Another 100 of the World's Best Houses (Architecture)

Book Description

A highly anticipated second volume in this new series. Lavishly illustrated with plans and photography.

Customer Reviews:

wow.......2006-06-27

This is a great book for resedential design. This book surpass its predecessor. This book is must buy.

The title could've been better..........2005-02-02

This book is great for someone who is curious about the different styles of houses throughout world, regardless of one particular style (ie. modern, minimal, etc.) The pictures are very well scaled and the project desciption featured in the index is informative although they are missing the essential date of completion. The title of the book is subjective so it is up to the reader to determine if these really are the "best" houses in the world, but they do give a introduction to the different style of residential designs realized throughout the world.

www.hjlbookreview.com

Another 100 of the World's Best Houses.......2004-05-04

Not just another object for the coffee table, this book takes architecture seriously. The descriptions are clear and concise and the photographs illustrate each home in fine detail. For anyone who enjoys learning about great contemporary residential architecture, this is a very fine book.

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Another 100 of the World's Best Houses
*
Manufacturer: Antique Collectors C
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K7XU5A

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Why I Only Gave 'The Great Book of Optical Illusions' 3 Stars.

Great for kids, too...

Most impressive

FANTASTIC!

The Great Book of Optical Illusions
Al Seckel
Manufacturer: Firefly Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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More Optical Illusions (Illusion Works)

Can You Believe Your Eyes?

Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion

Amazing Optical Illusions

The Science of Illusions

ASIN: 1552976505

Book Description

It is said that "seeing is believing." But what if the picture you see is hard to believe? Maybe it appears to be something else entirely.

In The Great Book of Optical Illusions, Al Seckel brings together a collection of fascinating visual puzzles and enigmatic designs that make the viewer wonder: How does this work? What does it really contain?

From collections of baffling shapes that defy the viewer to work out the hidden figures, to dazzling patterns that appear to change on the page, here are optical illusions found in classical art and through history to the most modern of visual tricks.

There are more than 280 color and black and white illustrations in the book, from Illusionworks, the world's leading brand of illusion artworks.

Customer Reviews:

Why I Only Gave 'The Great Book of Optical Illusions' 3 Stars........2006-05-14

This book disappointed me. Because the first three sections are identical to 'Art Of Optical Illusions' which I'd already read. Even if you've already read 'Art Of Optical Illusions' the last sections of this book are worth reading.

AlettaJohnson

Great for kids, too..........2004-04-19

This book has hundreds of drawings and photographs that trick the eye in one way or another (color, perspective, hidden pictures, illusions of movement, etc). After every 20 pages or so there is a page that has a one or two sentence blurb giving background information or commentary on each illusion.

My kids (ages 5 and 7) love looking through this book, and it's a great mental exercise for them, pondering how the effects are achieved and discovering what exactly the illusion is that's presented on each page. Note however, that some of the illusions are too cerebral for kids this age, or require too much patience to see.

I would have liked the book even more if it had a section that discussed the concept of illusion and how the biology of eyesight and psychology plays it's part.

Overall, an excellent book!

Most impressive.......2004-04-14

We see with our brains, something that is non-intuitive and not appreciated by most of us. We think we "see" something with our eyes. The ambient light bounces off of an object and into our eyes and is embedded there, and like a camera we "see." At any rate, that was my commonsense explanation of sight for the first few decades of my life.

Today I would say that our brain uses information from the light it gathers to interpret the world around us using its experience in seeing things in the past and using clues such as shadow and perspective to resolve objects. I would point out that we are actually aware of only a small faction of what there is to see at any given time. In addition to the "blind spot" in our vision field being filled in by our brains, much of the rest of our field of vision is constructed and reconstructed by our brains continually giving us the illusion of continuous sight. Unless there is movement or some other kind of change, we continue to experience the same reconstruction, like a screen being refreshed. If we focus on something in the field that previously was in our periphery, our brain reconstructs that something based on this new, more direct information.

