Smith Books

The book describes how to grow, harvest and uses of each herb in the book and it covers all the main herbs and more. Excellent descriptions as well as illustrations on how to do everything so even for the unexperienced grower it would be easy to learn. Very happy with my new book.

While the book doesn't cover as many herbs as I had hoped, it gets to all the major ones. More importantly, the information provided is thorough and presented in a non-overwhelming, easy-to-read way. Each page tells the reader how easy the plant is to grow, whether it can be grown in a container, what zone it grows best in, how to harvest, propagate, and store the herb, and all sorts of other pertinent info.

The first portion of the book covers planning one's garden, planting techniques and gives instructions for several methods for using herbs (flavored oils, teas, etc.). There are plenty of useful charts throughout which make this a great quick reference guide.

The author safely shies away from giving too much information on medicinal uses for the herbs, so those looking for information and instructions regarding herbal remedies should definitely purchase another book in addition to this one.

A very useful book for the home gardener. A quick guide for growing, harvesting and using herbs.

I adore this book! Wow! It has all the things I wanted!
- it's organic
- it very thorougly covers many herbs in different formats, so you know everything from what bugs they attract or repel, how tall they grow, and what zone they can be grown in
- common uses for them: I discovered many herbs I thought were inedible plants that are indeed herbs
- easy to use tables

I wasn't too hip on all the cosmetic and craft uses - I'd rather eat them, but they're short and may come in handy. I know the rest of the book sure will!

This is a relatively small book at about 150 pages, but it manages to pack in a lot of information very concisely. It's beautifully illustrated with color photographs and drawings.

The first 2/3 of the book includes general herb gardening background and use of herbs tips: how to choose plants, pick the location, general design principles, planting instructions (including some nice tips on extending the growing season), propagation, harvesting, drying, pests and diseases, etc.

It also includes suggestions for common culinary uses, such as salads, herbal vinegars, flavored oils, teas, jellies, honeys, and breads. These are not an extensive set of recipes, but more like master recipes with some suggestions for how you can mix them up with variations.

The book also includes suggestions and recipes for health and beauty products (again, not an extensive collection). This section includes potpourri, sachets, bouquets, dried arrangements and insect repellents.

The last 1/3 of the book has individual pages on about 50 different herbs. These individual pages tell you a description, how to grow, harvesting instructions, suggested uses, tips, cultivars, and also includes a quick key on the level of care required (using a 4 glove rating system), if it attracts beneficial insects, whether or not it is ornamental, whether or not it can be grown in a container, how much yield you can expect to get and how easy it is to grow.

The back of the book contains a few pages of resources for laboratories, vendors, herb associations and other books or literary resources.

There are lots of charts and sidebars and overall I found this book to be very useful and easy to access. It doesn't have the level of information needed to make this anything other than a quick reference book though.

The ideas are presented in a clear,easy to follow way. To help drive home what you have read, Rolf provides exercises througouht the book. If you are serious about understanding yourself, and making changes in your life to reach your goals, read the book and do the exercises, then adapt them into your life.

Being a researcher, I am always concerned about innovation and how to encourage it. Many books discuss things in theory, but not in a practical fashion. The book makes it clear that you need to change the way you think to become more innovative, both as an individual and a company. The practical ideas are very useful, especially the Blue Slips and the 5 Minute Meeting tools. It was an easy read, and I found I that the second reading was as insightful as the first.

Latte for everyone. It was a voice of mutiny - not over authoritarian or dictitorial regimes - rather the freeing of the spirit of a team of people on a thinking expedition with Rolf Smith. Next to the cash register at this Estes Park, Colorado shop was a hand written sign reading "Afraid of change, leave it here." This amusing appeal for a tip struck a chord common in many - the fear of change.

Rolf Smith takes on the challenge of this fear using the metaphor of an expedition in his 7 Levels of Change. Integrating much into highly useful book enables people to comprehend a positive approach to making their lives diffferent for the better - whether at home or at work. Process, tools, theory all mixed with a heavy dose of creativity is what makes this antidote for fear so effective as a guide.

Highlighted in Fast Company, Rolf's work extends beyond the printed page. As Lead Guide for his Thinking Expeditions he will take you on an amazing journey. Rolf's mastery of integration is taken to new heights as he leads people through a high energy mind expansion. The 7 Levels of Change serves as the framework for a rich depth of practical application of process and tools including a journey into the minds and thinking of the individual and the collective of groups. Rolf's mastery is matched with a great sensitivity to the value of diversity in culture, a great palette of creativity, a sense of humor and a dose of metaphor that goes live as he and his fellow guides help you climb free of the devilish fear within.

7 Levels of Change serves as a great compass and going on Expedition with Rolf will do nothing less than change your life. Buy it. Read it. Climb on.

About three years ago, I had the fortune to meet Rolf Smith and attend his School For Innovators which in alot of ways is built around his book, The Seven Levels of Change. It would be an understatement to say Rolf's book and his school changed my life forever and more importantantly changed my "thinking" forever. The Seven Levels of Change is one of the most practical,"hands on", and useable books that I have ever read. Because of this book and my involvement with Rolf, I now think differently to the tune of going back to graduate school and restructuring my life at the age of 43. It has not been easy but it has been fun, challenging, and once you read his book and implement his ideas, you will never look at your work, family, or your life in the same manner. The amazing part of this book is that it applies to individuals, corporations of any size, schools, and almost any facet of life where you have to think......that covers alot of ground.......think about it.

