Despite the math phobia that afflicts so much of the population, it is limited in extent. All but the most committed hater of mathematics understands how valuable it is and respects those who can use math. This book is a catalog of questions submitted to a call-in show, which is certainly one of the most unusual ways to solicit mathematics problems. The world seems to be overpopulated with call-in shows, some of which get downright weird. To many people, discussing personal problems over the airwaves is the preferred way to deal with them. This is clearly a case of a call-in show that adds something to society rather than airing some of the ills that afflict it.
The problems presented in the book are fascinating, in that they start with simple ideas concerning how the world works. My two favorites are "Do Airplanes Get Lighter as Passengers Eat Lunch?" and "Can a Computer Have Free Will?" These are the type of problems that kindle the interest of lay people. Interesting, sometimes profound questions where the answers require a bit of deep thought. Some of the best brain teaser problems with simple solutions that you will ever find are in this collection. I have used a few of them as test problems to try the patience of my students.
It is gratifying to see such an endeavor succeed. Mathematics has so much to offer our society, but like artisans throughout history it is truly the society in general that supports the practitioners. Programs like this convince us all that, despite the occasional spouting of math phobia, our society does indeed respect mathematics as a pillar of human achievement.

This great book lets you know all the skills that kids in grades 1 to 6 need and has definitions of a huge number of math vocabulary as well as tons of other useful stuff.

For the student of the Radon transform and its many applications, this book is a must. It's all here: the Radon transform in a multidimensional setting, the X-ray transform (a closely related transform), general theorems for the Fourier transform of the Radon transform, and theorems on the range of the Radon transform. The author also covers sampling theorems, ill-posed problems, orthogonal functions, and tomography for incomplete sampling. He also offers much material on other allied transforms, the exponential Radon transform and the Radon transform for nonuniform attenuation, one of the major unsolved problems of mathematical physics.

This book is also an example of how a minimal and succinct notation can actually affect the way one approaches the research and thinks about problems. This is worth the price of the book alone. Nowhere else will you find such clear, brief exposition of many difficult theorems associated with the Radon transform. Initially, it is difficult to learn the author's notation, but once this barrier has been surmounted, it is clear sailing. The author also demonstrates a depth of knowledge of many areas of mathematics.

This book moved me to tears at times -- it tracks two relationships: a young girl in Minnesota and her affair with a dark-skinned musician, and an old couple -- both great characters -- Mattie and Frank, who start out in an old people's home and end up living with the young couple. The writing is excellent, the characters well-drawn. I'd love to see this book as a movie or even a TV series. I give it 5 stars.

Hello there. First of all I should say that I saw the movie first and then I read the book. The movie it was based exactly like the book, with the same scenes, the director (strohein) he even made the movie just like the book. But the producer cutted it, because it was 8 hours of length. The book talks about Mc Teague a dentist who falls in love of one of his patients, the cousin of his best friend, and his best friend helped him to get married. And after this she wins the lottery and there it start an history of love, poor, greed, traitors and death. Good book to read, and great move to watch.

Don't let the title mislead, discourage or intimidate you: the interest and importance of Felicia Miller Frank's The Mechanical Song: Women, Voice, and the Artificial in Nineteenth-Century French Narrative (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1995) lies not merely in its brilliant revivication of negelcted works by Balzac, du Maurier, Nerval, Sand and Villiers de L'Isle-Adam. Given the fetishization of the female voice in the age of electronic reproduction, Miller Frank's archaeology of the modernist confluence (Baudelaire being the crucial figure) of the feminine and the artificial, of the inhuman and the sublime, and the encoding of the female voice as a carrier thereof is as relevant to fans of such "ethereal," "angelic" pop divas as Julee Cruise and Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser as it is to scholars of, say, Villiers' L'Eve future (see Marie Lathers' The Aesthetics of Artificialty for a discussion influenced by Miller Frank). Perfectly complemented by Michel Poizat's The Angel's Cry: Beyond the Pleasure Principle in Opera (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1992); Kaja Silverman's The Acoustic Mirror: The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988); and the collection of essays, Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocality in Western Culture, edited by Nancy Jones and Leslie Dunn (New York: Cambridge UP, 1997). The recent, long-overdue English translation of Michel Chion's La Voix au cinema (The Voice in Cinema (NY: Columbia UP, 1999)) upon which most recent critical work on vocality draws is a bonus; now if only The University of Illinois Press would reprint their too-long-unavailable translation of Villiers' Tomorrow's Eve ...

A recommended take-along tote for any wilderness hiker; as is Buck Tilton and Frank Hubbell's third edition of Medicine For The Backcountry more specific to wilderness first aid treatments. From broken bones to heat and cold injuries, this tells how to make do until civilization is reached.

"Meet John Doe" is the third and most ambitious film in the celebrated trilogy of socio-political dramas directed by Frank Capra following "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." Once again Capra uses Gary Cooper as his lead character, placing him at the center of a most interesting political crisis: the threat of a fascist coup by a media tycoon. Unlike the simplicity of the first two films in the trilogy, both Long John Willoughby/John Doe and Ann Mitchell are decidedly more complex figures, so much so that it made a comic ending to the film impossible.

In is introductory essay, Charles Wolfe reconstructs the history of the film, looking particularly at its problematic ending. We then have complete transcript of the finished film, which includes extensive annotations concerning original script material. This book also provides the various endings scripted for the film, which were published here for the first time. The rest of this volume consists of reports and recollections by Capra, five contemporary newspaper and magazine reviews of "Meet John Doe," and three commentaries: Richard Glatzer's "'Meet John Doe': An End to Social Mythmaking"; Dudley Andrew's "Productive Discord in the System: Hollywood 'Meets John Doe'"; and Nick Browne's "System of Production/System of Representation: Industry Context and Ideological Form in Capra's 'Meet John Doe.'"

"It's a Wonderful Life" remains the quintessential Capracorn film, but "Meet John Doe" certainly holds up well in comparison. The darkness of the final sections anticipates George Bailey's descent into the hell of a world in which he has never been born and goes far beyond the symbolic crucifixions of Jeb Smith's impeachment and Longfellow Deed's insanity hearing. When "John" reads the speech Ann has written for him, it is not only a transforming moment for both of their characters, it is arguably the clearest articulation of Capra's beliefs about America. The Rutgers Film in Print series not only gives students a transcript of the film, it gives them a variety of critical perspectives without overwhelming them (as opposed to a Norton Reader edition of a classic book like "Madame Bovary"). Yes, it is necessary to screen the film, but there is something to be said for working with the script and focusing on the dialogue and plot rather than the actors and editing. In the end, this book makes a good case for "Meet John Doe" being THE Capra movie worthy of critical study by film students.

This book was a gift from a friend after I recently returned from a trip to Israel. Every devotional begins by describing the author's visit to a site in Israel, his feelings, thoughts, reflections about the site, and then completes the devotional thought. It was great to hear someone else's perspective on the same sites I saw and it has helped me relive my trip and has kept my memories clear. Even if I had never been to the Holy Land, I believe I would still enjoy the book; it has just been a richer experience having been there. I plan to buy this book for others that were on our trip and will highly recommend!