ABC-ABM Gestion de Costos por Actividades

Book Description

Early in 2000, Ecuador, confronted with a serious economic crisis, adopted the US dollar as its national currency. This book examines the conditions that led to this action, describing the repeated cycles of crisis and failed stabilization that fatally undermined confidence in the Ecuadoran sucre. The book then analyzes dollarization's initial results and its effects on inflation, growth, poverty, inequality, marganilization, gender, and the Ecuadoran family. It also puts the Ecuadoran experience with dollarization in an international perspective. Economists, policymakers, and anyone with a serious interest in Latin American affairs will find this book invaluable.

Customer Reviews:

World Bank propaganda.......2007-04-04

This is nonsense from the perspective of Quito. Maybe it makes sense in their 5 star hotels hobknobbing with CEOs and investors.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book - TILL.......2007-06-25

Like the other esteemed reviewer noted, "Stone Alone" ends with the debacle at Altamont (with the exception of a couple of pages' "memoirs" about the Stones' "comeback" 1989 tour.) Great anecdotes (sp?) about all the other Stones, too, but although I myself have ripped every single bass guiltar lick I have ever played off Bill, it ain't really interesting listening to him rant about how he'd 'made it' more than any of the other 4 Stones. Still, said it before and I'll say it again: The Stones SHOULD have stopped after Mick Taylor left, 12/11/74, but Bill's desertion was to the Stones what Elvis' death was/has been to Rock and Roll: THE END.

Good Overview, Needs More Music, Less Finances.......2007-02-11

This is a good insider book on the Rolling Stones, but long-time Stones bass wizard Bill Wyman spends too much time discussing how poor the band remained well into the period where they were considered millionaires and not enough on the creative processes behind the incredible songbook the band created. It is fascinating to see how the Stones were conned by Alan Klein, but even that gets old after several hundred pages. Wyman is at his best when he discusses the lesser-known members of the band, such as Charlie Watts or Brian Jones. His overall opinion of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards is that they shorted the other band members in the recognition department for the many songs that the others either wrote or helped write but got absolutely no credit (and thus no royalties) for. This is a legitimate beef and has always bothered not only Wyman, but also Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood.
Wyman is honest in his assessment of his own personal life, which left much to be desired. He also is kind in his assessment of Brian Jones, whose role has been trivialized by the louder remaining Stones but who was the creator and driving force of the band and the sound during their formative years.
The book gets bogged down from time to time with an almost obsessive attention to detail on finances, but it's an enjoyable and informative read most of the time. Wyman's picture book 'Rolling with the Stones' is superior. If you are a Stones fan, both books are required reading.
Hats off to the greatest bass player the Stones could ever hope to have. They have never been the same without him. Thank you, Bill, for the music and the memories.

Sour Grapes?.......2006-04-13

This is a great book about how msot nice guys never make it to the top. Bill infers here taht while his bank account suffered, Keith and Mick have some "perks" at the expense of the stones. I have great admiration for Bill expressing the genius of Brian Jones. You will have no doubt either, by the end of the book, that it is Brian, NOT Mick who founded the stones. Bill also gives the Beatles "due" respect. The book goes into parties, women, drug busts, bad management, poor bookeeping, and the egoes of Keith and Mick. Although, I believe there is some sour grapes here, Wyman does not come across guiltless...quite the contrary but the egoes of a couple of band members "helped" quicken the end of an already depressed Brian.

Detailed story of The Stones up to 1969.......2003-12-24

Bill Wyman's "Stone Alone" is an excellent biography of The Rolling Stones, with the perspective of an insider but not the one at center stage.
As the bass player and one of the founding members of The Stones, Bill Wyman was also the band's historian, keeping detailed journals about the band, and this contributes to making fleshed out anecdotes about the band from the early days until the death of Brian Jones and their free concert at Hyde Park in July 1969.
As a bio-piece, there is the usual growing up poor in post-war Britain saga. Wyman engages readers with vivid images and a keen memory that bring this period to life, and he also builds brief pieces for the other founding members of the Stones, Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts.
Having always been a casual fan of TRS, I learned a lot from this book. The major parts are fairly common knowledge in rock music lore, but here are some of the main points:
*Brian Jones was the key influence in the early days, having a genius level aptitude for learning instruments, and possessing a charisma on par with Mick Jagger's. He was also a very screwed up guy with a number of physical ailments and emotional instability.
*Ian Stewart was a key contributor, as a pianist, then road manager after his "relegation" by Andrew Oldham.
*While Andrew Oldham profoundly influenced their growth, he also screwed them over, as did manager Allen Klein. What happened to all of that money?
*Wyman was a shameless philanderer who detailed his many road conquests, but was also a doting father to his son, Stephen.
Wyman also had a lot of bitterness toward Jagger and Richards, for their egos, their controlling of the band and ignoring contributions of other band members and reaping a greater share of songwriting royalties. Wyman details how his own projects were shunted to the side. The Jagger/Richards/Oldham "unholy trinity" also led to Brian Jones becoming a sideman, never blossoming as a songwriter, and eventual ouster from the band. Well, actually, Jones own self-destructive behavior contributed greatly to these three things.
Wyman provides amazing details about each show, from the number of attendees, the gross receipts and what happened. It was also interesting to note his bank balance at various junctures, as the public believed these guys were millionaires when they were basically broke because of the mismanagement of their accounts by Klein.

