International Co-Operation in Tax Matters. Report of the Ad Hoc Group of Experts on International Co-Operation in Tax Matters on the Work of Its 2nd

Book Description

A collection of humor-packed true items culled from local Bermuda sources and not exactly meant for tourists visiting one of the world's wealthiest islands.

If you've ever fantasized about chucking it all and moving south, read Bermuda Shorts. It will have you chuckling, shaking your head, and tearing up that letter of resignation.

Customer Reviews:

An entertaining, eye-opening read.......2004-02-16

In the course of reading this book (which I could hardly put down) I constantly alternated between hysterical laughter and awe/disbelief! Sobey has collected some very amusing newspaper articles that show those of us in the rest of the world what Bermuda is like underneath it all. In a country where there is so little major crime, the most petty things become huge issues. And all are reported very, very thoroughly in the newspaper. And the public interest stories make me think they have a lot of slow news days in Bermuda! Some examples:

--The man who returns a pair of socks to the store that he bought 48 years ago (and the clerk exchanged them!!);

--The case of the man accused of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, because he couldn't stay on his horse. The judge threw it out, claiming the last time he looked the horse was an animal, not a vehicle!

--The couple who wake up to find a strange man in the bed with them.

People go to court (and often to prison) for stealing milk, a glass of club soda, beef....they break windows regularly, and many "criminals" claim alcoholism as a mitigating circumstance.

One of the funniest things in the book (to me) are the letters to the editor at the end of each chapter. You think the newspaper writers are funny? Wait til you see what the citizens write!!

I'm on my way to Bermuda for a week, and I must say I'll look at things a little differently after reading this book. Not in a bad way, of course......

Product Description

"Con ayuda del cine se pueden tratar las cuestiones mas complejas del presente a un nivel que durante siglos ha sido propio de la literatura, la musica o la pintura. Estoy convencido de que el trabajo practico en el cine sera para cada uno de nosotros algo infructuoso y desesperanzado, si no comprendemos con toda exactitud y claridad la especificidad de este arte, si no encontramos nosotros mismos la llave que tenemos para abrirla" A. Tarkovski

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Impact of Electronic Media on Children.

Imagination and Play in the Electronic Age
Dorothy G. Singer , and Jerome L. Singer
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

Play = Learning: How Play Motivates and Enhances Children's Cognitive and Social-Emotional Growth

Learning Together: Children and Adults in a School Community (Psychology)

The House of Make-Believe: Childrens Play and the Developing Imagination

Play and Child Development (3rd Edition)

Handbook of Children and the Media

ASIN: 0674024184

Book Description

Television, video games, and computers are easily accessible to twenty-first-century children, but what impact do they have on creativity and imagination? In this book, two wise and long-admired observers of children's make-believe look at the cognitive and moral potential--and concern--created by electronic media.

As Dorothy and Jerome Singer show, violent images in games and TV are as toxic as many observers have feared by stimulating destructive ideas and troubling aggression. But should all electronic media be banned from children's lives? Calmly and authoritatively, the Singers argue that in fact some screen time can enrich children's creativity and play, and can even promote school readiness. With guidance from parents and teachers, empathy, creativity, and imagination can expand and intensify in the electronic age.

Customer Reviews:

Impact of Electronic Media on Children........2006-01-05

Contrary to what we've been led to believe, t.v. exposure could have a good impact on young people as a learning tool instead of a substitute babysitter. This husband-wife team has been studying media influence on children for many years. In his early research, he was looking at television as an impetus for cognitive development and credited it for helping younger children to read. "Other media -- radio, films, and books -- may influence a person's imaginative potential, but none of these are as pervasive in a child's life as television. Children who are very young do not spend as much time with books as they do with TV or electronic games, and certainly they do not listen to radio or attend movies as frequently as they watch television."

With the growth of internet use among children, the electronic media must be taken seriously as an influence upon the consciousness of youngsters. "Currently, there is a substantial amount of research adressing the issue of aggression and violence and the electronic media." A most recent study "adds further evidence linking overt aggressive behavior to a combination of watching violent television and playing violent video games.

Historically, girls have been "socialized into reading and school readiness skills." Before the emergence of electronic media, girls played dress-up games with paper cut-out dolls for many decades. Boys were encouraged "to physical play and to extensive enthusiasm and practice of motor skills. " Boys focus on sports and athletic heroes. Generally, both sexes stayed close to real life, with some refelction of MTV influences. In keeping with findings from studies of sex differences in play, "girls used more verbal expression and boys were more playful and engaged in more action."

