In a Desert Garden: Love and Death Among the Insects

Book Description

An elegant combination of meticulous science and nature reverie that draws its reader into the diverse, competitive, and even seductive world of desert plants and insects. With canny insight and bone-dry wit, John Alcock, a specialist in the ecology of the American Southwest, introduces us to the lives and loves of desert insects as they forage through his backyard oasis. Creating his own desert garden behind his suburban home in Tempe, Arizona, Alcock scrutinizes every square inch of soil detailing the exotic plant life he finds and offering tips on its peccadilloes and preservation. The true heroes of this story, however, are the bugs of Alcock's backyard. We are drawn into complex plots almost biblical in nature of life and love, survival and death. Two male earwigs caught in each other's pincers battle for a prized female. A female mantis finishes copulating, beheads her mate, and cannibalizes his body for its precious protein. With each detail, Alcock pieces together the entire ecosystem of his desert paradise. Always amusing and instructive, and sometimes dramatic, In a Desert Garden provides an eye-opening meditation on the joys of planting, weeding, pruning, and, most of all, bug-hunting.

Customer Reviews:

Story of a Front Yard.......2005-07-14

This book relates some of the observations that Alcock made when he converted his grassy lawn in front of his Arizona house from grass to desert flora. In his neighborhood, residents dutifully maintained wide swaths of green grass through continuous fertilizing, watering, cutting, and trimming. They controlled pests and weeds through spraying, but if they missed one chemical treatment or watering, unwanted species would begin to take over. When Alcock first moved to the area, he went along with local custom for several years. Finally, he asked himself why he was working so hard to maintain grass at such high economic and environmental costs, when it was really the desert surroundings that he enjoyed. It took some effort to kill his lawn and replace it with a yard filled with thriving desert species, but maintenance eventually became much easier and cheaper once he had landscaping fit for the local environment.

As an entomologist, Alcock greatly enjoys observing the insect life in his new yard. In this book, as well as describing how he transformed his yard, he also describes such insects as ladybugs, praying mantises, earwigs, desert termites, paper wasps, bees, grasshoppers, inchworms, whiteflies, mayflies, and aphids. The book is arranged into chapters by topic, including chapters on insects that control pests, compost lovers, insects that sting, camouflage experts, alien insects, and migrating insects. In reading the book, I was struck by how fascinating the lowly insect species can be. The book is written in an informal style appropriate for general readers. It is illustrated with black and white drawings by Turid Forsyth. Scientific sources are listed in a bibliography at the end of the book (but not referenced directly in the text), and there is an index.

Nature, neighbours and night quests.......2004-04-14

John Alcock loves Nature. Sometimes, though, getting from a suburban home to the wilderness he relishes can be tedious. So he brought some of his favoured Sonoran Desert environment to his front yard. Using a ramshackle Kubota tractor, he stripped away the layer of Bermuda grass surrounding his house. Over time, and with no little effort, he transformed that yard into a little pocket of desert environment. All this was more than an exercise in redecorating, however. Alcock studies insects, especially their mating rituals, and this transplanted environment gave him ample opportunity. Even if his practice of crouching over desert shrubbery at odd hours raised a few neighbourhood eyebrows.

Alcock loves what he does, imparting his passion to us with lively prose. His academic background merges with his expressions of feeling to keep this book a delight to read. This blending places his writing skills in a comfortable [and comforting] niche somewhere between E. O. Wilson and John McPhee or David Quammen. He keeps you at ease as he builds the desert floor, inserts shrubbery and vegetables, and welcomes the bird and insect visitors to his creation. He protects the native species of plants and animals where possible, but doesn't summarily reject harmless exotics. And he carefully explains how to tell the difference.

The underlying reason for the garden's transformation was to attract insects. Alcock is at his best in watching, analysing and explaining the life styles of desert bees, wasps, beetles and the rest. How did they develop those behaviours? What do their activities it mean to us humans, who are too often ardently killing the ones in our own gardens. He poses his questions with the puzzlement of fresh discovery. Then, adroitly picking through the available evidence - while calling out for further studies - he sifts through the optional answers to deliver the most likely, and most logical scenario. Yet, at no point are you being "lectured to". Instead, you are introduced to some of the awesome array of variation nature offers. This is no specialist's daunting lecture, but the confessions of a man who finds wonder in small things. It's also, of course, an example for any reader to enter his own yard to consider restoring it some state of origins instead of developer's artificiality.

