Best Selling Books by David Clark

In Germs, Genes and Civilization, Dr. David Clark tells the story of the microbe-driven epidemics that have repeatedly molded our human destinies. You''ll discover how your genes have been shaped through millennia spent battling against infectious diseases. You''ll learn how epidemics have transformed human history, over and over again, from ancient Egypt to Mexico, the Romans to Attila the Hun. You''ll learn how the Black Death epidemic ended the Middle Ages, making possible the Renaissance, western democracy, and the scientific revolution. Clark demonstrates how epidemics have repeatedly shaped not just our health and genetics, but also our history, culture, and politics. You''ll even learn how they may influence religion and ethics, including the ways they may help trigger cultural cycles of puritanism and promiscuity. Perhaps most fascinating of all, Clark reveals the latest scientific and philosophical insights into the interplay between microbes, humans, and society - and previews what just might come next.

This book identifies and accounts for the characteristics of the contemporary city and of urban society. It analyzes the distribution and growth of settlements and explores the social and behavioral characteristics of urban living. The latest theoretical and empirical developments and insights are synthesized and presented in an accessible and engaging way. This second edition has been extensively updated and referenced. Each chapter includes sets of learning objectives, annotated readings and topics for discussion. Well-illustrated throughout, it will be essential reading for students of geography, sociology and development studies and all who seek an understanding of how the urban world has evolved and how it will change in the twenty-first century.

Equal parts elegy and ode, Newly Not Eternal explores the startling suffering and sentiment implicit in human mortality. At the heart of this collection, a son has died on the cusp of his first breath, but the book’s stakes are larger and more universal than a single, silent, foreshortened life. Ranging from personal lyrics to monologues in persona, from triolets to a modified crown of sonnets, from surreal fantasy to natural landscape, George David Clark’s poems sing of the brutality of time and the beauty that transcends it.

Are you satisfied with your current and traditional grading system? Does it accurately reflect your students’ learning and progress? Can it be gamed? Does it lead to grade-grubbing and friction with your students?The authors of this book – two professors of mathematics with input from colleagues across disciplines and institutions – offer readers a fundamentally more effective and authentic approach to grading that they have implemented for over a decade. Recognizing that traditional grading penalizes students in the learning process by depriving them of the formative feedback that is fundamental to improvement, the authors offer alternative strategies that encourage revision and growth.Alternative grading is concerned with students’ eventual level of understanding. This leads to big changes: Students take time to review past failures and learn from them. Conversations shift from “why did I lose a point for this” to productive discussions of content and process.Alternative grading can be used successfully at any level, in any situation, and any discipline, in classes that range from seminars to large multi-section lectures. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to alternative grading, beginning with a framework and rationale for implementation and evidence of its effectiveness. The heart of the book includes detailed examples – including variations on Standards-Based Grading, Specifications Grading, and ungrading -- of how alternative grading practices are used in all kinds of classroom environments, disciplines and institutions with a focus on first-hand accounts by faculty who share their practices and experience. The book includes a workbook chapter that takes readers through a step-by-step process for building a prototype of their own alternatively graded class and ends with concrete, practical, time-tested advice for new practitioners. The underlying principles of alternative grading involve·Evaluating student work using clearly defined and context-appropriate content standards.·Giving students helpful, actionable feedback.·Summarizing the feedback with marks that indicate progress rather than arbitrary numbers.·Allowing students to revise without penalty, using the feedback they receive, until the standards are met or exceeded. This book is intended for faculty interested in exploring alternative forms of learning assessment as well as those currently using alternative grading systems who are looking for ideas and options to refine practice.

