Product Description
The most comprehensive construction, repair and finishing of vehicle bodies text. Fully covers the underpinning knowledge needed for the Automotive Skills Council vehicle body and paint operations requirements, City and Guilds 3980 Vehicle Body Repair Competence courses and the NVQ and the Progression Awards of both City and Guilds and the Institute of the Motor Industry at levels 2 and 3.

Essential reading for all those involved in the trade and insurance assessment, as well as for professional vehicle restorers and DIY enthusiasts working on the restoration or adaptation of classic and modern cars.

* The leading vehicle body repair text for both class and professional workshop use
* Updated and revised to meet latest Automotive Skills Council standards, NVQ curriculum and IMI Technical Certificate requirements
* Ideal for body repair work, refinishing, painting and hobby vehicle builders ... Read more

Product Description

Known for its versatility, the free programming language R is widely used for statistical computing and graphics, but is also a fully functional programming language well suited to scientific programming.

An Introduction to Scientific Programming and Simulation Using R teaches the skills needed to perform scientific programming while also introducing stochastic modelling. Stochastic modelling in particular, and mathematical modelling in general, are intimately linked to scientific programming because the numerical techniques of scientific programming enable the practical application of mathematical models to real-world problems.

Following a natural progression that assumes no prior knowledge of programming or probability, the book is organised into four main sections:

• Programming In R starts with how to obtain and install R (for Windows, MacOS, and Unix platforms), then tackles basic calculations and program flow, before progressing to function based programming, data structures, graphics, and object-oriented code
• A Primer on Numerical Mathematics introduces concepts of numerical accuracy and program efficiency in the context of root-finding, integration, and optimization
• A Self-contained Introduction to Probability Theory takes readers as far as the Weak Law of Large Numbers and the Central Limit Theorem, equipping them for point and interval estimation
• Simulation teaches how to generate univariate random variables, do Monte-Carlo integration, and variance reduction techniques

In the last section, stochastic modelling is introduced using extensive case studies on epidemics, inventory management, and plant dispersal. A tried and tested pedagogic approach is employed throughout, with numerous examples, exercises, and a suite of practice projects. Unlike most guides to R, this volume is not about the application of statistical techniques, but rather shows how to turn algorithms into code. It is for those who want to make tools, not just use them.

Customer Reviews (8)

Essential text in order to take R to the next level
I share the generally held view that R has a steep learning curve but the effort spent learning it is well rewarded.I study both statistics and econometrics and I find that R straddles both more easily than most statistical packages, because of its flexibility and the fact that someone, somewhere has thought about your problem and written a solution for it.However, once the fundamentals of R are grasped it is not long before one is left craving to know how to tap into the core strength of R, which is its programming capability.This is where "SP&SUR" comes into its own.It is easy to follow and builds up well.The examples are clear and easy to follow.This book is undoubtedly the key that unlocks R.Highly recommended.

The missing link for grad students
If you are a graduate student in statistics, biostatistics, or the like, and are struggling with R programming, then this book should do the trick.So many books are out there regarding how to to do DATA ANALYSIS with R. This book is not another one of those. This book is what is needed to learn to program R for statistical computing NOT data analysis, and there is a big difference. This book will prepare you for classes in statistical computing and after doing some of the exercises, you will be ready for books like Maria Rizzo's Statistical Computing with R and Givens and Hoeting's Computational Statisics. You will learn how to write loops (I know everybody is trying to avoid this) and functions and how to do simulations, numerical optimization, root finding, and there is even some goodies about graphics. The book obviously doesnt cover everything, no book could, but if you combine this book with one of the others mentioned above, then you should be well equipped for statistical research using R.

This book is easy and usful textbook
This book is useful and easy for undergraduate students in statistics and graduate students in other field.
This book motivates scientific statistical programming..
I recommend this book for Beginning level students about statistical computing.

Great Book!
I will keep this very short. This is a great book for beginners! It helps a bit if you knowsome basic programming concepts, but then that's not necessary. The book is well written, and it has great exercise questions to hone what you have learned. I will definitely recommend it to anybody starting out in R.

