical to students' success in every academic subject
Vignettes suggest how the recommended reading and vocabulary instruction programs might be implemented in elementary schools, middle and junior high schools, and high schools. The book also includes a list of 7,923 vocabulary terms culled from the national standards documents and other publications, organized into 11 subject areas and 4 grade-level categories.
With its research-based recommendations and step-by-step approach, Building Background Knowledge equips educators with the tools they need to help close the achievement gap and enable all students to succeed.
Download Description
In Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement, Robert J. Marzano shows how a carefully structured combination of two approaches-sustained silent reading and instruction in subject-specific vocabulary terms-can help overcome the deficiencies in background knowledge that hamper the achievement of many children. Readers will learn * The principles that underlie an effective sustained silent reading program * A five-step process for using sustained silent reading to enhance background knowledge * The defining characteristics of effective vocabulary instruction * A six-step process for direct instruction in vocabulary in each discipline * The vocabulary terms critical to students' success in every academic subject Vignettes suggest how the recommended reading and vocabulary instruction programs might be implemented in elementary schools, middle and junior high schools, and high schools. The book also includes a list of 7,923 vocabulary terms culled from the national standards documents and other publications, organized into 11 subject areas and 4 grade-level categories. With its research-based recommendations and step-by-step approach, Building Background Knowledge equips educators with the tools they need to help close the achievement gap and enable all students to succeed.
Customer Reviews:
Building Background Knowledge by Bob Marzano.......2006-11-01
The author points out some very important aspects of learning through the
prism of background knowledge. There is a general correlation between
academic background knowledge and generalized academic performance.
In addition, the book covers the transitory steps aimed at harnessing
working memory into permanent memory. There is a section which shows how
surface knowledge enhances background knowledge. Text density is another
indicator of learning. Texts which contain many new words not widely
interspersed will have the lowest new vocabulary retention. As newer words
are more widely dispersed, readers have up to a 30% retention from a
mere retention in single digits. Poverty is another correlator to overall
academic performance according to the author. The book presents a very
valuable common Greek/Latin root derivative section. For instance,
Greek words enter into the English language , thusly.
- ast or star means astronomy
- cycle or circle means cycle
- gram finds usage in the word telegraph or autograph
- meter is utilized in thermometer or centimeter
- photo finds usage in photograph
- scop or to see is utilized in the word microscope
- therm or heat is utilized in thermometer
The Latin root "act" is utilized in react or transact. The Latin root
"ang" means to bend as in angle or angular. The Latin root "aud" for
hear is seen in the word audible. The Latin root "credit" is seen in
incredible etc.
The book is a worthy acquisition for the student, linguist, writer or
academic person in your household. It is a good value for the price charged.
Dual Language .......2005-06-11
As a dual-language elementary teacher it is important that I teach my students the meaning of specific words in the subjects they have to learn in order to get the meaning. This book allows me to concentrate on the meaning, context and usage of words in the different subjects I teach rather than having to look for the words and then do what I described. It has also helped me build a stronger vocabulary and made me a better teacher for my students.
Organized into 11 subject areas and 4 grade-level categories.......2004-10-10
Building Background Knowledge For Academic Achievement: Research On What Works In Schools by Robert J. Marzano (Senior Scholar, Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning, Aurora, Colorado and Associate Professor, Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) discusses how two combined approaches - sustained silent reading and careful study of subject-specific vocabulary terms - can help young adults overcome weaknesses in background knowledge that would otherwise undermine their educational pursuits, from elementary to high school. In addition to the outlined principles for a sustained silent reading program, and effective vocabulary instruction, over 7,923 actual vocabulary terms have been culled for presentation from national standards documents and other publications, organized into 11 subject areas and 4 grade-level categories. A superb home schooling, self-study, or curriculum supplementary guide, highly recommended for parents, educators, tutors, and studious individuals seeking to hone the tools that maximize their comprehension skills.
Book Description
Conspiracy theories about Sept. 11, 2001 continue to spread. Now, in a meticulous, scientific and groundbreaking new book, Popular Mechanics puts these rumors to rest. The magazine’s editors analyze the 20 most persistent claims underlying 9/11 conspiracy theories—and conclusively disprove each one. The result is a triumph of hard fact over conspiratorial fantasy.
Customer Reviews:
The truth shines through........2007-10-17
This book wades through all the crazy ideas out there and puts the nuts to shame. If you want to know the facts and not crazy ideas this is the book for you.
hey.......2007-09-20
so i haven't read the book, i will tell you that, but i think it's funny how John McCain helped write it. That guy needs to be off the balot and in jail for sure. Not all CT's are crazy either. They are family memebers who didn't get a proper investigation from the gov't. The Gov't doesn't care about them or the investigation and they call it a horrible attack on America. Bin Laden isn't even wanted for it. He i wanted for bombing in 198 or something on an american embassy killing maybe 200.
