I found this book to be essentially useless. It presented a brief, boring biography of Locke with little attention to his world altering theories. Waste of time.

I think Paul Strathern is brilliant. He must have looked at the way the "...for Dummies" series has a standard format and done something similar. I was more impressed with his treatment of Confucius. In both this book on Locke and the one on Confucius he gives us 50 pp. of content in two sections: "Subject's Life and Works" and "Afterword". But in the book on Locke, Strathern spent too many words poking fun at Locke and calling him boring. He also spent much more effort in describing the life and times of Locke than his philosophy. I think Strathern must find Locke too boring to spend much time discussing his contributions. "From Socrates to Sarte: the Philosophic Quest" by T.Z.Lavine gives four chapters to Hume and a handful of pages to Locke. "The Story of Philosophy" by Will Durant doesn't give a full chapter to either Hume or Locke, merely including them within the context of philosophers whom Durant considers greater. So at least Strathern has given more individual focus to Locke than other writers popularizing philosophy. Strathern also, as part of his format in this 90 Minutes series, gives representative quotes from Locke's work. This is a very nice touch and I recommend the book for this reason. You can see that reading Locke is like reading the King James version of the Bible: "Huh? What did he say?" This is a decent book, but I did feel a bit let down while reading it, which is why I give it 3 instead of 4 stars. Also, the other reviewer made comments saying that Locke's philosophy of government depends on the inate goodness of people. That is only that reviewer's opinion. That did not come across at all in this presentation of Locke's work.

This book sets as its goal to communicate the life and work of John Locke in 90 minutes. For me, the book succeeded in this; I read it in about an hour and then went back over some parts to review in more depth.

John Locke (1632-1704) was an important philosopher; he laid the groundwork for liberal democracy and he was also the founder of empiricism. Strathern spends most of the book describing different events in Locke's life and for non-specialist, this is probably a good approach. Strathern does a fairly good job of putting Locke in his historical context; grew up during the English Civil War, and then lived through Oliver Cromwell's rule and then the Restoration of the Monarchy; one of the more turbulent periods in English history, no doubt. I think Paul Strathern is a British writer and this comes through in his writing.

Strathern is fond is saying that Locke's philosophy was "common sense." However, empiricism (The view that experience, especially of the senses, is the only source of knowledge) is not really self-evident and wholly obvious. Locke also presumed that when one is born, one is a tabula rasa (The mind before it receives the impressions gained from experience. The unformed, featureless mind in the philosophy of John Locke.) or a blank slate. I think that everybody has some innate ideas (things that you just know apart from experience). On occasion, it appears that Locke is a materialist (materialism: The theory that physical matter is the only reality and that everything, including thought, feeling, mind, and will, can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena) but this is incompatible with his philosophy. Surely, empiricism is a non-physical thing; how much does empiricism weigh? What is its volume? It is non-physical. As a philosophy of epistemology (The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity), I think empiricism is seriously flawed.

Locke's political thought probably had more impact on the world than his epistemology. Locke believed there is a natural law that gives people certain rights; for example the right to life or the right to liberty. However, because people keep stepping on other people's rights, it is necessary to form some sort of social contract (i.e like the American Constitution). Locke also held that certain rights are inherent and that if a government should act to violate those rights, then the people are justified in starting a revolution against those in power. Locke believed that Government had no legitimacy except the consent of the people (near the end of the 1700's, this would result in a paradigm shift from the Divine Right of Kings, to a Government by the People).

One the most interesting passages (I don't agree with his evaluation of Kant thought) describes several centuries of European philosophy: "Without Descartes there might have been no modern philosophy. But it was Locke who fathered the main line of development - the British Empiricists, who then provoked Kant to produce the greatest philosophical system of all, which in turn gave rise to the elephantine folly of Hegel, and the consequent disbelief in all systems by anyone except Marxists and optimistic punters." (page 49)

