Exploring Pacific Coast Tidepools (Outdoor and Nature)

Book Description

This fieldguide describes 341 of the most common species of flora and fauna in the intertidal zone of the Pacific Coast from Baja California to Alaska. Twenty-one pages of color.

Customer Reviews:

Discover the beautiful world of MDI's flowers........1999-02-07

This is an excellent reference book for both the casual flower watcher or botanist. The plants and flowers are illustrated with color photos helping to ease confusion between species. The one problem is that the photos do not appear next to the text which leads to extra page flipping. An index would also be useful. This is a well researched, useful and attractive book.

Book Description

The Top 10 Guide to Rio highlights the very best attractions of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so that you may fully enjoy your trip. Included are the Top 10 Things to See and Do in the City, the Top 10 Beaches, and a complete guide to the Top 10 Restaurants by type of restaurant and by location. It covers the best places to shop, the best places to eat, the best nightlife, the top museums and art galleries, the must-see sights, and the must-do experiences. Whether you are visiting for a few days or a few weeks, on a business trip or a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, the Top Ten Guide to Rio de Janeiro lets you focus on the best of everything so that your Rio experience is a rich and rewarding one.

Customer Reviews:

Look For Another Guide Book.......2001-08-15

I never expected to write a review ..., but if it will save someone the money wasted on this book, it is worth the trouble. I am amazed by the inaccurate, positive Editorial Reviews, though I can understand the Customer Reviews. After all, without knowing your surroundings, you can not easily perceive that you have been mislead.

I have resided in Rio for years and purchased the book for visitors whom I can not attend as fully as I would like. However, this book would only serve to gear my guests towards a disappointing vacation relative to what they could experience.

Although the book is written by a Carioca (a Rio native), she apparently has not been out much in the last couple of years, despite the book's year 2000 copyright.

Only 1 of the Top 10 Disco Clubs may be worthy of being listed, whereas the #1 burned down back around 1996 and the #10 virtually went out of business over a year ago. Her #4 "known to be a tourist hangout" is better known as a whore house. Not 1 of Rio's top dance clubs is actually listed here.

The Top 10 Seafood Restaurants fails to include Satyricon, arguably one of Rio's finest, however the author ackowledges it as "one of the best seafood restaurants in town" in her Top 10 Medium Priced Restaurants (though it is not medium priced). The book is full of similar inconsistencies.

The Top 10 Churrascarias (all you can eat steak houses) lists several that are a la carte only, including the (Australian) Outback Steakhouse, an unnecessary destination considering all the great local establishments.

The Top 10 Fresh Juice Shops fails to include some of Rio's best, as well as most famous and popular.

The Top 10 Wine Bars have little or nothing to do with wine, and at best offer a poor selection. And of course some of these establishments have been closed for years.

Admittedly, the book does include many places worth visiting, though not in the order presented. As a first time visitor in 1987 and a first time resident in 1996, with experience hosting visitors from the USA and elsewhere, my suggestions is look for another guide book.

Hey Relax, This is Rio. City of Marvel.......2001-03-16

Excellent book! Forget about the comment that some info in the book are dated. C'mon, you are on vacation. Give me that adventure spirit and go w/ the flow. Who cares if that restaurant in the gringo hotel has been closed for two years as long as the Sugar Loaf, the Cristo and most importantly, the Cariocas are all there!!! If everything is so certain and structured, why wouldn't I have my vacation in our boring american suburb? This book conveys the spirit of Rio, which is intensity w/ fun and action, warm and exciting people and lots of new ideas if you leave your American baggage at home. I have been to Rio seven times in the last three years. I think this book is an accurate representation of Rio and Cariocas, that is, if you are not too ANALytical. :) enjoy!

Needs to be updated.......2000-08-20

This was a great book I thought until I got to Rio. I bought this book because it was the most recently published (2000). On more than one occasion the book contained dated material. The best example was the Japanese restaurant that was supposed to be in the hotel where I stayed. I was suprised to find out it closed over 2 years ago. Go with the Lost Planet guide. At least they tell you that their information is two years old.

