Better understanding the brain?

Title: Cognitive Neuroscience. A very short introduction
Author: Richard Passingham
Rating:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2016
Pages: 134
ISBN: 978-0-19-878622-1

„It is clear, then, that the long-term aim must be to produce computer models that are more and more flexible and that are more biologically plausible in terms of what we know about the actual brain.”, says Richard Passingham while contemplating the future of neuroscience, which is already intertwined with artificial intelligence and special projects like Google’s Deep Mind or IBM’s Blue Brain. [Citeste tot Articolul]

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Globalization, nation-state, globalism(s) – which one do we choose?

Title: Globalization. A very short introduction
Author: Manfred B. Steger
Rating:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2017
Pages: 148
ISBN: 978-0-19-877955-1

I have first discovered Manfred B. Steger as a researcher on the „global imaginary” when analyzing cultural and media flows around the world, a couple of years ago. Ever since, I wanted to read more of his work on globalization and what this imaginary entails: considering oneself the citizen of the world, identifying more with certain universal values than with a national identity, buying into consumerism and mass culture etc. So, some time ago, the moment came. I could now read all about it, in a concise manner: Globalization. A very short introduction. Short, but intense, with all the right nuances, as it is very difficult to pinpoint what globalization is and isn’t, where it all began and so on. [Citeste tot Articolul]

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The spaces we inhabit

Title: Geopolitics. A very short introduction
Author: Klaus Dodds
Rating:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2014
Pages: 157
ISBN: 978-0-19-967678-1

It’s a saying that everybody knows politics, and I would stretch this to include geopolitics as well. In a world dominated by digital environments, global flows and movement, geopolitics becomes this catchphrase that eases our mind, as we oversimplify the way we look at the world, its borders and the spaces we inhabit. That’s where Geopolitics. A very short introduction comes in and shatters our labels by nuancing every aspect of the „real” geopolitics: [Citeste tot Articolul]

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Depression. A very short introduction

Title: Depression. A very short introduction
Author: Mary Jane Tacchi, Jan Scott
Rating:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2017
Pages: 132
ISBN: 978-0-19-955865-0

„In sooth, I know not why I am so sad,” says Antonio in the Merchant of Venice. However, he was by no means the only depressed Shakespeare character: if Hamlet or Macbeth had seen a modern doctor, they would have been prescribed antidepressants. Dante begins the Divine Comedy: „Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself in dark woods, the right road lost.” So, clinical depression seems to be as old as the human condition itself and it has a very fascinating history that spans the history of human knowledge and development. [Citeste tot Articolul]

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Keep Learning

Title: Learning. A very short introduction
Author: Mark Haselgrove
Rating:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2016
Pages: 114
ISBN: 978-0-19-968836-4

Part of the Very Short Introductions series – that sold an impressive over seven million copies worldwide - Learning. A very short introduction is an opportunity for all readers (regardless of their level of expertise on learning) to get familiar or refresh their information on something that is central to our lives and happens every single of moment of our conscious existence: Learning. [Citeste tot Articolul]

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The Art of Diplomacy

Title: Diplomacy. A very short introduction
Author: Joseph M. Siracusa
Rating:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2010
Pages: 139
ISBN: 978-0-19-958850-3

“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.”
― Winston S. Churchill

Although the words of Winston Churchill are still applicable to the concept of diplomacy, we clearly witness an extension of the concept and probably a much more complicated landscape of diplomacy nowadays. [Citeste tot Articolul]

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