Saturday, December 5, 2009

Hiring the Best or Technical Analysis Explained

Hiring the Best: A Manager's Guide to Effective Interviewing and Recruiting

Author: Martin Yat

Employees are your company's number one asset. Hiring the Best, 5th Edition offers managers and HR personnel a proven and practical approach to recruiting and selecting the right people for the job. With over 400 questions you can use to interview candidates and obtain the most pertinent information, you'll be armed with the tools you need to insure that you are indeed Hiring the Best, 5th Edition .

Updates Include:

  • New section on electronic recruitment
  • Revised resource section
  • Information about laws and guidelines which influence hiring practices

    Hiring the Best, 5th Edition allows you to determine not only if candidates can do the job, but also if they can be managed effectively and thrive in their new position.

    America's leading advocate for working professionals, Martin Yate, C.P.C. is the author of the bestselling Knock 'em Dead series: which includes Knock 'em Dead Resumes, 6th Edition , and Knock 'em Dead Cover Letters, 6th Edition . His previous positions include National Director of Training for Dunhill Personnel System, Inc. and Director of Personnel for Bell Industries Computer Memory Division. Martin Yate resides in Savannah, GA.



    Interesting textbook: Kiss Dieting Goodbye or A Guide to Survivorship for Women with Ovarian Cancer

    Technical Analysis Explained: The Successful Investor's Guide to Spotting Investment Trends and Turning Points

    Author: Martin J Pring

    Recommended for professional certification by the Market Technician's Association

    The Original­­and Still Number One­­Technical Analysis Answer Book

    Technical Analysis Explained, 4th Edition, is today's best resource for making smarter, more informed investment decisions. This straight-talking guidebook details how individual investors can forecast price movements with the same accuracy as Wall Street's most highly paid professionals, and provides all the information you will need to both understand and implement the time-honored, profit-driven tools of technical analysis.

    Completely revised and updated for the technologies and trading styles of 21st century markets, it features:



    • Technical indicators to predict and profit from regularly occurring market turning points
    • Psychological strategies for intuitively knowing where investors will seek profits­­and arriving there first!
    • Methods to increase your forecasting accuracy, using today's most advanced trading techniques


    Critical Acclaim for Previous Editions:

    "One of the best books on technical analysis to come out since Edwards and Magee's classic text in 1948.... Belongs on the shelf of every serious trader and technical analyst."

    ­­Futures

    "...Technical Analysis Explained [is] widely regarded as the standard work for this generation of chartists."
    ­­Forbes

    Traders and investors are creatures of habit who react­­and often overreact­­in predictable ways to rising or falling stock prices, breaking business news, andcyclical financial reports. Technical analysis is the art of observing how investors have regularly responded to events in the past and using that knowledge to accurately forecast how they will respond in the future. Traders can then take advantage of that knowledge to buy when prices are near their bottoms and sell when prices are close to their highs.

    Since its original publication in 1980, and through two updated editions, Martin Pring's Technical Analysis Explained has showed tens of thousands of investors, including many professionals, how to increase their trading and investing profits by understanding, interpreting, and forecasting movements in markets and individual stocks. Incorporating up-to-the-minute trading tools and technologies with the book's long-successful techniques and strategies, this comprehensively revised fourth edition provides new chapters on:



    • Candlesticks and one- and two-bar price reversals, especially valuable for intraday and swing traders
    • Expanded material on momentum­­including brand new interpretive techniques from the Directional Movement System and Chaunde Momentum Oscillator to the Relative Momentum Index and the Parabolic
    • Expanded material on volume, with greater emphasis on volume momentum along with new indicators such as the Demand Index and Chaikin Money Flow
    • Relative strength, an increasingly important and until now underappreciated arm of technical analysis
    • Application of technical analysis to contrary opinion theory, expanding the book's coverage of the psychological aspects of trading and investing


    Technical analysis is a tool, nothing more, yet few tools carry its potential for dramatically increasing a user's trading success and long-term wealth. Let Martin Pring's landmark Technical Analysis Explained provide you with a step-by-step program for incorporating technical analysis into your overall trading strategy and increasing your predictive accuracy and potential profit with every trade you make.




    Table of Contents:
    Preface
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction1
    Pt. ITrend-Determining Techniques13
    1The Market Cycle Model15
    2Financial Markets and the Business Cycle26
    3Dow Theory36
    4Typical Parameters for Intermediate Trends50
    5Price Patterns63
    6Smaller Price Patterns98
    7One-and Two-Bar Price Patterns111
    8Trendlines136
    9Moving Averages154
    10Momentum Principles179
    11Individual Momentum Indicators I211
    12Individual Momentum Indicators II237
    13Candle Charts257
    14Point and Figure Charting277
    15Miscellaneous Techniques for Determining Trends287
    16The Concept of Relative Strength304
    17Putting the Indicators Together: The DJ Transports 1990-2001322
    Pt. IIMarket Structure329
    18Price: The Major Averages331
    19Price: Group Rotation352
    20Time: Longer-Term Cycles364
    21Practical Identification of Cycles391
    22Volume: General Principles397
    23Volume Oscillators409
    24Breadth435
    Pt. IIIOther Aspects of Market Behavior461
    25Why Interest Rates Affect the Stock Market463
    26Sentiment Indicators485
    27Applying Technical Analysis to the Theory of Contrary Opinion511
    28Checkpoints for Identifying Primary Stock Market Peaks and Troughs526
    29Automated Trading Systems539
    30Technical Analysis of Global Stock Markets564
    31Technical Analysis of Individual Stocks574
    Epilogue593
    AppThe Elliott Wave595
    Glossary600
    Bibliography604
    Index609
  • Friday, December 4, 2009

    People Skills or Natural Cures They Dont Want You to Know About

    People Skills

    Author: Robert Bolton

    A wall of silent resentment shuts you off from someone you love....You listen to an argument in which neither party seems to hear the other....Your mind drifts to other matters when people talk to you....
    People Skills is a communication-skills handbook that can help you eliminate these and other communication problems. Author Robert Bolton describes the twelve most common communication barriers, showing how these "roadblocks" damage relationships by increasing defensiveness, aggressiveness, or dependency. He explains how to acquire the ability to listen, assert yourself, resolve conflicts, and work out problems with others. These are skills that will help you communicate calmly, even in stressful emotionally charged situations.
    People Skills will show you
    * How to get your needs met using simple assertion techniques
    * How body language often speaks louder than words
    * How to use silence as a valuable communication tool
    * How to de-escalate family disputes, lovers' quarrels, and other heated arguments
    Both thought-provoking and practical, People Skills is filled with workable ideas that you can use to improve your communication in meaningful ways, every day.



    Table of Contents:
    Contents
    Preface
    PART ONE
    Introduction
    CHAPTER ONE
    Skills for Bridging the Interpersonal Gap

    Communication: Humanity's Supreme Achievement
    The Ineffectiveness of Most Communication
    The Ache of Loneliness
    So Much Lost Love
    A Key to Success at Work
    A Life-or-Death Matter
    You Can Change
    You Will Change!
    Managing Your Resistance to Learning
    Five Sets of Skills
    Summary

    CHAPTER TWO
    Barriers to Communication

    Common Communication Spoilers
    Why Roadblocks Are High-Risk Responses
    Judging: the Major Roadblock
    Roadblock
    Sending Solutions Can Be a Problem!
    Avoiding the Other's Concerns
    Roadblock Number Thirteen
    Summary

    PART TWO
    Listening Skills
    CHAPTER THREE
    Listening Is More Than Merely Hearing

    The Importance of Listening
    Listening Defined
    Listening Skill Clusters
    Attending Skills
    Following Skills
    Summary

    CHAPTER FOUR
    Four Skills of Reflective Listening

    Reflective Responses Provide a Mirror to the Speaker
    Paraphrasing
    Reflecting Feelings
    Reflecting Meanings
    Summary

    CHAPTER FIVE
    Why Reflective Responses Work

    Style and Structure in Listening
    Six Peculiarities of Human Communication
    Skepticism Is Best Dissolved by Action
    Summary

    CHAPTER SIX
    Reading Body language

    The Importance of Body Language
    Nonverbals: The Language of Feelings
    The "Leakage" of Masked Feelings
    Guidelines for Reading Body Language
    Reflect the Feelings Back to the Sender
    A Clear But Confusing Language
    Summary

    CHAPTER SEVEN
    Improving Your ReflectingSkills

    Guidelines for Improved Listening
    Beyond Reflective Listening
    When to Listen Reflectively
    When Not to Listen Reflectively
    The Good News and the Bad News
    Summary

    PART THREE
    Assertion Skills
    CHAPTER EIGHT
    Three Approaches to Relationships

    Listening and Assertion: The Yin and Yang of Communication
    Methods for Developing Assertiveness
    The Need to Protect One's Personal Space
    Impacting
    The Submission-Assertion-Aggression Continuum
    Payoffs and Penalties of Three Ways of Relating
    Choose for Yourself
    Summary