Anyway, read "Debunking 9/11 Debunking" wesome "truther" book
Propaganda and a waste of money. .......2007-09-20
Buy a copy of Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Ray Griffin before buying this pack of lies. You can save your time and money and learn what Popular Mechanics says and OMITS in building their case against the truth. Hearst Publishing is still in the business of propaganda. Wake Up.
Reads like propaganda.......2007-09-14
I wish just once somebody would publish an objective book or collection of writings about this topic. The afterward is particularly insulting to the millions of concerned citizens with legitimate questions. Anyone can see that this book was written with an agenda. If this book doesn't give you ammo for you hate-spewing debunking arsenal, it might actually convince you that there are suspicious circumstances to consider.
Junk Science.......2007-08-29
This analysis doesn't even rise to the level of being wrong. You don't have to be a structural engineer to know that a steel-framed building cannot "pancake" at free-fall speed. You don't have to be a metallurgist to know that jet fuel won't leave pools of molten metal weeks after the fire is out. If you cherry-pick your "facts" you can make Stalin look like a boy scout or Mother Theresa look like the devil. This book starts with the conclusion and then tries to prove it. If you want an analysis that starts with the facts and works towards a logical conclusion, try any (or all) of David Ray Griffin's books.
Book Description
New 2nd Book In the Reiki Ultimate Guide Trilogy " Reiki The Ultimate Guide, Vol. 2 Learn Reiki Healing with Chakras, plus New Reiki Healing Attunements for All Levels" Is now available on Amazon
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This 300 guide makes Reiki knowledge accessible to everyone! It's the guide some Healers do not want published. Nothing like it published!
If you desire to heal yourself with Reiki or become a Healer, this Ultimate Guide is for you and:
-The many many thousands of students who have received Reiki Attunements from Steve Murray's VHS, DVD programs and in person and now are ready to teach and give attunements.
-Individuals who have experienced Reiki Attunements and healing
-People who wish to learn about Reiki before receiving Reiki Healing
-Reiki Healers and Non-Reiki Healers who desire more knowledge
- Guide Includes: 150 photos & Illustrations with symbols, hand positions and easy Step-by-Step directions showing how to give:
-A Reiki 1st Level Attunement
-A Reiki 2nd Level Attunement
-A Reiki Master Level Attunement
-A Reiki Psychic Attunement, which opens and expands psychic abilities
-A Reiki Healing Attunement, for healing mental, emotional, physical and spiritual issues
You will also learn:
-The four Sacred Reiki Symbols, including the Master Symbol and how to activate and use them
-How to Beam and Scan with Reiki-
-How to perform Reiki Psychic Surgery-
-How to remove Psychic Debris-
-How to contact spirits & departed love ones with Reiki-
-Why there are variations in Reiki Symbols & Attunements-
-Why there should not be any Reiki Secrets
Plus: Healing with Reiki
- What attunements are
-How to prepare for attunements
-What to expect after attunements
-How to protect & balance yourself
-The Antahkarana Symbol-Psychic Debris defined
-Chakras & Reiki
-Why intent is so important…
and much more Reiki Guidance you should know
Steve Murray is a Usui Reiki Master, Tibetan Karuna Reiki® Master. He is an author of several books including the best selling Reiki The Ultimate Guide, the first book in the Reiki The Ultimate Guide Trilogy. Steve also has 24 successful self-help & healing programs on video and DVD including a series of five Reiki Attunements.
Customer Reviews:
A Valuable Textbook.......2007-10-05
This book was a quick read, since there are many full page illustrations. I have revisited the book often, and consider it a valuable resource for years to come.
I admit to being skeptical when I purchased Steve Murray's products: How could a Reiki Master justify passing the secret Reiki symbols on to the general public? But I feel that we live in different times now. To coin a phrase by Caroline Myss, there are now many "Mystics without monasteries." I am grateful that Steve has made attaining higher levels of Reiki practice available to those who cannot afford to go the traditional route.
Wonderful.......2007-09-18
Here's my story. I didn't want to get any of his books or dvds. I read some of the reviews from other Master's and they talked badly about his teachings and how an attunement could not be done by watching a crystal on dvd. But, later i remembered having a dream when i was younger of watching myself staring at a crystal on tv. I thought it was freaky and didn't know what it meant, but then it all came together. So i started off with his first reiki book, the psychic attunement, and the reiki level one attunement. I had better results than i thought i was going to get. I have a natural gift for healing and i've been using it un-trained my whole life. His books and dvds helped me out a lot. This is the real thing and if you are new and looking to try reiki, i highly recommend it. I don't write reviews and Steve Murray is the first review i've ever written on. This is because i want people to know that this is real and powerful. The DVD's are powerful and the books explain it all and enforce all that is Imparted to you. By the way, I am a Christian and you should know that Reiki has no religion. I recommend all the DVD attunements, and i've read the first 3 Reiki volume set and the false beliefs. I will be getting more of his books and teaching. But i hope that this review and his works help you like it's helped me in my entire life and the people around me. I've healed things from headaches and back pains, to two different friends that were in the hospital death bed, one with severe kidney failure and the other had AIDS and i helped bring his status down to a controlled HIV status. Both were overnight. night saying it will work like that for everybody, but know that it will work in it's own way, some way. Be blessed all who read this.
