All of us have that book which we remember fondly from childhood, that one book we saw in the school library which we wish were ours so we could keep it in our own private place and read over and over again. Van Loon's Story of Mankind is that book for me. Van Loon does a tremendous service to the study of history. Even though this is a childrens book Van Loon does not ignore or alter the facts of history so that he can comfort instead of educate the child who may be reading the book. And even though the book reads like one big bedtime story, Van Loon always tries to remain objective and never force his opinion on the reader. When he talks about Napolean he makes it very obvious that he does not like the man or what he stood for, but he also tells the reader that his grandfather fought alongside the man and that he(Van Loon) would have probably fought alongside him as well, that's just the kind of man Napolean was. At an age where you will believe almost anything told to you, especially by a man who has written a book, Van Loon tries to give the child both an appreciation for history and a sense of objectivity about events. This was one of the first books, if not the first book, that showed me that everything is not always black and white, good and evil, but shades and gradations of good and evil. I read this to all my nephews, and when they don't know what to read I hand them this book, hoping it will make them a wiser person for listening to Van Loon's lessons.

This reprint of Henrik Willem van Loon's "Story of Mankind", winner of the 1922 Newberry Award (first awarded) is a treasure chest of history spiced throughout with van Loon's delightful pen and ink drawings. Modern editors have tried to bring the book up to date by including major world events since van Loon originally wrote the book, but their writing doesn't have the insight that made van Loon's writings what they are. Van Loon traces the history of mankind from the beginning, starting with a brief geologic description of planet earth. His writing makes it seem as if you are reading a docu-drama, and you'll keep wishing that he could spend more time on each topic. I especially enjoyed the sections on the middle ages and renaissance, and this book serves as a good introduction to history for children with writing that brings history to life. At times, given when this book was originally written, you may be struck by van Loon's eurocentric flavor, but overall, he does a remarkable job in providing a well balanced presentation of all major world events. He does a great job of looking at major world religions. This is not an exhaustive epic of the history of humanity, rather it is an excellent introduction to history. Sadly, not many histories can claim to be as entertaining as this volume. Perhaps if more were, history would not be viewed with dread.

As a history minor and professional journalist I've read my share of history books but by far this book is the best I've ever read. Sure there are more scholarly volumes written on the rise of humanity but the author takes our collective tale and puts it in a form in which children can understand and adults can draw joy from. By all means this is a kids book but when you consider how many of us have been pushed away and unknowingly punished by history professors who thought it more important to tell us dates and not the story of the people making the dates significant, this book can be a valuable asset to adults. In a world which is being dumbed down this story, written on a childs level, may even be more apperciated. However to say this text is "DUMB" or lacking intelligence and well crafted words would be an injustice.. It's an incredible book. I have the hard back volume and it will stay in my family for the rest of time. I look forward to the day when my youngest son returns it to me after reading it and says, "Thanks dad". Yes this book is that good.. God Bless.. Ross Guidotti..

The recipes in this slick cookbook are neither for beginners, the lazy or the poor. One could invest a good deal of time and money in preparing some of these elaborate dishes. There are some fairly simple bread recipes in this book that I want to try; and I can testify that the Key Lime Cheesecake with a Toasted Nut Crust (page 258) is as good a cheesecake recipe as I have ever seen. I believe the secret is that the eggs are separated. The cake is as light as a souffle when done. I have baked it three times now, and my friends cannot get enough of it. (This recipe alone makes the book worth owning.) Directions are minimal, however, so you're on your own. (For example, you are never told to grease the springform pan. Neither are you given any indication as to how the cake will look when done.)

What this book does provide, however, is insight into what a meal would be like at Norman's Restaurant. Also, all information about the wonderful fresh vegetables and fruit of South Florida--complete with great photographs-- makes those of us who must drive half a day to see the ocean hungry for salt air.

There are a lot of ways to do fusion, Norman's is simply one of the best I've encountered. But be warned, a lot of work is needed to prepare the dishes. Most of his recipes require that you prepare an additional sauce or prep-kit (like his bean kit that can be used for soups or BBQ sauce), so you have to read the recipes very carefully. If you do spend the time, you will be greatly rewarded.

Norman's dishes are all generally rich and spicy. His themes are Caribbean and South American, with Asian and European (primarily French and Spanish) influences. He uses a lot of Habanero (VERY hot), red onion, assorted tubers, and plantains, he is clearly very influenced by creole cooking (he is based in Florida afterall).

