What happens if the kids start from the last question and works backwards? Anyone knows how to get in touch with the authors?

Why would a child start from the end and work backwards?? You have to teach your students how to do the problems and score them, very simple! This is a great resource- kids LOVE them.

From a teacher's perspective, this book is a necessity. I've been using it with my elementary students for 5 years, and it has greatly increased their speed in math. The kids enjoy the daily challenge and don't get bored with it. As soon as they master a skill, there's a new one waiting.

For Tolstoi, this qualifies as an "O. Henry surprise-type ending" since you aren't expecting the wealthy merchant to sacrifice his own life for that of his lowly serf. This seems especially true since Tolstoi gives you several examples throughout the story of how the master undervalues his loyal servant.

For example, Tolstoi tells you that he is underpaid even for a serf. Also, his shrewd master always manages to manipulate and maneuver the servant into buying his goods from him, instead of from the store in the village, by making it look like he is doing him a favor in the process. This way he can overcharge for everything and thereby takes back what little money he is paying his servant anyway. The servant is well aware of this but is resigned to the situation.

Another interesting thing is how they get into a life-threatening situation in the first place. The workaholic merchant decides to press on at night in a severe blizzard, rather than remain safe in a farmhouse they have happened on in the snow, because he is impatient to get on to his next deal, and doesn't want to miss out on a possible opportunity.

I thought the time-obsessed businessman was primarily a late 20th century invention, but not so. The wealthy landowner and businessman regards even a few lost moments of time as unacceptable, and so they venture out into the fatal storm. They get lost in the driving and trackless snow on the way to the next town.

Tolstoi describes this poignantly. At several points, the master is certain they have come back to where they started and so are just going in circles, but the snow is coming down so hard that the horse carriage's tracks have already been covered up, and so he can't be sure. At that point he realizes the situation is hopeless.

Finally, the master parks the horse and carriage under a tree and they huddle together and try to survive until morning. But only the servant survives, his wealthy master in the end sacrificing his own life for that of his servant, by deciding to keep his servant warm instead of himself.

I, too, have to disagree with this 'english class' in their dull-assesment of this story. This must be a very young class of students who haven't experienced enough of human nature to fully appreciate and understand the complexity and beauty of the 2 characters in this wonderfully touching story. This is the first story that has ever made me weep openly while reading. The second, also by Tolstoy, was Strider: The Story of a Horse. If you liked Master and Man, you must find this one! That's why I'm here today; looking to replace my lost copy.

I felt I had to respond to the above comment by saying that this is a masterfully written short story and a moving account of a Master who makes the ultimate sacrifice, whether knowing it or not, to his lowly, faithful servant. The story contrasts well the attitudes and lives of rich masters and their voluntary slaves.

I bought this book as I thought it was the same one I had burrowed from the libary.. But it wasnt, its good, but I guess I should have checked more before I bought as it does not contain as much info as I wanted... Still a good buy though

This is a good book with good card interpretations etc. the majour bonus of this book is it's tips on becoming a professional Tarotist.
The less good aspect of this book is that it gives very intuitive tips and doesn't base it's essumptions on any traditional system (Kabbalah, GD etc.).
It goes SO far with its loose idea for tarot-technique that the writer even uses the blank card that comes with the deck in his readings!!!
I have never heard of this before - it's like using the booklet that comes with the deck as if it's a 79th card?! - I think the writer probably knows his job but he relays mostly on psychic abilities etc., which have nothing to do with tarot directly.
If you are a psychic tarot reader with a non-traditional tendency I recommend this book as a 5 star. If you like tarot traditions and academic, symbolical, Occult tendency I recommend it as a 3 stars.

It was a long wait for me, after reading Fenton-Smiths first book The Tarot Revealed. Mastering The Tarot offers a clear and simple approach to tarot reading without all the confusing mystical bits. It's filled with information you'll use in an actual reading.

It also has a list of all the questions you'll ever want to ask in your next tarot reading and this alone is worth the price of the book.

Drawing upon real life readings, it is filled with interesting and often humorous examples of what happens during a reading. It also provides useful tips on becoming professional, cleansing your workplace and a set of guidelines for practising Tarot readers.