Proof of this somewhat bizarre and perhaps unsettling truth that we construct the world in our brains comes from experiments in perception by scientists, but can also be revealed though the work of artists. What Al Seckel, who teaches at Cal Tech, has done here is collect almost three hundred optical illusions done by artists, some familiar, but many not so familiar, "so that the reader has a much greater chance of being surprised." Variations on some of Escher's themes including his impossible staircases are included. There are impossible triangles and impossible cubes, some constructed from objects using mirrors. There are drawings like the famous young girl/old hag that pop in and out definition as our eyes fatigue from one to the other--included here on p. 87 as "My Wife and Mother-in Law." There are pictures in which a person is smiling and then when turned upside down, the picture becomes someone else frowning.

Other forms include lines and shadings that appear to move, black and white designs that trick the eye into seeing color, a photomosaic of a tiger made entirely of animal pictures and a dog similarly constructed.

Famous artists include Rene Magritte, Escher, Salvador Dali, and others. There are photos of three-dimensional illusions including "Haemaker's Impossible Twisted Rectangle" which must be seen from a particular angle for the illusion to manifest itself. There are grid illusions in which dots appear at intersections only to disappear when looked at directly ("Hermann Grid Illusion). There are plays with curved lines that look straight and straight lines that appear to curve. One glittering picture, a "Twist on Reginald Neal's Square of Three" (p. 280) literally made me dizzy.

Not included is one of my favorite illusions that I originally got from a Native American basket tray. It is composed of dark and light squares arranged in diamond shapes one within the other so that differently constituted squares, and even the illusion of circles, pop in and out of existence. Sometimes there is the illusion of a vague green or red tint among the black and white.

Also not included is the imbedded arrow on the side of the Fed Ex truck (see if you can find it next time a Fed Ex truck goes by!) although a more sophisticated form of the same thing is on page 66 called "Time Saving Suggestions." There are no examples of the relatively new street art phenomenon in which the ground is painted elaborately in such a way as to give the illusion of depth, showing someone crawling out a hole in the ground where there is no hole.

The most maddening illusion for me is "Shepard's Tabletop" on page 10. There are two tables, one that seems thinner and longer than the other. You've probably seen this illusion or a variant. So powerful are the perceptive clues that it is impossible to believe that the surfaces of the tables are identical until you take out a ruler and measure the sides!

Many illusions depend for their effect on "false shading" or misleading perspective clues. Our eyes are used to the light coming from above (Microsoft shades its dialogue and text boxes in such a way--check and see!) so that when something is shaded from below, as is one of the objects in "Shape from Shading" (p. 45), our eyes see the object differently. In this case the objects shaded from above look like spheres while the one shaded from below appears concave. Turn the picture over and the concave becomes a sphere. Our brains compensate for shadow so that when something appears to be in shadow our brains maintain the color or shade of the object as though it were not in shadow.

Seckel includes remarks about the illusions on the page on which the illusions appear, and then, for most of them, further comments or explanations are included in notes at the end of each of the chapters. Sometimes however nothing is explained and at other times there is only a partial explanation. I wish he had included all the remarks on the same page as the illusion. That way I wouldn't have to keep thumbing back and forth.

This is a book that can be flipped through, but for full effect the illusions need to be studied a bit, and for artists, they need to be studied a lot, since some of them are really amazing.

FANTASTIC!.......2002-10-26

I was totally absorbed by this book. It is not often that I find a book that my whole family is fighting over to read! Every page was an absolute delight. I particularly enjoyed that the author did not speak down to his audience in his explanations, and that I gained some insight into how these illusions work, which for me was the most interesting part. Of course, the illusions were very very cool!!!!!

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The Great Book of Optical Illusions

Manufacturer: Sterling Publishing Co. , Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0439266491

Product Description

Reading Level 2.5.

Great Book of Optical Illusions: Scholastic Edition

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Great Book of Optical Illusions: Scholastic Edition
Gyles Brandeth
Manufacturer: Sterling Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0806917679

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Cool

The Great Book of Optical Illusions
Gyles Brandreth
Manufacturer: Sterling Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anatomy & Physiology | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Can You Believe Your Eyes?

