Antarctica: Explorer Series, Vol. 1 (Explorer (Nahanni))

Book Description

ANTARCTICA is a masterpiece said by many to be the most exquisite photography book created in modern times. Enhanced by antique book-binding traditions and sumptuous, archival materials, this objet d'art has received 19 international awards for excellence and craftsmanship - more than any other modern book. These awards include: World's Best Photography Book; Gold Ink Award - Fine Edition Books; Outstanding Book of the Year - Best Bookarts Craftsmanship; Benjamin Franklin Award (World's best printing); Art Craft Science Award etc. Ten years of intensive effort have culminated in the release of just 950 books and 50 proofs - a true limited-edition. ANTARCTICA has already been acquired by private collectors, institutions, and rare book libraries on five continents.

ANTARCTICA is forever limited to this one, exclusive edition. There will never be a reprint, a cloth-bound or paperback version. The original printing plates have been shredded and then melted.

Each tome is individually numbered in calligraphy and signed by creators Pat and Rosemarie Keough. H.M. Queen Noor of Jordan has also autographed each tome to verify that all net proceeds will benefit the "Save the Albatross" campaign. HRH Prince Charles hosted the official unveiling of ANTARCTICA.

The 336 pages include 345 images by photographers Pat and Rosemarie Keough. Experts in polar research and art have stated that there is not another published portfolio of Antarctica to equal that of the Keoughs. The International Photography Awards committee honoured the Keoughs with the award "Nature Photographer of the Year" for their imagery in ANTARCTICA. Each image has been superbly reproduced on luxurious, heavy paper using light-fast pigments and the world's highest resolution lithography.

The tome's weight, at 27.6 pounds in its presentation box, is similar to that of a two-year-old child. The dimensions of the book are 17.25" x 13.5" x 2.5".

All books are sewn and bound entirely by hand in full morocco, a fine-grained goat leather, using book-binding artistry that dates to 15th-century Venice. ANTARCTICA is the first volume to successfully marry the grace of the "classic European" style of fine handing together with the rugged strength and durability of the "split-board" construction techniques. This means that the binding of this incredibly strong yet elegant book cannot be damaged except by purposeful effort! Each copy is presented in a sturdy linen and velvet archival box.

Customer Reviews:

ANTARCTICA... Incredible!.......2004-02-08

ANTARCTICA arrived this morning. I've never seen anything so beautiful; it takes my breath away. The photos are so incredible that even as the viewer, it feels like I'm behind the lens. Thanks to Pat and Rosemarie Keough for completing this important work and sharing it with the rest of the world, especially for those of us who will never set foot on Antarctica--but we have visited there--because of the Keoughs and their photographic genius.

The review from "The Economist".......2003-12-22

No recommendation could be higher than that which I read in "The Economist" as follows:

Photographs to swell the heart of any armchair traveller. Like a Patek Philippe, this is a book you don't own, but merely look after for the next generation - once, of course, you've repaid the loan you took out to buy it.

This is from the "Books of the year 2003" recommended by "The Economist" Dec 6 - 12 th, 2003 issue. I don't choose to wear a watch, but I do appreciate the refined elegance and quality of a Patek. Likewise, ANTARCTICA is an heirloom.

ANTARCTICA: A Stunning Treasure For All Generations.......2003-10-30

ANTARCTICA is a stunning book of such exceptional quality that it almost defies an adequate review. Pat and Rosemarie Keough have produced and edited this volume, and filled this first book of their Explorer Series with world-class photographs, each individually captured and carefully selected, to lovingly show the wildlife, the structural landscapes, and the stark physical beauty of this rarely visited continent and the subantarctic islands. Accompanying the stunning photographs is a beautifully written description which further amplifies the unique features of this frozen land. The pages of this book have been carefully handsewn, and the cover is bound in fine goatskin. The book is delivered in a well constructed presentation box.
The final product is an exceptional example of uniting the craft of publishing, handsewn book binding, and stunning photography with flowing text. The photographs themselves leave one amazed at the beauty of this continent.
The Keoughs have received fourteen major publication and artistic awards for the overall excellence of this tome. For me, this exceptional book has such beauty and lasting value, that I plan to bequeath it to the next generation for their pleasure and enjoyment.

Antarctica.......2003-10-25

This book is an amazing and mind-boggling effort to bring the continent of Antarctica to life for all to see and experience, albeit vicariously. The work, endless dedication, and exacting attention to even the minutest detail set this magnificent book apart from all others of its genre. It is, in my opinion, the most beautifully conceived art book that I have ever seen. Not only is the photography in "Antarctica" exceptional and awe-inspiring, but in addition, the leather, binding technique, paper selection, etc.--all contribute to its incredible uniqueness.

I had the pleasure of sharing a tent with Rosemarie Keough during the photographing of the Emperor Penguins at the Dawson-Lambton Glacier in November/December 2000, and I can attest first hand to her ceaseless pursuit to capture on film as many phases of Emperor Penguin activity that constantly changing weather conditions would allow. No easy task, to be sure, but one done with much caring and love for Nature and its handiwork.

