Wild Foods of the Sonoran Desert

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Extract from ýBooks on Bosniaý, London 1999.......2000-03-13

A sardonic mock-Michelin Guide to a city under siege, containing an extraordinary mixture of useful information, chilling factual statement, ironic observation and almost unbearable black humour

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A Good Book--But No Longer Pertinent.

2068

Very convincing

why this stock market book should crash

Worth the effort, but still...

Why Stock Markets Crash: Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems
Didier Sornette
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The (Mis) Behavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin And Reward

Patterns of Speculation: A Study in Observational Econophysics

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences: Chaos, Fractals, Selforganization and Disorder: Concepts and Tools (Springer Series in Synergetics)

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

ASIN: 0691118507

Book Description

The scientific study of complex systems has transformed a wide range of disciplines in recent years, enabling researchers in both the natural and social sciences to model and predict phenomena as diverse as earthquakes, global warming, demographic patterns, financial crises, and the failure of materials. In this book, Didier Sornette boldly applies his varied experience in these areas to propose a simple, powerful, and general theory of how, why, and when stock markets crash.

Most attempts to explain market failures seek to pinpoint triggering mechanisms that occur hours, days, or weeks before the collapse. Sornette proposes a radically different view: the underlying cause can be sought months and even years before the abrupt, catastrophic event in the build-up of cooperative speculation, which often translates into an accelerating rise of the market price, otherwise known as a "bubble." Anchoring his sophisticated, step-by-step analysis in leading-edge physical and statistical modeling techniques, he unearths remarkable insights and some predictions--among them, that the "end of the growth era" will occur around 2050.

Sornette probes major historical precedents, from the decades-long "tulip mania" in the Netherlands that wilted suddenly in 1637 to the South Sea Bubble that ended with the first huge market crash in England in 1720, to the Great Crash of October 1929 and Black Monday in 1987, to cite just a few. He concludes that most explanations other than cooperative self-organization fail to account for the subtle bubbles by which the markets lay the groundwork for catastrophe.

Any investor or investment professional who seeks a genuine understanding of looming financial disasters should read this book. Physicists, geologists, biologists, economists, and others will welcome Why Stock Markets Crash as a highly original "scientific tale," as Sornette aptly puts it, of the exciting and sometimes fearsome--but no longer quite so unfathomable--world of stock markets.

Customer Reviews:

A Good Book--But No Longer Pertinent........2007-10-07

I could not enjoy this wonderful book with the knowledge that the unprincipled 41st and 43rd Presidents of the United States have negated all the time-tested principles of good investment strategies. The oil-rich Arab nations will soon officially join Israel and North Korea who demanded that aid (free money) be paid in Euros. The harsh freezing winds of ignoring the laws of God and man are on their way. These winds are going to rip through America's financial institutions like George H.W. Bush and the CIA ripped through the S & Ls. Like Bush's friend, Ken Lay, ripped out the hearts of hard working Americans with his Enron scheme. Before you invest ten cents of your savings in the stock market you had better take a 110 minute crash course in financial survival. If these people didn't care about the state of California, what makes you think they'll care about you? Go now, this very second, and rent the documentary, "The Smartest Guys in the Room". I'm, Bob Miller, the creator of the FreeStockSystem.

2068.......2007-07-17

1 Lorenz Weather equations: The vertical axis is time, which goes from 0 to 5 in this plot. For each time, the third dimension in perspective show the probability distribution of the wind velocity v: the maximum of the initial bell-shape distribution corresponds to the best initial guess of what is the present state of the system. The width of the bell-shape curve quantifies the initial uncertainty of our observations: we perform an initial measurement of the wind velocity and we know that any measure has some uncertainty, here quantified by the probability that the true initial condition deviates from the best estimate corresponding to the peak. As the peak decreases in amplitude and widens this suggests increasing uncertainty in the value v.

2. "Regions of decreasing uncertainty may exist in chaotic dynamics." Increasing the forecast horizon does not always lead to a degradation of the prediction, in contrast to standard views on chaotic dynamics.