A tremendous guide to effecting change in personal and corporate settings, offering theory, case studies and tools. Understanding the process of converting creativity to innovation, especially in corporate settings, is de-mystified, while not made simplistic or trite. I've used the tools from this nifty little tool-kit in my personal, professional and community lives, and I'm now doing things I've only dreamed about! Do yourself a favor, and invest in "7 Levels" for a richer and more stimulating life.

This lady has spent years researching ancient techniques and it is to her credit that granulation and woven chain has finally come to America.

These chains are not soldered; they are fused and woven. I recommend you have at least a semester of college level jewelry or several years of soldering under your belt before jumping in with this one. But it worthwhile if you want to make chains that are worthy of royalty, or have a chain for a piece of art jewelry that will do it justice.

This is a workbook, progressing from the simplest and easiest to progressively more complex chains. After the first couple hundred fused links you become pretty adept. After fusing the links, you will learn to weave links into patterns. These are not your ordinary chains. They are strong, beautiful and flexible.

Jean is obsessively precise in her work, so this book is very precise. She goes over what gauges work for which patterns, as well as all the little tips that make a chain look superb. It's a lovely book, very well-written and one to be included in a goldsmith's library.

To get a better idea of the creativity and precision of this lady's work, go to Randy Smith's website: http://www.rocksmyth.com/ and look for Jean Stark's work. Prepare to be amazed at all the lovelies and realize that pictures do not do her work justice, as good as the pictures are. Many of the chains are made with 30 ga. wire, which is not much thicker than sewing thread. Her chains feel like silk.

If you're serious about making fine quality chains, then you need this book. Jean Stark is the guru.

This was just what I was looking for. Clear instructions with photos. A great find!

This is great information with very east to read instructions. Not for the lazy or faint of heart.Great ancient traditions brought back to life.

Classical Loop-in-Loop Chains & Their Derivatives is the full title which I find still does not adequately describe the book.

This book is an instruction manual rather than a reference source. The instructions presented have been tried and tested on a number of students, and incorporates feedback from the students. The black and white photographs shown are of the chain work produced by the students as well as the author.

Loop-in-loop is the description of how chains are constructed with each chain link looping within each other to form a chain. Examples of this type of chain are on the front cover of the book.

The classical chains covered in this book are described as single loop-in-loop, side-weave single, single though-bead, basic pinched loop, roman pinched loop, pinched loop with wrapped beads, pinched loop through-beads, basic double loop-in-loop, double with wrapped beads, weave-off double, two-way double loop-in-loop, three-way double loop-in-loop, four-way double loop-in-loop, multiple soldered single, multiple soldered pinched loop, pinched loop with spacers, multiple woven single mesh, multiple woven double. In all 34 chains are described, 16 derivatives of the 18 definitely attributed ancient style of chains.

The main emphasis of this instruction work is on using fine silver and fusing to form whole links incorporating annealing, and then shaping into the links, and then forming the chain. Detailed step-by-step instructions are given on forming links up front, and then each chain has instructions on how to shape the required link, and then form into the chain. This book clearly explains and demonstrates these techniques and processes.

Each chain has a list of the materials needed (in inches and gauges (thickness) - appendices contain conversions) to make it at a given length. These can be used as references for links/inch or used to adjust as necessary to form a necklace or bracelet of given length. An appendix is supplied which gives recommended dowel diameters for the wire gauges for making variations to basic chains. The authors viewpoint is that making chains is an art form, and this book is to develop the students abilities and to encourage their own subsequent development and personal refinement of explained techniques.

Although primarily based on fine silver work (sterling is unsuitable for these techniques - if you solder links that is a different technique), the book does cover how to produce fused chains in 22K gold (including 22k gold metal alloy composition that was used in antiquity and for which these techniques work best).

There is a 25 page chapter on clasps and terminations, cross referenced with what chains they are suitable for, and the chains are cross referenced with what clasps and terminations are suitable.

This book does not have colour photographs. It has diagrams (at enlarged sizes for easier viewing) showing how to form the chain links and join with the next link and or terminate. Black and white photographs show finished chains and/or portions of finished chains. There are no photographs of ancient chains, and very little information on any apart from the detailed instructions on how to make them. Occasionally there are snippets about the existence of such an ancient chain, and even where it is located.

If you do not currently possess silverworking/chainworking tools you will need to purchase them to make the chains in this book, as well as needing work bench space. There are details in the book about what tools you will need, and for the USA where to obtain them. This book does not go over any of the safety aspects of using blowtorches or kilns. Please make sure you have on instruction on these before proceeding.

With the price of silver (and gold) the making of the chains will not be inexpensive, but if you wish to learn how to make a number of chains, this book will explain how.

This is a well organised, well presented instructional book. I would suggest to re-read the two pages covering "Weaving" and "Achieving best results" with "common problems and how to avoid them" before commencing each chain.

i find this book to be a great help when i am desiging necklaces, bracelets and even drop earrings. this is something every jeweler needs in their library.

I had this book in my wishlist for over two years. I kept off buying it basically because it looked like many other "past catastrophes that will happen again unless we repent and stop buying SUVs" type of book.
However during that same period many reviews indicated that this was a different book, and frankly it is the best book on the subject of ancient catastrophes that I've ever bought.
It gives a scientific support to other author's wild claims of ancient cultures and technologies that are very badly proposed in many other books.
Finally a book shows that it's feasible that many ancient cultures were decimated by the events related in this book, even though they make no such claims.
This will be a great addition to your collection.

In brief, the authors' thesis is this: 41,000 years ago, a Supernova (Geminga) exploded, in the cosmic vicinity of Earth. On at least three separate occasions, this event had significiant influence on the lives of creatures on this planet. 1.) The radiation from the Supernova killed or mutate species in Australia and southeast Asia. 2.) About 7,000 years later, the shockwave material began to arrive in our Solar System. 3.) A low density object (comet, or supernova material) impacted the norther hemisphere, wiping out megafauna (large animals - mammoths, mastodon, horses, rhinoceroses, etc.) and the paleoamerican Clovis culture, in North America.

