Product DescriptionThere’s never been a better time to “be prepared.” Matthew Stein’s comprehensive primer on sustainable living skills–from food and water to shelter and energy to first-aid and crisis-management skills–prepares you to embark on the path toward sustainability. But unlike any other book, Stein not only shows you how to live “green” in seemingly stable times, but to live in the face of potential disasters, lasting days or years, coming in the form of social upheaval, economic meltdown, or environmental catastrophe.
When Technology Fails covers the gamut. You’ll learn how to start a fire and keep warm if you’ve been left temporarily homeless, as well as the basics of installing a renewable energy system for your home or business. You’ll learn how to find and sterilize water in the face of utility failure, as well as practical information for dealing with water-quality issues even when the public tap water is still flowing. You’ll learn alternative techniques for healing equally suited to an era of profit-driven malpractice as to situations of social calamity. Each chapter (a survey of the risks to the status quo; supplies and preparation for short- and long-term emergencies; emergency measures for survival; water; food; shelter; clothing; first aid, low-tech medicine, and healing; energy, heat, and power; metalworking; utensils and storage; low-tech chemistry; and engineering, machines, and materials) offers the same approach, describing skills for self-reliance in good times and bad.Fully revised and expanded–the first edition was written pre-9/11 and pre-Katrina, when few Americans took the risk of social disruption seriously–When Technology Fails ends on a positive, proactive note with a new chapter on “Making the Shift to Sustainability,” which offers practical suggestions for changing our world on personal, community and global levels.
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Product DescriptionGrades K & up. A simple twist of the wrist produces a realistic, tiny tornado from the white foam clouds. Hold it to the light and watch the iridescent currents swirl. Tornado facts printed on the back. Measures 2″W x 4.5″H.
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Product Description
Innovation is rapidly becoming democratized. Users, aided by improvements in computer and communications technology, increasingly can develop their own new products and services. These innovating users — both individuals and firms — often freely share their innovations with others, creating user-innovation communities and a rich intellectual commons. In Democratizing Innovation, Eric von Hippel looks closely at this emerging system of user-centered innovation. He explains why and when users find it profitable to develop new products and services for themselves, and why it often pays users to reveal their innovations freely for the use of all.The trend toward democratized innovation can be seen in software and information products — most notably in the free and open-source software movement — but also in physical products. Von Hippel’s many examples of user innovation in action range from surgical equipment to surfboards to software security features. He shows that product and service development is concentrated among “lead users,” who are ahead on marketplace trends and whose innovations are often commercially attractive.Von Hippel argues that manufacturers should redesign their innovation processes and that they should systematically seek out innovations developed by users. He points to businesses — the custom semiconductor industry is one example — that have learned to assist user-innovators by providing them with toolkits for developing new products. User innovation has a positive impact on social welfare, and von Hippel proposes that government policies, including R&D subsidies and tax credits, should be realigned to eliminate biases against it. The goal of a democratized user-centered innovation system, says von Hippel, is well worth striving for. An electronic version of this book is available under a Creative Commons license.
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Product DescriptionFirst Science Encyclopedia is the latest addition to DK s First Reference series, a collection of reference books for children to use at school or home. With spectacular close-up photography and full-color illustration, children can set out on a journey of discovery and take a truly comprehensive look at the forces and elements that make up our amazing world. Exciting features such as Weird or What boxes and Curiosity Quizzes let children have fun while they learn, and strengthen good research habits.
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MP3: http://symphonyofscience.com
“The Unbroken Thread” is the fourth video in the Symphony of Science series, and it features David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, and Carl Sagan. The clips used in this installment come from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, David Attenborough’s Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, The Life of Mammals, The Living Planet, BBC Life, XVIVO Scientific Animations, IMAX Cosmic Voyage, Jane Goodall’s TED Talk, and a clever Guiness Commercial. The themes present in The Unbroken Thread attempt to explore the wild diversity of life on our planet, the intricacy and origin of its mechanisms, and its close relation to all other life forms.
Check out http://symphonyofscience.com for more science music videos!
And my other website for more original electronic music: http://www.colorpulsemusic.com
Now available in HD for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
John
john@symphonyofscience.com
Lyrics:
[David Attenborough]
All life is related
And it enables us to construct with confidence
The complex tree that represents the history of life
Our planet, the Earth, is as far as we know
Unique in the universe; it contains life
Here plants and animals proliferate in such numbers
That we still have not even named all the different species
Darwin’s great insight revolutionized the way in which we see the world
We now understand why there are so many different species
[Carl Sagan]
Every cell is a triumph of natural selection
And we’re made of trillions of cells (Within us is a little universe)
Those are some of the things that molecules do
Given four billions years of evolution (We are, each of us, a multitude)
Now how did the molecules of life arise?
[Attenborough]
It began in the sea
Some 3 thousand million years ago
Complex chemical molecules began to clump together
These were the “seeds”
From which the tree of life developed
They were able to split, replicating themselves
As bacteria do
[Sagan]
The secrets of evolution
Are time and death
There’s an unbroken thread that stretches
From those first cells to us
(refrain)
[Jane Goodall]
There isn’t a sharp line dividing humans
from the rest of the animal kingdom
It’s a very wuzzie line
It’s a very wuzzie line,
and it’s getting wuzzier
All the time
We find animals doing things that we,
In our arrogance,
Used to think was “just human”
(refrain)
[Attenborough]
Its continued survival now rests in our hands
Duration : 0:4:0
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attenborough, auto-tune, biology, boswell, Carl, cell, colorpulse, David, evolution, goodall, jane, john, life, molecule, music, remix, Sagan, Science, sing, song, symphony, thread, unbroken