"As the extensive research on social learning has shown, we form our identities by combining early awareness of our own early temperamental characteristics (impulsivity vs. reflectivity, fearfulnss vs. assurance, irritability vs. amiability) with modeling ourselves on features of people we admire." The late renowned astronomer, Carl Sagan, (with that beautiful deep resonant voice) has also described in interviews "how his childhood of reading of Edgar Rice Burrough's series and novels about John Carter on the planet Mars led him to a career in science and to his lifelong exploration of outer space and the possibility of extraterrestrial life."

The challenge and responsibility falls on parents and educators to guide children into cyberspace in much the same way as their "encouragement, reading, and storytelling is critical for aiding children to develop imagination and literacy. With guidance from parents and teachers, empathy, creativity and imagination can expand and intensify in the electronic age."

Both authors are co-directors at the Yale TV Research Center and have edited a HANDBOOK OF CHILDREN AND THE MEDIA. Dorothy Singer is Senior Scientist and, together, they have written MAKE-BELIEVE: GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR IMAGINATIVE PLAY in 2000 and HOUSE OF MAKE BELIEVE. Jerome Singer is Professor Emeritus in the Psychology Department at Yale University and relates his life as a researcher in IMAGERY IN PSYCHOTHERAPY, out in 2005.

Imagination & Play in the Electronic Age

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Imagination & Play in the Electronic Age
Dorothy G Singer
Manufacturer: HARVARD UNIV PRESS @
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N62YOG

Book Description

A lively and humorous guide to playing Megatouch and NTN games found in thousands of bars and restaurants, this book includes amusing facts from history, geography, and science for help in playing these trivia games. Described are how the National Trivia Game is played via game keyboard and a television set connected by satellite to the central computer in California, how questions originate from this computer, and how players' scores are recorded and displayed from there after each game. Megatouch is described as a computer-based game that requires eye-hand coordination, skill, and knowledge of trivia.

Customer Reviews:

BAR GAMES.......2006-01-11

I started playing NTN a year ago at a new Damon's restaurant here. It is really a lot of fun, and educational as well.
A friend gave me this book, BAR GAMES, as a holiday gift.
What a great read. History, Presidents, painters, etc.
I got a few more correct answers that I usually do , thanks to the book.
My teenage daughter is starting to read it, as well.
She will be an expert on painters before you know it.

Useless and unentertaining I'm afraid.......2005-12-16

Where do I begin?

The typeface is enormous, meaning there are very few words per page -- thus less content.

Many of the pages have whacky clipart taking up a good 50% -- again less content.

You then get to the content and find errors galore. Reading this book could actually harm your scores!

The final mark against is in the writing style. It's very chummy and bad-jokey -- I guess that combined with the whacky typeface it's supposed to be friendly rather than dorky. Dear Author and Editors: We play bar trivia. We sit and shout out flavours of quarks, and know what a Wagner Tuba is. We don't want to be patronized.

"Patronized" means "talking down to someone". ;)

If you're really interested in boning up on some trivia, figure out what your weaknesses are and pick up some books. I was very weak in history, so I bought the excellent Time-Life Almanac of History. One book didn't make me a history whiz, but it helped me sort out all those ancient civilizations and places. If you just want general knowledge stuff, the Uncle John's Bathroom Readers are EXCELLENT troves of trivia.

Great Trivia.......2005-02-18

This book is great. Not only does it give tips on NTN and Megatouch but it has all the Trivia you need. My daughter loves the section on US Presidents. Its a great gift for all ages. Even if you don't play Bar Games you will enjoy this book. Test yourself and your friends.

Entertaining and Informative.......2005-01-28

BAR GAMES , a guide to playing NTN and Megatouch,
contains many pages of entertaining trivia to
aid the player in achieving a high score when playing
NTN trivia or Megatouch.

Before buying , look at page 32 , listing the wives of
Henry VIII. Witty and informational!

Or page 24, about US Presidents and Mrs. JK Polk's rule on drinking in the White House.

BAR GAMES is a very entertaining book.

