Making Self-Employment Work for People with Disabilities

Customer Reviews:

Econonomic Development .......2007-04-20

I have not only read Cary and Daves book I have successfully implemented these strategies to support people with a wide range of disabilities to attain and succesfully maintain self-employment ventures. Thier ability to be inventive and to time and time again help the disability community move from scarcity thinking into economic development always amazes me.

excellent resource.......2007-04-19

excellent resource...a comprehensive guide from start to finish.....just what we in the disability movement have been seeking but have been unable to find until griffin and hammis.....this is a must have .....

Disapointing.......2006-08-19

This book is vaguley geared to thoose with disabilites. I would find this useful if I was in a wheel chair or had another obstacle. However having a pain disorder the book read to me of that of "NORMAL" healthy people. Wasted my limited money.

Excellent Source Book.......2005-07-19

I have gone through this book being disabled myself. This book offers valuable insight into the difficult process of self-employment for the disabled, and deciding which way you might proceed.

I think I get it now!.......2005-05-18

I recently read "Making self-employment work for people with disabilities." Some of the leg work that needed to be done up front made immediate sense to me. Some was still puzzling. After a training session I read the book over and it became crystal clear. This book makes you step out of your comfort zone and ask and answer the hard questions. Some of it makes you view the world of work and working as a business in itself. Especially, business from a banker or rehabilitation agency view point. Sometimes, this viewpoint gets lost in the shuffle of trying to help a person with a disability start a viable business. Key word here: viable. After all a well written business plan helps start the business off on the right foot. Keep guiding us Cary.

Customer Reviews:

Why is this book 65 dollars?.......2001-02-26

Ok, I haven't read the book, but I heard an interview with Ken Thomas on the radio talking about his book and it sounds very interesting. It's about corporate welfare (subsidies/tax breaks given to business by state,local, or national government in order to convince business to build in its area). Im waiting for the book to come in at my local library because there is no way in hell im paying 65 dollars for it. That really bothers me. Anyway, when i finish it, i'll Write a real review. I wouldnt be requesting if from the library if I didnt think it sounded good on the radio.

Competition Policy in Europe and North America: Economic Issues and Institutions (Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics Series)

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Competition Policy in Europe and North America: Economic Issues and Institutions (Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics Series)
W. Comanor
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Production & Operations | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Theory | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 3718650592

Competition Policy in Europe and North America: Harwood Fundamentals of Applied Economics

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Competition Policy in Europe and North America: Harwood Fundamentals of Applied Economics
George Comanor
Manufacturer: Taylor & Francis
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Commercial Policy | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Research | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0415269229

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Global Competition Policy

Manufacturer: Peterson Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0881321664

Global Competitive Strategies in the New World Economy: Multilateralism, Regionalization and the Transnational Firm (New Horizons in Environmental Economics)

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Global Competitive Strategies in the New World Economy: Multilateralism, Regionalization and the Transnational Firm (New Horizons in Environmental Economics)

Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | International | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1858981360

Book Description

This important new book provides an exhaustive analysis of the strategic responses of transnational firms to current trends in the world economy, specifically the trends towards 'globalization' and 'regionalization'.

The primary focus of this book is on the strategy of transnational firms, particularly those from East Asia, in the geographical regions of Europe, North America and Asia, including the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the ASEAN Free Trade Area. The contributors discuss protectionism and trade agreements, strategic alliances, competitiveness and investment strategy towards Eastern European states and compare business strategies in the triad region. The distinguished contributors are from industry, academia and international organizations and have first-rate, detailed knowledge of the issues raised. Their approach is policy-oriented and they use case studies of Toshiba, Toyota, Samsung and the Notebook PC Consortium to illustrate the investment strategies of East Asian firms.

Book Description

"A valiant attempt to debunk traditional First Amendment attitudes on the issue of racist speech."

--Jurist

"An excellent book for general and academic readers."

--Choice

"Delgado and Stefancic criticize what they see as the use of archaic formulas such as the prohibition against 'content' regulation, the maxim that the cure for bad speech is more speech, and the speech/act distinction."

--Law and Social Inquiry

Customer Reviews:

I thought we were defending our principles.......2000-12-20

It's pretty easy to support free speech when someone says something you agree with and pretty easy to dismiss free speech when someone says something you don't like.