The book, divided into three parts - Solving the Mystery, Describing The Event Sequence, and Presenting the Evidence - does a fantastic job of entertaining and educating the reader. We become (vicariously) an investigator, an eye-witness, and a multi-disciplinary scientist. In the process, the authors succeed in convincing us (most thoughtful, objective readers) of the validity of their theory's main points.

I like this book for a number of reasons. The first part, solving the mystery of the black mat, allows us to peer inside the recognizably human world of a scientific researcher. We get to share his travels and curiosity, sympathize with his hunches, and envy his luck. We also learn of his low tech pragmatism - using a shotgun to blast iron grains at a mammoth tusk, or tossing small objects into a cakepan filled with flour to see what kind of craters they make.

The second part provides a chilling account of the three times when there was Hell on Earth. No disaster movie yet made comes close to the intensity and devastation that this Event probably caused.

And while the third part - The Evidence - takes up most of the book, it too can be fascinating in its own right. Not only are we given the data gathered to support the authors' claim, but we are shown the reasoning which rules out previous, conventional explanations, and supports this theory as the correct one.

More importantly for me personally, and perhaps for anyone with an interest in cultural, spiritual and religious mythology, the authors take care to present a diverse sampling of ancient legends and stories which apparently attempt to convey what survivors of that time actually may have experienced or observed, albeit with symbolic embellishments being added along the way.

All told, this book/theory may explain a great deal about our world today. It implies that the event and our reaction to it, caused the prevalence of global disaster and flood myths around the world. Quite often we note that the gods or heavens were the source of our ancestors doom, and the blame is often laid upon the evil or wickedness of those who perished during the cleansing. Some say that it was because our ancestors forgot their creator, that he wanted to remind them/us that he was still important in their lives.

More specifically, the research tends to dispell the more recent myth that early Americans overhunted the mammoths, resulting in their extinction. And the timing with the disappearance of Atlantis, according to Plato, is too close for coincidence. What is not clear is whether this particular event is also responsible for the Biblical story of Noah and the Flood. Other sources cite a meteor impact closer to 5,000 years ago. Of course, the authors may have avoided this suggestion, for fear of alienating the religious fundamentalist who take exception with anything that appears to conflict with their understanding of scripture.

Finally, the authors issue an explicit warning that the consequences of this supernova event are not over yet. Mankind owes much of his current success, and overpopulation, due to the supernova events wiping out competing predators. They remark that after all extinction events, some species proliferate and overpopulate, but eventually succumb to limited resources, and suffer a massive depopulation eventually. Humans are still at the overpopulation stage, but may yet be on the brink of depopulation. In any event, the bombardment of the Earth by meteors and comets (due to the supernova) is far from over, and we are experiencing a rate of about 75% of the all-time high, about three times what it was a billion years ago.

None of this is to say that the book is without some faults. The wording is not as clear as I would like it (in places), and some of the statements are just plain wrong. For instance, Gemini is said to have only a few weeks every year when it rises in the northeast (as seen from a particular location.) The reality is, that at that latitude, Gemini always rises in the northeast, each and every day, whether it can be seen or not.

Yet on the whole, this is perhaps the most important book I have ever had the pleasure to read, because the theory answers so many questions I have long pondered, and it does so with the weight of scientific thought and evidence behind it.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the title of this book is not completely accurate as it doesn't explore much in the way of cycles of catastrophe's such as comet strikes and Im not sure why the authors would title it in such a way because the essence of this book if marketed well is interesting enough to attract many serious readers. Unlike other `pseudo science books' this one tackles head on a number of key findings relating to an `event' that supposedly happened 13,000 years ago in a way that iw generally well backed up and emphasizes what is theory, what is unproven and what is likely to be true. As a result I enjoyed this book emmensely because it does away with the Graham Hancock style of rhetoric and gives us some clear evidence in the form of pictures, scenarios and diagrams.

It could be said that the authors have not tied together all the loose ends and considering what their focus of investigation was I don't think this detracts from what the book implies. If one is to research a number of other books on similar topics a picture starts emerging about our past that not only sounds very logical but is incredibly fascinating.

Mass extinctions are nothing new. One of the most common geological process in the solar system is meteor and comet impacts. This book specifically explores the role of an exploding supernova's influence on earth. Other scientists have documented supernova explosions and dynamics before including the potential for it causing a major event 13,000 years ago. This is highly significant because it happened at the end of our last ice age and happened towards the beginning of wat we have recorded as history. Its also very significant because many ancient cultures have deeply embedded stories of such an event.

I enjoyed the evidence presented relating to micro meteorites imbedded in mammoth tusks and clovis stone tools and the photos showing clear meteor or comet strikes on earth. There should be nothing controversial about debris impacting with earth...anyone who's spent a little time looking at the night sky will have seen a shooting star. The book made me ponder the scenarios presented and try and tie them in with other theories such as earth displacement and catastrophes evident elsewhere in the solar system. The idea that the earths crust could have shifted, or other geological processes happened, in a short space of time is a valid theory and especially so when applied to an event as covered in this book. I thought the authors could have at least speculated some of the more unknown areas or discussed how one could investigate any link between a comet strike on earth and crust displacement. It's not a giant leap of imagination to contemplate a large enough strike on earth as causing some disbalance to our plate tectonics or geological processes. Tis would tie into other theoretical books that propose geological processes may happen much faster and not as uniformly as believed.

