A Treasury of American Scrimshaw: A Collection of the Useful and Decorative

Customer Reviews:

An in-depth look at American scrimshaw.......1999-08-28

This book takes a close-up look at the useful and decorative objects created by sailors during the age of whaling. While McManus touches on the most familiar creations of the era, decorative whale's teeth, his focus is the too-often overlooked subject of utilitarian and purely decorative scrimshaw. Chapters include a wonderful look at the background of scrimshaw, objects made for use both on board ship and at home, creations made to be seen and enjoyed for their beauty, examples of beautiful ornamentation, the makers of scrimshaw, both known and supposed, and fascinating objects which are not always what they appear to be. A wonderful addition to any scrimshaw library!

Customer Reviews:

Great Resource for making your own 1930s clothing.......2003-12-09

If you are an experienced sewer who wants to make your own clothing from the 1930s, this is the book for you. It doesn't have hats or hose, but it has everything else from foundation garments to outerwear. A big plus for this book is that for a few of the garments, they give the pattern drawing and a photo of the complete garmment on a real person. The book is also a good resource for dating the patterns in your pattern collection, as it gives the general outline of styles from each year of the 1930s. To use the patterns, you must be an experience sewer, as the patterns must be enlarged and the directions are sketchy.

Book Description

Provides undergraduates in surveying and property professionals with a clear practical explanation of the various management techniques to improve their property development decisions.

Risk, Uncertainty and Decision-Making in Property Development

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Risk, Uncertainty and Decision-Making in Property Development
Peter Byrne , and David Cadman
Manufacturer: Spon E & F N (UK)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0419119507

Book Description

The box office smash Back to the Future was almost a bomb, saved only by the talents of Michael J. Fox, who was brought in to star six weeks after production had started. Ivan Reitman wasn't really interested in directing Ghostbusters. Producer Gloria Katz described Howard the Duck as "a comedy about a person with certain particular characteristics," foremost of which was that he was a duck. These insights and many more are revealed in these interviews with some of the leading creative talents in Hollywood fantasy films during the 1980s. Fox, Reitman, Katz, Joe Dante, Robert Zemeckis, Robert Donner, Jamie Gertz, Ray Bradbury, Michael Ritchie, Timothy Dalton and others discuss Big Trouble in Little China, James Bond, Conan, Dead Zone, Gremlins, Ladyhawke, Lost Boys, and other fantasy films of the decade. Each of the interviews (previously published in a different form in Starlog) is preceded by a brief introduction setting it in context.

Book Description

When FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover reported to the Nixon White House in 1972 about the Bureau's surveillance of John Lennon, he began by explaining that Lennon was a "former member of the Beatles singing group." When a copy of this letter arrived in response to Jon Wiener's 1981 Freedom of Information request, the entire text was withheld--along with almost 200 other pages--on the grounds that releasing it would endanger national security. This book tells the story of the author's remarkable fourteen-year court battle to win release of the Lennon files under the Freedom of Information Act in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. With the publication of Gimme Some Truth, 100 key pages of the Lennon FBI file are available--complete and unexpurgated, fully annotated and presented in a "before and after" format.
Lennon's file was compiled in 1972, when the war in Vietnam was at its peak, when Nixon was facing reelection, and when the "clever Beatle" was living in New York and joining up with the New Left and the anti-war movement. The Nixon administration's efforts to "neutralize" Lennon are the subject of Lennon's file. The documents are reproduced in facsimile so that readers can see all the classification stamps, marginal notes, blacked out passages and--in some cases--the initials of J. Edgar Hoover. The file includes lengthy reports by confidential informants detailing the daily lives of anti-war activists, memos to the White House, transcripts of TV shows on which Lennon appeared, and a proposal that Lennon be arrested by local police on drug charges.
Fascinating, engrossing, at points hilarious and absurd, Gimme Some Truth documents an era when rock music seemed to have real political force and when youth culture challenged the status quo in Washington. It also delineates the ways the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations fought to preserve government secrecy, and highlights the legal strategies adopted by those who have challenged it.

Customer Reviews:

I'm curious... What do you think?.......2005-10-23

Did the government have something to do with the assassination of John Lennon? Click yes if you think so or no if you don't.

