Catherine De Medici: The Power Behind the French Throne (Signature Lives) (Signature Lives)

Customer Reviews:

Good study of still relevant era.......2006-03-01

This book, published in 1905, gives a balanced view of Catherine de Medici's earlier and middle years, concentrating on the strife between Catholic and Huguenot (French Protestants) leading to the massacre of St. Batholemew's eve. History paints de Medici negatively, but the author accords her some positive qualities:a sharp mind and independence of spirit. The latter might be one reason she favoured the Huguenots during her reign, even arranging a debate between Protestant and Catholic representatives, a debate that ended in profound disagreement. The author draws from documents written around the era in question, and the book has a good selection of plates showing such figures as Diane de Poitiers (the mistress of de Medici's husband, Henry II). Sichel's view is objective (both Catholics and Huguenots were often intolerant), and she puts much into the context of the latter Renaissance. Indeed, the latter part of the book departs from the central theme, examining French artists such as Ronsard.This book, its hardcover version at least long out of print, is a valuable and informative record.

Morgan Reynolds.(Waging Peace: The Story Of Jane Addams)(Woman's Work: The Story Of Betty Friedan)(Johann Sebastian Bach And The Art Of Baroque Music)(Antonio ... An article from: Children's Bookwatch

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Morgan Reynolds.(Waging Peace: The Story Of Jane Addams)(Woman's Work: The Story Of Betty Friedan)(Johann Sebastian Bach And The Art Of Baroque Music)(Antonio ... An article from: Children's Bookwatch

Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Children's Bookwatch, published by Thomson Gale on December 1, 2004. The length of the article is 456 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Morgan Reynolds.(Waging Peace: The Story Of Jane Addams)(Woman's Work: The Story Of Betty Friedan)(Johann Sebastian Bach And The Art Of Baroque Music)(Antonio Vivaldi And The Baroque Tradition)(Queen Victoria And The British Empire)(Catherine The Great)(Catherine De Medici And The Protestant Reformation)(Queen Isabella And The Unification Of Spain)(Marie Antoinette And The Decline Of The French Monarchy)
Publication: Children's Bookwatch (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2004
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 14 Issue: 12 Page: NA

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

What does it feel like to fish for salmon and albacore on a small, wooden boat, braving rough seas and narrow rocky harbors? Why would anyone choose this uncertain, dangerous way to make a living? A young Mendocine Coast fisherman describes the excitement and thrills of his experiences on small, wooden boats on the turbulent north pacific, and the strange appeal of this life for him.

Customer Reviews:

The Rest of the Story.......2007-08-31

...So, you go to a restaurant, the grocery or "Buzz's Crab Stand" & order seafood. Easy to do. This book tells the story of just how difficult it is to give you that opportunity. It is a "take me with you" type of story & the author is good enough to make you feel you are really there. The stories are true, exciting, dangerously so & it is a hard life. "Fishermen tend to be quiet about what happens out there, & when a friend or ship goes under they will generally tell you about it in ten words or less." This book held my attention from beginning to end. The author & her brother can be proud of their work.

A True Story - It will capture your heart! .......2006-11-03

Jeanne Duncan has given us a great story about a young man who becomes a fisherman - but that is just the begining. The terrors and good times of his life at sea comes through in this charming at times true life tale.

The author's narrative style draws us a very visual image of the life for these fisherman. It is well written and makes for an easy and entertaining reading experiecne. You will come away with a real appreciation for the life styles of those who go off to sea to earn their living.

Trolling On The Edge.......2002-06-05

What a great book. I live only an hour away from Noyo Harbor and my wife and I vist there often. I loved reading Jeanne's book. The story really came to life for me. It was cool to learn what goes on in a fishermans mind. I see their jobs as being thrilling and hard work. I've watched the changes over the years that goes on in the fishermens world. Most of the changes seem not to favor the fishermen. I have high regards for them and what they do. Thanks...