The same goes even for adventurers seeking remnants of Atlantis or highly civilized ancient people. Its seems highly likely that if there was an Atlantis that is was somewere in the america's - it matches Plato's description and seems logical as a trading location given its proximitry to Africa and Europe. Its enjoyable to speculate that what happened in north America 13,000 years ago wiped out much of this civilization and that indeed humans may have almost been wiped out many times before. Graham Hancock will go to length to talk about how earthquakes shook the world and so the pyramids were this built for sophisticated astronomical purposes. But astronomy is not volcanism. It seems much more likely that the ancients wanted desperately to understand the mechanics of the universe because they had been severely affected by it. It makes sense that a culture battered by a process such as described in this book would then strive to understand natural processes and build monuments of stone that also act as astronomical computers.

What would have been nice in this book is a more in depth comparison with the theory of our solar system having a companion star. It is suggested that every 26,000 years we orbit a binary star that could also explain comet strikes due to the disruption such an orbit would induce. This theory is well put together in the dvd `the great year' and points to a range of cultures that perhaps understood this process. The timing of such an event caused by such a binary orbit could also be calculated to around 13,000 years. Day and night have a profound impact on us, the moon cycles have a profound affect on us, the sun a profound affect on us...why not a binary star?

One of the most interesting aspects of this book was in its discussion of how human populations increased after this event and how this could have been due to greater access to the land or even due to mutations from the supernova/comet radiation. Mutations might sound like science fiction but no-one still has a clear idea of how one species evolves into another. This was Darwins dilemma. Perhaps it is in fact catastrophic events like this that push evolutionary mutations along. Like war - long periods of nothing and then short shapr periods of change. I just can't buy this old school view of the world as being so uniform and rigid. It doesn't make sense. The idea that legitimate scientists would overlook these sorts of issues of how we view geological time, our antiquity and our solar system geology is not suprising but a shame more scientists are not actively researching these fields. Instead they are researching global warming and other areas, that likely lead to better paychecks.

Now Im going to go read `when life nearly died' and see what light it sheds.

Fascinating book and well worth the read. The many pictures, questions and answers and scholarly authorship makes this one a true contemplator in the hit and miss alternative theory market. Its just a shame they didnt elaborate on other 'cycles of cosmic catastrophes'.

I'll make this short - everyone should read it!!!
The slightly lengthier version is -
The authors put a case for a cataclysmic planetary impact event of circa 13000 - 16000 BP having been preceded by the shock wave and the initial light / radiation blast of a nearby supernova around 41000BP but with the major focus being on the impact event(s).
Unlike others that have written on similar themes, these authors supply a myriad of evidence to back up their claims and the real strength of their work is the breadth of various unrelated scientific studies undertaken which seem to support the proposition. A tremendous amount of work has gone into this book.
It provides the supporting scientific evidence in an easy to read way - I eagerly await the next work they produce on this subject.

I agree with one other reviewer here who said "horrible cover but great book"...the cover and the title of the book are way over the top. I half expected the book to start with chapters of little green men who caused the extinction of mammoths. Despite the goofy title and cover, this is an easy to read, easy to follow theory of what caused the great extinctions of 13,000 years ago in North America, killing off the mammoths, mastodons and evidently much of the human population (clovis culture) along about that time. Firestone's theory of the comet hitting an area near Lake Michigan, which was covered in ice two miles thick at the time, takes a little getting used to, and opening the mind a bit to grasp the entire theory. He examines everything from the mysterious "black mat" at the Murray Springs Arizona Clovis site to the micro meteorites embedded in Mammoth tusks, to the "Carolina Bays" that were supposedly created by large chunks of glacial ice, blown out of the Michigan glacier by this comet. He explains the comet was supposedly made of "dirty ice" a cosmic dustball, and the size of the comet was what caused the depression which later became Lake Michigan. A very entertaining read, and a theory worth considering.

I can write pages about how good this book is, but why when I can summarize it in one word. Excellent!

Peter's The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook is a must have for everybody who has read the original The Fifth Discipline or are in anyways interested on building learning organization.

In short, the book itself contains useful real life examples and tips & tricks on building learning organization. It really opens new point of views to see and solve problems. It has helped me at work and at personal life, it is 'more than asked I for'.

I recommend this book for anybody.

It seems to me that The Fifth Discipline (the previous publication of the series) is more attacting to me. The second book can be more precise and concise in content. Generally speaking I still like these two books as a foreign reader.

This book is a collection of theoretical summaries, reports, analyses, and strategies all quite useful to anyone interested in generating some thinking and action around change. The team of five writers (Peter Senge, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner) provide some original work, but also serve as editors to a vast quantity of material drawn from practitioners, theorists, and writers in the field of organizational improvement. According to Senge, "great teams are learning organizations - groups of people who, over time, enhance their capacity to create what they truly desire to create." (p.18) This book is really about creating and building great teams. The learning organization develops its ability to reflect on, discuss, question, and change its current and past practices. To do this, people and groups in the organization need to meaningfully pursue the study and practice of the five disciplines - personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking.

The learning organization - Senge's vision for the productive, competitive, and efficient institutions of the future - is in a continuous state of change. Four fundamental questions continuously serve to check and guide a group's learning and improvement (see page 49): (1) Do you continuously test your experiences? ("Are you willing to examine and challenge your sacred cows - not just during crises, but in good times?") (2) Are you producing knowledge? ("Knowledge, in this case, means the capacity for effective action.") (3) Is knowledge shared? ("Is it accessible to all of the organization's members?") (4) Is the learning relevant? ("Is this learning aimed at the organization's core purpose?") If these questions represent the organization's compass, the five disciplines are its map.

