Game Studies Books

In Global Collective Action, Todd Sandler uses the tools of economics and game theory to illuminate global challenges ranging from pollution to pandemics. Since virulent microbes, suicidal terrorists, and environmental pollutants don't respect borders, economists increasingly struggle to discover how we might use incentives to reduce global threats without undermining individual autonomy or market economies. Global Collective Action is a welcome contribution to this field, and one that is readily accessible to non-specialists. It is, nevertheless, a bit dry in places, especially in later chapters.

"What factors promote or inhibit successful collective action at the regional or global level?" This is the question the author seeks to answer. Where his previous book, "Global Challenges" ends, this book begins.

Why is it that some treaties and world organizations "have achieved so much while others have accomplished so little?" The answer hinges on the type of problem being addressed. For example, although chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and greenhouse gases (GHGs) are both air pollutants that easily circulate around the globe, why is it that the international treaty dealing with CFCs has been widely credited with reducing the destruction of the ozone layer, but the Kyoto Protocol, for reducing GHGs, appears to have accomplished very little?

Twelve chapters analyze a host of global collective action problems, including orbiting satellites, transnational terrorism, AIDS, Smallpox, the United Nations, and nuclear proliferation.

1. Future Perfect
2. "With a Little Help from My Friends": Principles of Collective Action
3. Absence of Invisibility: Market Failures
4. Transnational Public Goods: Financing and Institutions
5. Global Health
6. What to Try Next? Foreign Aid Quagmire
7. Rogues and Bandits: Who Bells the Cat?
8. Terrorism: 9/11 and Its Aftermath
9. Citizen against Citizen
10. Tales of Two Collectives: Atmospheric Pollution
11. The Final Frontier
12. Future Conditional

Although the author writes in a dry, academic style there are occasional flashes of humor, and the book is filled with numerous charts, graphs, tables and figures that clearly illustrate his points. In addition he brings sharp insight and clear thinking to publicize important subjects that often end up being buried in dusty journal articles sitting on library shelves.

Full Disclosure: In 1997 the author oversaw my Ph.D. dissertation and some of our work is cited in the text.

Part of the outstanding "Magical Math" series from John Wiley & Sons, Wacky Word Problems: Games And Activities That Make Math Easy And Fun by Lynette Long is specifically designed and presented to appeal to children ages 8 to 12 and provide them with a fun and engaging way to grasp the basics of standard word problems. Kids will learn how to answer computation problems, percentile problems, distance problems, and so much more through dozens of age-appropriate activities and entertaining examples. Wacky Word Problems is especially recommended as a homeschool curriculum supplement, and would be an appropriate acquisition for traditional grade school math curriculums and library reference collections as well.

Great Graphs and Sensational Statistics really made our 6th Grade Business Math unit very fun and interesting. While charting commercials, dangling spoons, taking surveys, flipping coins and following the stock market...we learned all about how to present information in a form that others can understand.

This is very REAL math that my child can use throughout his life - whether he's a weatherman, scientist, or business administrator! We all need to learn how to present information clearly and effectively.

Oh, and some statistical work is in there - means, medians, conducting a study and charting statistical results...highly recommended!

This book is a great source to have if you care for young children. It offers a selection of age appropriate things to do in rythyme with your children. This book has all of the words to those songs that you sung as a child as well as some new songs. If you desire to make your own musical instruments then this book is for you. There are plenty of instruments to make using available household materials. I recomend this book to parents, day-care providers and teachers of young children. It is a great book!

Ch 1 Music is for everyone; Ch 2 Music is rhythm; Ch 3 ...sound; Ch 4 ...language; Ch 5 ...movement; Ch 6 ...singing; Ch 7 ...instruments; Ch 8 ...fun-filled activities; Ch 9 ...a great way to teach; Ch 10 ...classical; Ch 11 FAQ's by parents and teachers

This book provides many games, activities and songs, to help teach children music concepts through play, without the use of musical terms. Very easy to read and anyone can use this book; musician or not.