Excellent!.......2000-05-31

The Top Ten Guide to Rio de Janeiro is a very concise and useful guide. All the information you really need is there and easy to find.

Top 10 Rio de Janeiro (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Average customer rating:

Top 10 Rio de Janeiro (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
DK Publishing
Manufacturer: DK Travel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Although less well known than his famous flight over the North Pole, Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s adventures in Antarctica are just as remarkable. Wide-eyed youngsters will feel the excitement and danger as they read about the isolated and tight little manned station where Byrd lived, separated from his crew; the temperatures that plunged to 60 degrees below zero; and Byrd’s brush with death when a small stove he needed to keep warm—and stay alive—filled the air with carbon monoxide. It’s a tale of personal courage and dedication, all set against a backdrop of perhaps the harshest environment on earth.

Book Description

Spline functions arise in a number of fields: statistics, computer graphics, programming, computer-aided design technology, numerical analysis, and other areas of applied mathematics.

Much work has focused on approximating splines such as B-splines and Bezier splines. In contrast, this book emphasizes interpolating splines. Almost always, the cubic polynomial form is treated in depth.

{\it Interpolating Cubic Splines} covers a wide variety of explicit approaches to designing splines for the interpolation of points in the plane by curves, and the interpolation of points in 3-space by surfaces. These splines include various estimated-tangent Hermite splines and double-tangent splines, as well as classical natural splines and geometrically-continuous splines such as beta-splines and nu-splines.

A variety of special topics are covered, including monotonic splines, optimal smoothing splines, basis representations, and exact energy-minimizing physical splines. An in-depth review of the differential geometry of curves and a broad range of exercises, with selected solutions, and complete computer programs for several forms of splines and smoothing splines, make this book useful for a broad audience: students, applied mathematicians, statisticians, engineers, and practicing programmers involved in software development in computer graphics, CAD, and various engineering applications.

Average customer rating:
On the convergence of cubic interpolating splines (CNA)
Tom Lyche
Manufacturer: Center for Numerical Analysis, University of Texas at Austin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006WO4DG

Book Description

In the year 1912, a fisherman discovers an infant adrift on an ice floe in the North Atlantic. Back in the Newfoundland village of Drook she's considered a changeling, with her white hair and eyes of different colors. Her very survival shows that her life is charmed. Named Aurora, after the dawn of her rescue from the sea, she exhibits a singular nature as she grows to womanhood amid the austere beauty of the Newfoundland coast. She marries and has two children, but it is only after they are grown, and she is an old woman, that the mystery of Aurora's origins is solved.

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful book full of magic.......2003-01-15

This was a beautiful book that portrayed a very complex character. Aurora is found as a baby wrapped in a basket covered by a rubber sheet tied to an upturned chair which is floating on an ice slab in the Artic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. It is only a few days after the Titanic disaster but nobody is looking for this baby and from the beginning everything about her seems unusual. She has pale skin and almost white hair and she always feels cool. She likes to wander by herself and she has a very unusual connection with animals which leads the locals to think that maybe she was left by faeries. I think I liked this book because although it paints this very ethereal picture of Aurora as a baby and as a child she has a very human marriage and a complex relationship with her children that is portrayed in a believable way. You do not always like Aurora's decisions and the book has its share of heartbreak but I guarantee you will feel you've encountered a genuine and unique story that will stay with you long after you've finished the book.

beautiful, involving saga.......2002-04-04

This is a beautifully-written book, providing a strong setting and feeling of Newfoundland, where it is mainly set. The timeline of the book follows the same as the life of Aurora, an ethereal spirit who was discovered as a baby floating on an ice slab in middle of the Atlantic ocean, her birthplace and story up until that point a mystery to all. From that point on, we come to know her, the members of her complex but very human family, and ultimately, to feel a part of the family and land. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