Starters: He has a great "starter" section with drinks (his delicious "Hot Lolita" is a tequila drink with honey and hot peppers) and accompanying nibblers (Norm's "Not and Nasty Nuts", peanuts baked and spiced); a great way to kick off a dinner party. His guacamole with fried plantain chips are great for picnics. He also has an eggplant with goat cheese that is simply excellent.

Soups: Very very rich, but oh so good. He has a plantain chicken soup that is to die for. Again, so rich it's good in small portions for a dinner party. He also has a gazpacho that is completely unlike any you've tasted, and a "conch" soup that he says his "patrons would riot if I took it off the menu". I believe him.

Salads and Main dishes: Tea Spiced Pan Seared Tuna and Spinach Salad has become one of my favorite quick meals (great citrus dressing). Juicy steaks (venison and traditional beef), lobster dishes, chicken (creole in nature), and others, his main dishes are a little eclectic, but generally excellent.

You'll also find side dishes (lots of peruvian potato and boniate sides), sauces, and prep kits in the back which I've enjoyed. I made BBQ oysters with his BBQ sauce and they we're superb. He has desserts, bit I personally haven't gone there yet...

If you are into the effort (for intermediate to advanced cooks) and like or want to get into (spicy) fusion then you should buy this book. I've given it away to two friends and will likely continue to buy it for others.

There are a lot of ways to do fusion, Norman's is simply one of the best I've encountered. But be warned, a lot of work is needed to prepare the dishes. Most of his recipes require that you prepare an additional sauce or prep-kit (like his bean kit that can be used for soups or BBQ sauce), so you have to read the recipes very carefully. If you do spend the time, you will be greatly rewarded.

Norman's dishes are all generally rich and spicy. His themes are Caribbean, with an Asias influence. There's also a little French in there (rich and buttery), which makes for a great combination. He uses a lot of Habanero (VERY hot) and plantains, he is clearly very influenced by creole cooking (he is based in Florida afterall).

Starters: He has a great "starter" section with drinks (his delicious "Hot Lolita" is a tequila drink with honey and hot peppers) and accompanying nibblers (Norm's "Not and Nasty Nuts", peanuts baked and spiced); a great way to kick off a dinner party. His guacamole with fried plantain chips are great for picnics. He also has an eggplant with goat cheese that is simply excellent.

Soups: Very very rich, but oh so good. He has a plantain chicken soup that is to die for. Again, so rich it's good in small portions for a dinner party. He also has a gazpacho that is completely unlike any you've tasted, and a "conch" soup that he says his "patrons would riot if I took it off the menu". I believe him.

Salads and Main Dishes: Tea Spiced Pan Seared Tuna and Spinach Salad has become one of my favorite quick meals (great citrus dressing). Juicy steaks, lobster dishes, chicken (kinda creole in nature), and others, his main dishes are a little eclectic, but generally excellent.

You'll also find sauces and kits in the back which I've enjoyed. I made BBQ oysters with his BBQ sauce and they we're superb. I honestly can't remember if he has desserts, haven't gone there...

If you are into the effort (for intermediate to advanced cooks) and like or want to get into fusion then you should buy this book. I've given it away to two sets of friends and will continue to buy it for others.

I received the book in three working days. Book was in great condition and the price was lower than I had expected to pay.

I bought this book to use with my German 101 and 102 classes, and it was extremely helpful. The writing style was, if not absolutely gripping, easy to get through, and the information was plentiful and well laid out. The accompanying website was also useful. The only problem I have with this book is that at the beginning of each chapter are a few dialogues using grammar that hasn't yet been learned. It would've made more sense to put those dialogues at the end of the chapters, in my opinion. That's more annoying than anything, and doesn't hurt the content or student's learning rate at all. I'd recommend this to any beginning German student.

Mailed and recieved in the time they said. The book is in great condition, the price was even better.

I have 4 tying books and have been interested in tying for years but as soon as I recieved this book I became addicted.I also have the CD-Rom of the same title and both are more helpful than any information I have gotten anywhere else.If you want to help someone start tying flies or already know how and just want to get better this is a must buy.The CD-Rom also has movies on every technique you would ever possibly need. Buy this book!!!!!

If you are just getting started at fly tying then this CD-Rom is a must have. It will show you just about everything that you will need to know to tie great flys, and the tools needed to tie them. The videos are one of the best instructional aids you can have for fly tying, and the fly catalog is more than enough for just about any kind of fishing.You will not regreat buying this CD-Rom.

This book is great to see step by step how to tie flies. The pictures are well done. It is easy to see what is going on at each step. You can even determine lengths of materials from measuring against hook length. The book leaves very little to guessing. What you guess is really more of a show of creativity and style.

