Dr. Noguchi was Chief Medical Examiner/Coroner of the county of Los Angeles, which includes Hollywood. His job is to establish the "manner, cause and circumstance" of death and to report the findings to the public. Every death is a mystery until the cause is known. A coroner is specifically trained to solve that mystery. He collects evidence, interviews witnesses, oversees the autopsy and laboratory reports on the body. In any unusual death, the first duty of an ME is to suspect murder, until proven otherwise.

At age 13 Dr. Noguchi witnessed an incident with his father's patient that set him on the road to forensic medicine. He later learned medicine by day and law by night. After graduation he left for America, the world leader in technology. He aimed to practice forensic medicine because of his love for scientific detective work.

Chapter 4 tells of the autopsy of Robert F. Kennedy. One shot entered underneath the right armpit and exited the right front shoulder. Another was under the armpit and traversed sideways to the spinal column. The fatal bullet entered the skull an inch behind his right ear. The thoroughness of the tests gave credence to a conspiracy theory: Sirhan had NOT fired the fatal bullet (p.101)! The murderer fired from the back into RFK's head; the gun was 3 inches from the head, 1 inch from the right ear. Sirhan was firing from the front (p.103). His gun contained eight bullets, twelve bullet tracks were found at the scene. They could not prove the fatal bullet was fired from Sirhan's gun.

Chapter 5 tells of his fights in the jungle of bureaucratic politics and personalities. "Noguchi was a target because of plain, old-fashioned prejudices" (p.113). The secretary who testified against him admitted her information came from newspapers and the prosecutor! Dr. Noguchi's private comments were the "graveyard humor" common to pathologists. The chief prosecution witness who tried to fire him as "emotionally disturbed" admitted he offered him a post a county hospital with live patients! Dr. Noguchi's faults were being an extrovert, having a sense of humor, and excessive ambition in expanding his department.

Chapter 11 "Forensic Science at Work" summarizes many interesting and entertaining stories from his career. He says Proposition 13 made it almost impossible to obtain increased funding for an increased work load.

Dr. Noguchi reveals the tragic facts of Natalie Wood's drowning. You can read about Marilyn Monroe, Sharon Tate, Janis Joplin, William Holden, and John Belushi. He tells of "the terrible danger of alcohol ... the most popular and most deadly drug ever conceived"; one out of every four deaths is alcohol related (p.227).

Chapter 14 tells of his demotion and removal as Coroner. He had just been installed as president of the National Association of Medical Examiners in Nov 1982. The investigator had ruled that Dr. Noguchi had been "unjustifiably demoted", but the Civil Service Commission disregarded this ruling. He was the victim of bureaucratic harassment or some kind of personal vendetta.

As someone who enjoys reading about forensic science, I had never read a book (nonfiction) or account by a coroner. Unfortunately, I live in Pittsburgh where we have the infamous Cyril Wecht to have to listen to or read about constantly in our newspapers and on television. He is not the best representative of this group of scientists, though at one point he must have been a friend to Noguchi. Noguchi does a fairly good job of explaining the work and some of the politics involved in running a forensic lab for any large city. He could have written in much more detail then he did for some of the stories, filled in the endings of the stories like with Patty Hearst, and talked more about the work done with other groups such as the FBI. I think he tries to be fair about giving credit where credit is due, and I also feel like he wrote this book in answer to all of his many critics who lied about his statements and abilities due to prejudice. Being a native Californian and also a deaf person, I am fully aware of the prejudices of that state and can sympathize with Dr. Noguchi. I plan on reading his second book to see if his writing and coverage improves. Otherwise, for those who aren't deeply involved or interested in this area of science, this is a good introductory book. Karen Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Noguchi's book gives an avergage reader or a student interested in forensic pathology or other areas of criminal justice an in depth look at some of the most famous deaths of this century.

"The Craft of Interviewing" by John Brady is just one book a beginning journalist should read. Most of journalism involves local newspapers covering local people, and despite how the internet has altered the speed and process of interviewing, good ol' gumshoe journalism still lives and breathes. That's why this book still matters 30 years after it first hit the college bookstores of j-school.

A good interview requires knowledge, diplomacy, fearlessness, rapport, organization, and knowing how to separate and summarize it all for a good story. This book has chapters on all of this. One complete chapter, "Off the Record" discusses some interesting approaches and policies this misunderstood phrase calls for. As you build relationships with key sources, this chapter, and others, can assist you in seeing ways through the thorny challenges of integrity and journalism.

Brady provides anecdotes about complicated interviews and interviewees. Even though these are with celebrities, the examples show the reader how to walk the line carefully and confidently.

"The Craft of Interviewing" by John Brady should not be the only book you read, and probably not your first. I fully recommend it as both a classroom text, and as a personal edification book. Your interviewing will be better you apply what Brady suggests.

Anthony Trendl

Some people seem to be looking for just one way to conduct an interview: John Brady describes several. If you are looking for something like a cookbook where the specific questions you should ask and in what order are listed, you won't like this book. If you are looking to develop your own interview style and want to pick and choose from a variety of methods, then you will find Brady's book an excellent source of information. Brady covers everything from getting appointments to to research to notetaking to tape recorders to knowing when the interview is over. He shows how different people handle interviews over the phone or by letter. When you finish this book, the choice of what questions to ask and how you should go about the interview remain up to you, but Brady's book will have given you a solid base.

Just about the only topic that is uncovered (due to the date of the book) is how to conduct an interview by Internet Chat. But a smart reader can easily adapt Brady's ideas to that situation.

Funny, I don't remember the parts about batting eyelashes and such. This book covers the fundamentals of interviewing and pre interview research.

I found the book to be a useful tool for conducting interviews, and think that it would be very helpful to beginners. I am a nurse turned free lance writer, and the techniques and tips for securing interviews were helpful to me.

I particularly liked the section on the "wrong questions"--this should be mandatory reading for local and national news reporters.

I would give this book zero stars... if only I could. In short, the author has a legalist interpretation of scripture and believes that Jesus requires marital martyrdom in order to be saved.For example, if two Non-Christians marry and divorce and one of them is happily remarried to another (let's say for 30 years with 4 children and 9 grandkids) and this same remarried person and their 2nd spouse of 30 years go to the altar to accept Christ, according to Mr. Webb, the blood of Jesus can not save them until the one who was previously married, divorces from their happy 30 year marriage and goes back to their first marriage partner. This, says Mr. Webb, is the only way to be truly repentant and that one can not be forgiven and saved without true repentance. This would be laughable if it wasn't so (bad)... (bad) because those who don't know any better may read this book and adopt it as their truth. Adultery is no excuse for divorce either... if one divorces their adulterous spouse, God will extend the same amount of unforgiveness on the divorcing spouse and they will go to hell.Try, if you will, to think of the worst case marriage scenarios that can possibly be imagined... married to an abuser, drunk, drug addict, serial rapist, insanity, incest etc... no matter how miserable or incompatible the marriage, no matter how grievous your marital blunder... divorce, according to Mr. Webb, is not an option... Jesus requires you to stay married and suffer. The choice is simple, you either become a marital martyr or spend eternity in hell.In order for me to buy into Mr. Webb's opinions and his narrow interpretation of scripture as it pertains to marriage, divorce and remarriage, I would have to believe that Jesus is an unforgiving, cold-hearted master who is void of any grace or mercy. In other words, I would have to come to believe that Jesus has as much understanding and compassion as a ... gnat.Do not waste your money or time on this book. Instead, I highly recommend a book called, Divorce And Remarriage: What Does The Bible Really Say?, by Ralph Woodrow.

This book is in complete line with what the KJV of the bible says.If you do not think so,you haven't studied close enough.Or, you are using the wrong bible.I'd give it a 10 if I could.Sometimes the truth is hard for some.