Why do we want to defend Nazi's? Because we don't want to follow in their footsteps - we want to defend freedom.

For benefit of the authors who apparently got little out of law school I will follow with the first amendment:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

An attempt to remove the ability to freely speak.......2000-06-21

The book, while well written and apparently persuasive to those who are easily swayed by sentimental and emotional arguments, simply gives a one-sided view on why the first ammendment does not give "free speech". As Justice Burger said, "No law means no law", and the authors tend not to agree. Read for a laugh.

Must We Defend Nazis?.......2000-06-19

Well written. I disagree totally with the author's rationale. They are off base and do not make sense for what they are arguing against.

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Not for me

Neat

Must have for anyone seeking music in the classroom.

MUSIC EDUCATION IS FOR EVERYONE

The Musical Classroom: Backgrounds, Models, and Skills for Elementary Teaching, Sixth Edition
Patricia Hackett , and Carolynn A. Lindeman
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book 1: Lesson Book: Level One (Alfred's Basic Piano Library)

Language Arts: Patterns of Practice (6th Edition)

ASIN: 013112109X

Book Description

Assuming little or no musical background, this book demonstrates how music works—and how to convey this understanding to others. It helps learners develop skills in teaching music while offering them introductory experiences in playing and reading music. KEY TOPICS The book features lots of song material, information on learning instruments, sample lessons, and an accompanying CD. Presented in a non-technical, user-friendly manner, Section I introduces music in the elementary school, the elements of music, music-making activities, curricular approaches and developments, the eclectic world of music, and how to plan and assess music learning. The instrumental instruction section provides information about playing autoharp, guitar, baritone ukulele, piano, and soprano recorder, as well as information about the singing voice. It features descriptions of hand and body positions, fingerings, and strums, including keyboard drawings, chord frames, tuning instructions, and fingering charts; lists specific songs that may be used in learning to play each instrument individually or in large or small groups. For individuals ready to learn music now, and preparing to teach it in the future.

Customer Reviews:

Not for me.......2007-07-22

I don't know who that book is written for. I bought the book, since it appeared on the suggested reading list for the California Teaching exam. It's so technical that, unless you already know the stuff, it's useless. The classroom exercises use teaching concepts that should have been left on the cutting room floor fifty years ago. Parents, watch out.

Neat.......2007-03-09

I was plesantly surprised at how easy this book is to use for both musicians and new musicians. Watch out for used books not all of them have the cd that I needed for my class. For the musicians- sometimes I forget that newbies don't know about the Staff or note names this really starts form the begining. It demonstrates good places to start teaching from.

Must have for anyone seeking music in the classroom........2001-09-06

This book and accompanying cassette are invaluable! I teach grades K-8 general music and this book has been very useful for lesson plans. There are step by step lesson plans and the cassette provides the music and excerpts needed to present an effective lesson to the children. I've found that these lessons tie in easily with the benchmarks and goals for all of my children. If you do not own this book- buy it. I'm now waiting for an addition to come out that includes my 6-8 grades.

MUSIC EDUCATION IS FOR EVERYONE.......2000-06-18

Surprisingly, neither the online booksellers nor the publisher, Prentice Hall, refers to the audiocassette of all 60 musical selections in the model lessons for teaching music, which accompanies the Fourth Edition of this book. This is actually one of the main benefits to having it in a classroom or home setting. College instructors use this as a textbook to teach musician and non-musician teachers how to teach the art to elementary school students. Even parents who home school their pre-school and elementary school age children should find this a very accessible resource for teaching all basic musical elements: expressive qualities, melody, rhythm, form and harmony. I wish that I had found out about this resource guide and lesson plan library before returning to teach elementary school music full time after 30 years of pursuing a varied carrier in law, business and "higher" academics. The standardized essay exams for certification in music education should be a snap now. All the right conventional pedagogically sound verbiage is there to satisfy the most melancholy of lesson plan freaks. The cassette tape makes this book more helpful than Music Fundamentals, Methods, and Materials for the Elementary Classroom Teacher by Michon Rozmajzl and Rene Boyer-White(2nd Ed., Longman, 1996). For a complete (and much more expensive) library of childhood music experiences in the schools go to the K through 8 textbooks and teacher aids (ample CD recordings, overhead charts, wall charts, musical play scripts, and several video cassettes) in the Share the Music series published by McGraw-Hill (2nd Ed. 1998).

smithgrp@quixnet.net

Book Description

In the 21 ^st century, the populations of the world’s nations will display large and long-lived changes in age structure. Many of these began with fertility change and are amplified by declining mortality and by migration within and between nations. Demography will matter in this century not by force of numbers, but by the pressures of waves of age structural change.