One of a Kind
To the best of my knowledge this is the only book its kind. The usual book reads like a stand-up comedians program of one-liners.This book gives an integrated discussion of how to write your own code to solve non-trivial scientific problems. I plan to use much of the material in a mathematics course I shall give in the fall. ... Read more

Product Description
The African Game is a unique vision of the continent as documented by Nigerian photographer and filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu. Punctuated with vivid essays by journalist Knox Robinson, The African Game looks to soccer as a way to explore modern African life, culture, and identity. A compelling, on-the-ground depiction of Africa’s passion for soccer, this book is the first look at the rich sporting culture that has produced some of professional soccer’s biggest and highest-paid stars. The African Game will be a definitive resource during this summer’s World Cup, which will show the continent’s players emerging as some of the game’s best—as we look to South Africa as the host of the 2010 World Cup. As these pioneers change the way the game is played—and the way we think about the sport itself—The African Game provides crucial back-story and documents the soccer mania that has gripped the entire continent.

Like a film artfully moving through its plot, The African Game follows a narrative of the sport in Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire, Angola, Ghana, Tunisia, and Egypt by exploring its resonance at all levels of the culture, from national team sponsorship to the unmistakable street style that Africa’s soccer mania inspires. The African Game mixes classic portraiture and gripping reportage-style photography to frame Africa, its sporting heritage, and its everyday vibrancy in a way that is rarely seen—Africa as it actually exists, not as we imagine it to be. With imagistic essays framed by vital facts and stats about each team, The African Game will not only be an indispensable resource in the months leading up to the 2010 World Cup—it will be an unprecedented document of the sport and its place at the center of African popular culture.

PUMA will donate proceeds from the sale of The African Game to Grassroots Soccer, a non-profit organization that mobilizes the global soccer community in the fight against HIV/AIDS. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a game well played
this large scale photographic essay is one of a kind, offering a rare and exciting glimpse into the absolute spectacle of african futbol. capturing the intrinsic glory and unchecked passion of the spectators, the fans, the players, and the whirlwind of activities and festivities surrounding the games, the african game puts the reader squarely in the center of the action.we have witnessed the rise of american soccer as it has blossomed here, but the remarkable show that is the african game is unlike anything else! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

East/West: Gandhi/Tagore
Worth seeking out, warranting reprinting, this is a dense, substantial, but readible biography, less concerned with literary criticism than with the psychological dynamics and political realities of Tagore's creative life.Ultimately, it is about East and West, which is to say, about Tagore the globalist who sought integration of east and west, as contrasted with Gandhi, the nationalist.Tagore believed that the human condition was first of all cultural, Gandhi regarded it as first of all political.This is a comprehensive but penetrating study not only of Tagore, but of modern India.

Very Captivating ...
One day I was visiting my friend, and he gave me this book to read. I always knew Tagore from my childhood, but this relevation was too captivating... I still wish I have the book wherever I see myriad flowers .... A must for a Tagore Fan. ... Read more

Product Description
The first Asian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Rabindranath Tagore mesmerized the world with his spiritual insights and finely wrought writings. This comprehensive and engaging anthology gathers his polymathic achievement, from the extraordinary humanity of The Post Officer to memoirs, letters, essays and conversations, short stories, extracts from the celebrated novel The Home and the World, poems, songs, epigrams, and paintings. This inspired collection of works by one of this century's most profound writers in an essential guide for readers seeking to understand Indian literature, culture, and wisdom, and the perfect reintroduction of Tagore's magnificence to American readers.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Illumination
Tagore is widely admired by the Indian people (those who are literate). He detested the cast system, and wrote about freedom, not only in thought but the freedom to be who you want to be. His wife gave him heartburn, because as a snotty Indian Brahmin she looked down on those beneath her.
The English (via the East Indian Trading Company) ruled India until Ghandi fought for its independence in 1947. Although many Indians received a good education from the British, I believe there must be underlying resentment (like the Koreans feel for the Japanese). Tagore disagreed with Ghandi; Gandhi insisted an earthquake was caused by the sins and stupidity of the Indian people. Tagore felt God doesn't punish us with natural disasters. Ghandi disagreed, saying in this case, God made an exception.