Well written. Both this book and Manterfield's book are the best books in this area at the moment. It is clear the author is very technical skilled in Signalling, and this makes for a book that is easy to read and to understand. I do not think that if you wish to know about signalling/SS7 that you will be disappointed with buying this book.

I am teaching a college course on Telecommunications Technologies and have read over ten books on various communications areas, as well as numeroous web articles. This book is probably the best presentation I have read so far. It gives a precise and clear description of the topics it covers. It combines two seemingly conflicting characteristics: it is concise but comprehensive.
The presentation is very illuminating because it often explains the rationale behind features of protocols and architectures.
Descriptions of telecomm networks, transmission etc, given in the book as background, are very good for overview and general understanding.
I warmly recommend the book.

best book I have read on telecom signaling. I especially like the chapters on SS7, TUP, ISUP, ISDN Q.931. The coverage focuses more on functionality than on the details of the protocols, which you can anyway pick up from the standards once you have the basic understanding. This book uses a lot of examples that make sense and the author appears to know the technology well enough to provide useful insight. The materials have been digested and very readably presented to the reader. This is a book you can really learn a lot comparing with other books which blatantly copy the standard text.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a scary tall tale told in the quiet town of Sleepy Hollow. It all starts out when Ichabod Crane(an intelligent school teacher) goes to a party at the Van Tassel's house. At the party a mean guy named Brom Bones tells a scary tale, about a headless horseman from the Revolutionary War. It was told that he roamed the night looking for his head, which he lost in battle. That night Ichabod had to ride home, he was very frightened. Lets just say Ichabod was never seen again, the only thing found the next day was his hat.
The legend of Sleepy Hollow is a great thriller. You can tell the tale at night, when you have a sleepover, or around a campfire. The book has a good story line and can be easily followed. I hope you don't get too scared when you read about the Headless Horseman...

Will Moses' illustrated retelling of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow rivals Arthur Rackham's near century-old version as the best edition of the book ever published. The Rackham version, with its moody, archetypal illustrations, has the slight edge, as it contains Irving's full original text in addition to Rackham's spectacular artwork.

However, Moses's simplification of the narrative is masterfully executed, and the colorful, playful, and numerous paintings which adorn the book have a warm period charm of genuine Americana. Moses portrays the Hudson River Valley as a lush expansive valley not unlike the Garden of Eden on the first day of creation. Happy farmers, their wives and children, cows, geese, ducks and pigs frolic together amid fields of wheat and corn; galleons approach dramatically from the river; and the Catskill Mountains, sun, and sky suggested an infinite panorama and endless horizon full of promise.

The story tells us that the Dutch colonists were a superstitious lot, and that the Sleepy Hollow region itself was or seemed to be under a spell of some kind. The farmers and their wives suspected witchcraft; strange music was heard in the air; visions were seen; and the inhabitants themselves lived their lives in a kind of continuous dreamy revery. These tales and superstitions give rise to the legend of the headless horseman, said to be the ghost of a Hessian soldier who lost his head to a canon ball in the war, and now nightly prowling the region in search of it. Moses' nocturnal landscapes of the swamps, hills and the Old Dutch Cemetery under a bright harvest moon are particularly effective. Significantly, these stark, haunted landscapes do not violate the spirit of the book, but enrich its sense of wonder.

Moses' Ichabod is a cheerful but somewhat hapless fellow, confident and foolish in equal parts. His Katrina is a strong but innocent blond beauty, and a friend to children. Brom Bones is an appropriately square-shouldered, square-jawed hooligan, rowdy and full of mischief, if not absolute spite.

Anyone familiar with the tale knows that it is not a horror story but a folktale, a fireside spook story, and a 'legend' as Irving, writing here as Diedrich Knickerbocker, himself called it. This edition of the book is appropriate for children but is equally suitable for adults. Highly recommended.

Have you ever heard of the Headless Horseman? Have you ever heard the stories about him and how he attacks people in the woods? Have you ever wondered whether or not the story is real?

Find out for yourself by reading Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I enjoyed reading this book and i think anyone who has a liking for mysterious legends and superstitions should read this book beacause of the interesting legend the town believes in. There are few characters to keep track of and the story is not hard to follow. The book is long but the reading goes quickly.

