This important book belongs in every investigator's office and in the libary of every courthouse.

Sheila M. Murphy Retired Presiding Judge Sixth District, Cook County, IL

From start to finish, this book makes you feel as if each author is talking directly to you, educating you, taking you under his or her wing, so to speak. Imagine if you could have a mentor, the opportunity to pick their brain, the chance to shadow an investigator who has an absolute understanding of the methods and techniques, and the ability to answer all of your questions.

So many books, manuals and articles are chock full of "how-tos" and helpful hints, but the real heart of the matter is not explored. The authors provide the secrets, the insights, the total package from A to Z. This book does not gloss over the subjects. It deals with all the aspects of the investigative steps, and provides relevant examples.

This book also makes you think. I found myself contemplating the many options I should have explored in the past which were so clearly explained in each and every chapter. I recalled techniques I had forgotten, and learned so many more new ones. I got an insight into the way that other fellow professional investigators handle their investigations. I may never become an expert in the areas covered in the book, but I now have an understanding of the methods and sciences covered in this publication, an understanding that can only make me a better educated, and knowledgeable, professional investigator.

This book is broken down into fifteen (15) chapters, written by some of the best investigators in the country. All of the chapters are very well written, concise, informative and jam packed with the techniques, and insights of hundreds of years of investigative experience. I consider each and every chapter an individual tool in my investigator's bag of tools. This book is not overwhelming, or a hard read, but draws you in from start to finish, like a good novel.

This is not a book that is once read and then used as a paper weight, or dust collector. Mine is on my desk, and I have and shall continue to refer to it often. There's a feeling you sometimes get when you finish a good novel, you want to tell your friends and share the experience with others. Few textbooks evoke that feeling. This one does.

Thier most recent contribution, Advanced Forensic Criminal Defense Investigations, is a wonderful work, one both investigators and criminal defense lawyers will want in thier libary. The topics covered are important and the contributing authors have all done well.

Terence F. MacCarthy, Director, Federal Defender Program, Chicago, IL.

Agent is a beautifully written, well crafted, insightful look at the world of Hollywood and the people who create the movies we worship. It is an honest account of the coils and overlays of their personal lives and tragedies.

A wonderful read in the tradition of the great Hollywood novels.

Rafael Lima Screenwriter

Whoever reads this magical book will soon be starving for cheese!
After all those years, I can still see the little French mouse and his comrades in my mind, bicycling into Paris late at night for their cheese run.
Everything about this book is positive and upbeat and a wonderful influnce on children of all ages.

I still love Anatole and read it often. I highly recommend it.

Even the youngest of children will understand the themes of this book. Children who may see themselves as insignificant in a busy household will learn great lessons from Anatole. Anatole is a Caldecott Honor Book. Even though this book is currently out of print, it should be searched for at your local library. Nevertheless I will look for other books from Eve Tutus. Vive Anatole!!

If you are interested in Aromatherapy, this would be a good book to start your collection.

The author, Paul Fenton-Smith founded the Academy of Psychic Sciences in 1985, and has studied and practiced around Australia, in Europe and the USA since 1978. He is also a regular guest on radio and television.

Paul also teaches palmistry and tarot reading and has a private practice as a clairvoyant and counsellor. A best-selling author of books on palmistry, tarot and astrology, Paul's aim in teaching and writing is to demystify the psychic sciences.

Astrology Revealed is not a large book, but as I mentioned previously, it is concise and practical. As well as covering the usual topics found in introductions to astrology - history, signs, houses and planets; it also goes into explaining many other important aspects of astrology.

The book is divided into four parts. Part One (Introduction) explains what astrology is and also goes into the history and purpose of astrology.

Part Two (The Basics) looks at the signs of the zodiac, the houses, the solar chart, plus the Moon and its phases. I particularly liked the way the signs of the zodiac were explained. Each sign was given its planetary symbol, glyph, element, type and ruler. The author then goes on to describe the themes associated with each sign and then under separate headings looks at relationships, health, negative traits, and 'lessons' for the relevant sign.

In Part Three (The Planets), Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are explained in terms of their symbolism and interpretation in each of the twelve zodiac signs.