Ultimate Guide Indeed........2007-09-05
I specially recomend this book if you have recently received your Reiki Master attunement or plan to do so. Nearly half the book is dedicated to the attunement process for levels 1, 2, Master, Healing and Psychic. Contains valuable information and it is easy to read and understand. It's a great book for my collection.
Excellent!.......2007-08-19
Not to repeat what has already been said but I just want to add my support to the positive reviews. I too read the reviews here before purchasing. I visited his website and came back here because Amazon always has the best deals. I took a leap of faith. The book is the foundation for the attunements. It is very clear and personalizes the Reiki Master who is giving you the attunements. I wouldn't do the attunement without having read the corresponding part in the book. You have to know what you have to know. The DVDs worked for me. I totally support this method and will continue on. I know there are different strokes for different folks but I gave it a chance it paid off. Actually, it paid off big time considering how much others charge for the same. I am extremely grateful to Steve Murray. He is a special and gifted guy.
Wonderful.......2007-08-09
I would like to thank Steve Murray for providing these Reiki attunement programs. I have received 1st and 2nd degree from his products and also from a live class. The experiences were very different but both were wonderful. I have not been able to raise the $1,000 required for my Masters Attunement from the organization that I received my live 1st and 2nd from but Steve has made it very affordable to receive the attunement. I have read some of the reviews and see that one or two have been upset because they didn't feel anything. I don't know what they expected to feel but Steve does explain that if you can't feel anything it does not mean that you did not receive the attunement. I have definitely been able to tell that I have received the Master Attunement even though I didn't "feel" that much while receiving the attunement.
I definitely recommend that anyone taking his attunements also read his Ultimate Guide Trilogy. They are so packed with information about Reiki that I feel so much more prepared to be a Reiki healer than I did prior to reading them. They are truely wonderful and his A Reiki 1st, Aura and Chakra DVD is very helpful in showing you how to perform your own attunements. Reiki False Beliefs Exposed is very good in answering questions you might have about things you have heard about Reiki and setting the record straight in many areas. I also have had Steves Psychic attunement and the wonderful thing about his programs is that you can take them over and over again and that is something you can't do with a live attunement. Of course, you need to follow Steve's cautions in waiting three days between pschic attunements. I believe that taking the Reiki Healer attunements over and over can continue to improve my abilities to be a better healer.
Book Description
Complete with a targeted review of all the material on the selected Praxis exam in addition to a full-length practice test, these test preparation guides are written by the makers of the real tests. Thorough explanations of the answers are provided and helpful test-taking strategies are found throughout the guide. The three categories of assessments covered correspond to the three milestones in teacher development-academic skills assessment, subject assessment, and classroom performance assessment. Reflecting the rigorous and carefully validated nature of the exams, these guides provide beginning teachers the information needed to succeed.
Customer Reviews:
Good Study Guide.......2007-06-08
I meant to rate it less, I would probably give it a four. It's good for what it is, a study guide. You'll have to have science text books to help you study. The practice tests are helpful but some are shorter than the actual length of the real test.
There are not many praxis II study guides out there so I'd definitely recommend this one.
Useful, Boring, Informative.......2007-05-26
What can I say? It's a study guide for a test all Bio teacher wanna-bes gotta take. Not all that stimulating, unless you're really into the sciences. Still, it's useful for the praxis...and that's what it was made for.
Biology Praxis II Prep.......2007-05-03
This book was an excellent review for the Biology Praxis II. I am a career changer. I am in the process of changing from a career as a Scientist to a Biology Teacher. I need something to direct my preparation efforts for the Praxis II. I read over the topics and then took the practice exam just before taking the actual exam and I'm so glad I did. There were questions exactly like those on the exam. I was able to review topics from areas that aren't my expertise, plant biology, ecology, etc.
Great buy for Biology Praxis II Prep.
Study Guide.......2007-03-13
This book is exactly what I need to prepare for the Praxis II. The practice tests point out my weaknesses.
Book great, Shipping HORRIBLE.......2007-02-21
Ordered this book and it took numerous emails before they admitted that the order never left the warehouse. It took six weeks to get it!!! I needed it desperately to study for a test. No one at customer service seemed to care. Be very careful ordering anything "free super saver shipping" it pretty much means it can come pony express and amazon doesn't care!!!
Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, the renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin argues that physics—the basis for all other science—has lost its way. The problem is string theory, an ambitious attempt to formulate "a theory of everything" that explains all the forces and particles of nature and how the universe came to be. With its exotic new particles and parallel universes, string theory has captured the public"s imagination and seduced many physicists. But as Smolin reveals, there"s a deep flaw in the theory: no part of it has been proven, and no one knows how to prove it. As a scientific theory, it has been a colossal failure. And because it has soaked up the lion's share of funding, attracted some of the best minds, and penalized young physicists for pursuing other avenues, it is dragging the rest of physics down with it. With clarity, passion, and authority, Smolin charts the rise and fall of string theory and takes a fascinating look at what will replace it. A group of young theorists has begun to develop exciting new ideas that are, unlike string theory, testable. Smolin tells us who and what to watch for in the coming years and how we can find the next Einstein. This is a wake-up call, and Lee Smolin—a former string theorist himself— is the perfect person to deliver it.
Customer Reviews:
Cuts through the hype.......2007-10-13
This is an excellently written book, very easy to read,and with only one typo that I noticed. It starts with an excellent overview of physics from a technical point of view, without getting too technical,but a good basic understanding of physics is really needed to grasp what he is writing about, and shows the authors grasp of the technical issues, and then gets into a philosophical view of the state of physics and science generally. As an interested observer of science I have certainly noticed the lack of really big discoveries in the last twenty years or so, and this book confirms my view. Also being more of a creative thinker,rather than a conformist, a 'seer' as the author describes it,I can totally relate to the problems faced by people seeking a career in science, and the need to conform to currently popular programs and research where economic imperitives take precedence over original thinking,or even fundamental work, and where universities operate to build an image to attract students based on hype over substance. Its what put me off a career in science, and a university education, as I'm not interested in doing what others want in return for money,career,etc. The authors comment about some of the best scientists of the past being wealthy enough to support themselves in doing as they pleased is a very important point in showing that creative people are wasted if forced to do the work others want done in order to survive. Which basically leaves only those who want to conform and have an easy life and easy career path, who want to be technical experts rather than big thinkers or explorers of new concepts. It excludes most risk takers and entrepreneurs from a career in science,as you would end up bitter and unsatisfied. This book really just confirmed alot of what I thought, what should be common sense. And it makes an important point that only a few people think creatively,so it would not cost alot to employ these people and take a risk on them, in the hope that long term they will produce big things, while delivering very little of measurable worth in the short term. The book also goes into the sociology of science and scientists. Something I realised along time ago to my suprise was that scientists suffer from all the normal human flaws of bias and blindness, tribalism,etc that average people do,and often end up in religious type devoutness to their beliefs or tribe. I would have thought science would not attract such people, but it does,as the authors experience shows in confirming what I beleived just from watching science shows on TV,etc. Science would be an excellent career if not for the fact it suffers from the same B.S. that afflicts most human organisations and puts people like myself right off getting involved at all. The author is smart enough to realise that science must attract talent and compete with others for it,and his criticisms are done out of love for science and physics,not hate. It is interesting to see how carefully he treads in crisicising others, which just goes to show how religion-like science had become, and how risky it is to be a heretic, which so goes against what science should stand for,like open debate, constant questioning of all beleifs,etc, when ego's start getting in the way you might as well do something else, as its no better than any other politics or belief system. If you care about science this book raises many important points ,although I suspect it will find an audience with those that sympathise with its views and have no effect on those that need to learn from it most,as they will have closed minds and take all criticism as an attack to be defended against.A very enjoyable read.
A superb overview of the state of theoretical physics........2007-10-12
What a superb book. Lee Smolin starts by sketching our progress towards a unified theory, and then critically examines the claims of string theory to be the best contender for that throne. Having demolished our fuzzy belief that string theory has been somehow "proven," he then weighs in on the other candidates for a unified theory, namely quantum gravity and its cousins. These turn out to be little better supported by experimental evidence. The technical concepts are clearly presented, sans equations, as developments in a story peopled with fascinating characters: the great theoretical physicists of the last 50 years. As a non-math person, I found this narrative a positive pleasure to read. In comparison to other authors of books on physics for the lay public, Smolin really knows how to tell a story, without skimping the science.
The real depth of "The Trouble With Physics" becomes apparent when Smolin pulls back to focus on physics itself. Facing the fact that the academy is a human enterprise like any other, he subjects it to the same bold criticism that he applies to scientific concepts. Here are eyeopening revelations about the culture of conferences, recommendations, networks, and above all, the economic pressures that subtly favor "craftspeople" at the expense of "seers." It's a sorry indictment of our universities, the triumph of self-interest over vision, and Smolin explicitly includes himself in the great mass of insincere careerists who choose a safe research program over a risky one, to the detriment of scientific progress. One gets the sense that this book is, for the author, an atonement for having shortchanged his own creativity as a younger man.