The chapter 'Stranger Than Fiction' had me laughing out loud as I could relate to some of the bizarre readings detailed there.

Phil Moony inherits two precious things from his father, a cat and a car. He desparately wants to ditch the cat, but as the story opens, every time he works up enough nerve to do so, he backs down. Finally, the cat is one step closer to being laid to rest, but it is stolen, and the vet chosen to do the dasterdly deed ends up dead instead.

This is a charming, witty story filled with terrific dialogue, colorful characters and delightful mayhem.

Fast reading. Wonderful writing and dialogue.

Cris

THE MAN WITH MY CAT follows THE MAN WITH MY NAME as second in Paul Engleman's Phil Mooney series.

Phil Mooney use to be a paramedic field officer with the Chicago Fire Department, but now it looks like he has taken up amateur sleuthing to fill his time. In this mystery, Phil has inherited his father's Maine coon feline named of Phull. I have to say, if I had a cat with as many nasty habits as Phil claims this one does, I would give it to my nearest enemy as a payback. Although Phil has been tempted to do far worse to Phull, he has talked himself out of it each time; the cat, like the car he now drives, belonged his late father. For putting up with the cat, his quick-witted wife Frankie says he should change his name from Phil to Phool. When Phil takes Phull to a vet, the cat is catnapped. With his bad habits, I would of said good riddance, and Phil is tempted to do the same, except that he loathes the person he suspects. Catnapping soon turns to politics, murder and mayhem.

Paul Engleman's presentation of the seedy side of law and politics is very well done! He doesn't write too strong or too colorful in this subject as our most popular suspense authors do these days. He does get right to the heart of it and leaves no stone unturned. In Phil and Frankie's struggle to fight back I found myself, like many will, identifying with them and cheering them on. The characters in THE MAN WITH MY CAT are well defined and remarkable. The plot seemed to be well thought and took many imaginative directions.

Light-hearted and witty, Paul Engleman's "The Man with My Cat" features wisecracking duo, narrator Phil Mooney and his writer wife, Frankie. Phil, on the outs with the Chicago political machine (see his first Moony novel, "The Man With My Name") has some time on his hands and only one job to do - get rid of the cat, inherited from his father, whose spraying habits have doomed him to neutering at the very least.

But someone steals his unwanted cat from the vet's office and then someone murders the vet. There's a lot of personality and politics before getting to this point and some slapstick and quick thinking in getting to the solution. The mystery is fun but the star attractions here are Phil and Frankie and Engleman's clever, sparkling writing.

As anyone remotely involved in marketing professional services will quickly discern, this academic view bears no semblance of understanding of the unique qualities of marketing a law, accounting, or consulting firm. The authors attempt to fit professional services marketing into a framework of product marketing, resulting in irrelevant, discredited and useless concepts. Furthermore, the book is loaded with factual and conceptual mistakes. Any attempt to build a marketing structure for professionals based on this book is doomed to a vast waste of time, energy and money.

As any self-employed lawyer, consultant or accountant knows, selling services can be much tougher than selling widgets. The major professional service firms employ huge marketing staffs whose job is to convince potential clients that they need the company's expertise, and to differentiate that expertise from all other competitors. Three marketing professors - Philip Kotler, Thomas Hayes and Paul N. Bloom - have distilled the strategies and techniques designed to accomplish this daunting task into this comprehensive text, which we from getAbstract recommend to anyone running their own services firm and to all those charged with marketing the majors.

This is the update of Phil Kotlers ground breaking first edition on Professional Services. The involvement again of Bloom and the addtion of Hayes has added a new dimension to the work. This book starts with a great introductory section which lays a good gounding and then develops clear and concise apporaches to marketing in this complex sector. Good cases and examples allow you to work through your own business and the book is structured logically to bring clear insights. If only professional services firms had this book open on their desk they might avoid some of the most obvious pitfalls, like appreciating the service from thier clients point of view, improving planning and tactics and ultimately providing better value. A must read.

