First things first: If there was a ten star rating it would apply
to this book. Secondly, I found these authors through another of
their books, "Precalculus With Limits - A Graphing Approach". That book was just as well written. Truth be told, I would buy any of their books, sight unseen. They are a students
teacher and a teachers teacher. They don't sacrifice rigor, nor do they forget the mathematical maturity of their student audience. Using their books alone, and self-study (no classes,
tutors, or the intellectual diet pill category of "Calculus Made
Simple" or "Calculus The Easy Way" silver bullets I filled a forty year gap in math studies in 1-1/2 years to the point of
acing the AP Calculus and AP Physics Exams. Knowing calculus prior to beginning physics with calculus is an absolute necessity. I am no genuis. I do not have exceptional ability. I simply had the advantage of two textbooks written by teachers who
really care and take a mentoring approach to writing. All of this
has really been a long-winded way of saying that with this book
and a healthy dose of strong motivation and perserverance you will succeed in your calculus courses.

The best book about Calculus I ever seen. Read it and you will know all about you need to love mathematics.

This is no doubt the best textbook I have ever owned in any subject. I've never been able to actually read through a math text untill this book came along. The analytic graphs are colorful (and the 3-D generated ones are simply astounding) which is totally different from the dull, dreary, and nightmarish math texts from my past. This math book is unlike any other I have seen before -- in a class of its own. There are plenty of examples, charts, and many many exercises(some especially challenging). I went through Calculus I and have taught myself Calc II within a matter of weeks. Highly recommended.

I bought this book as a gift for a friend of mine considering a relocation to Colorado. She absolutely loved the book and plans to use it during a fact finding trip in Colorado.

The Colorado Guide (5th edition) is exactly what I was looking for in a Colorado guide book. Besides giving your usual guide information for Colorado, it also included some of the more unusual places to check out, like the Wheeler Geological Site for example, near Creede, CO. Wonderful history stories of areas of interest, and food and lodging info/ratings also. I use it to find new ares to explore and as a reference. I highly recommend The Colorado Guide, especially if your looking to explore this beautiful state.

I am a Colorado resident and use this book (and the previous editions) frequently for weekend getaways. In all the many times I have counted on the author's advice, they have never let me down. Excellent book!

Jim in Littleton

The book is the best health book I've ever read. The tiny exception is, I showed it to my friend who's got a ph.D. in biochemistry. He read it and said "the book is right on, with the exception of "single organ" cleans (liver detox, etc.). His feeling is that you don't target organs with a detox, the entire system is affected (much the same way you can't "spot" remove fat!)

Highly recommended, regardless!

The Detox Book is a great book. I read a lot of health books over the years, but never before have I read anything so comprehensive before. The section about cooking oils is particularly memorable, in addition to the section about the benefits of rebound exercise. The Detox Book is a definite must read!

This is my favorite natural health book. I have gone through Dr. Fife's detox program and feel healthier than I ever have. This isn't a simple 10 day detox program but an intense cleaning out of the entire body. Dr. Fife's descriptions of the detox process are right on. Besides having great information for eating right and detox, this book has amazing stories all throughout. If you've ever been bored before by all the facts, this is the book for you-the facts can be entertaining-what an easy way to remember them. I wish I could get everyone to read The Detox Book.

Despite the impression one might draw from the other reviews here, this is not an overtly political tract. But some background on the author would be in order.

Benson is an economics professor at Florida State. Generally, his research interests involve law enforcement, the drug war, private security alternatives, arbitration, and the history of arbitration and privately-produced commercial law (the law merchant). I have never seen a writing by him in which he explains all of his personal views and opinions, but he's obviously a pretty serious libertarian and he's had some involvement with the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. Amazon discourages linking websites in reviews, but those interested could easily find his academic webpage by doing a google search for "Dr. Bruce L. Benson."

Benson is probably every bit the political extremist that I am, but this book doesn't really argue politics (mostly). It has a very fascinating history of the evolution of law in England, which forms the basis of modern American law, also. The presentation is mostly dry and academic, but the subject matter is completely fascinating, and Benson does a better job than any other writer in tying it all together to show the reader a picture of the historical origins of law, and the relationship between law and the state.

