Book Description
Expert technical guidance for the earliest stages of building design
This laborsaving resource reduces complex engineering and building code information to simple approximations that can be easily incorporated into initial design explorations. It helps architects prepare buildable preliminary designs as a realistic basis for the more detailed design development stage that will follow.
Completely revised to reference the new International Building Code, this fully updated Third Edition responds to the growing interest in sustainable design solutions with a new section on daylighting. Like its predecessors, this new edition offers quick access to reliable rules of thumb that offer vital help for:
- Selecting, configuring, and sizing the structural system
- Selecting heating and cooling systems
- Configuring and sizing mechanical and electrical systems
- Configuring and sizing egress systems
- Designing within building code height and area limitations
The Architect's Studio Companion, Third Edition is a recommended study reference for the Building Planning section of the Architect's Registration Exam and an invaluable sourcebook that can save architects time and effort throughout their careers.
Customer Reviews:
Easy read, great info........2006-03-09
Well written, easy to read and comprehend. Great for a student to begin development of a project.
Great choice for architecture students!.......2002-01-26
This book offers a great way for architecture students to get a handle on some of the issues related to building design. It deals with basic issues of construction including structural systems, mechanical systems, and code considerations. It gives "rules of thumb" and basic descriptions which are great for preliminary design. For example, if you need to roughly size a truss or floor system during schematic design, go the appropriate section for the system you are using, and you'll find handy charts for basic sizing. This is a great book for students who need rough "guestimates" for studio projects.
For professionals and students alike!.......2002-01-03
Having this book is like having a half-dozen of the best engineering consultants at your elbow-ready to answer any question that may come up during design. It reduces all the complex technical issues in building design to simple formal elements of know size that are easily merged into the architectural design process. A must-have for professionals and students alike!
Students opinion.......2000-07-19
As an Architecture Student this book has come in very hand. It gives many details of design guidelines and is a wonderful resource book to own.
Amazon.com
Whether you're thinking about stenciling something simple such as a floral motif around a doorway or have set your sights on turning your bedroom into a medieval castle, this guide will help. Stenciling, we learn, comes from an old French word meaning to sparkle, and the lively projects certainly do. Beyond good coverage of all the necessary basics (equipment, fixing mistakes, cutting your own stencils) and the usual candidates for rampaging stencil artists (walls, fabrics, home decorating accessories), the book offers information on advanced techniques (like airbrushing and trompe l'oeil) and adapting the process to unusual surfaces (ceramic tiles, ceilings, exterior walls). And if you've ever dreamed of becoming a professional stenciler, the no-nonsense advice on setting prices, finding clients, and other tricks of the trade will prove invaluable.
Customer Reviews:
Very dated.......2006-08-05
I found this to be very dated in techniques and style. I knew it was ten years old, but I didn't realize the vast changes in stenciling. I didn't find the instruction to be particularly detailed, and learned far more from the many other books available.
best stenciling book i've found.......1998-02-11
I bought stenciling techniques because it has some of the best information i've found on stenciling. It has a variety of techniques and a good list of resources. The book is easy to understand and has information i've been looking for
good base book for beginners or advanced stencilers.......1998-02-05
This book nicely covers the basics such as materials and techniques, with good full color photos to further illustrate what is explained. For the advanced painter, there are some good ideas, again with full color pictures. I've even brought this book with me to a client to show them some samples of what can be done.
Book Description
Praise for the hardcover edition:
"The ultimate reference for stenciling."
- Booklist
With the simple stencil -- a template that lets you easily create a painted shape on a surface and allows you to repeat the exact pattern wherever and as often as you wish -- you can transform and beautify just about any surface from boxes to walls to floors.
The Complete Stenciling Handbook is a compendium of the latest techniques, tools, equipment and materials. The book presents innovative methods and products that have taken stenciling from a rustic craft to a breathtaking art form. The book features a wide range of step-by-step projects illustrated with color photographs.
Buckingham comprehensively covers the materials needed for successful stenciling projects and explains the qualities of a variety of media such as the differences between latex and oil paints. Clear, easy-to-read text simplifies the often confusing world of materials such as additives, matting agents, glazes, stains, thinners, finish coats and more. The book also includes instructions about when and how to use applicators such as brushes, rollers, sponges and airbrushes.