His conversations with Einstein (in Germany) were almost unintelligible, since Einstein, a physicist, was not a God realized person. Tagore speaks with utter simplicity, while Einstein babbled on with intellectual absurdities.

His play, the Post Office, is beautiful, about a sick child who wants to be free, to go out and play, but is held back by his father and an incompetent doctor. It's an allegory about man's destiny to be free in spirit, but remains bound by religious dogma and intolerance. The child in the end dies, but free at last.

Much of what Tagore writes is beautifully simple, he's a craftsman. He was an educated Hindu who traveled, who loved Yeats' poetry and Dickens. Joseph Goebbels loved the Post Office, as it was performed in Nazi Germany.

Despite the glorious spiritual tradition which India gives us, most Indians don't have a clue what it's all about.

The soul of the man
When I was in London in September 2006, I visited the British Museum.The first exhibit I saw as I entered the building was of the paintings and writings of Tagore.I was deeply moved by his inspiring words and decided I needed to read more, know more, about this man.I found this anthology to be just what I was looking for.It contains his words, and gave me insight into the man behind them.Certainly his words reveal the soul.A "can't miss" if that is your aim.

Competent introduction to Tagore
If the only thing that you read in this book were the short play "The Post Office", then it would still be worth the price.The ending of the play is one of many moments scattered throughout the pages that had an almost physical impact on me as a reader.

It a testimony to the sheer strength of Tagore as a writer that the reader is able to have those moments while reading this anthology. It unfortunately suffered from many of the typical problems of this kind of collection. The selections often felt too shallow and abbreviated. The quality of the translations varied wildly from chapter to chapter.

As a reader, I would have appreciated it if Dutta and Robinson had refrained from excerpting the longer prose works and instead had concentrated on deepening the selection of letters, short stories and essays. Reading an excerpt of a longer work is bound to be a frustrating exercise, and the space was used at the expense of material more natural for this kind of collection.

I picked this up to give me an overview of Tagore as a writer. It served that purpose admirably. Recommended for someone with the same task in mind.

Pure Illumination
This anthology was my introduction to Tagore and what a spectacular discovery!It was like being introduced to several writers, each one distinctly different, dependent upon the medium.

Tagore's five short stories in this anthology are folkloric, sometimes sad or humorous, somewhat other worldly, and always entertaining.They expose the hues of Bengal better than paintings with their brilliant characterizations and finite details of place and time.Here's a sampling from The Raj Seal: "An old story came to his mind.An ass was pulling a temple car along the sacred way, and the passers-by, prostrating themselves in the dust before it were offering their pranams. 'They are all worshipping me,' the foolish ass thought. 'There's only one small difference between that ass and me,'the elder brother told himself.'I have at last realized that it is not my person the British sahibs respect, but the jacket weighing on my shoulders.'"

Tagore's play The Post Office is included in its entirety.It's very childlike and simplistic in structure, yet it is poignantly profound with its message that death is serene; "...that great ocean of truth to which all life returns".

The Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to him in 1913.Part of the tribute was for Tagore's poetry, particularly Gitanjali; however, there is too small of a sample (four stanzas) to truly appreciate it.My favorite from the anthology was Flute Music, an autobiographical poem.

Tagore the philosopher is evident in his essays and letters.In his letters he takes on the persona to whom the letter is addressed.The debate with Einstein "On the Nature of Reality" leaves the reader uncertain as to who was more convincing.A rebuke to Gandhi reads like the good counsel of a loving older brother.(It was Tagore who gave Gandhi the honorific title, Mahatma.)

The three excerpts from his novel The Home and the World have induced me to order the book, which is still in print.When Hermann Hesse reviewed the German translation, he praised it for its "purity and grandeur".

Now, I could only hope for more of his writings to become translated and accessible.