The Woodstock Nation revisited.......2003-10-18

It did bring me back "...to those thrilling day's of yesteryear." I was 18 and in the Army in 1972. I have forgoten most of the events unfolding that year, and this book brought back those scene's, as well as the THEN famous people who are just "faded memories" now. John and Yoko, Abby and Jerry, The other Chicago seven members, all of them are here and live again in these declassified FBI files. You would think some of the printed report's on the coming's and going's of the counter-culture leaders were written by old busy-bodies. Most documents are just plain nonsense and gossip. Why the Government tried to supress these for so long is a wonder. I would like to know what the British sent over to the FBI in the way of documents. These are shown to the reader as still being blacked out, and some dated beyond the date the FBI stopped watching Lennon's movements. A well done book by the Prof. and well worth the time if you like to read book's of a more political theme. Not for the four mop top's type of Beatle's fan. If you lived through the Day's of rage and wish to take a walk down those paranoid paths of the Hippie era then buy this book (I did not say "Steal This Book.")

Better than Elvis's sleeping pills.......2001-07-28

Well I just woke up from a long nap after trying yet again to *yawn* read a chapter of this *yawn* book. Definitely not nearly enough bananas or geese in it for me. If you want to hear long drawn-out stories about getting files from government agencies....well all I'm saying is I guess my primary interest in Lennon has always been his music and I just don't give a hoot about this stuff-- not enough entertainment value. I thought the book "The day Elvis Met Nixon" was much better. Oh go ahead write me a negative response.

A Legal Mystery Tour.......2000-06-04

First a simple test. To whom was FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover referring when he wrote to President Nixon's Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman, "[He is]...a paradox because he is difficult to judge by the normal standards of civilized life....His main reason for being is to destroy, blindly and indiscriminately, to tear down and provoke chaos...."? Adolf Hitler maybe, or some seminal Osama bin-Laden? Of course not, as you already know it was none other than our friendly, pudgy-faced, mop-headed, evil genius, that heinous John Lennon, composer of such bellicose anthems as "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance." Reason enough to warrant the FBI's surveillance of the man for 24 hours a day, for years on end? Well, not really, but they did it anyway. This book details the efforts by the author, Jon Wiener, and two ACLU attorneys, Mark Rosenbaum and Dan Marmalefsky, to obtain the 200 odd pages of documents held by the FBI on Mr. Lennon, that the agency had refused to release, (typically on grounds of either national security or ostensibly to protect confidential sources). To this end the attorneys employed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as their basis to obtain these documents. The run-around that they were given by the government should be nothing new to students of previous such encounters, and the fact that it took 15 years to achieve it should not prove too surprising either. But without doubt the central point of this book, and one that cannot be overemphasized, is that it was the FBI (acting outside of its own charter and the explicit instructions contained in the FOIA) that violated the law, while finding no criminal activity on the part of Mr. Lennon. Possibly I'm too old, too jaded or just plain too cynical to be surprised to find out that the government, or its representatives, are capable of lying, placing illegal wire-taps, harassment, obfuscation and underhandedness. Certainly all of that happened here, and it is hats off to Rosenbaum and Marmalefsky for uncovering much of the skullduggery. Although most of the information on Mr. Lennon that was unearthed as a result of this effort was largely already known to any diligent reader of, for example, "Rolling Stone" magazine, following the trail of the hearings and legal arguments is a fascinating and worthwhile one, and the book's final chapter was (for me, at least) an eye-opener.

Average customer rating:

interesting but at times a stretch
Meandering with moments of interest.

John Lennon and the FBI Files
Phil Strongman , and Alan Parker
Manufacturer: Sanctuary Publishing, Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Gimme Some Truth: the John Lennon Fbi Files

ASIN: 1860745229

Book Description

Once the Beatles split up, John Lennon found time to explore his strong political activist side. Moving to New York City, he and wife Yoko Ono befriended a host of activists and writers with a variety of agendas, encouraging and supporting them to such an extent that the FBI took notice. What followed was an escalating, and often bizarre, series of harassments - apartment bugging, deportation orders, attempted declaration of the Lennons' "insanity," concert embargoes, a set-up pot bust, harassment of friends like David Bowie, culminating, the authors argue, in the Beatle's death. The strange and sinister story of the U.S. government's secret war on the Lennons is dramatically told in this book based on recently released documents from the FBI's own archives. Included are photographs as well as new information from Lennon's music peers and fellow activists.