Anyone who would like to own a rare masterpiece of shear exquisiteness should not hesitate to add this magnificent volume to his/her collection.

ANTARCTICA.......2003-10-21

ANTARCTICA by Pat & Rosemarie Keough

Reviewed by Charles Swithinbank,
Scott Polar Research Institute
for: The Antarctican Society Newsletter
Vol. 01-02, No. 2, January 2002

This is the first Antarctic book that may require a Sherpa to bring it to your home, a lectern to display it, and a special book-case to put it in. But make no mistake, it is something that you will treasure for life.

While is not the first large-format volume of Antarctic photographs by professionals who have spent years traveling in the Antarctic, what distinguishes this is the unmatched quality in every aspect of its production. The book is published in a limited edition of 950 leather-bound volumes, each one signed by the authors and by Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, Honorary President of BirdLife International. An advance copy was unveiled on January 14th, 2002 during a reception hosted by HRH Prince Charles at St James's Palace, London. The authors have agreed to give the net proceeds from Antarctica to BirdLife International for their Save the Albatross campaign. An incidental consequence of current longline fishing practices is that 17 of the world's 24 species of albatross are now at risk of extinction. Attracted to the baited hooks, seabirds are hooked or entangled and then drowned as the trailing lines sink behind the fishing vessels.

Antarctica weighs 12.6 kg (27.8 lb) in its linen-bound presentation case, and 8.6 kg (19 lb) by itself. The book itself measures 44 x 34 x 6 cm (17 x 13 x 2.5 inches), contains 330 color images taken by the authors, a 15-page narrative, a map and a glossary of ice and snow terms.

The Keoughs have assembled a stunning and eclectic portfolio of such artistry that your reviewer was left speechless. It embraces wildlife, landscapes, abstract patterns in nature and touches of man from the heroic era through the heyday of whaling to the present. I was transported from the windswept interior plateau to the mountainous coast, from off-lying islands to the icy seas and the stormy ocean. The volume is a stress-free way to experience the wonders of Antarctica with all its savagery and beauty. For connoisseurs of photographic art and for collectors of fine books, Antarctica will greatly please.

My own regret is that I was not able to rummage through the Keoughs trash bin on the morning after they made their selections for the book. I could have sold my redundant camera. But remembering Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley before them, I expect they will have fuelled their log fire in the backwoods of British Columbia with most of the rejects.

The authors traveled to the Ross Sea, the Weddell Sea, Ellsworth Land, the Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia. The book includes a map of the continent with insets of the Ross Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula showing place names mentioned in the text. South Georgia, being peripheral to the main theme of the book, has no map of its own.

Each image has a brief but adequate caption. Most of the scenes would look fantastic on an IMAX screen. Having myself been to most of the places that the Keoughs visited - some in their company - many of their photographs brought a pang of nostalgia. But as I lack the eye of an artist, I had looked but seldom appreciated the stark beauty of what I was seeing. If tempted to tear out the pages to frame, Antarcticans will discover that with a properly bound book like this, it is almost impossible.

As I watched the Keoughs in the Antarctic, they almost always had their cameras on a tripod, surely a major factor in creating such pin-sharp images. The authors themselves inspected each page of every book (some 400,000 pages in all) before sending them to the bindery. To make the high quality binding, some 2000 goat skins from India were specially tanned in Scotland. To counter the squeamish, we are told that semi-wild goats are destroying plant diversity, and that fewer goats equate to a healthier natural environment.

The images are printed on custom-made acid-free and chlorine-free heavy paper, hand-sewn with Irish linen thread using centuries-old techniques. Treated with care and kept in dry and pollution-free conditions, the book should last for 1000 years. It is the first photographic art book in the world to have been printed with 10-micron stochastic spots, a leading edge printing technology with three times the resolution of traditional high- end lithography. Pat and Rosemarie's company, Nahanni Productions inc., have previously published six books featuring their images exclusively. Titles include The Nahanni Portfolio and The Niagara Escarpment. Antarctica is the first of their Explorer series. In buying the book you will help to ensure that your children may live to see the albatross still wheeling and soaring over the ocean - no longer threatened by the greed of man.

Average customer rating:

Great book!

