Revising Your Resume (Career Blazers)

Book Description

This straightforward guide is like no other resume book on the market. Rather than taking readers through the entire resume-writing process, it offers 60 concise rules on how to write a resume and demonstrates how to execute them through right and wrong examples. This presentation enables readers to easily locate specific areas in question. Offering advice on preparing resumes in the most professional way possible, this book is the ``final say'' for resume writers and job seekers who are unsure about resume format, content, and appearance.

Customer Reviews:

The best book out there on this subject........1999-01-15

Plain and simple, this book got me a better job for better pay. It's priceless.

Average customer rating:

Revising Your Resume: Career Blazers

Manufacturer: J. Wiley,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FMFYYK

Book Description

Lines of Activity investigates the cultural life of the Hull-House Settlement of Chicago, one of the most significant reform institutions of the Progressive Era, from its founding in 1889 through its growth into a major social service institution. The study focuses specifically on the role of performance--not only theatrical representation, but also athletics, children's games, story-telling, festivals, living museums, and the practices of everyday life--to demonstrate how such cultural rituals could propel social activism at Hull-House and paradoxically serve as vehicles for both cultural expression and cultural assimilation.

This groundbreaking book demonstrates how performance analysis can contribute to the historical study of American reform as well as to critical inquiry on the arts and social change. She develops connections between performativity and sex/gender difference by interpreting Hull-House as a sphere of queer kinship and alternative gender performance. Lines of Activity also engages a variety of debates on the nature of historical representation, and the role of "theory" in historical writing.

As the notion of "performance historiography" gains currency, Jackson's study exposes the gender politics of such scholarly trends. By selecting the Progressive Era and Hull-House as arenas of inquiry, Jackson foregrounds how past discourses of domesticity, pragmatism, transnationalism, and environmentalism already contain performance-centered notions of identity, space, and community. Through these and other arguments, Lines of Activity reveals the intimate connection between a history of Hull-House performance and the performance of Hull-House history.

Shannon Jackson is Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and of Dramatic Art and Dance, University of California, Berkeley.

Book Description

Privatization has been hailed as a panacea for the problems of the public sector in developing economies as well as the developing world and the post-socialist world. As this book demonstrates, privatization in practice has often been difficult to achieve and has produced some uncertain benefits. Constraints and Impacts of Privatisation includes a wide range of case studies from the developing world and Eastern Europe by a group of policy makers, professionals and academic experts, including George Yarrow and Dieter Bos. The contributors explore the lack of appropriate resources faced by many developing and post-socialist countries and suggest how these constraints might be overcome. They also consider the impact of privatization and the effects it may have in the future.

Book Description

What do Warren G. Harding, Attila the Hun, and Louis B. Mayer have in common? These days, they're residing in that hip, hot neighborhood called Hell. Yes, according to the authors, these luminaries and millions (maybe trillions?) more have left our Earthly paradise with a one-ticket to the land of infernal flames. Irreverent, authoritative, accurate, and funny as . . . well, you know what, Who In Hell explains the sins of Hades' inhabitants and its not-so-civil servants. Illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Funny and thought provoking........2003-04-02

Provides insight into the evils committed by man (and woman) throughout the ages, but does so in a whimsical manner that makes it difficult to put the book down. I found myself leafing through the pages and wondering if I'd find -insert name here- damned to the pits of Hades.

Strange that I couldn't find Mother Theresa. :)

Humorous yet informative.......2002-08-10

"Who In Hell" is guide to the authors point of view of who he thinks is in hell. It contains 4 presidents and few of the popes and many celebrities and serial killers. Each person has a little bio on them on why exactly they went to hell. Not only is all of the bio's humorous but at the same time they are very informative as well and explains some facts that I had no idea about.

"Who in Hell" is not just limited to humans though, it has every demon supposably known to be listed in this book and their bio explains what evil each demon does.

I laughed at many of the readings in this book but I also learned a lot as well. I mean seriously did you actually think Walt Disney went to hell?? Well according to this book he did!! So did Julius Ceaser!!

Good book for those with twisted humours.......2001-03-10

I enjoyed sitting down and reading this book, which read like an encyclopedia of all of Hells denizens. It is very well written and very funny, describing all who have wound up in Hell after their nefarious lives. A good fun read if you can find it.

