It's Christmas time in the city. And if you think that's cause for celebration, you ought to see what's going on in a little cave on the outskirts -- the very epicenter of the extravaganza.

That's the theme underlying this collection of writings and artwork published by the Diocese of Pittsburgh to mark Jesus' 2,000th birthday. An ornamental Christmas keepsake in its own right, the colorful, coffee-table volume manages to evoke the season's warm festivity while putting its cultural customs in their proper place: at the service of the Gospel event they commemorate.

"Christmas decorations, the tree, exchanging gifts and enjoying other Christmas traditions are all important and joyful events, but we should never let them distract us from the truth that is at the very heart of the Christmas season," writes Pittsburgh Bishop Donald W. Wuerl in the book's introduction. "On the first Christmas day, God came among us in the person of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. Nothing in human experience is more exciting than this truth, and no one has so changed history as has the infant son of Mary, who is also the Son of God."

The book's graphics are highlighted by full-page and inset displays of paintings by the masters -- Botticelli, Raphael, Grunewald, Fra Angelico -- while the text has been compiled from wide and varied sources spanning the centuries. Along with key Scripture passages and the lyrics of selected carols, here are homilies, liturgical readings, prayers, blessings, poems and reflections. The subject is just what happened in Bethlehem, circa 1 A.D., and among the luminaries who weigh in on the matter are St. John Chrysostom, St. Louis de Montfort, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Blessed Edith Stein, Caryll Houselander, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, St. Bonaventure, Pope St. Leo the Great and T.S. Eliot.

Also included are descriptions of popular customs and symbols, along with explanations of how each relates to historical observances of the birth of Christ. From the Christmas tree to the candy cane, from the hanging of stockings to the entry of St. Nicholas on the Christmas stage, all, directly or indirectly, situate us at the site where an unassuming Jewish girl has just given birth to a son.

"Dear children, as I write to you I am thinking of when, many years ago, I was a child like you," writes Pope John Paul II in a 1994 Christmas exhortation. "[W]hen the star of Bethlehem shone, I would hurry to the crib together with the other boys and girls to relive what happened 2,000 years ago in Palestine. We children expressed our joy mostly in song. How beautiful and moving are the Christmas carols which, in the tradition of every people, are sung around the crib! ... What joy and tenderness they express about the Divine Child who came into the world that Holy Night!"

The editors have chosen a decorative typeface that unnecessarily slows the eye in the prose passages. The payoff is its effect on the poetry. Especially intriguing is how even familiar verse, such as the carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem," works here as silent reflection.

And as evangelical witness. "There's no doubt that ... conversions take place with greater frequency during the Christmas season," the editors write in one section's introduction. "It is on Christmas morning that churches ordinarily empty fill to overflowing." Put this book under the tree for someone who needs to make a little more room in his life for Christ after the tinsel and lights have come down.

David Pearson is features editor of the National Catholic Register.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. Regis is a good writer and the subject matter is compelling. It doesn't get 5 stars for two reasons: the lack of counterpoint about the development of nanotechnology (IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN DAMMIT! WE CAN'T STOP IT): please. Also, the author shows almost no creativity on the effects of nanotechnology on future society. The deepest thoughts are about free steak and getting to sit around without working 9-5 jobs?

This book is a very good history primer. If you're REALLY into nanotechnology though, read Drexler's works.

A highly entertaining look at the emerging science of nanotechnology and its leading visionary, K. Eric Drexler. The subject matter is fascinating, and Regis tells the story with his usual wit and humor. Well worth reading as a quick primer on the subject; not intended to be a dry technical text on the subject. Much in the spirit of Regis's Great Mambo Chicken; I think this one is actually a better book, but one should probably read Great Mambo Chicken first as an introduction to Regis's work.

This book provided me with my first FACTUAL survey of this science-fiction-ish area of scientific research. Nanotechnology, as the blurb up above says, is the emerging science of creating self-replicating robots the size of molecules. These tiny robots, if developed, should be able to have an almost unimaginable impact on human civilization. For example, they could be swallowed in the form of a tablet, which might release millions of tiny robots into the body with the aim of attacking cancer cells. They could be set to work transforming, for example, grass clippings into rice by monkeying around with the composition of grass at the atomic level. People are seriously researching scary stuff like this. There is a lot of science fiction out there about this kind of thing, especially dealing with the infamous (and not impossible) "gray goo" scenario, in which nanorobots run amok and accidentally rip the whole planet into undifferentiated submolecular slime.

Ed Regis is careful here to present the actual state of the field, and also to give some interesting insights into the curiously cultlike following that has grown up around Eric Drexler.