Customer Reviews:

interesting but at times a stretch.......2005-09-01

this book is a fairly interesting read however the author basically blends consipacy theories with fact, and treats them as fact. the book is also overtly opinionated. i do not condem the author or the book, but i think it should have been written in a manner that did not frequently display possibilities (even if they seem likely or at least plausible) as though they were known facts. that being said, i did enjoy reading the book. i dont know if i am with it all the way through but it was definitly interesting and did present a lot of facts about Lennon and about the history of the times that i, being born at the tail end of those days, didnt know much about. certainly whether or not all the conspiracy theories are true are not there are some fascinating similarities between various events discussed, odd coincidences, and really untidy loose ends that leave the possibilies open. i recomend this for those interested in such topics as sociology and history as well as the conspiracy theorists of the world, and for those interested in Lennon, although the books focus is really only on his death and only gives a brief overview of his life.

Meandering with moments of interest........2004-06-21

"John Lennon and the FBI Files" suggests that Lennon's assassin was not a deranged fan, but a programmed killer. Despite being this being the main objective of the book, it only occupies the latter third of the book's content. The majority of the book outlines the history of the CIA and FBI organizations and the various theories about mind control and programmed killers as pertaining to the Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations.
By comparing Lennon's murder to the murder's of JFK and MLK it only exposes the lack of tangible evidence. While there's much evidence to help fuel the conspiracy theories of those assassinations, there's not a great deal of evidence in the Lennon shooting. The authors make a rather thin case in this book for a conspiracy. It's an interesting idea, but the most interesting portion of this book is dealing with the history of the CIA, which is better discussed in other books.

John Lennon: The FBI Files (Moments of History)

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John Lennon: The FBI Files (Moments of History)
Tim Coates
Manufacturer: Tim Coates Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1843810042

GIMME SOME TRUTH: THE JOHN LENNON FBI FILES.

Average customer rating:

GIMME SOME TRUTH: THE JOHN LENNON FBI FILES.
Jon. Wiener
Manufacturer: Univ. of California Press,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NW9T8O

John Lennon & The FBI Files - Autographed

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John Lennon & The FBI Files - Autographed
John Lennon
Manufacturer: K&B
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Tankobon Hardcover
ASIN: 4902800012

Book Description

BradyGames Grand Theft Auto III Official Strategy Guide for PC provides tactics that show gamers what to drive, where to go, and who to knock-off to complete each mission. Detailed city maps help gamers navigate around town, while street maps show the quickest routes to specific destinations. Bonus full-color map section shows locations of weapons, power-ups, and all hidden packages! Exclusive cheats and game secrets revealed!

Customer Reviews:

Great contents and strategies but bad quality printing........2002-12-17

I never have the PS2 version of this book, so I can't compare both version. Just wanted to ammend extra to Dr. Paul C. Graviano reviews, and personal point of view as I never seen the PS2 version.

This book is great, however, I still spotted many mistakes that should be fixed. Some of the hidden packages on the map are marked in wrong location. One of them is on the pier, when I went there but couldn't find it, actually it was on the OTHER pier further up. Some of the hidden packages discription & screenshots are misplaced. Don't rely too much or totally on this guide, use your imagination. it will be much more fun.

I use this guide to help me to locate hidden packages, rampages location, unique stunts, secrets and path for checkpoint-to-checkpoint missions. Which is very handy as reference.

Map arrangement could be improved, I hate to flip for description at the back of the page everytime I needs them. It would be better if the map placed on the left page; description on the right page.

However, the paper quality is kind of bad, which can easily peel off. And due to bad maps arrangement, causes too many flipping front and back vice versa, the pages actually peel off from book, and I actually forget about the main portion as I only need the map ;)

If you are buying this book, make sure you get it stamped before start reading.

By Far the BEST Strategy Guide I have ever read!.......2002-10-03

Okay for anyone who thinks I may be writing an overly kind review, refer to the one I wrote for the Strategy guide for the PS2 version of this game! Needless to say I was somewhat underwhelmed by the book written for GTA 3 for the PS2.

HOWEVER!!! Everything that I conplained about and I mean EVERYTHING that was wrong with the PS2 version strategy guide was addressed and fixed in this version. Apparenly the guy who wrote this book played GTA 3 a lot and it showed in the incredibly detailed and powerfully enthusiastic manner in which the book was written. Where one map would have done okay as in the firt book, he gave you several, all with different colors and excellently labeled icons!