The story is set in the late 18th century in a town in New York called Sleepy Hollow. The town believes in a legend of a headless horseman who rides through the woods at night anf attacks people. The main character is a man named Ichabod Crane who is a schoolteacher from Connecticut. He moves to Sleepy Hollow in search of work and ends up going from home to home working as a tutor. One of his students is 18 year old Katrina Van Tassel who comes from a wealthy family. Ichabod gets the idea that he will try to marry Katrina in order to obtain the family's wealth. However, Katrina's boyrfriend Abraham "Brom Bones" Brut has other plans for Ichabod. As the tension rises, Ichabod continues trying to win Katrina until a breathtaking surprise appearance by the town's legend creates as mysterious an ending as they come.

The book has many strengths and few weaknesses. The author manages to create a mood in the book that keeps you always on th edge of your seat waiting for the legend of the Headless Horseman to come into play. The story is simple and easy to follow but is still very interesting. The characters are developed well and have personalities that you can understand and relate to. One such character is Brom Bones who is easily seen as an arrogant egotist. The only weakness of the book was one based on my personal opinion. The end of the story leaves too much to be concluded for my liking.

All in all, this book was a great story. The author wrote the characters in such a way that you had definite feelings towards each one of them. Also, the story line was definitely not without surprise. But if you want to discover what surprises I am talking about then I suggest you read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Once upon a time any student interested in computer graphics was referred straight to this book, and indeed what you've got here is an amazing smorgasbord of nearly every technique that was state of the art several years ago. Unfortunately the times have moved on and Foley et al. have not quite been able to keep up with them; entire chapters are still devoted to PHIGS, while modern methods of rotation such as quaternions are covered in only the most cursory way.

Another problem is the book's extremely terse, high-level approach to many important concepts; often a mathematical approach or an algorithm will be mentioned as a solution to a given problem (quadtrees, let's say), but once you try to take that knowledge from the chalkboard to the compiler, you begin to realize that there are some important pieces missing. Of course, no one expects a text like this to be a cookbook of code snippets, but as a primary textbook for an applications programmer this falls short. The tiny print and unhelpful illustrations don't improve matters much for pedagogy.

So, even though this is the Classic Textbook, I've found myself better served by a combination of other, more recent books -- Alan Watt's text on graphics in combination with Eric Lengyel's on 3D Mathematics, specifically. They won't cover *everything* there is to know, but they'll do a better job of getting you started than Foley, and the stuff they don't address can be found in other books or SIGGRAPH papers.

Let me reiterate what a few others have said:

"This book is for thinking and researching."

"This is not a book that you can read while sipping a glass of wine..."

"the bible of computer graphics"

This is not a book that you will end up copying source code out of(a good thing). This book was my first step into the hardcore graphics world, and it was great. I don't think that more source code would enhance this book at all, mabye even the opposite. Source code is not what this book is about. If you are planning on implementing some of these algorithms, you must know how to code well, period. This is not a "here's how to code in C" manual, it's a "these are the principles of Computer Graphics." It's everything it claims to be.

I particurally like the excercises at the end of every chapter. Although I don't do them all, it gives me a guide to practice what I learned. The math in this book is not as hard as some make it out to be. It is Matrix/Vector algrebra and some calc. A glossary would have been a nice touch, as some of the vocabulary can be overwhelming at times, especially the acronyms.

"Recommended for the hardcore programming freaks." Hope the authors (I'm going to give credit to more than Foley) plan to write again.

I don't know why people seem to think they can just pick up a graphics book on theory and grasp concepts without having to wade through mathematical formulas. Computer graphics IS like nuclear physics, it is not a walk through the park. This book, entitled "The Computer Graphics Bible" is your park guide. It has a comprehensive overview of most concepts, and tons of references to more info on those subjects. There isn't much code, but that's a good thing, because the only wy you can learn this stuff is by implementation, and that's how it should be done, not by copying code from a book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Fop Flop In the most elegant apparel Nothing but worm silks In the finest golden thread And superior king red velvet sashes

You'd think I would have known better? I couldn't blame them who wouldn't? cut air with scissors while sewing their needles into invisible cloth for the very low price of..... silk a loom golden thread a full bag of coins Oh those Villain Scoundrels! Now, I know not to buy such vestments with rather large investments Oh what a bratty gnatty I was For I thought I was cool but truly a fool Why emperor you look rather bare, that's quite rare! I was in such a pursuit For only a birthday suit I must admit now Me, My very own self yes indeed, your emperor himself have become a stupid and incompetent dandy All for the Imaginary Image! and now I live happily ever after, no more garb well, that is until the next apparel discovery (Now if you'll excuse me there's a clothier waiting at my door who says he's created the latest design in Pajama attire)

Generally, I do not care for audio books; many of the readers speak in a dull voice that rapidly drives me either away from the story or to sleep. However, there are a few exceptions; this is one.