Latitudes of Melt: A Novel

Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HJRMTQ

Average customer rating:

Sandy

could have been shorter

Escape from the Dungeon

Can't wait to read

Jennifer you're a brave woman

Escape from the Dungeon: Jennifer's Survival Story from the Wrath of Anger, Intimidation and Abuse
Jennifer M. Stephens
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Sexual Abuse | Abuse & Self Defense | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Whatever Mother Says...: A True Story of a Mother, Madness and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

Charred Souls: A Story of Recreational Child Abuse

ASIN: 1412065798
Release Date: 2006-07-06

Product Description

Compelling story of survival of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of a mother of 16 children through intimidation, manipulation, and terroristic methods over the span of 35 years.

Customer Reviews:

Sandy.......2007-07-03

The book really has (had) potential, but I would have liked to see more detail and much less court transcription. It was very distracting to see all the typos. You need to fire your proofreader! Pleae re-write it in an orderly fashion with names and ages of incidens. I would love to read it again!

could have been shorter.......2006-11-03

It was an interesting book, however the author repeated a lot of the same information over and over. Didn't stay in one time period, jumped back and forth from past to present, often found it distracting due to this.

Escape from the Dungeon.......2006-03-27

This book had such possibilities but fell short. Constant references to police reports and rehashing of the same lines over and over again made this story not only boring but irritating.

Can't wait to read.......2006-03-08

Have not read the book, but will purchase soon. I saw Jennifer's story the other day on Montel and I cannot imagine living through what she and her siblings did. My heart goes out to you and your siblings Jennifer. God bless.

Jennifer you're a brave woman.......2006-02-07

I wouldnt care if this book was written backwards in crayon and required a mirror to read it. Its a dynamic story that needs to be told. I will keep these children and adult children in my heart and thoughts always.

Book Description

Dickison fought during the Civil War in Florida, which was basically told to fend for itself. Using geurilla combat and skirmishing, his band of soldiers became the only people to blow up a gunship from land during the Civil War.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Bio Of This Overlooked Confederate Guerilla.......2001-05-26

Captain John J. Dickison, 2nd Florida Cavalry, CSA, was Florida's equivalent during the Civil War to Virginia's celebrated partisian John Mosby, or to Kentucky's John Hunt Morgan. It was Dickison and his small band of horsemen who almost single-handedly kept Florida's interior from falling under Union control. Using the states natural terrain for cover and employing modern guerilla tactics, he inspired such fear and respect in his northern enemies that Federal forces rarely ventured west of the St. Johns River in central and north Florida. This land became known as "Dixie-land", a play on his last name, and he became known to all as the "Swamp Fox". Using numerous published and unpublished primary sources, Mr. Koblas has written the first-ever thorough military biography of this legendary and overlooked Confederate.

Book Description

In the precursor to his groundbreaking Beyond Baghdad (0811700844), which dissects the war in Iraq and its implications for the West and the Islamic world, acclaimed military strategist and author Ralph Peters assembles 18 essays, some written before and others after the September 11 attacks, that show his writing at its best. Always one step ahead of other military strategists, Peters evaluates the status quo of world affairs and brings years of experience as an Army insider to bear on the state of terrorism in the world today in a collection that has already had a wide influence among government and media since its publication in 2002. Peters proposes an unorthodox view of intelligence analysis, attacks the lie that American people will not accept casualties, and, in a tour de force, reveals the human side of Clausewitz. Beyond Terror takes us far beyond the intellectual prison of traditional wisdom to offer the most original thinking available on the strategic challenges confronting the United States in the twenty-first century.

Customer Reviews:

Makes a number of good points.......2005-08-16

While I certainly do not agree with everything Ralph Peters says in this book, he clearly raises a number of issues and has useful things to say about many of them.

