Never Call Your Broker on Monday

Book Description

Whether readers are eighteen or eighty, Never Call Your Broker on Monday covers the entire spectrum of finances, including real estate, bank accounts, insurance premiums, wills and estates, taxes, loans, investment clubs, retirement accounts, stocks, bonds, credit cards, home improvements, child care, education, shopping, and debt reduction. A mixture of both practical and sophisticated strategies-from visit the ATM once a week and write off your investment expenses, to invest in multinational companies when the U.S. dollar is down and buy a car in December-makes this invaluable volume unique in today's marketplace. And just by following three or four of the lessons found here, readers are virtually guaranteed to save money-or make more of it.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2004-03-07

This wonderfully written (and quick read) has over 300 great tips ranging from filled how to save money, earn more money, and how to invest your money. A lot of this information is common sense but it is very nice to have it in a handy book form (also would make an excellent stocking stuffer, it's February and I'm already thinking of next Christmas....)

So why listen to Nancy Dunnan?

Well she is a well respected financial advisor that has been on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg she writes for Your Money magazine among others.

One of my favorite tips in this book is this and I quote:

"After writing your rent or mortgage check, make the next one out for savings. Begin saving 1% of your take-home pay and increase it by 1% each month. By the end of a year you'll be saving a respectable 12%."

Now I think that is wonderful since in my opinion I think a lot of people don't save money because it seems like they can't "live" without all of the money they make. This one tip explains to me that if I just live on 1% less each month (and save the money) I will have more money later on. The other tips in this book are very good as well, check it out.

Reed Floren

Five Plus Stars.......2003-10-28

Found this book in a bag of books sent by a friend. Discovered it to be extremely down to earth. Being at the other end of the financial ruler(Retired) I discovered much of the content of this book I had learned and exercised which brought me to financial security in my fiftys.It is all in there for the young to learn. I will add one though. Watch the rich and live the way they do. The rich are not the flamboyant spenders,you will have to search for the quiet ones, they have the money and will always have it.Wealth is held, not thrown around like a football.One more tip; When you eleminate debt and stay out of it you are in todays world earning at least 8 to 18 percent per annum. That will give you a good start.

Wisdom I wish I'd known years ago.......1998-08-11

This is a fun book of handy advice about handling your money from somebody who obviously knows what she's talking about. I liked this so much I bought five copies for my nephews and nieces so they'll get a good start with their money.

I loved both her books.......1998-02-20

Nancy Dunnan's book should be on one of those page-a-day calendar cubes.

Average customer rating:

NEVER CALL YOUR BROKER ON MONDAY
Nancy Dunnan
Manufacturer: Harper
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000MW8KR6

Never Call Your Broker on Monday: And 300 Other Financial Lessons You Can't Afford Not to Know

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Never Call Your Broker on Monday: And 300 Other Financial Lessons You Can't Afford Not to Know
Nancy Dunnan
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF0OUW

Book Description

Today's corporations understand the need for diversity awareness, but most lack an effective organizational strategy. This thoroughly updated bestseller is packed with information, worksheets, charts, and other valuable features for program implementation, evaluation, and measurement; conducting a diversity audit; and maximizing the many talents of employees.

Customer Reviews:

Great resource to help explain diversity initiative.......1999-04-06

This book provides a great "big-picture" view of what a diversity initiative might involve. The authors address diversity with a perspective that a diversity initiative is more than an education program, and give explanation to some othe systems and processes that must be addressed in order to be successful at integrating diversity into an organization. A big positive is that the authros do not use the race/gender basis for diversity, but expand the definition to include many other characteristics that almost all people can realte to. I highly recommend the book.

Trite, simplistic and not worth the money.......1998-12-12

Managing diversity is a subject that does not lend itself to simplistic, checklist solutions. Yet, that is exactly what the authors provide - a plethora of superficial recipes. Not particularly thoughtful and not at all practical for real-world use.

Real diversity management is far more complicated than this text would suggest!