One of the interesting legacies of Locke may be his contribution to scientism (The belief that only science provides true knowledge or only that which can be proved by science is true). He makes a distinction between primary qualities of an object, which are quantifiable (e.g. mass or volume) and he said these are in the objects. Then there are secondary qualities, and these are qualitative (e.g. colour or smell) do not have the same connection to the object. In some sense, secondary qualities are mental constructs, in Locke's view. It is easy to see how a belief that quantitative properties are the only real things that can be known (i.e. if science can't measure it, it doesn't exist.) has major repercussions. The other problem I have with Locke relates to his understanding of language and how that language can describe objects. Strathern says, "Locke had rejected the Aristotelian notion whereby the words with which we classify things correspond to the 'real essence' of things." (page 47) The impact of this is that if two people see an object they cannot discover a common essence but both can come up with ideas that are mental constructs. I think this may have contributed to the moral relativism that is now so so pervasive in North America.

On the format of the book, about 60% covers Locke's life and works; that is 48 pages. Then there is a short Afterword, followed by a 10 page section which quotes from Locke's two major works, "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding," (on epistemology) and, "Two Treatises of Government," (on political philosophy; attacks the Divine Right of Kings and argues for liberal democracy). Then there are two chronologies; one of the history of Western philosophy (it is interesting to note who comes before and after Locke) and then there is a chronology of Locke's life.

There are several problems with Locke's thought, however I will look at two here. In describing the point at which everyone has his or her rights and all is well, I think this shows a view that humanity is basically good. However, if you examine the history of the world, yourself or the Bible, you find that this is simply not the case. It is dangerous to build a government with the assumption that people are basically good. On his political philosophy, I don't know if it is wise to wholly place the legitimacy of government in the consent of the people. There must be a higher authority beyond man, immutable and good, on which government can be measured against (e.g. in South Africa, apartheid was legal and authorized by the government however only by appeal to a transcendent law that demands equality could this be overthrown)

you do not need a book to play mario party. trust me. very useless item. this guide shouldnt even exist. if your that dumb and dont know how to play, read the instruction booklet that comes with the game.

The cover looks "Wow! This guide must be really good!" but the game is already simple enough. This guide is like a blank peice of paper. But the game gets
Levels: B-
Graphics: A
Sound: A-
Fun Factor: F- and beyond

The Mario Party 4 guide is filled with descriptions and tips for winning the many mini games. Having it definitely makes playing the game more enjoyable, especially if you have limited time to play.

Strategy guides are a great idea for parents with kids who like to play video games but don't like to read -- definitely helps with reading...... and spelling. :)

Nothing the matter with the information that is provided - but it is pretty light. Unless, of course, you want to read the name of Pellicoro's studio about three times per page - and have his friends and associates tell you how great he is. The other issue, of course, is that the most interesting information in the book was not created for it - it is reprints of articles and interviews originally published in Reportango or on Keith Elshaw's web site.

The cover starts out with the fact that the author taught Al Pacino how to dance Tango. If it wasn't Al that was dancing this affectation of Tango in the movie, "Scent of a Woman," everyone would have said it was horrible! Besides it was a mongrel form of American style Tango and definitely not the Argentine style. To set the record strait in their movie renditions, Sean Connery, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis all did much better jobs with the instruction they were given!! The line delivered by Pacino to Gabrielle Anwar - "Tango is not like life, my dear. There are no mistakes in Tango - If you get tangled up, you just Tango on," really set up the audience to buy into what they witnessed. Al's yanking, pulling, and tugging on Gabrielle must have left her bruised after practicing with Al under the tutelage of Mr. Pellicoro. No doubt that Paul struggled to get Al to do anything because his forte is wonderful acting and characterizations - but he is certainly no action hero.

The point here is what's in this book is neither about what Pacino danced (other than the cute story) nor what Pellicoro teaches. What bothers me most is that the teaching in the book is primarily about the Tango in the close embrace position. Sorry but beginners beware this is not the way to begin - you will surely fail! In addition no time is taken to truly develop the technique of the Tango in the written word. Humans want to see a picture that's true but as I'm sure Mr. Pellicoro knows that when average humans copy pictures it only leads to awkward imitation. With almost no material to disseminate the techniques being shown the reader is left to their own devices with no primary information. And beginners do not know how to dance! I was very disappointed because he and his partner are very good professional dancers. There are much better books out about Tango for history, pictorials, and dance technique than this one. I had hope for much, much more!

