Australia Books

I've always thought that crime encapsulates culture. Particularly violent crime. The who and how and where and what and why of a murder fix details that might otherwise be overlooked and lost for ever, because murder is an extraordinary thing that happens to ordinary people. If you want to learn about everyday life in Victorian Britain, don't read about Queen Victoria, read about Jack the Ripper. Similarly, if you want to learn about everyday life in modern Australia, don't read about an Australian celebrity, read about MacDonald the Mutilator. His is one of the extraordinary and often disturbing cases examined in this book, which ranges from convict days in the late 1700s to the disappearance of foreign tourists in 2001. Some true-true-crime writers would gloat over this history and try to titillate readers with it. Blackden doesn't, and he doesn't just record, he analyzes and places in context too. Australia has a distinctive culture and a distinctive landscape and both are reflected in the crimes committed there.

Or not committed there: one of the most interesting cases examined in that book is that of Azaria Chamberlain, a month-old baby girl who disappeared near Ayers Rock in 1980. Had her parents, who were Seventh Day Adventists, carried out a so-called "sacrifice in the wilderness", as certain newspapers claimed? Or had she, as her parents claimed, been snatched by a dingo? In Blackden's account the latter seems much more likely, and the media-inspired prejudice suffered by the Chamberlains is one of the ways a distinctively Australian tragedy has application to the US and UK too. Crime encapsulates culture, and so does our reaction to crime. Often that reaction, in books as well as newspapers, is voyeuristic and exploitative, but that isn't true of Danger Down Under: it's intelligent, thoughtful, and highly readable, and though I doubt the Australian Tourist Board will be happy with it, I think intelligent and thoughtful true-crime fans should be. Australia isn't all sand, surf, and sunshine, and it isn't all serial killers and psychopaths either, but all of those things exist there and DDU is a very useful reminder of that.

SAX's Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials Ninth Edition-CD-ROM Version

The NST/Engineers, Inc. reviewer, an EPA First Responder, found the Ninth Edition of Sax's Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials-CD ROM version (SAX CD) to be a powerful database of easily retrievable, detailed, and pertinent information. The reviewer envisions the target users of the SAX CD deriving the most benefit to be: chemical operators, chemical process engineers, chemists, clinical toxicologists, fire companies, first responders, HAZMAT teams, industrial hygienists, plant managers, physicians, police departments, process safety managers, research professionals, risk management planners, safety engineers, transportation officers, and treatment storage and disposal facility (TSDF) personnel.

The 22,380 materials included are categorized at a minimum according to: Listing Name, Hazard Rating, Chemical Name, Molecular Formula, Molecular Weight, Chemical and Physical Properties, Synonyms, Toxicity Data with References, (instantly accessible by screen "pop-ups"), and Safety Profile.

Where available, NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limits, OSHA Permissible Exposure Levels, ACGIH Threshold Limit Values, (all expressed as Time Weighted Averages) and German MAK exposure limits are included. Consensus Reports (Community RTK, EPA TSCA and Genetic Inventory list) along with DOT hazard Classifications and UN/NA 4-digit identifier (for HM-181), CAS Registry number, and Class (carcinogen, mutagen, teratogen, primary irritant, food additive, etc.) are also included.

For forty years, NST/Engineers, Inc. personnel and associates have found editions of SAX to be an invaluable resource. The Ninth Edition on CD ROM provides the instant retrieval capabilities sought by the electronic communication age. The program includes an intelligent default, twelve-characteristic, search engine. It highlights each "hit" in the text and has a "tracking" system that allows the user to look forward or to "backtrack".

In the NST/Engineers, Inc. trials, SAX CD was used in "mock" HAZMAT spills. The reviewer found that the initial assessments of the spills were conducted many times faster by using the SAX CD. Armed with a laptop computer, as are most police and other emergency responders, the addition of this software will greatly decrease response time and reduce the confusion that routinely surrounds hazardous materials incidents. An increase in facility and public safety will be provided by the fingertip access to the knowledge base in the SAX CD .

The SAX CD works on both PC and Macintosh platforms.

This book is a welcome relief from the same old England, middle-ages type of fantasy. The book includes wonderful spirits of the Australian outback and a great love story, too. The writing is beautiful and full of wonderful images.

from backcover: "Had she found her identity or her destiny? Rebel had been fortunate to be adopted by the James family. The Australian clan fully supported her search for her mother's roots--even though it took her to England. But when Rebel arrived at Davenport Hall, the English manor where her mother had stayed as a five-year old war orphan, she was surprised to discover the earl actually seemed to be expecting her...."

This is a great book. It is told through the letters that a girl and a boy write to each other over many years. They are from different cultures. It is a touching sweet story that you will love.

Joy Hester and Sunday Reed were two important women in Australian cultural life of the 1940s. Hester was an artist and Sunday Reed, her patron.Their letters to one another span 1940-1960, the year of Hester's death. Reed's home was a focus for Melbourne's radical cultural life. Hester was Reed's best friend. When Hester contracted cancer in 1947, Reed adopted her son.Their letters chart the passage of Hester's illness together with Reed's love for her garden, books, poetry, art and friendship.Despite poverty and illness, Hester produced fine, expressionist drawings which are now in Australia's state galleries. Reed was her constant and unflagging audience.

Death of a Swagman was written in the mid point of Arthur Upfields career and shows in his attention to detail and his ability to capture the feling of Australian country towns in the early part of our century. The story is a good detective novel in its own right with plenty of plots and action and red herrings. Bony's relationship with Rose Marie is used as a strong pivot point throughout the novel giving a useful viewpoint of the running of the town from a child's perspective. The advantage of this book over other bony novels is the character development of the subjects. This gives a depth and humanity which remains after the story is finished. The narrative of the swagmans lifestyle and its mythology is addressed here with great detail and provides a refreshing glimpse of a bygone era.

Written in an irreverent style with regular examples from the authors' extensive experience in world-debating, this book is an excellent guide to debating - for beginners, the experienced, the coach and the adjudicator.

Focusing on the Australian style of debate, the initial chapters on Manner and Method clearly set out standards expected, as well as mentioning pitfalls and recommendations. The chapters devoted to Matter, combined with the discussion on Topics & Preparation lends immediately the wisdom necessary to construct speeches with structured purpose as opposed to a series of nascent ramblings.

whether you are a resident of Sydney, as I am, or a visitor, or just interested in a very vibrant part of Sydney life, then this is a terrific book.

The photographs are great. It is not a complete history of the Mardi Gras (now 22 years old) - there are other volumes that cover that territory - but it is a terrific 'slice of life volume.

The MArdi Gras festival lasts for 3-4 weeks in late summer (Feb-early March) each year, and culminates in the sequins and glamour, and political statements of the parade. This book is a worthy 'souvenir' of that very sultry time.

This is the best book on decision theory and subjective probability that I have studied so far. The book explains and demonstrates the axioms and fundamental concepts of these theories in a simple way. At the same time, every theorem in the book is proven in a rigorous way. I am particularly impressed by the introduction of subjective probability and its axiomatic foundation.

This book is highly recommended for anyone who wants to get an in-depth understanding of these important concepts.