Book Description

This collection of essays commissioned by the SPTL (Society of Public Teachers of Law) brings together the views of leading experts in legal education a a debate about the aims and achievements of legal education in the 20th century and the challenges which legal education faces on the verge of the 21st century. The themes in this collection are important ones for the future of legal education and the legal profession and they are not by any means confined to the interests of English lawyers. The challenges faced by English law are found in many other countries around the world including Australia, the USA and other parts of the European Union. These essays will therefore be of interest to a world-wide audience of legal educators. The questions raised by some of the contributors are also of wider significance in the debate about the role of universities. Law, like medicine, is frequently regarded as a subject worthy of university education merely because graduates are needed to provide the profession with its new recruits. But English law schools have always maintained a distinctively scholarly mission reflecting a wider liberal commitment to education. As the 20th century draws to a close universities face unprecedented pressure and in the teaching of law the battle lines are now drawn between those who favour, on the one hand, a rigorous intellectual approach to the teaching of law and those, on the other hand, who would see law schools reduced to being feeder institutions for the legal profession. It is the importance of the essays in this volume that they eschew either a simple analysis of the problems facing legal education or the solutions, many of them equally simplistic, which abound in the current climate of discussion. By tackling the issues in a historical, comparative and empirical fashion these essays contribute greatly to a better understanding of the ideals which deserve to be preserved in ant system of legal education.

Book Description

Tom Van Flandern's book adds a new dimension to cosmology--not only does it present a novel approach to timeless issues, it stands up to the closest scientific scrutiny. Even the most respected scientists today will readily admit that the Big Bang Theory is full of holes. But it takes a new look, like Dark Matter, Missing Planets, and New Comets, to explain not only why the theory is wrong but what to substitute in its place. If you are curious about such things as the nature of matter and the origin of the solar system, but feel inadequately equipped to grasp what modern science has to say about such things, read this book. You will not get the all too common condescending attempt to water down the `mysteries' of modern science into a form intelligible to little non scientist you, but rather a straightforward new theory, logically derived in front of your eyes, which challenges the roots of many of today's complex accepted paradigms, yet whose essence is simple enough to be thoroughly communicated to the intelligent layman without "losing it in the translation."

Customer Reviews:

thinking about fundamentals - a tour de force.......2006-07-14

I was extremely impressed by the amount of thinking that went into this book. Whether you agree with Van Flandern or not, he goes deep, challenging fundamental assumptions at every turn. His writing is also first rate. Van Flandern is very good at communicating difficult ideas -- not an easy thing to do.

I started out skeptical about exploding planets. By the end the author had almost convinced me. In the process I learned a great deal about celestial mechanics. I found especially appealing his idea that gravity has limited range of 2 parsecs. That would explain so many things. Like Van Flandern, I regard the Big Bang as a lot of nonsense. I also suspect that he is probably correct about the origin of the Valles Marineris on Mars -- the deepest canyon in the solar system. What an ingenious idea. And I admire Van Flandern for discussing controversial subjects, such as the monuments of Mars. His updated synthesis is the best I have seen yet. Clearly R.C. Hoagland benefitted greatly from Van Flanern's ideas. What a story.

I disagree with the author in several areas. Van Flandern could be correct that most comets originated from a disintegrated planet. That is plausible, though whether this happened via an explosion or a collision, I still have my doubts. I suspect there have always been rogue objects of unknown origin moving through the solar system. His explanation why these objects could not come from interstellar space was not entirely clear to me. Hale Bopp was much too large to be derived from a moon sized body.

The book was published before the discoveries of Hyakutake's ephemeral tail and cometary x-rays, which in my view are diagnostic for an electrical cometary connection. I wonder if Van Flandern is aware that several years ago a physicist in New Mexico demonstrated that terrestrial lightning causes x-rays, a discovery that's been confirmed many times, since. I believe that cometary x-rays and those caused by lightning are one and the same phenomenon.

