Bookpedia : Library WWWisdom : Author : O

Summary:

Summary: A practical year-long programme to bring the benefits of a better memory to one and all.

Summary:

Summary: In 1559 there still existed in Europe a hope that the religious unity which had underpinned the ideal of a single western Christendom might be restored. By 1610 that hope had perished forever. This volume recounts how the Catholic Church's only partially successful efforts during this period.

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: If you've ever wondered about natural home remedies as opposed to filling you and your familiy with chemicals every time you're ill - then this is ideal. It covers a range of ailments that can be helped with simple and natural remedies you ca easily make yourself.

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: Studio dell'influsso del linguaggio sul pensiero e della scienza del simbolismo

Summary: A study of the influence of language upon thought and of the science of symbolism

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: This goes beyond the description of why governments are obsolete in the age of globalisation, and suggests an alternative of federated regions competing to offer the best conditions for free trade. This will bring greater economic growth than keeping globally competitive industries and regions as cash cows made to pay for the economically uncompetitive special-interest sectors of a country.
I found this interestingly suggests a return to bioregionalism, as Ohmae argues against the 'artificial' nation state as an artifact, but suggests regions of 5 to 20 millions as a suitable size for a single distribution network, being large enough to be worth targeting and small enough to avoid diffusion and duplication in the marketing structures that cater to it.

Summary:

Summary: La ricerca di una misura sociale del valore, nella produzione e nella distribuzione, vuole evitare il demiurgo del capitalismo di stato e del socialismo di stato

Summary:

Summary: An introductory study of the history of the philosophy and methodology of science

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: A pictorial guide to Oxford shows the British university's grounds and buildings, and presents a glimpse of student life

Summary: Books, Toys and Games from the Opie Collection

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: The Death of Economics is a book divided by the author into two parts, each of five chapters. Everything good that has been said about it this book is true, But it is true ONLY of the first part. The devastating criticisms in Part One of economics as it is practised, strangely apply completely to Part Two. The author curiously seems not to have realized this.

Part One starts in fine form:

"The world economy is in crisis. Unemployment in Western Europe rises towards the 20 million mark. America faces the deep-seated problems of the twin deficits, the federal budget and the balance of trade. Vast tracts of the former Soviet empire are on the brink of economic collapse. Japanese companies, faced by the deepest recession since the war, are on the verge of breaking the long-standing and deep-rooted social convention of lifetime employment.
"The orthodoxy of economics, trapped in an idealized, mechanistic view of the world, is powerless is assist."

So follows a clear and enlightening exposition of the course of economic theory since its inception by Adam Smith to the present day. It describes a decline from a rational, balanced approach to an obsession with abstruse mathematics and wrong-headed theory. I know of no better account of this lamentable process or more incisive criticism of what the "dismal science" has become today. The total inability of economists to even begin to unravel the processes that concern them is beautifully and entertainingly explained. More pertinently, the way they use fallacious theory to further their own suspect political agendas is lucidly analyzed.

Having demolished the analytical approach to economics and its political abuses, the title of the book would lead you to believe that it was only left to see it well and truly buried. But the author in the second part goes about constructing his own elaborate economic theory, which for all the world seems to embody most of the faults of the "orthodoxy" he has previously so well laid to rest. The following paragraph illustrates the kind of insights the reader can expect from Part Two:

"In the short term, such policies may appear to work, in so far as they move the economy to a more favourable position on an ellipse moving around a given attractor point, of the kind represented in Figure 15. These, let us remember, are the stylized ellipses which emerge as the implications of our theoretical LV model. They are idealized representations of the ellipses which actually exist in the empirical data. In practice, the ellipses which are traced around a given attractor point over course of several cycles will all be different from one another. Even during periods of regular behaviour, some cycles may be shorter or longer than the average, or more or less intense in terms of the size of the fluctuations within them.". (P.194)

Ouch! I'm sorry. We are not going to solve any of the world's economic problems like this.. Part Two is a hard and unnecessary grind. So let's return to some points about Part One which really is worthwhile.

The first thing to say is the fact that the book was written in 1994 is of little consequence as regards its power and relevance. The immediate problems discussed are now history, nevertheless, they are interesting as history. What is a bit more disappointing is that the focus is relentlessly on certain issues that may have been the fashionable ones of the day, but now need to be set in a wider framework.

For instance, the word "unemployment" occurs far too often. You feel at times that it is the only problem worth worrying about. This was never so at any time - at least not since the time Keynes applied his mind to economic problems in the 1930s.

The other major focus is on growth, as if to achieve it is an end in itself and one that we should relentlessly pursue. Ormerod claims that it is to growth that we owe our better standard of living compared to, say, 100 years ago. But surely technology has to be put into that particular equation more strongly. And what about the huge increases in productivity that accompany it? A search in the index reveals no mention of that word, and I cannot find it anywhere in the text.

Ormerod also explores a fascinating report by Alfred Chandler from 1990 on how American corporations developed and why they were, for a time, so successful. Chandler's conclusions ran contrary to the economists' pet theories and this kind of rooting of economic studies in reality is typical of Part One. However, Ormerod seems to support the thrust of Chandler's recommendations perhaps a little too uncritically as, for instance, one factor contributing to the corporations' success is said to be their ability to control markets. Most people would have more difficulty than Ormerod seems to have in accepting the virtue of corporations controlling markets.