    CHAPTER NINE
    Developing Three-Part Assertion Messages

    Verbal Assertion: The Third Option
    Three-Part Assertion Messages
    Effective and Ineffective Ways of Confrontation
    Writing Three-Part Assertion Messages
    A Voyage of Self-Discovery and Growth
    Summary

    CHAPTER TEN
    Handling the Push-Push Back Phenomenon

    Surprise Attack
    The Human Tendency to Be Defensive
    The Upward Spiral of Increasing Defensiveness
    A Six-Step Assertion Process
    Summary

    CHAPTER ELEVEN
    Increasing Your Assertive Options

    Many Varieties of Assertive Behavior
    "Natural" Assertions
    Self-Disclosure
    Descriptive Recognition
    Relationship Assertions
    Selective Inattention
    Withdrawal
    The Spectrum Response
    Options
    Natural and Logical Consequences
    Stop the Action; Accept the Feelings
    Say "No!,"
    Modify the Environment
    The Danger of Going Overboard
    The Aura of Assertiveness
    Summary

    PART FOUR
    Conflict Management Skills
    CHAPTER TWELVE
    Conflict Prevention and Control

    Conflict Is Unavoidable
    Conflict Is Disruptive and/or Destructive
    The Benefits of Conflict
    Realistic and Nonrealistic Conflict
    Personal Conflict Prevention and Control Methods
    Group/Organizational Prevention and Control Methods
    The Dangers of Conflict Prevention and Control
    Summary

    CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    Handling the Emotional Components of Conflict

    Focus on the Emotions First
    The Conflict Resolution Method
    The Conflict Resolution Method in Action
    Four Ways to Use the Conflict Resolution Method
    Preparation for the Encounter
    Evaluating the Conflict
    Expected Outcomes of the Conflict Resolution Method
    Summary

    CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    Collaborative Problem Solving: Seeking an Elegant Solution

    Three Kinds of Conflict
    Alternatives to Collaborative Problem Solving
    Seeking an Elegant Solution Through Collaborative Problem Solving
    Six Steps of the Collaborative Problem-Solving Method
    What This Problem-Solving Method Communicates
    Collaborative Problem-Solving in Action
    Handling the Crucial Preliminaries
    What Do I Do When Collaborative Problem Solving Doesn't Work?
    Applications of Collaborative Problem Solving
    Summary

    CHAPTER FIFTEEN
    Three Essentials for Effective Communication

    In Communication, Skills Alone Are Insufficient
    Genuineness
    Non-possessive Love
    Empathy
    Implementation of the Core Attitudes

    AFTERWORD
    Four Steps to Improved Communication

    A Quantified Commitment to Use the Skills
    Select Appropriate Situations
    Undaunted by Occasional Failure
    Prepare Others for the Change
    Skill Training

    Notes
    Index

    Interesting book: Tear up This Book or Can You See What I See The Night Before Christmas

    Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About

    Author: Kevin Trudeau

    Kevin Trudeau blows the lid off a nest of deception and double standards concerning general and individual health in this new book, Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You To Know About. Kevin has risked government prosecution to bring you the full story of an intricate conspiracy.

    From the retail supermarket outlets of huge, publicly traded corporations comes processed, manipulated, engineered "food products" produced by other wings of the same corporation. These artificial, toxic treats are then sold with the blessings of the Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug Administration government organizations charged with safeguarding the public good laying the foundations for future disease and chronic ill-health for the consumer, and a guaranteed source of revenue for the medical and pharmaceutical sectors.

    Kevin reveals the shocking truth of how drugs which are being advertised directly to the consumer, pushing their use to an all-time high are actually the cause of illness and disease climbing to near epidemic levels.

    And, though it sounds dire, Kevin offers a light in the darkness and directs the reader to scores and scores of alternative therapies, medical practices, philosophies and most importantly potential cures that help your body regain its natural state of health and vibrancy.

    So follow Kevin on an amazing journey through the behind-the-scenes world of corporate sponsored "nutrition" and "health," and learn about Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You To Know About.



    Thursday, December 3, 2009

    Making Globalization Work or Project Management with MS Project CD Student CD

    Making Globalization Work

    Author: Joseph E Stiglitz

    "A damning denunciation of things as they are, and a platform for how we can do better."—Andrew Leonard, Salon

    Four years after he outlined the challenges our increasingly interdependent world was facing in Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz offered his agenda for reform. Now in paperback, Making Globalization Work offers inventive solutions to a host of problems, including the indebtedness of developing countries, international fiscal instability, and worldwide pollution. Stiglitz also argues for the reform of global financial institutions, trade agreements, and intellectual property laws, to make them better able to respond to the growing disparity between the richest and poorest countries. Now more than ever before, globalization has gathered the peoples of the world into one community, bringing with it a need to think and act globally. This trenchant, intellectually powerful book is an invaluable step in that process. This paperback edition contains a brand-new preface.

    The New York Times - Jeffry A. Frieden

    Stiglitz has given us a well-written and informative primer on the major global economic problems. He helps his readers understand exactly what is at stake.

    Library Journal

    Nobel Prize winner Stiglitz (former chairman, Council of Economic Advisors; Globalization and Its Discontents) identifies six existing indications that globalization has yet to live up to its promise: the pervasiveness of poverty, the need for foreign assistance and debt relief, the aspiration to make trade fair, the limitations of liberalization, the need to protect the environment, and the flawed system of global governance. In addition to reiterating this criticism from his previous megaseller, Stiglitz here presents concrete methods to enable political globalization to proceed in accord with economic globalization. For example, the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization and a host of additional, soon-to-be-created international political organizations need to start democratically representing the interests of developing countries and stop serving as platforms for the "Washington Consensus." The author occasionally slips by adopting the same type of rhetoric that, he argues, has mystified the processes of economic globalization, e.g., when he suggests that a balanced intellectual property regime serves the interests of every nation developed and developing alike. Overall, his new work succeeds admirably at presenting a concrete course of action for strengthening the institutions and processes of political globalization. Accessible to nonspecialists, this book is recommended for all academic libraries. Cynthia Cameros, Teaneck, NJ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

    Soundview Executive Book Summaries

    Fighting The Good Fight
    Many economists and world leaders agree that globalization is supposed to create higher living standards, increased access to foreign markets, more foreign investment and open borders. But former World Bank Chief Economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz argues in his latest book, Making Globalization Work (a self-described sequel to his 2002 book, Globalization and Its Discontents), that globalization is desperately failing the 80 percent of the world's population that lives in developing countries and the 40 percent that lives in poverty.

    The Problems
    Stiglitz's overall objection is not to globalization itself; it's to how globalization is managed. He argues that the institutions tasked with managing globalization - the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) - help developed nations more than poor nations and place profit ahead of environmental health and better standards of living.

    One reason for this, Stiglitz argues, is the United States' excessive influence on the system. The IMF, for example, assigns votes according to economic size, giving the United States effective veto power. Further, the U.S. president appoints the head of the World Bank. This concentration of power has led to what Stiglitz calls "the Washington Consensus," his term for the lock-step policies shared by the IMF, the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury. The result is that these institutions are only really accountable to wealthy countries rather than the poor countries they are tasked with helping.

    What's worse, Stiglitz writes, is that when poor countries seek aid, the Washington Consensus attaches economic policies and lending conditions that are often counterproductive and even undermine the sovereignty of those nations. Its requirements often include massive privatization, spending cuts, lower import tariffs and exposure to volatile foreign capital - four things Stiglitz explains are precisely what developing countries don't need when they're in dire straits. Consequently, Stiglitz argues, countries that have followed the advice of this powerful block have failed almost 100 percent of the time to maintain economic stability.

    The Solutions
    Stiglitz offers a litany of specific reforms to the globalization management system, but, ultimately, they all rest on the (some might say provocative) idea that the regulatory power of government, rather than unfettered capitalism, makes free markets work. Absent this oversight, he writes, markets dissolve into chaos, dishonesty and secrecy.

    One of Stiglitz's biggest proposed reforms is to the global reserve system's dependence on Treasury securities, which he argues is actually a mechanism for funding U.S. overconsumption habits. Stiglitz calls for a new, global reserve currency (called "global greenbacks") system that would stabilize the worldwide yin-yang effect of trade surpluses and deficits.

    Stiglitz also proposes global regulation that would restrict activities and political instabilities that harm the environment, and would provide recourse when one nation's environmental actions harm other countries. Stiglitz further argues that poor countries are entitled to compensation for maintaining their biodiversity, especially those with rainforests that spawn drugs and sequester carbon dioxide.

    Western banks and multinational corporations are also on Stiglitz's list of institutions needing global oversight. He argues that today's thick corporate veil regrettably tends to relieve employees of moral responsibility. Part of the solution to this, he writes, is more leeway regarding global class-action suits and more enforcement of intellectual property laws so that, for example, AIDS drugs become more accessible rather than more profitable.