Amusing encyclopedia of speculation.......2000-11-30

John Paul II once said that "no man, not even Judas, can be said with certainty to be [in Hell]."

It is apparant, however, that humor writers Sean Kelly and Rosemary Rogers may not be privy to Hell's residential directories, but they have certainly made the speculation all the more interesting with their joint effort Who in Hell... : a Guide to the Whole Damned Bunch. This alphabetized directory offers entries on history's better-known adulterers, heretics, thieves, tyrants, and general nasty folk, as evidenced from text in The Bible, Dante's Inferno, and various mythological sources.

If you are convinced that the more-than-sunny side of the afterlife is your destination, you will discover that, according to Kelly and Rogers, you may be in good (?) company. Listed with the sin (ranging from the Seven Deadly ones to others just as bad) that likely brought them to Hell, many expected names are included. There is Judas Iscariot (deicide, treason), Adolf Hitler (suicide, though that seems to be the least of his deeds), David Koresh (blasphemy), and Aleister Crowley (fraud).

Mind you, also, that Hell is an equal-opportunity place, where one will discover Protestant religious leaders (John Knox, Henry VIII of England), popes (Leo X, Sergius III), the occasional entertainer (Mae West, who sealed her doom by leading a life of lust), and even an honorary resident (Henry Kissinger, who, though still alive, leads the authors to believed that he reserved a spot in Hell for certain reasons).

Who in Hell..., though a book that does prompt some serious thoughts about the next life, is a book to be taken lightly with good humor, as well a simple guide on what not to do if one desires salvation.

I have read a couple of her books.......1999-04-24

Can you please send me a profile of Rosemary Rogers, the author. She is a countrywoman from Sri Lanka like me.

Book Description

Sinatra's conductor reveals what it's like to work for legendary singers Frankly - Just Between Us, is an entertaining and insightful behind-the-scenes look at the world of playing piano and conducting for Frank Sinatra and other contemporary music legends. This book chronicles the illustrious career of Vincent Falcone from his days at Syracuse University and tuning pianos and performing casual dates in Las Vegas, to playing piano and conducting for music icon Sinatra during the apex of his career. Falcone also played for such music greats as Andy Williams, Jack Jones, Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Lewis, the McGuire Sisters, Tony Bennett, Connie Francis, Paul Anka, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and many others. Frankly contains many great stories about playing and conducting for some larger-than-life music personalities of the '70s, '80s and today, and the highs and lows of playing for this caliber of entertainment.

Customer Reviews:

Great New Sinatra book.......2007-09-12

This book is a great read for Sinatra fans. Lots of little tidbits you probably have never read before and I speak as a reader and owner of just about every book ever written on him. Highly recommended.

Just between us - an interesting read if your a Sinatra fan.......2006-08-30

It is a pleasure to read a book about Frank Sinatra by an intimate who is not seeking to make money on the strength of the name. These are the memories of an obviously talented musician who happened to be propelled from the lounges of the Las Vegas casinos to travelling and working with and for the finest popular singer of the 20th century. No great revelations here but then no muckraking either. Mt Falcone went on to work with most of the other remaining artists in this field of music and his story was worth telling and worth reading.

Music and Mr. Falcone.......2006-07-06

This book by Vincent Falcone is not just about his association with Frank Sinatra. It's about a guy who's passion for music and the mastery of his craft bring him to the top of the heap, that is, becoming the musical conductor for "The Chairman of the Board". I enjoyed this book because it's the story of a humble man who followed his dream but always kept his feet firmly planted on the ground. I came away admiring Mr. Falcone's determination. His stories about Mr. S were insightful, entertaining and poignant. I particularly enjoyed his stories about the bandmembers. This book was an easy read-direct and full of inside information, such as Mr. S's backstage requirements.

Mr. S. would approve!.......2006-01-31

I loved this book!! This is a great book about Frank Sinatra written by someone who worked with him and really knew him. Lots of great stories about Mr. S. and other entertainers. I found myself also enjoying reading about Vincent's life. I found his success story and positive attitude really inspiring. This book was so enjoyable to read that I started slowing down because I didn't want it to end. If you want to read a great book from someone who was really there -- then get this book right away!! Thanks, Vincent!