Each of the five disciplines is explained, and elaborated in its own lengthy section of the book. In the section on "Systems Thinking" (a set of practices and perspectives, which views all aspects of life as inter-related and playing a role in some larger system), the authors build on the idea of feedback loops (reinforcing and balancing) and introduce five systems archetypes. They are: "fixes that backfire", "limits to growth", "shifting the burden", "tragedy of the commons", and "accidental adversaries". In the section on "Personal Mastery", the authors argue that learning starts with each person. For organizations to learn and improve, people within the organization (perhaps starting with its core leadership) must learn to reflect on and become aware of their own core beliefs and visions. In "Mental Models", the authors argue that learning organizations need to explore the assumptions and attitudes, which guide their institutional directions, practices, and strategies. Articles on scenario planning, the ladder of inference, the left-hand column, and balancing inquiry and advocacy offer practical strategies to investigate our personal mental models as well as those of others in the organization. In "Shared Vision", the authors make the case for the stakeholders of an organization to continually adapt their vision ("an image of a desired future"), values ("how we get to travel to where we want to go"), purpose ("what the organization is here to do"), and goals ("milestones we expect to reach before too long"). The section offers many strategies and perspectives on how to move an organization toward continuous reflection. In "Team Learning", the authors rely mostly on the work of William Isaacs and others, and make a case for educating organization members in the processes and skills of dialogue and skillful discussion.

This book is enlightening and informative. It has already found a place on my shelf for essential reference books.

Peter M Serge, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

To quote the first few paragraphs at beginning of book:

Among the tribes of northen Natal in South Africa, the most common greeting, equivalent to "hello" in English, is the expression: Sawu bona. It literally means, "I see you." If you are a member of the tribe, you might reply by saying Sikhona, "I am here." The order of the exchange is important: until you see me, I do not exist. It's as if, when you see me bring me into existence.

This meaning, implicit in the language, is part of the spirit of ubuntu, a frame of mind prevalent among native people in Africa below the Sahara. The word ubuntu stems from the folk saying Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu, which from Zulu, literally translates as: "A person is a person because of other people."


"I bow in honor and reverence that place within you where to the Universe resides, when you are in that place within you, and I am in that place within me, there is One." ~namaste


The five disciplines are at the CORE of a Learning Organization

1) Personal Mastery: expand your personal capacity and ability

2) Mental Models: see how our internal pictures of the world shape action and decision

3) Shared Vision: group commitment

4) Team Learning: group ability is greater than the sum of individual talents

5) System Thinking:


"When we try to bring about change in our societies, we are treated first with indifference, then with ridicule, then with abuse and then with oppression. And finally, the greatest challenge is thrown at us: We are treated with respect. This is the most dangerous stage." --A. T. Ariyaratne (Speech made at International Community Leadership Summit, Winrock, Arkansas, March 1983. This quote paraphrases and expands upon a well-known statement made by Mahatma Gandhi in his book Satyagraha in South Africa, 1982, 1979, Canon, Me.: Greenleaf books)


"An [organization] is not a machine but a living organism." --Ikujiro Nonaka /****
Fundamentals of epistemology: what is knowledge, the nature of knowledge, and what constitutes learning.
understanding is achieved after internalization.
Without experience, we cannot truly understand.
Internalization: transformation from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge, habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves.
Innovation is a process to capture, create, leverage, and retain knowledge.
What is your belief? A belief about images of the world - you may call it a mental model - is a very subjective thing

information is the flow of a message, while knowledge is created by accumulating information. Thus, information is a necessary medium or material for eliciting and constructing knowledge.

The second difference is that information is something passive. When we switch on a TV set, information comes regardless of my commitment. But knowledge comes from my belief, so it's more proactive.

And the organizational knowledge or intellectual infrastructure of an organization encourages its individual members to develop new knowledge through new experiences.

This dynamic process is the key to organizational knowledge creation - that is, socialization (from individual tacit knowledge to group tacit knowledge), externalization (from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge), combination (from separate explicit knowledge to systemic explicit knowledge), and internalization (from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge) [...].

[...]

Three Guiding Ideas

1) The Whole. When you are pointing a finger at the problems, notice how many fingers are pointing back at you. If you fixed the symptoms and ignore the root causes, the problems have not gone away. Another way to look at this is treat the person, not the disease. Of course treat the disease if the patient is dying, but know that the patient will get sick again because the "root causes" are stil there.

2) Community. The self is "a point of view." "The essence of being a person is being in a relationship [with] other people." You will not believe this, but each person before you is there for a reason. The reason this person is there at this moment is for you to learn something about yourself. If you ignore the person, do not ignore or forget the lesson.

3) Language. The map is not the territory. We cannot contain every bit of information that comes to us in the world, so we have to create a "map of the territory" and then refer to the map for our information. By changing a person's map, we change their reality. Language is the map, not the reality.

If you're a beginning astronomer, the recipes in this book are well written out and you can port them easily to a calculator, computer or even a spreadsheet if you so wish. So it's a very good book indeed. But... You're left with a certain feeling that you want to know more. Where do all those fancy formulas come from? Conclusion : I will have to buy myself another introductory book on the subject!

If you're into astronomy and like to fly by the seat of your pants, this is your book. Combine it with a good reference, like Burnham's Celestial Handbook.

I read this book way back in 1989 in India at IIT library,
and implemented it in Turbo pascal on 8086/DOS.

It provides explanations of coordinate systems, time, date,
and calculations. Very well written, this is what Astronomy
was about, if you have read NEWTON's principia, or wondered
what Gauss did.