I bought this book looking for a lush picture book of inspiring photos of mediterranean homes. It is not. Although the photography is nice, it is primarily of colourful buildings abroad.

Wonderful book and great writing. Beautiful images of architecture, color and life. I highly reccomend. A must have for anyone who has traveled there or for anyone who dreams of doing so. Jeffrey Becom's photographs are a feast for the eyes and his tales are engrossing. One must also look at his other book Maya Color - stunning as well!

This book is about Architecture, Color, and how we see the world. It's not about how to be a tourist in the Mediterranean. Unless, of course, you would like to be a tourist who really "sees" what is in front of your eyes when you walk down that picturesque village street. Jeffrey Becom has a killer eye. His camera isolates a detail from our normal panoramic vision of a building or a street scene. When we contemplate this detail our sense of beauty, aesthetic organization, and how the world works is expanded. His capability to see these details while wandering the countries bordering the Mediterranean allows us normal humans a greater appreciation of the sensibilities of work-a-day Mediterannean peoples. The contemplation of Jeffrey Becom's work also inevitably causes us to look at our own world differently. I see things now when I walk down the street that I didn't see before I looked at Becom's work.

Totally outdated, this work teaches nothing. Rambling, disorganized and often repetitive, the authors do not know how to write at all. Totally focused on a few software titles, the Apple platform, and having no information on MIDI for internal sound cards, the book is worthless to current readers.

This is the clearest and most complete book on MIDI there is...and I've tried them all. The authors explain even the most tweaky tech stuff clearly, without repetition or ambiguity.

The book is essential because it doesn't focus on specific products--which go in and out of favor--but teaches you the capabilities of the technology itself. So whether you're shopping for a sequencer or an interface, you know what you need and how to evaluate the products out there now.

These guys have been writing about electronic music for years and they're two of the very best. They give you everything you need to work effectively with MIDI.

Although it's showing its age, and it doesn't cover a lot of new developments like sound cards and virtual synths, this is still an extremely valuable book for anyone who wants to understand what MIDI is all about. In this age of loops, samples, and digital everything, MIDI doesn't have the high profile it used to, but it's still in almost universal use by musicians and studios -- even by people who don't know they're using it -- and a good technical understanding of it is really important. This book is still the best source around for that kind of information, so it's no surprise that dozens of college-level courses use it as a standard text. The writing is clear, concise, and often funny -- these guys are two of the best and most experienced writers in the business. You want to know about MIDI? Get this book.

I am a big Paul Shepard fan but this book was a disappointment. The book starts off well investigating the thesis that natural selection has left the human mind with a set series of developmental events that must take place between childhood and adulthood by which the child comes to understand its place in both the human community and the natural world. This sequence was built into human psychology during hundred of thousands of years of living as hunter-gatherers. When we adopted large-scale agriculture a mere 10.000 years ago this sequence was radically disrupted as the sphere of the childs interaction with both the naturl world around it and it human community was contracted drastically. Many of the ills of modern life stem from this disruption.
Shepard presentation of his basic thesis is compelling. But he then goes on to psycho-historical explorations of how this disruption takes different shapes in different historical epochs. This constitutes the bulk of the book. The psycho-history pieces I found unsatisfying, full of very broad generalizations about the psychological effect of various cultural trends. There is no way to tell what is just psychobabble and what is not. If you are new to Shepard I would recommend the Tender Carnivore instead, or for a nice summary of his whole line of thought Coming Home to the Pleistocene.

For those interested in studies of western culture's destructive relationship with nature, this treatise from Paul Shepard is certainly a rewarding read, though I recommend it with some reservations. Shepard starts with the Mother Earth concept and takes it to great psychological lengths, then applies this psychology to all of mankind. It's certainly a radical thesis, but it's worth thinking about. In what he calls variously ontogenetic regression, unaltered immaturity, and other labels, Shepard makes the case that humans have been torn from their true mother, the Earth, as the unfortunate outcome of modern civilization and social constructs. Thus, society behaves in pathological ways similar to what can be seen from children who are torn away from their mothers before the onset of maturity. Therefore, our society's attitude toward nature is perpetually immature, underdeveloped, and undernourished, with all the destructiveness and disrespect that results from such a dysfunctional childhood.