I haven't read all of this book yet but as far as I can tell this book is the best book ever written about if it is okay to divorce and remarry. He covers everything with scripture. After you read the main part of the book make sure you read the question and answer part of the book. It will help you a lot. This is a minister that tells the truth. He's not worried about loosing church members or money. Don't get me wrong. Not all ministers are like that but a lot are. Mr. Webb has been a pastor for 40 years and he is worried about people dying lost. He truly has a shepard's heart. He sees people trapped in a burning building and he is trying to rescue them with the truth. Isaiah 58:1 says "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." This is all Mr. Webb is trying to do in love. His own mother was in this sin yet he still preaches the Word of God and it's truth. In the back of his book is a way you can contact him and he has at least two tapes where he is interviewed on radio programs and they are great. On one tape real people call in with real questions and you can see how he trys to help them and how compassionate, loving and wise he is. He is not doing this to become rich. He is trying to get the REAL TRUTH out to help people who really want to live the truth of God's Word.

If you are hungry and thirsty for righteousness God will fill you up with this book.

May God bless you as you seek His kingdom and His righteousness FIRST,

Shawn Chouinard

The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson by Daniel J. Boorstin is a look into the early years preceding the birth of the United States and the climate of thought that was current at that time.
Scientific knowledge was starting to be shared and Jefferson seemed to absorb and process a lot of that times current philosophies.

This book is invaluble if you realy want to study or "get a feel" for the times of the 18th and early 19th century. The author goes to great pains in explaining particular events and ideas that were concerning these early scientific thinkers.

This book conveys the thought process behind the events and how the minds of the thinkers moved the nation. Mostly, this book is about American intellectual history, and is engaging as it is history of ideas. These ideas are blended with a purpose to bring the thought of the time into perspective and defines the key problems facing how Jefferson appeared.

This book is worthy of a place on your bookshelf, for reference and a look into American life and thought, aspects that are hard to see today, but are brought out richly in this book.

I highly recommend reading this book by one of America's leading historians .

The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson provides an in depth study of the philosophies and amazing depth of scientific knowledge that Thomas Jefferson displayed during his lifetime. The renowned historian, Daniel Boorstin, wrote this wonderful historic piece decades before his more famous works of The Creators, The Discovers and The Seekers. Boorstin's ability to explain a specific set of events and ideas amid the complex myriad of late 18th and early 19th century concerns in political thought and philosophy makes this book a invaluable reference. Thomas Jefferson's basic principle that all law, social construction and philosophy should be grounded with "Natural Law" is explained at depth. Boorstin also explains how the liberal ideals attributed to Jefferson were misinterpreted in the 100 years following his death. If you an interest in either early American Anthropology (although term was not being used per se, it is the only accurate way to describe the emphasis of this book) or American Scientific thought, then this book must grace your shelf.

Boorstin is the best historian I have read. He brings history to life by examining the thought behind the events and the assumptions behind the thought. This is not so much a book about what happened as to why it happened; what the underlying ideas were of the minds that moved the nation at its birth. Boorstin manages to effectively communicate thought processes that are foreign to the modern age. A remarkable achievement. I plan on reading more of his work in the future. Highest recommendation!

This book is very deceptive. I wanted to get a book on creole
called "the basic oxford picture dictionary English/creole"
and I ended getting this one instead. the two book have the same cover but they are very diferent. one does not have anything to do with creole but the title start the same and the cover look the same. this can be confusing for first time buyer of such a language book. I know that there are a lot of people out there probably making the same mistake. this should be fixed so one does not blow there hard earn cash on mailing back and forth.

Although you could never tell it by reading the other reviews, this book has NOTHING to do with Creole. It is an English picture book - you see a picture of a ladder and it's referenced to the word "ladder". It's a lot of pictures and the English word for each item. Before you buy, look at the cover and excepts - I didn't.

Looking back, I think what I needed was "The Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary (English/Haitian Creole Edition). But the way you're pointed to this English version when you search on "Haiti" is misleading - no, make that incorrect.

Please don't make the same mistake I made and buy this book - that is unless you're trying to teach or learn basic English.

Attractive, detailed pictures and clear labeling make this a great- and cheap- adjunct to more comprehensive texts in learning very basic Creole. It is primarily useful in helping you to learn the names of common objects and simple actions. There is no instruction regarding grammar and usage. If you are in a situation in which you need a quick introduction for an upcoming trip to Haiti, I would pair this with the "Survival Haitian" booklet and cassette available from the Kansas University bookstore website. If you are in for the long haul and want comprehensive instruction, try the "Ann Pale Kreyol" text and tapes and the Haitian Creole Learners Dictionary put out by the Creole Institute at Indiana University.

