What a book..."The Book of life." Why it's a modern cartoon book of paleontology. Though its wonderful life-like illustrations and tree-of-life charts are delivered as scientific facts, they are simply graphic theories that illustrators doll up into hypothetical reality. If you like science and fiction, here is a book for you. The realistic pictures belie the text, which says: "We do not even know how to conceptualize, much less to draw the worldview that would place Homo sapiens into proper relationship with the history of life."

Its authors caveat is that "science can only operate as a work in progress without perfect knowledge, and we much therefore leave a great deal out from ignorance --- especially in a historical field like paleontology, where we must work with the strictly limited evidence of a very imperfect fossil record." It's that fossil record, that the book presumes is accurate in its layer-by-layer record through time, that requires scrutiny. The oldest fossils are found in the bottom layers and the youngest in the top layers of rock, but little or no evidence is presented to provide skeptical readers information they can decipher for themselves as to the accuracy of fossil dating by rock layers. Are we to believe, without exception, that the fossil record is progressive from bottom to top? What about fossilized trees that protrude through millions of years of time? They are conveniently omitted. Michael Benton of England's Bristol University, one of the book's contributors, says "All the periods in the geological time scale receive their names in recognition of obvious changes in the fossil record." Yet, to the contrary, Benton adds, "the history of Earth's crust has been far too violent to preserve much more than a random sample."

Its general editor, Stephen Jay Gould, is magnanimous in his promotion of a single theory of man's origins, from monkeys he and most other fossil hunters say.

There may be missing pieces to the paleontological puzzle, but the bone diggers cliam they have finally filled in the evolutional blanks and can conclusively attest to the idea that life evolved from simpler single-celled organisms into modern man. The book's most ardent opponents are taken head on by Gould: "The lack of fossil intermediates had often been cited by creationists as a supposedly prime example for their contention that intermediate forms not only haven't been found in the fossil record but can even be conceived." But Gould holds a trump card. He says: "a lovely series of intermediary steps have now been found in rocks.... in Pakistan. This elegant series, giving lie to the creationist claims, includes the almost perfectly intermediate Ambulocetus (literally, the walking whale), a form with substantial rear legs to complement the front legs already known from many fossil whales, and clearly well adapted both for swimming and for adequate, if limited, movement on land." Oddly, the book never shows a drawing of Ambulocetus, but does have an illustration of a skeleton of a 400-million year old fish with a small underside fin bone the authors claim "must have evolved" into legs in four-legged animals. Man's imagination is not found wanting here. Out of millions of fossils collected and stored in museums, is Ambulocetus the main piece of evidence for evolutionary theory?

Richard Benton says that Charles Darwin had hoped the fossil record would eventually confirm his theory of evolution, but "this has not happened," says Benton. Darwin hoped newly-discovered fossils would connect the dots into a clear evolutionary pattern. The book attempts to do that with its fictional drawings of apes evolving into pre-humans (hominids) and then modern man. Yet the book is not without contradictions. It says: "It remains uncertain whether chimpanzees are more closely related to modern humans or to the gorilla."

The horse is shown as evolving from a small, four-toed to a large one-toed animal over millions of years. There are different varieties of horses, yet there is no evidence that a horse ever evolved from another lower form of animal, nor that horses evolved into any other form of animal.

Another evolutionary puzzle that goes unexplained in the book is the pollination of flowers. How did bees and flowers arrive simultaneously in nature? What directed the appearance of one separate kingdom of life (insects) with that of another?

The book describes 6 1/2-foot millipedes and dragonflies with the wing span of a seagull, but gives no explanation for them. Life was unusual in the past and not all forms fit evolutionary patterns. Consider the popular supposition that life evolved from the sea onto land. That would make more advanced forms of intelligence land bearing. But the aquatic dolphins defy that model, since they are among the smartest mammals.

The book maintains an "out of Africa" scenario for the geographical origins of man, but recent fossil finds in Australia challenge that theory and even the book's authors admit that "a single new skull in an unexpected time or place could still rewrite the primate story." Consider Java man (Homo erectus), once considered the "missing link" and dated at 1.8 million years old. Modern dating methods now estimate Java man to be no more than 50,000 years of age, a fact that was omitted from this text.

Creativity, invention and language are brought out as unique human characteristics. Yet the true uniqueness of man is not emphasized. Humans biologically stand apart from animals in so many ways. Humans can be tickled whereas animals cannot. Humans shed emotional tears, animals do not. The book does not dare venture beyond structure and function, beyond cells and DNA, to ask the question posed by philosophers --- does man have a soul? The Bible speaks of a soul 533 times, this "book of life," not once.

Gould's temple is science. He calls the scientific method "that infallible guide to empirical truth." Science works by elimination. It can only work from experiment to experiment, eliminating what is not true. It can say what is probable, it can never say what is true. Gould appears to begrudge the shackles of science by stepping outside its boundaries in overstating what it can accomplish. Whereas creationists await the day they will stand in judgment before God, for the evolutionists Gould says "Someday, perhaps, we shall me our ancestors face to face." Imagine, standing there looking at a man-like monkey skeleton.

One cannot fault the flaws in this book. After all, it was written by highly evolved apes.

You would have expected more time and detail to the ermergence of the nervous system and the Cambrian Explosion. A more up-to-date section on human evolution (no mention of Ardipithecus Ramidus) but on the whole the book is a good synthesis of the state of the knowledge in this field.

This singular book gives a very nice popular overview of the state-of-the-art in paleontology, chronologically covering everything from the Archean to the evolution of man. It is a beautifully illustrated and well-written book, although the text is perhaps sometimes a bit too technical and dense for the paleontological novice.
And please don't buy some creationists' claims that this is science fiction. The contents of this book is based on material from thousands of scientific articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as "Nature" and "Science", representing the fruits of the hard labour of paleontologists from all over the world. And the fossil record, even if it is convincing in itself, is far from the only support for evolution. Independent evidence for evolution can also be found in biogeography, development, molecular analyses (gene DNA, junk DNA, mtDNA etc), anatomical analyses, and even field observations of new species evolving. This large amount of evidence is why evolution is considered an established and undisputable fact. Of course, if one rather than facts wants comic book fantasies such as humans coexisting with dinosaurs and evil scientists conspiring to hide the truth, then one should look for creationist books instead. Or comic books.

I had to read the book for my English literature class and I was impressed by the way the characters were depicted -- described through their deeds only, not their thoughts. That the author remains detached from the world of his characters even in the moments when he should say no to indifference, cynicism, sefishhness made me like the book even more. And I could not help symphatizing the male character because I could not hate him for he did see the world this way.

Al

This book is a modern day masterpiece/classic, John Braine examines in one little book the meaning of life the meaning of love,reasons for living and presents 50's English culture very well Icouldn't stop thinking about thi book when I had finished it The filmis excellent too with Signoret & Harvey

The other Web Matrix titles target rank beginners - including the MS Press web matrix book. WHERE THIS BOOK EXCELS: it quite simply provides more details, and depth, that the other web matrix titles. THe Web Matrix Developer's Guide is appropriate for folks who are beyond the "ASP 101" stage and want to learn more about Web Matrix as a tool (including mobile web development.) This is a book for ideas and insights!

The author obviously saw beyond Microsoft's hype for this product and demonstrated the true range of the Web Matrix features in his book. The fancy pictures on the Web Matrix web site would have you believe that this is a training aid for ASP.NET. In reality, this is a cool tool that you can use for a variety of tasks.

I like the fact that every chapter has something interesting to do. Instead of saying that you can do data reporting, the author shows how to perform this task. Another chapter shows how to create your own controls and components, and then add them to the Web Matrix toolbox. The Web services information was interesting, but it's not something I'm using today. Even so, it was nice to know that it's there.

My favorite chapter has been mobile application development. It's something I hadn't thought you could do with Web Matrix until this book showed me.

The bottom line is that the author chose not to follow Microsoft's lead. This book tells you what you can really do with Web Matrix, which is actually a lot. The author also doesn't pull any punches. If something is broken or doesn't work quite right, he tells you about it and often provides a fix to boot.

All of the tools in this book are indeed downloadable for free (you should register the shareware). If you're like me and find the high price of Microsoft products a little difficult to swollow, then this book is very much worth looking at. The author has gone to great lengths to show you how to build a complete development system for free.

I found the author's writing very clear and understandable. He covers everything from simple Web pages to Web services. This book is a wealth of information about new and existing technologies including both XML and SOAP. The author also includes tips on how to modify the IDE for your specific needs, such as adding new controls to the Toolbox.

The inclusion of MSDE Query was a big perk because MSDE doesn't include any user interface. Using MSDE Query has saved me considerable time and expense.