Extraordinairy Selections & Literary Achievement
With immense pleasure and great anticipation I read this Anthology. I feel the world is ready for Tagore's poems, short stories, and plays once more. His interest in world peace, his sensitivity for the human condition, and love of humanity is the kind of message the world needs, perhaps *even* more today than when the author first wrote his words. As with most translations of this author's famous work - there is a wonderful and necessary "Introduction" which gives many examples of his life experiences, interests, and achievements, helping one to sense the broad scope of knowledge and range of ideas to which the reader will be exposed.

Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson so wisely selected his play, "The Post Office" as the first chapter. This play is like a pearl found in an oyster shell ... the outside appearance gives no impression of the valuable gem to be found within. The message is breath-taking in its simplicity and sublime due to its universal message which transcends culture and time. The beauty of this Anthology is the wide range and depth of Tagore's writing to which the reader is exposed. His writing is awesome and inspiring, filled with love for mankind, by one who sees the complete picture, but nonetheless is filled with hope. We read Rabindranath Tagore's memoirs in "My Remininscences" - we learn about his relationship with his father, a journey into the Himalayas, and his boyhood days. Tagore's travel writings about Russia, Japan, England, Java, Persia, and a day at the spa in Balatonfured, Hungary are fascinating to read. We have the privilege of reading Tagore's personal letters to his neice, the poet Yeats, the poet Ezra Pound, many of his friends, the philosopher, Bertrand Russell, and many other people with whom he corresponded. From this one garner's more about the personality of the man whom Tagore was, a person who lived his values and beliefs, not one who merely just wrote about them. We read a fascinating exchange of ideas with Albert Einstein on "The Nature of Reality." Tagore's mastery of the short story has won him recognition in Bengal and throughout the world. He conveys social, political, and human relationships of the villager and city dweller with equal ability. He gradually exposes feelings and conflicts, and carefully builds suspense until the mystery is revealed or thesituation is resolved often with unexpected consequences. Although fewer poems are included than one would expect, two important ones, "The Sick Bed" and "The Recovery", written toward the end of his life are included. Also, "The Ocean of Peace" a song Tagore himself planned to sing after a play, was instead sung for him at his funeral, which he requested while he was ill. If someone is unfamiliar with Tagore's writing this book is highly recommended as a starting point. It contains a full measure of the author's broad interests and truly represents the universal message, "the unity of mankind" which he attempted to convey in his writing.
Erika Borsos (erikab93) ... Read more

Product Description
The decipherment of Linear B by Michael Ventris some fifty years ago is the equivalent in the humanities of Crick and Watson's discovery of the structure of DNA. Today it belongs in the same rare class as Champollion's decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs in the nineteenth century. The earliest European writing system that we can understand, Linear B dates from the middle of the second millennium BC. It was rediscovered by Sir Arthur Evans, the archaeologist who excavated clay tablets bearing this ancient script at Knossos in Crete in 1900. Obsessed with cracking Linear B, Evans kept the tablets to himself for some forty years but made little progress. After his death, other scholars tackled the decipherment, but it wasn't until 1952 that the secret was penetrated. Linear B was not an unknown language such as Minoan or Etruscan but actually an archaic dialect of Greek, more than five hundred years older than the Greek of Homer. Michael Ventris's later collaborator, the Cambridge classicist John Chadwick, told the story in his famous book, The Decipherment of Linear B (1958). But what of the man behind the decoding? Here Chadwick's book is exceptionally reticent, because in truth he hardly knew Ventris. Based upon hundreds of unpublished letters and other sources, including Chadwick's papers, Andrew Robinson's biography is the first book to tell the story of both the decipherment of Linear B and the man who broke the code. His research reveals a most intriguing person: a dazzling polyglot with an unorthodox upbringing and socialist tendencies who was also extremely private and lacking in confidence, and who died in a mysterious car crash in 1956 at the age of thirty-four. Ventris trained successfully as an architect, and his design methods shaped his decipherment work. But it was his hobby, Linear B, that would make him immortal. 20 b/w illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Very well balanced
This book is about half biography and half story of the decipherment. It is important to know that in case someone wanted a straight forward academic decipherment history. With that said, this is a wonderful and interesting story about a man I knew little about. Seeing how his personality affected his work really drives home both his genius and the luck involved in something like this. I could not put it down once I started reading it.