Wells is totally out of his field. He is neither a historian nor a New Testament scholar - he's a German professor, for heaven's sake! How anyone can accept his theories when it goes against almost all current NT scholarship is beyond me.

Quite simply, one must ignore a great deal of evidence, and treat what evidence is left most unfairly, in order to deny that Jesus existed. Greco-Roman historian Michael Grant, who certainly has no theological axe to grind, indicates that there is more evidence for the existence of Jesus than there is for a large number of famous pagan personages - yet no one would dare to argue their non-existence. Meier notes that what we know about Alexander the Great could fit on only a few sheets of paper; yet no one doubts that Alexander existed. Charlesworth has written that "Jesus did exist; and we know more about him than about almost any Palestinian Jew before 70 C.E." Sanders echoes Grant, saying that "We know a lot about Jesus, vastly more than about John the Baptist, Theudas, Judas the Galilean, or any of the other figures whose names we have from approximately the same date and place." On the Crucifixion, Harvey writes: "It would be no exaggeration to say that this event is better attested, and supported by a more impressive array of evidence, than any other event of comparable importance of which we have knowledge from the ancient world." Dunn provides an anecdote similar to the one above regarding Shakespeare. Referring to Wells'thesis, he writes:

The alternative thesis is that within thirty years there had evolved such a coherent and consistent complex of traditions about a non-existent figure such as we have in the sources of the Gospels is just too implausible. It involves too many complex and speculative hypotheses, in contrast to the much simpler explanation that there was a Jesus who said and did more or less what the first three Gospels attribute to him. The fact of Christianity's beginnings and the character of its earliest tradition is such that we could only deny the existence of Jesus by hypothesizing the existence of some other figure who was a sufficient cause of Chrstianity's beginnings - another figure who on careful reflection would probably come out very like Jesus!

Finally, let's seal the coffin on consenus with these words from a hardened skeptic and an Emeritus Professor of History, Morton Smith. Of Wells' work, this historian and skeptic of orthodox Christianity wrote:

"I don't think the arguments in (Wells') book deserve detailed refutation."

"...he argues mainly from silence."

"...many (of his arguments) are incorrect, far too many to discuss in this space."

"(Wells) presents us with a piece of private mythology that I find incredible beyond anything in the Gospels."

None of these scholars, we emphasize, is a friend of fundamentalism or evangelical Christianity. Contrary to the protestations of the "Jesus-myth" consortium, they make their statements based on evidence, not ideology. Conspiracy and bias exist only in their own imagination.

