Hot Dirt, Cool Straw: Nature Friendly Houses For 21st (Twenty-First) Century Living

Book Description

8 1/2 x 11 250 color illustrations US and Canada Distribution architecture Ecologically designed homes have come a long way since the '60s, when the focus was largely on energy efficiency. Hot Dirt Cool Straw features 25 case studies of beautiful homes designed by leading architects who marry good design with minimal environmental impact. Many of these unique, fabulous houses have walls built with straw or earth, materials which are sturdy and allow the homes to cool and heat themselves naturally. This remarkable reference also features eco-friendly homes made of wood that has been salvaged from previous uses or comes from environmentally sensitive lumberyards. Each case study includes dazzling photography, as well as carefully detailed plans, drawings, and schematics.

Customer Reviews:

Not just strawbale and rammed earth........2001-08-07

A current topic, "green" architecture has a broad, reasonable definition in this book. One often thinks of green house books as full of solar and straw bale houses of middling design (whatever the sensitivity of the construction). The book categorizes several ways buildings can be green, and shows a variety of houses with designs as (or more) innovative as their green techniques. The photographs are well done, and of (for the most part) really good-looking houses. I think the "Lakeside Residence," "Howard House," and "Low Compound" are especially memorable. A good book for those interested in current, contemporary architecture as well as green architecture.

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Hot Dirt Cool Straw

Manufacturer: Hearst Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Book Description

What makes a visually appealing landscape? How can the design and use of a landscape be harmonized? These are just some of the questions tackled in this refreshing approach to the subject. In Elements of Visual Design in the Landscape the author explains a range of design principles.

The book is profusely illustrated using both abstract and real examples taken from a wide range of international locations, together with cross references between related principles and case studies, demonstrating how principles can be applied to visually creative design and management.

A unique feature of this book is the author's presentation of a vocabulary of visual design, structured in a logical and easy to follow sequence, which makes the book highly accessible even to non-designers who increasingly need to know about visual design in their work. There is also a glossary for the terms that may be unfamiliar to those coming into design for the first time. Given the broad range of the book it will be an important guide for students on landscape, architecture, planning and design courses, and professionals will also find it an ideal source of ideas and applications.

This new edition includes revised and updated text that will link to other areas of research and disciplines such as aesthetic philosophy and psychology. A third of the photographs have been replaced with new photographs showing better and more recent examples and also reflecting landscape in a wider range of countries.

Customer Reviews:

good for my thesis.......2000-10-28

I'm building a useful studying frame for my master thesis. I don't want to spend too much on art and just try to get some little but important knoeledge. There are some ideas in this book. It describe the basic theory in the simple way.

Assessing the visual quality of rural landscapes [An article from: Landscape and Urban Planning]

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Assessing the visual quality of rural landscapes [An article from: Landscape and Urban Planning]
M. Arriaza , J.F. Canas-Ortega , and J.A. Canas-Madueno
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RQYFT4

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Landscape and Urban Planning, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
This paper presents a methodology for assessing the visual quality of agricultural landscapes through direct and indirect techniques of landscape valuation. The first technique enables us to rank agricultural landscapes on the basis of a survey of public preferences. The latter weighs the contribution of the elements and attributes contained in the picture to its overall scenic beauty via regression analysis. An application based on two Mediterranean rural areas in Andalusia in Southern Spain is presented. The photos used in the survey included man-made elements, positive and negative, agricultural fields, mainly of cereals and olive trees, and a natural park. There were 10 panels, each containing 16 photos, and 226 participants ranked the best four and worst four pictures of each panel. Each participant ranked an average of 7.3 panels. The results show that perceived visual quality increases, in decreasing order of importance, with the degree of wilderness of the landscape, the presence of well-preserved man-made elements, the percentage of plant cover, the amount of water, the presence of mountains and the colour contrast.