Check out Xephem (Free astronomy program for linux/X with source
code in C), Alw.exe (Astronomy lab almanac generator/DOS), if you want instant answers.

I also use Redshift 4, and starry nights on my pc to get
the star maps.

- Mosh http://www.cs.albany.edu/~mosh

Heavy on getting you the answer and light on the specifics of the theory behind getting you there, Practical Astronomy with your Calculator does exactly what the author purports -- gives you a simple set of equations that will tell you the wheres and whens of astronomical phenomena.

Amateur astronomers will be able to solve a multitude of practical problems with this book. If you are short on funds and have time to explore, this is the book for you. It is well organized and reasonably complete.

The extremely concise - bordering on laconic - style poses the danger that some readers may become discouraged and will give up. The low price makes it a tempting entry-level book, but the terse explanations means you'll have to do a lot of digging, which is a cookbook recipe to discourage newcomers to a field.

I have two critiques of this otherwise excellent work.

1.) The formulae presented in this book are a little too "cookbook" in for my tastes.

2.) Further they are only weakly validated, so it is difficult to know how accurate the results are.

The cookbook nature provides little insight into the physical problem being solved. It did motivate me to buy and study Smart's "Spherical Astronomy". If you want more than superficial answers, you'll need to dig deeper.

Validation is rarely a problem for amateurs. Most people who buy this book will program the recipes on their home computers. (Most are readily amenable to treatment in spreadsheets.) So far, no problem. But how do you know whether or not your calculation of the position of Mars 60,000 ago is any good?

I think that Meeus and Montenbruck largely avoid these problems, but at a much higher selling price.

Tolkien was a very prolific writer. Everyone knows about "The Hobbit", and especially "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. But those were not the only books that he wrote, and I was pleased to find these two relatively short stories (compared with the other stories that I mentioned earlier). Both of them are great; in Farmer Giles of Ham,Tolkien tells us about a simple farmer, content with his farm and his land, who ends up being an acclaimed hero because he rids the land of a dragon named Chrysophylax Dives. Just as with his greater stories, this one is full of imagination and Tolkien's peculiar humor and writing style. The other story, Smith of Wooton Major, is about a boy who receives a very special gift when he eats a slice of a cake that was only baked for good children every 24 years, and what happens with that gift. If you want to read some other stories about Tolkien, without having to spend days on end, then I recommend this book.

This book has two stories from Tolkien. I especially enjoyed the second story, Farmer Giles of Ham. I loved the characters from this story and Tolkien's masterful storytelling. Two Hobbit-thumbs up!

I have long been familiar with J.R.R. Tolkein's famous books - The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings - but, this cute little book shows that just about everything that he put his hand to he did beautifully! It contains two of Prof. Tolkein's novellas - Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham. The stories are sure to charm anyone who believes in beauty and wonder...and maybe hopes just a little that that land of Faery is a real place after all!

Smith of Wootton Major tells the story of a little town that has a wonderful tradition where a special cake is baked every twenty four years, and eaten by twenty four good children. But, when a magical Faery star is slipped into this year's cake, it is eaten by the local smith's son. And so the life of the younger smith is changed beyond anyone's imagination - he is marked by beauty of face and voice, and (unbeknownst to anyone) he can even visit the land of Faery whenever he likes. It is a life of magic and giving.

Farmer Giles of Ham tells the story of a farmer by the name of Aegidius Ahenobarbus Julius Agricola de Hammo - or in the vulgar form, Farmer Giles of Ham. A no-nonsense man was Farmer Giles, and when someone steps onto his property, he is there to meet him with his blunderbuss. However, when the next person to set foot on his property is a giant, Farmer Giles soon finds himself dealing with kings and knights and legendary swords and, worst of all, dragons!

This edition is for those who truly love Fairy Tale. It is amazing to witness first hand Tolkien's breathtaking ability to weave the tales of Faerie. Any reader who enjoyed The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or The Silmarillion will be greatly pleased.

J. R. R. Tolkien, known almost exclusively for the Middle-Earth tales, has a more humorous side. In his short story, "Farmer Giles of Ham", Tolkien displays a superb sense of irony, and a gentle wit. A satirical mock epic of almost Alexander Pope or Voltaire proportions, "Farmer Giles of Ham" is a lesser known, but intriguing part of Tolkien's body of work.

Farmer Giles (of the village known as Ham in the "vulgar tongue") lives a quiet life with his wife and dog, who possesses the power of speech. Alas! To unsettle his provençial habits, a giant stumbles upon the village of Ham, and it is Giles who reluctantly takes up his blunderbus to clumsily sting the giant in the eye. The irony is, when Giles (who came out of the trial almost as badly as the giant himself) is celebrated as a hero and reknowned in the village and beyond, the giant himself thinks that the hit of the primative gun was nought but the sting of a rather large insect.

And so, Giles, who was the last person in the land to become a hero (very much like other Tolkien heros the likes of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins) must take out a dangerous (but delightfully polite) dragon whose fire and claws have ravaged the country for some time. This he accomplishes in a suit of poorly made chainmail, and an ancient helmet.

As a climax, the farmer-turned-warrior must make battle with the high king of the land so that he may claim the dragon's hoard as his own, instead of trying to slake the king's thirst for wealth. With the help of this same dragon, Giles defeats the avaricious monarch and becomes a king in his own right.

Tolkien's knowledge of Medæval culture and lore make this story an enchanting and amusing tale of the best and worst of humankind. He spares no one in his satire, even condemning the chivalrous knights of the king. With a smile and a pen that stings, Tokien creates here a fantasy story of the deliciously unexpected. Charming and intelligent, "Farmer Giles of Ham" has a light sense of wit and humor that one rarely finds in modern literature.