Not Just for Bars.......2004-12-04

I prefer conversation to games while eating and I don't frequent bars but nevertheless I have a great time with this book. My grandsons love it. We play the games at home and get inspired to make up some of our own. It's simple to correct the few errors. No bother there. The simple questions get us fired up to do further research which is a great learning tool.

I find it the necessary light entertainment after a day of heavy policy issues. In fact the kids feel the same. It is much more fun than homework and something adults and children can play together.

Enjoy it. I do.

Book Description

Get a quick handle on the new features of QuarkXPress 6, including Mac OS X and Windows XP compatibility, enhanced undo functionality, full-resolution previews, and new ways to manage complex projects
Written by designers for designers, covering all the major tools for layout, text editing, special effects, Web page development, and printing in simple, easy-to-understand language
Enables both beginning and intermediate designers to start using the program quickly
From two highly qualified authors: Barbara Assadi, former manager of Quark, Inc.’s Editorial Services department, and Galen Gruman, a desktop publishing pioneer and former executive editor of Macworld

Download Description

Get a quick handle on the new features of QuarkXPress 6, including Mac OS X and Windows XP compatibility, enhanced undo functionality, full-resolution previews, and new ways to manage complex projects
Written by designers for designers, covering all the major tools for layout, text editing, special effects, Web page development, and printing in simple, easy-to-understand language
Enables both beginning and intermediate designers to start using the program quickly
From two highly qualified authors: Barbara Assadi, former manager of Quark, Inc.’s Editorial Services department, and Galen Gruman, a desktop publishing pioneer and former executive editor of Macworld

Customer Reviews:

Useless.......2007-06-08

Master Pages...one of the most useful bits of QuarkXpress.

Does this book explain how to create them? NO!

Very disappointing.

Helpful book on how to use a powerful tool.......2003-12-22

I work as a copy editor at a newspaper, so I needed a book which would help me get started real quick! I played around a bit with Quark years ago, but I really needed it fleshed out for my understanding. This book explains all the basic tools in Quark, and gives some good technical tips. I just wished it could have also given some advice on decent layout design. I keep this one at my desk!

Book Description

The conception of the Other has long been a problem for philosophers. Emmanuel Levinas, best known for his attention to precisely that issue, argued that the voyages of Ulysses represent the very nature of Western philosophy: "His adventure in the world is nothing but a return to his native land, a complacency with the Same, a misrecognition of the Other." In Memories of Odysseus, François Hartog examines the truth of Levinas' assertion and, in the process, uncovers a different picture. Drawing on a remarkable range of authors and texts, ancient and modern, Hartog looks at accounts of actual travelers, as well as the way travel is used as a trope throughout ancient Greek literature, and finds that, instead of misrecognition, the Other is viewed with doubt and awe in the Homeric tradition. In fact, he argues, the Odyssey played a crucial role in shaping this attitude in the Greek mind, serving as inspiration for voyages in which new encounters caused the Greeks to revise their concepts of self and other. Ambitious in scope, this book is a sophisticated exploration of ancient Greece and its sense of identity.

Memories of Odysseus: Frontier Tales From Ancient Greece

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Memories of Odysseus: Frontier Tales From Ancient Greece
Francois Hartog Janet Lloyd
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPEFIO

Amazon.com

Here's a book to raise the spirits of anyone of African descent who feels that he or she has nothing to do with the making of Western civilization. Frank M. Snowden Jr., a world-renowned scholar on ancient Greece and Rome who taught at Howard and Georgetown Universities, details with encyclopedic and painstaking scholarship and research the undeniable presence of Africans in the Greco-Roman world. "The experiences of those Africans who reached the alien shores of Greece and Italy constituted an important chapter in the history of classical antiquity," he writes. Using evidence from terra cotta figures, paintings, and classical sources like Herodotus and Pliny the Elder, Snowden proves, contrary to our modern assumptions, that Greco-Romans did not view Africans with racial contempt. Many Africans worked in the Roman Empire as musicians, artisans, scholars, and generals as well as slaves, and they were noted as much for their virtue as for their appearance of having a "burnt face" (from which came the Greek name Ethiopian). --Eugene Holley Jr.

