The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy

Book Description

This handsomely designed book brings together for the first time the outstanding work of four Swiss engineers and their teachers who form the most impressive group of structural artists in the twentieth century: Wilhelm Ritter (1847-1906), Robert Maillart (1872-1940), Othmar Ammann (1879-1965), Pierre Lardy (1902-1956), Heinz Isler (b. 1926), and Christian Menn (b. 1927). David P. Billington, who has written widely on these engineers, argues that it is important to consider them as artists, for aesthetics played a major role in their design philosophy. He explains that their shared approach to design was developed while they attended the Federal Technological Institute in Zurich: Maillart and Amman studied with Ritter there, and Isler and Menn studied under Lardy. Billington focuses on the engineers' artistic approach to bridge design and construction, and he discusses their impressive individual contributions to structural engineering. Generously illustrated, this book features many newly commissioned photographs, including images of important new structures such as the Charles River Bridge in Boston, completed by Menn in 2002.

Customer Reviews:

Nice pictures... but not really any technical data..........2005-10-17

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a kid, I'm just too lazy to bother making an account just to write a review. I mean, come on, that's what this "kid's review" option is really for, isn't it?
THE REVIEW:
This book contains many good photographs of notable bridges designed by Swiss structural engineers, but it's a tad light on providing any technical data... overall, this book's good for looking at bridges from an artistic, design-oriented point of view, but isn't particularly useful if you're, say, trying to DRAW A SCALE DIAGRAM OF A BRIDGE IN THIS BOOK AND YOU WERE TOLD TO BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR UNIVERSITY ENGINEERING COURSE because it lacks concrete facts about spans, drapes, or other distances that would be useful. Not a bad book at all; quite good, actually, but not very useful for technical analysis. That salginatobel bridge pops up all over the place, eh?

The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy

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The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy
David P. Billington
Manufacturer: Other Distribution
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSC3LW

Customer Reviews:

As good as Ansel Adams' book, "Yosemite and the Range of Light.".......2007-07-05

The book contains 91 plates, that is, glossy reproduction of Mr.Barnbaum's black and white photographs. Each "plate" is about 8X10 inches. The quality of the reproductions is high. You could cut the pages out and have them framed, though you wouldn't want to.

The book is divided into four sections, called, "First Movement" (forests, ice crystals, Goosenecks State Park in Utah, and deserts), "Second Movement" (ancient cathedrals in Europe), "Third Movement" (modern skyscrapers in the USA), and "Fourth Movement" (slot canyons in southern Utah and northern Arizona). The very first photograph, which is from the First Movement, starts the book on a dramatic note. It shows a fallen tree, white because it is stripped of its bark, wedged between two standing redwood trees. The trees in background are somewhat removed from the scene because of the thick fog. The stiff, light-colored fallen tree, wedged between two adjacent redwoods has certain overtones.

Moving on to the Second Movement, one appreciates the difficulty in taking some of these pictures, because of the low levels of light, requiring exposures of up to 21 minutes (plate 38). Another difficulty resulted from the magnitude of contrast between areas within cathedral illuminated by sunlight, and areas plunged in deep shadows.

The photographs in the Third Movement, at times, resemble a Mondrian painting.

The great accomplishment of this book is the slot canyons, or "slit canyons." Plate 65 is like an optical illusion, and shows a column-like formation. The optical illusion is that it is uncertain if the columns are concave or convex. Plate 66 shows two window-like formations, one above like a skylight, while the other below revealing a garden. Plate 68 shows mud, but what mud!!! What we see is mud having a metallic shimmer, like the kind that Elliot Porter has photographed. Plate 72 shows two parallel logs, both wedged into the width of a slot canyon. Plates 74, 81, 83, 84, 85, and 86, show swirling abstract designs in stone. Plate 89 shows a pyramidal striped rock having stripes residing in the center of the picture, while a snake sits in the sand at the bottom left. While Mr. Barnbaum did not discover the slot canyons, it is likely that he popularized them, and stimulated the boom in color photography of these mysterious and hard-to-reach underground alcoves.