Paul Pellicoro On Tango is a comprehensive guide to the Argentine Tango dance, written by expert instructor Paul Pellicoro -- who is the man that taught and choreographed the tango scene for Al Pacino in the popular movie "Scent of a Woman." Individual chapters embrace the philosophy that anyone can learn the tango, and address everything from dance steps to what to wear to working in harmony with one's partner. An extensive lists of top-class places to go to for tango dancing around the world rounds out this superb instructional for dance enthusiasts. Paul Pellicoro On Tango is a "must" for all tango dance enthusiasts!

While I am willing to admit that some forgetfulness, slips of speech, and other actions have unconscious motives, (ex. I actually misplaced this book, apparently so I wouldn't have to read it), I don't see how all such acts can be classified as neurotic efforts at repression. Is Freud saying that a fully conscious person would never make a mistake?

Freud shatters all scientific crediblity by admitting near the end of the book that, of couse, we can't recognize or assertain the meaining behind every dream, mistake, or superstition, (like psychoanalysis). Freud writes,

"To substantiate the general validity of the theory, it is enough if one can penetrate only a certain distance into the hidden associations." pg. 161

This is kind of like substantiating the theory of relativity by saying it's enough to know that two plus two equals four.

Freud was an egotistical person, who spewed venom towards critics, and apostates to his theory, (look at what he has to say about Adler in a letter to Jung). Much of that ego plays forth here, when he speaks of psychoanalysis as a proven fact, rather than something to be seriously questioned and studied.

My misplacing of this book was less an unconscious act than a conscious one, I really found the reading dry at times and some of the examples pulled out of thin air, (if you keep free associating long enough, you can make anything in the universe connect to anything else, don't believe me? Play the Kevin Bacon game.)

I eventually did find my lost copy, and it was in the last place I would look for it....my reading table.

Once upon a time I read Freud seriously, in search of some understanding of human behavior. Now I only dip into a few of his books periodically because his thought process is so fascinating. His book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life is more interesting and accessable than many of his writings, though his style does not make for an easy read. It is in this book that Freud takes up the issue of all the little things that go wrong which we have tended to think of as accidents and mistakes. To Freud, most, if not all incidents of things forgotten, lost, dropped etc are examples of hidden dynamics of the psyche playing out in the real world. His arguments can be very strained and he extrapolates very broadly from a few anecdotes and case histories. This isn't scientific thought, but it is very interesting nonetheless. If you took him at face value, you would have to conclude that we all need an analyst - which is exactly what he thought.

This book may be read as a necessary sequel to Freud's major opus The Interpretation of Dreams, cause the object of the two are the same, that is, to demonstrate trough a lot of very detailed personal and third person's examples, how the unconscious work, or even better, how it betrays itself trough its concealed (condensed and displaced) actions shown in our parapraxis of everyday. Parapraxis is a term which could be translated into faulty acts, which are, for instance, "slips of the tongue", "slips of the pen", misreadings, mislayings of objects, undeliberate forgetness of sentences, names and places, etc ...
The book is written in a very casual style and one is again admired how could such a genius as Freud convey his ideas in such an easy style.
Why no 4 stars? Because I think this book is not so fascinating as The Interpretation of Dreams, an opus which deserves 5 stars.

Since I love to read and have so many books on my "to read" list, I am always on the alert for any method that will help me read faster while maintaining my comprehension and still enjoying the beauty of a "well-turned phrase". Naturally, when I saw RAPID READING in the library, I took a few minutes to investigate. The claims of "reading" 25,000 words/minute and comprehending 3/4ths of it sounds incredible...and ludicrous. IF that were possible, I don't believe it can be taught. If someone is able to look at each page in the "photo-focus state" and retain 75% of it I think they're born with that gift (lucky them!). However, since I had been attracted to the book, I spent some time skimming the whole thing. When I had reached the end I concluded that I had actually employed some of the steps author Paul Scheele suggests; I was relaxed, interested, was looking for key words, and skimmed each page. I don't know how many words are in RAPID READING, but after skimming the book from cover to cover and taking approximately 25 minutes to do so, I believe I wasted my time. I really didn't learn anything new, especially how to "photo-focus". Actually, if you know how to skim, you know how to "rapid read". Save your money and skim the book in the library. 75% comprehension at 25,000 words per minute, you can't go wrong.