I subscribe to the solar capacitor model. In my view the astronomer Bessel was correct long ago when he argued for an electrical connection between sun and comet. Van Flandern's discussion of comets touches on but neglects to discuss in full a most telling point: That comets are wildly variable in their brightness. Why, for example, was Halleys' comet 200X as bright after perihelion as before, at the same distance from the sun? Fred Hoyle described its display as a series of explosions. This sort of show could not be due to reflected light, alone, even if Van Flandern is correct that some of the material in the coma is debris from the original break up. I believe the extreme variability of X-ray generation and brightness is caused by solar flares and coronal mass ejections. In other words, there is a direct connection between sun and comet. Nor can a break up model account for the preponderance of smoke sized particles in the coma. The same is true for the vast cloud of hydrogen surrounding comets. All of this suggests electrical phenomena -- which NASA and mainstream science continue to ignore and dismiss.

I believe that comets draw in ionized material from the rear via the tail. And free hydrogen is attracted to the negatively charged nucleus from all directions. This is not my model. I don't take credit for it, though I won't mention the originator's name because I promised him I would not. (His initials are J M)

A few other points: I doubt very much if the rings of Saturn are as old as Van Flandern thinks. Back when the fine detail in the rings first became known, the astronomers Victor Clube and Bill Napier argued that the rings could not be older than 10-20,000 years. After which the fine detail would gradually wash out and be lost. I suspect that physicist Paul LaViolette is correct that the rings are the signature of a recent event (see his book Earth Under Fire). In LaViolette's view this was caused by a galactic superwave. LaViolette thinks the cosmic wave pushed the sun's nebular cloud of dust back into our solar system, wreaking all manner of havoc, causing the ice ages etc. The same explanation would account for the zodiacal disk, a remnant that apparently is tipped 3 degrees away from the plane of the solar system, i.e., in the direction of the galactic center. Again, this is Paul's argument.

My other point of disagreement concerns Venus. Van Flandern's link with Mercury implies that Venus is a very old planet. How, then do we account for its tremendous heat? Venus should have cooled down long ago. The Magellan Mission showed that the planet is 85% volcanic -- though I suspect even this high number understates the reality. Could a greenhouse cause this? Of course not. The heat is coming from the planetary core. But why? Simple. Venus is very young, perhaps only a few thousand years old. I've studied the so called Venusian impact craters and can discern no difference between them and the planet's volcanic craters. Some of the "impact" craters actually have large associated lava extrusions. In my view most or all of them are volcanic in origin. Venus has many volcanic features unique in the solar system -- why? Simple. It is the youngest planet, by far.

I believe Venus was originally a giant comet that was captured by the sun. I know celestial mechanics can't explain the how of this -- but if it's shown that large comets do attract ionized material from the rear they can actually add enormous amounts of mass, which would slow them down, shortening their period and making capture a realistic possibility. I suspect that some of the other planets (and some of the moons) had a similar origin.

In short, I largely agree with Van Flandern. But I also hold for an altogether different capture mechanism (originated by J M) governed by electromagnetism. In an unpublished draft of his Principia Isaac Newton wrote:

"He who investigates the laws and effects of electrical forces with the same success and certainty [by which I have investigated celestial mechanics] will greatly promote philosophy [i.e., natural philosophy], even if perhaps he does not know the cause of these forces. First the phenomenon should be observed, then their proximate causes, and afterward the causes of the causes, should be investigated, and finally it will be possible to come down to the causes of the causes (established by phenomena) to their effects, by arguing a priori..."

Plenty of dubious ideas.......2004-11-11

This book sure has some wild hypotheses! But I think they tend to show not imagination and courage but poor intuition.

Let's start with Van Flandern's idea that gravity propagates much faster than c, the speed of light. That is, does the Sun pull you towards where it is, or to where it was 8 minutes ago? I think Newton might well have agreed with Van Flandern's argument that were gravity to propagate at c, planetary orbits around the Sun would be gravitationally damped and unstable, and the Solar System would not exist.

But this argument is false. It is the same for electromagnetism. A charge moving at constant speed pulls you towards where it will be when the field reaches you. A charge moving with constant velocity does not radiate: the lowest order radiation term is the dipole term, corresponding to an accelerating charge. And gravitational radiation depends not on the dipole term, but the typically much smaller quadrupole term, which can become significant for a body with a changing acceleration.

