It's like Harry Crews said in his BURIED ALIVE documentary, if you write, some people are going to have problems with what you have to say. I recall that this was the case for this writer when the book was first published.

When I read CAFES OF CHILDHOOD, I was caught up in the drama and the powerful but spare use of language. I did not read the book as an indictment of the poet's family. He could just as easily have been writing in a persona. Poetry doesn't have to be factually accurate anyway, just moving and memorable. This book is both, and it is a surprise to me that Macioci has not pubished another.

The poems in Cafes of Childhood are strong and beautiful, clear and subtle, marked with simple joy and punctuated with horror. Each can stand alone, but they function as a whole to shed light on childhood. Yes, some specific childhood which perhaps still has open wounds (New South Wales?), but really just childhood. I would recommend this book to anyone who knows a child, has a child, or has been a child.

I know nothing of this poet's family problems, I can only state my opinion of these poems. The language is incredibly vivid and moving. The use of imagery is spare and subsequently powerful. I recommend these poems to all fans of poetry--but especially to readers who experienced the magic of childhood as keenly as they experienced the pain. These poems will move you.

If the following snippets from author's preface grab you, you're likely to enjoy this book:

"In 1976...I stumbled across a strange text entitled Return of the Dove which claimed that there was a man not born of this planet who landed as a baby in the mountains of Croatia in 1856...his name was Nikola Tesla."

"...I also examine such questions as whether Tesla received impulses from outer space..."

"Using a psychohistorical perspective..."

As for me, I was hoping this book was going to be a serious scientific biography. I've learned a bit, but I have also been left with the distinct feeling that Mr Seifer (a community college psychology instructor) simply doesn't understand historical research and writing well enough to filter through Tesla's own self-contradictory and self-congratulatory statements. The result is a book that reads more like idle speculation than a rigourously researched and analysed biography. Finally, the points others have made on this site about the book's scientific overstatements are well taken

Marc did great job covering life and work of Nikola Tesla, a serbian-american inventor who made great contributions to modern science and engineering. Book covers all of the important aspects of Tesla's inventions and scientific discoveries. It covers the broader historical background and explains the importance of Tesla's work to a great detail. It is also very good at explaining "mysteries" surrounding Tesla's personal life. It presents Tesla both as one of the greatest scientist ever as well as a human being. This book is so good since it makes the right balance between technical information (very accurate, with rich bibliography) and Tesla's personal life and social interactions. Therefore it is interesting for both serious scientists who would like to learn from Tesla's work as well as for general population who would like to learn about this extraordinary personality.

Overall, this is the number one book on Tesla so far. The best starting point and reference regarding Tesla's life and work.

I really got a lot out of Seifer's book. The detail is excrutiating. The book flows as Tesla's life did, and it truly gives powerful insight.

The book is lucid to the point that the reader is able to understand Tesla as a man, as an inventor and as a mortal demigod.

Truly interesting, well worth the price and time.

If you read this book, you won't get example C code snippits like other books have. However you will get an excellent understanding of neural networks and fuzzy systems. This book is very well written, and has lots of information! With the information in this book you could write your own code snippits and really understand how it works, rather than just using the code! I highly reccommend this book if you interested in artificial intelligence. It isn't "dry" like some books, and has examples of uses, as well as how well they work!

I am finishing my degree in environmental engineering at the Politecnico of Milan, Italy. I used this book during a project about adaptive control using neural networks applied to wastewater treatment plant's operation unit. I find it very useful; it is clear and it is possible to find together with the theory practical applications and datasets. In an easy way it shows a mental scheme of artificial intelligence foundations.

This book covers the fundamental concepts and methodologies of neural and fuzzy systems providing many significant applications in decision support, data analysis and data mining. It is a good research guide and an excellent teaching material and offers a wide outlook for future research and application directions.

This is a very personal look at this inventor's life. Unlike many other biographies this autobiography tells us specifically what Tesla's reason were. Tesla also tells many very personal and insightful stories about himself. Many other works site this one because of its invaluable reference. Tells much about the inventor in abridged way.

The introduction material in this book written by Ben Johnston is well prepared, informative, and brief. It is a good introduction to the rest of the book which is Tesla's writing.