One main topic in this collection of essays is terrorism. And here, Peters distinguishes between "practical" terrorists and "apocalyptic" terrorists. I think this is a useful concept. After all, some terrorists clearly want to make some changes, often positive (at least for themeselves) in the here and now. Such people don't want to die, even if they are willing to take big risks relatively fearlessly. And they probably would be hesitant to use certain weapons of mass destruction: they would rather rule cities than vaporize them. On the other hand, apocalyptic terrorists often have destruction (and even death) as a goal.

Peters points out that Muslim support for the 9/11 attacks is symptomatic of a big problem with modern Islam. And that many Arabs appear to be fighting not against the real Israel or the real America, but against some mythical and demonic construct which they call "America" or "Israel." This is, in the author's opinion, the main obstacle to peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Peters has plenty of advice to give America in our war against terror. Some of it seems quite appropriate: Be feared. Identify and know your enemy. Don't fear your own power. Speak bluntly. Don't engage in public dialog with terrorists. A dead terrorist is less of a martyr than an imprisoned one (sounds a little Machiavellian to me). Strike against what terrorists hold dear. Don't offer sanctuary to terrorists. Be implacable when dealing with terrorists. Do not declare victory.

But the author has many other points to make. One is that while America's successes have come from an embrace of the future, our diplomats seem stuck in a love with the past.

One very important point that Peters makes is that borders have a way of changing. Yet we pretend that recent borders are "permanent" and inviolate. And many of us do so with the conviction of religious fanatics. But it is all nonsense. We need to accept the fact that demographics change, as do borders. Peters even wants us to accept the fact that we may need to put up with ethnic cleansing, and try to accomodate it. I can't agree with that, but I understand his point, namely that managed change is better than explosive change.

The author also mentions that if we truly need to fight a war, we Americans will accept casualties. We'll have to if we want to win.

I think it's a good idea for all of us to read this book and consider the points it makes.

A serious book on political philosophy.......2004-12-11

Peters' is the high-quality thinking on geopolitical and military matters. Having written much the same unpopular truths over the years for Russian audience, I can only admire his courage and honesty.
Peters' approach to Arab-Israeli conflict is unusually balanced. His point is, basically, that both sides are content with status quo bellum, which allows them to draw the citizens' attention from otherwise unattractive civil realities. This is most definitely true.
His view of bin Laden and the likes as irrational terrorists is more dubious, until we realize that Peters probably speaks of their strategy rather than tactics. Evidently, they employ cruelly rational means to reach irrational objectives.
Peters' views on the professional intelligentsia sound very much Chomskian, though from entirely different perspective.
His critique of the US geopolitical strategy is incisive and quite correct. He concentrates on the often-overlooked major tenet of the American policy, preservation of borders, rightly arguing that this policy virtually guarantees ethnic conflicts of the Yugoslavian type.
Overall, this is one of the best books on modern politics.

A bit preachy.......2004-09-08

Ralph Peters knows his history and has a great deal of expertise on foreign policy, geo-politics, and military strategy. You will find much to think about here - if you can wade through the sections where he rambles and gets side-tracked on some off-topic discourse. This book is comprised of a series of lengthy essays Mr. Peters wrote over the past several years as reactions to world events, and some of his observations are a bit dated and proved to be incorrect. To his credit, he acknowledges this in the introduction and explains that he made the decision to leave his opinions just as they were at the time and not update them. He is very good at what he knows. The chapter on understanding the two basic types of terrorists, what motivates them, what causes them to kill, and how each must be defeated is excellent and particularly relevant to today's conflict. My main problem with Mr. Peters (and the thing that made this book a sometimes difficult and laborious read) is that he tends to ramble at times and venture into topics, such as religion, about which he is perhaps not as qualified to speak as authoritatively as he is about foreign policy and geopolitics. When he strays off these topics, his biases show and undermine his credibility. It's almost as if he thinks he knows too much about too many things, and can't resist letting the reader know he knows it. He also tends to pontificate at times and comes off as if he is smarter than and could have done a better job than any presidential administration in the history of our country. Hindsight, of course, is 20/20.

