Bradford Books

This is among the most comprehensive, insightful and balanced books on CI that I have read. Although there is very little on the topic of CI in the scientic and technical communities, which the books editors accurately note, this book goes a long way to estabishing the basis for the field.

Among the things I like best in the book are: 1) the balance between the conceptual and the applied - both the theory and the management applications are covered, 2) The introduction to TI by the editors does a better-than-average job of setting up the field, and 3) the chapters by Herring on creating successful S&T Intelligence Programs, Tibbetts on technology scouting, and the future direction chapter by Ashton are among the best of their kind in the literature.

The things I liked less about the book (and there aren't many mate) include a bit too much introduction or overview material to basic CI in several of the chapters (the editors would have been helpful had they removed this overlap), and several of the chapters read far more like research studies and are too narrowly focussed to allow for much use(ex: Klavans chapter on research underlying TI, Penens' chapter on standards).

In sum, this book is clearly the best out there on technical intelligence for business. If this area is important to you, you will find value in many facets of this book. Being that the book was published in 1997, I hope that these authors will consider doing a follow-up so that we can see the field's development through the advances in the computer-mediated economy, globalization and evolving competition in S&T space.

Dick is a genius, and he and Bradford Ashton have pulled together a number of very fine contributions in this book. Still, they sum it up nicely in the concluding chapter: "The formal practice of developing technical intelligence in American business is only in its infancy." They have a nice appendix of sources on scientific and technical intelligence that is missing a few big obvious sources like the Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) and the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) as well as the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) and several smaller sources. On balance, this technical intelligence community is, as Bradford notes, in its infancy. It is U.S. centric, does not yet understand operational security and counterintelligence, is weak of cost intelligence, relies too heavily on registered patents, and has too few practical successes stories. Especially troubling is the recent trend within DIA and the Air Force of cutting off all funding for open source exploitation of Chinese and other foreign S&T sources, combined with a dismantling by many corporations of their libraries and most basic market research functions. This book is an essential reference and I admire its authors greatly-sadly, they are part of a small minority that has not yet found its full voice.

It was all too easy for a Yankee like me who grew up during the Civil Rights struggles to be smug about who lived on which side of the Mason-Dixon line and who as such was more "enlightened" on the issue of race. Particularly raised as I was by a father who called people like Huie's characters "Rebs". It was another thing entirely to be told later in life by an African-American friend of Alabama roots (where this book is set) that she'd rather live down there than up here in western New York--white people of her home state were less "two-faced" (her words) about the race issue than we were up here. This book was the first book I ever read that puts a human face on people connected with the Ku Klux Klan. In recent years, I've come to realize that the Klan gave America our earliest experience with terrorism. From right here at home, not foreign shores. But "The Klansman" presents all of its characters on both sides of the issue as people with real feelings. A bit disconcerting for a kid like me who had a good guy/ bad guy perspective from popular entertainment, which is to say the bad guys are monsters, not people. But then again, Nietzsche once suggested that life's most valuable lessons are anything but easy. This book's anti-hero is Sheriff "Big Track" Bascomb, a complicated sort of guy who on one side is a Bull Connoresque uniformed soldier for the cause of segregation, but on the other side is a caring husband and father. His teenage son Allen is an embyonic New Southerner whose generation today is in power in states like Alabama. His wife Maybelle doesn't care so much about political issues as she does about the well-being of her family. His best friend is landowner Breck Stancill, whose family traditions lie in the anti-segregationist direction, but in truth, Stancill is a helper of the needy regardless of race. In leaner years, Big Track himself was a beneficiary of that, and is torn between his loyalties to the segregationist cause and his more personal feelings of obligation and gratitude to Stancill, who by his own admission has served as a surrogate older brother to him. Military historian Gwynne Dyer once said that the only way to make a fighting man out of a civilian brought up to believe that it's wrong to kill people is to suggest that the enemy aren't really people. To this day I retain my hostility to racism, but Huie has created a cast of racists here that I can't with any conscience claim aren't real people. Actually, I'm a bit surprised that this book is even available used. After all, not every book that deals with a hot button issue of a particular era can cross the gulf of time into status as a "historical novel". Maybe Huie is no John Jakes, but Churchill did say that if you don't learn from history you'll end up repeating it.