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Colonialism and Nationalism in Asian Cinema

Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema (Asia-Pacific)

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ASIN: 0253208955

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Colonialism and Nationalism in Asian Cinema
Wimal Dissanayake
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQA9N8

Book Description

In this bold bombshell of a book, Bakari Kitwana argues that hip hop has broken down more racial barriers than any other social development of the past three decades.

Our national conversation about race is ludicrously out of date. Hip hop is the key to understanding how things are changing. In a provocative book that will appeal to hip hoppers both black and white and their parents, Bakari Kitwana deftly teases apart the culture of hip hop to illuminate how race is being lived by young Americans. This topic is ripe, but untried, and there is a plethora of questions that he is the first to articulate.
* Does hip hop belong to black kids?
* What in hip hop appeals to white youth?
* Is hip hop different from rhythm, blues, jazz, and even rock 'n' roll for previous generations?
* How have mass media and consumer culture made hip hop a unique phenomenon?
* What does class have to do with it?
* Can a culture belong to a race in the first place?
How do young Americans think about race, and how has hip hop influenced their perspective?
* Are young Americans achieving Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream through hip hop?

Kitwana addresses uncomfortable truths about America's level of comfort with black people, challenging preconceived notions of race. With this brave tour de force, Bakari Kitwana takes his place alongside the greatest African American intellectuals of the past decades.

Customer Reviews:

response to lack of culture.......2006-08-13

You're an idiot. It would literally take me 3 days to write about how wrong you are. So instead I'll paraphrase for your simple, narrow mind.

To say that hip hop is all about blaming whitey over a congo beat might be the most ignorant thing I have ever heard. HIP HOP is a culture, RAP is a genre of music. You are referring to RAP, not hip hop. But even then, not all RAP is what you are describing. Also, if it was, what is wrong with blaming Whitey? You mean to tell me that artists shouldn't use music as a medium to spread a message? Was N.W.A wrong for telling the world about the aubsive LAPD in the late 80's/early 90's? Any way, I doubt you actually read the book, and if you did, your mind obviously is incapable of accepting black people outside of some bubble you have put them in. Grow up, wise up and get a clue.

You're an idiot.

Lack of Culture.......2006-07-05

Why do some white kids like hip hop? probably the same reasons why children have tried to shock their parents for ages. Hip hop (what a name)is the product of cultural nihilism, a direct result of the black underclass which seeks to return to the "good old days" of blaming whitey. After all it's whitey who told us are BAD-so Bad we will act.
So there you have it, instead of Black Americans working hard to become successful, many prefer to follow a congo beat while fondling their fake bling-bling while watching underclothed women gyrate their rotund bodies.
Those writers who claim that hip-hop is another culture whites want to steal are delusional at best. When I'm stopped at a stoplight and the car next to me is shaking with a loud bass, all I can think of is: "thank God I lack their culture"!
But let's think about this! Remember the days when the world "culture" actually meant something. If one studies the culture of the Greeks or Romans we see a the long history of a particular society. A history built on art, language, law, philosophy, religion,music, architecture and myth. Hilarious enough, the so-called hiphop culture began with a myth:"the myth that poor latinos and blacks created hiphop out of nothing: (this was a direct quote from a misguided latina at an education conference at UNC.
And the myth continues, according to another site, the author claims that hiphop is instrumental in making social/cultural changes in the larger society.
A recent hiphop conference (pretending to be a political entity) presented the (world),or at least their "hood" with a list of demands, including full reparations for blacks, free education, free health care, all in a beligerant and hostile "gimme" tone.
The angry person who referred to me as an idiot may need to remember the words of the rapper Tony Yayo who raps:" I'm in that brand new range:when I pull up, kid, I turn your brains into red concrete stains." I ask you-and others-is this a culture-or is it verbal poison?