Prince Edward Island Colourguide: Fourth Edition (Colourguide Travel Series)

Manufacturer: Formac
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Canada | Travel | Subjects | Books
Prince Edward Island | Provinces | Canada | Travel | Subjects | Books
North America | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Backroad Mapbook: Prince Edward Island (Backroad Mapbook)

Frommer's Nova Scotia, New Brunswick & Prince Edward Island (Frommer's Complete)

Fodor's Nova Scotia & Atlantic Canada, 9th Edition: With New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland & Labrador (Fodor's Gold Guides)

Rand McNally Nova Scotia, Canada: Provincial Map

Lonely Planet Nova Scotia, New Brunswick & Prince Edward Island (Lonely Planet Travel Guides)

ASIN: 0887806538
Release Date: 2005-04-01

Book Description

The complete visitors' guide to Canada's favourite vacation island

Prince Edward Island is a travel destination loved by visitors for its gentle country landscapes, beautiful beaches and relaxed cottage life. This extensively illustrated guide offers complete coverage of all the Island's attractions.
This completely revised and updated edition features a new section on museums, a walking tour of downtown Charlottetown, and outdoor activities -- golfing, hiking and cycling. Also featured are cottage life and the best of what the Island has to offer in family fun.
Contributors to the guide bring their expert insider knowledge and love of Prince Edward Island. Full colour photographs and maps accompany the text, followed by extensive listings, including website information, best choices in accommodation, restaurants, shopping and entertainment.
Sections include:

* Best Beaches
* Golf
* Cottage Life
* Lobster Suppers
* Anne of the Island
* Cycling

Prince Edward Island Colourguide is the most comprehensive, up-to-date and colourful guide to this appealing Maritime vacation destination.

Customer Reviews:

Great book!.......2007-04-06

I love this book! It contains lots of detailed information, tons of photos. Very recommended!

Prince Edward Island Colourguide (Colourguide Travel Series)

Average customer rating:

Prince Edward Island Colourguide (Colourguide Travel Series)

Manufacturer: Formac Publishing Company Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Canada | Travel | Subjects | Books

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General | Travel | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0887807240

Book Description

Completely revised and updated guide to the best of Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a travel destination loved by visitors for its gentle country landscapes, beautiful beaches and relaxed cottage life. This extensively illustrated guide gives the visitor the inside story on the best of the Island's offerings.
This completely revised and updated edition features sections on museums and theatre, a walking tour of Charlottetown, and outdoor activities -- golfing, hiking and cycling. Also featured are cottage life and family attractions. The Island routes sections and maps have been updated to reflect the province's new touring regions.
Contributors to the guide bring their expert insider knowledge and love of Prince Edward Island. Full colour photographs and maps accompany the text, followed by extensive listings, including website information, on the Island's best choices in accommodation, restaurants, shopping and entertainment.
Prince Edward Island Colourguide is the most comprehensive, up-to-date and colourful guide to this Maritime vacation destination.

Prince Edward Island: A Colourguide (Colourguide Travel Series)

Average customer rating:

Prince Edward Island: A Colourguide (Colourguide Travel Series)

Manufacturer: Formac
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0887804381

Book Description

Here's a complete, up-to-date guide to Prince Edward Island. Written by 20 expert contributors who share their knowledge of PEI, you'll find this guidebook a reliable source on the island's best.

Detailed chapters cover each region, from North Point lighthouse all the way to East Point. Our local authors tell you about the highlights, and share with you favourite spots you won't find in government travel brochures.

Whether it's golf, beaches, biking, hiking, birding, or shopping for crafts or antiques, our authors give you good independent information and advice.

A detailed listing section offers information and recommendations on dining, shopping, festivals and many other topics.

You'll also find detailed maps of each region of the province, plus downtown Charlottetown.

Historic Inns of Canada's East Coast (Colourguide Travel Series)

Average customer rating:

Historic Inns of Canada's East Coast (Colourguide Travel Series)

Manufacturer: Formac
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Canada | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Take a tour of Canada's east coast with this appealingly illustrated guide, and experience attractive inns and genuine hospitality.

Historic Inns of Canada's East Coast is a beautiful and reliable full-colour guide to historic, charming and welcoming places to stay throughout Canada's three Maritime provinces. Each unique inn is featured in a colour spread that includes handsome photographs of the exterior and interior, commentary on the inn and its environs, and helpful information on rooms, rates, facilities and features. Also included is a handy map and a suggested itinerary that covers the best features of the Maritimes.

Historic Inns of Canada's East Coast is an indispensible guide to gracious accomodations on the nation's Atlantic seaboard.

Book Description

"I myself am a secret."
-- from How I Contemplated the World . . .

When the sky blue ball comes soaring over the fence, a high-school girl is confronted with the haunting memory of her childhood. A jealous teen lets her cousin go off alone with a dangerous capricorn, aware of the terrifying possibilities. A vulnerable young girl cunningly outwits a menacing stranger and exults in her newfound power, surviving the first of many small avalanches.

Intense and unnerving, uplifting and triumphant, the twelve stories in this riveting collection explore the fateful consequences of the choices we make in our everyday lives.

Customer Reviews:

Do adolescent teens like reading about stupid adolescent teens?.......2006-01-26

I was on a 7-hour train ride, and figured I'd give the book a shot. My first sign of trouble was the dedication of the first story to Bob "Lingerie" Dylan, but I pressed on. A lot of seemingly intelligent people are still under his spell, blissfully coasting on the remnants of his image from the days when he wasn't a Starbucks sellout.

