June 30, 2005

World of Science

If you like science, math, physics, chemistry -- or reading about people involved in same, you'll love ScienceWorld. Check out MathWorld, which features straight math as well as Recreational Math. Also see World of Physics, World of Chemistry, and World of Scientific Biography.

Thanks to Neil for this world of fun!

June 24, 2005

Google Tips

David Pogue blogs about GoogleGuide on the NYTimes today. It's a nice cheat sheet for all the cool stuff you can do on Google, with useful examples.

If you Google, you should check this out.

June 20, 2005

Note to Self

Find out when "the World's Biggest Airliner" is going to be on The Learning Channel. Ben Bowie, British documentarian (?) spent two years following the creation of the world's biggest airplane, the Airbus A380. Seats 500-800!

Great article about same in the June 11, 2005 issue of New Scientist. Get the full-text from LexisNexis or the library's copy.

"Animals and Us" from New Scientist

The June 4,issue of New Scientist has a series of 8 short articles on "Animals & Us" -- articles which discuss animal feelings, anthropodenial vs anthropomorphism, and interviews with Jane Goodall and Temple Grandin.

Note: you can read a few of these articles for free on the New Scientist web site; for the rest, check out New Scientist in LexisNexis or the library!

June 16, 2005

Optical Illusions

From David Pogue's New York Times blog comes this:
Technology /
Pogues Posts: A Wacky Persistence of Vision Test
New York Times, June 10, 2005
By DAVID POGUE
This wild and wacky persistence-of-vision test is a new one on me. There is absolutely, positively no green in this circle of dots--but even I, Mr. Color-blind, saw phantom green spots after only about three seconds.

[swb note: there are many more optical illusions at this site, including face perception & emotion and a cool "stepping feet" illusion]

June 15, 2005

Even More New Books!

Arranged by subject, then alphabetically by title ...

Animal Behavior
The metaphysics of apes : negotiating the animal-human boundary; by Raymond Corbey. publisher: Cambridge, 2005. for more info.

Nature's music: the science of birdsong; by ed. by Peter Marler and Hans Slabbekoorn. publisher: Elsevier/Academic, 2005. for more info.

The Singing Life of Birds : The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong; by Donald Kroodsma. publisher: Houghton Mifflin , 2005. for more info.


Computer Science
Game Development Essentials: An Introduction; by Jeannie Novak. publisher: Thomson, 2005. for more info.

Handbook of Computer Game Studies; by Joost Raessens (Editor), Jeffrey Goldstein (Editor). publisher: MIT, 2005. for more info.

Mechanical Bodies, Computational Minds : Artificial Intelligence from Automata to Cyborgs; by Stefano Franchi (Editor), Gven Gzeldere (Editor). publisher: MIT, 2005. for more info.

Office 2004 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual
O'Reilly ISBN: , 752 pages, $29.95 US
; by Mark Holt Walker, Franklin Tessler, Paul Berkowitz. publisher: O’Reilly, 2005. for more info.

When Computers Were Human; by David Alan Grier. publisher: Princeton, 2005. for more info.


Education
Learning to write as a hostile act for Latino students; by Raul E. Ybarra. publisher: P. Lang, 2004. for more info.


Linguistics
The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky; by James McGilvray (Editor). publisher: Cambridge, 2005. for more info.

The evolution of human language : scenarios, principles, and cultural dynamics; by Wolfgang Wildgen. publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Co., 2004. for more info.

Functional Features in Language and Space: Insights From Perception, Categorization, and Development (Language and Space); by Laura Carlson, Emile Van Der Zee , eds. publisher: Oxford, 2005. for more info.

Introducing Phonetic Science (Cambridge Introductions to Language and Linguistics); by Michael Ashby, John Maidment. publisher: Cambridge, 2005. for more info.

Speak: A Short History of Languages; by Tore Janson . publisher: Oxford, 2002. for more info.


Media
The vanishing newspaper : saving journalism in the information age; by Philip Meyer. publisher: Columbia, 2004. for more info.


Philosophy
Metaphor and emotion : language, culture, and body in human feeling; by Zoltan Kovecses. publisher: Cambridge, 2003. for more info.

The sociology of emotions; by Jonathan H. Turner, Jan E. Stets.. publisher: Cambridge, 2005. for more info.


Psychology (includes neuro)
Adapting minds : evolutionary psychology and the persistent quest for human nature; by David J. Buller. publisher: MIT, 2005. for more info.

Cognition and intelligence : identifying the mechanisms of the mind; by edited by Robert J. Sternberg, Jean E. Pretz. publisher: Cambridge, 2005. for more info.

Cognitive Methods And Their Applications To Clinical Research; by Amy Wenzel, David C. Rubin, eds. publisher: APA, 2005. for more info.

The future of the brain; by Rose, Steven. publisher: Oxford, 2005. for more info.

Gender differences in mathematics : an integrative psychological approach; by edited by Ann M. Gallagher, James C. Kaufman. publisher: Cambridge, 2004. for more info.

How children learn language; by William O'Grady. publisher: Cambridge, 2005. for more info.

Memory: The Key to Consciousness; by Richard F. Thompson. publisher: National Academies Press, 2005. for more info.

BzzzPeek!

BzzzPeek -- international onomatopoeia using sound recordings from native speakers imitating the sounds of animals [flash & sound required]

June 02, 2005

Scientific American -- Mind

Browse the web site of Scientific American's quarterly publication called Sci Am Mind. This edition features articles about lying, an interview with Christof Koch, the consciousness/neuroscientist researcher, and more fun. We don't have this in the library, so check out the abstracts online & look for the issue in your favorite bookstore.

Even More New Books!

tis the season ...

A glossary of netspeak and textspeak; by David Crystal. publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2004. for more info.

A Neurolinguistic Theory of Bilingualism (Studies in Bilingualism, 18); by Michel Paradis. publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Co., 2004. for more info.

Doing research with children and young people; by edited by Sandy Fraser. publisher: Sage, 2004. for more info.

Experimental cognitive psychology and its applications; by Alice F. Healy, ed. publisher: APA, 2005. for more info.

Recent developments in biologically inspired computing; by Leandro Nunes de Castro, Fernando J. Von Zuben [editors].. publisher: Idea Group, 2005. for more info.