Elements, characteristics and character - Information functions of landscapes in terms of indicators [An article from: Ecological Indicators]

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Elements, characteristics and character - Information functions of landscapes in terms of indicators [An article from: Ecological Indicators]
B. Jessel
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR6IMU

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Ecological Indicators, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
When monitoring landscape changes, the visual landscape should also be considered. This pertains to the information function of ecosystems and landscapes that refers to environmental structure and its function for satisfying needs. These needs of human perception include a certain equipment of landscape with stimuli, spatial orientation, as well as aesthetical-emotional needs. However, previous approaches of environmental monitoring and registration of landscape changes exclusively focus on the ecosystem; aesthetic and structural characteristics are evaluated, if at all, only via easily quantifiable variables in a data oriented manner that illustrates the diversity of individual landscape elements without theoretically grounding them based on general hypotheses and a theoretical concept. Based on results from perception research and information theory, therefore, a method for registering the visual landscape on different complexity levels is developed. This includes:-''elements'' (i.e. ''element level''), that is the description of the different types of land use and structure elements within a landscape unit. Furthermore, under these elements a variety of manifestations are also subsumed, such as small spatial dimensional relations, as well as individual synesthetic perceptions (noise and smells); -''characteristics'' (i.e. ''shape level''), that is the typical combinations of elements, design shapes and proportions; -and the overall area perception, that is the ''character'' (i.e. the space level) of a landscape as the result of a characterization process that classifies, illustrates and describes areas that are similar in appearance. One possible application of this approach can be demonstrated by the impacts of streets on the visual landscape. This example makes it evident that indicators for landscape diversity are only able to illustrate changes of individual elements but not of the character of landscapes themselves. This fact makes it necessary to additionally integrate aspects aside from quantitative ones when evaluating the visual landscape. Furthermore, it is necessary to empirically verify aspects that are significant for the perception of landscapes in order to make them more accessible than has been thus far for evaluations in the sense of indicators.

Book Description

A major retrospective of one of the earliest women photographers.

Lady Clementina Hawarden was a well-regarded portrait photographer of the 1860s. Lewis Carroll praised and collected her pictures, which predated even the work of her better-known contemporary Julia Margaret Cameron, and art historians contend that her photographs influenced Whistler's portrait paintings.

In 1859, Hawarden took up her camera. In Ireland, and later in London, she photographed her two oldest daughters masquerading in lavish costumes and acting out mysterious dramas. Though Hawarden and her daughters were, like most women of their day, bound by home and hearth, in these enigmatic pictures they imagine themselves transformed.

After Hawarden's death at the age of forty-two, her work fell into oblivion until the 1930s, when the Victoria and Albert Museum inherited from her family 775 of her photographs. This spring, the museum will open a comprehensive exhibition of the work of this rediscovered master. At last, the pictures are receiving their due attention. In light of Sally Mann's provocative photographs of her own children and the costume changes of Cindy Sherman's film stills, the relevance of Hawarden's telling portraits can now be fully appreciated.

Lady Hawarden Clementina: Studies from Life, 1857-1864

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Lady Hawarden Clementina: Studies from Life, 1857-1864
Virginia Dodier
Manufacturer: Aperture
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IN0D8S

Amazon.com

The work in this book will endear itself to hard-core assembly language programmers. Over half of the book lists assembly language programs for solving a host of year 2000 problems. Two introductory chapters contain basic information about year 2000 issues and document the notational conventions used in the assembly language programs. The remaining seven chapters of the book are each dedicated to explaining a year 2000 problem, mapping out a solution, and implementing the solution in the form of a fully documented program. The book includes all of the source code on floppy disk.

Book Description

The year 2000 computer crisis-solved! Scrambling to find a solution to the date conversion dilemma your computer system faces as the 21st century approaches? Bracing yourself for the potential "bad data" nightmare? Relax, Jerome and Marilyn Murray's The Year 2000 Computing Crisis: A Millennium Date Conversion Plan has the answers. This urgently needed rescue guide maps out systematic strategies for sidestepping virtually every problem you face-from minor software glitches to complex telecommunications foul-ups to macro installation to tal system collapse. Exhaustively tested and retested, it delivers a comprehensive conversion plan that includes a source code disk of solutions written in COBOL, RPG and assembly lanuage-giving you maximum flexibility and convenience.