On the plus side Part One of The Death of Economics is a wonderful piece of summarizing of the complex economic ideas that have been put forward during the history of the subject, and for this we can be grateful to the author. Consequently, the period biases towards unemployment and growth can easily be forgiven. However, the mind numbing strictures of Part Two cannot be. (If you want some practical ideas of how economic theory could change the world for the better read Michael Rowbotham's The Grip of Death.)

The recommendation must overwhelmingly to buy this book. It is to be treasured for Part One. Unless you have a strong interest in economic theory, skip Part Two. You will still more than get your money's worth.

Summary:

Summary: Age & Guile was my first literary encounter with the genius that is P J O'Rourke. That was enough to persuade me that here was a man after my own heart - one of the requisites for enjoyable reading. I was lucky to find my copy of Parliament of Whores in a charity shop (sorry Amazon!) and was delighted to find that this book is proof positive of my own long held view that government of any hue is a monstrous waste of money. PJ's comments are timeless. It matters not that this book was written about the George Bush Snr presidential period. The point he makes is that, politicians being what they are, the system never changes, regardless of which political party is in power. As such, whilst the scale of governmental economic waste in USA is obviously vastly in excess of our own dear govenment's increasingly ambitious attempts to measure up, PJ's insights into the political process are as relevant to our own political system as to the American way. Assuming, of course, that you are not a political 'groupie', there are comments on virtually every page which are guaranteed to raise at least a broad smile and the old chestnut about the dangers of reading this book in a public place, for fear of laughing out loud, holds good.

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: 1984 is one of those rare books that genuinely changes your outlook on life and the way in which you perceive society as a whole.
There's so much that could be said about Orwell's masterpiece, but I don't think I could word it quite as well as he did. His radical take on "neo-feudalism" and the class system is something that is becoming ever more relevant today, particularly in England - where 1984 is set, and based on.
Can you believe that this book was written scarcely three years after the war?
I think everyone should read 1984 at least once. It puts things into perspective.

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: Before this the only Orwell I had read were the two Orwell novels everyone has read - Animal Farm and 1984, incidentally 2 of my favourite books ever. While this collection of Orwell's essays don't quite match up to these in terms of weighty literature it is both an excellent insight into Orwells times and a brilliant example of essay writing on a wide variety of subjects from "the social conscience of his age" . I especially liked his, perhaps a little tongue in cheek, study of boys comics from the 30s, and his superb analysis of Gullivers Travels.

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: Down and Out in Paris and London
The Road to Wigan Pier
Homage to Catalonia

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: I am ashamed to admit that I have been training in creativity for ten years, but this is the first time I have read this book, because it hasn’t been available in Europe for a long time. That was a big mistake - it's fair to say that Applied Imagination is the single most important book in the creativity catalogue.
I was well aware that Osborn had devised brainstorming, and a good number of the idea generation techniques used by everyone from Edward de Bono to Creativity Unleashed - but I was amazed just how much of the material we have devised independently over the years - on such matters as environment and personal development, for instance - is there in this seminal 1953 classic. That’s right 1953. Systematic business creativity has been around for over 50 years.
Osborn was an advertising man - co-founder of the New York BBDO agency - and as such has been ignored by some of the more academic writers. They have done so at their peril.
Applied Imagination is a big book - around 400 pages - and though it's not a light read, in part through its age, it isn't academically tedious either. If you are doing anything in the sphere of creativity and you don't have a copy of this book on the shelf you MUST get one, to sit alongside a framework oriented book like our Imagination Engineering and an innovation management book like our Creativity and Innovation for Managers.
Brian Clegg, Creativity Unleashed Limited

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: You're holding a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. It's a book for the business model generation. Disruptive new business models are emblematic of our generation. Yet they remain poorly understood, even as they transform competitive landscapes across industries. Business Model Generation offers you powerful, simple, tested tools for understanding, designing, reworking, and implementing business models. Business Model Generation is a practical, inspiring handbook for anyone striving to improve a business model - or craft a new one. CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT BUSINESS MODELS Business Model Generation will teach you powerful and practical innovation techniques used today by leading companies worldwide. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a new business model - or analyze and renovate an old one. CO-CREATED BY 470 STRATEGY PRACTITIONERS Business Model Generation practices what it preaches. Coauthored by 470 Business Model Canvas practitioners from forty-five countries, the book was financed and produced independently of the traditional publishing industry. It features a tightly integrated, visual, lie-flat design that enables immediate hands-on use. DESIGNED FOR DOERS Business Model Generation is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new, innovative models of value creation: executives, consultants, entrepreneurs - and leaders of all organizations.

Summary: Polycentric governance of complex economic systems

Summary: Beyond market failure and government regulation

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: As a Cultural and Media Studies Student in Higher Education, I have found this book to be a life line for me when completing assignments and revising for exams. Its format (it is set out in alaphabtical order - like that of a dictionary), provides an incredibly straight forward and quick reference to all iportants aspects of the subject, eg. semiotics, ideology, etc. I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to have concepts summarised in an easy to read manner.

Summary:

Summary: L'irrazionale nella idea del divino e la sua relazione al razionale

Summary:

Summary: Le cento isole minori del mare italiano

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: This text describes Gurdjieff's cosmology from Ouspensky's perspective as student, and shows how Ouspensky's formulation of his own ideas eventually led to his break with Gurdjieff. The book conveys a strong and lasting impression that not only did Ouspensky discover a real knowledge about man and his relationship with the universe, but that a practical cosmic teaching for the conduct of life is even now in existence.

Summary: The Third Canon of Thought. A Key to the Enigmas of the World

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary:

Summary: