Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet (Dover Books on Dance) Review

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(More customer reviews)First published in 1950, this ballet reference guide has stood the test of time. Who's it for? Ballet students and teachers, choreographers, or any ballet enthusiast. Here's what the book covers:
-descriptions and definitions of over 1100 ballet steps (in alphabetical order)
-how to say the darn words (worth the price of the book alone!)
-illustrations showing you body positions for the more common ballet steps and movements
-cross-references to other names for similar steps/positions that vary from the Russian, French and Italian schools
A must have book that can easily be toted around, I doubt most readers will regret buying it. Other ballet resources I recommend include The 5-Minute Plantar Fasciitis Solution for practitioners who have trouble with their feet.

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From adagio to voyage, over 800 steps, movements, poses, and concepts are fully defined. A pronunciation guide and cross-references to alternate names for similar steps and positions that vary from the Russian to the French or Italian schools are also invaluable aids.

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Complete Krav Maga: The Ultimate Guide to Over 230 Self-Defense and Combative Techniques Review

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(More customer reviews)I was able to get a copy of this book last weekend and WOW, it's even more detailed than I thought. I have been involved in the Martial Arts for 30 years now (since I was a kid) and I must say that not only is this book easy to follow and learn from, it includes great "Tips" for training and I must say is factually and pictorially on-the-money accurate!
For a comprehensive guide, it's laid out easily for the beginner to follow through from start to finish. DON'T try to skip through to higher level techniques, the text refers to lower level stuff that you need to know before trying the harder ones...just like Krav Maga is taught on the training floor.
I have a deep understanding of Krav Maga as I've been training in it for the last 10 years, and this book lays out the techniques exactly as they should be done. The pictures are taken from great angles too and show really good progressions. Thank you Darren and John and Krav Maga Worldwide for putting this book out to help all students of Krav Maga better "Walk In Peace".


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Developed for the Israel military forces and battle tested in real-life combat, Krav Maga has gained an international reputation as an easy-to-learn yet highly effective art of self-defense. Clearly written and extensively illustrated, Complete Krav Maga details every aspect of the system including dozens of hand-to-hand combat moves, over 20 weapons defense techniques and a complete physical conditioning workout program.All the moves are described in depth from beginning Yellow Belt to advanced Black Belt, yet they are easy to learn because one of Krav Maga's strengths is its simplicity. Based on the principle that it is best to move from defense to attack as quickly as possible, Complete Krav Maga offers fast-escape maneuvers from attacks and holds. It then follows them up with specific counterattacks, including punches, kicks and throws. The authors show how anyone (big or small, man or woman) can practice self defense by using Krav Maga to protect weak spots, exploit an assailant's vulnerabilities and turn the attacker s force against him. Complete Krav Maga teaches the reader how to get in shape, gain confidence and feel safer and more secure every day.

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Gesture and Speech (October Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)It is not the brain but the human posture that has created room for increasingly complex social organizations among humans.
This provoquing classic of the 20th century intellectual life is still to be known by every inteletual today.

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André Leroi-Gourhan (1911-1986) was an anthropologist and paleontologist whose theoretical endeavors extended well beyond those realms to encompass the culture of the twentieth century and its most advanced developments. His bold and coherent revision of both analytic and archaeological methods revolutionized the study of prehistoric culture. His adoption of the structuralist method for the analysis of prehistoric art enabled a radical rethinking and clearer understanding of its nature, with resulting implications for the understanding of the art of our own times, and for a broad range of contemporary issues.Leroi-Gourhan was, for example, concerned with questions of communication, particularly the ways in which new techniques of communication reshape our understanding of language and writing. His work in this field has proved catalytic for the thinking of other major theorists, among them Jacques Derrida. Gesture and Speech combines in one volume Technics and Language and Memory and Rhythms, which are the cornerstones of Leroi-Gourhan's comprehensive theory of human behavior and cultural development.In Technics and Language, Leroi-Gourhan looks at prehistoric technology in relation to the development of cognitive and linguistic faculties, expanding on the cultural ramifications of erect posture, a short face, a free hand during locomotion, and possession of movable implements.Memory and Rhythms approaches its subject from the standpoints of sociology and aesthetics. Here Leroi-Gourhan addresses the problems of instinct and intelligence. He defines the relationship between aesthetic behavior, on the one hand, and species attitudes and the personalization of ethnic groups, on the other, and undertakes a sweeping aesthetic analysis from visceral perception to figurative art, including a discussion of the "language of forms" that makes figurative art an abstract expression of language.

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Operative Techniques in Orthopaedic Surgery (4 Volume Set) Review

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(More customer reviews)finally i have the four volume set here with me... it is an excelent text book with everything that you can imagine and the review are very extensive for each topic and techniques.

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Operative Techniques in Orthopaedic Surgery is the first major new comprehensive text and reference on surgical techniques in orthopaedics. Written by over 800 experts from leading institutions around the world, this superbly illustrated four-volume reference focuses on mastery of operative techniques and also provides a thorough understanding of how to select the best procedure, how to avoid complications, and what outcomes to expect.

The user-friendly format is ideal for quick preoperative review of the steps of a procedure. Each procedure is broken down step by step, with full-color intraoperative photographs and drawings that demonstrate how to perform each technique. The extensive use of bulleted points and tables allows for quick and easy reference.

Each clinical problem is discussed in the same format: definition, anatomy, physical exams, pathogenesis, natural history, physical findings, imaging and diagnostic studies, differential diagnosis, non-operative management, surgical management, perils and pitfalls, postoperative care, outcomes, and complications. The text is broken into the following sections: Adult Reconstruction; Foot and Ankle; Hand, Wrist, and Forearm; Oncology; Pediatrics; Pelvis and Lower Extremity Trauma; Shoulder and Elbow; Sports Medicine; and Spine. To ensure that the material fully meets residents' needs, the text was reviewed by a Residency Advisory Board.

The four-volume set comes with a companion website featuring the fully searchable contents and an image bank.

Check out an introduction to Operative Techniques in Orthopaedic Surgery [PDF] and a sample chapter [PDF] on a tibial sesamoidectomy.

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The Visible Human Project: Informatic Bodies and Posthuman Medicine Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an interesting book and was a good required read for my MA college course! But a good read for anyone interested in some history on technological advances of the human body.

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The Visible Human Project is a critical investigation of the spectacular, three-dimensional recordings of real human bodies - dissected, photographed and converted into visual data files - made by the US National Library of Medicine in Baltimore.Catherine Waldby uses new ideas from cultural studies, science studies and social studies of the computer to situate the Visible Human Project in its historical and cultural context, and to consider the meanings such an object has within a computerised culture.In this fascinating and important book, Catherine Waldby explores how advances in medical technologies have changed the way we view and study the human body, and places the VHP within the history oftechnologies such as the X-ray and CT-scan, which allow us to view the human interior.Bringing together medical conceptions of the human body with theories of visual culture from Foucault to Donna Haraway, Waldby links the VHP to a range of other biomedical projects, such as the Human Genome Project and cloning, which approach living bodies as data sources. She argues that the VHP is an example of the increasingly blurred distinction between `living' and 'dead' human bodies, as the bodies it uses are digitally preserved as a resource for living bodies, and considers how computer-based biotechnologies affect both medical and non-medical meanings of the body's life and death, its location and its limits.

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Another Reason Review

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(More customer reviews)In a relatively short text, Engle explains ideas for quantifying risks in financial modelling. He takes you rapidly beyond elementary discussions. The modelling involves extensive multivariate analysis, and estimations of the covariance matrix of these variables. The empirical performance of some modelling is described, vis a vis various national stock markets and currencies.
The GARCH model is explained and used in various chapters.
The book came out in 2009, but appears to have be written only up to late 2007. The introduction refers to the "turbulent economic world of 2007". Which was only a prelude to the crashes of 2008 and the presumed Great Recession that we are currently in. While it seems early to speak of an update to this book, that update, to include 2008-9, would be useful.


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Another Reason is a bold and innovative study of the intimate relationship between science, colonialism, and the modern nation. Gyan Prakash, one of the most influential historians of India writing today, explores in fresh and unexpected ways the complexities, contradictions, and profound importance of this relationship in the history of the subcontinent. He reveals how science served simultaneously as an instrument of empire and as a symbol of liberty, progress, and universal reason--and how, in playing these dramatically different roles, it was crucial to the emergence of the modern nation.

Prakash ranges over two hundred years of Indian history, from the early days of British rule to the dawn of the postcolonial era. He begins by taking us into colonial museums and exhibitions, where Indian arts, crafts, plants, animals, and even people were categorized, labeled, and displayed in the name of science. He shows how science gave the British the means to build railways, canals, and bridges, to transform agriculture and the treatment of disease, to reconstruct India's economy, and to transfigure India's intellectual life--all to create a stable, rationalized, and profitable colony under British domination.

But Prakash points out that science also represented freedom of thought and that for the British to use it to practice despotism was a deeply contradictory enterprise. Seizing on this contradiction, many of the colonized elite began to seek parallels and precedents for scientific thought in India's own intellectual history, creating a hybrid form of knowledge that combined western ideas with local cultural and religious understanding. Their work disrupted accepted notions of colonizer versus colonized, civilized versus savage, modern versus traditional, and created a form of modernity that was at once western and indigenous.

Throughout, Prakash draws on major and minor figures on both sides of the colonial divide, including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, the nationalist historian and novelist Romesh Chunder Dutt, Prafulla Chandra Ray (author of A History of Hindu Chemistry), Rudyard Kipling, Lord Dalhousie, and John Stuart Mill. With its deft combination of rich historical detail and vigorous new arguments and interpretations, Another Reason will recast how we understand the contradictory and colonial genealogy of the modern nation.

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Social Ecology after Bookchin Review

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(More customer reviews)The title "Social Ecology After Bookchin" suggests that the essays in this book build on the left-libertarian political philosophy that Bookchin formulated under the name social ecology starting in the 1960s, and which has since gained an international reputation. But these essays do no such thing. Most of them are written by critics of social ecology and by those who wish to remake social ecology according to their own political beliefs. Not surprisingly, in this era when the entire political spectrum has shifted to the right, those beliefs are generally more conservative than Bookchin's. For example, where Bookchin's social ecology is explicitly libertarian-communist, antistatist, secular, and social-revolutionary, some of these authors look with favor on economic enterprise, the state, mysticism/spirituality, and reformism. The creation of the book appears to have been motivated by hostility to Bookchin, yet ironically a great part of its sales will probably result from the fact that the title contains the name "Murray Bookchin."
The anthology is part of a Guilford series whose overall editor, James O'Connor, is a Marxist and hence politically antipathetic to Bookchin's left-libertarian ideas. Nor are many of the others invovled in the book social ecologists at all. To be sure, John Clark and David Watson call themselves social ecologists at present, but they are determined to "reformulate" social ecology in the mystical terms they prefer. But others do not even claim to be social ecologists. The editor, Andrew Light, is an avowed democratic socialist, while among the contributors, the "ecocentric" Robyn Eckersley is far closer to deep ecology, and Joel Kovel and (to all appearances) Alan Rudy are Marxists. Tellingly, no one who teaches, alongside Bookchin, at the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont contributed an essay to this book.
Nor do the essays, taken together, constitute a coherent critique of Bookchin's social ecology. Some, for example, criticize him for being a Marxist, while others criticism for his libertarianism. Many of the essays are greatly ad hominem, concerned at least as much with Bookchin's personal manners and habits, and with his supposed (but nonexistent) claim to "possess" social ecology, as they are with the content of his ideas. One essay, by a psychiatrist, even psychoanalyzes Bookchin, concluding that he has a "Messiah complex." This level of discussion could not be much lower.
I live with Bookchin, so I know the following story is true. In 1995-96 when Bookchin learned that this project was under way, he contacted Guilford, asking to be given the opportunity to write an essay in response to the criticisms, for inclusion at the end of the book. (This is a courtesy commonly extended to individuals who are subjects of critical anthologies while they are still alive.) Editor Andrew Light held a referendum among the contributors:Should Bookchin be permitted to respond to them? Their majority reply was no, he should not. What were they afraid of?

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For close to four decades, Murray Bookchin's eco-anarchist theory of social ecology has inspired philosophers and activists working to link environmental concerns with the desire for a free and egalitarian society. New veins of socialecology are now emerging, both extending and challengingBookchin's ideas. For this instructive book, Andrew Light has assembled leading theorists to contemplate the next steps in the development of social ecology.Topics covered include reassessing ecological ethics, combining social ecology and feminism, buildingdecentralized communities, evaluating newtechnology, relating theory to activism, and improving social ecology through interaction with other left traditions.

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Material Culture and Technology in Everyday Life (Intersections in Communications and Culture: Global Approaches and Transdisciplinary Perspectives) Review

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(More customer reviews)Edited by Phillip Vannini, contributing authors include: Trevor Pinch, Ian Woodward, Grant Kien, Patrick Laviolette, Eugene Halton, Ingrid Richardson, Amanda Third, Chris Tilly, Dylan Tutt, Tanfer Emin Tunc, and more...

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Focusing on the technoculture of everyday life, this book attempts to zero in on the simplicity and the habitual character of the interaction between humans and material objects, which is often assumed or taken for granted. Because objects are always meaningful in the pragmatic use to which they are directed, the material world of everyday life can be seen as a technoculture of its ownone made of behaviors as simple, and yet as significant, as using a lawnmower, or decorating ones body. In discussing the unique methodological components of the ethnography of the technoculture of everyday life, this book begins a dialogue on how we can examinefrom the participants perspectivethe interconnections between social agents, their technological/material practices, their material objects or technics, and their social and material environment.

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Oral Sex He'll Never Forget: 52 Positions and Techniques Guaranteed to Blow Your Man Away Review

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(More customer reviews)This book promises technique, but really it offers only slightly more than the basics that you already know (because they are obvious). Instead, it simply offers scenarios to give some variety in the where and when. It suggests different locations where you can surprise your lover with a BJ. Next time he wakes up with a woodie, give him the BJ he's dying for. Or join him in the shower and give him one. This is not technique, it is scenario.
You aren't really learning how to give unforgettable oral, although I suppose the argument could be made that any time a woman actually gives a guy a BJ in all of the 24/7 situations he would want them is pretty much a miracle that he won't forget any time soon. And yes, ladies, guys want one 24/7.
If that's all you're looking for, this book contains lots of alternative ways to enjoy offering him oral sex. But you'll learn absolutely nothing new as far as technique goes.
If you are truly looking for technique, [...] offers substantial new insight that can help in your oral sex techniques. That book focuses on the use of your hands and tongue and discusses specific areas that benefit from stimulation, to allow you to give him oral sex that he'll truly never forget. It details methods that most women do not intuitively know, including the actual techniques that turn guys on.
I'm putting a similar review on the partner book for this (we got them both, together with "Red Hot Touch"), because the same criticisms apply. Sorry Sonia, but both are books are certainly forgetful.

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Techniques that Will Take Him to Over the Edge!

Your mother probably told you that the way to your man's heart is through his stomach…actually it's a few inches lower. Getting great head is the best predictor of a man's sexual satisfaction. This ultimate oral sex guide teaches you all the tricks you need to take fellatio from ho-hum to red hot.

Oral Sex He'll Never Forget gives 50 unique fellatio experiences from start to finish. You'll learn how to combine positions, mouth moves, hand strokes, sex toys, seduction and setting to create the ultimate oral sex experience. Surprise your lover with something new and exciting


Sexy photography and detailed illustrations that show you exactly how to hit his hot spots and perform each move like a pro. With Oral Sex He'll Never Forget you'll be the mistress of his domain.

