Download or read book Summary of Deb Chachra s How Infrastructure Works written by Milkyway Media and published by Milkyway Media. This book was released on 2024-01-25 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get the Summary of Deb Chachra's How Infrastructure Works in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "How Infrastructure Works" by Deb Chachra is a comprehensive exploration of the intricate web of infrastructural systems that underpin modern life. Chachra's personal journey, from her childhood fascination with megastructures to her professional expertise in materials science, informs her insights into the elegance and collective nature of infrastructure. She discusses the omnipresence of infrastructure, its evolution alongside societal changes, and the role of engineering in harnessing physical phenomena to connect and sustain communities...

Download or read book How Infrastructure Works written by Deb Chachra and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2023 BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "Revelatory, superbly written, and pulsing with wisdom and humanity, How Infrastructure Works is a masterpiece.” —Ed Yong, author of An Immense World A new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us Infrastructure is a marvel, meeting our basic needs and enabling lives of astounding ease and productivity that would have been unimaginable just a century ago. It is the physical manifestation of our social contract—of our ability to work collectively for the public good—and it consists of the most complex and vast technological systems ever created by humans. A soaring bridge is an obvious infrastructural feat, but so are the mostly hidden reservoirs, transformers, sewers, cables, and pipes that deliver water, energy, and information to wherever we need it. When these systems work well, they hide in plain sight. Engineer and materials scientist Deb Chachra takes readers on a fascinating tour of these essential utilities, revealing how they work, what it takes to keep them running, just how much we rely on them—but also whom they work well for, and who pays the costs. Across the U.S. and elsewhere, these systems are suffering from systemic neglect and the effects of climate change, becoming unavoidably visible when they break down. Communities that are already marginalized often bear the brunt of these failures. But Chachra maps out a path for transforming and rebuilding our shared infrastructure to be not just functional but also equitable, resilient, and sustainable. The cost of not being able to rely on these systems is unthinkably high. We need to learn how to see them—and fix them, together—before it’s too late.

Download or read book The Innovation Delusion written by Lee Vinsel and published by Crown Currency. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Innovation” is the hottest buzzword in business. But what if our obsession with finding the next big thing has distracted us from the work that matters most? “The most important book I’ve read in a long time . . . It explains so much about what is wrong with our technology, our economy, and the world, and gives a simple recipe for how to fix it: Focus on understanding what it takes for your products and services to last.”—Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media It’s hard to avoid innovation these days. Nearly every product gets marketed as being disruptive, whether it’s genuinely a new invention or just a new toothbrush. But in this manifesto on thestate of American work, historians of technology Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell argue that our way of thinking about and pursuing innovation has made us poorer, less safe, and—ironically—less innovative. Drawing on years of original research and reporting, The Innovation Delusion shows how the ideology of change for its own sake has proved a disaster. Corporations have spent millions hiring chief innovation officers while their core businesses tank. Computer science programs have drilled their students on programming and design, even though theoverwhelming majority of jobs are in IT and maintenance. In countless cities, suburban sprawl has left local governments with loads of deferred repairs that they can’t afford to fix. And sometimes innovation even kills—like in 2018 when a Miami bridge hailed for its innovative design collapsed onto a highway and killed six people. In this provocative, deeply researched book, Vinsel and Russell tell the story of how we devalued the work that underpins modern life—and, in doing so, wrecked our economy and public infrastructure while lining the pockets of consultants who combine the ego of Silicon Valley with the worst of Wall Street’s greed. The authors offer a compelling plan for how we can shift our focus away from the pursuit of growth at all costs, and back toward neglected activities like maintenance, care, and upkeep. For anyone concerned by the crumbling state of our roads and bridges or the direction our economy is headed, The Innovation Delusion is a deeply necessary reevaluation of a trend we can still disrupt.

Download or read book Emerging Markets Rule Growth Strategies of the New Global Giants written by Mauro F. Guillen and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2012-11-16 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SEIZE THE ADVANTAGE IN THE GLOBAL WAR FOR MARKET SHARE Winner of the 2013 Small Business Book Award - Top 10 Overall The newest economic behemoth, China, is snatching market share from the U.S., Japan, and Europe at an alarming rate. But China isn't alone. The world's largest producers of biofuel, meat, consumer electronics, regional jets, baked goods, candy, and many other products are all emerging market multinationals (EMMs). And industries poised to be taken over by EMMs include personal computers, IT services, mining, wind turbines, and cement. The balance of power in the global economy is shifting. Are you in a position to compete with the most energetic, imaginative companies on the planet? In Emerging Markets Rule, two experts on the global shift in economic hegemony explain what is happening, why it is happening--and how you can prevent it from happening to you. The authors provide an action plan based on leaner, more operationally proficient ways for maintaining the competitive advantage based on seven new axioms of global competitiveness: Execute, strategize, and execute again Cater to the niches Scale to win Embrace chaos Acquire smart Expand with abandon No sacred cows! Emerging market multinationals are here to stay; they're not going to go away, even when the global economy rights itself. "What began as a necessity--a kind of guerilla-business warfare against the corporate superpowers--has now evolved into best practices and is on its way to becoming what everyone needs to know," the authors write. "Simply put, down is up. The weak have become strong." You need to learn these new "best practices" now because tomorrow will be too late. Emerging Markets Rule is your road map for business success in the increasingly competitive, chaotic global markets. "Emerging-market multinationals have reshaped global competition. Using well-articulated views duly substantiated with facts, this book explains why and how they have become formidable players in both high-technology and traditional industries. This book is a worthy read for businesses and individuals alike seeking to comprehend the phenomenon of the emerging market multinational." -- S. D. Shibulal, CEO and Managing Director , Infosys "This book shows the strength and potential of companies that stand out in emerging markets, reaffirming entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability as fundamental factors for the outbreak of global competitors." -- Alessandro Carlucci , CEO, Natura Cosmeticos "The authors have touched on an important idea that emerging market growth can often be tapped by companies located in those markets. This is an essential book leading us to identify the niche markets and strategies for those emerging markets. A must for all international companies with growth ambitions." -- Leonard A. Lauder, Chairman Emeritus, The Estee Lauder Companies "A must-read for any company on its way to becoming a global one. You will learn from companies that have developed unique ways of competing in tough markets such as China and India." -- Jorge Zarate , China General Manager, Grupo Bimbo

Download or read book Democracy May Not Exist But We ll Miss It When It s Gone written by Astra Taylor and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A New Civil Rights Leader” explores what we mean when we speak of democracy and if democracy can truly ever exist (LA Times). There is no shortage of democracy, at least in name, and yet it is in crisis everywhere we look. From a cabal of plutocrats in the White House to gerrymandering and dark-money campaign contributions, it is clear that the principle of government by and for the people is not living up to its promise. The problems lie deeper than any one election cycle. As Astra Taylor demonstrates, real democracy—fully inclusive and completely egalitarian—has in fact never existed. In a tone that is both philosophical and anecdotal, weaving together history, theory, the stories of individuals, and interviews with such leading thinkers as Cornel West and Wendy Brown, Taylor invites us to reexamine the term. Is democracy a means or an end, a process or a set of desired outcomes? What if those outcomes, whatever they may be—peace, prosperity, equality, liberty, an engaged citizenry—can be achieved by non-democratic means? In what areas of life should democratic principles apply? If democracy means rule by the people, what does it mean to rule and who counts as the people? Democracy’s inherent paradoxes often go unnamed and unrecognized. Exploring such questions, Democracy May Not Exist offers a better understanding of what is possible, what we want, why democracy is so hard to realize, and why it is worth striving for. “Astra Taylor will change how you think about democracy. . . . She unpacks it, wrestles with it, with the question of who gets included and how, and excavates the invisible assumptions that have been bred into our idea of democracy.” —Ezra Klein, The Ezra Klein Show “An impressive contribution. . . . Taylor sets out to impart some coherence and substance to the term in order to rescue it from ignorance and obfuscation and displays considerable intellectual nimbleness.” —Randall Kennedy, The New York Times Book Review “Magnificent, paradigm-shifting . . . Taylor’s deep and wide examination of democratic movements, conversations, and grassroots institutions makes the reader feel . . . democracy as pleasure of thinking and acting.” —The Los Angeles Review of Books