Disappointing biography
This is a book about a great achievement and a great man, but it is also a deeply frustrating account of both. It purports to be about Michael Ventris, the man who deciphered Linear B and showed it to be archaic Greek, and only secondarily about the details of the decipherment and what it revealed about the Mycenaean world. In fact the book is best on the details of the decipherment and rather poor on the details of Ventris's life. On the Mycenaean world it is almost non-existent. Robinson does a good job of bringing the architectural career of Ventris out of the shadows, and even linking it up to the decipherment, but the book is so sketchy about the facts of Ventris's marriage and the life of his parents that this can't really count as an account of Ventris's life at all. When did his father die and what did he die of?; what caused his parents to divorce?; why was Ventris's wife so chronically uninterested in his devotion to the decipherment?; what were her interests, and who were her friends? -- the list of unanswered questions goes on and on.

The great revelation of the book -- from a biographical point of view -- is that Ventris's death, at the height of his fame, was very likely suicide. Robinson is too reticent to say it that baldly but he lays out the facts and allows the reader to draw the obvious conclusion. But when he left home that night at midnight, only to crash, one hour later, into a parked truck on a road he had no reason to be on, at high speed, there is so much that the reader wants to know that this book will not tell. Had he and his wife quarelled? They were clearly not close by that point, so had she asked for a divorce? Why did she think he left the house at that hour? In fact the figure of Lois Ventris is shadowy beyond all belief. For large parts of the story I wondered if they were still married. There are no good photographs of her; there are no good photographs of his children; there are no photographs of the house that he designed and built; there are no photographs of any of his other design projects.

And the book has some strange biases as well. When Ventris fell out with Myres and Kolber, Ventris reported this at the time as a `huge row' -- presumably with Kolber alone. But Robinson presents his subsequent letter as evidence of a fatal weakness of personality that would manifest again, shortly before his death. What it rather looks to be evidence of is Kolber's unpleasant personality, and Ventris's reaction to it, nothing more. He gracefully withdrew from a project he knew he could not be part of. And what was driving his later withdrawal from his architecture research position looks to be entirely unconnected.

This reader also felt that the non-academic Robinson was entirely too enamoured of the genius, non-academic Ventris doing things that the plodding academics could only dream of. One very quickly wearies of tales of just how dull and unimaginative the academics of Oxford and beyond are. There is the music of axes being ground here. And Robinson is too inclined to set up a straw man of logic versus the flights of imagination in scientific discovery: he seems to have no idea that he is saying something that everyone knows and knows all too well.

So all in all this is a good book, but one that makes you wish that it were twice as good as it is. And now that this "biography" has come out I doubt that we will have a chance for a second book that might have answered the questions that this book leaves so frustratingly unanswered.

Entertaining enough, if not essential reading
THE MAN WHO DECIPHERED LINEAR B is, as far as I can tell, the only biography of Michael Ventris. The book covers it all, from his childhood, through his World War II service and early family life, to the days of the decipherment and finally his disillusionment with the subject and early death in an automobile accident.

As a student of linguistics with much interest in the earliest Indo-European languages, I have long been familiar with data from Mycenaean Greece in syllabic transcription. However, I didn't know how Ventris came to breaking the original script. Robinson's biography is therefore a fine resource. At 160 pages, it gives an overview of the life of Ventris and how he cracked the code without wearing out its welcome on a reader still more interested in grammar than in cryptography. Robinson also fascinatingly puts Ventris' life in context, speaking about some of his more notable peers at school, his 15 minutes of fame in the layman's media, and his achievements as an architect.

The decipherment of Linear B is presented in admirably simple terms, sure to prove understand to anyone who is already educated enough to have developed an interest in the topic. The book is liberally sprinkled with figures, from facsimiles of tables to Ventris's own charts. As Robinson is writing for an audience, however, who doesn't necessarily understand Greek, this reader trained in the language found several points where Robinson could have entertainingly expanded on points had he focused on those with knowledge of Greek.

