Articles Books

Who would have thought that an office park would become one of the most romantic places? The ASM offices in Kirtland, Ohio is just that, though! My husband and I have spent so many hours there (after the offices are closed) and visit it each time we go back to Ohio for holidays. Surprisingly, the dome doesn't get many visitors. When I was a child, this used to be one of our standard yearly field trips. However, it seems, there aren't many in Ohio that seem to be aware of this magnificent structure and the place is completely empty when we visit.

The dome is beautiful from any angle, but when standing directly underneath such a large unusual structure, it's truly a site to behold-- breathtaking and even awe-inspiring. According to the asm website below, this particular dome is "the largest open-work dome in the world, and was one of Fuller's favorites." The ASM gardens and fountains underneath Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic Dome here are gorgeous at almost any time of year.

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Lloyd Steven Sieden's article is superb if you have any interest at all in the history of these types of structures. The author explains the history of the structures, Buckminster Fuller's contributions, and describes probable uses for the structures in the future.

Fuller created his first dome in 1948, and it took him over 2 years to do the calculations, according to the author. Yet, sadly, while Fuller and his students paused to look at their completed structure, it immediately sagged and collapsed!

Thankfully, this didn't deter Fuller from completing his dreams, which he did. The author of this article truly admires Buckminster Fuller and says of the dome:

"It properly stands as a monument to the work of Buckminster Fuller, who successfully shared his vision of a world that works for everyone. He also inspired scores of people to work, as he did, to establish a network of equally significant individuals supporting humanity's emergence into a new era of cooperation. That relationship between individual human beings, as well as that between humans and their environment, is not modeled by the rigid conventional buildings that fill our environment. It is modeled in the amazing geodesic dome's network of lightweight, resilient struts, wires, and panels."

The article is short and concise, yet definitely will give you a full history of these fascinating structures.

I was really excited to see this book, as I am very intrested in learning more about Latino and Afro Latino religions and spiritual expressions, as well as the visual representations that come along with them (altars, dress, etc). The book itself has beautiful detailed pictures taken from the Los Angeles area botanicas and homes of practitioners of Curanderismo, Espiritismo, Santeria, and Palo.

The concept of the book is documenting religious expression of Latin Americans in L.A. Unfortunately becuase of the very academic approach, the first two chapters (which are really the reflections of the ethnographer who visits various botanicas) are very dry and detached. They are definately written from the perspective of "an outsider looking in" to an extreme extent. The information is presented in a way such that someone who is completely unfamiliar with Afro Latino/Latino religions and spirituality is assumed to be the reader.

Despite that, most of the other chapters (written by various authors) are very warm and include interviews with practioners, as well as personal knowledge and experiences of the authors themselves within various practices. Subjects included in the book are Puerto Rican Mesa Blanca (espiritismo), the Guatamalan saint San Simon, understanding what a botanicas are and why they exist, and a breakdown of the African origins and orishas of the Santeria and Palo traditions.

This book is by no means comprehensive of Latin American spiritual tradtions, however it is a good introduction to the religious expressions of the Dispora found in "the City of Angels".

Funnier than anything Jim Carry's ever done.

Overall, a good article that will be useful to those working in the field. However, it is clear that this civillian author would find it difficult to make it through any sort of Marine Corps training herself. This author needs a dose of the real world.

"Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East : Land Use and Settlement Patterns (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, Vol 1" has GOT to be the funniest book I've ever read. It's lovable characters (I loved Colonel McBern) and engaging story-line make this comedy a MUST READ!

This article by Harry Hutchinson originally appeared in "Mechanical Engineering-CIME" (volume 127, issue 1) on January 1, 2005. It outlines steps that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking to institute quantifiable Risk Analysis (RA) methodologies in addressing terrorist threats against American infrastructure.

The article doesn't get into the details of assigning quantities to the components of risk; the article defines risk only as the product of frequency, vulnerability, and cost of the consequences (R=FVC). Lawrence Stanton, a DHS specialist in this area explains the methodology of deriving these values, and then applying the results to a nationally implemented antiterrorist strategy dubbed "RAMCAP," short for Risk Analysis and Management for Critical Assets Protection. The methodology is explained and key concepts are introduced, none of which will surprise most safety professionals. The article really doesn't draw extensive comparisons between RAMCAP and RA in the nuclear industry specifically, despite what the title would have you believe, but the article is, nonetheless, a valuable and quick introduction for anyone interested in Risk Analysis in a national security framework.

This is a very good book with important chapters and it is based on a cretin age group but is pretty open.
My Favorite chapter of this book is the first chapter because it explains the whole book. The reason it explains the whole book is that this is where the main event happens and if you where not to read the first chapter you would not understand this book.
This book would be for the ages 10 and up only because the events in the story are true and younger aged people might not know what the event are yet.
I like this book because the book is non fictional and is a true story. This is a very good book to read to find out about black history or just for fun it is a good book no matter that reason for reading it.

While there are papers about many subjects in this book, approximately half the book deals with Neutrosophy, a new form of logic. As much philosophy as it is mathematics, neutrosophy can be used in many different areas. It has applications in fields as diverse as probability, set theory and quantum mechanics. Although it is new, neutrosophy is an extension of other forms of logic such as the three-valued logic developed by Jan Lukasiewicz and the fuzzy logic developed by Lofti Zadeh.
If you have an interest in different forms of logic, then those sections of the book will interest you.
The remaining papers deal with many other different areas of mathematics as well as a section on linguistic paradoxes. While not as interesting as those on neutrosophy, they still are worth reading. Florentin Smarandache is a source of many ideas in math, philosophy and literature, and some of his best are found in this book.

This is a very good if you are looking for information on the traditional understanding of the 39 articles. It does not get into as much detail in various beliefs and heresies that lead up to many of the articles as some of the other books do, but does touch briefly on them (enough so to continue independent research on them). For anyone just looking for a deeper understanding of the articles I would highly recommend this book.

Over the centuries, scientific articles have acquired a distinctive style of writing, which you may see in the examples shown here. Gradually, authors have striven to write as objectively as possible, or at least give that impression. To this end, the first person has been deprecated in favour of the third person. So that instead of writing "I painted the wall", you would write "The wall was painted". Third person and passive form.

The book also describes the evolution of the scientific journals. An international apparatus that is very specialised and lucrative for a few publishers like Reed-Elsevier.

To some of you, the most salient points will be the discussion of the future of scientific publishing. The sheer cost of some journals is prohibitive, even in developed countries. Out of sight for developing countries. There is speculation that the rise of the Web can lead to new online journals that have much fewer subscription fees, and possibly faster publication times.