    Ultimately, Stiglitz concedes, the solution to many of the problems of globalization management lies at the feet of poor countries, which must break the bribery cycle between their governments and international companies, sell their natural resources for a fair price, spend - and save - their money wisely and learn to manage currency fluctuations.

    Despite all the protest, Stiglitz is clearly still a cautiously optimistic supporter of globalization. But he is confident that the United States cannot continue to control the world's major economic aid institutions without producing results for the poor countries of the world.

    Why We Like This Book
    Making Globalization Work explores the problems surrounding the management of globalization. It contributes considerably to the political discourse about the role of governments in the free market through its nuts-and-bolts appraisals of NAFTA, the WTO, the Kyoto Protocol and many other elements of today's globalization debate. But the heart of the book is about finding better ways to make globalization work for the hundreds of millions of people who live in developing countries and in poverty. Copyright © 2007 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

    Kirkus Reviews

    If the free market is the answer to the world's woes, then why is so much of the world getting poorer? Nobel Prize-winning economist Stiglitz (The Roaring Nineties, 2003) ventures some persuasive answers. There are many ways to make globalization work, writes Stiglitz. Regrettably, the U.S. and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are not practicing any of them. Indeed, he argues, "the world's sole superpower has simultaneously been pushing for economic globalization and weakening the political foundations necessary to make economic globalization work." The U.S. consistently plays on an unlevel field, demanding that developing nations open their markets on terms dictated by American interests; globalization as it is now practiced demands that sovereign nations become less sovereign, even as it forces upon developing countries a one-size-fits-all economic system that "is inappropriate and often grossly damaging." America's insistence on the primacy of the free market really means a market that is free for the biggest players, though even a theoretically pure free market is not necessarily the best solution in many instances. For example, Stiglitz writes, many of the thriving economies of East Asia, such as China's, are thoroughly managed, while social democracies such as those of Scandinavia channel much of the GDP into long-range, state-controlled financial sectors for the interest of future generations; meanwhile, free-market experiments in the former Soviet Union have proven disastrous except for a few lucky capitalists. Reining in inequalities is one of the foremost tasks for a globalism worthy of the name, Stiglitz suggests; those calling for ThirdWorld debt relief are on the right track. But there is more to it, he adds, including a rethinking of innovation-stifling intellectual property conventions and a restructuring of international institutions to serve their neediest constituents fairly. A thoughtful essay that ought to provoke discussion in certain well-appointed offices, to say nothing of development and aid circles.



    Book about: Pigeon Has Feelings Too or The Demigod Files

    Project Management with MS Project CD + Student CD

    Author: Clifford F Gray

    As the market-leading textbook on the subject, Project Management: The Managerial Process, 4e is distinguished by its balanced treatment of both the technical and behavioral issues in project management as well as by its coverage of a broad range of industries to which project management principles can be applied. It focuses on how project management is integral to the organization as a whole. The 4th edition reflects the latest changes found in the practice. Other texts discuss the topics covered in this text but they do not view oversight as the project manager’s operating environment, as does Gray/Larson.



    Table of Contents:
    Chapter 1: Modern Project Management
    Chapter 2: Organization Strategy and Project Selection
    Chapter 3: Organization: Structure and Culture
    Chapter 4: Defining the Project
    Chapter 5: Estimating Project Times and Costs
    Chapter 6: Developing a Project Plan
    Chapter 7: Managing Risk
    Chapter 8: Scheduling Resources and Costs
    Chapter 9: Reducing Project Duration
    Chapter 10: Leadership: Being an Effective Project Manager
    Chapter 11: Managing Project Teams
    Chapter 12: Outsourcing: Managing Interorganizational Relations
    Chapter 13: Progress and Performance Measurement and Evaluation
    Chapter 14: Project Audit and Closure
    Chapter 15: International Projects
    Chapter 16: Oversight
    Appendix 1: SimProject Case
    Appendix 2: Computer Project Exercises

    Wednesday, December 2, 2009

    The Necessary Revolution or How to Work a Room

    The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World

    Author: Peter Seng

    Imagine a world in which the excess energy from one business would be used to heat another. Where buildings need less and less energy around the world, and where “regenerative” commercial buildings – ones that create more energy than they use – are being designed. A world in which environmentally sound products and processes would be more cost-effective than wasteful ones. A world in which corporations such as Costco, Nike, BP, and countless others are forming partnerships with environmental and social justice organizations to ensure better stewardship of the earth and better livelihoods in the developing world. Now, stop imagining – that world is already emerging.

    A revolution is underway in today’s organizations. As Peter Senge and his co-authors reveal in The Necessary Revolution, companies around the world are boldly leading the change from dead-end “business as usual” tactics to transformative strategies that are essential for creating a flourishing, sustainable world. There is a long way to go, but the era of denial has ended. Today’s most innovative leaders are recognizing that for the sake of our companies and our world, we must implement revolutionary—not just incremental—changes in the way we live and work.

    Brimming with inspiring stories from individuals and organizations tackling social and environmental problems around the globe, THE NECESSARY REVOLUTION reveals how ordinary people at every level are transforming their businesses and communities. By working collaboratively across boundaries, they are exploring and putting into place unprecedented solutions that move beyond justbeing “less bad” to creating pathways that will enable us to flourish in an increasingly interdependent world. Among the stories in these pages are the evolution of Sweden’s “Green Zone,” Alcoa’s water use reduction goals, GE’s ecoimagination initiative, and Seventh Generation’s decision to shift some of their advertising to youth-led social change programs.

    At its heart, THE NECESSARY REVOLUTION contains a wealth of strategies that individuals and organizations can use — specific tools and ways of thinking — to help us build the confidence and competence to respond effectively to the greatest challenge of our time. It is an essential guidebook for all of us who recognize the need to act and work together—now—to create a sustainable world, both for ourselves and for the generations to follow.



    Read also Agent Based Models or Way of the Samurai 2

    How to Work a Room: The Ultimate Guide to Savvy Socializing in Person and Online

    Author: Susan RoAn

    A Classic, Now Expanded and Updated

    The new and expanded two-cassette edition of the most effective guide to networking and building both business and personal relationships.

    Walking into a room full of strangers, whether at a business function or a cocktail party, is nerve-wracking—especially if you’re trying to make a good impression. In How to Work a Room, Susan RoAne lays out the fundamentals of savvy socializing, teaching you how to interact impressively and make the connections that allow you to move forward in your business and personal life. Her dynamic program, a worldwide bestselling book since its first publication in 1988 and a top-selling Renaissance audiobook since 1991, is now updated and expanded, adding additional punch and appeal to a self-help classic.

    With wit and style RoAne addresses all the ways to successfully socialize. This comprehensive two-cassette edition also gives you the tools to network in the “virtual room” and “techno-toy room,” and pays special attention to the new business and social dynamics of 2000 and beyond.

    This supercharged three-hour learning experience drives home the most effective ways to make the most of interpersonal and networking opportunities.



    Table of Contents:
    Chapter 1: The Roadblocks:

    Monday, November 30, 2009

    Financial Peace Planner or Richistan

    Financial Peace Planner: A Step-by-Step Guide to Restoring Your Family's Financial Health

    Author: Dave Ramsey

    Dave Ramsey knows what it's like to have - and lose - it all. After falling so far into debt that he was forced to declare personal bankruptcy, Ramsey rebuilt his financial life. Now he offers his hard-won advice, and much-needed hope, to many Americans who find themselves in serious debt and desperate for a way out.

    There are no gimmicks or quick fixes to Ramsey's method of financial salvation. Instead he encourages you to take "baby steps," set realistic goals, and seek the support of family and friends. Ramsey's advice is easy to follow, and, because he's been there, he doesn't talk down to you. His workbook format allows you to frequently monitor your progress and, most important, to face your situation honestly.

    Inside you'll find help on how to

    • Asses the urgency of your situation
    • Understand where your money's going
    • Create a realistic budget
    • Dump your debt
    • Clean up your credit rating

    Like any regimen, achieving financial peace requires patience and hard work. But the benefits - even if they're only the ability to sleep at night, answer the telephone, and balance the checkbook without stress - are well worth the effort. And once you're back on your feet, you'll find information on how to grow your wealth, provide for a comfortable retirement, and leave a legacy of financial peace.

    Filled with inspirational insights that come from personal experience, The Financial Peace Planner may be the most valuable purchase you ever make.



    Interesting book: Save Your Knees or The Perricone Promise

    Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich

    Author: Robert Frank

    The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through “Richistan” entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own “arborists.” They’re also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
    Richistan is like the best travel writing, full of colorful and interesting stories providing insights into exotic locales. Robert Frank has been loitering on the docks of yacht marinas, pestering his way into charity balls, and schmoozing with real estate agents selling mega-houses to capture the story of the twenty-first century’s nouveau riche:

    House-training the rich. People with new wealth have to be taught how to act like, well, proper rich people. Just in the nick of time, there’s been a boom in the number of newly trained butlers—“household managers”—who will serve just the right cabernet when a Richistani’s new buddies from Palm Beach stop by.