GREAT BOOK FOR TODDLERS WHO LIKE MUSIC AND FOR PARENTS WHO LIKE TO SING ALONG WITH THEM AND INSTRUCT USING INSTRUMENTS WE USE IT FOR AN AT HOME CLASS.

This has great ideas and the kids love the music activities.

I homeschool my kids and we use this book everyday as part of our school curriculum. We have made instruments, we have learned facts, we have appreciated nature with this book and have incorporated it in our daily lessons. It is designed real well - the chapters are awesome and make it so motivating to want to plan a musically rich lesson daily. It is a great book to have for any parent or teacher that wants to create and appreciate music with thier kids.

I have used this book as a source for a workshop I do for early childhood educators. It has excellent ideas and ways of presenting musical concepts. The book content leans a little to the older ages (6-8), rather than the early childhood population. However, it is still valuable for early childhood educators.

This book has nice full color pages, and a lot of tool/technique tips. The crafts are fairly unique, enough to capture your interest. The age suggestion (8-14) given on the back cover of the book should be heeded, I feel, as most of the projects have multiple steps requiring time, skill, or patience to a greater degree than younger children may have. It is definitely more adaptable for older people than it is for younger...younger children will need assistance nearly every step of the way. All in all, it is a nice book with good ideas and the directions appear to be concise.

My 7 year old daughter loves to craft, with anything! She'll take anything she can get her hands on and make something out of it. Although she still does this, I wanted to focus her a little more into gifts she could make or crafts that looked more like what she was trying to do. I never told her that I didn't like the other creations though and they are still all over the house! However, I could see her beginning frustration at not having the right things to make the crafts she wanted to.

Then with this book, she found the guide she needed. She knows what materials to look for for certain projects and gets new ideas and makes her own gifts for birthday's and holidays and decorations. She's been even more inspired to create, if that's possible now and I'm glad I got this book. It is very child friendly and full of great ideas!

So, if you have an avid crafter that loves to work with paper, scissors and glue, this is the book to get and watch their imaginations blossom. If you have a child that you would like to get interested in crafts, this book would be very useful too. It's kid friendly and could be adapted for older and younger kids too.

This is a fun way to learn spanish...a 57 year old friend and I are learning spanish and she had them first, I love it.

We have enjoyed using this product and the only complaint we have is the CD. The first 4 tracks of the CD do not play. We contacted Amazon.com and they replaced the product which included a new CD. This second CD was also defective. The first 4 tracks would not play. We believe that the first 4 tracks of all CDs are defective.

Recieved item on time, right when we were told it would arrive. Book in very good condition.

I really like this book. It contains a high concentration of nice math demonstrations. It is appropriate for students as young as 11 or 12, although such young students might not understand all of the concepts, and it is great for high school aged students who are looking for interesting little tidbits that are different from their usual course work. It is also a good book for adults who like math.
However, it virtually identical to the author's other book "Math Charmers". It makes absolutely no sense to buy them both - they are the same nearly word for word. Amazon should not be pairing the two together in a package deal.

Great book - quite informative, but (and not to say "gotcha!")
found an error in puzzle #44. Let's see if you can find it. [...] if you've missed it.

Jim Leeds
Much-Published
Crossword Constructor

this was just the right of challenge, very hard but with a minimum of frustration. I have found this best of these books that I have had and I have had many! Thank you so much for getting me through a broken back and pneumonia! Shane

Roz Snowden describes her patterns very clearly. I was a beginner when I started to work with her book and I found the instructions to be clear and straightforward.

The pictures of the bobbin lace in the different settings alone makes it worth to buy this book.

This book is filled with beautiful, creative lace designs for dolls and their houses. A must-have for the lacemaker/miniature enthusiast (and I know there are quite a few out there!). Be warned though: this book is only for those with excellent vision.