Open Books

hHaving recently become a foster parent thru the Bair Foundation here in Pennsylvania I found this book to be truly one of the most encouraging and inspiring books I have ever read. I feel so privileged to be a part of the ministry that this man and his wife started many years ago and also now to be a part that helps his vision and dream to carry on. I would say that anyone out there who is a foster parent for the nationwide Bair Christian Foster Care Agency that this is a definite must read. You will know without a doubt that this ministry was a "God thing". There's no way this could have all happened without Him. I was so encouraged to continue on and provide the "love home" that was thier dream for all foster children. You will find it hard to put down. You'll be so blessed.

Title: The '06 Lunar Calendar
Contributers: 22 artists, poets and writers.
Genre: Calendar /New Age/ Pagan
Publication date: 2006 (Out Now!)
ISBN: 1-877920-16-9
Pages: 32

The '06 Lunar Calendar - 22 artists, poets and writers.

The 30th Annual Edition is as magnificent as the moon and just as stunning!

Printed on recycled paper using soy-based inks with an aqueous coated cover, this calendar is a luminous example of a caring and talented team of artists, poets and writers. This year The Lunar Press have dedicated this 30th Anniversary edition to the Goddess in her many guises. And what a gift this is. From the moment I saw the cover art `Celtic Twilight' (designed by Joan S. Anderson, who also created the calligraphy and leaf rubbings) I knew this calendar was special.

Inside begins with the first lunation (December 30, '05 to January 28th, '06) where each double page spread guides us through to the 13th lunation (December 20 - January 17th '07). As the calendar hangs, the top of each page is adorned with a black and white picture and/or a poem by various artists and writers. On the bottom page moon icons show the position of the waxing and waning moon. Reading moonwise (anti-clockwise) from the first new moon (shaded) to full (light) you will discover the day, solar date and the times the moon rises and sets.

That's not all. I found the V/C information very enlightening. V/C stands for `Moon Void of Course', otherwise known as a silly season or vacation from normal living! In simple terms, this is the best time for subjective, spiritual non-material concerns, like prayer, yoga, play, psychotherapy or a passive experience, sleep or meditation. In other words, nothing too strenuous or anything involving heavy decision-making. The period of V/C starts as the moon in transit begins to move from one sign of the zodiac to another. It could continue for three days and three nights, or just a few seconds. Although more details are supplied, it is recommended you observe what the Void of Course Moon indicates during your daily living. There are also plenty of books you can read on this subject.

At the back there is a key to a sample lunar month to teach you how to read the moon in all it's glory. There are many additional features too, for example, clearly marked in the top left hand corner of each lunar month diagram you will find one of the 13 corresponding consonants and 5 vowels, which together complete the lunar tree alphabet. The 5 vowels correspond to the seasonal stations of the sun throughout the year (the 2 solstices, 2 equinoxes and the extra day of the divine child, which exists magically outside of the year).

The '06 Lunar Calendar includes fascinating details of the 8 seasonal stations of the sun, known as earth festivals, pagan festivals, or ancient holy days. Further information about the distance of the moon's elliptical orbit, termed the apogee (greatest distance from the earth's centre) and the perigee (the closest distance) can also be found. As you can see, the explanations and detailed terminologies are written in a clear and concise manner.

We also learn the Celtic/Druidic name for the tree-month, accompanied by a leaf rubbing from the tree the month celebrates and a written description of its qualities. Whether your interest is related to the pagan way, astrology or just moon-watching, you will discover a wealth of information to enhance your daily life. As you can probably tell by now, this is not a calendar to schedule your appointments, however, considering the information I have already supplied, I don't think this matters. I personally cannot wait for December 30th to come round, so I can start using my calendar to its full potential.

We now turn to the question of my living in England and the accuracy of my corresponding time zones. As stated above, this is printed in America, and I have the daylight saving hours to consider before I can find my scheduled times for moonrise and moonset. This may sound very complicated, but it really is just a point of adjusting time zones to suit. And if that sounds like too much hard work (or you are just incredibly lazy) then you don't even have to do that much. Turn to the back inside pages and there is a whole page dedicated to the times for London, British GMT and San Francisco, CA 2206 PST. Yes, those talented people at The Luna Press have thought of everything, with one easy glance you have all the correct times for the lunar year ahead and you're ready to look up, as they say at The Lunar Press.

No one can completely know their future, but with this calendar you have a chance to understand how the moon can have an effect on your emotions and physical being. With this knowledge you can learn to adapt and enhance your life, as in astrology. This is nothing new, ancient astronomers and astrologers have been watching the skies since time began. The moon is a natural source for guidance. By the way, if you are into magical practices this is an ideal accompaniment to your studies.

Lency Spezzano is a beautiful soul, and she writes beautifully. I love this book. It clearly describes a higher state of consciousness that I one day hope to achieve myself.

To love and be loved is what life is all about. You are not just a body, you are a beautiful soul, caged in a lower state of consciousness. It is time to leave the cage.

The Making of Black Revolutionaries is a fantastic read and an invaluable resource for all those who want to make history in America, whether struggling against racism or engaging in any other freedom fight. Jim Forman's gripping first-hand account of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) includes testimony from other participants and excerpts from documents of the time.