Download or read book Built written by Roma Agrawal and published by . This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While our cities are full of incredible engineering feats, most of us live with little idea of what goes into creating the built environment, let alone how a new building goes up, what it is built upon, or how it remains standing. In this book, Roma Agrawal uncovers the astonishing science behind her profession. Each of the eight chapters will tackle a great engineering challenge - how we keep a building from falling down or how a bridge is built to span vast distances - explaining solutions from modern times, while reaching back to the Romans and other ancient cultures who developed techniques still used today. Interweaving science, history, illustrations, and personal stories, Built offers a fascinating window into a subject that makes up the foundation of our everyday lives.

Download or read book What Can a Body Do written by Sara Hendren and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and LitHub Winner of the 2021 Science in Society Journalism Book Prize A fascinating and provocative new way of looking at the things we use and the spaces we inhabit, and a call to imagine a better-designed world for us all. Furniture and tools, kitchens and campuses and city streets—nearly everything human beings make and use is assistive technology, meant to bridge the gap between body and world. Yet unless, or until, a misfit between our own body and the world is acute enough to be understood as disability, we may never stop to consider—or reconsider—the hidden assumptions on which our everyday environment is built. In a series of vivid stories drawn from the lived experience of disability and the ideas and innovations that have emerged from it—from cyborg arms to customizable cardboard chairs to deaf architecture—Sara Hendren invites us to rethink the things and settings we live with. What might assistance based on the body’s stunning capacity for adaptation—rather than a rigid insistence on “normalcy”—look like? Can we foster interdependent, not just independent, living? How do we creatively engineer public spaces that allow us all to navigate our common terrain? By rendering familiar objects and environments newly strange and wondrous, What Can a Body Do? helps us imagine a future that will better meet the extraordinary range of our collective needs and desires.

Download or read book The Real World of Technology written by Ursula Franklin and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 1999-06-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this expanded edition of her bestselling 1989 CBC Massey Lectures, renowned scientist and humanitarian Ursula M. Franklin examines the impact of technology upon our lives and addresses the extraordinary changes since The Real World of Technology was first published. In four new chapters, Franklin tackles contentious issues, such as the dilution of privacy and intellectual property rights, the impact of the current technology on government and governance, the shift from consumer capitalism to investment capitalism, and the influence of the Internet upon the craft of writing.

Download or read book Temporary written by Hilary Leichter and published by Coffee House Press. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Temporary, a young woman’s workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements in search of steadiness, connection, and something, at last, to call her own. Whether it’s shining an endless closet of shoes, swabbing the deck of a pirate ship, assisting an assassin, or filling in for the Chairman of the Board, for the mythical Temporary, “there is nothing more personal than doing your job.” This riveting quest, at once hilarious and profound, will resonate with anyone who has ever done their best at work, even when the work is only temporary.

