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Award-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas is the founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and has become one of the most intriguing and exciting architectural thinkers of our time. This small-scale, affordable paperback presents a selection of texts from a seminar series conducted by Koolhaas, as well as an essay by the architect discussing three of OMA's large-scale projects. Addressing questions of urbanism and architecture in Europe, Asia, and the United States, these texts ultimately illuminate in a concise manner OMA's long-term mission and ideals.
Book Description
This book presents a recent lecture and seminar given by architect Rem Koolhaas at the Rice University School of Architecture. In this compact volume, Koolhaas addresses the urban and architectural implications of extra-large construction, using as examples three of OMA's important large-scale projects: the Zeebrugge Ferry Terminal in Belgium, the Tres Grande Bibliotheque in Paris, and the Karlsruhe Center for Art and Media Technology in Germany.
Tackling questions about the difficult state of urbanism and modernism in contemporary Europe, America, and Asia, this slim volume forms a concise and coherent explanation of the theories and polemics of Koolhaas and OMA. This beautifully designed book serves as an inexpensive alternative and companion to Koolhaas's recent S,M,L,XL .
Customer Reviews:
An interesting apoach to Koolhaas pedagogy.......1999-06-20
This book results in a very interesting overview about the problems of the big-scale in the hybrid buildings, with the privilege of been told in the first person by one of the most important builder of the contemporany city.
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A Guide to Stained Glass in Britain
Painton Cowen
Manufacturer: Michael Joseph Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
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ASIN: 0718125673 |
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San Francisco in the 1850's: 33 Photographic Views
G. R. Fardon
Manufacturer: Dover Pubns
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0486234592 |
Book Description
Making social and ecological change happen is not easy. At both the planetary and organizational levels, it is a dance that is fraught with danger for both the change agents themselves and their organizations. It is like dancing with a tiger.
For corporations, communities and other organizations, the choreography of the dance toward sustainability has been systematized by The Natural Step: a framework that provides the science, analysis, methodologies and tools to use in the quest for sustainability. Dancing with the Tiger presents the stories of individuals, teams and organizations learning about change and sustainability, and then acting on that learning. Case studies include some of the most successful companies and communities in North America:
- Nike: its struggles, victories and setbacks on the road to sustainability
- Starbucks: the tension of modeling corporate responsibility with alarming growth
- CH2MHill: its gradual evolution from environmental to sustainability engineering
- Whistler: grappling with the paradox of sustainability in a high profile resort town
- as well as Home Depot, Norm Thomson Outfitters, the municipalities of Seattle and Santa Monica, and others.
Following on the success of The Natural Step for Business, this book takes a deeper look at the real business impacts of sustainability. It will be of special interest to business people, government officials, and students of business, organizational development and the environment.
Customer Reviews:
Detailed case studies.......2003-04-30
This successor to The Natural Step for Business is essentially a set of four extended case studies, preceded and followed by statements of principles derived from The Natural Step framework and case study experience.
Your reaction to it will depend on your appetite for case studies - mine is not great. The wider exposition of principles is mainly a restatement - and sometimes an elaboration - of principles that can be found elsewhere, including on the Internet sites of The Natural Step.
Those who are working directly with the framework as consultants or part of an internal team will pick up useful ideas and tips. The general reader would do better to start with the authors' first book or with Karl-Henrik Robèrt's The Natural Step Story: Seeding A Quiet Revolution.
Required Reading.......2002-08-28
`Dancing with the Tiger' is a useful and well-written contribution to the growing body of literature that attempts to answer the question so many of us are asking today - what can I do about creating a sustainable world? A world in which we give back to life instead of just taking. This book is particularly helpful for those people within organizations who want to change consciousness from what Paul Hawken has called the 'take-make-waste' culture, to a self-regenerating and life-affirming way of being.
The authors compare this process to 'dancing with a tiger', hence the title. The tiger takes many forms, for example the intensely competitive business environment many companies find themselves in. They give case studies of companies they have worked with as 'sustainability consultants', including Nike and Starbucks. It is encouraging to see the distance these multinational corporations have gone in their efforts...a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and steps are being taken on the long journey to real sustainability. They emphasize the complexity and interconnectedness of the challenge, and at the same time give credit to the many people within organizations who are passionately committed to creating a better world.