Professor Wells exposes quite persuasively the sham made by some catholic and protestant Bible comentators in order to hide the historical unreliability of the New Testament and their characters. People tend to believe that something which everybody is familiar with has to be true, but even at the end of last century people and scholars satirized Darwin because of his unbiblical version of the creation of man - well, nowadays, people don't think still that Adam and Eve were real historical characters. Scholars of every scientific field have shown the Bible to be innacurate in several ways, including in History, yet the christian Churches still resist to give up some pieces of our History which were written exclusively on the Bible and that have no sort of consistency whatsoever. I think that the historical pursuit of thr real Jesus or the legend that was built around a purely mythical Christ will have a meaning so great in the field of History, as the discoveries of Galileo and Darwin had in the field of Science. Wells builds his argument about how the legend of Jesus developed by trying to see the implications of the theological evolution seen if we put the early epistles of Paul, the sayings attributed to the Q gospel, the synoptic gospels and the Gospel of John in their correct chronological order (as I have ordered them). Then we can see how the notion of the existence of Jesus Christ changed in this short period of 50 or 60 years: from a supernatural risen Christ with no specific historical existence in Paul and a kind of Cynic teacher in Q appeared several inconsistent stories about a Son of God cruxified by Pilate. The writers of the gospels weren't ancient historians as many people believe - their writings reflected the problems of their small community and the theological goals of their leaders: for every problem which aroused a christian prophet built a saying of Jesus or a miracle made by him which supported his own point of view on the issue. And so appeared so many contradictory sayings of Jesus with no specific chronogical order or geographical background in the gospels. If we believe that the gospels show us the real teachings of Jesus, then we had to say that Jesus at the very same time was: a Jewish who obeyed the Law, an anti-Semitic leader, a miracle-worker who acted for the crouds and at the same time a man who tried to act anonimous (but how can a great miracle-worker who acts for the crouds be anonimous?). Also, the writers of the gospels show us a group of 12 incredibly stupid apostles and don't date the Passion at the same time. Many of the events described in the New Testament appear to be things just build to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies. Yet, I think that there were several things forgotten by Wells: the inconsistent dating made by the gospels of Jesus supernatural birth and the inconsistency of the Passion events in the Roman world background: Pilate was a cruel man and wouldn't defend a man accused of social disorder; also, Pilate wouldn't deliver Jesus to Antipas, the lord of Galilea, because he had no kind of power in Jerusalem. Also, Wells should have given some further discussion of the thesis made around the Dead Sea Scrolls and the book can, perhaps, confuse a reader somewhat less informed in this matter because of its many citations of other scholars and the several critics made to their books. Wells finishes his book criticizing the distortion of the Scriptures made by christian Bible commentators for support of their conservative ethics: they only pick up some epic phrases, get rid of some complicated sayings by explaing that they're only methaphorical or with no significant meaning and convince others of a great, uniformal moral written on the Bible. Yet, there is no uniformal moral on the many books of the Bible, because they were written by several different people, in many different backgrounds and in the course of many centuries. However, we have to resist this view of the great morals given by the Bible, because the teachings of Jesus and the Jewish prophets are not as pacific as they say: in the Old Testament God says to Moses to kill all the homossexuals, the worshippers of idols, the adulterous and maim the criminals, then God tells David to massacre every living person of the unjewish population in the land of Israel - including women and children; finally, Jesus prohibits the divorce between christians and says he is the only way to God and that the Jews will all be condemned to Hell - some epistles even say that everyone who doesn't worship Jesus Christ is a son of the Devil. Clearly, the precepts of the equality of all men in God's eyes were only meant to christian believers and not to unbelievers (who are described as the assassins of Christ and sons of the Devil). I believe that most people never read one piece of the Bible, because if people did so they wouldn't still think that Jesus was a peaceful man and that the Bible teaches only good things which can be applied in our real lives.

Carlos madeira 20th of July of 1999

This is addressed to all believers in JC. The matter with JC isn't so much whether or not a mere mortal human being existed at some point in the distant past. The claim made by the believers is that Jesus Christ was not at all a mere human being, but that he was son of a god, that he possessed supernatural abilities, and that he is really alive in some form even today. Is it not a bit silly that the believers implore all to believe in the reality of JC by appealing to so-called historical evidence while all that's required for all to believe in JC (or God, the Almighty) is for the real Jesus Christ or God to materialize berfore each one of the unbelievers and thus put the matter to rest? If it is so utterly important for God that we believe in him, then why doesn't he produce a very current living evidence by appearing brfore us? May the real God or Jesus Christ rise and introduce himaself? Look, it isn't much for an almighty god to do this favor - please come forward and introduce yourself and show us that you are indeed an almighty god! Why would you want to hide yourself from our senses and yet want us to believe in you by looking at unverifiable historical documents purporting the exeistence a god or JC?

An inspiring book for any student of animation, as the author details his life building a huge cartoon empire. Hanna/Barbera went from producing 40 mins a year to 2 and a half hours per week in the matter of afew years..an amazing achievement in any mans language. The book does falter however and reminds me of teh cover picture of Joe barbera ( resplendant in what looks like dyed hair,. a face lift and capped teeth. ) I think a more "warts and all " approach would have been far more interesting..

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Joe Barbera's autobiography. It is interesting to delve into the mind of the animator, and more appropriately into one who has made great strives in the animation movement and who has played a part in almost all of our childhoods. Taking a view "behind the scenes" and recognizing the hard work and creativity that went behind the ultimate product-- cartoons that we sat plastered to each and every Saturday morning-- to me, a fellow artist from Brooklyn, was truly enjoyable. My thanks to Hanna-Barbera for some enjoyable years...