While this thesis has its various strengths and weaknesses that can be discovered by the reader, there's not enough meat to it to round out an entire book, even a very short one like this. Shepard's most glaring weakness is in psychology, as he offers little more than extremely basic Freud (with the associated sexism and dubious ideas on infancy and childhood), and then makes unconvincing attempts to extend this psychology to society as a whole. Meanwhile, Shepard's writing gets buried in academic dogma that is a real slog for non-professors who don't speak in non-stop technical jargon all day. Watch for arcane terms like methectic, kerygmatic, neoteny, or autochthonous; along with brain-drain sentences like "...amputate and cauterize pubertal epigenesis because they would further transform the relationship of the infant to its mother." Add all this to Shepard's rather self-righteous speculations and you are in for an exasperating read, although the basic thesis of this book definitely offers food for thought.

This is a really impressive, powerful and inspiring book, which investigates neurotic behavior of the individual and collective societies as a result of alienation and separation fom our natural impulses, nature itself and our "co inhabitants" of the planet earth.Those interested in further investigating these themes are advised to check out John Zerzan's excellent "Against Civilization"(surely a pun on Huysmans classic portrayal of dissatisfied and empty urban neurosis, "Against Nature"), a collection of essays devoted to the "wrong thnking" and negative effects of civilization and the disastrous implications of man's separation from nature. In a similar vein, his "Elements of Refusal" should find a sympahetic readership amongst those impressed by Shepard's work. Gregdada from Korea.

The Marat Sade is truly misery made beautiful, where else can the hero be made to suffer as much as Marat does. Through the course of the reading one can not help but desire to emulate the characteristics of Marat, this and the conflict between Marat and Sade are the elements of the story that keeps interests and stimulates thoughts. Weiss argues both the points of view of Marat and Sade well and ultimately delivers an interesting message.

The Marat Sade does have a captivating message, but much of the beauty in the delivery of the message may have been lost in the translation. Translations are difficult to accomplish, especially when many words do not translate from one language to another, and when verse or meter is concerned, especially verse or meter that rhyme it is nearly improbable. However, the story did have its moments of intrigue especially some of the monologues. To be truly understood The Marat Sade needs to be seen. This realization is probably what inspired someone to make the play into a film.

The film about was not stimulating aside from a few moments of irony in the simplest form made out to be humorous. The story is meant to be seen on the stage. The time period that the film was made in was not equipped well enough with special effects ,not that there was need for this in the Marat Sade but it could have made some kind of impact. The Low budget appearance of the film added to the melancholy of the film that appeared worse than the disorder of the mental patient playing Charlotte Corday and defiantly makes the viewer experience moments of sudden and involuntary sleep. If done today and well budgeted as well as directed the play could be portrayed through cameras in a most pleasing manner. Still, the play is meant to be seen on stage, this is the true way for the audience to feel the experience that Weiss wanted otherwise he would have written a film script.

I do not claim to be an expert on Marat Sade or some official critic or well read for that matter but neither is the general public and that is who an artiest should want to reach considering they are the majority, even though they fall to rule. This play is a product of the past. I feel that most American people would not be able to relate to it and they would fall to be lured into the story. The martyr roll has been over used - after all many people were force fed a similar story since birth.