Huie, now deceased, writes a very exciting novel about a Klan-ridden Alabama community during the timeframe of the civil rights movement. I haven't ever been to Alabama, so I can't honestly say whether or not it was at all reflective of small-town situations in that state during the late 1960s. However, the picture it paints is not terribly dissimilar from those I've seen in non-fiction writing about the period.

The language is harsh and the scenes are described with shocking vividness; this book isn't for the faint of heart and contains a lot more sorrrow than joy. Such were the times. However, it does present a wide cross-section of interesting characters, and avoids painting a picture of complete good vs. complete evil--just about all the characters display faults and redeeming qualities, rather than a cast of nothing but saintly, unselfish civil rights workers or hog-nosed adder-mean racists. It doesn't take deep reading of this book to see how racial prejudice is often manipulated as a power tool.

If you can find a copy, and you're interested in the topic, don't let it get away.

I ordered the LGCR because they were saying good things about it on
the literary blogs (Maud Newton, Elegant Variation, etc.) and I
thought the cover was cool, but I didn't really know what to expect.
I've picked up literary journals before, but they've always bored me.
This one's different. It's got really great-looking artwork and the
stories are unusual and dark and interesting. I'm pretty picky when
it comes to short stories, but the ones they chose impressed me a lot.
I'm glad I bought it.

After reading Issue 1, I had high expectations for number 2. It didn't let me down. In fact, I liked this issue even more than the first. Issue 2 contains a colorful selection of "fish in a bucket" (as printed on the cover). The stories share a subdued disquietude that left me unhinged, but not without a bemused smile. They are smart and meaty with lots to chew on, like Murder Journal, about an imaginative "existential hero." I recommend this Issue, along with Issue 1 for those seeking a solid variety of stories that reflect absurdities and inner-conflicts we are all familiar with, but don't always acknowledge.

I had major trouble with a landlord. I was able to use the book to help know my rights and determine Colorado law regarding tenant rights when dealing with problem landlords. I suggest tenants read this book, so they know how to deal with renting and how to avoid problems!

This book showed me exactly what I needed to do in order to properly serve papers for delinquent rent. It is written at the right level for non-lawyers. It has detailed explanations for each line of each form that you have to fill out.

And probably for related topics. Millikan's account of functions and "Normal" functioning is extremely well-developed, and can provide much needed content to "functionalist" accounts of various kinds, helping greatly in evaluating their merits and their defects. Her notion of a function also enables a unified account to be given of functions for which things are designed and for things which are not designed (obviously without the theological dodge of saying everything is designed).

The book explains why the reproduction of tools, actions, adaptations and habits can matter separately from single instances of use, without referring to any specialized internal mechanisms, as Fodor or Chomsky might require.

It thus throws an enormous weight of exemplary philosophical junk (Dennett might claim most of the literature on free will goes here) in the dumpster, by showing that a battery of single counterexamples can be irrelevant to a reproductive motive.

The book also defines "function" by referring to reproductive motives, not use motives. A mass of literature referring to function becomes clearer thereby. Dysfunction becomes far less relevant than one might expect when one sees "dysfunction" opposed to "function", as if a law of contradiction applied.

I like the formalism in the book, which Millikan seems to have felt compelled to softpedal in her subsequent writings. In a way, Millikan does for "function" here what Abraham Robinson did for infinitesimals. She rehabilitates an aid to intuition, so that people who might be inclined to deny it because it lacks a formal well-definition might have to admit it.

The context is biological, i.e., survival and posterity matter more than origins in the mist, a process is step by step, and ideas can persist despite cases of failure.

This is a great book. I originally picked it up at the library, not realizing (when I logged on via modem) that it was for kids. It has some great, fun projects, colorfully and appealingly illustrated, which makes it great for kids and informative for adults as well. I went out and bought a copy shortly afterwards. I've made one project in it (the jester hat), which turned out GREAT, and have others planned. Good, simple, fun and appealing book--well done!

This book is extremely helpful for beginning-intermediaate crafters! It gave me many of ideas on what to do with my growing supply of fleece. It contains great projects like blanket in a pillow, fleece frog, and pom pom hat! This is truely a great book!

This book is a must read for students pursuing careers in Management, Leadership, or any related field. While the book is written with Middle Managers in mind, the writers have paved the way for self-development as well. Bradford and Cohen articulate the differences between three management styles all the while keeping the contemporary organization in mind. Readers will find themselves engrossed as the authors clearly deliniate between these three styles through description and the provision of a plethora of examples. If you plan on pursuing a career in management do yourself a favor and pick this book up but most importantly read it.