WHAT A RIDE AND WHAT A READ!.......2006-01-22

This book is an absolute must for all fans of Frank Sinatra. It is full of fascinating behind the scenes glimpses of the legendary entertainer, many of which will likely surprise you. The story is told in a voice and style that made me feel I was right there along for the wild rollercoaster ride that brought a young unknown from Syracuse N.Y. to the pinnacle of his profession: touring the world with The Chairman of the Board. There are also some very funny anecdotes involving comedians. Plus, the author offers a number of vauable insights into what it takes to carve out a successful career in music, regardless of the era. One of the most enjoyable reads I've ever had. I'm giving the book as gifts.

Book Description

In the 1980s—at the height of Thatcherism and in the wake of civil unrest and rioting in a number of British cities—the Black Arts Movement burst onto the British art scene with breathtaking intensity, changing the nature and perception of British culture irreversibly. This richly illustrated volume presents a history of that movement. It brings together in a lively dialogue leading artists, curators, art historians, and critics, many of whom were actively involved in the Black Arts Movement. Combining cultural theory with anecdote and experience, the contributors debate how the work of the black British artists of the 1980s should be viewed historically. They consider the political, cultural, and artistic developments that sparked the movement even as they explore the extent to which such a diverse body of work can be said to constitute a distinct artistic movement—particularly given that “black” in Britain in the 1980s encompassed those of South Asian, North and sub-Saharan African, and Caribbean descent, referring as much to shared experiences of disenfranchisement as to shades of skin.

In thirteen original essays, the contributors examine the movement in relation to artistic practice, public funding, and the transnational art market and consider its legacy for today’s artists and activists. The volume includes a unique catalog of images, an extensive list of suggested readings, and a descriptive timeline situating the movement vis-à-vis relevant artworks and films, exhibitions, cultural criticism, and political events from 1960 to 2000. A dynamic living archive of conversations, texts, and images, Shades of Black will be an essential resource.

Contributors. Stanley Abe, Jawad Al-Nawab, Rasheed Araeen, David A. Bailey, Adelaide Bannerman, Ian Baucom, Dawoud Bey, Sonia Boyce, Allan deSouza, Jean Fisher, Stuart Hall, Lubaina Himid, Naseem Khan, susan pui san lok, Kobena Mercer, Yong Soon Min, Keith Piper, Zineb Sedira, Gilane Tawadros, Leon Wainwright, Judith Wilson

Brixton calling.(Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain): An article from: Art Journal

Average customer rating:

Brixton calling.(Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain): An article from: Art Journal
Courtney J. Martin
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000RP8636
Release Date: 2007-06-07

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Art Journal, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2007. The length of the article is 2067 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Brixton calling.(Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain)
Author: Courtney J. Martin
Publication: Art Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 66 Issue: 1 Page: 119(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

This brand new edition contains every move (standard international algebraic notation) of every game played in world championship competition, including all "official" such titles since 1886 and all decisive matches by the world's leading players for the 50 years prior to that date. A diagram of the critical or most interesting moment accompanies every game. All games are dated, with playing locations noted. All source material discrepancies have been researched and resolved. Charts or crosstables showing overall results precede each match or tournament. A lengthy bibliography and a detailed openings index complete the work.

Customer Reviews:

The ultimate collection of games.......2002-08-09

If you are interested in the historical side of chess, then this book is a must-buy.

Chess World Championships contains the most important games in chess history.
It provides the reader with an opportunity to explore the past and to emerse himself in the classic struggles for the title of World Chess Champion. Dating back to the times before Andersson, and covering everything to Kasparov's era, the book doesn't miss a beat. Every single game that was played to determine the title of chess champion is included here.

While no annotations are used, the 800+ pages of game scores provide the reader with the most complete coverage of championship matches out there.

No chess book collection is considered complete without this piece!

Book Description

Your Palm Handheld is more than a scheduler so why not learn the many tasks you can use it for. Discover 101 fun and practical programs in a wide variety of categories including business, travel, lifestyle, and security. The authors explain both the features and the benefits of each program. Also provided is a CD-ROM with most of the programs discussed, providing a unique opportunity to try the software immediately. All included information is applicable to all Palm Handheld models and brands.

Customer Reviews:

Apps? Not in this book........2007-04-27

This is pretty much a waste of print. It is a compilation of advertisments for available apps. The included disk has NO apps on it, only a list of links to go to the web page where the apps are located. Nearly all of the apps are for sale, not free. If you want apps do a Google search for the appps you need, most of which can be downloaded for free.

