Customer Reviews (1)

Not what I'd hoped
The author is certainly knowledgeable and has a great background. But the book wasn't what I was hoping it would be. If you want to know WHY the techniques of conflict management and conflict resolution would be helpful things to use in a prison setting, the book is full of good information (for example, the techniques of conflict managment would be helpful in prison because they would help people get along better, prepare inmates for life on the outside, reduce recidivism. etc.). But if you want to learn about conflict management techniques and methods THEMSELVES, the book is not what you're looking for. ... Read more

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A biography of the Chicago White Sox slugger who came to be known as "The Big Hurt" for his prowess with the bat. ... Read more

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A biography of the power-hitting baseball player, from his childhood in Georgia through his college days at Auburn University to his professional career with the Chicago White Sox. ... Read more

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Profiles the personal life and sports career of the superstar first baseman for the Chicago White Sox baseball team. ... Read more

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A biography of Frank Thomas, first baseman for the Chicago White Sox. ... Read more

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This book explores Methodist episcopacy in the U.S. and reviews notions of and expectations about episcopal leadership held by United Methodists today. After a careful historical study, Richey and Frank give helpful perspectives on a current proposal to the 2004 General Conference by the Council of Bishops to elect a bishop who will serve a four-year term as the Council's president. More generally and for the longer term, this book examines the need for organizational change and theological reflection on the office of bishop, while reviewing the implications of such reorganization of the Council of Bishops including the election process. By examining what Methodists have meant by the words "itinerant general superintendent," the authors discuss the polity of the Church and explore the constraints, concern, and possibilities for episcopal leadership. ... Read more

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A biography of the power-hitting baseball player, from his childhood in Georgia through his college days at Auburn University to his professional career with the Chicago White Sox. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Mortgage credit derivatives are a risky business, especially of late. Written by an expert author team of UBS practitioners-Laurie Goodman, Shumin Li, Douglas Lucas, and Thomas Zimmerman-along with Frank Fabozzi of Yale University, Subprime Mortgage Credit Derivatives covers state-of-the-art instruments and strategies for managing a portfolio of mortgage credits in today's volatile climate.

Divided into four parts, this book addresses a variety of important topics, including mortgage credit (non-agency, first and second lien), mortgage securitizations (alternate structures and subprime triggers), credit default swaps on mortgage securities (ABX, cash synthetic relationships, CDO credit default swaps), and much more. In addition, the authors outline the origins of the subprime crisis, showing how during the 2004-2006 period, as housing became less affordable, origination standards were stretched-and when home price appreciation then turned to home price depreciation, defaults and delinquencies rose across the board.

The recent growth in subprime lending, along with a number of other industry factors, has made the demand for timely knowledge and solutions greater than ever before, and this guide contains the information financial professionals need to succeed in this challenging field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

excellent and very practical book
This book provides an excellent and very practical approach to analyzing and interpreting subprime instrumnents. Fabozzi is a very clear and thorough academic, in the best way. The co-authors are all from UBS, which lost a ton of money in the subprime meltdown.


I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about being told how to, in essence, analyze risk from risk managers who presumably helped UBS lose over $40 billion. But then again, they should understand the market.

If there is any weakness in their analysis it is that it is next to impossible to conduct any sort of statistical sampling when so many loan applications were fraudulent.

Still, all-in-all, I highly recommend this book. Oh, and don't let the term derivatives scare you, the authors used virtually no mathematics to explain these complex instruments. The only thing I would like to have seen was an Excel disk with their models on it, or at least an appendix with more details on how to do their analysis.

A good descriptive introduction
This book is a purely descriptive overview of subprime mortgage credit derivatives and thus will suit the needs of readers who do not want to get into the sometimes sophisticated mathematical formalism that can be associated with the modeling of credit derivatives. For this reason, experienced financial modelers may be disappointed with the book, but there is enough discussion on modeling to make it keep the attention of such readers. Its size makes the book more manageable for those facing time constraints, but the book also has some shortcomings with respect to the quality of the graphs that are presented. The absence of color in these graphs probably reflects the decision to keep the price of the book down, but the graphs can be difficult to read because of this omission. But even with these shortcomings the book can be read profitably by anyone interested in the subject or possibly wanting to gain insight into what has been called the "subprime meltdown." Most of the press, including the financial press, is blaming the subprime mortgage markets for the current global financial difficulties. It remains to be seen whether this is really true, so this book could also be viewed as an investigative tool for those individuals who are attempting to find out the real causes behind these difficulties.