This is a great book for people who've recently been promoted to a middle management position and/or who are struggling to get the most from their team. Unlike most management books, which always seem to be aimed at the CEO, this one targets the 2nd or 3rd level manager, who's trying to motivate a team of 25-60. Although it's based on a pretty simple concept (articulate a clear vision, let employees to share in the mgmt responsibility, and then focus your energies on developing their abilities to do so), it helped me a lot in realizing that by trying to coordinate and stay in control of everything going on in my group, I was actually stifling the creativity and motivation of my employees. By turning over more of the day-to-day responsibility to them, and focusing my energies on the broader vision, we'll all be a lot more successful. This book is loaded with a lot of great examples that helped me see that.

"Mental Leaps" gives the impression of an academic book, and it is. However, it is written so well that [almost] everyone can understand it. It is a very good intoduction to the very concept "analogy" -- not very philosophical or very abstract, but rather "scientific" and concrete. Authors give a lot of examples and refer to experiments and case studies, thus the reader should have considerable amount of insight on "how we think", "how we learn", "how we understand" and etc. after reading this book. Of course, no one should expect to learn everything about these issues from this book, since cognitive science is still in its infancy. I think anyone can benefit from this book. A little insight about your own "thinking" won't hurt!

A thoroughly well written very clear representation of the topics discussed. It was a joy to read a book written by authors who could present such an ambiguous topic with such clarity. I strongly recommend it to all those interested in Analogy.

This is the best compendium of papers in artificial intelligence that I've seen (at least on the same level of "the artificial intelligence debate" -- which is also excellent).

However, some of these ideas are getting outdated. If you want to see some true innovation in AI you should check out Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies.

Mind Design II was my first serious introduction to artificial intelligence and the issues surrounding work in this multi-disciplinary area. I found it both accessible and enlightening. That being said, it is by no means a completely light read for newcomers, and it is important to invest time into thinking about the key discussion points of the book (connectionism (NFAI) vs. GOFAI, symbolism, representation, etc.). My only complaint with the book is that it is hard to tell the difference between what is current and what isn't (Turing's essay, for instance), and the fact that it was published in 1997 doesn't make it any easier. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the philosophy and science of "mind design."

Metamentation is where it's at! If you're thinking about thinking you're metamentating. If you're thinking about buying this book, you're a good thinker. But how are you on action?

Bogdan's thesis is the fact that, "operating in mental rehearsal, interpretation served as emulable blueprint for reflexive thinking". That is, self conscious thought both evolved and continues to evolve from early interpretation abilities.

Bogdan brings together both his philosophical insight into his exploration of how and why we are able to think about thoughts as thoughts as well as a significant amount of psychological literature going back to Vygotsky. The question of metamentation (thinking about thoughts requires understanding of thoughts as thoughts, as mental structures that represent in his words) and how it could possibly 'bootstrap' itself is still very much unexplored by present-day philosopher's; I suspect this is put in the "hard" question bin along with many other aspects of consciousness.

Bogdan's book is fascinating since it, at least to me, demonstrates that philosophers are finally beginning to abandon their ivory (in many senses of the word) towers and get their hands dirty with some empirical evidence. That is, as opposed to Chalmers and his zombies Bogdan actually maps his ideas to some concrete observations.

Bogdan argues that our ability for self-reflexivity develops due to our helplessness as an infant. Because we need a high level of care we must, out of necessity, develop an ability to interpret other minds in a social context. Our prodigious language skills simply develop out of this base interpretation layer as icing on the cake...

This is not a light read by any account; I needed a couple runs through to digest all of his points. However, I believe that may have something to do with the framework I (and those of us ensnared in Western ideas of what philosophy is supposed to do) possess, not his writing. In fact, this is quite a "readable" book while still maintaining rigorous arguments.

Hopefully this book will provoke a lot of new exploration in psychology, philosophy, AI and neurology. Also recommended are Austin's "Zen and the Brain", Perlovsky's "Neural Networks and Intellect" and Wilson's "Spikes, Decisions, and Actions". For some non-linear exploration I suggest Sartwell's "The Art of Living" and Flemons' "Completing Distinctions". Actually, Faber's old "Objectivity and Human Perception" may help understanding Bogdan's developments as well.