This John Saul novel takes place in Clark's Harbor, a picturesque town on the East Coast. It's about a family with a young boy who before they moved to Clark's Harbor had severe emotional problems and is now calm and good. The boy's psychiatrist and his wife decide to move there also, as newcomers both families are subjected to ridicule and false accusations. To make matters worse the boy becomes obsessed with the sea and the real terror begins

It starts off with a young boy who witnesses his grandparents being murdered and though the boy runs away, he never forgets... Harney Whalen is the police cheif of the small town of Clarks Harbor. He loves his village, but has a strong hate for strangers... The Shellings have been in Clarks Harbor for 15 years. Then one day Pete, who is a fisherman, goes off on his boat, Sea Spray, and never returns... The Palmers are the new people in Clarks Harbor. They too, like the Shellings, are strangers. But their 9 year old son, Robbie, afflicted since birth with hyperkenisis, has been mysteriously cured since they moved to Clarks Harbor, they stay even though they feel the icy chill emanating from the town. Their daughter has terrifying visions about the beach where they live... Is Robbie cured? Or is something else happening?

This is a pretty damned good book. It has suspense, supernatural twists, and plots all over the place. But the ending leaves peoples imagination working overtime. It gives you the ending, but you keep wondering. In any case, I HIGHLY recommend this book!

Clark's Harbor is a small fishing village in Washington State. The Palmer family moves there, believing the rural/fishing tranquility is just the answer for them. Their older child, 9-year-old Rob suffers from some hyperkinetic disorder and has never known a calm moment. Restless and full of angry activity, Rob has never been able to concentrate on any activity. His younger sister Missy, 7 is his opposite number. Bright, verbal and very calm, she provides the stability Rob lacks.

Once at Clark's Harbor, Rob is able to play calmly and interact normally with peers for the first time. Rebecca and Glen Palmer naturally want to promote this, so they move to the fishing community. Once there, the town's shadowy history emerges from the sea and the sand; the forces that have unleashed fearsome powers appear to have had the opposite effect on Rob. The questions are what agents, if any cause these changes? Are these natural phenomena or something supernatural? And what frees Rob from his inner turmoil once in Clark's Harbor? What does the town's history have to do with Rob?

This is a very compelling work that will pull readers into a vortex of swirling emotions and questions.

The book is geared mostly to kids and fans of the show. It does offer good drawing tips and how to draw in the animated style. There isn't enough attention paid to the bad guys and other characters. But overall, it would help out those wanting to draw in the Bruce Timm style.

This book, as well as the how to draw the animated Batman book are incredible. Not too complex, colorful examples on an oversized book make it easy to learn the style of the animated Batman series, and it's similar style counterpart Superman. It has good tips on perspective, so beginners will be able to learn the basics, and more advanced fans of this kind of style will be able to work on the examples to hone their skill. Plus the writing is upbeat and fun, the characters often tell you how to do different parts of the book. 5 Stars for Fun and Style!