But we the readers are the beneficiaries of Smolin's decision to lay all bare. I have read literally dozens of books on physics and cosmology, and this is the first one that has presented the human side of the story as a CONTEXT, rather than in a series of postage-stamp portraits. Smolin shows that tribalism and rent-seeking do as much to shape science as any ideas. It is a lesson that will lend an extra savor, and a much-needed depth of perspective, to every science book I read in the future.
Scientific progress is never cut and dried.......2007-10-08
Lee Smolin presents a harsh critique of the last 30 years in theoretical physics, written by one of its practitioners. He makes the excellent point that science is a human activity like anything else. Progress is always hard to predict; scientists can and do get caught up in dead ends. Smolin thinks string theory is one such dead end, and makes a good case for it.
I think that, if anything, Smolin is a little too gentle on the field. The development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs left a tremendous impression that big money put into physics would bring big results. In recent years that hasn't happened. There are so many unanswered questions out there in science, so many important fields where solutions are desperately needed. When I consider the construction and operation of particle accelerators and other high-tech equipment, I can't help but think of the huge cost. The same amount of cash invested elsewhere might have brought much more in the way of useful results.
I am the mother of a 10-year-old boy attending public school. His instruction sometimes seems to me like a mishmash of well-meaning educational reforms that have been implemented with little or no testing to see if they worked or not. I am frankly disgusted by the quality of most research in the area of education--sample sizes too small, no proper controls, subjects followed for too short a time, etc. The cost of operating a single particle accelerator for six weeks probably exceeds all the funding for educational research around the world for the entire year. Yet which has the most potential for making major progress? Maybe it's time to back off on funding big physics projects for a while.
I would also like to point out that the building and use of instrumentation for high-energy physics is highly dependent on cheap fossil fuels. The future supply of such fuels is by no means guaranteed. The peak oil problem appears to be largely ignored by high-energy physicists today, but has the potential to significantly affect their ability to conduct experiments.
I really enjoyed Smolin's chapters on looking for seers rather than technicians in science. I especially liked his description of how unconventional scientists have built a career without a university job. Smolin points out that a typical professor spends a majority of his week on teaching, grant proposals, administrative tasks, and the like, leaving a surprisingly small amount of time available for actual research. Having a day job outside the field is not as big a hurdle as it might seem.
I tend to agree with Smolin that the big advances of the future are likely to come from completely unexpected directions. I can't wait to see what they are.
physics from many angles.......2007-10-05
This book provided several discussions pf physics and quantum theory. its good because the author speaks of the history the the originators of physics theory and the current champions of thought.
A mixed bag.......2007-10-04
At the moment, string theory appears to have many (possibly an infinite number) of "metastable vacua", each of which would allow for a universe with its own laws of physics. (For a brief, comic, yet essentially correct summary of the history of this idea, see Peter Shor's review here. For those who don't know, Shor is a celebrated quantum-information theorist.) According to the (far from established) inflationary model of cosmology, there is a vast collection of universes (the "multiverse") with diverse laws of physics. Which universe we find ourselves in is a matter of random selection, but of course we must be in a "biofriendly" universe, one whose laws of physics allow for the appearance of intelligent life.
The core argument of this book is presented on page 164-165 (US hardcover edition), where Smolin writes, "when it comes to the biofriendliness of our universe, we have at least three possibilities:
"1. Ours is one of a vast collection of universes with random laws.
"2. There was an intelligent designer.
"3. There is a so-far-unknown mechanism that will both explain the biofriendliness of our universe and make testable predictions by which it can be confirmed or falsified.
"Given that the first two possibilities are untestable in principle, it is most rational to hold out for the third possibility. Indeed, that is the only possibility we should consider as scientists, because accepting either of the first two would mean the end of our field."
I find this to be an astonishing argument. First of all, I don't know what "most rational" is supposed to mean. More importantly, to reject a scientific hypothesis for purely personal reasons (it "would mean the end of our field") is at best novel, and at worst absurd.
Very few string theorists are happy that #1 seems, at this point, to be the most likely outcome of string theory, and many hope that #3 will somehow eventually emerge. But to throw out the whole framework, simply because we don't like the result, cannot be said to be a scientific attitude.
One thing you won't learn in this book (unless you read it very carefully, and between the lines) is that the other approaches to quantum gravity advocated by Smolin have not come any closer to predicting specific experimental results than string theory has. Smolin talks about possible violations of special relativity, but these are not (as he admits on page 237) a definite prediction of loop quantum gravity. He has said (on Peter Woit's blog) that any quantum field theory in any number of dimensions is compatible with loop quantum gravity. If true, this would make loop quantum gravity even less capable than string theory of picking out our particular laws of physics.
