Extracting The Future from The Present


Book Description

Mapping accurately the future is no longer a storytelling fantasy; rather, a workplace of data scientists, programmers or analysts. With a background in engineering and as an estimator, Ion Storland presents a book that explores in the present, a future scenario of human civilization on Earth and beyond, based on information and observations from the past. The interdisciplinary content gathered and described in the book seeks to build a panoramic view of how the various domains and sectors of economy, technology, and society are interrelated and interact with peoples’ day-to-day lives; and also to picture the consequences of actions that frame the events of the future. An inevitable future of interlinked brains will form a mindociety — a society of people whose minds are connected through brain implants. What can we expect from such an outcome? How should we prepare? From describing confined norms and mindset (from Storland’s point of view) on planet Earth, to the astonishing, universal, philosophical burden of existence, Sorland raises the hypothesis of Existential Infinitylock, which makes it impossible for anyone or anything to be able to define the origin of existence; not today, not in million or billions years. The argument is based on and takes into account the properties of infinite order.







Solid Phase Extraction: State of the Art and Future Perspectives


Book Description

This book is a collection of 13 innovative papers describing the state of the art and the future perspectives in solid-phase extraction covering several analytical fields prior to the use of gas or liquid chromatographic analysis. New sorptive materials are presented including carbon nanohorn suprastructures on paper support, melamine sponge functionalized with urea–formaldehyde co-oligomers, chiral metal–organic frameworks, UiO-66-based metal–organic frameworks, and fabric phase sorptive media for various applications. Solid-phase extraction can be applied in several formats aside from the conventional cartridges or mini-column approach, e.g., online solid-phase extraction, dispersive solid-phase microextraction, and in-syringe micro-solid-phase extraction can be very helpful for analyte pre-concentration and sample clean-up. Polycyclic musks in aqueous samples, 8-Nitroguanine in DNA by chemical derivatization antibacterial diterpenes from the roots of salvia prattii, perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in aater samples by bamboo charcoal-based SPE, parabens in environmental water samples, benzotriazoles as environmental pollutants, organochlorine pesticide residues in various fruit juices and water samples and synthetic peptide purification are among the applications cited in this collection. All these outstanding contributions highlight the necessity of this analytical step, present the advantages and disadvantages of each method and focus on the green analytical chemistry guidelines that have to be fulfilled in current analytical practices.







Homo Prospectus


Book Description

Our species is misnamed. Though sapiens defines human beings as "wise" what humans do especially well is to prospect the future. We are homo prospectus. In this book, Martin E. P. Seligman, Peter Railton, Roy F. Baumeister, and Chandra Sripada argue it is anticipating and evaluating future possibilities for the guidance of thought and action that is the cornerstone of human success. Much of the history of psychology has been dominated by a framework in which people's behavior is driven by past history (memory) and present circumstances (perception and motivation). Homo Prospectus reassesses this idea, pushing focus to the future front and center and opening discussion of a new field of Psychology and Neuroscience. The authors delve into four modes in which prospection operates: the implicit mind, deliberate thought, mind-wandering, and collective (social) imagination. They then explore prospection's role in some of life's most enduring questions: Why do people think about the future? Do we have free will? What is the nature of intuition, and how might it function in ethics? How does emotion function in human psychology? Is there a common causal process in different psychopathologies? Does our creativity change with age? In this remarkable convergence of research in philosophy, statistics, decision theory, psychology, and neuroscience, Homo Prospectus shows how human prospection fundamentally reshapes our understanding of key cognitive processes, thereby improving individual and social functioning. It aims to galvanize interest in this new science from scholars in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy, as well as an educated public curious about what makes humanity what it is.




Spying on Whales


Book Description

“A palaeontological howdunnit…[Spying on Whales] captures the excitement of…seeking answers to deep questions in cetacean science.” —Nature Called “the best of science writing” (Edward O. Wilson) and named a best book by Popular Science, a dive into the secret lives of whales, from their four-legged past to their perilous present. Whales are among the largest, most intelligent, deepest diving species to have ever lived on our planet. They evolved from land-roaming, dog-sized creatures into animals that move like fish, breathe like us, can grow to 300,000 pounds, live 200 years and travel entire ocean basins. Whales fill us with terror, awe, and affection--yet there is still so much we don't know about them. Why did it take whales over 50 million years to evolve to such big sizes, and how do they eat enough to stay that big? How did their ancestors return from land to the sea--and what can their lives tell us about evolution as a whole? Importantly, in the sweepstakes of human-driven habitat and climate change, will whales survive? Nick Pyenson's research has given us the answers to some of our biggest questions about whales. He takes us deep inside the Smithsonian's unparalleled fossil collections, to frigid Antarctic waters, and to the arid desert in Chile, where scientists race against time to document the largest fossil whale site ever found. Full of rich storytelling and scientific discovery, Spying on Whales spans the ancient past to an uncertain future--all to better understand the most enigmatic creatures on Earth.







United States Code


Book Description

"The United States Code is the official codification of the general and permanent laws of the United States of America. The Code was first published in 1926, and a new edition of the code has been published every six years since 1934. The 2012 edition of the Code incorporates laws enacted through the One Hundred Twelfth Congress, Second Session, the last of which was signed by the President on January 15, 2013. It does not include laws of the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, enacted between January 2, 2013, the date it convened, and January 15, 2013. By statutory authority this edition may be cited "U.S.C. 2012 ed." As adopted in 1926, the Code established prima facie the general and permanent laws of the United States. The underlying statutes reprinted in the Code remained in effect and controlled over the Code in case of any discrepancy. In 1947, Congress began enacting individual titles of the Code into positive law. When a title is enacted into positive law, the underlying statutes are repealed and the title then becomes legal evidence of the law. Currently, 26 of the 51 titles in the Code have been so enacted. These are identified in the table of titles near the beginning of each volume. The Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives continues to prepare legislation pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 285b to enact the remainder of the Code, on a title-by-title basis, into positive law. The 2012 edition of the Code was prepared and published under the supervision of Ralph V. Seep, Law Revision Counsel. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the contributions by all who helped in this work, particularly the staffs of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and the Government Printing Office"--Preface.




The Sociology of Military Science


Book Description

This groundbreaking work challenges modernist military science and explores how a more open design epistemology is becoming an attractive alternative to a military staff culture rooted in a monistic scientific paradigm. The author offers fresh sociological avenues to become more institutionally reflexive - to offer a variety of design frames of reference, beyond those typified by modern military doctrine. Modernist military knowledge has been institutionalized to the point that blinds militaries to alternative designs organizationally and in their interventions. This book seeks to reconstruct strategy and operations in "designing ways" and develops theories of action through multifaceted contextualizations and recontextualizations of situations, showing that Military Design does not have to rely on set rational-analytic decision-making schemes, but on seeking alternative meanings in- and on-action. The work offers an alternative philosophy of practice that embraces the unpredictability of tasks to be accomplished. Written by Colonel Paparone (U.S. Army, Ret., PhD) with a special chapter by two active duty officers, it will appeal to all in military and security studies, including professionals and policymakers.