3. English mathematician F.P Ramsey proved that compete disorder is impossible. Every large set of numbers, such as an ensemble of financial price series or points or objects, necessarily contains highly regular patterns. The relevant question is then, to figure out how many stars, numbers, or figures are required to guarantee a certain desired pattern. How probable is it to find a certain pattern in a given set? 50 of the 400 week intervals since 1910-1996 were chosen at random. The terms of the fit parameters correspond with three crashes in 1929, 1962, and 1987. "The probability that the log-periodic component results from chance is about or less than one in twenty."

4. A crash is not the critical or singular point itself, but its triggering rate is strongly influenced by the proximity of the critical point: the closer to the critical time, the more probable is the crash.

5. The Law of One price, states that two assets should sell for the same price. If the price differs in two markets, a profitable opportunity arises to sell the asset where it is overpriced and buy where it is under-priced. "Clearly, a noise-free stock market with all information available occupied by fully rational traders of infinite analysis abilities would have a very small trade volume, if any." A significant number of traders exhibit rational behavior. Information is incomplete and stock traders have limited abilities with respect to analyzing the available information. The market becomes rational if there are many heterogonous agents working on limited information. Perfectly rational investing won out, not because it was perfect, but because it was useful. "The machinery behind market rationality is that each investor, using the market to serve his or her own self-interest, unwittingly makes prices reflect the investor's information and analysis." The irrationalities should be studied concerning how they aggregate in the complex, long-lasting, repetitive, and subtle environment of the market.

6. What makes a share in a company valuable? It is earnings, which provide dividends and its potential appreciation, which gives rise to capital gains. Goldstone modes are the zero-energy infinite-wavelength mode fluctuations that attempt to restore broken symmetry. Value today is equal to its expected value tomorrow discounted by the discount factor. In the bubble component, there is not dividend! The bubble is playing the role of the Goldstone mode. "The bubble price can wander up or down and, in limit where it becomes very large in absolute value, dominate over the fundamental price, restoring the independence of the price with respect to dividend." Goldstone modes appear spontaneous since it has no energy cost, the rational bubble can be spontaneous without any dividend. There is a competition between the increasing growth of the company and the decreasing impact of dividends further in the future due to the effect of the discount factor. The increasing growth of dividends tends to raise price. Dividends are reduced to a risk-adjusted growth rate. When the risk adjusted growth rate becomes equal or larger than the discount rate, the fundamental valuation formula becomes meaningless. The price is the sum of all future presently adjusted dividends. Speculative phases are often stopped by successive increase of the discount rate. 1929 (3.25% to 6%), 1990 in Japan ( 2.55 to 6%)

7. The Crash Hazard rate quantifies the probability that a large group of agents place sell orders simultaneously and create enough of an imbalance in the order book for market makers to be unable to absorb the other side without lowering prices substantially. Cooperative behavior results from imitation. "Our working hypothesis is that agents tend to imitate the opinions of their connections." "A crash occurs when order wins. In stable markets buyers and sellers balance out each other, normal times are when disorder wins. When the imitation strength K gets close to a special critical value Kc, a very large group of investors share the same opinion, a may act in a coordinated way, an abrupt drop in price, infinite slope K/Kc, a crash occurs. "New demographic, technological, or economic developments prompt spontaneous innovation in financial markets and the first wave of investors and innovators become wealthy. Then imitators arrive and overdo the new techniques. In the ensuing crises, latecomers lose big before regulators and academics put out fires."

8. Log-periodic equation: Flp(t)=A2 +B2(tc-t)^m2*[C*Cos(w*log(tc-t)/T))]. Decimal year 365 days=1.00 year, Oct 19, 1987 = 87.800 or 1 day=.00274

9. Oct 19, 1987: A2=412, B2=-165, tc=87.74, C=12, w=7.4, T=2, m2=.33 Oct 1929: A2=61 B2=-0.56 Tc=29.84 C=0.08 W=5 T=3 M2=0.63

10. For a few weeks after the crash, a exponentially decaying sinusoidal function emerged. For a few weeks after the crash, a single dissipative harmonic oscillator, with a characteristic decay time of about one week equal to he period of the oscillations.

11. "The concept that emerges here is that the organization of traders in financial markets leads intrinsically to systemic instabilities, which probably result in a very robust way from the fundamental nature of human beings." "The global behavior of the market, with its log-periodic structures that emerge as a result of the cooperative behavior of traders, is reminiscent of the process of the emergence of intelligent behavior at a macroscopic scale that individuals at the microscopic scale cannot perceive."