Summer reading list.(Tools of the trade): An article from: Strategic Finance

Average customer rating:

Summer reading list.(Tools of the trade): An article from: Strategic Finance

Manufacturer: Institute of Management Accountants
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Hacking | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Security | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Strategic Finance, published by Institute of Management Accountants on August 1, 2004. The length of the article is 689 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Summer reading list.(Tools of the trade)
Publication: Strategic Finance (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2004
Publisher: Institute of Management Accountants
Page: 52(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Average customer rating:

101 Killer Apps for Your Palm Handheld

Manufacturer: OSBORNE COMPUTING
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GTGC16

Book Description

As exemplified by Madame Butterfly, East-West relations have often been expressed as the relations between the masculine, dominant West and the feminine, submissive East. Yet, this binary model does not account for the important role of white women in the construction of Orientalism. Mari
Yoshihara's study examines a wide range of white women who were attracted to Japan and China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and shows how, through their engagement with Asia, these women found new forms of expression, power, and freedom that were often denied to them in other
realms of their lives in America. She demonstrates how white women's attraction to Asia shaped and was shaped by a complex mix of exoticism for the foreign, admiration for the refined, desire for power and control, and love and compassion for the people of Asia. Through concrete historical
narratives and careful textual analysis, she examines the ideological context for America's changing discourse about Asia and interrogates the power and appeal--as well as the problems and limitations--of American Orientalism for white women's explorations of their identities. Combining the analysis
of race and gender in the United States and the study of U.S.-Asian relations, Yoshihara's work represents the transnational direction of scholarship in American Studies and U.S. history. In addition, this interdisciplinary work brings together diverse materials and approaches, including cultural
history, material culture, visual arts, performance studies, and literary analysis.

Customer Reviews:

theoretically unrigorous, aesthetically unfocused .......2007-10-16

The field of transnational cultural and literary studies perhaps gained momentum first in the trans-Atlantic works but seem to have stimulated the publications of some key books in the trans-Pacific arena.

While Yohihara's first book does examine interesting phenomena of white American women writers and authors and their conflicted fascination with East Asia, this is certainly not the book to deserve 5 stars.

In short, Yohihara's book simply lacks the kind of adequate theoretical rigor in order to examine the intersection of love/hate ambivalence, transformative aspect of others' aesthetic cultures and politically priviledged women's urge to violently appropriate them, and the fundamental relations informing these female artists' particular aesthetic experiements and the larger political reality of the US and East Asia.

As a study of literary authors, poets, and artists, the book practically contains no analysis or close reading of aesthetic qualities of these artists' works. For instance, you can read a chapter on Amy Lowell's poems and soon realize that Yoshihara analyzes the content of Lowell's poems but not Lowell's particular poetics. At the end, the book seems to largely give up its attempt to situate these art works/cultural forms in the turbulent history of the Asia Pacific and makes quite amazing assertion that many of these Anglo American artists at least have contributed to promiting positive views of East Asia in America. Well, because it is Said's basic point that even seemingly positive views on other cultures constitute a part of Orientalist apparatus that continutes to buttress the East/West essentialist divide, Yoshihara's thesis at the end of her book on a certain American Orientalism is very unsatisfactory.

David Palumbo-Liu has already applied some psychoanalysis to the always shifting identifications held by both Americans and Asians toward either Asia or America. Christine Klein has demonstrated an actual link between American orientalist cultural products and the US foreign policies. Yuang Huante has done a sophisticated readings of American poets such as Pound and Lowell who are influeced by Chinese aesthetics. I really do not want to be excessively harsh, but I am disappointed by this book's lack of both methodological rigor and critical concern. It does not do any of the following: materially grounded cultural studies, rigorous readings of aesthetic forms, psychonanalysis of race. How does this work contribute or give new perspectives to the already thriving transnational studies, is a hard question to answer...

race and (not versus) gender.......2004-08-03

Critical legal academics have warned people of "playing the oppression sweepstakes": fighting over which oppressed group is more oppressed. In this work, Dr Mari Yoshihara struggles with that issue as she attempts to flesh out and analyze what happened when fin-de-siecle, class-privileged, white women "embraced the East" or supported and practiced Orientalism.

