Review: The Slow Down Diet

The Slow Down Diet
Eating for Pleasure, Energy, and Weight Loss
by Marc David
Healing Arts Press, 2005

If you were told to take your time at the dinner table over the next eight weeks, eating fine foods with good friends, imbibing in quality beverages and truly enjoying yourself as if you were on an extended vacation, would you accept the challenge?

Would you do it if you knew you'd lose weight and become healthier in the process?

Based on the belief (with plenty of research to back it up) that fast foods, hurried eating, stressful lifestyles and cheap artificial flavors are contributing to America's obesity epidemic, this book prescribes a radical alternative: slow and easy enjoyment of good foods in pleasant environments.

Continued at... The Slow Down Diet

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Review: Poker Wizards

Poker Wizards
Wisdom from the World's Top No-Limit Hold'em Poker Players
by Warwick Dunnett
Cardoza, 2008

Poker Wizards is a compilation of interviews with several of the world's most accomplished poker players:

* Chris Ferguson, aka "Jesus," talking about game theory and "intellectualizing gut feeling."
* Dan Harrington, author of Harrington on Hold 'em
* T.J. Cloutier, author of How To Win The Championship: Hold'em Strategies for The Final Table
* Daniel Negreanu, author of Power Hold'em Strategy, discussing the psychological traits important to successful players.
* Mike Sexton, author of One of a Kind, advocates aggressive play.
* Marcel Luske emphasizing the importance of hand selection
* Kathy Liebert, the #1 female money winner in tournament poker.
* Mel Judah, a World Poker Tour titlist with career earning over $3 million.
* Marc Salem, author of Marc Salem's Mind Games: A Practical Step-by-step Guide to Developing Your Mental Powers, revealing some physical tells to look for in your opponents.

Warwick Dunnet organized the interviews, each about 20 to 30 pages, around key subjects like psychology and tournament strategy and "the makings of a poker wizard. He provides a summary chapter at the end of the book,

Continued at... Poker Wizards

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Review: Wild Sea

Wild Sea
Eco-Wars and Surf Stories from the Coast of the Californias
by Serge Dedina
University of Arizona Press, 2011

Much like a military veteran's book of war stories, this collection of reports describes eco-justice fights waged against poachers, politicians, private companies and government agencies from the tip of the Baja Peninsula up the coast to Southern California.

Serge Dedina is a dedicated surfer turned activist who has successfully stopped a salt-processing plant that would have destroyed the world’s last undeveloped gray whale lagoon and helped put together a coalition helping to construct the unlikely coalition that defeated a proposed toll road that would have decimated a legendary California surf spot.

"Many of these stories were written in the midst of campaigning to provide a sense of urgency to the public about the fate of our coast," he explains. "Few people realize how close we came to losing important pieces of the coastline of the Californias to badly planned and doomed to fail development."

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Good Old Books: A Guide to Geyser Gazing

A Guide to Geyser Gazing
by Dr. John S. Rinehart
Hyper Dynamics, 1976

Dr. John S. Rinehart was educated as a physicist and teacher. When he started studying geysers in 1965, he was Director of Research and Development of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. In 1966, he became Senior Research Scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration where he remained until his retirement in 1973.

His extensive studies of geysers during this period form the basis of this book.

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Good Old Books: Archaeology by Walter Shepherd

Archaeology
by Walter Shepherd
Signet, 1966

Science students and laymen both will find this "detective story" about mankind's past as fascinating as it is informative. Clearly and without technical jargon, the author reveals what the archaeologist has learned about Stone Age man, his metal-working descendants, and the mighty civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Far East and the Mediterranean.

Tools and weapons, pottery, art, homes, inscriptions, vast monuments -- all are examined in words and pictures.

Of special interest is a whole section on "Archaeology in America."

Throughout, the emphasis is on how the archaeologist works, complete with
guidelines on how the interested reader can participate in "digs."

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Now in Review: Scarcity and Frontiers

Scarcity and Frontiers
How Economies Have Developed Through Natural Resource Exploitation
by Edward B. Barbier
Cambridge University Press, 2011

Throughout much of history, a critical driving force behind global
economic development has been the response of society to the scarcity of key natural resources. Increasing scarcity raises the cost of exploiting existing natural resources and creates incentives in all economies to innovate and conserve more of these resources. However, economies have also responded to increasing scarcity by obtaining and developing more of these resources. Since the agricultural transition over 12,000 years ago, this exploitation of new 'frontiers' has often proved to be a pivotal human response to natural resource scarcity.

This book provides a fascinating account of the contribution that natural resource exploitation has made to economic development in key eras of world history. This not only fills an important gap in the literature on economic history but also shows how we can draw lessons from these past epochs for attaining sustainable economic development in the world today.

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Good Old Books: The Road to Man

The Road to Man
by Herbert Wendt
Pyramic Publications, 1959

The Road to Man is a fascinating and informative trip through the animal kingdom, conducted by the author of the widely hailed In Search of Adam.

This revealing history of evolution deals with the ocean and its
inhabitants; it goes on to reptiles, insects, birds, and flying mammals.

It explains migration and the spread of species; and finally traces the decisive step from instinctual life to the beginnings of intellect.

Familiar and fantastic animals are portrayed and described in a broadly
conceived narrative which gives a unified picture of the mutual dependence
of all living creatures.

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