12. It is estimated that the 25 companies that make up one-third of S&P500 index of market capitalization earn roughly half of their income from non-US sources. Oct 1987, to carry the bull-run, the market need to sustain corporate earnings, if not the cycle of rising prices would wither, concern over earnings may have been the straw that broke the camels back.

13. Bubble pathology: a. The bubble starts smoothly with some increasing production and sales or demand for some commodity in an otherwise relatively optimistic market. B. The attraction in investments with good potential gains leads to increasing investment with leverage coming from international investors. Price appreciation occurs. C. This in turn attracts less sophisticated investors, leveraging is further developed which leads to the demand for stock rising faster than the rate at which real money is put into the market. (earnings) D. At this stage, the behavior of the market becomes weakly coupled or practically uncoupled from real wealth. E. As price skyrockets, the number of speculative investors decreases and a period of nervousness starts until a point when the instability is revealed and the market collapses.

14.Pollution: Life expectancy, which the best overall index of the pollution level, has improved markedly as the world population has grown. Food: There is compelling reason to believe that human nutrition will continue to improve into the infinite future. Land: The amount of agricultural land has increased substantially, and is likely to continue to increase where needed. Natural Resources: Natural resources will progressively become less costly, hence less scarce, and will constitute a small proportion of our expense in the future. Energy: The long-term impact of more people is likely to speed the development of cheap energy supplies that are almost inexhaustible. Standard of Living: per capita income is likely to be higher with a growing population than with a stationary one. Human fertility: the contention that poor breed without constraint is wrong. Population growth: Even though the population for the world is increasing, the density of population on most of the world's surface will decrease.

15. Parabolic Trend to get the (a,b,c coefficients of the Log peridocity function)
a. Create a Price Y column and input a range of prices then sum the prices into a variable called SumY
b. Create a time interval called X representing a numeric value. For example (1..n) and sum these values with the label SumX
c. Count the number of price values and store in a variable called n
d. Xmean=X/n
e. Create a column labeled x where x=X-Xmean values
f. Create a column labeled x^2 where x^2=x*x and sum values into a variable SumX^2
g. Create a column labeled x^4 where x^4=x*x*x*x and sum values into a variable SumX^4
h. Create a column labeled x times Y=x*Y and sum values into a variable Sumx_times_SumY
i. Create a column labeled x^2_times_Y=x*x*Y and sum into a variable Sum_x^2_times_Y
j. Solve for coefficients a,b,c where
Equation 1: SumY=a*n+c*Sumx^2
And
Equation 2: Sumx^2*SumY=a*Sumx^2+c*Sumx^4
And
Equation 3: b=Sumx_times_Y/Sumx^2
k. Solve for c using substitution of values into Equation 1 and Equation 2. Here's how. Multiple equation 1 by sumx^2-1, canceling the a coefficient and solving the c coefficient value.
l. Substitute the c coefficient value into equation 1 and solve for the a coefficient value
m. Substitute values for Sumx_timesY and Sumx^2 into Equation 3 and solve for the b coeffient.
n. Plot the curve using the Y and x columns and a new column called Yprime where Yprime=a+b*x+c*x^2

Very convincing.......2007-07-07

Buy low and sell high: In trading stocks this cliché is obvious, but its ramifications can be extremely painful for all those involved, as well as many who are not, especially when a large collection of traders act in concert and engage in massive sell-offs. Financial bubbles, stock market crashes, and out-of-control speculation have been the subject of countless books and research papers and dozens of Hollywood movies, and mathematicians, economists, systems analysts, and financial engineers have spent thousands of hours of time attempting to understand and predict financial meltdowns, all with varying degrees of success. Some of these researchers have argued that it is the large-scale, collective properties of the financial markets that must be understood if stock market crashes are to be predicted or at least anticipated quantitatively.

The author of this book, a geophysicist by training, is one of these and has taken the "buy low-sell high" strategy and some straightforward mathematical constructions to give an interesting and plausible explanation of why stock markets crash. Intuitively, traders synchronously try to buy low and sell high, and a "herding effect" results in a rapid sell-off that results in a market crash. This behavior is analogous to what one observes in physical systems that are close to a `critical point', where they can undergo `phase transitions' and their behavior as they near the critical point has been shown to be "universal" in the sense that quantities called `scaling exponents' can be calculated explicitly and measure the "universality" of the systems near the critical point.