Probing, Often Infuriating, Yet Fine Look at War on Terror.......2004-05-27

Retired U. S. Army colonel Ralph Peters may be the United States' best strategic military thinker since Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan. In a series of prescient, and often infuriating, essays written primarily in the 1990's, Peters argues why we have to fight the War on Terror, recognizes possible mistakes in judgement by senior civilian and military leaders, and how this war should be fought. He lays much of the blame for our inability to fight this war well on the Clinton administration; it is an assessment that is unfortunately correct due to Clinton's inability to deal with terrorism (a mission which former advisor Dick Morris urged him to do back in 1996; Morris has noted that this was Clinton's greatest failure, not the Lewinsky sex scandal.). Peters is a brilliant, persuasive, and yes, frequently infuriating writer, who is a splendid prose stylist. I was most intrigued with his observations on Clausewitz's and Sun Tzu's observations on the necessity of waging war. This splendid book should be required reading for all interested in why we are waging war in Iraq and elsewhere against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.

The tragedy of being right.......2004-03-23

It doesn't always feel good to be right.

10 years ago, while most of our country was getting in line for a golden age of globalization, fueled by technology and free trade, Ralph Peters, an Army Intelligence officer, was trying to find an audience for his theories on the deadly threat global terrorism would soon pose to the West.

Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World collects articles written by Peters both before and after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Peters' main argument is that the US has to do some serious catching up in order to do battle with its new enemies. The strategies and, more importantly, the mindset of the Cold War just won't do.

Of course, in hindsight, it's easy for us to read a book like this, proclaim Peters a seer, and accuse our military and government of wilfull ignorance and hubris. These accusations may very well be warranted, but it's important to remember that 10 years ago, Peters' voice was just one among many trying to predict the future.

However, since Peters did turn out to be right, Beyond Terror is worth reading, not for the "I told you so" moments (which are the most unfortunate parts of the book), but because, better than almost anyone else I've read, Peters is able to frame the war on terror in concrete, as opposed to ideological or philosophical, terms.

That it is a war on terror and not a "matter of law enforcement", Peters makes very clear, although, in general he maintains a non-partisan stance (he's as hard on Donald Rumsfeld as he is on former President Clinton). He provides a "How To" guide for fighting terror, builds a damning case against the way our intelligence services' bureaucratic, civil service framework undermines quality intelligence work, shines a light on the political causes for America's military defeats in the 1990s, and shows that from its beginnings America has been most effective militarily while fighting against empires. Part of the problem in America today, he argues, is that our traditional role of fighting empires conflicts with our current role of existing as a de facto post-modern empire.

However, the most interesting article isn't about strategy. It deals with the role information plays in a culture's ability to compete on a worldwide level. Societies that accept in the flood of information of our computer age and provide tools for their people to deal with it have become the most successful in the history of mankind. However, those countries with autocratic leaders who have tried to stop this flood from washing away their traditional, closed societies are fighting a losing battle.

Unfortunately, though the spread of information is inevitable, the damage has already been done. A vast majority of the people in the world simply do not have the skills to process the level of information we in the West are faced with every day. Already, this information shock has fueled the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, and Peters argues that things are likely to get worse unless the autocratic leaders in the world bring their countries fully into the information age. Of course, these leaders are unlikely to do this out of the goodness of their hearts: freedom of information is the first step in undermining autocracy.

The concept of information-friendly cultures vs. restricted information cultures is a much less inflammatory way of looking at the global conflict than some other models that have been offered over the last few years. People who are put off by "clash of civilization" arguments should find Peters' approach appealing.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Air & Space Power Journal, published by U.S. Air Force on September 22, 2003. The length of the article is 432 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: Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World.
Author: Youssef H. Aboul-Enein
Publication: Air & Space Power Journal (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2003
Publisher: U.S. Air Force
Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Page: 121(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Most Kentuckians and visitors to the state are unaware of the Commonwealth's unique biological heritage—much less that much of it is in danger of disappearing forever.

