A History of Immigration

"A thoughtful, reasonably comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of American immigrant and ethnic experiences. Without sacrificing the scholarly integrity of their materials, they have written a book that not only addresses important historical as well as contemporary issues and trends but also does so in a most readable manner."

One of the best reading materials and activities I have ever come across. Great when preparing or teaching for CAE. CAE Reading Skills helps students to develop the general skills necessary for the CAE Paper 1 and, at the same time, familiarizes them with the different task types that they will encounter in this part of the exam. Section A of each unit concentrates on a different Paper 1 exercise format, whereas Section B concentrates on the development of general strategies such as reading for gist.

Conversations in the Cognitive Neurosciences
Conversations in the Cognitive Neurosciences is a brief, informative yet informal guide to recent developments in the cognitive neurosciences by the scientists who are in the thick of things.
"Getting a fix on important questions and how to think about them from an experimental point of view is what scientists talk about, sometimes endlessly. It is those conversations that thrill and motivate," observes Michael Gazzaniga. Yet all too often these exciting interactions are lost to students, researchers, and others who are "doing" science. Conversations in the Cognitive Neurosciences brings together a series of interviews with prominent individuals in neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology that have appeared over the past few years in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
The ten interviews are divided into five sections: basic neuroscience approaches to cognition (Floyd Bloom and Mark Raichle), attentional and perceptual processes (Michael I. Posner and William T. Newsome), neural basis of memory (Randy Gallistel and Endel Tulving), language (Steven Pinker and Alfonso Caramazza), and imagery and consciousness (Stephen M. Kosslyn and Daniel C. Dennett)

End of Work
The End of Work is an essential read for those who seek a deeper understanding and greater context of the history of work.

He describes three sectors of economy; private, public and third. The terms can be somewhat confusing, but the distinctions are important. For example, corporations are part of the private sector, but it is common for people refer to them as publicly owned because stock options are open to the public. The Public sector of economy refers to government operated economy and employs bureaucrats, public school teachers, military personnel, etc. The Third sector of economy is often referred to as the volunteer sector even though it employs more than 5% of the workforce in the USA , contributes nearly 10% of the nations GDP and is the fastest growing sector of economy.

Rifkin shows the history of technological displacement of the workforce and describes different types of industrial revolutions along with the coping mechanizations of economy from agriculture to manufacturing to service to information.

The trends have profound implications for humanity. As the title suggests, in another 50-100 years, it may only require that less than 20% of humanity will be required to labor for the maintenance of economy as we have known it. What will be the fate of humanity and economy be? Whether we realize the dreams of utopia or create the hell of dystopia is our collective fate. The End of Work is helps to provide a greater perspective helping to enable us all to make better, more conscious, informed decisions.