Many developing countries are in relatively early stages of fertility decline and will experience age waves for two or more generations. These waves create shifting flows of people into the key age groups, greatly complicating the task of managing development, from building human capabilities and creating jobs to growing industry, infrastructure and institutions. In this book, distinguished scientists examine key demographic, social, economic, and policy aspects of age structural change in developing economies.

This book provides a joint examination of dimensions of age structural change that have often been considered in isolation from each other (for example, education, job creation, land use, health); it uses case studies to examine policy consequences and options and develops qualitative and formal methods to analyze the dynamics and consequences of age structural change.

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The Brooklyn Software Murders
Eugene Young
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1419626086
Release Date: 2006-02-15

Book Description

The source code is missing and the body count is rising. The technology is leading edge and the mob is old-fashioned. Join Danny La Jolla, Jazz Moreau and the Breast Milk Brewery Girls as they try to survive the Brooklyn Software Murders. So push away your keyboard and slip on your brass knuckles, you'll need them when you meet Cinco Omerta, Nero Toga and Odie Boots. Welcome to Brooklyn.

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Our Shadowed Present: Modernism, Postmodernism, and History
Jonathan Clark
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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Modern Historiography: An Introduction

ASIN: 0804751498
Release Date: 2004-08-30

Book Description

This important and stimulating volume seeks to defend the value of historical understanding in the face of social-scientific and especially postmodernist criticisms of historical method and the usefulness of history for understanding the present. Clark argues that modernism and postmodernism can both be explained historically; that we cannot emancipate ourselves from the past; that historical identities are deeply rooted; and that the interplay of ideas in the public arena frequently disguises these truths, but does not abolish them.

Origins of presentism.(Our Shadowed Present: Modernism, Postmodernism, and History)(Book Review) : An article from: Modern Age

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Origins of presentism.(Our Shadowed Present: Modernism, Postmodernism, and History)(Book Review) : An article from: Modern Age
William Anthony Hay
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Modern Age, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2005. The length of the article is 1564 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: Origins of presentism.(Our Shadowed Present: Modernism, Postmodernism, and History)(Book Review)
Author: William Anthony Hay
Publication: Modern Age (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 47 Issue: 3 Page: 254(4)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Our Shadowed Present: Modernism, Postmodernism, and History.(Book Review) : An article from: Canadian Journal of History

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Our Shadowed Present: Modernism, Postmodernism, and History.(Book Review) : An article from: Canadian Journal of History
Christopher Kent
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by Thomson Gale on August 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1320 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: Our Shadowed Present: Modernism, Postmodernism, and History.(Book Review)
Author: Christopher Kent
Publication: Canadian Journal of History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 40 Issue: 2 Page: 360(4)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Amazon.com

Prolific author Peter Gay describes the rise of the middle class in the 19th century through an unexpected lens: the life of Viennese playwright Arthur Schnitzler. Yet Gay's themes are much larger than the somewhat obscure Schnitzler: "If we may call [my book] a biography at all, it is one of a class," he writes. Schnitzler's Century necessarily focuses on the Victorians--a term often applied only to the British, but here extended to all of Europe and the United States--and Gay seeks to portray them in their complexity and diversity. "There are many people who think they have grasped the Victorian mentality when they have smiled at gushy keepsakes, maudlin poems, shy euphemisms, silences about matters that matter," he writes. In fact, "they lived with their eyes open." Gay has written a history of habits, with close attention paid to sexual ones. It is the sort of provocative book that the stereotypical Victorian would want to see removed from the storefront window--but also would want to peek at when nobody else was looking. --John Miller

Book Description

An essential work for anyone who wishes to understand the social history of the nineteenth century, Schnitzler's Century is the culmination of Peter Gay's thirty-five years of scholarship on bourgeois culture and society. Using Arthur Schnitzler, the sexually emboldened Viennese playwright, as his master of ceremonies, Gay offers a brilliant reexamination of the hundred-year period that began with the defeat of Napoleon and concluded with the conflagration of 1914. This is a defining work by one of America's greatest historians. 12 b/w illustrations.