With over 100 glorious full-color photographs and insightful text, Kentucky's Last Great Places highlights the incredible natural beauty found in the Commonwealth's old-growth forests, prairies, wetlands, and other distinctive biological habitats. More than 3,000 vascular plants, 230 fish, 105 amphibians and reptiles, 350 birds, 75 mammals, and 12,000 insects call Kentucky home. Many of these species and their habitats are considered rare, threatened or endangered. Overall, less than one percent of Kentucky is classified ecologically as being in a “pre-European” condition that deserves significant protection.

Award-winning photographer and author Thomas G. Barnes combines his strikingly beautiful photographs with essays describing the splendor found in more than forty of Kentucky's diverse natural preserves or ecological areas, including the old-growth Blanton Forest near Pine Mountain in Harlan County, Axe Lake Swamp in Ballard County near the Mississippi River, Red River Gorge, the Kentucky River Palisades, Mammoth Cave, and many others.

This spectacular oversized book provides an awareness of the biodiversity of Kentucky, what challenges there are to protecting its biological heritage, and how organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, the National Park Service, and others have protected and are continuing to protect the state's unique biological legacy.

Kentucky's Last Great Places is both a stunning collection of nature photographs and a means for increasing our understanding of the fragile beauty of Kentucky.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderfully subtle pictures.......2006-10-16

Although perhaps some of the grand Kentucky scenery is missing, there are some wonderful pictures in this book. Barnes best photographs are perhaps in the subtle colors of the prairie, the Pennyrile and Barren. flowers and insects. Some of the snow dusted scenery, such as Rock Bridge in Daniel Boone National Forest is also well done.

Sometimes the writing tries to be too antidotal; for example he writes that he forgot the price that a five pound mussel would fetch in the commercial market; but I would have preferred knowing the price rather than his forgetting of it. The chapter on biodiversity provides an introduction to each of the regions, but a good map of each each of the regions would have helped me relate to the preserves he discusses.

A great book by a great man.......2006-03-28

I might be a little biased as Tom Barnes is my uncle... ok, ok, so I'm really biased, but I have read it all the way through and looked at the pictures on numerous separate occasions, and it never ceases to amaze and inspire me. It makes me wish I lived in Kentucky. :) He truly is a skilled and passionate photographer/writer. Buy this book!

Disappointing.......2006-02-15

I bought this book to show friends here in Germany how lovely my home state is, since so few of them even know it exists. I was very disappointed. The photography is okay, but far from inspiring, and does not really capture the "great" places of Kentucky, nor why they can be so lovely. The response from people who have looked at the book at my house is just a shrug -- no "ooohs" or "aaaahs". It really doesn't do Kentucky justice.

Lovely book.......2005-07-04

This author's photographic work is gorgeous but this is not only a "picture book". It is a book of nature, ecology and environment and is worth exploring. I love Kentucky and grieve for the assaults and damages it has suffered for so long. It is my hope that if Kentuckians can see their home state as this book shows it, they will be more protective of it. Greed and exploitation have harmed Kentucky as have poverty and ignorance. The state and the nation need to protect Kentucky's natural environment. One complaint about the book: it needs a state map showing the regions the author writes about! There was no way to refer to the regions because there was no map of that sort. (There was a very limited map but not cross-referenced to the regions covered in the book.) This was an annoying omission from the book, but the book still merits high ratings for its beauty and information.

A Beautifully Portrayed Work!.......2004-12-15

I thought the photography and composure of this book was well done. The pictures are beautiful and make you want to explore the unknown places. I live in Kentucky and love to travel. My logo is: Simple Life~~~Simple Books. This falls into that category- simple yet breath-taking. Please get this book. Travel to Kentucky!

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