This book is full of information that is useful to a Soldier. It covers alot of lessons that are lost to todays young soldiers due to are ability to overwhelm with our technology alone.

While preparing to deploy to Iraq last Summer I embraced two books. The Small Unit Leader's Guide to Counter-insurgency and this one.

Poole took his research of every Eastern military he could muster and outlined the training and expectations of thier lower enlisted, stressing not only the importance of empowering the lower enlisted of the US military and our allies, but just how skilled our enemies may be.
Rather than officers having most if not all of the say in how operations had occurred, or are to be run, Eastern armies such as the Chinese, let all men involved in a battle have a say in what had happened, and how things can be improved.

Having been trained in a top-down military organization I am skeptical of the value of Poole's reccomendations for us to emulate the Chinese and other organizations, but I am not skeptical of his insight that things must adapt to their time. In a recent conversation with him he made reference to the French, stating that they had been an incredible military strength, but lost it over years of remaining as they had been when they were the most powerful military force of their time.
In North Korea they have their men go 10 miles into S. Korea as part of their training. Knowing Marines who have performed sweep operations on the DMZ and having heard stories of S. Korean Marines disappearing from one day to the next, mines being set where they'd been cleared the day before, I believe it.

Poole believes that the US Private should be the greatest warrior on the battlefield, confident in his abilities as he is in his fire team leader. Poole also believes that we should be able to send a Sergeant, Lance Corporal, and two PFCs into Colombia without any officers, and they should be able to accomplish their mission successfully.
After two years in Vietnam and close to 30 years in the Marines Corps as an infantry officer and enlisted man, he may be onto something.

John Poole has written a fantastic treatise on what will be needed to fight and win wars in the years to come. Though it makes for dry reading at times, this book is absolutely fascinating.It not only discusses enemy tactics, it recommends methods on how to develop ninjustsu-like tactics on your own. Spectacular book. A must-read for anyone in, or planning to join, the military. Top-shelf material!

This book is not a guide for people trying to get a grip on what is happening to our forces in Iraq. It is a good basic soldiers book that is made from many different types of 'field manuals', compiled and catagorized. Nothing new, but a good source for a yound Infantry NCO or Commissioned Officer who wants to keep his 'mind in the game'. Much of the information covers Infantry subjects, some of which is of no use in Iraq. However, we are a world-wide force and need to keep looking over our shoulder at the next conflict. The author speaks with some authority and it shows. As a graduate of the Infantry School at Ft. Benning (I wont say when) this book is a good refresher and contains some new information. If you go on patrol, regardless of you MOS or job title, this is a book you cna use.

I have not finished this book, you should know. However, you should also know that this book made enough of an impression of me that I am writing a review before I have finished in violation of my own rules. I am an author myself and I value these reviews greatly - I wouldn't write if I didn't mean what I say.

This is a great book. In short, it takes the premises - as best we know - of Togakure ryu Ninjutsu and applies them to contemporary military arts. Squad mechanics - the focus of every lieutenant who has ever served - are the focus of Poole's tactical revision of the current philosophy of combat in the US military.

I am not a military man, but I am surrounded by them. I am a ninja, studying Bansenshukai Ninjutsu. We also have some Togakure ryu curriculum, and Poole hits hard on the right stuff. Early in the book he points out that the close combat ryuha are not his focus. Instead, he is looking at the understudied arts of Zanson, Intonjutsu, Shinobi Iri and Hensojutsu. This is a book about how to not fight if you don't have to.

Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu practitioners will argue that this `is not ninjutsu' because it isn't what Hatsumi teaches (in public anyway) but they would be wrong. The taijutsu that BBT teaches is just a small part of what the ninja represents, and this book covers practically everything else. Admittedly, the second chapter references books by Haha Lung and Ashida Kim, who are widely discredited. However, even quacks can have good ideas and Poole expertly extracts the choice tidbits. You will not be displeased.

Like many others, I too stumbled across this book almost 30 years ago as an 8 or 9 year old and have never forgotten it. It strikes the perfect mix of imagination and word fun. I'm ordering a copy now in hopes my six year old daughter will enjoy it as much as I did.

I too stumbled upon this book as a child and was completely enchanted by the story and characters. I hadn't read it for more than 30 years, but recently bought a copy to read to my children (girl 9, boy 7, girl 4) It hasn't lost any of its magic - I'm enjoying it as much as they are. It includes so many of their favorite things, magic, witches, mermaids, babies - and it blends real and imaginary worlds in the same way that they are blended in the minds of children.

One of my favorite childhood books. I bought this for my niece. I'm sure she will love it as much as I did. A perfect book for young girls with big imaginations!

The Witch Family is nice, non-scary magical tale with more heft than contemporary "Color Fairies"-type books. It's a sweet, old-fashioned book -- but heavy emphasis on the sweet. It's the sort of book where things get called by kiddie mis-pronounced names like "noo-doos" for noodles, over and over again. When you're reading to yourself, or reading aloud, that can be part of the charm. But when your kids are listening to 5 hours of audio book on a long car trip, you have to hope that the narrator doesn't lay it on too thick.

As it happens, this narrator lays it on triple-thick: syrup on top of honey on top of sugar. Every single sentence, happy or not, is pronounced with a huge, honey-dripping smile...for 5 hours straight. I grudgingly gave it 4 stars because my girls did enjoy it, and they're the target audience in the end. But as an adult, it was flat-out excruciating.