After the plates, we find fifteen pages of intelligent narrative, relating to technical details, goals, and problems that needed to be overcome in taking the pictures.

Visual Symphony: A Photographic Study in Four Movements

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Visual Symphony: A Photographic Study in Four Movements
Bruce Barnbaum
Manufacturer: Vanderbilt Univ Dept of
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0912383321

Visual Symphony: a Photographic Work in Four Movements

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Visual Symphony: a Photographic Work in Four Movements
Bruce Barnbaum
Manufacturer: Alfred Van der Marck Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IFF7XM

Book Description

For the first time, the most important quotations of the great conservationist Aldo Leopold, author of A Sand County Almanac, are gathered in one volume. From conservation education to wildlife ecology, from wilderness protection to soil and water conservation, the writings of Aldo Leopold continue to have profound influence on those seeking to understand the earth and its care. Leopold biographer Curt Meine and noted conservation biologist Richard Knight have assembled this comprehensive collection of quotations from Leopold’s extensive and diverse writings, selected and organized to capture the richness and depth of the North American conservation movement.
Prominent biologists, conservationists, historians, and philosophers provide introductory commentaries describing Leopold’s contributions in varied fields and reflecting upon the significance of his work today.

Customer Reviews:

unique and clear-headed thinking.......2001-01-01

In The Conference Board's magazine, "Across the Board," in a Nov/Dec 2000 article on the best business books read over the past year, I wrote:

"Over the past couple of years, I must have read 10 to 20 management books every month. Unfortunately, before long, many of these titles start reading the same, hoping to capitalize on the management trend of the moment. But every once in a while a book comes along that includes unique and clear-headed thinking and writing. When I was working on an article about environmental ethics in business, I came across a new collection of the writings of Aldo Leopold, the legendary conservationist of the 1930s and 1940s perhaps best known for A Sand County Almanac. Edited by Curt Meine and Richard L. Knight, The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries is not, strictly speaking, a business book, but contained here in many previously unpublished observations are the thoughts and ideas of a natural (in all senses of the word) manager. Leopold was a rare combination of someone who saw the need for conserving nature, but who also understood and encouraged experiencing the beauty and functionality of the outdoors." --Across the Board, Nov/Dec 2000

One of my favorite quotes of Leopold's from this collection:

"Relegating conservation to government is like relegating virtue to the Sabbath. Turns over to professionals what should be daily work of amateurs."

A "must" read for Aldo Leopold fans and conservationists........2000-03-05

Aldo Leopold was the author of "A Sand County Almanac" and one of the most influential conservationists of his day. In The Essential Aldo Leopold, Curt Meine and Richard Knight have collaborated to assembled a comprehensive collections of quotations from Leopold's extensive and diverse writings. These gems of wisdom, insight, and encouragement are organized in twenty-one chapters under the broad themes of conservation science and practice, conservation policy, conservation and culture. Each chapter begins with an introductory essay by a prominent conservation scholar to provide the reader with perspective on Leopold's numerous and varied contributions. The Essential Aldo Leopold is an essential, core title for any personal, academic, and professional environmental and conservation studies collection, and highly recommended reading for all Aldo Leopold admirers within the modern conservation movement.

The essential aldo leopold. Quotations and commentaries. (Reviews).: An article from: The Geographical Journal

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The essential aldo leopold. Quotations and commentaries. (Reviews).: An article from: The Geographical Journal
Kimberley E. Medley
Manufacturer: Royal Geographical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008IIEWA
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Geographical Journal, published by Royal Geographical Society on September 1, 2001. The length of the article is 878 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The essential aldo leopold. Quotations and commentaries. (Reviews).
Author: Kimberley E. Medley
Publication: The Geographical Journal (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2001
Publisher: Royal Geographical Society
Volume: 167 Issue: 3 Page: 278(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Herbert Stein has long been noted for the objectivity, clarity, and wit of his writing on the American economy. Millions of people have been reading, enjoying, and learning from his articles in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and most recently, Slate magazine on the Internet. Now, after sixty-five years as a student, teacher, presidential adviser, and commentator, he has collected his latest observations on the past and the present of the American economy and on his own life and times.