This book is the classic in the field of labor process. Marx put the labor process at the center of his masterpiece, ¡®The Capital¡¯. But since then, not much, if any, studies were done in Marxist schools. This book filled the temporal gap between Marx and the 20th century in the Marxist tradition. The author focused on the labor process under the Fordism. Braverman illustrates convincingly how the work, under the discipline of scientific management or Taylorism, becomes fragmented, dull, and repetitive tasks. The work is degraded. There has been not much objection to this argument. But when it comes to technology, things are different. His argument has too much smell of determinism. The theme of this book could put in this way: how the peculiar technological change in Fordism affected the feature of work and the differentiation of working class. No dispute. But his prophecy on technological change seems to go too far: every new technology just destroys our jobs and degrades the work. This kind of grim image has proliferated with the high-tech wave of the 1990s. Should we listen to such a forecast? I don¡¯t think so.
Braverman made a wrong calculation. In the larger picture, technological innovations, driven towards cost-saving and enhancing efficiency, bring job growth with revamped competitiveness of the industry and economy-wide. For example, in the US economy, when the IT investment leaped up in service sector during the 1980s, unemployment rate skyrocketed. But despite continuous downsizing and rapid diffusion of IT, unemployment rate fell sharply in the 1990s. High rates in EU area and Japan should be attributed to the factors of business cycle or rigid labor market. If Harry Braverman took the helm, the economy would end up in bankruptcy to nobody¡¯s interest. It¡¯s the picture of France or Spain, Italy. Even in Italy, the technologically innovative north faces labor shortage not unemployment. Here we can hardly see any relationship between new technology and overall unemployment rate.
Sure. Every new technology makes old one obsolete, so it lead to deskilling of labor. But in turn, it entails its own skilled labor. Since the 1970s, the manufacturing sector experienced substantial technological upgrading. It resulted in the shift of labor market composition: jobs in manufacturing, less-educated work declined. Investment in earlier technologies negatively impacted mainly low-skilled production workers, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s, whereas investment in IT negatively impacted mainly low-skilled white-collar workers in the 1980s and 1990s. Resulting bloody downsizing and restructuring have decimated so many middle-paying jobs in factories and offices. Workers who lost those jobs, especially older workers, are likely fall into lower-paying jobs or, facing long-term unemployment, retire from the labor force. But all kinds of new jobs are being created as the old ones disappear, although the new jobs go to new entrants or younger workers moving up the job ladder.
Technophobe alarmists gain popularity because whatever the effect of creative destruction might be, the impact on employment is hardly painless. Technology is important. However, what is technology at all? It made no sense, were it not run by people. The impacts of technology on work are not simple, not necessarily direct, and cannot be considered in isolation. As seen above, their relation is not clear but spurious at best. The real mechanism lies in political and economic contexts that govern the conditions of work. Thus, when we talk about technology, we cannot forget about all those other human factors affect its use and what it does to the lives of workers, employers and citizens

Labor and Monopoly Power, by Harry Braverman, brings basic Marxist labor theory up to date for the modern age. Though written 25 years ago, Braverman's work is the ideal guideline to understanding the age of information technology. Braverman expertly explodes the smug myths of "knowledge age" boosters by drawing the parallels to earlier industrial technology. The major misapprehension exploded is the one that says workplace automation demands higher skills and upgrades jobs. Braverman, through developing and applying the ideas not only of Marx, but of management proponents such as Babbage, Taylor and Bright, makes a convincing case for the opposite. Computers, like other technology before them, are being applied in ways that expose two objectives: (1) the reduction of the absolute numbers of workers, and (2) the reduction of skills among the remaining workers. Braverman's 1974 book was prophetic in that it described longstanding capitalist relationships that, applied vigorously since that time, have led to increasing income inequality in America.

I have been using the RunLog for several years. Great Photos and quotes. Plenty of room for commentary on your daily runs. There is a summary log in the front to track race performances. There is also a histogram for weekly mileage for the year.

I discovered this log book 'new' at a used book store back in 1998 and since then I bought two more for the next couple of years. It not only allows you to log numerical data, but subjective data as well. It also contains a fill-in linear graph for weekly mileage, race results entries, a pace chart, and basic training information. I love the color and black and white photographs of runners inside. It's a very well thought out design as far as log books go, and the most highly-evolved. I don't look for any other runner's log book but this one.

There's a lot of information out there about the destruction of the planet, but an understanding of where it comes from is harder to come by. Vulnerable Planet is a very useful starting point. Using historical materialism to trace the roots of environmental degradation, Foster breaks down some of the key debates, showing that it is not over-population, industrial production or humanity in of itself that is the problem. Rather the way that production and distribution are organized under capitalism that consistently puts the drive for profit above environmental sustainability. This book is short, but packed with information, statistics, and crucially a sound political framework from which to understand both the roots and the solution to the problem.

This is a little book, but very informative even though written from a Marxist point of view. Environmental destruction, as Foster shows, is as old as humankind. Nevertheless destruction of the natural world has increased at an astonishing rate during modern times making ours a very vulnerable planet. Foster links this increase to a specific social system, capitalism, instead of industrialism in general as many other critics do. This is a thought-provoking connection to make, since our media is usually silent on this topic. According to Foster (and Marx), it seems our system, capitalism, has an inborn need to turn everything it can into a saleable commodity in order to make money. Moreover it has to keep expanding commodities into ever new fields in order to return profits on money already invested. Like Topsy, then, the laws of its development tell it to either grow or die. Thus, when venture capitalists look at nature, they don't see what is living there; they see limitless raw material to be processed and sold, and if they don't do it, some competitor will. It is this relentless engine of development and destruction that has made the planet vulnerable. Thus Foster blames the problem on the way our economy operates, and not on technology in general. Critics should examine his arguments.