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Derrida and the Political (Thinking the Political) Review

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(More customer reviews)A truly superb book on Derrida's thought. Informative, nuanced, and wide-ranging, it shows with great care and patience the underpinnings or matrix of Derrida's thought, and does not shy from drawing the conclusions regarding the precise limits of Derrida's thought that every other book on the topic has so far been afraid to address. This book is currently the very best introduction to Derrida on the market, and will probably remain so for some time to come, with Len Lawlor's recent extensively researched book on Derrida and Husserl serving to explain Derrida's work to a more advanced audience already famiiar with Derrida's procedures and interests. The two works could easily be considered as the bookends of scholarship on Derrida, with everything else of merit falling somewhere in between. The reason this book is to my mind the best intro on the market, despite its title, is because it very smartly assumes that the reader is coming from a literature department, which is indeed where Derrida's works are usually taught. The sheer clarity that it introduces as it guides the reader through Derrida's most fundamental expositions one by one through close readings of passages and explications of difficult ideas - particularly Derrida's now-famous exposure of the aporetic nature of philosophy's traditionally most guiding and central principles from the Greeks up 'til today, makes this book an excellent intro that will lead the reader to a very informed position on Derrida's thought. Highly recommended as an accompaniment to Derrida's Of Grammatology, which is a text where many students first encounter the details of Derrida's trenchant critique of metaphysics. It also makes for an excellent sourcebook to come back to in order to clarify Derrida's reasoning in his reading of several major texts. This is a brave book that does not shy from dealing with Derrida's own extreme erudition and his complex arguments. The goal of Beardsworth's study is not to demonstrate that Derrida is correct, but to explain what he is trying to do. Its philosophical rigour and cogent explanations make it the book of choice, and once and for all put an end to Norris's notorious inability to understand where Derrida is coming from or where he is trying to go.
As a sidenote, I entirely agree with the brief remarks made by the previous reviewer. This book does indeed mark the point at which Derrida's analysis of the concept of "the political" intersects with the future, because Derrida's intense and prolonged focus on this theme (for example in his still-unpublished Paris lectures from the 1980s on the role of nationalism in philosophy) is precisely what may allow us to reinvent the notion of the political. Aside from his many interviews, articles, and even interventions - for example: his arrest in Prague for attending an underground meeting, his support for wrongfully accused death-row inmates, his praise for Nelson Mandela - among Derrida's most sustained discussions on the concept of the political are his analyses of the strange yet pervasive worldwide phenomenon of pardoning and the need to forgive which erupted several years ago and culminated with the Pope's blanket apology to "the Jews" for two millenia of abuse and intolerance, his work on forgiveness as a concept, his work on globalization and the dangers of assimilation (both financial, cultural and linguistic) faced by non-Western cultures, his book The Politics of Friendship, his crucial ideas on the political that were first set forth in Memoires-for Paul de Man, his most radical critique of, and challenge to, Heidegger's thought in his book Of Spirit, and his Levinasian thoughts on the ethical relationship to the other in The Gift of Death. The concept of "hospitality" has also guided many of Derrida's recent reflections on the political, most particularly in reference to the highly charged debates around immigration in the European Union (cf. his The Other Heading), which has seen the much-discussed recent rise of fascism in organized political parties in several countries: in Austria, Denmark, France, and now Switzerland. That Derrida is himself a political intellectual is obvious, and that he is attempting to think through the philosophical concept of "the political" is the ultimate goal of Beardsworth's book to explain. Instances of Derrida taking overt political stances on various topics, from academic institutions to human rights, are legion. Cornell once invited him to speak on the noble notion and goals of the university, and he constantly referenced his talk to Cornell's infamous campus bridge, which is the choice site for several Cornell students to commit suicide each year. These shrewd interventions, delivered through his very public role as a professor of philosophy, have scandalized both individual universities and entire countries. As an Algerian Jew transplanted to the intellectual hothouse atmosphere of Paris where he took his higher education, Derrida made a name for himself early on as an individual thinker who refused to ally himself with any popular campus political factions such as Marxism, and is still famous in France for his determined attempt to destabilize French academic language so as to better think through what it stands for and what it unknowingly promulgates, while all the while promoting his own long-term political project to introduce philosophy classes into the curriculum of secondary schools - writing thousand-page reports on its necessity, reports that are just now beginning to see appearance in English translation.