The final section, Part Four (A Deeper Awareness), return charts, the Moon's Nodes, Ascendant, progressions, planetary aspects, chart reading procedure, relationships and astrology, health and sun signs, practice charts and advice on gaining practical experience are all explained.

Astrology Revealed has over 200 illustrations plus many real-life examples that are used to help you understand and apply the concepts presented.

Anybody who has looked into this complex subject will appreciate the amount of effort that would have gone into producing such an excellent book. I believe Astrology Revealed is an important addition to the student's library of reference books.

While Robert Kaplan did write the introduction, he and Norton must be very dissappointed that they didn't write this book -- I'm certainly sorry that I didn't write it. Author Paul R. Niven provides all the tools, methodologies and steps necessary to create and execute your own balanced scorecard. He's held nothing back. It's all here. Whether you lead a local non-profit or are the CEO of a Fortune Global 500 corporation (like my clients), Niven has provided detailed step-by-step instructions for both of the key phases of the balanced scorecard project:

I. Planning Stage:
Step One: Develop objectives
Step Two: Determine appropriate organizational unit(s).
Step Three: Gain executive sponsorship.
Step Four: Build your balanced scorecard team.

Step Five: Formulate your project plan.
Step Six: Develop a communication plan.

II. Development Stage:
Step One: Gather and distribute background material.
Step Two: Develop mission, values, vision, and strategy.
Step Three: Conduct extensive interviews.
Step Four: Develop objectives and measures.
Step Five: Develop cause-and-effet linkages.
Step Six: Establish targest for your measures.
Step Seven: Develop the implementation plan.

This book is fantastic. In fact, I'm thinking about placing a bulk order for the book to give to all my clients. On second thought, why give away all the "secrets?" Seriously, this is one of the best business and management books I've read this year. Overall grade: AAA+++/Highly Recommended.

1. What is difference between format 0 and 1 in standard MIDI File(SMF)? 2. Tell me about meaning about Delta Time in SMF Shortly. 3. Tell me about Data format in SMF as much as you know.(eg: Delta Time, header chunk, track chunk etc. note, control, exclusive, tempo etc.) 4. these are parts of SMF forms of each quarter note of "Do, Re, Me, Fa, Sol, Ra, Ti, Do", the 1th-octave musical note. Fill blanck with proper number. 48, 92h, 36, 100(Delta time, note-on, and midi-ch, note, velocity) 48,38,100 48,(40),100 48,( ),100 48,( ),100 48,( ),100 48,( ),100 48,(48),100

This book has met my needs 100%.

By focusing on the past when Media was not so omnipresent we see that the random and ever changing quality of popular tastes always pertain. Through his re-telling of these 13 now obscure curiosities the author achieves valuable insight into the sometimes ludicrous, often venal whims and fancies that propel some issues and their advocates into the vanguard of the public mind.

The prose occasionally suffers from what I'd call journalism. As I read the first story I wished the author had been able to breathed greater life into the facts presented. In the hands of someone more ambitious some of these tales might stand more clearly as metaphor or epiphany. Of course they might just as easily have lost their focus on the valuable idea that contemporaneous enthusiasms are almost inevitably misguided. And in hindsight most, like the delightful story of Psalmanazar, could not be improved upon.

Don't ignore the further reading supplement. Finding it somewhat dry at first I almost did. It's interest lies in the gathered details presented of how one finds such obscurities.

The title tale is about John Banvard, who in the 1850s 'was the most famous living painter in the world, and possibly the first millionaire artist in history.' Why haven't you heard of him before now? Because time swallowed him up. Banvard sailed down the Mississippi and sketched all he saw on the 3,000 mile voyage. He then painted what he had sketched, producing the biggest picture ever, said to be three miles long. The panorama was rolled up, and he displayed it on stage as it rolled by, while he gave narration and was accompanied by piano waltzes he had commissioned. His performance pieces were slow at first, but became a sensation, as he played Boston, New York, and then London, where he impressed the royal family and Charles Dickens. Banvard spent time in London museums, being taught to read hieroglyphics; he then sailed down the Nile to make another panoramic painting. He was troubled with those sincerest flatterers, imitators; he had made a huge fortune, but his invention was so popular that scores of other panoramas were on tour. He decided to set up, instead, as a museum keeper, his huge display of curios in a massive New York building, described as the best museum in Manhattan. In this, he was in competition against P. T. Barnum, who was by far the most capable promoter, and Banvard returned to the frontier where he was once again a poor and unknown painter. A few panels of his many paintings are all that remain of his work.