Brian Nattrass and Mary Altomare's work is a helpful and informative counterbalance to the often critical reviews of corporate behavior. Their work is based on 'The Natural Step' framework, an enlightened and straightforward approach that any organization can use in their efforts to align their purpose and mission with sustainability.
It is inspiring to read quotes from employees and executives who have participated in this process within their organizations. I highly recommend this book to thoughtful readers who want to discover how to take responsibility for healing the planet.
Inspiring book for sustainability advocates.......2002-08-21
I'm more optimistic about the future, and inspired, after reading Dancing with the Tiger, which profiles sustainability measures introduced by - get ready for it - Nike, Starbucks, Whistler and CH2M Hill, a worldwide engineering company.
Dancing follows on the heels of The Natural Step for Business (NSP, 1997) in which Nattrass and Altomare profiled The Natural Step, a Swedish-rooted initiative to improve corporate environmental and social practices. In that first book, I was titillated to learn about the efforts of companies like Ikea to improve working conditions and reduce the scale of their environmental footprint. Nonetheless, I remained deeply skeptical that other corps, and suits in general, were even remotely interested in grokking social and environmental problems and lining up on the solution side of the equation.
Well, kudos to Nattrass and Altomare (and New Society) for titillating me again. In the first three chapters Dancing provides a current, comprehensive overview of environmental degradation while illuminating the beguiling, complex nature of so many environmental problems. One reason we are befuddled by sustainability problems, the authors say, is because the problems are generally systematic and characterized by uncertainty. In order to overcome problems, we must think systematically and evolve beyond conventional scientific thinking.
Nattrass and Altomare assert that we must also develop a new vocabulary and story-culture linked to sustainability to supplant the warrior-take-all mentality that presently guides much of our thoughts, actions and business. This leads into the remainder of the book, with subsequent chapters profiling the corporate actions on behalf of sustainability taken by Nike, Starbucks, the municipality of Whistler and CH2M Hill Engineering.
It is in this section where I found the biggest surprises. For example, I have longed linked Nike with all-too-common practices of environmental and social exploitation in service of corporate profits. Some of Nike's exploitative practices were revealed years ago, but clearly, the company has made efforts to evolve in more progressive directions. From cutting energy emissions to reducing pollution to helping improve educational opportunities for foreign workers, Nike is evolving, driven in large part because many of the suits, including CEO Phil Knight, instituted policies following the tenets of the Natural Step.
Ditto for Starbucks, CH2M Hill Engineering (with more than 9,500 staff worldwide) and the municipality of Whistler. That's right, Whistler. Evidently, if you can look beyond the SUV-choked parking lots, the groomed hotel ashtrays and some of the most garish displays of conspicuous consumption seen since the decline of the Roman Empire, something remarkable is going on at Whistler. In fact, Whistler now ranks as one of the most environmentally sustainable municipalities on earth.
Naturally, embracing sustainability didn't happen by accident here but falls out of the Whistler Environmental Strategy, crafted several years ago. Like the other examples, the WES was inspired by The Natural Step, and now guides municipal legislation. Addressing pollution reduction, landscape design, water use, environmental conservation, bear management and other issues, Whistler municipal practices are increasingly recognized as among the most progressive worldwide.
Common to the examples cited by Nattrass and Altomare were "ordinary people doing the extraordinary", visionary leaders and staff who persevered in service of sustainability and a core set of principles. The authors refer to them as "evolutionary pioneers, the forerunners who are exploring and drawing the maps of previously uncharted territory, making it easier for others to follow with more certainity." These people have the courage to look beyond the fear of disrupting corporate culture and strike out in a direction not commonly found in the world of business suits and bottom-line profits. This book makes a welcome and significant contribution to nudging the corporate world in the direction of a more sustainable world. I recommend buying a copy as a gift for the corporate executive or municipal planner of your choice.
