The Insurance Agent's Guide to Telephone Prospecting: Money-Making Power Strategies from a Top Teleprospector

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The one-job wage earner, for so many generations a bulwark of industrialized society, has all but passed away. We perceive this as contemporary reality, yet it has not been easy to cite the facts and figures necessary to build a stable foundation for the social security of tomorrow's population. Now the European Institute of Social Security, a leading multidisciplinary research group dedicated to exploring the frontiers of social security, has taken the crucial first steps with an in-depth examination of the new and atypical work relations that are emerging. The research and conclusions in this book will greatly help policymakers to identify the areas in which existing social security systems can meaningfully accommodate the new realities of work. Changing Work Patterns and Social Security records the proceedings of the 1999 Conference of the EISS, held at Limassol in Cyprus, to consider the relations of atypical work patterns and social protection. Among the important issues raised are: + the real extent of the atypical work phenomenon; + the difficulties relating to the assessment of the incomes of the self-employed; + the social protection of the farmer in Europe; and + the shortcomings of existing social security systems vis-a-vis self-employment and part-time work. The analysis of current trends presented in this book will interest and inform anyone -- whether in government, business or academia -- concerned with the development and future of social protection systems, not only in Europe but throughout the world.

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West of the Moon

West of the Moon: A Border Patrol Agent's Tale
D. B. Prehoda
Manufacturer: Stoney Hill Farm
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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On The Line: Inside the U.S. Border Patrol

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Patrolling Chaos: The U.s. Border Patrol in Deep South Texas

ASIN: 097624280X

Book Description

West of the Moon is a recounting of D.B. Prehoda's early adventures as a Border Patrol Agent stationed on the southwest border of the United States, separating Texas from Mexico.

Drawing on his experiences at the Border Patrol Academy in Brunswick, Georgia, at his home station in Sanderson, Texas, and during nights spent in the desert as a member of an elite, narcotics interdiction team, D.B. Prehoda weaves a lighthearted tale of a budding civil service career with somber chapters dedicated to the tracking and apprehension of a murder suspect, and the rescue of lost souls.

Customer Reviews:

West of the Moon.......2006-07-20

A very entertaining story about a border patrol agent with a
great sense of humor. Wished it could have been longer.

Book Description

Talking Music is comprised of substantial original conversations with seventeen American experimental composers and musicians-including Milton Babbitt, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, and John Zorn-many of whom rarely grant interviews. The author skillfully elicits candid dialogues that encompass technical explorations; questions of method, style, and influence; their personal lives and struggles to create; and their aesthetic goals and artistic declarations. Herein, John Cage recalls the turning point in his career; Ben Johnston criticizes the operas of his teacher Harry Partch; La Monte Young attributes his creative discipline to a Morman childhood; and much more. The results are revelatory conversations with some of America's most radical musical innovators.

Customer Reviews:

A very intertaining and solid introduction.......2001-11-04

This is a very entertaining collection of interviews. Duckworth takes his time to explore the issues sufficiently deeply with his interlocutors. Hence, there is substance to the book: it certainly is more than a loose collection of freewheeling conversations. And I am grateful for the fact that Bill Duckworth expanded his survey beyond the obvious collection of Minimalists and Cage. I knew nothing about Pauline Oliveros, Glen Branca or La Monte Young and came away refreshed from reading all their stories. I was generally satisfied by the way Duckworth steers the interviews. The tone is relaxed, sometimes earnest, sometimes tongue-in-cheeck. He is at his very best in the long, sometimes rambling conversations with La Monte Young and John Zorn. But in other cases - such as with the more rigorous and perhaps intellectually more intimidating personality of Steve Reich - Duckworth rigidly sticks to his agenda and fails to capture a number of potentially interesting tangents. The interview with John Cage is outright funny in the way Duckworth fails to catch on with what Cage really tries to get across. He keeps asking the wrong questions whilst Cage, with dwindling patience, is making broad excursions in conceptual hyperspace. But if Duckworth fails to capture a number of interesting opportunities to dig deeper in some of the interviews, this remains a very valuable collection, at least for those new to the whole field of American experimental music.