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Jacques Derrida, one of the most influential, controversial and complex thinkers of our time, has come to be at the centre of many political debates. This is the first book to consider the political implications of Derrida's deconstruction. It is a timely response both to Derrida's own recent shift towards thinking about the political, and to the political focus of contemparary Continental philosophy.Richard Beardsworth's study, Derrida and the Political, locates a way of thinking about deconstruction using the tools of political philosophy. Richard Beardsworth has provided students of philosophy, politics and critical theory with a thought-provoking, upper level introduction to Derrida'a work as a political theorist.

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Professional Sewing Techniques for Designers Review

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(More customer reviews)I will tell u - I was very skeptical about purchasing this book. The reason? Some months aback, I had bought a book which stated that it was about sewing techniques. What a dreadful mistake - the illustrations were wack and unprofessional, I could hardly follow what the author was trying to bring across. But this book, oh my gosh!!! The illustrations are in great detail... the explanations and procedures are clear and precise! A couple of reviews of this book i noticed are from students, but if you are a home seamstress/sewist like myself, u really need this book. It covers every single thing u need to know about putting a garment together. I kid u not! If you are deterred about the price, and I know in some aspect that u are, it is definitely worth it!!! Don't waste your time and money buying any other sewing technique books, this one has every thing in it. Don't find yourself buying a whole bunch different books that concentrates on only one aspect of sewing/designing. Get this book, trust me, u will not be disappointed. I love it, love it, love it!!! At last, a book that covers all sewing techniques and problems u may encounter and how to solve them. For those who bought PATTERNMAKING FOR FASHION DESIGN by Helen Joseph Armstrong, this book I think is the 2nd step. It shows you how to put your patterns together. Just buy the thing!!! It's great!!!

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Professional Sewing Techniques for Designers is a modern, colorful, and up-to-date sewing guide that teaches fashion design students the construction skills they'll need to execute their original designs in a professional environment. Each chapter covers a particular theme such as seams, collars, and zippers and reflects the order of assembly of any garment, offering many insights into techniques appropriate to varying levels of proficiency. Based on their belief that it is impossible to have good designs without having accurate patternmaking and quality construction skills, Cole and Czachor hope to increase student's sewing skills, inspire their confidence, and stimulate their creative experimentation from the beginning stages through their development as successful designers.

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The Art and Science of String Performance Review

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(More customer reviews)Samuel Applebaum's guide book for teachers and students of upper string instruments, "The Art and Science of String Performance," seems to be a largely forgotten book. I highly recommend this book as a return to basics and excellent explanations from the pen of a master string educator. Applebaum worked before the age of glamour and glitch, and this book represents the clearest and most straightforward descriptions of building both basic and refined technique. I would like to encourage the rediscovery of this valuable volume drawing upon years of seasoned experience with many talented and responsive pupils of a master pedagogue.

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In this handy reference for string teachers, Dr. Samuel Applebaum addresses the most frequently asked questions, ranging from the very basic to the most advanced. From his conversations with the greatest concert artists of our time, he covers topics such as positions, intonation, vibrato, bowings, sight reading, practicing and stage fright in a comprehensive question-and-answer format.

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Lego Crazy Action Contraptions: A LEGO Inventions Book (Klutz) Review

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(More customer reviews)Although the book says ages 9 -12, I bought it for my 6 year old and he loved it. It was recommended by a 1st grade teacher. We have worked together on building some of the contraptions and have had a lot of fun. He could easily follow the picture instructions, but needed help on the words. Much better than buying the kits and building what the picture shows. This "book" comes with pieces you usually find in the Technic sets or have to special order through the Lego catalog. Also combines Legos with things you have around the house - string, balloons, etc. - to build all sorts of things. I really like the fact that it isn't just step by step how to build something but also gives ideas on how you can put a new twist on what you have built and asks you to expand upon it.

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Build 5 contraptions right out of the pouch (all pieces included). Build 5 more with standard LEGO pieces.

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Piano Student (Level 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are a new to the piano or are getting your kids into playing the piano, this book is NOT for you. The authors start with very little definition of terms and notes and when they do are very unclear what to do with the information. Plus, the songs they give, which seem like nice songs are way too hard for any level 1 student to even come close to playing. If the piano student has a qualified teacher in music to accompany the book, it may be a good buy, otherwise it's teaching methods for self learning are far out of date.