A couple of other subjects Foster discusses are worthy of review, given how they are usually talked about. On the topic of population and poverty, Malthus, an 18th century clergyman, famously blames poverty on the poor. The poor keep having kids when they shouldn't, he argues, which is why there are more hungry mouths to feed than food to feed them. So, don't feed them, they'll just have more kids. Being a parson and a kind of Newt Gingrich of his time, he would leave the wretched to the mercies of God. On the other hand, Foster (and Marx) take an historical perspective on overpopulation. Capital must have the poor, because wage levels depend on having an excessive number of poor people around. Employers need them as so-called replacement workers, should their own employees strike for higher wages. Without that threat, wages would rise and employers would lose money. The poor are not God's creation, they are man's. (Considering how our chief cental banker Alan Greenspan acts by encouraging unemployment, Foster's approach makes sense.) Ecology is another important part of our planet's mounting crisis. In making his case that our economic system is the main cause of the problem, Foster discusses Barry Commoner's four informal laws of capitalist ecology. They are worth mentioning. 1) Only the cash nexus (money) is lasting; 2) Waste can go anywhere as long as it's out of the capitalist loop; 3) The free market knows best: 4) nature is the possession of the private property owner. Together these provisions make up capital's marching orders in its assault on nature. Provision #3 seems particularly destructive since it replaces the complex web of millions of years of natural evolution with profit-driven human decision. Moreover, these provisions pretty much describe how big corporations act in the real world.

Anyway, friends will find ammunition; foes will find points to ponder; and the appropriately curious will be rewarded. Buy the book.

Foster is great at painting images of NASA, the Senate, and the workings of a shuttle mission. He goes even further with surprising the reader with the looks of the inside of the mysterious asteroid, and the grand climax of the asteroid sailing away at the speed of light to an alien planet called Cocytus.

The descriptions of the ancient alien machinery is uninspired, and the beauty of the world that comes across in the game is noticeably absent. Brink's crystal madness is understated, and instead of becoming a raving, screaming madman, as he does in the game, he sort of states that he has a problem with Boston Low and lets it go at that. I was extremely disappointed in this book.

I enjoyed this book a lot. Even though some of the personalities lacked realism, it still had a very good plot. Starts out slow, but later you get sucked into it. Anyone who is crazy about reading books should definitely read this one. It should become a movie! Lastly, It also serves as a hidden guide to finishing the video game!

This book is a nice piece of science-fiction. The Dig has all the characteristics of a space opera with enough information to keep your feet on the ground along with enough mysterie to keep you holding the book in your hands instead of putting it down for a break everyonce and a while. However there was one draw back, this entire book was based on a computer game! I played the game befor I read the book and I ended up with not enough surprise to keep my eyelids open, The entire expierence was almost ruined for me if it wasn't for Foster's originality. I would recomend this book for whoever hasn't played the game. It is a very mysterious novel that is definately a five-star. I hope I see more of Alan Dean Foster.

I thought that this book was very well-written. It included many details about life during the Middle Ages. It did so in a creative way, however. They storyline was very creative. It would have been five stars if the story moved along a little faster. Don't get me wrong, it was very good, but some parts became a little boring. Overall it was a good book and I would recommend it to students who need to read a book about Medival life for Social Studies or English, because it is a lot better than most books about this time period.