While I wouldn't say that familiarity with Ventris' life is a must for those whose work somehow involves writing systems or Mycenaean Greek, Robison's biography is entertaining enough. The stories of the crotchety scholars who resisted the outsider Ventris' discovers to the point of embarassing themselves is sure to tickle readers aware of the uneasy society within academia.

The archictec who cracked the code
The Man who deciphered Linear B - the storyof Michael Ventris, by Andrew Robinson, is a book about the monumental task involved in the decoding and understanding what was written in the 1.200 BC clay tablets found by sir Arthur Evans in 1900 in the island of Crete, the home of the fabled character Minotaur. Many were the obstacles imposed on the many scholars who ventured to crack down the code, to no avail to the great majority of them. The most conspicuos hindrance was the fact that, contrary to what happened in the case of the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphs by the French mathematician Jean-François Champollion, there was not a handy Rosetta Stone with bilinguals, that is, with textsto be confuted both in the language to be decoded as in an already known language (Greek, in the case of the Rosetta Stone). To add to the difficulty, the discoverer of the first tablets, Mr.Arthru Evans, was not the team-work type of man, preferring to work alone and hiding from the others scholars almost all the pertinent tablets.

So, the deciphering of the so-called Minoan Linear B scripts was a task compared in its difficulty to the first escalation of Mount Everest and to the discovery of the structure of DNAs, all of them happened in the very same year the professional architect and amateur scholar Michael Ventris announced having first cracked the Minoan code, in 1953. The fundamental enigma was what was the language beneath the Linear B sillabary (different from an alphabet, a sillabary represents pictorally sometimes in just one design syllab sounds, e.g, me, fe, ra, etc.). To everyone's amazement , and even to Michael Ventris himself, who had for a long time contended that the hidden language was Etruscan, a Greek ancient dialect was there all the time, masquaraded by a somewhat similar Cypriot sillabary.

The book has all the ingredients of a best-seller and it is a case in point for the preponderance of group work as against the work of mavericks as Arthur Evans. It is also a proof that Natura non facit saltum and that the Eureka cry not always comes from the ones who are in the front line of research, coming instead from people at the second rank as was the case of Ventris, an architec by formation and practice, who now and then made a dive in that type of reserch. His mixture of intuition and knowledge of the many areas involved proved to be the right one to the cracking of the code. Also, the premature death of Michael Ventris at the age of 34 is a mysterious event that to some people repeats the death by suicide of his depressive Polish and beloved mother ; one has also to remember that the Greek alphabet used today was only used since circa 800 BC, surrounded by the many uncertainties regarding the oral background of Homer works like the Odissey and the Illiad. Was the discovery of such material in Crete and afterwards in mainland Greece to expand the range of research of Greek antiquity?

This is a very good book to anyone interested in the peculiarities of genial men like Michael Ventris and in the origin of languages.

None is so blind ...
Ancient Egyptianswere not secretive. They carved their story in stone,using a sylllabary because the alphabet hadn't been invented,A syllabary is a set of symbols foreach of the numerous sylllables; Japanese and Koreans today write mainly in syllabaries; for example, Japanese has one symbol for "KA," a different symbol for "NA" and another for "DA." There are 50-some in Japanese, which is more than the 26 letters we find itconvenient to read. Syllabaries are basically phonetic; Egypt's ancient writing systemwasforgetten for centuries, until a clever Frenchman realized that it was not picture-writing. He discovered the symbols for "CLE" "O" "PA" and "TRA" - and voila, the past came alive!

