Sad to see eagerness in trimming everything to the insipid norms of political correctness. Ivan and his Magic Pony was originally Ivan the Fool and the Gibbous Little Horse. So what if they are "handicapped": some sort of handicap is almost required for this underdog-has-to-win type of fairy tales; and the talking horse is a magic creature, no wonder it is a bit weird.
Another adjustment made for no apparent reason is Pinocchio. The tale by Alexei Tolstoy is about Buratino, and it's a very loose variation on Pinocchio, to the point that it's a story in its own right. Why bring the confusion?
As for the fairy tales, they are all wonderful. I read (or was told) them in my childhood.
The Soviet-made cartoons, whence the stills came, are also posh, if you don't mind dull and grainy look of film.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That sure goes for spearfishing and spearfishing books. Ivan was one of the early spearos and his advice to divers is still good today. He covers equipment and technique. Some of the equipment information is obviously out of date, and he does reflect the then current preference for pneumatic spearguns, but almost everything else in the book still has wide application today.

The various techniques of underwater hunting are covered, and he gives a good review of ways to select dive sites based on the condition of the land leading into the water. Simple information, but gets right to the crux of the matter.

It's a fun read, and interesting to see how things were done in "the old days" when you might use a kitchen knife in a leather sheath rather than a specially made dive knife or hearing about freedivers who didn't use fins or wore woolen underware for a wetsuit. Yow!

Overall, a charming book. Maybe not the ONLY spearfishing book you should own, but a nice one to have on the shelf for those times where you want to let your mind drift back to yesteryear when all the fish were bigger and we all knew that man could fix anything he might happen to break along the way.

Perhaps our author's early years as a young Jesuit novice started out just as unusual as his early priesthood was destined to be. At 15 yrs old, Jan Korec, a native of Bosany (in the Slovak Republic) was the youngest Jesuit novitiate in his region; he took his vows at age 17 in 1941. Three yrs later, during the 1944 Slovak National Uprising, Korec hid out in a cellar in Trnava, reading philosophy to pass the time as the front line moved on thru. After that, he worked at a Trnava hospital caring for wounded Russian soldiers! Then while completing his studies at the Jesuit Institute, he wrote his thesis on Dialectical Materialism--irony incarnate, of course, as this is the official swan song of good marxists everywhere. And it was these very marxist followers who committed the horrors on that barbarian night of April 13, 1950 when the Czechoslovak state government shut down convents and monasteries and arrested religious leaders as "enemies of the state." Undaunted, Korec was secretly ordained a priest 6 months after this; the following year, he was secretly consecrated a Bishop of the Catholic Church. Over the coming years, he himself would ordain over 120 priests in "underground" ceremonies. Alas, in 1960, he was arrested for "treason" and imprisoned at the infamous Valdice and Pankrac prisons (he received early release in 1968 during the "thaw"). Even after his release, Bishop Korec lived under constant surveillance up until the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The 30 years he spent under the communist hacks make up the bulk of this book and provide compelling reading. Many editors and distinguished personages went into the making of this book; forewards are penned by Vaclav Havel and Pope John Paul II. Fotos are provided liberally thru the text, as well as helpful footnotes to events and persons discussed within. Korec pulls no punches either in naming specific commie villains (a pox to you Vojtech Filkorn!) and he weaves his prison experiences with other famous Church figures (Bishops Vojtassak and Hnilica) alongside him. Occasionally, the text gets bogged down with legal details in his trial hearings and individual's names are not always provided in a uniform manner with diacritics. NOTB is not a grim preachy and humorless read at all: Korec weaves humorous anecdotes all through his trials with marxist mayhem. You'll learn all kinds of things in this book: that Czech crystal was the product of prisoners working under duress and in unsafe conditions...in 1991, Korec was appointed a Cardinal in the Church (Nitra). Don't believe the naysayers who claim we have no heroes today--you just have to know where to look! For starters, then, meet Cardinal Jan Korec, a man who defied the machinations of a police state to ensure the survival of the Catholic Church in Slovakia.

I generally don't read science fiction, so this book was a new experience for me--making me realize how much I'm missing by not reading sci fi.

The author takes you on a journey into the distant future, into a time where the earth was almost destroyed. Two groups of people remain: those who live on top of the earth, who are Native Americans; and those who live in extravagant underground cities to escape the poisonous gases on the surface of the earth.

It's almost like history is repeating itself when Native Americans first inhabited North America, and the "white people" came and took over their land.

The Native Americans only want to live in peace and to live off the land in harmony with all living things. The underground people, led by a ruthless leader, want to destroy life.

From a place not of this world, a visitor comes, whose purpose is to save humanity from destruction. The white people name him Kenneth, and he lives with them for a time where he learns about their past and the plans of their leader.

Then he goes to live with the Native Americans, where he's considered a "prophet," though deeply untrusted by many. He discovers that his goal on the planet earth is not only to save humanity, but also to translate an ancient book that has been handed down through the ages, that no one has been able to read for thousands of years.