Some critiques: The book is pretty long, and the anecdotes of concert, riots and screaming girls in the early years get pretty repetitive.
I would have liked to have learned more about the music itself and how the songs came together. This book is many about the performances and personal escapades of the band members.
Still, the information presented provides a great glimpse into the Stones early lives and music from 1963-69. Having read this book, I'm eager to find the next "chapter" and delve further into The Stones music catalog from the blues/R&B period as well as songs beyond the obvious hits.

Thanks Bill....Nice Job!.......2002-07-30

Written in 1990, this is a very well written inside look at how the Stones developed. Wyman has kept good notes and uses them to full advantage to give you a rationale look at the music, business, and lifestyle of the band from 64 though 90. There are details that have not previously been revealed about the early shows, the American tours, Brian, the drug busts in London, it goes on and on.....extremely interesting to anyone a bit fanatical about the Stones (but who else would be reading this review?).....this one is original material, not a fan ripoff and definitely worth your money......

Stone Alone: The Story of A Rock 'N' Roll Band

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Stone Alone: The Story of A Rock 'N' Roll Band
Bill with Coleman, Ray Wyman
Manufacturer: Viking
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GR7ZYG

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Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock'n'Roll Band
Bill Wyman
Manufacturer: Viking c1990
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0JZBQ

Book Description

How do we come to trust our knowledge of the world? What are the means by which we distinguish true from false accounts? Why do we credit one observational statement over another?

In A Social History of Truth, Shapin engages these universal questions through an elegant recreation of a crucial period in the history of early modern science: the social world of gentlemen-philosophers in seventeenth-century England. Steven Shapin paints a vivid picture of the relations between gentlemanly culture and scientific practice. He argues that problems of credibility in science were practically solved through the codes and conventions of genteel conduct: trust, civility, honor, and integrity. These codes formed, and arguably still form, an important basis for securing reliable knowledge about the natural world.

Shapin uses detailed historical narrative to argue about the establishment of factual knowledge both in science and in everyday practice. Accounts of the mores and manners of gentlemen-philosophers are used to illustrate Shapin's broad claim that trust is imperative for constituting every kind of knowledge. Knowledge-making is always a collective enterprise: people have to know whom to trust in order to know something about the natural world.

Customer Reviews:

Science and Civility .......2006-04-13

In this study, largely influenced by sociological theory, Steven Shapin explores the origins and practices of the seventeenth-century English experimental philosophy. He contends that this is "a story about the gentlemanly constitution of scientific truth . . . preexisting gentlemanly practices provided working solutions to problems of credibility and trust which presented themselves at the core of the new empirical science of seventeenth-century England" (p. xxi). Making use of gentlemanly advice books and courtesy texts while closely following the scientific career and philosophical publications of Robert Boyle, a founding member of the Royal Society of London, Shapin shows that Boyle was a central figure in the creation of a Christian gentlemanly discourse of natural philosophy.

As is widely accepted, the distinguishing feature of seventeenth-century English science was the reevaluation and erosion of ancient knowledge-claims and testimony in favor of observational and experimental empirical science. According to Shapin, "this rejection of authority and testimony in favor of individual sense-experience is just what stands behind our recognition of seventeenth-century practitioners as `moderns,' as `like us,' and, indeed, as producers of the thing we can warrant as `science'" (p. 201). However, Shapin perceptively challenges the notion that all forms of testimony were eliminated from the realm of empirical science - natural philosophy required a reliance on the findings of others when experiments produced could not be replicated, while one's own experiences could never achieve credulity within a scientific community without testimony. Therefore, these `moderns' instead constructed a flexible methodology of testimony evaluation and presentation in order to establish the relative credibility of one's scientific argument. These mechanisms included the moral evaluation of both one's scientific findings and character as a credible source of knowledge, and were constructed from preexisting gentlemanly codes, conventions, and values.

In chapters 2 and 3, Shapin explores popular conceptions in early modern England which established gentleman as trustworthy truth-tellers. In order to establish a collective body of knowledge, trust is essential. By accepting another's notions of truth we allow them to "colonize our minds," trusting in their objectivity and moral responsibility. According to Shapin, trusting another's knowledge is a moral act. Popular trust in another's truth is determined by their objectivity, or freedom of action. To be of "free action" is to be without social constraint that inhibits objectivity of judgement, while also possessing an established public credibility or honor. In early modern England, those that possessed these qualities were gentlemen - without any constraints that could prevent them from acting out of free will.