"I am amazed these days," writes Stein, "to think of how much history has occurred in the eighty-one years of my lifetime. To anyone who has lived through a significant part of those years, their horror is vividly recalled by a listing of place names-Auschwitz, Dresden, Lubyanka, Gulag, Shanghai, Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia. But that was only one side of the story. This is also a story of increasing freedom, equality, and material well-being, a testament to the conscience and creativity of mankind." Stein opines that "more progress was made in these eighty-one years than in all previous history to bring to reality the American proposition that all men-and not only all men but all men and women of all races, religions, and ethnicities-are created equal."

In this witty, accessible volume with essays ranging from "A Primer on Pay and Productivity" to "An Old couch Potato's Lament," Stein discourses about the state of the economy, the budget and taxes, history, and politics and offers personal observations.

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Baby name books are stupid

A Fun Read

Go beyond naming your kids!

Overrated Book and Lacked Substance!

lots of food for thought

Beyond Jennifer & Jason : The New Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby
Linda Rosenkrantz , and Pamela Redmond Satran
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Genealogy | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Accessories:

Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

ASIN: 031210426X

Book Description

Until 1988, nearly all baby-naming books were merely dictionaries: long, dull lists of names with their definitions. But then Beyond Jennifer Jason-- the first enlightened guide to naming your baby-- was born, to tell parents-to-be what they really want to know: which names are hot, and which names are on their way up or down. Now the book that revolutionized baby naming is fully revised and filled with even more indispensable, up-to-the-minute advice.Instead of one long alphabetical list, Beyond Jennifer Jason offers dozens of fully updated lists of names, including:* America's move from J names to K names* New naming inspiration from the family tree* Multicultural options to reflect almost any heritage* The trend one actress set when she took the advice of the first Beyond Jennifer JasonWith dozens of fresh, savvy lists of names, Beyond Jennifer Jason gives parents the truly authoritative word on how to tell the good names from the bad, the classic from the passe, and the intriguingly unusual from the downright weird.A Selection of the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club.

Customer Reviews:

Baby name books are stupid.......2006-06-19

When my wife got pregnant, we had no shortage of ideas for baby names. I don't need some psycho-babble to tell me whether the name we pick out will be good or not.

A Fun Read.......2004-06-16

Beyond Jennifer and Jason and Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby is a good name book and has interesting catagories and ideas but some of the names they say are outdated and too old fashioned actually seem to be making comebacks. Other then that it's a fun book to read.Only other complaint I really have is that they give some very interesting names but don't give the pronunciations but I did like this book and I recommend it, but just be aware that it's not your typical name book where the boy and girl names are seperate and listed alpabetically and is really rather random.

Go beyond naming your kids!.......2003-11-03

I'll be honest with you. I have two children already, and I used this book to help select names for both of them. I even wrote margin notes, and devised complicated mathematical formulas to help determine the best fit for the baby. First, the initials could not spell any horrendous words like: BAD, or SAP. Secondly, the name had to be simple and easy to spell. It's no good challenging a kindergarten student to write her name out as Rebeckka, when the teacher would be over her shoulder in an instant telling her to write it correctly. How about just Becky. Not Bekki, or Becci, or Bahki. Keep it simple. This book will show you how.

If you?re wondering why I still keep this book dog-eared on my desk I will tell you now. If you?re not interested, just skip to the end, and vote. This little book is a treasure trove of names for the scores of characters that appear in my short fiction and poems who all need unique names. The Internet has plenty of baby name sites, but this book is a lot easier than scrolling through page after page on a cranky web site that flashes annoying ads the whole time. Get this book if you're thinking of having kids, or perhaps need some help picking a nice name for that delightful mother-in-law character in your first novel. The book also comes in handy for naming pets. We have a cat named Ben, and a dog named Jack. If we ever get a fish tank, I?ll flip to the index, and start naming away.