"If the past is envisioned as a foreign country, then there is no one, living or dead, better suited to serve as our guide than Peter Gay. In Schnitzler's Century, he has distilled a lifetime of learning into 320 pages of sparkling prose....I can't remember the last time I had such fun—and learned so much—from any work of history or nonfiction."—David Nasaw, winner of the Bancroft Prize for The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst

Customer Reviews:

The Victorian and Modernity.......2004-09-08

Although I haven't read Peter Gay's five volume history of the victorian era, I just might check it out after reading "Schnitzler's Century". You have to be suspicious of any book where the offer admits that one might notice a more then faint resemblance between the current volume and the author's prior output(as Gay does in his foreword).

Regardless of any repetition, Gay is a more then capable writer, and I found the contentn of this book fascinating. Gay uses the framework of Freud to discuss the mind set of the Victorian bourgeois. Along the way, he debunks many myths perpetrated about the Victorians, particularly those relating to Victorian prudishness and fridigidity.

As we all know from our histriography books, the past is more complicated then historians of prior era's gave it credit for. I never get tired of searching out the origins of "modernity", and for that reason, I would recommend this book to any with a similar interest in knowing why the world is the way it is today.

Biography as History, History as Biography.......2004-03-27

Peter Gay's choice of Arthur Schnitlzer is an interesting one. After all when we think of Victorian literary figures we usually think of the essayists Carlyle, Ruskin, Arnold; poets Tennyson and Browning; and novelist Dickens. "Schnitlzer" is not a name that readily comes to mind to most readers when speaking of the Victorians. He wrote plays and stories and novels which are rarely read today but Gay is not really interested in taking a measure of Schnitzlers literary achievements. What interests Gay about the Viennese author is not his official output but his private output as Schnitlzer kept extensive diaries. For Gay these diaires offer a glimpse into the private life of the Victorian. Gay quotes liberally from Schnitzlers diaries because after all its the unofficial history of the Victorians that Gay is really interested in. We are all familiar with the public record of the time and the cliches about the Victorian mind set but Gay wants to peel back those cliches and have a look at the Victorian with his gaurd down -- he wants to tell us what the middle-class Victorians really thought and how they really behaved. The diary gives Gay access to the private mind and conscience behind the Victorian facade. One of Gay's points is that there is no typical "Victorian" really and that the much disparaged middle-class is really a much more diversified and conflicted group than many historians would lead you to believe. Schnitzler is not exactly a representative Victorian. In many ways he is a figure (roughly contemporary with Freud) who tells us more about the century to come than the one he was born into. Like Freud he is concerned less with the general goings-on within society than he is with the goings-on within his own and his characters minds -- their hidden motivations etc.....
Schnitzler's mind appeals to Gay because Gay himself is a Freudian and his history is an attempt to reveal the hidden motivations(anxieties , fears, aggressions, desires) driving the age. Gay is a consummate historian however and he never lets his Freudian interests lead him into speculative corners -- he supports every point with lively data and convincingly shows us that the Victorians are a largely misunderstood people. We assume they were overly shy about sex but Gay gathers plenty of evidence to counter this assumption. Schnitlzer himself seems to have thought of little else as he moved from one conquest to another. Whether we are to assume that Schnitzler is a typical Victorian or not seems to be beside the point because what Gay wants us to see is that any generalization that we make about the Victorians will quickly be undone by evidence to the contrary. This is not a "biography" of Schnitzler and it is not a typical "history" of the Victorians or middle-class. Rather this is an interdisciplinary work which blends biography and history. Schnitzler's Century uses one discipline to challenge the other and in so doing offers fresh insight into both.

In addition to "sex" two other topics are given extensive consideration: the "gospel" of work, and religion.

A rewarding work.

Creative approach to a difficult topic........2002-11-28

An enjoyable journey to an expanded perspective. Peter Gay's work requires some initial persistence on the part of the reader to settle into the paradigm for digesting this treatise - but the persistence rapidly bears fruit. The book uses the life of Arthur Schnitzler only tangentially as a point of entry into the lifestyle, attitudes, passions, obsessions, and, most importantly, the contributions of the Victorian middle class. In developing this panorama, Gay refutes many of the cliché-ridden perceptions of the Victorian bourgeoisie to provide insight into its achievements in laying the foundations for much that is positive in the twentieth century. As the depiction approaches completion, the persistence of the reader in traversing the opening chapters is amply rewarded. The perspective gained from this excellent, enjoyable treatise is magnified by reading it in conjunction with Arthur Herman's superb work, The Idea of Decline in Western History - a work which approaches a nearly contemporaneous period from a different, darker, but complementary direction.