An Original Look at Hip-Hop and Whiteness.......2005-10-13

Why White Kids Love Hip Hop by Bakari Kitwana is a very well-written book which discusses why white kids, even upper-middle class and upper-class ones, love hip hop, specifically its musical component. I believe Bakari Kitwana puts a completely new spin on this question due to his clear enjoyment and understanding of hip-hop. He is able to look at hip-hop with less prejudice than many authors who have attempted to tackle this question. Kitwana uses convincing reasoning, such as whites' decreasing sense of racial privilege, and strong opinions to advance his arguments on why white kids love hip-hop.
I recommend this eloquent book to any hip-hop enthusiasts especially those interested in the question "why do white kids love hip-hop?" Not to say that this book is by any means perfect, Kitwana has his own unique set of prejudices like anyone and he has a tendency to belittle the work of some less hardcore hip-hop fans. Overall it is a wonderful book, a true must-read in my opinion. This is an adult book but it is not terribly long or difficult to read and while it does feature some necessary racial epithets it doesn't uselessly throw around foul language. A great book for the avid hip-hop listener or anyone who has ever wondered just why white kids love hip-hop.

Why Authors Need Copyeditors.......2005-09-30

I think that the issue Kitwana attempts to explore in Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop is interesting. But his approach to taking on this topic was both sloppy and simplistic. It starts in the preface, where he says that the hip-hop generation (which in reality covers two generations) is the first one to grow up without experiencing de facto segregation. I'm sure that White suburbanites in Scarsdale and Orange County would be interested in knowing that there are phantom people of color floating around their communities.

Kitwana also overemphasizes the impact of hip-hop on the emergence of African Americans in popular culture and their impact on young Whites during the 1980s and 1990s. He concentrates so much on Michael Jordan and his first Nike ads with Spike Lee that he forgets about Dr. J, Mean Joe Green, and a host of others that paved the road for Jordan in the first place.

But Kitwana's biggest error is in glossing over the distance between Whites embracing hip-hop culture and Whites living anti-racist, social justice oriented lives. Like John Tuturro's character in Do the Right Thing, there are at least as many Whites who are hip-hop lovers but have as stereotypical an opinion of Blacks and other people of color as Whites who listen to honky-tonk. I don't that everything Kitwana says in Why White Kids Love Hip Hop is incorrect -- his book is just selectively incomplete.

No substance, No evidence, Not much fun.......2005-09-24

*sigh*... I'm always on the lookout for books about hip-hop (as a music form, culture, and generation) as it relates to American culture. More specifically, I'm interested in the social ramifications of the culture as a whole. Thus, when I was given this book by a friend, I was hoping for a good social science read. Unfortunately, I was highly dismayed, finding this particular selection to be a sloppily written manuscript with virtually no empirical evidence anywhere.

For much of this book, the author makes vague statements which are supposed to be evidence (I.E. - "First and foremost among the reasons white kids love hip-hop is the growing sense of alienation from mainstream American life they experienced in the 1980s") but then makes little or no effort to show proof of such theories. This is discouraging.

What makes matters worse is that the author later goes on to dismiss the limited evidence that does exist showing whites are the dominant purchasers of hip-hop albums, and instead of inserting evidence which shows otherwise, he launches into page upon page of bizarre hypothesis' for potential ways blacks might still be the majority purchasers (ironically mentioning bootleg CDs). Ultimately I grew tired of reading his writing which became increasingly less academic.

His "expert" sources are also questionable - while at times he does move towards legitmate figures in the hip-hop community - I felt he vastly stretched for some of the opinions gathered for this book. For instance, I seriously wonder whether it was wise to include a very long section on a 19 year-old white female for who "hip-hop has been mainstream culture" for her entire life. Her priciple credits for being mentioned appear to be that she once dated a black guy, doesn't mind the b-word, and got hooked on hip-hop when she heard "Hypnotize" while developing film. I was not impressed.

If you are looking for an actual intelligent and informed book on hip-hop, please look elsewhere. Reading this, you'll mainly come away with disjointed personal theories of the author, as well as numerous plugs for THE SOURCE magazine.