Creative topics with step-by-step instructions cover:
- Shading and paint effects
- Traditional borders and all-over patterns
- Freeform stenciling and projection stenciling
- Imitation textiles
- Architectural elements, fake marquetry
- Floor treatments, glass and ceramic tiles
- Lettering and stenciling on fabric and paper.
The Complete Stenciling Handbook is the best and most comprehensive guide for crafters from beginner to advanced.
Customer Reviews:
This really is a COMPLETE stencilling handbook.......2007-02-19
I picked this up through the "buy used" option from Amazon at a very reasonable price, although its worth the retail price and am very happy with it. I do a lot of crafts/stencils and find this book to add much to my knowledge base for stencilling. It's really complete and quite a substantial book. The pictures and text are thorough as well as inspiring. I will definately utilize the techniques shown. If your beginning or already an experienced stenciler this book is a good resource to have in your library. It seems so good to finally buy a book that delivers what it sells. Alehar
Sandra has done it again..........2004-11-28
You can't go wrong with any book by Sandra Buckingham, and she has really outdone herself this time. This has to be the most comprehensive book on stenciling ever published.
Sandra is THE Stenciling godess!.......2003-11-05
Sandra has done it again - written the ultimate bible of stenciling! Many new and wonderful techniques are shown with clear instructions and wonderful step-by-step full color photographs. The chapters on faux marquetry and imitation textiles was fasinating, showing that anyone can stencil beautiful finishes with the best part being, it doesn't look stencilled! The designs are very up to date, touching on all the hot decorating trends. She also includes classical designs that will be here forever. I have been teaching stenciling for 15 years and I'm going to recommend this book for both my beginners and for seasoned experts. Perfect for all you 'Trading Spaces' followers who want to easily and quickly add a new painted accent to your home. I am going to try a velvet scarf with the amazing devore technique, I think they might just be what everyone on my gift list will be getting this year. I can make lots for a fraction of what it would cost to buy them. Sandra finishes the book with lots of sources for materials and a detailed reading list. If I could give more than 5 stars I would! Can you tell I'm trilled with this book? It's the first and only review I have ever written!
An excellent comprehensive guide.......2003-05-15
Stencilers who want a complete handbook to the art, from choosing between materials and tools to understanding paint differences, glazes, and equipment, will find The Complete Stenciling Handbook packed with essential details. The chapters on how to create different stencil effects, from producing raised art to using layered patterns, supplement techniques and discussions with plenty of color photos illustrating finished results. An excellent comprehensive guide.
The Complete Stenciling Handbook.......2003-03-26
Fabulous book. If you are interested in finding extremely unique ways to decorate your home, please get this book. It is easy to comprehend. What you get from this book you would pay dearly to have done professionally. I took the book to work and let my co-workers look through it. They also thought it was great and saw many things they would like to do in their homes. Buy the book.
Customer Reviews:
What are your oversights? (1).......2007-09-14
The following is my take on Adler's Ten Philosophical Mistakes. Please forgive my mistakes in advance and feel free to correct me here or via email at jldarrouzet@gmail.com.
1. Consciousness and Its Objects:
Mis-taking "that by which" we are conscious of our ideas, perceptions, memories, imaginations, conceptions or other objects of thought, for "that which" we apprehend during consciousness.
At the extremes, the former objects allow us to communicate at the highest levels of human experience; mistaking the latter for the former leads to solipsism, the assertion that everthing of which I am aware or conscious is a figment of my own mind.
All of us can partcipate in the former approach. It is commonsensical. There is only one solipsist, right?
2.The Intellect and the Senses:
Mis-taking the brain's ability to experience sensations for the mind's ability to intellectualize during cognition.
At the extremes, the former limits are mental functions to our brain's activities or lack thereof, and denies the existence of anyting that is non-sensible; the latter leads to artificial intelligence (the re-invention of angels). The former leads to a radical forms of materialism (nominalism, subjectivism, solipsism, complete skepticism, and cynicism); the latter to radical forms of idealism (archetypal universalism, conceptualism). We are human beings. Our brains are necessary for cognition and intellectualization, but they are not sufficient in and of themselves to act in those ways.
3. Words and Meaning:
Mis-taking the use of verbal description for significant communication of ideas.