Smolin also discusses issues of sociology in physics. On page 335-336, he asserts that the all the truly negative characterizations of job candidates that he has ever heard have had a component of racism and/or sexism. I am on the faculty of the physics department of a research university, and I can only say that my experience has been entirely different. I have simply never heard a racist or sexist denigration of one scientist by another, nor have I ever felt that anyone was being evaluated by criteria other than merit. I think that there are definitely issues of culture and how we can construct scientific communities that have broader appeal, and that there are physicists who are not as sensitive to these issues as they might be, but I cannot accept Smolin's claim that the relatively small percentage of women and blacks in physics is due to "blatant prejudice".
Finally, Smolin discusses the issues of "seers" vs "craftspeople" in science, and argues that we should be supporting more "seers". Among the existing seers, he lists some (such as Roger Penrose and Gerard 't Hooft) who made their reputations primarily as craftspeople ('t Hooft received the Nobel Prize for his work on the renormalization of gauge theories, and Penrose did celebrated work on the singularity theorems of general relativity). Their record as seers has been less successful; none of their recent ideas on modifications of quantum mechanics have panned out as yet. Smolin laments the fact that more attention is not paid to these forays into alternatives to quantum mechanics. But 't Hooft and Penrose do not agree on what modifications are needed. Other seers identified by Smolin propose violations of special relativity, rather than (or in addition to) violations of quantum mechanics. Perhaps this is all deep thought, but there is little to decide, at this point, which if any of these avenues should be pursued. Most physicists have therefore sensibly adopted a "wait and see" attitude.
Even if we accept Smolin's argument that we need new seers, how are we to find them? Smolin writes (page 353) that in order to discover "the visionaries who ignore the mainstream and follow their own ambitious programs", we should "find at least one accomplished person in the candidate's field who is deeply excited about what the candidate is trying to do". So, the candidate's program had better not be *too* far off the mainstream; there has to be at least one "accomplished person" who is "deeply excited" about it. But if one deeply excited professional is good, wouldn't more be better? Wouldn't that up the odds that the program was, indeed, worthwhile? Oh wait, that would be just what we have now ... a system where there is constant debate, emergent consensus on the most promising approaches, and distribution of research funds primarily (but by no means exclusively!) to those approaches that appear, in the consensus view, to be most promising. To paraphrase Winston Churchill on democracy, this system for distributing funds for science may be the worst ever devised, except for all the others.
So, should you buy the book? I feel that it gives a distorted picture, by emphasizing the weak points of string theory while ignoring the (many more, in my view) weak points of the alternatives. It seems to me that the essence of the book's argument against string theory is captured by the excerpts above, and by Shor's review. Then there is a lot of discussion of groupthink in scientific culture. For me, it doesn't add up to an appealing package, but your mileage may vary.
Amazon.com
As little children we know how to live in the moment and be completely authentic. But then something damaging happens to us, according to author Don Miguel Ruiz: we are given "knowledge" about how to live in the world. Parents tell us how to behave in order to be a "good" boy or girl. Teachers tell us what it takes to be a "winner" or a "successful" adult. This collective "voice of knowledge" is not only false--it is often poisonous, explains Ruiz, bestselling author of The Four Agreements. It makes us believe that "I am not the way I should be; it is not okay to be me." Drawing upon the story of Adam and Eve, Ruiz refers to the forbidden tree of knowledge and likens the abandonment of the true self to the fall from heaven. What Ruiz calls "the voice of knowledge" others spiritual teachers might call ego--the hidden and carefully defended belief system that prevents us from living and expressing who we really are. "The structure of our knowledge makes us feel safe….When we discover that we are not what we believe we are, the foundation of our entire reality begins to collapse." In the Toltec tradition, Ruiz says every human is an artist, "and the supreme art is the expression of the beauty of our spirit." He explains that there are two kinds of artists: "the ones who create their story without awareness, and the ones who recover awareness and create their story with truth and love." The recovering of awareness is what this fourth book in the Toltec Wisdom series is all about. This makes for a good bedside spiritual growth book. Each chapter closes with "Points to Ponder"--summary thoughts to sleep upon as you create the more authentic story of your life. --Gail Hudson
Book Description
The Voice of Knowledge is the fourth book in the Toltec Wisdom series by the best-selling author of The Four Agreements. Don Miguel Ruiz explores the concept of "impeccability of the word" as a simple yet potent prescription for countering the judgmental inner "voice of knowledge." Adhering to "the word" - saying only what you mean, refusing to speak against you - allows anyone to transform those inner tyrannical thoughts into a voice of self-trust and integrity. Knowledge then becomes an ally, and life becomes an expression of the authentic self.
Customer Reviews:
bt2.......2007-06-13
This CD is amazing. I find myself listening to it on my way to and from work every day since I've received it. It is very soothing to listen to the narrator's voice and the recording is high quality. The content of Don Miguel's work is changing the way I think. It is increasing my awareness of myself and my surroundings and allowing me to make day to day decisions and interactions from a higher level of consciousness. This already is a treasured part of my spiritual growth and evolution process.