1/5 Stars

Book Description

On May 11, 1997, as millions worldwide watched a stunning victory unfold on television, a machine shocked the chess world by defeating the defending world champion, Garry Kasparov. Written by the man who started the adventure, Behind Deep Blue reveals the inside story of what happened behind the scenes at the two historic Deep Blue vs. Kasparov matches. This is also the story behind the quest to create the mother of all chess machines. The book unveils how a modest student project eventually produced a multimillion dollar supercomputer, from the development of the scientific ideas through technical setbacks, rivalry in the race to develop the ultimate chess machine, and wild controversies to the final triumph over the world's greatest human player.

In nontechnical, conversational prose, Feng-hsiung Hsu, the system architect of Deep Blue, tells us how he and a small team of fellow researchers forged ahead at IBM with a project they'd begun as students at Carnegie Mellon in the mid-1980s: the search for one of the oldest holy grails in artificial intelligence--a machine that could beat any human chess player in a bona fide match. Back in 1949 science had conceived the foundations of modern chess computers but not until almost fifty years later--until Deep Blue--would the quest be realized.

Hsu refutes Kasparov's controversial claim that only human intervention could have allowed Deep Blue to make its decisive, "uncomputerlike" moves. In riveting detail he describes the heightening tension in this war of brains and nerves, the "smoldering fire" in Kasparov's eyes. Behind Deep Blue is not just another tale of man versus machine. This fascinating book tells us how man as genius was given an ultimate, unforgettable run for his mind, no, not by the genius of a computer, but of man as toolmaker.

Customer Reviews:

The soul of a new chess player.......2007-03-25

Feng-Hsiung Hsu's story will appeal to anyone who enjoyed Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine or Steven Levy's Hackers. The book captures the thrills and spills of an intellectual steeplechase. Along the way, it reveals the inner workings of the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University. It's a great read. Feng-Hsiung Hsu, if you're reading this and you ever find yourself in Hortonville, Wisconsin, the first cup of coffee is on me.

A really good read..........2006-04-19

Behind Deep Blue was written by the man who lead the research and development team which created the chess computer that beat the World Chess Champion, Gary Kasparov. Hsu tells a lot of fascinating stories about his involvement with IBM, academia and the world of computer-vs-computer chess tournaments. It never got too bogged down in computer or chess jargon.

Some interesting things concerning the identity of Deep Blue (or computers in general) emerge from Hsu's story. Hsu speaks of his computers' identities in ways which facilitate his sportsmanship. So for instance, almost every time one of Hsu's computers loses a game it is retrospectively explained by reminding the reader that the computer had been regrettably forced to play when it still needed a few more weeks of software or hardware tweaking. It never lost because it was an inferior machine - it lost because its superiority could not manifest because its update/debugging had been interrupted by the tournament schedule. As the book makes clear, Hsu's computers were continuously undergoing relentless tweaking, providing Hsu with this excuse every single time one lost. This may be par for the course when diagnosing machines - since any sub-desired performance which can be corrected can, therefore, be "explained" as the unfortunate consequence of the machine's present uncorrected state. For humans it's different. When I lose a foot-race I can't say, "Well the only reason I lost is because this race was scheduled a few years before my training made me fast enough to win it."

Another fascinating element of the book is Hsu's recounting of Deep Blue's now-famous rejection of 36. Qb6 in game two against Kasparov in the 1997 match. Kasparov broadly hinted that the computer's decision not to move that way was a human decision - implying that the IBM team had cheated. Hsu's defense of Deep Blue is convincing. But there is raised an interesting point regarding computer intelligence. If Deep Blue did in fact choose to avoid 36. Qb6 without human intervention then Kasparov's heartfelt identification of the move as cheating has Deep Blue passing a simple version of a Turing Test.