Naturally the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987 are ones that that will stand out in every reader's mind and ones that must be test examples for the author's assertions. He discusses these two examples and many others in enough detail that a convincing case is made. The techniques he uses however are out of the mainstream of econometrics, and no doubt some in this mainstream will there be highly skeptical of his conclusions. The physicist-turned-financial engineer however will be delighted, as there will be many familiar concepts and constructions throughout the book. There may be a few new ones to such a reader however, such as `algorithmic complexity' and `computationally irreducible'. The clarity of the author's writing and the many real-world examples that he employs makes the assimilation of these concepts and others much more palatable than would be the case in a standard mathematical monograph on the subject. In addition, the techniques he uses can be applied to areas of finance that are not discussed in the book, such as the mortgage "antibubble" in net credit losses for second-lien (HELOC) loans that began in the second quarter of 2006. And with respect to applications, the author is honest enough to note that he refrains from discussing many of them in detail since his involvement in them is strictly proprietary. Most refreshingly, charts, graphs, and tables appear throughout the book, as would be necessary in the validation of any algorithm or predictor in financial theory.

There are also many interesting "toy models" in the book that enhance the didactic quality. One of these concerns the dependences that can occur in successive price variations. The author constructs a model where there is zero correlation but where one can predict the current price variation with an accuracy of over 50% by only knowing the variations in the past two days. This example serves as a good counter to the idea that the frequency distribution and two-point correlation function must always be non-zero in order to obtain successful prediction. The author goes on to use this example to show how "drawdowns", rather than the correlation structure, play the predominant role in measuring price changes. This example, among others, also illustrates the author's belief that the "standard" models in the financial industry have great difficulty in dealing with large financial crashes.

Although the author uses somewhat elementary mathematics in the book, its implications are profound. One will find for example discussions of log-periodic oscillations in hierarchical systems, the renormalization group, and complex fractal dimension. Central to the author's case is the concept of discrete scale invariance, which is a specialization of the continuous case, and which is manifested in real data by log-periodic oscillations. These should be viewed as corrections to simple power law scaling. The author discusses a few natural systems that exhibit log-periodicity, such as bats and dolphins, and in evolutionary biology. He also discusses other examples in mathematics such as the Newcomb-Benford law. Pre-crash stock market data is fitted to expressions that have log-periodic corrections to a pure power law and the validity of the fits discussed in great detail. The author's arguments are powerful and convincing, and the formalism that he outlines needs to be part of every financial analyst's toolbox.

why this stock market book should crash.......2006-11-09

After reading the book, I still didn't know why stock markets crash other than it's a greater than 3-sigma event. However, one doesn't need this book to find that out. Just a quick glance at any major stock market indices for the last 100 years indicates that crashes occur only rarely. But more to the point, how does one use any of the data presented by the author to develop a safer strategy for investing in the market? The author never once definitively enumerated the specific "a priori" signs, indications, or patterns indicative of an impending crash.

While the author presents diverse data and arguments as to why stock markets have crashed in the past, she never assembles them into an integrated and cohesive postulate as to why they really do. Nor does she take the data and extract information for predicting future trends. This book was written too early in the developmental cycle of any unified theory purporting to quantify any stock market behavior. Once I finished the book, I had this nagging feeling that this book was a "publish or perish" driven event.

If you must spend money on stock market investing, buy a simple and inexpensive book on stock charting or candlesticks or visit a John Murphy internet website. You'll have a better probability of determining a downtrend following a double top or a head and shoulder formation than you will predicting an imminent stock market crash based on any of the disintegrated data discussed in her book. And when all is said and done, who cares about why stock markets crashed? What any reasonable investor wants to know is what the market is going to do tomorrow, next month, next year, and between now and the time one retires. And that trend has always been positive in spite of the rare three-sigma events to the downside.

