Life's Adventure: Virtual Risk in a Real World

Life's Adventure: Virtual Risk in a Real World PDF Author: Roger Bate
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136387641
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
We live in a dangerous world. Numerous hazards can strike us down from infectious diseases and genetic disorders to food poisoning and car crashes. Furthermore, the advances in information technology enable consumers to be more aware of these problems as the latest data on new hazards is spun around the world in a matter of seconds. As part of the opinion forming sector (as a think tank researcher and opinion editorial writer) Roger Bate has contributed to this information exchange. His writing over the past five years, as reflected in this book, has focussed on 5 key themes: 1. Hazards are as likely to come from natural as from man-made substances. 2. The linear no-threshold hypothesis is rubbish (i.e. the dose makes the poison). 3. An entire industry has developed to scare us into stopping certain activities, or making us feel guilty for continuing them, or lobbying to have them banned by government. 4. The public are quite capable of making decisions that involve complex trade-offs if only we would let them; indeed not letting them causes enormous problems as government bodies do not have the dispersed knowledge to do this, and are subject to interest group pressure. 5. There are innumerable benefits, as well as costs, from risk taking. Most articles concerning risk avoid mentioning any of the above five themes. The articles for this book were originally published in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Economic Affairs, and The Sunday Times. An introduction will draw all the articles together.

Life's Adventure: Virtual Risk in a Real World

Life's Adventure: Virtual Risk in a Real World PDF Author: Roger Bate
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136387641
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Get Book Here

Book Description
We live in a dangerous world. Numerous hazards can strike us down from infectious diseases and genetic disorders to food poisoning and car crashes. Furthermore, the advances in information technology enable consumers to be more aware of these problems as the latest data on new hazards is spun around the world in a matter of seconds. As part of the opinion forming sector (as a think tank researcher and opinion editorial writer) Roger Bate has contributed to this information exchange. His writing over the past five years, as reflected in this book, has focussed on 5 key themes: 1. Hazards are as likely to come from natural as from man-made substances. 2. The linear no-threshold hypothesis is rubbish (i.e. the dose makes the poison). 3. An entire industry has developed to scare us into stopping certain activities, or making us feel guilty for continuing them, or lobbying to have them banned by government. 4. The public are quite capable of making decisions that involve complex trade-offs if only we would let them; indeed not letting them causes enormous problems as government bodies do not have the dispersed knowledge to do this, and are subject to interest group pressure. 5. There are innumerable benefits, as well as costs, from risk taking. Most articles concerning risk avoid mentioning any of the above five themes. The articles for this book were originally published in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Economic Affairs, and The Sunday Times. An introduction will draw all the articles together.

Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security & Assurance (HAISA 2009)

Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security & Assurance (HAISA 2009) PDF Author:
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1841022314
Category : Computer networks
Languages : en
Pages : 149

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Book Description


Politicizing Science

Politicizing Science PDF Author: Michael Gough
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
ISBN: 0817939334
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
In this book leading scientists share their experiences and observations of developing and testing hypotheses, offering insights on the dangers of manipulating science for political gain. It describes how politicization--whether by misapplication, overextension, or outright manipulation of the scientific record to advance particular policy agendas--imposes expenditures of money, missed opportunities, and burdens on the economy.

Environmental Skepticism

Environmental Skepticism PDF Author: Peter J. Jacques
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317142187
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
'Environmental skepticism' describes the viewpoint that major environmental problems are either unreal or unimportant. In other words, environmental skepticism holds that environmental problems, especially global ones, are inauthentic. Peter Jacques describes, both empirically and historically, how environmental skepticism has been organized by mostly US-based conservative think tanks as an anti-environmental counter-movement. This is the first book to analyze the importance of the US conservative counter-movement in world politics and its meaning for democratic and accountable deliberation, as well as its importance as a mal-adaptive project that hinders the world's people to rise to the challenges of sustainability. Specific consideration is given to the threat of the counter-movement to marginalized people of the world and its philosophical implications through its commitment to a 'deep anthropocentrism'.

Cellular Phones, Public Fears, and a Culture of Precaution

Cellular Phones, Public Fears, and a Culture of Precaution PDF Author: Adam Burgess
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521520829
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
This is the first account of the health panic surrounding cellular phones that developed in the mid-1990s. Treating the issue as more 'social construction' than evident scientific problem, it tells the story of how this originally American anxiety diffused internationally, having an even bigger impact in countries such as Italy. Burgess highlights the contrasting reactions to the issue ranging from positive indifference in Finland to those such as the UK where precautionary measures were taken. These differences are located within the emergence of a precautionary culture driven by institutional insecurity that first appeared in the US and is now most evident in Europe. Anxieties about cell phone radiowaves are also situated historically in the very different reactions to technologies such as x-rays and in the more similar 'microwave suspicions' about television. In addition, Burgess outlines a history and sociology of what is, despite media-driven anxieties, a spectacularly successful device.