Book Description

The Africans who came to ancient Greece and Italy participated in an important chapter of classical history. Although evidence indicated that the alien dark- and black-skinned people were of varied tribal and geographic origins, the Greeks and Romans classified many of them as Ethiopians. In an effort to determine the role of black people in ancient civilization, Mr. Snowden examines a broad span of Greco-Roman experience--from the Homeric era to the age of Justinian--focusing his attention on the Ethiopians as they were known to the Greeks and Romans. The author dispels unwarranted generalizations about the Ethiopians, contending that classical references to them were neither glorifications of a mysterious people nor caricatures of rare creatures.

Mr. Snowden has probed literary, epigraphical, papyrological, numismatic, and archaeological sources and has considered modern anthropological and sociological findings on pertinent racial and intercultural problems. He has drawn directly upon the widely scattered literary evidence of classical and early Christian writers and has synthesized extensive and diverse material. Along with invaluable reference notes, Mr. Snowden has included over 140 illustrations which depict the Negro as the Greeks and Romans conceived of him in mythology and religion and observed him in a number of occupations--as servant, diplomat, warrior, athlete, and performer, among others.

Presenting an exceptionally comprehensive historical description of the first major encounter of Europeans with dark and black Africans, Mr. Snowden found that the black man in a predominantly white society was neither romanticized nor scorned--that the Ethiopian in classical antiquity was considered by pagan and Christian without prejudice.

Customer Reviews:

Some Rays of Valuable Information Still Shining Through Layers of Dust.......2007-04-19

Frank M. Snowden, Jr. draws a thorough picture of the absence of racism in the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. He is analysing ancient texts, archaeological evidence (paintings, sculptures), encounters of war, integration in mythology and the participation in the theater and amphitheater of Blacks from the white Greek and Roman perspective. Closing with theory and practise of living together without prejudice in pre- and early Christian Classic Mediterranean civilisation. He reveals the irony that the Greeks and Romans if at all, then harbored some prejudices not against black skinned, but the even whiter north Europeans beyond their borders. Anybody who is interested in all of the above will find this book rewarding.

However, elapsed time (written in 1969) has caused this work to suffer immensely, not only exemplified by the use of the N-word and also "Ethiopian" not exclusively for the people inhabiting today's country area of that name, but Blacks in general. Which occasionally becomes awkward, when the context does not make it clear, which "king of the Ethiopians" the book is referencing: From Axum (today's Ethiopia), any given black kingdom or especially Nubia (today's Sudan). Most names of peoples and kingdoms are not in use today anymore and Snowden doesn't always reveal, whom he is referring to in general modern terminology. No maps are provided for easy clarification.

Intended as passionately anti-racist, by today's standard, this book unintentionally harbors a lot of racism, not only in the vocabulary:

Snowden avers, only retardet kids would not be afraid of the other skin color. That has been disproven. Kids in kindergarten do not fear kids of other skin colors. (His contrary statements concern with lacking selectiveness fear of adult males, which is no less untrue.) In fact, human toddlers till a certain age are programmed by nature to accept almost any given mammal population as normal companions, being able to differentiate every individual monkey, what older kids/adults can't do anymore.

The book constantly describes paintings and sculptures, with no exception commenting black bodies and faces with vocabulary either sounding like medical conditions or in the tune of "flat-nosed, puffy-lipped" etc. Reading that many hundreds of times, Snowden thereby establishes respective synapse connections in the reader's brain. He never describes white skinned as something like "squeezed-out-nosed, inflated-lipped" etc., in fact, he doesn't describe white folks at all. Which makes white the norm of humanity and blacks the deviation. Whereas in reality it is the other way around (if at all, of course), as white people are nothing else but paled blacks, i.e. black would be the human norm, with all other phenotypes deriving from that.

The perspective is white. Antiquity's norm is Greece and Rome. Not Egypt, Phoenicians, Ethiopia, Sumer, etc. The mingling is not told from the latter's viewpoints.

Even worse, most of the above are not considered to be black. In the meantime we know that all of the above and many more peoples in the ancient vicinity were black peoples. This is a mayor flaw of the book as for one thing, the meeting of black and white(r) cultures leaves out considerable, even the most important portions of the book's potential subject matter. For another, one of the important reasons for the lack of racism is missed: The infant by comparison Greek and Roman civilisations knew Egypt, Sumer and other more ancient cultures as role models, which have been faked/mistaken into white in the meanwhile. (Which explains the prejudice towards the back then "under-developed" northern European cultures.) Moses and other historical personalities still appear to be white in this book.

