Bates Books

I bought this book thinking it would be a great reference. It isn't!

What They Are: If you're looking for work in a museum chances are you've done a museum course or you've volunteered in a musuem. Therefore, you know what people in the various jobs do.

How To Prepare: Education, training, and experiece are listed in this section. If you're looking for a Curatorial posistion you've already got this so it's nothing new. I was expecting more information on what techniques I could use to prepare for interviewing for such jobs. Or perhaps an example on preparing a portfolio of work, but there was no such thing in the book.

Where to find them: I was expecting something more indepth than learning museums, arboretums, historic houses, etc. hire people to work in various job. No kidding! What I thought I was going to get was a comprehensive list of places broken down by category and/or location.

In short, this book did not tell me anything I didn't already know. If you know absolutely nothing about museum jobs it would be great for you. However, if you think it's a good resource to use to help find a job, don't bother!

If you want employment in a museum; then this is must reading! Erma T

Had hoped to see more sexual content with upbeat stories of older folks having regular sex and engaged in vigourous exercise. By and large there is just too much depressing content consistent with stereotypes. Use it or lose it? If youth only knew...and if age only could. Short on sexual success stories.

Dr. Matsen has a unique writing style. He has defined the process of aging in a wonderful human light that is not depressing. Your attitude and outlook on life is what carries you through.Dr. Matsen has a very different expression on the aging process. His looking glass deserves to be read. A wonderful read!

As with many conference volumes, the quality of papers collected in this book varies. Some (Frank Flatters on Thailand, for example) are informative, some less so. None of the papers considers the financial crisis as a regional or systemic crisis -- instead the focus is on country by country analyses. Oddly enough, none of the papers on Taiwan deal with its decision in the fall of 1997 to devalue its currency, the New Taiwan dollar, which arguably intensified the crisis, at least with respect to Hong Kong and South Korea. One can find some interesting material in these essays, but one will have to look elsewhere for an in depth analysis of the Asian financial crisis, even with respect to Taiwan.

This book, and the conference organised by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research on which it is based, asks a question which is fundamental to Asia's future: how did Taiwan ride out the 1997 financial storm when Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia were almost capsized by the wave?
Several essays in the book note that small and mid-sized firms make up nine-tenths of Taiwan's economy, with equity financing being the norm rather than debt financing. This meant that there was far less opportunity for speculative funds to sweep into and out of the economy, and also meant that the business sector was much more stable than in some of Taiwan's neighbours.
The capital sector was also strong, with a minimum of exchange rate controls and most financial institutions in private rather than government hands. When the crash came, non-performing loans accounted for less than five per cent of credits, compared to 16 per cent in Malaysia and 19 per cent in Thailand. Taiwan's financial institutions had also been markedly more successful at mobilising private capital and channelling it into productive investments than its neighbours.
At the macroeconomic level, Taiwan's performance had been solid, with growth at over five per cent and a current account surplus of about 4.5 per cent of GDP. Not spectacular, but the point is that Taiwan had been turning in good results for a substantial period, rather than looking like an overheated economy heading for a fall.
In spite of Taiwan's sturdy foundations, the meltdown still had a punch. There was a 15 per cent currency depreciation in 1997-98 and a steep drop in the stock market. But this did not translate into an economic free-fall, mainly due to decisive action by the Central Bank. It stabilised the exchange rate with sales of foreign reserves and then, crucially, let the domestic currency float. In 1999, the Central Bank buttressed its success by promoting growth with low interest rates and new investments. Credibility was a key asset, with the Central Bank being widely seen as prudent and competent, run by technocrats rather than political cronies.
In some ways, the retreat of government may have gone a little too far: several contributors to the book note that Taiwan might have fared even better if the Central Bank had had a wider range of monetary instruments to use. But the bottom line for Taiwan remains: a solid base and a swift response meant that the '97 storm was mostly distant thunder.