    “My boat is bigger than your boat.” Only in Richistan would a 100-foot-boat be considered a dinghy. Personal pleasure craft have started to rival navy destroyers in size and speed. Richistan is also a place where friends make fun of those misers who buy the new girlfriend a mere Mercedes SLK.

    “You want my money? Prove that you’re helping the needy!” Richistanis are not only consuming like crazy, they’re also shaking up the establishment’s bureaucratic, slow-moving charity network, makinglean, results-oriented philanthropy an important new driving force.

    Move over, Christian Coalition. Richistanis are more Democratic than Republican, “fed up and not going to take it anymore,” and willing to spend millions to get progressive-oriented politicians elected.

    “My name is Mike and I’m rich.” Think that money is the answer? Think again as Robert Frank explores the emotional complexities of wealth.

    And, as Robert Frank reveals, there is not one Richistan but three: Lower, Middle, and Upper, each of which has its own levels and distinctions of wealth —the haves and the have-mores. The influence of Richistan and the Richistanis extends well beyond the almost ten million households that make up its population, as the nonstop quest for status and an insatiable demand for luxury goods reshapes the entire American economy.

    DaleFarris - Library Journal

    Frank, Wall Street Journalsenior special writer, created a stir in popular culture when he began his weekly WSJcolumn and daily blog called The Wealth Report, which discussed the way of life of "Richistanis," residents of the unique world of "Richistan," who have realized tremendous wealth. In 2003, the author learned that the number of American millionaire households had more than doubled since 1995 to over eight million and that these newly affluent were beginning to cluster and create their own universe. In 2003, WSJassigned Frank to focus full time on the life and times of the nouveau riche, which led to his popular Wealth Reporter column and, ultimately, to this fully fleshed work, which provides a fascinating analysis of the life and the culture of the ultra-rich. He digs deep, analyzing their high-end investing patterns and business savvy, charitable giving, and purchase of luxury goods and services. Frank describes their own personalized health-care system, specialized transport system, unlimited, customized travel network, household managers, and much more. He also provides an understanding of the paradoxical nature of many of the newly rich that explains why so many are as common as ordinary middle-class Americans, even though they have more money than they could ever spend and are nothing like the select few among this subculture who attract a media frenzy, like Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, and Bill Gates. The lively narration by Dick Hill helps maintain interest throughout this material, which provides an important contribution to the fields of economics and demography. Highly recommended for university and larger public libraries.



    Leadership on the Line or One Up On Wall Street

    Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading

    Author: Ronald A Heifetz

    Every day, in every facet of our lives, opportunities to lead call out to us. At work and at home, in our local communities and in the global village, the chance to make a difference beckons. Yet often, we hesitate. For all its passion and promise, for all its excitement and rewards, leading is risky, dangerous work. Why? Because real leadership -- the kind that surfaces conflict, challenges long-held beliefs, and demands new ways of doing things -- causes pain. And when people feel threatened, they take aim at the person pushing for change. As a result, leaders often get hurt both personally and professionally. In Leadership on the Line, renowned leadership authorities Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky marshal a half century of combined teaching and consulting experience to show that it is possible to put ourselves on the line, respond effectively to the risks, and live to celebrate our efforts. With compelling examples including the presidents of countries and the presidents of organizations, everyday managers and prominent activists, politicians and parents, the authors illustrate proven strategies for surviving and thriving amidst the dangers of leading.

    The authors also address often-neglected aspects of leadership, such as how to manage your personal vulnerabilities, and how to anchor yourself and sustain your spirit through tough times. Both uplifting and practical, this essential book enables each of us to lead courageously and confidently -- without losing ourselves.

    Publishers Weekly

    Recognizing that it can be both lonely and difficult at the top, the authors faculty members of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government set out to lend emotional and practical support. Whether leaders represent a local planning board or a Fortune 500 company, they "live dangerously," say the authors, "because when leadership counts, when you lead people through difficult change, you challenge what people hold dear their daily habits, tools, loyalties, and ways of thinking with nothing more to offer perhaps than a possibility." To that end, Heifetz and Linsky offer useful strategies leaders can employ, such as building political constituencies, trying to orchestrate the inevitable conflict, and forcing those who cause problems to actually solve the problems. Indeed, the book does dwell on the negative aspects of leadership, serving more as a troubleshooting guide than a how-to leadership handbook. Some of the examples are informal (e.g., the 1994 Chicago Bulls), while others are more traditional (e.g., city planning and politics). Showing a sympathetic side, Heifetz and Linsky offer tactics to help leaders not to take conflict personally. Remember, they counsel, you are more than your job. This book will undoubtedly provide leaders and managers comfort on days when everything seems to be going wrong in their department or organization. (May 23) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

    Booknews

    Heifetz and Linsky (both John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard U.) discuss how to survive and thrive on the dangers of leadership. They address leadership at all levels, from parents to everyday workers, managers and community activists, presidents of organizations and of countries. They examine why and how leadership is dangerous, how that danger drives some people "out of the game," possible strategies to reduce the risk of getting pushed aside, ways that people contribute to their own demise, ways to manage personal vulnerabilities, and how to keep one's spirit alive in the face of adversity. This text takes a more personal and practical approach to expand on ideas raised in Heifetz's earlier book, . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

    Soundview Executive Book Summaries

    Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading
    Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky are two faculty members from Harvard and high-level consultants who understand the risks that are inherent in the role of the leader. They write that leadership is worth the risk because the goals of leadership extend beyond material gain or personal advancement. Real leadership speaks to higher values, surfaces unresolved conflicts, and can make a difference in people's lives. But, leadership can be risky when it brings up unpopular initiatives, puts provocative new ideas on the table, questions the gaps between people's values and behaviors, or asks people to face up to tough realities.

    To help leaders survive and thrive, Heifetz and Linsky provide encouragement to those who put their ideas on the line and challenge people to change. Using the lessons learned from their students and clients around the world as inspiration, they offer guides to help leaders name, organize and make sense out of their experience.

    Challenges and Pitfalls
    The first part of Leadership on the Line explores the challenges and pitfalls of leadership and describes many stories where a leader has been "taken out of the game." Leadership is dangerous, and stories about assassinated leaders make the point.

    Some problems are mere technical problems that can be solved with available know-how and procedures, but other problems that cannot be solved with authoritative expertise or standard procedures are adaptive challenges. These require experiments, new discoveries and numerous adjustments.

    The authors write, "Without learning new ways - changing attitudes, values and behaviors - peoplecannot make the adaptive leap necessary to thrive in the new environment." Sustaining change requires those with the problem to internalize the change. But, this is difficult because it is hard for people to see that the new situation will be any better than the current condition. The authors write that the single most common source of leadership failure is when leaders treat adaptive challenges like technical problems.

    To mobilize adaptive work, leaders must engage people in adjusting their unrealistic expectations, rather than try to satisfy them with a technical remedy. The authors write that leaders must counteract people's "exaggerated dependency and promote their resourcefulness." This requires an extraordinary level of presence, time, artful communication and trust.

    Reducing The Risks of Leadership
    To offer hope to those who want to avoid being pushed aside, Part Two discusses these five action ideas that help reduce the risks of leadership:

    1. Get on the Balcony. First you must see what is happening, then you must take action with a plan. Repeat these two things with discipline and flexibility. Maintain a diagnostic mindset on a changing reality. Address real stakes, fears and conflicts.
    2. Think Politically. Place an emphasis on personal relationships. Nurture networks of people, find partners, keep the opposition close, accept responsibility, acknowledge people's loss, model behavior, and accept casualties.
    3. Orchestrate the Conflict. Work with differences, passions and conflicts in a way that diminishes their destructive potential. Create a safe environment where conflict can safely take place, control the level of conflict, pace the work, and offer a vision of the future.
    4. Give the Work Back. Place the work of finding solutions within and between the factions who are faced with the challenge, and tailor your interventions so they are clear and have a context. Hold steady in the aftermath so you can evaluate your next move.
    5. Hold Steady. Wavering or acting prematurely can destroy an initiative. Maintain your poise so you can plan the next step.

    The book ends with a discussion of the critical aspects of exercising leadership, and ways to manage personal vulnerabilities without losing hope. These include remembering to pay attention to your own needs, and not forgetting that leadership is a personal activity that is an intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical challenge. Detach your professional life from your role as a leader.