- Michael Maser; Gibsons BC Canada
- END -
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Japanese Bosses, Chinese Workers: Power and Control in a Hong Kong Megastore (Anthropology of Asia Series)
Wong Heung Wah
Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0824822579 |
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Workforce Intermediaries for the Twenty-First Century
Manufacturer: Temple University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Workforce Development Politics: Civic Capacity and Performance
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The Job Training Charade (Collection on Technology and Work)
ASIN: 1592132049 |
Book Description
Confronted with businesses facing a long-term shortage of skilled workers and evaluations showing that job training for the poor over the past 25 years had produced only meager results, a number of groups throughout the country have sought to find a more effective approach. The efforts of these partnerships, which editor Robert Giloth calls "workforce intermediaries," are characterized by a focus on improving business productivity and helping low-income individuals not just find a job, but advance over time to jobs that enable them to support themselves and their families. This book takes stock of the world of workforce intermediaries: entrepreneurial partnerships that include businesses, unions, community colleges, and community organizations. Noted scholars and policy makers examine the development and effectiveness of these intermediaries, and a concluding chapter discusses where we need to go from here, if society is to provide a more coherent approach to increasing the viability and capacity of these important institutions.
Published in association with The American Assembly, Columbia University.
Book Description
Make 10 wardrobe essentials that will remain in style for years, with the scaled patterns, comprehensive instructions, and inspiration. Even a sewer with limited experience will be able to make a traditional shirt, a collarless tunic, a T-shirt, a straight skirt, a full skirt, elastic-waist pants, tailored pants, a jacket, a fitted waistcoat, and a big vest or jacket. 144 pages (all in color), 8 1/2 x 10.
Customer Reviews:
Great for learning how patterns work.......2005-04-01
I bought this book a long time ago (through a crafting book club, and it came with the paper patterns at the time so you didn't have to enlarge the pages in the back), and it's a great source for learning the "how" of sewing. The patterns don't have seam allowances added in, so you get a good idea of how to change patterns around without forgetting to add in seams. The patterns are very basic with very little fitting details, and there are no "dress" patterns, although they give you instructions on how to make certain views into dresses. There is also some basic information about fabric types that was useful when I started sewing. There are 2 vests, 3 shirts, 2 skirts, 2 pants, and at least one jacket pattern with instructions, as well as tons of ideas for personalizing them. My only complaints with the book is that there are no dresses, there are no indications on how much fabric you would need to make a dress variation, and I would have loved some details on how to fit things like princess seams and darts.
Great for sparking your imagination.......1998-06-19
The basics, with that little extra, that can make a great wardrobe. Simple instructions.
Customer Reviews:
My Favorite Source of Inspiration.......2003-09-13
I think that Easy Style is unique: nearly infinite variations on a few basic style themes. I am not that great at (nor interested in) fitting. What I like is FABRIC. And Easy Styles' simple designs and wonderful pen and ink drawings of variations help me imagine fabric into fashions. Plus, I think they are delightfully quirky, with the designer and models being Danish; and almost timeless, too, as a specific neckline finish may come and go, but at least ONE will be currently in fashion. I love this book--I'm actually grateful for this book--because it really helps me see how style elements relate to one another and can be modified endlessly.
Creative variations on basic patterns.......1999-10-20
This book consists of 4 basic top patterns (inset, drop, raglan and kimono sleeves), pants and skirt patterns,and a couple of hats. The tops, which interest me the most, are boxy, with deep armholes. There are 24 collar variations, with instructions for ways to vary the styles. Some have complete instructions, others are suggestions. They show how to draft the patterns, but you can also buy the basic patterns full size from the publisher. I like big shirts, and attractive, interesting shirt patterns are very hard to come by. Definitely worth checking out!
Not so easy sewing, attractive clothes.......1997-06-30
Basic clothes appropriate and attractive now, easy to wear. You draft the patterns yourself using directions. I read through it, but did not leap up to use it. Wonderful trench coat. Styles seem best for flat figures, boxy. Round people need darts, folks
Book Description
On March 9, 1916 the border town of Columbus, New Mexico was attacked by forces under the command of the Mexican revolutionary, Pancho Villa. Eighteen Americans were killed and a number of buildings were burned to the ground before the U.S. Cavalry, inflicting heavy losses, drove Villa and his mounted band back into Mexico. Frank Tompkins, a Major in the U.S. Cavalry at the time, led the counter-attack against Villa's mounted men on March 9th, and was with General John "Black Jack" Pershing during the subsequent year-long "Punitive Expedition" that sought to capture the elusive Villa in Mexico. The Columbus Raid and Punitive Expedition proved to be the last major campaign of the U.S. Cavalry. At the same time it presaged the more modern military techniques that would soon be employed by American forces in World War I. First published in 1934 and long out of print, "Chasing Villa" is a sound and literate record of milestone events in Western history, military history, the Mexican revolution, and the last of the horse cavalry.