We have all been taught that the administration of law and justice is one of the purposes of government. Benson shows that this bit of conventional wisdom just doesn't fit the history. Courts and laws originated from communities and their customs, not from any governmental body. Benson shows that, historically, legal institutions precede the state, but monarchs eventually usurped most of the functions of privately-created law in order to raise revenue and concentrate power in the crown. Eventually, law becomes a government monopoly, and all throughout the process, the government has a strong tendency to corrupt the law into something other than a tool of justice.

There are a couple of different forms of private legal institutions that are important in this book. The earliest Benson explains are the customary English legal practices and the community institutions that made them work. These early legal institutions originated concepts and practices that are still echoed in today's modern courts, about 1000 years later. But this early approach to justice didn't really survive the constant encroachment by kings. Another source of private law has been the law merchant (lex mercatoria), a set of medieval laws that developed among purely private, profit-oriented traders. Like community-based law, the law merchant was a phenomenon that lacked a central authority or lawmaking body, and developed to protect people, in contrast to the king's courts which were created to concentrate power. The law merchant system developed as a private alternative to state law, and was successful because in comparison to state courts, it was fairer, faster, and better able to cope with the transnational nature of some of the disputes. Ultimately English common law courts ended up having to adopt most of the key features of the law merchant, because they risked being superseded and deprived of revenue and influence. An echo of the medieval law merchant lives on in the modern arbitration industry, which is actually extremely popular in America today, especially in the commercial world.

Not all of Benson's history focuses on England - the most entertaining part of the book concerns incidents in America in which citizens had to overthrow crooked lawmen and take justice into their own hands. (Most of these stories come from the old West.) This includes a very fascinating episode in San Francisco in which the entire law enforcement body was supplanted by vigilante justice. The result was a dramatic sustained drop in the murder rate, and an end to the corruption and abuse of the authorities. The reader will be surprised to find that, contrary to Hollywood, the "vigilante" groups were often moderate, judicious, and almost eager to relinquish power, in order to restore peace.

The book is not just about history. Benson makes a careful and convincing defense of the benefits of privately produced law and justice. He engages the arguments of some of the most important legal thinkers of our time, and picks their arguments apart. The decentralized, private justice of the past is not just a curiosity of history; it's a human achievement that lives on in some form today, and is considerably more fair and effective than the government monopoly we're subjected to.

If think today's legal system system is slow, inaccessible, expensive to work with, and unfair, read this book to find out why, and what the alternatives are.

I don't give 5 stars lightly. Yes, this book really is that good, and that important.

Do we need the State to produce law?

There are libertarians aplenty who believe we do. Some of them have actually thought carefully about the issue, and some of them are merely Objectivists who have accepted Ayn Rand's oracular dismissal of anarchocapitalism in her (thoroughly statist) essay on "The Nature of Government." Both of these groups will benefit from a reading of Bruce Benson's fine volume.

Benson picks up the argument where Murray Rothbard and David Friedman left it, and carries it forward by several miles. Here he provides a short history of market-based law, from its rise to its near-demise at the hands of "authoritarian" law; a public-choice analysis of the political market for law; an overview of recent trends toward reliance on private sources of law and justice; rebuttals of common arguments for the necessity of State law; and a short summary of what a private, non-State system of law might look like.

There are treats throughout. Some of my favorites are Benson's replies to Landes and Posner -- e.g. their argument that "private" law is parasitic on legal standards developed in the public sector, and their claim that such "private" law would be less efficient than public law. (In general I am of the opinion that Richard Posner is one of the most overrated legal thinkers of the past century or two.)

Benson is also exceptional among libertarian writers in his familiarity with the relevant legal literature. One of the other exceptions -- the altogether brilliant Randy Barnett (whose book _The Structure of Liberty_ belongs on your shelf next to this one) -- is credited by Benson for drawing the latter's attention to such literature and making some specific recommendations. The result, however achieved, is something all but unheard of in the libertarian world: a volume on liberty that actually acknowledges the existence of such legal theorists as Lon Fuller.