Alcock's view of his environment isn't wholly without concerns, however. There's no question of his concern for the impact of unrestricted "development". Phoenix, the urban hub of his home in Tempe, is one of the fastest growing cities in the US. With reconstructed landscapes, imported species, proliferating golf courses and a staggering consumption of water, this emblem of "progress" is another urban blight on the landscape. Alcock is uncomfortable with this situation, but nearly helpless to block it. His example of bringing some of the countryside into the city and restoring a bit of balance at a time is an example we should all consider carefully. His book's photo collection will make every gardener smile knowingly. The illustrations portray the object of his studies. With this combination he has produced an example of what a single individual [with some spousal support] can achieve, and told us all about it in this fine book. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Fabulous, witty, insightful.......1999-07-03

I thoroughly enjoyed this intersting, thought provoking book from John Alcock. His thoughts on the modern American lawn should be required reading in the suburbs. The world would be a better place if all would read and comprehend his thoughts on connecting ourselves to the myriad wonders that go on all around us every day.

Book Description

No matter what your budget or whether it's your first trip or fifteenth, Fodor's Gold Guides get you where you want to go. In this guide, updated every year, our experts who live in Switzerland give you the inside track showing you all the things to see and do -- from must-see sights to off-the-beaten-path adventures, from shopping to outdoor fun. Fodor's Switzerland 2002 shows you hundreds of hotel and restaurant choices in all price ranges -- from budget-friendly B&Bs to luxury hotels, from casual eateries to the hottest new restaurants, complete with thorough reviews showing what makes each place special. The Smart Travel Tips A to Z section helps you take care of the nitty gritty with essential local contacts and great advice -- from how to take your mountain bike with you to what to do in an emergency. Your personal supply of Post-it? flags makes it easy to mark your favorite listings and the foldout map will keep you on course. Plus, web links, maps, costs, and mix-and-match itineraries make planning a snap.

"The king of guidebooks." - Newsweek

Customer Reviews:

Solid info.......2002-12-01

It's a good book for knowing where to stay and eat. I also highly recommend anyone traveling to Switzerland read Geneva Nights. It's very entertaining and gets you in the traveling Europe mode.

This should be your first choice.......2002-09-17

It is not easy to pick your ideal guidebook to Switzerland. Ideally, you would need more than one, but this should probably the one to start with.

The guide is thoroughly researched and features good regional maps in addition to the map of the whole country. Listings are very good, although some may say they have been picked arbitrarily - which is understandable as no-one can possibly squeeze all the worthy places into a reasonably-sized book. At least you can be sure that whatever is included has been reviewed
honestly and thoroughly.

In common with other books from this publishing house, Fodor's Switzerland is laid out in a commendably clear manner. This may seem as a secondary consideration - but think of how often you will be browsing this before and during your trip. Easy navigation in the book really cuts out frustration and saves time. Do not underestimate this.

Frommer's Switzerland does not have too many photographs - however, the selected few give you an idea and a visual taste of the destination. For a more thorough pictorial account, try Insight Guides.

The book is also very good on practicalities - transport, opening times, costs - all seem to be very up-to-date (it is amazing how many guides treat practicality research as an afterthought).

If you can, also get Michelin's Green Guide - it has some less well-known destinations that Fodor's guide omits for reasons of space. However, if you are only planning major highlights, you can very well manage with just this high quality book. You'll not regret spending your money.

Best of the Swiss Guidebooks.......2002-05-10

We have used this guidebook and its predecessors each time for four trips to Switzerland. We think it is better than Frommer's, Michelin, Eyewitness, Rick Steves, and the other guidbooks for Switzerland, and we have looked at eight other guidebooks. All have something to offer, but we liked Fodor's the best. Given the cost of traveling to and in Switzerland, it is worth the cost in money and time to buy several and take the best from each, but if you only want one, we recommend Fodor's. It misses some great small villages some of the others recommend (like Soglio, a jewel in a small valley west of St. Moritz) and for some reason Fodor's never gives the population of the villages or cities they mention. If you like going to small villages, as we do, there is a big difference between Grindelwald and Gimmelwald, and knowing the population would help. If you are looking for a "travel on a shoestring" book, this isn't it, but for most people, it should be very helpful.

Book Description

Following an opening chapter by the late Susumu Ohno on paralogues of sex-determining genes, the five best-studied genes essential for early mammalian gonadal development are portrayed in detail: SF-1 and WT1 and their roles in early events in gonadal development, SRY and SOX9 in testis determination, and the anti-testis gene DAX-1. Subsequent chapters look at the roles of these genes in sex determination in marsupial mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, and review the different sex-determining mechanisms, genetic and environmental, that operate in these different vertebrate classes. Two insights emerge: one, that the same basic set of genes appears to operate during early gonadal development in all vertebrates, despite the differences in mechanisms; the other, that sex determination in vertebrates results from a complex network of regulatory interactions and not from a simple hierarchical cascade of gene actions.