The only thing that I don't understand is why you have to download Appendix B from the Apress Web site. This is actually one of the best additions to the book because the author shows how to extend Web Matrix to perform other tasks. The author told me about the appendix when I contacted him for additional information. The bottom line is that this book can save you both time and money.

I ordered this book, hoping that it would provide a simple but substantive approach to identifying customers and developing strategies to reach them. Instead, I was disappointed to discover that it was merely a compilation of worksheets with no explanation as to how to use them. Many of the questions were open-ended with no real structure that would lead to a coherent strategy.

The "One-to-One Fieldbook" by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers is a much more useful handbook, and at $15.95 is a much more worthwhile investment. I'm returning my copy of this book and keeping the Peppers and Rogers tome.

I have too many "500 tips" books about customers and not enough like this one! Achieving Customer Delight gives an individual or a group a disciplined process for really transforming the way they do business, and it is in very plain English. I would recommend it for executive directors, fund raisers and staff or volunteer teams. It would be an interesting tool for a new ED to use in diagnosing an organization, too. The worksheets are easy to use, and you could go through the whole thing in a retreat or do sections as staff development (probably 1-4 hours) in the office. It's a great discussion starter. How many organizations could say "yes" to the first item on the first worksheet:"This organization is focused externally?" Way too few, and this book could help turn that focus away from internal wrangling to a focus on the mission. Tom Peters tells great stories about other peoples' organizations. Achieving Customer Delight could help you make your own great stories.

This is an excellent resource to help an organization think through attitudes about and relationships with customers.

We all work in a fast paced world where how we treat our customers/clients/stakeholders can make or break a relationship. This workbook stimlates ideas about how we can get and keep customers and it inspires us to to do that in an outstanding way.

We have used it to discuss how we treat donors, staff, volunteers, clients and everyone who contacts our organization and is a potential member of one of those groups. The fieldbook asks the right questions and helped lead us to answers that work for us.

My mother told me she had to read the original "Huis Clos" in French class. Being interested in unorthodox interpretations of Hell (such as the beautiful Grey Town in C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce") I've always been curious about "No Exit." At last Mama bought it for me. While "No Exit" wasn't as captivating a tale as I anticipated, it has its own merits. It's very... well... "out there." When I try to find words to describe it, my face twists up in knots. I've read the highly philosophical sci-fi work "White Bread" by William Meyer, and yet "No Exit" is the only book I've ever read that I can describe just by saying "That was WEIRD!" Do you like bizarre literature? Read "No Exit."

I think if I were one of the characters in this little drama, I'd be Inez. Sadly enough, she reminds me of myself. On the other hand, if I were trapped in a hotel room for eternity, I wouldn't act stuffy and grown-up like Sartre's characters. I'd probably begin by building a fort out of those accursed sofa cushions. Hey, I'm a kid.

What I like about Garcin is his straightforward honesty. He doesn't weasel-word around his sins the way Estelle does... "Cosi fan tutte," as Mozart would say. "Women are like that." On the other hand, if I were confronted as he was with the hotel room's open door, I would have run outside to wander the halls, or at least propped the portal open!

Read "No Exit," and enjoy.

As an actor/aspiring playwrite/existentialist I figured this was right up my alley. It was. I borrowed No Exit a while ago, and read it straight through twice (once during an important math class, and later during chemestry). I'm buying my own copy now. Don't just read this (or anything...especially plays) only once! Do you think Paul McCartney only listened to Stevie Wonder once? (wink to anyone who can identify this quote) This is a great play, even if you're not into reading plays, or not into philosophy. The Bauhaus theatre dictum of form following function is great to keep in mind, as this is similar to didactic theatre. The post before mine is a bit misleading in writing it off as 'weird' and an unconventional view of hell. It could be both things if you want to stay in the shallow end all of your life. No Exit is best read with an understanding of the anti-naturalism, but this is only to understand why it's 'weird' and is not nessesary. I don't want to tell you how to interperate the play or anything, so I won't go into why it is not an unconventional view of hell. If you want to know, or discuss the play (or pretty much any other play/theory) IM me on AIM: Digestingtrevor or Email me at Don't_spam_spit@the-cowboy.com Just remove 'don't spam' from it. Know also Sartre was not primarilly a playwrite. He was a prominant existentialist philosopher/essayist, but turned to playwriting (thank god[though he won't respond!]) as a new medium for expression. He's also quite good as a playwrite for a philosopher! REALLY good! It's great to be frustrated with the characters and really feel like you are going insane. (possibly the birth of reality TV? it's funny how much it is like the real world.) This is a GREAT read for the Arist(of all mediums),philosopher,and the person who just wants to read something cool. I suggest this book to all different types of people, and they all love it. You can easilly read this with no desire to put any interperative thought into it, and love it just as much as if you want to delve into it's infinate levels of meaning and relevance. It is both entertaining and enlightening.