Translating Cultures in Search of Human Universals

Translating Cultures in Search of Human Universals PDF Author: Ikram Ahmed Elsherif
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527564398
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Informed by the anthropological research of Professor Donald E. Brown on human universals, this book compiles 10 articles exploring the representation of common human cultural practices and concerns in literature, cinema and language. The book as a whole demonstrates not only that Brown’s human universals are shared by different cultures, but most importantly that they have the potential to form a basis for inter- and intra-cultural communication and consolidation, bridging gaps of misinformation and miscommunication, both spatial and temporal. The contributors are Egyptian scholars who cross temporal and spatial boundaries and borders from Africa and the Middle East to Asia, Europe and the Americas, and dive deep into the heart of the shared human universals of myth, folklore and rituals, dreams, trauma, cultural beliefs, search for identity, language, translation and communication. They bring their own unique perspectives to the investigation of how shared human practices and concerns seep through the porous boundaries of different cultures and into a variety of creative and practical genres of fiction, drama, autobiography, cinema and media translation. Their research is interdisciplinary, informed by anthropological, social, psychological, linguistic and cultural theory, and thus offers a multi-faceted and multi-layered view of the human experience.

Learning from Accidents

Learning from Accidents PDF Author: Trevor Kletz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136388141
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Review of previous edition: "Trevor Kletz's book makes an invaluable contribution to the systematic, professional and scientific approach to accident investigation". The Chemical Engineer Fully revised and updated, the third edition of Learning from Accidents provides more information on accident investigation, including coverage of accidents involving liquefied gases, building collapse and other incidents that have occurred because faults were invisible (e.g. underground pipelines). By analysing accidents that have occurred Trevor Kletz shows how we can learn and thus be better able to prevent accidents happening again. Looking at a wide range of incidents, covering the process industries, nuclear industry and transportation, he analyses each accident in a practical and non-theoretical fashion and summarises each with a chain of events showing the prevention and mitigation which could have occurred at every stage. At all times Learning from Accidents, 3rd Edition emphasises cause and prevention rather than human interest or cleaning up the mess. Anyone involved in accident investigation and reporting of whatever sort and all those who work in industry, whether in design, operations or loss prevention will find this book full of invaluable guidance and advice.

Ayo's Adventures. Tales of My Journeys Through the Second Life Virtual World

Ayo's Adventures. Tales of My Journeys Through the Second Life Virtual World PDF Author: Françoise Sabard
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand France
ISBN: 2810607729
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
This is the story of the life and experiences of Fran's avatar, Ayo. Ayo is her name within Second Life. Ayo will first describe what Second Life is, how she and Fran relate, then she will tell stories of her experiences in Second Life with each of them illustrating a point about life in Second Life. All these themes are centered around the encounter of Ayo with her "twin soul" Ludwig and the reactions of their Real Life creators hidden behind their laptops. A touch of romance thrown in... What will Ayo and Ludwig's future be? makes Ayo's Aventures pleasant and interesting to read.

Paradoxes of Individualization

Paradoxes of Individualization PDF Author: Mr Willem de Koster
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1409494802
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Paradoxes of Individualization addresses one of the most hotly debated issues in contemporary sociology: whether a process of individualization is liberating selves from society so as to make them the authors of their personal biographies. The book adopts a cultural-sociological approach that firmly rejects such a notion of individualization as naïve. The process is instead conceptualized as an increasing social significance of moral notions of individual liberty, personal authenticity and cultural tolerance, which informs two paradoxes. Firstly, chapters about consumer behavior, computer gaming, new age spirituality and right-wing extremism demonstrate that this individualism entails a new, yet often unacknowledged, form of social control. The second paradox, addressed in chapters about religious, cultural and political conflict, is concerned with the fact that it is precisely individualism's increased social significance that has made it morally and politically contested. Paradoxes of Individualization, will therefore be of interest to scholars and students of cultural sociology, cultural anthropology, political science, and cultural, religious and media studies, and particularly to those with interests in social theory, culture, politics and religion.

Forthcoming Books

Forthcoming Books PDF Author: Rose Arny
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 1816

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Book Description