That's a nice feature in a book on law. I would like to see Benson's book (and its excellent sequel, _To Serve and Protect_) read by both libertarians and lawyers, and I'm happy he's written a book that the latter group won't toss away in disgust at the childish ignorance of the author. We have enough of those books already (and I think Rand wrote or influenced most of them).

In general, the more people that read this book, the better. If nothing else, this book will shake an assumption that badly needs shaking: that there must be a State in order for there to be law.

(By the way, you'll find Benson referring occasionally to George H. Smith's fine essay, "Justice Entrepreneurship in a Free Market." Originally published in the _Journal of Libertarian Studies_, that essay is reprinted in _Atheism, Ayn Rand, and Other Heresies_.)

At one stage in my education as a libertarian I had come to believe that most human needs (including for instance streets, education, and even fire protection) could be satisfied best by private companies. But I still thought that probably law must be provided by the government. It was hard for me to imagine how justice could be provided without the state.

Then I read this book. With compelling historical evidence it shatters the myth that government must have a monopoly in administering law.

Well written. Clear. Thorough.

Collaboratively researched and written by the husband & wife team of Karen Axelrod and Bruce Brumberg, Watch It Made In The U.S.A.: A Visitor's Guide To The Companies That Make Your Favorite Products is a unique and very highly recommended travel guide featuring more than 300 fully updated and contemporary factory tours and corporate visitor centers and exhibitions from Dole in Hawaii, to the Jelly Belly Center in Wisconsin, to Cruzan Rum in the U.S. Virgin Islands. From product exhibits ranging from the Jell-O Gallery in New York to the Kool-Aid "Discover the Dream" in Nebraska, Watch It Made In The U.S.A. offers colorful descriptions of the tours, admission fees (which are often free!), days and hours of accessibility, age and group requirements, disabled access, and more. This newly revised and expanded edition includes a Caribbean section as well as information when there are other nearby attractions to the showcased factor and exhibit sites.

This book is for anyone that travels on the roads of the U.S.A. If you are one to do road trips and you like visiting places "on the way" or "out of the "way", this book can help you plan your trip. Do a "tour theme" vacation and see as many tours as you can heading towards your destination or heading back home. It not only allows you to see how things are made that are household products with which you are very familiar, but planning your trip around these tours allows you to see more of the country that you probably wouldn't have seen if you stayed on the Interstates. I travel in a RV and was sorry I didn't obtain this book before leaving on a recent trip to the West Coast, for there were a few that were close that I wasn't aware of. No one book has it all but this book, along with AAA tour books is a plus.

When we are planning trips, this is one of our standard reference books. Watching some of these things being made is great fun. In fact, it is not uncommon for us to go out of our way to see some factory and we have always been glad we have done so.

This book is well organized and well written. It is easy to understand. The facts in this book are well researched. I know for a fact that there are some tours that are not listed in this book. However, that doesn't mean this book isn't worth every penny, it is.

Enjoy.

I am related to Charlie Lawson. General Lawson was my grandfather. My parents (Jess & Trudie Pruitt) told me the story when I was younger and the book tells the same exact story. My mother was interviewed for this book.

Ok, so I haven't read the book, but I DID go to the old school that the Lawson children went to. The school has been shut down from about 1930 or so. My freinds and I walked down a long dark path and when we got so close to the school, we had to leave! Very odd things happened while we were there. We were planning to go in but we just couldn't! After we left the school, we drove to the grave site (which is about 10 miles from the school) where the whole family had been burried. All together with one huge tombstone "Lawson" The father was burried on the far right then the mother and infant together and then Marie(the oldest daughter) That is all we got to before some weird things happend.

My father used to have this book (we are related to Charlie Lawson) but at the time he had it, he didn't let me read it because i was too young. Now that i am older i amd more fascinated (and so is my dad) about the Lawson Family Murders. My dads grandpa (Sanders) was out hunting with the oldest son of Charlies the morning of the murders. We would like to contact other family members who are interested in this. My grandpa Lawson lives in NC (close to thomasville) so if we ever come down we would like to visit the grave with other family members.