Managing Software Acquisition: Open Systems and COTS Products is an in-depth guide to gaining open systems and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products. Getting the right software and using it properly can save great amounts of time and cost during the life of a computer system. Business managers and staff must closely understand what is entailed in the often difficult transition from in-house, custom-made software to commercial market products. With reference models, projected cost implications, contracting strategies, and much more, Managing Software Acquisition is strongly recommended for anyone in a business who needs to upgrade their software regularly!

This book is written by Dr. Raymond Struyk, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a leading public policy think-tank based in the United States. It is based on his experience as a technical adviser to several policy think tanks in the Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and is written because there has been no publication on think-tank management before this book was published.

Some of the books' major recommendations are the following:
 The use of incentives should be encouraged to motivate researchers that have made significant accomplishments for the think-tank and to maintain their interests to continue working for the think-tank. The incentives could be both in cash and non-cash forms, such as: sponsorship to attend training courses and international conferences abroad, opportunities to make presentations and meet key policymakers, etc.
 As the size of think tanks grew, researchers should be encouraged to specialize and think tanks might want to create several research focuses. At the same time, relations between researchers and management should be made as collegial as possible and the creation of complex hierarchy and large bureaucracy within the think-tank should be avoided.
 To ensure think-tanks to maintain its credibility and reputation, good quality control is essential. It is suggested that drafts of research outputs should be peer-reviewed, both within the think-tank and by hiring outside reviewers. In addition, think-tank should make a comprehensive communication strategy to communicate its message to its audience, whether they are policymakers, the public, the media, etc.
 Think tanks should make a regular review of its work program and fundraising strategy. The creation of a strategic plan is encouraged, but it should be made before a think-tank is facing a crisis and should be made based on extensive discussion with different stakeholders within the think-tanks: research and support staffs, major donors, board members, etc. In addition, think-tanks should diversify its funding sources, especially by seeking funds from the private sector and by "commercializing" some of its products and expertise, particularly those where the think-tanks are well-known of. For instance, a think-tank specializing in the forecasting the macroeconomic outlook of a country could sell this service to the private sector/corporations.

Dr. Struyk's recommendations in this book were very useful for every organization that called themselves public policy think tanks, especially those that are in the second-stage and are trying to make a transition to a more established think-tank. We believe that the book is highly relevant to us at our institute today. The recommendations given by Dr. Struyk are very useful for us as we move ahead and we hope that some of them could be adopted within our think-tank.

Of course, there are a few issues in think-tank management that we wish could be elaborated further in this book. For instance, many developing countries think-tank are highly dependent on funds from official developing countries agencies, which are often project-oriented, short-term in nature, have bureaucratic reporting requirement, and often failed to take into account the long-term goals of the think-tanks receiving the funds. In the West, most think-tanks received the bulk their support from private foundations and individuals that tend to be more long-term in nature, less intervening and bureaucratic, and are often more respectful of the interests and goals of the think-tank they fund. We wish that there were a discussion in this book on how developing countries' think tanks could gain access to these private foundations and individuals. Unfortunately, this was not extensively discussed in the book.

However, despite such shortcomings, we believe that this book should be read by all think-tanks managers, researchers, donors, and other stakeholders. The advice and recommendations of the book are very practical and based on the author's experiences working with numerous policy think tanks. Thus, they could be easily adapted by other think tanks throughout the world, regardless in which countries the think-tank is located (developed and developing countries) and regardless whether the think-tank is recently established or whether it is already a long-established and highly reputable think-tank. So, we should start reading it and hopefully, we could act to implement some of the recommendations of the book within our own organization.

I happened across Fingarette over thirty years ago and remember loving his book Transformation of the Self because of its superb description of what is the essence of "change" in Eastern meditation and Western psychoanalysis. Deceptively simple, but penetrating. That really is Fingarette. He brings the most arcane and complicated notions, e.g., addiction, insanity, self-deception, down into everyday commonsense terms, though, I must admit, his analysis is very minute (in ridding high-falooten concepts of their mystery). But the end result is rewarding. This book, so to speak, is a summary of many of his earlier ideas, a map indeed of what being a responsible and self-aware and self-correcting individual means.

This is the fifth book from the Open University Oceanography series I have read. As usual, an excellent product. If you are unfamiliar with the series, the technical level is similar to "Scientific American". There are questions (in blue text) interspersed in the text, so you can use the book for "deep study" or just a read. All answers are provided at the back with comments.

The only disappointment was the small number of flow diagrams. Perhaps the word "Cycles" in the title would be better replaced by "Processes". However, all diagrams are very useful and well-done.

If this area interests you, this book ( and the others in the series) are the place to start.

The title of this book is misleading, it was to be called Long-Range Marketing. In fact it is about the increasingly popular subject of long-range planning and strategy - albeit that it comes at this from the marketing perspective. It's importance is that - for the first time - it describes ways of incorporating the longer-term into the planning of most companies; where previously it has been the province of the larger ones (such as Shell, who worked with the author). The new approaches can provide reasonable input in less than a day. In this way it very effectively addresses the problem of short-termism which bedevils so many organisations.

This book is great! If you don't have access to college courses or the time to take them then this is a book for you. This book is clearly written and its exercises guide you through properly interpreting mass spectra. The first edition of this book is also excellent. If you compare this book to McLafferty's (Interpretation of Mass Spectra) this is much more effective for teaching the beginner. I highly recommend this book