I have bought the special edition using autocad2000 to help me with a course I am taking at college. I had my teacher take a gander and he said that it was a good book but thought that it could elaborate a little more. The idea of spending some time explaining about drafting was a very nice touch though. philiperochon@aol.com

A must-have for long-time AutoCAD users who want to quickly implement AutoCAD 2000- and 2000i-based products. The beauty of this book is its focus on effectively using AutoCAD to solve business problems. A great supplement to the out-of-box documentation from Autodesk.

Birds in Brazil is a big book, beautifully produced on quality paper. It is exhaustive but never exhausting on the topic of Brazilian birds . The color illustrations are beautiful, but unfortunately they are separate from the text about the birds. That is the book's only fault. The text is in smooth and enticing English, and where the same birds are to be found migrating to the United States, the information is quite comparable in completion and interest to the American field guides of Roger T. Peterson. That leads me to believe that the information about birds that we don't experience will be equally accurate. This book is captivating and well worth the price. It is a coffee-table style book that we will be proud to use and to display.

John Green's "The New Age of Communications (Scientific American Focus Book)" gives you a great overview of the telecommunications industry as it was and is it could be in the future. Short, but sweet, Green starts off with a description of life in the future as the average person has his/her own "Intelli-Agent" that helps us get through the day gathering all our information and helping us plan out our day. From there he takes you on a tour of technology as it developed (the radio, TV, telephone, personal computer, hypertext, Xanadu, Internet, multimedia development, gaming, etc.) to what is under current development (voice recognition, Intelligence Agents, Artificial Intelligence, etc) to what may develop in the future (complex Intelligence Agents, Virtual Reality, Smart Homes, etc) and gives some good background info on some of the major players in the development of the telecommunications industry and its study: Marshall McLuhan, Gordon Moore, Ted Nelson, Bill Gates, Steven Jobs, etc.

In addition to giving an overview on how technology has developed, Green also addresses some of the "social issues" it has brought about including: hacking, privacy issues, cyber-crime, etc.

Overall, though a diminutive 133 pages, this book is basically a great overview to technology in our society, where it has been, where it could go and some of the problems it addresses and also causes.

Written and published in the mid-90s the book is still quite current though some of the "developing" technologies it addresses are almost out-of-date. The social issues it addresses and "future technologies to look forward to" still leave this book very relevant, even a good 6 years later.

In addition, the book also includes a pretty useful "Timeline" which details when and by who technologies were developed, actually going back to the middle ages when the printing press was developed.

This book was used as a supplementary text to a telecommunications course I took back in 1998. It's a great introduction to the field of study for anyone who is interested in learning more about it.

Recommended

I find it interesting that this book was included in the selection of Horror Anthologies.

Given the way I feel about golf, it was all too appropriate!

I am always a little at a loss to review a work like this which has 30 essays, short stories, and poems in it, humorously illustrated by the talented Paul Szep. Obviously, in a thousand words I cannot review each work. However, there's also no relevant way to give you an overview except to say that this is much of the best writing about golf that anyone has ever done, looking beyond how to improve your score.

Let me share a few highlights with you, much like you might compliment a golf partner on the best shots in his or her round. Imagine that we are all having a tall cool beverage while I do this after finishing a long, hot round.

I thought the funniest work was "Drinking from a Cup Made Cinchey" written in 1959. Updike has obviously had a golf lesson or two, as the other works make clear. This essay is a satire on all of those instructional articles that you find in Golf Digest. Updike begins by pointing out that occasionally there's a slip between cup and lip (but he humorously avoids that phrase). So he takes the simple task of picking up a cup and drinking something from it, and writes it up in golf instructional style. I couldn't stop laughing. I think I got a better idea of the golf swing from this non-golf swing instruction than I ever did from taking a lesson!

"Swing Thoughts" from 1984 captures the problems that we all have with using the conscious mind too much, but with more self-consciousness than even the most self-conscious golfer ever had.