Average customer rating:
Mechanisms of inorganic reactions in solution: An introduction (European chemistry series)
Denis Benson
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Education
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OG2LJI

Book Description

Our globalized world brings us increasing complexity and many computationally hard problems. Metaheuristics are mathematical optimization methods that have become a powerful answer to many of these difficult problems. As a growing set of robust methods, Metaheuristics is producing effective algorithms that compute approximate solutions of high quality in realistic computational time.

METAHEURISTICS: Progress as Real Problem Solvers is a peer-reviewed volume of eighteen current, cutting-edge papers by leading researchers in the field. Included are an invited paper by F. Glover and G. Kochenberger, which discusses the concept of Metaheuristic agent processes, and a tutorial paper by M.G.C. Resende and C.C. Ribeiro discussing GRASP with path-relinking. Other papers discuss problem-solving approaches to timetabling, automated planograms, elevators, space allocation, shift design, cutting stock, flexible shop scheduling, colorectal cancer and cartography. A final group of methodology papers clarify various aspects of Metaheuristics from the computational view point.

The volume's objective is to consolidate works in operations research, management science, artificial intelligence, computer science, and related fields to further the understanding of basic principles and the developing domain of Metaheuristics. This includes genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, tabu search, evolutionary computation, greedy randomized adaptive search procedures (GRASP), scatter search, ant system, variable neighborhood search, guided local search, iterated local search, noising methods, threshold accepting, memetic algorithms, neural networks, and other hybrid and/or variant approaches for solving hard combinatorial problems.

Book Description

Children select role models from their friends, movies, television, and books. As teachers, librarians, and parents, we can provide alternative roles that present well-rounded male and female characters who have choices and options. How we can do this through the many genres in children's literature is the subject of this fine collection of essays.

Beauty, Brains, and Brawn offers diverse perspectives on what it means to be a male or female child in children's literature, presenting stimulating views from the field's best-known authors, illustrators, and educators. The award-winning authors and illustrators talk about their motivation for creating the boys and girls in their books and they examine the child as audience. Essays from educators explore larger issues related to current research on gender and the classroom, multiethnic experiences and gender, and gender portrayals in contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and picture books.

Topics include parental roles in books for children, the kinds of books available for very young children and the gender issues housed within them, diversity and gender, the politics of gender and gender stereotypes in children's literature, finding authentic female and male voices in historical fiction, and the clash of conservative and liberal values in children's literature. Popular images in the media are also considered.

Amazon.com

"He married her because she was rich" is the author's bleak assessment of her handsome, unfaithful father's relationship with her unhappy, insecure mother. Anne Roiphe describes with equally brutal candor a childhood largely spent with the governess until she was old enough to mix her mother's drinks, light cigarettes, and listen to complaints about her father. In this grim environment, Roiphe and her sickly younger brother did not band together so much as coexist in mutual misery. She seems to find redemption in the trio of deaths that close the book. Her parents died from cancer; her father disinherited his children in favor of his second wife. Her brother, a doctor infected with AIDS from cutting himself in his lab, ordered a funeral without any words: "The God who would do this to him deserved only silence." So why read this angst fest? Because Roiphe is just as honest about her own efforts to escape her gilded cage on New York's Upper East Side, and because she captures the social and historical particulars of wealthy Jewish American life from the 1930s on in the same richly textured detail she brought to feminist classics like Up the Sandbox. "I am a writer, and burning bridges behind me is part of the cost of the work," she comments. She burns them with sorrowful panache in this chilling, engrossing memoir. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

From National Book Award nominee Anne Roiphe comes this moving memoir of growing up in a wealthy Jewish home with a family who had money, status, culture -- everything but happiness.

While the nation was at war abroad, Roiphe, who was coming of age in 1940s New York City, saw her parents at war in their living room. Roiphe's evocative writing puts readers right in Apartment 8C, where a constant tension plays out between a disappointed and ineffectual mother, a philandering father who uses his wife's money to entertain other women, and a difficult brother. Behind the leisure culture of wealthy Jewish society -- the mahjongg games, the cocktail parties, the summer houses -- lurks a brutality that strikes a chord with a daughter who longs to heal the wounds of her troubled family.

Writing with a novelist's sensibility, Roiphe reveals the poignant story of a family that has finally claimed its material wealth in a prosperous America but has yet to claim its spiritual due.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful Memoir.......2007-02-17

Anne Roiphe wrote a brillant memoir that I can't stop thinking about, and a very interesting psychological portrait of her very disturbed family and odd upbringing.

I couldn't put it down.......2005-09-11

I don't understand the negative reviews posted about this book. Granted, the author's style is a bit overblown at times, but the story and aspecially the characters were fascinating and honestly portrayed. The author has a wonderful eye for detail and captured a lot of the sense of assimilated Jewry with which I am familiar. This book deserves to be read, and I will be passing my copy around to my extended family.

