Road trips to Las Vegas are the occasion for this entertaining meditation on the quintessentially American experience of driving across the desert. William Fox, successively exiled from California, Nevada, and New Mexico, has spent more time than most of us driving to Las Vegas--and he has taken notes on three recent trips, his own way of bringing cohesion to the vast and mind-numbing aspects of the freeway. Approaching the most postmodern city on the planet from three directions, he examines the landscape and what we do to it while also trying to figure out who he is, what that means, and the nature of the transformations of land into landscape through art and architecture, landscape design, and advertising. Fox's history of the region, both natural and cultural, highlights the creep of the urban supergrid across the most extensively traveled desert in the world. This is a profoundly personal, even idiosyncratic book about the most public of subjects--living in the postmodern West at the end of the millennium and what the cities, the freeways, the open spaces, and the billboards tell us about ourselves.

This book closely examines what is involved in driving. It identifies the aspects of perception, attention, learning, memory, decision making and action control which are drawn upon in order to enable us to drive, and the brain systems involved. It attempts to show how studying tasks such as driving can help to understand how these fundamental aspects of cognition combine to facilitate performance in complex everyday tasks. In doing so it shows how a very broad range of laboratory based findings can be applied, and that through our attempts to apply this knowledge to complex everyday tasks, we gain, in return, a greater understanding of fundamental aspects of human cognition.

As you age, you may find yourself worrying about your memory. Where did I put those car keys? What time was my appointment? What was her name again? With more than 41 million Americans over the age of 65 in the United States, the question becomes how much (or, perhaps, what type) of memory loss is to be expected as one gets older and what should trigger a visit to the doctor. Seven Steps to Managing Your Memory addresses these key concerns and more, such as... · What are the signs that suggest your memory problems are more than just part of normal aging? · Is it normal to have concerns about your memory? · What are the markers of mild cognitive impairment, dementia, Alzheimer's, and other neurodegenerative diseases? · How should you convey your memory concerns to your doctor? · What can your doctor do to evaluate your memory? · Which healthcare professional(s) should you see? · What medicines, alternative therapies, diets, and exercises are available to improve your memory? · Can crossword puzzles, computer brain-training games, memory aids, and strategies help strengthen your memory? · What other resources are available when dealing with memory loss? Seven Steps to Managing Your Memory is written in an easy-to-read yet comprehensive style, featuring clinical vignettes and character-based stories that provide real-life examples of how to successfully manage age-related memory loss.

Products, technologies, and workplaces change so quickly today that everyone is continually learning. Many of us are also teaching, even when it's not in our job descriptions. Whether it's giving a presentation, writing documentation, or creating a website or blog, we need and want to share our knowledge with other people. But if you've ever fallen asleep over a boring textbook, or fast-forwarded through a tedious e-learning exercise, you know that creating a great learning experience is harder than it seems. In Design For How People Learn, you'll discover how to use the key principles behind learning, memory, and attention to create materials that enable your audience to both gain and retain the knowledge and skills you're sharing. Using accessible visual metaphors and concrete methods and examples, Design For How People Learn will teach you how to leverage the fundamental concepts of instructional design both to improve your own learning and to engage your audience.

Human error is involved in more than 90 percent of traffic accidents, and of those accidents, most are associated with visual distractions, or looking-but-failing-to-see errors. Human Factors of Visual and Cognitive Performance in Driving gathers knowledge from a human factors psychology standpoint and provides deeper insight into traffic -user beh

Anywhere But Here and The Lost Father have established Mona Simpson as one of our most accomplished writers. In her new novel--the portrait of a legendary, quintessentially American entrepreneur trapped by the age he helped to define--she brilliantly extends her achievement. More powerfully than ever before, Simpson uncovers the nature of longing and belonging, of blood relations and the human heart.

The 20th anniversary edition of Edwidge Danticat's groundbreaking debut, now an established classic--revised and with a new introduction by the author, and including extensive bonus materials At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished Haitian village to New York to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers. There she discovers secrets that no child should ever know, and a legacy of shame that can be healed only when she returns to Haiti—to the women who first reared her. What ensues is a passionate journey through a landscape charged with the supernatural and scarred by political violence. In her stunning literary debut, Danticat evokes the wonder, terror, and heartache of her native Haiti—and the enduring strength of Haiti’s women—with vibrant imagery and narrative grace that bear witness to her people’s suffering and courage.

Zen Driving can make each driving experience enjoyable, whether it’s a daily hour-long drive to work, or a ten-minute run to the local Safeway. You may well ask, what is Zen driving? The Japanese word zen literally means meditation, and meditation means being fully aware, fully in touch with your surroundings. When you are in a meditative state, you are in your natural self, your Buddha self—and you can do it while driving. But why Zen driving? The purpose of Zen Driving, the book, is to introduce you to your natural self, which is what remains when you still your mind and ignore your chattering ego. When you do this, you gain confidence in your ability, and finally you are that ability. The frustrations of other drivers cutting you off or causing you to sit through two red lights because they’re too timid to make a left turn on yellow will no longer make your blood pressure explode. Zen Driving will teach you to look, simply observe without qualification, and then make your move. Zen driving is effortless, spontaneous, nondeliberate. It is being one with the road. And in turn, driving becomes a pathway to consciousness, an activity that clears the mind and soothes the soul, something to take with you all those other times when you’re not behind the wheel.

Driving Lessons for Life is a collection of short and inspiring stories about change, self-improvement, leadership, and becoming a better person. It is about strengthening individuals, marriages, families, the workplace, and all of our relationships. Author Jim R. Jacobs takes the common experiences of car drivers and applies them to our daily lives, asking readers to rev up their hearts and minds to achieve a smoother ride, whether you're already sailing along with your cruise control on or maneuvering life's potholes. Filled with car metaphors, hot rod memories, deep insights, and rear-view mirror humor, this book will teach you what your driving instructor never did, from what not to do in the car wash to the history behind giving someone the bird. Best of all, the car metaphors will make you recall the lessons in these pages every time you get in a vehicle and drive down the road.