Very good book........2005-12-07

I have prurchased this book to improve my english language.
Yhe same talks about two subjects that I know: computers and chess.
It was a good surprise read this enjoyable work which offers information, stories and knowledge.
The author explains very clear the roots of Deep Blue and reflects the environment of Top chess.

Read it!

The soul of a new chess player.......2005-06-02

A thoroughly engaging and candid account.......2004-11-09

Taiwanese-born Feng-Hsiung Hsu has written a most engaging and readable account of how Deep Blue came to be, and how it defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in perhaps the greatest chess match of all time. I say "perhaps" because there are many who still consider the 1972 encounter at Reykjavik, Iceland between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky to be the greatest match ever. One thing both matches had in common, in addition to a worldwide audience, is two deeply suspicious and idiosyncratic geniuses, Kasparov and Fischer.

However, while Fischer's triumph rejuvenated interest in chess, especially in the US, Kasparov's defeat, many fear, may have rung the death knell for the ancient game. Before Deep Blue's victory, it was easy to imagine that the human mind was light-years ahead of any artificial intelligence. After Kasparov slunk off mumbling vague charges of human intervention ("cheating"), it became necessary to face the possibility that machine intelligence was on its way to exceeding that of humans.

But what did the match really prove? According to Hsu himself, the triumph of Deep Blue "might be the more important human achievement when all was said and done." (p. 256) By a "more important human achievement," he means, more important than the one that would have been Kasparov's had he won.

This I think is the crux of the matter. Deep Blue, an IBM computer of enormous power, is the product of human minds and human engineering. Look at it this way: as computers become more and more powerful and their algorithms become more and more sophisticated, there will be no thought at all that a human might compete with them at chess. It would be like expecting the world's fastest human to beat a motor car in a race. Or for the world's best human calculator to add numbers faster than a personal computer.

In a deeper sense what was destroyed by this match was not human intellectual superiority but the delusion that somehow a board game--even the greatest board game ever invented--is a true measure of human intelligence. Quite simply, the ability to play chess at the highest level is only one talent, similar to (but different from) the ability to play the violin or to run fast. More significant is the greater human ability to conceive and build a machine that does something better than humans can do themselves.

Hsu's account includes a lot of information about his personal adventures in academia and the corporate structure, including rivalries with others in the race to build the ultimate chess-playing computer. He is candid, and self-revelatory to a surprising degree, and it is this candor that helps to make this a fascinating read, not only for computer specialists and chess players, but for anyone interested in how the human competitive spirit works. His portrait of Garry Kasparov--perhaps the strongest chess player of all time--captures the arrogant, suspicious genius at his most human and makes it clear how he came to lose a match he fully expected to win.

Ah, the match itself! The book includes the moves of the games in an appendix, but one can readily see that the match turned on two very strange decisions by the hitherto nearly invincible Kasparov. Strange to say, it appears that Kasparov lost the match mainly because of poor psychological decisions. In game two, believing that he was lost, mainly because he believed that the computer would not have made the move it had made had there been a perpetual check available to the human player that would have drawn the game, Kasparov resigned. However, the machine had erred, and there was a way to draw the game. Against a human opponent, I believe that Kasparov would have closely investigated that line and found the drawing resource.

In the final game again Kasparov made a decision based on what he thought was the nature of the way computers play chess. He allowed a sacrificial line as Black in the Caro-Kahn Defense, a line that he believed Deep Blue would never play since computers are notoriously bad at figuring out how to conduct a complicated attack. Indeed, commercial chess software for PCs typically exclude this line from their opening repertoire so as not to burden the program! So Kasparov thought in playing 7... h6 that Deep Blue would retreat its knight giving Kasparov easy equality. Instead Deep Blue plunged in with 8. Nxe6! Eleven moves later Kasparov resigned--easily one of the quickest defeats of his career.