Worth the effort, but still..........2005-12-21

This is a very interesting book, with some intriguing propositions about the nature of stock market bubbles and crashes, but saying this there also seem to be some fundamental problems with the positions being taken. Perhaps the largest reservation I have with the arguments in this book is that they presume that financial markets are governed by the same kind of invariances as physical phenomena, which is the only way it seems to me that these arguments can be expected to hold. These assumed 'invariances' take the form of "fundamental prices," "efficient markets," and "rational expectations," the proofs for which are by no means established in anything close to the same degree as the Galilean local invariances to which they are being compared. I also found it difficult to determine whether the author does or does not advocate equilibrium theories of markets, which again are highly dubious assumptions in regards to actual markets (especially General Equilibrium assumptions, which have been definitively refuted at least as far back as 1968, with Roy Radner's "Competitive Equilibrium Under Uncertainty"). However, saying all this, the author does present an intriguing analysis of crashes being quantitatively different from the regular activity of stock markets, and he does provide some plausible techniques for perhaps discovering when these differences are present.
Still, for this treatment, as for most treatments purporting to be able to statistically identify trends in as nonstationary an environment as the stock market, the feeling I keep returning to is the same one articulated by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eugene Wigner in his seminal paper "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences" in which the question is asked "How do we know that, if we made a theory which focuses its attention on phenomena we disregard and disregards some of the phenomena now commanding our attention, that we could not build another theory which has little in common with the present one but which, nevertheless, explains just as many phenomena as the present theory?" (and this question was being asked in the context of the natural sciences, which as mentioned before are actually subject to local invariances, which are themselves not above suspicion...).
For a more realistic and grounded treatment of physics and finance, I would definitely recommend Dynamics of Markets by Joseph L. McCauley (who is coincidentally another reviewer of Sornette's book), as well as the writings of Giovanni Dosi, who is unique among economists for his emphasis on empirical support and verification of his theories and models. In addition, I would suggest that anyone interested in this book should also read "Comment on recent claims by Sornette and Zhou," which is a disclaimer by Anders Johansen, who was a recent collaborator with Sornette.

WHY STOCK MARKETS CRASH: CRITICAL EVENTS IN COMPLEX FINANCIAL SYSTEMS.

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WHY STOCK MARKETS CRASH: CRITICAL EVENTS IN COMPLEX FINANCIAL SYSTEMS.
Didier. Sornette
Manufacturer: Publisher Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WAOPOU

Why Stock Markets Crash: Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems.(Book Review) : An article from: Journal of Risk and Insurance

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Why Stock Markets Crash: Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems.(Book Review) : An article from: Journal of Risk and Insurance
Rick Gorvett
Manufacturer: American Risk and Insurance Association, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000ALOJUG
Release Date: 2005-07-25

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Risk and Insurance, published by American Risk and Insurance Association, Inc. on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 829 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: Why Stock Markets Crash: Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems.(Book Review)
Author: Rick Gorvett
Publication: Journal of Risk and Insurance (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: American Risk and Insurance Association, Inc.
Volume: 72 Issue: 1 Page: 190(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Mergers And Efficiency: Changes Across Time focuses on one aspect of the corporate finance revolution that restructured Corporate America and led to the longest expansion in U.S. history - changes in rates of merger efficiency. Demystifying this most controversial and dynamic period of U.S. economic history is key to understanding the business, financial and economic innovations that defined the last two decades of the 20th century. In addition, it is important to create a careful empirical understanding of the conditions under which merger activity increased or decreased firm efficiency, industrial productivity, and overall improvements in aggregate output and economic performance.

The first chapter examines the aggregate data set by modeling the determinants of the risk of takeover. Next, the author takes a closer look at possible heterogeneity among targets in takeovers. The second chapter analyzes the categories previously discussed in the literature, such as target resistance and management dismissals. Finally, the author examines what, if any, efficiency improvements were realized after the takeover. The third and final chapter examines the ex post performance of combined firms using fixed effects panel data models. These models have the advantage over the univariate methodologies or regressions used in earlier studies of being able to control for the prior performance of the firm.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Information.......2004-10-06

This book attracted a lot of attention from the Federal Trade
Commission, who regulates mergers in the U.S. In fact, they organized a Research Roundtable around the book in December 2002 (see http://www.ftc.gov/be/rt/mergerroundtable.htm for the transcripts). Although the math is strenuous, there is plenty of explanatory material here to make this interesting to students and practitioners of mergers.

Customer Reviews:

NO STARS!! But that wasn't an option, unfortunately.......2005-11-01

This is ALMOST worth the price as a novelty gift for your literate friends.
The spelling and syntax are APALLING and there is no substance whatsoever to the text. Don't waste your money unless you are REALLY curious about seeing the worst job of publishing ever! Beyond disappointing.

