if you are a decendent of a persinger you need this book for family history, talks about joseph and jacob persinger.

This is the bible, for lack of a better term, of political science.

I may be biased as several of the articles/definitions are contributions of my past professors, but the consistency of the writing doesn't hint that it is a compilation from many different experts.

In most cases, the contributing authors are the foremost authorities in their respective fields. That is apparent in the quality of this world-class publication.

...This is a history of wealth full of interesting people and details, not just a mere book about money. The book is full of mostly black and white photographs with a few color photos. Some of the photos included are ones of: Hetty the worlds richest woman, crown jewels of Iran,Irenee du Pont in 1957 with a pet iguana, a garden of clipped bushes in the shape on animals, Edith Kingdon, photos of Newport life, Mrs Vanderbilts ball in 1883 and many more. You are sure to find the rich stories just as fascinating as the incredible pictures.

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A very small book--literally the size of a credit card, and only half an inch thick--of three-hundred maxims, covering practically all of the wisdom one needs to go through life. Each maxim covering less than a tiny page, often only half. (The size of THIS PARTICULAR EDITION is NOT meant to make one feel cheated of what one paid for. It IS meant to be COMPACT, to carry in the pocket or bag, for frequent reference, in brief quiet moments. There are hardcover versions around.)

Originally written in Spanish in 1637 by a Jesuit scholar, it has been translated into eight European languages. This one translated by another scholar and literary critic named Joseph Jacobs, who also collected folklores (including English and Celtic fairy tales, as well as the fables of Aesop).
This particular translation is known to preserve Gracian's epigrammatic style, including his word plays and puns, albeit later updated where necessary due to being unclear and/or dated in grammar and syntax, and revised in comparison with other known English versions.

In contrast to Machiavelli, who put CRUDE REALITY into words, Gracian is more on the side of a little IDEALISM and NOBILITY in living one's life. Which is not to say he aims for ASPHYXIA; much is given to living a happy life, part of which is giving oneself a break and a breather.

[NEGATIVE] A few maxims are of limited use for its obviousness--in essence, "sometimes go left, sometimes go right". (Uhm, aren't those ALL of the very choices from which one must pick? And doesn't EVERYBODY ALREADY know that.) The wisdom of everything else in the book in nonetheless undiminished.

The brevity (not concise; some maxims are translated rather long-windedly) of the maxims does not mean that they are to be read as many in one stretch. After all, the benefits only start when wisdom is absorbed and lived out. Best to read through a dozen at most at a time; re-read and re-read, giving each time to sink into the heart and mind; only then move onto the next dozen or two.

Quite ENLIGHTENING. Worth keeping one copy of. Or perhaps two--a hardcover edition, too, in one's library, work desk, coffee table or reception room . . . for anyone who might walk in or anyone being made to wait, and who could use the time literally wisely.
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The Art of Worldly Wisdom is one of my favorite books. It was written in the 1600s and contains 300 maxims in paragraph form. All you have to do is to open the book to the back where you will find a listing of the maxims. For instance, #192 is "A peaceful life is a long life." and #148 is "Have the art of conversation." Then turn to the appropriate page for your lesson in full. It's a tiny book that will amaze you with the amount of brilliance it contains. It's a book that will fit in your pocket and help you through life. I hope you'll love it as much I do.

I was given this book 30 years ago and always wanted the world to know that this became my most loved book of all times. I only hope the English translation is as of same quality as Schopenhauer's German translation. The Art of Worldly Wisdom is as true today as it was hundreds of years ago despite all the technology sourrounding us, and that in my mind is the real treasure of this book. Thank you Gracian Balthasar.

Corbin is one of the foremost interpreters of Iranian, Sufi and Persian gnosticism in the west. This volume is a terrific introduction to his other works as it is a collection of short essays in which he discusses how he grew from being a student of Heidegger to a scholar of Persian mysticism. I would highly encourage those interested in the imaginal realm to begin their quest here and then take on his other works, especially "Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth" afterward. More people should know of Corbin's work, but unfortunately its audience is largely limited to students of Islam and Sufism. Highly recommended.

The last place I would have looked for a profound spiritualism would have been Iran, but this book proved me wrong. It is amazing and disturbing how much influence cheap media has on our views. After reading this book, I am not surprised that, of all places, Iran should be the country to exhibit such a sharp contrast with modern flashy and shallow philosophies. Obviously these guys know their stuff and can distinguish between real thing and fake ones, something that we in the west need to learn since our spiritualism usually ends up in some sort of sex or money scandal.

I usually don't think much of religious scholars and their books, but have found Mr. Corban and his writings very different and profound. No doubt Corban is an icon for religious scholarship.

Okay, it's not totally 'PC', but this book is true to the spirit of childrens stories. Along with the classics (e.g. Jack the Giant Killer and Tom Thumb) there are lesser-known tales full of real suspense, action, ghosts, magic, realy wicked stepmothers, love lost, imps, and fairies. And no guns. It provides the little stressors that Disney doesn't, so that the effect is genuine - real anxiety, and real relief at the point of resolution. You can never be sure that there will be a wedding at the end of any story.