Victorians Unmasked.......2002-04-21

The title is misleading: Schnitzler lived from 1861 to 1931; The book covers the period from 1815 to 1914. The author uses the life of Schnitzler as a hook on which to hang his tales of the Victorian bourgeoisie.

Mr. Gay discusses the moral atmosphere during the 19th century and shows us that the bourgeoisie was not as constipated as they are claimed to be. Next he discusses the Victorian family, their religious habits as well as their culture and work. Shaping the century is the fact that it was relatively free of wars and thus gave people a chance to better themselves in peaceful times. But probably the most important factor was the arrival of the industrial age. The railroads not only created riches for some bourgeois, but enabled the speedy transport of goods, just as the telegraph cut down on the transmittal time of news. Especially the second half of the 19th century was a time of upheaval, with people trying to find their place in a rapidly changing environment. This continued long into the 20thh century before it settled down to a more comfortable pace.

Mr. Gay had previously written a five-volume explanation of the bourgeois experience in the 19th century. I must assume that his research for such a massive undertaking served as the basis of the present book. Unfortunately, too many authors recycle their leftover research. That is definitely not the case here. The writing is fresh and of new interest.

Schnitzler's Century - An unreadable collection of anecdotes.......2002-03-27

I was unable to get very far into this unorganized book.
Perhaps the author should consider plaigarism.

Schnitzler's Century The Making Of Middle-class Culture 1815 - 1914

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Schnitzler's Century The Making Of Middle-class Culture 1815 - 1914
Peter Gay
Manufacturer: Allen Lane
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0713994487

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Schnitzler's Century: The Making of Middle-class Culture 1815-1914.
Peter. GAY
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WFIZKU

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Superb Collection of Mathematical Objects

No Math, but pretty anyway

What fun!

Diverse collection

an editor please

The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles, and Stars: An Exhibition of Surprising Structures across Dimensions
Clifford A. Pickover
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books
History of Science | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Mathematics | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0691115974

Book Description

Humanity's love affair with mathematics and mysticism reached a critical juncture, legend has it, on the back of a turtle in ancient China. As Clifford Pickover briefly recounts in this enthralling book, the most comprehensive in decades on magic squares, Emperor Yu was supposedly strolling along the Yellow River one day around 2200 B.C. when he spotted the creature: its shell had a series of dots within squares. To Yu's amazement, each row of squares contained fifteen dots, as did the columns and diagonals. When he added any two cells opposite along a line through the center square, like 2 and 8, he always arrived at 10. The turtle, unwitting inspirer of the ''Yu'' square, went on to a life of courtly comfort and fame.

Pickover explains why Chinese emperors, Babylonian astrologer-priests, prehistoric cave people in France, and ancient Mayans of the Yucatan were convinced that magic squares--arrays filled with numbers or letters in certain arrangements--held the secret of the universe. Since the dawn of civilization, he writes, humans have invoked such patterns to ward off evil and bring good fortune. Yet who would have guessed that in the twenty-first century, mathematicians would be studying magic squares so immense and in so many dimensions that the objects defy ordinary human contemplation and visualization?

Readers are treated to a colorful history of magic squares and similar structures, their construction, and classification along with a remarkable variety of newly discovered objects ranging from ornate inlaid magic cubes to hypercubes. Illustrated examples occur throughout, with some patterns from the author's own experiments. The tesseracts, circles, spheres, and stars that he presents perfectly convey the age-old devotion of the math-minded to this Zenlike quest. Number lovers, puzzle aficionados, and math enthusiasts will treasure this rich and lively encyclopedia of one of the few areas of mathematics where the contributions of even nonspecialists count.

Customer Reviews:

Superb Collection of Mathematical Objects.......2006-03-24

Magic squares have fascinated us for many centuries. Even in ancient Babylonian times, people considered these squares to have magical powers. Albrecht Dürer, the painter and printmaker, used them in his artworks.