The Witch Family is about two girls who while drawing witches pretend to banish the head witch, also known as Old Witch, to a glass hill because she is very wicked. If you multiply the "Old" with one million, you get some idea of how old she was! The girls also let Old Witch do her abracadabra so that she can have a witch girl named Hannah and a witch baby. Old Witch gets to be wicked only on Halloween. At the end, the two girls take pity on Old Witch and turn the glass hill into a real hill with grass. After that, Old Witch is not wicked anymore except on Halloween. I think this is a good book to read on Halloween.

Reading these essays which span more than two decades (early 50s to mid-70s), I am struck both by their craft and their antiquity. E.B. White wrote the book on writing, literally, with William Strunk; THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE remains the most useful and concise rule book for modern English exposition yet written, and White's CHARLOTTE'S WEB remains a childhood favorite for many. White was a master of the essay form, sparking a reader's interest in the subject at hand and cajoling further attention to the tangents and digressions which are an essayists stock in trade. He easily wends narratives which include broody geese, nuclear power stations, old dogs, oil tankers and mortality. His voice is plainspoken -- the viewpoint that of a person with deerhunters for neighbors, who enjoys the occasional venison steak, who roots for the deer in hunting season, and yet admits to shooting the foxes who kill his chickens. At the same time, his writing feels dated, rooted in an era when feelings were less admissible than ideas. His writing seems honest, but guarded, particularly after my recent immersion in Ann Lamott, a decidedly unguarded and modernist chronicler. Thus, I emerge from White's work impressed with his grace, language and fluidity, but disappointed in the gut. There are tales untold between these lines and I am left hungry. Old-school excellence, but aging fast.

What do you expect of tomorrow? "THE WORLD OF TOMORROW", perhaps the best known essay among his essay collactiond,"Essa of E.B. White". It contains thirty other essays organozed into seven sections.

The scene of "THE WORLD OF TOMORROW" is in New York in May 1939. White mentions "Tomorrow" remembering the World's Fair held there. The Fair's theme was also "THE WORLD OF TOMORROW", and there were the white ball and spire named the Tylon and Perisphere which were two landmark monumental buildings in the fair. Actually White had to visit there with a box of Kleenex...

At first, the road to the World's Fair is refered as the road to "Tomorrow". Through the street, he arrived at "the very threshold of Tomorrow". At the Fair, he made a few notes about what you may expext of tomorrow--In tomorrow, most sounds aren't these themselves, and we can't tallk back.

The New York World's Fair was filled with man's dream, and it's held 66 years ago! The more I read this book, the more I can be into White's world. His way to use metaphor is brilliant, and it makes me feel more comfortable. So, I really recommend you not only this essay but also his another collection.

I live on a small rural island in the Pacific Northwest, home to fewer than a thousand people in the winter, so I have a deep understanding of what E. B. White means when he writes: "Feeling ran so high that some people stopped speaking to each other--which is a form of discourse."

Lately, I felt the need for something calming in my life and, for the first time in years, I picked up a collection of E. B. White's essays. Reading him is like lighting a fire on a cold and windy evening. This man can write a sentence and create a sense of life as well as anyone I've ever read.

And no one ever wrote more heartfelt prose about barnyard geese.

This is such a marvelous book.

The sentences are simply perfect and the sense of wonder he creates makes this a text you will want to go back to over and over. A great gift for any literate person in your life.

Really great.

Twenty two of the essays appeared in THE NEW YORKER. White had candor. His piece on the death of his pig is masterful. He examined his own feelings and community reaction. The role of his dachshund, Fred, is described amusingly. It is no wonder White wrote so winningly for children.

In 1954 when he had no television he was looked upon as an eccentric. During Hurricane Edna radio worked people up to an incredible state of alarm. It seemed that no wick was available for the Whites' kerosene lamp. White has some gentle fun with mistakes of the exhausted radio announcers. Battered down was said instead of battened down, and unindated for inundated. There are two stages in the country of a storm. There is the period when phones and lights are still going, and then there is the stage when these cease to work. The storm itself did not seem long in comparison to the radio vigil.

He came to feel that living in New England in the winter was a full time job in itself. Another use of his time was having an enemy, the fox. Darkness was more insistent than the cold. Farming, even the kind pursued by the author, is infinitely complex. When the snow arrived early in 1971 White was cut short. The usual things were not done. It got so there was no place to put the snow after it was plowed.

In the city section of the essays it is noted that New York City bestows the gift of loneliness and privacy. In 1939 there were eight million people in the five boroughs. In Florida it appears that the sun and the lizard maintain the same schedule. The tiny spots of the fiddler crab's body enlarge during the daytime hours. To have a pointsettia plant at Christmastime in
Florida seems faintly ridiculous. Pointsettias bloom naturally in the yards. A small chameleon arrives with the Whites' tropical substitute for a Christmas tree much to Mrs. White's delight.

In 1923 the author kept a diary of his trip to Alaska. A ship, docking at Seattle, was to go on a journey for forty days. He had only forty dollars, enough to traverse the inner passage to Skagway, and so he went. The Buford, for some of the passengers, became a high class floating jail because although food and scenery were good, there was no escape. Youthful, White absorbed the vast scene of Alaska. This was a trip promoted by the Chamber of Commerce, but White's roommate was another odd man to the enterprise, a Laplander. He was a reindeer butcher, going to a job in Nome. When the boat reached Skagway White's ticket ran out. The captain came up with the idea of putting him on as a night saloonsman. His metamorphosis took the passengers by surprise.

WALDEN is not a well-liked book among White's acquaintances. Thoreau was torn by two desires, to enjoy the world and to set the world straight. He tended to write in sentences, and WALDEN is a collection of certified sentences. I have tried to give the prospective reader some notion of the enjoyment to be obtained from reading White's essays.