The Year 2000 Computing Crisis: A Millennium Date Conversion Plan

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The Year 2000 Computing Crisis: A Millennium Date Conversion Plan
Marilyn J. Murray Jerome T. Murray
Manufacturer: Computing Mcgraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OGUB3Q

Average customer rating:

Indispensable

This book can help you avoid foreclosure.

Financially endangered persons will want to read this guide.

Save Your Home: How to Protect Your Home and Property from Foreclosure
Steven L. Porter
Manufacturer: Java Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Public Finance | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Mortgages | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

How to Save Your Home From Foreclosure

Delinquency Dollars: A Loan Officer's Guide to Beating Foreclosure

How to Stop Foreclosure

Make Money in Short-Sale Foreclosures: How to Bypass Owners and Buy Directly from Lenders

Investing in Real Estate With Lease Options and "Subject-To" Deals : Powerful Strategies for Getting More When You Sell, and Paying Less When You Buy

ASIN: 0941599140

Customer Reviews:

Indispensable.......1998-11-29

An extremely competent do-it-yourself vloume on saving your home by avoiding foreclosure and even making a profit. He goes to lengths to explain what to do when foreclosure threatens, how to get a new loan, restructuring your mortgage, your legal rights. Large-sized volume. Porter explains wonders in 162 pages. Also some very, very interesting personal experiences the author has gone through that will have you sitting up in your worries and paying attention. Indispensable!

This book can help you avoid foreclosure........1998-11-29

This is a subject dear to the hearts of many people in the Houston area and Texas as a whole. Although decreasing, foreclosures still are occurring with an alarming frequency in this area. The reader is lead through the sequence of what happens when someone goes through a foreclosure. This starts with the first time you stop making mortgage payments through to the foreclosure sale and beyond; including the legal consequences after it is all over. The book isn't just a simple explanation of how to endure a foreclosure, though. It also offers ways to avoid a foreclosure, such as working with your lender, looking for help from the government, or getting help form the legal system. It details the steps the lender will be taking at the same time to foreclose upon you. To make the book complete, it even has a chapter on how you can buy foreclosed-upon property. This book is worth a read for any homeowner.

Financially endangered persons will want to read this guide........1998-11-29

Most home owners are unaware of the secrets that lie hidden in the foreclosure process, knowldege that this book claims would allow most anyone facing the loss of their home not only to live rent free but also to avoid foreclosure altogether. Furthermore, whether you own a house, townhouse, farm, or business property, Porter alleges that profit can be made from a foreclosure situation! While it is difficult to know if these methods work, financially endangered persons will want to read this guide. At the very least, they will learn how every home buyer today is at the mercy of the creditor (the loan institution) and how banks illegally "create" money by lending out their credit. Interesting appendixes offer further explication of state foreclosure laws, various federal resources, and amortizaed loans.

Average customer rating:

A Waste of Your Money
Save Your Money!
FABULOUS BOOK!
A Reader from North Carolina
excellent reading

How to Save Your Home From Foreclosure
Rosario Marano
Manufacturer: Rjm Marketing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Budgeting & Money Management | Personal Finance | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Reference | How-to & Home Improvements | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0967307805

Book Description

An informative "how to book" for homeowners, college students, schools, real estate professionals, and the general public at large which points out various techniques and strategies on how to prevent the loss of their home to a creditor. It is a step by step guide offering different scenarios on how a homeowner can bring their defaulted mortgage loan current and avoid a sheriff or trustee sale.

Customer Reviews:

A Waste of Your Money.......2006-07-23

This book is a small 33 page book with no valuable information inside.

Save Your Money!.......2006-07-21

A miniscule book with just basic information that you can get anywhere on the internet for free. Save your money!

FABULOUS BOOK!.......2001-03-10

I purchased this book when I was 3 months behind on my mortgage payments. It helped me immensely and taught me how I can negotiate a payment plan with my mortgage company. I will recommend the book to anyone I know that can use this knowledge.