Anyway, the first story is about a bad thing that happens to an innocent teen-aged girl. Throughout the story you feel like you're watching a bad horror movie, screaming "don't go into the attic." This feeling, I would learn, is the unifying theme of this book.

Exhausted after one story, I put the book down and looked at the bland countryside passing by. Boredom took over after 15 minutes, and after cursing myself for not bringing along a backup, I went back to the book.

I stopped reading the next story, "The Sky Blue Ball," after it looked like another horrible thing was going to happen to another stupid little girl. She may have turned out fine, but I just didn't have the emotional energy. I took another break and headed to "Small Avalanches." This one, again, is about a stupid teen girl and a horrible thing that could happen to her. This 13 year-old girl, incidentally, is the one portrayed on the cover. Maybe it's the hormones in the food, but the person on the cover looks a little too busty to be 13.

I skipped around a bit, figuring the stupid little girl theme was bound to run out. "Haunted" and "Capricorn" were, refreshingly, about TWO stupid teen girls hurtling blindly into certain doom. The book finally abandons the idiot theme in the last two stories, "The Visit," and "The Model." These are excellent stories about strong girls who, instead of being thrown to the wolves by their own ignorance, make their own decisions, explore their feelings, and are active participants in their lives.

Maybe this book was meant as a series of cautionary tales about how teens should avoid danger (it mostly boils down to "don't talk to slimy looking strangers"), but for anyone with half a brain, it's an extremely frustrating and annoying read.

4 stars for writing, 2 for teen appeal = 3.......2004-01-23

Oates, Joyce Carol. Small Avalanches and Other Stories. HarperTempest, 2003. lib ed 0-06-001218-8 $17.89

Oatesý collection of previously published short stories thought to have teen appeal is dedicated ýfor the bad girls.ý Quite fitting, for protagonists include sisters who deliberately destroy their twice-divorced motherýs relationship with a new potential mate, a is pursued by a stranger, Melissa, who willingly trades a friendýs life for her own; Sunny, whose refusal of a marriage proposal drives a boy to suicide; and Melanie, who lets her beautiful but naïve cousin Steff take off with a man met on the Internet. Stranger danger abounds in these stories as girls on the brink of womanhood lose their innocence through interaction with pedophiles, crazy neighbors, and other shady characters.
Oates adeptly portrays that tensions of wanting to be a grownup and a little girl all at once, and chronicles the way girls change sleekly change personas, depending on whom they are talking to. The literary merit of the collection is to be expected from the winner of the Pen/Malamud Lifetime Achievement Award in Short Fiction; the language feels surreal in most stories, and dialogue is not typical casual teenspeak. The stories are technically flawless, but wouldnýt be my first choice for a booktalk.

For the Bad Girls.......2003-05-07

Joyce Carol Oates dedicates her latest collection of short stories, ýSmall Avalanchesý to ýThe Bad Girls.ý Be it Ingrid in ýMan Crazy,ý or Anellia in ýIll Take you There,ý Oates has always been fascinated, really infatuated with the outcasts, the fringe dwellers, the lonely hearts. More to the point, Oates enjoys writing female characters that struggle and fight against what society considers ýnormalý behaviorýwhatever the heck normal means in the society of Oatesý world and in the world in general. It is the tension of this ambiguity that Oates revels in.
ýSmall Avalanchesý begins with the story, ýWhere Are You Going, Where Have You Been?ý which was the basis for the film ýSmooth Talký starring Laura Dern as Connie and Treat Williams as Arnold Friend. Reading it again now, and even with the visuals of the film spinning around my head, I was struck by the smoldering sexuality of the story. Connie is 15 and she has one foot stuck in childhood and the other one, always ready to high-tail it to the highway roadhouses, in adulthood. Oates describes her: ýýEverything about her as two sides to it, one for home and for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make someone thinking she was hearing music in here headýher laugh, which was cynical and drawling at home but high pitched and nervous anywhere else.ý
Arnold Friend becomes Connieýs ýfriend,ý stalker really. Arnold is older, handsome, drives a spiffy car and is definitely dangerous and what he offers Connie is a view of adulthood she cannot turn down: itýs glamour and attraction cannot be ignored. The denouement finds Connie more experienced in the adult world that she craves but is not ready for. The inevitability of the situation is decidedly sensual yet undeniably moralistic: Connieýs story is ultimately a cautionary tale. One in which a bad girl gets what she deserves or is asking for. But is she better for it?
Oates mines this particular subject matter again in the more up to date, computer savvy story ýCapricorný also included in this collection.
The title story of this collection, ýSmall Avalanchesý is cruel but slight: a young girl Nancy, through the unaffected, natural conceit and innocence of youth avoids the advances of an older man: ýHe looked so funny, bent over and clutching at his chest, pretending to have a heart attack or maybe having one, a little one, for all I knew. This will teach you a lesson, I thought.ý
It is this youthful innocence and lack of foresight that also imbues ýBad Girlsý a story about three daughters who set out to investigate their motherýs boyfriend: ýNor did we set out to destroy our motherýs man friend Isaak Drumm, exactlyý(but we) confirmed the neighborhoodýs and our relativesý judgment of us, that we were bad. And not only bad in ourselves but the cause of somebody else being bad, too.ý
Throughout ýSmall Avalanchesý we encounter writing of uncommon grace: ýHer eyes were like washed glass, her eyebrows and lashes were almost white, she had a snub nose and Slavic cheekbones and a mouth that could be sweet or twisty and smirky depending on her mood.ý Or razor sharp writing that cuts to the heart of a matter: ýItýs true, all you have heard of the vanity of the old. Believing ourselves young, still, behind our aged facesýmere children, and so very innocent!ý
ýSmall Avalanchesý was intended for the young peopleýs market as was Oatesý earlier ýBig Mouth and Ugly Girl.ý But Oatesý has not toned down her natural gift for revealing the underside and the emotional truth of her characters actions and words. Far from it, she pulls no punches in revealing her patented, twisted yet humanistic worldview. Be forewarned, though: a visit to Oatesiana will leave you a bit shocked and warm under the collar but startlingly as refreshed as having just stepped out of a cool shower on a hot day.