In this book, Professor Yoshihara (a Brown alumna) jumps genres and mixes mediums. She demonstrates a strong knowledge of how Orientalism impacted business, material art, literature, anthropology, and vice versa. She proves her strong understanding of the histories and cultures of the United States, Japan, and China. This juggling is one of the resons why I love American studies and think the discipline has so much potential. This book continually brings up race, class, and gender simultaneously: Michael Dyson was correct in saying that bell hooks has to stop patting herself on the back for being a scholar able to do this. This was an impressive interdisciplinary book that should be of interest to women's studies majors, Asian Americaninsts, and comparative ethnic studies scholars alike.

On the one hand, a famed white actress who performed in yellowface also helped send nurses to wartorn Japan and A. Smedley applauded Chinese communists for their goals. On the other hand, Amy Lowell excluded Chinese women from her poetry anthology and white female artists purposely portrayed Asian women as submissive and stereotypical. Still, Yoshihara stresses that the women discussed were neither hardened racists or iconic anti-racists. Their success depended on Westerners who wanted to see these images and continues to this day by Asian scholars that are honored by this attention to them and their predecessors. This book demonstrates how power comes from all sources and social constructionism affects every phenomenon.

Yoshihara admits that the United States, China, and Japan are and were patriarchal. Though other academics have condemned discussions that conflate gender with sexuality, here she consistently brings up both topics and illustrates their intense interconnectedness. While the author only looks at Orientalism via Japan and China, she sets up a framework for others to discuss other nations. In "Playboys in Paradise," the author mentions 1950s Americans' fascination with Polynesia. I think a grad student could write a great work on Orientalism during the Vietnam War based upon Dr. Yoshihara's work.

In the text, the Professor states that she is only talking about upper-class women. She may have wanted to admit this in her title then. You can barely differentiate between quotes and text because she only left aligns them, rather than italicizing them or indenting quotes on both the left and the right. I, and I think most modern Western readers, were more familiar with the topics in the last few chapters. Thus, I wonder why this scholar placed the most recognizable material at the end.

Professor Yoshihara is trying to avoid the black-white paradigm, but I think a mention of black-white race relations would have added, rather than distorted, her examination. Ruth Benedict wrote inaccurate gendered inaccurate reports about Japan that seem very similar to Patrick Moynihan's attack on African-American families. Mari mentions that white women sometimes wore Asian garb just to do something new. As a reader, I wondered why she did not contrast this with white men who paraded around in blackface for very purposeful racist ends. Works by Marjorie Garber and Eric Lott exist for the writer to flesh out this comparison. She discusses patronizing white female artists and their relations with East Asians of both genders. This reminds me much of Carl Van Vechten's dynamic with Harlem Renaissance writers or Jean Genet's rapport with the Black Panthers.

The author leaves other things unexplored that I would have addressed. For example, she doesn't bring up regionalism. Most Asians historically have lived on the West Coast. Were white women there more likely to embrace them or reject them than, say, white women in Boston? On page 64, a white female painter's depiction of a Japanese mother holding her child to a mother. In the painting, you see the baby's face so close to the mother that her face becomes invisible. This seems like a blatant Orientalist attempt to equate Asian women with children, yet Yoshihara doesn't bring it up.

This book is awesome and Professor Yoshihara obviously has an exciting career ahead of her. This book will help modern readers to think about films like "Kill Bill, Part One," Madonna's videos and concerts, Bjork's album covers, and the "Notes of a Geisha" novel. I can't recommend this work enough.

EMBRACING THE EAST: WHITE WOMEN & AMERICAN ORIENTALISM

Average customer rating:

EMBRACING THE EAST: WHITE WOMEN & AMERICAN ORIENTALISM
YOSHIHARA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKV6EA

Book Description

From the author of Why Things Bite Back– which introduced us to the revenge antics of technology– Our Own Devices is a wonderfully revealing look at the inventions of everyday things that protect us, position us, or enhance our performance.

In helping and hurting us, these body technologies have produced consequences that their makers never intended:
• In postwar Japan traditional sandals gave way to Western-style shoes because they were considered marks of a higher standard of living, but they seriously increased the rate of fungal foot ailments.
• Reclining chairs, originally promoted for healthful brief relaxation, became symbols of the sedentary life and obesity.
• A keyboard that made the piano easier to learn failed in the marketplace mainly because professional pianists believed difficult passages needed to stay difficult.
• Helmets, reintroduced during the carnage of World War I, saved the lives of countless civilian miners, construction workers, and, more recently, bicyclists.