ASIN: 0806962585

Book Description

Here are pictures that seem to move, images that mysteriously disappear and reappear, others that seem to be there but aren't--plus over 100 more amazing illusions. "Entertaining collection...I applaud the number and variety of images presented."--Science Books & Films, Best Children's Science Booklist, 1988.

Customer Reviews:

Cool.......2000-06-19

I like books that have optical illusions. Since this is an optical illusion book, it is perfect for anyone who like optical illusions too. :)

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The Great Book of Optical Illusions
Al Seckel
Manufacturer: Firefly Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OBO3FI

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The Great Book of Optical Illusions
Al Seckel
Manufacturer: Firefly Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUU40M

Customer Reviews:

Real life begins after forty!.......2000-02-12

Leif Zurmuhlen's intimate and artistic photographs reveal the spirit and vivacity of women over forty. Patricia Martin's text allows the reader to delve into the personalities of these women, who come from all over the country and all walks of life. This book is inspirational and interesting. Women and men will enjoy this excellent work. I keep mine out on the coffee table and it has sparked many intriguing discussions. When is the next book coming?

the right side of forty is a wonderfully inspiring book!!.......1998-02-16

the right side is definately inspiring!!i am one of the women in the book and found myself inspired by reading about and meeting some of the other women as well as patty and leif!!it should give anyone dreading turning forty an incentive to know that life just begins!!

The Right Side Of Photography........1997-10-24

Leif Zurmuhlen's photographic study of women over forty is as effective an exploration of his artistry as it is a celebration of the lives of these fascinating individuals. Of particular interest is Zurmuhlen's art direction. Working alone, he is able to create complex and multifaceted compositions that intrigue, amuse, captivate. This is an extremely enjoyable collection of images. Check it out.

Book Description

Admiring a Caldwell painting is like peering through a portal to an alternate dimension; you can actually see the fantastic come to life in vivid detail. His creatures glisten in otherworldly sunlight, savagely ferocious and fully realized in every way. As for Caldwell's women - they exude both an exotic beauty and an inner authority that sets them apart from the average bimbo warriors of lesser artists. His visions are at once unique and familiar, as if the incredible were an every day occurrence, and Clyde just happen to be there to capture it on canvas. Volume Two also contains a magnificent full color section which showcases Caldwell's unparalleled paintings.

Customer Reviews:

Good but ...........2005-08-17

I had been hoping for more color pictures rather than many being black and white. Still good artwork!

Book Description

In this collection of biographical essays, Mary Coker Joslin chronicles the many contributions of William Chambers Coker (1872-1953) as a creative scientist, an infectious teacher, a practical landscape designer, an editor, and a writer whose influence continues to resonate throughout North Carolina. After leaving a successful banking career to become a botanist, Coker became the first professor of botany at the University of North Carolina and founded enduring institutions that have become his legacy, including the University Herbarium and the Chapel Hill arboretum that bears his name. He edited the Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society for forty years, during which time it became internationally known and respected. Coker left his mark across the state, as he designed and suggested plantings for at least twenty-one public school grounds in North Carolina and voluntarily helped landscape public areas in communities from Edenton to Asheville.

ESSAYS ON WILLIAM CHAMBERS COKER, PASSIONATE BOTANIST. With drawings by Sandra Brooks-Mathers

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ESSAYS ON WILLIAM CHAMBERS COKER, PASSIONATE BOTANIST. With drawings by Sandra Brooks-Mathers
Mary Coker. Joslin
Manufacturer: UNC Press,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N7DXAY

Book Description

The ferocity and magnitude of the American Civil War eclipses that of all other nineteenth-century conflicts, but the hard fighting and tactics that played out between the North and South were first developed during the Mexican-American War of the late 1840s. It was during this struggle between two regional powers that the United States showed that it could muster soldiers representing far-flung states of the Union--Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Mississippi--and officers fresh from West Point, testing the military preparedness of the young nation.