Words of wisdom from the late Charlie Munger—Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner and the visionary Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway—collected and interpreted with an eye towards investing by David Clark, coauthor of the bestselling Buffettology series. Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1924, Charlie Munger studied mathematics at the University of Michigan, trained as a meteorologist at Cal Tech Pasadena while in the Army, and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School without ever earning an undergraduate degree. Munger was one of America’s most successful investors, the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and Warren Buffett’s business partner for almost forty years. Buffett says “Berkshire has been built to Charlie’s blueprint. My role has been that of general contractor.” Munger was an intelligent, opinionated businessman whose ideas can teach professional and amateur investors how to be successful in finance and life. Like The Tao of Warren Buffett and The Tao of Te Ching, The Tao of Charlie Munger is a compendium of pithy quotes including, “Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant” and “In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time—none, zero.” This collection, culled from interviews, speeches, and questions and answers at the Berkshire Hathaway and Wesco annual meetings, offers insights into Munger’s amazing financial success and life philosophies. Described by Business Insider as “sharp in his wit and investing wisdom,” Charlie Munger’s investment tips, business philosophy, and rules for living are as unique, intelligent, and successful as he was.

Quantitative Psychological Research: The Complete Student''s Companion, expertly guides the reader through all the stages involved in undertaking quantitative psychological research: designing a study, choosing a sample of people, undertaking the study, analysing the data, and reporting the research. Accessibly written and clearly presented, the book is designed for anyone learning to conduct quantitative psychological research as well being a reference work for professional psychologists. It covers the full research process, from the original idea to reporting the completed study, emphasizing the importance of looking beyond statistical significance in evaluating data. The book provides step-by-step guidance on choosing, interpreting and reporting the appropriate analysis, featuring worked examples and extended calculations as appendices for readers who wish to delve further. This edition features a new chapter examining ideas on how causality might be identified when data is not obtained from an experiment and has been thoroughly updated throughout to reflect latest research practices. Care has been taken to avoid tying the book to any specific statistical software, providing readers with a thorough grounding in the basics no matter which package they go on to use. This is a must read for professional psychologists as well as students and researchers of Psychology, Statistics and Research Methods. This book is also invaluable for anyone interested in conducting quantitative psychological research.

Palliative medicine was first recognised as a specialist field in 1987. One hundred years earlier, London based doctor William Munk published a treatise on ''easeful death'' that mapped out the principles of practical, spiritual, and medical support at the end of life. In the intervening years a major process of development took place which led to innovative services, new approaches to the study and relief of pain and other symptoms, a growing interest in ''holistic'' care, and a desire to gain more recognition for care at the end of life. This book traces the history of palliative medicine, from its nineteenth-century origins, to its modern practice around the world. It takes in the changing meaning of ''euthanasia'', assesses the role of religious and philanthropic organisations in the creation of homes for the dying, and explores how twentieth-century doctors created a special focus on end of life care. To Comfort Always traces the rise of clinical studies, academic programmes and international collaborations to promote palliative care. It examines the continuing need to support development with evidence, and assesses the dilemmas of unequal access to services and pain relieving drugs, as well as the periodic accusations of creeping medicalization within the field. This is the first history of its kind, and the breadth of information it encompasses makes it an essential resource for those interested in the long-term achievements of palliative medicine as well as the challenges that remain.

Between Medieval Men is a radical new study of same-sex relations (both erotic and non-erotic) in the Anglo-Saxon period. David Clark''s nuanced approach to gender and sexuality seeks to step outside modern cultural assumptions in order to explore the diversity and complexity that he shows to be characteristic of the period.

With an insider''s view of the mind of the master, Mary Buffett and David Clark have written a simple guide for reading financial statements from Buffett''s successful perspective. They clearly outline Warren Buffett''s strategies in a way that will appeal to newcomers and seasoned Buffettologists alike. Inspired by the seminal work of Buffett''s mentor, Benjamin Graham, this book presents Buffett''s interpretation of financial statements with anecdotes and quotes from the master investor himself. Destined to become a classic in the world of investment books, Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements is the perfect companion volume to The New Buffettology and The Tao of Warren Buffett.