Examinations of binary pulsars have indicated that a quadrupole moment does indeed lead to a gravitational damping and orbit decay. Not only that, the decay is consistent to within 1% of the speed of gravity equaling c. I find that convincing. Moreover, near-occultation observations of quasars may support this conclusion as well. And on top of that, a speed of gravity greater than c would transmit a signal backwards in time.

Van Flandern argues that there is nothing special about c, given that we use electromagnetic waves to measure time and length. He's wrong. As Swiatecki and others have illustrated, the constancy of c is a consequence of the local spacetime manifold. Imagine a number of very thin boards with identical rectilinear grids and identical synchronized stopwatches fixed at all gridpoints on all boards. Now let the boards slide around at varying speeds and directions. Then smash one of the watches on the top board so hard that it stops all the watches directly beneath it. Later, smash another one the same way. You'll quickly discover the differential interval between spacetime events, and that will give you the value of c. And we've found c without any reference to light or to Maxwell's equations.

Van Flandern supports the "fission" theory for the origin of the Moon, rather than the "giant impact" theory. While that's still possible, evidence is leaning heavily away from his idea.

Now, what about a recently exploding planet creating the asteroid belt? Well, sure, there are many asteroid orbits that are unstable over really long times. But there's plenty of evidence that some asteroids have been around since the beginning of the solar system, and that what we're seeing is simply lots of collisions, not explosions. Moreover, a recent explosion, without a clear mechanism no less, is a little provincial as a theory.

The funny part is that there are some wild phenomena, such as planetary migrations, especially in other stellar systems, which do bear plenty of investigation. We don't need to start by indulging in arbitrary and dubious speculations: explaining what's right in front of us is exciting enough!

I think Van Flandern's comments about the "face on Mars" once again showed poor intuition. That "face" looked awfully strongly like something with a natural origin.

Van Flandern does not like the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, which he feels disregards the need for an underlying reality behind all the concepts. I think this actually may be a fair criticism, but there are alternative formulations of Quantum Mechanics which avoid such problems.

Finally, Van Flandern goes after the Big Bang theory of the origin of our Universe. I think that's a mistake. The evidence is overwhelming that the Universe was once much denser and much, much hotter. We see that from the Hubble expansion, from the 2.7 K blackbody radiation, and most important, from the helium percentages in the visible universe corresponding to Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Complaining about the beryllium percentage is very poor intuition indeed: we'd still have that dense, hot universe just as the Big Bang says. He'd have been better off attacking the Inflationary models of the early universe: these are still fair game.

Um, it could be that the accelerating expansion of the universe is heading towards a singularity (called the "Big Rip") in a finite time. Perhaps in a few billion years, spacetime will reach this. In the final million years, the galaxies would disperse, including our Milky Way. In the final months, our solar system would fly apart. In the final hours, the Earth would disintegrate, as gravity would no longer bind it together. At the end, all particles would explode as well. If you like wild ideas, this one is far more realistic than most of what Van Flandern proposes.

The best explanation of Very Long Period comets........2003-10-28

If you want to know the very best explanation of the origin of the Very Long Period comets, this is where you will find it. If you combine the section on the Missing Planet, with a pile of album cover art by Roger Dean (on the YES album covers like Yessongs) you will know more about the history of the solar system then most professional astronomers. Is this hyperbole? No. Van Flandern is right about the origin of comets, but given the mindset of the astronomical community, protons will decay before they admit it.
Van Flandern is akin to A.C. Clarke in one way: Someone once said about Clarke that "if he had stuck to any one hypothesis, he would have been a dangerous man." Like Clarke, Van Flandern works many hypotheses. And if it is permissible to have a favorite Clarke book or theme, it is certainly also permissible to extol the virtures of DM,MP&NC on the basis of the MP&NC material alone.
Science will advance at four times the current pace when they stop ejecting people like Halton Arp and TVF from their ranks.

