Review of Spectacular Nature: Corporate Culture and the Sea World Experience (Paperback)

A devastating deconstruction of Sea World that gives jagged substance to the nagging feeling of dislocation and coercion that most of us feel when we are in a corporate theme park. Its also a handbook for rescuing environmentalism from greenwashers and the corporate media. Finally, its a sustained hymn of pure hatred and contempt, and everyone loves to read abuse. Enjoy!

Product Description
This is the story of Sea World, a theme park where the wonders of nature are performed, marketed, and sold. With its trademark star, Shamu the killer whale--as well as performing dolphins, pettable sting rays, and reproductions of pristine natural worlds--the park represents a careful coordination of shows, dioramas, rides, and concessions built around the theme of ocean life. Susan Davis analyzes the Sea World experience and the forces that produce it: the theme park industry; Southern California tourism; the privatization of urban space; and the increasing integration of advertising, entertainment, and education. The result is an engaging exploration of the role played by images of nature and animals in contemporary commercial culture, and a precise account of how Sea World and its parent corporation, Anheuser-Busch, succeed. Davis argues that Sea World builds its vision of nature around customers' worries and concerns about the environment, family relations, and education.
While Davis shows the many ways that Sea World monitors its audience and manipulates animals and landscapes to manufacture pleasure, she also explains the contradictions facing the enterprise in its campaign for a positive public identity. Shifting popular attitudes, animal rights activists, and environmental laws all pose practical and public relations challenges to the theme park. Davis confronts the park's vast operations with impressive insight and originality, revealing Sea World as both an industrial product and a phenomenon typical of contemporary American culture. Spectacular Nature opens an intriguing field of inquiry: the role of commercial entertainment in shaping public understandings of the environment and environmental problems.

From the Inside Flap
"In this imaginative and fascinating study of Sea World, Susan Davis powerfully combines the interpretation of metaphor and symbol with the analysis of more concrete evidence. Spectacular Nature constitutes a very significant contribution to our understanding of the relationship between human beings and other animals in modern America."--Harriet Ritvo, author of The Animal Estate

"This beautifully subtle, nuanced analysis of one of the most ambiguous of American commercial institutions--the nature "theme park"--is a landmark of social criticism and a telling dissection of a central contradiction in a world dedicated to profit and also, supposedly, to public knowledge and compassion."--Stephen Jay Gould

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Review of Focus On Mod Programming in Quake III Arena (The Premier Press Game Development Series) (Paperback)

The Book refers you to a web site for additional code; however, the web site does not contain any information about the book. This makes it difficult to follow the instruction.

Product Description
You've seen the cool mods that other developers have created for games like Quake. Now you're ready to try it for yourself. All you need to dive in and start designing is a copy of Quake III, a creative idea, and this book! Master the fundamental skills you'll need as you start with the basics of mod development and Quake III weapons programming. Then move on to code interaction as you begin to alter the user interface. Step into the ranks of true mod developer as you examine the development of a custom mod and cover ideas for future enhancements. Get ready to put your ideas into action!

From the Author
This is my first book, and it was both challenging and a constant learning process from start to finish. Because of the unusual circumstances that led to my becoming the author, I have many important people to thank; without them I surely wouldn't have been able to pull this off. The first of these people are Emi Smith and Estelle Manticas, two patient ladies who held my hand as I stumbled blindly.

Many of the tutorials in this book are based on the hard work of dedicated Quake III Arena fans, who took their own personal time to write up what they had discovered. My thanks go to Chris Hilton, Karl Pauls, Arthur "Calrathan" Tomlin, and Ian "HypoThermia" Jefferies at Code3Arena for their extensive help and knowledge. As well, thanks to my favorite 3D modeler and friend Dave Wolfe for his contribution in the modeling department. My passion for C programming would not exist if it weren't for the support of Dave Sausville, and so I have him to thank as well. I need to thank Thaxton Beesely, too, for it was his laptop on which a great deal of this book was written.

Special thanks go to Robi Sen, my technical editor, for believing in me enough to get me on this project. Jared Larsen provided detailed information on Q3's code, shaders, and wrote the Flag Indicator & Dynamic Spawn generating functions (all after having just welcomed a baby!), so thanks very much to him. Also, special thanks to Anthony Jacques, for providing the source to his "Domination" mod for Q3, which formed the basis of the Defend the Flag modification, handled in the last section of this book. Thanks also go to the team back at Breckenridge Communications, who dared me to write a book.

And finally, thanks especially to my wife, Julie, for her support and patience during this exciting and unpredictable project.

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