When the character of Marquis de Sade shouts out at Marat, "Can't you see this patriotism is lunacy/Long ago I left heroics to the heroes/I turn my back on this nation/I turn my back on all the nations. . ." the reader can truly sense what the play of Marat/Sade is all about. As the reader gets lost in the production of a play within a play, the idea of surrealism presents itself almost at once. The reenactment of the killing of Jean-Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday seems to be a secondary plot alongside of the chanting and screaming of idealism concerning the revolution and liberty. A division of strategies regarding revolution develops between Marat and Sade. Marat advocates fast action, while Sade preaches that it is hopeless or fruitless to even bother to act. Of course, the cries of the asylum patients tend to distract, but it all adds to the surreal, bizarre nature of the play. I felt that one of the aspects the play touches on is how the revolution affects those living within it. The ideas of liberty, freedom, and revolution all make for interesting debate, but I felt one of the themes that struck me was the reality of revolution as it affects those who live around it day in and day out. One of the more striking scenes of the play, for me, came when Charlotte is in the middle of a monologue, describing children playing with toy-like guillotines. The very idea of children treating such a deathly object as a toy is disturbing, but also brings to life the desensitization that revolution brings about. The play reminds the reader that the death of masses makes the value of life and the impact of an individual death meaningless. That alone is a very somber and surreal thought. There are literary techniques throughout the play that seem to remind the reader that the dramatization depicts things which took place in the past, but threaten to become a part of our future. Marat/Sade attempts to mock the aristocratic classes that seem to catalyze such mass movements of revolution in the first place. The play seems to slap the hand of those in power through the action that takes place throughout. Every time that the characters in the play (the asylum patients) seem to become too excited or outspoken, when the truth behind their madness seems to get out of control, the "Herald" of the play speaks out to placate Coulmier, the director of the asylum. I believe that Weiss tries to make the play more socially acceptable by presenting it in a way that mocks and brings out the weakness of the debacle of government that followed, in this case, the French Revolution, but actually cuts across so many more layers than just one isolated revolution.

Our society will always have people who have large amounts of material wealth, and those who do not. That is an injustice that we must rise above, and change ourselves. Whether our means of change is reached through violence and upheaval or through escape within oneself, this is the core dialectic that the play tackles. Although at times this play is a little hard to follow or even outlandish, the play offers a look at how society deals with its corruption and injustice once it escalates to what may seem to be a point of no return. The element that seems to be the most surreal in my mind is that the ranting of the characters within the play, although they are asylum patients, reveal more truth and brutal honesty than the audience would like to admit. I think Weiss is clever to choose some very clear and controversial themes and present them in a way that is socially appropriate. He does this by blatantly speaking out against established forms of government and rule, but discrediting the characters speaking by placing them in an insane asylum. It is true to say that there are many elements of the play that never seem to completely gel in the end, or come together nicely as in most plays. But to be honest, if the story had come together neatly in the end, the essence of the play would have been lost. I think the point of the play is to show that although people may have conflicting ideals of how to handle a revolution, whether of government or ideology, things do not always work out as we had hoped. People may preach liberty and justice, but when the reality is murder and riots, there are two conflicting messages being handled at once. I believe that is what this play shows rather well. In a very surreal and bizarre way, Weiss enables the reader to see that society hardly ever practices what they preach, and although our goal might be change, in the end, upheaval and disarray may be the only things truly achieved.

Marat/Sade, by Peter Weiss, is a play centering on the murder of Jean Paul Marat. Weiss sets the play in the Asylum of Charenton, where both Marat and the Marquis de Sade are inmates. Before reading this play, I did not have much knowledge of Marquis de Sade or Jean Paul Marat. The French Revolution was a topic that I had studied, however not these members specifically. For the reading of this work, not much understanding of these ideas is needed. Some knowledge of Modernism would be helpful for insight into the motivation and reasoning of the play, however that is not needed either. The plot of the play is very thin and does not do much for the reader. There does not seem to be much action involved in the play. The characters mainly discuss and wax philosophical about the French Revolution and whether or not it was successful. It is the characters themselves and the dialogue that are most intriguing. Characters that are patients in the asylum are the driving force of the work. Many off the wall topics and rants are shouted by any number of patients. Clever use of the director of the asylum gives the reader a better sense of how a play produced in an asylum might work out. The format of the work is what seems to be an extended poem. The rhyme scheme, which is at points non-existent, can be carried from one character to the next. This is at times confusing, however it does give the work a somewhat psychotic feel. The work is a relatively easy read, however it does at times get to be a bit confusing. Because the plot is so thin, the reader is bombarded with confusing dialogue, rather than constant flowing action. The work leaves something to desired, as the reader waits for some twist of fate or action that may create some interest. Personally, I was not impressed with the work as a whole from an entertainment aspect. However as a writer I could see the work is definitely that of a talented author. There is a political aspect to the work that focuses around Sade. The many conversations between Marat and Sade focus on the Revolution and its positives and negatives. Commentary is given on the state of affairs during this time, as well as the idea that revolutions do not work on a general basis. Other such ideals are discussed throughout the work, however Sade seems to be more of a reactionary and Marat seems to be more of an idealist. On a whole this work does accomplish its goals in discussing sadism and other such ideas. Modernistic works such as this, often do not have much entertainment value, however they are quite intellectual and original; the two best points of this work.