This book advocates a reading system that includes the following five steps:

1. Prepare: Decide what in particular you want to learn; enter a state of "relaxed alertness." 2. Preview: Skim the book to get a sense of its overall structure; look for "key words." 3. PhotoRead: Look at each page of the book for about one second in the "PhotoFocus state" (Put the tips of your two index fingers together and stare at them until you see the cocktail weenie. Now you're in the "PhotoFocus state." It's the same sort of focus that enables you to see those 3-D pictures in Magic Eye diagrams.). 4. Activate: Basically this means skipping about in the text, reading chapter titles, the beginnings of paragraphs, and the like, spending more time on parts you feel somehow drawn to. 5. Rapid Read: Skim straight through the text, slowing down at passages you want to understand better.

Some of the author's advice seems sound enough, as when he discusses methods for relaxing and concentrating. Other claims he makes strike me as highly improbable and even contradictory. He says this system will enable you to read something like 25,000 words per minute with 74% comprehension. (That 74% sounds more precise than, say, 75%, doesn't it? That's a common ploy of people who bamboozle with phony statistics.) Elsewhere in the book, he cites claims of almost perfect recollection. "You are almost rereading the page," gushes a radio host after hearing a PhotoReader's response to a question. "It sounds like I have the author on."

The entire PhotoReading step could probably be skipped with no effect whatsoever on the outcome - except that you would arrive there faster. The other four steps are sufficient for getting a vague idea of a book's content - and believe me, a vague idea is about all you'll ever get using this author's system. Study after study has shown that the faster you read, the less you'll comprehend.

I believe the real purpose of the PhotoReading step is to make the reader feel he has permission to claim he has read what he in fact has not read. Let me explain. When I was in college, I once had to turn in ten book reports for one class. The day before they were due, I had only read two of the books. I gathered up the rest and skimmed through each one until I had enough information to write a two-page commentary, then I moved on to the next book, wrote two pages on it, and so on. (In effect, I was using steps 1, 2, 4, and 5 of Scheele's system without ever having studied any sort of speed-reading.) I had ten book reports finished in about six hours, and they seemed well-informed enough to get me an A for the class. Not for one second, though, did I believe I had really read all those books. According to Mr. Scheele, however, if I had taken another five or ten minutes per book to "PhotoRead" them, all that information would be in my unconscious mind, so even if I didn't consciously remember a word, I could in good faith say that I had read these books. Such claims strike me as fundamentally dishonest, quite apart from the question of whether or not this system will help you learn anything.

This book is real good. It's about how to read a book, with more comprehension, and less time.

How is this possible? The system works with different ways to take up information. Normally you read in one way, but this system gives your total brain the chance to help you with understanding the book.

I read a lot of speed/rapid/smart reading books, but this one is the top!

Don't focus to much on the photoreading step, yes it is important, but to much people think they only have to do the photoreading step. No, use the whole system! Then you will notice the good results.

(Rapid reading made E-Z is the same book as Photoreading) There is a course about Photoreading, but I used 'only' the book, and have good results!

So: get this book!

Compared to Fred Gleeck's book this is an ABSOLUTE JOKE. This guy lives in an ivory tower. Fred Gleeck lives and works in the real world. Buy Fred's book, NOT this one!

I have read the book and used several of his strategies. I don't think it is anything revolutionary, but if you have never givien a seminar before I would highly recommend it. I like the way he gives you a strategy of how to get the most out of the seminar. For example, creating a feeding frenzy at the end to maximize your leads. I also like his strategy for setting up the room. After several different styles I have chosen the U formation and his insights helped me come to that conclusion.

The is an excellent resource for Stock Brokers and Financial Planners when preparing seminars. Not doing seminars? You should! A successful professional needs multiple sources of prospects. As cold-calling becomes more difficult due to caller ID and call blocking, seminars are increasing in importance. Good resource!

