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Book reviews for "Levins,_Richard" sorted by average review score:

The Computer Virus Handbook
Published in Paperback by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media (1990)
Author: Richard Levin
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all
oh, Dear. virus is just jocking

Some things never change
This book was written before virus prevention was fashionable, yet everything in the book regarding delivery systems, methods and policies are still 100% true. I recently re-read it and find that by taking some simple precautions, your risk is minimized. (Note: This reviewer was a contributor to the book)

Great book!
I've read a lot of books on the subject of computer viruses, but this one is simply the best. It's easy to read, understandable, and teaches you how to protect yourself from viruses without using expensive software.


Statistics for Management
Published in Paperback by Prentice Hall College Div (1900)
Authors: Richard I. Levin and David S. Rubin
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The best part of the book was the curve fitting algorithms
Listen Software Solutions: I found the book to be easy to understand and packed with alot of step by step illustrations. Using the samples and easy to follow instructions such as concepts like Least Square Approximation and Multiple Regression Model techniques, I felt comfortable in solving my trend analysis problems. The authors do not overwhelm the reader with advanced mathematical notation but instead provide an learn by example method to their teaching. After each chapter, a number of homework problems are available, for the the student to try. This is a great college textbook to learn business statistics from. I used the textbox to learn how to program MFC VC++ curve fitting alogrithms for a stock trends analysis algorithm. I must say the internet has a ton of material, however, this book provided me the clearest explanations and helped me gain the greatest understanding of my curve fitting solutions.

Great choice for beginner
The text is very easy to understand. The case study is great as well as the exercises.

Great book for a business student
Great book and also "great" price


Inside the Minds: Internet Lawyers - The Most Up to Date Handbook of Important Answers to Issues Facing Every Entrepreneur, Lawyer, and Anyone with a Web Site
Published in Paperback by Aspatore Books (2001)
Authors: Aspatore Books Staff, InsideTheMinds.com, James Hutchinson, Mark Fischer, Arnold Levine, Carl Cohen, Brian Vandenberg, Harrison Smith, Mark Gruhin, and Gordon Caplan
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Mark Gruhin Chapter Fantastic!
This is an excellent book with an extremely insightful and fascinating chapter written by Mark I. Gruhin. He is a very skilled writer and lawyer, and I look forward to his future writings.

Great Book-Very Interesting....
Being a lawyer in NYC, I was very impressed with some Inside the Minds: Interne Lawyers. Although it is impossible to cover every Internet related topic, the book does a good job at covering some very interesting topics. In addition, the individuals portrayed in the book represent a good cross sampling of different talents related to Internet law. I particularly enjoyed the interview with Mark Fischer at Palmer & Dodge. If you are a woman, make sure to also check out Inside the Minds: Leading Women.


Buy Low, Sell High, Collect Early and Pay Late: The Manager's Guide to Financial Survival
Published in Hardcover by Prentice Hall Trade (1983)
Authors: D. Levin and Richard I. Levin
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Dr. Levin is the guru of simplifying business concepts
I have read this book, plus I had Dr. Levin as a professor in the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at UNC-Chapel Hill. He was a great teacher and his book's style and way of conveying business concepts was equally satisfying. This is not a book for the scholar, rather it is a very good book for those that want a quick, but substantive way to grasp the basics of everyday business. The title also belies Dr. Levin's laid back and easy-going style and sense of humor. He teaches and writes using sometimes folksy, but always perceptive stories and examples of the concepts and points he is trying to convey. If you want to get the basics of how a business operates, how cash flow works and why it is important, why "buying low and selling high" are not only simple concepts but critical guidelines for any business, of any size or scale or complexity . . . then Dr. Levin's book is for you.


Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology
Published in Hardcover by SPIE-Intl Society for Optical Engineering (2002)
Authors: Richard B. Hoover, Gilbert V. Levin, and Alexei Y. Rozanov
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Highly Recommended
Richard B. Hoover is one of the true revolutionaries and pioneers in the field of astrobiology. His edited volumes are an excellent sourcebook and are deserving of a place on the shelf of any serious scholar or student of astrobiology. --Rhawn Joseph, Ph.D. author of: Astrobiology, the Origin of Life, and the Death of Darwinism


"No More Tears...": Struggles for Land in Mpumalanga, South Africa
Published in Hardcover by Africa World Press (1997)
Authors: Richard Levin and Daniel Weiner
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Perfect! Stellar research.
Levin and Weiner cover all the issues in this book, from food to soils to land use to participatory land reform. A critical and uncompromising look at the land reform process in South Africa. Up to date, precise, well written - without question it will become one of the key documents on the land reform process. Participatory research at its best. Bravo!


