Well, ja now sure, you betcha, in retrospect the depiction of Native Americans in the Hamm's Beer Commercials is not politically correct. (That "tom-tom" beat on the jingle - c'mon now - you can replay it in your mind:

BMP-bmp-bmp-bm- BMP-bmp-bmp-bm o/~ From the Land of Sky Blue Waters... o/~

was never used in any Native American music.) But darn it, we loved that Bear & his friends! (Not gouche like former ultra-liberal Jane Fonda who shouldda known better- doing the "Tomahawk Chop" at former hubby Ted's baseball team's games!)

So, anyway, back to the Beer (born 1865 in St. Paul, MN) & and the Bear (born 1953 in the Land of Sky Blue Waters.) Author Moira F. Harris says in the Introductions: "This book is not intended ... as a catalogue listing of every sales or advertising item created by and for the brewery not is it a history of the company or its successors. The Focus has been placed on the art of the advertising created for Hamm's Brewery."

That's what she says. But then she slowly ferments on about the Hamm family sold to Heublein sold to the Seven Dwarfs sold to Olympia sold to Pabst traded to Stroh's sold to Kalmanovitz and so on. Through it all, the Bear comes and goes. I was looking for more Bear Bio. I got more Business Administration text - How Not to Run a Brewery - which subject was much better done in Phillip Van Munching's Beer Blast: The Inside Story of the Brewing Industry's Bizarre battles for Your Money.)

When she actually does bear bio, it's worth the price (about a twelve-pack.) And some ads before the Bear are interesting. Here's an ad from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, April 2, 1889: "Two men are shown sitting on the ground in front of a wall. Both are drinking beer and the copy records their dialogue as follows:
1st workman: Hamm's beer is a refreshing drink and helps the stomach digest cold food.
2d workman: Right you are and when the wife is ailing she gets a heap of strength out of it - tonic the doctor calls it."

The glossy front cover of this paperback volume is gorgeous and brings back memories. I wish that there would have been more and better pictures within.

P.S. Happy 50th Birthday, Bear!

The authors do cover most of the material. However, the language used is unnecessarily dense.

I used this book for the Managerial Economics course at Universidad Simón Bolívar. This book is an excellent aid for students and is plenty of practical examples. Every theoric explanation is followed by one or two examples. This makes it very easy to understand the concepts and to learn how to use them in practics. The ideas are exposed in a very clear way, what makes this book easy to read even if you don't have previous knoledge of microeconomics.

This book provides an up to date look at the application of microeconomic concepts to real business problems. It uses an extensive number of interesting examples to illustrate the value of managerial economic principles for practicing managers. Highly recommended.

This book, appearing to be written for children, is itself a quantum leap in the wrong direction. The authors treat many complex topics with inaccuracy and superficiality. For example, they state the Egyptian pyramids were made of "relatively soft limestone...(that)...could be quarried with hard stone tools". The interior of the Great pyramid at Giza is partially made of hard granite, too hard to be the work of either stone or copper tools, and that pyramid appears to have initially had 144,000 sixteen- to twenty-ton limestone casing stones made to an accuracy of flatness of ten thousandths of an inch, undoubtedly impossible to accomplish with "stone tools". They attempt to dismiss various psi phenomena by citing a few examples of fraud and instances where something failed to work, ignoring the large body of fine scientific work (Houck, Radin, Puthoff & Targ, Hasted and many others) clearly establishing the reality of many of the various phenomena discussed. Instead of relying on any scientific data, the authors rely on hypotheses, the views of a magician and ridicule by a cartoonist. The book is an unworthy attempt at treating its subject matter, lumping real scientific phenomena with obvious error, such as holocaust denial, and itself represents pseudoscience and yellow journalism.

Whew! Quite a lot is covered in this small book, but very little detail is given as references. As a skeptic myself these authors were 'preaching to the choir' with me. I think their idea that "people who disagree with them" will read and possibly change their opinions is a bit far-fetched. This book is perfect for those who dabble on the edge of pseudoscience, sometimes leaning one way then the other. This gives easy to understand examples, and some ammo to fight off unscientific beliefs.