Audio Reality is a worthwhile investment for anyone interested in DIY valve audio. Half of the book is devoted to an examination of 6 amplifier designs created by the author, and includes construction and testing advice, parts lists and schematics. The most interesting of the 6 projects featured are the author's well-known "grounded-grid" preamplifier and his 80W/channel output transformerless power amplifier. Any DIY enthusiast who is looking for something a bit more challenging than usual would find these designs fascinating.
The first half of the book is a series of articles which set out to debunk some commonly held opinions amongst audio enthusiasts. Whilst the author is not totally dismissive of these ideas he is clearly sceptical about most. He does, however, provide sound electrical and engineering justification for his views and confines his harshest criticism for the more extreme "myths".
The only fault I found with the book is the author's style, which is a little self-congratulatory and indulgent at times, however that does not detract from the sound advice and excellent designs.

The book is for anybody who is in search for the "audio-truth" and is willing to make the journey with his/hers own feet, with a nice bag of solid tools to exorcise magicians and witches along the way. The author strives to make you aware of three things: 1) You and you only is the one who has to judge your equipment and be happy with it. 2) You need clear, unambiguos, real-world informations to sharpen your critical mind and be able to choose equipment free of myth and magic. 3) High-end audio does not necessarily mean high-end cost. To me, he made all his points. You may believe that a extraordinary expensive cable is an audio revolution, but if you are honest with yourself, after reading this book you have to ask yourself WHY... Knowledge in the audio arena helps you to have more fun, less fears, and a fuller pocket. The second half of the book is devoted to several tube projects that are interestingly detailed with design choices, but near to impossible to realize if you are not skilled to translate an electric scheme into real parts and wire routings; definately not for the beginners. I would have much liked a wiring and components layout to complement the circuit analisys. These projects are not theorical, Rozenblit actually commercially builds and sells what is detailed in the book, so in more than a way he publicly expose his ideas, engineering style and convinctions to anybody who cares to check... in my opinion much more than can be said of the great majority of competitors. See for yourself.

This book is an exceptional book on audio reality. It really deals with some of the most common myths regarding "high end tube audio". I really loved to see someone tell the tube audio newcomers what it's all about these silver capacitors / cables and all the rest of weired and crazy part selection game.

Although I know that one can have exceptional good sound from a few watts on horn speakers, Bruce Rozenblit is certainly true with his designs when it goes to normal speakers. I have heard the OTL design and must say, that it is a very impressive and excellent sounding amplifier.

Must read for anyone starting to build his own tube audio equipment!

The only thing that keeps me from giving this movie the full 5 stars is my disappointment at WB's decision to tone it down before release. The action and plot development are more intense than they regularly dared in the televised shows, and all things considered, it is very good, despite the fact that I know it would have been so much more. One warning, however. I made the mistake of checking out the extras first, and it ruined the surprise at the end. A definite must for animated bat-fans.

When WB first started running ads for "Batman Beyond," I must admit I was skeptical. "Batman: the Animated Series" and its subsequent series had been among my favorite shows, but having a show that was wholeheartedly separate from the Batman canon was a little questionable, in my mind. BTAS had done a few things to ignore the comic story, like eschewing the tragic story of Jason Todd in favor of skipping right to Tim Drake in the line of Robins, but that can be chalked up more to network censorship and showing people what they would want to see (which is not Robin getting beaten to death by the Joker). I was also a little worried the series would go the way of "Extreme Ghostbusters," taking an excellent cartoon with wonderful characters and throwing it away for a cheap grab at a new market.
Having said all that: Batman Beyond definitely exceeded my expectations, and this movie went beyond that. The movie format allowed some things to happen that could have never happened in the TV show--the ten minute flashback showing the Joker's torture of Robin, and the terrifying grotesque skeleton's grin forced onto Tim's face as a result. But unlike many attempts, live-action and animated, to delve into the psyche of the Batman both as a hero regardless of who wears the cowl and as the men who have worn the suit, this really hits a home run. Bruce Wayne's motivation for ending his use of a Robin and eventually ending his career as Batman is revealed, as well as his hesitancy to let Terry be Batman at all, let alone be Batman without his supervision from afar.
If you could care less about the psychological drama of some guy who dresses up as a bat, the action scenes and smooth flow of the plot provide plenty of entertainment. The "whodunit" aspect is especially played up and detective work, something the Batman has always been known for and that has been sorely lacking from all but the first live-action Batman movie (that's the 1989 one, not the campy 1966 movie or any of the rarely-mentioned 1940s productions), is especially present.
Check it out; it's worth renting or owning, with a great story and character development.