The Dialectical Biologist
Published in Paperback by Harvard Univ Pr (1987)
Authors: Richard Levins and Richard C. Lewontin
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Rethinking how modern science is done
In THE DIALECTICAL BIOLOGIST, Levins and Lewontin take a Marxist dialectical approach to examine the way and shape of contemporary biology. Not that I fully understand this approach, it does raise some intriguing critiques about the influence of the biotech-industrial complex and how groupthink and intertia of academia enforces dogma. I particularly liked the "Isadore Nabi" piece and the essay on agri-business.

As a working scientist, I think it is important to think and rethink the Big Picture of why and how we do what we do. THE DIALECTICAL BIOLOGIST addresses a few particular questions of ways of modern biology.

NB: similar themes are covered in DOING SCIENCE: THE REALITY CLUB #2, edited by John Brockman.

One of the most great books in today's biology
This book represents one of the most complete pictures of biology and its perspectives. A book where science and philosophy play an interesting dialog. For the reader it will be an interesting approach to an interesting point of view: science is not merely theories, hypothesis, facts, but a delicate an sometimes not so delicated conjunction of social structures, background ideologies and scientific method. Personally, the book represents a general exposition of ideas from scientists with a coherent line of thought. In its moment controversial... and now, simply, one of the ways to do our labours of scientists, may be the best one...


Compulsion
Published in Paperback by Carroll & Graf (1996)
Author: Meyer Levin
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Factual Fiction,But Fiction Nonetheless
Meyer Levin was a news reporter during the Leopold and Loeb case. He had sailed to Europe before the hearing began, and thus missed out on the opportunity to cover one of the most sensational crimes of the 20th Century. Years later, Levin secured a contract to write a book based on the Leopold/Loeb crime. Levin met with Leopold in prison and they spoke of collaborating on a story. But Leopold did not want to retel the story of his crime. He wanted to concentrate on his life after the crime. Thus no collaboration ever came about.
Levin created his book, focusing on his own psychological intepretation for the crime. He researched for his novel heavily, and uses large chunks of the testimony, as well as letters Nathan wrote Dick, and the ransom note, word for word. However, Compulsion is a work of fiction. Despite the claimes from other reviewers here that Compulsion is a love letter to the killers, Nathan Laopold found the novel revolting. Later, after his parols, he would sue Meyer Levin.
Any student of the Leopold Loeb case should by all means read compulsion. However, keep in mind that it is a work of fiction and should not be the be all and end all of research. There are blazing inacuracies, and the entire thing is captured through one man's opinion- Levin's. Others have differing views and perhaps after further study, so will you.

Fascinating. Dramatized history; a study of evil.
This book is a novelization of the infamous Loeb & Leopold murder case of 1924. The murder was considered at the time to be the crime of the century (like O.J. Simpson was to us). Why would a pair of rich young geniuses kill a randomly selected child? This is a fascinating psychological study of evil. Levin knew the perpetrators personally, so he was in a strong position to tell this story. And he has a brilliant writer's ability to get inside the head of a human being who has lost his way, morally speaking. The book is old and the story is old, but the tale remains relevant and powerful.

Factoid #1: It was made into a movie, "Compulsion", with Orson Welles. The murder also inspired a play and a Hitchcock movie based upon that play (which pre-date this book), "Rope". And yet a third movie (which I didn't "get"): "Swoon".

Factoid #2: Levin opens the book with this line: "Nothing ever ends, and if we retrace every link in causation, it seems there is nowhere a beginning." That's a succinct, intriguing observation, isn't it?

Factoid #3: This book was written in 1956, long after the crime and trial. Levin decided to tell the tale at that point because Leopold, still in prison, was being considered for parole, and it seemed appropriate for the case to be revisited.