Once we step on the treadmill of progress, it’s hard to step off. Yet Edward Tenner shows that human ingenuity can be applied in self-preservation as well, and he sheds light on the ways in which the users of commonplace technology surprise designers and engineers, as when early typists developed the touch method still employed on today’s keyboards. And he offers concrete advice for reaping benefits from the devices that we no longer seem able to live without. Although dependent on these objects, we can also use them to liberate ourselves. This delightful and instructive history of invention shows why National Public Radio dubbed Tenner “the philosopher of everyday technology.”

Customer Reviews:

Engaging Nonfiction.......2006-10-24

Tenner wrote one of my favorite books, Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences. Tenner's books remind me of Henry Petroski's books in a way -- engaging nonfiction. The most fascinating thing about Tenner's book is his description of the interplay between technology and technique: how humans evolve along with our technology to get maximum utility out of our inventions. There are numerous stories about how an advancement in technology wasn't used to its potential (or was even able to match the performance of the old technology) until humans' techniques changed as well. There are also some interesting sections about how/why "improvements" never took root (piano keyboards and typewriter keyboards, notably). Fantastic stuff about what would seem like mundane topics (shoes, chairs, bottle-feeding, keyboards, helmets, ...)

How Technology Insidiously Transforms Us.......2005-11-27

"Why Things Bite Back" stands as one of my favorite books, and is definitely the best single volume available on the unintended consequences of technology. I was, of course, eager to read Edward Tenner's "Our Own Devices," a volume more focused on the historical adaptations of a select few technologies and man's co-evolution with them.

Tenner intentionally selected mundane technologies that get no more than a passing thought on a daily basis, and in several cases not only tracks historical adaptations of specific inventions and technologies (the history of the baby bottle, or eyeglasses, for instance), but also contrasts the diametrically opposed ends of the technological spectrum as it applies to what are similar design constructs (for instance posture chairs versus reclining chairs, and musical keyboards versus text keyboards.)

The scope of Tenner's research is astounding, and makes seemingly mundane items interesting. Particularly strong are the chapters on the zori (a sandal), and eyeglasses. In the chapter on zoris, for example, Tenner documents the work of a Liberian craftsman, Saarenald T. S. Yaawaisan, who recycled old sandals into toy helicopters until he had acquired all the used sandals in Monrovia, at which point he began purchasing new sandals to make into toys. The story goes on to explain the subsequent problems with Monrovian sandal recycling vis-a-vis the release of dioxin into the environment. This illustrates the fanciful research Tenner put in to make this an eminently readable book.

My favorite chapter, and one that will strike a chord with many readers is on the history of eyeglasses. Eyeglasses have a much longer and complex history than I had expected, and I found his insights correlating the rise of literacy with the rise in myopia interesting. Particularly interesting in the chapter are references to the visual range requirements needed for more primitive hunter-gatherers versus modern civilized man. Tenner correctly credits the work of behavioral biologist Jakob von Uexkull, and discusses his concepts of visual perception ("merkwelt") and related theories with great aplomb. Also discussed in this chapter is the role the Catholic church had in promoting the perception of eyeglasses (even during the Inquisition), and the role of aristocratic Europe in shaping public perception of correctable lenses. Specific technologies and manufacturing techniques (mainly European) are discussed, including those of famed presbyope (and cryptologist) Duke August the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, who promoted fine craftsmanship of lenses over cheaply made products from Florence.

This book is extremely well researched, and is generally very absorbing for those interested in the history and implications of technology. Even though it is a bit longwinded at times, I give it five stars for eloquently describing the co-evolution of man and machine.

Exploring our technological dependencies........2005-11-08

One of man's unique traits is our ability to modify the world around us to suit our needs. One oft-ignored consequence of this ability is how these modifications in turn affect man. This book deals with the latter, and examines the whole gamut of devices, furniture, apparel, and other man-made products to see how they were created, how they evolved, and in turn how they affect man.