Tesla's own words can be tedious, but hey the language has changed a bit in the last 100 years. He takes a few rabbit trails and talks much of his inventions not what he thinks and feels. I would really like to know why he liked pigeons so much but he never says. What Tesla doesn't say, gives us insights to what is important to him. No serious study of Tesla can neglect this work.

For a more in-depth historical biography of the man see, Margaret Cheney's "Tesla, Man out of Time". ISBN 0-88029-419-1

In this book, Tesla himslef explains the inner workings of his mind. To me, knowing how he actually came up with his inventions is the best any Tesla book could possibly get.

As opposed to the unearthly stuff most people who would be searching for Tesla books are actually interested in. If you want to wind coils for old-fashioned electric motors, alternators and inductors, this is the book for you! Unfortunately for those interested in extraterrestrial influences and transmitting electrical power through the ether, this book represents the real science and inventions that made Tesla a true success in his day, as opposed to the kookier speculations that later fertilized his legend. Because it dispells myths, I have given it three stars for performing a real service. But unless your are deeply interested in the history of alternating current, you don't have to spend [money] for a paperweight.

When I was young I planned to write something along the lines of "an evaluation of Tesla's scientific contributions." Three things stopped me: 1) procrastination, 2) laziness, and 3) the impression that everyone who writes about Tesla will have a "kook" label stick to them for the rest of their lives. Why this is so is interesting, but first about the book.

This is a reprint of one published a little more than a hundred years ago, and is most definitely not a "kook book." The author, Mr. Martin, writes a very good description of the nature and significance of Tesla's work up to about 1895. The second part of the book consists of reprints of lectures delivered by Tesla, apparently written by the great man himself. The book contains many good diagrams and illustrations.

Both parts have the expected "old-fashioned" feel, but the book gives us a chance to compare Tesla's writing style with that of a contemporary. My own impression is that Tesla's writing style is fairly good as well as interesting, though perhaps even more florid than customary during that age. The book is rather long, and I would venture only two types are likely to read it in entirety: 1) historians of science, and 2) the Tesla sycophants.

When the book was originally published Tesla was at the height of his powers. About that time his assertions started to become more and more grandiose, if not fantastic. Following the debacle of his "world wireless power transmission" scheme (just prior to WWI), his reputation suffered. Although he lived until 1941, in later life he tended to be increasingly seen as an eccentric loner and kook. He died in loneliness and poverty.

OK, so why does a "kook" label tend stick to anyone who has more than passing interest in Tesla? The first reason is, of course, the fantastic and eccentric claims Tesla made late in life. But by itself this is not enough - after all, even the great Newton dabbled in alchemy and the Book of Revelations late in life. To the first reason must be added a second: a "conspiracy" cult has grown around Tesla; cultists explain all his failing not as personal failings, but as due to a conspiracy against the man. In short, Tesla has been turned into a messianic figure, and scientists are not comfortable with this image.

A volume that records the early pioneering work of an electrical genius and inventor, in the same platform of Thomas Edison and Charles Steinmetz, Guglielmo Marconi and George Westinghouse, though never as well known. It shows in great detail not only the works of Tesla's experiments, but will give the reader a glimpse of the amazing range of his thinking. From alternating curent generators to Unipolar generators (generators being just one field of study) to theories and applications of polyphase currents and motors to high frequency and high potential currents, this gives the reader some basic understanding of his pioneering work.

This is not about his life and times, and how this genius could understand the mysteries of electromagnestism but could not help himself when it comes to battling corporations represented by lawyers of JP Morgan. It may seem outdated, since the work was published in the 1890s. But nowhere can you find a book that will explain more about the foundations of his technical and scientific work.

While Peat does an excellent job at reporting of broadcast power from a critical standpoint, some very speculative statements are made about Tesla himself (e.g. He completely suppressed his own emotions in an attempt to use reasoning only) I had some objections to the reliability of part of the information presented. Peat offers alot of good information and the book is worth reading if your interested in Tesla and his works, particularly broadcast power.

