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The Penvesey Bay disaster/ The spectre of Tintagel/ Shangrila again/ Ned's atomic dustbin. ... Read more

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14 illustrious members of the Crime Writers of Canada explore what happens when people stand at the brink. ... Read more

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Four "Goon Show" radio episodes from the 1950s - "The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler from Bexhill-on-Sea", "The Histories of Pliny the Elder", "The Jet-Propelled NAAFI" and "The Evils of Bushey Spon". ... Read more

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The seventh of a series of digitally remastered "Goon Show" episodes: "The Whistling Spy Enigma", "The Affair of the Lone Banana", "The Great Tuscan Salami Scandal" and "Scradje". ... Read more

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Four "Goon Show" episodes which have been digitally remastered and restored to full broadcast length. The episodes are "The String Robberies", "The White Neddie Trade", "The Spon Plague" and "The Mountains Eaters". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

As Goon as any.
More Goon Show delirium! The episodes contained within are:
1. The String Robberies
2. The White Neddie Trade
3. The Spon Plague
4. The Mountain Eaters

It isn't about anything. Laugh. The sound is 1957 monophonic but still quite good and clear. There are websites with scripts available to help you figure out the more obscure words. It's all really very nice, you know! ... Read more

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Bill Viola ia a leading American artist working in video and sound installations, using innovative multi-media technologies to explore the phenomena of sense perception. This is a selection of his essays, notebook entries, interviews, drawings and descriptions of projects. ... Read more

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A breathtaking book
Bill Viola rules my dreams. The exhibition at the Whitney stunned me and it stayed with me for a long time. I wish there were more images from his notebooks in this collection since the display of notes/inspirations wereas fascinating as the installations themselves. You might have seen some ofhis work featured in the recent Nine Inch Nails US tour. If you want to seethe zenith of video/installation art, you must spend some time with BillViola's work. (He's also a delight to meet).

vvvv
c ... Read more

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Four "Goon Show" episodes from the mid-1950s: "The Treasure of Loch Lomond", "The Greenslade Story", "Wings Over Dagenham" and "The Rent Collectors". ... Read more

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Four "Goon Show" episodes featuring familiar characters such as Eccles, Bluebottle, Neddie Seagoon, Moriarty and Major Bloodnok - "The Man Who Never Was", "The Case of the Missing CD Plates", "World War I" and "The Nasty Affair at the Burami Oasis". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

The Peter Principle
Was introduced to The Peter Princle in college in my Philosophy classes...fascinating and sooo true to describe certain persons around me over the years!Precise and refer to it often!!!

book in good condition, delivered quickly
fairly old book but was in good condition as advertised.Delivered in a timely manner without problems.

Sad, but true.
I read The Peter Principle many years ago, saw the effects, and tell people about it, but some don't believe me!

It is really sad that the problem has not been addressed and will only get worse with the resurgence of Socialism and bigger government. :(

Must read for anyone wanting to understand how incompetence occurs.
Everyone should read this book as it will provide serious insight into incompetence. Not just in the workplace but in everyday life. The book details that everyone has a certain competence level at which they might excel but at some point their abilities will not provide what is needed without something additional. Ex; why does a successful high school football coach fail as a college coach. Ex; why does a successful salesman fail as a sales manager. This book can not only prevent you from attaining your level of incompetence but it can provide you with insight on how not to promote someone into their level of incompetence.

I read the negative reviews and completely disagree with them. The book does not promote the power of negative thinking, it promotes the power of thinking. It teaches one to understand one's strengths and weaknesses and use that knowledge to determine if one is qualified to move to the next level or whether more learning and/or more skills are required. I would rather be a successful salesperson than a failed sales manager but if I know that I would fail as a sales manager, I can stay where I am at or determine and study what it would take for me to be a successful sales manager.

If the "Peter Principle" were not so valid, why are there not millions of examples available to support it. Simply look around at individual failures of people that were previously successful. And look at those who continued to become successful. The difference will be that those that continued, knew what would be required (personally and corporately) to achieve success at each next level. If you do not understand what is required then you will fail. If you do not have the necessary skills and do not or cannot obtain them, then you will fail. To me that this the overriding tenet of this book.