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This book is designed to follow logically the Primer Level, and continues to present attractive pieces and etudes. It leads the student slowly, step by step, into a higher level of music study.Materials correlated with "The Piano Student" - Level" include: Lesson Practice Book, Piano Theory, Piano Technic, 30 Note Spelling Lessons, Piano Repertoire, The Church Musician, Sacred Music, Chords and Keys, Piano Duets, Jazz on 88, and others.

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Distributed Agile: DH2A - The Proven Agile Software Development Approach and Toolkit for Geographically Dispersed Teams Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the first agile book I have read which actually contains a methodology. The book starts off with an explanation of key terms, such as distributed verse collocated agile. Then the author talks about the different ways systems can be built and introduces the DH2A approach, which is the author's proven technique for developing applications using agile. There are many examples given of how to apply each technique, from appraisal, to estimating, planning, and then implementing. I work as a software developer on a project team starting a distributed agile project, and our scrum master made this book required reading for each member of the team, including even the product owner. A good read even if your team is not distributed you can still use the techniques.

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If you have ever worked on an Agile software development project, you know the importance of face-to-face communication. Having both business and IT professionals working together in the same room can become the critical success factor. Can Agile be successful though when team members are scattered across rooms, buildings, regions, or even countries?
Yes! By following the Design for Hybrid Agile Adoption (DH2A) approach, framework and set of templates and tools explained in this book, you can implement successful Agile projects. After reading this book, you will master these ten objectives:
Assess your project's capability in adopting the DH2A Methodology
Know how to apply the tools to determine whether your project will achieve the benefits promised by the DH2A Methodology
Learn how DH2A Methodology solves the traditional problem of Agile to estimate in a fixed price model
Calculate the ratio of resources divided between different distributed locations
Leverage DH2A Tools to adopt the different Engineering Practices in a distributed environment
Apply collaborations techniques to make distributed Agile successful
Use metrics to measure success of your distributed Agile projects
Know which types of meetings are needed to make Agile successful in a distributed environment
Assign the roles to make distributed Agile successful and to avoid redundant roles currently existing in today's Agile methodologies
Rollout the DH2A Methodology across your entire organization

Distributed Agile contains three sections. Section I provides the basics of distributed Agile and DH2A, compares collocated with distributed Agile, and shares the rewards of following a distributed Agile approach. Section II dives into the DH2A methodology, with entire chapters dedicated to the Appraisal Segment, Estimation Segment, Planning Segment, and Implementation Segment. In addition there is a chapter in Section II on the roles required to make DH2A a success. Section III focuses on the DH2A framework, with an emphasis on Project Management Office and Governance. Actual case studies are used to illustrate the many useful tools within this text.

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Viroid Life: Perspectives on Nietzsche and the Transhuman Condition Review

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(More customer reviews)The first sentence of the introduction reads,"..I question,problematize,overturn,revalue,announce,renounce,advocate,interrogate,affirm,deny,celebrate,critique,the 'tranhuman condition'..". Yes,however I was confused by Mr.Pearson writing style and couldn't always tell when the overturning ends and the celebrating begins,etc. Perhaps it's just me though. I'm no trained philosopher and the books depth may be a bit too scholarly. But struggling through, I was frequently rewarded with sentences that gave me new insights into Nietzschean thought. And it's for those insights that I recommend this book. Hey, for just $5.00, you can't lose.

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Nietzsche's vision of the 'overman' continues to haunt the postmodern imagination. His call that 'man is something that must be overcome' can no longer be seen as simple rhetoric. Our experiences of the hybrid realities of artificial life have made the 'transhuman' a figure that looks over us all. Inspired by this vision, Keith Ansell Pearson sets out to examine if evolution is 'out of control' and machines are taking over.In a series of six fascinating perspectives, he links Nietzsche's thought with the issues at stake in contemporary conceptions of evolution from the biological to the technological. Viroid Life; Perspectives on Nietzsche and the Transhuman Condition considers the hybrid, 'inhuman' character of our future with the aid of Nietzsche's philosophy. Keith Ansell Pearson contrasts Nietzsche and Darwin before introducing the more recent figures such as Giles Deleuze and Guy Debord to sketch a new thinking of technics and machines and stress the ambiguous character of our 'machine enslavement'.