    Why Soundview Likes This Book
    Leadership on the Line offers a well-rounded approach to leadership that embraces the humanity of the leader while providing numerous pertinent examples and lessons about successful leadership strategies. The authors' words of practical advice and inspiration are packed with wisdom and experiences that can give any leader a better perspective on their crucial role in business, family, government and community. Copyright (c) 2002 Soundview Executive Book Summaries



    Table of Contents:
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction1
    Pt. 1The Challenge
    1The Heart of Danger9
    2The Faces of Danger31
    Pt. 2The Response
    3Get on the Balcony51
    4Think Politically75
    5Orchestrate the Conflict101
    6Give the Work Back123
    7Hold Steady141
    Pt. 3Body and Soul
    8Manage Your Hungers163
    9Anchor Yourself187
    10What's on the Line?207
    11Sacred Heart225
    Notes237
    Index243
    About the Authors251

    Look this: Broken Promises Broken Dreams or George Washingtons Expense Account

    One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market

    Author: Peter Lynch

    THE NATIONAL BESTSELLING BOOK THAT EVERY INVESTOR SHOULD OWN

    Peter Lynch is America's number-one money manager. His mantra: Average investors can become experts in their own field and can pick winning stocks as effectively as Wall Street professionals by doing just a little research.

    Now, in a new introduction written specifically for this edition of One Up on Wall Street, Lynch gives his take on the incredible rise of Internet stocks, as well as a list of twenty winning companies of high-tech '90s. That many of these winners are low-tech supports his thesis that amateur investors can continue to reap exceptional rewards from mundane, easy-to-understand companies they encounter in their daily lives.

    Investment opportunities abound for the layperson, Lynch says. By simply observing business developments and taking notice of your immediate world -- from the mall to the workplace -- you can discover potentially successful companies before professional analysts do. This jump on the experts is what produces "tenbaggers," the stocks that appreciate tenfold or more and turn an average stock portfolio into a star performer.

    The former star manager of Fidelity's multibillion-dollar Magellan Fund, Lynch reveals how he achieved his spectacular record. Writing with John Rothchild, Lynch offers easy-to-follow directions for sorting out the long shots from the no shots by reviewing a company's financial statements and by identifying which numbers really count. He explains how to stalk tenbaggers and lays out the guidelines for investing in cyclical, turnaround, and fast-growing companies.

    Lynch promises that if you ignore the ups and downs of the market and theendless speculation about interest rates, in the long term (anywhere from five to fifteen years) your portfolio will reward you. This advice has proved to be timeless and has made One Up on Wall Street a number-one bestseller. And now this classic is as valuable in the new millennium as ever.



    Sunday, November 29, 2009

    The Three Signs of a Miserable Job or Bringing Home the Birkin

    The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (And Their Employees)

    Author: Patrick M Lencioni

    A bestselling author and business guru tells how to improve your job satisfaction and performance.

    In his sixth fable, bestselling author Patrick Lencioni takes on a topic that almost everyone can relate to: the causes of a miserable job. Millions of workers, even those who have carefully chosen careers based on true passions and interests, dread going to work, suffering each day as they trudge to jobs that make them cynical, weary, and frustrated. It is a simple fact of business life that any job, from investment banker to dishwasher, can become miserable. Through the story of a CEO turned pizzeria manager, Lencioni reveals the three elements that make work miserable -- irrelevance, immeasurability, and anonymity -- and gives managers and their employees the keys to make any job more fulfilling.

    As with all of Lencionis books, this one is filled with actionable advice you can put into effect immediately. In addition to the fable, the book includes a detailed model examining the three signs of job misery and how they can be remedied. It covers the benefits of managing for job fulfillment within organizations -- increased productivity, greater retention, and competitive advantage -- and offers examples of how managers can use the applications in the book to deal with specific jobs and situations.

    Patrick Lencioni (San Francisco, CA) is President of The Table Group, a management consulting firm specializing in executive team development and organizational health. As a consultant and keynote speaker, he has worked with thousands of senior executives and executive teams in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to high-tech startups touniversities and nonprofits. His clients include AT&T, Bechtel, Boeing, Cisco, Sams Club, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Allstate, Visa, FedEx, New York Life, Sprint, Novell, Sybase, The Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Lencioni is the author of six bestselling books, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. He previously worked for Oracle, Sybase, and the management consulting firm Bain & Company.



    Table of Contents:
    Introduction.

    The Fable.

    Part One: The Manager.

    Part Two: Retirement.

    Part Three: The Experiment.

    Part Four: Going Live.

    The Model.

    The Miserable Job.

    The Cost of Misery.

    The Three Signs.

    The Benefits and Obstacles of Managing for Job Fulfillment.

    Exploring and Addressing the Causes of Job Misery.

    Case Studies.

    Taking Action.

    The Ministry of Management.

    Acknowledgments.

    About the Author.

    Interesting book: The Wine Wars or Chocolate Companion

    Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag

    Author: Michael Tonello

    An insider's hilarious, whirlwind account of his years spent globe-trotting in search of the holy grail of handbags: the Birkin

    For more than twenty years, the Hermès Birkin bag has been the iconic symbol of fashion, luxury, and wealth. Though the bag is often seen dangling from the arms of celebrities, there is a fabled waiting list of more than two years to buy one from Hermès, and the average fashionista has a better chance of climbing Mount Everest in Prada pumps than of possessing one of these coveted carryalls. Unless, of course, she happens to know Michael Tonello . . .

    Michael's newfound career started with an impulsive move to Barcelona, a vanished job assignment, no work visa, and an Hermès scarf sold on eBay to generate some quick cash. But soon the resourceful Michael discovered the truth about the waiting list and figured out the secret to getting Hermès to part with one of these precious bags. Millions of dollars worth of Birkins later, Michael had become one of eBay's most successful entrepreneurs—and a Robin Hood to thousands of desperate rich women.

    With down-to-earth wit, Michael chronicles the unusual ventures that took him to nearly every continent, from eBay to Paris auction house and into the lives of celebrities and poseurs. Flirting with danger, Michael recounts the heady rush of hand delivering his first big score to famed songwriter Carole Bayer Sager in Paris; how he had to hire thugs to rescue a bag that one of his "shoppers" held for ransom; and the story of the Oscar-worthy performances that allowed him to snag "reserved" bags from other, less dogged Birkinseekers.

    Whether he's relating his wining and dining, buying and selling, dodging and weaving, laughing and crying, or schmoozing and stammering, Michael is a master raconteur who weaves together tales of hunting Birkins in the world's most posh locales, memories of meals that would make any gastronome salivate, anecdotes of obsessed collectors with insatiable desires, and sweetly intimate stories about his family, friends, and finding true love. The result is a memoir that is distinctive, fun, page-turning, and as addictive as its namesake.

    Kirkus Reviews

    Periodically charming but fluffy comic memoir. Semi-bored Massachusetts-based hairstylist Tonello "had spent most of the decade trigger-happy with a can of hairspray and a powder puff" and was ready for a change. A temporary gig in Barcelona convinced him that Spain was the place he really ought to be and that having "too much shit to move" wasn't a good enough reason to stay put. He took the plunge and happily relocated. Once settled across the pond, Tonello drifted into a new business venture: reselling Hermes products on eBay. The most exciting pieces of merchandise he dealt with were the infamously high-end Birkin handbags, and eventually he became obsessed with them. Can the average reader relate to a several-hundred page search for personal and professional Birkin Nirvana? Probably not, but the primary problem with Tonello's debut is bigger than that. The "in search of . . . " subgenre is just about played out. Considering how many of these books clog the shelves, chances are good that a title will blend in with its brethren unless either the object sought or the author is utterly compelling. Despite Tonello's deft sense of humor, sharp observational skills, an appreciation for the absurd and some positive energy, his confessional travelogue/how-to is relatively undistinguished and indistinguishable. Clever yet unremarkable. Agent: Laura Yorke/Carol Mann Agency



    Fast Food Nation or Splendid Exchange

    Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

    Author: Eric Schlosser

    FAST FOOD NATION - the groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history that has changed the way America thinks about the way it eats - and spent nearly four months on the New York Times bestseller list - now available on cassette!

    Are we what we eat? To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar America. Though created by a handful of mavericks, the fast food industry has triggered the homogenization of our society. Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelling the juggernaut of American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.

    Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from the California subdivisions where the business was born to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike where many of fast food's flavors are concocted. Along the way, he unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths - from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, even real estate. He also uncovers the fast food chains' efforts to reel in the youngest, most susceptible consumers even while they hone their institutionalized exploitation of teenagers and minorities. Schlosser then turns a critical eye toward the hot topic of globalization - a phenomenon launched by fast food.

    Rob Walker

    ...Schlosser is a serious and diligent reporter..." "[Fast Food Nation] is a fine piece of muckraking, alarming without beling alarmist. —The New York Times

    Atlanta Journal Constitution

    'Fast Food Nation' should be another wake-up call, a super-size serving of common sense....

    Boston Globe

    ...reminiscent of Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'.....

    Time Out New York

    Part cultural history, part investigative journalism and part polemic...intelligent and highly readable critique....