Dr. Peat gives a scientific perspective to Tesla's work, specifically, the wireless power transmission theories. The book is very narritive in his search for the truth about Tesla. His endeavors of searching for info are quite interesting. I recommend the book to any scientist out there. The book was originally published in 1983.

Trying to fix a small pothole is apparently no easy task. Nor, according to Dan Yaccarino, was illustrating this book. He regards it as a turning point in the way he approaches his work which includes creating images for magazines, newspapers and ad campaigns in the United States and around the world. However, as Julie Cummins points out in Children's Book Illustration and Design (II), his free-wheeling and light hearted illustrations are natural for children's books, and in 1992 he wrote and illustrated his first picture book, Big Brother Mike. Using gouache on water color paper, Yaccarino shows us what its like to be the younger sibling and the trials and tribulations of being 'the baby'. But he also hoped to show all the good things that go along with having an older brother (also called Mike) and he succeeded!

A comparison of the style Yaccarino used to make these points, and later to capture the rhythmic sounds and shapes of demolition in BamBamBam, with that emerging in Circle Dogs and achieving maturity in Deep in the Jungle, reveals the extent to which this picture book is, indeed, a 'turning point':

"It took great pains for me to pare the illustrations down to their most essential elements: shape and colour. What appears to be the simplest of images is the result of much deliberation and discarded illustrations."

One hole in the road is an early result of an artist's struggle to derive form from the pure shapes of very generic visual concepts. Recognition that young children do this naturally in their own drawings is reflected in Johnathan Fineberg's fascinating exploration of the subject. In each case, people are reduced to the alternative of frontality and profile which provides the most informative sight for each single person or object -- four spotlights flashing, five sirens blaring. Young childlren understand these translations from model to picture and recognise an artist's image as an equivalent of the former created within the condition of the medium, in this picture book, paint.

Increasingly, Yaccarino's art captures the two most important features of the kind of art that appeals to young children: on the one hand, freedom from dependence on the shapes of nature; on the other, the basic shapes and colours whereby things are visually understood. These include the geometric primaries and black, white, reds, blues and yellows from which the world composes itself.

These results are not achieved by many pcture book artists, and not easily as Yaccarino makes clear in his account of the process recorded by Jill Bosset in Children's Book Illustration: Step by step technique - a unique guide to the masters.

My 2 1/2 year old son loves this book. The pictures are colorful, and tell a great story. It is one of those books that is simple, yet filled with action - easy to animate as you read it and look at the pictures.

The Corpse Dream of N. Petkov is a post-modern novel in structure - the story built of short incrementments of bits of life/imagination/history of Petkov and the author.

The book begins as a hard read - partially because of unfamiliarity with Bulgarian history. Eventually the author and the reader hit their stride and the book becomes a forceful reminder of the cruelity of humanity and the fragility of "heroism". This book is well worth the time required to read - and reflect - on it.

Overall 'Tesla - Man out of time' is a decent biography of one of the most under-appreciated scientists of the last hundred years.

The problem with most biographies of brilliant and eccentric individuals, is that the books focus more on the times and people around the individual, then the individual themselves. After completing the book, we know about the people who Tesla met and dealt with, the inventions that Tesla developed; but really do not get an intrinsic understanding of what made Tesla tick.

On the downside, the book does not go into any real technical descriptions of any of Tesla's inventions and leaves a bit to be desired from an organizational perspective. Cheney occasionally slips back in time for different events.

Cheney provides an interesting insight into the jealous and greedy side of Thomas Edison and how Edison saw Tesla as a threat.

Overall, Tesla - Man out of time is well worth reading.

Excellent introductory work on one of the most brilliant scientists of the 19-th and 20-th Centuries.

Nikola Tesla is a fellow who gave us the System of Electrical Power (Generators, Motors, High-Tension Transmission Lines, Fluorescent Light) that lights our homes, runs our factories, trains, cars, our hydro power plants.

He opened our eyes and gave us pointers to follow with his basic patents in Radio, Robotics, Energy utilization, Communication, High-Energy and Plasma Physics, and many other areas of science and technology.