So, with better decisions, based on sound chess and NOT on mistaken preconceptions about Deep Blue's prowess, Kasparov might have won the match. However, the irony is that it is unlikely that there ever will be another match between the world chess champion and a machine simply because Kasparov and the whole chess world know that the ultimate victory of machine over man, in the arcane test of will and calculation that is chess, is inevitable. But what we also know is that it doesn't matter. We still hold races between humans even though our machines can easily out distant them. And humans will continue to play chess even though they would have no chance against a computer because chess is first and foremost a human sporting event, a test of mental strength and skill much as a boxing match is a test of physical strength and skill.

Tangled up in Blue. (Artificial Intelligence).(Book Review): An article from: American Scientist

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Tangled up in Blue. (Artificial Intelligence).(Book Review): An article from: American Scientist

Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

A practical guide to strategies of hedge fund investing.
Hedge fund expert Alexander Ineichen outlines strategies that hedge fund managers use to achieve superior investment performance, particularly in bear markets, when traditional investment strategies do not perform so well, and shows readers how hedge funds might be added to traditional investment portfolios to achieve superior returns. Nontechnical yet sophisticated, Absolute Returns shows investors how to make educated decisions about hedge fund investment--thoroughly explaining the risks as well as the rewards.

Customer Reviews:

Solid but Polemical.......2006-08-03

The author presents a wideranging and at times very detailed discussion of hedgefunds. The writing style can be rather rambling with sayings of famous investment managers inserted at random and many sarcastic asides in footnotes. The work is rather polemical, trying to convince the reader that they should invest in hedge funds. The author emphasizes all the statistics which point to hedge funds having high returns and low risks and tries to explain away information which points to some high risks atached to hedge fund investing. I think his audience is an institutional investor (particularly European institutional investors) who is wondering whether they should look more closely at hedge funds. But he also insults this group along with about everyone else apart from hedge fund managers.

Introduction to hedgefunds.......2004-08-02

The book opens with an overview of hedge funds. He classifies hedge funds according to the strategies they employ: relative value, event driven, macro, etc. Not only does he explain the trading strategies, but he delves into what can go wrong. In general theres more discussions on equity related strategies, and less in interest rates. Theres lots of historical data/information on hedgefunds performance ,indicating the very poor performance (and high total risk) of traditional funds.
This book provides a nice introduction to hedgefunds, perhaps not so much news for experienced readers. At times theres very detailed information, in other parts the author provides only an overview (whos the audience?).

Highly Recommended!.......2004-05-06

Hedge funds burst into the headlines in the early 1990s, when George Soros became a household name - at least in Europe, where many people blamed him and his hedge fund for wrecking the European exchange rate mechanism. Similarly, a U.S. hedge fund called Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) began with an aura of investing invincibility, only to fail dramatically. Hedge fund investing is sometimes, but not always, high risk and high return. Once limited to a privileged elite group of investors, hedge funds are now opening their rosters to less sophisticated, less wealthy speculators. But hedge funds are not just like any other funds, and anyone contemplating an investment needs a solid, comprehensive guide, such as this book. Author Alexander M. Ineichen, neither a salesman nor an alarmist, pulls no punches when discussing the risks of hedge funds. He is quite straightforward about the sometimes astonishing success of some hedge fund managers, but careful to point out the common misconceptions about them. Without hedging our bets, we find this book a valuable addition to every investor's library.

Dances Around the Topic.......2004-04-11

This book rambles on about the hedge fund industry. It gives a lot of definitions and statistics, but ultimately falls down. When you buy a hedge fund, you never really know what you are getting.

A Lesson from the Titanic.......2003-07-10

The iceberg on the cover represents total risk-partly visible and partly not. Ineichen's point is that hedge fund or absolute return managers tackle total risk while their traditional mutual fund counterparts worry about only one part of it, namely the risk of straying from their benchmark. His extensive discussion contains worthy lessons for all investors who want to understand risk. While not every chapter may be useful for every reader, this book is an excellent place to learn about alternative investment strategies.

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