This book provides an outstanding look into the failings of individuals and companies and how to prevent it. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

REFLECTIONS FROM THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINES...


Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull's book, The Peter Principle, is an oldy but a goody. First published in 1969, this satirical book explains incompetence in all human organizations with one very simple adage: "People always rise to the level of their own incompetence, and then stagnate there, preventing all useful work from being done."

To back up their theory, the authors demonstrate time and again how the skills that lead to promotion actually have nothing to do with the skills necessary for successfully accomplishing the job. For example, a great machinist may get promoted for being good with manual and spatial tasks. Seeing his ease and skill in his initial functions, he is quickly promoted to shop foreman. The reality, however, is that the skills required to be a good foreman (organizational, social and so on) are nothing like the abilities needed to cope effectively with work as a machinist. Not only does our company, then, risk losing a good machinist, it also risks gaining a poor foreman.
And on and on - Peter and Hull spare no expense in illustrating the principle of promotion beyond ones level of competence.

And then their book gets really funny. There are two chapters near the end of the book, enumerating the medical- and psychological symptoms of what the authors term "Final Placement" at the level of ones own incompetence - a level at which one is doomed to live out the rest of ones career, given that promotion is not longer possible when one blatantly doesn't have the skills to be successful at ones present placement.

Hull and Peter enumerate spurious and hilarious syndromes such as "Phonophilia" (the desire for many different telephones in a vain attempt to remain constantly connected to ones inferiors) and Papyrophilia (the belief that vaste accumulations of paper will somehow protect one from work-related errors).

These chapters I recommend reading quietly when one is home alone - if you risk reading them in a public space, prepare for questioning looks. While reading these chapters, spectators at the French unemployment office were wondering whether I was laughing or crying.

From my vantage point as a "chomeur" I now have the time and liberty to contemplate human incompetence from a very safe perch indeed, at least for the next year until my "allocations" run out ! ... Read more

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A volume of genuine correspondence between the Goons, which also includes a selection of faithfully reproduced "Goon Show" scripts. ... Read more

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CoursePrep Exam guide provides the essential information you need to master each MCSE/MCSA exam objective. Provides extensive preparation for the Exam 70-218. Softcover. ... Read more

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With another court case over and a local villain banged up for a few years, Detective Inspector Peter Diamond is keen to get his teeth into another case.So when a call comes in that a woman's body has been found in one of Bath's parks he gets himself to the scene in record time, where he is able to identify the victim as his wife and to establish the fact she's been shot.Mad with grief, Diamond eventually concedes he cannot be an unbiased member of the investigation.Keeping himself away from the team becomes all the harder when he suddenly finds himself under suspicion, and when his colleagues find no case against him but appear unwilling to follow up any of his suggestions - did Steph's previous husband have an alibi - Diamond decides that a little independent action is called for.As well as following his theory that a family of local thugs killed Steph to get at him, he is also intrigued by the fact that the wife of another policeman has gone missing.He'd served with the husband in the Met and they revisit the cases they'd worked on together.Between them they unearth many startling possibilities and some unexpected facts, but it is Diamond who ultimately avenges his beloved wife.Amazon.com Review
Combative and curmudgeonly, Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond has never been a favorite with his fellow cops. However, this head of the Bath, England, murder squad could always count on the loyalty and affection of his wife, Stephanie. Until now. Her broad-daylight shooting in Diamond Dust, the seventh of Peter Lovesey's scrupulously polished Diamond mysteries, has the stout detective sidelined in favor of other investigators less prone to turn the case into a personal vendetta, yet still determined to find a motive for his spouse's slaying. "Throughout their marriage," Diamond muses, "Steph... had never directly benefited from the one skill he had: sleuthing. She was entitled to it now. He would find her killer, and to hell with the problems it raised."

So, even as Diamond becomes the prime suspect in this tragedy (the murder weapon was an old revolver he'd secreted in his attic), he pursues more probable perpetrators--including a local gangster clan and Stephanie's ex-husband, a ne'er-do-well chef who might also be connected with an elaborate jewel-theft scheme and the recent disappearance of another cop's wife. Lovesey created two historical series before tackling the Diamond books, and his experience shows here as he carefully weaves together profuse plot threads, while simultaneously (and convincingly) forcing his protagonist's evolution through misfortune. That he succeeds in making the testy-before-his-time Peter Diamond an endearing figure is, alone, credit to Lovesey's authorial aptitude. Diamond Dust fans should hunt up previous installments of this witty series, especially Bloodhounds and The Vault. --J. Kingston Pierce ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

I could hardly put this book down -- read it close to straight through
But -- I had some problems with the ending -- it didn't make sufficient sense to me.