Chapters 10 and 11 should be of interest to financial modelers since the authors attempt to forecast cumulative losses not only for subprime and Alt-A loans but also for second lien (fixed rate home equity (HELOAN) and variable rate (HELOC) loans. The modeling of performance and severity in mortgage portfolios is typically done in a `competing risk' framework, wherein the probabilities of default and prepayment are entangled with each other and are of course dependent not only on the values of the individual credit variables in each loan of the portfolio, but also macroeconomic variables such as house price appreciation and mortgage interest rates. The probabilities of default are updated whenever a prepayment occurs and the probabilities of prepayment are updated whenever defaults occur. This updating gives competing risk models a Bayesian flair, and in fact they can be cast entirely in such a Bayesian framework. The authors do not mention competing risk models in this book, but interestingly reject the use of econometric models to estimate losses due in their words to their non-Bayesian nature. In their place they use what they call an "autopilot" model to estimate collateral losses, which makes use of `default timing' and `default factor' curves. The shapes of these curves (called "S-curves" by some analysts because of their shape) should be very familiar to anyone who has analyzed mortgage portfolios, or even those based on automobile securitizations. Unfortunately the authors do their calculations using curves generated by a particular vendor, leaving the reader hanging as to just how to choose a theoretical loss curve. One simple way to do this, which the authors do not mention, is to use S-curves based on parameters. There are many choices that can be made here, going by the names of logistic, Gompertz, and Michaelis-Menten growth curves. Fitting the loss data to these curves using nonlinear root-finding algorithms allows one to find the point in time where the loss rates are maximum, at least for vintages that are suitably old. This approach, although simple, has also been used in the modeling of structured securities with some degree of success. This reviewer has used this approach to get rough estimates of (cumulative) gross credit losses in second lien mortgage portfolios, i.e. the case where recoveries in defaulted loans are omitted in the analysis. And this approach, if done more carefully does allow one to study, via a certain interpretation the effects of macroeconomic shocks (i.e. interest rates and housing price indices) on defaults. The authors state that this cannot be done using their loss curve approach. As the authors are aware of though, the use of these loss curves is problematic if one wants to take prepayments into account. They assume the existence of stable prepayment speeds, and so the authors propose using a default "factor" curve instead. In this case the timing or aging variable is replaced by the `pool factor' (i.e. the collateral balance divided by the original balance), and so the cumulative losses go from 0 to 100 as the pool pays down.

Chapter 6 will be of interest to those readers who are relatively new to the study of credit derivatives with special attention paid to credit default swaps on asset backed securities (ABS). The reader will also get some insight into the controversial nature of credit default swaps as related to the time at which the credit protection seller must compensate the credit protection buyer. There has been some grumbling in the financial literature on just what constitutes a `credit event'. The authors discuss in detail six different versions of `corporate credit events' that have been defined by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. They also outline the differences between the corporate credit default swap and the ABS CDS. Very interesting in this discussion is the possibility that an ABS securitization can never go into insolvency. Readers who need more details on this should consult the literature on structured securities. In addition, they discuss the role of the rating agencies in the assessment of the ABS CDO collateral. This has become a controversial issue of late, and it will be very interesting to see just how long the current rating systems will survive in their current form. ... Read more

Product Description
Thomas Ruff (b. 1958), known for his deadpan portraits and gorgeousviews of the night sky and architecture, is one of Germany's leadingcontemporary artist/photographers. Among his recent work is anexploration of the internet, that parallel visual universe teemingwith sexuality of every flavor and variety. He gathers from thatvirtual playground erotic and often pornographic photographs that hesubsequently manipulates in his computer, making beautiful--anddisturbing--artwork from visual material that, for better or worse, isprobably more abundant than any other type of image in our worldtoday.

The pictures, which are graphic and abstract at the same time, areaccompanied by an excerpt from a forthcoming novel by controversialFrench writer Michel Houellebecq, whose work is similarly influencedby the sex industry. Reviewing the series in the Village Voice, JerrySaltz wrote: "Ruff may think these images are analytic or objective,but they're also sweetly, luxuriantly visual...Sex slips intosomething ravishingly, optically comfortable, and these everyday,off-world images morph into parapaintings from the Planet Love."Amazon.com Review
Girls, girls, girls. And well-endowed boys. They're the subjects of Thomas Ruff Nudes, a book of photographs by a well-known German artist best known for his searching images of faces, night skies and architecture. The new photographs were pulled off Internet porn sites and enlarged, colored and blurred by the artist. The fascinating thing about these nudes is the way the indistinct tumble of imagery replicates the physical sensation of sex. Everything is hazy, incomplete, replete with longing--a giddy carnival of orifices and sex organs. Skin is suffused with the blush of sexual arousal. Women offer themselves to unseen men and to one another. Some might say that Ruff is "making a statement" about the easy availability of pornography. Nonsense. He is documenting, in his painterly way, the elemental human urges that attract us to each other’s flesh. The most interesting images in the book are the most abstract, revealing sexual appetite as the eternal pursuit of another body’s knobs and holes. Accompanying the photographs is an earthy, supposedly fictional, fragment by the controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq. The narrator reminisces about the years when he and his wife visited sex clubs on the Riviera. He writes of "dark rooms where people make love without choosing partners, submerged in the flux of tactile sensation." This is the world of Ruff's most successful photographs, a place where the staginess of pornography is transformed into the realm of pure desire. --Cathy Curtis ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

BEST ART EVER!
I usually prefer design(s) but this just blew me away. The visual force of the pics is unlike anything I`ve seen in art.