His depiction of mission levels including the Off Road missions (which by the way were all but completely ignored by his predecessor) were written with precision and step by step, easy to follow directions.

One example of the differences in the two books:

Hidden packages map: THe first strategy guide for the PS2 gives a map of each island and a little icon corresponding to the package location, and on the adjacent page a shore sentence telling you where each one is.

In this new book, there are not only maps and FAR MORE detailed explanations of the packages but little thumbnail screenshots showing EVERY package in it's "in game" location! Talk about going the extra mile!!!

While the first attermpt at a strategy guide is more of a glorified hints and tips manual that reads as if it were slapped together after the author went through the game once or twice quickly at most, this book is a bona fide walkthrough of every single facet of the game.

Oh and if you are buying GTA 3 on PS2 and not on the PC? BUY THIS GUIDE ANYWAY! Forget the PS2 version's guide, trust me! You just have to get used to the differences in the control scheme is all. But you will thank me for it later on. Hey if you need the control buttons, the game itself comes with a manual!

In short, while the PS2 guide did have its very limited usage, it becomes all but completely pointless in light of the bigger, better and far more enlightening strategy Guide that was written for the PC, and again this is true even if you only own the PS2 version and have no intention of buying the PC port of the game!

Average customer rating:

Very dry reading

Good but hardly definitive

Excellent resource for coaches!

Great introduction to Coaching

interesting; advanced level

Coaching : Evoking Excellence in Others
James Flaherty
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Co-Active Coaching, 2nd Edition: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and, Life

Executive Coaching with Backbone and Heart: A Systems Approach to Engaging Leaders with Their Challenges

The Heart of Coaching: Using Transformational Coaching to Create a High-Performance Coaching Culture (3rd Edition)

Coaching for Performance, Third Edition (People Skills for Professionals)

Adaptive Coaching: The Art and Practice of a Client-Centered Approach to Performance Improvement

ASIN: 0750679204
Release Date: 2005-07-01

Book Description

Praise for the first edition:
As interest in coaching grows, I think Flahertys book will come to stand out as a definitive work. Peter M. Senge
Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others proposes rigorous methods of practice and self-observation in a relationship of mutual trust, respect and freedom of expression. It will probe you to rethink and possibly undo how you relate to your clients, your partner, your staff, your friends, and how you produce long-term excellent performance in yourself.
This 2nd edition includes new chapters on working with the body and what to do when we find ourselves stuck in our coaching efforts. These chapters, have been included to expand the coaches repertory and readiness to step into wider areas of engagement with clients. As with the previous edition these chapters have annotated bibliographies at their conclusion that will assist the reader in continuing their study. The appendix also has expanded list of self-observation exercises and practices as well as additional material that can be used in assessment.
This book will act as a learning guide for new coaches and master coaches who want to challenge their methods of partnering with clients. It is also applicable to managers intending to include coaching in their developmental roles with team members.
The author has led workshops in coaching, communication, leadership, and project management for more than 12,000 people. These have included participants from many Fortune 500 companies such as AT&T, FMC, Chrysler, Ernst & Young, Cargill, Levi Strauss and Coopers & Lybrand.

*New edition of a classic in the field of coaching-- 1st edition sold over 27,000 copies

*Presents the fundamentals of coaching and offers practical ways to implement coaching programs in any organization

*Revised and updated including new material on latest approaches, the effect of technology and other developments in the field

Customer Reviews:

Very dry reading.......2007-08-28

I must say that I was extremely disappointed by this book. Given all of reviews I saw/read before buying the book, I expected a very helpful tome. Instead, this turned out to be one of the driest books I've ever tried to read.

There are much better, and more helpful, books out there on coaching.

Good but hardly definitive .......2007-08-23

Mr. Flaherty's book reveals the wide and disparate meanings we apply to the word "coaching." My primary focus is in the area of managing and coaching professional technology salespeople. I found this book to be uneven and at times even irritating. Too many references to Heidegger and other philosophers, which struck me as irrelevant appeals to authority with little relevance to coaching. I like a good discussion of philosophy, the nature of being, etcetera, but in this context it seemed out of place. At other times, Flaherty's insights were brilliant.

