Well, Strathern is certainly entertaining, if not informative. He gives us the dirt on each philosopher, tells us who was overweight, cheap, pushed people around, etc. This would be great if we were reading about movie stars or politicians but I bought these books in order to understand something about what these philosophers thought. He does reserve a few pages at the end of each volume to tells us one or two of their ideas and gives us a handful of quotes. A total waste of money unless you hate your philosophy classes so much that you want to hear how awful the personal lives of the philosophers were. A new low in publishing.

The sole purpose of the "90 minute" book seris is to give the reader a firm understanding of the subject at hand. Hume was a philospher so I was expecting "Hume in 90 minutes" to deal soley with Hume's philopshy. This was not always the case. The book reads more as a history lesson of Hume's life and the world around him, namly Britian in the eighteenth-century. I found the most informarive part of the book (where Hume's philosphy is discussed) is the last section where there contains excerpts of what Hume wrote about concerning different subjects and topics. Strathern does a good job in showing the reader WHO Hume has influenced and HOW they have been influenced by him. The way Strathern shows the effects that Hume has had on modern scienece is also very successful. Overall, "Hume in 90 minutes" is a good way of learning about Hume's life but it lacks the philosopical insight that I was hoping to find before I read the book. The book is an enjoyable read and I recommend the "90 minute" seris to anyway that wants to learn more about the lives and times of differnt philosophers.

Mindless, childish attempt to deride the traditions and respect of this nation's oldest and most prestigious university. A shame.

Some funny comments on America's most overrated University. A school of the past and the jokes roll on and point fun at the dolts of America who think like the person who posted above me.

A good one reader though. Wouldn't read through it again.

Primarily a history of an impressive project to analyse the layers of snow fall on the Greenland ice cap, the book suffers from lack of focus and from unfortunate efforts at being easily approachable and topical. It is strongest at revealing the influence of variation in earth's orbit on local Greenland (and nearby North American) climate, but even here the information is presented hurriedly and one comes away knowing little more of the various climaticaly significant orbital changes the data reveals.

At it's weakest point however, there is a sad attempt to relate the ice core data to global warming. This could be parodied as "there is no evidence of recent dramatic global warming in the ice core data, therefore global warming exists." To be kinder, the author feels "since I know global warming exists from other sources, the lack of data supporting global warming in my ice cores means this must be an entirely new sort of warming." There clearly is an easier explanation.

If you're interested in global warming and climate change, you're probably aware of how politicized the area has become, and how much hot air has been spewed by proponents and opponents of the idea that we humans are changing the climate, perhaps to a dangerous or catastrophic degree. In The Ice Chronicles, climatologist and arctic explorer Paul Mayewski and author Frank White bring cooler heads and cold, hard facts to the controversy.

The book, published in the fall of 2002, centers on the findings from the two-mile long ice core that Mayewski's team pulled from the center of the Greenland Ice Cap. This ice core, labeled GISP2, allowed scientists to track a wide range of climate variables in exquisite detail over the past 100,000 years. It produced many important findings that can help clarify the highly politicized climate controversy. The core reveals that Earth's climate is far from steady. Even without any contributions from manmade greenhouse gasses, ozone-depleting chemicals or particulates, regional and global conditions have swung from hot to cold and wet to dry many times, often with dramatic suddenness. Mayewski repeatedly makes the point that the climatologically calm, benign Holocene--the time period during which human civilization appeared and has developed--is a myth. The ten millennia or so since the end of the most recent ice age have been marked by two large global climate shifts, the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period, and many less drastic but still potent changes. He also presents intriguing evidence that some of these changes contributed to the downfall of several ancient civilizations, including the Mesopotamian Empire around 1200 BC, the Mayan Civilization around 900 AD, and the Norse colonies in Greenland around 1400 AD.

My only real criticism of the book is that it may present more of the nitty gritty history and findings of the GISP2 project than most readers want or need. Still, most of this is put into boxes which readers can dive into or skip as they choose.

While the research findings and their implications are fascinating, perhaps the most important contribution the authors make is their perspective. The data Mayewksi himself uncovered show that the climate is a complicated and sensitive system, pushed from regime to regime by a variety of natural forces. But Mayewski is equally clear that human activities, most notably the marked and well-documented increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, have joined the party, and must be considered in order to understand current conditions or predict future climate change. And he is clear that unless we take sensible steps to reduce our impacts on the system, we risk not just global warming and whatever changes that would bring, but increased climactic instability and unpredictability. To the authors' credit, they attempt to bring some calm into the climate debates by propounding ten realistic, commonsense principles. The reflect that, "No matter what we do, the climate will change." But they also admonish, "We should strive more for climate predictability than control," and "If we cannot have global control of climate policy, we must at least have global cooperation."