In Climax at Buena Vista, David Lavender tells the complete story of the turning point in the Mexican-American War. In an effort to secure Texas firmly as a state, the United States declared war on Mexico and launched an invasion, including an effort to capture Mexico City from the north and from the coast. The American plans fell short, however, and attempts were made to achieve a decisive victory through shifting troops to various points of attack.

This strategy depleted the forces led by General Zachary Taylor, and in February 1847, near the small outpost of Buena Vista, he and his roughly 4,500 regulars found themselves facing an army of more than 20,000 Mexican soldiers led by General Antonio López de Santa Anna. What should have been a rout ended up in a draw, with the American troops maneuvering quickly and regrouping in order to keep the surrounding Mexican troops from completely overrunning their position. Santa Anna was forced to withdraw and, with the Mexican forces demoralized, the Americans were able to reignite the offensive and ultimately force Mexico to sue for peace.

David Lavender's acclaimed account of this battle allows the reader to understand the complex and confusing movements of the opposing forces, and it places the war in the greater American political context, where huge territories were acquired and future presidents groomed.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book!.......2005-09-28

A terrific book on one of the two most important campaigns in the Mexican war. An objective study, filled with facts and the author includes enough narrative to make the book fun and easy to read. The author clearly traveled to the battlefields and retraced Taylor's steps because he has terrific details of the topography of the various battlefields. He carefully weaves his way through the Battle of Buena Vista and is careful is assigning blame as well as crediting the Mississipians with the success. Overall a great read.

An absorbing and informative survey of military tactics.......2004-04-05

Climax At Buena Vista: The Decisive Battle Of The Mexican-American War by western historian and author David Lavender is a solidly researched military history and descriptive accounting of the decisive territory battle that took place between the United States and Mexico in 1847. General Zachary Taylor and roughly 4,500 American army regulars battled General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna with a force of 20,000 Mexican soldiers. Superb maneuvering and regrouping tactics caused what should have been a rout of the American troops by the Mexican forces, into military battlefield draw, and which would ultimately compelled Mexico to sue for peace. An absorbing and informative survey of military tactics, combined with a compelling narrative of the dynamics and relative morality of a war that was ultimately an American grab for more land, Climax At Buena Vista reveals the enduring impact the conflict had on subsequent Mexican and American histories.

Book Description

"The inordinate indulgence of Indians in spiritous liquors is one of the most deplorable consequences which has resulted from their intercourse with civilized man."--Governor Lewis Cass, Michigan Territory, 1827

"Often I have been compelled to ask myself, 'Who is the civilized and who is the savage?' Their principal vices are emphatically our vices. If they get drunk it is upon our whiskey. . . . [A]nd yet we claim to be 'civilized' and freely deal out to them the epithet 'savage.'"--The Reverend William H. Goode, reflecting on his early 19th-century sojourn in Indian Country

In White Man's Wicked Water, Unrau tells the compelling story of how an alcohol-sodden society introduced drink to the Indians. That same society then instituted futile policies to control the flow of alcohol to tribes who, as one superintendent put it, "have not the moral force to resist temptation." Unrau dispels that racial-deficiency theory and debunks the belief that prohibition was carried out by well-intended reformers.

Unrau shows that, contrary to the perniciously false image of the innately "depraved savage," Indians actually learned their "uncivil" behavior by emulating--in hopes of accommodating--"civilized" men. Indian inebriation in the nineteenth century, he shows, essentially mimicked the habits of white Americans who--spurred on by prevailing attitudes and federal law--were aspiring to integrate the natives into the cultural mainstream. Prohibition zealots, intent upon soothing white anxieties, were far more concerned with this goal than with stemming the flow of alcohol.

Scholars have often viewed the sale of alcohol to Native Americans as a ploy by Euro-Americans to trick them into unfair land and trade deals. But Unrau makes it clear that alcoholic consumption by Native Americans was the inevitable consequence of cultural confluence, not of conscious white subversion.