Adolescent Tales.......2003-04-02

Small Avalanches is a collection of short stories previously published by Joyce Carol Oates whose thematic link is that each centers around the life of an adolescent or teenage girl. The focus on this age group is appropriate for this extremely talented writer who has written in an incredible range of styles and voices, but has often focused on the lives of young woman especially in her novels such as Man Crazy, Blonde and I'll Take You There to name just a few.
Oates has said in an interview with Diane Rehm in 2002:

"I feel probably quintessentially very adolescent... I guess it's just that age of romance and yearning and some scepticism, sometimes a little bit of cynicism."

The temperament of this age group that Oates so readily identifies with is something that the author is able to ingeniously capture in this series of tales. She shows in her female characters those intense feelings she marks as emblematic of this age group from a variety of perspectives.

Despite the close ages of all these girls there is a tremendous diversity of voice within the stories. They are sometimes vulnerable as the girls are primarily perceived or surprisingly self-aware which gives them the ability to manipulate their own situation. This occurs in some of the stories like Capricorn where a girl named Melanie meets a man on the internet who begins obsessively watching her play tennis and Small Avalanches where a girl walking home is followed by a suspicious looking man she nearly escapes. Some of the girls from these stories are timid, naive and orbit danger with curious innocence. In others, like Bad Girls where three close sisters invade the privacy of their mother's new boyfriend and The Model where a girl meets a man in the park who starts paying her large sums to pose for sketches, the girls are defensive to a militant degree. These diverse perspectives give a refreshing perspective when contemplating an age group so heavily stereotyped. Oates also uses multifarious structures to tell the girls' stories producing a wide range of possible meanings and giving a unique accent to their particular situations. Some take on a creepy gothic tone as in The Sky Blue Ball where a girl begins throwing a ball back and forth with a faceless participant over a wall and Haunted in which a mysterious violent woman appears to two curious girls who were searching a house they thought was empty. The most experimental structure Oates uses is in the story How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again where you read a girl's notes for a school paper that descend into an intense disjointed personal deliberation about her past and future. However, all the stories are incredibly accessible to read while still challenging the reader to think complexly about growing up and the nature of identity. Each gives a deep focus on the consciousness of these girls and presents in some way a close perspective of their point of view. The stories also examine the process in which these girls become self conscious about how they are viewed by the rest of the world. It is an extremely emotional, varied and pleasurable read.

Average customer rating:
Small Avalanches and Other Stories Postcards
Joyce Carol Oates
Manufacturer: HarperTempest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Short Story Collections | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Fiction | Girls & Women | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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Oates, Joyce Carol | ( O ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0060529660

Book Description

This volume is a compendium of essential information required by all cell and molecular biologists. As well as providing a wide range of core information needed by all researchers in the biomolecular sciences,it brings together additional selected information of importance from the areas of biochemistry, cell biology, genetics and molecular biology. This book will prove invaluable for all researchers in these fields. The Essential Data series provides rapid access to the core data required by researchers on a daily basis, in convenient pocket-sized volumes.

Book Description

Hardbound. The symposium is comprised of four sections: (1) Thermochemical Computation and Data Banks: Calculations of Thermodynamic Properties of Metallurgical Solutions. (2) Pyrometallurgical and Process Applications: Some Applications of Equilibria Calculation to Copper Pyrometallurgical Processes. (3) Heat and Mass Transfer Applications: Simulation of Microsegregation in Binary Alloys and (4) Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence: Real Time and Artificial Intelligence Software for Chemical and Extractive Metallurgy.