great fascinating interviews on American creativity.......2000-05-09

Willian Duckworth is marvelous at asking questions,he is so natural at it that he makes you feel you have known his guests all your life. He allows everyone to feel at home, at ease,like catching more flies with sugar quip. Like asking John Cage for instance, "I don't have a very good understanding of what your early musical training was like,". or to La Monte Young, asking if he is the "father of minimalism", I guess it doesn't matter now, since most of what is discussed has played itself out. Here Duckworth interviews creators of primary creative genres of Americana leaning toward the achievements of all the various,nefarious "isms", experimentalism, minimalism, well just intonation doesn't fit, and the ubiquitously opaque post-modernity. And progressing from who are considered the Mammas and Pappas to the younger generation.The genre of Interviews seem to be occurring with greater frequency,speaking of one of the features of post-modernity. It is the most immediate way of knowing someone's art, aesthetic, how they feel about the world,about politics, or how they don't feel. Obsessions are explored in these interviews,as with John Zorn's early buying jags of recordings,jazz etc.,and formative years as with La Monte Young and his obsessions with sound, listening to telephone generators,or machines, the inherent drone in these industrial objects,Also professional associations, and disassociations with the New York scene,Fluxus which includes,just about everyone here interviewed is probed, with nice discussions of the early years of performance art in New York City. Education away from academia was an important component of American music,sorry to say, with those of the post war-generation turning to the east, and World Music, as Steve Reich, Phil Glass,Lou Harrison, Pauline Oliveros and La Monte Young. Young in particular reflects on his education with Pandit Pran Nath on intonation and improvisation and learning it with Marian Zazeela.Professional associations, how to survive by being a performance artist, Duckworth pursues and explores with Meridith Monk and Laurie Anderson, finding gigs in New York City or Europe again was everyone's passion.How do you work? is also a wonderful question, Monk reflects that she has to work all the time to feel attached, whereas she knows composers who don't work for months and claim to feel they don't lose anything. How creators get into ,what they get into, as Ben Johnston reflects on his early education with instrument iconoclast Harry Partch, how Partch taught Johnston to sing fractional tones, an eleventh/sixteenth, and how Partch would devote mornings to music, and afternoons to physical work, building sheds,or home extensions,or gathering wood. Also Johnston speaks about his wonderful string quartets, the Seventh in particular which is based on an 100-tone scale, and how we come to understand it via the relationships it represents rather than hearing 100 isolated tones. With Lou Harrison we have almost a history of American music, in that his life traversed through the primary achievements, the interests in World Music, Tunings, percussion music, and extended techniques,living on both coasts. But Harrison claims he was always a melodic composer, he had to sing whatever he wrote first, to attach himself to the world of sound, no matter how complex his music became.Some interviews are boring however as the the one with Phillip Glass where he simply recounts his life, and his interests, there was not a spirit of adventure, of discovery.Whereas Milton Babbitt has wonderful reflections on his early studies in music with Roger Sessions, and how Babbitt felt he needed to start over. The interview with Christian Wolff was over before it got interesting,Wolff primarily discussed his early music, the pieces associated with the Cage School(Cage,Feldman,Brown,Wolff)(nice photo of them)instead of traversing the set of problematics of dealing with political imagery. That question came as the very last one."Are you still writing political music?". Duckworth admirably gives nice introductions to each composer, and makes you feel the center of where creativity occurs, what excites an artist,and where challenge and repose occurs within music.One good question here always was"When did you first hear of John Cage", or what was the first piece of "so and so" you heard. This makes for a marvelous discussion on what were the initial indeliable moments on one's creative life. Not everyone is gifted at interviews it is a conditioned and practiced art. This work is a great model toward that genre.

Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers.: An article from: Notes

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Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers.: An article from: Notes
Allison Welch
Manufacturer: Music Library Association, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on December 1, 1997. The length of the article is 934 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: Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers.
Author: Allison Welch
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1997
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: v54 Issue: n2 Page: p497(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Talking Music Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers

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Talking Music Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers
William DUCKWORTH
Manufacturer: Schirmer Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O93VWQ

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Talking Music: Conversations with John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Five Generations of American Experimental Composers
William Duckworth
Manufacturer: Da Capo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSJCU2

Book Description

This book seeks to examine the ways medieval genre shapes contemporary public culture. Through an exploration of several contemporary cultural phenomena, this book reveals the narrative underpinnings of public discourse. The ways these particular forms of storytelling shape our assumptions are examined by Angela Jane Weisl through a series of examples that demonstrate the intrinsic ways medievalism persists in the modern world, thus perpetuating archaic ideas of gender, ideology, and doctrine.