Although there existed conflicting and overlapping opinions about who constituted gentility beginning in the mid-sixteenth century, the basic material reality of gentle life required ancestral wealth that allowed independence from labor and private interests in the production of goods or services. Similarly, traditional honor culture and Christian values emphasized the virtue of gentlemanly conduct, requiring a self-disciplined decorum and consistent display of sincerity, integrity, and credibility. Gentlemanly virtue was manifested in the rules of decorum governing discursive practice and civil conversation. As Shapin contends, "a gentleman's word was his bond." (p. 65). Truth-telling was intimately linked to gentlemanly honor, to challenge one's word was to accuse him of lying, thereby disputing the credibility of his gentile reputation and disrupting civil order and "civil conversation." Therefore, gentlemanly discourse established mechanisms which allowed one to account for the possibility of false statements without damaging credibility by requiring that all claims allowed for some a certain level of imprecision. Civil conversation depended upon a degree of moral uncertainty - precision threatened to disrupt gentlemanly social order. This discursive practice was appropriated by gentlemanly natural philosophers, most specifically Robert Boyle, as an answer to the paradox posed by establishing the veracity of philosophical testimony.
In Chapters 4, 5, and 6, Shapin traces the ways that gentlemanly trust was deployed in scientific discourse. While institutional scholars were viewed as having private interest in their intellectual pursuits, such as the achievement of fame, natural philosophers promoted an air of disinterestedness to secure objectivity of observation and integrity of testimony. Similarly, scholars were considered to be overly-confident, quarrelsome, and dogmatic while natural scientists were open to the modification of claims in order to foster "civil conversation." In his discussion of the seven maxims by which testimony was evaluated, Shapin shows how gentlemanly decorum was utilized by natural philosophers and the Royal Society of London to ascertain the relative truth of claims (p. 212). Also, he gives numerous examples of the ways that one might dispute findings without calling the credibility or ability of an individual to accurately report true observations into question.

Shapin's book is a nice edition to the body of literature which expounds upon scientific thought as a cultural creation. However, I wonder if contemporaries would have really veiwed Boyle as a gentleman. He seems to be more of a scholarly recluse that even chose not to marry, (thereby rejecting a patriarchal ideal)?

A good argument about the importance of trust in science.......2000-04-12

Many popular books about science (especially about evolution) set scientists up as skeptics who argue for knowledge based on experience and facts, rather than authority. If you think science is about being skeptical, you might find this book interesting because it argues for the importance of trust and belief in authority in all scientific work. I found the history interesting as well, including descriptions of several of Boyle's eperiments, a debate about the path of a comet, and a 17th century nondisclosure agreement. The main downside for the layman is that book can be slow going and is not an easy read. There's a lot of generalizing about what 17th century gentleman and scientists were like that I think would have been more entertainingly done through narrative and anecdote rather than bland quotations. Still, all in all this is an informative book about the philosophy of science.

A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England.: An article from: American Scientist

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A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England.: An article from: American Scientist

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

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England

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A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England
Steven Shapin
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPQICA

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Book Description

Fighting the Forces explores the struggle to create meaning in an impressive example of popular culture, the television series phenomenon Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the essays collected here, contributors examine the series using a variety of techniques and viewpoints. They analyze the social and cultural issues implicit in the series and place it in its literary context, not only by examining its literary influences (from German liebestod to Huckleberry Finn) but also by exploring the series' purposeful literary allusions. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Customer Reviews:

Television studies.......2007-08-18

Lavery/Wilcox is "the Man" and "The Woman" when it comes to TV studies and continuing the serious interest of academics and artists into BtVS and other Whedon projects and numerous Television programs. These essays provide us with the ongoing diversity of thought so fascinating in our perceptions of the Slayer and what it means to us in todays society.

Buffy as a Study for Scholars?.......2004-12-28

Unbelievable, but true. Buffy has become such a cultural icon that college professors and scholars have written critical essays on the teen television series. Buffy as a television series was entertaining, but these scholars have dug deep enough to unearth a smarter Buffy. There is more to Buffy than dressing fashionably, vampires, and Sunnydale. And this book reveals it.

Pretty deep.......2004-10-08

This is a very well written informative book. However it reads like a college level psychology text book. Pretty bland and pretty intellectual. A bit over my highschool head.

a solid body of academic work on the series.......2003-11-07

As a collection of critical essays on pop culture, I'd probably only give this 4 stars, but this is head and shoulders above the rest in comparison with the other collections of Buffy academia I've slogged through lately. (Reading the Vampire Slayer and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy - both good in their own right, but rather unpolished).