Book Description

Advanced LabVIEW Labs provides a structured introduction to LabVIEW-based laboratory skills. The book can be used as a stand-alone tutorial or as a college-level instructional lab text. The reader learns the LabVIEW programming language while writing meaningful programs that explore useful data analysis techniques (numerical integration and differentiation, least-squares curve-fitting, Fast Fourier Transform) and the mechanics of computer-based experimentation using National Instruments DAQ and GPIB boards. During the course of the book, the reader constructs and investigates the proper usage of several computer-based instruments including a digitizing oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer and PID temperature control system as well as learns to control an instrument through the General Purpose Interface Bus.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent but dated.......2004-10-14

As all the other reviewers have noted, this is an excellent book. I used it for a class I taught on LabVIEW and both the students and I liked the book. The problem is that it was written for LabVIEW 5. There is a 32 page online update available for the many changes between version 5 and 6.1 but that was a pain and even that is now two years out of date. (To get it, do a Google search for "John Essick" then go to his home page and follow the obvious link.) You had to keep remembering to refer to the update list or you had to go through the book and make notes that would remind you to see the updates.
This is a wonderful book. But as of this review LabVIEW 7 is now the standard version and this book is now two versions out of date. I would be thrilled if Essick would write an updated version.
When I learned LabVIEW I used 3 or 4 different books (along with the poor quality manual that came with the original software) and Advanced LabVIEW Labs was a godsend. It taught me the software in language ment for scientists and I immediately connected with it. I'm sorry that I can no longer use it for my class and am now looking for a newer book.

OUTSTANDING book to learn LabView basics.......2004-07-19

This book is a fantastic hands-on introduction to LabView, probably the best book on this topic a beginner can find. It is extremely clearly written, very well edited (i.e., there are practically no mistakes), and it has excellent illustrations for each step in the process of building VIs.

The book was developed by the author as a student manual for the class he taught. However, it is written so well that I do not understand why a student who has such a book needs an instructor at all. It consists of 12 chapters, all very practical. The first chapter gives a brief introduction to the LabView interface and its editing tools and introduces very simple VIs illustrating the while loop and the waveform chart. Chapters 2 through 8 teach increasingly complicated VIs which utilize the waveforem graph, XY graph, For loop, Formula node, operations with data files and character strings, shift registers, and case and sequence structures. The reader learns how to create arrays of data, perform mathematical operations on them, save them in files and read from files, and how to plot them. There are many practical tips how to navigate the LabView interface quickly and efficiently. Chapters 8 and 9 introduce the advance analysis VIs (included only in the "full" but not in the "base" labview package) and demonstrate how to program nonlinear least squares fitting and Fast Fourier Transform. Finally, the last 3 chapters teach programming of data acquisition boards - analog to digital conversion (digitizing oscilloscope), digital to analog conversion (PID temperature control), and GPIB control of instruments. While the book covers only the essentials of labview, the topics covered and the examples presented are extremely useful, and they all a must to know to program in LabView.

The book comes without a CD, but it is not necessary as the book describes the process of building of each VI so accurately and in so detailed way that it is very easy to follow the guidelines.

The book came out in 1999 and most likely was written using LabView 4. Three more versions of LabView came out since that time. It turned out that using it with newer versions of LabView is quite straightforward. The small changes that were introduced after the version 4 sometimes make it necessary to change the VIs slightly, but it is easy to figure out what changes are required using the error messages and LabView help. For instance, newer versions of LabView require that the conditional terminal in the While loop be wired; Replace Array Element is now called Replace Array Subset; there is no need to construct Global Variables using a while loops' shift registers (although it is interesting to learn how this can be done), etc. I counted only 10 small changes which had to be done to the programs on the first 220 pages of the book - and no errors or typos whatsoever!

To run the programs in Chapters 1-7 any LabView version will do; to run the programs in Ch. 8 and 9 one needs "Full" package (the "base" one does not contain the advanced analysis VIs); and finally, for the last 3 chapters one needs a computer with DAQ and GPIB boards. However, the book is so well written that you can read the text,look through the VI diagrams, and learn from this even if you do not have the proper software or hardware.

The book is very detailed, but at the same time everything that is in there is necessary; there are no off-topic discussions or jokes - almost 400 pages of straight-to-the-topic presentation.

The bottom line is that it is a fantastic introduction to LabView for beginners, which I can highly recommend. Well deserved five stars - and an example for the other authors how such books should be written!

Start here!.......2003-06-25

I needed a new software platform for data acquisition following the demise of an older platform. All of my friends at various national laboratories were using LabVIEW so it was a natural choice. I then started looking for a "directed tutorial" that would get me up to speed for data acquisition without first mastering the vast multitude of LabVIEW features (until I really needed them). I found Essick's book to be head and shoulders above the other novice-level books I tried (which were helpful but were taking too long). My undergraduate research students now first encounter LabVIEW with the guidance of this clear, concise, and well-written book. It would also be my first choice as a textbook for a class on LabVIEW (or on data acquisition techniques in general). I recommend this book very highly.