For me, it's about basics: modern fertility/sexuality icons/ideals, art as a decorative object and what is Beautiful. This is.

Haven`t spent money this well in a long time.

Out of Focus
If you are into photos that are hard to see and blurry images, this is the book for you.When they say out of focus, take it literally.My book is new, and will definetely be for sale ASAP.Don't waste time or money unless you want to feel like you have coke bottle glasses on.Leave this one alone. ... Read more

Product Description
This spellbinding biography of the R.M.S. "Titanic's" historic builder, Thomas Andrews, takes readers from his boyhood on the cricket fields of Northern Ireland to his breathtaking final moments aboard a dying ship. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (40)

Possibly the best example of reincarnation!
I first bought the book and audiobook because of an interest in Titanic's designer Thomas Andrews, and at first I was skeptical and thought if it wasn't true, it would at least be a good story. HOLY COW WAS I WRONG (in a good way)! As soon as I heard Bill Barnes speak as Tommie Andrews, I thought, "How could this be anyone other than Thomas Andrews?" After all, the accent is correct, his mannerisms, vocal expression, and facts are also correct, and he even fills in tiny details for us that show that he is not joking and that this is not faked (and new ideas are presented as well). I mean, think about it, who in their right state of mind would go and invent a reincarnation story? It would take years and years of study (not only of acting but of the actual history of one persons life, and people that have a profound knowledge of a specific person have dedicated their lives to learning about them, yet still cannot truly know them like Bill Barnes knows Thomas Andrews), hundreds of thousands of dollars, and way too much time! Therefore, he must be telling the truth through his eyes and what *he* experienced. Also, on that note, one must keep in mind that this telling of the Titanic disaster is told through Tommie's eyes and most of what is said under hypnosis are Tommie's thoughts. So, if something in the story seems slightly different than the actual recorded event, that is because we are seeing the disaster through his perspective. Everyone has their own perspective. It's like how bad guys believe they are actually good. It's their perspective.

All in all, an EXCELLENT choice for any Titanic fan (especially if you are interested in Thomas Andrews)! It is a thrilling tale and its very haunting to hear Tommie's voice come through the speakers! I found myself riveted to my seat in awe and crying my eyes out when I heard Tommie's final moments and beyond. It is a must buy! You will not be disappointed! Do not judge this audiobook or book before you listen to or read it!

A facinating story of reincarnation
Mr. Barnes writes a facinating story of his past life as Thomas Andrews.

The book is so well written one can only think it came from Thomas Andrews himself!No longer was I sitting in my bedroom reading his book until the wee hours of the morning I was with Mr. Andrews as he narrated the events of his life to me.

ANOTHER Disgraceful Book!
"I Built the Titanic" by William Barnes purports to be the past-life memories of the Titanic's builder, Thomas Andrews.

I read this book back in 2001, and by the time I finished reading it, I was convinced that Barnes' past life "memories" are BOGUS. If this account is accurate (I don't believe that it is), Thomas Andrews had some MAJOR issues with J.Bruce Ismay. In fact, the book reads like one long anti-Ismay diatribe. On Saturday night, it has both John Jacob Astor and Isador Straus warning Andrews that Ismay is a sociopathic "user". I highly doubt that either of them knew Ismay well enough to be able to make that assertion.

After the Titanic hits the iceberg, Andrews called Murdoch "a baby". Never happened. Andrews had too much respect for the captain and officers of the Titanic to say that. Then there is the scene where Andrews suppposedly b****slaps Isamy on the bridge. I don't believe that it happened. Finally, Barnes has Andrews predicting the Lusitania's end at the hands of Walter Schweiger and the U-20. Yeah, right.

This book is a total waste of money and paper. At best,it is the product of an overly-imaginative mind. At worst, it is a bunch of outrageous lies.

The biography of Thomas Andrews by Shan Bullock is a much better bet.

Uncanny
I bought this book on a whim for my daughter who is interested, like most young people, in the amazing sequence of events that lead to the sinking. I am a sceptic about reincarnation but this book has got me wondering. As well as the interesting accounts from William Barnes it contains a good deal of specific information about Titanic and her construction, most gleaned from archival material, or is it?