After twists and turns, constantly being kept on your toes, the book pulls all of its loose ends together for a dramatic end, where secrets of the universe are revealed.

Each "world" that you inhabit while reading the book pulls you into that world with the realism and graphic depiction of those people. Then, you're taken to a new "world," the world of the Native Americans, for example, where the lifestyle is totally different, the beliefs are different, and once again, you're living in that world with them.

The book is "clean" enough for older kids to enjoy, yet captivating and challenging enough for adults, both sci fi lovers and not.

It makes you "think" about how it could really be with our world--what could happen if we keep on the same destructive path. Could this really be what happens to us one day in the not so distant future? Is this what we're headed for?

Great read!

"One For The Road" marks a major departure for Harold Pinter, providing readers and theatregoers with a theatrical experience that is riveting and unnerving. I have directed this play several times and have always found it to be a goldmine of writing. The language is exact, offering clear and distinct motivation from the characters, yet the play allows ample room for interpretation. Though it concerns the events of political torture--it is much more than that. It is subtle in its examination of power, corruption, and the apparent ease of destroying one's soul. I have had the "interrogator" played by both a man and a woman; the results were always the same: anyone can destroy a person's life with only words. The physical torture in the play happens offstage, but the punishment of the characters is performed in front of our eyes by the interrogator's words. It is one of the most violent moments in theatre. It is classic Pinter. A true masterpiece. As a side note: The US version of "One For The Road" contains a glaring ommision in the text. Early in the text the interrogator speaks of the victims eyes. There is a small speech that he makes about the viewing the soul of one's eyes. This speech is missing two, very crucial lines that are in the English text, but missing from the US version. This is not a change by Pinter, but a publishing error by Grove. This explains a rating of "8" since the text is incomplete.

This book tells about it all from all sorts of people from the conquiers to the Indeans plus the shing path and the Presedint

I highly recommend this book. A well detailed account of the development of scientific racism in the West, showing that it has become a deeply rooted and fundamental aspect of our culture. An another important book on the subject is "The Aryan Myth" by Ivan Polikov, but Hannaford's work concentrates in the evolution of racist thinking in scientific circles, and links much of its influence to pseudo-scientific occult theories, and in particular, the Jewish Kabbalah. According to the Hannaford, racist theories developed from the Kabbalistic interpretation of the curse of Ham, and it was the the Kabbalistic science of physiognomy, the study of facial features with the goal of recognizing the elect, that introduced type-thinking to the West. What makes Hannaford's work stand out from others of its kind, is his establishment of this most important conncection. I only gave the book 4 stars, because, unfortunately, I don't believe he explored the subject sufficiently. ...

This fat book, written by a two tech guys at Creative Labs and two independent tech writers have put together the definitive reference for legacy SoundBlaster 8bit and 16bit hardware up to the SB16. For PC users who want to progress beyond games.

Covers the basics still applicable for newer sound cards. About 1/2 the book includes configuring and using Win Apps for music MIDI keyboards, wavetable synthesis, sequencing, WAV recording, speech recognition, text-to-speech, and intro to sound card programming.

This book is often at libraries, used bookstores, and close-out bins.

This book brings unexpected laughter each time I go through it. Cherayoff has a wonderful eye and a great sense of humer. The images are brilliant.

"Cultural worship of Gods was an inextricable part of everyday life for the ancient Slavs. The ancient Slavic mind was open to nature and the material manifestations of weather..." With these introductory remarks from Tales from Slavic Myths, welcome to the world of ancient mythology---Slavic style. Edith Hamilton may not have touched on most of the Slavic gods featured in this book but, nonetheless, these Slavic myths deserve a rightful place in the canon of ancient mythology. These tales, penned by Ivan Hudec, former Minister of Culture, are presented along with 97 original color illustrations by Dr. Karol Ondreicka. This beautiful hardbound book may be a bit pricey (and is thus understandably published in a limited edition) but worth every cent of its price tag. These ancient tales are retold in a larger-print, easy-to-read style; however, it would behoove the reader unfamiliar with mythology to read the latter section of the book first where some introductory info can be found. The book unfortunately lacks a formal introduction, but does have an extensive afterword by Dusan Caplovic (of the Slovak Academy of Sciences) who provides a lot of detail about the cradleland origins and evolution of Christianity in the Slavic lands. There are also maps and legends of ancient Slavic pagan sites; a detailed bibliography and a very helpful and interesting "Slavic pantheon of mythological divinities." Throughout the text, side bars of background information help fill in the gaps, too. Indeed, "...the spiritual world and imagery of the Early Slavs was fabulously rich" and anyone interested in early Slavic history needs to know these tales. Even contemporary readers of Slavic literature will run across an occasional mention to one of these mythological figures (Czech author Jachym Topol mentions "Baba Yaga" in his recent novel, CitySisterSilver). So curl up one chilly evening, turn off the TV and lose yourself in the wild/magical world of Slavic mythology!