Also in its style, the book shows signs of ageing. The occasionally integrated ancient Greek vocabulary isn't translated, not even transscribed into the Latin alphabet and thus become unreadable for most readers. This intellectual arrogance has been dropped in the 1990s. I mean, really: 82 notes pages for 150 normal text pages (+ 100 picture pages), but these most essential transscriptions are not provided! Speaking of foot notes: It may happen that a foot note is longer than 2 pages and includes references back to the previous parts, to several pages of both of the two picture sections. As if that wouldn't be enough, the picture references within the normal text may be many dozen pages in advance, without giving the page numbers (but the picture numbers; in combination with foot notes). This is the epitomy of obstacle reading I have had to deal with in my lifetime yet.

Clearly, this book is to be venerated as pushing the envelope once. Now we are in dire need of a completely new book on the subject as even a potential extensive preface and some changes wouldn't be enough to adjust it to the times.

Ethiopians were not the only Black Race is Antiquity.......2004-06-14

The so-called "negroid" features this author attributes to the Ancient Authors views of the races of Blacks in antiquity is a modern defined term. Ancient authors were more simple, as they did not consider themselves anthropologists as we know anthropology today. The term "black-skinned" or "wooly-haired" was much more significant in describing this race, rather than anthropological terms such as thick lips, broad noses, etc. These ancient authors knew as we know today, that physical features of Africans varied, and instead focused of what was more prevalent-skin color.
In his critique of Cheikh Anta Diop's Black Egyptian the author states: "One of the passages which Diop cited is a much disputed account of the Colchians and Egyptians by the historian Herodotus, the meaning of which is uncertain. Of the other passages quoted, one does not necessarily refer to an Egyptian, and the others do not support Diop's statement about 'thick-lipped, kinky-haired Egyptians'; in fact, the authors cited do not even mention hair or lips". This passage alone tells me that this Author obviously does not cross-reference his work, as anyone that has read The History by Herodotus, there can be no confusion that when the author stated "black-skinned and wooly hair" in describing the Egyptians, there could be no mistaken as to what the author meant. As he did not state, dark-skinned, brown-skinned, tanned, etc., he clearly stated the color he observed on the skin of the Egyptians, Ethiopians and Colchians-Black.
The worst quote from this author criticizing Diop's work was "Further, Diop overlooks the fact that classical authors regularly differentiated between Egyptians and Ethiopians." I am entirely embarrassed that such as statement could be used by a so-called scholar, as this author must have overlooked the fact that the classical authors "regularly differentiated" between the Greeks and the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans, The Greeks and the Assyrians, and so on..yet we know that the Greeks and the Romans were both from a white race with different customs, why would it not be comprehensible to the average reader that the Egyptians and the Ethiopians were also from the same race with "customs" that differentiated them. Is it not known that even in modern times Africans differ in their customs.
In conclusion its sad to think that this author confined the Black race only to the area of Ethiopia without citing the fact that Herodotus also affrims that the Ethiopians colonized Egypt and gave birth to their civilization. I would highly suggest "The African Origin of Civilization" by Cheikh Anta Diop instead.

Back to School.......2004-05-31

In my opinion this book was written for college students. It is much more of a lesson plan layout than a narative on Africian history. The author takes each issue in sections and I find that in doing so there is quite a lot of repeation in his information. He also use words spelled in the Greek alphabet that I could not understand. At the early stages of the book many of these words are used with English counterparts but as the book goes on it seems as though you were suppose to remember them. It was Greek to me and not necessary.

I had to dig out some old maps I had in order to put locations on many of the areas he was writing about. The book would be a lot better if there were maps included. The artifacts pictures in the book, some ninety-nine pages, were a great aide to my understanding and there are plenty of them. There are about eighty-two pages of reference notes and only about one hundred and forty-three pages of text.

In the end result I put myself in a classroom receiving a lecture from my professor. Did my homework (research of names and places I was not familure with) and was able to follow the information over an extended period. It took me almost a month, during my free time, to finish it. The information is there. The arguments are there. With all the negative comments I've mentioned above I found the book serving the desire I bought it for. Knowledge. That made it's reading and content worth while to me.

An outstanding piece of research.......2000-09-21

Snowden is not an Afro-centric writer, he is a well qualified professor of classics, an accredited expert in his field.