"The Juggler" by John Morressy takes place in medieval Europe. The book, written in the third person, opens with a thought provoking, although grim introduction in which a juggler who is disapproved of gets his hand cut off. "The Juggler" then follows with the first chapter in which a farmer's son, Beran, witnesses a juggler performing at a fair. From that day on, Beran aspires to become the greatest juggler in the world. After his village is attacked while he was out, he takes to the road to learn how to juggle. While on the road he meets various people including some pilgrims, who in the long run influence his life greatly. Beran becomes the apprentice of another man he meets while traveling. This man teaches him how to juggle superbly, but Beran is still not satisfied with his skills. One night while speaking with his master he said that he would give "anything" to become the greatest juggler that ever lived. During their later travels his master is murdered, Beran, fleeing from the killers, stumbles into the embodied version of the Devil. Beran knew who the man was immediately, "Yet the old man looked so kindly and innocent. His pale face was smooth shaven, his large dark eyes full of sympathy, his white hair snowy in the morning light. He might have been an angel, not the thing he was." (page 110) Satan and Beran make a deal that Beran was to be given the skills of a master juggler, skills whose limitations were the only hindered by the widths of Beran's own imagination, in return Beran would have to hand over his soul to Satan at 50 years from that day. Beran, still a young man, traveled all over Europe amazing everyone who saw him, not taking care to the atrocity he has created in himself. After some time Beran realized what he had done with his soul. He remembered the pilgrims he saw in his travels, and in order to repent for his sins he became one. He traveled to the Holy Land and wandered their searching for a way to save himself.

The first part of this book is magnificent. It realistically relays the travels of a man who is neither rich nor prosperous, of which very few accounts were written in medieval times. The book is very descriptive of things not only unique to the story, but of those things relating to most of the medieval era. "The Juggler" is very well researched; one who didn't know much about the ways or beliefs of common people in those times would be more than adequately supplied with information. For example, the belief that Satan was a physical being was a common belief of those living in Medieval Europe, however those living in the 21st century might scoff at the idea. The last part of the book, although, was rushed and at some points quite dull, not an ending that suited the well-written and thoughtful book. However, overall "The Juggler" was a good read, suitable for those who wish to know more about the life of commoners in medieval times, as well as those who enjoy a book containing adventure and travel.

"The Juggler" by John Morressy takes place in medieval Europe. The book, written in the third person, opens with a thought provoking, although grim introduction in which a juggler who is disapproved of gets his hand cut off. "The Juggler" then follows with the first chapter in which a farmer's son, Beran, witnesses a juggler performing at a fair. From that day on, Beran aspires to become the greatest juggler in the world. After his village is attacked while he was out, he takes to the road to learn how to juggle. While on the road he meets various people including some pilgrims, who in the long run influence his life greatly. Beran becomes the apprentice of another man he meets while traveling. This man teaches him how to juggle superbly, but Beran is still not satisfied with his skills. One night while speaking with his master he said that he would give "anything" to become the greatest juggler that ever lived. During their later travels his master is murdered, Beran, fleeing from the killers, stumbles into the embodied version of the Devil. Beran knew who the man was immediately, "Yet the old man looked so kindly and innocent. His pale face was smooth shaven, his large dark eyes full of sympathy, his white hair snowy in the morning light. He might have been an angel, not the thing he was." (page 110) Satan and Beran make a deal that Beran was to be given the skills of a master juggler, skills whose limitations were the only hindered by the widths of Beran's own imagination, in return Beran would have to hand over his soul to Satan at 50 years from that day. Beran, still a young man, traveled all over Europe amazing everyone who saw him, not taking care to the atrocity he has created in himself. After some time Beran realized what he had done with his soul. He remembered the pilgrims he saw in his travels, and in order to repent for his sins he became one. He traveled to the Holy Land and wandered their searching for a way to save himself.

The first part of this book is magnificent. It realistically relays the travels of a man who is neither rich nor prosperous, of which very few accounts were written in medieval times. The book is very descriptive of things not only unique to the story, but of those things relating to most of the medieval era. "The Juggler" is very well researched; one who didn't know much about the ways or beliefs of common people in those times would be more than adequately supplied with information. For example, the belief that Satan was a physical being was a common belief of those living in Medieval Europe, however those living in the 21st century might scoff at the idea. The last part of the book, although, was rushed and at some points quite dull, not an ending that suited the well-written and thoughtful book. However, overall "The Juggler" was a good read, suitable for those who wish to know more about the life of commoners in medieval times, as well as those who enjoy a book containing adventure and travel.

If you know absolutely nothing about how to conduct and analyze empirical research, then you have found the perfect book. The only problem is this--if you know so little, you also have no business writing a doctoral dissertation, which means this book isn't for you.

Some of the authors' mind-blowing advice: "Develop scientific hypotheses," "Plan for the unexpected," "operationalize your variables," "summarize your findings."