Download or read book Electrify written by Saul Griffith and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An optimistic--but realistic and feasible--action plan for fighting climate change while creating new jobs and a healthier environment: electrify everything. Climate change is a planetary emergency. We have to do something now—but what? Saul Griffith has a plan. In Electrify, Griffith lays out a detailed blueprint—optimistic but feasible—for fighting climate change while creating millions of new jobs and a healthier environment. Griffith’s plan can be summed up simply: electrify everything. He explains exactly what it would take to transform our infrastructure, update our grid, and adapt our households to make this possible. Billionaires may contemplate escaping our worn-out planet on a private rocket ship to Mars, but the rest of us, Griffith says, will stay and fight for the future. Griffith, an engineer and inventor, calls for grid neutrality, ensuring that households, businesses, and utilities operate as equals; we will have to rewrite regulations that were created for a fossil-fueled world, mobilize industry as we did in World War II, and offer low-interest “climate loans.” Griffith’s plan doesn’t rely on big, not-yet-invented innovations, but on thousands of little inventions and cost reductions. We can still have our cars and our houses—but the cars will be electric and solar panels will cover our roofs. For a world trying to bounce back from a pandemic and economic crisis, there is no other project that would create as many jobs—up to twenty-five million, according to one economic analysis. Is this politically possible? We can change politics along with everything else.

Download or read book Chip Kidd Book Two written by Chip Kidd and published by Rizzoli Publications. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chip Kidd is recognized worldwide as one of the best graphic designers working today, especially in book design. This is a much anticipated follow-up to Chip Kidd: Book One, where he not only showcases his most recent work, but demonstrates the relationship he has with some of the world's most influential authors and sheds light into his passion for the art of book-making and most recent expansion to other media design like film posters, magazine covers, and artist collaborations. This book is a must-have for designers and all book-lovers interested in the man responsible for some of the most recognizable book covers in the world. CHIP KIDD, BOOK TWO is a work of art itself, a book on a designer described as "a design demigod," and "the closest thing to a rock star" in graphic design. The book will feature all of Kidd's book designs from the years 2007 to 2017, including book cover designs for best-selling authors Haruki Murakami, Cormac McCarthy, Orhan Pamuk, Augusten Burroughs, and David Sedaris, each whom share insight on Kidd's creative process and the importance his designs have had on their work.

Download or read book Arriving Today written by Christopher Mims and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the 2021 Porchlight Business Book Awards, Current Events & Public Affairs The Wall Street Journal technology columnist reveals the fascinating story behind the misleadingly simple phrase shoppers take for granted—“Arriving Today”—in this eye-opening investigation into the new rules of online commerce, transportation, and supply chain management. We are at a tipping point in retail history. While consumers are profiting from the convenience of instant gratification, rapidly advancing technologies are transforming the way goods are transported and displacing workers in ways never before seen. In Arriving Today, Christopher Mims goes deep, far, and wide to uncover how a single product, from creation to delivery, weaves its way from a factory on the other side of the world to our doorstep. He analyzes the evolving technologies and management strategies necessary to keep the product moving to fulfill consumers’ demand for “arriving today” gratification. Mims reveals a world where the only thing moving faster than goods in an Amazon warehouse is the rate at which an entire industry is being gutted and rebuilt by innovation and mass shifts in human labor practices. He goes behind the scenes to uncover the paradoxes in this shift—into the world’s busiest port, the cabin of an 18-wheeler, and Amazon’s automated warehouses—to explore how the promise of “arriving today” is fulfilled through a balletic dance between humans and machines. The scope of such large-scale innovation and expended energy is equal parts inspiring, enlightening, and horrifying. As he offers a glimpse of our future, Mims asks us to consider the system’s vulnerability and its resilience, and who shoulders the burden, as we hurtle toward a fully automated system—and what it will mean when we are there.

Download or read book How Was That Built written by Roma Agrawal and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2022-08-16 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This striking book explains the feats of engineering behind the world's most impressive architectural marvels. From skyscrapers that reach astonishing heights to bridges that span deep and wide rivers, the world is filled with awe-inspiring structures. But how do they work? Meet the extraordinary people who challenged our beliefs about what's possible, pioneering remarkable inventions that helped build the Brooklyn Bridge in the US, the Pantheon in Italy, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Shard in England and the Sapporo Dome in Japan. Discover the ingenious methods engineers have come up with to enable us to build underground, underwater, on ice, and even in space. With text written by award-winning structural engineer Roma Agrawal and detailed full-color illustrations by Katie Hickey, this book provides unique and illuminating perspectives of the world's most incredible constructions. How Was That Built? is a perfect gift for curious kids who want to learn more about construction, architecture, science, technology, and the way things work. This children's picture book also serves as a fascinating companion to the author's adult nonfiction book Built: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures, winner of the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books.