In addition to the above, as it was not enough, Tesla's genius ventured into many other fields. Over 400 US and Foreign Patents bear his name in the fields as diverse as "AND Gate" without our computers would not work, Bladeless Turbine with high efficiency, High-Frequency Heating Pads used in medical treatment of cancer, High-Voltage Coils that spark our gasoline powered car engines, and ... Please read the book!

Mrs. Cheyenne did excellent job in researching the material used to write the book. Someone in the field of electrical engineering might think that she graduated in Electrical Engineering, or Physics. For an amateur scientist reader the book is a very good source of references for further reading and study.

This book is a very good material for a high-school student that wants to enter the Electrical Engineering or Physics World.

The best biography written on one of the most amazing men of the 20th century, or perhaps of all-time.

Nikola Tesla was one of the world's greatest inventors, and definitely its most mysterious. To say that Telsa was ahead of his time is putting it rather mildly. Most of his inventions were so advanced that the public had a difficult time grasping just how important they really were.

Although Marconi is often credited with the invention of radio, the real credit goes entirely to Tesla. A long-running battle between the two ended when American courts essentially invalidated Marconi's radio patent, and awarded credit for the invention to Nikola Telsla.

In addition to radio, Tesla also invented Alternating Current (AC), which is the form of electricity used to deliver power to most homes and businesses on earth. He also patented hundreds of other inventions, many of which are in use today. Others are yet to be understood by modern scientists.

Probably just as fascinating as Tesla's inventions was Telsa himself though. He was the original, real-life "mad scientist", and often discussed his invention of the "death ray" with the popular press. The world has never seen an inventor the likes of Nikola Tesla, and may never see one again. This book is a fascinating look at an amazing individual.

If only he'd called himself an artist we'd be marveling at his imagination and noting how far ahead of his time he was. Instead, we have a scammer who, failing at a career in music, proceeded to live quite nicely at the hands of credulous investors.

Historically, and artistically, this book is a fascinating study. The graphics Keely created are stunningly evocative and complex, his prose gives the impression of a man in command of a universe of phenomena understood only by him. It has absolutely nothing to do with any working physics theories, and anybody with the ability to understand what he's saying will immediately recognize this. It's just pure unadulterated flim-flam designed to wow those who don't quite understand the words he's using.

Even though the book's author-- more accurately editor-- takes a few half-hearted steps to assure us he is not a fraud, it's clear that is just what he was with his free energy machines that will be working "very soon" revolutionizing the daily lives of all of us "within the decade." It's hilariously obvious none of the devices work, and never would. Those who would compare Keely to Tesla can only do so in the absence of a single critical thought. Tesla was a genius that did revolutionize our daily lives, Keely concocted mumbo-jumbo for personal gain and was never heard from again, except from a few hopeful lay inventors and conspiracy theorists in need of a better understanding of physics.

One of the things that absolutely baffled me about this book is I can't decide if the author is serious or not about Keely's physics. The text, illustrations, even the story of resurrecting one of the machines all added up to a pretty damning indictment to me, but Dale Pond writes it up like it was a vindication. Perhaps it was sarcasm. But then there is the blatantly hyperbolic title-- don't expect a delivery on that account.

I found the book an amusing-- at times laugh-out-loud outrageous-- and amazing as a historical document looking at the dawn of the technological age and the gee-whiz credulity exhibited by non scientific public. Lots of beatuful illustrations and photographs of Keely's (actually quite impressive and beautiful) sculptures and almost psychedelic "charts" depicting his fanciful pysics. Well worth leaving on the coffeetable for the amusement of your guests-- but only two stars because I think the author is in earnest and the title is about as misleading as it gets.

This book has some interesting pictures and historical factoids, but as a scientist and engineer I found it to be lacking much real information. It seems that Keeley was the only person who really understood his ideas, and wrote things down in cryptic oversimplified doodles. I am very openminded and was interested in this book, but lots of it seems like pseudo-babble. Maybe I just need to read it again??

Throughout this book I found references and footnotes to Keely and His Discoveries by Clara Bloomfield-Moore - the only book by a contemporary who was a close personal friend and financial supporter of Keely. Originally published in the late 1800s, her book - ISBN 1589636139 - is back in print and makes a wonderful companion to this book.