Frictions Books

I found this book to be extremely informative while explaining how forces make things move in a way my 3 year old granddaughter understands while learning myself!!

The pictures are awsome, and keeps any age children's attention. All of the books in the Lets-Read-and-Find-Out Science series have been a valuable tool in teaching and entertaining in my home.

my elder son (4 1/2) loves these books. they are fun, simple and educational. these books provide little experiments you can do at home.

I was surprised to see no review of this book, so I had to write one. It has many interesting facets, but at its core is a vivid and sometimes heart-breaking portrayal of the true face of "globalization" - not the shining abstraction of Thomas Friedman's dreams but a capricious force that scrapes over landscapes, natural environments, and the societies that live in them and often leaves them devastated in the name of progress.

I rarely use the word beautiful to describe an ethnography, but this is one such case.I really think this book deserves a wider public outside anthropology; Tsing's insightful observations on the sad fate of Kalimantan should be a lesson to all those who think unfettered free markets and the global economy are the route to salvation.

This is quite an astonishing book, absorbing, original. Although isolated from the literatures of predatory capitalism, moral natural green economics, and collective intelligence and social network wealth creation, I fix that with some links at the end of this review.

This is a very original and valuable work that merits a full reading and massive replication across millions of localities.

Here are my most important fly-leaf notes.

+ An original view at the conflicts and collaborations between predatory business practices (often combining bribery to obtain local armed force) and indigenous rights and natural resource claims.

+ Proposes a new form of global respect for cultural diversity and ethnic indigenous rights and innovative possibilities. Clearly appreciates E. O. Wilson's 1996 declaration of the importance of diversity as an engine and catalyst for human progress and prosperity.

+ Charming and stimulating discussion of how the forest is a social network above a natural network.

+ Author describes the ethnographic method as one that seeks out the odd couplings, the odd connections instead of seeking to create global generalizations.

+ Culturally-rooted odd connections are a source of cultural production.

+ Cultural and political delimitation is more successful and more sustainable than global camapaigns that demand generalizations applied to all localities, and fail to reflect nuances and differentiation (e.g. good coal emissions versus bad coal emissions).

+ Trenchant discussion and definitions of prosperity (disparities between fortunes for the few and scarcity for the many); knowledge (unequally distributed); and freedom (more for the few and less for the many).

+ Excellent discussion of the blurring of the lines between public, private, and criminal.

+ Fascinating discussion, centered on the fake gold mine in Indonesia, about how countries "stage" performances and fabricate opportunities in order to attract foreign investment.

+ Tart illustration and discussion of how frontier cultures (including soldiers who will kill indigeneous peoples whose wealth is being stolen and rights trampled); franchise cronyism; and finance capital that plays Russian roulette with other people's money.

+ Great discussion of the gaps between:

- Cultivated and wild

- Subsistence and market economies

- Farm and forest

- Settlements and hinterlands

+ Strong section on the value of differences in mobilizing indigenous interest and capabilities, and innovation.

+ In passing, this book makes me realize that our labor unions are dormant but can be mobilized.

My highest complement for any book: I learned important things I did not know, and see the world in a different light as a result. I also see my own life's work, and the Earth Intelligence Network of which I am one of 24 co-founders, in a different light.

This is a righteous book, a very valuable book, and in the context of all the other books I have read, this book is quite extraordinary, unique, and a MAJOR contribution to human knowledge.

Here are some other books that I recommend that bear out and complement the author's insightful and intelligent blending of

+ Green/diversity

+ Moral/natural capitalism

+ Collective intelligence/wealth of networks

+ Populism & deliberative democracy

+ Ethics, ecology, & evolution

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: How the Financial System Underminded Social Ideals, Damaged Trust in the Markets, Robbed Investors of Trillions - and What to Do About It [audio book TITLE is better, buy the book instead]
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them

One of the best books available for the science, technology, and application of lubricated interacting surfaces in relative motion. Advanced analysis techniques and discussion on modern experimental methods provide an enhanced understanding of fundamental principles of lubrication, friction, and wear. Basics of design and analysis of machine components operating in the presence of air and liquid lubricants. Rolling fatigue, friction and wear models, and measurement techniques. This is the book to study.

This book is covering the field of elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication, taking into account all parameters (bearing materials, surface geometry, lubricant properties and fluid mechanics equations) through a systematic approach.

How I wish I could down it with no charge

Covers all major tribology areas. Great introduction to Tribology. Prepares readers for more indepth readings and work in the area. Starting from the most basic, it brings together multiple disciplines well. Slightly prefered over "Engineering Tribology" by Williams.

Monaco, once a year closes off part of downtown to have their Grand Pre. This requires that the city adopt new traffic patterns, changes in the way people do things, bringing in tourists - many kinds of changes. Suppose a city was to be designed around a permanent event like that.

This book is the result of a week long design workshop at the University of Catalunya in Barcelona (BCN). The workshop brought together architects, designers, educators, and students. What new urban and architectural forms, imagined along the parameters of speed and friction, might result, and how might they become an innovative model for urban form.

The book is profusely illustrated, bilingual (English and Spanish). The workshop was intended to stretch the limits of design with no goal but to see what might result.

Proponents of the American Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) have argued it will reduce or eliminate the fog and friction of war. Watts wants to examine whether or not those concepts will succumb to technologically driven change, or are there aspects of fog and friction that technology can only marginally affect?

Watts comes to three conclusions:
1. That friction has built-in or structural features that technology can only marginally affect;
2. whether one side or the other can reduce friction via technology, "is less important than whether such advances facilitate being able to shift the RELATIVE balance of friction between opponents more in one's favor; and
3. bringing Clausewitz's concepts up-to-date, "is a useful step toward better understanding its likely role in future war regardless of what one may conclude about the possibility of either side largely eliminating its frictional impediments." (p. 4-5)

Watts argues that there is good reason to believe that introducing information technologies into future war will not eliminate fog and friction, but, "will simply give rise to new and unexpected manifestations." (p. 128)

One of Watt's significant conclusions is that, "it is the DIFFERENTIAL between two sides' levels of general friction that matters in combat outcomes. If what counts in real war is not the absolute level of friction that either side experiences but the RELATIVE FRICTIONAL ADVANTAGE of one adversary over the other, then the question of using technology to reduce friendly friction to near zero can be seen for what it is: a false issue that diverts attention from the real business of war." (p. 132)

Brown has done an outstanding job of capturing the elegance and brilliance of EPSS in a format that makes it easy to understand and reapply. Her methods have helped my company create a foundation on which to engage a paradigm shift from training to just-in-time performance support.

The book is important because most of nature, machines, and structures involve dynamical friction. The preface alone is worth the price of the book, along with a summary of the importance of friction in nearly everything. Excellent technical features are the wide range of simple to complex models, stability versus instability studies, well-presented results, and mathematical
approaches that transverse from the simple to the complex.

Hector Belascoaran Shayne, "independent" detective in Mexico City, has to be one of the most intriguing characters in detective fiction. In this first novel in Taibo's series, he's agreed to investigate three mysteries, including the "real" whereabouts of revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata, all at once. He realizes what a mistake he's made as he has less and less time to engage in the necessary activities of life, like sleeping and eating.

A frustrated idealist, much younger in years than his advanced cynicism would let on, Hector gave up a cushy job as an engineer and the bourgeios lifestyle that went with it, and now prowls, mostly after dark, the streets of his beloved, exasperating Mexico City in search of answers...and truth. Taibo puts his leftist politics where everyone can see them, and Hector could very well be his alter-ego.