The Ice Chronicles is well worth reading, both for the hard-won scientific facts it presents and explains so clearly, and for the constructive, down-to-earth perspective it provides.

Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation. (John Wiley & Sons, September 2002).

Other than a 1 to 5 star ranking that placed many of the Tbirds ahead of the 55 to 57 range.

It had really no value as a buyers guide. Other books give you more on the history, and even breakdowns of which had which engines in regard to quantity.

Only good thing is it is not expensive.

I appreciated the lists of standard and optional equipment available for each year, and the cost and production numbers for each model each year. Reasons were given for changes made. The narrative gave a good history of the car and Ford. I only wish more pictures of standard (not prototype)cars were shown. Color pictures would have been better.

I was disappointed with this book as with most books about J P Getty because it failed to talk about his home life in any detail. In particular, it failed to mention how he treated his wives, children, and grandchildren; how he refused to pay the ransom for one even though he knew about his whereabouts. It basically glossed over everyone he left behind, including his grandson William Paul Getty who celebrated his birthday one day after J P Getty's death.

--Gummi Bear

This book is an outstanding history of J. Paul Getty. It well covers the story of his business career and the building of a sizeable fortune. This book covers his career from the beginning until his death in 1976. The novel also points out the fact that Getty was a millionaire at a young age. This publication also gives good coverage to the establishment of the Getty museum.It is pointed out that Getty,in his older years had actually become a philanthropist. This book is without question a very good coverage of the life of one of the giants in American industry. Read this book. You will be well satisfied.

Lasting Echos is a book of true stories with many facts. The way that the stories are formed is interesting but it drags on. If you are someone that is interested in Native culture this could be the book for you. The discription of what happen in different situations is well written. I think younger people might like it because they can create images of the stories. Teenagers probally would not relate to it and not keep their interest.

Lasting Echoes is an very informative book which offers alot of quotes taken from the native americans on their feelings of the explorers that took over their land. It is a great book to let us know about the other side of history that many of us do not usually think about. This book made me better appreciate the people that owned this land before us.

The Delcourt's book is a hoot.

It is premised upon a recent publication known as the "U.S. National Assessment" on global warming. The backchatter about this document is astounding; it has been well-documented that the climate models which serve as its base actually perform worse than random numbers when applied to the US in the last several decades.

Further, the climate models that were used in this Assessment aren't even representative of most other models. I have read that Assessment, now available from Cambridge Press. It considered many models, but chose two--which, respectively, predict the most extreme departures in temperature and rainfall over the US, compared to the many others considered. Not only are the models that serve as the basis for the Delcourt's book bad, they aren't even representative!

I offer this notion to prospective purchasers of this book: either the Delcourt's knew this, and didn't tell you, which makes them deceptive, or they did not, which makes them incompetent.

I work for a major government climate lab, and I can tell you that this book is a typical global warming joke. Unfortunately, the political climate is so bad that we can't talk about this much in public. Too bad, because the planet is really warming a bit. Would like to see a more honest book here, which admits to warming and to the limits of our science. My little research on this shows the bestselling title under global warming has the weird title "Satanic Gases", but looks much more interesting. Maybe that's why people are buying it and not this silly book by the Delcourt Bobos.

This is a book that will be welcomed by millions of environmentally conscious readers concerned with the range of potential social, economic and political issues stemming from the profound effects of global warming. Many of us are already concerned with the ways in which we may potentially be affected both individually and as members of a society that will literally be forced to deal with the truly massive related dislocations and changes posed by the so-called "Greenhouse Effect" in the coming decades. The authors of this book have addressed themselves to a myriad of potential issues and a range of appropriate strategies for such factors as changes in weather patterns, economics, retirement possibilities, and other such phenomena related to the massive changes in climate that are associated with the Greenhouse Effect.