Brand new thinking about timeless astronomical issues.......2002-10-24

Tom Van Flandern's book adds a new dimension to cosmology--not only does it present a novel approach to timeless issues, it stands up to the closest scientific scrutiny. The author has a proven track record and top notch credentials, so when he begins his hard-hitting critique of the status quo it's a breathtaking read, for laymen and scientists alike. Let's be honest about the Big Bang Theory--even the most respected scientists today will readily admit it is full of holes. But it takes a new look, like Tom Van Flandern's book, to explain not only why the theory is wrong but what to substitute in its place. This is a significant book and if you read it you will get a thrill just as those who read Copernicus and Galileo must have gotten a thrill to realize they were reading about the future of science. Read it--you won't be disappointed.

Not so dark matters.......2001-06-16

__________________

Van Flandern was a consultant to the government regarding the Global Positioning System. Doubts had been expressed that the GPS could remain accurate due to a relativistic effect known as "frame dragging", but TVF concluded that, through a slightly too convenient coincidence, "frame dragging" didn't apply to this particular narrow case. It's clear that he understands conventional theories very well, and that's what made it possible for him to develop his Meta Model, the discussion of which comprises the first half of this book.

I can see how the Meta Model discussion would not get high marks, as it clearly didn't in at least one of the earlier reviews here. I read most of it, finally got bored, and skipped into the second half of the book (first edition ISBN 1556431554) which pertains to TVF's Exploding Planet Hypothesis.

When he wrote the first edition, the Alvarez theory was gaining momentum elsewhere in the sciences, as the position of the impact crater that ended the Cretaceous had been located at Chicxulub (the crater had been located circa 1960, but the Alvarez theory didn't come around until 1980 -- see "Night Comes to the Cretaceous" by James Lawrence Powell, ppback 0156007037 hardcover 0716731177).

TVF didn't mention any of that, spending time instead on the "Face on Mars". At that time (early 1990s) the newest surface photos from Martian orbit were still those of Viking from the 1970s. The "Face" did exist, and it was an artifact -- but it existed only in those photos, and was only an artifact of the lower resolution of the Viking cameras, as opposed to that of the recent (late 1990s) orbiter. I don't see how any reasonable person can look at the higher res photos (as opposed to both the Viking photos and the low res photos from the new orbiter, which can mimic the resolution of Viking) and conclude that the "Face" is artificial. This devotion to a completely discredited idea is not to TVF's credit, and as someone who respects his intellect and many of his ideas, I wish he'd knock it off.

The best part of either edition is the discussion of TVF's Exploding Planet Hypothesis (EPH). He uses the model to explain things like the tipped axis of Uranus, disturbed moon system of Neptune, retrograde rotation of Venus, Earth-crossing objects, and various other things which have made thoughtful people wonder for a very long time. In the original edition the EPH was about 3.2 million years ago.

This new edition extends the EPH by adding an earlier exploding planet dated to 65 million years ago, in order to provide a source for the object which crashed into the Earth and ended the dominion of the dinosaurs. TVF's extension seems a bit ad hoc, but once a single unexplained planetary explosion has been posited, additional ones shouldn't be considered surprising or forbidden. On the other hand, TVF had already questioned the (also ad hoc) Oort Cloud idea, and that's the leading competitor (and dominant paradigm) for a source of the Chicxulub object. Since TVF is devoted to building a single comprehensive model to explain oddball characteristics of various solar system objects to replace the dozens of (also ad hoc) unique explanations.

[see "Shoemaker by Levy" ISBN 0691002258 for some brief comments quoted from Shoemaker regarding the role played by Jupiter in sweeping the Solar System of transitory debris -- TVF needs multiple exploding planets because such debris would either be kicked out of the system or bent into untroubling orbits within ten million years, mostly due to the presence of Jupiter]

TVF's discussion of the origin of Earth's own Moon is a great reason to buy this book, and a great place to begin reading it for those who are like me, and enjoy picking at a book here and there. It's also a discussion I'd like to criticize a little. TVF discusses the four basic models of lunar formation, then picks them off one by one, as he offers his own model (fission from Earth due to overspin). The problem with his critique of the capture model is that his arguments apply also to his overspin model, and there's nothing he can do about it. Furthermore, the early presence of water on the Earth (a discovery that I think antedates this new edition of "Dark Matter") reduces the likelihood that the Moon was born of fission from Earth, either due to TVF's model or the more conventional impact model which is the dominant one of the five presented.