Nothing life changing.......2007-05-07
Cheesy at it's best times. This book of enlightenment taught me no more than could be found on a fortune cookie or Dear Abby column. Not worth the time it took- which was not much as it's a short, easy read- it takes more time as you stop and say "Seriously? Seriuosly."
Take off your masks!.......2007-03-17
Interesting point of view on living authentic life. Don Miguel Ruiz is an intelligent, savvy person. Each chapter is summed up by the main points. This is a guide for life, and I hope to start using my notes on it soon.
Awesome.......2007-03-15
Another blockbuster by Don Miguel Ruiz. A little slow in the middle I thought, but the last two chapters blew me away!
Simple words, simple wisdom.......2007-03-09
As with his other works, Don Miguel Ruiz once again challenges us to take a new look at the stories and beliefs we hold in order to reach a higher level of self-realization and communion with our creator. Ruiz' works are consistent with some of the best in human psychology, and are easily absorbed into the religious and world-view perspectives the reader may hold. Rather than challenging our relationships with God, Ruiz calls us to a closer and more intimate relationship by setting aside the false beliefs we have inherited through the years. I am sure this work may garner wringing of hands by some in the extremist movements; however, at its core, Ruiz embraces the highest and the best of world religions and calls us to make them our own.
Book Description
Praise for Service-Oriented Architecture
"This book provides a superb overview of the SOA topic. Marks and Bell provide practical guidance across the entire SOA life cycle-from business imperatives and motivations to the post-deployment business and technical metrics to consider. With this book, Marks and Bell demonstrate a unique ability to take the complex dynamics of SOA, and through an eloquent set of metaphors, models, and principles, provide an understandable and insightful how-to manual for both technical and business executives. This will become a required handbook for any organization implementing SOA."
—Dan Bertrand, Enterprise Technology Officer & EDS Fellow, EDS Corporation
"A fundamental breakthrough in the business and technology perspectives of SOA-this book belongs in every software developer, architect, and IT executive library. Marks and Bell demonstrate a creative and practical approach to building complex, service-oriented systems. I especially liked the hands-on perspective brought to multiple aspects of SOA. A must-have guide in the technology turbulence of the future."
—Ariel Aloni, Chief Technology Officer, SunGard Data Management Solutions
"This outstanding text gets straight to the heart of the matter, cutting through the hyperbole and discussing how to drive real business value through SOA. It will certainly impact my behavior, our governance models, and, subsequently, the successful business outcomes we derive as we continue to embrace SOA. A must-read for battle-scarred SOA veterans and fledgling architects alike."
—Christopher Crowhurst, Vice President and Chief Architect, Thomson Learning
"Too often, SOA has been perceived as 'all about the technology'-standards, technology stacks, operational monitoring, and the like. In this book, Marks and Bell expand beyond the technology to provide a refreshing business-driven perspective to SOA, connecting the dots between business requirements, architecture, and development and operations, and overlaying these perspectives with tried-and-true governance techniques to keep SOA initiatives on track. A must-read for those leading the charge to adopt SOA within their enterprise."
—Brent Carlson, Chief Technology Officer, LogicLibrary and coauthor of San Francisco Design Patterns: Blueprints for Business Software
"Marks and Bell have captured a wealth of practical experience and lessons learned in what has become the hottest topic in software development. In this book, they explain in detail what works and what does not, from procedural issues to technical challenges. This book is an invaluable reference for organizations seeking the benefits of SOAs."
—Dr. Jeffrey S. Poulin, System Architect, Lockheed Martin and author of Measuring Software Reuse: Principles, Practices, and Economic Models
"One of the last things companies often consider when implementing a business solution such as SOA is the impact on people. Marks and Bell provide an in-depth look at 'what has to change' from a process standpoint to make any SOA implementation a success. A great read for those considering to embark on an enterprise SOA and looking for the right mix of people, process, and products."
—Alan Himler, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing, LogicLibrary
SOA is a complex topic and a complex organizational goal
Service-Oriented Architecture: A Planning and Implementation Guide for Business and Technology shows you how to plan, implement, and achieve SOA value through its prescriptive approach, joining the business and strategic perspective to the technical and architectural perspective.
Applicable to all industries, technology platforms, and operating environments, this innovative book provides you with the essential strategies to drive greater value from your SOA and realize your business goals.