I'm afraid the makers of CE botched their attempt to go from a simply, direct revenge-type story to a complex tale of woven intrigue. The art, while still somewhat cinematic in stlye, suffers from highly unstable character depictions and cartoony inconsistencies. The change of Sinn's character and appearance is equally as annoying. While she was quite a bother in the original, its even more bothersome when they switch character personalities and appearance.

As for the story, Mastadge's title puts it well. Way too much. Masters of intrigue and complex plots like Stackpole and Zahn should stake their claim as such, as other writers' attempts at such tales are consistently going astray. Carivus is an annoying, bloated dolt, and my interest in Nom Anor dropped about the same time NJO began coming out and butchering 'Star Wars'.

And the Council. While some of the talks seemed to be only well-done examples of intrigue in the whole bloody thing, I still found that it was overdone at times. And why the aliens? I can understand a move toward a more inclusive Empire, but why add Whiphids, Givin, Defel, and other such races that have no real status in the overall galactic community? If they were going to add alien reps they would have at least added ones from species that had actual power in galactic affairs.

Oh, well. If you want to learn a bit more about what happens after CE you can do so, but I can't say I reccomend the book.

While the first Crimson Empire tale was very good and effective, this one fails in many areas.

The main problem with this issues is that they had so many subplots and characters, it was like they were trying to compress a thick novel into a comic book series. There was so much going on they couldn't focus enough on any one theme and develop it.

Also, as much as I didn't like Sinn, heroic rebel commander, being portrayed as a complete slut in the first one, I hate it even worse when they change how a character looks from one comic to another, in the same way that it annoys me when different actors play the same character in different movies.

This book did have pretty good renditions of ships, and it was cool how they introduced mysterious Nom Anor, one of the main baddies in the New Jedi Order series. Unfortunately, although the ship and landscape art was mostly very well done, the people were badly rendered and disproportianate. The Hutt was tiny sometimes, normal sized at others, Sinn's face was a complete disaster, none of the carry-overs from the first issue looked right, and most of the time the faces were just too thick and disgusting.

Another thing, the alien races on the Imp Council! Not only were several of those species known to be sided with the New Republic, plus the fact that the Empire is all anti-aliens, makes this not work. Plus several of those species are so obscure I'm not sure why'd they'd have a member on the council. Oh well.

Still, I am definitely looking forward to CE III, as it is going to tie in pretty heavily to NJO...

If you really love Star Wars, buy this one, but if you're just a moderate fan, I'd recommend skipping it over.

This addition to the Crimson Empire may not be as good as the first, but it still packs a punch and delivers to Star Wars fans.

This is the first book that I ever threw in the trash. The story line had some good ideas,which could have made an interesting story, but the continuous brutal treatment of the characters was without any redeeming value. I found the title, 'Love Slave', misleading.

I searched for erotica in the bookstore one day, and they havemost erotica collections and S&M books, not much in-between, so Ithought I'd see what an S&M novel was like. I'd read parts of books with S&M in them, but never a book specifically for S&M fans.

I knew there'd be spanking and whipping, but this two-books-in-one story was violent! Whipping, beating, rape, humiliation, slavery--and no mercy! It through me for a loop, I must say! The second story, The Peculiar Passions of Lady Meg, is a continuation of The Love Slave.

Underlying all the violence and abuse, however, is actually an interesting story of three women who try to save their dignity. If you can get past the violence (or if you enjoy it but can see the underlying story), you might find Paul Little's ability to actually tell a story.

If you're fond of the Victorian erotic novels and like good whipping scenes, this is your book. The plot involves 3 18-century virgins forcibly sent to a pre-Revolutionary southern plantation run by a lesbian sadist, and it concludes with the domme meeting her fate. The pseudo-19th-century language seemed a bit out of place, and the lack of consensuality and absence of insight into the real motivations of D/s meant I almost didn't finish it.

This book is terrible. In the first three chapters, they emphasize "plan twice but develop once" as an approach for DB development, which is good. Unfortunately, they don't seem to follow their own advice. The authors walk you through examples on a provided CD, but the instructions don't even match what's on the CD. Also, days 1 and 2 were completely OMITTED on my CD. This is my first and last SAMS book.