Customer Reviews:

For Anyone Who Cares About Pop Culture or The Middle Ages.......2003-11-21

Have you ever wondered why a dusty, misshapen baseball can sell at auction for a staggering sum of money? Read this book. Do you scratch your head over the way sportswriters and broadcasters build up, tear down and then resurrect the "heroes" they cover? Read this book. Have you ever visited a Hall of Fame and asked yourself why the sight of old uniforms and trophies seemed to connect you with something larger than yourself? Read this book. Have you ever wondered why female crew-members of futuristic starships so often sport mini-skirts or cat-suits? Read this book. Did you think it strange or horrible or wonderful that an exhibition devoted to "Star Wars" made the rounds of American Museums recently? Read this book. Not only does it illuminate all these curious corners of American cultural life (and more), it does so with a grace and humor rarely found in academic writing, surprisingly finding answers in a detailed comparison with parallel phenomena of Medieval culture. This wonderful book, in sum, is at once delightful to read and intellectually accomplished, addressing the surprising persistence of the cultural values of the Middle Ages in modern popular culture (which Weisl astutely distinguishes from mass culture by reference to the active participation of fans themselves--the populace--in its creation, dissemination and preservation). Only one tiny quibble: the frontispiece, which shows St. Christopher as a gigantic baseball hero carrying an adoring child over a stream, really ought to be the cover, as it perfectly expresses the double-vision of the book itself.

Book Description

How does Star Trek's Captain Kirk live by the Golden Rule? How does The Twilight Zone show the effects of original sin in our world? And how do the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse make an appearance in The X-Files? In The Truth Is Out There, Thomas Bertonneau and Kim Paffenroth examine these and many other Christian themes in six highly popular science fiction television series-Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and Babylon Five. The authors analyze each series to show its insight into many central aspects of Christianity, such as the battle between good and evil, virtue, community, grace, and the apocalypse. Their discussion will interest science fiction fans and will be a useful guide for church groups or undergraduate courses in pop culture.

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating concept.......2007-02-06

I am neither a science-fiction enthusiast nor a Christian. However, I am a long-time devotee of The Twilight Zone, and found myself intrigued by the concept of this book. As an impressionable youth at the time of the Twilight Zone's initial run, I always felt that the Twilight Zone was not "just a TV show," but rather presented a fairly coherent, if covert, value system that underlay and unified the various episodes, while offering a subtly didactic message. The authors of this book have analyzed the show from this standpoint and come up with a remarkable way of understanding this value system, expressed in a highly readable way. The style of the book is neither pompously academic nor heavy-handedly sectarian. But it is engaging and thought-provoking. I recommend it to all fans of TV science fiction, and not just Christians.

A Book Trekkies Must Not Miss!.......2006-08-27

In an exploration of the contemporary vernacular of television, Kim Paffenroth and Thomas Bertonneau have articulated the ways that modern scientific investigation can enhance one's Christian faith. For too many years, too many preachers and theologians have kept either an uneasy distance between science and religion, or have felt compelled to elevate one, while denigrating the other. These authors have used six television shows, Doctor Who, Star Trek, The Prisoner, The Twilight Zone, The X-Files and Babylon 5, to examine the ways such television shows acknowledge a God who is intimately engaged with humans. Each of these television shows offered its viewers iconic archetypal heroes and villains, ones who are not that different from the great figures of the biblical text. Over time these productions grappled with human choices when presented with ethical dilemmas. They looked into the multidimensional faces of evil in the human realm. Viewers were thrust into the midst of such grand storytelling, right along with the characters in the television production. These authors have looked at the power of one aspect of the popular culture, linked it to theology in informed ways, and offered conclusions that are hopeful. Rather than reject television as "trash," Bertonneau and Paffenroth offer readers a fascinating analytical consideration of an inextricable part of our everyday lives.

[Rev. Sandra M. Rushing: Author of the upcoming book The Judas Legacy]

What is truth?.......2006-08-10

This is very much a book that I wish I had written. I have been a fan of science fiction for as long as I can remember (I can't quite remember the original Star Trek in first run, but it was in recent re-run when I first acquired sentience and memory...).