Download or read book The Monocle Guide to Better Living written by Monocle and published by Die Gestalten Verlag. This book was released on 2013 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Which cities offer the best quality of life? How do you build a good school? How do you run a city? Who makes the best coffee? And how do you start your own inspirational business? With chapters on the city, culture, travel, food, and work, the book also provides answers to some key questions. Works as a guide but also includes essays that explore what makes a great city, how to make a home and why culture is good for you

Download or read book Renewable Energy Integration to the Grid written by Neeraj Gupta and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2022-03-24 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive reference text discusses uncertainty modeling of renewable energy resources and its steady state analysis. The text discusses challenges related to renewable energy integration to the grid, techniques to mitigate these challenges, problems associated with integration at transmission and distribution voltage level, and protection of power system with large renewable power integration. It covers important concepts including voltage issues in power networks, use of FACTS devices for reactive power management, stochastic optimization, robust optimization, and spatiotemporal dependence modeling. Key Features: Presents analysis and modeling of renewable generation uncertainty for planning and operation, beneficial for industry professionals and researchers. Discusses dependence modeling of multi-site renewable generations in detail. Covers probabilistic analysis, useful for data analysts. Discusses various aspects of renewable energy integration i.e. technical, economic, etc. Covers correlation factors, and methodologies are validated with case studies with various standard test systems. The text will be useful for graduate students and professionals in the fields of electrical engineering, electronics and communication engineering, renewable energy, and clean technologies.

Download or read book Songspirals written by Gay'wu Group of Women and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2019-08-05 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joint winner of the 2020 Prime Minister's Award for Non-Fiction. Shortlisted for the 2020 Victorian Premier's Award for Non-Fiction. 'We want you to come with us on our journey, our journey of songspirals. Songspirals are the essence of people in this land, the essence of every clan. We belong to the land and it belongs to us. We sing to the land, sing about the land. We are that land. It sings to us.' Aboriginal Australian cultures are the oldest living cultures on earth and at the heart of Aboriginal cultures is song. These ancient narratives of landscape have often been described as a means of navigating across vast distances without a map, but they are much, much more than this. Songspirals are sung by Aboriginal people to awaken Country, to make and remake the life-giving connections between people and place. Songspirals are radically different ways of understanding the relationship people can have with the landscape. For Yolngu people from North East Arnhem Land, women and men play different roles in bringing songlines to life, yet the vast majority of what has been published is about men's place in songlines. Songspirals is a rare opportunity for outsiders to experience Aboriginal women's role in crying the songlines in a very authentic and direct form. 'Songspirals are Life. These are cultural words from wise women. As an Aboriginal woman this is profound to learn. As a human being Songspirals is an absolute privilege to read.' - Ali Cobby Eckermann, Yankunytjatjara poet 'To read Songspirals is to change the way you see, think and feel this country.' - Clare Wright, award-winning historian and author 'A rare and intimate window into traditional women's cultural life and their visceral connection to Country. A generous invitation for the rest of us.' - Kerry O'Brien, Walkley Award-winning journalist

Download or read book Coming Home to Country written by Bronwyn Bancroft and published by Little Hare. This book was released on 2020-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Run to the creek, perch on a rock, slip into clear crystal water. A visual and lyrical depiction of coming home to country from acclaimed author and illustrator Bronwyn Bancroft. Inspired by her deep love of country, Bronwyn is a master craftswoman of vibrant, visual narratives, and her way of capturing the beauty of Australia is unparalleled