    Book Magazine

    National Magazine Award-winning journalist Schlosser spent three years studying the history of fast food, the business practices of its major chains and the nexus of agribusiness and chemical concerns behind it. Schlosser makes a powerful argument against an industry that exploits its workers, destroys the environment and creates an obese society in the relentless pursuit of profit. We learn about the chemical factories in New Jersey that manufacture fast foods' realistic and delicious flavors, and tour the filthy, Dickensian hell-hole of a modern meatpacking plant, where each year one in every three of its migrant workers can expect to suffer a serious injury. Most troubling, Schlosser argues that the influence of the meatpacking lobby on Congress largely prevents federal agencies from regulating the industry that Upton Sinclair first exposed nearly a century ago in The Jungle. This is in many ways a disturbing book, about much more than the already well-known public health implications of addictive, fattening and potentially disease-carrying foods. Beyond revealing what is actually in those burgers and fries, it shows why their cheap prices do not reflect their true human costs.
    —Eric Wargo

    Publishers Weekly

    In this fascinating sociocultural report, Schlosser digs into the deeper meaning of Burger King, Auggie's, The Chicken Shack, Jack-in-the-Box, Little Caesar's and myriad other examples of fast food in America. Frequently using McDonald's as a template, Schlosser, an Atlantic Monthly correspondent, explains how the development of fast-food restaurants has led to the standardization of American culture, widespread obesity, urban sprawl and more. In a perky, reportorial voice, Adamson tells of the history, economics, day-to-day dealings and broad and often negative cultural implications of franchised burger joints and pizza factories, delivering impressive snippets of information (e.g., two-thirds of America's fast-food restaurant employees are teenagers; Willard Scott posed as the first Ronald McDonald until higher-ups decided Scott was too round to represent a healthy restaurant like McDonald's). According to Schlosser, most visits to fast-food restaurants are the culinary equivalent of "impulse buys," i.e., someone is driving by and pulls over for a Big Mac. But anyone listening to this audiobook on a car trip and realizing that the Chicken McNugget turned "a bird that once had to be carved at a table" into "a manufactured, value-added product" will think twice about stopping for a snack at the highway rest stop. Based on the Houghton Mifflin hardcover. (Jan.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

    Publishers Weekly

    Schlosser's incisive history of the development of American fast food indicts the industry for some shocking crimes against humanity, including systematically destroying the American diet and landscape, and undermining our values and our economy. The first part of the book details the postwar ascendance of fast food from Southern California, assessing the impact on people in the West in general. The second half looks at the product itself: where it is manufactured (in a handful of enormous factories), what goes into it (chemicals, feces) and who is responsible (monopolistic corporate executives). In harrowing detail, the book explains the process of beef slaughter and confirms almost every urban myth about what in fact "lurks between those sesame seed buns." Given the estimate that the typical American eats three hamburgers and four orders of french fries each week, and one in eight will work for McDonald's in the course of their lives, few are exempt from the insidious impact of fast food. Throughout, Schlosser fires these and a dozen other hair-raising statistical bullets into the heart of the matter. While cataloguing assorted evils with the tenacity and sharp eye of the best investigative journalist, he uncovers a cynical, dismissive attitude to food safety in the fast food industry and widespread circumvention of the government's efforts at regulation enacted after Upton Sinclair's similarly scathing novel exposed the meat-packing industry 100 years ago. By systematically dismantling the industry's various aspects, Schlosser establishes a seminal argument for true wrongs at the core of modern America.

    "Fast Food Nation presents these sometimes startling discoveries in a manner that manages to be both careful and fast-paced. Schlosser is a talented storyteller, and his reportorial skills are considerable." --Hartford Courant

    Library Journal

    It is not unusual, from time to time, to read expos s about the unhealthy quality of mass-produced American food. What makes this book special is its indictment of the enormous U.S. fast-food industry. The author, an award-winning contributor to Atlantic Monthly, contends that chains like McDonald's are significant contributors to global ill-health; ugly, homogeneous landscapes; an undertrained and unpromotable work force; and a widespread corporate conformity that discourages the very individualism that propelled these companies to their initial success. While excellently researched, Fast Food Nation is not at all dull but is peppered with acerbic commentary and telling interviews. Of critical importance is the end: just as the reader despairs of a solution, Schlosser outlines a set of remedies, along with steps to get them accomplished. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/00.]--Wendy Miller, Lexington P.L., KY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

    New York Times Book Review - Rob Walker

    Schlosser is a serious and diligent reporter . . . An avalanche of facts and observations . . . Pretty compelling . . . A fine piece of muckraking, alarming without being alarmist. At the very least, Schlosser makes it hard to go on eating fast food in blissful ignorance.

    New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

    Eric Schlosser's compelling new book, Fast Food Nation, will not only make you think twice before eating your next hamburger, but it will also make you think about the fallout that the fast food industry has had on America's social and cultural landscape: how it has affected everything from ranching and farming to diets and health, from marketing and labor practices to larger economic trends...Fast Food Nation provides the reader with a vivid sense of how fast food has permeated contemporary life and a fascinating (and sometimes grisly) account of the process whereby cattle and potatoes are transformed into the burgers and fries served up by local fast food franchises.

    Talk Magazine

    Millions of Frenchman can't be wrong: American fast food really has homogenized the entire world. More that your postholiday diet's at stake with your next partly-beef patty. This is cultural history from the ground (round) up.



    Table of Contents:
    Introduction1
    I.The American Way
    1.The Founding Fathers13
    2.Your Trusted Friends31
    3.Behind the Counter59
    4.Success91
    II.Meat and Potatoes
    5.Why the Fries Taste Good111
    6.On the Range133
    7.Cogs in the Great Machine149
    8.The Most Dangerous Job169
    9.What's in the Meat193
    10.Global Realization225
    Epilogue: Have It Your Way255
    Afterword: The Meaning of Mad Cow271
    Photo Credits291
    Notes292
    Bibliography356
    Acknowledgments362
    Index365

    Book review: On Chestnuts or Sauvignon Blanc

    Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World from Prehistory to Today

    Author: William J Bernstein

    A sweeping narrative history of world trade—-from Sumer in 3000 BC to the firestorm over globalization today—-that brilliantly explores trade's colorful and contentious past and provides fresh insights into social, political, cultural, and economic history, as well as a timely assessment of trade's future.



    Saturday, November 28, 2009

    The Total Money Makeover or How to Win Friends and Influence People

    The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness

    Author: Dave Ramsey

    The success stories speak for themselves in this book from money maestro Dave Ramsey. Instead of promising the normal dose of quick fixes, Ramsey offers a bold, no-nonsense approach to money matters, providing not only the how-to but also a grounded and uplifting hope for getting out of debt and achieving total financial health.

    Ramsey debunks the many myths of money (exposing the dangers of cash advance, rent-to-own, debt consolidation) and attacks the illusions and downright deceptions of the American dream, which encourages nothing but overspending and massive amounts of debt. "Don't even consider keeping up with the Joneses," Ramsey declares in his typically candid style. "They're broke!"

    The Total Money Makeover isn't theory. It works every single time. It works because it is simple. It works because it gets to the heart of the money problems: you.

    Publishers Weekly

    Radio talk-show host and bestselling author Ramsay (Financial Peace) is less a financial analyst and more of a preacher, which explains both his popularity and the appeal of this book, which jsut might gain a wide audience. The bedrock of his system is simple: work hard, pay what you owe and stay out of debt. His main commandment is "Pay cash." He first exhorts the reader to take "baby steps," which are designed to build on each other: first, save $1,000 as an emergency fund; then, pay off all debts from smallest to largest; save a larger three-to-six-month emergency fund; finally, start to save for college and pay off your home mortgage. Ramsay understands the difficulty in putting these steps into action, and therefore packs his book with personal testimonials from everyday people who have used his system and have become debt free, with obvious struggles. The key is what Ramsay calls "Gazelle intensity," which is to live a financial life the way a gazelle saves itself from an attacking cheetah-"outmaneuver the enemy and run for your life." While Ramsay provides some helpful charts and graphs so readers can keep track of their efforts to follow his steps, the strength of this book is that it is a straightforward motivational tool. He provides the brutally direct truth about the hard work it takes to become free of debt, and his directness is a great part of the book's charm. (Sept.) Forecast: Nelson plans an aggressive-and unusual-campaign: a financial makeover contest, promoted through Ramsey's 31-city author tour and broadcasts; the winner will receive $55,000. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.



    New interesting book: Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Administrators Pocket Consultant or Rule the Web

    How to Win Friends and Influence People

    Author: Dale Carnegi

    Simon & Schuster Audio is proud to present one of the best-selling books of all time, Dale Carnegie's perennial classic How to Win Friends and Influence People -- presented here in its entirety on 8 compact discs.

    For over 60 years the rock-solid, time-tested advice in this audiobook has carried thousands of now-famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.

    With this truly phenomenal audiobook, learn:

    * THE SIX WAYS TO MAKE PEOPLE LIKE YOU

    * THE TWELVE WAYS TO WIN PEOPLE TO YOUR WAY OF THINKING

    * THE NINE WAYS TO CHANGE PEOPLE WITHOUT AROUSING RESENTMENT And much, much more!