A Reader from North Carolina.......1999-12-25

I was devastated from the recent flooding and my house was severly damaged. This book help me arrange a payment plan with the bank when I fell behind on my mortgage payments due to a short unemployment status. I highly recommend this short masterpiece.

excellent reading.......1999-11-28

This book should have come out years ago when I was facing foreclosure. I bought this book simply to educate myself in case I need to employ the valuable information it contains.

Customer Reviews:

Mom of 2 disappointed.......2002-04-12

This book is great in theory. I suppose I was looking for new ideas. I didn't find many here. The book is VERY short--don't be surprised! If you find yourself with NO ideas of what to give your baby or toddler to play with--maybe this is your book! It wasn't mine for long!

Book Description

On the ground, in the air, and behind the lines, grunts made life-and-death decisions every day—and endured the worst stress of their young lives.

It was the tumultuous year 1968, and Robert Tonsetic was Rifle Company commander of the 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry in Vietnam. He took over a group of grunts demoralized by defeat but determined to get even. Through the legendary Tet and May Offensives, he led, trained, and risked his life with these brave men, and this is the thrilling, brutal, and honest story of his tour of duty. Tonsetic tells of leading a seriously undermanned ready-reaction force into a fierce, three-day battle with a ruthless enemy battalion; conducting surreal night airmobile assaults and treks through fetid, pitch-black jungles; and relieving combat stress by fishing with hand grenades and taking secret joyrides in Hueys.

During that fateful year, as unrest erupted at home and politicians groped for a way out of the war, Tonsetic and his men did their job as soldiers and earned the title “Warriors.”

Customer Reviews:

We owe a tremendous debt to the warriors , so we can live in peace.........2007-04-30

A real personal and up close look at what Warriors go through when fighting in military combat. It has often been said that,"War is Hell" and this book comes as close as possible to describing what battle in an infantry Company is like.
The author was a highly trained soldier ,ready to use his skills and everything else he could muster;to lead his men into battle ,defeat the enemy and get as many of his men home safely as possible.
He spent 9 months ,fighting battles in Vietnam,in 1968 during the bloodiest months of the war. While this was going on, he was totally aware of the politics of the war that was being fought out in the anti-war protests in the streets and on the campuses of America.He was also fully aware of the politics that were also being played over the war.
The author was not only a dedicated hero,but he is able to convey to the reader what it was like to be there.As strong a person as he was,we can see that a human being can take only so much stress of battle when he is in a position that his last breath may only be an instant away...and to be subjected to this for 9 months.
There are endless ways to look a the whole business of war;but to the people who sacrifice their all for the freedom of others;we owe them our greatest gratitude, thanks,and respect.
When you talk about service to one's country;Robert Tonsetic shows what it really means.

awesome book.......2006-10-20

This seemed to be one of the best Vietnam memoirs I have read. It was detailed and gripping. I read it in one sitting.

The challenge of wartime command.......2004-12-06

"Warriors: An Infantryman's Memoir of Vietnam," by Robert Tonsetic, is an excellent addition to the canon of American military memoirs. In the preface Tonsetic notes that the book is "essentially a personal history" of his tour as a rifle company commander during the first six months of 1968--"the bloodiest year of the Vietnam War."

The book includes eight crisply drawn maps that illustrate the places and tactical situations covered by the text; 16 pages of black-and-white photos of people and places mentioned in the book; a useful glossary of military terms and acronyms; and a bibliography of relevant books and documents. These supplemental features greatly enhance the book.

But in the end it's Tonsetic's fine text that stands on its own. Tonsetic writes in a sober, matter-of-fact prose style that I found very effective, and well suited to his subject matter. His text is full of fascinating technical details about the art and science of 20th century warfare. But he never gets excessively technical; his narrative remains grounded in the human dimension of his gripping story.