Overrated Book and Lacked Substance!.......2003-10-23

This book lacks substance--no origin, unorganized and poorly researched. If you want to see the origin of the names, an excellent researched book of baby names, I strongly recommend the "Dictionary of First Names" by Adrian Room.

lots of food for thought.......2000-06-10

I think of this as kind of a "companion" book for people researching names - I don't know that it would really fill the bill to be the one and only source a couple uses to make their final decision, but it really motivates you to put some effort into coming up with the most permanent gift you will ever give your child. Whether or not one agrees with the highly subjective evaluations the authors give names on many levels, the book provides food for thought on aspects I certainly wouldn't have thought about.

Plus: it reads amazingly easily - as opposed to 99% of other books I ploughed through, which became a chore.

One weakness: names from other cultural backgrounds. While these are included - and not just as politically correct oddities, but as valid and even "hip" choices - I question where they were drawn from or how chosen for inclusion. As a native German speaker, I was very interested to see the German list. Given that it was, as can be expected, small (for more extensive lists I would logically look elsewhere than this type of book)I was surprised at how many names were inlcluded that I had never heard of before - much less known anyone of that name. If the German list was so skewed, I would assume that other language groups were as well.

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Beyond Jennifer and Jason - An Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby - Rev. & Upd. Ed.
Linda and Pamela Redmond Satran Rosenkrantz
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OT9QFC

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Beyond Jennifer and Jason : An Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby
Linda; Satran, Pamela R. Rosenkrantz
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000X1QQD6

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Beyond Jennifer and Jason: An Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby
Linda; Satran, Pamela Redmond Rosenkrantz
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JKRU4A

Book Description

In this magisterial book, a prize-winning historian shows how war has defined modern America and argues that militarization during the sixty years since World War II has reshaped every facet of American life: its politics, economics, culture, social relations, and place in the world.

Customer Reviews:

Militarization as Metaphor.......2000-05-25

Michael S. Sherry, In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995)

The preface to Michael Sherry's massive study of the last seven decades of United States history begins with this ominous statement: "Since the late 1930s, Americans have lived under the shadow of war." Sherry addresses many issues in order to prove his point, and it will be impossible to address all of them here. As a result, I will focus on Sherry's main premise, that "militarization" (which he defines as "the process in which civil society organizes itself for the production of violence") has been the most important purpose of the United States' government since it began preparing for World War II. According to Sherry: "This book emphasizes war as an agent of and rationale for the nation's transformation."