One of the hallmarks of successful science fiction (as opposed to the significant volume of bad science fiction that comes out each year) is that it doesn't rely exclusively on futuristic ideas of where science and technology will go, but rather delves deeply into the meaning of life and other significant issues of existence, relationship and cosmological understanding that people find important regardless of the time and technological period in which they live. A case in point is Star Trek - issues arise in most episodes of most of the series that deal not just with life and death, but what is important in life? By playing off against in-human or un-human characters like the Vulcans or the Klingons (or even more exotic, albeit often poorly constructed, creatures), the important aspects of human nature can be brought forward in ingenious ways.

Authors Thomas Bertonneau and Kim Paffenroth begin the text by discussing the relationships of science, religion and storytelling. There is a long history of this triad, which have rarely all been pulling together in the same direction, but not always opposed to each other, either. Bertonneau and Paffenroth trace the origins of science fiction back to ancient Greece, whose writings at the time combined elements of philosophy, religion and science in ways that often did not recognise a distinction between the fields the way modern academia and popular imagination does. Of course, these all contain ideas that lead into each other and the human condition. 'In giving us a cosmic perspective on ourselves, science and science fiction restore us to a proper humility - a meekness before the awe of creation appropriate to our station.'

One might wonder at the absence of films here - after all, the Joseph Campbell/Star Wars mythology would seem a natural tie-in for the subject. However, the authors liken the television shows to epic poetry - the serial aspect shows (generally speaking) the same sets of characters in recurring dilemmas, much the way epic poetry did. Most films do not have that aspect (although the Star Wars series approaches epic proportions). Also, television gives a kind of accessibility that films (until recently) did not have - an 'in-home' quality that is analogous in ways to Jesus' parables, which are much more home-spun in nature when compared to philosophical treatises of Greek and Roman writers of his same time.

Bertonneau and Paffenroth highlight six particular series: Dr. Who (the original British version), Star Trek (the original generation), The Prisoner, The Twilight Zone (Rod Serling's time), The X Files, and Babylon 5. The authors do not expect readers to be familiar with each of the shows (although the more obsessive science fiction fans - short for fanatic, of which I am one - will likely know them all), but expect because of the pervasive influence these shows have had on popular culture that every reader will be familiar with some aspects of some of the shows. However, these shows are in many ways counter-cultural, which the basic Christian message also tended and tends to be. 'Science fiction's determination to take a lofty view distinguishes it from other popular genres, which tend to be preoccupied with various forms of adolescent resentment.' Even so-called adult dramas tend to be replays of basic relationship patterns established early - the kind of discussion of the nature of good and evil or the nature of truth rarely comes up in these shows as it might in science fiction.

These are far from perfect shows, to be sure, and are not a replacement for the gospel. Ever mindful of the biblical injunctions against idolatry, authors Bertonneau and Paffenroth show how these science fiction shows take that issue as an important one - meanwhile, other shows are becoming idols (indeed, there is even a popular show right now with the very word in its title, but like idols of the ancient world, very little in terms of ultimate truth comes forward from them). Again Star Trek can be held up as an example here: 'it repeatedly examines the nature of good and evil, human nature, progress, reason and emotion, and most of all, virtue. Star Trek became and remains so popular because it does not just entertain but inquires into questions of ultimate meaning and purpose with thoughtfulness, ambiguity, and insight.' These shows tell stories that have a moral - and as often as not, these morals correspond to values the gospel message also tries to impart.

There are books out there bearing the title 'The Gospel according to the Simpsons,' 'The Gospel according to Disney,' and even 'The Gospel according to Sherlock Holmes,' but this book, 'The Truth is Out There,' doesn't have to put up as much struggle with its base subject to fit the underlying substance of theology and philosophy as the previous texts. The truth is out there, and in here, and can be found.

Pilate's question - what is truth? - is a question worth asking. Science fiction is one of the few popular forums in which this discussion continues.

A Very Satisfying Read!.......2006-06-27

I found my read of "The Truth is Out There" by Bertonneau and Paffenroth enjoyable and satisfying. I'm not a scholar but I had no trouble moving through the chapters and I gained not only a new perspective on some of my favorite entertainment but I discovered a few fascinating facts that has me looking at it again.