While this book *teaches* very well, it has a number of small printing mistakes and mislabels which could be confusing to those not following along very closely. I recommend it if you're willing to work with it.

All in all it was decent. The first 14 chapters were fine. The two chapters on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) were fair at best. The Chapter on Objects and Collections should not have been there. I actually went out and got another book for these topics. They had a nice little section on DAO in the end however it was coarse. Keep in mind, the VBA sections were not very good at all. I question why they even put VBA in a entry level book.

For the user who want to get more out of Access 2002 or the user who wants to prepare for a MOUS certification, this book is fine. Keep in mind it is not Microsoft MOUS Official Cirriculum so the Certification Objectives are not identified in the text.

SAMS Publishing drops the ball once again in the editing area. Please note that you will have to go to the website to get the Chapter 2 exercises. The omission of the Chapter Two files can almost be forgiven due to the fact that the files are small in size and easily downloadable.

I have about 5-6 of their books and they are all buggy, lots of typographical errors. This one falls about average for SAMS in that area, not their worst, not their best. I would have given 4 stars if they didn't have so may typos, otherwise the non-VBA content was good.

Why is the name of this book "Selling on the Web?"

75% of the book is devoted to non web selling-placing ads in newspapers for catalogs and other non-web selling instruments. Finally, late in the second half of the book, the author says, "oops, this is about selling on the web." and finally puts web related selling info in.
There is nothing about using things like targeted marketing through purchasing keywords at services like ... Amazon.com stores. Anyone who is not experienced with selling on the web would FAIL AT IT--MISERABLY!!
If it was possible to give this book no stars I would!!

Selling on the web (E-Commerce) has one very big problem; selling on the web.
The author starts the book out with traditional non-online selling information that may be beneficial for people trying to reach a smaller group of people, such as go to the newspapers in your area, how to write headlines for ads and copyrighting.
It isn't until chapter 2 that the author even mentions the web and then not until the fourth section of the chater. Then when he does, he starts out by insinuating that the reader has the mentality of a newborn by explaining what the difference is between the internet and the web and what email is. Unless you have been living on Pluto the last ten years, you should know this. Each subsequent chapter only has one or two sections that touch on the internet, almost as if this is an afterthought. He touches on advertising on newsgroups and bulletin boards. He expains what search engines and directories are but doesn't explain how to get the optimum use out of them.

The only good section of the book is the resource listings that the author gives you at the end.
The publisher E-Z Guides also has a book available called Internet Marketing Made EZ. Does it have everything that should have been in this book or is it about plumbing?

I would recommend Starting an ebay business for dummies for good information on web selling.

Selling on the Web by Paul Galloway reads like a short course primer on Web development, Website promotion, copywriting, advertising, marketing, and selling. Galloway provides concise instruction on these topics as they directly relate to successful online selling.

Readers will learn about important Website design considerations that will help them get sales, how to write content specifically for the Web, how to market online with Websites, e-mail, newsgroups, chat rooms, search engines, and how to market offline by using traditional broadcast, printed, and direct mail campaigns.

Galloway illustrates throughout most of the book the power of the written word - words used in copywriting to get sales. He illustrates how to legitimately play upon the emotions of people - fear, greed, guilt, pride, and love to get sales. He will also help his readers to write to gain their prospect's attention, to capture their interest, to arousing their desires, and to move them to take action.

Paul Galloway offers beginners an excellent opportunity to go online and to make the best of it. This concise guide to Web selling is packed with excellent information and instruction. The book is written in an extremely easy-to-read style anyone should appreciate - short paragraphs, bulleted and numbered lists, tips and notes, and a wealth of resources that are easily accessible and can be put to immediate use to generate an income. Convenient listings of books, services, and Websites are provided.

This book is highly recommended for new Web developers, small business operators, students, and for classroom and seminar use. It will greatly enhance every Web selling opportunity and create new ones. A Windows and Macintosh compatible CD edition of the book is also available from the publisher.