Despite numerous references intended to persuade us of the foundations for the author's positions, Flaherty includes questionable material in this book which he acknowledges will be controversial. The section on body types is, in my view, ludicrous stereotyping. My field is medical technology, and when I read that "ectomorphs are tall, thin, long-limbed, long-necked folks... people of this body type often have complex and highly wrought nervous systems," I cringed. What is a highly wrought nervous system? Where is the scientific evidence to support this? Basing assumptions on people's "body type" is fraught with danger, not the least of which is being dead wrong. More importantly, what in the world does this have to do with coaching, unless perhaps if you are a fitness coach or physical therapist. It might then have some dubious merit, but Flaherty is suggesting that coaches, generally, consider these "factors." On the other hand, coaching awareness of one's physical body and its signals and responses to internal and external influences certainly has merit.

The author also goes out of his way to demean the views of Ferdinand Fournies, whose book Coaching for Improved Work Performance he apparently views as competition to his own. He dismisses Fournies as a behaviorist and suggests his coaching advice belittles those being coached. Yet Flaherty frequently remarks that you must deal with observable behavior. What's more, he acknowledges that "when someone declines coaching," but you are still responsible for their results, "I recommend that you use traditional management procedures," with "clarity about outcomes and the consequences for not reaching those outcomes." In short, he says you should do what Fournies, much more eloquently and sensitively, advocates.

There is a great deal a reader on the subject might gain from Flaherty's book, but I would not recommend it in isolation. After reading it, I was surprised at the numerous glowing and uncritical reviews it received. Read it WITH Fournies' book - the two are not contradictory. But if you are only going to read one book on coaching, read John Whitmore's 3rd edition of Coaching for Performance, a brilliantly straightforward, unpretentious, and exceedingly pragmatic view of how we can help others realize their potential in most relationships. If by chance you are coaching salespeople, also read Managing Major Sales, by Neil Rackham and Richard Ruff.

Excellent resource for coaches!.......2007-07-14

I am a family and life coach, focusing mainly on parents and teens. I found Flaherty's book to have many useful and powerful tools that can be used with any client, including parents, kids, youth, teens, and families. Coaching leaves people feeling more competent and helps them learn how to self-correct. Teaching this to children and youth is powerful and can change the direction of their lives. Helping them feel more competent as a result of learning how to self-correct seems to me to be something that would be invaluable to clients both young and old. Children are like sponges and learn very quickly. They can achieve more balance in their own young lives when they are given the tools in which to do so. Parents can learn to be powerful coaches for their children through being coached themselves.

Because coaching is a relationship that is based on mutual respect, trust, and freedom of expression, it serves to support all clients. We have to remember that clients are in the middle of their lives and that includes kids. They may have developed some undesired behaviors and it will take some patience and caring to help walk them through the steps to change. We as coaches can observe and learn when something is not working for both parents and kids, then share with them the steps they can take toward positive change. I think it is extremely powerful for a child or teen to learn that he or she has the ability to make these changes and to determine the outcomes in their lives.

Flaherty teaches the importance of having a strong foundation that can act as an anchor in our coaching experience with our clients. Coaching is a way of working with people that leaves them more competent and fulfilled so that they are more able to contribute in any area of their life. It also helps clients to learn to self-correct. They know when things are going well and can see when things are not. They can learn to change behaviors that will help them in making the adjustments needed to correct it.

What's true is what works. Coaching is about practical outcomes and is a discipline that requires self-correction, freshness, and innovation. Our coaching has to be adapted to fit individuals who already have their own way of doing things. Language, observation, and assessment occur simultaneously. They never occur without the other. The coach must be very precise, consistent, and grounded in listening and speaking to the client. The coach must also have a general sense of the way the client is in and makes sense of the world.

Flaherty said: "The more profoundly and systematically we understand someone, the more effective and lasting our coaching can be."

I will use the tools in Flaherty's book for years to come. I found it to be very clear and concise and his illustrations and charts useful and practical. I will turn to his book whenever I feel it's time for me to re-assess.

Great introduction to Coaching.......2007-05-09

If you are interested in learning about coaching and partnering with clients to create change - this is a book for you! It is a must read!

interesting; advanced level.......2007-05-08

This book on coaching is considered a classic in its field, and I appreciate its depth. I think a beginner could take this book at "face value" and learn a lot about coaching, but an understanding of the theoretical basis makes it an even more valuable resource.

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