The examples covered in this book include shoes, chairs, keyboards, and tables. The author compares and contrasts the presence/absence and history of these inventions across multiple societies of multiple eras to illustrate how they affect people. For example, up to the early 1900s, chairs were rarely used in most countries of this world. As a consequence, everyone sat on the ground or on their hams. Then chairs came around one country at a time and relieved everyone of these daily minor inconveniences. In return, we got chronic back and posture problems, never mind the use of resources (wood, nails, labor) to make the chairs in the first place. A device made to ease daily life has come full circle to affect our health and that of the planet!

These and other examples make this book quite insightful and interesting. It should be required reading for any architect, social scientist, or engineer.

Technology and Technique Evolve Together.......2004-08-22

My passion for the past thirty years has been the development and introduction of innovative medical technologies that improve the quality of life and/or save lives. I have been involved with innovations in cardiovascular surgery, neurosurgery, gastrointestinal surgery, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, Ob/Gyn, urology, and hearing. Edward Tanner in "Our Own Devices" articulates and provides structure for what I have observed with new medical technologies, their adoption, and evolution. This book will be of interest and important to those who are participants in and/or students of technological innovation.

Oftentimes, those involved in the development of technology work in a vacuum without consideration of the user, trends, cultural barriers, and trade-offs - between performance, symbolism, and behavior changes. Tanner goes into great detail with examples showing the development and evolution of everyday items like shoes, sofas, and eyeglasses to highlight how things really went with these "machines," as they were put to use.

"Our Own Devices" is an exploration not only of inventive genius but also of user ingenuity. New devices are intended to change behavior, but not always as we imagined. And changes in behavior inspire new improvements and/or new devices, which in turn leads to more innovations. A good example of this in medical technology is the Swan-Ganz catheter. It was introduced in the late 1960s for use as a diagnostic tool for cardiologists. It had limited success until the mid-1970s when anesthesiologists adopted it for use to manage critical care patients in surgery. Until its use, many critical care patients were too high risk for surgery. About the same time, other innovators adopted some of its features to create the angioplasty catheter to treat vascular occlusions. This catheter has now become the primary tool in treating clogged arteries, and has further evolved to deliver a stent, and, more recently, a drug coated stent. This product category due to its safety and efficacy has become one of the most important therapies in history, and the profits of companies like Boston Scientific, Guidant, Medtronic, and J&J ride on its continued evolution. The interaction of inventors with participants allowed the technology and their technique to produce striking results envisioned by neither inventors nor users.

This book explores why we experience so many positive as well as negative unintended consequences; why technology,often considered the prime mover of change, is also a response to long-standing trends; and why, when we are constantly reminded of how everything has become much easier to use, how life has grown more complex and requires more education.

This is not a book for everyone, but is a "must" for those who are actively involved in or are students of innovation.

Informatively covers inventions of everyday things.......2004-02-07

Edward Tenne's Our Own Devicesr is superbly presented survey which is hard to easily categorize but nonetheless very highly recommended reading. Our Own Devices informatively covers inventions of everyday things that protect us, enhance performance, and help position us. From ergomatic chairs and recliners which moved from health resources to symbols of obesity to a keyboard which failed because professional pianists believed difficult passages needed to stay challenging, Our Own Devices draws some interesting parallels between advancements, achievement, and self-preservation.

Book Description

These spine-tingling accounts of nature's awesome destructive powers take readers behind the fire lines of BC's most fabled blazes. Keith Keller vividly chronicles the advent of firefighting innovations from bulldozers to airborne Rapattack crews - and nature's persistent indifference to that arsenal.

Wildfire Wars also reveals how firefighting brings out the best and worst in the rough-and-ready lot who tackle this job. Keller tells of political infighting and clashing egos among Forest Ministry brass, and of booze, drugs and arson on the fireline. But he also finds heroes at every link in the chain of command, from fire bosses who must make quick life-and-death decisions on little more than instinct to ordinary firefighters who risk their lives to save lumber, livestock and each other. Some are larger-than-life characters, such as Percy Minnabarriett, a Native crew foreman and rodeo rider in the Ashcroft fire district whose leg was crushed by a bulldozer.

"They'd managed to keep him in hospital at Kamloops for a year or so, but after he got out he repeatedly frustrated his doctor by cutting his hip-length cast to below the knee so he could get back to riding horses. Finally the doctor sealed him in steel rods, but they only lasted until Minnabarriet had [his wife] Marie pick him up a new blade for his hacksaw."

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books