Here you will find the astonishing story of Englishman William Henry Ireland, born in 1775, who because his father never thought much of his writing, started forging plays by Shakespeare, and created a literary sensation. We read also the sad story of Delia Bacon, who was one of the first lunatics to write profusely on the theory that Shakespeare was not Shakespeare, but was a front for a collaborative effort by Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, and Francis Bacon. A lighter note is the story of Robert 'Romeo' Coates, whose beyond-hammy acting brought down the house, when his Romeo died not once but three times. There is a chapter on Blondlot's N-rays, probably the most famous incident described in the book, an incident of scientific self-delusion. There is one on John Cleves Symmes, an Ohioan who did everything he could to convince his countrymen about the holes at the poles of the Earth which would lead to its hollow core. There's one on A.J. Pleasanton, who shined blue light on everything imaginable and improved it.

And more. Collins has done an amazing amount of research into long-lost books and pamphlets to bring us these astonishing instructive stories and amazing cautionary tales, the sorts of tales that the proverb 'Truth is stranger than fiction' was coined for. He has wry comments within his storytelling which makes reading his words great fun, and the stories are incomparable. Losers were never so fascinating.

Painful as the 13 (not coincidentally chosen, I'm sure) stories are, they make compulsive reading. My favourites included the one about a visionary man who intended to build a pneumonic public transport system in New York City, and the story of the medical powers of blue light.

There were, of course, some chapters that I didn't find as arresting - not because they weren't well written, but because they weren't on subjects that I am interested in - however, curiously enough, when I gave it to my mother to read, she found the chapters that I didn't like as much the MOST interesting.

This is Paul Collins's first book, and I just hope that it doesn't wind up being his last, because the overriding feeling at the end of book was of wanting more, and what better indicator is there of a good book?

Gen's father is a craftsman in Hiroshima who makes wooden sandles to try to feed his five children and his pregnant wife. He is labelled a traitor by his neighbors because he is opposed to the war. We see the cruelties and hardships of their daily lives through the eyes of young Gen who can't understand why he and his family are despised. The close family values of his home life are in sharp contrast to the rabid patriotic chauvenism of his community. This volume ends with the events of August 6, the day of the atomic bomb. The story of how Gen survives is told in the subsequent volumes.

The work has been well translated from the Japanese original: Hadashi no Gen. It was originally published in serial form in 1972 and 1973 in Shukan Shonen Jampu, the largest weekly comic magazine in Japan, with a circulation of over two million. The drawings are all in black and white. This US edition was published as part of a movement to translate the book into other languages and spread around the world its message of the threat of nuclear war. It is a wonderful testimony to the strength of the human spirit and the horrors of nuclear war. There are a few introductory essays at the front of the book and a publisher's note at the end that help to put this book into perspective. It is a powerful and tragic story that I highly recommend for anyone interested in the topic.

It is not an "oh, woe is me" tale of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but rather a sharp and critical statement about both nuclear war and the Japanese expansionist empire in the first part of this century. Packed with fine details of Japanese life which are still obvious today, simple illustrations and direct text hold nothing back. What many readers may find awkward humour rattled with panic is scattered through the story, but that is a very accurate depiction of the Japanese social response mechanism to impossible situations.

The book is also a unique pop-culture portrayal of Japanese attitudes to 'gaijin', or foreigners living in Japan at the time, particularly Korean. Koreans were left without assistance by Japanese who considered them third class, and this book is unique to include that aspect in a text for youth. It is also sharply critical of an Empire's treatment of her people, while this empire still shadows Japanese life today. A truly remarkable book which should find a space on the shelves of youth and community libraries everywhere.

The simple language and graphics also make this book an excellent source for ESL readers.

Do yourself and your teenagers a favour and find copies of Barefoot Gen and the other books by Nakazawa which have been translated in this series (search Amazon.com for "The Day After", "Out of the Ashes" and others), then share them.