    There is room at the top, when you know...How to Win Friends and Influence People

    Library Journal

    Originally published in 1936, this is the archetype of the practical human relations handbook. Carnegie (How To Stop Worrying and Start Living, Audio Reviews, LJ 2/15/99) opens with fundamental techniques for dealing with people, such as refraining from criticism and expressing sincere appreciation. Making people like you by smiling, remembering names, and being a good listener are encouraged. Final sections describe approaches for persuading people to your way of thinking and how to change people without causing offense or resentment. These positive principles are stated succinctly and illustrated with pertinent, if occasionally outmoded, anecdotes. While critics have charged that Carnegie emphasized good manners and friendliness over proficiency, the author clearly states that his target audience is competent individuals who are less than successful because they lack people skills, a group that would be well served by his sensible guidance. Andrew MacMillan's confident, friendly narration is a worthy counterpart for Carnegie's advice, making this an appropriate selection for libraries that don't own the 1989 unabridged recording that includes the printed volume (LJ 4/1/89).--Linda Bredengerd, Hanley Lib., Univ. of Pittsburgh, Bradford, PA



    Table of Contents:

    Contents

    Preface to 1981 Edition by Dorothy Carnegie

    How This Book Was Written -- and Why by Dale Carnegie

    Nine Suggestions on How to Get the Most Out of This Book

    PART ONE Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

    1 "If You Want to Gather Honey, Don't Kick Over the Beehive"

    2 The Big Secret of Dealing with People

    3 "He Who Can Do This Has the Whole World with Him. He Who Cannot Walks a Lonely Way"

    PART TWO Six Ways to Make People Like You

    1 Do This and You'll Be Welcome Anywhere

    2 A Simple Way to Make a Good First Impression

    3 If You Don't Do This, You Are Headed for Trouble

    4 An Easy Way to Become a Good Conversationalist

    5 How to Interest People

    6 How to Make People Like You Instantly

    PART THREE How to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

    1 You Can't Win an Argument

    2 A Sure Way of Making Enemies -- and How to Avoid It

    3 If You're Wrong, Admit It

    4 A Drop of Honey

    5 The Secret of Socrates

    6 The Safety Valve in Handling Complaints

    7 How to Get Cooperation

    8 A Formula That Will Work Wonders for You

    9 What Everybody Wants

    10 An Appeal That Everybody Likes

    11 The Movies Do It. TV Does It. Why Don't You Do It?

    12 When Nothing Else Works, Try This

    PART FOUR Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

    1 If You Must Find Fault, This Is the Way to Begin

    2 How to Criticize -- and Not Be Hated for It

    3 Talk About Your Own Mistakes First

    4 No One Likes to Take Orders

    5 Let the Other PersonSave Face

    6 How to Spur People On to Success

    7 Give a Dog a Good Name

    8 Make the Fault Seem Easy to Correct

    9 Making People Glad to Do What You Want A Shortcut to Distinction by Lowell Thomas

    The Dale Carnegie Courses Other Books My Experiences in Applying the Principles Taught in This Book Index

    Tuesday, February 17, 2009

    El Edificio de Inteligencia Cultural (CQ):Nueve Megahabilidades

    El Edificio de Inteligencia Cultural (CQ):Nueve Megahabilidades

    Autor:Richard BucherAuthor:Richard Bucher

    El Edificio de Inteligencia Cultural (CQ):Nueve Megahabilidades

    El Edificio de la Inteligencia Cultural es deber leído para cualquier curso que enfatiza la conciencia cultural y el entendimiento, la interacción humana, y la comunicación cultural entre poblaciones diversas.Este práctico, contratación, y texto interactivo promueven el pensamiento crítico y el desarrollo de habilidades.

    Bucher presenta la inteligencia cultural como una habilidad que nosotros podemos aprender, desarrollar, y manejar.Él se concentra en nueve lectores de megahabilidades específicos puede usar en el trabajo, a casa, y en el extranjero promover el entendimiento enfadado y cultural.Cada capítulo ofrece varios recursos de aprendizaje diversos, incluso autovaloraciones.Cada megahabilidad suministra componentes básicos por capacidades específicas.Estas nueve megahabilidades son:

    • Entendimiento de identidad cultural
    • Comprobación de lentillas culturales
    • Conciousness global
    • Cambio de perspectivas
    • Comunicación intercultural
    • Dirección de conflicto enfadado y cultural
    • Combinar multicultural
    • Dirección de tendencia
    • El entendimiento de la dinámica de poder

    Hablan de la investigación y la teoría en todas partes, expresamente en cuanto a la cultura y su impacto a a quién somos, como vemos nosotros y otros, y como estamos relacionados en una variedad de caminos.La importancia a empleo y objetivos de carrera, concéntrese en habilidades críticamente importantes, y la inclusividad es todas las fuerzas de este texto que dará a estudiantes el borde en cualquier ambiente.The relevance to employment and career goals, focus on critically important skills, and inclusiveness are all strengths of this text that will give students the edge in any environment.



    Índice de materias:
    1. Inteligencia Cultural (CQ):una Descripción
    2. Megahabilidad de CQ:Entendimiento de Mi Identidad Cultural
    3. Megahabilidad de CQ:Comprobación de Lentillas Culturales
    4. Megahabilidad de CQ:Conocimiento Global
    5. Megahabilidad de CQ:Cambio de Perspectivas
    6. Megahabilidad de CQ:Comunicación Intercultural
    7. Megahabilidad de CQ:Dirección de Conflicto Enfadado y cultural
    8. Megahabilidad de CQ:Combinar Multicultural
    9. Megahabilidad de CQ:Transacciones con Tendencia
    10. Megahabilidad de CQ:Entendimiento de la Dinámica de Poder

    Traducción de:

    Building Cultural Intelligence (CQ): Nine Megaskills

    Author: Richard Bucher

    Read also Hospitalité et Direction de Restaurant

    Desarrollo, Geografía, y Teoría Económica

    Autor:Paul KrugmanAuthor:Paul Krugman

    ¿Por qué ganan las ciertas ideas el dinero en la economía mientras los otros se quedan en el camino?Paul Krugman sostiene que la desgana de economistas dominantes de pensar sobre lo que ellos no podían formalizar los llevó no a hacer caso de ideas que resultan, retrospectivamente, haber sido muy buenos.

    Krugman examina el curso de geografía económica y teoría de desarrollo de mudar la luz en la naturaleza de la pregunta económica.Él remonta como la teoría de desarrollo perdió su influencia inicial después de que se hizo claro que muchas de las perspicacias principales de la teoría no podían ser claramente modeladas, y concluyen con un comentario sobre áreas donde la pregunta adicional parece la más prometedora.

    Las Conferencias de OhlinThe Ohlin Lectures

    Booknews

    Consiste en versiones pesadamente revisadas de tres conferencias el autor (economía, Stanford U.) entregado en la Escuela de Estocolmo de la Economía en 1992, acerca de la caída y subida de la economía de desarrollo, los problemas de la geografía económica, y modelos y metáforas.5.5x8".Anotación c.Book News, Inc, Portland, Oregon (booknews.com)Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)



    Traducción de:

    Development, Geography, and Economic Theory

    Author: Paul Krugman

    Monday, February 16, 2009

    Dirección de Riesgo En Instituciones de Asistencia médica

    Dirección de Riesgo En Instituciones de Asistencia médica

    Autor:Florence KavalerAuthor:Florence Kavaler

    Estas ofertas de libro consejos gobernantes, jefes ejecutivos principales, administradores, y estudiantes de profesión de salud la oportunidad de organizar e idear un programa de dirección de riesgo acertado.This book offers governing boards, chief executive officers, administrators, and health profession students the opportunity to organize and devise a successful risk management program.



    Traducción de:

    Risk Management In Health Care Institutions

    Author: Florence Kavaler

    Interesting textbook: Colégio que Se considera 1-13

    101 Modos de Mejorar Sus Habilidades de Comunicación Al instante, 4ta Edición

    Autor:Jo CondrillAuthor:Jo Condrill

    101 puntas excepcionalmente fáciles, por el paso y técnicas que le tendrán Comunicándose como un pro... más rápido que usted alguna vez pensaron posible.

    • ¿Ha estado angustiado alguna vez usted ante qué usted tendría / should've/podría haber dicho?

    • ¿Ha parecido alguna vez su lengua deshilvanada de su cerebro?

    • ¿Ha hecho volar alguna vez usted un trato, una entrevista de trabajo, una promoción, una relación, porque usted sólo no podía pensar en las palabras correctas para decir?

    • ¿Dibuja usted un impreso si usted tiene que hablar en público?

    No Deje al Miedo de la Enfermedad de pie en la Boca Contenerle En el Futuro.

    Recordar..Las Habilidades de Comunicación Eficaces Son la Señal de un Cumplidor.Siempre Han Sido, Siempre Será.

    Ahora usted puede vencer fácilmente la ansiedad, ampliar sus capacidades, y autorizarse para el éxito.Now you can easily overcome anxiety, expand your abilities, and empower yourself for success.