Poor poor pitiful me.......2004-07-30

I noticed this book on a friend's bookshelf in his 1185 Park Avenue apartment. Interested in the the building, its neighborhood, and its original milieu, I began to read. To my dismay, I found that Roiphe's book is primarily a recounting of a series of embarrassing and painful episodes from the author's privileged past: foolish and unlikable people hurting themselves and each other, again and again. Except perhaps as catharsis for the author, the point of the exercise is unclear: there are no insights to be found here.

Powerful and Disturbing.......2001-07-19

As with all of Anne Roiphe's books, 1185 PARK AVENUE is powerfully written. The title refers to the address of the apartment building in which she was raised.

Still, as beautiful as her prose is to read, this is a difficult book. Her family was not a happy one, to say the least. And her personal history will not be of universal interest, appealing mostly to people of similar Jewish ancestry.

Yet there is no question but, that on a broader basis, 1185 PARK AVENUE offers a singular examination of a particular population. Inescapably, Roiphe had a sad childhood.

A most brilliant memoir........2000-07-23

When I began the first few pages of this book, on a sleepless night, I prepared to be bored by what, at first glance, seemed to be flowery language with no sweat shed.

How wrong I was. Roiphe has written the best memoir I have ever encountered. Each character is so well described that I swear I could pick any one of them out in a crowd, regardless of whether they are now dead or alive. I normally have some distaste for changes in tense, but Roiphe achieves this so artfully, I rarely noticed.

Roiphe, though her descriptions are vivid and not in any sense concise, does not waste a word. I sometimes found myself unexpectedly laughing, and at one point, incredibly, weeping. Her analogies, her descriptions, her words....all are just remarkably brilliant. I will never be able to forget her family anymore than Roiphe herself will. Her talent is nearly incredible.

Even when Roiphe is at her most descriptive, the reader is so present in this memoir, as if we are standing slightly to the side of Roiphe,, at her elbow, throughout the entire book. We understand everything.

I couldn't recommend a memoir more highly than I do this one, and at that, I couldn't recommend any book more highly than I do this one. I've found a new favorite.

Average customer rating:
1185 Park Avenue - A Memoir
Anne Roiphe
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IY1KZC

Average customer rating:
1185 Park Avenue: A Memoir
Anne Roiphe
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: B000C4SW4U

Product Description

The OGs for were the infantry for the OSS. They were uniformed military personnel designed as hard hitting units trained to operate deep behind enemy lines to conduct sabatoge upon axis forces. The OGs were trained in parachuting demolitions, weaponry, commando tactics, communications, amphibious warfare,and skiing. Forward by William E. Colby

Book Description

Often dismissed as the rumblings of "the street," popular politics is where political modernity is being formed today, according to Partha Chatterjee. The rise of mass politics all over the world in the twentieth century led to the development of new techniques of governing population groups. On the one hand, the idea of popular sovereignty has gained wide acceptance. On the other hand, the proliferation of security and welfare technologies has created modern governmental bodies that administer populations, but do not provide citizens with an arena for democratic deliberation. Under these conditions, democracy is no longer government of, by, and for the people. Rather, it has become a world of power whose startling dimensions and unwritten rules of engagement Chatterjee provocatively lays bare.

This book argues that the rise of ethnic or identity politics -- particularly in the postcolonial world -- is a consequence of new techniques of governmental administration. Using contemporary examples from India, the book examines the different forms taken by the politics of the governed. Many of these operate outside of the traditionally defined arena of civil society and the formal legal institutions of the state. This book considers the global conditions within which such local forms of popular politics have appeared and shows us how both community and global society have been transformed. Chatterjee's analysis explores the strategic as well as the ethical dimensions of the new democratic politics of rights, claims, and entitlements of population groups and permits a new understanding of the dynamics of world politics both before and after the events of September 11, 2001.

The Politics of the Governed consists of three essays, originally given as the Leonard Hastings Schoff Lectures at Columbia University in November 2001, and four additional essays that complement and extend the analyses presented there. By combining these essays between the covers of a single volume, Chatterjee has given us a major and urgent work that provides a full perspective on the possibilities and limits of democracy in the postcolonial world.

Book Description

Freedom for the Seas in the 21st Century brings together leading international experts on marine policy to address current threats to the health of the seas and to offer new approaches to the challenge of protecting our marine environment. The paradigm presented is one of ocean governance rather than of law or policy; it challenges the prevailing concept of "freedom of the seas" and calls instead for a governing notion of "freedom for the seas" where the primary goal is the protection of ecological vitality.

Topics covered include:

strategies for controlling ocean pollution
regulation of high-seas fishing
defects in current deep seabed mining regulatory provisions
threats to the marine environment posed by military activities

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