Tonsetic covers a lot of ground: night fighting tactics, the danger of "friendly fire," enemy tactics, dealing with prisoners-of-war, etc. He writes dramatically of the leadership and staffing issues he faced as a company commander. He vividly portrays the stress and harsh conditions endured by the hard-working infantry soldiers, and the author's compassion and respect for these men really shines through. Tonsetic stresses in his preface that the "people, dates, locations, and operations described in this book are real and documented in official Army records." The author's testimony of the truthfulness of his narrative adds to the book's power.

Warriors.......2004-04-07

I thought that this was a very good book about the Vietnam War. It is definitely worth reading for those interested in learning about the reality of war for ground troops. It described well what life was like in a rifle company, what a commander's responsbilities were, and what a difficult experience it must have been. The author described the battle scenes very well and they were exciting (and scary), and in the Spring of 1968 they were pretty frequent as well. It was purely a description of life in the field and did not discuss the politics of the war. My only complaint is that the narrative was a bit too detached; I would have also liked to learn more about the actual thoughts and emotions that the author and his troops experienced during this time, about the war and each other.

At Last - Realism.......2004-03-19

Since the end of the Vietnam War, many memoirs have been pubished, most mediocre at best, and many that strain credibility. This book is a breath of fresh air, by far the best account of the experiences of a rifle company commander that I have read!
Tonsetic' straight forward narrative captures intimate detail without overembellishment, and describes the changing pace of infantry combat, as well as the concerns a commander feels for those he commands. His writing style is simple and direct. It is worthwhile reading for anyone who wants to get a better understanding of what VN was all about.
To establish my credibility, I too served as a rifle company commander during my second VN tour, though in a different unit a year later. This is the book that I would give to my 39-year old son, should he ever asks "What was it like?"
This is a superb book, worthy of a read by veterans and non-veterans alike.

Warriors (An Infantryman's Memoir of Vietnam, The Bravest Men in the Bloodiest Year of the War)

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Warriors (An Infantryman's Memoir of Vietnam, The Bravest Men in the Bloodiest Year of the War)

Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0739447505

Average customer rating:

Birding

Excellent

Great book for begininng birdwatchers!

Birds of Seattle and Puget Sound (City Bird Guides)
Chris C. Fisher
Manufacturer: Lone Pine Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Birdwatching | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Ornithology | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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Birds of the Puget Sound Region (Regional Bird Books)

ASIN: 1551050781

Book Description

An easy-to-use and beautifully illustrated guide to help you identify and understand the feathered strangers nibbling at your backyard feeder or singing from a nearby tree. Lavish, full-color illustrations and clear, enjoyable descriptions on 125 common and interesting species around the Seattle area. The book includes quick ID tips, songs and calls, notes on habitat and habitat icons, nests and food, similar species listings, birdspotting checklist,bird feeding hints and tips on how to find the best birding spots in the area.

Customer Reviews:

Birding.......2001-03-11

Birds of Seattle and Puget Sound is our most used identification source. We are beginners, and get confused with tomes which identify every bird in North America. This little book brings us the instant joy of identifying our flying guests while they are still at the feeder or bath. We appear to be "experts" to our house guests who marvel at the variety of birds visiting our yard.

Excellent.......1999-05-12

This in an excellent book for the birds in this area. My 5 year old can identify all the birds in our backyard and can easily look up the new birds that come around. A must for parents who have children and birdfeeders.

Great book for begininng birdwatchers!.......1999-01-17

No more sifting through field guides containing hundreds of birds you will never see around here. The authors of this book have limited their scope to the birds of this region. Many helpful illustrations and charts help a beginner with identification. I plan to use this book to assist Boy Scouts with their Bird Studies Merit Badge

Bird's eye view of the city of Seattle;: Puget Sound, Washington Territory,

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Bird's eye view of the city of Seattle;: Puget Sound, Washington Territory,
E. S Glover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Atlases | Atlases & Maps | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008CB7MK

The Seattle spirit: A primer on Puget Sound : a bird's-eye view of western Washington, past, present, and future

Average customer rating:

The Seattle spirit: A primer on Puget Sound : a bird's-eye view of western Washington, past, present, and future
L. Byrd Mock
Manufacturer: The Sign of the Mocking Bird
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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