"Blacks in Antiquity" presents a comprehensive history and analysis of ancient Ethiopian "black" culture. In the 18th and 19th centuries, some American anthropologists and theologians have attempted to rewrite Ethiopian history to show this advanced culture as one not truly black. The roots of that go into the very heart of the origin of western racism in Colonial America and can be found to affect our implicit views of race even today.

Snowden shows from historical, textual and archaeological evidence that the Ethiopians were indeed a "black" race. He also establishes their position of respect and complete equal acceptance with other ancient cultures of the time. In essence, it shows, while perhaps not explicitly stating it, that racism is a much more recent invention than many have supposed-- especially those hold to a "Black curse" or "inferiority" theory in physiology or theology.

If you want a volume that presents evidence in a straight foward and empirically supportable manner, this is an excellent choice.

A well-written discussion of Greek-African contact.......1998-01-30

Snowden seems to really know what he's talking about. To someone as ignorant in the subject as I was, it was a great read to learn all about the contact between the ancient Africans and Greeks. The pictures and explanations of artifacts are especially interesting.

Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience (Belknap Press)

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Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience (Belknap Press)
Frank M. Snowden
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VUSIU8

Average customer rating:

A MUST READ

Biological Exuberance

Animals have gay marriage!

So Much Written, So Little Conveyed...

Good book but...

Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions)
Bruce Bagemihl
Manufacturer: Stonewall Inn Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nonfiction | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 031225377X

Amazon.com

Bruce Bagemihl writes that Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity was a "labor of love." And indeed it must have been, since most scientists have thus far studiously avoided the topic of widespread homosexual behavior in the animal kingdom--sometimes in the face of undeniable evidence. Bagemihl begins with an overview of same-sex activity in animals, carefully defining courtship patterns, affectionate behaviors, sexual techniques, mating and pair-bonding, and same-sex parenting. He firmly dispels the prevailing notion that homosexuality is uniquely human and only occurs in "unnatural" circumstances. As far as the nature-versus-nurture argument--it's obviously both, he concludes. An overview of biologists' discomfort with their own observations of animal homosexuality over 200 years would be truly hilarious if it didn't reflect a tendency of humans (and only humans) to respond with aggression and hostility to same-sex behavior in our own species. In fact, Bagemihl reports, scientists have sometimes been afraid to report their observations for fear of recrimination from a hidebound (and homophobic) academia. Scientists' use of anthropomorphizing vocabulary such as insulting, unfortunate, and inappropriate to describe same-sex matings shows a decided lack of objectivity on the part of naturalists.

Astounding as it sounds, a number of scientists have actually argued that when a female Bonobo wraps her legs around another female ... while emitting screams of enjoyment, this is actually "greeting" behavior, or "appeasement" behavior ... almost anything, it seems, besides pleasurable sexual behavior.

Throw this book into the middle of a crowd of wildlife biologists and watch them scatter. But Bagemihl doesn't let the scientific community's discomfort deny him the opportunity to show "the love that dare not bark its name" in all its feathery, furry, toothy diversity. The second half of this hefty tome is filled with an exhaustive array of species that exhibit homosexuality, complete with photos and detailed scientific illustrations of the behaviors described. Biological Exuberance is a well-researched, thoroughly scientific, and erudite look at a purposefully neglected frontier of zoology. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

A Publishers Weekly Best BookOne of the New York Public Library's "25 Books to Remember" for 1999Homosexuality in its myriad forms has been scientifically documented in more than 450 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and other animals worldwide. Biological Exuberance is the first comprehensive account of the subject, bringing together accurate, accessible, and nonsensationalized information. Drawing upon a rich body of zoological research spanning more than two centuries, Bruce Bagemihl shows that animals engage in all types of nonreproductive sexual behavior. Sexual and gender expression in the animal world displays exuberant variety, including same-sex courtship, pair-bonding, sex, and co-parenting-even instances of lifelong homosexual bonding in species that do not have lifelong heterosexual bonding.Part 1, "A Polysexual, Polygendered World," begins with a survey of homosexuality, transgender, and nonreproductive heterosexuality in animals and then delves into the broader implications of these findings, including a valuable perspective on human diversity. Bagemihl also examines the hidden assumptions behind the way biologists look at natural systems and suggests a fresh perspective based on the synthesis of contemporary scientific insights with traditional knowledge from indigenous cultures.Part 2, "A Wondrous Bestiary," profiles more than 190 species in which scientific observers have noted homosexual or transgender behavior. Each profile is a verbal and visual "snapshot" of one or more closely related bird or mammal species, containing all the documentation required to support the author's often controversial conclusions.Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, filled with fascinating facts and astonishing descriptions of animal behavior, Biological Exuberance is a landmark book that will change forever how we look at nature.