"...our ideas do not have meaning, they do not acquire meaning, they do change, gain or 'lose' meaning. Each of our ideas is a mean and that is all it is. Mind is the realm in which menaings exist and whrough which everything else that has meaning acquires meaning, changes meaning, or loses meaning." "A meaningful word, a notation with significance, is a sign. Signs that are only and always signals are used by animals. Humans use signs that are signals and also signs that are form designators to refer to other mental concepts. Communication reduced to verbal descriptions using strings of code words amount to signals on an animal level. Communication of only strings of ideas amounts to an attempt at artificial intelligence. Commonsense communication works between the extremes. Naming is not merely asserting the existence of something or someone and giving it or him or her a description, but rather naming is an acknowledgment of a being that exists beyond the domain of my mind.
4. Knowledge and Opinion:
Mis-taking two different approaches for knowledge and restricting others to mere opinion: the approach of skepticism and logically positive sciences or the approach of phenomenalism and transcendental philosophy for knowledge.
At the extremes, skepticism masquerades as knowledge because it claims only empirical evidence to be real, but must resort to doubting doubt itself to provide a "private" proof of a possible starting point.
Likewise, logically positive sciences masquerade as knowledge by asserting axiomatically starting points from which to launch hypothetical proofs.
Rather than reach knowledge from this approach, we reach self-rightgeous indulgence of self.
On the other extreme, the raw data of phenomena is offerred as what is really known and all other views are pushed into mere opinion, thus rendering the intellectual enterprise an ultimately futile exercise of attempting to communicate beyond phenomenal worlds which may or may not be shared.
Likewise, transcendental concepts of the mind are invented and offerred to secure what is really known and all other views are pushed into mere opinion, thus again rendering the intellectual enterprise an ultimately futile exercise of attempting to communicate beyond transcendental concepts of the worlds which may or may not be shared. Rather than reach knowledge from this approach, we reach self-rightgeousness domination of others.
Based in large part on the mistakes noted in 1,2, and 3, these approaches fail to deliver what commonsense readily acknowledges. Few things are certain. Logic, mathematics, and definitions provide certain starting points for communication.
Most things have sufficient evidence to support our knowlege of them; but they move from opinion to knowledge based on accumulated viewpoints and observations and no relevant or pertinent contradictions. Science and commonsense experiences themselves exemplify this kind of knowledge. And finally, the knowledge that is not so supported is referred to as opinion.
5.Moral Values:
Mis-taking "right" moral values supported by opinions, built with might, for moral values with "might" supported by right, built with knowledge of what is good for human beings.
At the extremes, prescriptive judgments about what is "right" that comes
ultimately from power lead to subjective self-righteousness or moral relativism and resulting forms of hedonism or utilitarianism. Commonsense helps us understand that we address our natural needs before our acquired desires as a practical matter. At the same time commonsense teaches us to realize that the love of something or someone regularly commands our wills to take a course of action that satisfies our deeped hidden desires, and thus more than what we assess as needed.
6.Happiness and Contentment:
Mis-taking the psychological state of contentment for the ethical or spiritual state of happiness found in the quality of a morally good life.
At the extremes, both utilitarianism and the discharge of one's dutiful obligations masquerade as happiness.
Commonsense shows us that doing either what is useful or what is one's duty does not always assure happiness, though we may rest contented having acheived them.
7.Freedom of choice:
Mis-taking immature determinism or what chance means for indeterminism for what is meant by freedom of choice.
At the extremes, determinism allows rational choice, fails to recognize non-rational behavior, and thus leaves out the powers of our human wills, perhaps confusing them with our emotions. Indeterminism allows emotional choices by ultimately denying rational behavior, fails to recognize irrational behavior, and thus leaves out the powers of our human wills, perhaps confusing them with our reasons.
Commonsense tells us that freedom of choice is one of the defining characteristics of human beings and that because of it, we have the choice to reject determinism and indeterminism and accept judgment making and decision-making as practical alternatives to the certainty and uncertainty that determinism and indeterminism promote.
8.Human Nature:
Mis-taking humankind's animal-like physical behaviors or spirit-like mental behaviors for its human nature.
At the extremes, we human beings are mistaken for a different breed with determined bodily limits or we are mistaken for a different manifestation of one or many spirits.
