Bøger af Don Thompson

Why would a smart New York investment banker pay twelve million dollars for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark?

Does artificial intelligence have a role to play in human spiritual development? Pastor Paul Duncan, both ardent spiritual seeker and hopeless technophobe, finds himself facing this question when he reluctantly accepts a parishioner's offer to provide him with an Artificial Personal Assistant. The initial purpose of the APA is simply to keep Paul's office computer running smoothly, to save him and his human administrative assistant from the day-to-day distractions and headaches of office technology. But when Paul discovers that his new APA can also assist with research and sermon writing, he begins to explore a deeper relationship with it, one that ultimately turns deadly.

The Telenizer, a classical and rare book that has been considered essential throughout human history, so that this work is never forgotten, we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.

A dead clown is found after a costume ball held to raise money for world peace. The event is attended by the biggest names in the world. The event was organized by the prominent law firm of Fenton, Pettigrew & Cohenstein whose great big nobody managing partner winds up telling us who did it after the poofy young lawyer Sean Featherbottom is again falsely accused of the dirty deed.

If there was an official poet laureate of the West, Don Thompson would be my choice. For four decades he has reminded us what it means to be alive out here, coping with a world we do not fully understand. In Local Color, he employs an original format to present, as usual, wonderful word-pictures. Also as usual, "place" is a character in his work, but not just any place: the south San Joaquin with all its peculiarities and wonders. No writer has seen more there or told more telling tales as a result. This is narrative poetry that really narrates! -Gerald Haslam, author of Straight White Male and Leon Patterson: a California Story

When Roger Carrington, a successful CEO, loses everything after putting his own financial security ahead of his company's survival, he is reduced to living in a cardboard shack under a Seattle freeway. In order to survive, he must adapt quickly to his new reality. His growing friendship and interdependence with a small band of people who share the overpass with him challenges his conservative values and narrow notions of homelessness. He finds himself reexamining his self-centered past and discovering a new purpose.

Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock's drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 million? Intriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007? Don Thompson explores the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work valuable while others are ignored.This book is the first to look at the economics and the marketing strategies that enable the modern art market to generate such astronomical prices. Drawing on interviews with past and present executives of auction houses and art dealerships, artists, and the buyers who move the market, Thompson launches the reader on a journey of discovery through the peculiar world of modern art. Surprising, passionate, gossipy, revelatory, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark reveals a great deal that even experienced auction purchasers do not know.

Within forty-eight hours in the fall of 2014, buyers in the Sotheby¿s and Christie¿s New York auction houses spent $1.7 billion on contemporary art. Non-taxed freeport warehouses around the globe are stacked with art held for speculation. One of Jeff Koons¿ five chromium-plated stainless steel balloon dogs sold for 50 percent more at auction than the previous record for any living artist. A painting by Christopher Wool, featuring four lines from a Francis Ford Coppola movie stenciled in black-on-a-white background, sold for $28 million. In The Orange Balloon Dog, economist and bestselling author Don Thompson cites these and other fascinating examples to explore the sometimes baffling activities of the high-end contemporary art market. He examines what is at play in the exchange of vast amounts of money and what nudges buyers, even on the subconscious level, to imbue a creation with such high commercial value.Thompson analyzes the behaviors of buyers and sellers and delves into the competitions that define and alter the value of art in today¿s international market, from New York to London, Singapore to Beijing. Take heed if your millions are tied up in stainless steel balloon dogs¿Thompson also warns of a looming bust of the contemporary art price balloon.

Young teenagers Tom and Katie Morrison move to a new city, fearing boredom and isolation. But they find just the opposite when two unusual going-away presents and a mysterious forest become the keys to an amazing adventure that defies conventional explanation.