Great book !.......2000-05-16

I bought the book last week and since then I can't stop reading it and going through the well presented Labs. I find the book very interesting, well written ,to the point and clear. It will get you up to speed with Labview quickly. I own other Labview books but this is the only one that I didn't find boring or confusing. This is definitely a book I would recommend to all the students who want to learn Labview in a short period of time and also to the instructors; it can be a great teaching tool ! Finally, the price is ...very affordable. Great book ! ...

Book Description

"In this exciting new book, Frederick Luis Aldama has done an outstanding job of remapping 'magical realism.'"

—Werner Sollors, Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English Literature and Professor of Afro-American Studies, Harvard University

Magical realism has become almost synonymous with Latin American fiction, but this way of representing the layered and often contradictory reality of the topsy-turvy, late-capitalist, globalizing world finds equally vivid expression in U.S. multiethnic and British postcolonial literature and film. Writers and filmmakers such as Oscar "Zeta" Acosta, Ana Castillo, Julie Dash, Hanif Kureishi, and Salman Rushdie have made brilliant use of magical realism to articulate the trauma of dislocation and the legacies of colonialism that people of color experience in the postcolonial, multiethnic world.

This book seeks to redeem and refine the theory of magical realism in U.S. multiethnic and British postcolonial literature and film. Frederick Aldama engages in theoretically sophisticated readings of Ana Castillo's So Far from God, Oscar "Zeta" Acosta's Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, and The Moor's Last Sigh, Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust, and Stephen Frears and Hanif Kureishi's Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. Coining the term "magicorealism" to characterize these works, Aldama not only creates a postethnic critical methodology for enlarging the contact zone between the genres of novel, film, and autobiography, but also shatters the interpretive lens that traditionally confuses the transcription of the real world, where truth and falsity apply, with narrative modes governed by other criteria.

Customer Reviews:

Magical Realism.......2004-02-13

Magical realism has long been associated with Latin American literature and film. Aldama (University of Colorado, Boulder) examines its connections to other cultures as well. In five chapters, plus an introductory discussion of terminology and a coda, he emphasizes the need for precision in distinguishing between aesthetics and ontology while analyzing the films of Dash and Kureishi, the novels of Rushdie, and the Chicano/a narratives of Acosta and Castillo. Aldama posits the importance of storytelling techniques: parody, mimesis-as-play, rebellion, self-reflexivity, and the subaltern voice of the trickster/picaro. Citing such authors as Cervantes and Garcia Marquez as models, he stresses the need for imaginative writers and artists to question the effects of globalizatoin and consumptoin in the modern world. Joining a literature that includes Aldama's edited volume Arturo Islas: The Uncollected Works (2003) and related studes by such critics as Seymour Menton and Edward Said, this thought-provoking analysis should inspire further inquiry and discussion. Summing up: Recommended-all libaries serving upper-division undergraduates and above. Essential-researchers in the fields of comparative literature and film.
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries

Fascinating Study.......2003-12-06

I've just finished reading this nuanced and rich study of magical realism and finally understand not only how it differs from realism and the fantastic, but also how the make-believe of fiction has been confused with real facts that enable real politics. An excellent book for scholars and creative writers alike.

A valuable contribution to an important field........2003-11-21

This book is a must for serious scholars working on magic realism, postcolonialism, American multiethnic literature, and globalization. Aldama begins by offering a helpful overview of the critics who have observed and theorized magic realism (or magicorealism, as he dubs it). Even more usefully, he interrogates those theories, explains his own fresh take on the subject, and trains his critical lens specifically and in depth on a spectrum of magic realist works of fiction and film--some already canonical, some just beginning to come under academic scrutiny. Though written in a complex and theoretically sophisticated style, this book is appropriate for advanced undergraduates. A valuable contribution to an important field.

A poorly re-written dissertation on a much debated topic.......2003-11-02

This book can only be convincing to those who have no knowledge of the long and by now tedious debate concerning Magical Realism in the field of Latin American literature. What some reviewers call his "innovative" posture is actually based on one of the most conservative and oldest understandings of Magical Realism, Seymore Menton's, articulated in the 1960s. He basically skips over the latest and best criticism by Latin Americanists concerning Magical Realism. He brushes off complex and interesting arguments made by Alberto Moreiras in the space of one paragraph. There is no mention of Moses Valdez who also has written a serious scholarly essay on the topic. Aldama dismisses without confronting in any sustained way the monumental anthology on Magical Realism put out by Lois Parkinson Zamora in recent years. He creates the neologism "magicorealism" or "magicoreelism" (when talking about film) but gives no substantial critical reason for the creation of these terms; At least not one that coherently distinguishes it from any myriad of definitions already available and used when talking about the old term "Magical Realism". There is a lot of confusing argumentation and a lot of neat sounding words that may confuse and convince those who don't know any better of the "greatness" of his argument. However there is nothing here of any real substance. It is little more than a barely re-written dissertation (his dissertation was on a similar topic) that some how made it into press at UT Austin. For any one interested I direct them to Menton's monumental work on the topic, followed by Moreiras, and then the Parkinson Zamora anthology and Moses Valdez's article. All of these people are conversant in the topic, they write in a way that is, for the most part clear and interesting in terms of the theoretical debate.