Ventris realized that"secret" writing found in ancient Crete was actually Greek, using a forgotten sylllabary. Sadly,academic blindness (jealousy) darkened his short life. He wanted to be an architect. ... Read more

Product Description
Writing is the defining marker of civilization, without which there could be no records, no history, no books, no accumulation of knowledge. But when did this essential part of our lives begin? Why do we all write differently and how did writing evolve into what we use today? All of these questions are answered in this Very Short Introduction. Andrew Robinson tells the fascinating story of the history of writing, shedding light on its development and examining the enormous variety of writing and scripts we use today. Starting with the origins of writing five thousand years ago, with cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, Robinson explains how these early forms developed into hundreds of scripts, including the Roman alphabet and Chinese characters. He reveals how the modern writing symbols and abbreviations we take for granted today--including airport signage and text messaging--resemble ancient ones much more closely than we might think. The book also includes a chronology of events from 3300 BC to AD 2000, a list of titles for further reading, and an index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not terribly modern
The book is fine if you want to know the history of writing and script up to about a hundred years ago, then it falls flat. It barely covers scripts that were invented in the 20th century, Romanization, or how scripts are used on computers and the Internet. "Very short" is fine, but it could have had a better mix. ... Read more

Product Description
The first fully illustrated guide to the human passion for measurement:of our experiences, our surroundings, and the universe.

This lively survey covers an astonishing array of subjects, from the earliest currency to the birth of the meter, from the force of hurricanes to body mass index, from air pressure, earthquakes, and pollen counts to happiness, blood types, and intelligence. Each measuring method is put into its proper historical context and explained in detail.

The book follows the same format as Andrew Robinson's popular The Story of Writing. It is organized into three broad sections—The Meaning of Measurement, Measuring Nature, and Measuring Man—which are then broken down into chapters. Each chapter features a series of self-contained spreads that deal with a specific topic. The wide range of illustrations spans the history of the world and its diverse cultures. 250 illustrations, 120 in color. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent eclectic overview
Each topic is dealt with briefly, which sometimes leaves me wanting more detail, but there are so many varied topics covered and the illustrations are so rich that it's an addictive page-turner. It's a bargain even at full price.

Disappointing.
I ordered this book as I very much liked the book "The story of writing" of the same author which is an excellent book with rather detailed information and interesting photos.
Contrary to that book, this one seems to be a rather arbitrary collection of all sorts of tidbits loosely related to measurement including the system of biological species, tsunamis and morse code. All topics are explained on one or two pages, which does not leave a lot of room for any deeper information.
One star above minimum I give, as the book is beatifully made with lots of nice photographs. ... Read more

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Title Page: Where the White Buffalo Roam. ... Read more

Product Description
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are among the most spectacular objects known to astronomy. Yet, despite years of intense and wide-ranging research, the debate over their fundamental source of power continues. In this volume, the contributors address such topics as what evidence there is for and against unified schemes for AGN and how the AGN populations evolve over cosmological timescales. Rapid progress has been made toward answering some of these questions by a variety of large-scale, multi-wavelength monitoring campaigns and the latest generation of satellite-borne observations.This volume provides a valuable overview and timely update of the exciting and rapidly developing field of AGN research for students and researchers in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. ... Read more

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Product Description
Book 2 in the Lexa series.***Lexa jets across the galaxy in a quest to find out the meaning of the blue weblike tattoo on her hand, aided by her superstitious slave, Kel. Yet, they weren't expecting smugglers and criminals of all sorts to be sneaking about their space cruise ship. As they struggle to unravel the mysteries onboard their ship, General Sargon and President Sulac scour Terra. They both have but one thought in theirs minds: find Lexa, and seize the ultimate power in the galaxy--the Planet Briga. ... Read more

Product Description
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
This collection reveals the history of English common law and Empire law in a vastly changing world of British expansion. Dominating the legal field is the Commentaries of the Law of England by Sir William Blackstone, which first appeared in 1765. Reference works such as almanacs and catalogues continue to educate us by revealing the day-to-day workings of society.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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British Library

T051685

Part 1 only; the second part is advertised on the verso of p. 103 and was published without a titlepage; drop-head title: 'Allegations against the Countess of Strathmore, By Andrew Robinson Bowes'.