I simply love Joe Barbera's autobiography, "My Life In 'toons". I got it in 1995 and I have read it many times since then, finding something new every time. It begins when Joe's just a toddler and continues through the entire life of Hanna-Barbera. Hanna-Barbera created more cartoons than any other studio , and in this book Joe Barbera gives some background on each one; he even talks about his and Bill Hanna's part in MGM's Tom and Jerry. This book is filled with interesting and funny fact and stories from Joe's life. If you are a fan of any Hanna-Barbera cartoons (The Flintstones, Scooby Doo, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, etc.) or if enjoy the history of animated cartoons, I recommend you get this book.

In addition to this book you may also like to check out Bill Hanna's autobiography, "A Cast of Friends".

As an introductory book its fine but as a 'Most Complete' you want it to expand beyond basic examples into e.g. interaction between the cartridge types, practical implementation advice etc.

I'd have used the money back guarantee if there was one as I expected a bit more from it.

Does a reasonable job of covering Oracle Web Application Server 3.0, but the Oracle Press book is better.

This book does a good job of providing an overview of the architecture surrounding OAS 3.0, but certainly does not hold to its claim as "The Most Complete Reference." Its biggest shortfall is its lack of detail concerning Inter-Cartridge Exchange (ICX). It mentions this topic at least a few times, and explains the premise behind ICX, but doesn't provide any examples of how ICX is accomplished from a PL/SQL cartridge to a C cartridge, for example. A good book for people who are just learning about OAS and want an introduction and then some.

This is an excellent book (5 stars) for PeopleSoft beginners, if only they can finish this book. This book has tons of errors including typos (in contents and code examples), and missing instructions (fatal). I am about 30 pages from the finish and can't continue because of the wrong instruction included in the book.

It's a shame, I rather enjoyed the book and it could be one of the best PeopleSoft books in the market.

The book has a decent amount of technical information although it lacks the organization found in other books of its kind.

Also, the screenshot quality is horrendous and it has many typos.
I also didn't like the fact that it didn't cover such an important tool as App. Engine. It's basically an App. Designer, PeopleCode book with a small, although useful SQR section.

But... you need to give credit to the author for putting the effort and delivering something for the PeopleSoft developer community. Other than this book there is virtually nothing else worth purchasing for version 8.x

The book price deserves a revision as well.

Consider the caveats before purchasing. You should buy this book only if you are new to PeopleCode and your company or yourself cannot afford a PeopleCode and/or SQR course.

I would wait for a new edition.

Covers the v8 changes in peoplecode pretty well, which is what I bought it for; but is marred by a weird conversational tone (almost as if the text had been transcribed verbatim from a dictaphone recording of someone walking through the process) and infuriatingly poor proofreading - including the cover, which promises "New Bugging Techniques" (though I see from the Amazon cover image that this at least has since been corrected). Here's a representative quote from page 347, about Grid objects - I guarantee all errors are in the original:

"With that said then why is there a Gird objects with methods and properties? Well there are special commands that you can use to manipulate Girds a bit more effectively."

See what I mean?

The information contained in this book is largely accurate, but I wish it were a lot more polished.

I enjoyed Deep Cover. I am curious about two references to a person named Danny in this book. I hope to see more stories featuring Donnie Brasco, Joe Pistone's alter ego from his days in the FBI. I am wondering if we will ever see the character Mike Galterio featured in any future novels.

I didn't care for the love story in this book at all. The story and ending seemed like typical Hollywood.

This is a well written account of what it is like to be an undercover agent. The author doesn't waste alot of time on characterizations or background, he just keeps the excitement in the present and gives you enough detail so you can actually "learn" something about this dark and risky lifestyle. The dialogue between the agents is quick, clean, and intelligent. Donnie's dialogue and interactions with the various residents of the Florida Everglades emphasizes his quick wit and humor. But, how did he spend so much time in a waist deep swamp and not get bitten by anything larger than a mosquito?