On the other hand, this was a real page-turner. This British police procedural begins with the end of a trial; a convicted man insists that he was set up, that he was innocent. A woman attacks the police detective Peter Diamond who investigated the case. The next day, Diamond argues with his boss and then drops by a crime scene - a body has been discovered. I don't think I'm giving anything away (since the reader learns this early in the book) to say that the victim turns out to be Diamond's wife. Suddenly the crime scene jokes don't seem very funny any more, as he struggles to cope with this enormous loss. Was she killed by the woman who attacked him? Or is her murder related to the gangster just convicted? As husband of the victim, Diamond is himself a suspect and experiences what it's like to be a suspect.

Although Diamond isn't supposed to be involved in the investigation, he starts to poke around, because he's convinced that the investigation is not looking in the right directions.

Diamond is an interesting character; if you haven't discovered this series yet, if you like British police procedurals, I think you'll enjoy this book and the rest of the series. I only wish that the ending had made more sense to me logically. In addition, as some reviewers have pointed out, there are other things that don't make much sense (why a possible witness to the murder isn't sought after, for example). For all that, I think this is a five-star book because it held my attention so well.

Have enjoyed the entire series!
I came upon Lovesey quite by accident & have been pleasantly surprised & entertained. I have now read all 8 of the series featuring the curmudgeonly Inspector Peter Diamond & they make for a quick, enjoyable romp. These are not taunt thrillers but tongue-in-cheek good old fashioned murder mysteries, set in Bath, England.Diamond & his team solve their puzzles one piece at a time in the way good Policemen do.I heartily recommend these engaging stories.

Good Diamond series entry
Solid, but the plot has a couple of major logical holes (the killer is supposed to be clever; yet, he/she does some really stupid things), and I agree with the earlier reviewer that the con man character was criminally (hehehe... :-) underdeveloped.

A sparkling introduction (for me) to Lovesy
Peter Lovesey's Peter Diamond mysteries are very happily to my taste.I like Peter Diamond, the kind of person he is, what he stands for in the bigger picture.He reminds me of Ruth Rendell's Chief Inspector Wexford, except that he is a little lest prosperous and a little more philosophical.Or perhaps a better comparison would be with Henning Mankell's Inspector Kurt Wallander.Diamond is a richly drawn character and this story chases him into a maze that brings his personal life most horribly into context with his work.I got into the Peter Diamond series fairly late in the game and I've been toying with the idea of going back and starting from the beginning, kind of like we did with Reginald Hill's Daziel and Pascoe mysteries.There are some 22 books prior to this one and I don't know how many feature Peter Diamond. Another one or two like this one, and I know it will be worth the investment in time to find out.

A cracker of a Book!
I wondered how this book would play out after the shocking beginning, but I shouldn't have doubted Peter Lovesey's skill.He writes a great book!His plots and characterizations are wonderful.In this book the curmudgeonly detective Peter Diamond is confronted with a crime that comes too close to home.He is sidelined by the brass for this, the biggest murder case of his career, but he vows that he will use his unique talent to bring his wife's killer to justice.There are more red herrings and leads for him to follow, and we the readers think it's a whole slew of different people, but Lovesey plays it out until the startling conclusion.This is a thickly textured and compelling book, and it is also a watershed book for Diamond.We wonder at the end what kind of man and detective we will have in subsequent stories.This is probably the strongest entry in an already strong series. ... Read more

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MARCH 1980 ISSUE OF PENTHOUSE MAGAZINE. ARTICLES FEATURE "ELECTRONIC WAR AGAINST DRUGS", "MY LIFE WITH PETER SELLERS BY BRITT EKLAND", "THE DANGEROUSE MEDDLING OF ROCKEFELLER IN IRAN", FICTION BY JOYCE CAROL OATES, INTERVIEW WITH LORETTA LYNN AND MORE. ... Read more