Weathering the Storm sets its points with admirable clarity, but there are subjects which are not covered. The underlying issues of macroeconomic/currency policy are hardly touched, and there are comparisons (such as with South Korea) on which there is insufficient depth. Perhaps these issues were discussed in the conference, but they are not in the book.

This is for soda bottles only

I had to buy this for class and I have to say, I feel like there are better books out there. This is very informative and gets the ideas across but it is pretty dry. Anthropology is an interesting subject but this book doesn't really set a fire or spark any further interest. Good but not great.

Betty Bates tells a story of Maggie, whose sister marries a "great" guy. Well, he doesn't turn out to be so great. After leaving the sister of Maggie, Maggie decides all men are horrible, and are only out to hurt women. She basically cuts of ties with men and hangs around with her sister, neglecting her friends as well. After it's all over, Maggie learns not all men are the same, and that it totally depends on the person. Betty did an excellent job of portraying this, though the book moves rather slowly, and is more for a younger audience, say about 10 to 14 years old.

I've been interested in Gregory Bateson, ever since I came into contact with his work when I studied NLP. I'm still intrigued to find out how exactly he approached science, how he thought about doing scientific work. While this book gives the reader an acceptable overview of Gregory Bateson's roots and his life, I was particularly disappointed with the section discussing his life since 1970, the year he gave the Korzybski memorial lecture. In these last 10 years of his live he published "Steps to an ecology of mind" (1972), "Mind and Nature (1977) and "Where Angels fear to Tread". Paradoxally, this author only met Bateson in 1971 and must have more details about these 10 last years, during which Bateson taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz (1972-1979) and influenced a whole generation of students at the Kresge College. These last 10 years of his life only get some 25 pages from this author. In contrast, the history of his family and youth get over 100 pages. Also, for someone who has had the chance to meet Bateson extensively in order to write this biography, we don't learn much about Bateson's real thoughts, motivations. All by all this is a pretty dry book. This book has the merit of existing, yet for me, the author missed some opportunities here.

While I recommend everyone interested in social sciences, communication, anthropology or psychology to read Bateson's books, there isn't much to learn from this book by reading "about Bateson".

Patrick E.C. Merlevede - author of "7 Steps to Emotional intelligence"

Olga Masters has complied an interesting selcetion of short stories dealing with a range of issues. Her use of description is very powerful and often avoids describing step-by-step what is happening in a action sequence, instead describes the reaction from people and the effects of what has happened. This combined with her writing in third person creates an atmosphere for the reader like they are right in middle of the room watching.

Each story is told from th point of view of a middle aged woman or a little girl. The thing I like most about each story is the way they all end. It can be very fustraiting as we don't get told what will now happen but it is also very interesting. The thing I dislike most about the stories are the way they start, often in the middle of an action sequence and very confusing.

I would reccomend this book to people who enjoy reading from the point of veiw of adults aswell as children. Also for people who don't mind a selection of short stories that are set in very different times with very different characters to one another.

Warning people that scarring may be a consequence of a natural cancer treatment may seem important, but these risks need to be weighed against similar risks associated with surgery, not to mention the danger posed by cancer.

In my book, Cancer Salves: A Botanical Approach to Treatment, I offer a number of suggestions for reducing the potential for scarring, simple measures such as adding turmeric to a formula to more sophisticated strategies that entail detoxifying the blood before commencing an escharotic treatment.

"Natural History Museums: An Illustrated Guide to over 350 Museums in the Eastern United States" by G.W. Bates is unfortunately, a little more than a directory or mailing list of such museums. In the center of the book are photos, generally of exhibits, of about 25 museums. However, there is no information on hours, nor any descriptions of exhibits, etc. Moreover, with a nominal publishing date of 1992, most of the addresses are probably 15 years old at this time (mid-2000), and so, many, if not most have probably changed. Apparently, Volume 2 was never printed, which also limits the utility of the book as a mailing list.