Thus, Paul and Hazel Delcourt, both paleo-ecologists teaching at the University of Tennessee, present the results of a massive three-year national study, The National Climate Assessment, by thousands of scientists to project the potential environmental changes in this country over the next hundred years. The authors then match the results of this massive work with a range of demographic studies that lead them to conclude that wide-ranging economic, political, and social change will result. Therefore, "Living Well In The Age Of Global Warming" provides the reader with a fascinating look at the range of possibilities that exist for one to "live well and prosper' in the radically changed ecological, social, and personal circumstances of a world undergoing radical and unavoidable change.

Indeed, while the serious reader may find fault with the authors' particulars in dealing with the range of alternatives available, one can hardly fault their central point, which is that the world will be radically changed both in terms of its climate and our potential cultural responses to those changes. Thus, whether discussing changing weather patterns (and the associated changes in storm tracks now predicted by many meteorologists) or exploring changes in temperature zones to the degree that millions may be forced to vacate areas like Georgia as they turn positively tropical, this is fascinating reading. They also discuss potential changes in forest cover, livable habitats, and many other related subjects. According to the authors, each of these factors will become increasingly important in determining the overall quality of life possibilities as global warming proceeds.

In essence, the authors have created an entertaining and informative book that openly discusses what the consequences of global warming may portend for each of us in practical and understandable terms, and in so doing they have rendered an important service to us all. While I admit that I did not like the "self-help to financial success" tone the prose sometimes degenerates into, I found myself so fascinated by other aspects of their careful thought that helped me to overcome any minor trepidation I had regarding the book. One can hardly argue with their central thesis; that the comfortable world we know is vanishing before our eyes, and that the shape of the one to come will be largely determined by the effects that global warming has on our society and our environment.

The book deals with a variety of different issue and a whole range of potential individual responses that the intelligent and savvy person can use to negotiate his or her way through the coming hardships. While I do not feel that this book is anything like the comprehensive "bible" activists need to carry on in the difficult days and years to come, it is certainly a provocative and thoughtful excursion into a subject matter few have dared to broach to date. Hopefully it provides us with just the opening salvo of what one prays will become both a national and international debate on what each of us needs to do to live more responsibally on the delicate skin of this, our living planet. I recommend it without hesitation; enjoy!

I bought this book before I looked at the print date. This book is mostly a compilation of information from other books. This book is only useful as an index to those books. Anyone who is interested in starting a business will find this book otherwise useless and outdated.

I purchased this book over seven months ago and didn't have much time to read it then. I work for a software company and was looking for a way to use what I have went to school for, for 5 years to recieve my BS/MS in Computer Science and again another year for a PH.D to make money of my own. When I read the book I was really upset by the fact that it did not provide alot of help for a beginner who was just starting their own business. I also gathered from the book that it was catering to a certain class of people. ie educated, money, and alot of time to spend. The resources that they provided half of them were not any good. And those that were they had no idea of what you were talking about. As far as I was concerned the book was O.K. but it could have been better. Ebony

so far in my class it is probablly the same way i use it in my intro to logic class same as the one the guy before me wrote probably the same teacher i have. i like the book.

It is easy to get confused by the terminology. Part of the problem is that the subject is very dense and not the usual way of thinking. It uses the minimal amount of language to make the point and avoids the opposite problem of being verbose but therefore isn't too helpful if you don't understand the explanation the way it is written. It works best with someone to lead you through. In my personal opinion it could have used a larger example section and does not do a good job of teaching how to interpret from English language sentences into a symbolized logic statements. It covers truth-functional, quantificational, modal, truth tables and trees, direct proofs, indirect proofs, and conditional proofs. Budget lots of time; at least 1hr class to 3hr study. Pound yourself to get the truth-functional rock solid or you will lose it further on.

This book is quite disappointing. The maps are okay, the elevation profiles are helpful, but otherwise it's utterly bland--and one thing mountain biking shouldn't be is bland. There's no sense of what makes these mountain bike routes special (and if you've ever ridden in Southern California, you know how special the riding is). I think there are other guidebooks about Southern California that give you a lot more bang for your buck. There's no reason to settle for something as lazy, mundane, and obviously-tossed-together-just-to-make-some-cash as this.

I found this book to very informative and opened up a lot of new riding experiences for me. As a Ventura/Los Angeles local, I got bored with the same old trails. This book provided me a good foundation to begin exploring a world of new trails, all within a few hours of my own home. The best part is that with one book, I was able to find trails in towns like Moro Bay, Santa Barbara, Big Bear and San Diego where I can now take weekend trips and know where to ride. The trail descriptions gave me a strong sense of the terrain and level of dificulty and I found them to be very accurate.