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In From Earth to Oblivion: The Passing of Humankind, Dr. Ross E. Goodrich, a geographer, describes the ultimate human predicament: our population is growing, our living space is increasingly overcrowded, and our sources of life support are rapidly vanishing. He explains why we cannot control the size of our population, and that correspondingly we cannot abolish poverty, achieve world peace, or establish a sustainable existence. He asserts that our predicament is preparing our population for a crash that is likely to begin the extinction of humanity. The author discusses the very nature of humans' expectation of survival-our belief that we have the ingenuity or the exalted position in the eyes of Mother Nature or a Divine Creator to be the exception, the one species who will avoid the inevitable. To the contrary, this treatise provides a clear roadmap and several informed predictions that illustrate the path and the events that are propelling the human species to oblivion.

How can social scientists assess the reliability of the measures derived from tests and questionnaires? Through an illustrative review of the principles of classical reliability theory, Ross E Traub explores some general strategies for improving measurement procedures. Beginning with a presentation of random variables and the expected value of a random variable, the book covers such topics as: the definition of reliability as a coefficient and possible uses of a coefficient; the notion of parallel tests so as to make possible the estimation of a reliability coefficient for a set of measurements; what to do when parallel tests are not available; what factors affect the reliability coefficient; and how to estimate the.