The book has beautiful word-play and rhythm, along with classic sketched illustrations - A keeper for all time.

I'll let you in on a little secret. This is actually two of Jacobs' books published together in a nice hardbound edition from the Everyman Library. This edition includes both "English Fairy Tales" and "More English Fairy Tales." Jacobs collected and adapted many tales in his lifetime and made contributions to the field of fairy tale studies. This is one of the most popular of his collections. Variations of well-known and lesser known tales are available in this book such as Cinderella and Tom Tit Tot (similar to Rumpelstiltskin).

This series has a wonderful idea at its heart: After beingfaced with a difficult problem, 10-year-old Whitney travels back intime to ancient Israel with the help of her grandmother's magical Bible. There she ends up playing a key part in the world's best-loved Bible stories. When Whitney returns to the present time, she finds she knows how to better handle her own problems. What makes this book and the other one I've read so far (Whitney Rides the Whale with Jonah) is that Whitney is very active in both time periods -- she deals with her problem in the present, and she makes a real contribution to solving the Biblical problem when she goes back in time. All that plus humor and a character kids will identify with. I can't wait for the rest of the series.

How imaginative, a little girl goes back in time to be a part of a great Bible story! I can't wait to read the other books in the series.

The illustrations of this over-sized children's picture book are almost overwhelming due to the detail of the fine point ink drawings. The tiny strokes that make up the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the plant leaves, and the wall decorations are unbelievable. Great care and thought was given to both the drawings and the painting. The painting of the background of the pages and of the skies contain beautiful combinations of color.

Unfortunately I don't think the writing matches the quality of the illustrations. The story itself could have been made more exciting or more lyrically descriptive.

My five year old really enjoyed this story and he asks me to read it over and over.

Award-winning children's book illustrator, Brian Wildsmith, lends his pen and water colors to the well-known and beloved story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis. As would be expected from Wildsmith, these illustrations of Egyptian palaces, hieroglyphics and royalty in full regalia are a feast to behold. By comparison, Joseph's nomadic sheepherding father, Jacob, and Joseph's treacherous brothers live rather humble lives in the desert.

Unfortunately, the text of this version of the emotionally compelling biblical account is rather dry and matter-of-fact. It would be easy to call this the condensed version. So, enjoy this visually appealing book with your children, but let it be an introduction the richer version found in the Book of Genesis. Be sure to check out Wildsmith's companion volume, "Exodus."

This book, written by many well-known experts in the field, is a fine compendium of articles on the most active areas of computational geometry. Each article is supplemented with a glossary of terms needed for understanding the relevant concepts and frequently contains a list of open problems. An overview of the convex hull of a collection of random points in Euclidean n-space is given in one of the articles on discrete aspects of stochastic geometry, where also a very interesting discussion of generalizations of the Buffon needle problem is given.

There are a few articles overviewing Voronoi diagrams, such as the one on Voronoi diagrams and triangulations. The applications of Voronoi diagrams are many, and include tumour cell diagnosis, biometry, galaxy distributions, and pattern recognition. This article is a little short considering the importance of the subject.

The article on shortest paths and networks is somewhat disappointing since there is no in-depth discussion on network routing algorithms.

The article on computational topology highlights some of the results in this very important area. Many problems in topology have been tackled recently using computers, particularly the work of the mathematician A.T. Fomenko. Computational topology is a relatively young field, having been in existence only since the early 1990's. The applications are enormous, ranging from meshing, morphing, feature extraction, data compression, and in many scientific areas such as computational medicine, chemistry, and astrophysics. It can also be used in computer security via graphical passwords. It is an immense help in visualizing complicated topological objects, such as Lens spaces, horned spheres, and thickened knots. The article does not touch on the use of Mayer-Vietoris sequences to design efficient divide-and-conquer schemes for computing the homology of higher-dimensional complexes. The interplay between topology and finding better algorithms in computational geometry is one that will flourish no doubt in years to come.

The last section of the book covers applications with the most interesting article being the one on sphere packing and coding theory. The algorithms in sphere packing have direct applicability to error correctiong codes over the field GF(q). The author of this article does touch briefly on general algebraic-geometric codes, which is good considering their importance in applications.

The last article appropriately discusses available software for computational geometry. Although the list of Web sites is quite extensive, there are many more available since this book was first printed.

A very fine addition to the literature on computational geometry and should be on everyone's shelf who is interested in this important area.

Those luminous yellow eyes watching me, that's what I remember most clearly about this fascinating dark little tale. I checked out The King of the Cats from the public library when I was eight years old and staying with my grandmother. I've never forgotten it. An old man walking home through the louisiana bayou night sees a ghostly funeral procession of cats comes home to his tarpaper shack and tells his old wife about it. Watch their big tomcat's eyes as he tells the story. In these days of the blatant scary fiction of R.L Stine and Goosebumps The King of the Cats is subtle, beautiful, and foreboding in a sort of mesmerizing way that is truly uncommon in children's literature. I don't know if it is, but is has the feel of an old oral folk tale, worn smooth to its most basic elements by years of telling. At eight, I loved it, at twenty four, I still love it.