I got this free, but it was surprisingly entertaining.
At the very least it inspired me to drink more Scotch Whisky.

If you are thinking of buying this book because of Paul McCartney, well, at least the pictures deserve attention. This book lacks information about Paul himself, but it's a very good way of showing (literally!) him and his life, with and without the Beatles.

Paul H. Douglas has stood foursquare in the arena of American politics for many years, often alone, but intransigent. A strong and icorruptible public servant, he was embattled throughout the many years of his career as United States Senator from Illinois.

Paul Douglas has been a great friend of the exploited -- whether underprivileged people or abused natural resources. His name has come to stand for insistent defense of civil rigghts, hostility to bureaucracy, advocation of the prevention of waste and generous aid to depressed areas, championing of ecological preservation and fierce opposition to all those who hoodwink the public, particularly in terms of lending.

Senator Douglas waited to complete this book until his retirement from political life, because he was determined not to write a stuffy, pussyfooting "official" autobiography. He tells it the way he saw it -- about both the issues and the many prominent people who throng these pages. Trotsky, Stalin, Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Rayburn, Morse, Stevenson, the Kennedys -- all these and many more are drawn to the life in a fascinating, scrupulously honest book.

Mr. MacAvoy presents an enlightening study of how regulation (specifically in the 60's, 70's, and 80's) has affected the GNP of our country. But, be warned, this is not your high school economics class.

Instead, it would be beneficial for the reader to have a very good grasp on economic principles, and some economic specifics such as rate of return, capitalization, and price ceilings. Not to say that it can't be read, pondered, and enjoyed without having a sound, college-level macroeconomics course; but it may be helpful.

Overall, Mr. MacAvoy presents a strong case for deregulation. It may be thought that regulation by OSHA, the EPA, and the Civil Aeronautics Board (now defunct) can save us from pollution, monopolistic pricing, and dangers in the workplace. This book shows how these organizations have not only failed on those objectives, but have adversely distorted the market and pulled down the economy in the process.

One complaint about this book is that it tends to be a bit dry. Fortunately, it is short.

Another complaint is that the edition I have (1992) is a bit dated. I would love to see an updated copy in print showing how regulation in the 1990's has affected the same areas that this book has covered (communications, railroad, airline, environment, workplace safety, etc.) Have we learned from past mistakes?

"Industry Regulation and the Performance of the American Economy" is an concise, economic analysis which shows how the ideals that we want to promote rarely meet up with the reality of regulation and performance. A worthwhile. if a bit tedious, read to anyone who either makes public policy or would like to influence public policy from an informed standpoint.

The photographs are excellent, sharing the Bahamian lifestyle with the viewer. For those that do in-depth research prior to their travels, this is informative covering history and major sites. Highly recommend for the interesting coverage of sites. Not detailed enough for the actual trip planning. Worth the purchase for those who want more then the basic go see this and go do that.

i dont know, the book i'ts new for me! i's obvious, no?

This illustrated book uses the metaphor of a prince on a quest in a large forest. The young prince achieves a sense of mastery and discovers that the forest is not really as threatening as he had expected.

This would be a good bedtime story for a preschool child who is having some concerns about goint to daycare, or starting any new activity. It does not directly address the reader about separation anxiety. For some children, the use of this type of indirect metaphorical approach works well. It is nice if the child can draw conclusions himself. However many children may also need the parents to talk about separation issues directly.

Though the book publication is over 10 years old, most of the material presented is still valid for today's UNIX operating systems. Written for the beginner UNIX (csh) user, the author does an adequate job of explaining the most commonly used UNIX commands and tools (VI, mail, etc). Individuals looking for UNIX administration info and intermediate UNIX users should look elsewhere for more updated and advanced texts.

Mathematica is now in version 4.1, and this book was written in the time of Version 2.2, but it still could be read profitably if cognizance is made of the significant additions made to Mathematica since 2.2. The "Lispy" nature of Mathematica is still the same, and it still ranks as one of the easiest and most powerful of languages to program in. The authors have done a good job of introducing the reader to the subtleties of Mathematica, and they are honest in their explanations, pointing out the areas where using Mathematica might be problematic. A person getting started in Mathematica will no doubt want to read something that is more up-to-date, but this book is designed for such a reader and it has a lot of interesting ideas of how to apply the language.
One of the better features of the book includes the discussion on functions. The functional programming paradigm is one that I favor the most, and which is most transparently used in Mathematica. The authors do a good job of explaining anonymous functions in Mathematica and how to create the famous "one-liners" that Mathematica is famous for.
Another topic that is treated very well by the authors is recursion. Mathematica is mostly easily programmed using recursion, and the authors show, starting with the Fibonacci numbers, how to "think recursively". Readers who know Lisp will of course find the discussion very easy to follow.
A third edition of this book is in order, again since Mathematica has changed considerably since this book was written. More discussion on performance issues in Mathematica would be welcome, and also more examples and applications, along with more discussion on how to link Mathematica to external programs.

Unfortunately there are few texts that provide a survey of Indonesian art and culture. For that reason this book is a must-have for anyone interested in that area. However, the chapters are choppy and at times difficult to read. It is a challenge to determine each chapter's main point and how each chapter relates to the others. More than once I turned a page and thought I had missed a paragraph, because the next word in the sentence did not seem to make sense. This book is valuable for its photographs and for the information it does provide, if you don't mind a less than fluid read.