A new collection of simple yet powerful words and wisdom from Warren Buffett about today’s economy and how investing has changed in the past two decades – from crypto to climate change – compiled and commented upon by bestselling authors Mary Buffett and David Clark. Warren Buffett’s investment achievements are unparalleled. He owes his success to hard work, integrity, and the most elusive commodity of all, common sense. In The New Tao of Warren Buffett, Mary Buffett – coauthor of the bestselling Buffettology series – joins David Clark to bring readers more of Warren Buffett’s smartest, funniest, and most memorable sayings that reveal the life philosophy and the investment strategies that have made Warren Buffett, and the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, so enormously wealthy. Collected from a variety of fresh sources, including personal conversations, corporate reports, profiles, and interviews, the new quotations here reflect Warren’s practical strategies and provide useful tips for every investor, large or small. Including short explanations for each quote and examples from Buffett’s own business transactions, these ruminations on everything from AI to inflation illustrate his words at work. Inspiring, thought-provoking and invaluable, this irresistibly browsable book offers priceless investment savvy that anyone can take to the bank – and is destined to become a new classic.

Over a period of almost 10 years, the work of the Project on Death in America (PDIA) played a formative role in the advancement of end of life care in the United States. The project concerned itself with adults and children, and with interests crossing boundaries between the clinical disciplines, the social sciences, arts and humanities. PDIA engaged with the problems of resources in poor communities and marginalized groups and settings, and it attempted to foster collaboration across a range of sectors and organizations. Authored by medical sociologist David Clark, whose research career has focused on mapping, archiving and analyzing the history and development of hospice, palliative care and related end of life issues, this book examines the broad, ambitious conception of PDIA - which sought to ''transform the culture of dying in America'' - and assesses PDIA''s contribution to the development of the palliative care field and to wider debates about end of life care within American society. Chapters consider key issues and topics tackled by PDIA grantees which include: explorations of the meanings of death in contemporary American culture; the varying experiences of care at the end of life (in different settings, among different social and ethnic groups); the innovations in service development and clinical practice that have occurred in the US in response to a growing awareness of and debate about end of life issues; the emerging evidence base for palliative and end of life care in the US; the maturation of a field of academic and clinical specialization; the policy and legal issues that have shaped development, including the ethical debate about assisted suicide and the Oregon experience; the opportunities and barriers that have been encountered; and the prospects for future development. A final chapter captures developments and milestones in the field since PDIA closed in 2003, and some of the challenges going forward.

Convinced that we can no longer have direct, unmediated access to the sense of Jesuss prayer but must account for the history of its effects, David Clark seeks to trace the meaning of one of Christianitys most repeated, and thus most effective texts through the early centuries of the faith. Clark begins by arguing that the prayers original context was in a revival of Jewish prayer, then sets it in the literary context of Gospels that, he argues, represented Jesus as recapitulating Israels testing in the wilderness in his own temptation. He then traces the prayers meaning within the narratives of Matthew and Luke and in the Didache, then examines the first full commentary on the prayer, that of Tertullian in the third century CE. Clark attends to the evolution of ideas and themes embodied in the prayer and of the understanding of prayer itself across epic transitions, from Judaism to the teaching of Jesus, from Jesus to the Gospels, and from the Gospels to earliest self- consciously catholic Christianity. This is an engaging narrative of the history behind and reception of the Lords Prayer; it illustrates how a texts reception may help us explore and understand the multivalent meaning of the text itself.

In Reveille, a man suffers fits of super-natural coughing, flytraps attack a child, a moray haunts a waterbed, poltergeists revise a church''s furnishings, an interview is conducted through a man-eater''s throat, and the prodigal son stalks his local brothel in a pair of lion hide pajamas. The copious invention in these poems renders a host of holy objects and exotic creatures, surveying them the way one might the emblems in a dream: curious of their meanings but reluctant to interpret them and simplify their mystery. Theologically playful, rhetorically sophisticated, and formally ambitious, Reveille is rooted in imaginative awe and driven by the impulse to praise. At its heart this is a book of love poems, though its loves are varied and complicated by terrible threats: that the cradle will break, that we will cry out and not be answered, and that we will fall asleep and never wake. Against such jeopardy these poems fix our attention on the horizon: "Listen: that''s your singular name / unfurling through the whisper-weight trumpets of light." Morning comes and Reveille calls forth a team of baton twirlers on roller skates, pamphlets announcing new flavors of ice cream, caravans of camels hauling bolts of velvet, fragrant monuments to rapture." --Inside front cover.

Looks at the investing technique of billionaire investor Warren Buffett and how his methods differ from prevailing Wall Street wisdom.