This collection has both the widest number of topics, and some of the best written essays on the show I've read. We get the usual ones like feminism, female representation, and race, as well as some extremely interesting ones on language uses and a nice homage to the creator. Like all collections of this type, there's a nice hefty appendix of sources and references, mostly online due to the relative lack of published work, but a surprising amount of them reference 'ordinary' fans (those of us without a PhD. in media studies). We also get a nice healthy examination of fanfiction and the fan dynamic, unlike one rather anemic essay in another volume. If you're having a hard time deciding how to get into cultural critisism, ignore the rather stuffy cover and check this out.

A great collection of academic essays on Buffy.......2003-09-14

There is no such thing as a perfect anthology, but by any reasonable standards, this one is first rate. The inherent problem with the anthology is that its contents are comprised by the contributions of a number of individuals. On the one hand, not every reader will find all the essays in any anthology of equal interest, while on the other, not every essay in a collection is going to be on the par of every other selection. In FIGHT THE FORCES, this is as true as well. The volume is edited by Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery, the editors for the online journal SLAYAGE: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUFFY STUDIES (www.slayage.tv).

As both a lover of Buffy and an academic, I have been somewhat surprised and delighted with the embrasure of Buffy/Angel by academics and intellectuals. At the moment, there are three academic anthologies on Buffy currently available, and three more that I know of on their way (Christopher Weimer's forthcoming MONSTERS AND METAPHORS: ESSAYS ON BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, Lisa Parks's RED NOISE: TELEVISION STUDIES AND BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, and Glenn Yeffeth's SEVEN SEASONS OF BUFFY: SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY WRITERS DISCUSS THEIR FAVORITE TELEVISION SHOW, which should be out just a few days from the moment I am writing this review). What is most amazing about all this interest is that none that I have encountered is at all dismissive of television as a medium, as so many who write on TV shows are. All these writers assume that a truly great television show can warrant as much or more attention that a great movie or the body of work of a great film director.

As of this moment, I would rate FIGHTING THE FORCES as one of the two finest academic books available on Buffy, along with Roz Kaveney's READING THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, and above James South's BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER AND PHILOSOPHY. Most of the essays in this collection are at least interesting, and several are fascinating. Though at a disadvantage to the South collection by having been written with only knowledge of the fifth season, the essays all have relevance beyond. My favorite essays tended to be in the first section, entitled "Forces of Society and Culture: Gender, Generations, Violence, Class, Race, and Religion." Many of the essays are exceptional. Some are less than gripping, and one, a Jungian analysis of the dreams in Buffy, is one of the hardest-to-ingest essays I have ever read (I have decided that I must be completely immune to the purported charms of Jung).

For Buffy fans, I would recommend that only those with some academic proclivities give this book a try. Understanding academic articles doesn't depend on intelligence as much as habit, and if one hasn't worked through a number of academic essays before this, it isn't likely to be much fun or shed any insight on Buffy. On the other hand, academics who remain disdainful of Buffy probably need to go work through at least the first five seasons of Buffy and the first two of Angel before giving this collection a whirl.

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Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. .(Book Review): An article from: Extrapolation
Dorothy Kuykendal
Manufacturer: Extrapolation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Classics | Comic | Contemporary | Literary
General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B0008FQKLA
Release Date: 2005-07-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Extrapolation, published by Extrapolation on September 22, 2002. The length of the article is 770 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: Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. .(Book Review)
Author: Dorothy Kuykendal
Publication: Extrapolation (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2002
Publisher: Extrapolation
Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Page: 352(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Premiere 6 is Adobe's award-winning digital video editing software. Teach Yourself VISUALLY Premiere 6 is the full-color tutorial with clear, concise, jargon-free instructions with over 500 color screenshots throughout. This book is jam-packed with information that goes beyond the basics. You'll find out how to edit digital video in Premiere; create special effects; integrate narration, music and/or sound effects with moving images; and create digital video productions out of camcorder movies.

Customer Reviews:

Tackling Premiere 6 the Easy Way.......2003-01-07

This is a great book. I totally disagree with the previous customer review. I found the book very helpful, it got me up and running fast with the software, and the pictures really showed me what was going on each step of the way. I am a very visual learner, so I'm looking for clarity in the illustrations, which this book offers. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to start tackling Premiere 6 in a matter of moments.

3 Stars is Generous........2002-12-03

There seems to be a lot of "Teach Yourself Visually" books on the market these days, so I guess the format works for some, but it definately didn't do much for me.

It was boring, lacked detailed information, and seemed to start in the middle of what you'd need to know to get started, so I lost interest quickly.

The entire book is basically written in point form, with not so helpful screenshots to guide you through, but it never gives any detailed information on anything - instead assuming that the reader just wants to learn where to point the mouse. If that's all you DO want, maybe this is for you. If you want to really LEARN about using this professional software, look somewhere else.

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