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The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book: A Beginner's Guide to Building and Programming Robots Review

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(More customer reviews)I (a hardware/software developer and radio ham for some 30 years) bought LEGO Mindstorms for my now eight-year-old son last Christmas. Being a LEGO nut since he was old enough not to swallow the pieces, he's had great fun with Mindstorms since then.
But after you've built the models detailed in the Mindstorms kit, where do you go next? The Mindstorms online help is pretty good, but tiresome to read on the screen, and not the best medium for a youngster. The Alpha Rex etc. are impressive but it's hard for a child to try to make his own models of a similar complexity on the basis of the models in the Mindstorms kit. There is a huge gap between copying ready-made models and learning to create real robots from scratch, and Laurens Valk's book fills that gap perfectly.
As "the missing manual", this book thoroughly explains the NXT hardware and NXT-G software, in enough technical detail to satisfy a seasoned programmer like me, but without overloading someone who is completely new to the technology. That is no mean feat!
The building instructions are of a similar quality to those provided in the all-too-slim Mindstorms manual, and my son was able to follow them and the programming instructions with only minimal guidance from me (usually because we hadn't yet read the accompanying text! :-)
Now, there are several ways to approach this book. To get started quickly, you or your child genius can simply follow the detailed building and programming instructions to create any of the eight robots detailed in the book. My son had almost no trouble doing this: in fact, he first went after the more complex models like the Strider featured on the cover, followed by the very impressive Chimney Climber. If, like us, you're new to the LEGO Technic and Mindstorms systems, you'll be surprised how they can be made to do such remarkable things.
The program instructions feature a simplified overview - essentially a flow diagram - that lets you follow the basic structure of the program and learn about loops, "if-then-else" blocks, etc. Your young robotics engineer can learn about the how-and-why of the programs, and gradually improvise to deepen his/her understanding of what the NXT controller is "thinking", and then devise clever ways to change it.
Then there are the challenges, or "discoveries" to use Laurens' word: 87 of them in all. Once we have settled down to reading the book together start-to-finish (give us a chance, we've only had this book for a week!), the discoveries will provide many new paths to explore and consolidate our understanding of robotic systems.
I would have expected to pay three times what Amazon is charging for this book, based on similar books aimed at software developers. At under $20, it is excellent value for money and an essential "NXT" step on any robot designer's path of discovery. Buy it!

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Discover the many features of the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 set. The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book is the complete,illustrated, beginner's guide to MINDSTORMS that you've been lookingfor.The crystal clear instructions in the Discovery Book will showyou how to harness the capabilities of the NXT 2.0 set to build andprogram your own robots. Author and robotics instructor Laurens Valkwalks you through the set, showing you how to use its various pieces,and how to use the NXT software to program robots. Interactive tutorials make it easy for you to reach an advanced level of programming as youlearn to build robots that move, monitor sensors, and use advancedprogramming techniques like data wires and variables. You'll build eight increasingly sophisticated robots like the Strider (a six-leggedwalking creature), the CCC (a climbing vehicle), the Hybrid Brick Sorter (a robot that sorts by color and size), and the Snatcher (an autonomous robotic arm). Numerous building and programming challenges throughoutencourage you to think creatively and to apply what you've learned asyou develop the skills essential to creating your own robots.Requirements: One LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 set (#8547)Features
A complete introduction to LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0
Building and programming instructions for eight innovative robots
50 sample programs and 72 programming challenges (ranging from easyto hard) encourage you to explore newly learned programming techniques
15 building challenges expand on the robot designs and help youdevelop ideas for new robots
Who is this book for?This is a perfect introduction for those new to building and programming with the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 set. The book also includes intriguing robot designs and useful programming tips for more seasoned MINDSTORMSbuilders.-

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