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Praise for Service-Oriented Architecture ""This book provides a superb overview of the SOA topic. Marks and Bell provide practical guidance across the entire SOA life cycle-from business imperatives and motivations to the post-deployment business and technical metrics to consider. With this book, Marks and Bell demonstrate a unique ability to take the complex dynamics of SOA, and through an eloquent set of metaphors, models, and principles, provide an understandable and insightful how-to manual for both technical and business executives. This will become a required handbook for any organization implementing SOA."" Dan Bertrand, Enterprise Technology Officer & EDS Fellow, EDS Corporation ""A fundamental breakthrough in the business and technology perspectives of SOA-this book belongs in every software developer, architect, and IT executive library. Marks and Bell demonstrate a creative and practical approach to building complex, service-oriented systems. I especially liked the hands-on perspective brought to multiple aspects of SOA. A must-have guide in the technology turbulence of the future."" Ariel Aloni, Chief Technology Officer, SunGard Data Management Solutions ""This outstanding text gets straight to the heart of the matter, cutting through the hyperbole and discussing how to drive real business value through SOA. It will certainly impact my behavior, our governance models, and, subsequently, the successful business outcomes we derive as we continue to embrace SOA. A must-read for battle-scarred SOA veterans and fledgling architects alike."" Christopher Crowhurst, Vice President and Chief Architect, Thomson Learning
Customer Reviews:
AN EXCELLENT TECHNOLOGY BOOK .......2007-07-02
This book is an excellent SOA technological introduction that presents major architectural concerns that most architects, team leads, developers, and software modelers struggle with. It addresses fundamental service-oriented challenges and provides viable solutions that IT professionals can employ:
- A service lifecycle that identifies major modeling disciplines
- Introduction to service-oriented analysis, design, and realization
- Introduction to service-oriented technologies
- A service-oriented integration model that provide viable interoperable solutions
- Service reusability model that elaborates on various methods that can facilitate asset reuse in organizations
I'd recommend this book to IT personnel and SOA practitioners that would like to learn more about starting service-oriented projects and achieving effective results.
Business Focused SOA .......2007-06-26
This book is a must read for the Executive and Architect responsible for transforming their business processes and IT infrastructure from something resembling an anchor to an agile, flexible system that enables corporate progress. This book will show you a process that will help you get off step 0, define the right services, and ensure that your SOA efforts resolve your business and IT challenges. When implementing an SOA, the technology is the easy part, ensuring that services are created in a consistent manner, that they are designed with reuse in mind, that s/w creation, and hence new product development, gets less expensive and takes less time, over time, that's the hard part, that's where SOA Governance comes in, and this book will give you the SOA Governance basics you need to get your SOA transformation off to a good start. Get control of Governance and your 75% there. This book will not provide code snippets, developer advice, or describe technical specifications, if you want these things, get Thomas Url' or Greg Lomow' books. This book is about using a top-down business service analysis, bottom-up implementation considered, iterative SOA design model. Read it to develop or improve your SOA planning capabilities.
Not for a Developer.......2007-05-15
Note: My strong dislike of this book probably says more about me than the book...
As a developer I like books that bridge the technical and the business gap. I need to see, in concrete examples, how things might be implemented -- I want to see code, configuration documents, snippets of policy code etc. I also find it helpful when books build upon a sample application. I wanted to see examples of the technology that enables SOA, walk-thrus of standards such WSPL.
This book has none of that. To me it is a book of high-level lists of lists and every section I've read leaves me wondering what it said. I think they repeat themselves too much and the book seems poorly organized with material half way through a chapter which seemed to me to belong at the start. For all it being high-level, they make an assumption that the reader is familiar with a host of acronyms and/or the technology behind them.
SOA - Pragmatic Advice .......2007-03-05
Much has been written about the promise of SOA and, at the same time, the difficulty in realizing that promise to date. Most of us who work in this field know by now how to address the technical concepts, architecture and services in an SOA. Where this book stands apart from so many others is that it provides both conceptual and pragmatic advice in three critical areas which need attention for SOA to mature, to achieve business buy-in, and to attain the "SOA network effect" as the authors call it. These keys are: shifting focus to identification of candidate business services; SOA governance, organization, and behavior; and a framework for an SOA business case, ROI model and scorecard.
I enthusiastically recommend this book for the authors' lucid, insightful chapters on these three subjects alone. That they are woven nicely into a more complete system of processes and supporting structures to nurture along SOA through critical mass is an added bonus.
A Must Read !!!!.......2007-01-23
"Service Oriented Architecture is a hot topic and will be for times to come however it is often misunderstood topic in the Information Technology field today. Based on the SDN Network IT professionals see the potential of an SOA -- especially a web services-based SOA -- in dramatically speeding up the application development process They also see it as a way to build applications and systems that are more adaptable, and in doing so, they see IT becoming more agile in responding to changing business needs. Not only is SOA a hot topic, but it's clearly the wave of the future. Gartner reports that "By 2008, SOA will be a prevailing software engineering practice, ending the 40-year domination of monolithic software architecture" and that "Through 2008, SOA and web services will be implemented together in more than 75 percent of new SOA or web services projects." Bell articulately describes the concepts, specifications, technical nuisances and standards behind service orientation and Web Services. One primary objective of applying SOA in design is to provide business value to the solutions we build. Understanding the right approach to analyzing, designing, and developing service-oriented solutions is critical. This book is a must read!"
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