London : printed for R. Randall, 1789. [6],103,[1]p.,plate ; 8° ... Read more

Product Description
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
The Age of Enlightenment profoundly enriched religious and philosophical understanding and continues to influence present-day thinking. Works collected here include masterpieces by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as religious sermons and moral debates on the issues of the day, such as the slave trade. The Age of Reason saw conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism transformed into one between faith and logic -- a debate that continues in the twenty-first century.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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National Library of Wales

T165545

With a final advertisement leaf.

Cambridge : printed by Francis Hodson: sold by J. Buckland, London; and W. Cowper, Cambridge, 1780. 30,[2]p. ; 8° ... Read more

Product Description
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
This collection reveals the history of English common law and Empire law in a vastly changing world of British expansion. Dominating the legal field is the Commentaries of the Law of England by Sir William Blackstone, which first appeared in 1765. Reference works such as almanacs and catalogues continue to educate us by revealing the day-to-day workings of society.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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Harvard University Law Library

N006584

With a half-title and two final advertisement leaves.

London : printed for George Kearsley, 1788. [4],40,[4]p. ; 4° ... Read more

Product Description
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
This collection reveals the history of English common law and Empire law in a vastly changing world of British expansion. Dominating the legal field is the Commentaries of the Law of England by Sir William Blackstone, which first appeared in 1765. Reference works such as almanacs and catalogues continue to educate us by revealing the day-to-day workings of society.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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British Library

T040287



[London] : Printed for George Kearsley, in Fleet-street, [1788]. [4],35,[1]p. ; 4° ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Bertram Fletcher Robinson, Andrew Balfour, Norman Biggs, Sammy Woods, John Daniell, Rob Andrew, Gavin Hastings, Matthew Mullineux, Richard Garnons Williams, Andrew Ramsay Don-Wauchope, David Bedell-Sivright, Charles Nicholl, Edwin Field, Frank Mitchell, Alexander Todd, Charles Hooper, Gerald Davies, John Guthrie Tait, Charles Gurdon, Cliff Jones, Grahame Parker, Charles Plumpton Wilson, Granville Coghlan, William Leake, Alastair Hignell, Daniel Vickerman, William Cope, 1st Baron Cope, James Greenlees, Willie Thomas, William Cave, Mason Scott, Wilf Wooller, Richard Harding, Arthur Smith, William Percy Carpmael, Rowe Harding, Gilbert Collett, Albert Jenkin, William Wotherspoon, Randolph Aston, Osbert Mackie, Robert William Bell, Horace Thomas, Arthur Rotherham, Frederic Alderson, Wavell Wakefield, 1st Baron Wakefield of Kendal, Reggie Schwarz, Ken Scotland, Johnny Hammond, David Robertson, Bernard Turnbull, Piercy Morrison, Sir George Agnew, 2nd Baronet, William Martin Scott, Edward Bromet, Tom Mcgown, James Gowans, George Wood, Eric Peters, James Bevan, Phil Davies, Alfred Hind, William Henry Thorman, Harry Bowcott, Edward Perkins Alexander, William Grant Mitchell, Ernest Brutton, Frederick Goodhue, Raymond Bark-Jones, Nathan Rocyn-Jones, Bryn Lewis, Ben Woods, Mick Doyle, Mike Gibson, Simon Amor, Charles Joseph Newbold, Aubone Surtees, David Akinluyi, Rob Wainwright, John Batten, Robert Thompson, Herbert Fuller, Clement Pearson Simpson, John Gwilliam, Sydney Pyman Bell, Carl Aarvold, Guy Morgan, Clem Lewis, Idwal Rees, Isaac Cowley Lambert, Herbert Richmond Palmer, Arthur Luxmoore, Ian Robertson, Eddie Butler, William Mortimer, Percy Illingworth, Paul Ackford, Marcus Rose, John Spencer, Micky Steele-Bodger, Ian Greig, Andy Mulligan, Rab Bruce Lockhart, Alun Lewis, Mark Denney, Billy Raybould, Clem Thomas, W. P. C. Davies, Arthur Darby, David Perry, Matthew Fosh, Archibald Symington, Jim O'callaghan. Source: Wikip...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=17758687 ... Read more