    Índice de materias:
    Parte IComunicación
    Hablar1
    Sepa Lo que Usted Quiere Decir
    Miedo de Control
    Deje de Hablar y Escuche
    Piense antes de Que Usted Hable
    Crea en Su Mensaje
    Repita Puntos Principales
    Averigüe Lo que Su Oyente Quiere
    Técnicas8
    Defina Siglas
    Reduzca Jerga
    Objeciones de Nivel
    Use Humor
    Use Anécdotas e Historias
    Pida Reacción
    Aumente Su Vocabulario
    Elimine Pausas Audibles
    Articule Claramente
    Palabras de Pronunciación de Práctica Correctamente
    Lengua de Ejercicio, Mandíbulas, y Labios
    Haga Contacto de Ojo
    Gesto
    Pausa
    Hable más Despacio
    Hable más Rápido
    Varíe Su Volumen
    Mire Su Tono
    Registre Su Voz
    Escucha27
    Dispóngase a Escuchar
    Concéntrese en el Altavoz
    Pantalla Distracciones
    Concentrado en el Mensaje
    Escuche Cintas Mientras Usted Viaja a diario
    Hablar y Escucha32
    Haga Preguntas
    Evite Fantasear
    Acepte Acentos
    Use correlación de la Mente
    Entrevista
    Quejas
    Teléfono
    Asista a una Reunión de Maestros de ceremonias
    Parte IIHablar y Escritura
    Puntos Claves40
    Escriba una Declaración de Objetivo
    Use un Contorno
    Transfiera Emociones Negativas a Papel
    Póngase al Punto Rápidamente
    Explique Palabras Abstractas
    Use Absolutos y Generalidades Frugalmente
    Pregunte Lo que Usted Quiere
    Use Verbos Activos
    Use Género Lengua Neutra
    Cite Fuente de Datos Estadísticos
    Ilustre con Ejemplos Personales
    Emoción Expresa
    Guárdelo Simple
    Pinte Cuadros Verbales
    Esté Conciso
    Declaraciones de Apoyo con Detalles
    Semántica de Reloj
    Autoridades de Cotización
    Consulte a Expertos
    Suprima Emoción
    Escritura60
    Guarde un Diario
    Tome Notas
    Escriba Notas Personales
    Escriba Cartas Comerciales más Eficaces
    Use Oraciones Cortas
    Comuníquese en Línea
    La parte IIIPuntas Generales
    Lectura66
    Leer
    Manténgase al corriente de Acontecimientos Corrientes
    Lea Algo Inspirador
    Use Internet
    No verbal70
    Presencia
    Dé Señales No verbales
    Compruebe Su Postura
    Vístase Apropiadamente
    Sonrisa
    Toque
    Estreche la mano Correctamente
    Actitud77
    Tenga la intención de Mejorar
    Visualizar
    Esté Flexible
    Esté Agradable
    Destine a Ser Verídico
    Sentir empatía
    No Se tome Demasiado Seriamente
    Elimine Sentimientos Negativos
    Esté Receptivo de Nuevas Ideas
    Tome Responsabilidad
    Respete el Punto de vista de la Otra Persona
    Reconozca el Impacto de Tensión en Comunicación
    Esté Verdadero
    Compruebe Su Actitud
    Behaviorístico91
    Risa
    Use Buenos modales
    Reconozca Comportamiento Manipulador
    Reconozca Maneras Condescendientes
    Evite Palabras que Daño
    Cambie Comportamiento Abrasivo
    Desacuerdos de Mango con Tacto
    Diverso98
    Organice Reuniones Productivas
    Considere Nivel de Experiencia
    Entienda la Importancia de Calcular
    Presente una Imagen Personal Buena
    Sobre los Autores102
    Para Lectura Adicional104
    Índice106

    Traducción de:

    101 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills Instantly, 4th Edition

    Author: Jo Condrill

    Sunday, February 15, 2009

    Aprendizaje Informal:Nuevo descubrimiento de los Caminos Naturales Que Inspiran Innovación e Interpretación

    Aprendizaje Informal:Nuevo descubrimiento de los Caminos Naturales Que Inspiran Innovación e Interpretación

    Autor:Cruz de ArrendajoAuthor:Jay Cross

    La mayor parte de aprendizaje en el trabajo es informal.Este libro ofrece el consejo sobre como apoyar, nutrir, y reforzar el aprendizaje informal y ayuda a entrenadores a ir más allá de sus clases típicas y programas a fin de ensanchar y profundizar el alcance de heredero.El autor nos recuerda que vivimos en un nuevo, radicalmente diferente, constantemente cambio, y lugar de trabajo a menudo molesto.Él nos dirige por la plétora de instrumentos de aprendizaje digitales a los cuales los trabajadores tienen acceso ahora por sus ordenadores, PDAs, y teléfonos celulares.He guides us through the plethora of digital learning tools that workers are now accessing through their computers, PDAs, and cell phones.



    Índice de materias:
    Prefacio.

    Reconocimientos.

    Introducción.

    PARTE UN:CONCEPTOS.

    El capítulo 2:un Modo Natural de Aprender.

    El capítulo 3:Muéstreme el Dinero.

    El capítulo 4:Aparición.

    El capítulo 5:Unión.

    El capítulo 6:Meta-aprendizaje.

    PARTE DOS:PRINCIPIANTES.

    PARTE TRES:CASOS.

    El capítulo 9:Conversación.

    El capítulo 10:Comunidades.

    El capítulo 11:Sin mezcla.

    El capítulo 12:la Web.

    El capítulo 13:Grokking.

    El capítulo 14:No conferencias.

    PARTE CUATRO:SÓLO HÁGALO.

    Apéndice A:Aprendizaje Informal en una Cáscara de nuez.

    Apéndice B:¿Dónde Vino el 80 por ciento De?

    Apéndice C:Instituto de Investigación En Aprendizaje.

    Glosario.

    Recursos.

    Referencias.

    Índice.

    Sobre el Autor.

    Traducción de:

    Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways That Inspire Innovation and Performance

    Author: Jay Cross

    New interesting textbook: La formation d'un Chef Technique :une Approche résolvant le Problème Organique

    Redes de Datos Comerciales y Telecomunicaciones

    Autor:Raymond R PankoAuthor:Raymond R Panko

    Panko enseña a estudiantes sobre las tecnologías que están siendo usadas en el mercado.

    Este texto cubre el contenido conducido por el mercado, como LANes inalámbricos, seguridad y dirección de red, TCP/IP, y capas de aplicación.

    Este texto sería conveniente para profesionales comerciales que buscan el desarrollo más reciente en comunicaciones de datos y gestión de redes.This text would be suitable for business professionals looking for the most recent developments in data communications and networking.

    Booknews

    Un libro de texto modular sobre todas las formas de comunicación electrónica que implica ordenadores, con 11 capítulos principales y 10 capítulos de tema avanzados.A modular textbook about all forms of electronic communication involving computers, with 11 core chapters and 10 advanced topic chapters.Los temas incluyen el modelo de comunicación básico, agencias de estándares y arquitecturas, el ordenador (transporte) capa, acceso de Internet vía CSLIP y PPP, emulación terminal, transmisión telefónica, transmisión ascii asincrónica, estándares de LAN de IEEE, Nupools, SCMA/CS y el 802.3 marco de capa de Mac, la 802.5 red de token ring, Internet local, dirección de red, y la arquitectura OSI.Anotación c.Topics include the basic communication model, standards agencies and architectures, the computer (transport) layer, Internet access via CSLIP and PPP, terminal emulation, telephone transmission, asynchronous ascii transmission, IEEE LAN standards, Nupools, SCMA/CS and the 802.3 Mac layer frame, the 802.5 token-ring network, local internets, network management, and the OSI architecture. Annotation c.por Book News, Inc, Portland, O.by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.



    Índice de materias:
    Ch.1Una introducción a gestión de redes1
    Estudio del caso:la red de casa de Pat Lee42
    Práctico:configuración de Windows XP a Casa para gestión de redes59
    Estudio del caso:consulta de XTR:una red SOHO con servidores dedicados77
    Ch.2Estándares de red94
    Ch.3Propagación de capa física:UTP y fibra óptica140
    Práctico:recorte y conectorizar UTP180
    Ch.4LANes de Ethernet187
    Redes de token ring227
    Ch.5LANes inalámbricos (WLANs)233
    Ch.6Telecomunicaciones278
    Ch.7Amplias redes de área (WANs)311
    Estudio del caso:Primer Banco de las amplias redes de área del Paraíso342
    Ch.8Funcionamiento entre redes de TCP/IP346
    Práctico:captura de paquete y análisis con winDUMP y TCPDUMP389
    Ch.9Práctico:Windows XP seguridad de Casa439
    Ch.10Dirección de red469
    Ch.11Aplicaciones conectadas a una red499
    Módulo AMás en TCP e IP531
    Módulo BMás en modulación556
    Módulo CMás en telecomunicaciones560

    Traducción de:

    Business Data Networks and Telecommunications

    Author: Raymond R Panko