To support his arguments, Unrau has closely examined previously neglected records pertaining to illicit alcohol trafficking, its tie to the land-cession/annuity-distribution system, and the influence of federal subsidy to non-Indian, western development. From these sources, he provides surprising new insights into alcohol use and abuse in relation to Indian removal. Unrau also sheds new light on nineteenth-century prohibition attempts in the trans-Missouri West (primarily Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma) up to the absolutist prohibition law of 1892.

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WHITE MAN'S WICKED WATER. The ALCOHOL TRADE And PROHIBITION In INDIAN COUNTRY 1802-1892.
William E. Unrau
Manufacturer: Univ Press of Kansas,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MZ8C9E

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Interstellar Travel (past present and future)
john macvey
Manufacturer: Scarborough House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K8JVQG

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My own little universe

I Read Over and Over...

Interstellar Travel: Past, Present and Future
John W. MacVey
Manufacturer: Avon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 038041368X

Book Description

How we and alien beings may travel between the stars, between galaxies, and even into time.

Customer Reviews:

My own little universe.......2004-02-23

Have you ever read a book from long ago that became a memento of your more youthful days?

I was 20 years old when I bought this book, approaching adulthood, working for the summer on my college campus. I read the book on my lunch breaks as a reward for hard work in the morning. There was nothing profound about this book. It just snared my interest the way no other book did because of the still childlike wonderment I had of space travel.

The author gave a mystique to space travel and extraterrestrials while retaining sound scientific principles in his descriptions. He discusses various scenarios regarding interstellar travel that I had not thought of before. For example, he informs us that the galaxy is dynamic and the night sky that appears today is different from what was there not long ago on a cosmic time scale. He gives data on how often sun-like pass near our solar system to provide an opportunity for a short hop earth.

On occasions he abandons scientific rumination to give wilder speculation or even abandoning speculation for the reader to take up. In the book are eye witness accounts of various strange events that gave the book an eerie appeal.

I would probably not enjoy it quite as much today due to the skepticism and sophistication that comes with maturity and experience. The book just glosses over some concepts, especially in dealing with technically oriented subjects as propulsion. I think the details he does give in regard to propulsion are a bit optimistic. A light read perhaps, but sure to tickle the fancy of a young space nut.

I Read Over and Over..........2000-11-23

There are certain books that one purchases and reads over and over again without tiring of the content. This is one of those books for me. I purchased this book back in 1991 when this edition was released and I still pick it up about once a year and read it. I believe that anyone desiring an introductory, easy to understand book about interstellar travel (plus some other topics mentioned below) will enjoy this book as much as I have for nearly a decade.

This book is broken up into two parts: part I being a discussion about possible methods of interstellar travel and part II presenting a wide range of topics related to extraterrestrial life. Oddly, contrary to the title, the talk about exterrestrial life is the longer part. Both parts are written in layman's terms and present scientific concepts in a concise, enjoyable format.

The book spans a wide variety of topics within each part. The interstellar travel part hits upon the vastness of space, chemical and fusion rockets, slow moving generational space arks, space curvature, non-space (i.e., hyperspace), wormholes, blackholes, time dilatation, and tachyons. The author concludes this part with an incredibly enjoyable discussion of problems one might face while attempting to navigate while traveling at near light speed. The extraterrestrial life part touches upon the chemistry of aliens, estimating the number of possible extraterrestrial civilizations (i.e., the Drake function), possible extraterrestrial contact in ancient history, and a discussion about possible contact in recent history.

Yes! UFOs are mentioned in this book, but don't roll your eyes because the author does not get fanatical about the topic. He is mainly presenting UFOs in the context that some extraterrestrial civilization might have perfected interstellar travel in our past (i.e., ancient astronauts) or maybe even our present. I thought it was a good tie-in independent of ones views on the topic of UFOs.

One thing about this book is that it has primitive illustrations. They are, obviously, handrawn images. The drawings do get the job done and there are just the right quantity of them contained in the book. One funny picture is the illustration of the "Appearance of a star that has become a Black Hole": a square that is all black is shown. I still laugh when I see that one...

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