Commonsense tells us we are neither animals nor angels, and surely not God (though, as creatures, we are God's children). We are a separate kind of being named human, with bodily limits, but with unlimited spiritual potential after our creation. Our minds, hearts, souls, and spirits are incarnated in our bodies, from conception most would say today. When we die, we are excarnated. We disappear. Those of us who belief in the after-life understand either a continuing set of many re-incarnations or a single recall into a new creation at the word of God. When that recall is assented to, God's word is so effective we are said to resurrect.
9. Human Society:
Mis-taking conventional theory of social contract for the origin of government as a human institution that meets the needs and wants of the naturally gregarious nature of human beings in society.
At the extremes, those on the "left" seek to treat individuals equally in all possible respects despite the differences among us by all conventional means. Those on the "right" seek to protect individuals unequal in some respects from the brutal people among us by all conventional means.
Because such approaches require conventional agreements, when they cannot be reached, people become frustrated to the point of overthrowing their governments. Yet, regardless of the government in power, commonsense tells us that human society continues throughout the duration of the conflict, not by centrist compromise but because of our naturally desire to live in society rather than as hermits.
10. Human Existence:
Mis-taking physical appearances or behaviors, or consciousness in human beings, for the only reality we identify with in existing things or persons.
At the extremes, on the one hand there are those who claim that material things are all that is real and that there is no non-material reality. Humans are no more and no less than material bodies having a limited capacity to transform energy over time. When they reach their limits, the human being dies and their body disintegrates. That's all.
On the other hand, there are those who claim that spiritual things are all that is real and that there is only non-material reality we call consciousness. Humans are no more and no less than spirits connected to illusory bodies with a unlimited capacity to transform energy over time. When they die their body disintegrates, but not their spirit. It returns and reincarnates until it no longer needs to. That's all.
Commonsense tells us human beings have bodies not the other way around. Commonsense tell us that our appearances and our behaviors do not tell everything about us or about any other observable thing. There's much more to the mystery of each individual. Commonsense tells us as well that we are conscious not only of ourselves but the reality of other subjects and other objects as well.
Good Book.......2007-01-18
I thought this book was so useful that I bought ten more copies to give to friends (interested in philosophy). It is a relatively easy read for a layman. However, Chapter Ten has serious errors.
For starters, the title is inaccurate.......2006-03-15
As Adler himself admits, the title of this book is inaccurate, since it covers more than ten philosophical mistakes. I'd like to add that it also makes more than ten philosophical mistakes. This is not to say that the book is without value. Adler is a very clear writer, with a kind of conversational style that makes complex issues seem easy. But for the most part he also treats these issues too simplistically and ignores problems with his own views. The issues are not that easy, after all.
To consider just one example, take his defense of moral objectivity. His basic argument is that subjectivists ignore that there is a basic prescriptive (or normative) truth which, along with descriptive truths, can be used as a foundation for objectively true moral judgements. This basic prescriptive truth, according to Adler, is that "we ought to desire whatever is really good for us and nothing else" (p. 125). And, he adds, the reason we know this is so is that it is a self-evident truth, meaning that it is impossible for us to think otherwise. But that's obviously not the case. It is very easy to imagine thinking that we ought to desire what is not good for us. Suppose, for instance, that someone has no interest in living much longer, no interest in being in good health, etc. Then they may believe that they ought to do things that are bad for them, e.g., for the sake of enjoyment.
And even if that were not the case, there are other problems with Adler's use of this one "truth" as a basis for moral philosophy. For instance, how do we settle disputes between two parties when each desires what is really good for themselves but where their desires conflict?
Adler does make some good points, especially on the first chapter ("Consciousness and Its Objects"). But any potential reader should be aware that there are good counter-arguments on almost all of these issues.
Pitfalls of a Particular Kind of Philosophy.......2005-12-29
I would have given this book more than three stars when I read it around ten years ago, but my general outlook has changed since then.
First, the good points about the book: It is written in a clear style which anyone who has a general interest in the subject can understand.
Adler subscribes to the Aristotelian philosophy. If I recall correctly, he also likes Locke and the 20th Century British analysts. Aristotle, Locke, and the British analysts have promoted what might be called the 'common sense philosophy.'
This little book by Adler is in that vein; if a view seems to defy commonsense, it must be wrong--a distinction wasn't made along the way.
The problem is that a view being commonsensical per se is no way necessarily right. I submit that we should accept views, whether commonsensical or not, because they stand up to critical scrutiny.