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Bundles of Fun

Wonderful fat quarter resource

Bundles of Fun
Karen Snyder
Manufacturer: Krause Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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Book Description

-Appeals to both fans of fat-quarter cuts of fabric and young quilters just getting into the hobby

-Fat-quarter bundles are widely available and inexpensive

-Promotes the use of small quilts -- which requires less time to create

This book is ideal for quilters who love to use fat-quarter bundles. Bundles of Fun shows quilters which fabrics to use, how to make smaller quilts and then make those same small quilts larger by adding sashing and borders.

In this trendy new guide, quilters will:

-Use a wide variety of fabrics to create stunning quilts to give as gifts or display in their home

-Find variations for the 12 coordinating fabrics featured, making color selection easier

-Develop an even greater passion for fat-quarter bundles

This book is the answer for every quilter who can't resist a fat- quarter bundle and a comfy quilt.

Customer Reviews:

Bundles of Fun.......2007-08-23

This is an outstanding book. Easy enough for a beginner or fun enough for an intermediate or advanced sewer. This will be one of the books that I use lots and lots.

Wonderful fat quarter resource.......2007-03-30

This book had great patterns for fat quarters. I will use this for a reference everytime I want to do a project with fats.

Bundles of Faith and Tons of Fun: Easy Activities, Prayers, and Projects for Children

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Bundles of Faith and Tons of Fun: Easy Activities, Prayers, and Projects for Children
Patricia L. Mathson
Manufacturer: Ave Maria Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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Fun Down By the Bay/ Shappy's Surprise/ Playtime with Otto 3 Mini Pop-up Books Bundle Pack

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Fun Down By the Bay/ Shappy's Surprise/ Playtime with Otto 3 Mini Pop-up Books Bundle Pack

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Hsu-Flander Children's Balloon Fun Two-Book Bundle

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Hsu-Flander Children's Balloon Fun Two-Book Bundle
Aaron Hsu-Flanders
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0071416951

Book Description

EASY STEP-BY-STEP DIRECTIONS FOR CREATING FESTIVE BALLOON ANIMALS—INCLUDING BALLOONS AND PUMP!

Balloon creations have a magic all their own. Every child—or adult who cares to admit it—is instantly captivated by the fantastic balloon "sculptures" that seem, with a few twists of the wrist, to appear out of nowhere. But what you may not realize is that anyone, including yourself, can become a skilled creator of balloon hats and animals with just a few minutes of training!

The CHILDREN'S BALLOON FUN TWO-BOOK BUNDLE makes it easy to fashion dozens of whimsical balloon creations. From Stetsons to swans, "Balloon Animals" and "Balloon Hats & Accessories" take the mystery out of the process, and show you how to become the star of any gathering for any occasion. Each fun-filled package contains:

* Easy-to-follow instruction book
* Pocket-sized balloon pump
* 20 top-quality balloons

CHILDREN'S BALLOON FUN TWO-BOOK BUNDLE:
Balloon Animals
Balloon Hats & Accessories

Book Description

Mommy's Little Helper Having fun in the kitchen with children is easier than ever with these two cookbooks with tasty recipes the whole family can love. From delicious cookies of every flavor to a wider variety of snacks, main dishes, and desserts, this bundle makes it fun to cook with children while at the same time instilling safe habits in the kitchen. This limited-time offer includes the titles Big Soft Chewy Cookies and Someone's in the Kitchen with Mommy.

Book Description

The Shakers are noted among gardeners and farmers as the first commercial producers of species seeds. Today they are best remembered and respected for their holistic approach to tending the earth responsibly and reaping God's bounty. This unusual book presents modern advice on gardening, food preservation, and cooking, all based on Shaker doctrine and values. It also includes a "book-within-a-book"-an exact facsimile of the original Shaker Gardener's Manual, published in 1843 and retailed throughout the United States at that time for six cents. The Shaker Book of the Garden takes its enclosed 1843 edition of The Gardener's Manual as its inspiration, and reinterprets its text for today's environment-conscious gardener. It is enhanced with attractive full-color naïve art, and covers topics that include:

* Tools * Nurture Your Dirt * Sowing & Planting

* Pest Control * Harvesting * Preserving & Pickling . . . and others.