Most of the ideas in this book can be explored with just a pencil and paper! You can even discover new patterns in old magic squares that no one has ever found before. Even the famous eighteenth-century American Benjamin Franklin loved magic squares although he once considered them a waste of time.

Pickover presents interesting people and their magic squares. From Benjamin Franklin's magic squares to four-dimensional magic tesseracts, the patterns fascinate us with their elegance. The book is a treasure and has gotten some rave reviews in the press. I enjoyed the magic spheres best of all, but I think each reader will find something new and interesting as they browse. A lot of magic squares deal with the chess board. Some focus on DNA sequences! A few were made by prisioners in jail. The author has certainly searched far and wide to assemble this massive collection.

No Math, but pretty anyway.......2004-01-10

This is a book about mathematical artifacts, but it has practically no mathematical content of its own. A casual reader who wants to gaze at these beautiful objects and come away impressed but with little understanding will find this a marvellous book. However, a mathematically inclined reader is not satisfied with someone declaring that an object has such-and-such a property, he wants to know WHY.

Chapter 1 of this book gives dozens of fascinating constructions, but for most of them not a shred of proof is offered that the arrays produced are the magic squares Pickover claims. It leaves me wondering whether or not Pickover could produce such proofs himself, even for the more simple constructions in the book.

Pickover describes some interesting computer experiments at the end of the chapter but seems completely stymied as to why they work. The demonstration is a lovely, but simple, piece of matrix theory that I would expect my first or second year Linear Algebra students to be able to perform.
He shows two "brute-force" proofs for the order 3 case, one by Hendricks and "another" by Johnson (at least here is an attempt at including a proof), but annoyingly seems unaware that the second is just a minor variation on the first. I wonder if Pickover actually tried to follow these proofs himself or if he just copied them for his book.

Mathematics is not a collection of statements that the hearer must accept on "authority", it is a systematic development of theory in which every statement can be, at least in principle, demonstrated by a logical argument. The mathematics is in understanding "why", not in the acceptance of fact. Without demonstration of the claims, all that is left is the shell with no life. Beautiful, like other shells we find along the shore, but not the genuine article itself.

I am reminded somewhat of Stephen Hawking's popularizations of physics in which the reader is deeply impressed with the beauty of the subject, but comes away knowing practically no actual physics to speak of, for the author carefully seals the machinery of physics from his reader and presents only the glamorous face. In the case of Hawking, however, the author's authority is unquestionable; I'm sure he could, if pressed, demonstrate every claim in his books from first principles. I suspect that Pickover could not.

Aside from a few excusable errors of fact, the book shares a serious omission with almost every book on magic squares that I have seen, in that it does not present what is surely the most elementary construction known for magic squares of any odd order, as the sum of a circulant and a back-circulant matrix. Even Pickover would be able to prove that this construction works, since the reason it works is extremely obvious. Given the connection of this construction to the very important subject of orthogonal Latin Squares, you would think a serious writer would devote some space to it.

Aside from all of the above, the material in the book is comprehensive and fascinating, drawing on a number of sources, displaying many artifacts that have titillated dabblers for millennia. As a museum piece I'd have to give the book an "A", but as a piece of mathematics, only a "D".

What fun!.......2002-12-29

OK, there were a couple of typos -- keeps you on your toes. Lots and lots of examples of different variations on the magic square theme -- and puzzles for the reader to solve. Some of those puzzles are quite easy and some are quite difficult and have yet to be solved by anyone. You can't be a mathphobe to read this book, but you don't need to be a math whiz either. Anybody who likes the challenge of a good crossword or crossnumber puzzle should like this.

Diverse collection.......2002-09-26

A magic square is an array of numbers in which the sums of numbers in rows, columns, and diagonals are equal. A magic square uses consecutive numbers from 1 to N. Here's an example,

4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6

This book is different from all others I've seen on the subject, and I don't know any other books that present the large range of patterns that you'll find here. The book also focuses on discoveries in the last few years. As Pickover says, the book is essentially an exhibit of magnificent forms discovered through the centuries. All sorts of historical and quirky-human aspects are also described. Centuries ago, people believed that magic squares to had special, magical powers....

an editor please.......2002-09-14

This book contains print and mathematical errors. A cute book but because of the math misprints [I refuse to believe the author cannot add] a shoddy publication very uncharacteristic of Princeton

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