Bergson's philosophy of intuition has fueled the uninformed dismissal of the sciences and the relevance of the sciences to the study of human experience offered up by english students and cinema studies majors for 40 years or more. His critique of science turns upon a positivistic notion of progress that was overturned by Kuhn in the 60's. His arguments concerning the role of the brain in memory have been refuted by experimental neuro-science--see Damasio's article in Churchlands and their critics concerning damage to certain regions of the visual cortices and the perception/memory of color. Furthermore, as even his friends admit (see William James and Deleuze) his ideas and his exposition is anything but clear. For those of you interested in shoddy metaphysics supported by generalization from an outmoded psychology (i.e. english students), this book will serve as important resource in your dogmatic prating. However, I think Bergson is less confusing and absurd than people like Adorno, so maybe this work is less valuable than I suspect.

Athough some of the reviewers pick up some very important points such as the lack of clarity in "Matter and Memory", which is very evident, this is contrasted with "Creative Evolution" (CE) which was far clearer, but then different translators were involved in each case. I do believe some of the translations suffer as a result of this. However I have also found that Bergson must be read at least twice in order to grasp the, at times, convoluted concepts. I found this book to be far less whole as a complete text in comparison with CE but nonetheless there were some fascinating ideas. Some of these ideas were developed but others I felt were left to lie idle. There is much depth in Bergson and one feels maybe that ordinary language is not very good at expressing his ideas which are dynamic, process based rather than, as European languages are, on nouns, a static concept.

I disagree with one of the reviewers saying how his science has been surpasssed, since almost all of his psychology is still valid as are the most important points related to a human beings own perception, I see no reason or any information which makes one state categorically that the brain must be the centre of the mind, a tool perhaps or a way of allowing the mind to come into expression but nothing like as solid which is needed for a proof of a mechanistic paradigm.

I also feel that Bergson coud be easily updated and made less convoluted by someone willing to take on his mode of thought and take into account the new science since Bergson's day, it has been 80 years or so. I believe that most of Bergson's work will in fact still be relevant, maybe even more so.

Bergson argues well that both materialism and idealism are bound to fail for in fact much the same reasons and that they are products of the same mode of thought even though their concepts are at polar opposites, sometimes a mode of thought is easily hidden by a different concept which maintains the same underpinning implicit/unconsciuous way of thinking.

Bergson is always worth reading not simply for his ideas which are fascinating even if outmoded but because of his radical thought process which allows a remarkable degree of expansion eg "There are real movements" this has many possible connotations in physics, psychology, metaphysics the realms of interest are endless. As such Bergson should be read for the ideas and the development which can occur from his work. As always with Bergson patience and multiple reads are the ways to a rewarding understanding and expansion of the mind.

many philosophical thoughts amaze readers but often we found ourselves "lost" in following the philosopher's thought. Bergson, on the contrary, constantly calls the reader's attention to our own existence, better yet, "being" in the material world that many other idealist thinkers have tended to ignore. he gives us an answer to the question of body and soul (mind) with his key concept of "duration," with which we can locate ourselves both in space and "time." his idea is greatly immersed in many other thinkers, such as Deleuze, Merleau-Ponty, and even Foucault. the most important connection with the contemporary application of visual representation theory would be the idea of "time-image" which Deleuze did a good job to articulate. were it not for the understanding of "time-image," a great part of epistemological pursuit in cinema studies couldn't be possible. the 20th century's usurpage of subjectivity and abstract reason and restoration to body previously deprived its physicality under the psychological violence are surely debted to Bergson to a great extent. the more amazing is, that we could do that, still on and in the axes of time and memory, so that history can go on.