I recommend this book as a dispassionate assessment of what really COULD be one of the biggest technological revolutions since... oh, I don't know... the wheel comes to mind. Or fire. Or the printed word. My only problem with this book is that it's slightly behind the times nowadays. Nanotechnology is even less science fiction today, in 2001, than it was when this book came out. People should understand, while reading this, that IBM, Hewlett Packard, and other corporate behemoths are spending tens of millions of dollars RIGHT NOW to develop nanotechnology. Some of America's top business schools have Nanotechnology Clubs to monitor potentially lucrative developments in this field -- I'm thinking specifically of Wharton, which I know for a fact has such a club, and I've been told that Stanford and Harvard do as well.

I don't think it's possible to be too highly aware of this field of study. I recommend buying this book, and talking about it with family and friends. Pass it around, encourage your friends to pick up a copy for themselves. If you are in school, or have children in school, ask your science teacher to try to do a unit on it. Heck, why not form a club. Try anything, it doesn't matter what you do specifically, just try to become informed. Also -- it is easy to find newsgroups and listservs online about nanotechnology. Just go to any search engine and type in "nanotechnology" and "listserv," and you'll find a source of valuable information for yourself.

This book is very worth owning. Two thumbs up.

This book contains very helpful information, but is going to take a little research for me to get up and running on some technical or medical terminology. However, there are many things that can be understood quickly with little or no additional research.

Also, note that this book has 29 page of diagrams and text. There are an additional 23 blank pages for notes. That was a bit of a shock to me given . . . I expected a bit more. At least a basic terminology guide would have been helpful.

This book is really written for the Physical Therapist who works with low tone kids, but is useful for parents as well. The children described are baby or toddler aged, therefore I would not recommend this to a parent who had a chiild who was older and mobile. The email list I belong to has found this to be one of our top reads.

Too much GPRS specific and lacking deep insight in GPRS deployment aspects

This book "could" have been a great book had Mr. Bates proofread it once before publishing it. Having read GSM and GPRS papers before reading this book, I have to say that this book is replete with technical snafus [a case in point for those who suspect is on pg. 30 third paragraph of the Introduction to GSM chapter "paging message sent over PAGCH"] Now anyone with half a brain knows that
1. PAGCH is a GPRS logical channel NOT GSM.
2. It is an Access Grant channel NOT a paging channel which in case of GSM is PCH and PPCH in GPRS.

Now someone new to GPRS would be confused as hell after reading this [I admit I was confused for a couple of minutes too :-), since I am not supposed to be the expert but Mr. Bates was]

Structure wise the book is okay but needs a stringent review of the rambling grammer and the blatant mistakes. IMO its not worth forking 60 bucks. If Mr. Bates is reading this, I adjure you sir to take some time off from your speaking tours and correct the mistakes in this book.

Am giving it two stars for good layout. Taking away three stars for incorrect content.

Excellent book! Written in easy to understand language but also provides the detail needed to help in understanding this technology. As with all the books written by Mr. Bates, this is a qualty piece of material.

This book is fair. If you are a Regis follower and watch his LIVE show this book will be boring. He has told many of these stories on the air.

I like Regis, but I wanted to read something different from what we hear on his daily show.

OK, I'm an all-out Who Wants To Be a Millionaire fan, so I expected to like this book. (Hey, don't expect to like a biography, and certainly not an autobiography, if you don't like the person it's about and you don't like their style.)

Judging by the style of the writing, I believe this book was written by Regis sitting down with a tape recorder and telling stories. If you like his stories on Live! you'll like this book. He tells of travel frustrations, chainsaw envy, celebrity troubles, and Millionaire success. The style of the writing is just like his speaking style: "I wanted a CHAINSAW! And no one took me SERIOUSLY!"

The book includes plenty of comments from Joy and the two Philbin daughters, excerpts from the Live! show, David Letterman Top Ten lists, etc. This is no War and Peace, but it's a good, fun read. Here's hoping it will give me some subjects to bounce off of Regis when I make it to that Millionaire seat.

Regis Philbin, one of America's most know figures in the television entertainment industry, has taken this book very high. In here, you can expect short, true stories that really do make you chuckle. These make Regis what he is. I do recommend this book! -John

Regis Martin covers an incredibly important subject very well. There are many quotes from famous and not-so-famous people intermixed with his own observations. Always orthodox Catholic viewpoints. However, his writing is somewhat convoluted and not very straightforward. This characteristic and the heavy use of footnotes makes the book difficult to read. Excellent choice for research but not necessarily for those looking for a quick review of the subject.