For undergraduate psychology majors, this book provides a helpful introduction to the basics of research. But this is absolutely NOT the book to write a clear, compelling, innovative dissertation.

A book for the student considering doctoral degree and who does not understand the process. Not very helpful for those who are understand process but would like an indepth reference showing the differences between abstracts, conclusions, etc.; qualitative vs. quantitative research papers. Also, updates from authors such as Huth would be more helpful, as well as from Journal editors.

This is great for some helpful overall tips and such. It WILL NOT tell you anything that a good adviser/mentor doesn't already know!

As a collection of essays this book covers a wide range of topics that are important to a quality understanding about the implications of a Marxist and post-modern critique on contemporary western capitalist society. However, as a dialogue on these topics the book is a little one sided and short legged. The Marxist academics that have contributed to these 14 essays i think do a decent job of articulating much of the problem with post-modernism from a non-post-modern-marxist position. Whether such a read of Marx is particularly coherent with what Marx himself wrote is of another matter.
The concern over how one can justify a viable resistance to multinational corporate "free" market capitalism is of the uttermost importance for the authors of the text. The post-modern
critique of the Marxist meta-narrative on history (historical materialism) is a kind of line drawn in the sand for most of these academics in that the category of class is justified by such a read of history and class struggle for Marxists is the only coherent and realistic way of engaging in liberatory Praxis given the logic of capitalism. This becomes very important in recent history given the rise of the new social movements (identity politic movements) which have fragmented the old
Left categories of class and fragmented agency in the face of class war. Some of the authors of these essays do a better job than others when it comes to articulating the post-modern argument, however, some indeed set up post-modern straw men in order to bring the combine.
What appears to be the primary problem here in this debate between Marxists such as these and many post-modern theorists is the failure to see the bridge between the two positions by way
of a Coherence epistemological model of justification. As a matter of fact, throughout the entire book words such as knowledge, justification, universal, essential, etc. are all being used seemingly one way by the Marxists and another way by the post-modernist if used at all. The impression one gets from the text on this account is that there are two different language games being played in the debate leading to a whole host of miscommunication.
I would recommend this book for reading only if or after one is familiar with the epistemic issues of the debate between post-modernists and Marxists as they rear their heads throughout
the entire book.

For multicultural Solidarity in class war,
M.B.R.

Given that the book is a collection of essays, the quality of the content covers a wide spectrum of issues. The overall aim of the book is to give an account of the manner in which postmodernism has hindered social action. Specifically, what is of concern to the philosophers contributing to this work is that the denial of any sort of grand universal meta-narrative by postmodernists denies the ability to form a class of oppressed which can rise up against capitalist oppression. By denying
meta-history and universals, class struggle, in the eyes of these philosophers becomes impossible. The arguments presented in favor of the particular brand of Marxism held by the contributors, therefore, are of a pragmatic nature and as such do not engage on a theoretical level with the postmodernists. This is one the main problems I have with this book. The contributors only ever look at the practical implication of the postmodern critique without ever engaging the postmodernist on a theoretical level. The postmodern critique of the Marxist meta-narrative is a theoretical one and as such should be argued against not just on a practical level, but also on a theoretical level.

A second problem with the book as a whole is that its argument against postmodernism is a straw man. Granted, postmodernism is a philosophical viewpoint that is extremely varied and difficult to define, but the contributors have taken a less developed and easily defeated postmodern perspective as indicative of postmodernism as a whole. What occurs as a result are arguments that do not really engage postmodernism as a whole, but rather engage only a small unsophisticated niche of postmodernism that suits there purposes. It behooves the authors in this book, therefore, to develop a greater understanding of what postmodernism is, and then to develop a critique of it and defense of their own position which does not rest on practical
concerns alone, but also on the theoretical concerns.

Dark Star was one of the first sci-fi books that I read, almost twenty years ago and my recollections of this title are very positive. Indeed, Alan Dean Foster has created a inquisitive, strange, thoughtful tale of loneliness, friendship and hopelesness among the distant stars. In fact, "Dark Star" is a book about the loss of hope that assailed the mankind, mainly in the 70's years. But it's not a dated book. You can read it now and certainly you'll find some great images completely acuratte for the nowdays.