Editorial Reviews.......2003-04-13

Book Description: Magical realism has become almost synonymous with Latin American fiction, but this way of representing the layered and often contradictory reality of the topsy-turvy, late-capitalist, globalizing world finds equally vivid expression in U.S. multiethnic and British postcolonial literature and film. Writers and filmmakers such as Oscar "Zeta" Acosta, Ana Castillo, Julie Dash, Hanif Kureishi, and Salman Rushdie have made brilliant use of magical realism to articulate the trauma of dislocation and the legacies of colonialism that people of color experience in the postcolonial, multiethnic world. This book seeks to redeem and refine the theory of magical realism in U.S. multiethnic and British postcolonial literature and film. The author engages in theoretically sophisticated readings of Ana Castillo's So Far from God, Oscar "Zeta" Acost's Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, and The Moor's Last Sigh, Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust, and Stephen Frears and Hanif Kureishi's Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. Coining the term "magicorealism" to characterize these works, Aldama not only creates a postethnic critical methodology for enlarging the contact zone between the genres of novel, film, and autobiography, but also shatters the interpretive lens that traditionally confuses the transcription of the real world, where truth and falsity apply, with narrative modes governed by other criteria.

Reviews:
"In this exciting new book, Frederick Luis Aldama has done an outstanding job of remapping 'magical realism"--Werner Sollors, Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English Literature and Professor of Afro-American Studies, Harvard University.

"Frederick Luis Aldama offers a vigorous revisionary perspective on postcolonial literature and, more specifically, on the much discussed phenomenon of magicorealism. He has a commanding knowledge of postcolonial theory, and he performs a welcome critical task in demonstrating how it tends to confuse the confines of the academy with the contours of the real world, textuality with ontology. Aldama himself is a political critic, but he sanely argues that the arena of any serious politics is the world of living people and not a text"--Robert Alter, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley and author of Canon and Creativity.

"Providing a lucid and cogent critique of the tendency in contemporary criticism to ontologize "magical realism," a tendency that implicitly articulates a relatively simple mimetic relationship between "magical realism" and various postcolonial cultures, Frederick Aldama instead posits a theory of what he calls "rebellious mimetics" that introduces a complex aesthetic and political mediation in that relationship. In doing so, he weaves together a series of excellent analyses of novels and films by authors and artists as diverse as Salman Rushdie, Ana Castillio, Oscar Zeta Acosta, Julie Dash, and Hanif Kureishi. This is a very significant contribution to the study of this genre"--Abdul R. JanMohamed, Professor of English, University of California, Berkeley.

"In this insightful and forceful study of magical realism, Aldama successfully argues that a true postethnic and postcolonial criticism should not (con)fuse the world with the text. His commentaries on Castillo, Dash, Kureishi, Acosta, and Rushdie force the readers to see these artists' magicorealist works in a new light, thus revealing all of their splendid and contradictory complexities. Aldama's book is a must for anyone who wishes to understand the intricacies of magical realism and the vitality of this genre in contemporary European postcolonial and ethnic American literature and scholarship"--Emilio Bejel, Professor of Spanish American Literature, University of Colorado at Boulder and author of Gay Cuban Nation.

"Through a study of the playful narrative techniques of writers and film-makers such as Dash, Garcia Marquez, Rushdie and Kureishi, Frederick Luis Aldama offers a powerful critique of those who view magical realism as either a means toward postcolonial resistance or as a depiction of some exotic real world. Proposing a "postethnic" approach, Aldama argues convincingly that a reader's or viewer's understanding of the aesthetic dimensions of what he calls "magicorealism" can lead to greater political understanding than older, more ideologically oriented interpretations"--Herbert Lindenberger, Avalon Professor of Humanities, Emeritus, Stanford University.

"It is rare that we come across a truly great book, one in which fierce intelligence asserts itself in pages that truly matter. Such a book assigns us the task of reordering what we have taken as true on the promise of an understanding more profound. In such a book, we are guided by extraordinary vision, by an author with keen insight. In the rarest of occasions, we read words that are wise, words that make broad connection and interrogate a range of thought that afterwards we deem necessary. Postethnic Narrative Criticism is such a book; Frederick Aldama is such an author"--Alfred Arteaga, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

This work offers a highly valuable rethinking of magical realism, one that assesses previous work in new ways, one that extends the historical reach of arguments about magical realism, and one that brings a new level of sophistication to arguments about it"--Carl Guitierrez-Jones, Professor and Chair, University of California, Santa Barbara.

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