Here is a wonderful gift book for friends who are gardeners, as well as a fine book of advice on gardening that deserves a place in every home library. 70 charming color illustrations.

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The Shaker Herb and Garden Book
Rita Buchanan
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Herbs | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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Accessories:

Garden Weasel Gold Garden Claw Cultivator #91306

ASIN: 0395733251

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Wisdom from a Shaker Garden (Penguin Studio Books)
Kathleen Mahoney
Manufacturer: Studio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Culture | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Accessories:

Corona Clipper 3/4-Inch Ratchet Action Pruner #RP 3230

ASIN: 0670873659

Book Description

The many readers who loved Kathleen Mahoney's Simple Wisdom will be enchanted by this charming exploration of Shaker gardening traditions. The Shakers' most successful businesses were the growing and selling of vegetable seeds and medicinal herbs. Now Wisdom from a Shaker Garden invites us to share the secrets of Shaker gardens and pantries. Gardening tips, heirloom recipes, and herbal remedies interweave with inspirational poems, sayings, and songs that reflect on nature, the harvest, and the value of hard work and simple living. Evocative photographs of restored Shaker vegetable and herb gardens and well-worn tools intermingle with colorful seed-packet labels, garden maps, and other original Shaker artwork. This simple, genuine, and affordable treasure will charm gardeners, herbal-remedy enthusiasts, and the unwavering numbers who love all things Shaker.

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Shaker Herb and Garden Book
Rita Buchanan
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBQJ8E

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The Shaker Herb and Garden Book
Rita Buchanan
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ON7H4K

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Important to my childhood

Fond memories flooding back

An amazing book

worked on me!

Wonderful!

Why Was I Adopted?
Carole Livingston
Manufacturer: Lyle Stuart
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Nonfiction | Adoption | Family Life | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0818405880

Customer Reviews:

Important to my childhood.......2007-07-20

As an adoptee, I remember reading and re-reading this book many times with my parents. This book was always on my bookshelf and did much to help me understand adoption, babies, family and most importantly the love my parents have for me. Like a reviewer before me, my original copy has been lost, lent with love to another family who had adopted a child. Now I can't wait to pass this on to another family, my friends who have recently adopted their own child. I know reading this book together will help strengthen their bond as she grows.

Fond memories flooding back.......2006-08-12

An earlier review criticized this book's readability and appropriateness for children. As a child who owned it, I do not believe that is an accurate assesment.

As a 25 year old adoptee, I have tremendously strong and positive memories of this book. Like other reviewers here, I can't remember the first time I read it... it was always a part of my reading life as a child.

I adored this book back then. I must have read it quite literally hundreds of times; enough so that at one point my mom had to sew the spine back on.

Once, I brought it to school for show and tell. I used it to show the other kids that I was pretty special, because there were books written about me! It just made me feel that my history as an adoptee was valuable.

I recommend this book to any families with adopted children, absolutely. Of course, open discussion about adoption should first and foremost come from the parents themselves... but as long as that is accomplished, I really believe that many adopted children will cherish this book as much as I did.

An amazing book .......2006-05-06

I'm 23, my younger sister is 20. We are both adopted from seperate birthparents.
I don't remember not knowing I was adopted. I remember reading this book a lot though. My cousin and I would read it out loud to each other and laugh at the pictures. When my sister was old enough, two or three I think, I started reading it to her. This book is something that will always be a good memory. It helped me understand who I was and what it meant to be adopted.

worked on me!.......2005-06-29

I'm a 23 year old adoptee and this is the book my mom and dad used to tell me when I was little. I still share the book with others and recommend it to parents of other adopted children. It took them reading it to me a few times before I finally got it, but that's because they started young and wanted me to always know. Because I was told at such a young age and because it was treated as nothing to ever be embarrassed about I grew up thinking it was cool and something that made me special. I recommend this book and this approach to any and all adopting families! The illustrations will make you laugh out loud (ex. a baby coming out of a gumball machine)! This book is WONDERFUL!

Wonderful!.......2004-02-05

I'm almost 23 years old and since I can remember my parents have been reading this book to me. Every year on my adoption day they'd pull the book out and read it to me and then answer any questions about my adoption I had. It wreally helps for those times that you just don't know what to say. I would recommend it to anyone!