Customer Reviews:
great book for novice and expert alike.......2000-07-21
This is great history from the pen of someone who helped make it.A definite must for cavalry research,especially those interested in last campaigning.The author lets us become dusty troopers,hungry,cold and exhausted.The 1912 experimental saddle gets a pretty poor review by the author ,and it is interesting to see his comments on local population.My personal interest is ww2 cav but this book beats any other
Still the definitive history of this campaign........1998-05-08
I have to welcome with great glee this reprint. Now I will no longer have to wear out my original.
This book is the best available on the Punitive Expedition in Mexico during 1916-1917. It was written by the hero of Columbus, Maj. Frank Tompkins, U.S.Cavalry, in the 1930s.
Included as one of the appendices, is the report of Capt. Benjamin Foulois, U.S. Signal Corps, who commanded the 1st Aero Squadron. (At this time, aviation was considered an adjunct function for scouting, patrolling, and communications and was still part of the Signal Corps. Foulois went on to a distinguished career as one of the founders of the U.S. Air Service.)
Tompkins, a major at the time of the raid, went on to higher command in France. During the Columbus Raid, he organized the immediate pursuit of Villa's forces and chased them well into Mexico, turning back only because his men had exhausted their ammunition and were without complete field equipment, having hastily fallen in with only their saddles and weapons while under attack.
I have done extensive research in the National Archives on this period and have analyzed the raid itself in detail. I recognized many of the passages in the book were lifted directly from documents in the files of the Southern Department, the immediate higher headquarters, and those of the Punitive Expedition.
Whether Tompkins deliberately omitted his sources or the publisher did, or it just was that the historical writing conventions of the time did not place the emphasis on sourcing that we do now (footnoting to excess at times) makes no difference in the validity or usefulness of the book. After all he did give complete sourcing for the appendices which were copied verbatim.
Where he expresses opinions they are clearly recognizable. As Tompkins had almost twenty years to think about and work up his book plus having the advantages of complete access to official documents, and of having been there, and knowing all the other officers who were then serving, no one today could do what he did. Thus the work qualifies for a triple--personal narrative, reporting, and well-considered history.
A really useful memorial to a gallant group of professionals whose like we shall hardly see again.
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Yesterday's witness: A selection from the BBC series
Manufacturer: British Broadcasting Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0563171855 |
Book Description
"Mr. Dunne . . . is one of the country's most-respected birders, a self-taught authority whose exuberant, almost-poetic approach to the pastime has won him many followers among the growing legions of birders."
—
Wall Street Journal
Pete Dunne has been watching birds since he was seven years old. But not just watching-deeply absorbing every nuance of color, markings, shape, flight, and song; all the subtle clues that can identify a bird barely glimpsed among the highest branches in fading twilight. With the same skill, he has been observing and writing about birding and birders for over twenty years, using humor, sentiment, occasional sarcasm, and unashamed passion for his chosen profession to explore why birdwatching is so irresistibly compelling to so many people.
This book brings together thirty-two vintage essays that Dunne originally wrote for publications such as
American Birds,
Bird Watcher's Digest,
Birder's World,
Birding,
Living Bird, the New Jersey edition of the Sunday
New York Times,
WildBird, and
Wild Bird News. Encounters with birds rare and common is their shared theme, through which Dunne weaves stories of his family and friends, reflections on the cycles of nature, and portraits of unforgettable birders whose paths have crossed his, ranging from Roger Tory Peterson to a life-battered friend who finds solace in birding. A cliff-hanger story of the bird that got away gives this book its title.
Customer Reviews:
Easy read and great essays!.......2001-04-06
This is a wonderful collection of essays which appeal to both birders and naturalists alike. The essays are short enough for a quick read, but the messages last a lot longer. Some of the birding terms and names may be difficult to understand if you are not an avid bird watcher, (I am a beginner) but do not let that sway you from reading this book. As a biologist first and a naturalist second, some of the essays helped me to find a better balance between scientific research, habitat management, and conservation. As the writer states, the styles and topics vary between different essays. Some are heart-wrenching, and some are funny. Would make a great gift, but after reading one of the essays, you may hestitate ever giving a bird-related item to a seasoned birder again! Much better than a salt and pepper holder shaped like birds.
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S M L XL: Second Edition