Customer Reviews:

A MUST READ.......2007-05-14

A must read for anyone who seeks knowledge beyond the superficial animal kingdom we see on tv. The intrinsic explanations of animal behavior explained in this book are so well documented, it is truly amazing. The insight on sexual behavior demonstrates how censored a lot of information is on tv.

Biological Exuberance.......2006-09-15

A well-supported and engagingly written study of homosexual behavior in animals, particularly mammals and birds. The book discusses the behavior of individual species, ways in which behavior can be studied, the implications for evolutionary theory and for the study of corresponding behaviors in humans, the place of reproduction in the natural world, and more.

I read natural history and nature writing voraciously and had no idea that these behaviors were so prevalent, which seems like an argument in itself for Bagemihl's criticism of zoologists' ignoring them. As he points out, all mating behaviors are hard to observe (it was amazing to learn that at the time the book was written Black-Headed Grosbeaks had only once been observed mating; they are a common bird that breeds in North America). At times, it seems to me that Bagemihl's analysis overinterprets, assuming that all incidences of mounting, for example, are sexual. Still, enough of his evidence appears irreproachable to make the book a real eye-opener.

Animals have gay marriage!.......2005-08-04

Wow. I knew that homosexuality was biologically natural - i.e. it occurs naturally to various degrees and in various forms in numerous species including humans - but I had no idea of the extent, or of the similarity of many species to human sexuality.

If one thinks of heterosexual animals that pair bond, in some cases for life, as the animal equivalent of human heterosexual marriage, then logically, homosexual animals that pair bond, in some cases for life, are the animal equivalent of human gay marriages. Guess what? From such a perspective, animals have gay marriage!

The species' that are most similar to humans (based on the categories of courtship, affection, sexual behavior, pair-bonding, and parenting) are the Bonobo (or pygmy chimpanzee - which is the species most directly related to humans), the Orang-utan, and the Bottle Nose Dolphin.

Homosexual sexual activities among animals include mounting, anal intercourse, clitoral penetration, oral intercourse (for both males and females), mutual masturbation (including face to face GG-rubbing - genito-genital [i.e. mutual clitoral] rubbing by females), solitary masturbation, the use of tools for masturbation (equivalents of a dildo and a vibrator), penile fencing, rump-rubbing (mutual rubbing of genital and anal areas), digital genital and anal stimulation, the use of natural herbal abortion medicines, and in one species, the delay - in some cases permanent - of conception by manually stimulating the nipples (some species don't go into heat while suckling occurs, and the animals have learned to prevent themselves from going into heat by manually stimulating their nipples.) Dolphins have some tricks I'd never heard of. They have "nasal sex" - the insertion and stimulation of the penis by the blow hole; and "sonic sex" - the stimulation of the genitals using sonic pulses; as well as "beak-genital propulsion" - when the nose is inserted into the male of female genital slit, manually stimulating the genitals while propelling them along. I couldn't possibly describe all of it here.

The book also describes non-reproductive heterosexual activities, which are also quite common, if not ubiquitous. It also covers intersexuality and transvestism among animals.

Gay animals court each other (sometimes with specifically homosexual courtship rites), express affection, have all kinds of gay sex, pair-bond, and parent. Many animal species are functionally bisexual, but the same range of sexuality that occurs in humans also occurs in animals, such that even among a species that is primarily bisexual, there will be individuals who are exclusively heterosexual or homosexual.

The last half of the book ends with a breakdown of currently known species in which homosexuality occurs, and the form it takes (pair-bonding, courtship, etc.), as well as other broader info on the species.)

It's a great read, and a great resource for those who are ignorant of the existence and extent of animal homosexuality.

So Much Written, So Little Conveyed..........2004-12-27

Bagemihl belongs to the genre of writers who write a great deal but convey very little. His huge book is divided into two parts; the second part describes case studies of homosexual behaviors among several animal species, and the first part provides what could-with great difficulty-be called an analysis of these reports.