Despite the catastrophic character of an exploding planet, TVF's model is really quite uniformitarian, and for those who object to catastrophism on a priori grounds, this book and his EPH should provide a great introduction to the topic that fascinates one's friends and neighbors without letting on to anyone that you're secretly hoping to join the winning side. :^)

Book Description

Wastewater Organisms contains 210 high-quality full-color micrographs to help you identify organisms found in sewage and sludge. These photos provide the maximum level of detail and will help you better understand the form and dimension of the organisms. Subjects depicted in the micrographs include bacteria, eggs, amoeba, parasitic protozoa, tardigrada (water bears), rotifers, ciliates, parasitic helminths, pollen grain, free-living nematodes, algae, flagellates, and more. There is a chapter on enumeration which provides literature and techniques for fixing and staining, techniques often required for identification to the species level. The book also contains a valuable glossary and index to make the book even easier to use. Wastewater Organisms is an indispensable reference for wastewater managers and supervisors, wastewater operators, environmental consultants, practicing engineers, regulatory agency personnel at all levels of government, and libraries.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent Atlas Identification.......2000-07-19

Este atlas en una excelente guia de identificación para hidrobiologos que se dedican a la evaluación de los sistemas de tratamiento de aguas residuales a través de la presencia de ciertas comunidades de plankton.

Book Description

The most important and internationally influential development in British cinema was the documentary film movement led by John Grierson in the 1930s and 1940s. This is a political and social history of that movement, which was characterized by actuality-based films made outside the commercial industry. Based on examinations of official government records, the study provides a fascinating picture of the relationship forged between Grierson and the civil service bureaucracy for his own needs and the needs of his country. The book offers a fresh look at a rare moment in the history of cinema when a different mode of production, philosophy, and source of funding permitted a determined group to create a distinguished body of work.

The Dynamics of Industrial Clustering: International Comparisons in Computing and Biotechnology

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Different Approach to Clusters' Performance and Growth

The Dynamics of Industrial Clustering: International Comparisons in Computing and Biotechnology

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0198289596

Book Description

Why do firms in high technology industries cluster at particular locations? Do firms grow faster at such locations and are disproportionately more new firms created in clusters? The contributors to this volume establish that new firms in computing and biotechnology have been attracted to particular sites by the presence of opportunities not taken up by incumbent firms. These opportunities arise when the cluster is strong in a mix of industrial sectors and in its science base. By contrast, incumbent firms benefit from locating in clusters that are strong in their own industrial sector, but tend to miss out on opportunities that arise too far from their immediate sphere. This book compares the clustering process in the UK and the US in both computing and biotechnology. There are surprisingly similar tendencies towards clustering in both industries, though different structures and scale of the industries contribute to slower growth rates in the UK. There are other conditionsco-operation, critical mass in RandD, networking across disciplinesthat are lacking in the UK, and these hinder cluster formation and growth. Policy needs to focus on infrastructure in particular regions, building on existing resources and specialisms, and it needs to support those features of a cluster that attract new resources to a region.

Customer Reviews:

Different Approach to Clusters' Performance and Growth.......2001-08-02

This book takes a different perspective towards the current hot topic of clusters, the concept of agglomeration of firms interconnected by linkage that lead to greater competitive advantage, a current and hot topic raised by academics like Michael Porter.

But this collection of work focuses on using econometrics in investigating the cross sectorial effects and growth dynamics of firms within established hi-tech clusters such as computer and biotechnology industries in the US and UK.

An interesting but serious reading for the intellects, with a appreciation on industrial economics and econometrics. But for the faint hearted, it provides an overview of cluster theories, the macro economic performance of clusters and how policies could support clusters.

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