Superb Abnormal Psychology and the Judiciary
I enjoyed Meyer Levin's sentimental and fictional account of the 1924 Leopold-Loeb murder of Bobby Franks as a fascinating study of abnormal psychology and the judiciary. A former classmate of the killers at the University of Chicago, the author's sympathetic treatment of likely psychopath Leopold ("Judd") may have aided the latter's parole in 1958 (Loeb was killed in prison). Nevertheless, Leopold sued the author over this book. Compulsion is a great novel, but for a starkly realistic view of this brutal crime readers should consult Hal Higdon's superb non-fictional account, Leopold and Loeb: Crime of the Century.


The Work of the University
Published in Hardcover by Yale Univ Pr (30 April, 2003)
Author: Richard C. Levin
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Well-Intentioned, Dangerously Narrow


I read this book at the same time that I read the book by Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies, "WHY DO PEOPLE HATE AMERICA" because the central thesis of this other book is that Americans are uniformed about the real world, have no control over their own foreign policy, and what is being done in America's name overseas is severely detrimental to both the security and prosperity of the rest of the world, and thus, somewhat directly these days, to that of America.

Somewhat to my surprise, for I expect more from a Yale person (a lesser person would have received four stars--I hold university presidents, and Yale over Harvard or Stanford, to a higher standard) this book was not only disappointing, it confirmed the basic thesis of the Sardar-Davies volume.

The author of the book, "The Work of the University", is clearly educated, articulate, and well-intentioned. The book shows, throughout, that he is a committed and talented advocate for education as a process that evolves values and the capacity for critical thinking; that he understands the relationship of the University to its alumni, its host city, and the nation at large; and--in an antiseptic sort of way--that China, to take the one example prominent in his book--merits attention, both as a source of students and a host for joint educational ventures.

Early in the book, I thought I was in for a treat when the author, in one of his welcoming speeches to a new class (this is a book of past speeches, not an integrated work) says: "You have the most to learn from those who are least like you; they will challenge you by asking questions you should ask yourself." The rest of the book helped me understand that these "others" consisted of the Yale faculty and the Yale students, the latter predominantly American but with a full leaving of homogenized wealthy international students all dressed alike in Abercombie & Fitch ensembles.

The book went downhill from there. Although the author makes passing references to overseas problems including genocides, it did not offer me the compelling mission statement I was expecting, of the university as the soul of a nation, the custodian of intellectual values and global awareness, the one place where tenure as well as enlightenment might combine to shed the light of truth on all manner of domestic and foreign policy.

Yale can and should be a "Citizen's Intelligence Network" that trains students to think critically, in the context of very strong moral values, such that a Yale student is by any standard a global thinker and actor. That kind of compelling "pragmatic missionary" perspective is not reflected in this book.

George Will, "Statecraft as Soulcraft,", Yale Business School Dean Garten on "The Politics of Fortune," these come closer to "the work of the university" than does this book.

The extensive work of the university
The "Work of the University" is extensive, as this collection of speeches by the president of a great univeristy demonstrates. Dr. Levin recognizes the job of our institutions of higher learning to help fuel our economy and hatch ideas that make a difference in a global society. At its core, however, schools are still about teaching, and I especially enjoyed the speeches to students and graduates. Although they were directed at a particular audience, the messages they contain are relevant to just about everyone, and the historic and biographical references used to reinforce them are well-chosen.

An Empowering Read
The Work of the University by Richard Levin is an empowering and inspiring book - one which in graceful and plain spoken prose leaves the reader in President Levin's words, determined to "understand fully what our values mean, we must also test what it means to live by them."

The book not only demonstrates the importance of a strong liberal education but the importance of a strong leader. With Levin's powerful mind, clear vision, sound morable bearing and compassion about issues big and small, it is not wonder that Yale continues to be one of the best universities. I only hope that all of us in the Yale community benefit from at least another 10 years of his leadership.


Medicine: A Treasury of Art and Literature
Published in Hardcover by Beaux Arts Editions (1991)
Authors: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Ann G. Carmichael, and Richard M. Ratzan
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A wonderful reference
I first turned to this book on the "bargains" table at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and I certainly got my money's worth! I've used the numerous images (particularly those featuring women and their interaction with medicine throughout art history) in women's studies class and the articles are excellent as well. Editors Carmichael and Ratzan have collected primary documents from the ancient world to modern medicine and I enjoy their blend of medical treatise, social letters, and poetry of each period. A wonderful gift for anyone with medicine or art as an interest.


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