This work discusses the traditional "4 last things"of death, judgment, hell and heaven from a Roman Catholic perspective, for readers without a background in theology, but willing to wade through a heavy topic. The author draws on Catholic 20th c. poets and many other literary sources, but has no sympathy for any of the divergent theological positions even within his own tradition. This is a good readable presentation but it has an idealogical edge that will turn off liberal Catholics, many Protestants and almost all secular readers.

I have read alot of catholic books in the past 3-4 yrs, and Mr. Martin's book is the most inspirational one I've read in a while. Besides much research (I personally enjoy the footnote information), I was very moved by the last 2 chapters; Hell, followed by heaven.

There is one point in the chapter on Judgement that went on a bit longer than I found needful, utilizing a story from another writer, O'Connor. I may've missed his point there, but got bored with that part and skipped over it!

I was glad the chapter on hell was placed before that of Heaven. I recommend this book to anyone who has lost the focus of their hearts on God, and our "home" with Him, (or without!)

This book simply does not have a lot of detailed information about DS1 or DS3. It's a fairly small book, less than 200 pages, but tries to cover T1, T3, and SONET. It presents a VERY high level look at DS1 and DS3 frames, not even close to what you'd need to really understand how it works, and it simply ignores certain aspects of the technology. It also has a certain amount of "filler" in the form of discussions of equipment which communicates via T1 or T3.
Given this lack of detail, the book is extremely expensive.
Rather than purchase this book, go to the ATIS web site and download the ANSI T1.107 specification, which documents the DS1 and DS3 frames. It's a bit hard to read, but it's better than this book.

This is a good book about T1 and the framing formats. It is a very limited in its explaination of T3 framing details. I expected a more comprehensive coverage of T3 given the title.

Soy ingeniero de Telecomunicaciones y necesito mas informacion hacerca de los diferentes enlaces donde se puede enviar todo tipo de servicios y estoy interesado en este tipo de transportes

A pleasant read. This is a book that anyone interested in angels would find facinating. There is a sweetness to this book that makes it feel warm and safe.

Kind of boring to read but useful for people who need to make presentations and give seminars.

It's almost impossible to imagine that an author of a book about stalking killer viruses would spend more time on how the Center for Disease Control (CDC) numbers its buildings and on a CDC water bill from the Zairian government than on the AIDs epidemic, but that's what Ed Regis does in his boring and tedious book.

Virus Ground Zero is filled with details of the bureaucratic ins and outs of the CDC and spliced like an MTV video--the author can't sustain a story line for more than two pages without jumping 10 or 20 or 30 years back into the past. Because of the structure, there is little character development. A painful read.

Do yourself a favor and try Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill instead.

_Virus Ground Zero: Stalking the Killer Viruses with the Centers for Disease Control_ attempts to use the 1995 Kikwit Ebola epidemic as a case study for an examination of humanity's struggle with deadly viral and bacteriological pathogens. Ultimately, however, _Virus Ground Zero_ turns out to be a lightweight read bogged down by two agendas: act as a cheerleader for the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) specifically and science in general, and serve as a polemic against Laurie Garrett's _The Coming Plague_.

Despite the recent (November 2000) announcement of a possible break through in the development of an Ebola vaccine, Regis' 'Rah! Rah!' routine for science and its ability to protect us, specifically against threats like Ebola, does not quite ring true. His attack on the near apocalyptic conclusions suggested by viral doomsayer's like Laurie Garrett, for example, is based more on the deconstruction of their semantics than convincing evidence.

Ed Regis brings impressive credentials to what the _Washington Post Book World_ calls "A readable-even fun-book." A philosophy professor and College Fellow at Western Maryland College, Regis has written and reviewed science books for years. One would think that such a background would have produced a more useful text than _Virus Ground Zero_.

This book traces the response of the CDC to an Ebola outbreak in Zaire in 1995. Like its predecessor, The Hot Zone, many stories are interwoven throughout the book to give a complete background into what happened. Despite this stylistic similarity, the message of this book is quite different from that of The Hot Zone, as becomes more and more clear by the end of the book.

One of the main story lines is a description of the development of the CDC, from its start as an anti-malaria organization to the multi-faceted behemoth that it is today. After reading the descriptions of the Level 4 labs in The Hot Zone, I never would have guessed at the primitive lab conditions found at the CDC through the 1960s and later.

Regis' core message is that of victory- -victory over this particular outbreak, victory over small pox, and the tremendous success we have had combating infectious illnesses during the twentieth century. He points out that so many infections can be prevented by simple hygiene, like washing one's hands, or by avoiding direct physical contact with infected people by using rubber gloves. Even the much feared Ebola virus doesn't spread easily when people follow standard hygiene protocols common in the developed world. Regis doesn't dismiss the importance of paying attention to communicable diseases and preventing epidemics, but he argues that there is no need to live in fear about new rain forest microbes out to get us.