The part I least agreed with was "The Trouble with a Caddie." Updike doesn't like them, but I find having a caddie one of the pleasures of the game. He dislikes everything from the company to handling the tip. Perhaps it is hard for someone with a solitary occupation like writing to get over that preference for solitude. Book tours must be rough!

The best fiction was "Farrell's Caddie" from 1991 with all due respect to the Rabbit Angstrom material that is well known from the Rabbit books. It transcends golf in a valuable way.

The best poem was "Upon Winning One's Flight in the Senior Four-Ball" from 1994. Many of Updike's later works look ironically on the effects of our changing golf fortunes as the body starts to produce less and less satisfying golf. This one is very well done without having the negative tone that some of the others do, hinting at decay and death.

The book is divided ino three sections: (1) Learning the Game (2) Loving the Game and (3) Playing the Game. The works are about equally distributed among the sections.

If you're a golfer, you know that people love to give golf-related gifts but never know what to give. I suggest you solve their problem by putting this book on your Amazon.com wish list. Then on those cold winter's nights, you can curl up with this book to help you conjure up your own golf dreams!

When John Updike brings the depth and breadth of his intelligence to bear upon a subject, the light of his insight and wisdom radiates from his silky prose. One expects to be enlightened as he reviews contemporary novels or tackles current questions of theology. I didn't know what to expect from his essays on golf, but having read "Golf Dreams", I would say that Updike loves this enigmatic game every bit as much as he loves fiction, theology, and philosophy. If we find a writer's love in his attention to detail, then in these essays Updike shares his deep love not only in the details of the game itself, but in the details of playing of golf in New England and his love for his golfing companions. It is as if in a life of a writing discipline, book tours, speaking engagements, and other demands, Updike can rely upon the fidelity of his foursome and the bucolic mysticism of golf itself as a source of constant and dependable pleasure. Fortunately, because like most of us who play, Updike's pleasure does not depend upon his mastery of the game; but our reading pleasure does depend on Updike's mastery of lucid prose to express his golf dreams.

Not really agree with the book title "remarkable way". In fact, whatever ways that are mentioned in the book is really common sense to everyone.

I very much "get it" and still have a very negative review of this book and the entire "philosophy" that stems from this series. The mantra of "Be happy, find your IT, coach your peers" woven into a horribly redundant and sophomoric tale of a hospital floor meets sushi bar is more than any astute well-read reader can bear for more than 119 pages. Philosophy, ideology, beliefs- whatever word you choose, are not easily summed up, not readily paralleled to one fish market, and certainly cannot be distilled to a glorified pamphlet that, although it champions "deep conversation" never dares to go into the very nature of work.

Luckily the author anticipates these gross shortcomings and, given the lack of a substantial ideological foundation from which to build, leaves it to the reader to "find his or her own path." This book may be an adequate primer for someone who reads very little and may understand less. The story and dialogue is literally at a sixth to eight grade reading level at its best moments. This is not a book for thoughtful, questioning, analytical, and educated discerning adults.

For a more interesting and dynamic exploration on the nature of work and how it affects our lives one might turn to Walden, Fight Club, Notes From The Underground, Steppenwolf, or just about any counter-capitalist thought to name a few. Then one might discover that transcending work roles rather than defining ones' self by them is the true nature of an individual path.

Change starts with the infusion of external energy and a promise of better things. But soon the gravity of the old ways pulls it back. This book is about sustaining the change process by using our internal energy. Fish! was a good parable with lots of excitement at the Pike place fish market. This is a forward integration, moving up the value chain. We are in Takara Too, a sushi restaurant, where customers don't mind waiting in long queues for the wonderful experience once inside and to be received by a loud cheer from the staff. If you have forgotten your reading glasses and have difficulty in reading the menu card, the waiter will be pleased to offer you half a dozen variations of reading glasses that can help. If your favorite beverage is not on the menu, it is sourced from a nearby store before you realize.

The good news is that the principles behind such a marvelous atmosphere to work in apply to workplaces in any industry. It is important to Find IT, Be IT and Coach IT.

At the end, I realized that the personal tragedy Steve Ludin (author) suffered has had its impact on the story. The loss of Beth, his thirty-one year old daughter in a car accident to whom this book is dedicated. Beth lived a full life true to the spirit of Fish!. In her memory, I rededicate my commitment to Fish!