For example, Adler in just a few lines dismisses the Kantian ethics--just a version of the Golden Rule which is empty. I do not subsrcibe to the Kantian ethics but it cannot be readily dismissed like that.
Adler says that there are axioms in philosophy. But he ought to well know : 1) his collegues dispute what axioms there are, for example, in ethics, and 2) some of his collegues have rejected such a notion in the first place. For example, that good old Aristotleian axiom, the Law of the Excluded Middle, is rejected by some philosophers (and some logicians, mathematicians, and physicists.) Quine in his famous paper "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" argues that no statement is immune to revision.
Quine and company might be all wrong but there is no consideration on these opposing views in the book. Why argue against a view when you can kick a stone, or life a hand? (Concerning hand lifting: a prominent 20th Century British analysist, G.E. Moore, offered a "proof" of the external world. This was his stunt: He lifted up one hand, and said, "This is a hand." Then he lifted up another hand and said, "This is another hand." I am not making this up. I ran this "proof" by a intelligent co-worker, and he said, "What does THAT prove?")
The commonsense philosophy will get followers and the proponents will be considered to be a genius by some because it re-inforces unexaminated prejudices.
Intro to Some Philosophical Issues.......2005-07-07
One can't help enjoy reading Adler. He writes with the layperson in mind, as if philosophy mattered to the laity, and it does!
Adler is not a "professional" philosopher, but that doesn't make his contribution any less worthy. Indeed, because of its accessibility and wide terrain, this is an engaging dialectic for most of the prominent philosophers from Plato to Nietzsche, One ought to keep in mind, however, that Adler at his death was a Thomist, and was an Aristotlean when he wrote this short volume. Expect, therefore, the criticisms of the philosophers chosen, e.g., Descartes, Locke, Hume, et alia, are skewered because they don't toe the Aristotlean party line. Despite his bias, Adler is fair in his criticisms.
Lamentably for Adler and his students, modern philosophy has made significant leaps since this book was written. Take the positive assertion that Locke's tabula rasa is right. Well, modern evolutionary biology, psychology, and congnitive science have disproved the tabula rasa theory. So, Aristotle, Aquinas, and Locke's "blank slate" notion no longer is true; defending it against the wealth of scientific experience opposing it isn't even a feature of this book.
So, who's this book for? Any beginning student of philosophy can benefit from Adler's reformation of some arcane, philosophical arguments in the language of the layman -- e.g., ordinary language. If one wants to know the fundamental flaws of the Empricists, for example, Adler adumbrates them. But before taking Adler's criticisms too seriously, be sure to compare them to current scientific thinking.
Average customer rating:
|
Ten Philosophical Mistakes
Manufacturer: Touchstone / Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I6YYDK |
Book Description
Rainy day blues getting you down? Played all your video games? Documentaries on the TV? Mom threatening to make you vacuum?
Just take a leaf from this very cool collection of games, puzzles, jokes, tricks, codes, mazes and other assorted amazing activities brought to you by those lifelong experts in wasting time -- The Simpsons.
You can entertain yourself with everyday objects, dazzle your friends with feats of magic, torture your siblings with ingenious pranks and devote some serious time to fooling around. Even if it rains for forty days and forty nights, you still won't run out of zippy things to make and do with this book around!
Customer Reviews:
Simpson Related Things To Do.......2000-07-28
This book basically is for finding something for elementary aged children to do. The games are desribed in ways relating to the show, but many are just actually Simpson related twists of old games. This book faetures many card games, scientific tricks, optical illusions, and many other things that can be done inside the house. This book also features some great puzzles, and a area with children related recipes. Buy this book to keep your children entertained, I'm sure they'll find much of the book useful.
It's Better Than Calvin and Hobbs Rainy Day Book.......1998-12-06
Are you board, raining out side. Well even if it isn't this book will still be fun. it delivers the fun out of the simpsons. If you like the show, you'll love this book.
Fantastic.......1998-06-23
A great Simpson's book, which you cannot put down. It's full of excellent games and puzzles. One for all Simpson's fans.
If you love The Simpsons, you GOTTA love this book!.......1998-05-11
This is not one of my favourite Simpson books ( I have 7 of them) because it gives no in-site into the characters or the show. But because of the Simpsonesque humour, great pictures and its high fun factor this book is a winner with Simpson and Non Simpson fans alike.
This is a great book, and I love it. Go buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......1997-08-21
You'll love it. It is classic
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