I would really have liked to see the authors use footnotes throughout the book as an aid to researchers. I know that they were right on with their claims, but would like to see where they got their information. The glossary was very helpful, and can see using it in the future. If you have a friend or relitive who is always bothering you with pseudoscience claims, and you never quite know how to explain your skepticism, then this is the book for you. Carry it on your person, always!

When we're younger, and think we have the whole world figured out, we look for patterns while also looking for a means to be different. What we are too often led to is the subject matter of this book.

The authors cover a whole series of fads and pseudosciences by which we're frequently insulted, e.g., astrology, tarot cards and I Ching, and a host of others. The subjects are handled with a bit of wit, but not the cutesy angle of the "idiots guide to..." books.

I'm pretty well read on skeptical literature so for me there was little new. However, the silly fads covered in the book are often considered far more acceptable than critical analysis or thinking. Therefore, the book should be assigned to maybe high school seniors or college freshmen, those inclined to fall into such traps, i.e., into believing such nonsense. At least, then, when they get through their post adolescent turmoil, they'll have had a direction, a reference to put the foolishness in perspective. I'm not so naive to think that young people won't pass through such fads--most of us did at one point or another in our lives. But, again, seeds will be planted when most mature to a more complicated world in which we rely on evidence to come to conclusions.

And they DO cover what constitutes a scientific examinination of something, i.e., a contrast to the "intuitive," testimonial or anecdote-based, or merely "faith" angle they're trying to refute. That is a valuable contribution to the seed for future critical thinking.

The book does, however, have its weaknesses. One petty one, for instance is that the authors referred to the Greek gods for whom the planets are names. I believe their named for ROMAN gods (the biggest, gas giant, for example, being Jupiter, not Zeus). And, in retrospect, I wish they'd covered some of the trendy "therapies" which are draining the pockets of many, who, after these functionless raps still think for some reason that they're morally superior to the rest of us. But I suppose they make up a different genre of the stuff of which we need to be wisely informed.

The book is a fine primer for those thus far ill-informed of its subject matter. As such, that's not a criticism but a perspective. It's a wonderful, step-by-step primer for those new to skepticism, e.g., young people experimenting with it or their parents trying to reason their kids off of astrology kicks and so forth. But I wouldn't recommend it to those who've read far more sophisticated stuff on the subjects already.

This book I found rather disappointing. It is DEFINITELY for the beginner. So much that most information is nearly copied from all the help information provided during the installation process itself.

If you are a beginner I would not recommend buying this book. Look for something else!!

This book was very easy to follow, but I didn't learn very much that wasn't already available in the Linux documentation.

When I got this book, I had already been using UNIX at work. I just needed some guidance in installing Linux the first time at home. This book proved to be too shallow for me.

I started my server with this book and the man pages that it suggested helped a little. It does not have the heavier network admin information that you need once you get running. If you are trying to configure multiple nic's, sendmail, web hosting or any of the standard things, you need to get something else. But if you want to set up a basic network, this is the best starter book i have used.

The review touts this book as a handy reference for those already successful in a first career. Wrong. The advice in this book is so basic as to be useless. Anyone who is involved in business today already knows the information in this book. I was looking for advice on how to make a change, how to make contacts,how to build a support network, professional organizations, etc. No Luck. Save your money.

While I have always written since I was old enough to hold a crayon, my career path has never taken me into the world of writing or publishing. Until now. This book was written for people like me who want to investigate a career in writing but are unsure of where to start. While this book didn't tell me everything I needed to know, I found it a great starting point and introduction into the field. After reading it I found myself asking better questions and, as a result, finding better information suited to my interests. I particularly enjoyed the section where they review findings of the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation and the traits that successful writers, editors, and such tend to have (but then again my previous career is in Psychology, so many others may not find this section as fascinating). Seeing many of the traits I have had to fight in other work arenas listed as assets to a professional writer gave me confidence. Also, many of the terms and details of the field and running a business in general were new to me, so I found this helpful as well.

If your work history has taken you through the ins and outs of writing and the publishing world, this book probably doesn't have anything new to offer you. But if you are thinking about making a bigger leap than writing for someone else to writing for yourself, check this book out.