If you haven't yet seen the Batman Beyond movie, Return of the Joker, buy it and watch it now. Go! Shoo!

Yes, WB did edit the movie.

Yes, it would have been better unedited, assuming you are 11-ish or older.

Yes, the movie is still totally 'Schway'. It rocks! Buy it! Now! Great art, nice music, tight like a drum story.

What I did? I bought the movie and this book, which is the _UNEDITED_ screenplay. I watched the movie, then read this book to see the difference. Slight, but noticeable. The models in the back were a nice touch- needed more Dee-Dee pictures. ;-)

How come there aren't Dee-Dee action figures? I want them.

The author did a great job of presenting the relatively basic information on configuring Cisco routers. You will find quite a few useful IOS commands discussed in the book that will want to keep it as a handy reference. I would also suggest looking into getting "Cisco IOS for IP Routing" by Andrew Colton. That book would take you deeper into mechanics of modern routing protocols (EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, BGP), along with a discussion of Cisco IOS commands.

I read this book and was able to configure two 1720 routers to communicate over a WAN without any problems. I would suggest getting one of the CCNA books for a reference guide. This book does not go into great details about the commands.

There is the CCNA certification which takes you down the path to learning about routers, LANs and WANs, but what if you don't want that you only need to know how to configure the router. The Cisco Pres has put together the book that tackles that very subject.

In 350 plus pages you'll begin with a good breakdown of the OSI model followed up with the basics of how to configure the router. The information has screen shots to show you what things should look like.

After that you move in the always challenging world of TCP/IP with routing protocols and access lists. This section has a great deal of information but you may want to check other sources for more detailed information.

You also go into areas like AppleTalk with LAN and WAN configuration, IPX, SAP and basic management of the router including time control. While most of the book is geared towards the beginner all skill levels should be able to find some useful information within the book.

I found that the information seems to be up to date including topics like Network Time Protocol and Simple Network Time Protocol. Overall a very good value for the money.

Great compendium of volcanology. Especially thrilling to an older geologist to see the advances in knowledge since we got out of school; for instance, seismic tomography has mapped actual magma chambers, which were semi-mythic suppositions in my undergrad day; and lo, there is the anatomy of the very volcanoes I grew up under. The book comprises dozens of specially submitted articles by diverse international authors, so you get many perspectives, not just of different disciplines, but of authors' sense of how they relate to others.

Flawed by abundant typos. The editing of this book is a great advance over say The Solar System by the same Academic Press, which was a mangled turnip; but they still have a ways to go. It is disappointing to see major scientific works bungled by bottom line that slashes proofing. NASA is probably largely responsible for the Solar System mess (Sally Ride, take a course in remedial english!). Geologists are a lot more meticulous than astronauts. But the buck shd stop with the publisher.

So buy this book and complain to Academic Press. Buy it before it goes out of print and you have to kick yourself; it will be long before the like comes again.

I found this text to be incredibly useful, especially considering the noticable dearth of textbooks dealing with volcanoes. The encyclopedia is comprehensible, yet in depth, and covers a broad range of topics. Whenever I have a volcano question I start here first!

An excellent book. Written by some of the worlds most renowed experts-one of whom I am fortunate enough to know!
The book is well worth the money as every aspect of volcanology is covered.
I would recommend this book to anyone with a serious intest in volcanology.