Bagemihl groups sexual behavior in terms of five broad categories: courtship, affection, interactions involving mounting and genital contact, pair-bonding, and parenting activities. Such broad categorization risks confounding social interactions with sexual behavior, possibly leading one to mistakenly assume that a preference for specific social partners is a sexual preference for these partners.

Bagemihl alleges same-sex sexual partner preference in at least some individuals in over 50 bird and mammalian species, based on five types of interactions: intersexual competition for same-sex sexual partners, sexual interactions between the object of intersexual competition and a same-sex competitor, repeated pair-bonding with same-sex individuals or repeated selection of same-sex sexual partners, reuniting with same-sex partners following prolonged separations with opposite-sex individuals, and engaging in sexual activity with same-sex individuals in the presence of opposite-sex individuals. Whereas these criteria are consistent with a same-sex sexual partner preference, none of them definitively prove a same-sex sexual partner preference, and an examination of the examples presented by Bagemihl reveals that the majority of the cases of same-sex courtship, mounting, and genital contact can be explained without assuming a same-sex sexual partner preference [see P. L. Vasey, Ann Rev Sex Res 13, 141 (2002)]. Besides, the large number of case studies cited by Bagemihl notwithstanding, his book cannot be used to claim that homosexual behavior is widespread in the animal kingdom because Bagemihl's case studies are drawn from a less than miniscule non-random fraction of the millions of animal species out there.

Bagemihl, failing to find themes behind homosexual behaviors among animals, offers a concept of biological exuberance, whereby homosexual behavior is pursued for pleasure and is a goal by itself that need not serve any purpose other than pleasure. Whereas this may be true, it is difficult to believe that this could be the result of normal developmental processes. Even among humans where much heterosexual behavior is non-conceptive, non-conceptive heterosexual behaviors typically occur as a prelude to or in conjunction with conceptive sexual behaviors. Additionally, the pleasure that accompanies orgasm not only prompts heterosexuals to repeatedly indulge in conceptive intercourse but also facilitates pair-bonding, which would come in handy if an offspring results from the union. Bagemihl's thesis on homosexuality, within a paradigm that he calls non-Darwinian biology, is meaningless for species that are capable of sexual reproduction only.

On the other hand, whereas Bagemihl fails to provide evidence for a same-sex sexual partner preference among the animal studies he cites, it has been proven that homosexual behaviors and a same-sex sexual partner preference are natural (i.e., occur irrespective of human intervention) in some individuals in some breeds of some animal species. However, nobody, let alone Bagemihl, has shown that homosexual behaviors are normal in some animals, i.e., result from development in accordance with design. Whereas the question of the normality of homosexual behaviors among some individuals of various animal species remains unanswered, a considerable amount of information shows that human homosexuality results from abnormal development, specifically prenatal developmental disturbances. See a newly published book in this regard: "The Nature of Homosexuality: Vindication for Homosexual Activists and the Religious Right."

Good book but..........2004-10-25

This is a good book for reference. However, the homosexual behaviors described in the book are not quite what I expected. It should have been titled Animal sexuality instead of homosexuality.

Biological Exuberance : Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

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Biological Exuberance : Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity
Bruce Bagemihl
Manufacturer: Profile Books Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity
Bruce Bagemihl
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OIUWTM

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Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity
Bruce Bagemihl
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTMQS6

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Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity
Bruce Bagemihl
Manufacturer: St Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LZIFJW

Book Description

The transfer method, a technique used in cost-benefit analysis, is an increasingly important tool used by government agencies to assess environmental regulatory policy. This innovative book develops protocols for using the transfer method to approach environmental problems and introduces several significant conceptual and methodological advances that refine the transfer process.

The transfer approach to quantitative policy analysis adapts information and data from existing studies and so provides an economical way to assess potential benefits and costs for projects. The book presents a detailed framework for examining the transfer of information, outlines the basic steps of the method, and discusses solutions to frequently encountered problems. It then illustrates the method with an extensive case study of environmental externalities from electricity generation. This case study provides the opportunity to discuss salient aspects of the transfer method in more detail, including conceptual principles, the quality of original studies, empirical difficulties and estimation techniques. It also demonstrates the use of state-of-the-art techniques such as meta analysis to synthesize and transfer information from multiple studies and assesses the reliability of the transfer estimates with repeated computer simulations, a technique known as Monte Carlo analysis.

Environmental Policy Analysis with Limited Information will appeal to environmental policy analysts and managers as well as environmental economists.

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