In the broadest sense, what Sherry calls "militarization" is a metaphor for large federal programs, organized hierarchically and managed by massive bureaucracies. Sherry explains that "war" was used by practically every president as figure of speech connoting "federal action and presidential leadership, since war was a supremely national enterprise." For example, Franklin Roosevelt invoked "metaphors of war" during the domestic crisis of the early years of his presidency; Lyndon Johnson "declared `war' on countless problems at home and abroad," and George Bush "deployed the full arsenal of military metaphors when he declared his drug war." In some instances, of course, tough talk of war was not figurative. If the conflict in Korea had escalated into general nuclear war, President Truman wrote in his diary that "Moscow, St. Petersburg, Mukden, Vladivostok, Peking, Shanghai, Port Arthur, Dairen, Odessa, Stalingrad, and every manufacturing plant in China and the Soviet Union would be eliminated." According to a phrase in a top-secret American document, large parts of the Soviet Union's urban-industrial infrastructure would have been turned into a "smoking, radiating ruin." In 1965, Secretary of State Dean Rusk urged bombing North Vietnam "as a signal to Hanoi and Peiping that they themselves cannot hope to succeed without a substantial escalation on their part, with all the risks they would have to face." Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay made essentially the same point when he suggested threatening the North Vietnamese that the United States would "bomb them back into the Stone Age." Sherry is absolutely correct that "America's civilian leaders often pursued national security and embraced military values more fervently than military officers." In 1950, for example, Secretary of State Dean Acheson directed Paul Nitze to draft the document which became known as known as "NSC-68," which recommended increasing the defense budget by a factor of nearly three, to $35 billion per year. The influence of policymakers such as Nelson Rockefeller, Averell Harriman, Robert Lovett, and John McCloy (and Sherry could have added many others) during the early years of the Cold War is well known. Sherry is correct that they "had a common background in eastern elite schools, law firms, corporations, and government," and their "shared outlook" did much to shape the United States' approach to the Cold War. David Halberstam described these men with wicked irony as the "best and the brightest." As early as 1956, as Sherry notes, sociologist C. Wright Mills called attention to this "power elite" running a "permanent war economy." In the mid-1960s, when the policy elite turn against the war, President Johnson fumed: "The establishment bastards have bailed out." Sherry explains the erosion of consensus this way: "When American abundance seemed almost limitless, as in the 1940s and 1950s, militarization had seemed almost painlessly affordable, even economically beneficial, with both guns and butter readily attainable." He proceeds to explain: "America's war in Vietnam violated the tacit bargain which supported the nation's militarization after 1945. Militarization had been tolerated as long as it seemed congruent with affluence and progress at home." The end of the Vietnam War provided a lost opportunity to reverse the forces of militarization, at least in international affairs. According to Sherry, Jimmy Carter's inaugural address, "signaled his determination to break from America's militarized past." Sherry explains: "Carter succeeded better than most modern Presidents at managing the affairs of state so as to keep the nation out of war." According to Sherry, Ronald Reagan had a "well-deserved reputation as a Cold Warrior, and his presidency may be best remembered in the popular imagination for what Sherry describes as having "restored national security as America's supreme priority," but Sherry relies on Garry Wills's incisive comment that, in fact, Reagan's "greatest achievements and his political successes" rested in his "shrewd concentration on domestic policy." Sherry quotes John Newhouse that Reagan had the "good luck" never to have "to confront a foreign policy crisis." George Bush, according to Sherry, "like Nixon, lacked any vision for the nation out of the grooves cut by decades of hot and cold war." Sherry proceeds to explain: "By temperament cautious and by experience a Cold Warrior, Bush was not going to rock the conservative boat by... advancing a new agenda." Indeed, according to Sherry, President Bush's chief of staff John Sununu believed that a "short successful war...would guarantee his reelection." The Gulf War proved to be a superb showcase to "display anew America's superior technology," but, according to Sherry, "the Gulf War served Bush's fortunes badly and his other goals at best partially" because, as Bush himself acknowledged, there was no "definitive end" to the conflict. Sherry concludes: "The Cold War's end did not halt militarization,...but it did destroy the most prominent rationale for militarization."

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Independent Review, published by Independent Institute on January 1, 1997. The length of the article is 1862 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: In the Shadow of War: The United States since the 1930s. (book reviews)
Author: Wesley Allen Riddle
Publication: Independent Review (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 1997
Publisher: Independent Institute
Volume: v1 Issue: n3 Page: p452(5)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s.: An article from: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

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In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s.: An article from: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Walter C. Uhler
Manufacturer: Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Science & Technology | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. on November 1, 1995. The length of the article is 1724 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s.
Author: Walter C. Uhler
Publication: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 1995
Publisher: Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.
Volume: v51 Issue: n6 Page: p68(4)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s

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In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s
Michael S. Sherry
Manufacturer: Yale Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KZ91K0

Book Description

The Great Game of espionage is a game of spies, sabotage, distortion, lies. But it is also about INFLUENCE-conveying the delusion of friendship and cooperation while influencing world events from within a foreign government. So it was that an internationally respected senior statesman serving in the highest levels of the FDR administration was actually Stalin's asset.

How did it happen, and-more imortantly-how can we keep it from happening again? INFLUENCE outlines both the motivation, machination, and consequence of a foreign power pulling the strings of a high American official. INFLUENCE is both a throroughly documented account of our failings, and our best hope to prevent a recurrance of history.

Customer Reviews:

Good only for backyard birds, cover missleading........1998-05-25

Even though there is a pelican on the cover, there are no pelicans, egrets, cranes or other swamp birds that you would expect to find in a book called All About Louisisana Birds. The book was very informative on birds you would might see in your backyard expecially if you put out feed. It also had helpful advice on types of food, housing, what to plant, ect. However, this book could have been called All About Birds in Southeastern Backyards and been a more acurate title. As you can see I was a little put out about being misslead by the title and cover. But then, I maybe should have looked further and noticed the author was from Tennessee, not the Bayou.

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