My Parents Don't Know I'm Adopted/Why Grow Up (Graphic, 5)

Average customer rating:

My Parents Don't Know I'm Adopted/Why Grow Up (Graphic, 5)

Manufacturer: BIS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000G397GY

Product Description

My Parents don't Know I'm Adopted/Why Grow Up? Contemporary graphic culture magazine

Average customer rating:

Why Was I adopted?
Carole Livingston
Manufacturer: Angus & Robertson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEAB06

Average customer rating:

Why I adopted Gregg shorthand
Bernard De Bear
Manufacturer: Gregg Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Shorthand | Business Skills | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00089VFCU

Average customer rating:

Why Was I Adopted?

Manufacturer: Lyle Stuart
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ICYVQO

Average customer rating:

Why Was I Adopted?

Manufacturer: Lyle Stuart
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ID2O1W

Average customer rating:

Why Was I Adopted?
Carole Livingston
Manufacturer: Lyle Stuart
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O00Y16

Average customer rating:

Why Was I Adopted?
Carole Livingston
Manufacturer: Lyle Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NL7WHA

Average customer rating:
New book celebrates work of Daphne Odjig.(The Art of Daphne Odjig, 1960-2000)(Review): An article from: Wind Speaker
Jolene Davis
Manufacturer: Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0009FG8F2
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Wind Speaker, published by Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA) on September 1, 2001. The length of the article is 509 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: New book celebrates work of Daphne Odjig.(The Art of Daphne Odjig, 1960-2000)(Review)
Author: Jolene Davis
Publication: Wind Speaker (Newsletter)
Date: September 1, 2001
Publisher: Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA)
Volume: 19 Issue: 5 Page: A15

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Odjig: The Art of Daphne Odjig, 1960-2000

Average customer rating:

Odjig: The Art of Daphne Odjig, 1960-2000
Daphne Odjig , Bob Boyer , and Carol Podedworny
Manufacturer: Key Porter Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Modern | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Artists, Architects & Photographers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Native People (Canada) | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Canadian | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Book Description

A powerful artistic journey with one of Canada's most celebrated and distinctive painters. Odjig confronts the themes of the aboriginal experience, her family dynamic, and her spiritual beliefs in her paintings, which are extremely personal. Collectors of her works are awed by her innovative use of traditional aboriginal symbols, which transcend the specific culture from which they come. In the early 1960s, her development of a recognizable "Odjig style" garnered enough attention to make possible her first solo show in 1967. Odjig's reputation as an artist was growing internationally and her commissioned painting "Earth Mother" was displayed at EXPO '70 in Japan. Odjig's importance as a Canadian artist is immeasurable. In his preface, Bob Boyer, a renowned Metis artist and lecturer, explores the place of Native art in the broader spectrum of Canadian culture, in order to provide a more in-depth perspective on Odjig's significance. Pamela Krueger, an award-winning appreciator of Canadian art, discusses the course of Odjig's life and career, and places her art into its cultural context. (2001)

Customer Reviews:

Moving account by mother of British soldier killed by IRA.......2001-06-03

Lance Bombadier Stephen Restorick could have been just another British soldier among the 700 killed during the Troubles. But his mother has ensured that will not be the case with this moving and thought-provoking book that is a must read for anyone with an interest in Northern Ireland - republican, nationalist, Unionist or non-aligned. Stephen Restorick was shot dead by a sniper in South Armagh in February 1997, the last British soldier to date to be killed by the Provisionals. His alleged killer was convicted of the attempted murder of a police officer and subsequently released under the Good Friday Agreement with a fraction of his time served. Those are the bare facts, but Mrs Restorick, who has lobbied politicians from Gerry Adams to Tony Blair in her personal quest since her son's death, presents the human side of what happened. Parts of the book are heart-rending as she struggles to come to terms with how a smiling soldier was shot in the back in the dark as he examined the driving licence of a local Catholic woman at a checkpoint. Mrs Restorick is dignified, thoughtful, honest, straightforward and even has a nice touch of humour in her writing. She does not have all the answers but she poses a lot of the right questions and gives an important insight into how the relatives of casualties of the Troubles are left to pick up the pieces and wonder why. Mrs Restorick is no apologist for any side and this book is thoroughly recommended.

Toby Harnden (author of "'Bandit Country': The IRA and South Armagh")

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