The historical review of the classic "science vs religion" argument in the opening chapter was revelatory for me. I think anyone who isn't already familiar with the work of Rene Girard (whose theory of literary analysis is integral to the authors' thesis) will find the words, "Well I'll be darned!" escaping from their lips, paragraph by paragraph.

There is much more surprise to this book than just the unexpected subtitle, "Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction". (I think the publishers should have dropped "Christian" as this rich insight into things religious is a mutli-faith one.)

I learned something about myself as well from Bertonneau and Paffenroth... there is good reason why so many simple but haunting images from the Twilight Zone and The Prisoner have lingered in my imagination for decades.

Read this book.

Serious AND entertaining.......2006-06-23

I have to disagree with the Publisher's Weekly review at the top of the page. Overall, the book isn't "stuffy" at all; it's easy to engage with and, yes, entertaining. You simply need to think it's cool that the more you know the Book of Revelation, the more you understand the X-Files.

In this genre (academics writing about TV shows) you can find some very good books and some very bad ones. The bad ones are all the same: academics who are bored with what they do -- theories of the self deconstructed blah blah -- try to juice it up by discovering it in the midst of a sitcom. The result is unpersuasive, condescending, and boring.

*The Truth is Out There* is one of the good ones. I'd rank it among the few (for example, Paul Cantor's *Gilligan Unbound*) that see how the best entertainment always has something serious at stake. You can try to make entertainment that takes *nothing* seriously, but that's a really serious development too. (See Thomas Hibbs, *Shows About Nothing*, another great example of what can be done with the genre.) As anyone who is really into these science fiction shows will tell you, they are most fun when you take them most seriously. That's what *TTIOT* does.

Just how Christian these shows are is a hard question, and the Christian readings advanced in the book will be controversial. All the better. I'd love to see the authors engage in phaser warfare with Cantor, who also deals with Star Trek and the X-Files but reads them very differently.

Book Description

* From the garage to the living room, Geek House provides hackers with 10 PC-based hardware hacking projects that are not for the faint of heart!
* Taking the DIY mentality to a whole new level, this book teaches techies how to hack, customize, and modify everything-from their sprinkler systems to the temperature of their barbecues
* Adventurous readers will feast on such projects as installing a bar code inventory system for DVDs or CDs, converting RS232 to wireless, scheduling recording from any television in the house, and creating a remote control finder
* Companion Web site includes the custom software and source code needed to power these geeky creations

Download Description

"* From the garage to the living room, Geek House provides hackers with 10 PC-based hardware hacking projects that are not for the faint of heart!
* Taking the DIY mentality to a whole new level, this book teaches techies how to hack, customize, and modify everything-from their sprinkler systems to the temperature of their barbecues
* Adventurous readers will feast on such projects as installing a bar code inventory system for DVDs or CDs, converting RS232 to wireless, scheduling recording from any television in the house, and creating a remote control finder
* Companion Web site includes the custom software and source code needed to power these geeky creations"

Customer Reviews:

Not realistic.......2005-08-06

I'm interested in X10 projects as well as other home automation projects throughout the house but I thought this book was a little out of tune to what you realistically would do. I was captured by measuring the temperature of a grill and adjusting the heat. This is showing you a control for a "smoker." Other items you can easily find on the internet such as X10 devices, sprinkler control, etc.

Great Project Frameworks and Ideas.......2005-05-03

This book is by the authors of PC Toys. The PC Toys projects are relatively easy to implement and spoon feed the reader all the material needed to complete the toys.

I think this is an excellent book. I'm very comfortable with software and coding, but not that great with electronics.

This book is more ambitious, provides good road maps for the different project areas, but the book is written with the intent of the reader branching out and developing their own solution. My interests are X-10 and Wireless based projects.

The companion website provides alot of source code that can be tweeked, or rewritten for your own particular project.

Negatives: not for beginers, could be insufficient for "experts". These statement may be contrary, but instructions lack detail for a complete novice. At the same time, if you have a particular interest in a given area, this book might not be providing you with anything new.

Check out the contents before buying to ensure your going to get a book that gives you the amount of detail you need. A look at the contents page and a quick skim should help decide if it is right for you.

If you liked PC toys, could manage the projects and want something more challenging the chances are you'll like this book. I think it's an excellent source of inspiration for projects.

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