A Very Compelling Story
I had a chance to talk with the author a few years ago and found his story to be a fascinating account of one man sharing the memories of another. Since reincarnation is not consistent with my own beliefs, I cannot explain these experiences, but I do find them compelling and worth the time to hear and read. Although the Andrews family and the Titanic Society adamantly denounce Barnes (not his real name) and his story, there is too much he should not have known, and even could not have known. Even if it were possible, I cannot imagine anyone willing to do a comprehensive study of a man only to be viewed as a demented nutjob by his peers. Even if you don't believe in reincarnation, I give Barnes' story an enthusiastic five stars. He used to have his own website, but alas, seems to have otherwise vanished. It's too bad as I think his story would make an excellent movie. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Frank & Ollie
A huge hardcover book, filled with full page representations form the animators drawing board, showing you the process of creating visual sight gags in animation. Disney animators Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston created the animators bible with their first book, "The Illusion of Life". It was to be their best of several books, and Sight Gags is next in line. Frank & Ollie were heroes of the the golden age of animation, and the part they played as part of the team of Walt's top animators, "the Nine Old Men" as they were known.
Also be sure to see the documentary video, "Frank & Ollie", to see for yourself what wonderful guys these two gents really were. That documentary is on VHS and DVD.

Another MUST HAVE...
Though not as 'deep' as The Illusion of Life, the book Too Funny for Words is a must-have for all animators and story people who want to peek into the serious world of creating movie magic... It is THE book on the subject of'sight-gags'. (Remember to also get Frank&Ollie's Greatest DisneyVillains and The Making of Bambi books! - You already have The Illusion ofLife, of course!) ... Read more

Product Description
Spanish for pleasure, Spanish for business, Spanish as a necessity...The Everything Learning Spanish Book will have you proficient in next to no time. Features include: Easy-to-follow vocabulary lists; Verb tenses and conjugation patterns; Differences between formal and familiar speech; Travel tips: inc. lessons on menus, bus/train/plane; schedules, money exchanges, etc. Asking questions and expressing basic information; A comprehensive overview of Spanish culture ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Book was in especially good condition and reasonable too.
[[ASIN:1580625754 The Everything Learning Spanish Book: Speak, Write and Understand
Basic Spanish in No Time.Everything Series

This was my first experience with Amazon, and I was well pleased. The teacher of my adult class suggested Amazon as a good place to order the book.

The book I purchased was clean and about as good as new. It was sent and received in a very reasonable time period.I was
delighted that it was so easy to buy the book I needed. I was able to choose among several copies and prices.

From a teacher's perspective, not bad!
If you are a beginner, this book is a bit overwhelming. If you are intermediate, it's a little insulting - it begins with telling you how to study, and when to study, and how not to study, but to be sure you're enjoying yourself. This is all good advice, but I think most people know all this before purchasing the book.

Pros - the books includes SOME phonetic spelling, and is nicely laid out as far as which chapters come first, then next, etc. Another huge pro, is there is a TON of info, and I didn't see any errors in the several times I have perused the book, or read passages for students asking for help.

Cons - the page layout has a LOT of words on each page. The basic idea behind learning a language is that a language is made up of words. This book presents many phrases, which for a beginner, is too much to memorize or make sense out of. For an intermediate learner, they know to break phrases down, but the grammar that goes with the phrase is not immediately available (though it is covered in the book, how does a learner know where to look?)

So... this book is PERFECT for a reviewing student. Maybe you studied in high school and need to brush up for a placement exam. Perhaps you remember some from college but need a crash course before your trip to Mexico, I would highly recommend this book - you know enough to work your way through this book effectively. For all other learners, there are better books out there Spanish Now! Level 1 with CDs (Spanish Now) which comes with CD's, or other readers, etc, that are less overwhelming.

If it had a CD, I think the effect might be a lot better, but as is, it's just TOO much for a beginner. Start with something else first, then perhaps graduate to this. It IS a good reference as well.
Sra. Gose
Spanish Teacher, and Author of Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 1 & Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 2

So So.
I am beginner in learning Spanish and find this book quite difficult. Concentrates on grammar way too much and the vocabulary listed does not start with simple words and build up, but throws you into the deep end right away. I would recommend this book only to an advanced student.

Highly recommended
I have several Spanish books and this is the one I keep going back too. It consists of basic, step by step ways to learn spanish. It's written in language very easy to understand. It's definitely a book you want to invest in to help you learn spanish. In fact, I'm ordering my second copy because my husband has adopted my copy.

Muy Bien!
I have sat around at Barnes & Noble flipping through all sorts of spanish books and finally came across this one.It's DEFINATELY the EASIEST to read. The chapters are broken up really well towards everday situations.Compared to other books this one has plentiful of variety of vocabs to learn (also has pronunciation for it to help you say the words correctly).So I'm really confident with this one! ... Read more