Understand, that this is not the normal audio book; this edtion has a large cast of actors who collaborated to produce this item as a fund raiser for Starbright.

The result is an ensemble piece that is witty and charming. Part of the fun for me, was guessing who was reading before looking at the cast list included in the box.

Other folks feel that this isn't for children; I don't know as I don't have children, but I found that my "inner child" was highly entertained for 40 minutes with this tape.

If you are a fan of one or more of the actors in this edition or like puns (there are many here!), then you will probably like the Starbright edtion of the Emporer's New Clothes.

I had been given 2 of these books from a friend and I decided to see if there were anymore. My son loves this book. He's now working on reading the adult side. It's a great idea to have a page each, 1 for the adult and 1 for the child. We have several of these books now and I see my son sitting down and reading them on his own.

Okay, I have to confess that I haven't read past chapter three of this book. It may be a fine analysis of Van Til's thought, but to get to that you have to put up with Frame talking about himself. He is (if you believe what he writes) just about the only person who can really figure Van Til in the right way, he wrote a 125 page paper for Van Til, he wrote a negative review of Van Til's authorized biography that Van Til appreciated (he even told Frame so, so there!), Gary North talks about him in the introduction to one of his books, he was the kind of thinker that Van Til liked to challenge in class (because he was so smart, see?) etc. etc. etc. BLAH BLAH BLAH. Frame talks about himself to a ridiculous extent in this book. Helpful is the appendix where Frame briefly discusses each of Van Til's books. This is the only reason this book gets two stars. John, if I wanted to know your life story I'd ask.

Generally, the best way to study a philosopher is to read an important work of his. For example, we study Plato by studying "The Republic" or some of his shorter dialogues. With others - such as Hegel - it's best to read various excerpts from his works, trying to get a sense of what he is up to. With a smaller number you should start by reading a book about the philosopher. Cornelius Van Til (1895-1987) falls into that third category. Fortunately, John Frame has written an excellent introduction to the thought of his teacher.

Cornelius Van Til is acclaimed by many in the Reformed community as the most important thinker since Calvin. Frame shares this opinion, while noting some of the weaknesses of Van Til's thought and writing style. For those who don't know, Van Til was a Christian apologist who developed a system called presuppositionalism. While it's hard to describe briefly, its central claim is that one must presuppose the truth of Scripture and challenge the unbeliever by showing that his beliefs are inconsistent with his presuppositions. The unbeliever cannot justify his own beliefs apart from the existence of a theistic universe. Hence, only Christianity can be shown to meet "every legitimate demand of reason." Van Til didn't reject the use of evidence in apologetics, but instead thought that evidences must be presented in a manner consistent with the presuppositional apologetics (This concept isn't exactly clear to me, even after reading Prof. Frame's chapter a few times.)

Van Til is hard to understand. First of all, his books aren't well organized. Second, he writes in such a way as to exaggerate the differences between his thought and other thinkers, and the differences between believers and unbelievers. If you take some of his ideas literally, Van Til appears to say that unbelievers don't know anything and there are no similarities between Christian and non-Christian philosophies.

As an aside, Frame's approach to Van Til is somewhat controversial within the Van Til movement. Frame believes that once Van Til's thought is stripped of some of its more extreme statements, his apologetics isn't all that different from other apologetic systems. Second, he disagrees with Van Til on a number of issues. After you read this book, read the late Greg Bahnsen's excellent "Van Til's Apologetics," which contains excerpts from Van Til's works along with Bahnsen's comments. Bahsen was a more consistent Van Tillian than Frame.

"Cornelius Van Til: An Analysis of his Thought" also includes a short biography of Van Til and a brief history of the Van Tillian movement. It includes a little too much of John Frame's biography interspersed in the text.. We really don't need to read an excerpt from Prof. Frame's seminary paper presented to Van Til. This is a minor point in an otherwise excellent book.

Frame is down to earth with a passion to communicate in the best way possible. If you've ever heard Frame in person (I have) you will realize what a humble man he is... not like many argumentative types that wish to blow everyone out of the water. He explained everything in a way that helped me understand, which is the mark of a true teacher. Of course, this is coming from a "young layman", not a "skeptical scholar", but I believe he dealt with enough issues to silence most skeptics (at least the ones who get past chapter 3). If you want pretense, look elsewhere, but Frame is the real deal!

Great starter book for van owner

pictures need more detail; the small parts are hard to identify for the novice mechanic.

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